Sara Underwood: Esquire's Hottest Woman of the Year

Lovely:

PREVIOUSLY: "Sara Jean Underwood on Twitter."

'Hold On Loosely'

Some overnight music, from .38 Special:

Latest Polling Shows Presidential Race Tightening

John Hinderaker offer a short and sweet analysis of the presidential horse race polling, "The Parade of Bad Polling, Continued." He's hammering CNN's polling, which I haven't looked at closely. But if CNN's at all like the New York Times, the survey's badly oversampling Democrats. And if so, the fact that new polls show the race tightening is doubly good for Mitt Romney. On election day Republican enthusiasm --- which has been much  more significant than the Democrats' --- should really put to rest all the conspiracies about skewed and unskewed polls. More at the Washington Post, "Obama, Romney in tight race nationally as first debate looms." (Via Memeorandum.)

IMAGE CREDIT: iOWNTHEWORLD.

Taliban Suicide Bomber Kills at Least 20 in Afghanistan, Including Nato Troops

The Drudge screen capture's from Instapundit, "The main headline reports the 2,000 military deaths in Afghanistan, but below the fold there’s this: MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD: OBAMA PLANS $450 MILLION CASH FOR EGYPT…":

We can’t afford this administration’s foreign policies anymore than we can afford its economic policies.

No, we can't.

Here's the report on the Afghanistan suicide attack, at Australia's Herald Sun, "Taliban claims responsibility for Afghan suicide bomber that killed 20":

A SUICIDE bomber has torn through an Afghan-NATO foot patrol in a crowded city, killing at least 20 people, including three foreign troops and their interpreter, officials said.

Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack near a market in the eastern city of Khost. Six Afghan police and 10 civilians were also killed, and 62 were wounded, provincial governor's spokesman Baryalai Rawan, told AFP.

Authorities had earlier given a death toll of four Afghan police and six civilians.

"Today at around 8:30 am (local time) a suicide bomber on a motorcycle targeted a joint patrol in Khost city in a crowded area," the governor's office said.

NATO's US-led International Security Assistance Force confirmed that three NATO service members and an ISAF-contracted interpreter had been killed in the attack.

The Taliban Islamists said on their website that the suicide attack was carried out by "a hero mujahid, Shohaib, from Kunduz", claiming that eight foreigners and six Afghan soldiers were killed.

And ICYMI, see Victor Davis Hanson's piece, at National Review, "President Ethelred":

Like old King Ethelred the Unready, who either had no counsel or had no sense, or both, and often paid the Danegeld rather than attempt to deter the Norsemen, so Barack Obama and his lieutenants still believe that they can both appease radical Islam and convince others that is not what they are doing....

The murder of Ambassador Stevens may well have been the most horrific killing in our nation’s diplomatic history. The administration’s original narrative — that the ambassador got separated from his security detail, suffocated amid the smoke, and was found unconscious by well-meaning Libyans who, in concern, rushed him to the hospital — cannot be true. Some disturbing rumors and evidence later emerged to the effect that Stevens may have had no real security detail to speak of, but was helped only by the brave ad hoc service of some private security contractors, who gave their lives to save an American diplomat without military support. More disturbing even than the absence of adequate military security was the likelihood that Stevens was attacked viciously by the mob, perhaps sexually brutalized by it, and then taunted by his killers, before being dumped in the street. In the long history of attacks on our embassies, I cannot think of a comparable instance where an ambassador was caught alone, mobbed, tortured, and photographed in extremis — or where an administration was so averse to disclosing any details of his demise.

Obama genuinely seems to believe that he, his administration, our present foreign policy, and America 2012 are somehow not the real objects of hate of the Arab Street mobs. That disconnect was also the theme of his mythmaking in Cairo, of his al-Arabiya interview, and of his apologetic commentary to the French and the Turks: A pre-Obama America was hubristic, insensitive, and culpable for damaged bilateral relations and would be acknowledged as such by an Obama America.

When Daniel Ortega enumerated the crimes of the United States in the presence of the president, Barack Obama did not defend his country, but simply shrugged, “I’m grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old.” In other words, Obama felt that while his country may not have been innocent, he, a mere toddler at the time, most certainly was — and that he is innocent now as well.

In the context of the Middle East, Obama is thus naturally confused by the violence. He had assumed the Islamic mobs realize that America changed after 2008. So while Muslim complaints against the United States certainly had some validity at one time, such writs can no longer be valid after Obama assumed the presidency. The Arab Street could not possibly be angry at Barack Obama, the Nobel laureate and sympathetic supporter of Arab Muslims. The murdering must be an artifact, a fluke brought on by some right-wing, provocative American zealot, whose constitutionally protected rights to obnoxious free expression are overshadowed by the damage he has done in giving millions the impression that a reset America of 2012 still bears some resemblance to the America of 1776 to 2008.

We can see this disconnect in both the serious and the trivial: from Obama’s use of the adjective “natural” to describe unhinged mobs attacking U.S. properties over a video trailer, to his new personalized campaign version of the American flag. In that sense, one cannot entirely damn Mr. Morsi as he lectures America on its shortcomings — given that much of his complaint merely follows up on Obama’s own. Thus he may feel that he is ingratiating himself with the administration by channeling the Cairo speech.

If Obama were a conservative Republican, a George W. Bush for example, the media narrative of Libyagate would be one of an asleep, incompetent president, lieutenants who were brazenly mendacious, an incompetent secretary of state, and an administration conspiracy of silence — juxtaposed with a wider story of a disastrous retreat from Afghanistan, an abandonment of any influence in Iraq, a refusal to recognize the situation in Syria and Egypt — and impotence as a war looms between Iran and Israel.

Will we ever know the circumstances that led to the murder of Ambassador Stevens? Only when government auditors and inquirers feel free to find and disclose the truth, which probably means sometime after the Obama administration is well out of office.

I'll have more later from the President Clusterf-k Chronicles.

Sunday Cartoons

On Monday, because Wordsmith at Flopping Aces was running late yesterday.

See, "Sunday (Evening) Funnies."

And see Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's Sunday Funnies," and Theo Spark, "Cartoon Round Up..."

CARTOON CREDIT: Net Right Daily.

Muslims Burn Buddhist Temples in Bangladesh

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Muslims in Bangladesh torch Buddhist temples over Facebook image." (There's video here.)

And at Atlas Shrugs, "Bangladesh: Muslims Torch Buddhist Temples, Homes":

As the West continues to abridge its freedoms, sanction the most violent and extreme ideology on the face of the earth, and destroy those who dare speak against the sharia, the global jihad rages on ........ burning, slaughtering and making life hell on earth for non-Muslims in Muslim countries.

Savages.

Read it all at the link.

Team Romney Sees Debates as Chance For Campaign Reset

At the Los Angeles Times, "Mitt Romney, struggling, makes a new effort to connect"

As Mitt Romney prepares for his pivotal first debate against President Obama, his campaign is struggling to regain its footing. By recalibrating his message and increasing his interactions with reporters, Romney is trying to reignite his presidential bid at a critical time, with just over a month until election day and early voting underway in many key swing states.

He is still struggling to connect with voters, a challenge that has confronted him since the primaries. And he has often spent more time fundraising than campaigning in battleground states, where recent polling shows Obama gaining ground.

A campaign that once gloated about expanding the electoral map for Republicans is now fiercely fighting to hang on to states that were once considered favorable territory for the GOP nominee, such as North Carolina.

Romney continues to be dogged by the release of a secretly taped video that shows him denigrating nearly half the population, forcing him to play up his empathy. And despite repeated pledges by his campaign to offer specifics, even some supporters say he is too vague about his plans. All this is why political experts say Wednesday's debate is so crucial.

"Mitt Romney has been defined by the Obama campaign over the course of the summer, and over the last couple weeks, by a series of mistakes. In the debates there's an opportunity to reset that because there's a massive audience share and Mitt Romney needs to go in there and needs to win," said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist who worked for Sen. John McCain's 2008 campaign.

Despite unhappiness with Obama among some voters, Romney has struggled to convince the nation that he would be a better president. His advisors have tried in recent weeks to blend his economic message with a sharper critique of the president's foreign policy.

Russ Schriefer, a top Romney strategist, said the candidate was striving to strike a balance between responding to current events and driving a broader message about what four more years of an Obama presidency would mean for taxes, healthcare and the federal debt, an issue that has particular resonance for independents.

"What we'll be doing over the next five weeks is contrasting [Romney's and Obama's] views very specifically," he said.

It's been a rough few weeks. The debates will be crucial for Romney.

Mitt Romney: A New Course for the Middle East

An essay from the GOP nominee, at the Wall Street Journal:

Disturbing developments are sweeping across the greater Middle East. In Syria, tens of thousands of innocent people have been slaughtered. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has come to power, and the country's peace treaty with Israel hangs in the balance. In Libya, our ambassador was murdered in a terrorist attack. U.S. embassies throughout the region have been stormed in violent protests. And in Iran, the ayatollahs continue to move full tilt toward nuclear-weapons capability, all the while promising to annihilate Israel.

These developments are not, as President Obama says, mere "bumps in the road." They are major issues that put our security at risk.

Yet amid this upheaval, our country seems to be at the mercy of events rather than shaping them. We're not moving them in a direction that protects our people or our allies.

And that's dangerous. If the Middle East descends into chaos, if Iran moves toward nuclear breakout, or if Israel's security is compromised, America could be pulled into the maelstrom.

We still have time to address these threats, but it will require a new strategy toward the Middle East.

Continue reading for Romney's three-pronged plan.

Of course, Americans need to dump the Obama clusterf-k before we can repair U.S. foreign policy.

Paul Ryan: 'The Obama Foreign Policy is Unraveling Literally Before Our Eyes...'

Via Gateway Pundit:

Presidential Debates Will Be Crucial

If the polls are reasonably accurate (and I think they are), it's Mitt Romney who's got to come out on top in the October debates. He's got to remain calm most of all, which shouldn't be a problem given his past debate performances. And if he can get Obama rattled on a couple of key issues, that could be key. And he can't hold back. Obama's a cool customer and the press will call it an Obama win if neither candidate draws blood. This really is make or break for the GOP nominee. I think it's especially important for Romney to hammer Obama on foreign policy. I really, really hope this Los Angeles Times report proves false, that Romney's backing off his earlier criticism of the administration's Libya lies. There's a gold mine of vulnerability in foreign policy. Romney'd be foolish not to exploit it. We'll see.

The debates can be crucial:

RELATED: "John McCain: Debate will be most-viewed 'in history'."

More Libya Lies: Obama Stooge David Plouffe Denies Cover-Up, Claims Ambassador Rice Had 'Information From the Intelligence Community'

I watched it.

Plouffe argued that Ambassador Susan Rice was relying on extant intelligence reports in her Sunday comments on September 16th, discussed here.

He's lying.

Eli Lake reported that intelligence agencies knew it was a terrorist attack within hours, "U.S. Officials Knew Libya Attacks Were Work of Al Qaeda Affiliates." And see Twitchy, "David Plouffe: ‘Libya wasn’t intel failure,’ canoodling after terrorist attack is hunky-dory; Media enables lies."

The video is here.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And see the Washington Post, "David Plouffe defends Obama administration’s response to attack in Libya." Also at the Weekly Standard, "Plouffe Defends U.N. Ambassador, Axelrod Doesn't":

There were mixed messages from aides to Barack Obama this morning on the Sunday talk shows.

On the one hand, political adviser David Plouffe, who works at the White House, defended America's U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, for her handling of the terrorist attack in Libya. But on the other hand, David Axelrod, a top Obama political adviser stationed at the campaign headquarters in Chicago, threw Ambassador Rice under the bus.

There's video at that link (via Memeorandum and PJ Media).

Obama's advisors can't keep track of all the lies. This is an epic scandal. David Gregory and Candy Crowley deserve credit for raising questions most of the Obama-Media doesn't want to discuss.

BONUS: At American Freedom, "Obama Senior Advisor David Plouffe Says There's Nothing Wrong With Obama Fundraising After Terrorist Attack And Not Meeting With World Leaders VIDEO."

Added: Blue Crab Boulevard links. Thanks!

Also at Director Blue. Thanks!

Taking Community Out of Community Colleges

Well, looks like I've got a little series on the community colleges going now.

And here's a nice addition, from Bob Whiting at the Orange County Register, "Whiting: Community college budget cuts hit special classes":

There's a storm coming that we can't avoid, and with the death of wheelchair basketball at Cypress College the raindrops already are falling.

For years, community colleges have been just that – nearly as much about community as college. But as one expert tells me, tough decisions have to be made in a tough economic climate – and academics come first.

Yes, we'll see many programs at many two-year colleges canceled in the coming months. Still, it's a sad state when budgets are so tight that we can't afford to keep alive a 40-year wheelchair basketball team.

A team that includes people like John Watkins, a 29-year-old former Army sergeant paralyzed by a sniper's bullet.

We should be hearing story after story like this, as the bills come due in California's public education system. I mentioned previously that the state can't afford to serve everyone, and it's going to be painful to see how that plays out, and sad too.

More at the link, with photos.

Support the Savage

Via iOWNTHEWORLD and the People's Cube.

And at Pamela's, "Islamic Supremacists Demands Free Speech Judge's Removal," and "Dershowitz: Amended MTA Rules 'Unconstitutional' and 'It's Going to Encourage Violence'."

The Obama-Media's Tipping Point: The Middle East

From Walter Russell Mead, "MSM Tipping Point On Obama in the Middle East?":

The repercussions from 9/11/12—the day the roof fell in on the Obama administration’s Middle East policy—continue to rumble across the diplomatic and political landscapes. Before that day, much of the country’s political and media establishment had been studiously ignoring signs of trouble in the Middle East or, when problems were too serious to ignore, studiously refraining from drawing conclusions about the overall state of US policy in the region.

The anti-American riots that have been rocking the Muslim world since 9/11 have shaken the establishment out of its complacency. Increasingly, even those who sympathize with the basic elements of the administration’s Middle East policy are connecting the dots. What they are seeing isn’t pretty. It’s not just that the US remains widely disliked and distrusted in the region. It’s not just that the radicals and the jihadis have demonstrated more political sophistication and a greater ability to organize and strike than expected and that the struggle against radical terror looks longer lasting and more dangerous than thought; it’s that the strategic underpinnings of the administration’s Middle East policy seem to be falling apart. A series of crises is sweeping through the region, and the US does not—at least not yet—seem to have a clue what to do.

The New York Times and the Washington Post are both thoroughly alarmed by the state of the region after 9/11/12 and the reporters if not the editorial pages have moved on from the “Blame Bush” approach. The latest article by Helene Cooper and Robert Worth in the Times cites some pretty biting criticism about the President’s approach to the Arab Spring from (unnamed) top aides and associates. It even quotes an Arab diplomat who sounds nostalgic for the good old days of W to illustrate a criticism of the President made by an (unnamed) State Department official who said, speaking of the President:

“He’s not good with personal relationships; that’s not what interests him … But in the Middle East, those relationships are essential. The lack of them deprives D.C. of the ability to influence leadership decisions.”

This supposed cold fish is the man, we should remember, who came into office hoping that his personal magnetism and sincerity would heal the breach between the United States and the Muslim world. But here’s the (unnamed) Arab on The One:

Arab officials echo that sentiment, describing Mr. Obama as a cool, cerebral man who discounts the importance of personal chemistry in politics. “You can’t fix these problems by remote control,” said one Arab diplomat with long experience in Washington. “He doesn’t have friends who are world leaders. He doesn’t believe in patting anybody on the back, nicknames.

“You can’t accomplish what you want to accomplish” with such an impersonal style, the diplomat said.

To be fair to President Obama and his team, the Middle East is a challenge, and no president and no policy could solve all our problems there. There are plenty of armchair strategists around who will claim that there are easy and simple answers to America’s Middle East problems. This is delusional; American interests, values and ideas don’t work particularly well in this region and Middle Easterners and Americans have continually surprised and annoyed one another since Thomas Jefferson tried and failed to negotiate a peaceful solution with the Barbary Pirates.

The Israeli-Palestinian problem, for example, cannot be settled quickly; the consequence of the region’s lack of democratic traditions and liberal institutions cannot be overcome in four or eight years; the underdevelopment and mass unemployment afflicting so many countries has no known cure; the ethnic and sectarian hatreds that poison the region will not soon be tamed; the deep sense of grievance and injustice that shapes the attitudes of so many toward the Christian or post-Christian West will not soon fade away; the radical and terror groups now roaming the region cannot be easily stopped or mollified; the resource curse will continue to corrupt and poison large parts of the region; the resurgence of Islam, even in less radical forms, inevitably heightens a sense of confrontation with the US and its western allies; and Iran’s ambitions are hard to tame and impossible to accept.

Unfortunately, President Obama’s first and most fundamental mistake in the region was that he thought that he was an exception to this rule: he was the man for whom the Red Sea waters would part. His sincerity and sympathy would win him an initial hearing; his ability to pressure Israel to stop settlement building and reach a fair compromise with the Palestinians would restore such friendly relations between the US and the peoples of the Middle East that the terrorists would dwindle away—even as his sincere approach to Iran would induce the mullahs to lay down their nukes.

Right from the beginning this policy was doomed. As the Cooper/Worth story in the New York Times illustrates, Obama has lost the confidence of the Saudis. The peace process has largely given up the ghost on his watch. The Libya adventure was a costly sideshow that left the administration without viable policy options in the much more vital (and bloody) Syrian civil war. These things have been apparent for some time, but until the last couple of weeks there has been little appetite in the MSM for suggesting that the administration’s overall record in the region was one of failure and incompetence.

This is all changing six weeks before the election. While the MSM is still not interested in hammering home the picture of an administration reeling from one failed policy and faint hope to the next as it drifts inexorably toward a war with Iran it seems unwilling to fight and powerless to avert, the mainstream narrative has shifted decisively away from the old picture of cool-headed competence restoring order and promoting freedom and building peace. The turbulence in the region is impossible to miss, the problems for American interests and even security are disturbing to contemplate, and the failures of the Obama administration can no longer be ignored.

Continue reading.

Cartoon Credit: A.F. Branco at Legal Insurrection.

Jennifer Garner: My Husband's a 'Wonder Sperm Kinda Guy'

Ms. Garner's hubby is Ben Affeck, and she's pleased as punch that his boys can really swim.

See Babble, "Jennifer Garner Talks About Ben Affleck’s “Little Swimmers”." (Via Instapundit.)

I remember watching Jennifer Garner opposite Benjamin Bratt on "Law and Order" years ago, before she was starring in movies. She's got a lovely down home style, almost a schoolgirl-ish thing, although she's 40 now --- and obviously still quite fertile herself.

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikipedia.

Kelly Brook Domestic Chore-Themed Photoshoot for Fabulous Magazine

Via The Sun UK:

The Best Navy in the World

Via America's Interests:

Ezra Levant Slams Mona Eltahawy

Ezra's always good:

And Oh ... I Been Thinkin' 'Bout You For So Long...'

I haven't heard much Billy Squier on the radio, although I always crank up "My Kinda Lover" when it comes on. I was reminded of Squier yesterday by Craig Ramsey, who tweeted the career-killing YouTube of Squier's "Rock Me Tonite." Rudolf Schenker of the Scorpions is quoted at Wikipedia's entry for the song, "I liked [him] very much ... but then I saw him doing this video in a very terrible way. I couldn't take the music serious anymore." Well, I still like "My Kinda Lover" actually. But no doubt that epic gay dance-strut meltdown rightly destroyed that guy's career. I mean, really, who would have ever thought something like that was respectable? I can think of someone, actually, but I'll hold off further comment on that idiot until later.

You got me runnin' baby
You give me somethin' way beyond revenue
You put the magic in me
I feel the magic when we do what we do
And oh...
I can't do without you for too long...you're my situation
You're my kinda lover...

You keep me all together
You take me out whenever I'm lettin' down
You got the motions baby
I got a notion maybe I'll stick around
And oh...
I can never doubt you for too long...I can't see no reason
You're my kinda lover...

When you come 'round I never get down---I fly across the floor
I can see you comin' on me...and I can't ask for more
Rock me, sock me, baby you got me ridin' to the end
Rake me, shake me, baby you make me--turn me on again

You got my motor racin'
I find my thoughts embracin' your every move
I wanna set you reelin'
I wanna make you feel the way that I do
And oh...
I been thinkin' 'bout you for so long
I don't wanna lose ya--you're my kinda lover...

Adorable Kayla Fitz

From Bikini.com: