Labor Union Conflict-of-Interest Allegations Against Blue Shield of California

More union corruption, the freakin' commie thugs.

At LAT, "Blue Shield's union ties raise concerns about conflicts":

At a time when public-sector unions across the country are fighting to hold on to generous retirement and health benefits, one of the loudest voices standing up for their rights is Dave Low.

A longtime labor activist, Low carries considerable clout as executive director of the California School Employees Assn., a 215,000-member union that represents bus drivers, custodians and other school workers. He also leads a broader group of 1.5 million government employees, including firefighters, police and teachers, called Californians for Health Care and Retirement Security.

But Low had another job as well until recently. He was a consultant for Blue Shield of California, which has secured lucrative health insurance contracts that cover many of the same public workers that Low represents. His contract shows he was to be paid up to $125,000 a year for his work, which went from 2004 until Aug. 31.

Low isn't the only person with union ties pulling double duty for Blue Shield. One of the insurance company's senior executives also works as a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union, which represents nearly 300,000 government workers statewide.

Experts say those close ties between Blue Shield and key labor unions may give the nonprofit company undue influence over multimillion-dollar insurance contracts for public employees. It's common in California for a joint panel of labor and management officials to pick the winning insurance bidders and set many of the terms.

"This raises red flags about conflicts of interest and self-dealing," said Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor who studies public corruption. "It really starts to feel offensive when the public money at stake is so huge."

A spokesman for the school union said it had approved of Low's contract with Blue Shield, and Low said he always put the interests of the union ahead of the insurer.

Blue Shield and Low said there was nothing inappropriate about their relationship and that they've done nothing illegal or unethical. After The Times began asking questions about their relationship, the company ended Low's contract Aug. 31.

Public employee benefits are coming under increasing scrutiny as municipalities, school districts and state governments face severe fiscal pressures and debates over what they can afford to offer rank-and-file workers. Health insurers compete vigorously for public-sector contracts because governments still provide some of the richest benefits among employers.

One of the biggest prizes for any company is a contract with the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the country's third-largest healthcare buyer after the federal government and General Motors Co. It spends $7 billion annually on medical care for active and retired state and local government workers.

CalPERS is a crucial customer for Blue Shield, which serves about 400,000 of CalPERS' 1.3 million members. Overall, the San Francisco company has about 3.3 million customers and nearly $10 billion in annual revenue.

In August, CalPERS began the process for choosing new healthcare companies, and it plans to award three-year contracts next year that take effect in 2014. Many of the industry's biggest players — UnitedHealth Group Inc., WellPoint Inc. and Aetna Inc. — are competing with Blue Shield.

Blue Shield's contracts with Low, obtained by The Times, show that it was paying him for information and advice about dealing with CalPERS' board members and agency staff. Low was hired to "advise and assist Blue Shield in gaining CalPERS board and constituent support for key initiatives and proposals" and to "assist Blue Shield in its efforts to expand interactions with key decision makers and influencers of other non-CalPERS contracting public agencies."

In an interview, Low described his duties differently. Low, 55, said his primary role with Blue Shield was to monitor its service to union members and to alert the company about any problems CalPERS board members shared with him. He said he wasn't privy to any inside information about healthcare contracts and that it wasn't his job "to sell their product."

"I will challenge anybody to come up with a single instance in which I acted in an unethical manner," he said. "I've never had inappropriate conversations or contacts with Blue Shield or CalPERS."

Tom Epstein, vice president of public affairs for Blue Shield, said the company employed Low to provide "strategic political consulting." Epstein declined to comment further on Low's work or his recent departure.

Yeah, the dude declined to comment alright. He'll be taking the fifth in no time.

More at the link.

RawMuscleGlutes: 'If you want cheering up, go read Kos...'

Andrew Sullivan's AIDS-related meltdown continues, "Obama's Implosion Update":

If you want cheering up, go read Kos. He has some swing state polling that shows that the Obama free-fall may have stalled for a bit. I only note that in the poll of polls, Obama has now thrown away his leads in Florida and Virginia (Romney's now ahead), and is now only clinging on in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Colorado. Obama basically threw away six months of hard and smart campaigning in an interminable hour and a half. I've never seen a candidate do that before in my lifetime.

And if a fast-backfiring Sesame Street ad was the Obama campaign's response to the implosion of last week, I'm not reassured. Seriously: after your entire agenda has been stolen from you by one of the most shameless con-men in politics on live TV, you decide that the way to come back is by playing the Big Bird card? That's why I'm worried.

More at the link.

And speaking of Daily Kos, the commie freaks have entered into a severe dissonance phase. Here's their own commissioned PPP survey, "Daily Kos/SEIU State of the Nation poll: Romney takes the lead in post-debate period." And then here's Markos Buttfreak himself, "Romney campaign: We're still losing."

Right.

More of the "shove reality down their throats" spin, I guess.

IMAGE CREDIT: Reaganite.

Romney Up 47-45 in Latest IBD/TIPP Tracking Poll

At IBD, "Romney Takes 2-Point Lead In IBD/TIPP Tracking Poll."

IBD's polling was the most accurate during the 2008 election. It's clear by now that the Romney debate bounce is real and spectacular. And I'm getting the feeling his gains won't be ephemeral. The race has more than just tightened. It's now completely upended.

R.S. McCain has more, "Expect the Unexpected: Why Liberals Suddenly Melted Down After the Debate."

And linked there is AoSHQ just destroying little boy Nate Silver, especially on Twitter, "Nate Silver’s model predicts only 25% chance of Romney victory; Twitter predicts 100% chance of mockery."

Check back for more ...

Oops! She Does it Again! Smokin' Jennifer Nicole Lee Bikini Malfunction in Las Vegas

This lady does it for the cameras whenever the paparazzi are around.

Here she is back in July, "That's a near miss! Jennifer Nicole Lee just manages to cover her ample assets as her bikini slips off during ocean dip."

And here she is today, at London's Daily Mail, "Almost TOO revealing! Jennifer Nicole Lee grabs hold of bikini bottoms after they come undone in Las Vegas."

Nice.

New Sarah Palin Pictures Draw Controversy

Her face does look thin.

At London's Daily Mail, "'I'm writing a fitness book!' Sarah Palin hits back as the row grows over her shocking new skinny figure":

Controversial Sarah Palin has been forced to hit back after being caught up in a furore over her new scarily skinny figure.

Mrs Palin, 48, debuted her new look as she strolled through California's Studio City, dressed in an outfit that appeared to have been plundered from one of her young daughter's wardrobes.

Dressed in tight black jeans, a crop top that looked like it had been stolen off the set of Flashdance, and high wedges, the former vice presidential hopeful looked a million miles away from the campaign trail.

But the look was greeted in less than flattering terms by many - prompting Mrs Palin to claim she is, in fact, now writing a fitness book.

Read it all, plus photos, at the link.

Doctors Prescribe Attention Deficit Drugs to Treat Poor Academic Performance, Not A.D.H.D.

Some doctors, that is, according to the New York Times, "Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School":

CANTON, Ga. — When Dr. Michael Anderson hears about his low-income patients struggling in elementary school, he usually gives them a taste of some powerful medicine: Adderall.

The pills boost focus and impulse control in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Although A.D.H.D is the diagnosis Dr. Anderson makes, he calls the disorder “made up” and “an excuse” to prescribe the pills to treat what he considers the children’s true ill — poor academic performance in inadequate schools.

“I don’t have a whole lot of choice,” said Dr. Anderson, a pediatrician for many poor families in Cherokee County, north of Atlanta. “We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.”

Dr. Anderson is one of the more outspoken proponents of an idea that is gaining interest among some physicians. They are prescribing stimulants to struggling students in schools starved of extra money — not to treat A.D.H.D., necessarily, but to boost their academic performance.

It is not yet clear whether Dr. Anderson is representative of a widening trend. But some experts note that as wealthy students abuse stimulants to raise already-good grades in colleges and high schools, the medications are being used on low-income elementary school children with faltering grades and parents eager to see them succeed.

“We as a society have been unwilling to invest in very effective nonpharmaceutical interventions for these children and their families,” said Dr. Ramesh Raghavan, a child mental-health services researcher at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert in prescription drug use among low-income children. “We are effectively forcing local community psychiatrists to use the only tool at their disposal, which is psychotropic medications.”

Call it the drug abuse spiral model. Affluent kids take drugs and pull ahead that much farther in academic performance, and then, already behind, poor kids, most likely minorities, get hopped up on prescription drugs to catch up. What could go wrong?

More at the link.

And really read it all. Medicaid is paying for it. State-subsidized drug abuse. Man, isn't that something else. It's supposed to be all about "social justice" as well. Progressivism has just f-ked people up by this point. Sad.

Obama's Big Bird Backlash

I saw the ad early this morning at National Journal: "Big Bird Featured in New Obama Ad."

By the time I was going to lunch the Big Bird outcry was so big that even Sesame Street was demanding that the ad be pulled: "Sesame Workshop Response to Campaign Ads" (at Memeorandum):

Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. We have approved no campaign ads, and, as is our general practice, have requested that both campaigns remove Sesame Street characters and trademarks from their campaign materials.

And check the Weekly Standard's commentary on Obama's Bird Bird blitz:

This is a moderately clever ad produced by moderately clever people. The moderately clever liberals who govern us think it's just farcical that someone should propose, in an era of $1 trillion deficits, that non-essential activities of the federal government should be cut. Limiting government is so dreadfully old fashioned; living within one's means is so awfully earnest.

But the ad doesn't just ridicule Romney as too un-cool for Obama-era school. It gets serious. Because there are real enemies that we do have to worry about. One such enemy? Wall Street.

Now, THE WEEKLY STANDARD would be the first to acknowledge that there's much wrong with Wall Street. Indeed, THE WEEKLY STANDARD is proud to take its place in the let's-not-automatically-defend-Wall-Street, let's-worry-about-Main-Street wing of contemporary conservatism.

Still, there's something deeply revealing about Obama's blithe willingness to portray Wall Street as an enemy. Wall Street is key to American prosperity—even to American greatness. Lots of important and impressive Americans have had careers on Wall Street. What Wall Street does is important. Wall Street matters.

I hate to tell the liberals this, but Sesame Street doesn't. It would be nice if life were "a magic carpet ride/Every door will open wide." It would be nice if happiness could be achieved by government telling us, "how to get/How to get to Sesame Street." It would be nice (maybe) if the world of Sesame Street were real.

But it's not. It's fictional. It's childish. It's as fictional and childish as the make-believe world of Obama's liberalism—a liberalism that scorns Wall Street, and disdains Main Street … but embraces Sesame Street.

More at Memeorandum.

And see Lonely Con, "Romney: What’s With Obama’s Big Bird Obsession."

Community College Crisis Slows Student Progress

From the letters to the editor, at the Los Angeles Times, "A college degree, one class at a time":

Budget cuts are forcing community colleges to eliminate courses. Yet they are still offering boxing and personal growth and development classes. Does anyone see a problem with this picture?

Jack Berens
Alta Loma

More letters at that top link, and see the Times' earlier report, "Faded Dreams: Community colleges' crisis slows students' progress to a crawl."

PREVIOUSLY: "Harsh Reality Hits California's Community Colleges."

Constitution Day: Long Beach City College

Here's the announcement: "Constitution Day Panel Discussion."

Constitution Day is September 17th, but the college scheduled the panel for the 20th (for scheduling convenience, one assumes). I was a reluctant participant. Also on the panel was my highly esteemed colleague, Dr. Julian Delgaudio. He's a communist. A nice fellow, actually, I just can't stand his arrogance, hypocrisy, and ideological bankruptcy. The original invitation asked presenters to prepare a two-minute introduction. That's my department chair Professor Gene Goss who introduces the panelists. Professor Delgaudio spoke first. I thought he was defending a dissertation or something. He was droning on and on about how terrible ---- terrible! ---- is the U.S. Constitution. Professor Goss had to ask him to wrap up his comments at least three times. Talk about a bloviator. I had a student who flagged me down on campus last week asking, "Who was that guy who spoke first?" And even one of the part-time faculty members had questions. He obviously left an impression, and it wasn't a great one. And frankly, Professor Delgaudio was not well versed in how the Constitution actually works. It wasn't designed to prevent wealth accumulation. Delgaudio conflates wealth with power, and thus the Constitution "failed" since enormous wealth has been concentrated at the top of the social hierarchy historically. Whatever. All the other panelists did a wonderful job. I just don't like communists, and I don't think people like this are doing LBCC students any favors.

Corruption: Exposing Barack Obama's Illegal Foreign Campaign Money Loophole

From Katie Pavlich, at Townhall:

A new report obtained by Townhall from the non-partisan Government Accountability Institute [GAI] shows the Obama campaign has potentially violated federal election law by failing to prevent the use of fraudulent or foreign credit card transactions on the official Obama for America [OFA] donation webpage.

For the past eight months, GAI has been investigating the potential influence of foreign online campaign donations in House, Senate and presidential elections. The report was conducted using spidering software and found thousands of foreign sites linking to campaign donation pages. The investigation was conducted with the guidance of a former U.S. attorney. GAI is led by Peter Schweizer, who recently exposed congressional insider trading in his book Throw Them All Out.

“As FBI surveillance tapes have previously shown, foreign governments understand and are eager to exploit the weaknesses of American campaigns,” the report says. “This, combined with the Internet’s ability to disintermediate campaign contributions on a mass scale, as well as outmoded and lax Federal Election Commission rules, make U.S. elections vulnerable to foreign influence.”

OFA seems to be taking advantage of a “foreign donor loophole” by not using CVV on their campaign donation page. When you donate online to the Obama campaign using a credit card, the contribution webpage does not require donors to enter a secure CVV number (also known as CSC, CVV2 or CVN), the three-digit securing code on the back of credit cards. This code, although not 100 percent effective, is used to ensure a person making a purchase physically possesses the card. According to the report, 90 percent of e-commerce and 19 of the 20 largest charities in the United States use a CVV code, making its use standard industry practice in order to prevent fraud. Another anti-fraud security measure includes software, better known as an Address Verification System, to verify a donor’s address matches the address on file with the credit card company. The investigation could not determine whether OFA is using this type of software to prevent fraudulent or illegal donations.

Hmm...

Sounds familiar. I wonder where I've heard this story before?

Oh yeah: "Obama’s Fundraising Fraud."

Maybe the dead-tree press will do something about it this year? You know, like reporting it.

There's more from Pavlich at the link.

I'm not holding my breath. The FEC never goes after campaign finance fraud. The system's a joke.

Have Americans Finally Tired of the Obama Narrative?

Well, we'll find out on November 6th.

But see Jean Kaufman, a.k.a. Neo-Neocon, at PJ Media:

In the very best postmodern fashion, Obama and his supporters have relied on a narrative about Obama that has been carefully constructed. He’s brilliant, a great writer, a rare thinker, a moderate, a first-class temperament with neatly pressed pants, a uniter, a cool guy who’s unflappable.

The first debate last Wednesday threatened to make that narrative seem absurd. You might say that the narrative got mugged by reality, and an awful lot of people were watching while it happened.

But the next day there was a new narrative in place — or rather, several narratives: Romney cheated, the altitude was too high for Obama, he didn’t have time to practice because he was too busy with weighty matters, Romney lied, and look at those great unemployment numbers!

Those numbers themselves are another narrative, one that no one can quite figure out because there’s a disparity between one part of the stats and other parts. In a very real sense, the numbers don’t seem to add up. But they’re good for the Obama narrative, unless you think too deeply about them.

But one of the points of a narrative is not to think too deeply about it.

Now in a sense every candidate spins a narrative about him/herself, and the media spins a narrative of its own which is either in agreement or disagreement with that candidate’s preferred narrative. But Barack Obama is the first presidential candidate I can think of — be they liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, someone I have liked and supported or someone I have detested and opposed — who is nearly all about the narrative, and who seems so aware of it (“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views”)...

Continue reading.

Many Californians Angry at Surging Price of Gasoline

I got $24 yesterday, so I could make it to work this morning. It was $4.60 a gallon at ARCO. I'll be glad when prices drop.

Maybe soon, according to the Los Angeles Times, "California gas prices should fall soon, analysts say." Video at the link, and at the Associated Press as well.

Remember, a Month Ago Nate Silver Gave 4-to-1 Odds Against Romney

Read Robert Stacy McCain's post, "Liberals Beginning to Realize They’ve Overestimated Obama’s Popularity?"

It's now a 3-1 margin against Romney, but it's still early.

Despite Threats, U.S. Cut Security in Libya Before Attacks

From Eli Lake, at The Daily Beast:

In the six months leading up to the assault on the United States consulate in Benghazi, the State Department reduced the number of trained Americans guarding U.S. facilities in Libya, according to a leading House Republican investigating the Sept. 11 anniversary attacks. The reduction in U.S. security personnel increased America’s reliance on local Libyan guards for the protection of its diplomats.

This is the latest charge from Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican leading a House investigation on the Benghazi attacks, regarding alleged security defects in Benghazi. Chaffetz said the information comes from whistleblowers who have approached the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The State Department on Wednesday didn’t respond to requests for comment. However, a senior State Department official said an independent review panel was examining the charge. This official said it was routine to reduce the number of U.S. personnel serving in new diplomatic posts such as Benghazi over time. When the U.S. established its official presence in Benghazi in 2011, it was the middle of a war, and even routine jobs such as drivers were handled by U.S. personnel, this official said.

The allegation from Chaffetz, who is the chairman of the oversight committee’s subcommittee that handles national security, is important in light of recent reports that some Libyans who provided security for U.S. missions were working with insurgents and, in one case, allegedly attacked the consulate in Benghazi in April with a homemade explosive.

On Tuesday, Chaffetz and the oversight committee’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), disclosed in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton details of an alleged April 6 bombing at the consulate. The letter detailed how in the run-up to the 9-11 assault there was an escalation of military-style attacks on Western targets in Libya’s second-largest city. The letter also said U.S. security personnel had requested, and were denied, additional security for the U.S. embassy in Tripoli and the consulate in Benghazi.

Chaffetz went further Wednesday, saying in an interview that the number of American diplomatic security officers serving in Libya had been reduced in the six months prior to the attacks. "The fully trained Americans who can deal with a volatile situation were reduced in the six months leading up to the attacks," he said. "When you combine that with the lack of commitment to fortifying the physical facilities, you see a pattern.”

And at the Salt Lake Tribune, "Chaffetz visits Libya to investigage ambassador killing."

Also, more from The Daily Beast, "Exclusive: Libya Cable Detailed Threats." And at London's Daily Mail, "Revealed: Ambassador to Libya told officials of security worries on day he died in consulate raid as special forces chief says he asked for 'more not less' back-up month before attack."

The Idea of 'Collective' Success Is Deeply Offensive

An excellent essay from TigerHawk, "Building it: In which I explain why "you didn't build that" so offended business people."

The White House Disinformation Campaign on Libya

A devastating clip, via Carl in Jerusalem:

"Forty five years ago this week, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara got a major dose of his own medicine..."

From Humberto Fontova, at Towhnall, "'Don’t Shoot!—I’m Che!' (A Glorious Anniversary)" (via Fausta).

Andrew Sullivan, the Left's Leading Forensic Gynecologist, on Suicide Watch!

Boom!

That Pew Research poll put RAWMUSCLEGLUTES into meltdown mode.

Here's the headline at Jammie Wearing Fool, "Andrew Sullivan on Suicide Watch." Folks can click through at the link, but here's the opening graf at RMG's:

The Pew poll is devastating, just devastating. Before the debate, Obama had a 51 - 43 lead; now, Romney has a 49 - 45 lead. That's a simply unprecedented reversal for a candidate in October. Before Obama had leads on every policy issue and personal characteristic; now Romney leads in almost all of them. Obama's performance gave Romney a 12 point swing! I repeat: a 12 point swing.

It's an AIDS-related freak-out, no doubt. RMG can't believe Romney's got the advantage among women, and here's the chart on Romney's gains on helping  even greater likelihood to help the middle class:

It's terrible, just terrible.

Jammie snarks: "Just roll one up and get stoned, Andy."

October is Here!

From A.F. Branco at Legal Insurrection:

Romney Closes 8-Point Gap in Latest Pew Research Poll

I saw the new Pew survey earlier today, and when I got home, as I walked in to turn on the television, I found Ashleigh Banfield on CNN discussing it, with the banner across the bottom of the screen, "Obama's Slide: Romney Leads 49-45 Among Likely Voters."

Here's the Pew report, "Romney's Strong Debate Performance Erases Obama's Lead: GOP Challenger Viewed as Candidate with New Ideas."

Obama held an 8-point lead in Pew's last survey in September, and I blogged it: "Pew Research Center Poll: Obama Up by Eight in New Nationwide Survey." As I noted at the post, "Pew's one of the better polling organizations. Very reputable."

Interestingly, that's not what the lefties are saying now that the numbers have their guy under water. Banfield reported that Team Obama was whining about the partisan breakdown at the poll, and Cornell Belcher, interviewed at the CNN segment, gave the most mealy-mouth excuses for O's collapse, going so far to claim that likely-voter sampling is "more of an art than science." It was completely ridiculous. I'll post that clip when it comes available later.

But to give an idea of how really bad the numbers are for the Democrats, compare Ed Kilgore's responses to both of the Pew surveys, at the Washington Monthly. Here's Kilgore on the September survey: "Really Bad News For Mitt From Pew." And here's his response today: "Pew’s Perfect Post-Debate Window." To be consistent, and credible, Kilgore should have written a post today entitled, "Really Bad News For Obama From Pew." Because the news is bad, really bad, and there's no way to spin it for the president. Especially not with some f-king retarded excuse about how Pew perfectly polled respondents in the four-day window since last Wednesday's debate. Hello. It wouldn't be an accurate post-debate poll without surveying respondents after the debate. Someone should crush this guy's skull with one of Obama's teleprompters. I can hardly believe the mendacity.

In any case, two weeks ago I was captioning my posts at the bottom with the disclaimer, "no sugarcoating." You'll get spin around here alright, but at least the spin here's reasonably rooted in reality. The latest surveys --- and remember Gallup today also shows Romney pulling even in the horse race --- don't mean that Obama's now about to lose. The polls are showing a genuinely tight race, with the built-in Obama-Media bias favoring the Democrats now excluded. Americans saw the real thing last week, and it wasn't pretty. Democrats literally wished that O had been able to used his teleprompter, and that's after years of mocking conservatives who had been mocking the president as TOTUS.

The shit has hit the fan. I can't recall as significant an effect from any one presidential debate in the last 25 years of watching these things. Perhaps there's been as big an impact from one or another, but this time the dramatic shift has been to see what was largely looking like a flailing, possibly hopeless, GOP campaign being transformed into a surging juggernaut of Republican confidence and grassroots enthusiasm. It's been an amazing week.

There are, of course, still three debates to go, the veeps debate Thursday night and two more presidential debates. The RNC has been lowering expectations for the Biden-Ryan debate, which I think is smart. There's some chatter on the right that Ryan's going to clean the gaffe-master's clock. And I hope he does. But the real game is with the remaining top-of-the-ticket debates on October 16 and October 22. The former will be a town hall style debate on both domestic and foreign issues; the latter will be in the traditional format and will focus exclusively on foreign policy. The administration's extremely vulnerable on foreign policy, which explains why the knives are out on the left today following Mitt's formidable foreign policy address today at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. Seriously. It's so bad that this morning's New York Times went with a preemptive strike on the front-page, looking to deflate Romney in world affairs: "Romney Remains Vague on Foreign Policy Details." That's all bullshit, naturally. Romney's been strong on foreign policy for years. He never stopped campaigning after 2008, released a campaign book in 2009, visited Europe and Israel recently, and has a detailed foreign policy page at his website. He's got some problems with his approach, as Barry Rubin points out quite well today regarding the speech, but the main thing is Romney's distinctive vision and refusal to apologize for American power. That's a core component of any realistic approach to foreign affairs, despite the harsh denial afflicting Romney's detractors on the left. There's going to be some fireworks in that debate on the 22nd. I'm especially eager to see how the president handles Romney's attacks on his administration's completely FUBAR response to the death of Ambassador Stevens in Libya.

I'll have more on this later...

Obama's Post-Debate Negativity Shows He's Got Nothing

As I was saying in my previous entry, the dude's got nothing.

And here's a clip with Amelia Chasse from this morning, slamming the administration's negativity, at the New Hampshire Journal, "Chasse on Fox & Friends: Obama’s post-debate negativity shows he has nothing to say" (via Instapundit).

More later...

Obama Ties-Up Traffic With Multiple Morning Fundraisers in Los Angeles

And these are $25,000 per plate fundraisers. Screw the little people who need to get to work.

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Traffic delays seen as Obama leaves L.A. after celebrity fundraisers":

Traffic delays are expected Monday morning as President Obama leaves Los Angeles after a series of fundraisers.

Street closures are planned in Beverly Hills and other Westside areas, including Avenue of the Stars between Santa Monica and Pico boulevards.

In a two-day swing, Obama raised millions of dollars during several fundraisers in the state, including two downtown L.A. events packed with celebrities.

As he took the stage Sunday night at the Nokia Theatre after a star-studded "30 Days to Victory" concert, the president praised the performers who entertained a crowd of 6,000, with a nod to "old school" Earth, Wind and Fire and "new school" Katy Perry.

"My understanding is it was an incredible show," said Obama, who whisked downtown only moments before he took the stage.

"They just perform flawlessly night after night. I can't always say the same," he joked, a reference to his performance in the recent presidential debate, which was criticized as lackluster.

I'm seeing updated news reports on the local networks. O snarled traffic, the prick.

And his campaign pitch is now, "You don't want Romney in there bringing back those policies that got us in this mess in the first place. So reelect me, a laggard, a lightweight, and a loser. I got nothing, but it least it ain't what the other guy's gonna do."

Meanwhile, here's the big news nationally, at Gallup, "Romney Narrows Vote Gap After Historic Debate Win." (Via Memeorandum.) Gallup's post-debate polling shows the race tied at 47 percent. And remember, people have been telling us all week that Romney lied, and that debates don't matter historically. This is just a blip in the road for the Obama steamroller.

Right.

More at Politico, "Battleground Tracking Poll: Dems less enthusiastic." (Via Memeorandum.)

Team Obama Plotting Comeback After Debate Debacle

ICYMI, William Jacobson had an essential post yesterday, "Preview of VP Debate."

And here's the spin at the New York Times, "With Biden Up Next to Debate, Obama’s Aides Plot Comeback":

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s campaign is working feverishly to restore its momentum after a lackluster debate performance last week, an effort that began with a conference call 10 minutes before the debate even ended and led to new advertisements, a rewritten stump speech, a carefully timed leak and a reversal of months-old strategy.

Perhaps most important as the president’s team struggles to put his campaign back on track is a renewed effort to win the three remaining debates, starting with Thursday’s face-off between Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Representative Paul D. Ryan. Mr. Biden moved into a Delaware hotel on Sunday for three days of debate camp.

Under the tutelage of David Axelrod, the president’s chief strategist who is personally overseeing the preparations, Mr. Biden will be counseled on how to avoid Mr. Obama’s mistakes and even correct them with a more aggressive prosecution of the Republican ticket. Mr. Axelrod’s involvement highlights the stakes the Obama campaign places on the debate, and Mr. Biden has been reading “Young Guns,” the book co-written by Mr. Ryan, and practicing attack lines that Mr. Obama avoided.

The focus on Mr. Biden comes as the campaign tries to diagnose what went wrong in Denver and what to do about it. Advisers had seen two presidents during practice debates, one who had been listless and passive two nights before and another energetic and aggressive the next night. It turned out the former was the one who showed up in Denver. He kept looking down and was not using the lines they had practiced assailing Mitt Romney, who kept the president on the defensive and presented a forceful case against his re-election.

For Mr. Obama, it was arguably the lowest point in his campaign for a second term. The campaign’s own focus groups and research indicated that he lost. Mr. Obama did not fully realize as he walked off the stage just how badly it had gone, but aides said he resolved to step up his game. “He doesn’t brood — he acts,” Mr. Axelrod said. “Whatever the concerns were about yesterday, he wakes up the next day ready to take it on again.”

Paul Ryan will more than hold his own. Even Sarah Palin did well against Biden in 2008, so Thursday could hold some surprises. That said, Republicans are lowering expectations just in case. Biden's a long-time Washington insider. Personally, I doubt he'll flop like President Clusterf-k.

More at the link.

Mila Kunis Is the Sexiest Woman Alive

An excellent choice.

At Esquire.

Venezuelans Vote to Oust Reelect Socialist Hugo Chávez

Here's George Moneo at Babalú, "The beginning of the end?": "Exit polls have Chavez behind Capriles, 51.3% to 48.06%. In Spanish at ABC.es."

And at Fausta's, "#Venezuela: The results – it’s Chavez."

And check the background report at the Wall Street Journal, "Venezuelans Turn Out to Pick a Leader: Tensions Run High in Polarized South American Nation, as Leftist Chávez Faces Toughest Election in His 14-Year Presidency."

Added: Here's Reuters, "Venezuela's Chavez re-elected to extend socialist rule":

Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez won re-election on Sunday, quashing the opposition's best chance at unseating him in 14 years and cementing himself as a dominant figure in modern Latin American history.

The 58-year-old Chavez took 54.42 percent of the vote, with 90 percent of the ballots counted, to 44.97 percent for the young opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, official results showed.

Chavez's victory would extend his rule of the OPEC member state to two decades, though he is recovering from cancer and the possibility of a recurrence hangs over his political future.

Jubilant supporters poured onto the streets of Caracas to celebrate the victory of a man who has near-Messianic status among Venezuela's poor, and there was relief too among leftist allies around the region - from Cuba to Bolivia - who rely on his oil-financed generosity.

"I'm celebrating with a big heart," said Mary Reina, a 62-year-old Chavez supporter who lives in the hillside slum where the president cast his vote.

"Chavez is the hope of the people and of Latin America."

California Redemption Scam: Consumers Ripped-Off as State's Recycling Program Hit With $40 Million in Annual Fraud

I remember the first time I ever paid the "California Redemtion Value." It was back in 1989, in Fresno. I walked over to the Save Mart supermarket and bought some sodas, and I looked at the receipt and said, "what the...?" So I ask the cashier, "What is this, an extra tax"? He's says it's the new redemption value, "Do you vote"? As if that mattered. The state's environmental bureaucracy just squeezes this stuff by the electorate. Who knows when there's a new regulation? And they've been increasing the refund value to the point where it's almost 5 cents on a regular 12 ounce container. Unreal.

Of course, the promise of the "recycling" program is too good to be true. Redemption rates are in excess of 100 percent, with all kinds of scammers taking the state to the cleaners.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Recycling fraud costs state millions":

Just over 8.5 billion recyclable cans were sold in California last year. The number redeemed for a nickel under California's recycling law: 8.3 billion.

That's a return rate of nearly 100%.

That kind of success isn't just impressive, it's unbelievable. But the recycling rate for certain plastic containers was even higher: 104%.

California's generous recycling redemption program has led to rampant fraud. Crafty entrepreneurs are driving semi-trailers full of cans from Nevada or Arizona, which don't have deposit laws, across the border and transforming their cargo into truckfuls of nickels. In addition, recyclers inside the state are claiming redemptions for the same containers several times over, or for containers that never existed.

The illicit trade is draining the state's $1.1-billion recycling fund. Government officials recently estimated the fraud at $40 million a year, and an industry expert said it could exceed $200 million. It's one reason the strapped fund paid out $100 million more in expenses last year than it took in from deposits and other sources.

"The law says California has to make it easy to recycle … so anyone with a devious mind, it's so easy, they can just go right in," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Dave Chapman, who has investigated fraud rings in recent months.

Under the state's 25-year-old recycling law, California charges consumers a deposit on most beverage containers sold within its borders. Anyone who brings empty containers back to one of about 2,300 privately run recycling centers can collect 5 cents for most cans and bottles and 10 cents for larger containers.

Only products sold in California are eligible. But a can is a can — and many recycling centers in California aren't that interested in where they come from.

Hence the influx from out of state. Last summer, the state Department of Food and Agriculture counted all vehicles driving into the state with used beverage containers through 16 border stations. The three-month tally was 3,500, including 505 rental trucks filled to capacity with cans.

Officials with the state Department of Justice said they have filed approximately 10 criminal cases this year against fraud rings bringing in cans from outside California.

Investigators looking into one case sometimes stumble across another.

More at the link.

The CRV is just one more unaccountable tax as far as I'm concerned. I pay it and grumble. Someone else is recouping the "deposits," and now there's evidence that it's criminals taking advantage of hard-working people. I blame the profligate state bureaucracy, a Democrat state bureaucracy.

Busty Elisabetta Canalis Almost Busts Out of Tight-Fitting Top While Out for Evening in Milan

Now that's some beautiful scenery.

At London's Daily Mail, "Wardrobe malfunction alert: Elisabetta Canalis almost reveals too much after she steps out in tight outfit."

'Rolling Stone'

From The Weeknd:

And at NME, "The Weeknd unveils 'Rolling Stone' video and writes open letter to fans - watch."

Unexpectedly! Gas Prices Rise Overnight to New Record

At the Los Angeles Times, "Gas prices in California rise to another new record."

And Bob Owens gets apocalyptic:

The polimedia seems to be vastly underestimating (or at least, under reporting) that at least some of the conditions for widespread civic unrest are coming to a head in California. When people miss just a few meals, society quickly falls apart. How much more stress can the overburdened system handle before falling apart? I’d say that I hope we don’t have to find out, but with California’s unavoidable bankruptcy and insurmountable bureaucracy, it is more likely that we’re really just facing a matter of “when.”

The New York Times is even on this story, "Gas Prices Rise Again Overnight in California" (via Memeorandum).

BONUS: At American Thinker, "Obama's gasoline prices; a highly regressive tax."

IMAGE CREDIT: Director Blue, "Yes, you can get $1.84 gallon gas in Cincinnati! Just ask!"

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

Also at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's Sunday Funnies," and Theo Spark, "Cartoon Round Up..."

More at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – A Chainsaw We Can Believe In."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

BONUS: At LAT, "Awakened in Venezuela capital by reveille, voters head for polls."

BWAHAHA! Progressives Freak Out After Mary Matalin Calls Out 'NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING' Economist Paul Krugman

Check the links at Memeorandum, especially the stooge Heather Parton at Digby's. These people can't stand a GOP woman --- a strong woman, who progs are supposed to embrace --- slapping down the idiot NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING economist Paul Krugman as a dirty liar. And Krugman's facial expressions completely give up the game: he's been found out as the dishonest New York Times hack that he is. Watch it:

MATALIN: You have mischaracterized and you have lied about every position and every particular of the Ryan plan on Medicare, from the efficiency of Medicare administration, to calling it a voucher plan, so you’re hardly credible on calling somebody else a liar.

The full video is here: "Vice Presidential Debate 2012, Paul Ryan Vs Joe Biden; 'This Week' Roundtable." Matalin's dropping her head in disbelief listening to Krugman's bullshit bloviating.

Robert Gibbs Doubles Down on Obama's '$5 Trillion' Lies

At The Hill, "Gibbs: Mitt Romney delivered ‘dishonest’ debate performance."

At the caption at the video:

On ABC's "This Week" on October 7, Obama campaign senior adviser Robert Gibbs doubles down on false $5 trillion tax attack even after being confronted with his own campaign's admission the attack was false.

The Democrats are the biggest lying assholes. Like children, gawd. Just awful people.

New Romney Ad Hammers Obama's '$5 Trillion' Lies

At The Hill (via Memeorandum).

I love the supreme irony of lying liar Stephanie Cutter debunking President Obama's lying lies. They're both lying freakin' assholes.

Crooked Timber's Chris Bertram is 'Very Sad' That Communist Historian Eric Hobsbawm Has Died

Chris Bertram is professor of philosophy at University of Bristol, in Southwest England. He's an expert on Rousseau, apparently, and, from what I gather, a fan of Karl Marx as well, or some variation of Marxism. Most interestingly, he's a defender of Joseph Stalin, or at least the Stalinist model of Soviet Communism, from what appears in the comments at his post at Crooked Timber, "Eric Hobsbawm is dead."

Perhaps he's just being playful, but Bertram's sense of humor is rather Stalinist as well:

Jonathan, ajay …

Annoying as our commenters often are, I’m not persuaded that it would less bad to murder them if there were more people around.

But especially interesting is Bertram's response to A.N. Wilson indictment of Hobsbawm at London's Daily Mail, "He hated Britain and excused Stalin's genocide. But was hero of the BBC and the Guardian, Eric Hobsbawm a TRAITOR too?"

Read that, and then Bertram's comment here:

That Daily Mail piece is truly marvellous. One of the upsides of the death of someone like Hobsbawm is that all the real arseholes are given an opportunity to remind us all what arseholes they are, and A.N. Wilson is no exception. The DM, of course, was rather partial to the Third Reich.

He doesn't dispute the facts in evidence regarding the Communist Hobsbawm. He simply, rather childishly, calls Wilson an asshole and the Daily Mail a Nazi organ.

Of course, this is Crooked Timber, an extreme left-wing academic blog, with contributors such as the socialist crank political scientist Henry Farrell, who I've blogged about many times. (Farrell got all butt-hurt when Glenn Beck singled out violent socialist Frances Fox Piven in his broadcasts a couple of years back.)

In any case, recall the comments from Bret Stephens' essay previously, "Eric Hobsbawm and the Details of History."

Contemporary leftists embrace their extremists and totalitarians, from the Occupy Movement to dictators like Fidel Castro. And for some, even Joseph Stalin wasn't too extreme. You simply cannot find comparable affinity to far-right extremism among today's conservatives in American politics. And it says something that it's the right that the mainstream press has attacked remorselessly this last few years as essentially white supremacists and Klansmen, while we have a president who was trained by Communist Party members and who palled around with Weather Underground terrorists in the radical leftist marination of Chicago's community organizing thug politics. All of these points are facts. The left has no problem with socialism and Communist Party politics --- for progressives and Democrat Party hacks, there are no enemies on the left, as I've long argued at this blog. Indeed, one of the lasting implications of the Obama interregnum will be the degree to which the extreme left ideological fringe has been mainstreamed in current political life.

Ambassador Susan Rice Denies Lying About Libya Attacks

At the Washington Post, "UN Ambassador Susan Rice denies she was trying to mislead Congress about attack in Libya."

But see the Wall Street Journal, "Discord Skewed Benghazi Response: Divergent Views, Agency Infighting Slow White House Efforts to Address the Cause of Deadly Strike on Consulate in Libya":

WASHINGTON—New details are emerging of discord among federal agencies that has complicated the Obama administration's response to last month's deadly attack on the American consulate in Libya, creating intense political pressure for the White House just weeks ahead of the presidential election.

More than three weeks after the attack on Sept. 11, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents finally reached the scene in Benghazi on Thursday—amid an emerging picture of confusion and competing narratives within the administration and intelligence community about what happened there.

Shifting views within the intelligence community have further complicated the administration's ability to firm up its conclusions about the attack. White House officials were initially aware of intelligence reports that suggested a possible connection to al Qaeda, administration officials said.

But the Office of the Director of National Intelligence discounted those reports in its initial statements about the attack, and the White House stuck to those conclusions, making it appear, at least to the public, like it was behind the curve.

Critics of that response paint a picture of a White House preoccupied with the president's re-election campaign and determined to take the most cautious approach possible. White House officials strongly reject suggestions that politics were at play in its response to the crisis.

On Friday, the administration continued to face criticism that those initial statements were misleading, including comments on Sept. 16 by Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, that the attack was a spontaneous uprising prompted by an inflammatory video.

"Elements of the intelligence community apparently told the administration within hours of the attack that militants connected with al Qaeda were involved, yet Ambassador Rice claims her comments five days later reflected the 'best' and 'current' assessment of the intelligence community," Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz) said Friday. "Either the Obama administration is misleading Congress and the American people, or it is blaming the entire failure on the intelligence community."

Two weeks after the incident, which led to the first killing of a U.S. ambassador in a generation, the administration called it an organized attack by terrorists with links to al Qaeda affiliates or sympathizers.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S. overhauled the way it collects and analyzes intelligence to ensure contrary views are considered and assessments from across the government properly aired.

Among the post-2001 changes was the creation of the DNI to oversee the 16 U.S. spy agencies. The office is responsible for collating agencies' intelligence and reaching a consensus view to present to the president.

The DNI contended with dueling positions after the Benghazi attack. Within 48 hours, some military and intelligence analysts started briefing lawmakers about what they saw as evidence suggesting al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, was involved in the assault.

These analysts pointed to intercepted conversations between militants involved in the attackon the U.S. Consulate and a nearby annex that was used for intelligence programs. The Central Intelligence Agency produced a similar document citing AQIM links.

Other officials, including those at the DNI and FBI, were more cautious about AQIM's involvement, calling the early information inconclusive. At least some of the communications were members of AQIM bragging about their roles after the attack, officials said. One official said such boastfulness is commonplace and isn't proof of involvement.

The DNI presented to the White House its view that the assault grew out of a spontaneous protest over the anti-Islamic video produced by a provocateur in California. DNI analysts then thought that "at best, al Qaeda sympathizers" were involved, playing down communications pointing to AQIM, according to a senior intelligence official.

White House officials were aware of the reports of AQIM communications from the start, according to administration officials, but they relied on the DNI's assessment. Officials said the White House treated those communications as classified.

Based on those early DNI assessments, intelligence agencies developed unclassified talking points, and provided them to members of Congress of both parties, among others. The White House said the information was developed at the request of lawmakers.

On Sept. 14, White House spokesman Jay Carney described the unrest that unfolded across the Middle East, including most notably at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, as a "response to a video that is offensive."

Amb. Rice used CIA talking points, which were updated on Sept. 15, when she was dispatched to appear on a round of news programs on Sunday, Sept. 16, officials said. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers had been hearing the more aggressive interpretation from intelligence officials—and weighed in with their own assessments, charging the administration had failed to provide sufficient security and missed signs of the impending terrorist attack.

Intelligence that suggested possible al Qaeda involvement also surfaced in comments by other public officials and in news reports, but the administration didn't change its line.

"It's not a matter of the intelligence they were given," Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), House intelligence committee chairman, said of the administration. "It is a matter of how they interpreted the intelligence."

That's called plausible deniability. And that's always the White House line when information shows it's deceived the public. The Obama people are amateurs and clowns. They need to go and fast.

Obama's a Radical and Enemy of Israel

David Horowitz comments at Fox News:

Polls Show Big Gains for Romney in Swing States

At The Hill, "Polls show Romney making headway in swing states."

Part of the reason Romney's surging is because he's honest, unlike the president:

PREVIOUSLY: "Mitt Romney Debate Bounce."

Wenzel Strategies Poll Has Romney Up 48-47 in Ohio

Now this is interesting, at Politico, "Citizens United poll claims tight race in Ohio" (via Memeorandum). And at Weasel Zippers, "Poll: Romney Making Big Gains In Ohio After Debate, Now In Statistical Tie With Obama…"

And here's the summary:

In the race for President, the public opinion bounce from his strong debate performance last week in Denver has washed over Ohio – Romney has moved ahead of Obama by a singlepoint, 48% to 47%, with 5% yet undecided. This survey includes a partisan sample of 38% Democrat, 37% Republican, and 25% independent voters.

Romney leads Obama among Ohio men, 50% to 44%. Among women, Obama leads by a 51% to 47% margin over Romney. Unlike Democrat Brown in the Senate race, Obama is winning northeastern Ohio, leading Romney there by a 52% to 44% margin. In central Ohio, including the state capital of Columbus – the largest city in the state – Romney leads by a 51% to 48% margin. Romney’s strongest part of the state is the reliably conservative southwest corner, including Cincinnati, where he leads Obama by a 54% to 39% margin.

I especially like that partisan breakdown.

Romney has to win Ohio or it's pretty much over.

Israel Shoots Down Drone That Entered Airspace (VIDEO)

At the Los Angeles Times, "Fighter jets shoot down drone over Israel":

JERUSALEM — Israel scrambled fighter jets to intercept a drone Saturday that crossed deep into Israeli airspace from the Mediterranean Sea, shooting the aircraft down over the country's southern desert, the military said.

The incident marked the first time in at least six years that a hostile aircraft has penetrated Israel's airspace, and Israeli officials said they were taking the incident seriously, raising the possibility of retaliatory action.

It was not immediately clear who launched the drone, but suspicion quickly fell on the Lebanese Islamic militant group Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed group is known to have sent drones into Israeli airspace on several previous occasions.

Tensions are running high between Iran and Israel over Tehran's nuclear program, which the West believes is cover for the development of atomic weapons. The Islamic Republic denies the allegations, and says its program is for peaceful purposes only. Israel has threatened to carry out a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent Iran from acquiring such weapons.

Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich said Israeli ground systems detected the drone, which flew over the Gaza Strip but did not originate there, Saturday morning. They alerted the air force, which scrambled the jets to intercept the aircraft. She said Israel was still trying to determine where the drone took off from. Nobody was hurt in the incident.

California Gas Prices May Hit Record

I checked over at my local Chevron station, and gas is still $4.70 a gallon, as I mentioned previously.

But today's front-page at the Los Angeles Times has another report on the skyrocketing prices. See, "State gas prices near record":

California drivers are reeling from days of sharp gasoline price increases that left the state within reach of its record high. Economists warn that a prolonged period of elevated gas costs could harm consumers as the holiday shopping season kicks in.

Analysts attributed the price surge to fuel traders' emotional reaction after a series of refinery outages and other problems, including a Northern California refinery fire, a Southern California refinery blackout, pipeline contamination and other events. Some service stations were charging more than $5 a gallon and others stopped buying new supplies out of fear that if the market turned they'd lose money.

"I haven't seen a series of incidents like this, and it has led to the worst panic-driven rise in gasoline prices that I have seen in 35 years," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.

Prices are likely to set records over the weekend, analysts said, but they held out hope that the pain could end soon as fuel production problems subside.

Unhappy motorists said they were caught off guard.

"I went to the Costco station in Pacoima to buy gas on Thursday and was shocked to find it closed," said Max Lang, 45, an engineer who lives in Stevenson Ranch. "I just don't get why it's happening."

Gwen Grace, a 37-year-old homemaker, searched Friday for a price cheaper than the $4.39 a gallon that the USA gas station in Santa Monica was charging. Other nearby stations wanted as much as $5.39, so she bought $20 worth for her Prius and hoped it would last until prices begin to drop.

"It's just depressing," Grace said.

Costco was set to reopen this afternoon, "Closed Costco gas stations to reopen by noon Saturday."

You can't really afford to go anywhere with prices this high. Demand might decline some over the next week,  so perhaps prices will ease. And California's reliably Democrat, so there's not likely to be much political fallout. But things can't keep going like this for too long, or you never know.

If Only He'd Had His Teleprompter!

The left's psychiatric breakdown has been off the charts this last few days (the Mile High altitude got to Obama, don't you know?). And you had to get a kick out of the deranged University of Wisconsin students arguing that O should have been able to use a teleprompter. See, "Obama Supporters Call for Moonbat Messiah to Be Allowed to Use Teleprompter During Debates."

I'm sure we'll have much more epic lulz over the next few weeks, but meanwhile, R.S. McCain's got a great post, "Epistemic Closure Redux: The Campaign, the Debate and the Jobs Report":

The Left’s reaction to Wednesday’s debate and Friday’s job report illustrates why the political conversation in America has become so hopelessly discordant. We are not arguing about two candidates or two parties, but two worldviews. Bad news for President Obama challenges the belief system of the Left; it is not enough for them merely to dispute facts, they must destroy the bearers of bad news — accuse them of deceit and ridicule them as fools.

RTWT.

IMAGE CREDIT: Stoaty Weasel.

Amit Freidman!

That last post on Sam Champion recalled some of my previous Amit Freidman blogging, for example, "Blogger Angry White Dude Announces That He Believes in the Sanctity of Marriage Between One Man and One Hot, Sexy Woman."

And besides, Amit's a lot better looking than Rubem Robierb. So there, you homofascist freaks!

GMA's Sam Champion Comes Out, Announces Engagement to Longtime Brazilian Fine-Arts Photographer Rubem Robierb

How gay.

Shoot, I had no idea Sam Champion was flaming. And that really spoils it! I have a hard enough time watching Good Morning America as it is!

See ABC News, "Sam Champion Engaged to Be Married."

Well, congratulations to the happy couple. And check out that link to ABC News. Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos can't contain themselves, they're so overcome with glee.

Actually, I'm reminded of the big gay marriage debate over the summer, and AWD's post, "HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES ARE RUDE, CRUDE, IN-YOUR-FACE BRUTES!":

Homosexuals do not face discrimination. They just don’t get everything they want. They have become offensive bullies who have little decency or concern for how offensive their actions are. In this way, they are little different from the terrorists in the Occupy movement. If homosexuals don’t get their way (34 states have rejected gay marriage), they throw little angry, decadent tantrums designed to shock and nauseate decent people.

Homofascists are their own worst enemy. The buycott of Chick fil A by millions of decent Americans was a huge success. The homosexual kiss-in protest was a total failure. The American people are rising up against the bullying tactics of this small, loud groups of perverts. Why? No, it’s not hate and it’s not fear. IT’S BECAUSE NORMAL PEOPLE DON’T ACT LIKE THAT!

Gwen Stefani Steps Out in Sleek Black Jumpsuit as She Celebrates 43rd Birthday

Man, all these women in their 40s looking absolutely gorgeous.

See London's Daily Mail, "Fabulous at 43! Gwen Stefani looks youthful in a black jumpsuit as she celebrates her birthday with family dinner."

2012 Victoria Secret Fashion Show Airs December 4th

It's become a huge cultural event.

The Victoria's Secret homepage is here.

Reality Crashing Down on Obama and the Obama-Cult Media

From Andrew Klavin, at City Journal, "A Fantasy Election, an Imaginary Man":

Even before his inauguration, Barack Obama was an imaginary man, the creation of his admirers. Think back to the 2008 Time magazine cover depicting him as FDR, the Newsweek cover of the same year on which he was shown casting Lincoln’s shadow, or the $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”—this in 2009, less than a year after he had taken office. It was not that Obama had done nothing to deserve these outsized comparisons and honors—it was not just that he had done nothing—it was that he seemed for all the world to be a blank screen on which such hysterical fantasies could too easily be projected, a two-dimensional paper doll just waiting to be dressed in leftist dreams.

This weird quality of emptiness incited the imaginations of his opponents as well. Among the more paranoid on the right, he’s been called several kinds of Manchurian Candidate: a radical disguised as a moderate, a Muslim disguised as a Christian, a foreigner disguised as an American, and so on. The idea was that his hollow identity was his own insidious creation, the result of sealed college records, votes of “present” in the Illinois state senate, and a supra-partisan persona carefully crafted after a scuttled lifetime of revolutionary ferocity.

To be sure, Obama has disowned the depth of his past associations with such fire-breathing America-haters as William Ayers (“A guy who lives in my neighborhood”) and Jeremiah Wright (“He was never my spiritual mentor”) with startling insouciance. And such previous Obamas as the race-baiting, black-talking demagogue of a 2007 video recently covered in full for the first time by The Daily Caller’s Tucker Carlson are not at all apparent in the Obama of the Oval Office or the campaign trail—whom he himself describes as a “non-threatening” statesman. But I think the real Obama has been more or less plain to see. Norman Podhoretz described him best in a 2011 Wall Street Journal op-ed: a typical product of the anti-American academic left, committed to transforming U.S. capitalism into a social-democratic system like Sweden’s.

The mystery Obama—the hollow receptacle of out-sized fantasies left and right—is not a creation of his own making, political chameleon though he may well be. It emanates instead from a journalistic community that no longer in any way fulfills its designated function, that no longer even attempts the fair presentation of facts and current events aimed at helping the American electorate make up its mind according to its own lights. Rather, left-wing outlets like the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, and the like have now devoted themselves to fashioning an image of the world they think their audiences ought to believe in—that they may guide us toward voting as they think we should. They have fallen prey to that ideological corruption that sees lies as a kind of virtue, as a noble deception in service to a greater good.

Theirs are largely passive lies and lies of omission. The active frauds—NBC’s dishonest editing of videos to reflect a leftist worldview, ABC’s allowing Democratic operative George Stephanopoulos to masquerade as a newsman, the Los Angeles Times’ suppressing even the transcript of the video in their possession that shows candidate Barack Obama at a meeting with a PLO-supporting sheik—these are only egregious salients of the more consistent, underlying dishonesty. The real steady-state corruption is revealed in the way Obama scandals like Fast and Furious, Benghazi-gate, and the repeated breaking of federal campaign laws have been wildly underplayed, while George W. Bush’s non-scandals, like the naming of Valerie Plame and the firings of several U.S. attorneys at the start of his second term, were blown out of all proportion.

And it is revealed in Obama’s blankness, his make-believe greatness, and the suppression, ridicule, and dismissal of any evidence that he is not the man this powerful media faction once wanted so badly for him to be...

VIDEO CREDIT: iOWNTHEWORLD.

Romney Gets a Post-Debate Jolt

Well, Romney seems to be upsetting the Obama-Media's narrative.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Online Donations, Bigger Crowds Gives Campaign Hope; Team Obama Looks to Mute Any Gains":

ABINGDON, Va. — Mitt Romney's strong debate performance Wednesday night has generated $12 million in online contributions, his campaign said, as well as a surge in volunteers and bigger crowds at his events.

The challenge for Mr. Romney in the weeks ahead will be translating this jolt of energy into votes in a race that saw the Republican nominee enter the first debate trailing President Barack Obama in most of the states that will decide the election.

Republicans and Democrats say Mr. Romney's performance before a television audience of some 67 million people bought the GOP nominee a second look from swing voters and may help him improve an image battered by negative ads and his own missteps. The debate also gave Mr. Romney a chance to do something he couldn't in the primary: trumpet his record of working with Democrats and present himself as a practical deal maker who favors results over ideology.

One former Obama White House official said the debate "has caused people to take a second look at Romney."

It is too early to tell how much Mr. Romney moved the needle Wednesday night, and the early evidence is more anecdotal than empirical: Volunteers in Nevada lined up before campaign staff could open the doors on Thursday morning, the campaign said, and larger-than-usual groups showed up to work at field offices across the country. The campaign said it added more than 300,000 new Facebook friends.

The $12 million the campaign reports raising in less than 48 hours after the debate tops the amount Mr. Romney raised in the days after announcing Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) as his running mate and the Supreme Court's decision to uphold a major plank of the president's health-care law. Sixty percent of the money came from first-time donors, the campaign said.

Mr. Romney's debate performance triggered additional volunteers for the GOP's next national turnout drive on Saturday. The number of people who signed up to volunteer to make calls, knock on doors and sign up supporters for Mr. Romney has shot up by nearly 63% since Wednesday night, campaign officials said. The Republican National Committee, working in conjunction with the Romney campaign and its various state parties, expects to contact nearly two million voters on Saturday and roughly five million for the week.

Mr. Obama and his campaign have moved to diminish any bounce Mr. Romney may have gained from the debate, which produced wide agreement among people in both parties that Mr. Romney had bested a lackluster president. At a rally in Fairfax, Va., on Friday, the president mocked Mr. Romney for threatening in the debate to give a pink slip to Big Bird.

More at the link.

And isn't that amazing, how the left turned the campaign into a referendum on Big Bird. That, and the across-the-board attacks on Romney as a "liar," when the biggest lie at the debate was the Democrats' bogus "5 trillion tax cut"whopper. See, "Oops! Stephanie Cutter admits she and Obama are lying liars with ‘$5 trillion’ attack on Romney."

PREVIOUSLY: "Mitt Romney Debate Bounce."

Smokin' Jennie Garth in People Magazine Cover Shoot

I'm looking at my wife's People Magazine and Jenna Garth looks fabulous. And what do you know? A video from the photo shoot:

Mitt Romney Debate Bounce

This report from Nate Silver is especially good, because it's from Nate Silver.

Must have been hard for him to write: "Oct. 5: Day After Debate, Strong Swing State Polls for Romney" (at Memeorandum). Silver couldn't believe what he was reading:

Another online tracking poll, from Ipsos, suggested a strong trend for Mr. Romney...

The Ipsos polls are confusing because it has released polls covering various time intervals in the past few days, but they tell a potentially interesting story if you work through them carefully.

In a poll of about 500 voters that Ipsos conducted immediately after the debate, late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, Mr. Obama still led by 5 points. However, Mr. Obama’s lead was just 2 points in a poll Ipsos released Friday, which included interviews from Monday night (before the debate) through Friday morning.

The inference I make from these Ipsos polls is that Mr. Romney must have polled very well in the most recent interviews it conducted, late Thursday and early Friday morning, quite possibly leading Mr. Obama, in order to have made up so much ground.

Yeah, he must have polled very well.

It's like the guy's writing a freshman political science term paper.

More at AosHQ, "BREAKING: Before/After Debate Poll Release."

Four Decades After Clashes, Boston Again Debates School Busing

Progressive social engineering run amok.

At the New York Times, "New Boston Busing Debate, 4 Decades After Clashes":

BOSTON — Nearly four decades after this city was convulsed by violence over court-ordered busing to desegregate its public schools, Boston is working to reduce its reliance on busing in a school system that is now made up largely of minority students.

Although court-ordered busing ended more than two decades ago, and only 13 percent of students in the public schools today are white, the school district buses 64 percent of its students in kindergarten through eighth grade to schools outside their immediate neighborhoods. The city tried twice in the last decade to change the system and failed both times.

“Children are being bused now because they have been bused for 40 years and no one has had the political courage to dismantle it,” said Lawrence DiCara, a former Boston city councilor who supported busing in the 1970s and is writing a book about the city in that era. “Now, there are no white kids to be integrated. Everyone is being randomly bused. It doesn’t make sense.”

In January, Mayor Thomas M. Menino asked school officials to come up with “a radically different plan” under which students would be assigned to schools as close to home as possible.

Boston’s 57,000-student school district is divided into three sprawling geographic zones. A racially blind computerized algorithm assigns students to schools anywhere within their zone. Many students go so far that transportation alone costs the city $80.4 million a year — about 9.4 percent of the school system’s operating budget, almost twice the national average.

But expense is not the only concern. Children who live on the same block often go to different schools. In the violence-torn Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood of Dorchester, school officials said, 1,912 students attend 102 schools out of 128 schools in the entire district. These include high school students, who are not limited by zone.

Under such a hodgepodge, the mayor and others argue, fewer people in a neighborhood are invested in the local school. And neither children nor parents develop the bonds that create a strong neighborhood and can improve other aspects of life, like public safety.

More at the link.

Eric Hobsbawm and the Details of History

From Bret Stephens, at the Wall Street Journal:

In 1987, Jean-Marie Le Pen called the gas chambers of Nazi concentration camps "just a detail in the history of World War II." Explaining himself a few years later, the head of France's National Front said: "If you take a 1,000-page book on World War II, the concentration camps take up only two pages and the gas chambers 10 to 15 lines. This is what one calls a detail."

Such remarks cemented Mr. Le Pen's reputation as Europe's leading fascist. So what was one to make of the reception accorded the publication, in 1994, of "The Age of Extremes," by the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm?

The book—subtitled "a history of the world, 1914-1991"—was hailed as "bracing and magisterial" by the New York Times. "Facts roll off Hobsbawm's pages like thunderbolts," gushed the New Republic. But search the index, and the words "Holocaust" and "Auschwitz" never appear. Nazi concentration camps get about 10 or 15 lines. As for the Soviet gulags, Hobsbawm devoted exactly two paragraphs to them.

Hobsbawm, who died in London Monday at age 95, was no Holocaust denier. Nor was he ignorant of the human toll imposed by communism, the ideology to which he remained faithful nearly his whole life. He acknowledged that the victims of Stalin's tyranny "must be measured in eight rather than seven digits," adding that the numbers are "shameful and beyond palliation, let alone justification."

Yet Hobsbawm did justify them....

None of this should have been surprising coming from a man who, over the years, gave his political assent to everything from the Nazi-Soviet Pact to the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Asked by the BBC whether the achievement of a communist utopia would have justified "the loss of fifteen, twenty million people," he answered "Yes."

Yet what are we to make of the warmth with which Hobsbawm is now being eulogized? Only this: That the world is far from recognizing that the crimes of communism were no less monstrous than those of Nazism. In treating the gulag as a detail of his history, Hobsbawm proved himself to be the moral equivalent of Mr. Le Pen. And in treating Hobsbawm as a paragon among historians, his admirers prove they've learned nothing from history itself.

Leopard Kills Impala in Stunning YouTube Video

At London's Daily Mail, "The leopard that was hard to spot: Animal's stunning kill as impala runs straight towards camouflaged cat."

'List of Lies' — Daily Kos Handkerchief Truthers!

This is hilarious, "Did Mitt use crib notes for the debate?", and "Did Romney Cheat? - Vid - You Decide":

3:07 PM PT: Check out ericlewise and middleagedhousewife's screengrabs in the comments. Very interesting.

Via Memeorandum.

BONUS: From NewsBusters, "Ed Schultz on ‘Today’: Obama Thrown Off by ‘So Many Lies’ From ‘Corporate Shark’ Romney."

Man, these people need help.

Eastwood's Last Laugh: New Yorker Mocks President Obama With Empty Chair Cover

Ha!

President Empty Chair gets hammered at the New Yorker, "COVER STORY: THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE."

And at Twitchy, "Brutal: New Yorker cover depicts Obama ‘Eastwooding’ at debate podium."

Image Credit: London's Daily Mail, "Mitt Romney and the empty PODIUM: New Yorker magazine cover pokes fun at Obama's disaster debate (with apologies to Clint Eastwood)."

PREVIOUSLY: "In Debate, Empty Chair Draws a Blank on Second Term Agenda."

Black Teenager Punches, Knocks Out Bus Driver in Kansas City

It's not just a "teen." It's a "black teen." As long as society refuses to acknowledge black social pathology, there'll be increasing social disorganization and anarchy.

At The Blaze, "DISTURBING SURVEILLANCE VIDEO SHOWS TEEN SUCKER-PUNCHING, KNOCKING BUS DRIVER UNCONSCIOUS."

Romney Moves Into Leads in Florida, Virginia; Tied in Ohio

Check the findings for Friday, October 5th, at RealClearPolitics.