KARL ROVE BLOWBACK: Just watching Sarah Palin and Rand Paul on Andrew Napolitano’s show on Fox talking about Christine O’Donnell, the corruption of the GOP establishment, and how principles are more important than party. Hmm.

TAKE THE CHRISTINE O’DONNELL / JIMMY CARTER QUIZ: “Each of the following ten quotes is by either Christine O’Donnell (candidate for the Delaware Senate seat) or Jimmy Carter (39th President of the United States). Can you guess which quote is by which politician?”

GATEWAY PUNDIT: Bring It!… Obama Plans More Attacks on Tea Party Like the One Last Night in Chicago. What could go wrong?

Related: In Chicago, Breitbart Confronts Paid Union Thugs.

OOPSIE! The Hill: Clinton says he was wrong on healthcare bill’s popularity. “Former president Bill Clinton, a champion of healthcare reform, admitted on Sunday that he made the wrong prediction about the popularity of President Obama’s healthcare bill. Initially, Clinton had predicted that the polls in favor of Democrats would be boosted as soon as the legislation was signed into law. Instead, Clinton said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ his prediction was wrong for two reasons.”

From the comments: “The health care reform bill was rammed down the throats of the majority of people in this country and they wonder why we’re upset? Thank God they’re not doctors or we’d all be on life support.”

UPDATE: Den Beste on Obama’s Legacy. “History will judge Obama’s biggest historical effect to be the backlash he will inspire against him among voters. His most important legacy will be the Tea Party movement, which wouldn’t have happened without him.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: It’s a helluva party.

MICHAEL BARONE: A Primer On Gangster Government.

PROF. JACOBSON: Memo to the Right: “The Lombardi Rule” Is In Effect.

AT AMAZON, it’s the Fall Blowout Sale.

SCOTT JOHNSON: If Al Franken was able to overcome his personal record to become a United States Senator, Christine O’Donnell certainly can. “O’Donnell has the additional advantage of having a man who formerly advertised himself as the bearded Marxist for her opponent.”

Related: Does Christine O’Donnell Weigh The Same As A Duck?

UPDATE: Michael Lotus: Murkowski’s OK, But O’Donnell Is A Villainess?

Let’s get this straight. Christine O’Donnell actually won her primary. But Karl Rove began actively campaigning for the Democrat in Delaware the day after O’Donnell won, when there was no other GOP candidate to back, when the voters had already decided, and blaming her for supposedly squandering a GOP Senate majority.

Lisa Murkowski lost her primary. Yet she is running as a write-in candidate, for no reason she can publicly justify. She is a spoiler who is likely to cause the loss of a GOP Senate seat.

Yet where is the full-throated assault on Lisa Murkowski by the GOP leadership?

Her dad was a Senator, so she gets a pass. But remember when people were saying that it was the Tea Party crowd that was going to be a bunch of immature spoilers? The GOP establishment is so bad, the Tea Party has to be an improvement, and this is just more proof. As I said back in my 2006 Republican majority pre-mortem: “I realize that you go to war with the political class you have, but even back in the 1990s it was obvious that we had a lousy political class. It hasn’t improved, but the challenges have gotten greater. Can the country continue to do well, with such bad political leadership? I hope so, because I see no sign of improvement, no matter who wins next month.” Sometimes I hate being right. . . .

MORE: Dr. Bernard Beard sends this bit from Firefly:

Patron: [River is about to be burned at the stake] This is a holy cleansing. You cannot think to thwart God’s will.
Mal: Y’all see the man hangin’ out of the spaceship with the really big gun? I’m not saying you weren’t easy to find, but it was kind of out of our way and he didn’t wanna come in the first place. Man’s lookin’ to kill some folk. So really it’s his will y’all should worry about thwarting.
Mal: [to Simon] Gotta say, Doctor, your talent for alienatin’ folks is near miraculous.
Simon: Yes, I’m very proud.
Mal: [about River] Cut her down.
Patron: The girl is a witch.
Mal: Yeah, but she’s our witch.
[Cocks shotgun and aims at Town Patron]
Mal: So cut her the hell down!

“She’s our witch!” Now there’s a slogan! Did I mention that she turned me into a newt? I got better . . . . And yes, I know I’m mixing geek-culture references.

MORE: Courtesy of reader Joseph Dorsett, here’s the Firefly clip. A prize to the first person who can mash this up into an O’Donnell ad . . . .

STILL MORE: See if you can work this in, too. (Via C.J. Burch, who notes that a witch is better than a Marxist. Which is undoubtedly true.)

FROM HUGH HEWITT: The Top 20 Campaigns In Which To Invest Time and Money Between Now and November. Also, here’s the list from Dick Morris that I posted the other day.

TROOPS TOO FLABBY FOR CROSSFIT? Readers keep telling me to try it, but if it’s too hard for the troops it’s too hard for me. My physical fitness — like a lot of the things I do — falls into the category of “Pretty good . . . for a law professor.”

UPDATE: Reader Bill Bromberg writes:

Glenn — I know you’re going to get a million messages but I have got to tell you, as long as you check your ego at the door and are willing to scale the weight/reps Crossfit will be the best and most fun exercise program you’ve ever done. I am a 39 yo guy who as of 4 months ago was 35 pounds overweight and couldn’t do 3 pull-ups. Since starting Crossfit I’m up to 12 in a row, have lost 10 pounds of fat, put on an inch of chest muscle and lost 2″ from my waist.

In re checking my ego — I’ve made it my goal to be the 10th strongest girl in the the class. I’ll shave my legs if I have to.

10th strongest girl? Like I said, too tough for the likes of me . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Dave Parmly emails:

Dude, sack up! Your reply from the reader is absolutely spot on! There are so many folks in our CF gym who were barely above the sedentary line when it comes to physical prowess. They did as your reader said: Checked the ego at the door. The key is “Scale-ability”. Click on the link. Check out how many women, and not all sculpted she-ra goddesses, but wives, grand moms, etc., you see in the pictures. Interestingly, as my strength has gone up, my sizes have decreased in most areas. That is the difference between body-building muscle and lean muscle. It’s why women like CF: You get strong, get lean, and don’t get grotesque with “man arms”.

http://crossfitktown.com/

Having said that, as both a dedicated CF-er and a veteran, CF principles would be a challenge to implement for a company commander with 120 men in his company, all of whom are at varying degrees of fitness. The out-of-shape kid at basic training and the ex-HS gymnast in basic training can both be challenged by CF but getting that many people to a point of individually-shaped exercise would be tough. CF is popular in SPECOPS because of the small size of the accountable unit and the discretionary use of time that exists more in an elite unit than you’ll find in a rank-and-file outfit. This does NOT mean that commanders need to get their units out of the PT rut. Definitely incorporate functional movements into the physical training. Pull-ups, pushups, squats and sprint work seems to have more applications than lifting weights or miles long formation runs.

Feel free to post my comment as I’d like to hear from readers who have implemented CF into their military units.

Done!

PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH: “Why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, oh why, can’t we have a better Reality-Based Community?”

NEW YORK POST: Rep. Meeks Helped “Jihad” Flier:

S Rep. Gregory Meeks scolded immigration officials for questioning a Muslim scholar whose nonprofits have been linked to financing terrorism.

The Queens Democrat contacted federal agencies — finally appealing to then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff — asking why Anwar Hajjaj faced “unwarranted scrutiny” when he returned to the United States from trips abroad through JFK Airport. . . . But The Post has learned Hajjaj also headed the Taibah International Aid Association, a charity that has been accused of funding Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. The group was co-founded by Abdullah A. bin Laden, Osama bin Laden’s nephew, who has been investigated for his ties to groups that have funded al Qaeda and Hamas.

Hajjaj is also director of another Virginia-based nonprofit, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth International, or WAMY. It was also founded by bin Laden’s nephew and said to support al Qaeda. The group’s 2005 federal tax form, the most recent available, is signed by Hajjaj, who is listed as director.

But at least Meeks never dabbled in witchcraft in his youth.

AN IPOD NANO watch?

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: With A Whimper, Not A Bang. “The notion that we are doomed and the Chinese fated to prosper is not written in stone. It is simply a matter of free will, theirs and ours. They must deal with a new era of coming suburban blues, worker discontent, unions, environmental discretion and regulation, an aging and shrinking population and greater personal appetites, social protest, and nonconformity — in the manner that industrializing Western nations did as well in the early twentieth century. . . . We in turn can easily outdistance any country should we remain the most free, law-abiding, and economically open society as in our past. A race-gender-ethnic-blind meritocracy, equal application of the law, low taxes, small government, and a transparent political and legal system are at the heart of that renewal. America could within a decade become a creditor nation again, with a trade balance and budget surplus, drawing in the world’s talent and capital in a way not possible in the more inflexible or less meritocratic China, Japan, or Germany. Again that is our choice, not a superimposed destiny from someone else.”

A ONE-DAY SALE ON programmable thermostats. I’m ordering these, because I’ve been meaning to upgrade since I moved into my house years ago . . . .

UPDATE: Or maybe not, because now the price has gone up 30 bucks, from 57 to 87 dollars a piece. What gives? I’ve never seen that happen with a “Gold Box” sale before.

OOPS: Cleaner for the Environment, Not for the Dishes.

While phosphates help prevent dishes from spotting in the wash cycle, they have long ended up in lakes and reservoirs, stimulating algae growth that deprives other plants and fish of oxygen.

Yet now, with the content reduced, many consumers are finding the new formulas as appealing as low-flow showers, underscoring the tradeoffs that people often face today in a more environmentally conscious marketplace.

“Low-flow? I don’t like the sound of that . . . .”

Plus this: “’The reality of any green product is that they generally don’t work as well,’ she said. ‘Our customers really don’t like them.’”

UPDATE: Reader M. Simon emails: “Dirty dishes. Bedbugs. I’m beginning to see a pattern.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Brendon Carr writes: “Dirty dishes, bedbugs, and the return of previously-vanquished diseases like whooping cough. What these things have in common is that the left’s Gaia-worship threatens to turn back all human progress.”

IS “OLD AGE” ACTUALLY A CAUSE OF DEATH? Well, it shouldn’t be.

USING AN IPAD for document review.

ALAN BOYLE: Underwater Frontiers Still Beckon. “Deep Ocean Expeditions is touting a 2011 trip that features visits to the site in Russian submersibles for $40,000 per person ($5,000 if you just want to stay on the ship).”

ANOTHER CALL FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. “When unfunded mandates, insurmountable debt, and unconscionable spending have mortgaged our children’s and grandchildren’s futures, it is not only the right, but the duty of the states to use every tool at their disposal to restore the republic. This powerful Article V mechanism has caused Congress to act many times to propose amendments to avoid a convention. The prospect of a convention was enough to convince Congress to pass the (ineffective) Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget Act in 1985.”

I THINK THEY SHOULD BRING BACK the Christie Brinkley feature. I think it would be a popular option.

HAPPY TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY, ME HEARTIES!

IN THE MAIL: Erectile Dysfunction: Integrating Couple Therapy, Sex Therapy, and Medical Treatment and Men in Therapy: New Approaches for Effective Treatment.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON SIRIUS/XM SATELLITE RADIO LAST NIGHT, the latest PJM Political is now online.

NICK GILLESPIE responds to Jonathan Chait. “Those supporting a reversion back to Clinton-era tax policies constantly blame the Bush cuts for starving federal coffers and, hence, increasing the deficit. Why partisans such as Obama and Pelosi would then argue that 82 percent of foregone revenue – $3.2 trillion out of $3.9 trillion – should go uncollected is understandable in light of electoral politics. But that doesn’t make it any less deceitful.”

INSIDE THE DARK WORLD OF illegal Segway tours. Not for the faint of heart.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Science Fiction is a Genre That Everyone Should Read. Well, yes.

UPDATE: Here’s a post with some recommendations.

SOME KITCHEN ESSENTIALS FOR A FIRST APARTMENT.

MARC AMBINDER: Media will help Democrats’ messaging about the Tea Party.

That’s one of those admissions, like Evan Thomas’s famous “fifteen percent” remark, that’s worth highlighting.

UPDATE: Reader Roger Byrne writes: “What is even more pertinent on your point about Evan Thomas and media bias is the fact that Newsweek was recently sold for $1.00. So their journalistic practices have bankrupted their distribution mechanism of their ideology.” But they don’t care, because they value the ideology more.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Ralph Tacoma emails:

Your point about this being consistent with Evan Thomas’s “fifteen percent” remark, and the resultant cheapening of the market value of traditional media is certainly valid; but I think that the cheapening of value also applies to the effectiveness of the traditional media.

Assuming that Thomas was correct about the “fifteen percent” I suspect that the equivalent effect to day is more in the 1-5% range. Witness the lack of effect that their playing of the “race card” has had to date.

We’ll know more on 11/3/2010.

Indeed we will.

CAMPAIGNING AGAINST A GOLFING FATCAT.

PEOPLE TEND TO TRAVEL IN THE DIRECTION OF GREATER FREEDOM: State Migration Trends, 1993-2008: From Blue States to Red States.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: “Every two years for the past decade and more, reports of voter fraud have been on the increase during election campaigns around the country. That is not coincidental.”

DER SPIEGEL: Obama Has Underestimated the Frustration in the Country.

SUSPICIOUSLY THUGGISH: CANADIAN BLOGGER ARRESTED FOR CRIMINAL LIBEL. “RCMP have laid five charges against a Calgary man related to the operation of a website highly critical of Calgary police officers.”

MATT WELCH: Loathsome Columnist of the Month: Courtland Milloy. It’s a first-rate rant about the ruining of DC’s educational system, and more.

LISA MURKOWSKI: The Face Of The Combine. “In the final analysis, The Combine’s allegiance is not to a party, but to their pocketbooks. They’re about making money off the taxpayers. . . . Lisa Murkowski’s family, and her career, exist because of the Combine. Her interest is in preserving the existing game. She is preserving her stake and her family’s stake in a game they have benefitted from. There is no mystery about this at all. There is no need for psychiatry to understand why she is trying to stop Joe Miller. He threatens the game.”

DOCTOR ZERO ON HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED:

Let me put this bluntly: virtually no one in America gives a damn what Barack Obama says about anything at this point. What could be more predictable, and less interesting, than Obama’s opinion on any given subject? Who wants to contemplate the economic wisdom of a guy who looted the Treasury for a trillion dollars, with less benefit than we could have achieved by stuffing hundred dollar bills into random cereal boxes? Who’s excited to hear about the next plan to convert taxpayer dollars into Democrat campaign funds? Who’s hungry for another hour of tedious excuses about permanently broken markets and the titanic dead hand of George W. Bush? Who wants a lecture on ethical business practices from the titular head of the party that gave us Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters? What use is another hollow foreign-policy speech from a man who sees no global adversary to rival the menace of Arizona? Even Obama’s supporters don’t hear anything he says any more. There’s nothing left to hear.

Ouch.

FROM THE GALLERY OF unfortunate business names. But memorable!

MARKDOWNS ON DVD and Blu-Ray.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Memo to GOP: Don’t drop earmark ban.

In March, House Republicans made an important move to restore their credibility as the party of fiscal discipline when every one of them voted to ban earmarks. “Now House Republicans are going to the American people and saying we want a clean break from the runaway spending in the past. And that’s going to be quite a contrast from this Congress and the administration,” House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence crowed.

That was then. This is apparently now: “With their eyes on a House majority, Republicans are leaving the door open to allowing earmarks after a one-year party-imposed moratorium,” reported Politico on Friday. Republican leaders such as House Minority Leader John Boehner and Whip Eric Cantor are suddenly hedging on the issue. Perhaps we need to remind the would-be House leadership why they should continue to steer clear of earmarks.

Besides the obvious — earmarks lead to corruption — I should note that if the GOP leadership had paid attention to the PorkBusters movement back in 2005, they might not have lost the Congress in 2006. But they were too busy stuffing their pockets to do that, with predictable results. What kind of fools are these people? First class . . . .

Republicans have one last chance to save themselves, or Americans’ growing enthusiasm for a third party will catch up to them — not only in the 2012 presidential elections, but in a lot of Congressional districts. And Democrats, don’t get too excited about that, because you’re not very popular, either . . . .

PUNISHED: Missouri State Auditor Defunds Speed Trap City. “A notorious Missouri speed trap town was busted Wednesday by the state auditor for violating the law. Randolph, Missouri has a population of just 47 people, but the police department last year dished out 3132 fines — nearly all speeding tickets issued to motorists passing through on Highway 210. A formal examination of the city’s book uncovered the fact that Randolph made more than thirty-five percent of its revenue from freeway traffic ticket, in violation of the Macks Creek law, an anti-speed trap statute named for a town that went bankrupt after its ability to issue speeding tickets was revoked.” All you need is a law providing that ticket revenue goes to the state’s general fund. . . .

WHAT CAUSED San Francisco’s Gas Pipeline Explosion?

SPEEDING TRAFFIC ALONG with adaptive stoplights.

HOW NOT TO HANDLE A TRAFFIC STOP.

LIST: Best Missing TV Shows On DVD.

ROSS DOUTHAT: Do Reporters Know How To Write About Religion? Not so much.

Journalists are more skeptical — and often less religious — than the average American, Douthat said in a conversation with Diane Winston, the Knight Chair in Media and Religion at Annenberg. That skepticism helps reporters cover politics, business and local government. But that same skepticism hinders them from understanding, let alone covering, the religion beat.

“It would be odd for business reporters to think that balance sheets are silly, or to not believe in Wall Street,” Douthat said. “But in religion, you get that all the time.”

This may be too charitable to business reporters, but he has a point. Plus this:

Journalistic ignorance about religion is only matched by religious institutions’ distrust of the American media, he said. And the result is a gaping divide between two main American institutions. Douthat’s suggestion: get educated. Treat the beat the same you would any other. Pick up a book or five, read different viewpoints, learn about religious organizations and how they work. Come prepared.

Good advice on any subject, but all too often ignored.

WASHINGTON POST: Was politics behind the government’s decision to preserve the UAW’s pensions? Yes. Next question?

JIMI HENDRIX DIED 40 years ago today.

ALZHEIMER’S DRUG improves perceptual learning in healthy adults.

IF IT’S FROM A GAS GIANT, WOULD YOU USE LIQUID METHANE? Pope’s astronomer would be pleased to baptize an alien “no matter how many tentacles it has”.

THE WAR AGAINST PHOTOGRAPHY GOES UNDERSEA! Giant Manta Ray swipes $5k camera rig from diver, shoots some video. Or maybe the manta just wanted to join in . . . .

CHANGE: Wide GOP Lead Among Interested Voters; Obama Job Approval Hits New Low.

THE CARNIVAL OF NUCLEAR ENERGY IS UP!

IN THE MAIL: From Ron Paul, End The Fed.

CALLING ALL LOBBYISTS! “Less than an hour before Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski planned to announce a write-in campaign to retain her seat, her top aide e-mailed scores of the most prominent lobbyists in Washington to ask them to join a Saturday conference call with the senator.”

The Murkowski story embodies what’s wrong with the traditional GOP: Self-centered, dynastic, and looking to lobbyists as primary allies.

UPDATE: Roger Simon: Murkowski The Jerk. “Unlike Joe Lieberman, who ran successfully as an independent in Connecticut, she has no cause, other than herself.”

Plus, some advice: “One last word to the lobbyists (Chevron, Conoco Phillips and Marathon Oil, etc) who apparently received email from Murkowski’s chief of staff, alerting them an hour early to her imminent campaign. We live in a New Media Age where your behavior is being watched as never before. And, as you know, you have already been outed in this instance. Karen Knutson, Murkowski’s chief of staff, showed herself to be a trigger-happy dolt by sending that premature email. One of you probably leaked it. Signing on for the Murkowski campaign is now bad news for your company. Stay away.”

I wonder if these companies are hearing from customers or shareholders about this?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg: “On what grounds should she run as independent? Because she really likes being a senator? Because she’s bummed the seat-for-life her father gave her turned out to be more temporary? I think independent campaigns or party switches are forgivable or understandable on some grand issue of principle. Joe Lieberman’s steadfast support for the war comes to mind. But reading this, it sounds like Murkowski thinks she should run because the people who like her have told her what she wants to hear. How is she anything more than Arlen Specter in a dress?”

MORE: A reader emails: “She’s worse: Specter was never a spoiler. At least he had the ‘dignity’ to switch parties, not run as an indie. And he did it BEFORE he lost his primary, not after. It’s hard to be a bigger creep than Arlen Specter, but I’ll be damned if she hasn’t done it.”

INTRODUCING THE PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE STIMULUS PLAN. “Give me $420,000 and I’ll hire 10 unemployed law students to work as research assistants for a year. I’ve always wanted a few minions, after all.”

MARY KATHARINE HAM: “Can’t all us grizzlies get along?”

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D SEE SLAVERY RETURN TO AMERICA. And they were right! “A Florida couple pleaded guilty to conspiring to hold 39 Filipino employees against their will working in country clubs and hotels, the US Justice Department said Friday.”

UPDATE: Yes, it’s all my fault.

TOM BLUMER: The Teen Workplace Disengagement Epidemic. “In July, far more than half weren’t even trying to find work. Why? . . . One obvious current factor is that those teens who are looking for work aren’t finding it thanks to the economy.”

L.A. TIMES: “First Lady Michelle Obama, who has been unable to convince the Smoker-in-Chief to give up that dreadful habit, now has some health suggestions for other American families and for restaurant menus across the country.” Gotta love the pics.

BEST BARGAIN NONSTICK SKILLETS.

SHIKHA DALMIA: Obama Is Not An Anticolonialist Kenyan. “But there is a problem more basic than factual inaccuracies with D’Souza’s thesis. If Obama were seriously motivated by a moral desire to protect poor countries from being ruined by excessive American consumption then his biggest priority would be to rein in this consumption. But that is the exact opposite of what he has done since assuming office. His entire economic agenda is one big and desperate attempt to boost American consumption.”

BARNEY FRANK GETTING WORRIED? “Both Democratic and Republican observers said the Clinton event suggests Frank – a part of the Democratic leadership now linked to the nation’s economic woes – might feel vulnerable.”

He’s got a motivated challenger, though Frank has a lot more cash.

JAMES TARANTO CORRECTS ME:

The Herald quotes Glenn Reynolds, a libertarian law professor whom the paper misidentifies as a “conservative gadfly”: “I think the Tea Party couldn’t ask for any better publicity than to be denounced by a millionaire who dodges paying taxes on his yacht.” Actually, make that a near-billionaire who married another man’s fortune.

I stand corrected.

JENNIFER RUBIN: Justice Department Forced To Investigate Self. “It is about to get harder for both the Obama administration and the mainstream media to downplay the New Black Panther party scandal.”

PEGGY NOONAN: WHY IT’S TIME FOR THE TEA PARTY: The populist movement is more a critique of the GOP than a wing of it. Well, that’s what it takes to make Peggy happy, apparently. Then again, she’s the one who told us Barack Obama was a moderate.

EVERYBODY’S BEEN SENDING ME THIS “White House Insider” report on Obama. Given the sourcing, I wouldn’t put too much credence in it.

CHANGE: Aug 2009– Pelosi Accuses Tea Partiers of Attending Nazi-Sign Rallies… **Sept. 2010– Top Pelosi Staffer Leads Nazi-Sign Rally. “Don’t expect to see this on your nightly news.”

SHOCKER: Economic stimulus turns into hindrance in Sevier County. “Businesses that boomed a year ago now are struggling for survival because a gauntlet of concrete barricades, orange barrels and confusing detours generated by the project are obstacles for tourists, according to local business owners. One fast-food restaurant that depended on its visibility and accessibility from the highway suffered a major drop in profits after concrete barricades and piles of rubble blocked the store’s main entrance and made its sign difficult to see. . . . However, only one on-site construction worker has been hired since September, confirmed Tennessee Department of Transportation Project Manager Jennifer Stone, while local retailers have had to cut back staffing and decrease work hours because of disruption from road construction.”

This story’s from back at the beginning of the summer, but it may explain why all that stimulus spending hasn’t translated into much progress. . . .

GREG SARGENT: “It isn’t every day that Democrats target Latino challengers with nasty anti-immigrant ads, but these are apparently desperate times for certain embattled Dems.”

HOW CONVENIENT: Ethics trial for Democrats Rangel, Waters unlikely before election.

DICK MORRIS: Congressional Candidates Who Urgently Need Help. David Kirkham writes in favor of Morgan Philpot, who is only three points behind the incumbent, Democrat Matheson.

UPDATE: Reader Vin Flynn writes:

Sam Caligiuri in CT 5 is one point behind Netroots liberal Chris Murphy. Murphy called criticism of Obamacare “lies and propaganda” so we really oughta want him to leave office. Sam, on the other hand, was the only CT state senator to oppose a budget that violated the state spending cap; so we need him in DC

Well, look at the list — and around the Web — and decide for yourself if there’s anyone you want to help.

MURKOWSKI UPDATE: Incumbent sore loser to launch desperate bid to keep power.

ROBERT GIBBS: Nice magazine you’ve got there Mr. Forbes. Be a shame if something were to happen to it…

MICKEY KAUS: It’s legal, guys.

OVER AT ITS TACTICAL, Debunking 9 Classic Myths and Whoppers about Firearms. There’s less flaming in the comments than I would have expected . . . .

HEY, BEARDED MARXISTS, THIS IS HOW COMMUNISM WORKS OUT:

“State retribution for tiny thefts, such as stealing a potato, even by a child, would include being tied up and thrown into a pond…”

“… parents were forced to bury their children alive or were doused in excrement and urine, others were set alight, or had a nose or ear cut off. One record shows how a man was branded with hot metal. People were forced to work naked in the middle of winter; 80 per cent of all the villagers in one region of a quarter of a million Chinese were banned from the official canteen because they were too old or ill to be effective workers, so were deliberately starved to death.”

Just another day on one of those big, friendly socialist plantations, where everyone gets free health care.

TV GONE TOO FAR? “Bridalplasty” Brides Compete For Plastic Surgery – Reveal At Wedding!

A ONE-DAY-ONLY SALE on this tabletop gas grill.

TODD HENDERSON: We Are The Super Rich. “I, like the president before me, am a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School, and my wife, like the first lady before her, works at the University of Chicago Hospitals, where she is a doctor who treats children with cancer. Our combined income exceeds the $250,000 threshold for the super rich (but not by that much), and the president plans on raising my taxes. After all, we can afford it, and the world we are now living in has that familiar Marxian tone of those who need take and those who can afford it pay. The problem is, we can’t afford it. Here is why.”

UPDATE: From the comments: “You should find no ear more empathetic than the President’s. The First Lady complained about the financial limits they faced living in your neighborhood and earning over $400K.”

Yes, yes she did:

“I know we’re spending — I added it up for the first time — we spend between the two kids, on extracurriculars outside the classroom, we’re spending about $10,000 a year on piano and dance and sports supplements and so on and so forth,” Mrs. Obama tells the women. “And summer programs. That’s the other huge cost. Barack is saying, ‘Whyyyyyy are we spending that?’ And I’m saying, ‘Do you know what summer camp costs?’”

Heh.

WHY CAN WE HAVE VIAGRA ADS, but not ads for female sex enhancers?

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: The Entitlement Bubble Bust Is Going To Be A Nightmare.

HEREDITARY BLOOD DISORDER CURED WITH GENE THERAPY. “A 21-year-old Frenchman is the first person in the world to be cured of the blood disorder beta-thalassaemia through gene therapy. But there is some confusion over what made the treatment work.”

NAZIS GATHERING AT REP. DEBBIE HALVORSON’S (D-IL) OFFICE IN CHICAGO? I hate Illinois Nazis. Shouldn’t Debbie Halvorson?

UPDATE: More on Halvorson’s Brown Shirts.

ANOTHER UPDATE: From Gateway Pundit, link above: “One of the protesters has been identified. She’s one of Obama’s Organizing for America staffers. They shipped her from Missouri to Chicago for their Hitler rally.”

Halvorson’s opponent is demanding an apology and turning it into a fundraising appeal. (Bumped).

OUCH: Home Depot founder rips Obama WH as “tenured” academics, apologizes for creating jobs. But hey, leave us tenured academics out of this — Obama never had tenure, and his longterm employment prospects look pretty shaky at present . . . .

Video at the link. Plus, from the comments: “Expect a tax audit from the IRS.” Ya think?

ARE WE HEADING FOR a space bubble?

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

TAKING ON THE TEA PARTY: T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII: If It Is a Fight These Jacobins Want, Then It Is a Fight They Shall Have.

BOB OWENS: Gunned Down in Vegas: What Really Happened to Erik Scott? “An accomplished young man is killed by police outside a Vegas Costco, and bystander accounts starkly contrast with official reports. . . . For the record, the Costco did not have signs posted prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons. Scott did not violate any laws in carrying his weapon in the store. It is quite possible that Erik Scott was gunned down without having committed so much as a misdemeanor crime, and that the officers who shot him will be merely the latest exonerated in a long line from an apparently unaccountable police force.”

Here’s a statement from Scott’s father in the West Point Alumni class notes. (Bumped).

THE HILL: THE TEA PARTY’S ALREADY WON: “Even before Christine O’Donnell handily defeated Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) in an epic upset Tuesday night, the Tea Parties, all of them, had already won. No matter what happens in the midterm elections on Nov. 2, the Tea Party has moved the Democrats to the right and the Republicans even more so, and President Obama’s agenda is dead. . . . What debuted in nationwide protests on April 15, 2009, has taken less than 18 months to become the current driving force in American politics.”

Hey, I told you so. On April 15, 2009.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, NEWSCASTERS WOULD BE FIRED FOR DARING TO SPEAK THE TRUTH: And they were right!

Amid the ongoing BP oil spill in July, McKelway covered a Capitol Hill demonstration by environmental groups protesting the influence of oil-industry contributions to members of Congress.

In his piece, McKelway said the sparsely attended event attracted protesters “largely representing far-left environmental groups.” He went on to say the protest “may be a risky strategy because the one man who has more campaign contributions from BP than anybody else in history is now sitting in the Oval Office, President Barack Obama, who accepted $77,051 in campaign contributions from BP.”

Now he’s been canned.

POPULAR SCIENCE tests the new iPods.

MAXINE WATERS UPDATE: OneUnited received more preferential treatment than first disclosed. “Maxine Waters and the Democrats may have thought that all of the bad news from her intervention with OneUnited bank had already been aired, but the Washington Post reports that the House Ethics Committee only scratched the surface. Far from a single intervention by Waters, the record shows an unprecedented effort conducted by Congress, Treasury, and its regulators to rescue the bank in which Waters’ husband had invested a significant amount of money. In 707 applications of TARP money, OneUnited got the most special attention.”

LAMINATED LINEN, the ancient world’s Kevlar. “Presented at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Anaheim, Calif., the study suggests that Alexander and his soldiers protected themselves with linothorax, a type of body armor made by laminating together layers of linen. . . . In order to determine how wearable this armor was, and how effective it would have been in protecting its wearer from arrows and other battlefield hazards, Aldrete and Bartell reconstructed several complete sets of linen armor using only material that were only available in the ancient world.”

UNEXPECTEDLY! Consumer sentiment weakest since August 2009. “Consumer sentiment unexpectedly worsened in early September to its weakest level in more than a year, as distress over jobs and finances intensified among upper-income families, a survey released on Friday showed.”

UPDATE: Americans’ wealth fell in spring as stocks tanked.

CHANGE: Forbes Will Rank Law Schools Based On Job Results.

HOW TO BREAK IN a new car.

DAVID FREDDOSO: If Delaware seemed like good news to Dems, Wisconsin is killing them now. “The significance here goes beyond this state.”

RESEARCHERS BUILD MOON GARDEN: “The Moon is not the most hospitable place for growing fruits and vegetables. The lack of atmosphere and natural water, extreme temperatures, and exposure to cosmic rays present some serious challenges for future inhabitants who want to pursue sustainable living on the Moon. With these challenges in mind, scientists have built a lunar greenhouse that is designed to grow plants such as potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, and peppers under the Moon’s extreme conditions.”

TIME TO repeal the incandescent bulb ban.