JIM TREACHER ON FACEBOOK: “The mainstream media is irreparably broken. Fortunately, the Internet was designed to route around damage.”

JONAH GOLDBERG: The Amazing Bubble of Liberal Creepiness. “What is most striking about this isn’t just the soft abuse of children or the sickening moral bullying the creators are trying to pull off, it’s that they think this sort of thing is persuasive in the first place.”

WHILE IT LASTS: Webcam from the Statue of Liberty, with sound.

‘IF YOU DO NOT SURVIVE:’ As Matt Drudge notes, the National Weather Service has issued a dramatic warning statement for those in the path of Sandy:

…AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM TO IMPACT THE AREA… SANDY IS EXPECTED TO SLAM INTO THE NEW JERSEY COAST LATER MONDAY NIGHT, BRINGING VERY HEAVY RAIN AND DAMAGING WINDS TO THE REGION.

THE STORM IS A LARGE ONE, THEREFORE DO NOT FOCUS ON THE EXACT CENTER OF THE STORM AS ALL AREAS WILL HAVE SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS.

THIS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE AN HISTORIC STORM, WITH WIDESPREAD WIND DAMAGE AND POWER OUTAGES, INLAND AND COASTAL FLOODING, AND MASSIVE BEACH EROSION. THE COMBINATION OF THE HEAVY RAIN AND PROLONGED WIND
WILL CREATE THE POTENTIAL FOR LONG LASTING POWER OUTAGES AND SERIOUS FLOODING.

PREPARATIONS SHOULD BE WRAPPING UP AS CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO WORSEN TONIGHT AND ESPECIALLY ON MONDAY.

SOME IMPORTANT NOTES…

1. IF YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO EVACUATE A COASTAL LOCATION BY STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS, PLEASE DO SO.

2. IF YOU ARE RELUCTANT TO EVACUATE, AND YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO RODE OUT THE `62 STORM ON THE BARRIER ISLANDS, ASK THEM IF THEY COULD DO IT AGAIN.

3. IF YOU ARE RELUCTANT, THINK ABOUT YOUR LOVED ONES, THINK ABOUT THE EMERGENCY RESPONDERS WHO WILL BE UNABLE TO REACH YOU WHEN YOU MAKE THE PANICKED PHONE CALL TO BE RESCUED, THINK ABOUT THE RESCUE/RECOVERY TEAMS WHO WILL RESCUE YOU IF YOU ARE INJURED OR RECOVER YOUR REMAINS IF YOU DO NOT SURVIVE.

4. SANDY IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM. THERE WILL BE MAJOR PROPERTY DAMAGE, INJURIES ARE PROBABLY UNAVOIDABLE, BUT THE GOAL IS ZERO FATALITIES.

5. IF YOU THINK THE STORM IS OVER-HYPED AND EXAGGERATED, PLEASE ERR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION.

WE WISH EVERYONE IN HARMS WAY ALL THE BEST. STAY SAFE!

Sound advice.

Of course, even though this report was written and issued by the National Weather Service, naturally for Buzzfeed, it’s merely an excuse to take a shot at Chris Christie:

Continue reading ‘‘IF YOU DO NOT SURVIVE:’ As Matt Drudge notes, the National Weather Service has issued a dramatic wa…’ »

CAPTAIN’S JOURNAL: False Military Doctrine And The Benghazi Assault. “The notion that we don’t send our forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on is patently absurd and false. Simply said, it’s a lie. We deploy Army Rangers to take control of air fields and landing zones in potentially hostile environments, for which we do not know all of the desired information; we deploy Marine infantry into situations of potentially unknown threats all of the time all over the globe; each and every time a patrol left the outpost at the Korengal in Afghanistan, they were deploying into potentially deadly situations without specific and detailed knowledge of the situation.”

What, you don’t believe Leon Panetta?

BENGHAZI: McCain Suggests Response To Benghazi Attack Was Worse Than Watergate. “It is now the worst cover-up or incompetence I have ever observed in my life.”

MEDIA: al Qaqaa and Benghazi: That Was Then, and This Is Now. “It is hard to imagine how any newspaper could ignore, or even try to downplay, a story of this magnitude. Yet, if you rely on the New York Times for information, you know little about the battle of Benghazi, and nothing at all about the explosive account that emerged on Friday, fueled in part by the anger of the father of one of the dead American operatives.”

PROGRAMMERS: The Art World’s New Renegades?

FOR SANDY UPDATES, follow Brendan Loy on Twitter.

HISTORY: UK spy diaries offer glimpse of Cold War life.

MEMORY, WITHOUT A BRAIN?:  Seems impossible, but scientists at the University of Sydney claim their recent research shows that at least one type of slime exhibits a memory without a brain.    Making slime in the kitchen with my daughter now makes me think twice.

DON’T GET COCKY, KID: Bob Krumm: Does Ohio Really Matter? “The bottom line is that if Mitt Romney’s popular vote margin is large enough, no matter what happens in Ohio, some other state is going to play Belgium to Obama’s Maginot Line.”

Really, don’t get cocky. It’s all about showing up. Save the crowing until the showing’s done. Which doesn’t mean I don’t hope he’s right.

UPDATE: Reader Russ Meyer writes: “I’m glad the polls look good for Romney, but please ask people to remember that we all thought the Obamacare decision would go the right way as well, and we were then crushed when it didn’t. Things look great, but we can’t get cocky.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Chris Lynch writes: “When the post election postmortem is done I think the numbers will show that in state after state many more Democrats will have voted for the federal offices of Senator or Congressman than voted for the Democrat at the top of the ticket. These folks may not vote for Mitt Romney but by not voting for Barack Obama they will be widening the gap which will be the difference between a slim victory and a landslide. The fiscal policies and the shame of what happened at Benghazi may keep even the most strident Democrat from voting for Obama.” Well, we’ll know soon.

SEN. RON JOHNSON ON BENGHAZI: “The American People Have The Right To Know.” “It was either misleading or is incompetent. I think we are finding out it was probably both, misleading and incompetence on the part of this administration. The American people have the right to know.”

THE SILENCE ON BENGHAZI IS DEAFENING:  Of the 5 major Sunday news shows today, only Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace thought it was important enough to raise.   Absolutely disgusting.

HARRY REID’S GRAVEYARD:  A damning editorial by the Wall St. Journal about the U.S. Senate under Harry Reid’s leadership and the imperative of gaining Republican control of that chamber.  The editors conclude:

But if it’s big and bold that voters want, House Republicans have passed it. What stands in their way are Senate Democrats. One reason the Reagan policy revolution became law in 1981 is because Republicans scared enough Democrats into cooperating by picking up a net gain of 12 Senate seats in 1980 to gain control 53-46.

If voters want to break the gridlock of the past two years and start addressing the country’s urgent fiscal and economic problems, they’re going to have to elect a Republican Senate as well as Mr. Romney.

The Republicans need a net pickup of 4 Senate seats.  The Massachusetts race between Republican incumbent Scott Brown and challenger Elizabeth Warren may be the key. 

WAPO: “President Obama has a problem with independents. And it’s not a small problem. In the last three releases of the tracking poll conducted by The Washington Post and ABC News, Obama has trailed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney among independent voters by between 16 and 20 percentage points. That’s a striking reversal from 2008, when Obama won independent voters, who made up 29 percent of the electorate, by eight points over Sen. John McCain of Arizona.”

WELL, IT’S CHEAPER THAN NETJETS: Startup Offers Private Jet Ride-Sharing, But Cost Is Still Sky-High. “Turns out you don’t have to be part of the 1 percent to fly in a private jet after all. At least that’s the claim of the guy who has turned the limo industry on its head with the car-service dispatch app Uber. Thanks to newly launched BlackJet, anyone can book a seat on a private jet to take them across the United States. Wait, did we say anyone? We mean anyone who can afford to pay $7,000 for a round-trip flight — and have been invited to use the service.” Still a bit pricey for an impecunious law professor such as myself.

TRICK OR TREAT?:  Which will it be on Nov. 6th:  More Obama tricks, or a real Romney treat?

HEH.

AT AMAZON, Markdowns on Levis’ 501 Jeans for Men.

Also, today only: Up to 60% Off Zumba DVDs, Apparel, Shoes, and More.

THE PANETTA DOCTRINE: And why it fails on multiple levels.

RELATED: “So what does the President do when he takes responsibility?”

Hit Vegas, of course.

NEAL STEPHENSON SPOKE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON LAW SCHOOL recently, about his novel Reamde. You can see the video here.

There’s an audio version here.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Support Rand Simberg and CEI Against Michael Mann.

SULLY SAYS WHAT? “You put a map of the Civil War over this electoral map, you’ve got the Civil War…”

Or, maybe you don’t. But you do have someone channeling the epic meltdown by ABC’s Carole Simpson immediately after the 2004 presidential election (on an ABC show, to boot).

Besides — are we the Confederacy or the Weimar Republic? It’s not easy keeping track of all of the negative historical metaphors that describe America in Andrew’s mind.

Also from today’s edition of ABC’s This Week:

ANDREW SULLIVAN, DAILY BEAST: Well, I’m sorry, but Romney was a severe conservative from January to October, and now he’s a new candidate.

Perhaps Romney realized that moving to the center for the general election would better differentiate himself from the other conservative in the presidential race.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Andrew knows even less about American history than he knows about American culture and politics, something he’s demonstrated repeatedly. He should stick to his core area of expertise, forensic obstetrics.

ANOTHER UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Reader Hal Duston writes: “If George W. Bush was Hindenburg, who is Barack Obama? Just wondering.” Heh. Maybe it’s not just American history he’s ignorant of . . . .

SANDY STORM SURGE APPROACHES worst-case scenario.

WHY A LIBERTARIAN SUPPORTS ROMNEY:  Well known libertarian law professor Brad Smith explains why he supports Mitt Romney over Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson.  Smith explains:

Today’s libertarian oriented Tea Parties are middle-aged men and women who came of age with the pro-freedom rhetoric of Ronald Reagan.

Romney may not be a libertarian, yet Romney not infrequently launches wonderful verbal defenses of hard core libertarian views. I can scarcely imagine another major party presidential candidate who would take on leftist hecklers about the rights of individuals organized using the corporate form; or defend the value of being able to fire people for incompetence; worry openly about individual dependency on government; or demand that voters “take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

So next week, this libertarian will be voting Romney. No regrets, no doubts.

This libertarian agrees whole-heartedly.

TOO LATE FOR SANDY, BUT SHE WON’T BE THE LAST: Up to 25% off on Winter Storm Essentials. (Bumped).

OOPS: Jefferson County “Democrat of the Year” Convicted of Felony Theft.

BENGHAZI-GATE:  Frank Miele reminds us that the 1972 re-election of Richard Nixon was due, in part, to an elaborate cover-up of the Watergate break-in that occurred 5 months earlier, in June 1972.  But eventually, Nixon’s involvement was discovered and the American people demanded justice and accountability.  Says Miele:

And now here we are again, with a popular president who may very well win re-election despite the seriousness of the accusations made against him (though certainly by a much smaller margin that President Nixon did). The nation is divided and polarized, just as it was in 1972, and some people cannot bring themselves to think the worst of President Obama, no matter how damning the evidence is.

But one thing is certain. Just as Nixon could not escape the whirlwind of Watergate merely by winning an election, neither will Barack Obama avoid the judgment of history and the American people for what happened the night of Sept. 11, 2012. And as Nixon discovered to his chagrin, sometimes the sword of that judgment is terrible and swift.

Let’s hope the American people see the need for change, even if the full facts of Benghazi-gate aren’t made known until after the election.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Some related thoughts from Ann Althouse:

A Romney victory would give us the benefit of leaving the Benghazi scandal in the past. It will still be important to investigate, but it won’t — like the Watergate scandal, after the Nixon re-election — cripple a sitting President.

Another reason for Obama to go.

SOCIAL MEDIA: How Conservatives on Twitter Forced Obama to Face the Benghazi Debacle.

UPDATE: Sorry, I seem to have killed his server. Here’s an alternate link.

FROM 1980 AND 2000, SOME REMINDERS that polling data and final results may vary just slightly.

(The 2000 link goes to the Wayback Machine; here’s a backup if it fails to load.)

A REAL SIGN OF MITT-MENTUM:  The latest Washington Post presidential tracking poll shows that Romney supporters are now voting for Romney rather than against Obama. 

ROMNEY SENDING HIS CAMPAIGN BUS to be used for East Coast storm relief efforts.

OUCH: Former National Security Adviser Bud McFarlane: For Obama to Do Nothing During Benghazi Attack is “Dereliction of Duty” (Video).

VODKAPUNDIT’S WEEK IN BLOGS:

JONATHAN KARL: Romney event in Marion, Ohio doesn’t start for 3 hours, but already there’s a long line of people waiting in the rain.

CHRIS CHRISTIE ON SANDY: Don’t be stupid; get out:

AMITY SHLAES: Obama’s Bad Economic Choices.

NEW YORK POST: Obama: A Case Study In Incompetence. “Myriad are the failures of the Obama administration, but none is more tragic, or more frightening, or more foreboding of catastrophe than the appalling mishandling of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi.”

And don’t miss this story from the Christian Science Monitor.

A NEW VIDEO FROM WILSON GETCHELL: Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? Love the fading-poster reference.

THEY TURN OFF THIS WOMAN: How Obama’s Tactics Repel Women Voters.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Obama Tried to Normalize Iran Relations, according to the Times of Israel.

ROGER SIMON: Tehran, Mon Amour: Obama Tried to Establish Ties with the Mullahs. “For all those bewildered about why Barack Obama made no attempt to reach out to the democracy demonstrators dying in the streets of Tehran (shades of Benghazigate), it seems our president had his eyes set on a bigger prize – diplomatic relations with Iran’s Islamofascist Mullahs.”

OUCH:  The Canada Free Press indicts Obama for a failed presidency. 

WOULD VOTER ID HAVE SAVED POE’S LIFE: Death by voter fraud?

WELL, THIS EXPLAINS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Study: Highly Educated Americans Most Likely To Take On Unmanageable Debt. Smarter, more educated people are better at lying to themselves persuasively.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA MONKEYS:  And their approach to Benghazi:

SCIENCE: Women with ‘wimpy’ partners are more picky and critical when they are ovulating and lust after other men – but girls with alpha guys get MORE content.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Hooray — Warmists Find One Obama Green Project That Has Not Failed.

(Via Maggie’s Farm, which has loads more links today.)

ALL THE UGLY PEOPLE AGREE: As scientists find that attractive people tend to be conformist, you have to agree that ugly has more fun.  One thing I’ll say though — when I gained a lot of weight during my first pregnancy, I found I had to work harder to be interesting.  Of course, this diminution of beauty is something every woman faces if she lives long enough.

DOING A URIAH:  Thank you M. Simon.  I’ve been saying this since it happened.  The exact same story came to mind.  This is a Biblical-level betrayal.  Or like something out of Greek Myth.  One hopes Nemesis isn’t asleep.

OLD IS NEW: Glossy “MIttZine” Insert Included In Battleground State Sunday Newspapers.

MORE ON THOSE UNDERFUNDED / OVERGENEROUS PUBLIC PENSIONS: Illinois Retirement System Basically Broke.

On Thursday, the Teachers’ Retirement System announced its annual investment returns for fiscal year 2012. You may recall that it was predicting 8.5 percent returns.

So what kind of returns did it actually get? A meager 0.76 percent. For comparison, the S&P 500 grew 7.39 percent during fiscal year 2012, while the Dow Jones Industrial average grew 7.92 percent.

Of course, this isn’t the first time TRS investments have come in below expectations. Even before this year, the 5-year average rate of return was only 4.1 percent, and the 10-year average was just 6 percent. Even its long-term averages are below its projections.

And when investment returns come in under projections, it falls on taxpayers to make up the shortfall.

Ultimately, there are only two numbers that matter: the amount of money the pension fund will pay out for earned benefits, and the amount of money it has on hand. Between now and 2045, TRS will pay $376.5 billion to retired teachers. It has just $36.3 billion on hand. In order for these assets to cover future payouts, TRS would need to see average investment returns of more than 18.5 percent per year.

The simple fact is that TRS is broke. Under new accounting rules, TRS has less than 23 percent of the money it should have in the bank today in order to make its pension payments. The system doesn’t even have enough money on hand to pay out benefits to the people who have already retired. Pension experts and TRS’s own actuaries agree: the fund could soon be insolvent.

As goes Illinois, so would Obama have America go. But then, he’s admitted that he’s no good at math.

AND ANOTHER ONE: Daily News Endorses Romney.

REMEMBER THE EIGHTIES: How the Japanese top down model was going to outgrow our economy in no time?  Yes?  Well, about that: A declining Japan loses its once-hopeful champions.

READER BOOK PLUG: Scrambled Hard-Boiled, by E.R. White, Jr.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Establishment Press Won’t Cue Up Biden’s Outrageous Comment to Slain Benghazi Hero’s Father.

NOT COVERAGE, COVERING: A reader emails: “Just finished watching This Week on ABC. A full hour on the upcoming election and no mention whatsoever on Libya. Interesting.”

UPDATE: Reader Robert Mandel is disappointed in the NYT and WaPo. “Neither one of our supposedly national newspapers has the word Benghazi or Libya on their front page,and nothing I can find on the Op/Ed pages. Perhaps all this about our embassy never happened? At least to them it did not.”

PARENTING DOES MATTER: Who knew?  And as we know from Head Start, this is not the sort of thing solved with a government program.  How about making taxes less punitive, so that people can afford to raise their own kids?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE TIES?:  An interesting op-ed in the LA Times today about what happens, constitutionally, when there is a 269-269 Electoral College tie.   While liberals are quick to criticize and attempt to “get around” the Electoral College in favor of direct popular vote, the Electoral College serves extremely important interests–namely, federalism–and should not be discarded absent a constitutional amendment via Article V processes (proposal passed by 2/3 both houses of Congress, followed by ratification by 3/4 of States).

JIMMY WON’T FIX IT: Is New York Times Hiding Its CEO’s Role in Sex Abuse Cover-Up?

EARLIER (and for the backstory): Sandusky on the Thames.

I’LL TAKE “AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN” FOR SIXTEEN TRILLION, ALEX: Obama needs to come clean on Benghazi.

THE FAIL: ALLARD: Obama knew about the attack, ignored three requests for help.

HOW TO MAKE Award-Winning Guacamole.

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: A Hurricane Approaches Washington, And So Does Sandy.

WHAT IF POWER IS OUT ON ELECTION DAY?:  Hurricane Sandy is expected to make landfall tomorrow in the area between DC and NYC.  Power outages are expected and may conceivably last through Election Day (Nov. 6).  Given the ubiquity of computerized voting, how will this affect the election?

The only salient language I can find in the Constitution is in Art. II, sec. 1:  “The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.”

Art. II thus requires a uniform day of counting the electors’ votes (but not necessarily the popular vote).  It would seem Congress could (and indeed, has)  enact a statute that would delay counting of electoral votes, to some day after Nov. 6.

UPDATE:  Under the current Electoral Count Act, electors cast their votes on the first Monday after the second Wed. in December (Dec. 17, 2012), and of course the votes are “counted” in a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6.

ANOTHER UPDATE:  From the North Shore Journal, a useful aggregation of statements from NY, NJ and VA about their plans to deal with Hurricane Sandy’s impact on Election Day.   H/T to Chuck Simmins.

MINNESOTA NOW IN PLAY? Romney, Obama In Statistical Tie.

SCARY: Some of the best Halloween costumes are the simplest.

NY POST FIRES FULL BATTERY AT OBAMA: On the fiscal cliff, Kyle Smith on his lack of a second-term agenda, Peggy Noonan on his debates and negotiations, Amir Taheri on how he lost the Middle East, John Bolton on that Nobel Peace Prize, Matt Welch on his lies, Edward Klein on his amateur governance, Michael Tanner on the cost of ObamaCare, John Podhoretz on his radical agenda, Amity Shlaes on his bad economic choices.  Apparently Michelle Obama could not be reached for a post on his bad eating habits, or Bo for one on how he’s an inadequate petter.  But even without those these op-eds make Obama a demolished man.

NOPE, IT WAS A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP, THEN VEGAS, BABY! Gingrich: Obama Cancels Campaign Trips Due to Hurricane, Didn’t Cancel Them Over Benghazi.

OBAMA’S PREGNANCY? Listen to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s hickenblooper (recorded very roughly, by me, from this morning’s “Meet the Press”).

IT’S NOT JUST THE DES MOINES REGISTER: All four major Iowa newspapers have now endorsed @MittRomney.

GAME CHANGER: DES MOINES REGISTER ENDORSES ROMNEY:  The editors apparently duked it out but concluded:

The Register’s editorial board, as it should, had a vigorous debate over this endorsement. Our discussion repeatedly circled back to the nation’s single most important challenge: pulling the economy out of the doldrums, getting more Americans back in the workforce in meaningful jobs with promising futures, and getting the federal government on a track to balance the budget in a bipartisan manner that the country demands.

Which candidate could forge the compromises in Congress to achieve these goals? When the question is framed in those terms, Mitt Romney emerges the stronger candidate.

After the endorsement, a transcript of the President’s discussion with the Des Moines Register editors was released.  Read it for yourself, but one word came to mind when I read it:  vacuous.

ROMNEY ERASES OBAMA LEAD IN OHIO:  The latest polls conducted by Ohio newspapers shows Romney surging in Ohio, erasing a previous 5-point deficit (in late September) to now be in a 49-49 tie.  A good indicator of how the tie may break:  The sample was D+3, and Romney leads 51-46 on the issue of the economy.

IN THE MAIL: From Tom Kratman, Countdown: M Day.

BEHIND THE TIMES: Madonna tells concert-goers in La., Texas ‘vote for Obama’; Fans report boos, walk-outs.

“ROMNEY HAS PRETTY MUCH NAILED DOWN FLORIDA,” says Mason-Dixon’s pollster.

Or to put it another way:

So long, Florida: twitter.com/BarackObama/st…

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 25, 2012

ROGER KIMBALL: Weather Worries. “We live about 150 feet from Long Island Sound. My worry is that, over the next couple of days, that distance is going to shrink to zero.”

UPDATE: Latest Sandy update from Brendan Loy. “If you’re in an impacted region, today is your last day to prepare. By tonight, weather conditions will already be deteriorating. So, as the weather service always says at times like these, ‘Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion.’ (Preparedness links can be found at the bottom of this post.) . . . DO NOT STAY PUT, IGNORING EVACUATION ORDERS, SIMPLY BECAUSE YOUR HOME WAS FINE IN SOME PREVIOUS STORM.”

Plus: Is Bloomberg pulling a Nagin?

‘RACINE TEA PARTY FIRES UP THE FAITHFUL:’ That’s nice, but underneath that dull-as-dishwater headline is this detail, buried four paragraphs into the article:

Before the event could get under way, though, organizers say a truck affixed with “Obama” stickers drove through the parking lot and dumped quantities of nails.

“We went outside and picked up what we could,” said Lou D’Abbraccio, holding a cup filled with nails. “But this was just wrong.”

Lora Halberstadt, a Tea party member, said the group did call the Racine Police Department to file a report.

Patch asked two RPD officers outside the venue if they could confirm the report, but they only said they couldn’t comment about a truck. We have a message into the RPD and we will update this story when we hear back from them.

So why does it take Matt Drudge to highlight that aspect – “Large Amounts Of Nails Dumped In Parking Lot At Tea Party Rally…” – as he blurbs at the Drudge Report, rather than the paper that originated the story?

RELATED: So, let’s talk about how this over-enthusiastic Obama vandal messed up his message.

A UNION SHOWDOWN IN MICHIGAN:

As election season heads into the home stretch, all eyes are on the presidential race. But while Obama and Romney are hogging the spotlight, another very important fight over labor unions is brewing in Michigan. We reported last month that Michigan’s unions scored an important victory when a measure enshrining collective-bargaining rights and outlawing right-to-work legislation was allowed on the ballot. . . .

If the bill passes, this would indeed be a major victory for a union movement that has seen precious few of them in the past few years. Midwestern states like Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan were once the heart of America’s labor movement, but many of these states have been leading the charge against collective bargaining since 2010.

But the unions’ hope that a victory in Michigan will breathe new life into their movement may be misplaced. Michigan’s large manufacturing and union history make it perhaps the most favorable environment for union-friendly legislation in the country. If unions can barely eke out a victory there, it does not bode well for their chances elsewhere. And with state and local finances in dismal shape in union-heavy blue states, desperate politicians are unlikely to have much sympathy for union demands as they try to put their house in order.

With the national climate turning against them, the battle in Michigan is looking more like a last-ditch stand than a turning point for public-sector unions.

It won’t do much for Michigan’s economy if it passes.

DOES I.R.S. STAND FOR Income Redistribution Service?

AT AMAZON, new out on DVD and Blu-Ray.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: VA chief in Las Vegas questioned in Berkley ethics probe. “The top official for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Southern Nevada has been questioned by the House Ethics Committee in its investigation of allegations that Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., used her office to boost her husband’s medical practice.”

MARK PERRY: Access to the good life for low-income Americans comes from the ‘miracle of the marketplace,’ especially manufacturing.

What explains the fact that “access to the good life” has increased so significantly over time for low-income Americans? One main reason is the “miracle of the marketplace,” especially the miracle in the manufacturing sector. Thanks to significant advances in technology and gains in worker productivity, the costs of most manufactured goods have consistently declined year after year, making goods produced in our factories ever more affordable relative to our income, especially for low-income households. Greater global access to consumer products like low-cost clothing from abroad has also contributed to the increased affordability of manufactured goods for Americans.

The chart above illustrates the increasing affordability of manufactured goods over time. As a share of disposable personal income, spending on life’s “basics”: food, motor vehicles, clothing and footwear, and household furnishing and equipment, has declined from more than 40% of disposable income in 1950 to about only 15% in recent years. Whereas almost 40 out of every 100 dollars of disposable income were spent on household “basics” from the manufacturing sector in 1950, only about $15 of every $100 of income is spent for those “basics” today. The increased affordability of “food, clothing, transportation, and household items” means that even low-income households now have greater access to the “good life” than at any time in history, an often-overlooked achievement in all of the discussions on income inequality, stagnating income, and the supposed decline of the middle class.

That’s fine, until we encounter a run of “bad luck.”

WELL, THAT’S A RELIEF: Gut Bacteria Cocktail May End Need for Fecal Transplants.

ANALOGY: Legal Education and the U.S. Steel Industry circa 1981?

ANOTHER LENA DUNHAM PARODY AD.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Benghazi attack: Urgent call for military help ‘was denied by chain of command.’

BYRON YORK: How Team Romney Sees The Polls.

EARTHQUAKE: “A magnitude-7.7 earthquake has struck off the coast of western Canada and a tsunami warning has been issued. There are no immediate reports of damage.”

FORWARD:  It’s our only hope!  It’s 3 a.m.  Do you know where your government is?

AND THE BEST WAY TO SAVE YOUR LIFE IS TO DRINK CYANIDE: Meet the fiscal cliff-divers, who think jumping off could be our best bet.  (I don’t think “best” means what you think it means.)

SAY NO: Will Obama’s Benghazi Cover-up Succeed?

It might be time for folk to call or write their local news outlets with questions about “what happened in Benghazi September 11?” and “why aren’t you more fully reporting the September 11 events in Benghazi?” — that way we can help ensure the cover-up does not succeed.

Remember, no one died in Watergate.

PIN PRICK TO THE EDUCATION BUBBLE: Florida Tries Higher Ed Experiment.   Well, at least they are aware of it now.  However, as the mother of two college students, something must be done about the tuition.

#BENGHAZI: “The stunning part of the story is that Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty killed 60 of the attacking force. Once the compound was overrun, the attackers were incensed to discover that just two men had inflicted so much death and destruction.” Just think how much could have been accomplished if they’d had the support of their Commander-in-Chief.

CHANGE: Michael Barone predicts a Romney win.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: 8 Women Who Auctioned Off Their Virginity.

LOW INFORMATION VOTERS: Question for Obama supporters: What do you think of Mitt Romney’s “kill list?”

AT AMAZON, the Fall Outerwear sale. Winter is coming. (Bumped).

HEH! *AM I ALLOWED TO DO HEH?*: Snake on a plane! Glasgow airport gets a surprise.