ZOGBY: MCCAIN MOVES INTO LEAD 48-47 IN ONE DAY POLLING.

This can't be right.

Spencerblog daughter, 15, went down to the Phillies parade with serveral classmates from Strath Haven High School.

They all got excused from their second two blocks of class to attend. They got a ride to the Wallingford train station and found that the trains had stopped running.

So she called her father to see if he could take her and four friends somewhere near the city so they could be part of the celebration.

Of course, he did.

Having chided Chester Upland for closing down the district so students could go to a political rally for Barack Obama, readers deserve an explanation for this apparent hypocrisy.

Here it is:

It is one thing to TOLERATE youthful exuberance and allow a bunch of teenagers to skip some school to take part in a city-wide celebration. It is another for grown-ups to close down a school system so children can take part in a partisan political rally.

So there.

Now, excuse me while I listen to Harry Kalas introduce Brad Lidge.

UPDATE: Ooooh, Chase said a bad word!

Paul Reyburn, the owner of Reyburn's Tavern in Chadds Ford died Wednesday. He was still 100 years and six months old.

My columns on Reyburn can be found here and here.

Erica Jong predicts that if Obama doesn't win, "blood will run in the streets."

He can only unite us if he wins.

When a California couple hang Sarah Palin in effigy at their home, it's art.

When two students in Kentucky do the same thing with an image of Barack Obama, it's a crime.

More on Obama's failure to disclose "small" contributors to his campaign.

We can't. It's too hard.

Not for Slate, it wasn't.

Check out this guy. He's not your typical black voter.

The Obama campaign still hasn't corrected it's ad that claims his tax plan is supported by the conservative Heritage Foundation. (I saw it again during the World Series.)

Here's what the actual author of the study has to say about it.

Stuart Taylor wonders if Obama is elected, which Obama will we get: The thoughtful centrist or the liberal ideologue?

Be damned if I know.

But Taylor prefers the thoughtful centrist.

DUBAI (Reuters) - An al Qaeda leader has called for President George W. Bush and the Republicans to be "humiliated," without endorsing a party in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, according to an Internet video posting.

"O God, humiliate Bush and his party, O Lord of the Worlds, degrade and defy him," Abu Yahya al-Libi said at the end of sermon marking the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, in a video posted on the Internet.

Who are the terrorists rooting for then?

Historian Paul Johnson laments the future of America and other corrupted western societies and sees an emerging China and India.

Money Q:

"Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was sneered at for stressing the Victorian virtues of industry and thrift. But she was right. These emergent Asian professionals have precisely those virtues, which is why they're moving forward and will eventually conquer the world--not by force but by hard work, intelligence and skill.

"We are traveling along the high road to incompetence and poverty, led by a farcical coalition of fashionably liberal academics on the make, assorted eco-crackpots and media wiseacres. This strain of liberalism is highly infectious. The Indians and Chinese have yet to be infected. They're still healthy, hard at work and going places, full speed ahead."

He could be right.

AP: Obama was less than up front about the budget realities the next president will face.

No kidding.

The backlash to his infomercial probably won't be enough to sink him but it was a dumb campaign move.

The sexually androgynous Grace Jones "hates" Sarah Palin.

Good.

Nice outfit, by the way.

In Ohio, Big Brother investigates Joe the Plumber.

Make that Big Sister, a maxxed-out Obama donator and state bureaucrat.

UPDATE: Joe the Soldier explains to Sen. Obama the Iraq War was not a mistake. Quick, this man needs to be investigated.

Well, that worked out pretty well, didn't it?

After a two-day delay, not only did the Phillies win Game 5 to take the World Series and become World Champions, they did it in excellent and exciting fashion.

They won it with timely hitting, terrific fielding and excellent pitching.

Jeff Jenkins' lead-off double. Pedro Feliz' clutch single. Pat Burrell's near-homer. Chase Utley's brilliant fake to first and throw home.

Even the pitch Ryan Madsen threw to Rocco Baldelli for the homerun was a good pitch. How can you not admire the way Rocco pulled his hands in and got such good wood on it?

J.C. Romero and then the Save Machine, Brad Lidge.

The Rays, bless their hearts, kept it exciting right down to the last out.

How much more baseball drama could one city take?

The longest game in World Series history and the Phillies won it to become World Champs.

Scott Johnson explains how the Obama campaign allows illegal campaign contributions by not using the same security features on credit donations that the McCain campaign and every retailer in American uses.

Pretty interesting stuff.

Democrats, as always, look away.

Pete Hegseth calls them Pennsylvania's "M&M brothers" and says they gotta' go.

UPDATE: And what about Joe? Does he gotta' go, too?

Here's an uplifting story about race in America.

Meet Mr. Shabazz.

UPDATE: And the white supremacists that hate him

It's not as bad as calling North Carolina Democratic Congressman Heath Shuler, Keith Shuler, as Joe Sestak did this morning in his debate with Craig Williams but... check this out.

At least Obama didn't refer to her as "My good friend, Sneezie."

Spencerblog went the congressional debate between Rep. Joe Sestak and Republican challenger Craig Williams at Swarthmore College.

It was supposed to start at 10 a.m. and I got there at about 10:10. The only seat open as I walked in was in the front row, between an old gentlemen in a fedora and Williams campaign guy, John McNichol Jr.

There are a lot of Joes in this year's political season. Joe Biden, Joe Sestak, Joe Six-Pack and Joe the Plumber.

When it comes to making gaffes, Biden isn't the only Joe in the race.

(Read the rest in the comment section.)

What's this? Rasmussen has McCain down just 3 points. And Gallup has him down just 2.

What's going on?

It looks like the Obama campaign is taking Spencerblog's advice. (OK, maybe it's just a coincidence.) But Joe Biden is reportedly having a "muzzle" put on him.

Spencerblog never said Obama was dumb.

If that doesn't work, try a stun gun.

UPDATE: Time has the story too: "Hidin' Biden."

Cute. But doesn't he look a little lonely?

Republican chant: Free Joe Biden! Free Joe Biden!

Hey, the MSM is starting to care that Obama is accepting untraceable donations.

George Newman makes the "market's" case, against Obama and McCain.

But mostly Obama.

For example:

- Have you thought of a Secretary of the newly established Department of Equal Opportunity for Women mandating "comparable worth" pay practices for every company doing any business with government at any level -- where any residual gap between the average pay of men and women is an eo ipso violation? Have you thought about what this would do to administrative and legal costs, hiring practices, productivity and wage bills? The market now has.

As the debate continues on what goof-ball MLB Commissioner Bud Selig should have done, could of done, would have done if he didn't hate the Phillies so much, Game 5 of the World Series resumes tonight, with the Phils in the catbird seat.

They have 12 outs to Tampa Bay's 9. They have a better bullpen, rested and ready to go, and a 3-1 lead in games, which means the Rays' backs are to the wall.

The weather delay has also made it possible for Cole Hamels, the best pitcher in baseball, to be available for a possible game 7, perish the thought. (Not to start - why would you replace Blanton after his outing Sunday? - but available.

Granted, bad weather conditions favor the team at bat and Tampa Bay got the chance to hit in those conditions one more half-inning than the home team, Monday night. They used that advantage to tie the game. And then it was called. Whatever.

The argument that the weather conditions were the same in the top half of the 6th as they would have been in the bottom half so the Phillies should have been allowed to bat is disingenuous. It was the condition of the field that mattered and it was steadily getting worse.

Selig was certainly right about one thing: There was no way the Phillies or any team, should win the World Series in anything but a 9-inning game.

Everyone except the fans and the FOX broadcast team were made aware of that decision BEFORE the game, Selig says. The GMs from both teams and presumably their managers. It would have been much smarter for MLB to have informed the broadcasters of that decision so fans could have been kept posted too.

All that said, history will be made tonight. Unless it pours rain or snows or giant meteor hits the earth, the longest game in World Series history will resume. This is the stuff of which legends are made.

Go Phils.

UPDATE: Remember the game will start at 8:37 p.m., 18 minutes late, thanks to Barack Obama's very important political infomercial.

UPDATE II: And one more thing, if the Phillies blow this series they will deserved to have lost it. Any Selig-blaming will be properly seen as the lamentations of a bunch of crybabies.

Joe Biden blurts out the truth on taxes.

Warning to moderates and centrists who think Obama will govern that way.

WaPo's Ruth Marcus:

What evidence is there that a President Obama would govern differently than candidate Obama campaigned? Would a President Obama press policies -- on teacher accountability, on climate change, on trade -- that discomfit Democratic Party interest groups? Does he have the spine to stand up to the inevitably overreaching demands of congressional Democrats? Does he have some magical, Republican-whisperer ability to quell a political opposition that will be determined from Day One to frustrate his program and regain power?

Read the whole thing

Hmmm, what does for Elaine Lafferty, former Ms. magazine editor and a Democrat know about Sarah Palin that most of her brilliant, cosmopolitan detractors don't?

Well, a lot.

For one thing, she's actually met her.

Money Q:

Palin asks questions, and probes linkages and logic that bring to mind a quirky law professor I once had. Palin is more than a “quick study”; I'd heard rumors around the campaign of her photographic memory and, frankly, I watched it in action. She sees. She processes. She questions, and only then, she acts. What is often called her “confidence” is actually a rarity in national politics: I saw a woman who knows exactly who she is.

Read the whole thing. But note when Lafferty refers to Title IV, I think she means Title IX.

When the French are calling you "utterly immature" you know you're in trouble.

Actually, YOU don't. But WE should.

Oops.

The conservative Heritage Foundation is NOT supporting the Obama tax plan, as claimed in an ad by the Obama campaign.

The foundation has asked the campaign to take down the ad. Have they? Will they? Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Some 24 hours later, the ad is still up to misinform voters.

Widener student Chris Barrett has posted this video of a lightning strike during Obama's campaign speech in Chester today.

It was linked to by the Drudge Report. Congratulations Chris.

(Watch for right-wing jokes about how God is losing his aim.)

Someone has asked for a Richard Joseph update.

He's the Southeast Delco educator who is on trial in the district for his job. There was another hearing last night, at which he finally got to testify.

I just got finished writing about him for my print column for tomorrow.

Here's a taste:

While the Phillies and the Rays were sloshing through the mud at Citizens Bank Park Monday night another sort of dirty game was being played in Southeast Delco.

Educator Rich Joseph was on trial for the potentially career-ending crime of "inappropriately touching" two students.

Last night, before another sad performance by one of his accusers, an 8th grader whose story has changed so many times you need a program to keep up with them, Superintendent Trudy Bennett incredibly tried to add an additional charge to the list against Joseph.

What that charge is remains unclear because it was presented in a sealed envelope by Mike Levin, the attorney serving as Superintendent Trudie Bennett's prosecutor in the case.

But district Solicitor Bob DiOrio, who is playing the part of hearing judge, denied Bennett's and Levin's attempt to have the new charge considered by a jury of school board members.

It's a simple matter of "fairness," said DiOrio.

It was nice to see some concern for that quaint concept here in Southeast Delco.

Read the rest tomorrow.

Reading all the anger directed at Commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball for not postponing last's night's game before it started is becoming a little tiresome. Under the circumstances, what was done was exactly right.

First, the idea of postponing a game based on forecast, please. How many forecasts have our weather geniuses gotten wrong in the last 30 years? How many times have we been warned about the Storm of the Century only to have a couple of inches of snow fall?

The game is scheduled, it's not pouring and the field is playable, you start the game.

Second, the rule that a game becomes official after four innings is a stupid one, especially in the playoffs or World Series.

The game was stopped in the 6th inning after the Rays scored the tying run. Selig says he already decided that if the game had to be stopped it would be a suspended game no matter what the score. That was the right decision.

No team, NO TEAM, should win the World Series without playing a full 9-inning game. Such a win would be tainted throughout history.

Mark my words, MLB will officially change the 5-inning rule for the World Series by next season.

As for the poor fans, please! These are the same Philly fans who can turn out in the snow for Eagles games. They can listen to a weather forecast and dress appropriately or leave for dryer and warmer climes. It is not up to MLB to make sure fan never suffer a moment's discomfort. Suffering is what being a fan is all about. Sitting through a game in such terrible conditions has story value. Living to tell the tale to fellow fans is, after the fact, very cool.

So, if the field is playable, play ball. If it is not, wait until it is and then finish the damn game. Case closed.

If Bill Ayers and his wife had succeeded during their Weather Underground days.

FBI informant Larry Grathwohl:

I asked, “Well what is going to happen to those people we can’t reeducate, that are diehard capitalists?” And the reply was that they’d have to be eliminated.

And when I pursued this further, they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers.

And when I say “eliminate,” I mean “kill.”

Twenty-five million people.

I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people.

"And they were dead serious."

As Ayers said in 2001, about his days as a revolutionary, "We didn't do enough."

The Chester Upland School District is canceling all classes tomorrow so that students, teachers and administrators can attend a political rally for Barack Obama at Widener University.

Brilliant.

Partisan politics over books. There's a lesson for Chester's children.

UPDATE: Springfield GOP leader Mike Puppio called me and said he was issuing the following press release:

"The closing of the entire Chester Upland School District for a campaign rally that is not even on District facilities is outrageous and indicative of what an Obama administration would hold for the taxpayers of Delaware County.

"Unfortunately this district is one of the most troubled in the state. What are the direct costs for this day off in terms of teachers and staff? What are the indirect costs, such as parents who have to take off from work to care for their children or have to find child care?"

"This is a disgraceful misuse of taxpayer dollars. Is this an example of the redistribution of wealth that Obama is talking about? Who is paying for this? The answer to that question is every hard working tax payer in Pennsylvania since the district is distressed and under the control of the state."

There's more but you get the picture.

The dismissal hearing in Southeast Delco for accused child-hugger Rich Joseph is a go for tonight. It's starts at 6 p.m. at the Education Center on Hook Road.

Joseph, a 30-year education veteran with a spotless record, has been dubiously charged with kissing and hugging a couple of young girls at the Darby Towship School.

He has vehemently denied the charges and has since been offered his job back, back pay and benefits, but his attorney's fees and the clearing of charges from his record.

He will finally get the chance to testify in his own defense tonight. I'll be there and hoping the hearing doesn't take more than 2 hours and 22 minutes.

It is a public hearing and the public is welcome, especially by Joseph. If you go I'll see you there.

Furious that a local newswoman asked Joe Biden a series of tough questions including one about ACORN that caused the VP candidate to brazenly lie about the Obama campaign's involvement with the crooked left-wing group, the campaign cancelled an interview that was scheduled between his wife, Jill, and the same newswoman.

Good thing there is only a week until Election Day. If the campaign went any longer, Joe Biden's head might explode.

He is becoming increasingly erratic, telling the inconvenient truth about Obama's inexperience and how our enemies will test the neophyte, while trying to hide the truth about his embarrassing links to radical left-wing groups and their crude attempts at voter fraud.

It might be wise for the Obama folks to have the VP candidate sit out the last few days of the campaign. They don't need any more sort of October surprises that seem to perpetually spring from Joe Biden's mouth.

Barack Obama was publicly talking about redistributing the wealth of Americans as far as 2001. Check out this radio interview.

Interestingly, he points out that the judicial system is not the best branch of government to do this as a matter of constitutionality. It's the legislative bodies that should do it, helped along by the executive branches.

He's exactly right about this. Such redistributive policies should be voted on democratically, not handed down by unelected judges.

To the extent, that America votes for candidates who run for office on platforms to take money from the rich (a minority) and give it to "the middle class" and the poor (the majority), more and more wealth will be "legally" taken from one group and given to another.

For the most part, for most of the country's history a majority of American - rich and poor - have rejected such policies. Maybe with the economic meltdown Americans will be more open to such arguments in the near future.

Of course, it would be silly to think Obama wouldn't appoint Supreme Court justices who wouldn't be very sympathetic to the same ideals of reparative and redistributive justice that animate his own politics.

If he is elected, America will have a liberal house, probably a liberal senate, executive branch and to the extent they he can arrange it, a new liberal Supreme Court and federal court system.

It will be very interesting to see what America looks like in four years. No doubt, liberals will love what they see: a more dependent and needy populace and a more activist, doting and demanding federal government to help take care of our wants and needs.

What do Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and Bill Ayers have in common? They all used the same credit card to donate to the Obama campaign.

Other donors: Della Ware, Joe Plumber, Idiot Savant, Ima BadDonation (with a Canadian bank card) and Fake Donor.

Scott Johnson has the story.

Angry Joe Biden says that not a single penny, NOT A SINGLE PENNY has gone from the Obama Campaign to the crooked get-out-the-vote organization ACORN.

Really Joe? Really?

So then why is Obama campaign amending its campaign finance reports to the tune of $800,000?

Is Joe being kept in the dark or is he just dissembling as usual?

I Am Bill the Terrorist

Exploiting the economic crisis for political advantage.

Money Q:

People always underestimate how bad things can get. So advised a guy who made millions as a short seller in the 1980s. His insight certainly is borne out in the continuing market selloff -- and one reason is the incentive for political actions that actually make things worse.

Raymond Moley, a New Dealer who ended up dissenting from the Roosevelt administration, voiced a well-founded fear that FDR and his brain trust were more interested in exploiting the crisis to expand their political majorities and centralize power than in getting the economy growing again.

Like that McCain nut who claimed to have been assaulted, this has to be a hoax too. Obama supporters would never do something like this.

Ed Rendell vs. Republicans, doctors and patients

I remember when liberals use to exaggerate the number of homeless people in America. Now they exaggerate the number voters they register.

Barack Obama as Jimmy Carter.

Scarily plausible.

How come Walter Mondale didn't warn the country how our enemies would test Carter?

Texas Bumper Sticker:

"I'll keep my freedom, my guns and my money. You can keep THE CHANGE."

Hat tip: Janet Lidle

Is Obama's lead in the polls causing a greater lack of confidence in the financial markets among investors. Charles Gasparino thinks so.

His policies are a blend of Herbert Hoover's and Jimmy Carter's.

Maybe it will be a while before anyone but left-wingers sing "Happy Days are Here Again."

Peter Robinson explains Thomas Sowell who explains "the unconstrained vision" of Barack Obama and his fellow elitists.

(Spencerblog admires the work of David Mamet and it's cool to see he's such an admirer of the Sowell man.)

Rich Lowry on the false moderation of Barack Obama:

"If elected, Obama will return to Washington with expanded and emboldened liberal majorities in both the Senate and the House. Congress was the un-doing of his two Democratic forebears. Carter was stiff-necked with a Democratic Congress, and that made it nearly impossible for him to govern; Clinton accommodated his Democratic Congress in 1993-94, and it pulled him to the left to devastating effect in the 1994 congressional elections.

"For a President Obama, moderation could no longer be merely a pose that represents the path of political least resistance; he’d have to fight for it every day with partisan colleagues who are older and tougher than he is."

Sounds about right.

Spencerblog doesn't always agree with Pat Buchanan but he's right when he writes this:

"Can one imagine "Saturday Night Live" doing weekly send-ups of Michelle Obama and her "I've never been proud" of my country, this "just downright mean" America, using a black comedienne to mimic and mock her voice and accent?

"Saturday Night Live" would be facing hate crime charges."

More on the Le Gaffe Machine and just look at the veins popping out his head.

Erratic? Out of Touch? Hezbollah out of Lebanon? Good thing he's only running to be Vice President.

There are crimes and there are crimes.

Lemuel Payne is charged with fleeing the scene of an accident and trying to cover-up the evidence of his involvement. In so doing, if guilty, he has caused greater pain to the family of Faith Sinclair Ferrell, the victim in the case.

If convicted that should be taken into strong account during sentencing.

If there is any evidence that Payne was driving under the influence and that was the reason he fled, that too should be taken into account at sentencing.

There is, as far as I know, no evidence that anyone set out to intentionally kill anyone, which makes this essentially a tragic accident. That it evolved into a serious crime was the result of poor - maybe panicked - decisions made by the driver of the car.

But the fleeing could also be a rational decision made by the driver knowing he was under the influence and that he would be charged with vehicular homicide if caught sooner, rather than later. We'll have to see the evidence at trial.

In the meantime, at least Faith's family can have the sad satisfaction that a suspect has finally been charged and the gears of justice are grinding forward.

The public thinks the media is in the tank for Obama.

No comment.

UPDATE: Victor Davis Hanson has more proof.

Money Q:

I thought by now the You-tubed exchange of a Congressional Finance Committee hearing between the pompous Harvard Law School graduate Barney Frank and the conniving Harvard Law School graduate Franklin Raines — at the proverbial moment of conception of the financial meltdown — would have put to rest the notion that graduation from law school was any proof of either wisdom or morality.

And this:

Had Gov. Sarah Palin just been a mother of a single child at Vassar rather than of five in Alaska, married to a novelist rather than a snow-machiner, an advocate of pro-choice, who shot pictures of Alaskan ferns rather than shot moose — feminists would have hailed her as a principled kindred soul, and trumpeted her struggles against Alaskan male grandees.

A union leader who wants congress to support legislation that takes the secret ballot away from workers in union votes.

Not even George McGovern supports Labor's "check card" legislation. But this year's Dem candidates do as a payback for Big Labor's support of their candidates.

Kimberly Strassel has more on the Chamber of Commerce's stepped up involvement in politics this year.

UPDATE: Of course, Obama is for it because Big Labor is for it.

Krauthammer makes the case for McCain and very well too.

Our brilliant media and political elite have declared Sarah Palin a moron. Dan Henninger seems to think it's the other way around.

The "racists" revenge?

Obama's winning. Networks losing.

Pushing back the start time of the World Series for a political infomercial?

Now, THAT'S Un-American!

Democrats blame Bush.

Neat story about Phillies fan and U.S. Marine Stephen McGinnis hoping to watch tonight's World Series Game 1 while stationed in Iraq. (Local time for the game 3 a.m.)

The Springfield native is a Philadelphia sports fan through and through.

Money Q:

“I have seen every single team make it to the finals and lose,” he said. “I have always had this sinking feeling that they will finally win a championship while I am in Iraq."

Hey Mac, like the war in Iraq itself, it stinks. But better to win it than lose it, right?

And now, the auto industry bailout.

Is there a single business in America the federal government will not got into over the next four years?

Mickey Kaus on the Obama-Ayers connection: (keep scrolling down)

"I still think it's creepy the way Ayers and Dohrn are accepted in Chicago, and Obama's acceptance is part of that creepiness."

Here's Obama when he was 8 months old and Bill "Bobo" Ayers.

(OK, so the kid's white, just go with it.)

Thomas Frank, last seen defending his "friend" unrepentant terrorist and radical William Ayers takes on Joe the Plumber and the Republican lie machine.

Money Q:

"This is not a good time for market-based authenticity, however. It now seems that those real, natural Americans who make markets go also cook the books, and cheat the shareholders, and hire lobbyists to get their way in Washington. They invent incomprehensible financial instruments and have now sent us into a crisis that none of them has any idea how to solve."

Would that be evil Republicans like Andrew "So Long, Suckers!" Lahde who made $80 million while calling his own investors "idiots?" But wait Andrew is a George Soros Democrat.

And how about Herb and Marion Sandler? They made $24 billion in the sub prime mortgage business, cleverly selling out to Wachovia before the crash. But wait, they're good progressive leftists too, donating millions to all manner of liberal causes and politicians. They were even the subject of a Saturday Night Live skit, scoffed at by the even-handed haters at SNL as "People Who Should Be Shot."

Frank makes no mention of the Democrats who headed up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who hired those horrible lobbyists to lobby their Democratic and Republican friends in Congress. He makes no mention of the millions Clintonistas Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick grabbed at Fannie and Freddie while employing the same cooked books accounting practices that landed Enron executives in jail.

So maybe it wasn't just evil Republicans who caused the sub prime mess. But in Frank's "reality-based" community it was.

He was a lot more convincing writing about Bill Ayers and what a wonderful human being he is.

One down, three to go.

Man shoplifts deodorant. Pulls BB gun. Arrested. Couldn't find the aisle with the Odor Eaters.

You're a pretty stupid congressman if: You keep referring to your constituents as racists and rednecks.

According to the headline on Sharon Begley's column in Newsweek, "Math is Hard, said Barbie."

Actually, Barbie said, "Math class is tough." I remember because I wrote about Teen Talk Barbie at the time and well remember the furor she caused by offending the delicate sensibilities of some feminists.

Barbie was recalled by her maker (Mattel) and her "Math class is tough" lament was deep-sixed, so as not to traumatize young girls from learning math.

In her column, Begley seeks to dispel the myth that there is a genetic difference between the aptitudes of boys and girls.

"If I ever again hear the word "hard-wired" used to describe anything other than an electrical system—the human brain, for instance—I'm going to scream."

Isn't that just like a girl? (I'm kidding, but only sort of.)

The last woman to practically lose it over this debate was MIT professor Nancy Hopkins after she heard Harvard president Lawrence Summers opine that it is possible that maybe, just maybe, there is difference between the sexes when it comes aptitudes for science.

What Hopkins almost lost was consciousness or her lunch. At least that's what she told the Boston Globe. She had to leave the lecture because she was so upset by what Summers said, she would have "either blacked out or thrown up."

Summers was, of course, fired for being such an insensitive lout, a woman was given his job and all was made right with the world.

Which brings us to Begley. She seems to be suggesting that when it comes to math, there is no difference between boys' and girls' aptitudes. Whatever the differences in test scores they can be explained by social and environmental factors.

She notes, interestingly, that girls have significantly closed the math gap in the last 25 years. And that culture and environment matters when it comes to girls pursuing their math talents as, no doubt, it does.

But who seriously argues that today's public school or private school math teachers discourage girls who are obviously talented in math from pursuing a career in the field. Today's American public schools are bastions of gender egalitarianism.

Math and science teachers love to teach anyone - boy or girl - who has an interest and talent in the field. It's girls and women who are self-selecting themselves out of the hard sciences and math and into other fields of study.

Despite what Begley claims, there are plenty of studies that recognize there is a difference between boys and girls' brains. (Here's just one.)

A just society's goal ought not to demand or expect parity between the sexes in whatever field or job. Our schools ought to treat every student male and female, as an individual and allow them the opportunity to develop their own particular interests and talents. So what if we live in a society where more men go into physics than women? So what if more women want to become elementary school teachers than men? So what if more men are construction workers and more women are administrative assistants and H.R. directors.

Is that any reason to scream, pass out or throw up? If you think it is, you won't like this joke:

Q: How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: That's not funny!

The latest rage in Switzerland: Plant dignity.

A friend tells me the fad has come to Ohio, where ACORN workers are registering anything and everything "larger than an amoeba" to vote.

UPDATE: A dead goldfish is is offered the opportunity to vote in Illinois. Now that's death with dignity.

More on the Media v. Joe the Plumber.

Money Q:

"It would be nice if the media at least tried to understand this point.

"Instead, they attacked and belittled a citizen who asked a candidate a question. They think he's stupid or a liar for not understanding that a promised check from a President Obama is more valuable than some pipe dream about future success."

Obama's colleague Richard Epstein articulates his fears of an Obama presidency.

Money Q:

"Put otherwise, Obama's vague calls for change that "you can believe in" are, to my thinking, wholly retrograde in their implications. At heart, he is an unreconstructed New Dealer who can see, and articulate, both sides on every question--but only as a prelude to championing the old corporatist agenda with a vengeance."

Read it all.

Check out Mike Concannon. Smart guy.

Joe "Gaffe Machine" Biden warns his fellow Americans that if they elect Barack Obama our enemies will manufacture a crisis to test the most inexperienced president in our history.

Hmmm. Isn't that a pretty good reason to vote for the candidate our enemies will be less likely to "test?"

Joe the Hair Plugger is the gift that keeps on giving.

Iranian agents are detained in Iraq. It's Bush's fault. If only he would sit down and talk to Ahmadinejad things like this wouldn't happen.

When Obama's president the Iranians will come to see the light. Angry Ayatollahs will no longer refer to America as "The Great Satan." We will become known as "The Great Angel" thanks to the clearly visible halo over President Obama's head.

Hey, look who's back. The one and only Catharine MacKinnon.

Don't remember her? She's the radical feminist law professor who believes that all sex between men and women is rape, even between husbands and wives.

Back in the 1990s she caught the ear of Sen. Joe Biden which led to the asinine Violence Against Women Act, which proclaimed violence against women wasn't just a crime it was a civil rights violation.

It asserted that violence against women committed by men was mostly driven by anti-female gender animus. Not passion. Not jealousy. Not profit. Not drunkeness. Anti-female animus.

Fortunately for the cause of justice, that portion of the law was overturned by the Supreme Court. Not even Sandra Day O'Connor could support a law that treated women as a class of victims with men as their institutional oppressors.

Apparently, with Obama ready to take over the presidency and liberals ready to make even greater gains in Congress, victim-feminists like MacKinnon feel safe enough to venture out of the academy (University of Michigan) and once again take their rightful place in political society. That would be in lecturing others and crafting legislation to protect women who are too dumb to know they are hated, victimized, and oppressed by the average American male.

UPDATE: (More)

"Gender justice calls for far more than the conventional equality approach that treats likes alike."

Got that? So writes, Professor MacKinnon. Out with "conventional equality," that is, equal justice under the law, and in with "Gender Justice."

What would Gender Justice look like.

First, judges have to be allowed to recognize that women are second-class citizens, born to be victimized and so need special protections against the scourge known as men. Once that is understood, everything else falls beautifully into place. Men accused of rape and found not guilty in state court, can be prosecuted in federal court for allegedly violating the civil rights of their accuser. This is what the Supreme Court threw out of VAWA. Time to bring it back, according to MacKinnon. And Obama's just the liberal kind of guy to put the sort of justices on the Supreme Court willing to do so.

Happy Days are here again.

If Obama is elected here comes a worse New Deal.

The Craig Williams campaign says Joe Sestak spent more than $637,433 of taxpayer money in franking privileges and mass printings. Compared to fellow Democratic congressman Bob Brady who spent $1,600.

Your tax dollars at work, letting you know what a great job Joe Sestak is doing.

Bob Brady ought to be ashamed of himself for keeping his constituents in the dark about how hard he works. Ditto Chaka Fattah, who at $1,440, spent even less.

UPDATE: Just got out of a meeting with Congressman Sestak. I asked him about this. He said "One of the largest responsibilities I have is communicating" with constituents.
Apparently it's also one of his most expensive.

"If I can communicate and explain what we're trying to do... It's a real sincere reaching out and trying to help."

Sestak earnestly bemoaned the tone in Washington and blamed it for the public's lack of respect and Congress.

He said the "most valuable commodity you have, the most precious, as an elected official is credibility. So that when a crisis happens people believe" what you're saying.

Wow! He didn't blink when I suggested that Congress lacks any and all credibility as evidenced by its record low approval rating. He smilingly pointed out that the media has an even lower approval rating than Congress.

Touche!

Asked if he was wrong about the "surge," Sestak says "absolutely not."
It was the wrong strategy for our national security. He said that 50 percent of deployed national guardsman come home with some sort of "mental challenge," 40 percent suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sounds high, doesn't it.

More later.

McCain supporter Tito Munoz gives the media an earful. Especially the Nation's David Corn.

Read the whole thing.

Do media liberals like Corn really want to trash people who are behind $1,200 on their taxes? Yes. But only if they ask Barack Obama an inconvenient question.

He's trying to buy it.

Then there's Obama's Education Plan, which can pretty much can be reduced to four words, paying teachers more money. (For Joe Biden, that's three words.)

Unlike foreign policy or executive experience, Obama actually has a record when it comes to reforming education in Chicago.

And that record is lousy.

He spent tens of millions of other people's dollars in an uncontrolled and haphazard way for no discernible benefit to school children.

Who cares? Not Democrats.

Spencerblog caught Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama on Meet the Press yesterday.

Colin Powell is a great American and an honorable man. He has served his country in a variety of ways and doesn't deserve cheap shots, like the one he got from Rush Limbaugh for his failing to endorse any inexperienced WHITE political candidates.

If he believes Obama will be a transformational president who will "electrify" the world, well God Bless him.

But Powell gave away his own liberal leanings when he said he would have "difficulty" with two more Republican nominees to the Supreme Court. Bush appointees, John Roberts and Sam Alito are solid and thoughtful justices.

Obama's picks will no doubt be liberal to very liberal, and likely to impose on the nation their own political and moral views from the bench. Apparently, those are the types of justices Powell believes will be good for America.

As for foreign policy, Powell sees Obama as someone the rest of the world is rooting for and will bring America greater respect and love across the planet. It is quite apparent that our enemies as well as some of our "friends" are rooting for Obama. If elected, he will be tested early and maybe often by both.

A known quantity like McCain will command immediate respect, if less affection. His reputation as a tough guy will allow him more room to move without being tagged soft, whereas Obama will have to publicly prove himself strong enough and up to the job of Commander in Chief.

Powell is a thoughtful and good man. But his rationale for supporting Obama is far from convincing.

UPDATE: Hey, apparently Joe Biden agrees with me that our enemies will test Obama to see how he reacts. He doesn't say how but we're guessing by killing a bunch of Marines or school children.

They terrorized their own workers, put pressure on them to achieve quotas, threatened them with being fired if they didn't deliver.

Gee, ACORN sounds like an awful outfit to work for.

UPDATE: In the meantime, Obama rides to the rescue of this sweat shop.

Jim Savage, 44, is an oil refinery worker, who was looking to retire at the age of 55. Now because of the subprime meltdown and stock market dip, he says he might not be able to.

A couple things: Jim's got 11 years for the stock market to make up what it lost in the last few weeks. It probably will. In the next decade he'll need to move some dough in his 401k to more conservative investments.

People who are closer to actual retirement have more to worry about. But isn't it pretty cool that people can take such early retirement in this country?

Thanks to our health care system, which is taking a lot of guff lately, American citizens are living longer than ever. If you make it to 55, you're pretty likely to make it 85. For Jim, that's 30 years of not having to work, thanks to his own investments, social security and medicare.

However, in retirement Jim will need millions of younger Americans to be working so that he can collect even more social security payments and medicare benefits than he ever had to pay in for during his working life.

"Fixing" social security is going to require raising the retirement age to reflect the new reality of how long people are living. Also the SS tax will have to be raised if we don't want to substantially cut benefits and maybe even if we do. Look for the $98,000 income cap on SS taxes to be raised substantially higher.

Nobody likes to see their "net worth" even on paper, cut in half over the course of a few weeks. But the American economy being the American economy it will start growing again fairly soon. By this time next year, unless a President Obama and liberal Congress impose draconian tax policies and regulations on business, the economy should be humming again. People aren't going to stop being people, which is to say they aren't going to stop working and striving because a few idiots in the financial sector and in Congress caused a large bubble in the housing market to burst.

One more thing:

It seems the oil business isn't just good for its executives. It's pretty good for its lower echelon workers too if they can afford to retire at such a young age. Good for Jim.

But with the price of oil sinking faster the value of your home, here's hoping Jim's portfolio is well diversified. Not to worry, oil prices will probably make a comeback too.

Suspected voter fraud in Ohio.

Money Q:

Likely among them are the 12 people who have registered to vote since August using the address of the 1,175-square-foot Brownlee Avenue house.

Some of them already have voted. Others requested absentee ballots but have yet to return them to the Franklin County Board of Elections.
None of them, however, seems to have ties to Ohio -- no close relatives, no public-records trail, no obvious intention to stay in the state past the election.

Most of them grew up on the East Coast, attended colleges there and registered to vote in their home counties. It is not illegal to be registered to vote in more than one state. But it is illegal to vote in more than one or to vote in a state that is not your permanent residence.

The owner of the house also is coming under scrutiny. He has voted in Ohio even though he has lived and worked in New York since 2004.

The coming luxury Skybox bailout.

Joe Queenan has this much right: Without sports most American men would just curl up and die. And that wouldn't be good for the economy.

Dan Flynn reviews John Fund's "Stealing Elections."

Democrats claim Republicans stole the 2000 presidential election. Republicans, with much more evidence, are seeing voter fraud as a growing problem and a threat to today's and future elections.

Kind of like the Fannie and Freddie meltdowns it is being brought to you by Democrats and their "grass roots" associates who, with more lax voting regulations, are making vote buying, tampering and fraud easier and more widespread.

How many race cards are there in Obama's campaign deck? A lot, notices Charles Krauthammer.

Money Q:

WASHINGTON -- Let me get this straight. A couple of agitated yahoos in a rally of thousands yell something offensive and incendiary, and John McCain and Sarah Palin are not just guilty by association -- with total strangers, mind you -- but worse: guilty according to The New York Times of "race-baiting and xenophobia."

But should you bring up Barack Obama's real associations -- 20 years with Jeremiah Wright, working on two foundations and distributing money with William Ayers, citing the raving Michael Pfleger as one who helps him keep his moral compass (Chicago Sun-Times, April 2004) and the long-standing relationship with the left-wing vote-fraud specialist ACORN -- you have crossed the line into illegitimate guilt by association. Moreover, it is tinged with racism.

UPDATE: And one of those reports from a campaign event in Scanton, the one that claimed someone yelled "Kill him," at the mention of Obama's name turns out to be dubious, if not an outright lie.

NYT's science writer John Tierney on what the candidates are refusing to talk about when it comes to energy.

Incidentally, Tierney is not your usual insufferable NYT columnist. In his bio, he writes: "John Tierney always wanted to be a scientist but went into journalism because its peer-review process was a great deal easier to sneak through."

Same here.

Ed Kanterman will spend no time in jail.

The man who forgetfully left his 14-year-old grandson to die in his sweltering car, has agreed to plead guilty and received three years probation. He will also be required to do 200 hours of community service.

DA Mike Green said his office was acting as the "voice" of the child in deciding to bring charges in the first place. I thought that was unseemly and said so here.

Justice was not served by charging Kanterman in the first place. His plea is that of a heart-broken man who is taking responsibility for a tragic mistake. But his was not a criminal act. It was purely and simply and tragically an accident. The prosecutor had the discretion to charge or not charge him.

Green made a bad call and made it worse by saying he was doing it for Nick McCorkle's sake.

Former Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Chris Dodd is up to his neck in subprime mortgage scandal. So guess what. He's investigating it. Brilliant!

The Examiner suggests using RICO, the anti-racketeering law, to get ACORN out of the voter registration fraud business.

Oh yeah, that'll happen under an Obama Justice Department.

Nice to wake up to find out it wasn't a dream.

Just finished a cigar toasting the Phillies win after coming from Dolan's bar in Ridley. What a great place to watch the clincher. Met many good guys and fans. We're going to the World Series. How sweet is that?

More Friday.

First Democrat John Murtha slanders a group of Marines fighting the enemy in Haditha, then he slanders his own constituents as "racists."

The pork-collecting, unindicted Abscammer gets classier by the day.

The Communist Party USA endorses... (drum roll, please...) Guess Who!

Well, it is time to "spread the wealth" around, isn't it?

UPDATE: Communist Chickens coming home to roost.

After several years, twists and turns, BPG's Town Center in Newtown Square finally wins approval.

It will take a year before construction begins and a decade before the entire project is finished but it's a win-win for the township and BPG investors.

Obama explains to a plumber it's time to share the wealth.

Obama volunteer sics Secret Service on pro-life Obama criticizer.

Let's see, who to believe?

More and more though Obama supporters are using thuggish tactics to silence critics.

Biden funnels $2 million to family campaign helpers.

Wasn't Curt Weldon voted out of office for stuff like this?

Despite all his talk about this being one country and moving beyond race, Barack Obama helped fund the black-separatist movement in Chicago with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, et al.

Stanley Kurtz has the story and the details.

Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers is a wonderful human being. Those who criticize him and Barack Obama for associating with him (until recently) are the "vilest" sort.

So says, Thomas Frank, author of "What's The Matter With Kansas," liberal and tribune of the poor.

Question: If Ayers is such a wonderful, terrific person, why doesn't Obama admit the extent of their past relationship, defend the man, and admit he shares his politics? Probably because it would lose him votes, right? So much for character.

Next up for Frank: Mumia Abu Jamal likes puppies and has really cool hair.

UPDATE: More here from Beldar on Frank, Ayers and Obama. As in, No, Ayers oughtn't be an honorary Eagle Scout. Scouts give no merit badges for bomb-building, killing judges and their families, indoctrinating school children instead of teaching them to read, embracing Anti-American dictators and funneling tens of millions of charitable dollars to radical, left-wing re-education groups.

From the congressman who saw the Fannie and Freddie meltdown coming years ago, a rule of thumb:

"My starting principle is this," says Mr. Baker. "The closer an enterprise is to the taxpayer's wallet, the more congressional oversight it requires. The further away you get from that wallet, the more freedom you should give people, because they are risking their own money, not the taxpayers'."

Sounds dead right.

ACORN's voter registration drive is as impressive as it is rife with fraud.

UPDATE: And it's happening very close to home. (Scroll down to check Delaware County.)

UPDATE II: More here. Just "community organizers" doing what they do best.

... VICTORINO!

UPDATE: Matt "Going Up" STAIRS! Unbelievable!

Mark Steyn is back and on Obama's case:

"Gaze into the giant zero of the Obama logo, the hole in the star-spangled donut, the vast fathomless nullity that is the gaping keyhole to the door of utopia. To a sad shriveled Republican cynic, there’s nothing there but the wide open spaces of Obama’s blank resume. But a believer will see therein the healing of the planet and the receding of the oceans. The black hole of Obama will suck you in through the awesome power of its totally cool suckiness."

Another Obama supporter blames racism for the fact he's not further ahead in the polls.

First Al Gore, now Carmen Kia.

NYT columnist and former Enron advisor Paul Krugman wins a Nobel Prize.

What a world!

UPDATE: Meanwhile, other Nobel Laureates are trashing Obama's tax plan.

"Shut up," they explained.

Adam Smith call your office.

Conservative George Will once again makes mincemeat of non-conservative John McCain.

The financial crisis is killing the McCain campaign in part because McCain has no clear answer about what to do about it. Not that the Obama campaign does either.

McCain continues to try to raise doubts about Obama's character tying him to a fistful of shady Chicago characters from former-terrorist-turned-tenured-radical Bill Ayers to the America-hating Jeremiah Wright.

In short, Obama doesn't just have bad ideas, he's a bad person.

But he doesn't seem bad. He seems nice. He smiles. He seems to care about the middle-class and the poor. He has a nice, attractive family. While he votes liberal, very liberal, he seems moderate and quite reasonable.

Will recalls a line he has used before:

"In 1987, on the eve of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's third victory, the head of her Conservative Party told a visiting columnist: "Someday, Labour will win an election. Our job is to hold on until they are sane." Republicans, winners of seven of the last 10 presidential elections, had better hope they have held on long enough."

Britain's conservative party relented to Tony Blair, who was "sane."

Bill Clinton was also sane. He governed as a moderate and was helped to do so by the first Republican congress in decades.

If Obama wins, the country will be, for the first time in recent history, completely in the hands of the Democratic party.

That means, higher taxes, withdrawal from our interventions and commitments abroad, protectionism, and more government intrusion into and government control of the U.S. economy.

It's not just Republicans who had better hope the Democratic party becomes "sane" in the next three months. But it's not as if the Republican party hasn't been Cuckoo's Nest for the last 8 years.

Asked what grand government plans he will sacrifice in light America's economic crisis, Obama pretty much says "None."

Where's Nurse Ratched when you need her?

UPDATE: Roger Simon avers that when it comes to Obama we're living in a "media-constructed lunatic asylum."

Spencerblog says: It's medication time. And Obama's the soothing medication Democrats are dropping like acid.

The Sowell Man does a great job summing up the trouble with Obama.

He's presenting himself as a reasonable moderate, but he's never voted that way or run in that company. The company he's kept is liberal, very liberal (and even radical). Why shouldn't he be expected to govern that way?

How Congress caused the meltdown of the financial markets. The short version..

Oh goody. The market meltdown will at least give Mother Earth a breather from global warming.

All you Greenpeacers: Three cheers for sub-prime mortgages!

My print column on the continuing plight of educator Rich Joseph is up.

The charges against him are flimsy to the point of being see-through. Joseph, a 30-year educator with a spotless record, is accused of "inappropriately touching" two young girls. Hugging and supposedly kissing them and telling them he "loved" them.

The stories sound highly unlikely if not completely made up. They both come from girls who know each other and have had trouble at the school.

But that didn't stop the Southeast Delco Superintendent Trudie Bennett from using the accusations to add her own dubious charges of "unlawful harassment" against Joseph. She alleges several verbal complaints against him for making a couple of female employees in her office "uncomfortable."

There is no documentation, timely or otherwise, that such complaints were ever made.

Joseph says early in his tenure at the district which started in 2006, it was Bennett who made improper remarks to him, calling him a "metrosexual" and shortening it to the nickname "Metro man." He says she tried to get overly-friendly with him and he rebuffed HER advances.

Additionally, he says she came to see him as a threat to her authority because he didn't hesitate to point out bad educational practices in the district.

Joseph has the support of just about every teacher with whom he briefly
worked at Darby Township School, where the alleged incidents supposedly occurred. He is credited by them with having helped turned around the culture of that school, improving student discipline and morale.

These same teachers are being prevented from testifying concerning what they personally and professionally know about the students who have made the accusations.

The only adult who claims he saw Joseph act "inappropriately" with students is the then-interim principal, David Tannenbaum.

He testified that he witnessed Joseph "inappropriately touching" several students during the course of the school of the early school year. Mostly hugs but one supposed kissing event. Yet, Tannenbaum also failed to document any of the incidents and couldn't name any of the children. He claimed he had several meetings with Joseph on the subject but failed to document any of them either. Joseph flatly denies any such talks or meetings ever happened.

In any case, Tannenbaum testified that he didn't believe there was anything "sexual" about the contact he alleged to be "inappropriate," only that it was overly-friendly and unprofessional. But he also admitted that Joseph did an excellent job as assistant principal, was good dealing with students and teachers alike.

The teachers who have testified at Joseph's hearing say that staff hugging young students at the school is hardly uncommon. And Joseph freely admits he's allowed some of the younger kids to hug him when they come off the bus or when they are upset or hurt to comfort them. At the hearing, Tannenbaum admitted he's done the same thing himself.

Joseph is quietly furious that his reputation has been so sullied. This is nothing short of character assassination, he says.

His dismissal hearing has been going on for months now, postponed for this reason and that. He is itching to testify before the board and give his side of the story.

Interestingly, in negotiations with the district he has been offered his job back, which would put an end to these proceedings. But he says he obviously can't work for Bennett under the circumstances.

What he wants is his back pay, his back benefits and a letter of recommendation from the school board that says he did his job professionally and with greatest degree of integrity.

His next hearing is now scheduled for Oct. 27.

Personally, I think it will be very difficult for Joseph to prevail the way this hearing is set up.

In essence, what he is asking is that the school board admit it hired an incompetent and vindictive superintendent and that would only make the board look bad.

We'll see.

Nobel winning economist Gary Becker says things are not as dire as some are making it seem.

Last night's "Townhall" debate seemed anything but. McCain was flat and repetitive. Obama was less flat but pretty much repeated what he said in the first debate. All the questions were so scripted and all the answers so rehearsed that they seemed robotic.

There was no spontaneity. The lack of it was summed up at the very end when moderator Tom Brokaw had to ask both candidates to move so he could read his final comments off his teleprompter.

In all, it was a win for Obama. Being ahead in the polls he was the one who had the most to lose. But he was his cool, smooth usual self.

There were no major gaffes. Obama had one amusing malapropism. Rhetorically responding to the McCain charge that he was inexperienced, he called himself "green behind the ears."

His job was to make fence-sitting voters more comfortable with the prospect of an Obama presidency. That it wouldn't be the risk the McCain campaign has suggested. Once again, Obama succeeded on that score. He manages to sound quite moderate despite his very liberal voting record.

It's hard to believe either candidate is equipped to handle what they're going to face when one of them takes office in January. If the markets don't settle down by then, they certain won't react well to the billions in new taxes and spending proposed by an Obama Administration and a Democratic Congress. The likelihood that the "party of government" will make economic matters worse is very real.

Both candidates are proposing "change" and the American people say that's what they want. Change is coming, and the American people are about to get it, good and hard.

Rep. Artur Davis (D-Alabama) and an honest man.

Meanwhile, Barney Frank (D-Mass.) head of the house Financial Services Committee denies any responsibility and plays the race card.

Thomas Sowell explains the difference between "associates and allies."

Obama supporters look away.

UPDATE: Sol Stern looks at one of those allies, terrorist Bill "Free as a Bird" Ayers.

Jonah Goldberg goes through the list of stuff Joe Biden got wrong during the debate.

It's pretty long.

Spencerblog's favorite is Biden's mention Katie's restaurant in Wilmington where he meets ordinary folks who tell him about their day to day troubles. Katie's restaurant has been closed for more than 20 years.

As you go through the list you realize Biden makes stuff up so effortlessly, so happily and so shamelessly, that if someone termed him a "congenital liar," you'd have to shrug and say "you've got a point." It's not like he doesn't have a history of saying stuff that simply isn't true.

Of course, it was William Safire who famously tagged Hillary Clinton with that memorable appellation. Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Democrat, once observed that her husband Bill, is "an unusually good liar. Unusually good." Apparently, many Americans have a very high tolerance for being lied to by some people. Bill Clinton's approval rating was near 60 percent when he left office.

Biden is supposed to be the voice of Washington D.C. experience for the Obama campaign. The one thing he has learned in his 40 years in Washington is that lying to the public and even being caught doing it isn't necessarily a career-ending act.

The important thing is to sound like you know what you're talking about, having your facts straight is far less important.

In Hollywood they say "Sincerity is the most important thing. And when you can learn to fake that, you've got it made."

Washington too.

O.J. convicted. Finally.

Noonan sings Palin's praises.

Let's not get carried away. She was fine. Charming too. Still, We thinks Noonan just feels guilty for her on-mike comments trashing Palin's selection in the first place.

Dan Henninger explains how distorting the risks in the marketplace makes for some pretty poor decisions.

In life, too.

Isn't Sandra Bernhard funny?

Victor Davis Hanson reminds us...

"The natural order of the world is chaos, not calm. Like it or not, for over a half-century the United States alone restrained nuclear bullies, kept the sea lanes free from outlaws and corralled rogue nations. America alone could provide that deterrence because we produced a fourth of the world's goods and services, and became the richest country in the history of civilization.

"But the bill for years of massive borrowing for oil, for imported consumer goods and for speculation has now has finally come due on Wall Street -- and for the rest of us as well."

Read the whole scary thing.

Spencerblog has been telling family members for sometime that Obama or McCain, the republic is strong enough survive. We're less confident today.

Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak voted for the proposed "bailout" legislation Monday that would have granted the government up to $700 billion to prop-up the nation's lending industry.

His opponent Republican Craig Williams says he would have voted against it, along with the dozens of other Republicans who broke ranks with their leadership and their president.

There are good arguments for either side.

Maybe, there is a better deal for the American people to be had.

Certainly, the original proposal by Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson was badly flawed and in need of improvement, more oversight, more profit-sharing protection for taxpayers, etc.

That Democrats tried to stuff the bill with goodies for their friends -- like the folks at ACORN, who register would-be voters and not always within the bounds of the law -- goes without saying.

Nancy Pelosi foolishly sailed into the breach with her partisan flags flying. Is it any wonder she and her colleagues in the Republican leadership couldn't keep GOP fence-sitters from jumping to the other side. Pelosi cynically she gave her own leadership members a pass on this tough vote. If she was going to act as if this was nothing more than a partisan bill, it's not surprising that even some Republicans believed her.

There were plenty of Republicans and conservatives who hated this deal on the principled grounds that it was the most massive government takeover of the economy since the New Deal.

There is plenty of blame to go around. This blog has pointed out the coziness of Democrats to Fannie and Freddie and the shameless actions of politicians like Barney Frank who helped create this mess.

But he only helped. There are those who tried to reign in these lending and financial institutions, seeing the potential for a train-wreck up ahead. No one listened.

So here we are.

Monday, the stock market plummetted as it became clear the bail-out bill was going to fail Monday. Tuesday it rebounded some. But mostly on the belief that something real would get done soon to deal with the crisis.

And it is a crisis.

Overnight lending rates to businesses went up to 6.4 percent. When the price of money is that steep, borrowing become virtually unaffordable for most businesses. If those rates don't come down, Main Street is in serious trouble. Wall Street is already dead as we know it. Main Street will be wounded for years to come if something is not done quickly.

Whatever his motivations, Sestak's vote was a reasonable one under these circumstances. He's taking heat from his constituents about it. But he's done that before.

It's always easier for a challenger who doesn't have to make the vote to say how he "would have" voted (think Barack Obama and Operation Iraqi Freedom.)

Williams cites the unpopularity of the bailout and says he hasn't met one person who was for it. Big deal. The question is what needs to be done now.

George Bush went on TV last week and explained the situation pretty well. It's dire. But nobody listens to him anymore.

Laymen like us, unfamiliar with intricacies of high finance, are left to listen to the experts, men and women who couldn't prevent all this from happening in the first place.

This much we believe, strong government intervention is needed to prevent a severe and long-term downturn in our economy.

Conservatives should be concerned that if government isn't given the power to act now (or at least very soon), it will be given much greater powers later when the economy is really hobbled.

A "No" vote Monday may have been popular with many people across the country. It will be less popular in the long run if Congress doesn't act and things get worse. Much worse. And based on those interest rates, they're getting bad quickly.

UPDATE: Did we say "bailout?" We meant "Rescue," because that's what it is.

Steve Devlin is going to jail for 3 years after showing up to meet a woman who promised to introduce him to her daugthers, 7 and 9, for sexual purposes.

The whole thing was a Internet Predator Task Force sting and Devlin was arrested and charged.

He has pleaded guilty and was hoping for a lighter sentence. His attorney, Art Donato, said his client, due to health issues, escaped into a fantasy world and became addicted to the Internet.

If he'd kept his addiction to the Internet on the Internet he wouldn't be in this fix. But he came out from behind his keyboard into the bright light of day to meet what he thought were real, live very underage girls.

So its off to the slammer, after he gets a tooth capped.

Considering the evidence and the crime, he got off easy.

It's Bill v. Barack on the bank crisis.

Who cares what Bill Clinton has to say on this? He's so yesterday's news for Democrats. They'd rather hear the children sing about their NEW Dear Leader.

Oops. Sorry that video is no longer available due to the embarassment of the Obama supporters who made it.

Rep. Alcee Hastings makes a non-apology apology for his remarks about Palin, blacks, Jews and Moose.

What about squirrel?

As a federal judge back in the 1980s Hastings, took bribes, committed perjury and was impeached by Congress. Fellow Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer voted with the more than 400 other congressman to bounce Hastings off the federal bench. Charged but never convicted because the main witness against him refused to testify, Hastings was later elected to Congress by a constituency untroubled by his legal and ethical lapses on the bench.

Despite having once voted for his impeachment, Pelosi wanted to elevate Hastings to be chair of the House Intelligence Committee as a sop to the Congressional Black Caucus. She was talked out of it.

Being slimed by Hastings is a badge of honor anyone should wear proudly.