From CSPAN,

Coverage begins at 7:00PM EST

The Debate begins at 9:00PM EST

LiveStream Here

What’s news today?

What do you think? October Surprise? A little obvious, doncha think?

From the Boston Herald

“The White House has put special operations strike forces on standby and moved drones into the skies above Africa, ready to strike militant targets from Libya to Mali — if investigators can find the al-Qaida-linked group responsible for the death of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya.

But officials say the administration, with weeks until the presidential election, is weighing whether the short-term payoff of exacting retribution on al-Qaida is worth the risk that such strikes could elevate the group’s profile in the region, alienate governments the U.S. needs to fight it in the future and do little to slow the growing terror threat in North Africa.”

Read more here

Meanwhile, in Egypt, the so-called moderate MB is at it again.

Due to the sometimes graphic nature, I’ll not post the video. If you choose, you can watch it at the link.

From the GatewayPundit

“Muslim Brotherhood Militias Chanting “God Is Great” Beat Democracy Protesters in Tahrir Square.”

“Egyptian democracy protesters held a news conference blaming the Muslim Brotherhood for the clashes Saturday in Tahrir Square.
Over 150 people were injured during the mayhem.”

““For those who are surprised that the Brotherhood is acting like this, it’s because they want to consolidate their power,” Azzab claimed.”

Read more, and the video,  here

Also, more from Yahoo,

“Were he to make another film now, Nasrallah said, it would be “virulently anti-Muslim Brotherhood” as he believes their ultimate aim is to institute a totalitarian state in Egypt and that Egypt’s army is not willing to stop them.

“With the Muslim Brotherhood there is a real agenda of transforming the state, the state apparatus and the constitution, to allow them to keep power ad eternam … of course I am totally against it,” he said.

His views reflect widespread discontent among Egypt’s liberals, who are locked in battle with Islamists over the drafting of the Egypt’s new constitution, a necessity before a new parliament can be elected.””

Read more here

Meanwhile, here in the States, the MB exerts it’s influence with the Obama admin.

From the WashingtonTimes

“A highly rated armor officer who saw combat in Iraq, Col. Dooley  planned to instruct for several years at the Joint Forces Staff College within  the National Defense University, then seek command of a combat battalion — a  ticket to better postings and higher rank.

Today, Col. Dooley finds himself at a dead end while being targeted for criticism by American Islamic groups, at least  two of which are linked to the Muslim  Brotherhood, which advocates universal Islamic law.”

“Richard Thompson, president of the  nonprofit Thomas More Law Center,  is representing Col. Dooley in an appeal  against the negative report. He said the Pentagon is trying to appease the Muslim  Brotherhood.”

Read more here

Those who still think the MB isn’t influencing our present administration are being naive.

What’s news today?

This is pretty cool, crazy too, but cool.

From the AP,

“In a giant leap from more than 24 miles up, a daredevil skydiver shattered the sound barrier Sunday while making the highest jump ever – a tumbling, death-defying plunge from a balloon to a safe landing in the New Mexico desert.

Felix Baumgartner hit Mach 1.24, or 833.9 mph, according to preliminary data, and became the first man to reach supersonic speed without traveling in a jet or a spacecraft after hopping out of a capsule that had reached an altitude of 128,100 feet above the Earth.”

Read more here

Former Senator Arlen Specter has died.

From the AP here

And Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. has some splainin’ to do, and not just about his absence from Congress. Do you suppose this is why he has been MIA? And why is he still running for re-election if he’s mentally and physically unfit, and not fulfilling his present duties as an elected official?

From the SunTimes,

“The snowballing troubles of Jesse Jackson Jr.  took a new turn Friday with the revelation that federal investigators have launched a probe into “suspicious activity” in the South Shore congessman’s finances.”

Read more here

What’s news today?

Some of Biden’s lies at the debate have been exposed.

These are just a few, there’s more.

First the Afghan War Support Lie,

From WFB

““I was there, I voted against them,” Biden continued. “I said, no, we can’t afford that.”

Then Sen. Biden voted for the Afghanistan resolution on Sept. 14, 2001 which authorized “the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States.”

And on Oct. 11, 2002, Biden voted for a resolution authorizing unilateral military action in Iraq, according to the Washington Post.

Read more here

Then the abortion lies, from Joe and the campaign,

Catholic Bishops have responded to Biden and his public misrepresentation of reality.

From USCCB

“Last night, the following statement was made during the Vice Presidential debate regarding the decision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to force virtually all employers to include sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion, in the health insurance coverage they provide their employees:

“With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any          insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact.”

This is not a fact. The HHS mandate contains a narrow, four-part exemption for certain “religious employers.” That exemption was made final in February and does not extend to “Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital,” or any other religious charity that offers its services to all, regardless of the faith of those served.”

Read more here

Biden knows this, yet he lied about it. Just like the campaign continues to lie on behalf of the other half the ticket about his abortion enabling.

From the WeeklyStandard

“At the end of the vice presidential debate Thursday night, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan lobbed charges of extremism at one another on the issue of abortion. “The Democratic party used to say they want [abortion] to be safe, legal, and rare,” Ryan said. “Now they support it without restriction and with taxpayer funding, taxpayer funding in Obamacare, taxpayer funding with foreign aid. The vice president himself went to China and said that he sympathized or wouldn’t second-guess their one-child policy of forced abortions and sterilizations. That, to me, is pretty extreme.”

Biden shot back, saying that Ryan has “argued that, in the case of rape or incest, it was still–it would be a crime to engage in having an abortion. I just fundamentally disagree with my friend.” Debate moderator Martha Raddatz followed up with Ryan, asking if pro-choice Americans should be “worried” about Romney, but she didn’t follow up with Biden.

In the spin room following the debate, I asked top Obama officials, as well as Planned Parenthood chief Cecille Richards, if Obama’s position on abortion is as extreme as what Ryan claimed. The Obama campaign denied the president favored abortion without restriction, but top Obama officials Jim Messina, Stephanie Cutter, and David Axelrod could not name a single restriction the president supports.”

Read more here

Sorry guys, you don’t get to run from your record. You own it.

Every Major Pro-Abortion Group Has Endorsed Obama Again

Obama Campaign Tries to Hide His Pro-Abortion Mandate, Record

President Barack Obama’s Pro-Abortion Record: A Pro-Life Compilation

And they call Romney/Ryan the extremists?

What’s news today?

I guess this is, but consider me underwhelmed.

The Debate, or as I’m gonna call it, The Argument That Passed as a Debate.

Here’s what some of the network polls had to say.

CNBC has Ryan as the winner 56%-36%

CNN has Ryan as the winner 48%-44%

Here’s what some talking heads had to say.

NBC’s David Gregory says Biden came off as “Maybe Condescending”.

Gee, ya’ think?

Fox News’ Chris Wallace calls it “Most disrespectful debate performance in my lifetime”.

And he’s pretty old.

Why would he say that? Maybe because of this.

From the WashingtonExaminer,

Vice President Joe Biden interrupted Paul Ryan 82 times in a 90-minute debate with rival Paul Ryan.

What did you think?

Here’s a link to the C-SPAN live stream of tonight’s debate for those interested.

Coverage starts at 7:00PM ET, the Debate starts at 9:00PM ET.

Watch it here

What’s news today?

This seems to be the obvious answer. Again. Or still.

The story changes yet again, from Yahoo

“Senior State Department officials on Tuesday revealed for the first time certain details of last month’s tragedy in the former Libyan rebel stronghold, such as the efforts of a quick reaction force that rushed onto the scene and led the evacuation in a fierce gun battle that continued into the streets. The briefing was provided a day before department officials were to testify to a House committee about the most serious attack on a U.S. diplomatic installation since al-Qaida bombed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania 14 years ago.

The account answers some questions and leaves others unanswered. Chief among them is why for several days the Obama administration said the assault stemmed from a protest against an American-made Internet video ridiculing Islam, and whether the consulate had adequate security.”

Read more here

And it looks like security officials have decided they aren’t going under the bus for this failure by the Obama admin. From ABC

“ABC News has learned that Eric Nordstrom, the former Regional Security Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Libya, has told congressional investigators that security at the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, was “inappropriately low” – and believed that State Department officials stood in the way of his attempts to change that.

Nordstrom and the commander of a 16-member Security Support Team, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Wood, heard that foreign fighters were flowing across the Egyptian border and were making their way across the border to the Libyan city of Derna – which is to the east of Benghazi — and from there were making their way to Benghazi. But State Department officials seemed oblivious to their Benghazi post’s vulnerability.”

Read more here

And WeaselZippers has some of the video of the testimony here

So now we know who the sacrificial Lamb will be via ForeignPolicyCable

“In an often heated congressional hearing Wednesday, lawmakers and witnesses alike pointed to State Department official Charlene Lamb as the person most directly responsible for rejecting multiple requests for increased security at the U.S. diplomatic missions in Libya prior to the Sept. 11 attack.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) excoriated the State Department for rejecting requests from the U.S. Embassy in Libya for an extension of temporary security forces that were withdrawn in the months prior to the attack that killed Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

In a dramatic moment at the hearing, Issa released unclassified cablesfrom March and Julythat the State Department had refused to release, detailing those requests.”

Read more here

More video from WeaselZippers here

Meanwhile the mother of the Ambassador is just fed up with the lies, via the WeeklyStandard

“COOPER : we’re talking tonight with pat smith whose son sean smith was killed in the benghazi attack. today his son asked mitt romney to stop invoking her son’s name on the campaign trail. pat smith did not speak about anyone’s political agenda tonight. she is, however, bitter ly disappointed with the search for answers.who told you that they would give you information?

SMITH: you will love this. obama told me, hillary promised me. joe biden was a pressure and a real sweetheart. they all told me that — they promised me. i told them please, tell me what happened. just tell me what happened.”

“COOPER: so you, are still waiting to find out what happened to your son what they know, or even what they don’t know.

SMITH: right. officially yes. i told them don’t give me any bologna you can keep your political stuff, just tell me the truth. and i still don’t know. in fact, today i heard that he died of smoke inhalation.”

Read more, and the video from CNN, here

They’ve been lying from the start. This is a total failure of Obama’s supposedly great foreign policy skills. Meanwhile Hillary is MIA.

You know I’m a conspiracy nut, so you should have seen this coming.

Remember folks, vote early and often!

And if you need help, just stop by Obama’s Organizing For America, they’ll help you.

From ProjectVeritas, via the DailyCaller

“Videographer James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas caught an official for President  Barack Obama’s re-election campaign helping who she thought was an Obama  supporter set herself up to vote more than once in November.”

““We visited Organizing For America voter registration tables around New York  and Organizing For America headquarters around the country,” he said.

The video then cuts to a montage of different clips of Obama campaign  volunteers and staffers all over the country helping O’Keefe’s Project Veritas  activists get set up to vote twice, a sign there’s likely more to come.”

Read more here

Here’s the video.

This is the thread for news. What’s on your mind today?

Let’s start with ObamaCare today. How’s that workin’ out?

Uh, not well, not well at all.

From CNBC

“The owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants is putting more workers on part-time status in a test aimed at limiting the impact of looming health coverage requirements.”

“Darden Restaurants declined to give details but said the test is only in restaurants in four markets across the country. The test entails increasing the number of workers on part-time status, meaning they work less than 30 hours a week. Under the new health care act, companies will be required to provide health care to full-time employees by 2014. That would significantly boost labor costs for businesses.”

Read more here

Now before anybody goes and starts up an Occupy Darden rally, consider why this is happening. The answer is ObamaCare. And it’s already hammering our economy and these companies. It’s not only causing hours to be cut, it’s eliminating jobs as well. It’s just not what this economy needed.

From the WashingtonExaminer

“Fully implementing Obamacare regulations have already cost the U.S. economy $27.6 billion and more than 18,000 jobs according to a new study released today. Just the top ten most expensive regulations have cost $24.4 billion, according to the new non-partisan and independent American Action Forum (AAF) report.

Just complying with the state health exchanges alone has to cost employers $3.4 billion according to the AAF totals which were compiled from Federal Register data. In addition to the regulatory costs, AAF estimates that Obamacare regulatory compliance has eaten up more than 60 million hours in paperwork. At 2,000 hours a year that comes to 30,000 jobs.

The AAF paper also calculated the regulatory costs and job losses in each state for the top ten must expensive Obamacare regulations. California has borne the brunt of Obamacare’s costs suffering $3.4 billion in costs and 2,917 jobs lost. Texas has been hit second hardest with $1.8 billion in costs and 1,292 jobs lost.”

Read more here

And here’s the PDF of the study from AmericanActionForum

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I found this interesting as well. It appears the Presidents assertions about Romney’s economic plan have been inaccurate.

I know,

😯

shocking right?

From HeritageBlog

“The Tax Policy Center is the industry standard for producing high-quality tax data that are integral to tax policy debates. However, in this TPC report, the authors’ choices and assumptions lead them to a carefully chosen result that is misleading and biased. This hinders the debate on tax reform because lawmakers and the public need accurate information to make good decisions.

At best, this TPC analysis confirms that tax reform will require political leaders to make difficult decisions. This is self-evident. If tax reform were easy, Washington would have reformed the current 26-year-old code long ago.”

Read more here

The whole debunking of this flawed study, also from Heritage, is here

Here’s what a Princeton economist has to say, via Breitbart

“Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama, and liberal think tanks have claimed Mitt Romney’s plan to cut tax rates across the board by 20 percent is bad arithmetic, but a Princeton economics professor, Harvey Rosen, examined Romney’s proposals in a paper and concluded Romney’s plan would work. The economy would have to grow by 3 percentage points more over the term of his plan than it would have without his plan.”

Read more here

The whole piece from the Princeton economist is here in PDF

What’s news today?

This story is interesting. The more we know, the worse it gets.

From TownHall,

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

“OFA has specifically touted its “grassroots” success by showcasing the majority of its donations coming from those giving less than $200. It appears the campaign also solicits funds for less than $200 in order to avoid having to report the name of the person making a donation under FEC rules.”

“Obama.com was purchased in 2008, and, although Obama.com is owned by a third party, not the campaign itself, the site redirects its foreign traffic, a whopping 68 percent, directly to the official Obama for America campaign donation page. The Obama campaign’s official and main website, BarackObama.com, sees 43 percent of its traffic coming from foreign IP addresses, according to web metrics firm Markosweb and noted in the report.”

Read more here

And here’s more on where that money may be coming from, via HotAir.

“Most Republicans recall the Doodad Pro controversy from almost exactly four years ago, where Team Obama campaign websites turned off credit card security checks that allowed fraudulent and foreign donations to flow into the campaign.  Could that be happening again?  According to a new independent report from the Government Accountability Institute and reported by Breitbart, not only is it actually happening again — it’s actually gotten worse.  A bundler for Barack Obama has set up a shady website operation to collect donations to the campaign, but it’s based in Shanghai, and the bundler has ties to the Chinese government:”

“There is no other conclusion to reach but that this decision was deliberate, especially since it became an issue just before the 2008 election.  The Washington Post reported on it, at least for a brief time, and it became a topic of some interest among Republicans in Congress.  Even if one was inclined to chalk it up to error by an inexperienced campaign in 2008, that excuse no longer applies in 2012 — especially not when the campaign seems more concerned about fraud in merchandise sales, which would cost them more in reversals (product costs) than returned donations would.”

Read more here

Why does it matter? For that we go to Reuters,

“U.S. President Barack Obama’s campaign and its Democratic allies raised $181 million in September for his re-election effort, the largest total that either side has announced yet in the 2012 campaign.”

“Obama’s campaign said on Saturday that more than 1.8 million people donated to it last month. Of that, 567,000 were new donors. A vast majority of the donations – 98 percent – were $250 or less. The average contribution was $53.”

Read more here

So how easy is it to commit fraud? This easy, according to the folks at RedState 

“Here now is the screenshot of what Barack Obama’s campaign processed as a donation to the campaign.  This would not have happened had the Obama campaign taken basic steps to verify credit card information.  But, as always, Team Obama relied on someone else to fix their mess — the bank.

Had basic checks been implemented, this donation would have been rejected.  Keep in mind that all the information present except the credit card information is completely made up.”

Read more here

And with a pre-paid card, there is no bank to catch it.

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UPDATE

Bi-partisan fraud?

From Breitbart

“There are 380 members of the House of Representatives seeking reelection that have active donation pages on the web, and 194 have campaign websites that require donors to enter their credit card security code, known officially as the Card Verification Value (CVV). Of the remaining 186 members of the House of Representatives who lack basic anti-fraud protections, 125 are Democrats and 61 are Republicans.

In the Senate, 25 senators’ campaign donation websites were found to lack basic credit card protections; four are Republicans, 20 are Democrats, and one is an Independent.”

Read more here