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TOP NEWS

Pakistan To Reopen Torkham Border Crossing

Fuel tankers in flames at border crossing

Ten-day closing didn’t impact logistics situation but aggravated US/Pakistan tensions

Widespread Quiet Celebrations In PRC After Xiaobo Nobel Prize Award

Authorities apparently more tolerant of such outside Beijing

New National Security Advisor Had Role In Fighting FNMA Reform

Shelby: “Mr. Donilon’s actions at Fannie Mae to undercut meaningful reform precipitated the largest taxpayer-funded bailout in American history. Now President Obama is entrusting him with America’s security.”

POLITICS

Surging GOP Lays Siege To Democrat Bastions

Congressman Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon: "I'm in the fight of my life"

Formerly safe seats in Northwest, New England in contention this year

Gulf Oil Spill A Non-Factor On Campaign Trail

Sarah Palin One Of The Stars At Revived Bakersfield Business Conference




THE ECONOMY, STUPID

Finance Ministers Can’t Solve Currency Disputes

Cape Wind Project A Job Killer?

Government Motors Uses Volt To Promote IPO

SPORTS

S.C. Gamecocks Turn Back Tide, 35-21

SEC Bowl bid in danger?

Rays Rally, Stay Alive in ALDS
Rookie John Jaso delivers winning RBI



Punchless Twinkies Swept By Yankees, 6-1
Look, I don’t want to talk about it, okay?

FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS

Arbitrators Rule For Larry Hagman; Citibank Owes $11.35 Million In Damages

They should have known better than to mess with J.R.

Citigroup Global Markets found guilty of “serious misconduct”

MJ Memorabilia Fetches $1 Million In Macau Auction

Soul King Solomon Burke Dies In Netherlands


Miss USA 1957 (for a day) Dies In L.A.

FOREIGNERS

Tunnel Reaches Trapped Chilean Miners
Rescue projected for Wednesday

Highest-Ranking NK Defector Dies Of Apparent Heart Attack

Prince Charles Praises Mumbai Slum As Model For West

BLOGS & STUFF

Ace: CT AG Blumenthal Does Know How To Create Jobs…With Lawsuits!

Althouse: Limbaugh Critics At It Again

POWIP: Rocketman Questions The Fierce Urgency Of NOW

Jammie Wearing Fool: Can’t Afford To Keep Up Your Golf Game During Funemployment? President Obama’s Got Your Back!

Apologies for late posting; a family emergency last night kept me from getting this out at its usual time. I apologize for any inconvenience.
— compiled by Wombat-socho

Bomb-Sniffing Dogs?

Brian Doherty at Reason magazine has a story about an unusual case in New Hampshire where state child-welfare officials seized a couple’s baby because, among other things, the father was associated with the group Oath Keepers.

What struck me in this story was one line at the end. Some people organized a protest in support of the parents:

And the FBI brought bomb-sniffing dogs to the protest, reports local TV station WMUR.

Bomb-sniffing dogs? Was there any reasonable cause to suspect these people might be carrying explosives? Or did the FBI just have a K-9 unit that needed to get in a day’s work? Why didn’t they just call in a sniper, hostage negotiators and — oh, I don’t know — some of those cool black helicopters while they were at it?

EXCLUSIVE: Christine O’Donnell Hits Democrat Chris Coons on Taxes Again

In her second statewide campaign mailing, Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell reinforces her message about Democrat Chris Coons’ record of raising taxes in New Castle County: “When it comes to politicians getting their hands on your tax dollars . . . no one does it better than Chris Coons!”


While O’Donnell’s two TV ads have employed an upbeat theme — “I’m you!” — this is the second mail piece by the Republican campaign to highlight Coons’ record on tax issues.

CHRISTINE O’DONNELL for U.S. SENATE

MA-6 Update: Democrat John Tierney Tries to Distance Himself From His Wife

BOSTON – Howie Carr in the Boston Herald calls the Democrat’s gangster brother-in-law an Armenian Whitey Bulger:

Patrice Eremian Chew Tierney, aka Mrs. John Tierney. Gets indicted for laundering millions in ill-gotten gains for her brother, a fugitive gangster, and when she gets caught, she tells the judge she’s depressed and gets fined $2,500. . . .
And what does John Tierney say on behalf of his felon wife?
“Today’s not about me.”
. . .

Not about you, except that your mother-in-law contributed at least $4,800 to you while tending a bank account for her fugitive sons. Kevin Rennie notes that Tierney has changed his story:

The guilty plea contradicted earlier statements from the seven-term congressman that he and Patrice had nothing to do with the fugitive side of her criminal family. . . .

Read the whole thing. I just got off the plane at Logan Airport and got to my hotel here, and am due to have dinner with a local Republican operative in a few minutes. Please hit the tip jar.

PREVIOUSLY:

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Saturday Morning Rock Report From The Virginia Tea Party Convention

by Smitty

Blog buddy Chris Cassone joined the Axis of Fedora:

What would Jack Bauer Do?

He also did a couple of his Tea Party favorites:

He followed up with:

Chris Cassone’s book/CD, “Take Our Country Back: One Song, and One Man’s Story About the Tea Party” is due out by Christmas from Dunham Books.
The morning had been opened by Matt Dentino.

TwitterGate Update: Neal Rauhauser Switches Account to ‘Protected’ Status

After my first post about TwitterGate, many of the “Beandogs” in Democratic campaign consultant Neal Rauhauser’s network were laughing as if it were all a big joke. Yesterday, I came back with a second post that connected the dots a bit more clearly — and highlighted Rauhauser’s status as a Daily Kos contributor.

In the comments of the second post this morning, Right Klik had linked numerous communications between Rauhauser and his “Beandogs,” both from his “StrandedWind” and “WingNutWatch” accounts.

In one of those Tweets, Rauhauser said, “my role is trainer, coordinator, develop methods, etc. If civil or criminal proceedings begin deposition is lawyer’s job.” In another key message, “Obamagician” — who had previously Tweeted that conservative blogger Greg Howard had “sexy, f***able children” — told Rauhauser, “Thx for you hard work.”

Such messages obviously lend credibility to the TwitterGate video’s suggestion that the “Beandogs” harassment against Howard and other conservatives on Twitter was carried out with Rauhauser’s knowledge, if not indeed as part of an orchestrated effort of which Rauhauser described himself as “coordinator.” And now look what we find:

Rauhauser has now switched his “StrandedWind” account to protected mode, and if you click on any of the messages from Rauhauser’s “WingNutWatch” account you get this:

Rauhauser deleted that account and protected the other, the kind of gesture a detective might say was indicative of “consciousness of guilt.”

The obvious question: If Rauhauser has nothing to hide, why is he hiding? Let me suggest an obvious answer: Rauhauser is becoming an embarrassment to his Democratic clients, especially Arizona 7th District Rep. Raul Grijalva.

Rauhauser had boasted of his relationship with Grijalva — who sent the consultant a “thank you” note — and like so many other previously “safe” Democratic incumbents this year, Grijalva is in the toughest re-election battle of his career. The Yuma Sun reported on Thursday’s debate:

Incumbent Democratic Congressmen Raul Grijalva admitted Thursday that it was a mistake to call for a boycott of Arizona after Gov. Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill 1070.
“On my part it was a strategic mistake to call for the boycott,” he said. “I felt that it would have an impact on the leadership of this state … but the fact of the matter is that they’re not going to change their mind…”
One student, Lisa Griffin, informed the candidates that according the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Yuma currently has an unemployment rate of 30.2 percent and asked them what they plan to do to usher more industry into the area, thus creating more jobs. . . .

Grijalva called for an economic boycott of his own state at a time when unemployment in parts of his own district is over 30%! Now imagine the horror of Grijalva’s staff when they saw this video exposing what their consultant Rauhauser had been up to since August:

When I first linked that video Thursday, it had gotten 288 views; as of this morning, it had nearly 5,000 views. If you Google “Grijalva” and “Rauhauser,” you see that this was becoming a big enough story that other journalists might be starting to ask questions. (Hey, Kossacks: You’re not the only ones who know how to use Google.)

Congratulations to Greg Howard, Patrick Read and others who helped compile the “Twittergate” research. That video dossier may not have connected all the dots, but if you show people enough dots, sooner or later the pattern becomes clear enough that only a blind man can miss it.

I’m leaving for Boston this afternoon to do some more shoe-leather campaign reporting. Please hit the tip jar.

UPDATE: The “besieged” Democrats now have their own Memeorandum thread.

UPDATE II: Linked by Dan Collins at Piece of Work in Progress.

UPDATE III: To understand just how desperate Democrats have become, check out Professor Donald Douglas’s post about how the Left used a “Nazi” smear against an Ohio Republican for his participation in a WWII historical re-enactment group.

UPDATE IV: Why is the Left getting so desperate? Even progressive poll analyst Nate Silver is now projecting that Republicans will gain 50 House seats Nov. 2. Small wonder that Democrats are trying to pull the Jedi mind-trick on the Rauhauser scandal.

PREVIOUSLY:

Few Miles Journeyed to Richmond: Adavantageous

by Smitty

The Virginia Tea Party Convention has been a success. Attending an event in a full-on convention center means that the booths and the speakers have much more room. It’s far less cramped than CPAC has been. We couldn’t wish for better speakers and breakout sessions. I’ve got 16Gb of video that is going to have to wait until I get home tonight and/or tomorrow to wade through. Also, the wife has to be pried off of the shiny new Alienware laptop that actually has the guts to edit .mts video files. Continue reading Few Miles Journeyed to Richmond: Adavantageous →