DID SOMEBODY lie to Newt Gingrich?

UPDATE: But see this.

To my mind, it’s more important — as noted in the Lamar Alexander interview above — that people not divide into permanently warring camps than that anything in particular happen in this election. The nice thing about NY-23 is that it’s an opportunity to send a message at low cost, but the cost won’t be low if it produces long-running enmity. Instead, it should be a spur for people to get involved in politics at the state and local level now, rather than complaining about the nominees later. Follow Bill Whittle’s advice!

GOOD NEWS: U.S. Economy Is Growing Once Again. But here’s a cautionary note: “But we don’t think that rate of growth is sustainable because it is distorted by all the government stimulus. The challenge here is to get organic growth – growth that isn’t helped by fiscal steroids.”

FOR HALLOWEEN: Slutty Nun costumes?

OLD HAT:

Democrats in Washington have a bigger problem: Their party is looking so yesterday.

In a world defined by nearly 100,000 iPhone apps, a world of seemingly limitless, self-defined choice, the Democrats are pushing the biggest, fattest, one-size-fits all legislation since 1965. And they brag this will complete the dream Franklin D. Roosevelt had in 1939.

The culture still believes the U.S. has a hipster for president. But the Obama health-care bill, and maybe this whole administration, is starting to look totally out of sync with the new zeitgeist, the spirit of the age.

Everything about the health-care exercise is looking very old hat, starting with the old guys working on it. Max Baucus, Patrick Leahy, Pete Stark—all were elected to Congress in the 1970s, and live on as the immortals in Washington’s Forever Land. But it’s more than the fact that Congress looks old. The health-care bill is big, complex, incomprehensible and coercive—all the things people hate nowadays.

Well, except for people in Washington. (Via The Virginian).

YOU MUST GIVE UP HOT SHOWERS TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS USED AGAINST YOU. “This Friday, taxpayer funded researchers will brief politicians in Congress on how to improve their approval ratings by avoiding face-to-face townhall meetings with voters.”

Don Surber comments: “After reading this, I am sure many people will lay down their pitchforks and torches — and pick up their tar and feathers.” That’s starting to sound like a theme . . . .

YOU LIE? A.P.: Feds Overstated Stimulus Jobs By Thousands:

WASHINGTON — The federal government overstated by thousands the number of jobs created or saved with contracts awarded to businesses under President Barack Obama’s economic recovery program, according to an Associated Press review of employment data in the plan’s first progress report.
——
For example:

• A company working with the Federal Communications Commission reported that stimulus money paid for 4,231 jobs, when about 1,000 were produced.

• A Georgia community college reported creating 280 jobs with recovery money, but none was created from stimulus spending.

• A Florida child care center said its stimulus money saved 129 jobs but used the money on raises for existing employees.

Perhaps this will stimulate some skepticism where their health care claims are concerned.

WHAT EVERY WOMAN NEEDS: “A new lipgloss from British cosmetics company 2LoveMyLips comes with a spike detector to identify GHB and ketamine in drinks.” Reportedly, it’s “already a hit in Britain.”

A SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH for the Ares 1-X prototype.

CONFUCIAN WISDOM from Jeff Flake.

DO ALL CHINESE LOOK ALIKE to Anita Dunn? “Obama Communications Director Anita Dunn says she was only cribbing from Lee Atwater when she approvingly quoted from Mao Tse-Tung in a graduation speech. … Funny thing, though. I can’t find a place where Atwater cited Mao. I can find lots of places where Atwater referenced Sun Tzu, whose Art of War he supposedly carried around in dog eared form.”

IT’S NOT PHOTO-PLAGIARISM, it’s homage.

MAKING MISCHIEF with Col. Sanders.

AT HOT AIR: Video: Steve King grills NFL commissioner on hypocrisy over Limbaugh.

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE slides on worsening jobs picture. “The Consumer Confidence Index, released by The Conference Board, sank unexpectedly to 47.7 in October — its second-lowest reading since May.” The slide, like that in housing, was “unexpected.”

FORTUNATE SON.

SOME VERY NICE ANNIVERSARY THOUGHTS from Dana Loesch.

OOPS: “The government has failed dramatically in its effort to make the swine flu vaccine widely available.”

Related: ABC News: White House Refuses to Say President Obama is Pleased with Smoothness of H1N1 Vaccination Efforts.

UPDATE: Why you can’t get the Swine Flu vaccine. “U.S. regulations are too cautious. Europe has adopted a more sensible approach.”

THE NATIONALIZATION OF YOUR CHILDREN. In Britain, anyway. My advice: Buy a gun. Oops! Too late for that . . . .

Not too late to stock up on tar and feathers, though. They’d never dare to do this sort of thing to subcultures they’re afraid of . . . .

HMM: F.B.I. Raid Kills Islamic Group Leader in Michigan. “Federal agents on Wednesday fatally shot a man they described as the leader of a violent Sunni Muslim separatist group in Detroit. The 53-year-old leader, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, was killed in one of three raids conducted in and around the city, in which six followers of his were taken into custody. . . . Mr. Abdullah, the authorities said, led a faction of a group called the Ummah, meaning the Brotherhood, which advocates the establishment of a separate nation within the United States governed by Islamic laws. He was one of 11 men from Detroit and Ontario whom the authorities had charged with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.” Is it just me, or are there an awful lot of domestic counterterror operations going on these days?

REASON TV: Radicals for Capitalism: Celebrating the Enduring Legacy of Ayn Rand.

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: We Are Living In An Ayn Rand Novel.

DELUSIONS OF POWERLESSNESS:

Even more risible, though, is the claim that the administration “is going to speak truth to power.” Hello, Valerie? Your boss is the president of the United States! No one is more powerful. As we suggested Friday, it really seems as if Obama and his men do not understand what it means to be president. Because their power is constrained–thank you, Founding Fathers!–they labor under the delusion that they are powerless.

Yet while this is all hilarious, it is also scary when you think it through. Great power entails great responsibility. There is little to suggest that Obama and his aides appreciate their responsibility, and much, including their incessant complaining that the previous president did a lousy job, to suggest an attitude of total irresponsibility.

The job of those in power is not to “speak truth to power,” though it would be nice if they spoke the truth once in a while.

Ouch.

UPDATE: Reader Allen S. Thorpe writes:

The link to Taranto’s taunt of Valerie Jarrett was timed well with Barbara Curtis’ latest post at PJM. These people are so steeped in Saul Alinsky that they fail to realize that they were written for people trying to topple the system and mau-mau the flakcatchers. But now THEY ARE the flack-catchers and they obviously never really understood the problems of governing. There’s a story in Newsweek about how Obama wasn’t going to be like Redford in The Candidate wondering, “What now?” (Maybe I found it on Instapundit.) But he’s finding out that governing by fiat doesn’t work for long in this country. The tags for his presidency so far seem to be Radical, Naive, FDR, Jimmy Carter, Socialism and Screw Up.

Heh. And ouch. Yeah, Alinsky’s a set of rules for annoying The Man. Not much help once you are The Man.

ANOTHER UPDATE: History.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Armored Yeast. No, really.

MORE CARTER-ERA NOSTALGIA FROM NICK GILLESPIE: Tomorrow Is Another 1,000 Day Reign For Daniel Ortega.