THE CARNIVAL OF NUCLEAR ENERGY IS UP!

REALITY SLOWLY SEEPS IN: Bombshell Pension Vote Is About Sink California Hundreds Of Millions Deeper Into The Red. “According to the Sacramento Bee, CalSTRS (the big teachers retirement fund) is set to vote on Friday whether or not it should reduce its annual investment returns estimate from 8% to 7.5%, a move that will add hundreds of million to state debts (since the pension is guaranteed, and public taxpayers are on the hook). That would be a huge decision, if they do it. 8% has been the level set since 1995 (talk about a whole nother era), and artificially high return estimates are how the pension systems aren’t (on paper) even more insolvent than they already seem.”

TRANSPARENCY: Obama Ordered to Release Names of Clemency Seekers.

378 COMPLAINTS GOT JUAN WILLIAMS FIRED. Now this: NPR ombud gets 22,000+ emails on Williams.

MEMPHIS: Black Tea Party Republican candidate Charlotte Bergmann is making Steve Cohen sweat. Early voting induces more sweating: “The strongest turnout from any precinct in Shelby County came from precinct 5700 — at Second Baptist Church along Walnut Grove, where many of those Bergmann signs have sprouted.”

HOPE AND CHANGE: “The number of Americans who say things are going badly in the country, at 75 percent, is higher than it has been on the eve of any midterm election since the question was first asked in the mid-1970s, according to a new national poll. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday also indicates that the economy remains, by far, the top issue on the minds of Americans. Fifty-two percent of people questioned say the economy’s the most important issue facing the country. . . . ‘Even in 1994, when the Republicans last took control, and in 2006, when control flipped back to the Democrats, roughly half the public was satisfied with the state of the nation,’ adds Holland.” Are you better off than you were two years ago? Apparently, most people say no. . . .

CHANGE: U.S. home prices expected to slide another 8%.

SECURITY: NASA Solar Shield Predicts Dangerous Current Flows. “How bad would be a repeat of the Carrington Event? See my post: Solar Carrington Event Repeat Today Would Collapse Civilization. Therefore this is a worthwhile project.”

REPORT: PERRIELLO SUPPORTER GETS VIOLENT: “Before an Americans for Prosperity event in Charlottesville, VA , a supporter of Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello stopped his car, went on a screaming tirade, ripped up yard signs, threw them, and called the people in attendance ‘racists’- to put it lightly.”

IN THE MAIL: Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior

WANT TO HELP WOUNDED SOLDIERS? Please support Project Valour-IT.

IF YOU MISSED IT ON SIRIUS/XM SATELLITE RADIO over the weekend, the latest PJM Political is now online.

SHOULD COLLEGE BE THE BEST FOUR YEARS OF STUDENTS’ LIVES? “Isn’t that a strange goal? Shouldn’t college prepare students to have better lives later on?”

MICHAEL BARONE: Obama’s economists missed what voters plainly saw.

Heading into what appears to be a disastrous midterm election, the Obama Democrats profess to be puzzled. The president’s record, they insist, is moderate, accommodating, if anything overcautious. So why do most American voters seem to be angrily rejecting it?

That’s one way of looking at it. Another way is to say that the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress have increased government’s share of gross domestic product from 21 percent, where it’s hovered for the last several decades, to about 25 percent and have put the national debt on a trajectory to increase from 40 percent to 90 percent of GDP.

Voters have noticed — and don’t like it.

Read the whole thing.

CHANGE: White-collar recession, blue-collar depression.

HOW TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES transformed America.

FROM DAN MITCHELL, Libertarian Porn.

POWERLINE: INVESTIGATE THIS.

ANNOUNCING THE 2010 World Fantasy Award winners.

HAPPY 5TH ANNIVERSARY TO BloggingHeads TV.

REASON TV: THE MADNESS OF BARACK OBAMA.

All true, but he goes to 11.

THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND:

Naming And Shaming at Cornell and Dartmouth.

Facing another food crisis?

Couples breaking up over bedbugs?

Attack ads, circa 1800.

Jon Stewart’s “overwhelmingly white crowd.”

Canada’s revolt against government.

No surprise: Bill Maher Out Juan-Williamses Juan Williams, Media Silence Erupts.

Well, good: MoveOn supporter remorseful after roughing up conservative in Arizona.

Coming soon: San Francisco Mayor Nancy Pelosi?

Suburban nation, urban political strategy.

Flying-car progress?

An Alaska media scandal. Related: “Corrupt bastards.”

CONFESSIONS OF a price controller. “The government price controls in America’s healthcare system always push prices up. Here’s why.”

SCOTT RASMUSSEN: Voters don’t want to be governed from the left, right or center. They want Washington to recognize that Americans want to govern themselves. “In this environment, it would be wise for all Republicans to remember that their team didn’t win, the other team lost. Heading into 2012, voters will remain ready to vote against the party in power unless they are given a reason not to do so.”

POLL: JOE MILLER LEADS IN ALASKA: 37-30-30.

Meanwhile, reader Richard Samuelson notes that the press is portraying Miller as some sort of unwashed hick, even though he’s West Point 1989, Yale Law School 1995. “Kinda messes up the narrative, doesn’t it?” Well, it would if it were allowed to intrude. But when facts conflict with the narrative, the press goes with the narrative.