A 9/12 TEA PARTY UNDER THE ARCH IN ST. LOUIS. They asked me to come, but I couldn’t make the logistics work, which made me sad. But if you’re in the area, you should check it out.

RAHM EMANUEL: “Fuck the UAW.”

CONSUMER WATCHDOG goes after Google CEO Eric Schmidt on privacy with Times Square video ad.

UNEXPECTEDLY! Unemployment rises to 9.6%, 54,000 jobs lost. Because bad economic news is always unexpected!

IN THE MAIL: Edited by Roger Scruton, Liberty and Civilization: The Western Heritage.

HMM: Gallup: Why likely-voter models may be undercounting Republicans. Whatever. Don’t get cocky, kid.

THE PROBLEM WITH CITIES: Vanishing Upward Mobility. “Boosters still maintain that big cities remain unique centers for social uplift, but evidence suggests this is increasingly no longer the case.”

OCTOBER SURPRISE? White House considers pre-midterm package of business tax breaks to spur hiring. I think we’ll see a lot of these kinds of things now that they’re desperate.

QUIZNO’S SANDWICH: The reality vs. the advertising photo.

Years ago, I ordered a sandwich at an Arby’s, pointed at the poster, and said “I want one that looks like that.” Shockingly, it did. It also had about three times the meat of a normal Arby’s . . . .

A FALL IN TEMP EMPLOYMENT.

LIST: best books of September. Not my list, though.

DETROIT FREE PRESS EXPOSES Democrats’ Fake Tea Party Scheme In Michigan. They’re desperate, and they’ll try anything. They’re also not very bright, apparently . . . .

RUSS FEINGOLD IS dodging Obama in Wisconsin.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: 10 REASONS WHY PEOPLE ARE MISSING BUSH. Excerpt:

We naturally compare Bush to his chief critic and successor Barack Obama — and find the latter increasingly wanting as time goes by. Obama turned Bush’s misdemeanor deficits into felonious trillion-dollar annual shortfalls. He will pile up more debt than any other prior president. . . . Bush was tarred in 2004 for a ‘jobless recovery’ when unemployment hovered near 6%. It is now almost 10% and Obama still harps about ‘jobs saved.’ Scott McClellan may have been singularly inept; we are not so sure after Robert Gibbs.

Read the whole thing.

MATH VS. BILL GATES: Advantage: Math! Math usually wins.

BEDBUG UPDATE: TripAdvisor reviews: Bedbug mentions soar 11% this year.

More here: “The bedbug infestation has reached epidemic proportions – taking over not only private homes and hotels, but stores and movie theaters.”

IT’S COME TO THIS: A “Personal Activity Monitor” to remind you to get up and move around. “If you’ve been still for too long, the monitor vibrates gently to remind you to get up and get moving.” Sadly, this may be a good idea . . . .

IN H+ MAGAZINE, The New Era of Health and Medicine as an Information Technology is Broader than Individual Genes.

JOHN NOLTE: Today’s Inconvenient Truth: Al Gore Lied, James J. Lee Died. But, luckily, no one else.

DINO ROSSI LEADS PATTY MURRAY in new Rasmussen poll. It’s basically a tossup, but he’s now polling slightly ahead.

MICHAEL MOYNIHAN:

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who once denounced homosexual Cubans as “faggots” (maricones) who served the interests of imperialism, has “taken blame” for his revolution’s “excesses” against gay Cubans, which once included sending sexual counterrevolutionaries to prison camps. After offering a string of lame excuses—he was too busy thwarting American plots to stop sending his citizens to prison for being gay—Castro stopped short of actually apologizing.

How progressive the Massa is.

CHANGE: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Defaulting On Its Bonds.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE dwarfs housing bubble.

BYRON YORK: New evidence undermines feds’ case against Arizona.

IT’S AN HONOR just to be nominated.