PASSING: Basil Plumley, Army veteran of 3 wars, dies at 92. “Plumley saw action in some of the largest battles of World War II, including the Battle of Normandy, the Battle of Salerno in Italy and Operation Market Garden. He then fought in the Korean War, but it was his role in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam that brought him the most fame.”

WELL, NOBODY DIED IN WATERGATE: What’s the difference between Watergate and Benghazigate?

Also, the press didn’t try to help with the coverup.

UNDERBUSED: Obama campaign refers to liberal bloggers as “tinfoil hat crowd.”

SPENGLER: The Horizon Collapses In The Middle East. “Just when Iran most needs hydrocarbon revenues, its oil output will decline sharply. Natural gas exports can offset the decline to some extent, but not entirely. Iran’s only chance of survival lies in annexing oil-rich regions on its borders: Bahrain, Iraq’s Basra province, parts of Azerbaijan, and ultimately Saudi Arabia’s Shi’ite-majority Eastern Province. That is why Iran needs nuclear weapons.”

MICKEY KAUS: The Case For Paranoia, BLS Edition. “We are getting very exercised denouncing those who doubt the BLS report of a startling September increase in employment, aren’t we? I haven’t heard so much self-righteous post-truth stance-taking since the MSM rose as one to declare that Obama hasn’t undermined welfare reform’s work requirements (which he has). . . . OK, I’m a hopeless paranoid. But one of the worst things about the respectable smackdown of the BLS skeptics is how inept it is at assuaging paranoia. Hostage negotiators will tell you that ‘calm down’ is the worst thing to tell an angry man. And ‘shut up, how dare you question the professionalism of civil servants” is probably the least effective way to convince a paranoid citizen.'”

One lesson we’ve learned from the Obama era is that you can’t rely on “professionalism” very much as a barrier to politics — especially when the politics in question are shared by the “deep state” of career bureaucrats and other unfireables. It’s thus natural to be suspicious. Such cynicism is itself a symptom of the civic rot that the Obama era has brought about. And it’s clearly something about which Obama is either ignorant, or that he’s actually happy with.

UPDATE: An “anomaly” is found.

THEY’RE NOT COVERING HIM, THEY’RE COVERING FOR HIM: Benghazi: Obama lied, media shied away.

BECAUSE  CENTRALLY-CONTROLLED HEALTH IS ALWAYS BETTER: Lack of weekend NHS consultants ‘risking patients’ lives’  Sort of like when, at 18, I had the bad idea of getting a serious infection in a tooth during August.  All doctors in Porto were on vacation.  I had my tooth pulled by an orthodontist who really didn’t know what he was doing.  It’s not pretty when doctors go Galt.

MARC THIESSEN: The Real Libya Scandal: The Failure To Respond.

Today marks exactly one month since terrorists attacked the U.S consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killing our ambassador and three other American personnel. In the weeks since, Washington has been gripped by the unfolding scandals over the Obama administration’s failure to heed warnings of a growing terrorist danger in eastern Libya; its failure to provide additional security requested by U.S. personnel on the ground; and its failure to acknowledge that what happened in Libya was in fact a terrorist attack.

But all this has obscured the more serious scandal: the Obama administration’s utter failure to respond.

They’re talkers, not doers. Though given what a miserable failure the Mohammed-video lie turns out to have been, they’re not that good at the talking part, either.

NOBODY STEPS ON A CHURCH IN MY TOWN: On Monday, I linked to Dave Carter’s lengthy post at Ricochet, which expanded upon Camile Paglia’s recent Wall Street Journal article on the collapse of the art world. Carter used the magnificent 700-year old  Cologne Cathedral as an example of art and architecture at its finest, and a reminder of everything that’s wrong with what passes for art today.

In the comments, Michael Malone of Forbes, ABC and PJM reminded readers of how the church managed to survive World War II:

I hate to burst anybody’s bubble about the ‘miraculous’ survival of Cologne Cathedral in WWII, but it was anything but that.  When my parents were touring the cathedral years ago and the tour guide began describing this miracle, my father, who actually had bombed Cologne, whispered to my mother, “We left it standing because it was perfect for targetting the rest of the city.”  On the same trip, sitting at a cafe enjoying his morning weiss beer and veal sausage, a local struck up a conversation with him, eventually asking, “Have you been to Cologne before, Herr Malone?”  My father casually replied, “No, but I’ve flown over it a couple times. . .”

Heh. As one of the commenters at Ricochet quipped, and now you know the rest of the story…

(For my recent interview with Michael, focusing on his new book on the centennial of the Eagle Scouting program, click here.)

COMPETENCE: Even if Obama thought first — or even only — about reelection, how could he have chosen to lie the way he did about Libya? “By handling the matter the way he did, we have — on top of the damage to the vanquisher of al Qaeda image — a glaring lie and plain evidence of extremely poor judgment.”

FROM CATO, a Fiscal Report Card on America’s Governors.

LOSING THE MIDDLE EAST: Will Jordan Be Next To Fall? How’s that “Smart Diplomacy” workin’ out for ya?

ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE INAUGURAL WALTER DURANTY PRIZE: As Glenn wrote yesterday, it’s a dishonor just to be nominated – and the competition was especially fierce to make the debut cut this election year. How fierce? Andrew Sullivan came in third…

So who did win? Click over to read for yourself.

CAMILLE PAGLIA: Forget Obama — I’m voting for the Green Party. “Now, I wouldn’t be voting Green if Roseanne Barr had won the nomination, but Stein is a solid and sensible candidate. I don’t agree with everything the Green Party says, but I’m in tune with many of its basic positions. . . . I think that Mitt Romney is a moderate — like Nelson Rockefeller, who as governor of New York poured money into the state university system that educated me. Romney is an affable, successful businessman whose skills seem well-suited to this particular moment of economic crisis. Hence I want to use my vote to make a statement about my unhappiness with the Democratic Party and the direction it has taken. The biggest issue for me is the Obama administration’s continuation of endless war, war, war.”

What’s funny is that her interviewer at Salon didn’t even know who the Green candidate was. Obviously, she’s not very well read.

Meanwhile, the Greens have a better work ethic than Obama.

YOU NEED A SCORECARD TO KEEP TRACK: Latest EU Failure: Deficit Targets.

A new IMF report showing that few European countries are expected to hit their target levels of budget deficits is adding fuel to the fires slowly consuming any remaining confidence in the policy pronouncements of European leaders. Shortly after agreeing to new deficit targets for 2013, few countries are on track to meet these targets even after serious budget cuts due to the faltering European economy, the IMF reports.

The list of affected countries includes usual offenders like Greece and Spain, where deficits are nearly two percentage points higher than the target, but also includes newer faces such as France and the Netherlands. And it is difficult to see a policy fix to this problem. . . .

Does a solitary person anywhere believe one word EU leaders say about the state of their economies?

Can anybody anywhere on earth recall such a train of stupid policy decisions, foolish assumptions and failed fixes as the member countries of the eurozone have made since Francois Mitterand demanded the establishment of a single European currency as the price for German unification?

It’s pretty sorry.

I’VE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE:

● “Fiscal Cliff May Be Felt Gradually, Analysts Say,” the New York Times reports this week.

A gradual adjustment, you say?

[youtube t4Tmi_fpUHs]

Actually, the phrase “Fiscal Cliff” also sounds eerily reminiscent of this Photoshop from Iowahawk, which made the rounds during the Democrats’ convention this year. Forward!

ABOUT 1/100 OF A WOMAN’S APPARENTLY: How Much Is A Man’s Virginity Worth?

THE ATLANTIC: It’s A Big, Overwhelming World.

AT AMAZON, markdowns in Home Audio & Home Theater.

INSTAVISION: I talk with Andrew Malcolm of Investor’s Business Daily about the elections, the debates, and more. Now via YouTube.

HATING BREITBART: Director Andrew Marcus discusses his documentary look at Andrew Breitbart in a 23-minute audio interview at Ed Driscoll.com, including his struggles with the (Chris Dodd-led) MPAA to receive a PG-13 rating, and get the documentary out into theaters before the November election.

TONIGHT’S DEBATE MODERATOR RADDATZ HAS A HISTORY OF COMPLAINTS:  According to Joel Pollack at Breitbart, the VP debate moderator, ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, was widely criticized for her performance as the moderator of a 1990 Massachusetts gubernatorial race.  Reports Pollack:

In the days that followed, Raddatz–then known as Martha Bradlee, after her first marriage to fellow reporter Ben Bradlee, Jr.–came under intense criticism from the League of Women Voters for what they called “irrelevant,” personal questions.

During the debate, candidates Francis X. Bellotti and John R. Silber were asked, among other things, what they do when they see a homeless person, asked to describe their personal driving records, to comment on their prior knowledge of Kitty Dukakis’ problems with drugs and alcohol and to itemize the value of their real estate holdings,” reported Renee Loth of the Boston Globe at the time [1].

The League of Women Voters complained that Raddatz’s questions produced “no insight into the programs or policies of the candidates.”

A Democratic consultant agreed: “I don’t mind saying on the record that this was a crop of absolutely ridiculous, frivolous questions that were designed to call attention to the questioner,” i.e. to Raddatz.

Should be entertaining!

I THINK WHAT WE NEED NOW IS MORE ALONG THE LINES OF CHANGE: Libya Embassy Security Officer: Obama’s security strategy was ‘hope.’

Eric Nordstrom, the man responsible for U.S. Embassy security in Libya this summer, told Congress today that the Obama Administration decided to “hope everything would” change for the better rather than provide additional security.

“So when I requested resources, when I requested assets, instead of supporting those assets, I was criticized,” Nordstrom said during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the security provided to the American personnel in Benghazi. “[T]here was no plan. And it was hope that everything would get better.”

Was the refusal to provide more security caused by budget cuts to embassy security? “No, sir,” Charlene Lamb, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Programs, told the committee.

Lamb said that the State Department was right not to grant Nordstrom’s request for more security. “We had the correct number of assets in Benghazi on the night of 9/11,” Lamb said.

Yeah, that worked out just great.

LIAR, LIAR, CAMPAIGN ON FIRE:  Dan Henninger has a great column in the Wall Street Journal today exposing the ubiquity of the Obama campaigns hurling of the “L” word— and we ain’t talking love here–at Mitt Romney.  Observes Henninger:

The L-word’s strength is directly proportional to the rarity and appropriateness of its use. Today in our politics it is as skuzzily routine as the F-bomb has become among 15-year-old girls on the New York City subways. This is not progress.

It will be interesting which variation of “lie”—if any—comes out of Joe Biden’s mouth in his debate with Paul Ryan. Mr. Biden comes from a political generation that could play rough, but it knew the limits of going too low at the presidential level. Or used to.

Can you say “Commander in Sleaze”?