BENGHAZI-GATE INDIFFERENCE:  Jonah Goldberg has an excellent piece in today’s Chicago Tribune documenting the lamestream media’s incessant, overt bias against conservatives, which helps explain its continuing indifference to all things Benghazi.  Says Goldberg:

Last week, Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported that sources on the ground in Libya say they pleaded for support during the attack on the Benghazi consulate that led to the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. They were allegedly told twice to “stand down.” Worse, there are suggestions that there were significant military resources available to counterattack, but requests for help were denied.

If true, the White House’s concerted effort to blame the attack on a video crumbles, as do several other fraudulent claims. Yet, last Friday, the president boasted that “the minute I found out what was happening” in Benghazi, he ordered that everything possible be done to protect our personnel.

That is either untrue, or he’s being disobeyed on grave matters.

This isn’t an “October surprise” foisted on the media by opposition research; it’s news.

This story raises precisely the sort of “big issues” the media routinely claim elections should be about.

And yet still, we hear from the MSM . . . crickets.

DUCE REDUX: “Now, you’re likely thinking to yourself,” Zombie writes this morning at the PJ Tatler, “’That Obama portrait looks vaguely familiar. Have I seen it somewhere before?'”

(And speaking of Duce Redux, that’s not the first time that headline’s been used in this context.)

ROMNEY DELIVERS ANTI-OBAMA ADS AT THE GAS PUMP:

[youtube sce1XSC1XHg]

And just a reminder that beyond Obama and his energy secretary, the MSM also views high gas prices as a feature, not a bug.

HURRY ON DOWN NOW! YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO MISS CRAZY BARRY’S CAR LOT BLOWOUT SALE ON CHEVY VOLTS!! Politizoid strikes again, with a hilarious animated take-off of those irritating but irresistibly cheesy new-car dealer television spots. You know, the ones that magically make your volume go way up when they come on. This is the Obama GM bailout like you’ve never seen it before and it’s really good.

[youtube 8Cv_SbBDBjE]

SHOOTING AT USC: “The Los Angeles Police Department was responded to reports of a shooting on the campus of USC late Wednesday night,” the LA Times reports:

LAPD sources said the incident occurred outside a Halloween party and that at least one person was injured. It’s unclear if either the victim or the gunman were students at USC.

The condition of the victim was not immediately known.

More at Twitchy.com.

OCTOBER NOVEMBER SURPRISE: After spending much of Wednesday evening teasing readers (with an assist from Mat Drudge and some advance warning from Stacy McCain and Ace), the Daily Caller’s bomb on Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has finally been dropped. But is it thermonuclear or a misfire?

GOD’S EYE VIEW: Reuters slideshow of aerial views from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy.

LAWFARE ATTACKS STANDING:  The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday on Clapper v. Amnesty International, an important case that requires the Court to decide whether lawyers and journalists who “fear” government surveillance of their conversations with foreigner terror suspects have standing to challenge the law allowing such surveillance (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA).  The case is considered to be part of a “lawfare” effort by the far left to undermine U.S. efforts in the war on terror.

Normally, such “fear” won’t give rise to an active “case or controversy” required by the Constitution to allow adjudication, but the plaintiffs in Clapper argue that an exception should be made because if such surveillance occurs, it would be secret, and they would never know that they’d been injured.

A great summary of the case is available here.

GOVERNMENT: Towns In Sandy’s Path Did Little To Prepare For Floods.

BREAKING: CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT OFFICIALLY CONCLUDED: Noam Chomsky appears in M.I.T. ‘Gangnam Style’ parody.

UPDATE: A reader emails that I’ve “missed the best part of the Chomsky cameo in the MIT Gangnam Style parody, explained here. Punch line:”

“Gangnam Style” is a Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam district of Seoul, where people are trendy, hip and exude a certain supposed “class”… The song’s refrain “오빤 강남 스타일 (Oppan Gangnam style)” has been translated as “Big brother is Gangnam style”, with PSY referring to himself; “Oppa”, a Korean expression used by females to refer to an older male friend or older brother, is also used by K-Pop fans to address their K-Pop idols.

You can interpret “Big brother is Chomsky style” as you wish.

Doubleplus-heh, indeed.

SCOTT JOHNSON: THE FACEBOOK SPIKE. Disgraceful partisanship on Facebook’s part. It’s nice that they’ve apologized, but I’d like some assurance they won’t do something like it again.

A HALLOWEEN HELEN THOMAS SIGHTING in the White House.

LIAR, LIAR:  But will Benghazi-gate catch fire?

NOTE: Font size does not reflect relative degree of media emphasis.

IN OREGON? WHY BOTHER PULLING THIS IN OREGON? AFL-CIO mailer warns Oregon voters: We know your voting history.

FACT-CHECKING the increasingly risible Tom Friedman. “Friedman’s problem is that he knows little or nothing about Minnesota politics. He implies that today’s Republican legislative candidates have only limited appeal because they are too extreme. But he fails to mention that in 2010, the GOP captured both houses of Minnesota’s legislature in a stunning sweep, winning the Senate for the first time since it became a partisan body some decades ago.” Just remember, his foreign reporting probably isn’t any better, just harder to check.

CAPTAIN’S JOURNAL ON BENGHAZI: “There is a paper trail of deployments, locations, arming orders, force sizes, and so on and so forth. There is yet another paper trail of orders, requests, directives and other communications that fateful night. We won’t stop until it is all public and assessed by all of us. We will get it, eventually. We will all see it. We will know who did what, who said what, what assets were where, who lied, who equivocated, and who came clean. We will name names. The players who have any integrity left should come clean now and spill everything. It will go better for everyone in the long run. But it won’t change the facts. And the facts will be found out. That’s our promise.”

Related: Classified cable warned consulate couldn’t withstand ‘coordinated attack.’

Also: Obama’s Libya Stonewalling Isn’t Working: “In the latest CBS/New York Times poll likely voters disapprove of Obama’s handling of the Libya attacks by a margin of 51 percent to 38 percent. Among independents disapproval is even higher at 57 percent.” Despite the media’s best efforts to protect him.

The truth will come out. Who wants to be the last man to see his career die for someone else’s mistake?

WHY ARE YOU CRYING? Oh… it will be over soon.

PREMIUM RUSH: NYC Bicyclists Capture Superstorm Sandy Up Close and Personal in new video.