RON FOURNIER: ISIS: Is Obama Leading or Being Led? Fournier offers some reasons why Americans don’t approve of Obama on this issue:
He doesn’t seem to be taking the threat seriously enough.
His assurances are habitually wrong.
He stubbornly clings to his views.
I’d say “bitterly clings,” but that’s just to make a funny.
CUOMO NOT SO POPULAR WITH STATE EMPLOYEES, loses to Teachout 60-40 in Albany Capital Region. Actually, that’s probably a selling point for him.
UPDATE: “Cuomo lost everything tonight except the nomination.”
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES ACCUSED OF POLITICAL ABUSE OF POWER COLLABORATE ON MESSAGING WITH THOSE ON WHOSE BEHALF THE POWER WAS ABUSED: Oops! Wrong Number? Justice Dept. Official Calls Congressional Republicans in IRS Probe.
A lead House Republican is accusing the Justice Department Office of Public Affairs of improperly trying to coordinate with House Democrats on the release of subpoenaed documents in the IRS investigation.
Justice Department Director of Public Affairs Brian Fallon called the House Oversight Committee Friday evening and mistakenly spoke to Republican staff thinking he was speaking to Democrats, according to a spokesman for Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).
In that call, Fallon said his agency was about to turn over some IRS documents. He stated that he was not being allowed to release the material directly to the media, but that he wanted to get it into the hands of certain reporters “before the [Republican] Majority” had the chance to share it. . . .
The Justice Department is simultaneously investigating the IRS while defending the IRS in private litigation. Republicans have raised questions about alleged conflicts of interest in the Justice Department’s roles. They have asked to interview former Justice Department attorney Andrew Strelka who worked for IRS manager Lois Lerner during the time period in which she and her office are accused of improperly targeting conservatives. The Justice Department has balked saying that Strelka has nothing relevant to offer. Holder has also said his agency is conducting a fair and independent investigation of the IRS.
Yeah, nobody believes that either, Eric.
WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS ONE COMING? Breitbart News says IRS targeted company for audit. And who could hear this without laughing?
The agency said in a statement: “Federal privacy laws prohibit the IRS from commenting on specific taxpayer situations. The IRS stresses that audits are based on the information related to tax returns and the underlying tax law — nothing else. Audits are handled by career, non-partisan civil servants, and the IRS has safeguards in place to protect the exam process.”
Nobody believes this anymore. Which is, as I warned it would be, a real loss.
ASHE SCHOW: By not naming harassers, Kirsten Gillibrand is sending a bad message to women. Or, you know, she just made the whole story up for political points.
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN MITT ROMNEY, WE’D HAVE A PRESIDENT ADDICTED TO UNILATERAL WARMAKING. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Obama tells leaders he doesn’t need their vote for ISIS campaign.
President Obama told congressional leaders at a White House meeting on Tuesday he doesn’t need their authorization to expand his military campaign against Islamic terrorists.
The president offered the assurance one day before a prime-time address he’s scheduled to give to the nation. . . .
While Obama told the House and Senate leaders he would welcome congressional action that demonstrates a unified front, the president told the bipartisan group “he has the authority he needs to take action against (ISIS) in accordance with the mission he will lay out in his address,” according to the White House.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called on Obama to better clarify his strategy this week, and the White House has said the president will offer a frank “assessment of this critical national security priority.”
White House press secretary Josh Earnest cautioned that the address would not provide a timeline for the military campaign, nor was Obama expected to outline costs for the operation.
Plus: “Polls show that confidence in Obama’s foreign policy is eroding just as anxiety over the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has peaked.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: WaPo: The college degree has become the new high school degree.
THAT SEEMS ABOUT RIGHT: Byron York: If You Know Who Eric Holder Is, You Probably Don’t Like Him.
NEWS FROM OBAMA’S POST-RACIAL AMERICA: Police: Women Force Tenants out of Apartment at Gunpoint: ‘Tired of White People Moving In.’
CHANGE: MSNBC’s Gun Control Poll On Kroger Shoppers Who Carry Blows Up In Their Face.
UPDATE: Wrong link posted earlier, now fixed.
PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH: The Fall Of The Obama Administration. “Remember when this crowd was going to fix everything that was supposedly wrong with American foreign policy? Boy, those were the days.”
AT AMAZON, take 30% off on Halloween Costumes.
Plus, Snack Food deals galore!
I TALK WITH SCOTT OTT, BILL WHITTLE, AND DAVE SWINDLE: Self-Guided Battlefield Robots Are Coming. Are You Excited or Afraid?
Now with working YouTube link!
UPDATE: Well, crap. Try it now. If it doesn’t work, somebody’s getting an earful tomorrow.
“SMART DIPLOMACY” UPDATE: Fighter With ‘Vetted Moderate’ Syrian Rebels Tells L.A. Times They Fight Alongside Al-Qaeda.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT Apple’s New Devices. And iOS8.
Related: Teachout Claims to Have Already Taught Cuomo a Lesson. If he only gets 51% against an obscure law professor, his national career is in big trouble. If he loses, well, it’s pretty much over. Even 71% is weak for an incumbent Democrat named Cuomo in a Dem primary in New York, I’d think.
UPDATE: Cuomo doesn’t even get 61%. “Mr. Cuomo had 60.4 percent on Tuesday, compared with 35.5 percent for Zephyr Teachout, a law professor who ran a long-shot campaign that served as a megaphone for accumulated liberal complaints about the governor’s time in office.”
BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: “Civilization is in retreat because it is unfashionable to do the right thing.”
SO WHY AM I STILL READING STORIES LIKE THIS WHEN PRETTY MUCH EVERYONE NOW AGREES THAT THERE HASN’T BEEN ANY WARMING IN A COUPLE OF DECADES? Hundreds of bird species at risk due to climate change.
THE PROBLEM WITH Reclining Airplane Seat Design.
THE HILL: Dems do damage control on immigration.
UPDATE: Sorry — had the wrong link before. Fixed now. And bumped.
BRING BACK DDT: Mosquito-Borne Viruses Hit Japan and the U.S.
Mosquito-borne viruses are showing up unexpectedly in affluent countries where they have been largely unknown.
Yoyogi Park, a popular oasis in downtown Tokyo, was closed last week after authorities realized it was the center of Japan’s first outbreak of dengue in 70 years.
Dengue is also called breakbone fever for the severe joint pain it causes. Repeat infections can cause dengue hemorrhagic fever, which can be lethal. Since Japanese authorities detected the first case Aug. 27, 65 more have been found, most of them associated with Yoyogi Park. The victims included two models covering the outbreak for a local television station.
Fear of the virus is spreading. In Yokohama, officials closed a large beach park after one local woman infected in Tokyo said she was later bitten by a mosquito there.
In the United States, more than 750 cases of another painful disease, chikungunya, have been reported this year. Almost all have been in tourists returning from the Caribbean, where the disease is rampant, particularly in the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique and Puerto Rico. Nine million Americans visit the Caribbean each year.
But Florida residents who had not traveled were infected this summer, and the virus was found in a Texas mosquito, meaning that it is becoming established in the United States.
Chikungunya was unknown in the Western Hemisphere until late last year.
Victims can often be seen walking stooped over with pain; the name means “bent up” in Makonde, an East African language.
There used to be malaria in East Tennessee where I live — and Yellow Fever epidemics in Philadelphia.
RICHARD EPSTEIN: Presidential Indecision.
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