OKAY, SO WHERE DOES FIAT PLAN TO BUILD JEEPS? There’s a flap on the presidential campaign trail sparked by questions over whether Fiat, which owns Chrysler, plans to move Jeep production from the U.S. to China. Turns out Jeeps will continue to be built here, may again be built in China, and will in the near future also be built in Italy. Confusing? Perhaps this will help.

THIS MAY BE THE LAST LOCAL NEWS INTERVIEW OBAMA GIVES: KUSA 9News’s Kyle Clark asks tough questions, including were the Americans under attack in Benghazi denied military support. HT to Ellen Carmichael, via Twitter.

RELATED (From Ed): Petraeus Throws Obama Under the Bus.

BY THE WAY, COULD FRANKENSTORM BE GOD’S OCTOBER SURPRISE?

MIDNIGHT CONFESSIONS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY: Looks like at least one senior DOE official knew the clean energy program was no good at picking winners and losers. But if they knew that in the dark of night, why did they keep doing it in the light of day?

SO YOU WANT TO DRIVE AN AMERICAN CLASSIC: Ford may have just the ticket for you, brand new modern steel-reinforced, welded and rust-proofed 40 Ford Coupe bodies. It’s part of a restoration line that includes the 32 Deuce Coupe and the 65-70 Mustangs. All you add is a powertrain – “that thang got a Hemi?” – an interior, and a chassis, and you’re in business. See, free markets satisfy customer needs, dreams AND memories!

OBAMAS DID MILLION-DOLLAR MEALS IN THE WHITE HOUSE WHILE JOBLESS AMERICANS LOOKED FOR WORK: And trust me, there is much more to this story than a president and First Lady using tax dollars to make like Gatsby. Today’s piece in The Washington Examiner is just the first course, so to speak.

WHETHER OBAMA OR ROMNEY BECOMES THE NEXT PRESIDENT, EPA IS GOING TO BE HEADACHE CITY: Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-OK, wants to know why EPA is flouting the federal law requiring the agency to post its regulatory plans every six months. And Mark Levin’s Landmark Legal Foundation just sued EPA seeking documents about that regulatory agenda before they are disappeared, as has happened before. Read all about it here.

LOOK WHAT WE FOUND! COULD THIS HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH WHY THE JOINT IS OUT OF CONTROL? Found today buried in one of those ghastly tomes known as “Inspector-General reports” was the statement by the IG at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the agency has no definition of “cost/savings” and even if it did, has no credible way of measuring the same. Now, aren’t you glad that the Watchdog team at The Washington Examiner actually reads IG reports for fun!

IN CHICAGO, THEY EVEN DEFRAUD THE FEDS! Cause of Action’s Daniel Epstein tells The Washington Examiner he and his intrepid investigators are determined to get to the bottom of what he calls the “Chicago-style fraud” perpetrated maybe as far back as 1982 by that city’s transit agency. It has to do with how the locals count mileage used to determine how much federal money the Chicago Transit Authority gets. Can you guess who was CTA’s board chairman from 1995 to 2003? Some people refer to her as “the other side of Obama’s brain.”

AND YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE JUST POSING FOR THE DMV! As more and more states use facial recognition/biometrics-driven photography for drivers’ licensing, the threat to individual privacy is growing exponentially, according to the National Motorists Association. And NMA just happens to offer the following helpful links for those who wish to know more about this: here, here, here and especially here.

WHAT IF SECURITY IS AS BAD AT OTHER FEDERAL DEPARTMENTS AS IT APPARENTLY IS AT DOE? And what if Al Qaeda is preparing to demonstrate the answer to that question in the near future? Washington Free Beacon has a very disturbing report.

HOW ABOUT $300 MILLION IN PUBLIC FUNDING FOR CLEAN ENERGY FIRM WORKERS TO SIT AND PLAY CARDS? That’s what is happening at LG Chem, another of those electric car battery makers that got major federal funding, according to a local Michigan television news operation. Only problem is there’s almost no demand for what LG Chem makes.

INHOFE CATCHES OBAMA DOING THE WASHINGTON WINK-WINK AT EPA. Trust me, it ain’t pretty!

YOU CAN HAVE BIG GOVERNMENT OR TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT, BUT YOU CAN’T HAVE BIG, TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT: That’s what I’ve been telling my liberal friends in the transparency advocacy community for years. Now, the Columbia Journalism Review and Pro Publica combine to compare Obama’s promise to have the most open government ever with the reality. It’s a sad, entirely predictable story, but well-worth reading.

A THOUGHTFUL AND SIGNIFICANT CRITIQUE OF MODERN LIBERALISM: The Washington Post is not normally where you expect statements like this: “Green energy is not cost-competitive with traditional energy and won’t be for years. So it can’t work without either taxpayer subsidies, much of which accrue to ‘entrepreneurs’ such as Gore, or higher prices for fossil energy — the brunt of which is borne by people of modest means.” Editorial writer Charles Lane is the author. Liberals would do well to follow his example.

READ’EM AND WEEP! SEN. TOM COBURN’S 2012 WASTEBOOK IS OUT: Nobody knows the lunacy of federal spending better than this Oklahoma senator. Here’s the 100 worst examples he and his investigators have found this year, like Martian pizza!

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): A reader emails: “I don’t know your policy of commenting on your helpers’ posts, but in my opinion, the Mars Pizza (Mark Tapscott at 7:09 today) thing is a misplaced criticism in Senator Coburn’s report. I’m only now (in light of some recent emergency preparation work) coming to realize some of the food challenges related to Mars travel, or any travel beyond Low Earth Orbit. The military has only been interested in storing food for on the order of a couple years. The Meals Ready-to-Eat packs have about a three year shelf life, and are only meant as short-term rations for on the order of a week. In a Mars Direct scenario, it’s possible that the crew would need to eat food on the return to Earth which was sent to Mars over four years before departure (2 launch windows previously, or 52 months) which has its own set of challenges. I’m not sure that there’s a good response to this, though the pithiest would be ‘If Tom Coburn is worried about spending $947,000 a year on space food research, he must be really concerned about spending $3,000,000,000 or more a year on the Space Launch System, which NASA’s own research shows that the SLS makes exploration more expensive.'”

ANOTHER UPDATE (FROM GLENN): If you read this, it’s clear that Coburn’s complaint is largely based on the research being premature, since no human missions are in the offing any time soon.

DID OBAMA BAILOUT GM OR GM-CHINA? Autobailouttruth.org has a troubling new spot up that focuses on the fact GM’s own chairman says seven out of every 10 cars his company builds these days comes off a foreign assembly line. And GM plans to move more of its operations to China. The spot dovetails closely with the Truth About Cars report linked earlier today by Ed Driscoll.

THIS IS WHAT KEEPS ROMNEY UP NIGHTS – VICE PRESIDENT JOEY GIGGLES WINS OBAMA’S SECOND TERM: Only in an alternative universe, you say? I learned long ago to listen closely when Philip Klein talks.

POLITICAL APPOINTEES DO WHAT POLITICAL APPOINTEES DO: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich explains in no uncertain terms to CBS’s Nora O’Donnell, Charlie Rose and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm the facts of life about why a politically appointed spy chief like James Clapper would bob and weave to protect his boss in the Oval Office. I’m no Newt acolyte but the man can be devastating, as is seen in this clip from Right Scoop.

IS IT REALLY CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IF THE ODDS ARE REMOTE THAT YOU WILL BE ARRESTED? Oct. 7 was Pulpit Freedom Sunday and more than 1,500 Protestant preachers across the country purposely broke the law, hoping that at least one of them would be prosecuted. Their purpose is to get an IRS reg into court where they expect it will be struck down as an unconstitutional abridgement of the First Amendment. Usually it’s the Left doing this kind of thing, but here we have folks on the Right intentionally breaking the law.

FORD HELPED MOST BY GM, CHRYSLER BAILOUTS? Bet you didn’t see this coming! A new Rasmussen survey of consumer sentiment finds that a clear majority of those interviewed are more favorably disposed to buying a Ford product because the famous automaker did NOT go hat-in-hand to Washington for a bailout in 2008, as did General Motors and Chrysler. Since it’s about my two favorite issues, cars and politics, I, of course, have an opinion on these developments!

VEEP DEBATE THOUGHTS: Vice-President Joey Giggles did himself no favors with constant laughing at Ryan, and may have done his boss some damage with his condescending finger-pointing and shouting at moderator. And Rep. Paul Ryan displayed an admirable level of composure, equanimity and grace under pressure.

PRIVATIZING THE SPACE PROGRAM IS A GREAT IDEA, BUT USING IT FOR CRONY CAPITALISM? NOT SO MUCH: The Washington Examiner finds problems, questions in NASA’s insider deal for a hefty Obama contributor.

MAYBE REWARDING SENIOR EXECS FOR SPENDING MORE TELLS US SOMETHING ABOUT WHY WASHINGTON SPENDING IS OUT OF CONTROL? More revelations from The Washington Examiner about the Department of Veterans Affairs, a federal bureaucracy with a management culture structured to spend as many tax dollars as possible. Meanwhile, nearly a million vets’ health and disability claims go unfinished for more than four months!

DOES REPORTING ON GOVERNMENT WASTE MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE? Well, The Washington Examiner Watchdog Team has in recent weeks put the spotlight on outrageous spending by USDA and VA on employee conferences. And people on the Hill are beginning to demand scalps. And, oh by the way, the newspaper is just getting started in reporting, for example, how federal bureaucrats throughout the government routinely use tax-funded conferences as vacation planning tools.