Back In Benghazi...

The NY Times avoids a rush to judgment with this cautious headline:

U.S. May Have Put Mistaken Faith in Libya Site’s Security

May have? Four Americans, including the Ambassador, are dead. Meanwhile, their crack team of investigative reporters drills down for the truth:

WASHINGTON — An effective response by newly trained Libyan security guards to a small bombing outside the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi in June may have led United States officials to underestimate the security threat to personnel there, according to counterterrorism and State Department officials, even as threat warnings grew in the weeks before the recent attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

June was OK so September will be better? What, is the State Department staffed by ineducable Mets fans?

The Sept. 11 attack culminated several weeks of growing violence against Western and other diplomatic posts in Benghazi. State Department officials said they were aware of the worsening climate and took precautions. One American official who worked in the mission said the Americans there were able to get around with “appropriate prudence.”

One American official, who said he traded e-mails with Mr. Stevens three days before his death, said the ambassador did not mention any heightened security concerns. CNN, however, has reported that Mr. Stevens did express such worries in a diary that one of the network’s correspondents found at the ransacked mission.

Hindsight is 20/20, but still - with deteriorating security and the 9/11 anniversary, Monday morning quarterbacks have a lot to work with.

The Times also provides a detailed account of the battle

Comments

[matt]

The Univision program last night was interesting. My Spanish isn't very good, but the story was laid out episodically. The massacre of a bunch of high school kids in Juarez; another massacre at a drug rehab clinic; street murders. Interviews with the families.

57 additional firearms used in specific crimes, mainly murders.

Interviews with Brian Terry's parents and the parents of Jaime Zapata, the other murdered agent.

A few mea culpas from low level ATF officials.

It was done expose' style, but if I was Mexican-American of a Mexican citizen, I would be seriously pissed off.

[Captain Hate]

Wait, does Pantsuit claim to be a Mets fan? That would explain a lot.

[narciso]

Walsh who has been on fire with Fast and the Furious, in part because he has a novelists vision,
besides his reporting credentials;

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/wheels_coming_off_uOnuODm7bwRX33t0JilbkN

[Below the waterline.]

matt, who knew how swiftly the Spanish?
=================

[narciso]

As I pointed out, earlier Matt, they went from the Mexican Pentagon's records and worked backwards.

[A day late and a dollar short?, only having ten, ya know.]

What I don't understand, but may be mistaken about, is how this happened even though the wife of Univision's owner(founder?) was appointed as an Ambassador last week.
===============

[Nor Texas, nietha.]

Won't bring California into play, no I don't think so.
================

[narciso]

This is from the older thread,

the WR Mead piece, about how Islamists is reorganizing itself, suggests something I've been thinking about, the interesting thing about AQIM, is what it used to be named, the Salafist Group of Combatants, that is has in common with Boko Haram, the Nigerian Taliban,
which AbdulMutallab was afilliated with
Ansar al Sharia, seems to have been formed by a merger between Bukatef's Feb 17th Brigade, and
bin Qumu's own outfit.

If one were forming a new Islamist umbrella group, this is what it would look like. labels are sometimes misleading, if they don't illustrate what the pattern is.

[matt]

But they didn't include a lot, including the shoot down of an Army helicopter by someone using a .50 cal rifle, almost certainly a Barratt or the murders of numerous Army patrols by narcos.

I would imagine a lot of that might be classified.

The way this is being painted, American arms are fundamentally responsible for the violence. No one has the nerve to go in and really dig on the records.

They also mentioned Operation Castaway, another gunrunning program out of Florida from which arms used in assassinations in Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Honduras were traced.

[narciso]

the scourge of delayed paperwork, Kim,

[Captain Hate]

Maybe some people can't get bought, especially by a pre-lame duck. Plus he has a domestic audience to play it to. Also he probably figures that ValJar keeps the JEF away from anything negative, with it being in Spanish as a further fail-safe.

[Danube of Thought]

"Hindsight is 20/20"

No it isn't.

[Can you hear me, Major Tom?]

I love it, Cap'n HaHa, no wonder the ooda is so loopy.
==============

[matt]

Interesting Post article, narciso. It seems that they have all forgotten that the forge of the latest Arab radicalism and terrorism was the anti-Sadat movement in Egypt.

Zarqawi and other AQ leaders all spent time as guests of the Egyptian government and now that new government has released the butcher of Luxor and has put the release of the blind sheikh, responsible for the 1993 bombing, at the top of their agenda. These people are symbolic of the worst trends of Salafism.

[narciso]

Well Lawrence Wright's piece on Zawahiri, which led to the 'Looming Tower', he went into Qutb's 'journey through Gehenna' the part about Seif al Adel, who had the first idea of using an airplane
as a weapon.

[narciso]

Which was why I found the Cairo speech, at the time, ironic, because Obama was denouncing Gitmo
and Abu Ghraib, which are practically spas compared to the Citadel, where Qutb and Abdel Rahman spent time.

[narciso]

This is the piece I was referring to;

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/09/29/dispatches-from-the-war-that-nobody-wants/

[narciso]

Of course it's full of anonymous sources, so act accordingly;

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/10/01/congress-wont-save-romney-on-libya/

[Clarice]

Looks increasingly as though one must really flunk an IQ test to get a job at the State dept, doesn't it?

[Clarice]

What lured Stevens to benghazi on 9/11?
Why was there a consulate PLUS a "safe house" and secured annex and a "farm" about a mile away? What were all those ex-seals doing there?

[Captain Hate]

Clarice, they'd never have graduated high school if passing a Civics class was required.

[NK]

Clarice@1:06-- all fair questions. No way you get an answer before election day.
PS: have you ever tried Provence artesan rolls made with Rosemary and Poppy Seed covered? Ridiculously delicious.

[James D.]

Romney should go straight after Zero - and the MSM - re: Libya in the debate. Screw rules, format, topics. First question, turn to Zero:

"I'll answer that question in a moment. But first I have to ask the President, here and now, why has he been lying to the American people about the murder of our Ambassaddor? Our intelligence services knew almost immediately that it was a terrorist attack, and still you sent out your Secetary of State and your UN Ambassador and your press secretary to lie to all of us. Why? You owe the families of the four victims an answer
And you owe the American people an answer."

[Captain Hate]

Last week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee circulated a bipartisan letter demanding answers. Sen. John Kerry, widely seen as the next secretary of state if Obama wins re-election, even put his name on the demand. The deadline on that letter: November 13, 2012.

Too bad there's not a Repub preznit and Lurch could bellow out a "Don't you know who I am" to get the info ASAP

[Porchlight]

Sen. John Kerry, widely seen as the next secretary of state if Obama wins re-election

OMG, please no

[maryrose]

James D.:
I too would like Romney to take it to Obama on these questions that deserve to be answered. All Bammy will say is we are still investigating.
He pushes blame away from himself even though the buck is supposed to stop with him.
However this disaster has taken a toll on his foreign policy ability of which he has none. Hillary has been reduced to a side-show and a joke. How much you want to bet that she refused to go on the Sunday shows and spout the lie so they had to go with Rice instead.

[maryrose]

The November 13th deadline should be alluded to during the debates and the question posed to Obama-Are you and John Kerry worried about the election and is that why the date is conveniently after election day? I would love to see Oblammy answer that one.

[MarkO]

"Sen. John Kerry, widely seen as the next secretary of state if Obama wins re-election

OMG, please no"

As if it would matter at that point.

[fdcol63]

The only silver lining in Benghazi-Gate is that it hopefully destroys whatever hopes Hillary had of making a POTUS run in 2016.

[MarkO]

Some fat idiot on Fox News claiming we're in the "mop up" phase of the war on terror. OK. Then, take down TSA. So long as I have to take off my shoes to get on a plane and my family can't walk down to say goodbye, we've lost.

[fdcol63]

Sad commentary that the Dems' "gravitas" rests on the shoulders of John F'ing Kerry, who by the way, fought in Vietnam.

[narciso]

Good strong response,

http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/30/paul-ryan-eric-holder-must-go-over-fast-and-furious/

[Porchlight]

As if it would matter at that point.

True, MarkO.

[narciso]

This is the slim reed they were resting upon;

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/01/the-intel-behind-obama-s-libya-line.html

[Clarice]

No,nk. I make a nice Alsatian roll but have never seen the recipe for those provencal rolls. If you've got it, pls share it.

[narciso]

What's the difference between an Alsatian and Provencal roll, btw,

[narciso]

And talk about reading the story backwards, in the LUN

[narciso]

Here's one example;

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/paindeprovence

[matt]

about 500 miles.....

[NK]

Clarice-- I wish I could share a recipe, the rosemary rolls were on the breakfast menu at a hotel in Nice.

[matt]

narciso, the sad fact is that the enemy will press any attack they can. London, Madrid, the car bombings; the Camp Bastion attack are all part of their jihad to impose their extremist religion on first the Ummah and then the world.

[Jack is Back]

NK,

In France and Belgium they are called pistolets not Clarice's pistola's:) In Belgium, every Sunday you line up at 0700hrs in front of the Brood en Banquet (Bakery) for the pistolets. My wife's family would get 3 different kind - Velourkas (because of the white flour dusting on top); Tigerkas (because of the different color stripings on top) and Sandwichkas (a glorified hot dog bun). And for the sweet tooth - the best damn eclairs you've ever eaten.

The best part is what you do with them at breakfast - you fill them with charcuterie (what we call cold cuts), cheese, pates and real cream butter. Ummm, ummm, ummm.

Clarice,

All those compounds, safe houses and farm were a sophisticated CIA and NSA operation to 1) track down the MANPADS, 2) Locate and eradicate AQIM and AAS as they form into different units and 3) listening post and signals intelligence to backtrack to Hezbollah, Iran and even remnants of AQ leadership in Pakistan. At least that is my belief and I'm sticking to it. Turkey consulate like ours was probably MIT (their version of our CIA). They are still NATO and our only Islamic member - so they can provide very localized HUMINT that we probably wouldn't be able to deliver.

The loss of the signal intelligence is the biggest loss in my opinion since it was probably getting good vectors on where the funding, the weapons and the direction was originating.

[Captain Hate]

Btw does anybody know how Fast and Furious is being regarded in Mexico? That Univision even brought it up in an interview with the mendacious mulatto puts them head and shoulders above our domestic court-jester/quisling MFM.

Btw Tammy Bruce just played a clip from the Jets owner stating that a Romney win is more important than the Jets having a winning season. I expect Roger Goodell to take strong action on that.

[pagar]

"John F'ing Kerry, who by the way," led the protests in the US to help North Vietnam kill Americans and defeat the US.

[narciso]

That's as plausible a story as any, JIB, MIT operates through 'cutouts' like the IHIH, whose members served in the 7th Division of the Bosnian Army, as one of the leaders of the Hamas flotilla turned out to be, they are doing a similar deal on the Turkish border, running operations into Syria.

Now there are likely comparable operations out of Qatar, since they are the new big player in Islamists

[narciso]

Most of the piece is self serving chaff, until we get to Benotman's comment;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19605322

[Clarice]

Lots of pistolet recipes online . I'll try this one
The crust on these rolls isn’t as cruchy as the crust of a lean roll, such as a Mexican bolillo, but they freeze and toast well and will last on the counter for several days if stored in a loose-fitting plastic bag. The recipe may seem involved and complicated, but it you take it a step at a time it will all work out and you’ll have 35-40 rolls that you’ll be proud of.
Ingredients for Pistolet Rolls

Ingred Ounces Grams
Bread Flour 40 1135
Water 24 680
Dry Yeast 1 1/2 Tbsp 22 ml
Sugar 3 Tbsp 45 ml
Non-fat dry milk 1/2 cup 120 ml
Soft butter 4 115
Malt syrup 2 tsp 10 ml See malt discussion here Use diastatic malt if possible. If you don’t have diastatic malt, use regular malt. If you don’t have either malt, just use sugar.
Salt 1 Tbsp 15 ml
Ingredients for a Small Batch of Pistolet Rolls
Ingred Ounces Grams
HK Flour 20 570
Water 12 340
Dry Yeast 2 1/4 tsp 11 ml
Sugar 1 1/2Tbsp 22 ml
Non-fat dry milk 1/4 cup 60 ml
Soft butter 2 60
Malt syrup 1 tsp 5 ml See malt discussion here Use diastatic malt if possible. If you don’t have diastatic malt, use regular malt. If you don’t have either malt, just use sugar.
Salt 1/2 Tbsp 7 1/2 ml
1. Have some rye flour on hand for dusting.
2. Have a dowel or a broom handle ready to use for shaping.
3. Have baking sheets lined with parchment paper ready.
Method for making Pistolets
1. Place the water, yeast, sugar, non-fat dry milk, malt syrup and half the flour in the bowl of a large mixer.
2. As you mix, cut up the butter and add it a bit at a time.
3. Add the rest of the flour slowly and mix until the dough comes together. This should take 2-3 minutes.
4. Stop mixing, cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
5. Uncover the dough, add the salt and mix for 6 minutes more, until the dough forms a soft, wet dough.
6. Place the dough in a very large container for fermentation. This dough will more than triple — see pictures — so give it plenty of room to expand.
7. Ferment for 4 hours.
8. Uncover the dough, fold it gently and cover it back up. Ferment for another 45 minutes.
Here, you have some decisions to take. This dough will make enough rolls to crowd most ovens. You have to decide if you want to bake in two batches or to brave it and bake them all at once. I’ve tried both methods and had good rolls either way. If you decide to make two batches, then split the dough and reserve half of it for the second batch, otherwise, just shape and bake them all.
1. Flour the work surface with the rye flour.
2. Place the dough on the counter and divide it into the number of rolls you want. I use a scale to determine the size.
3. Roll the balls under your cupped hand to seal them tightly and build surface tension. Press hard.
4. Cover the group of dough balls with waxed paper and let them rest for 20 minutes.
5. Working with one roll at a time and leaving the rest covered, dust the top with rye flour (I dip the top in a bowl of flour)
6. Press the stick down the center of the roll. Leave a strip or dough 1/4 inch / 6 mm between the two sides.
7. Lift the roll, place the thumbs in the groove and stretch gently to make the roll longer.
8. Place the rolls seam down on the floured work surface.
9. Cover with waxed paper and let rest for 30 minutes.
10. If making two batches shape the second batch while the first batch is resting.
11. Place 1 1/2 cups / 350 ml of hot water in a pan in the oven and heat the oven to 425F / 220C.
12. Place the pistolets on the baking sheet seam up.
13. If using one sheet, place it in the middle of the oven. If using two sheets, place one on the middle rack and one on the top rack.
14. Bake for 10 minutes.
15. If using one rack, turn the baking sheet around. If using two trays, switch racks and turn the baking sheets around.
16. Bake another 10 minutes.
17. Check the rolls. You may have to move the rolls around on the baking sheet or change positions of the sheets to get the rolls to bake evenly. You may even find that some are done before others. If so, remove them and continue on with the others.
18 The Pistolets should be done in 25-30 minutes, depending on your oven.
19. Remove the Pistolets to a rack and let cool.
20. If you are baking a second batch, check the water in the pan and proceed.
http://artisanbreadbaking.com/bread/pistolets/

[Jack is Back]

Clarice,

Very similar to Mrs. JiB's recipe. The key is the Malt Extract which really adds the firmness to the pistolet. She says the Chicago Rolls you get at Publix are the closest thing she has found to a true Belgian hard roll.

OT: I wonder how safe the film maker feels now in the hoosegow since the Paki has increased his bounty by $200K

h/t Iowahawk on Twitter

[S Harms]

Re : NYT blow by blow account of the Bengazi attack. Funny. The FBI cant get in there to investigate, and the NYT has talked to everyone involved.

[sbw]

Insty pointed to a NCLB education article joking No Child Gets Ahead.

The article did point out the good that NCLB did to expose giving up on certain groups of people.

But to assure that no group gets left behind, NCLB leaves all children behind, treating them as an aggregate score, unified and non-individual.

As worthwhile as it might have been to indicate some were overlooked, the collectivization and automation of national education programs assures that individual students will be schooled, not educated.

My, what a price!

[Jane - Get off the couch your country needs you!]

FYI, the second Scott Brown v Fauxahontus debate starts at 7:00 PM. I've got a meeting so I could miss about half of it. Hopefully Janet or Daddy or someone will be around to live blog it.

[Manuel Transmission]

Speaking of recipes, has anyone here heard of the idea that wheat (gluten) may be more of a problem now since the modern strains of the grain have unintentionally changed some factors. Apparently the modern strains have 22 chromosomes instead of 11. Gene manipulation may prove to be better than the traditional hybrid improvements.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Gene manipulation may prove to be better than the traditional hybrid improvements.--

It always cracks me up when I pick up some product proudly stating it contains no GMO stuff when it is often some species which has been under hybridization for hundreds or thousands of years and bears little or no similarity to its wild rootstock.

[Tonto]

OT ... or not?? In any event, an excellent retelling of the Song of Roland.

[Clarice]

MT, I read that the other day. Not sure I believe it. I think white flour was very expensive and people did eat coarser grains until recently. Also they died a lot earlier--often from starvation-- making it unlikely they had time enough to develop exotic allergies.

[NK]

With regret I have to agree with the Krieger post and ZeroHedge pile on. Bernanke has screwed to pooch and failed to show the same wisdom of his mentor milt Friedman: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-01/guest-post-ben-bernanke-just-told-massive-lie-about-milton-friedman

[Old Lurker]

Ditto MarkO 1:34

[DrJ]

Kirsanow's parodies at NRO recently have been outstanding. Here's today's, and sorry for the length:

Cambridge, Mass. Celebrated historian Bertram Oxley has uncovered a memorandum from former Japanese Emperor Hirohito to Admiral Yamamoto dated December 6, 1941, showing that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was motivated by an offensive film made by Charlie Chaplin ridiculing Japanese cuisine.

“Contrary to historical accounts over the last seventy years,” Professor Oxley said in an interview today with the BBC, “What appeared to be a meticulously planned surprise attack was actually a spontaneous demonstration by moderate sushi connoisseurs in the Imperial Navy in response to a hateful and offensive movie. Thereafter, extremist elements within the Japanese military co-opted the spontaneous attack, transforming it into the overseas contingency operation sometimes referred to as ‘World War II.’”

The discovery has created a sensation in scholarly circles. “This is a remarkable find,” declared Reginald Smythe, chairman of the Progressive Historians Assocation and former Obama State Department official. “Had President Roosevelt condemned this movie — instead of uttering that infernal ‘Day of Infamy’ provocation — the war could have been avoided and millions of lives would have been saved.”

Reached at his home in Houston, former President George H. W. Bush, an aviator in the Pacific during the war, expressed skepticism. “It’s simply inconceivable that the Japanese First Air Fleet, with six aircraft carriers, could have staged a spur of the moment attack on an island thousands of nautical miles from the Japanese homeland with such stealth and precision.” Most experts dismissed Mr. Bush’s remarks, however, since it’s widely understood that World War II was primarily his son’s fault.

White House spokesman Jay Carney, asked this afternoon about the memo’s discovery stated, “Of course, hindsight’s 20-20. But one can only wonder how much pain and suffering could have been averted had FDR simply apologized to Hirohito at the outset.”

“Fortunately,” Carney continued, waving off questions from White House reporters anxious to return to questions about Mitt Romney’s grooming habits, “We’ve evolved to a more sophisticated strategy of leading from behind, so we’re unlikely to repeat the disastrous mistakes of the past.”

[narciso]

He's gone fully Constanza,

http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/01/news/economy/bernanke-savings/index.html?iid=HP_LN

here's your wheelbarrow.

[Ranger]

From the post at NK's link:

Bernanke is right about the past, Schwartz says, “but he is fighting the wrong war today; the present crisis has nothing to do with a lack of liquidity.”

Which remindes me of something I said some time last year I think:

When all you have is a printing press, everything looks like a liquidity problem.

[NK]

Ranger/Narc-- if BenB actually believes the stuff he's saying these days.... we're all up a creek wityhout a paddle. Madness. I agree with Ranger's printing press/liquidity observation.

[Threadkiller]

"San Carlos, CA (PRWEB) October 01, 2012

Just in time for the 2012 presidential elections, author Bob Gard has released an eBook that sheds light on a controversy that, over the last few years, has become a grim contest of political wills. The book offers a historically verified definition of the term "natural born citizen" as it appears in the presidential eligibility clause in Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution.

With the ponderous but eminently searchable title of "On Gard, Obama, You Are An Unconstitutional President Because You Are Not A Natural-Born Citizen, Which I Shall Prove Beyond A Reasonable Doubt," this 1,722-page volume lays out conclusive, verbatim evidence that the reader can analyze independently of the writer's own opinions. Available at Amazon.com, the eBook can be downloaded on PCs in the Microsoft Word™ 2010 “docx” file format. The 175-megabyte file requires a longer-than-average downloading time, and some readers may experience intermittent warnings of “not responding.” Author Bob Gard says, "The wait will be worth it for those who wish to follow a path back to constitutionality."

Bob Gard is the first person who pieces together this comprehensive definition of natural-born citizenship using both correlative and corroborative evidence. For more than 220 years, much of this evidence has been readily available within the public domain, but no one has yet brought the parts together into a conclusive whole. In order to define natural-born citizenship, this book traces how the law of nature, the law of nations, the British legal system and the American legal system have evolved through the course of history. "The evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Barack Hussein Obama's claim to presidential office is unconstitutional due to his violation of the Constitution’s presidential eligibility clause," Gard says."

http://news.yahoo.com/book-proves-president-obama-not-natural-born-us-150108550.html

(Hat tip ORYR)

[NK]

Insta links to tremendous snark from one Peter Roff (don't know him). Sad thing is the media will behave exactly as Roff's sarcasm lampoons: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2012/10/01/how-the-media-will-cover-wednesdays-presidential-debate?fb_action_ids=493929617292339&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map={%22493929617292339%22%3A350984551662466}&action_type_map={%22493929617292339%22%3A%22og.likes%22}&action_ref_map=[]

[BB Key]

Thanks DrJ , that is the best thing I have read today

[Threadkiller]

Advantage Danube:

Judy v. Obama and Weldon v. Obama both denied by Supreme Court.

http://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/100112zor.pdf

[Homer Simpson]

What lured Stevens to benghazi on 9/11?

Someone here, I forget who, said that given the known dangers, a trip by an ambassador to Benghazi would have required a sign-off by some higher-up. Is that so, and who would it have been? And where is it?

When all you have is a printing press, everything looks like a liquidity problem.

Ranger, I said at the time that was a great line and you gave me your permission to steal it. I have and will continue to do so.

[mbabbitt]

Remember always: What if Bush was president? I rest my case.

[Rick Ballard]

OL,

Something to ponder while considering a try at Intrade:

Ras Generic 45-41

Gallup Party Affiliation 28R-32D (not leaned).

It was 29-30 at this point in 2010 and 28-35 at his point in 2008. That's party affiliation among adults, not RV or LV. It's worthwhile to remember the September number contains all the convention bounce and the net gain over August was a whopping 1 point.

The Intrade Romney contract looks very interesting.

[Jack is Back]

Tonto,

Many thanks for that post on Chaisson de Roland. Next to Beowolf one of my favorite epic poems of all time. But the retelling in the Paris Review is classic in itself by the successor to Sol Steinberg.

Poor Spain. Now fighting the Muslims of economics - public spending, public unions and lack of private billionaires to skin.

[jimmyk]

oops, not sure how that "Homer Simpson" got in there at 5:01, $*@($#@ typepad.

[henry]

NK, our local radio person Vikki McKenna gave an interesting reason for Obama going to Madison Thursday: UW is the only venue he can count on filling with crazed, adoring idiots for his post debate football spike. Compare O's +3 lead in WI to Barrett's tie in May (Walker won by more than 3). O can't show weakness in WI by going north to the Fox Valley where persuadables live, he has to go to 90% Dem UW to show "momentum."

[Dave (in MA)]

D'oh

[narciso]

Remember the new head of the Near East Division, that the Post, profiled some months back, maybe he sent Stevens, on this back channel mission,

[matt]

On another note, I propose we initiate the first annual Mullah of the Year Pageant. We can expect entrants from all over the Ummah and it may one day rival the Miss Universe pageant. Categories include:

Best Dressed (literally) – this could be a fashion contest much like Miss America. They could have funny hats and costumes, headgear sort of like when they do the parade of states. Even an evening wear competition.

Most Fiery Sermon

Best Muezzin (hog callin)

Most successful recruiter to Jihad

Best Beard

Most extreme form of Salafism

Most outrageous claim about Infidels

Best Riot Incitement

And the Muzzy for Best Fatwa goes to......

[NK]

Henry-- what's your best guess for the Badger state? is this a rerun of the Walker/SCt elections, or is Obama different for lefty voters turning out?

[Porchlight]

Also they died a lot earlier--often from starvation-- making it unlikely they had time enough to develop exotic allergies.

There also wasn't a multibillion dollar home cleaning product industry.

My belief re: allergies is that in Western first world countries, so much has been removed from our environments to make them "clean" that our immune systems now go crazy over non-harmful stuff.

I personally am a big believer in germs. The more the merrier. I wouldn't use hand sanitizer if you paid me. And I am never sick and neither are my kids.

[Barbara]

DrJ @4:23pm,

That Kirsanow parody is just great. Thanks for the much needed laugh. :)

[henry]

NK, best guess is a close vote with Romney winning. R's are +15 on enthusiasm here, and Ryan is a plus as well.

[jimmyk]

I personally am a big believer in germs. The more the merrier. I wouldn't use hand sanitizer if you paid me. And I am never sick and neither are my kids.

Yes, and no. After some of those sepsis/MERSA stories, I think it's a good idea to clean, disinfect, and bandage cuts. But yeah, all those antibacterial soaps and the like are silly.

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

Jimmy (AKA Homer)

The state department had to specifically sign off on the Steven's trip given how insecure Benghazi was. Because of the conditions, no ambassador would be allowed to go there without a specific SD waiver. I forget who said that but it was someone who would know.

[rse]

Porch-I have seen studies that say that all the anti-disinfectant push is making kids more susceptible. I am like you. Kids need to get dirty growing up.

Today's in the LUN is both a continuation of talking about that Vision Statement and why they are so determined to push all the digital gadgets.

It is a quote they put up in their arrogance along with the determination to go after values first to try to force students to develop a more community for the common good focus.

[Clarice]

porch, My son'e pediatrician said we should let him eat some dirt and not vacuum up every single dust bunny in the house.

[rse]

jimmy-my eldest was a wrestler and picked up a MRSA infection. I move at the speed of light when there is an emergency like that. It was just below the elbow and doctor said it was just a matter of hours before it would have harmed the joint.

[Porchlight]

Yes, jimmyk, definitely good to clean wounds. But regular peaceable co-existence with the day to day household germs. You know, like a Coexist bumper sticker. Kidding!

[rse]

And porch, if you have a boy who wrestles and gets poison ivy, tell him that bandaging it tightly so he can go on to wrestling camp is a good way to make it acute.

cause mothers only find these things out when it is acute and we are suppose to "fix it."

[NK]

RickB-- The Raz and Gallup surveys do coexist well. Gallup is a good trend spotter-- hence in late 2008, self-Id'ed Dems connsistently outnumbered Repubs by 10-15 percentage points, now it's consistently 3-6 points --i.e a 6-8 point drop. That's the trend I've seen in Gallup since mid 2010 when Obamacare passed. I've concluded from that trend, that ID'ed voters alone should make this a flat election, decided by Indie voters. Raz's 45-41% generic Congressional LV poll, is also consistent with that Gallup trend. So HOW in THE hell, does Raz claim election day turnout will be D+2-4%? I don't get it. A case can be made for 0-2% Dem advantage citing Obama's 2008 magic, but +2-4%?

[Jack is Back]

Jane,

You're assuming his operational master was State and not the Company. I still say he was Company and he was the guy running the HUMINT and Signals G2 out of Benghazi. There is no other credible explanation for 1) the (USA) infrastructure, 2) the team who accompanied him, 3) the amount of extraordinary internal security which saved more lives than those lost.

Another reason for him being there beside being lured was that he had the Libyan Intel that there would be an attack and he wanted to secure the intelligence ops we were running including the documents and Signal intel.

/Just a Monday Morning QB.

[Clarice]

American Crosswords' devastating new ad :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWnwDtc_gJw

[Charlie (Colorado)]

What's the difference between an Alsatian and Provencal roll, btw,

A couple hundred kilometers.

[narciso]

Well this was my piece, i hope it's not too far into the reeds, in the LUN

[Winston Huang]

CNN:

O 50%
R 47%

Looks like around a D +6 poll. R up +8 with indys.

"The poll indicates Democrats overwhelming supporting the president and Republicans overwhelmingly backing Romney, with independent voters going for Romney by a 49%-41% margin"

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/01/battle-for-presidency-remains-close-in-new-cnn-poll/

[Jack is Back]

Clarice,

The American Crossword ad was produced by Will Shortz but The American Crossroads ad was by Karl Rove:)

[Jack is Back]

narciso,

Good post. I still think AQIM/AAS figured out that the complex and Farm were getting too close and picking up their master's signals and decided this was the time to strike.

[Rick Ballard]

"HOW in THE hell, does Raz claim election day turnout will be D+2-4%?"

NK,

That ain't what he's doing. He's saying today the safe play is D+2-4. He uses a trailing 21 day average and it will be another week before most of the convention bounce is out of his numbers. OTOH - his generic is a straight seven day average and the weekly reports reflect the convention surge and fade very accurately.

He'll be heading back towards parity shortly in the Presidential contest.

[TexasIsHeaven]

"Hillary has been reduced to a side-show and a joke. How much you want to bet that she refused to go on the Sunday shows and spout the lie so they had to go with Rice instead."

Posted by: maryrose | October 01, 2012 at 01:29 PM

maryrose,
I thought the same thing when I first saw Rice on the Sun am shows instead of Hildabeast - I said to myself, what is Susan Rice doing here - I thought she was the Amb to the UN?

State Dept reminds me of the old story of the huntin' dog that got caught in a bear trap -- he chewed off three legs but he was still caught.

There is no hope for them people.

[Jack is Back]

I see Fox Special Report is doing their best to help depress the right thinking voter and suppress their vote. Karl Rove tries but still gives such a tepid analysis that I wish he could meet Rick Ballard and get an education but that would mean he would have to pay attention.

[narciso]

Really, he just wanted to raise the Huntress's hackles with this, and people of conscience generally;

http://babalublog.com/2012/10/you-have-no-idea-just-how-livid-i-am-right-now/

[TexasIsHeaven]

them people=those people

Hey - I'm from Taylor County, Texas. What can I say?

[jimmyk]

JiB, I thought Rove was pretty good on the poll bias a few nights ago when he was on BOR. Agreed, he's no Rick B, but for TV talking heads it was an acceptable performance, and he more or less got it right. He said that they base the party weights on 2004 and 2008, and that there's no way the turnout patterns will look like that this time.

[Captain Hate]

Really, he just wanted to raise the Huntress's hackles with this, and people of conscience generally

He's a classless clown who is going down hard in November.