Nightly Ramble:OPEC; Muggers; Markets;SNL; Early Votes; More

Welcome dear reader, to the most intense nightly read on the ‘sphere… BitsBlog’s Nightly Ramble.

Lots going on, today, Friday. Let’s get to it.

• First, you’ll no doubt notice that we’re running a good deal faster. The performance increase we got from that database hacking I did was beyond what I figured it’d do. Now, I’m kicking myself for not doing this before. Oh, well, live and learn.
• OPEC cut production by a million and a half BPD. Not a huge cut, here, really. The reason the meeting happened at all was Iran, whose production costs are higher than places like Kuwait, for example. At the current trading price, Iran is about $25/bbl below their recovery costs. Iran wanted cuts, Kuwait wasn’t quite so concerned.  Prices, on the other hand still have not gotten worse… they’re at $63/bbl currently, and still dropping, although I do expect to see some moderation in that price today. Gas prices continue to fall, as well, and will continue to do so for at least the immediate future.
• I’ve never been much on attributing one factor or another as being the sole reason for the market’s action one day to the next.I went after Bruce .. mildly, it should be said… for doing that some weeks back.  Still, I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t the reason behind today’s market instability:
  

  Are investor concerns about an Obama presidency influencing the stock market? And by “concerns” I mean “existential panic.” And by “Obama presidency” I mean “a tax-hiking and regulatory reign of terror.” And by “influencing” I mean “eviscerating.” At least that’s the overwrought take I get from a few of my more skittish E-mailers. Chillax, y’all!

  Well, one can certainly understand the maket’s reaction, when history shows us FDR’s socialist manipulations left is in a deperssion forfar longer thena we should have been. Our current conditions, followed by the threat of a presidency held by someone who made the socialist FDR look like a strong capitalist by comparison, is enough to give the shakes to any investor, all by itself. When you add Ried, Pelosi, Frank andSchumer to the forecast… the outlook for the next several years looks bleak at best. Well, that and that little 401k bomb we laid out here yesterday. What are 401k’s? Largely, market investments.

• I got several Emails about this Obama supporter/Mugger story down in Pitt…’Did you see this?’ Why, yes, I saw it.  But while (and let’s make this clear up front) I wouldn’t put such things past most Obama supporters, frankly, I was a little concerned about the vibe I got off this one, which is why I didn’t touch the thing.   Michelle was, too, apparently. Drudge, meanwhile, was, until a couple hours ago, all over it like ugly on Hillary, for reasons only known to him and his crew. Perhaps it/s beacuse he’s out on the west coast and Michlle and I are a lot closer? Dunno.. However that may be, the Anchoress calls this one well:
  

  If the story checks out and is deemed credible, it will quickly be buried. If, however, this young lady has perpetrated a political hoax? The press will milk it nonstop; it will be all you’ll hear and read about, 24/7, for the next two weeks.

  Yep. And we’re about to see that play out, since supposedly,  now she’s admitted she fabricated the story, thereby validating my instincts on the subject.  But perhaps it says something of our perception of Obama supporters, that regardless of this particular story being true or not, most of us think them capable of such acts? 

• Apparently, the local police, nation-wide, are thinking the same way. They’re preparing for riots on election day. Do you suppose they’re preparing for white folks rioting if McCain loses? Oh, and of course there’s this story… which I have no reason to question. Interesting how that gets far less press. And of course now that the story from Pitt is revealed as what I thought it was, the shot up house over Obama signs gets ignored outright.
• The market’s still adjusting. Frankly, I’m not overly worried. I may get into why over the weekend, but for now, let’s say I’ve seen it before.  Yes, the numbers are larger, but then again the numbers were larger on the way up, too…. a number that seemingly gets forgotten in all the hype.
• Pat Buchanan is the south end of a northbound nag. Let me make that clear. Yet, he does really hit the ball once in a while, and he did with this question: What if ‘SNL’ mocked Michelle Obama?
• Interesting breakdown of early voting.
  

  “These numbers are really astounding — they defy all the patterns of early voting we’ve seen in this modern era,” McDonald said. Based on past elections, he explained, “the early electorate tends to be more Republican in their character than the Election Day electorate.”

  I’m unclear if this is the nature of early voting, or if we’re dealing with voters specifically reacting to the campaigns. “The Gag Factor” does seem to apply, where people get to the the actual checkbox, or whatever and simply can’t bring themselves to vote for the leftist.

• Local congress-critter Randy Kuhl gets kudos from BitsBlog, for his correct identification of reality: (TheHill)
  

  “It’s very frustrating when you see a Democratic majority stay away, as they did intentionally, from addressing the issue of lowering the price of gasoline by adopting a comprehensive energy plan,” Kuhl said. “It leads one to believe that, in fact, this is done for an intentional purpose. I still believe that. I hope I’m wrong.”Kuhl initially stated in an August interview with WHAM: “I firmly believe the Democratic majority wants the American public to suffer and to hurt so that they can make some political gains at election time, and I think that’s wrong.”

  Asked if he was backing off his statements at all, Kuhl said he wasn’t.

  Good for you, Randy. You’ve just won my vote. Wow! A congress critter who knows reality when he sees it. What a concept!

• I see the New York Times stock has been lowered to Junk status.
• Doctor Krauthammer endorses McCain. His grasp of reality is one reason he gets quoted here so often. Here’s another example of the result of that grasp on reality.
• Apparently Michigan’s voter registration rolls are at 98% of the population.  It’s amazing the amount of dogs, dead people and ‘toons live there now.
• Obama Race baiting? Oh, yes. Here you go. Can you really vote for this guy?
• I gave an example, ealier today about what happens when government try to spread the wealth by means of government fiat. In that case, north Korea and their food shortages. In this case, the subject is the land of Hugo Chavez. The tend is always there, people. And yet, you’re even considering voting for Obama? Why?
• ACORN vote fraud in PA 
• By the way, did anyone notice Obama’s fundriasing has suddnly dropped off? All that money, outspending McCain 4 to 1,  and the best he can manage is a tie? What’s up with that? And now, he comes into money problems. Guess which way this one goes?

The Puffington Post has their knickers in a twist over this quote by Michele Backmann

But guess what? Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal

Duh!

There is no evidence that all cultures are equal, none, nada, zilch.

Thi propositions that all cultures are somewho equal is leftard propoganda.

No sane person actually believes in cultural equality.   There are Just some honest people admit that cultures are not equal.

The proof that nobody believes that all cultures are considered as equai is that fact that we all are so concerned about changing our culture.   If all cultures were equal, no culture would be any better than any other culture, and cultures would be unimprovable.   That is that any changes to today’s culture, would not and could not result any improvement, or degradation of the culture.   If all cultures are in fact equal, then the culture of today is no better, or worse, than the culture of yesterday, or the culture of tomorow.

Does anybody at all belive that a culture which enslave ten percent of her population is equal to one that does not?  That a culture of life is equal to a culture of death?   That a culture which  allows women to have rights is equal to culture that does not?

The idea that all cultures of somehow equal is pure crap.

From The London Times:

North Korea is clamping down on mobile phones and long distance telephone calls to prevent the spread of news about a worsening food crisis, according to the United Nations investigator on human rights for the isolated communist country.

This is the end result of spreading the wealth.  This is the end result of the policies Barack Obama spoke glowingly of, to Joe the Plumber.

Period,

Halt.

Full Stop.

Alto.

Arret.

Addendum:  ( David L )

Shall we dicuss?   Why yes. 

Two points.

One I believe it was the Gipper, b/k/a, Ronald Reagan who said that:  “Socialists are those who studied Karl Marx,  ex-socialists are those who understand Marx.”   BO is clearly one who has studied Marx but does not understand Marx.   Then BO does not seem to demonstrate a keen understanding of anything.

Two, the term “Spreading the Wealth” would be better understood to mean, spreading poverty.   In every case where socialism was adopted as the guiding principle of government that result has been near universal grinding poverty, save for the self-anointed ruling elite.   I am sure that BO is more than willing to spread the wealth Joe the Plumber earns.   I dare say, he is not will to let Joe or anybody else share his mansion.   Politicians are all for national sacrifice, for everybody except themselves.   Too many polticians, in both parties, have seen government service as opportunity to acquire personal wealth.

From Investors’ Business Dailty:

IBD/TIPP Tracking Poll: Day Eleven
Posted: Thursday, October 23, 2008

McCain has cut into Obama’s lead for a second day and is now just 1.1 points behind. The spread was 3.7 Wednesday and 6.0 Tuesday. The Republican is making headway with middle- and working- class voters, and has surged 10 points in two days among those earning between $30,000 and $75,000. He has also gone from an 11-point de?cit to a 9-point lead among Catholics.

A nod to Mrs Bit, who pointed this one out to me this morning, along with a half dozen others. She’s been getting depressed at the numbers of late. I told her this morning:

Like I told you; Relax.

It’s like I said in the Ramble the other night…  Over the last 20 years or so I’ve been writing on the various networks I’ve often openly wondered if the various polling orgs (and those who hire them) weren’t trying to create their own reality.

The suspicion I’ve held all that time is that there’s a lot of folks using ‘polling data’ to create the impression of momentum… and of course the image projected usually spins toward the candidate farthest to the left. In this case, Obama. Then again, it always seems to ‘tighten up’ just before election day, with the more conservative candidate gaining huge numbers in a very short time, for no action that anyone can logically attribute.  The pattern is so established, I’m amazed that nobody’s noticed it. It’s almost axiomatic.

I remember predicting Bush 41’s victory in his second race, as an example, suggesting the numbers would change back to reality less than 48 hours before the actual election, lest some bright person get the idea of comparing the polling numbers to the actual vote, and a lot of pollsters being out of work, or at least exposed, thereby. Of course, that’s exactly what happened.

That’s a trend that I first noted in Reagan’s first term race, and seems to have been the pattern ever since. It’s certainly holding true here.

Several things done tonight;

• Removed about 1 million spams from comments and trackback. Quite literally. Database was getting sluggish, and I’m sure the scripts I was running made it worse for about an hour. It’s running a lot faster now, however.  Obviously, I found a new tool for the task and it works pretty well. I’ll write a post about it later, for the WP crowd. What amazes me, however, is the amount of Spam this place has collected. I’m not kidding about the 1 million figure.  Most users never see it, because the system is really good about marking stuff that’s spam, as such and putting it where it can’t be seen. Trouble is, the database gets clogged with that garbage, and kills the performance.  They’re all gone now, and the DB queries are flying. Nice to see.
• Updated a few plugins that needed it.
• Did some scanning for exploits in the DB. We lok OK, I guess.
• Touched up a couple issues with some of the graphics. Mostly, you’ll never notice them unless you’re running something funky for a browser.  It was on  my list, though.
• Touched up the RSS feeds.
• Upgraded to WordPress 2.6.3. Mostly Squishing bugs, and a weak vul or two removed in this release. Nothing major. The biggie is 2.7.

By the way, the domain and server renewals are about due. I’m considering moving off the Windows server to a Linux box, so this may cause some downtime while they move us. I’ll let you know when/if, but it’ll be the leading part of November… after the election… if it does happen.

Michelle Malkin:

A Pennsylvania source has just leaked me brand spanking new poll data showing GOP upstart Bill Russell leading John Murtha among over 800 probable voters by 48-35.

This comes on top of the Susquehanna poll showing Murtha ahead of Russell by 4 points, within the margin of error.

Interesting, if true… and I have no cause to doubt it. Remember, I said here just a couple days ago…

What’s this about Jack Murtha cancelling his debate? One gets the impression he’s done, by means of some Democrat directive or another. Certainly, every time he opens his mouth, he’s in trouble. Perhaps the DNC doesn’t like him being a lightning rod, anymore?

Looks like I called that one. He’s an embarrassment to the Democrats and since they figure losing him won’t cost much in terms of the overall balance in Congress,  ol’ Jihad Jack finds himself going bye bye.

Jack Murtha actually deserves jail time, and the eternal scorn of the American people. The sad part is, the way the Democrats have apparently worked this, with Murtha quietly going away in a electoral defeat,  the Democrats get to claim victim status, instead of it being shown clearly that what caused all this was the hard left politics the Democrats have signed themselves on for.

As it is I’ll be satisfied when he’s removed from office by the landslide he appears headed for.  That vote tells me those in his district know he’s disgraced himself and his office. He’ll live with that infamy the rest of his life. Of course, he’ll say it’s all a right wing conspiracy.

But deep in whatever heart he has left, he knows he turned his back on his country, on the corps, and on his oaths.

All for his political party… who in turn, apparently, dumped him.

Enjoy the trade you’ve made, Murtha. You’ll find no sympathy here.

Good riddance.

The sex worker, exotic dancer whore of Durham, Crystal Gail Mangum has put herself back in the news.  The whore has renewed allegations that Reade Seligmann, Colin Finnerty, and Dave Evans sexually assualted her.  There simply is no evidence which would tend to incrimination Seligmann, Finnerty, and Evans and ample evidence that Mangum is mentally three sheets to the wind.

I might be tempted to extend sympathy to Mangum for her deminished mental capacity, but even having an IQ approaching room temperature does not justify Mangums contined persecution of three innocent young men.

Given the amount and variety of semens found in Mangum, it would seem neigh near impossible for her to show that anybody raped her.

Welcome dear reader, to the most intense nightly read on the ‘sphere… BitsBlog’s Nightly Ramble.

• I see Al Gore is still preaching Global Warming…At Harvard, no less… In spite of global cooling like we’ve not seen in over a century. Whoever said Gore made sense? There’s obviously a large number of idiots who still don’t get it. Which, in turn is what keeps Al’s private Jet in the sky, adding to the ozone problems he preaches at us about.
• We keep getting charged with running a hateful campaign, we on the right, and yet the reality is quite different. Add this to the list I posted just last night.
• So, now we have a study telling us what we already knew… the press is in the tank for Obama. Look, I don’t mean to diminish the work Kurtz is doing. He’s right to do it. But this stuff has been quite obvious for long enough to make it clear that the facts are going to be ignored. What price will we pay for that, I don’t know yet.
• Some of the breakdowns of that AP poll I mentioned last night… the one where the race is tied… have started showing up. Boortz has some of the breakouts, and the tale they tell is interesting.
  

  McCain posted his biggest gains among voters earning under $50,000 a year. He used to trail Obama by 26%. Now he only trails by 4%. Could these be the people who are looking to a successful future, but don’t like the prospect of being punished for their success?

  The reason for things starting to turn around? Joe the Plumber. Now, maybe, we understand better why the Democrats have been so nervous about Joe. The Politico breaks this down pretty well.

• Speaking of Boortz, I see him making mention of Argentina. If you’ve got a 401k plan, you need to stay with me, here.
  

  Lets see … for about 14 years now I have been telling you that the Clinton administration (mentioning his name isn’t racist) had been considering a plan to levy a one-time tax on the value of all privately owned pension and 401K plans in this country. The were stopped by the voter revolution of 1994 .. a revolution betrayed, by the way, by the Republican Party.Could something like this happen in an Obama administration? (OK, I mentioned his name. Hate speech! So I’m racist.) Maybe you should turn your attention to what is happening in Argentina. The Argentine president, Cristina Kirchner, has just announced that she is going to nationalize all private pensions in Argentina. That would be $30 billion in private retirement accounts. All that money is going to become government property.

  Here’s an excerpt from The Wall Street Journal story covering this outrage:

  “Mrs. Kirchner won’t have trouble making the case for expropriation to Congress, which is controlled by her fellow Peronists. When the Argentine government ran out of money in 2001, it blamed the market and increased its own role in the economy. Since then it has imposed price controls, defaulted on its debt, seized dollar bank accounts, devalued the currency, nationalized businesses and tried to set confiscatory tax rates with the aim of making society more ‘fair.'”

  Dawgonnit! Now that sounds just a wee bit familiar, doesn’t it?

  Do you think the MoveOn Democrat/Socialist party would have trouble getting something like this by the U.S. Supreme Court? Remember, please, Kelo vs. New London.

  Oh, indeed. But at Q&O, McQ goes a step farther, this monring, saying in part:

  In anticipation of an Obama presidency and full dominance by Democrats in Congress, your 401(K) is now in jeopardy:

  Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.
  House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-California, and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, are looking at redirecting those tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute.

  I don’t ever want to hear another word about “greedy Wall Street”. Democrats in Congress have been trying to find a way to get at the huge pool of money for decades.

  The current system of providing tax breaks on 401(k) contributions and earnings would be eliminated.
  A plan by Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic-policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, contains elements that are being considered.

  […]

  “I want to stop the federal subsidy of 401(k)s,” Ghilarducci said in an interview. “401(k)s can continue to exist, but they won’t have the benefit of the subsidy of the tax break.”

  Under the current 401(k) system, investors are charged relatively high retail fees, Ghilarducci said.

  “I want to spend our nation’s dollar for retirement security better. Everybody would now be covered” if the plan were adopted, Ghilarducci said.

  Ah, a little “spreading of the wealth?”

  Indeed. Do you understand the depth of the problems America is inviting on itself giving these people the power of government? How can this stuff be any more obvious, people?

• DNC-NBC has decided to team up with ACORN, and LaRoza. Gee, big shock, that. Like I said, how can this stuff be any more obvious, people?
•  Orson Scott Card is pissed. Rightiously so. Little late for that now, Scott. Like Clinton said. Enjoy it.
• Nothing attributable yet, but I’ve seen three times today, rumors that say Obama’s team is about to ask McCain to suspend his campaign while Obama’s visiting his sick grandmother. Of course, if McCain turns him down, Obama can say McCain’s a meanie. Of course, this tells us the Obama people are very worried, as I said the other day, that this downtime will cause Obama to lose.

Watch this closely, folks. this is important.

Iranian parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Wednesday that Iran would prefer Democrat Barack Obama in the White House next year. Larijani also dismissed any idea that the US would attack Iran.
“We are leaning more in favor of Barack Obama because he is more flexible and rational, even though we know American policy will not change that much,” Larijani said at a press conference during a visit to Bahrain.

This is considered rational treatment of women in Iran

On it’s face, this statement should scare Americans… That in the eyes of Iran, the generator of the world’s largest torrent of irrationality,, Barack Obama is more rational.  Think what we have seen from Iran… Ahmadinejad, ” There are no homosexuals in Iran”… Their nutty, and outright murderous stand on Israel, No Internet, restricted TV fr it’s people, and of course their views on women as demonstrated to the left, here… this is what Iran considers ‘rational’.  So, when they add Obama to their stated list of what is ‘rational’… well… this point alone oughta be scaring any American with a working braincell into moving anyone BUT Obama into the White House.

I almost hope Obama wins so I can stop hearing about how evil the GOP is. I’m sure that’s part of the media/Dem plan, though.

That’s a comment I just picked up over at Q&O.

Frankly, though, the source is inconsequential, since it’s a sentiment I’ve been hearing quite a bit of the last few days and weeks.

First off, at the risk of invoking Godwin, I’d like you to consider Hitler, who continued jabbing his particular demons… the Jews… even though demonstrably they were no appreciable threat to his power.  The result of course was that by giving hate a focus, Hitler attained even more power.

On that historical basis, I’ll suggest to you that Obama attaining power won’t stop the Democrats from trying to stir their hatred. They’ll continue to try to intensify anti-Republican hatred. It’s all they have in the end.

Secondly, we’d better start considering our ability to survive as a nation, with an Ultra liberal in the White House and an overwhelmingly Democrat Congress providing no backstop at all.

Rick Moran’s “Can’t we all just get along’ comment’s aside, I have serious doubts about that.

This is what Barack Obama thinks of basic personal freedom, video:

There is no more basic fundamental freedom than the right to defend your own home. A poltician who will not stand up for citizen’s fundamental right to protect his own home, will not stand for freedom anywhere for anybody. Take this video viral.

You have been warned. Vote for Obama at your own peril.

Hat tip:  Gateway Pundit.

Welcome dear reader, to the most intense nightly read on the ‘sphere… BitsBlog’s Nightly Ramble.

• I mentioned last night about polling data… and they’ve been having a bit of a row over it on many of the blogs I’ve visted today including OTB. and Q&O. But this one hasn’t gotten into that discussion yet. As if on cue, AP produces a poll showing McCain and Obama tied. 
  That this stuff has been happening in every election where the Republican eventually won, means calling it this time was no great accomplishment. It’s like the sun rising.
• I see that there were no brain scans released with Joe Biden’s medical records. A logical assumption, given the comments he’s been making of late, would be they didn’t find anything.
• Art Smith spoke last night of Sign Stealing being encouraged at KCJJ;(Sorry, man, that’s what it amounts to) Now we hear from Boortz (And on XM’ s ‘The War Room’, this morning, too)  that there’s a Pizza place in the Detroit area doing the same thing. Gee… one might almost suggest some degree of coordination. RICO, anyone?
• So SanFran is thinking of ‘decriminalising’ prostitution?  Well, I guess someone’s gotta provide for the Democrats out there, huh? Maybe they could make a deal with this. And maybe Barney Frank will be able to have boyfreinds who run brothels out of his apparentment there. Remember that one? Remember, gang, this is the guy running the Banking comittee.
• Oh, speaking of that… Let there be no doubt what would happen under Democrats, people. None. Tax increases. And spending to far outstrip the tax increases. Want Video proof? Fine.
• Ok, so now “Socialist” equals “Black”?  Marx was a black guy, huh? Who knew? Ann Coulter says…
  

  For most Americans, there is nothing more terrifying than the prospect of being called a racist. It’s scarier than flood or famine, terrorist attacks or flesh-eating bacteria. To some, it’s even scarier than “food insecurity.”

  …and so what we find is the self-described pragmatists in the Democrat party making use of that fear, and desperately trying to link all oppoition to Obama, to racism. The annoying part about this, aside from it being a flat-out lie, is that it diminishes the severity of the moral crime of REAL racism, in my view.

• Oil’s below $71/bbl… errr   $70/BBL.  Below $69. Below $68. Below….  Oh, never mind. Take my comments on this topic from the last 2 months and insert them here. No changes.
• I spoke at length, last night about polling data. The Polls currently have Obama leading in PA by a fair margin. So why is Ed Rendel nervous?   It’s because as I said last night, the Democrat party’s own polling data isn’t so rosy as the ones they pay the commerical types to splay all over out media.  By the way, Wizbang has some interesting thoughts on this. Kudos to Drummond from here for chasing this stuff.
• A draft? Don’t think they won’t. Not for a split second should you think they won’t.
• Glenn passes on a report about hate and rage in the world of politics. And no, it’s not McCain supporters. And here’s more from Ch19 up in Wisconsin. Tell me again, about how it’s the right waging a campaign of hate.
• I just looked again at the last line… and the first three words take on a lean of an Obit. Ouch. I gotta watch that stuff.  Well, that’s what happens when you crank out hundreds of these things a year, mostly off the cuff.
• Did you guys see this fruitfly?  And a “citizen’s arrest”?… I dunno about you, but when I ponder the meaning of that word…’citizen’… Code Pink members are not exactly the description that leaps to mind.
• A Fashion statement?
• Tell me again how there’s no Democrat vote fraud.
• Hmmm.
  

  When racy photos of squeaky clean ‘Hannah Montana’ starlet Miley Cyrus hit the Internet earlier this year, the hacker who posted them boasted he would never be caught.It turns out he was wrong.

  Nineteen-year-old Josh Holly told Wired.com that his Murfreesboro, Tenn.home was raided by the FBI on Monday, during which the authorities seized three computers and a cell phone.

  Is it just me, or does it seem to you that they spent more man hours chasing this kid than they did the one who hacked Sarah Palin’s Email?

• The first snow, here, today. Guess that means I’ve gotta get the trailer offloaded and stored for the winter, this weekend. I’ve already winterized the water system. It’s still a distasteful job, (Mostly because it means months until I take the thing out again) …but it doesn’t take me as long as it used to. When I went to get RV anti-freeze at the RV store the other day, I noted at least three people picking up VERY expensive RV’s. What’s this about a credit problem, again?  Well, at least we got out with our rig, this year. Now to plan a few trips for winter, and for next summer, for that matter. Lake George for late summer, perhaps. Haven’t been that way in forever. Guess that depends on the economy. I can kiss such plans goodbye if Obama makes it in. (Sigh)

Ya know I was waiting for this kind of attack, but from the Politico?

The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

The cash expenditures immediately raised questions among campaign finance experts about their legality under the Federal Election Commission’s long-standing advisory opinions on using campaign cash to purchase items for personal use.

Gov Sarah Palin

Well, first off, I’d question the phrase “Personal use”. Television… and by logical extension, political campaigns, are very much a cosmetic business. Always have been… politics particularly so, following the advent of TV. And in that realm, particularly so for women. 

Anyway, what on earth would Sarah Palin be doing with clothing like that, save wanting to put in a good appearence, because she’s running for VP? Very much a campaign- related expense, in my view. Frankly, I think it’d be hard to argue otherwise, using logic. Then again, this kind of thing always seems to ride on the emotional, doesn’t it?  Secondly… look; A hundred and fifty large does not exactly make Sarah Palin into Imelda Marcos, by any stretch, which seems to be the cast behind a lot of blogging on this topic this morning from the lefties.

Hmmmm…OTOH, consider BO’s suits… who paid for THEM, I wonder?  Funny how we don’t see much in the press about that. Or, blogging for that matter. Are we talking about sexism, here, or simply opportunism on the part of the Democrats?

Aren’t the people who are now complaining about the ‘excessive’ nature of Palin’s outfitting, the ones who just a few short months ago were complaining about her clothing chocies?  Can we just make the assumption from now on that the Democrats are going to bitch about anything anyone opposing them does or says, regardless of the senselessness of it, and move forward from there?

What male, does anyone suppose, would be questioned on how much they spent for clothing from campaign expenses? When such questions do happen, they do tend to get weird. As an example, John “I feel pretty” Edwards getting $400 haircuts leaps to mind.

Before I forget, I’m told that the outfits will be auctioned off for charity after the election season. So, again, “Personal use”? I don’t think so…. But if you really want to talk about excessive, let’s discuss $400 and change for two lobters, Champaigne and Iranian caviar at the Waldorf, shall we?

Hmmm. That brings up a question: How does one auction off a used lobster?

The TCR OJ award (for those that manage to avoid accountability) goes to KCJJ’s Morning Show, yet another sign that we will put up with any kind of illegal behavior…

(Coralville, IA) – An Iowa City area radio talk show host has admitted that an on-air report of a dying child’s last wish to set the Guinness World Record for having the most McCain-Palin yard signs is untrue and claims it is a hoax. “Captain” Steve Soboroff and co-host Tommy Lang of KCJJ 1630-AM in Coralville began asking listeners last week to take McCain-Palin yard signs and bring them to the radio station for a dying child. They now admit there is no such child.

Soboroff admitted the hoax when interviewed by KGAN-TV of Cedar Rapids, but said the station would continue taking McCain-Palin yard signs, “No questions asked.” In the KGAN interview, Soboroff said that approximately 60 signs had been brought to the station. He also confirmed that he is a supporter of Barack Obama.

Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Stewart Iverson called the station’s actions “disgusting”.

“This is one of the most outrageous acts I’ve seen in all my years in politics. To play on the emotions of Iowans by using a dying child as the premise of a joke solely for the amusement of these two hosts is disgusting,” Iverson said. “To use the public airwaves to perpetrate this fraud is irresponsible and borders on the illegal.”

KGAN-TV ran a story earlier in the week regarding a stark increase in the theft of McCain-Palin signs in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas. The correlation between the radio hoax and the increase in sign thefts has angered many.

“These hosts have not even hinted at an apology to their listeners and in fact are continuing to encourage that stolen McCain yard signs be brought to their station,” Iverson said. “Who is bringing these signs in to KCJJ and where are the signs coming from? I don’t think the FCC would be very pleased if a licensed station were an accessory to trespass and theft, let alone admitting they knowingly fabricated stories of a dying child,” Iverson said.

This is bad because it these people are knowingly perpetuating a hoax, illegal activities, and co-opting society into accepting this kind of behavior.  And yet, I’ll be surprised if any action is taken.

This is cross-posted from Conservative Reader

Addendum(Bit) Yeah, frankly, so would I.

And I should say we get KCJJ up here in Rochester most nights. They were one of the early adoptors of Extended band uperation a few years back and despite only running 1000 watts at night had a really fine signal. Still do, most nights.

But I must say, I’m disappointed.

And can you imagine the reaction if this scam to get McCain -Palin signs out of sight, had involved, say, Obama signs?

Welcome dear reader, to the most intense nightly read on the ‘sphere… BitsBlog’s Nightly Ramble.

• Over at Q&O, Lance points out that our tastes in women tend to change with the economic conditions. It’s called the ‘ Environmental Security Hypothesis ‘?
  

  Consistent with Environmental Security Hypothesis predictions, when social and economic conditions were difficult, older, heavier, taller Playboy Playmates of the Year with larger waists, smaller eyes, larger waist-to-hip ratios, smaller bust-to-waist ratios, and smaller body mass index values were selected. These results suggest that environmental security may influence perceptions and preferences for women with certain body and facial features.

  (Shrug) Personally I’ve always assumed as much, (though I’ve never really quantified it all) and have considered the reasons for such varience to be what the men involved thought was attainable given the money they had to toss around.  Look, there’s a lot of landmines, here, no question… but I would suggest it’s not the world economic condition, but perhaps of greater import, the economic condition of the individual,too.  example; You very seldom see knock-out blonde models piloting their progeny around in 15 year old mini-vans like this one,  through the depressed areas of town, right?  That line of thought would also be consistent with how it is that so many men who couldn’t rate a date to save themselves, personality-wise, end up being homosexuals… it’s what they figure they can get, given their own brand of insecurity. Again, and of course I’m not saying they’re ALL that way, and again, there’s a lot of pitfalls here. But it seems to me to be right on line with the anicdotal observations of people I’ve known and observed and spoken with over the years. Enough of a parallel, I think to suggest there’s something to the connection.

• On the other side of that coin is what financial conditions lead to women thinking men are attractive.  Sure, having a certain amount of money doesn’t hurt, but what you do with it is equally important, says The British Journal of Psychology that Fox News reported on recently.
  

  “Evolutionary theory predicts competition between individuals and yet we see many examples in nature of individuals disadvantaging themselves to help others,” said lead researcher Tim Phillips, of the Behavior and Ecology Research Group at the University of Nottingham in England. “In humans, particularly, we see individuals prepared to put themselves at considerable risk to help individuals they do not know for no obvious reward.”

  The factor for women is who will make a good parent, and on an instinctive level, women see an altruist as such a person.

  “The expansion of the human brain would have greatly increased the cost of raising children so it would have been important for our ancestors to choose mates both willing and able to be good, long-term parents,” Phillips said.

  With all this going on under the surface, it’s a wonder we ever get together at all with the opposite sex.

• I mentioned this morning, a quote from Joe Biden. Boortz adds his two cents to the quote and it’s worth noting. (I’m taking the whole subtext, because it doesn’t edit without distorting the point)
  

  So we didn’t really get to this yesterday, but Joe Biden seems to be preparing his supporters for the worst. I guess he figures that if he prepares them for the worst, at least you can’t say you didn’t know what you were getting yourself into. Here’s Joe Biden’s quote,

  “Mark my words … it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

  

  Missed it by THAT MUCH

  Um, thank you? What he is really getting at is the international community sees Barack Obama as weak … they want to test him because they want to know the type of America they will be dealing with for the next 4-8 years – an appeasement, cut-and-run America or a stand-up-and-fight America. Based on the history of Joe Biden and the little bit that we know of Barack Obama’s foreign policy philosophy … which America do you think they will choose?

  I dunno about you guys but it seems to me that this quote from Biden, in light of Boortz’ comments, is likley the closing argument against electing Obama.  Biden’s saying we elect Obama, we’ll far more certainly have another attack against us… Can you imagine the charges of ‘fear mongering’, had a Republican said this? And you know, for all the quips about Palin not being ready for prime time, what shall we say about Obama’s pick?

• Oh… speaking of my comments this morning, I also allowed as how the commercial pollsters were undersampling Western PA. Apparently, John Murtha’s been seeing the same numbers I have. He knows theyr’re not doing well out there. Of course he blames ‘Rednecks’. No, this is not recycled comments either. He’s sticking his foot even more firmly into his mouth.
• Elsewhere around the country too, apparently, Democrats are seeing trends they don’t like, and talking about it.
• When someone starts mumbling about ‘change as a platform, it’s usualy best to ask ‘Change? From what are we changing, and TO what are we changing? Doctor Thomas Sowell dares to question the Chosen One on this point.
• Gas is back under three bucks a gallon, in most places. Still $3.20 up here in the land of Taxes, though I see prices down to $2.30 at the reservation. Maybe I’ll make a fun run to that area this weekend. Crude prices meanwhile, are floating a bit. The expectation of a cut in production from OPEC has the investors skitish.
• I see more hemorrhaging from AP. This time, the Columbus Dispatch. Good. Does my heart good to see. A few more like this and we may actually have a real news service rise from the ashes of the nitwit collection AP has become.
• Someone mentioned to me the other day about how the idea of vote fraud was all BS, because the DOJ says it isn’t happening. You mean THIS DOJ?
• The WSJ talks sense on taxes.  Specifically, on the topic of Obama’s tax plan nonsense.
  

  Revenues will inevitably be diverted from Social Security. — Now we know: 95% of Americans will get a “tax cut” under Barack Obama after all. Those on the receiving end of a check will include the estimated 44% of Americans who will owe no federal income taxes under his plan.

  At Hot Air Ed Morressy lays it out plainly: The Democrats want more taxes. Yeah, that’ll help, huh?

• Obama, reportedly is on his way to visit his grandmother, who apparently isn’t doing well. This is the woman who he referred to as ‘Just your average white person’.  I wish them well in this, but I can’t get over the idea, given Biden’s comments I spoke to befiore, that he’s setting himself up for an easier to explain failure, given the recent shift in the numbers away from himself and to John McCain.
• Over the last 20 years or so I’ve been writing on the various networks I’ve often openly wondered if the various polling orgs (and those who hire them) weren’t trying to create their own reality. Ann Coulter, by way of looking at the polling data vs the actual results of voting,  in every election over most of our lifetimes, agrees. Thing is, she’s got the numbers to back the position.