Palin’s favorability/unfavorability down from 47/45 in July to 37/55 now, trails Obama 53-38 in PPP poll http://bit.ly/3NiFdx
[NOTE: Because this post is stirring such a vibrant discussion, I’m bumping it up a bit (update: re-bumped!) so it won’t scroll off the page yet. -ed.]
I have a modest proposal for Pajamas Media’s Roger L. Simon, who writes that “ACORN is a poster boy for the welfare state in all its manifestations. This is no sideshow. It’s the heart of the matter.” (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)
Roger, I will agree that ACORN’s abuses are at the “heart” of the debate over the proper role and scope of government, and may be cited as incontrovertible evidence of what would happen if government got bigger, if you will agree that I can choose the most loathsome, repugnant private-sector abuses by, oh, let’s say a private health insurance company, and use them as incontrovertible evidence of what will happen if government doesn’t intervene to prevent such abuses. I don’t get to challenge your chosen example, and you don’t get to challenge mine.
So: you get ACORN and pimps and prostitutes, and I’m not allowed to argue that those are isolated incidents which don’t reflect the true nature of most publicly funded social programs and community outreach efforts. Meanwhile, I get the most egregious examples I can find of unbridled, unregulated capitalist greed and disregard for human welfare, and you’re not allowed to argue that my examples are isolated incidents which don’t reflect the true nature of market-based systems. Fair? Because I know I’d take that deal. But I somehow doubt Mr. Simon would.
I recently joined the Augustana Lutheran Church chamber choir. We’re singing the Mozart Requiem on November 1. Yay!
ABC News reports that authorities believe they have successfully disrupted a Denver-based terrorism plot that “is shaping up as the most serious attempt by al Qaeda to strike at the United States since the September 11 attacks”:
The accused al Qaeda bomb maker from Denver planned to use chemicals and hair care products he bought at beauty parlor supply stores to build a series of devastating bombs, according to a federal indictment made public today of 24-year old Najibullah Zazi.
According to court documents, Zazi “purchased unusually large quantities of hydrogen peroxide and acetone from beauty supply stores in the Denver metropolitan area.”
The chemicals in the products matched those listed in nine pages of hand written bomb-making instructions Zazi received when he attended an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan late last year, according to officials. …
“We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted,” said attorney general Eric Holder in a prepared statement. “We are investigating a wide range of leads,” he added. …
Authorities say Zazi and the other alleged terrorists actually tried to mix the chemicals at a hotel suite Zazi rented in the Denver suburb of Aurora on Sept. 6 and 7.
Court documents say Zazi sent text messages to the others, “each communication more urgent in tone than the last – seeking to correct mixtures of ingredients to make explosives.”
Officials told ABCNews.com that one of Zazi’s text messages included the phrase, “the wedding cake is ready,” which authorities believe was a code indicating the plot was nearing the attack phase.
The Denver Post has more.
