Look, up in the sky!

...it's a bird! It's a plane! It's a widespread sentiment!

(photo courtesy LLJS)

Today's media fun...

Just when you think Keith Olbermann (aka: "Keith-O," "KO, Not OK") couldn't go off the rails anymore than he already has, he does this:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From Mediaite: "Give Christine O’Donnell this: the controversies surrounding her haven’t been boring. From the line from way back when about dabbling in witchcraft to the more recent hand-wringing over whether her father Daniel did, in fact, ever play Bozo the Clown, O’Donnell’s name is consistently at the center of something bizarre. Tonight, Keith Olbermann decided to satirize these controversies – only in doing so, he upped the weirdness ante and created one of the strangest six minutes of television ever committed to the small screen. After an intro segment in which he explained the Bozo controversy and looked at O’Donnell’s new campaign ad in which she definitively declares she’s “not a witch,” Olbermann discussed O’Donnell with “Bozo the Clown” (played by comedian Angry Bob), and a “witch” (played by columnist Michael Musto). If you think this sounds like something one might normally imagine while tripping on acid…yes. You are correct."

(h/t: to Mediaite for catching this item...)

Question to KO: How hard did you bump your head?

Was that on the Teleprompter?

Some people are calling it "a metaphor"...

Rally time!

(Note: the big crowd is from the 8/28 rally, not this weekend's. Photo via Directorblue)

This weekend saw thousands of self-described Marxists, progressives, Democrats, socialists and other left-leaners descend on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for a counter-rally: the One Nation rally.

What were they rallying against? Well, Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, for one (as well as Tea Partiers, Republicans and other folks across the aisle). Beck held a rally in the same space last month that drew several hundred thousand people. In the photo comparisons above, you can clearly see that the One Nation even barely registers in comparison.

In addition, no one was paid to attend the "Restoring Honor" event. The "One Nation" rally, however, had its attendance numbers boosted by various unions and special interest groups who paid for members to participate and bussed in thousands of people. In some cases, kids were given class credit to attend. (h/t: Gateway Pundit)

Bonus: The folks over at Big Journalism have a nice post-event piece: "More Trash at One Sparsely Attended Left Wing Rally Than at All the Tea Parties Around the Country in a Year and a Half." The photo below is one of several they've posted.

Bonus-bonus: Most left-leaning protests I've covered usually include groups dedicated to socialism/Marxism. It's something the mainstream media usually avoids reporting on (like the crazy relative up in the attic?). The groups were out in full-force on Saturday.

Late add: Souvenirs from the One Nation rally. A sampling of "items"/trash left behind...(h/t: Daily Caller)

"Connected by disconnect"

After I read the following piece by a colleague of mine from the John Batchelor Show, Salena Zito, I knew I had to share it. Salena has a gift - several, actually - when it comes to observing and writing on American politics.

This article, from today's edition of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, should be required reading for pundits and pols alike. If Democrats want to know why they're hurting in the polls, this piece does a better job of explaining the situation than $1,000 per hour consultants, focus groups or the chattering class ever can. For Republicans, it's a clarion call...a heads-up: if you take over after the mid-terms and screw-up again, the electorate is going throw you out, too.

Connected by disconnect

By Salena Zito
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, October 3, 2010

INDEPENDENCE PASS, Colo.

A perilously narrow road, open only during summer, leads to the Continental Divide at 12,095 feet and a breathtaking peak.

Nearly 2,000 miles east stands a different, equally symbolic peak at the heart of America's democracy: At just more than 555 feet, the Washington Monument honors the first president and Revolutionary War commander who gave up life as a gentleman farmer to lead a band of "scrabble" to win liberty and independence.

More than distance and altitude separate "Main Street" Americans from those who govern them. The disconnect is so deep, so wide, that filling it is hard to imagine.

In Weirton, W.Va., Milan Ralich, who works in a paint store, says, "Here, our vision of the American dream looks far different than it does in Washington."

Wearing a crisp blue shirt embroidered with the Sherwin-Williams logo and his name, Ralich points to Weirton's massive steel mill.

"Thirty-eight years were spent in that plant, and you worked hard every day," he says. "It provided a good life."

Once employing 14,000, the mill is down to a few hundred. Ralich works at the paint store part time to make ends meet because of a scaled-back pension.

From the Rockies to small Massachusetts fishing towns and all points in between, Americans finally may get the "change election" they sought in 2008.

In less than a year, this columnist has traveled 6,609 miles, interviewed 432 people registered as or identifying with Democrats in 17 states, and written about scores of races for U.S. Senate and House seats and governors' mansions.

In the process, I lost my car's transmission, wore out four new tires (and promptly flattened two replacements), cracked a windshield, broke a passenger window, had emergency surgery, was chased by a funnel cloud on the Great Plains, staggered through two blizzards, was pelted by hail, wilted in record heat and even saw a lot of locusts (although a farmer assured me it wasn't a swarm).

All along "blue highways," Americans spoke about their disappointment in the change they so proudly supported in 2008 -- some whispering for fear of being labeled racist, some shouting at tea party rallies.

In coffee shops, on streetcorners and farms, at factories, the narrative was always the same: How could such great promise have let the country down so much, so quickly?

Beltway pundits talk of how angry America is. They seem incredulous that Americans somehow find this historic president's administration anything but exceptional.

What's exceptional is the blame coming from Washington, which only deepens the divide between the elite and Main Street.

The pundits blame Republicans -- or, when they feel particularly vicious, "teabaggers."

President Obama blames everyone but himself, shaking a finger at Republicans and tea partyers for stirring up the anger. Last week, he and Vice President Biden started blaming their own supporters, insisting they need to "buck up" and vote.

"Why should we?" wonders Canton, Ohio, native Cheryl Guy as she and husband Rudy visit Fort Necessity in Western Pennsylvania. A Democrat and registered nurse who is very disappointed with Obama, she has no intention of supporting Democrats in the coming midterm election; neither does her husband.

Americans voted for change in 2008 in record numbers. Voters of every age, color, shape and size, in red states and blue ones, registered as Republicans, Democrats or independents, then voted for something different. They bought into the dream that Obama was not elite; he was for the middle class and would champion reform.

What they got was no different from the guy they voted against in 2004: John Kerry.

Obama is no less out of touch than the Kerry whom America watched windsurf before the 2004 election -- the same man who said last week that one reason Democrats will lose this year is that "we have an electorate that doesn't always pay that much attention to what's going on, so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what's happening."

Here's where Kerry and Obama are both wrong: The electorate that was influenced by a simple slogan -- "Yes, we can" -- in 2008 actually is very well-informed.

This time, that electorate isn't voting for a dream, but for its pocketbook.

And if Republicans are lucky enough to win, they'd best remember that those voters will hold them accountable.

Salena Zito can be reached at szito@tribweb.com or 412-320-7879.

When it comes to property taxes, how much you pay is not just linked to where you live...

...but also how you vote.

TaxProf Blog recently linked to a study published by The Tax Foundation, "New Census Data on Property Taxes on Homeowners," as well as a property tax lookup tool. Here are links to specific charts:

• Property taxes paid on owner-occupied housing for each of the 792 high-population counties (65,000 or greater) for 2009 (ranked by taxes as a percentage of home value)
• Property taxes paid on owner-occupied housing for each of the 792 high-population counties (65,000 or greater) for 2009 (ranked by dollar amount of median real estate taxes).
• Three-year average of real estate taxes paid on owner-occupied housing for each of the 2,000+ counties (populations greater than 20,000) for 2006-2008
• Property taxes paid on owner-occupied housing for each of the 50 states for 2009 (ranked by taxes as a percentage of home value)
• Property taxes paid on owner-occupied housing for each of the 50 states for 2009 (ranked by dollar amount of median real estate taxes).

Here are the Top 10 and Bottom 10 States in Median Real Estate Taxes Paid in 2009 -- all 10 states with the highest property taxes voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 election, and 9 of the 10 states with the lowest property taxes voted for John McCain:

Rank	State	Property Tax
1	New Jersey	$6,579
2	Connecticut	$4,738
3	New Hampshire	$4,636
4	New York	$3,755
5	Rhode Island	$3,618
6	Massachusetts	$3,511
7	Illinois	$3,507
8	Vermont	$3,444
9	Wisconsin	$3,007
10	California	$2,893
United States Average		$1,917
41	Tennessee	$933
42	New Mexico	$880
43	Kentucky	$843
44	Oklahoma	$796
45	South Carolina	$689
46	Arkansas	$532
47	Mississippi	$508
48	West Virginia	$464
49	Alabama	$398
50	Louisiana	$243

Again, a big tip o' the cap to TaxProf Blog - a great resource for all sorts of information, particularly when it relates to taxes, law and politics...

Getting "barbecued"...

The illegal alien and the ambulance chaser... (photo: San Francisco Sentinel)

A round-up of "Meg Whitman-employed-an-illegal-alien-as-a-housekeeper"-related stories...

How quickly things change: Here's a strategy: Tear apart the candidate on the front page and then bury the exculpatory follow-up on page 11. How's that unbiased journalism working for you? Bonus quote: "In fact, had she gone ahead and fired Nicandra Diaz Santillan based on such a letter, she would have exposed herself to potential anti-discrimination violations, lawyers said."

Why all the fuss? "Why Meg v Maid Saga Is a Big Deal: The Latino Vote" That explains a lot...(h/t: Calbuzz)

From Gateway Pundit: "This [below] was beautiful. Greta Van Susteren destroyed far left hack and attorney Gloria Allred on her show tonight. Great blasted Allred for her despicable hit on Meg Whitman and for using an illegal alien to smear the Whitman family. Greta ate her lunch. Gloria Allred did not see this coming– watch Gloria’s smile melt away about 15 seconds into the segment. 'Gloria, this is almost delusional!'”

"CNN reporting on Gloria Allred reads like a press release - an embarrassingly written press release: Apparently, CNN is shameless. Its headline is 'Gloria Allred is a girl's best friend.'" (h/t: Althouse)

From the esteemed blog, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, "Gloria Allred is doing more to drive illegal immigrants underground and to target Latinos for racial profiling than anything the State of Arizona has even thought of doing."

Nailing it (as usual): Debra Saunders at the San Francisco Chronicle calls the accusations (a) "Campaign stunt: a bunch of garbage"...

The story doesn't stop with Meg, Jerry, Gloria and the housekeeper: "Fiorina, Boxer both say they never hired domestic help" (SJ Mercury News)

So, how is this (meaning smears) and all of the other "the GOP hate Spanish-speaking folks" efforts playing with Hispanic voters? Put it this way, the dial is moving - in the wrong direction for Democrats. A recent Gallup Poll finds "Hispanic voters' support for Democratic candidates waned in August and September. As a result, Hispanics in September favored Democrats by a 13-point margin (51% to 38%), compared with 32-point margins in June and July."