Bullet Fired Into Obama Campaign Office

A single shot was fired into an Obama campaign office, in Denver, Friday night.

No one was injured when a bullet came through a window of the building, near 9th and Acoma.

Workers had the window replaced and the whole mess cleaned up by Saturday afternoon.

Police are seeking anyone who may have seen the act occur.

Indiana Joins Meningitis Cases

Indiana became the twelfth state to be dealing with meningitis, and the sixth to see a death.

Saturday's numbers list one hundred and ninety-eight confirmed cases, with fifteen dead.

As many as fourteen thousand people, in twenty-three states, may have been infected.

So far one person is suing New England Compounding Center, for making the spinal anti inflammation shots, which were contaminated with the fungal meningitis.

Once the outbreak was known of NECC quickly turned in their operation licenses, recalled all of their other products, and assisted investigators in every way possible.

From The Mouth of Matuszak: 2012 VP Debate Analysis

Last night, the Vice Presidential candidates sat down, literally, to debate the issues, and the nonissues, in the one and only VP debate of the 2012 election.

Though polls and pundits on both sides have their opinions on the outcome, it was a much closer debate than the first Obama Romney tete-a-tete. My analysis gives Ryan the win I predicted, but barely. The debate was close. CNN's poll judged the results as Ryan over Biden forty-eight to forty-four. I would call it closer, forty-seven to forty-five, a statistical tie. The edge, at that point, goes to the contender as the incumbent should have automatically polled higher.

One aspect of this debate rings significant. From the beginning, the moderator, Martha Raddatz, seemed to be leading Joey Biden, almost feeding him talking points. In contrast, her questions toward Ryan took a more accusatory tone. Lehrer, in contrast, was more  balanced and professional. Martha unethically used her role as moderator to pontificate her own views on issues rather than sit as an unbiased referee for the competitors. Martha also diverted from the real issues, distracting into issues of religion and abortion. The truth is that the majority of Americans do not see abortion as a key issue for our country. Of course, this is what we have come to expect from the so called Mainstream Media.

Again, one major contributing factor to the debate scoring were demeanor and body language. Obama's looking down and appearing like a scolded child lost the debate for him as much as his inability to justify his poor record. Biden was much less a push over, to the point he came across, instead, as a playground bully. Bullies have no credibility with US Citizens.

Paul Ryan's closing remarks were the best part of the final segment of the debate.



On performance and appearance, Ryan remained calm and collected, even when confronted with remarks and evidence he was apparently not prepared to confront. In contrast, Biden was not prepared. He was angry. He was ill mannered and disrespectful. He was belligerent. He came across looking like a mobster instead of a Vice President. Biden interrupted Ryan between eighty-two and ninety-six times. (Reports from those who counted vary between those numbers). It was as though Joey forgot this was an election debate and thought filibustering was allowed. In the end, Biden complained that Ryan was given more time though the clocks displayed that Joey had over a minute more speaking time.

To recap, Biden nailed Ryan with the "stimulus letters". His opening few answers, though I disagree, were strong. Ryan was not as well prepared, and it showed, though he held his own. Biden's demeanor and composure didn't disappoint, though he didn't throw one of his classic tantrums. Biden tried to argue emotionally , attempting to claim Ryan was lying, but had no facts to support the contrary.

The moderator was less than professional. She used the debate as a platform to demagogue her own political agenda instead of moderating a debate over the issues of the campaign. Her bias was not veiled, but blatant. A better moderator would have been somebody who could have put personal political ideology aside and moderated from an objective, true journalistic point of view. This debate may have been more pertinent if it had been moderated by somebody like Jamie Dupree. If the commission is unable to find an objective moderator, then they should have used two, like Martha and somebody to balance her, like Sean Hannity or Neal Boortz.

There was no knock out. There was no TKO. This fight went all fifteen rounds and to the judges for decision. The decision was split. In the end, though, it wasn't so much that Ryan won. It was more that Biden lost. The final victor was Ryan.


For a more in-depth analysis including a play-by-play breakdown, please read P-G Matuszak's full article at Mental Aikido.

Must See: Five Graves to Cairo (1943)

Billy Wilder directed some of the best movies ever made: Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment, Some Like it Hot. Five Graves to Cairo shows you how he hit the ground running with his second American film, adapting a play and changing the World War I subject to fit the times and the setting to the North African front of World War II.

Franchot Tone plays a British corporal, the delirious sole survivor of a tank crew who wanders into an abandoned Egyptian border hotel. Tone isn't welcomed warmly by Anne Baxter, a French maid who holds a grudge against the British, but she and hotel owner Akim Tamiroff hide Tone when Nazi Field Marshall Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) rolls in with the Afrika Korps and commandeers the hotel.

Seeing it as his duty to get top secret information, Tone pretends to be a spy and tries to find out where German arms are located in the desert on the way to Cairo. Baxter, though sympathetic, remains an unknown quantity since she's only working there to grab her chance to put on some lipstick and "do business" with a German VIP to get her brother out of a Nazi prison camp. Some saw this angle as too obvious a personification of France being willing to prostitute itself for the Germans, but for Wilder it was usually not symbolism but realism to portray basic human interests.

There are some clever, memorable moments, like the tank trundling along creepily through the desert, Rommel introduced with back turned to the camera, the camera’s focus on a flashlight during a fight in the dark, and shadowy noir like shots of Tone's eye peering through lattice, but even better is the acting and tension between the characters.

Franchot Tone (one Joan Crawford's husbands) got the role after Cary Grant declined (reportedly to avoid the heat of the Arizona desert). Tone was a great actor with a bemused and knowing expression and sophistication that had him most often typed as an uppity socialite or playboy. His slick, cerebral, and ironic style has aged well and was perfect for this role that called for a quick and calculating intelligence, a believably upright and duty bound soldier with just the right amounts of reluctance and cynicism.

Anne Baxter, best known for her delightful scheming in All About Eve, is perfectly seething, bitter and ashamed at what she's willing to do for her brother, and proud at what she's willing to do for Tone.

Erich von Stroheim was the extravagant, talented and perfectionist director who chronically went overboard and over budget, once turning in a ten hour first cut and insisting on authentic underwear under period costumes. By the time of Five Graves, he had stopped making movies for about a decade and was enjoying a run as a character actor. Wilder, a huge fan from way back, eagerly sought von Stroheim for Five Graves, and then listened to his idol's ideas on improving every aspect of the film. As Rommel, von Stroheim is delightfully nasty, arrogant, overconfident, and egotistical (even comparing himself to Moses), and Wilder cast him again in Sunset Boulevard.

Five Graves is a tight little thriller where war is reduced to a puzzle on a map, a virtual chess board in a hotel, its pieces a handful of complex people with totally different goals and questionable motivations. It's one of the top classic war movies, and an absolute must see for fans of Billy Wilder and of suspenseful pacing, smart writing, dark wit, and great acting.

See it SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14 at 10:45 PM on TCM.

Find me at the Speakeasy for much more classic entertainment.

Up to 184 Cases of Meningitis

Meningitis cases have gone up to one hundred and eighty-four, as of Friday morning.

Fourteen people have died, in the eleven states stricken with the disease.

As many as fourteen thousand people, in twenty-three states, could have been infected.

The fungal disease was spread in spinal anti inflammation shots, made by New England Compounding Center.

Once the outbreak was known of NECC quickly turned in their operation licenses, recalled all of their other products, and assisted investigators in every way possible.

In Minnesota, a woman, who received the injections, is now suing the company for possibly exposing her to the deadly virus.

Her suit will likely be joined by others, who were affected.

Did The Feds Try and Alter Unemployment Numbers?

Glee from Democrats was the reaction when this week's jobless claims were dramatically lower, than expected. According to the report they actually dropped thirty thousand, which would signify a noticeable improvement. But no one could find where the hiring had occured.

Some economists came under fire when they suggested that the numbers have been fixed, and were not actually factual. Both Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal suggested that maybe a state had been left out, as the numbers just felt wrong. And in fact they were right, California had been left out of the numbers.

Now accusations are flying that the federal government purposefully left out the state, as Obama needed to gain some popularity back, after his failure at the Presidential debate. Obama supporters are torn between saying it must have been an accident or that Canada failed to get their numbers in, on time.

Whilst an accident seems very possible, it should have been pretty obvious that something was missing. The drop was a significant percentage. This government has tried to cover up it's failures in Fast and Furious and in Libya, it would not be beneath them to try and mess with employment numbers, either.

Germany Protects the Right to Circumcise Boys

On Wednesday, Germany's cabinet approved a law which protects the right of parents to have their baby boys circumcised.

In June, a Cologne district court judge had ruled that circumcision was child abuse.

The judge made the decision to list it as "bodily harm" after one incident of medical complications, after a circumcision.

After the decision, the German Medical Association ordered all German doctors to stop performing circumcisions.

That move was attacked by a united front of Jews and Muslims, to whom doing so is part of their religious beliefs.

Chancellor Angela Merkel defended circumcision as part of religious freedom, in July.

With the new law, male circumcision is now a protected right, under the constitution.

Astronomers Find a Planet of Diamond

55 Cancri e orbits a star, which is visible to the naked eye, but is too close to it's sun, to support human life.

However, recent discoveries made by astronomers may make it one of humanity's first destinations.

What makes it exciting is that a third of it's mass appears to be made up of diamond.

Yes, a third of an entire planet that's made out of a material considered to be one of the most valuable, to humans.

The planet is about twice the size of earth, and a whole year, for it, lasts about eighteen of our hours.

How soon will we be there? Well it's about forty light years away, or two hundred thirty trillion miles distant.

Remembering: The USS Cole

On October 12, 2000 a small boat approached the USS Cole, which was refueling at Aden, Yemen.

The boat was loaded with explosives and driven by two suicidal terrorists.

Upon reaching the Cole, the men blew up their boat, causing a forty by forty hole in the side of the ship.

The blast killed seventeen sailors and wounded another thirty-eight as it flooded parts of the ship. Eventually the crew was able to save the ship.

It then joined the rest of the US Persian Gulf fleet in leaving harbors, due to fears of more attacks.

Later, six people, with links to Al Qaeda, would be arrested in Yemen, for helping plan the attack.

Pakistan Arrests Suspects in Yousufzai Assassination Attempt

Pakistan has announced that they've made several arrests in the attempted assassination of Malala Yousufzai.

The fourteen year old activist was shot in the head and neck by Taliban members, who had been sent to kill her for speaking out for women's rights, especially education.

One of the bullets entered her head and went into her neck toward her spine, but doctor's say it's too soon to tell the extent of trauma.

Yousufzai is being treated at a military hospital in Rawalpindi, the other two other girls, who were injured in the shooting, are both recovering at the local hospital in Mingora.

For months the Taliban had apparently warned the family to quiet their daughter, but they ignored the warnings.