BREVITAS

MCCAINERY

NY Observer - Representative Patrick McHenry cheered what he called the "biggest crowd John McCain has gotten in North Carolina" and emphasized that this was a critical election with a stark choice between the candidates. "It's like black and white," someone in the crowd at the Cabarrus Arena & Events Center yelled out, laughing. McHenry let the remark pass and finished his speech. He yielded the microphone to Representative Robin Hayes, who prefaced his comments by saying it was important to "make sure we don't say something stupid, make sure we don't say something we don't mean." Republicans, he reminded the crowd, were kind people. Plus, he added, the liberal media had shown itself eager to distort such remarks. With the crowd duly chastened and put on best behavior, he accused Obama of "inciting class warfare" and said that "liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God."

OUTLYING PRECINCTS

Daily Citizen, AR - Brian Barnett, 32, was arrested by Searcy Police midday Friday for refusing to cover profanity on a political sign he was holding on a street corner. [Green] Barnett opposes Republican Kyle Reeves and Democrat Monte Betts in the race for House District 50. . . Just before noon Friday, Barnett was standing at the northwest corner of Beebe-Capps Expressway and South Main, near a former feed store containing numerous Reeves signs, holding a sign. The sign's four lines said, "Debate Brian! Chicken s***; 1. Kyle Reeves; 2. Monte Betts." . . . At 11:37 a.m., Searcy Patrolman Tyrel Johnson arrived and spoke to Barnett about the sign. "You can probably get away with saying he's chicken, but since he's an alderman and a member of the city council, you can't," Johnson told Barnett. "That word is not acceptable." Barnett explained the sign to Johnson, saying it was designed to call attention to the refusal of Reeves and Betts to debate him. "When you call someone chicken s*** that means they're scared," Barnett said. When Sergeant Tom McGee arrived, the three went next door to a tire shop and Barnett could be heard offering to change the sign. Within minutes, however, Barnett was arrested, charged with disorderly conduct, apparently for refusing to obey an officer. "I asked him on four occasions to remove those letters from that sign," McGee said. "He did remove the 'i' but I asked him to remove the entire word.". . . Within minutes, Barnett was taken out of the car, given a citation and was allowed to go free. The sign was returned to Barnett and he was told he could stand where he chose with the sign. Barnett, confused as to why he was allowed to continue displaying the altered sign, now showing an "X" over the "i," was told the matter would be explained to him further at his Nov. 20 court date in White County District Court, Searcy Division. . . . "The officer said, 'A city councilmen has disagreed with your sign.".

According to Chris Matthews, the last time the GOP controlled the White House without a Bush or a Nixon on the ticket was in 1928.

Political Wire A new GQR poll finds that young, white, married women prefer Sen. John McCain by one point, 47% to 46%, while young married women overall favor Sen. Barack Obama by 12 points, 53% to 41%. However, young unmarried women prefer Obama by a stunning 48 point margin, 69% to 21%. That's a "marriage gap" of 36 points.

Political Wire - Six reasons the race is likely over: 1. No candidate as far back in the polls as McCain is with just two weeks to go has ever won. 2. Record setting early voting in dozens of states locks in votes in the event something big happens in the next two weeks. 3. Democrats have a large advantage in party registration as compared to four years ago. 4. Obama is outspending McCain by a large margin in the battleground states. 5. There is no reliable evidence of a "Bradley effect" in the polling. 6. Obama has probably secured every state that Democrats won four years ago and leads in half a dozen states Republicans won.

Craig Crawford, CQ -13 battleground states have already received 3.4 million new registrations as of Oct. 14, compared to 1.8 million new registrations in 2004. To see how this could improve Barack Obama's chances, consider Gallup's alternative surveys for a traditional turnout versus the expanded turnout that appears to be developing. Turnout of likely voters who look like those who made it to the ballot box four years ago yields a five-point lead for Obama over Republican John McCain, according to Gallup. But when Gallup models an expanded electorate comprised of more new voters and increased numbers of those who have not showed up in the past, Obama jumps to a nine-point lead.

ECO CLIPS

Nancy Stauffer, MIT Energy Initiative How much gasoline would the nation save in the year 2035 if lightweight hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles dominated the marketplace? More than 68 billion gallons, or about half the fuel currently used each year by today's vehicles. Over the next 25 years, the fuel consumption of new vehicles could be reduced by 30-50 percent and total U.S. fuel use for vehicles could be cut to year 2000 levels, with greenhouse gas emissions cut by almost as much. But it will be challenging to meet those demands.

Daily Green - Perhaps the ultimate "alternative to the alternative," the LED (light-emitting diode) light bulb may well dethrone the compact fluorescent as king of the green lighting choices. But it has a way to go yet in terms of both affordability and brightness. LEDs have been used widely for decades in other applications -- forming the numbers on digital clocks, lighting up watches and cell phones and, when used in clusters, illuminating traffic lights and forming the images on large outdoor television screens. Until recently LED lighting has been impractical to use for most other everyday applications because it is built around costly semiconductor technology. But the price of semiconductor materials has dropped in recent years, opening the door for some exciting changes in energy-efficient, green friendly lighting options. . .

Proponents say LEDs can last some 60 times longer than incandescents and 10 times longer than CFLs. And unlike incandescents, which generate a lot of waste heat, LEDs don't get especially hot and use a much higher percentage of electricity for directly generating light. But as with early CFLs, LED bulbs are not known for their brightness. According to a January 2008 article in Science Daily, "Because of their structure and material, much of the light in standard LEDs becomes trapped, reducing the brightness of the light and making them unsuitable as the main lighting source in the home."

HEALTH & SCIENCE

LA Times - After falling for more than a decade, the U.S. suicide rate has climbed steadily since 1999, driven by an alarming increase among middle-age adults, researchers said. A new six-year analysis in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that the U.S. suicide rate rose to 11 per 100,000 people in 2005, from 10.5 per 100,000 in 1999, an increase of just under 5%. The report found that virtually all of the increase was attributable to a nearly 16% jump in suicides among people ages 40 to 64, a group not commonly seen as high-risk. The rate for that age group rose to 15.6 per 100,000 in 2005, from 13.5 per 100,000 in 1999. Susan P. Baker, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and an author of the study, said she was baffled by the findings. Sociological studies have found that middle age is generally a time of relative security and emotional well-being, she said. . . One possibility, she said, is that the increase in suicides might be tied to a concurrent increase in abuse of prescription pain pills, such as OxyContin. Studies have shown that people who abuse drugs are at greater risk for suicide, she noted. Another possible explanation, she said, was the drop in hormone replacement therapy after it was linked to health risks in 2002. Women who gave up the drugs or decided not to take them might have been more susceptible to depression and potentially suicide, she said. In the current study, researchers found little or no change in the suicide rates for three other age groups: 10 to 19, 20 to 29, and over 65.

THE MIX

Steven Reinberg Health Day - Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to die in U.S. emergency rooms after a trauma than white patients are, researchers report. Moreover, uninsured ER patients are more likely to die compared with insured patients, according to the study in the October issue of the Archives of Surgery. . . Compared with an insured white patient, equivalently injured black patients have 20 percent higher risk of dying, while Hispanic patients have a 51 percent increased odds of dying, Haider said.

An ACLU study finds that LA blacks are three times more likely to be stopped by police than whites.

ARTS & CULTURE

GORE VIDAL'S SELECTED ESSAYS

FURTHERMORE. . .

Seattle Post-Intelligencer - Nine state troopers are under investigation over college diplomas they claimed to have earned to get higher pay. Six troopers and three sergeants, including one trooper assigned to the Seattle detachment, were placed on paid administrative leave last week as the State Patrol started a criminal investigation, Capt. Jeff DeVere said. . . The State Patrol began auditing personnel records last summer after the principals in a Spokane diploma mill scandal were convicted of counterfeiting and selling degrees and transcripts from some of the largest schools in the United States, as well as from 125 phony schools. Dixie and Steve Randock, of Colbert, were sentenced to three years in prison. The federal investigation, which lasted several years, uncovered government employees, including members of the National Security Agency and a White House staffer, who bought fake degrees.

Rules of Thumb - Take note of your body's position when you wake up in the morning - that's probably your most comfortable sleeping position. Knowing that could help when it's harder than usual to fall asleep at night. - Randy Phillips, Programmer, Canoga Park, CA

Eavesdrop DC - On Sunday, I overheard three guys walking out of Whole Foods as one of them says: "I make a policy of not changing my facebook status in the first three months of dating someone."

Dallas News - Last week, a Collin County district judge ordered [Eric] Rush to serve 30 days in the county jail for contempt of court after violating an order prohibiting him from teaching dance lessons within 25 miles of a Plano dance studio. . . Mr. Rush's former bosses at Arthur Murray Dance Studios said the dancer violated terms of a non-compete employment agreement. By teaching near the studio, they said, Mr. Rush could undermine their "competitive advantage."
Mr. Rush acknowledged he tap-danced around the law and violated the court order, but he said the 25-mile order is too restrictive. . . Attorney Anne Terwilliger said that her client, the dance studio, tried hard to avoid going to court but that Mr. Rush wasn't willing to comply with the non-compete clause. "Mr. Rush certainly reaped the benefits of having extensive training by world-renowned experts," Ms. Terwilliger said. "He violated the agreement and did not fulfill his end of the bargain. . .