Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., has just one donor from his district

Examiner, quoting Politico:

"With a potentially competitive race developing back home in Minnesota’s 8th District, Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar collected a contribution from just one resident of the district between June 22 and Sept. 30, according to a federal election report filed Wednesday.

Jane Robbins of Pine City gave Oberstar $500 on Aug. 22.

Other than that, all of his contributions came from political action committees, Native American tribes or individual donors in other districts and states."

Oberstar is behind:

The infrastructure bill: FedEx vs. UPS

The uses and abuses of infrastructure legislation.

Friday stuff

15 facts about Halloween.

 

Six scientists tell us about the most accurate science fiction in their fields.

 

Excellent vintage squid illustrations.  At the same site (one of my favorites), illustrations of Vesuvius erupting in the 1700's.
Real Carrots Are Purple. Orange Carrots Are Mutants.

Cameras Attached to Birds, more.

 

The highest-paid athlete of all time.

List of Weird Phobias

Gallery of carnivorous plants

 

Libretto: “Chicken versus Egg”.

Why squirrels masturbate (maybe NSFW).
Should We Clone Neanderthals?

Mega Millions Lottery simulator.

 

Scotch tape is a tiny particle accelerator.
Brain damage might help gamblers.

Whale poop pumps up ocean health.

 

This Is What A Mobile Phone Looked Like In 1964...And There Were Over A Million Of Them.

 

The Weird & Colorful World of Fungi.

The infrastructure bill: FedEx vs. UPS

The uses and abuses of infrastructure legislation.

Federal Judge Allows Suit Against Health Care Law to Proceed

 Federal Judge Allows Multi-State Suit Against Health Care Law to Proceed.

President Obama and Education Politics As Usual

Cato:

President Obama has seemingly made an entire mountain range out of his Race-to-the-Top reform molehill, while he’s gotten more or less a free pass on all he’s done to enrich the status quo. And now, with big midterm losses looming for his party, he appears to be reverting to one of the easiest political ploys in the book: Claim the GOP will cut funding to education and, in so doing, hurt innocent children and cripple the nation’s economic future. 

Check out the graph below to see how much all that spending has helped "the children":

Post Office Shows Where U.S. Is Headed

Bloomberg reports:

To understand where the advocates of big government will take this country, look at the U.S. Postal Service.

Start with the fact the Postal Service is a great jobs machine, employing 712,000 people at an average annual compensation, including wages and benefits, of $83,000. And those hefty pay checks are a great source of political contributions for Democrats. In 2010, almost 90 percent of the approximately $4 million contributed to campaigns by postal unions went to Democrats. Take a guess where much of the opposition to reform comes from.

But high-priced labor, which accounts each year for about 80 percent of costs, leads to high-priced mail services, and even higher costs for taxpayers. Over the past 10 years, the price of a stamp has risen from 33 cents to 44 cents, exceeding the inflation rate at a time when computerization should have been leading to big cost savings.

via Newsalert

Boehner's 'Plan B' for ObamaCare

When it comes to repealing ObamaCare, plan B for John Boehner (R., Ohio) will be more important than plan A. 

Plan A, of course, is to repeal the new health-care law whole hog. If Republicans take the House in next month's elections, they will surely introduce—and pass—a bill to do so. The question is: What happens when that bill then goes nowhere in the Senate, where even a Republican majority will not be large enough to rebuff a filibuster, much less override a presidential veto?

That's where plan B comes in.

It's the birthday of the US Navy

On 13 October 1775, the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, authorized the procurement, fitting out, manning, and dispatch of two armed vessels to cruise off our coasts to interdict British supply ships.

The beginning of the Navy hymn:

Eternal father, strong to save,

Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,

Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep

Its own appointed limits keep;

O hear us when we cry to thee,

For those in peril on the sea. 

Does Paying Your Mortgage Make You a Good Person, or a Stupid Person?

Time Mag.

10 years ago today: The USS Cole

Cassy Fiano:  "10 years ago today, two Al Qaeda terrorists pulled alongside the USS Cole during a routine refueling in Aden, Yemen and detonated a suicide bomb...

17 sailors were killed. 39 more were wounded. The 17 sailors who died left behind 11 children." 

Of course, the Obama administration has halted prosecution of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged coordinator of the attack.

Who's Against Library Volunteers? Teachers Unions

Boston Globe: The teachers’ union in Bridgewater and Raynham has filed a labor grievance that could block volunteers from keeping the school district’s libraries open.

WaPo notices public pension problems

Years behind the rest of the world.