From New York:

Thursday, September 22nd 2011, 4:00 AM

A quick-thinking Brooklyn boy was hailed as a hero Tuesday after he calmly phoned 911 when his sickly mother collapsed and started convulsing.

“She fell down. She’s shaking,” 7-year-old Drew Champagnie told a dispatcher at 8:12 a.m., a source said. “Please send someone quickly.”

With his mother writhing on the floor beside him, Drew coolly rattled off to the 911 operator his address and his father’s cell phone number.

“It’s not just, ‘Help! Help! Help!’” an FDNY source said. “It’s like, ‘Please get someone here.’ He had it together.”

Paramedics arrived at the Cypress Hills home minutes later and quickly went to work on Drew’s ailing mother, Doris Champagnie-Gilkes.

Champagnie-Gilkes, 47, was later listed in stable condition after undergoing a battery of tests at Kings County Hospital.

“Mom is doing well,” an FDNY source said. “She’s expected to be okay.”

In a bedside interview, Champagnie-Gilkes appeared slightly dazed, but her eyes came to life when asked about her son.

“He’s awesome, a beautiful boy,” said Champagnie-Gilkes, who suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes and seizures. “He’s always looking out for me.”

After his act of bravery, Drew went to school as if nothing had happened.

He returned home to a horde of waiting reporters and photographers.

“I’m not scared,” Drew said. “I know what to do.”

Drew said his mother was helping him get dressed for school when she started suffering a seizure.

“She was shaking, and she fell sideways,” Drew said.

“I went downstairs and got the phone and called 911. I told them that my mom is sick and come as fast as you can.”

“When the ambulance came, I let them in,” Drew added.

The precocious boy said his grandmother and uncle, a city paramedic, taught him what to do in case his mom starts having a seizure.

Go here for the rest of the story.

Back in 2000 and 2004, those who followed John Zogby’s polls often criticized them for varying from the others by more than would seem warranted. Gore and Kerry always seemed to be ahead, and we know how those two elections turned out.

This one probably fits that outlier category, but since it shows Herman Cain in the lead, I’m going to put it out there anyway:

No, I don’t think the Herminator could possibly pick up 16 points in two weeks. I also don’t recall Cain being in the lead in any other poll back in June and July. He’s always had the intensity thing going, i.e., those who have met him, seen him, or heard him usually end up liking him — a lot.

But there’s little doubt that Big Mo is in Cain’s corner for now — despite the press’s attempts to suppress and discount it.

I also don’t believe that Michelle Bachmann’s fade is as disastrous as indicated.

________________________________

UPDATE: Wildly at variance — Perry 28, Romney 21, Gingrich 10, Cain 7, Paul 7, Palin 7. It’s from CNN/Opinion Research Corporation. Never forget that ORC is the Clintons’ designated polling organization.

Herman Cain’s victory in Saturday’s GOP straw poll in Florida didn’t become headline news at the Associated Press until after the candidate’s Monday morning “Today Show” interview. Earlier today at NewsBusters, Kyle Drennen noted how “Today’s” Ann Curry tried to frame the result as some kind of “protest vote.”

Having delayed dedicating a story to Cain’s victory for roughly 36 hours, the headline in AP’s unbylined story this morning was: “GOP’s Cain says win in Fla. straw poll not a fluke.” In other words, it didn’t become news at the wire service until someone else in the media put the candidate on the defensive about the significance of his win, thus avoiding giving him any moment of unvarnished recognition for the good old-fashioned butt-kicking he delivered (37% Cain, 15% Perry, 14% Romney, 11% Santorum, all others under 10%). How convenient.

(more…)

At the Daily Caller (HT RedState): “EPA: Regulations would require 230,000 new employees, $21 billion.” That’s not a misprint.

_____________________________________________

Soooooo predictable: “SEC May Recommend Legal Action Against S&P”

_____________________________________________

At TaxProf (HT Instapundit): “Income Gender Gap Narrows as Male Income Falls.” Now that’s progressive. (/sarc)

_____________________________________________

Victor Davis Hanson at Pajamas Media (“Why Does the Good Life End?”):

And as we know from past collapses (of civilizations), a new entitlement in a matter of minutes becomes an institutionalized right whose withdrawal causes far more anguish than its prior nonexistence.

Almost every sentence is memorable. Read the whole thing.

_____________________________________________

Andrew Malcolm at the LA Times: “New gaffe: Obama confuses Jews with janitors” –

The president has been muffing lines all over the place recently. Last week, also peddling his jobs plan at a bridge that won’t qualify, he hailed America’s building of “the Intercontinental Railroad.” You don’t seem to hear much about these gaffes in the media for some reason.

Ya think?

_____________________________________________

Absolutely stupid and dangerous: “OTC inhalers to be phased out to protect ozone layer.” Prescription-only “green” inhalers will apparently cost three times as much.

_____________________________________________

This would appear not to bode well for an incumbent president:

You could argue that it doesn’t help Congress either, but that isn’t how it has worked out historically. And if this hostility does hurt Congress, why wouldn’t it hurt recalcitrant Democrats more?

It’s not gripping TV, but it’s a legitimate news story.

As Brent Baker at NewsBusters noted on Sunday morning, despite the story’s legitimacy, “neither ABC nor NBC mentioned the development Friday night and CBS allocated a mere 25 seconds.” I’d have been okay with 25 seconds at each place, but the ABC-NBC non-coverage was inexcusable.

The counterargument will be that we all knew it was coming, but that’s too easy. The American people needed to see it. (They didn’t have a problem making time for Ollie North in Iran-Contra, did they?)

So consider the following a partial offset:

Key pulls:

(0:48) Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida: … only two months ago, Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison met with me in the committee offices. He looked me in the eye and assured me that everything was just fine, and the company was on track to be cash-flow positive. Mr. (Brian) Harrison told me and other members of this committee that Solyndra was continuing to make excellent progress, that it was meeting all its cost and performance milestones, and that revenues were projected to nearly double in 2011.

I was hoping that Mr. Harrison would testify today and explain to me and to this committee how he could make those representations in late July about Solyndra’s improving prospects when the company was on the path to bankruptcy just 30 days later.

It seems clear to me that Mr. Harrison knew or should have known in July that the company was going to restate its financial projections to reflect increasing market and pricing pressure on its product resulting in decreased revenue.

When the committee invited Mr. Harrison and Mr. Stover (W.G. Stover, Jr.) to testify at last week’s hearing, Solyndra’s counsel said that Mr. Harrison would appear voluntarily, and would answer the Committee’s questions. However, Solyndra’s counsel asked the committee to postpone their testimony by one week, claiming that Mr. Harrison and Mr. Stover were involved in active negotiations to potentially sell the company, and that an earlier sale might potentially result in a better recovery for the taxpayer at the company’s bankruptcy. I agreed to this request provided that Mr. Harrison appear this week and testify.

In return for postponing his testimony by one week, I was provided written assurance by Solyndra’s counsel that Mr. Harrison would answer the committee’s questions.

Unfortunately, we won’t get those answers today. Mr. Harrison’s and Mr. Stover’s counsel informed the committee three days ago that they would decline to answer the committee’s questions, and would invoke their rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. I respect the witnesses’ rights under the Fifth Amendment, but I want to make it clear today that this this subcommittee’s investigation will continue.

… (3:57) We are also determined to know why DOE allowed the taxpayers to be subordinated to the private investors during that restructuring in violation of the clear letter of the law.

The oath-taking and Fifth Amendment invocations begin at the 5:23 mark.

From the Census Bureau:

Sales of new single-family houses in August 2011 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 295,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 2.3 percent (±13.9%)* below the revised July rate of 302,000, but is 6.1 percent (±18.8%)* above the August 2010 estimate of 278,000.

Right after the release, the Associated Press’s Derek Kravitz said it all nicely in three paragraphs (report may be revised during the next few hours):

Sales of new homes fell to a six-month low in August. The fourth straight monthly decline during the peak buying season suggests the housing market is years away from a recovery.

The Commerce Department says new-home sales fell 2.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 295,000. That’s less than half the roughly 700,000 that economists say must be sold to sustain a healthy housing market.

This year could be the worst for sales since the government began keeping records a half century ago.

Here’s the updated trailing twelve months graph:

To avoid 2011 coming in as the worst on record (in truth, the worst since World War II), actual sales during the final four months of the year will have to average 28,000 a month or more — a monthly clip which would be 22% higher than the final four months of last year.

That’s not impossible, given how horrid 2010 was, but it seems doubtful.

(Originally posted shortly after midnight; carried forward because of the importance of the underlying story.)

________________________________________________

Sometimes, I think that we wouldn’t have a useful press at all if it weren’t for the British press.

The big news out of the International Monetary Fund this weekend was, as reported by the UK Telegraph, that it “may need billions in extra funding.” Specifically, it “may have to tap its members – including Britain – for billions of pounds of extra funding to stem the European debt crisis.”

In other words, the IMF doesn’t have enough money to address the potential problems it sees on its own:

(more…)

Rules are here.

From Marlton, New Jersey (video is at link):

Wednesday, Sep 21, 2011; Updated 10:31 AM EDT

Amazing Video: Car Crashing Through Jewelry Store

fitness consultant was being hailed a hero after his calm and swift actions possibly saved lives after an SUV barreled into a South Jersey jewelry store over the summer.

The whole incident happened the morning of July 30 at Jay Roberts Jewelers on Route 73 in Marlton, N.J.

The terrifying moments of impact as a car traveling up to 50 mph crashed into the front window of the store were all caught on surveillance video as the vehicle crashed through a front window, shattering glass and crumbling jewelry cases like an accordion.

“The car was still coming, I just started to scream, ‘shut it off, shut it off,’” employee Olivia Pantalone said.

Pantalone and fellow employee Joan Morein could have been killed in the crash were it not for the quick thinking of Anthony Baynard, a fitness consultant from Texas who just happened to be in New Jersey at the time of the crash.

Bernard quickly sprang calmly into action taking the driver’s foot off the accelerator and turning off the engine.

“(The driver) said, ‘Young man did i kill anybody?’” said Bernard. “What i told her was — not knowing anything was, ‘No mam, everybody is fine.”

Baynard was able to carry Morein out of the rubble.

But Pantalone was still in trouble — pushed under a pile of debris.

“She was laying there pretty motionless at first,” said storeowner Jake Spigelman. “I actually froze because I thought she was dead under there.”

Baynard lifted Pantalone out of the debris, wrapping her wrist in a tourniquet and guiding her to hold her hands in the air.

“I was losing a lot of blood and he did save my life — he acted very quickly, very unselfishly,” Pantalone said Tuesday at a ceremony honoring Baynard. …

Go here for the rest of the story.

In his opening to Friday evening’s show:

Key mentions (mentioned in the order indicated):

… The Republican establishment doesn’t get to tell us who our nominee is — and a couple of states don’t get to tell us who our nominee is.

… Now I watched that debate yesterday, every bit.

Now Herman Cain was superb. Herman Cain should be considered seriously for President of the United States.

Rick Santorum was superb. He should be considered seriously for President of the United States.

Michelle Bachmann was superb. She should be considered seriously for President of the United States.

Newt Gingrich was superb. And he should be considered too.

As should of course should Romney and Perry, but let me tell you something.

… In Romney’s case, he keeps digging in on RomneyCare and he keeps sounding like a left-wing Democrat on Social Security.

In Perry’s case, his in-state tuition (for illegal immigrants) position, he dug in on that and it’s a position that I reject.

Levin goes on to note that those rooting for former Florida Governor Jeb Bush to enter the race should know that he supports in-state tuition rates for illegal-immigrant Floridians.

Listen to the whole thing.

Friday at the UN (text here), Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of engaging in “ethnic cleansing.”

Earlier, in a speech to 200 supposed “senior representatives of the Palestinian community in the U.S.” (would that include Gaza flotilla organizers and Barack Obama pals Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn? Just askin’), Abbas declared, as relayed by Ynetnews.com, that “They talk to us about the Jewish state, but I respond to them with a final answer: We shall not recognize a Jewish state.”

Given that there would hardly be a point to covering Abbas’s speech if readers knew of the just-cited statements, it’s hardly surprising that the press is also in a non-recognition mode:

• A search at the Associated Press’s national site on “ethnic cleansing” (not in quotes) returns nothing relevant.
• In a review of several AP stories, I found no reference to Abbas’s non-recognition statement. In one instance, the AP brought up Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mention of it: “[h]e reiterated in interviews with Israeli TV stations that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state and that talks would first have to address security arrangements.”
• Based on a search on “ethnic cleansing” (in quotes) at the New York Times, the last time the term was used in connection with anything was September 16.
• A Google News September 22-25 search on “ethnic cleansing” (in quotes, sorted by date) returned 56 items (it looks like 108, but it’s really 56). None are original source, U.S.-based establishment media outlets.

Yes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Palestinian terrorists of engaging in ethnic cleansing, but only after Abbas weighed in, and with an accuracy Abbas did not have:

For his part, Netanyahu accused the Palestinians of racism and ethnic cleansing in their call for a state with no Jewish settlers — “Judenrein,” in Netanyahu’s words, using the Nazi-era term.

“That’s ethnic cleansing,” he said.

He accused the Palestinians of wanting statehood but not peace. “The truth is, so far the Palestinians have refused to negotiate,” he said. “The truth is the Palestinians want a state without peace.”

We’re where we’ve always been, namely that meaningful talks can’t start until the Palestinians recognize Israel and renounce terrorism. They never have.

Frankly it all seems like a such a waste of media and diplomatic time and effort — unless the long-term goal is, through a long-term campaign of disparate treatment, to make Israel look like the obstacle to peace, when it isn’t and never has been. That’s seemingly what’s it’s been all about for at least 44 years since the 1967 war.

In case you’re wondering where all of this might be headed, an AP story’s headline this afternoon should give you an idea: “With UN bid, Abbas rises out of Arafat’s shadow.” Marvelous.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

The first two minutes of this clip are driving the left crazy.

Truth hurts (HT Hot Air):

UPDATE: Relevant portion of transcript —

(Fox News’s Chris) WALLACE: And we’ll get right to that question of Obamacare.

Mr. Cain, you are a survivor of stage 4 colon and liver cancer. And you say, if Obamacare had been…

(APPLAUSE)

WALLACE: …and we all share in the happiness about your situation. But, you say if Obamacare had been in effect when you were first being treated, you would dead now. Why?

CAIN: The reason I said that I would be dead under Obamacare is because my cancer was detected in March of 2006. From March 2006 all the way to the end of 2006, for that number of months, I was able to get the necessary CAT scan tests, go to the necessary doctors, get a second opinion, get chemotherapy, go — get surgery, recuperate from surgery, get more chemotherapy in a span of nine months. If we had been under Obamacare and a bureaucrat was trying to tell me when I could get that CAT scan that would have delayed my treatment.

My surgeons and doctors have told me that because I was able get the treatment as fast as I could, based upon my timetable and not the government’s timetable that’s what saved my life, because I only had a 30 percent chance of survival. And now I’m here five years cancer free, because I could do it on my timetable and not a bureaucrat’s timetable.

This is one of the reasons I believe a lot of people are objecting to Obamacare, because we need get bureaucrats out of the business of trying to micromanage health care in this nation.