Smokers should get a cheaper rate than the healthy sorts who hang around into their 80s, collecting Social Security and spending their last month hooked up to expensive machines. "Vanderbilt University economist Kip Viscusi studied the net costs of smoking-related spending and savings and found that for every pack of cigarettes smoked, the country reaps a net cost savings of 32 cents." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30092491/ns/health-health_care/t/smokers-may-not-be-financial-burden-society/#.UQMnph19LTo

So, the shirtless FBI agent might not have sent Jill Kelley any photos at all, but he did meet with Eric Cantor in October over his concerns that the investigation was being stalled for political reasons (and Cantor doubted his credibility): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2233159/Petraeus-affair-Frederick-W-Humphries-II-revealed-shirtless-FBI-agent-Jill-Kelley-emails.html

Give it some time, TK; I felt that way until the last couple of days but I'm starting to see the clouds lift (I mean, you know you're probably gonna vote). I agree that, for now at least, it's difficult to see any likely paths for the country to right itself. But I'm not going to pack it in just yet.

I am sure you will find another guy that wants to fill you in, hrtshpdbox. Hey, check it out, TK - I was just making a joke yesterday, which I considered a friendly one, about Tippit. I'm not a conspiracist, nor do I think you're one; I enjoy your birther threads, and I wasn't poking fun at you.

He will be asked questions like "wasn't the election awesome" and "how horrible are Republicans" ... I'll feel cheated if we don't get a reprise of Baba Wawa's "If you could be any tree..." thing.

Threadkiller, if you don't fill me in on what Tippit was up to, who will??

So assuming Obama lies on the record about a lot of stuff at his presser today, and assuming those lies are revealed in short order, it's time to move for impeachment. And a march on Washington demanding a re-do election since the damning info about Benghazigate was withheld from the public by Obama/Biden during the last election. Sounds like a plan to me.

Threadkiller, help me out here, this is really bothering me. Why was Tippit patrolling in a suburban area off his usual beat, particularly when every other police car except one had converged on the Book Depository area? Why, before running into Oswald, did Tippit stop a car and frantically (and "wild-eyed", according to the car-owner) search the area behind the seats? Why should be we believe that Tippit stopped Oswald for "looking suspicious" when a half-hour earlier Oswald had nonchalantly bought a soda and stood around drinking it, two minutes after shooting the POTUS?

Women! They vote wrong and they bust up marriages. What's wif them, anyways?

So....would any of this Petraeus story have even broken if Broadwell hadn't made the claim on October 26th that the Benghazi attack may have been an attempt to free clandestine prisoners? Andrea Tantaros mentioned it an hour or so ago on FOX, but that's about all the coverage I've seen so far.

NJ Gov. Christie calls for federal aid: "We expect to be treated in exactly the same way as victims of Katrina." Gosh, wouldn't that call for his new best friend to be relentlessly pounded in the press? Don't worry, Chris, it won't happen (and even if Obama has stopped calling, you'll always have that tear-inducing call from Springsteen to dearly cherish).

No, it was Oct 26th, responding to onw of Griffin's reports. I noted her speech of Oct 26 at 9:10, and still wonder how she's not afforded hero status for exposing a rogue detention center (it's gotta all be Bush's fault, right?). Amb Stevens, he who meets with someone (a Turk?) at the front gate before the attack, probably about an arms deal he who is in full agreement with O's Libya policies - does he know about the prisoners? The fears of violence expressed in his diary - is he speculating that locals might try to spring the prisoners?

On Oct 26, at the University of Denver, Broadwell said: "I don't know if a lot of you had heard this, but the CIA annex had actually taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think the attack on the consulate was an attempt to get these prisoners back". Odd she'd be cast in any kind of poor light if she was outing an old-style Bush-Cheney secret CIA prison, the kind Obama signed an order against when elected. Doesn't make sense, somehow. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324439804578115410189757452.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

JM Hanes: Sooo, wish me luck, even if you think I'm bound to fail. :-) Of course I wish you luck, and no one can be sure your efforts would be bound for failure. I probably just another week to climb out of the doldrums and return to fighting spirit, I notice I'm already reading any updates about Allen West's election. ...one thing I never hear is an actual alternative plan for dealing with the 11 million illegal aliens who are living here. Is there one? The reason that Bush got 44% of Hispanic votes and Romney only 29% is because Bush was engaged on the immigration issue, and Romney essentially ran from it during the campaign. Bush's DREAM act was derided as an amnesty plan by the GOP and even some Democrats, but was just this summer invoked by Obama (stealing the thunder from Rubio, who was about to promote it as well). I'm pretty much a lefty on immigration, a lefty like Rick Perry, who caused gasps during the debate when suggesting that kids who'd been here illegally for years be given a path to legal status. Although Perry's use of the word "heartless" to describe those who'd take those kids and dump them on a corner in Tijuana may not have been the most delicate, he was right; there's a portion of the public who lumps all illegals together, regardless of how they've behaved since they've been here. Certainly, any sane person knows we need to secure the border, and probably limit further legal immigration as well, but George Bush was right when he said (paraphrasing), "Of course they're coming across the border, they're trying to feed their families". There is at least a certain amount of compassion that's in order for a group who we essentially invited in for many decades as low-paid labor, and it would have helped the GOP this year if they'd been vocal in acknowledging that. I think Romney knew this, too, but had already tried to distinguish himself as more of a hard-liner than Perry, and didn't really want to address the issue much other than incrementally softening his stance on deportations as the campaign wore on.

hrtshpdbox, go to the heritage site and see the piece they posted a couple of days ago explaining why they thought Obamacare would not go into effect. Thanks, Clarice.

1976 -- Carter beats Ford after Watergate appears to crush the GOP for generations. Last Tuesday, a Reagan would have lost; Obama spent a trillion dollars of taxpayer money furthering a dependency society, and he did a good job of it. Good luck getting that Gimme Genie back in the bottle, ever.

I see our own fellow travelers taking this lost election as the avatar of inexorable decline The next four years will be a period of decline for the country, regardless of what Republicans try to do about it. Obamacare will become realized and the entitlement culture will expand, class warfare will be the order of the day, the dollar will be further debased and the debt will balloon, U.S. allies will be cast aside while enemies are appeased. All transgressions by Obama will be ignored by the media, all protests by Republicans will be characterized as politicization and obstruction. The voters won't see through any of it, they've demonstrated that they're thick as bricks. I wish I could perceive a silver lining, I really do. Romney was a good man, and certainly not an extremist; while in retrospect we all may wish he had done this or that, he ran a credible campaign and should have easily beaten such a failed President. That he didn't, that Obama carried women by 12 points - it's crushing, it makes one wonder if there's anything to believe about the system of American government, and it's difficult to get up off the mat and carry ever onward with the good fight. So I believe it's in the GOPs interests (and, thus, the country's interests) to just let the madness that the voters chose unfold, to just vote "present" instead of helping to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. Maybe, four years from now, voters will be a little less stupid - that's as Pollyana-ish as I can get.

Narciso, both Steyn (upthread) and Sue have been called Eeyores here, I'm just citing what I've seen. Obviously, a realist isn't actually an Eeyore.

The worst thing about Eeyores isn't that they're often wrong about where we're headed; it's that they're boring and depressing companions on the way. Yeah, the Eeeyores were regularly mocked and shouted down here during the last few weeks - how did that turn out for all you pollyannas? And, here, an Eeyore was anyone who dared point out anything that didn't comport with the groupthink, which held that all polls (except the favorable ones) were nonsense, anyone who wagered money at Intrade couldn't possibly be as smart as a JOM'er, and any indications of eroding support for Romney was clearly biased. So depressing, so boring! So now Mark Steyn and Rush Limbaugh are Eeeyores because they say that congressional Republicans shouldn't be complicit in the march to disaster. It's not even possible, I suppose, that letting the Dems have their way completely, thus leaving only Dem fingerprints on the pending meltdown, might be the best strategy for eventually winning over the stupid voters. OK, pollyannas.

In case it wasn't clear, my half-serious suggestion of giving the Dems what they want included the impossible condition that everything they do (including judicial appointments) expire on January 20, 2017. I had just barged into the thread without reading your post, or any other. I'm completely serious, though; I see no advantage to Republicans to engage in bargains with the Dems. It's not like the coming economic collapse will be averted by any GOP fine-tunings to pathetic bargains, and it's not like anyone will notice anyway. Just stand aside and let it happen. If the voters haven't seen the light after four years of D rule and miserable performance both domestically and abroad, how will they after four more? They won't, they're generally pretty stupid. They'll still blame Bush. Screw 'em.

I agree with Rush, Republicans should just let Barry and the boys have whatever they want. Lay out the policies they would prefer, and then just vote "present" when the roll is called. There's no reason to fight for compromises in order to slow down where Obama is taking us, the GOP will just be branded obstructionist for putting up a fight and, in any case, the end result will be the same. The die is cast, people voted for this nonsense - so let 'em have it, and let the Dems own it.

Was he being blackmailed to say this, and, if so, by whom? I think the meme is that he was too distracted by chasing tail to look into what was actually happening.

Eric Holder has to "think about" whether he'll stay on as AG.

probably too long for a bumper sticker OK, thanks - maybe just a yard sign, then.

About this: OBAMA IS A MARXIST PUNK WHO HATES AMERICA, AND F**K YOU IF YOU VOTED FOR HIM, STUPID! 1. Too many words for a bumersticker? 2. If not, where do I get custom bumperstickers made?