SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:49 P.M. ET:

TROUBLE IN THE NINTH – As we watch returns come in from tonight's exciting special congressional election in New York's 9th C.D., Republican forces are expressing open concern about voter fraud, and have started the legal processes needed to deal with that issue.  Voter fraud would not shock anyone familiar with machine politics.  I'd imagine that a number of people voting in the district today, and dragged to the polls by the Dem machine, have been deceased for years, but their names on the voter rolls live on.  It's the machine's answer to religious concepts of eternal life.

IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH – Now we know.  We've always known that laughter is good for us, and even feels good physically.  Now a team of scientists explains why.  It seems the very act of laughing produces endorphins, known for their feel-good effect.  Maybe that's why so many of us feel good after an Obama speech on the economy.  It's all that laughter we experience reacting to his talking points.

VERY DISTURBING – New census statistics out today show that more Americans are living in poverty than at any time since the 1950s.  The poverty rate has jumped six percent in just one year, to 15.1%.  Every American should be concerned about this.  It represents catastrophic economic failure.  The fact that the rate is increasing so quickly during the Obama administration demonstrates that the Democratic Party has no real answers to the problem.  This country is in serious trouble when one out of six lives below the poverty line.

WARREN RUNNING IN MASSACHUSETTS – Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, a severe critic of Wall Street, and someone who fancies herself a consumer advocate, will announce her candidacy tomorrow (Wednesday) for the Democratic nomination to run against Senator Scott Brown.  Brown, in a spectacular upset, won a special election to fill out the unexpired term of Ted Kennedy.  Next year's election is for a full term.

September 13, 2011