The Iron Man Ron Paul

This surprises me, even though I've always credited Dr. Paul with support well beyond what the famous talkers concede him.

Ann Selzer is the gal who specializes in measuring Iowa opinion, and she's typically  good at her job.  She just released a new  poll of likely Iowa caucus goers, and Paul is No. 2.

Ranking of everyone with a chance:

Cain 20
Paul 19
Romney 18
Gingrich 17

Yep, a statistical tie for first with all three of the others.

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TBC after I make some progress on a more pleasant task -- rummaging through the vault and reloading shack  for  an eight-foot  table's worth of stuff neither I nor any of my pals can use. I mean, being a crack political analyst is all well and good, but it's more noble to be thought of as a crack Loophole Vendor.

Making even O'Rielly seem like a news reporter

Chelsea Clinton is now a big-time journalist for NBC, joining Jenna Bush and  Meghan McCain in a new triumvirate of lucky sperm kids who will explain the world to us. The network assures us she wasn't hired as just another pretty face.

Chelsea Clinton "made it very clear that this is not going to be a surface-deep relationship," (NBC News President) ) Capus told the New York Times. "She wants to be in the field for the shoot and in the edit room for the edit."

And if that doesn't terrify you I'll kiss your arse in the Rainbow Room and sign a model release for every camera crew you can cram into the joint.

(For Chelsea's first effort, maybe she could treat us to a retrospective on her ma's heroic conduct under intense fire in the Sandbox.)

Paranoia revisited

Or: "Gee it's fun to yell wolf-wolf-wolf at the kids."

Down at the Athens of the Corn Fields, someone reported a man threatening a woman with a gun, "somewhere in Iowa City." University of Iowa officials flashed out an e-alert (a "Hawk Warning") telling the 31,000 students to stay put and avoid the horrifying risk of being outdoors in the sprawling city of 68,000.

Local teevee found one of the panic-stricken students.

“We were terrified because we were going to have to walk back and everyone told us not to leave,” said ... a freshman student who was at a local restaurant when she received the message."


She was not alone in fright: 

“The girl taking our orders was freaking out," (another coed) said. “Everyone behind us was like ‘Oh my God.’”

The police investigated and reported: "

the suspect was located in Muscatine, where he planned to spend the night with a family member. Local police talked to the man, but did not find a gun in his possession. Iowa City police are not planning on filing any charges because there is no concrete evidence in the case...

You can chalk up some of this to teevee doing what teevee lives for -- creating the highest possible drama from every pee-leg 911 call. Panic on campus draws viewers. 

And much of it to university officials petrified at the thought of having a public relations problem, of not being seen as custodians of a venue safe as Sunday school.

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There's nothing wrong with some sort of communications system reporting potential danger, but these panic attacks every time a jittery citizen sees a firearm pretty much negates the value  of any alert system.

Terror threat in the Heartland

The City of Des Moines blocked off a an area of the urban core after a citizen reported a suspicious object on the sidewalk. Crack hazardous-objects officers in full armor charged to the scene and successfully disarmed a cylindrical plastic tube used for dispensing dog crap bags.

You may recall a TMR report of a few months back detailing another suspicious object on one of our highways. In that case a road-kill muffler was neutralized.

So much for my life-long view that paranoia is not a Midwest trait.