Fact Checking the Fact-Checkers at First Debate; The real scandal of New York City's Sandy recovery...more

Fact Wreck: Fact Checking the Fact-Checkers at First Debate   ...Over the past several years, mainstream media outlets have introduced “fact check” services to respond to statements by politicians during election season and debates.

Ostensibly, “fact-checking” aims to help the public make more informed decisions, both by helping them see past the candidates’ political spin, and by helping them see which candidates are more truthful. In practice, “fact-checking” is weighted against Republicans, largely because fact-checkers evaluate Republicans more than Democrats.

When fact-checkers do scrutinize Democrats, the party of the left often enjoys the benefit of the doubt. For example, when Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton first faced questions about whether she used her secret private email server to send or receive classified material, the Washington Post gave her a mere two Pinocchios (out of four) when she claimed she had not. For months, evidence mounted that Clinton had lied. Only when FBI Director James Comey said that Clinton had, indeed, exchanged classified material through her email server — while declining to prosecute her for the same — did the Post upgrade its rating from two to four Pinocchios...

The real scandal of New York City's Sandy recovery ...As project director Amy Peterson told the City Council last week, it’s the usual: New York is terrible at building anything. “Our costs in New York city are three times, generally, higher than the average of the 20 highest cities,” she said.

That’s in part because New York can never decide if it’s building things or remaking society. Peterson catalogued how requirements that unions hire a certain number of minorities, women, underprivileged people and people from flood-hit neighborhoods have cost time and money, because there are only so many people who can do this work.

Peterson also mentioned “complex site conditions” at homes “adjacent to major volumes of water.”...

Obama’s Conflict Tanked the Clinton E-mail Investigation — As Predicted Hillary couldn’t be proven guilty without proving the president guilty as well....

Washington Monument closed indefinitely over elevator’s ‘reliability issues’ ...
The Park Service said there have been varied reasons for the elevator troubles. One of the biggest issues is that the elevator is 15 years old and has mechanical and electrical systems that are nearly worn out, officials have said.

Also, some of the damage from the quake on Aug. 23, 2011, is just now being discovered. Litterst said moisture might have gotten into cracks and into mechanical areas...

Venezuelan children fainting in school because they are hungry  ...According to a poll conducted last month by More Consulting among 2,000 respondents in Caracas, in 48 percent of the times children do not attend school, the cause is related to the food. Either they are feeling too weak for lack of nutrition, or their parents rather use the transport money to buy food, or they are in the food lines with their parents.

The poll revealed that 36.5 percent of children eat only twice a day and 10.2 percent just once. For 11.9 percent of the children, which means 964,737 kids, the 5-bolivars school lunch is their only meal of the day...

CORONAL HOLE TURNS TOWARD EARTH
A large coronal hole is turning toward Earth, and it is spewing a stream of high-speed solar wind. NOAA forecasters expect the stream to reach our planet on Sept. 28-29 with a 50% chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms when it arrives. At this time of year, even a gentle gust of solar wind can spark bright polar auroras. The incoming stream is almost sure to provoke a nice display.