Note: the list is in no way complete but comes from a reputable source... and of course does not include all the armaments supplied by the US, and other sundries...

say cheese

Shrill political attacks have saturated the airwaves for months, but behind them is the real problem of this demoralizing election: the dark flow of dollars, often secretly provided by donors with very special interests.

The amount is staggering: Nearly $4 billion is likely to be spent once the final figures are in, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, far more than in the 2006 midterms, which cost $2.85 billion. It could even eclipse the $4.14 billion spent in the 2004 presidential campaign.

By FRANK RICH

PRESIDENT Obama, the Rodney Dangerfield of 2010, gets no respect for averting another Great Depression, for saving 3.3 million jobs with stimulus spending, or for salvaging GM and Chrysler from the junkyard. And none of these good deeds, no matter how substantial, will go unpunished if the projected Democratic bloodbath materializes on Election Day. Some are even going unremembered. For Obama, the ultimate indignity is the Times/CBS News poll in September showing that only 8 percent of Americans know that he gave 95 percent of American taxpayers a tax cut.

Democratic candidate Chris Coons, who is vying to defeat Republican rival Christine O'Donnell in Delaware's U.S. Senate race, is out with a new attack ad targeting the conservative hopeful on a host of controversies that have rocked her campaign.

Running with the theme music of the 1960's television show "The Twilight Zone," the 30-second seeks to highlight some of the Tea Party favorite's most infamous lines.

From Robert Fisk...

Mr O'Farrell said he inadvertently saved in his ''favourites'' a link titled ''watch two boys break the record for longest kiss''.

The user, who cannot be named for legal reasons, also posted a picture of a youth with his shirt off titled ''an early teen boy completely and utterly adorable. That body is excellent.''

The Sun-Herald inquired about the graphic content at 11.22am on Friday. By 11.46am, Liberal staff had removed the link from Mr O'Farrell's favourites. The other user's Twitter account has since been removed.

Rupert Murdoch last night cast himself as a champion of Britain's "dispossessed" migrants, prisoners and economic underclass as he criticised standards of education in a speech in honour of Baroness Thatcher.

Giving the inaugural Margaret Thatcher Lecture at a right-wing London think tank, the media mogul said British schools were failing to educate children for the jobs market.