Sheila Bair is on Newsmakers talking foreclosure -  iirc the Pelosi interview was taped months ago for To The Contrary – imagine my surprise that once again Tweety is going on about Hillary usurping Joe Biden — and may the FSM have mercy, Megan McCain is on Amanpour’s roundtable, sigh, that is quite the panel assembled.

Ondelette posted a diary in honor of Benoît Mandelbrot who passed away. Fractals rule. Thanks to ondelette for the video.

Washington Journal: 7:45am – Peter Baker, New York Times, White House Correspondent. 8:30am – Eileen Norcross, George Mason University, Senior Research Fellow. 9:15am – Ray Cookliss, Cincinnati Enquirer, Editorial Page Editor & Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Associate Editor & Columnist.

ABC’s This Week: Delaware Senate Race – Christine O’Donnell (R) v Chris Coons (D).  Roundtable: Meghan McCain, George Will, Terry Moran, Matthew Dowd.  Then, ABC’s series, “Woman’s Nation Takes on Alzheimer’s.”

CBS’ Face The Nation: Howard Dean, Former Chairman, Democratic National Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Liz Cheney, Republican Strategist and Chairwoman, Keep America Safe, William Galston, Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy, Clinton administration and Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution.

Chris Matthews: Andrea Mitchell, Bob Woodward, David Brooks, Helene Cooper.  Topics: Is Obama’s National Security Team at War? What’s the Evidence Hillary Clinton Might Bump Joe Biden? Are Voters Set to Elect Some Extremists to the Senate?

CNN’s State of the Union: Senior Adviser to the President David Axelrod.  GOP response from former presidential candidate Gary Bauer, chair of the Campaign for Working Families PAC. Then, Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group and Michael Duffy, Assistant Managing Editor of Time.

Fareed Zakaria – GPS: Nobel laureate and MIT professor Peter Diamond.  North Korea.  A GPS foreign policy panel.  Ayad Allawi, the former Prime Minister of Iraq.  Al Qaeda’s new magazine.  The Chilean mine rescue.

Fox News Sunday: Sen. John Cornyn, (R-TX) and Sen. Claire McCaskill, (D-MO). Then, Carly Fiorina, US Senate Candidate (R-CA). Roundtable: Brit Hume, Mara Liasson, Bill Kristol, Elisabeth Bumiller.

NBC’s Meet The Press: White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.  Then, Colorado  Senate Race – Sen. Michael Bennet (D) v Ken Buck (R).

Witch Witch Is Witch starring Winsome Witch.  This Hanna-Barbera cartoon first aired on January 29, 1966.

Produced and Directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.  Associate Producer: Alex Lovy.  Animated by George Kreisl, Irv Spence, Ed Aardal, Don Lusk, Bob Carr, Don Patterson, C. L. Hartman, Bill Hutten, Dick Lundy, Allan Wilzbach, Carlo Vinci, Ken Southworth, Jack Parr, Rudy Cataldi, Jerry Hathcock, and Louis Kachivas.  Animation Direction by Charles Nichols.  Written by Warren Foster, Mike Maltese, Dalton Sandifer, and Tony Benedict.  Story Direction by Art Davis, Alex Lovy, Lewis Marshall, Paul Sommer, Art Scott, and Steve Clark.  Edited by Warner Leighton, Donald A. Douglas, Larry Cowan, Greg Watson, Dan Finnerty, Tony Milch, Ken Spears, Edward Warschilka, and Milton Krear.  Supervising Film Editor: Warner Leighton.  Production Supervisor: Howard Hanson.  Assistant Production Supervisor: Victor O. Schipek.  Story Supervision by Arthur Pierson.   Character Design by Jerry Eisenberg.  Layouts by  Willie Ito, Richard Bickenbach, Brad Case, Lin Larsen, Homer Jonas, Bruce Bushman, Alex Ignatiev, Walt Clinton, and Morris Gollub.  Backgrounds by Richard H. Thomas, Ron Dias, F. (Fernando) Montealegre, Bob Gentle, and Fernando Arce.  Technical Supervisor: Frank Pakier.  Camera by Frank Paiker, Charles Flekal, Norm Stainback, Roy Wade, and Frank Parrish.  Sound Direction by Richard Olson.  Vocal Talent by Jean Vander Pyl (Winsome Witch).  Music by Ted Nichols.

Grab your popcorn, put your feet up on the seatback in front of ya, and aim your spitballs at the ushers please. This is Late Late Night FireDogLake, where off topic is the topic … so dive in. What’s on your mind?

At the foot of my hill

So this afternoon I’m out for a run. It’s a crisp October day, the sun is out, finally, and it’s shining through the last of the fall foliage. I live in rural upstate New York, and on a day like this, the country roads turn into tunnels of leafy gold-orange light.

I have my iPod on, loud enough to rock, natch, soft enough to hear the pat-pat of my sneakers on the asphalt. And to hear any cars or trucks or anything coming up behind me. Out in the sticks, sometimes people enjoy doing about 70 even in 30 zones, because, well, why not, it’s not like there’s traffic.

I get near my first turnoff; I do roughly two miles from my driveway and back again, along a ridgetop, down to a valley, along a stream, and then up and home. So I’m close to heading downhill. And I hear a roar behind me, someone coming fast, in a pickup or an SUV or something big. This song is playing. I sheer off the to the very right edge of the road. I can only go so far because, well, there’s a ditch.

Dude RIPS by me by maybe a foot. A fucking foot.

I jump about two feet, straight up in the air.

As this giant red pickup disappears up the ridge in a cloud of dust and dead leaves, I notice two things.

One.

He’s flipping me off out his window.

Two.

His Paladino for Governor bumpersticker.

So I stop, get my heart back in my throat, briefly contemplate the existence of lots of pointlessly angry people in America right now, furious that there’s someone else doing something they’re not doing on a public road.

And then I go back to my run.

It’s still a beautiful day.