SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET: 

GO AWAY ALREADY – FROM THE HILL:   President Obama on Tuesday said he does not always agree with Democrats, even as he laid out the case for why they should lead the country after his term ends.  “Look, I recognize I am the head of the Democratic Party and that necessarily makes me a partisan,” he said at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) fundraiser in New York City on Tuesday night.  “But I’m not actually someone who bleeds Democrats. I think back to 2008, and I meant what I said. I don’t think any party traditionally has a monopoly on what’s right.”  Suddenly he's becoming bipartisan.  Sure he is.  Obama never understood how to do things.  He should have studied Reagan, a committed conservative who had the skill to reach across the aisle.  Obama reaches for an ice-cream cone.

SHOWDOWN AT THE LEGAL CORRAL – FROM BEARING ARMS:   Film producer Katie Couric and her director Stephanie Soechtig edited their anti-gun documentary Under the Gun in order to make a gun rights group in Virginia look as if they couldn’t answer a simple question.  They’re now facing a $12 million defamation lawsuit, according to documents provided to Bearing Arms.  Second Amendment rights advocacy organization the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), along with two of its members, today filed a $12 million defamation lawsuit against Katie Couric, director Stephanie Soechtig, Atlas Films, and Studio 3 Partners LLC d/b/a Epix for false and defamatory footage featured in the 2016 documentary film Under the Gun. The film portrays a fictional exchange in which members of the VCDL appear silent, stumped, and avoiding eye contact for nearly nine seconds after Katie Couric asks a question about background checks. An unedited audio recording of the interview reveals that—contrary to the portrayal in the film—the VCDL members had immediately begun responding to Couric’s question.  There are other outrages as well.  I'm all for lawsuits like this when they're justified, and this one is compelling.  We should more often show that our side can use the courts as well as the liberals can.

DO WE NEED THIS? – FROM CBS LOCAL:   BENTONVILLE, Ark. (CBS) – In the future, shopping carts may push themselves.   Walmart is now working on a self-driving shopping cart that customers would be able to hail like an Uber – possibly through a smartphone app.  The retailer filed a patent for a cart that has a motor and video cameras.  The best part? It would also be able to return itself from customers’ cars to the store.  Must we?  Frankly, I find it almost romantic to go to a supermarket, grab a shopping cart, fight to free it from the one it's jammed into, and push it around the store with one wheel stuck in place.  It reminds me that I'm still the master of the cart.  Some progress isn't worth it.

September 13, 2016