As noted earlier, Newsmax appears to have taken down its article endorsing a potential military coup as the only way to solve the “Obama problem”. But here’s the full text of the article as it originally appeared.

As noted previously, the article not only endorsed the idea but seemed to suggest that top military brass were also planning or actively considering such an option.

Late Update: Newsmax is now distancing itself from Perry’s column and they’ve sent us a statement to that effect.

Later Update: Let me just add a little more on this. As you can see, the angle Newsmax is taking on this is to suggest that Perry doesn’t really have anything to do with them, that he’s just an “unpaid blogger.” Now I think we all understand that there are many sites — Kos, Redstate, even TPM — where readers are allowed to set up their own blogs or diaries and write their own stuff. These are essentially discussion areas. And it’s a cheap shot when someone finds some nutty diary on Kos and says DailyKos published such and such. Newsmax is claiming that that’s what’s happening here. But we’ve taken a close look. And I think it’s clear that that is not true. Perry has written a weekly column for the site going back to at least 1999. And he’s prominently listed on the bio page of all Newsmax columnists, along with Dick Morris, Dr. Laura, Grover Norquist, Lanny Davis, Michael Reagan, Rep. Ernest Istook, etc. (You can see the page we’re referring to here; scroll down and look for the red arrow on the left.) We’ll have more for you on this shortly.

Reid cancels October recess to keep senate at work on health care reform.

As you know, Jon Corzine has had an awfully steep hill to climb for reelection this year in New Jersey. And the worst number for him is that nothing that has happened over the last few months has allowed him to make any real progress above 40% in the polls. And for an incumbent, that’s t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e.

But Chris Christie’s increasing unpopularity along with surging independent candidate Chris Daggett might make that enough to win.

The new Q poll out today has it Christie 43%, Corzine 39% and Daggett 12%.

Not great for Corzine, to put it mildly. But if Quinnipiac has the trend line right, when you figure in any Democrats inherent advantages in New Jersey, Corzine’s still in this race.

Another way to look at this is that all Christie, a pretty staunch conservative for the Northeast, has going for him is Corzine’s entrenched unpopularity. But Daggett seems to be functioning as an escape valve for a decent amount of that anti-Corzinism, letting a lot of the air out of Christie’s bubble, as it were, thus keeping the race somewhat in play.

Why is Obama still smiling? Take a look at the last month’s worth of polling data.

Was John L. Perry, the guy plumping for a military coup in his latest column, just an ‘unpaid blogger’ at Newsmax? Try, decade-long weekly columnist and former senior editor of the site. More here on Perry’s long history with the site.

This is truly one of the more bizarre stories I’ve seen in a while.

A shadowy security company, which seems to have no history and which no one seems to know much about, has secured a contract to take over a jail in the small town of Hardin, Montana.

Only the jail has no inmates and the company — American Police Force (you can see their oddly Balkan crest in the pic to the left) — won’t say what it is they plan to do with it. And then there’s the stuff that’s been freaking out the locals. As Justin Elliott puts it in our post, “residents of Hardin, MT, were alarmed last week when executives from the firm, American Police Force, showed up in the town, which does not have its own police department, with Mercedes SUVs bearing “City Of Hardin Police Department” decals.” Read More

Rep. Alan Grayson delivered a speech last night in which he made some really over the top comments — namely that the Republican plan for health care is a) don’t get sick and b) if you do get sick, die quickly. I’m not going to defend that. But is this really a controversy when half the Republican elected offiicials in the country have been saying for the last couple months, as a statement of purported fact, that the Democrats want to institute ‘death panels’ that will euthanize or deny care to people who can’t justify their lives on utilitarian grounds?

Really?

And what reporters are stupid enough not to point this out?

Michael Steele sends out fundraising pitch comparing President Obama’s “fanaticism” to Stalin and Kim Jong Il.

For my part, I’m holding out for mandatory gun ownership for young men with high testerone levels and/or histories of aggressive or inappropriate behavior. But that’s just me. I’m hardcore. Arizona’s at least making some progress: legalizing guns in bars, as of today.

NRA’s Western Region Director J.P. Nelson notes that “if a person starts drinking and gets in a shootout and kills someone, of course they’re subject to criminal prosecution.”

Our update on the latest Finance Committee public option manuevering.