SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

OUR FUTURE LEADERS – FROM THE COLLEGE FIX:   More than 100 students walked out on retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Allen West on Thursday as he began a speech at Saint Louis University to discuss the threat of radical Islam.  The students protesters — led by the SLU Rainbow Alliance and the Muslim Students’ Association — had arrived early and filled many of the seats in the two-story auditorium where West was slated to speak. As he took the stage they stood up and filed out.  At issue is West’s use of the term “radical Islam” — also the subject of his speech.  Last week an administrator at Saint Louis University told the conservative and Republican students organizing the talk that they were not allowed to use the words “radical Islam” on advertisements for the event, reported Young America’s Foundation, which sponsored the talk.  West should be commended just for showing up, in the face of that adolescent display.  He's a better man than that whole bunch, put together.

NO LONGER OUR INTERNET – FROM AFP:   Washington (AFP) - The US government on Saturday ended its formal oversight role over the internet, handing over management of the online address system to a global non-profit entity.  The US Commerce Department announced that its contract had expired with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages the internet's so-called "root zone."  That leaves ICANN as a self-regulating organization that will be operated by the internet's "stakeholders" -- engineers, academics, businesses, non-government and government groups.  The move is part of a decades-old plan by the US to "privatize" the internet, and backers have said it would help maintain its integrity around the world.  US and ICANN officials have said the contract had given Washington a symbolic role as overseer or the internet's "root zone" where new online domains and addresses are created.  But critics, including some US lawmakers, argued that this was a "giveaway" by Washington that could allow authoritarian regimes to seize control.  I much preferred the older system.  I like Americans in control.

OUR VULNERABLE ELECTIONS – FROM BLOOMBERG:    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is urging state and local election officials to seek assistance from the federal government to fend off cyberattacks that could be used to manipulate the results of the November presidential elections.  The agency is ready to provide any assistance to help states secure their systems, if they request it, Jeh Johnson, the secretary of homeland security, said in a statement Saturday. Threats are rising that criminals will use cyberattacks to try to disrupt the administration of U.S. elections, the agency said.  “These challenges aren’t just in the future -- they are here today,” Johnson said in the statement. “In recent months, malicious cyber-actors have been scanning a large number of state systems, which could be a preamble to attempted intrusions. In a few cases, we have determined that malicious actors gained access to state voting-related systems.”  On the one hand, the federal government's assistance should be valued.  On the other hand, it brings us closer to federal control of election machinery, not a welcome development.

October 1,  2016