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

POLICE WORK – From the New York Post:  A cop was shot in the head and killed while chasing a gunman after a shootout in East Harlem Tuesday night, police sources said.  The housing cop, with five years on the force, responded to a call for gunfire between two rival groups at 420 East 102nd street at around 9 p.m., according to law enforcement sources.  Once the officers arrived on scene, the warring groups split up and scattered, with one suspect robbing a bike by gunpoint.  The bike-riding gunman led cops on a chase to a footbridge at 120th Street near the FDR.  Once the suspect made it over to the waterside there was an exchange of gunfire and the cop was struck in the forehead, sources said.  We will now be told that the killer was culturally upset by being chased by police.  Police lives matter.

NUTBAG – From the Washington Free Beacon:   Former President Jimmy Carter said recently that he provided maps of Islamic State positions in Syria to the Russian embassy in Washington, a move apparently at odds with the Obama administration’s official policy of not cooperating with Russia in the Syrian war.  Carter said on Sunday in Georgia that he knows Russian President Vladimir Putin “fairly well” because they “have a common interest in fly fishing.” When he met with Putin in April along with other global leaders to discuss the crises in Syria and Ukraine, the Russian president gave him an email address so the two could discuss his “fly fishing experiences, particularly in Russia,” Carter said.   It is hard to believe that this man was an American president.  Of course, it's hard to believe that the current occupant of the White House is an American president.

A NEW KIND OF DEMOCRACY – From Fox:  There’s a big election controversy at a California middle school after the principal discovered that not enough black or Latino students were elected to office.  Principal Lena Van Haren’s decision to withhold the results of the student government elections angered parents and students at Everett Middle School in San Francisco.  “It’s not okay for a school that is really, really diverse to have the student representatives majority white,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle. “The easy thing would have been to announce the results and move on. I intentionally did not choose the easy way because this is so important.”  What a heroine.  There were no complaints – none whatever – that the election was dishonest.  The kids elected whom they wanted to elect.  But democracy to "progressives" means that the "right" people must be elected.  We are in trouble.

RYAN IN, WITH CONDITIONS – From the Washington Times:   Rep. Paul Ryan said Tuesday he’s ready to replace Speaker John A. Boehner if House Republicans of all stripes unite behind his vision, capping an intense wait to hear from the man who many tapped as the sole hope to save a bitterly divided caucus.  Mr. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican and 2012 vice presidential candidate, gave members until Friday to mull whether they’re in his corner or not, an ultimatum designed to get complete buy-in from every wing of the party and avoid the type of disarray that doomed Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s short-lived bid for the post.  “If I can truly be a unifying figure, than I will gladly serve,” Mr. Ryan said after a closed-door meeting with fellow House Republicans.  If Ryan can unify the party, he not only will become speaker, he'll become a future presidential candidate.

October 20, 2015