TONIGHT ON THE INDEPENDENTS (written by Matt Welch, taken from Reason)
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Tonight's live episode of The Independents (Fox Business Network, 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT, with re-airs three hours later) is just EXPLODING with news, starting with that picture to your right of an Antares Rocket failing to launch more than about 10 seconds tonight off the the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia.

On to discuss are Party Panelists Basil Smikle (Democratic political strategist) and Noelle Nikpour (columnist/GOP strategist). The two will also analyze the latest pre-election polls, and react to today's statement by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) that "no one thinks" Senate Republicans will be able to repeal Obamacare.

Libertarian Party Senate candidate in North Carolina, Sean Haugh, is back on to talk about the "more weed less war" enthusiasm for his candidacy, which is currently polling well over the margin between the two major-party candidates.

A new Fox poll shows that fully 67 percent of Americans think the White House appointment of an Ebola Czar is just a P.R. stunt; the co-hosts will discuss. And have you heard the one about Matt Stohlandske, a board member of Evangelicals for Marriage Equality, who has decided to donate money to a Portland-based couple who are facing a $150,000 fine for refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding? He'll be on to explain his thinking.

INFO
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Ripped with the Diamond VC500. Using the software that came packaged with the dongle. (It's called EZ Ripper.) In that software there's a "DVD Standard" which rips the video to .mpg at 720x480 with some terrible black bars. I load that file into AVIDemux. Cut the file into multiple parts to remove the commercials. Rejoin, crop, and resize those files using the same tool. For conversion I used MPEG4 AVC (x264), 2 pass on video and AAC (faac) on audio.

I am not part of the scene. I just admire their naming standards.

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