Eddie Murphy Won't Host Academy Awards

The screencap from PuffHo, "Eddie Murphy Out as Oscar Host After Brett Ratner Resignation."

And at New York Times, "Eddie Murphy Drops Out of Oscars Telecast."

PREVIOUSLY: "Academy Awards Director Brett Ratner Resigns in 'Gay Slur' Controversy."

Remains of War Dead Were Dumped in Landfill

This sounds so bureaucratic and inhuman. It's just horrifying to think that veterans' remains were dumped like common garbage. Unreal.

At Washington Post (via Memeorandum):

The Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years disposed of portions of troops’ remains by cremating them and dumping the ashes in a Virginia landfill, a practice that officials have since abandoned in favor of burial at sea.

The Dover, Del., mortuary, the main point of entry for the nation’s war dead and the target of federal investigations of alleged mishandling of remains, engaged in the practice from 2003 to 2008, according to Air Force officials. The manner of disposal was not disclosed to relatives of fallen service members.

Air Force officials acknowledged the practice Wednesday in response to inquiries from The Washington Post. They said the procedure was limited to fragments or portions of body parts that were unable to be identified at first or were later recovered from the battlefield, and which family members had said could be disposed of by the military.

Lt. Gen. Darrell G. Jones, the Air Force’s deputy chief for personnel, said the body parts were cremated, then incinerated, and then taken to a landfill by a military contractor. He likened the procedure to the disposal of medical waste.

Jones also could not estimate how many body parts were handled in this way. “That was the common practice at the time, and since then our practices have improved,” he said.

Gari-Lynn Smith, portions of whose husband’s remains were disposed of in the landfill after his 2006 death in Iraq, said she was “appalled and disgusted” by the way the Air Force had acted. She learned of the landfill disposal earlier this spring in a letter from a senior official at the Dover mortuary.

“My only peace of mind in losing my husband was that he was taken to Dover and that he was handled with dignity, love, respect and honor,” Smith said. “That was completely shattered for me when I was told that he was thrown in the trash.”

RTWT.

Joe Paterno Fired!

At LAT, "Joe Paterno fired by Penn State board of trustees":

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State trustees fired football coach Joe Paterno and university president Graham Spanier amid the growing furor over how the school handled sex abuse allegations against an assistant coach.

The massive shakeup Wednesday night came hours after Paterno announced that he planned to retire at the end of his 46th season.

But the outcry following the arrest of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky on molestation charges proved too much for the board to ignore.

One key question has been why Paterno and other top school officials didn't go to police in 2002 after being told a graduate assistant saw Sandusky assaulting a boy in a school shower.

Paterno says he should have done more. Spanier has said he was not told the details of the attack.

Sandusky has denied the charges.

More at the link.

PREVIOUSLY: "Paterno Shouldn't Finish the Season."

Added: At New York Times, "Paterno Is Out and President Steps Down at Penn State."

More, an editorial at The Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Republicans Believe Romney Most Likely to Win Nomination

At Gallup (via Memeorandum):

Republicans are most likely to predict that Mitt Romney will be their party's 2012 presidential nominee. The 45% who believe Romney will win the nomination exceeds the combined 35% who think any other candidate will win, including 13% who say Herman Cain and 9% who say Rick Perry.

Keep reading.

Romney has a lot of weaknesses as a potential GOP frontrunner, compared to previous candidates for the nomination.

RELATED: At Atlas Shrugs, "We Must Not Choose Obama Lite: Courageous Foreign Policy Leadership Must Define GOP Nominee":

The struggle for the nomination is now. And I am so sick and tired of the enemedia and the subversive left destroying our most effective leaders on the right in their attempt to make them unelectable, all the while exalting vacuous vassals like Obama. They tried to do it to Reagan. They destroyed George W. Bush. They think they have done it to Sarah Palin, and now they are working on doing it to Herman Cain.

Not so fast, destroyers.

If they think they are going to pick our candidate this time (as they did with McCain in ‘08), they are in for a very rude surprise. Not. This. Time. We cannot let our domestic enemies define our leaders. We cannot let our domestic enemies destroy our most effective voices on the right. You must have seen by now that the more rational, the more effective, the more patriotic a Republican leader is, the more he or she is marginalized, ridiculed, destroyed.

This must stop, and we must stop it. The perspective and agenda that the chattering class, the media elites and their tools, are advancing will shatter in the face of reality.

Pamela highlights Michele Bachmann and expects her to improve in the polls. I'm not so sure, although I wish it were so.

More at Memeorandum.

Paterno Shouldn't Finish the Season

From Jemele Hill, at ESPN, "Penn State Should Not Allow Joe Paterno to Retire On His Own Terms":

This isn't good enough.

This isn't the appropriate conclusion for Joe Paterno, who announced on Wednesday that he will retire at the end of the season.

If the Paterno era is allowed to end this way, it will be just another example of Penn State University cowardice.

"I have come to work every day for the last 61 years with one clear goal in mind," Paterno said in Wednesday's statement. "To serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have been entrusted to my care. I have the same goal today."

But the only interests being served here are Paterno's and Penn State's. If the 84-year-old coach is given the freedom to dictate the terms of his departure, it means that university officials will have shown again that they are unwilling and unprepared to confront their legendary football coach.

Penn State cannot afford to allow Joe Paterno to orchestrate his own exit strategy.
Paterno shouldn't be given the opportunity to coach another game, whether he does it walking the sideline or sitting in the press box. He doesn't deserve to see these seniors -- whose last game in Beaver Stadium on Saturday will be memorable for all the wrong reasons -- play their final home game. He doesn't deserve to be celebrated or supported as he concludes a career now tarnished by his reprehensible, implausible inaction against a former assistant who stands accused of unspeakable crimes against children.

Continue reading.

And here's Ann Althouse, on Maureen Dowd's column at New York Times:

In case you've forgotten, the story Paterno heard — according to the grand jury report — was that McQueary, a graduate assistant coach, saw "a naked boy about 10 years old 'with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky.'"

Unspeakable crimes.

Union Thugs Energized by Occupy Wall Street: Film at Eleven!

At New York Times, "Occupy Movement Inspires Unions to Embrace Bold Tactics":

Organized labor’s early flirtation with Occupy Wall Street is starting to get serious.

Union leaders, who were initially cautious in embracing the Occupy movement, have in recent weeks showered the protesters with help — tents, air mattresses, propane heaters and tons of food. The protesters, for their part, have joined in union marches and picket lines across the nation. About 100 protesters from Occupy Wall Street are expected to join a Teamsters picket line at the Sotheby’s auction house in Manhattan on Wednesday night to back the union in a bitter contract fight.

Labor unions, marveling at how the protesters have fired up the public on traditional labor issues like income inequality, are also starting to embrace some of the bold tactics and social media skills of the Occupy movement.

You think?

This whole thing --- the occupy movement and the epic enabling by the Democrat-Media-Complex --- is shaping up as the Big Lie of 2011. Immediately I'm reminded of Walter Russell Mead, "Occupy Blue Wall Street?" (Read it!) No surprise, but the news of sexual assaults, thug beatings, attacks on restaurant owners and street vendors, and multiple deaths don't seem to be dampening the media's #OWS enthusiasm one bit. Another death was reported last night. See the New Orleans Times-Picayune, "Man found dead in Occupy New Orleans encampment."

The deceased had been dead for two days. Hello!

Did anyone die at a tea party? I don't think so, but if someone had it would have been the biggest story since the death of George Tiller. I can see the headlines: "Survival of the Fittest: Tea Partiers Leave Protesters to Die." Or, "Ayn Rand Shrugs."

Long Beach Cracks Down on Panhandling

My campus is in North Long Beach, quite a distance from downtown. But the city's a major metropolitan area, and of course residents are quite familiar with urban ills, especially aggressive panhandling.

At Long Beach Press-Telegram, "Long Beach to weigh beggary law." And, "Long Beach council OKs panhandling restrictions."

RELATED: "Occupy Long Beach halts council meeting." It wasn't about panhandling. Just sleeping in the park. But the city council may cave to the occupy goons:

Obstinate protesters were upset by the council's perceived unresponsiveness on the issue. City park ordinances force demonstrators to leave Lincoln Park after 10 p.m. and forbid erecting tents overnight.

Increasingly vocal audience members shouted down Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal, who is presiding over the council while Mayor Bob Foster is abroad.

Lowenthal deemed the unruly group "out of order."

"You're out of order!" a protester shouted.

Dozens of others joined in a chant. "The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!"

I hope so.

Herman Cain Accusers Plan Joint Press Conference

At Los Angeles Times, "Herman Cain's accusers may band together at news conference":

The women whose complaints Herman Cain attacked in a news conference Tuesday are planning to counter with a news conference of their own, attorneys for the women said Tuesday night.

"My client has decided to hold a joint news conference with as many of the women who complained of sexual harassment by Herman Cain as will participate," said Joel P. Bennett, the Washington lawyer for Karen Kraushaar, whose harassment claims against Cain got the current controversy rolling after a report of it appeared last week in Politico.

Also, "A Second Accuser Goes Public Against Cain."

IMAGE CREDIT: The People's Cube.

Mississippi Rejects 'Personhood' Initiative

At WaPo, "Anti-abortion ‘personhood’ amendment fails in Mississippi."

Violence at the Obamavilles

A great piece, from James Taranto, at Wall Street Journal, "This Is What Anarchy Looks Like."

Dana Pico Launches First Street Journal

Here's the inaugural post, "Welcome to THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL!":

In an effort to avoid the problems which plagued my previous site, I am instituting a new Comments and Conduct policy, which will have its own separate page, always available in the menu bar. While I always support the free expression of ideas, constant name-calling and personal attacks will receive the same treatment they’d get were someone to submit such as a Letter to the Editor in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL or The New York Times. Repeat violators will simply have all of their comments deleted.

Congratulations to Dana! And here's to another 7 years of successful blogging!

PREVIOUSLY: "Dana Pico Closes Common Sense Political Thought."

Newt Gingrich Could Win the GOP Nomination? Newt Gingrich!

Funny, but earlier I watched the Newt Gingrich interview with Piers Morgan on CNN: "What's wrong with America? Newt Gingrich says we 'got off on several wrong tracks'." Morgan was practically slobbering over the guy. As readers know, Gingrich is not my favorite. He's got the worst people skills, seriously. I can't imagine voting for him. But Gingrich is generating some attention as the accusations against Herman Cain take their toll. (And also amid the growing grassroots resistance to Mitt Romney's inevitability.)

See Dorothy Rabinowitz, "Why Gingrich Could Win."

Rabinowitz is enamored of Gingrich's wonkishness, and she sees Romney, Perry, and Gingrich as the top-tier candidates come January. That sounds reasonable, but forgive me if I'm not bowled over by the choices.

William Jacobson has more, "Fear of Newt on blog-team Romney."

Eric Holder Won't Apologize to Family of Brian Terry

In flaming red font, at Michelle's, "Fast and Furious: Holder “regrets” lies, condemns “distraction,” redistributes the blame; Holder denies receiving F&F memos; NO STRAIGHT APOLOGY TO TERRY FAMILY; Grassley and Cornyn nail Holder: “Are you winging it?”"

Background on Brian Terry's death at Fox News: "EXCLUSIVE: Third Gun Linked to 'Fast and Furious' Identified at Border Agent's Murder Scene."

Herman Cain: 'I Absolutely Reject' Sexual Harassment Accusations

At Chicago Tribune, "Cain 'absolutely' rejects accusations and says he won't drop out of GOP race."

Lots more developments on this, and I'll be updating.

Meanwhile, at Gallup, "Cain's Image Showing Signs of Decline Amid Allegations." (Via Memeorandum.)

Academy Awards Director Brett Ratner Resigns in 'Gay Slur' Controversy

Well, you just can't say "fags" in Hollywood, I guess.

Where's Ann Coulter when you need her, eh?

At LAT, "Brett Ratner resigns as Oscar producer after gay slur":

Director Brett Ratner submitted his resignation as a producer of the 84th Annual Academy Awards Tuesday after coming under fire for making a gay slur.

"He did the right thing for the academy and for himself," Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak said Tuesday afternoon. "Words have meaning, and they have consequences. Brett is a good person, but his comments were unacceptable. We all hope this will be an opportunity to raise awareness about the harm that is caused by reckless and insensitive remarks, regardless of the intent."

In a Q&A session last weekend after a screening of his new film, “Tower Heist,” Ratner said, “rehearsal is for fags." He then went on Howard Stern's Sirius XM show and talked about masturbation, cunnilingus, pubic hair, the size of his testicles, his sexual encounter with Lindsay Lohan.

Ratner apologized Monday and Sherak seemed to accept his apology, but the drumbeat of criticism continued Tuesday, culminating in Ratner's resignation. It was not immediately clear whether Ratner's handpicked host, Eddie Murphy, would also leave the show, scheduled for late February. Ratner and Murphy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ratner's resignation letter read...

Continue reading for the resignation letter.

MacIver Institute: 'Origins and Philosophy Behind Occupy Movement'

A great clip:

Also, at Director Blue, "Occupy Hatred: A Gallery of #OWS Sickness."

PREVIOUSLY: "On the Origins of the Occupy Movement."

Herman Cain Accuser Has History of Financial and Legal Troubles

At Chicago Tribune, "Cain accuser has history of financial troubles, legal squabbles: Her father, fiance say they stand with her."

At the video is Jonathan Martin of Politico, who William Jacobson has been hammering. See: "Bring in the Politico clowns."

Also, at Washington Examiner, "Fifth woman raises questions about Cain's behavior."

What's It Take to Be a Victoria's Secret Angel?

At Telegraph UK, "Victoria's Secret show: What does it take to be a Victoria's Secret Angel?"

Berlusconi Denies Rumors He is About to Quit

At Der Spiegel:

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has denied speculation he is about to resign due to a looming rebellion in his party. Financial markets rose on the rumors he may quit, then fell after his denial, in a sign of how desperately investors want him to go.

Silvio Berlusconi was reported on Monday to be fighting a last stand to stay in power after leaders of his PDL party urged him to step down in talks on Sunday night. He faces a possible defeat in parliament on Tuesday in a vote to confirm a state financing bill which he has already lost once.

Newspapers estimated there are 20 to 40 potential defectors in his party, more than enough to bring down his government. A defeat on Tuesday is expected to lead to his immediate resignation or to a confidence vote.
Berlusconi is labelling the rebels as traitors to their country at a time of crisis and warning that his resignation would lead to an early election, which most MPs from his party don't want.

Two journalists with close links to Berlusconi fanned the speculation of his imminent departure on Monday. Giuliano Ferrara, editor of the Foglio newspaper and a former minister, said on his website: "That Silvio Berlusconi is about to resign is clear. It is a question of hours, some say of minutes."

Franco Bechis, deputy editor of the center-right Libero newspaper, said on Twitter that the 75-year-old leader would step down Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Berlusconi said on his Facebook page: "Rumors of my resignation are baseless." News agency Ansa quoted him as saying he didn't understand how such rumors could arise.

Berlusconi left Rome on Monday morning and travelled to Milan for lunch with his children.

Continue reading.

Republican Candidates Talk Tough on Iran

Actually, I don't think we should be escalating the rhetoric. The U.S. is pretty extended overseas as it is, and no doubt the U.S. would be pulled into a Persian Gulf conflagration one way or another.

Anyway, at New York Times, "G.O.P. Field Attacks Obama Foreign Policy With Tough Talk on Iran."

Smokin' Joe Frazier, Boxing Legend, Dead at 67

At New York Times, "Joe Frazier, Ex-Heavyweight Champ, Dies at 67."

Frazier won the undisputed heavyweight title with a 15-round decision over Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971, in an extravaganza known as the Fight of the Century. Ali scored a 12-round decision over Frazier at the Garden in a non-title bout in January 1974. Then came the Thrilla in Manila championship bout, in October 1975, regarded as one of the greatest fights in boxing history. It ended when a battered Frazier, one eye swollen shut, did not come out to face Ali for the 15th round.

The Ali-Frazier battles played out at a time when the heavyweight boxing champion was far more celebrated than he is today, a figure who could stand alone in the spotlight a decade before an alphabet soup of boxing sanctioning bodies arose, making it difficult for the average fan to figure out just who held what title.

The rivalry was also given a political and social cast. Many viewed the Ali-Frazier matches as a snapshot of the struggles of the 1960s. Ali, an adherent of the Nation of Islam, came to represent rising black anger in America and opposition to the Vietnam War. Frazier voiced no political views, but he was nonetheless depicted, to his consternation, as the favorite of the establishment. Ali called him “ignorant,” likened him to a gorilla and said his black supporters were Uncle Toms.

“Frazier had become the white man’s fighter, Mr. Charley was rooting for Frazier, and that meant blacks were boycotting him in their heart,” Norman Mailer wrote in Life magazine following the first Ali-Frazier bout.

Frazier, wrote Mailer, was “twice as black as Clay and half as handsome,” with “the rugged decent life-worked face of a man who had labored in the pits all his life.”

Those were the days, man.

Is an Ivy League Diploma Worth It?

At Wall Street Journal, "Fearing Massive Debt, More Students Are Choosing to Enroll at Public Colleges Over Elite Universities":

Daniel Schwartz could have attended an Ivy League school if he wanted to. He just doesn't see the value.

Mr. Schwartz, 18 years old, was accepted at Cornell University but enrolled instead at City University of New York's Macaulay Honors College, which is free.

Mr. Schwartz says his family could have afforded Cornell's tuition, with help from scholarships and loans. But he wants to be a doctor and thinks medical school, which could easily cost upward of $45,000 a year for a private institution, is a more important investment. It wasn't "worth it to spend $50,000-plus a year for a bachelor's degree," he says.

As student-loan default rates climb and college graduates fail to land jobs, an increasing number of students are betting they can get just as far with a degree from a less-expensive school as they can with a diploma from an elite school—without having to take on debt.

More students are choosing lower-cost public colleges or commuting to schools from home to save on housing expenses. Twenty-two percent of students from families with annual household incomes above $100,000 attended public, two-year schools in the 2010-2011 academic year, up from 12% the previous year, according to a report from student-loan company Sallie Mae.

More on that at Washington Post, "Two-year colleges draw more affluent students."

'Carlos the Jackal' Goes On Trial in France

I remember reading Robert Ludlum novels back when I was a teenager, and "Carlos the Jackal" was one of the mysterious terrorists in the background. There was almost a romanticism about it. Well, he's obviously not so mysterious or romantic.

At LAT:

The man known as Carlos the Jackal, once one of the world's most feared and hunted terrorism suspects, went on trial in a Paris court Monday for a series of bombings nearly 30 years ago.

Venezuelan-born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez was smiling and defiant as he was accused of being the mastermind behind four attacks in France in 1982 and 1983 that killed 11 people and injured nearly 200.

Asked to state his occupation, Ramirez, 62, replied that he was a "professional revolutionary," adding, "of the Leninist tradition."

He then insisted that although he had been born in Venezuela he had been given Palestinian nationality by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whose cause he espoused.

With his gray hair, beard and reading glasses and needing a chair for his "bad back," Ramirez bore little resemblance to the photographs of him with dark hair, Che Guevara beret and sunglasses when he was at the height of his notoriety in the 1970s. While on the run from police in his heyday, he was reported to have had plastic surgery to change his appearance.

However, he had clearly lost none of his ability to provoke, giving a clenched-fist salute to a supporter on the public benches and leaping up to rage, in heavily accented French, about the "racist, Zionist state of Israel."

The outburst drew a round of applause from a group of young men at the back of the courtroom, prompting a warning against disorder from the president of the court, Olivier Leurent.

Adele Prognosis Good After Vocal Chord Surgery

At LAT, "Adele prognosis after vocal cord surgery is good, her doctor says":

The latest update on the singer Adele, who recently underwent microsurgery for a benign polyp on her vocal cords, is good. A statement released from Massachusetts General Hospital, where the singer had surgery, says her prognosis is optimistic:

"Adele underwent vocal cord microsurgery by Dr. Steven Zeitels to stop recurrent vocal cord hemorrhage (bleeding) from a benign polyp. This condition is typically the result of unstable blood vessels in the vocal cord that can rupture. Based on the advice of her doctor and voice therapist in the United Kingdom, Adele came to Boston to consult and undergo corrective voice surgery with Dr. Zeitels, the Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Voice Center. ... Dr. Zeitels expects Adele to make a full recovery from her laser microsurgery."

And Tania has the video, and some kind words:

Deaths Put Focus on Pastor's Advocacy of Spanking

My dad used to laugh about how he was going to "tear your little butt up," but he wasn't joking around. My dad would whip me on the back of the legs with the belt. I've forgotten what I did wrong. Maybe I forgot to do chores, or I fibbed about something to try to stay out of trouble. Little good that did. And I wasn't the only kid in my neighborhood to get the belt, either. Did it make us better kids? I don't know. I was just scared of my dad. And I don't know if that has a peripheral effect of increasing respect for authority, although that seems to be the premise of advocacy for old-fashion spanking.

In any case, here's this at New York Times, "Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate":

PLEASANTVILLE, Tenn. — After services at the Church at Cane Creek on a recent Sunday, a few dozen families held a potluck picnic and giggling children played pin the tail on the donkey.

The white-bearded preacher, Michael Pearl, who delivered his sermon in stained work pants, and his wife, Debi, mixed warmly with the families drawn to their evangelical ministry, including some of their own grandchildren.

The pastoral mood in the hills of Tennessee offered a stark contrast to the storm raging around the country over the Pearls’ teachings on child discipline, which advocate systematic use of “the rod” to teach toddlers to submit to authority. The methods, seen as common sense by some grateful parents and as horrific by others, are modeled, Mr. Pearl is fond of saying, on “the same principles the Amish use to train their stubborn mules.”

Debate over the Pearls’ teachings, first seen on Christian Web sites, gained new intensity after the death of a third child, all allegedly at the hands of parents who kept the Pearls’ book, “To Train Up a Child,” in their homes. On Sept. 29, the parents were charged with homicide by abuse.

More than 670,000 copies of the Pearls’ self-published book are in circulation, and it is especially popular among Christian home-schoolers, who praise it in their magazines and on their Web sites. The Pearls provide instructions on using a switch from as early as six months to discourage misbehavior and describe how to make use of implements for hitting on the arms, legs or back, including a quarter-inch flexible plumbing line that, Mr. Pearl notes, “can be rolled up and carried in your pocket.”

The furor in part reflects societal disagreements over corporal punishment, which conservative Christians say is called for in the Bible and which many Americans consider reasonable up to a point, even as many parents and pediatricians reject it. The issue flared recently when a video was posted online of a Texas judge whipping his daughter.

PREVIOUSLY: "VIDEO: Texas Judge Beats Daughter."

Why Are John Mearsheimer and Richard Falk Endorsing a Blatantly Anti-Semitic Book?

Asks Alan Dershowitz, at the Hudson Institute (via Blazing Cat Fur).

I'm still amazed by this controversy, and Dershowitz makes a powerful case against these book endorsements, which "represent a dangerous step toward legitimizing anti-Semitic rhetoric on university campuses."

Sharon Bialek Accuses Herman Cain of Sexual Misconduct (VIDEO)

The New York Times has the background, "Woman Accuses Cain of Lewd Behavior; He Denies It." And more at Memeorandum.

And a detailed report at National Journal, "This Time, Cain's Accuser Has a Name and a Face."

Nothing about the Herman Cain campaign has unfolded as expected, so it’s anybody’s guess what will happen next.

But by presenting a name, a face, and details — unlike the three other women who have accused him of sexual harassment — Sharon Bialek will make it a lot harder for voters to ignore the allegations. Her nationally televised press conference on Monday ensures that this is not, as Cain declared recently, “end of story.’’ Not even close.
For more than a week, allegations that Cain came on to female employees when he headed the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s were unspecific and anonymous. First there were two women, and then there were three. Cain said that all he could recall was a conversation with one of them in which he noted her height was the same as his wife’s. It was all very vague.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, may have summed up voters’ attitudes best when she said on Sunday, “I just don't see anonymous sources as fair against a candidate. I think if someone has a real concern, they should come out and say it.… Until something comes out that’s concrete, I think it is politics as usual.’’

Not anymore. Her name is Sharon Bialek. She is attractive, with long blonde bangs. She is, as her credibility-hungry attorney proclaimed right away, a registered Republican who graduated from college, has held down a number of jobs, and once dated a doctor. She could have sold her story for money, attorney Gloria Allred added, but she didn’t.

Bialek gave a detailed account of meeting Cain at an association convention years ago and then reaching out to him for advice one month later after losing her job. She said he upgraded her hotel room in Washington, took her out to dinner, and offered to show her his offices. Then it got ugly. She said he reached for her crotch and pushed her head toward his own. Bialek noted they went to an Italian restaurant and that she was wearing a black plaid skirt. She knows details matter to those sitting in judgment.

Bialek also presented herself as someone people can relate to. The single mother of a 13-year-old son needed a job. Sounds like more than a few voters out there. She was careful not to sound spiteful, praising Cain’s “infectious presence’’ and maintaining that she had hoped she was the only woman he had harassed.

When that appeared not to be the case, Bialek said, she decided to tell her story to the public.

“I’m coming forward to give a face and a voice to those women who cannot or for whatever reason do not wish to come forward,’’ she said.

More at the link.

And some of the reactions:

* At Althouse, "I want to assert, firmly, that I have never been inconsistent on the subject of these allegations about Herman Cain."

* At AoSHQ, "Cain's Statement: I'm Going to Beat Up On the Media and Make Them the Story, But I'm Not Going to Address Particulars."

* At Astute Bloggers, "CAIN SHOULD WITHDRAW FROM THE RACE."

* At The Conservatory, "Cain, Politics, Personal Behavior and “The Truth”."

* At Hot Air, "Dem strategist: Can conservatives handle the fact that Cain’s accuser is white?"

* At Legal Insurrection, "Cain “4th Accuser” press conference // Update – alleges sexual advance after termination of employment," and "No cause for champagne at Politico."

* At Riehl World View, "My Gut Reaction to the Herman Cain Affair."

* The Other McCain, "GLORIA ALLRED PRESS CONFERENCE WITH NEW HERMAN CAIN ACCUSER UPDATE: VIDEO, HEADLINES ADDED UPDATE II: CAIN CAMPAIGN: ‘ALL ALLEGATIONS … COMPLETELY FALSE’."

* At Verum Serum, "Sharon Bialek’s Story Sounds Credible."

* At Weasel Zippers, "Report: New Woman Accuses Cain of Sexual Harassment, Being Represented By Spawn of Satan Attorney Gloria Allred…"

Dr. Conrad Murray Guilty in Death of Michael Jackson

At LAT (via Memeorandum):

Michael Jackson's personal physician has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for causing the pop icon's 2009 death by a powerful surgical anesthetic.

The verdict against Dr. Conrad Murray comes after a jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about nine hours over two days. The 58-year-old cardiologist, who was charged with the lowest possible homicide offense, faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison and a minimum sentence of probation.

Murray now also faces the probable loss of his medical license. California authorities already suspended his right to practice, but medical boards in Nevada and Texas agreed to wait to evaluate licenses he holds in their states until after the criminal case.

Streaker Greets Hayden Panettiere at MTV Europe Music Awards

This used to happen in the '70s. What a throw-back.

At London's Daily Mail, "That's a bit rude! Hayden Panettiere upstaged by male streaker at the MTV Europe Music Awards."

Totally planned, you think? I'm not embedding this one, but hey, if that suits your jollies, here it is.

Israeli Air Strikes on Iran?

Is the Netanyahu government preparing surgical strikes against Iranian nuclear development installations? I've seen a couple of blips about this in the news, and now here's this at Telegraph UK, "Russia warns against Israeli air strike on Iran":

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavov has warned that a military strike on Iran would be a “very serious mistake” with “unpredictable consequences”, after Israel’s president Shimon Peres said that an attack was increasingly likely.

In comments published in the Israeli daily Hayom, Mr Peres said that “the possibility of a military attack against Iran is now closer to being applied than the application of a diplomatic option”.

"We must stay calm and resist pressure so that we can consider every alternative," he added.

The drumbeat of war is expected to grow louder this week when United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, issues its most detailed report to date on nuclear research in Iran.

It will provide what Western officials and experts regard as irrefutable evidence that Tehran is compiling the capacity and skills to build a bomb. It will be used as leverage for a fifth round of sanctions at the UN, but could also provide Israel, with the tacit support of Washington, to finalise plans for an air strike.

Among its findings are that Tehran was helped by nuclear experts from two countries, believed to be Russia and Pakistan. The Washington Post reported that key assistance was provided by Vyacheslav Danilenko, a former Soviet nuclear scientist, hired by Iran's Physics Research Centre.

There's more at that top link, plus, at Washington Post, "Iran pressures highlight rare Mideast common ground: Israel and Gulf Arabs."

And more thoughts at Israel Matzav, "Russia backing nuclear Iran."

Pakistan: The Ally From Hell

From the press office at The Atlantic:

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 4, 2011 -- An exclusive report on Pakistan, featured in the upcoming issues of The Atlantic and National Journal, paints a chilling picture of a U.S. ally even more treacherous than previously known. While it's no secret Pakistan is home to radical jihadists and a large nuclear arsenal, The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg and National Journal's Marc Ambinder reveal troubling new information about the extreme lengths the country is taking to hide its nuclear weapons from the U.S.—and about the secret plans the U.S. military has made to seize those weapons in the event of a crisis. Goldberg and Ambinder also provide fresh insight into the deeply strained U.S.-Pakistan relationship, one in which the two countries are more adversaries than allies.

This combined Atlantic/National Journal reporting effort, the product of dozens of interviews over the course of six months, marks the first time the two publications have collaborated on joint cover stories.

The Atlantic's report is available free online: "The Ally From Hell":

Much of the world, of course, is anxious about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, and for good reason: Pakistan is an unstable and violent country located at the epicenter of global jihadism, and it has been the foremost supplier of nuclear technology to such rogue states as Iran and North Korea. It is perfectly sensible to believe that Pakistan might not be the safest place on Earth to warehouse 100 or more nuclear weapons. These weapons are stored on bases and in facilities spread across the country (possibly including one within several miles of Abbottabad, a city that, in addition to having hosted Osama bin Laden, is home to many partisans of the jihadist group Harakat-ul-Mujahideen). Western leaders have stated that a paramount goal of their counterterrorism efforts is to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of jihadists.

“The single biggest threat to U.S. security, both short-term, medium-term, and long-term, would be the possibility of a terrorist organization obtaining a nuclear weapon,” President Obama said last year at an international nuclear-security meeting in Washington. Al-Qaeda, Obama said, is “trying to secure a nuclear weapon—a weapon of mass destruction that they have no compunction at using.”

Pakistan would be an obvious place for a jihadist organization to seek a nuclear weapon or fissile material: it is the only Muslim-majority state, out of the 50 or so in the world, to have successfully developed nuclear weapons; its central government is of limited competence and has serious trouble projecting its authority into many corners of its territory (on occasion it has difficulty maintaining order even in the country’s largest city, Karachi); Pakistan’s military and security services are infiltrated by an unknown number of jihadist sympathizers; and many jihadist organizations are headquartered there already.

Continue reading.

National Journal's report is by subscription only.

Skrillex

Some background at The Guardian UK, "Is Skrillex the most hated man in dubstep?"

And at Rolling Stone, "Skrillex Isn't Surprised By Dubstep Takeoff," and "Korn Team with Skrillex, More Dubstep Producers for New Album."

Jennifer Lopez on Cover of Glamour's 'Women of the Year' Issue

The public relations office at Glamour sent me this: "Jennifer Lopez: The All-Star":

Former First Lady Laura Bush and daughters Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager are also featured: "Women of the Year 2011."

Introducing Barack Obama

The Daily Caller reminds us of Barack Obama's 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate:

But see William Jacobson, who has a more recent video of Obama, this time with no introduction needed, "Obama releases truly inspirational video."

'Is #OWS in danger of losing Middle America?'

Asks Steve Kornacki, at Salon.

And of course, the occupy movement never had Middle America in the first place. The movement's a disaster: #OccupyFail. They keep trying, though. At Verum Serum, "Video: Robert Reich at Occupy LA."

Erica Mae Butts and Shanita Latrice Cunningham Collapse on Floor After Being Sentenced to Life for Killing Three-Year-Old Girl

At Telegraph UK, "Women collapse as they are given life sentences in bizarre courtroom scene," and at London's Daily Mail, "Bizarre courtroom scene as lesbian lovers collapse and wail after hearing they will serve life for murdering three-year-old girl."

Also at the Examiner, "South Carolina women get life for killing of Detroit toddler."

Dana Pico Closes Common Sense Political Thought

My friend Dana has ended his blog. See, "The death of CSPT." Dana emailed to sound me out before he went ahead and pulled the plug. Here's my response:

Close it down only if it's not fun for you, Dana.

I'm sorry you lost Sharon and any others. Would they come back to your blog if you screened commenters? It's the Internet. I went to comment moderation because I had one troll, W. James Casper, who runs a whole blog designed to mock and ridicule me, and now to organize attacks on my employment. Casper always has to have the last word and he's "never wrong", so after allowing him for years I finally started moderation, and my comment section basically died. But I don't blog for the comments. I blog to get my ideas out there. Comments and great commenters are an added bonus, but it's also extra work. So, I'd only close it down if losing a great commentariat is a bummer for you. Otherwise, keep blogging and go with the flow. I love the winter photos, so you'll always have things others would like to read and repost.

Donald

I went over there to check the comments, because Dana said that things had gotten personal at the threads. Folks were making threats and posting real names and workplace information. Here's one comment at this post:

Hube, now you go public with a private email! That is a breach right there.

If you don’t know what you did to out me, that’s on you, Hube. I choose to use my first name on this blog, which both you and Hitchcock arbitrarily revoked. Is this what you call behaving with honor in public.

All I ask of you, and Hitchcock, is that we keep our discourses civil, free from the personal attacks. Apparently that is too much to ask of you, Hube.

So yes, Hube, if the personal attacks continue, in retaliation your identity will then be revealed by me, as you have already done to me. Disagree with me all you want, that is fine, but cease the personal attacks. Do I have to spell out to you what a personal attack is? Perhaps, as a warning, I should point out to you first if you use one. Or just take a look at every Hitchcock post addressed to me – there you will find a million examples. Since Dana has refused to follow through on his requests for civility, ignored by you and Hitchcock, I will act when I am victimized and bullied by you too.

And don’t forget, Dana, your blog is in the public domain. You can certainly maintain your devotion to free speech and simultaneously exert your influence in order to minimize the personal attacks, which certainly contaminate your blog. What has happened to your standards, Dana?

One of the other commenters enters after that to suggest it's not fair to pull Dana into a fight between those two. But actually, it's Dana's house, and Dana has decided that things have deteriorated out of control and he wants to start fresh.

Now, compare that to my stalker and demonic hate blogger Walter James Casper III. That hate-blogger has repeatedly claimed that he started American Nihilist as a joke, but once the blog become the online repository for attacks against my workplace, not once has Walter James Casper rejected the attacks or denounced the hate. To this day commenters there, some of the very people who have launched attacks against me only to get burned, continue to scheme and organize for additional rounds.

If Walter James Casper III had even a shred of the decency as my good friend Dana Pico he'd call it a day at American Nihilist and pull the plug. Casper said it was all supposed to be a joke. Now some commenters have decried Walter James "Costanza" Casper III for his "legalisitic" blogging that has just become a "drag." But Casper is driven by pure hatred. Even after being roundly denounced around the Internet as a clinical stalker and sociopath, he continues his smears and lies for no other purpose but to destroy me. He's even taken his attacks to my personal space, sending threats and taunts via email. Hate-blogger Walter James Casper III should look to the example set by Dana Pico. Sometimes things just get out of control. Dana Pico has denounced the threats and hatred. He's giving it a fresh start on another blog. Walter James Casper should also denounce the threats and hatred and give it up. Retire American Nihilist and start fresh in an effort to salvage any thread of decency that might be left.

PREVIOUSLY: "Continuing Lies by Cowardly Hate-Blogger W. James Casper in Left's Demonic Workplace Intimidation Campaign."

Pipeline Protesters Circle the White House

At Business Week, "Thousands Circle White House to Protest TransCanada Pipeline":

An Academy Award nominee, a Nobel laureate and thousands of protesters encircled the White House, urging President Barack Obama to reject TransCanada Corp.’s planned oil pipeline across the U.S.

“Yes, we can!” demonstration organizer Bill McKibben shouted today, referring to Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan. “Yes, we can stop the pipeline!” McKibben is the founder of 350.org, an organization dedicated to minimizing climate change.

Mark Ruffalo, who vied for a best supporting actor Oscar, and Jody Williams, winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, also were part of the crowd in Washington that numbered as many as 12,000 people, according to the Sierra Club, one of the environmental groups coordinating the action.

Also at Washington Post, "Oil pipeline protesters encircle White House."

PREVIOUSLY: "Keystone XL Pipeline Protesters to Encircle the White House."

Communism and the Criminalization of Comforts

An essay from T.L. Davis, at Washington Rebel, "Criminals by Comfort and the Dogs of Communism."

Late Sunday Rule 5

Maggie's Notebook sent me a link, and I realized I've been out of the Rule 5 loop. See: "Rule 5 Saturday Night: Adriana Lima."

And see Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart: Jennifer Hawkins." Plus, "The Cowboys Stepped Up."

Plus, Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and Bob Belvedere, "Rule 5 Saturday."

More at Eye of Polyphemus, "Ali Larter," and A View From the Beach, "Rule 5 Saturday - Avril Lavigne."

Check the roundup at The Other McCain as well: "Rule 5 Sunday: Outskirts."

BONUS: At Theo Spark, "Bedtime Totty..."

If I missed you, drop your link at the comments and I'll update.

Dan Collins: 'To Serve and Protect ... Ourselves'

A Sunday essay, at Conservative Commune:

Anyone who watched the anti-Walker Madison farce had to have been disturbed by the way the Capitol Police dealt with the protesters, preferring not to stand up against threats and property damage, much less mere violations of ordinances. Because they are unionized, many of the cops assigned to keep matters in check did absolutely nothing to stop protesters from interfering with the duties of government . . . even though police were exempt from the limitations that Governor Walker’s legislation imposed on union negotiation for teachers and others. In effect, the police were making a self-interested determination on the merits of legislation. Whether they believed that that legislation bore on themselves directly or obliquely is not relevant to the performance of their offices. Their behavior was Banana Republic stuff.

Continue reading.

ICYMI, Walter Russell Mead, "Occupy Blue Wall Street?" (cited at Dan's piece).

'The Hour is Late, the Time is Now': Mark Levin at Defending the Dream Conference

Everybody's talking about it, so here you go, "Mark Levins Speech at Defending the Dream Conference."

We now have post-constitutional government. A great speech:

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

Also at Reaganite Republican Resistance, "Reaganite's Sunday Funnies," and Theo Spark, "Cartoon Round Up..."

Explaining the Lindsay Lohan Playboy Photoshoot

From Charles McGrath, at New York Times, "Why a Fallen Angel Is a Centerfold":

If you were a boy growing up in the late ’50s or early ’60s, the Playboy centerfold pages were a breath-catching revelation: they were the first — and for years, most likely the only — glimpse you were apt to get of an actual naked female. Now we live in an age when nothing is left to the imagination, when teenagers text one another with naked photos of themselves, and when staggering amounts of pornography are available free on the Web. By Internet standards, and even by the standards of the other X-rated men’s magazines — a dwindling and increasingly unprofitable business these days — the Playboy photo spreads are practically chaste. So why on earth would anyone think some glossy magazine photos of Lindsay Lohan, about whom we already know far too much — her D.U.I.’s and failed rehabs, her shoplifting, her electronic ankle bracelet, her stumbling around in nightclubs, etc. — were worth a million bucks?

The answer is precisely all that tabloid baggage she drags with her, and the spectacular way she has managed to derail her career, even outdoing Britney Spears in this regard. Her history certifies her as genuinely scandalous, rather than merely naughty, and brings a measure of real-life messiness to pages otherwise devoted to pneumatic, girl-next-door types who seemed to have accidentally shed their clothing on the way back from the library or from doing chores on the farm.

Sounds about right.

Also, at London's Daily Mail, "Dina Lohan claims Lindsay's semi-nude Playboy shoot will be 'tastefully done' (as she plugs new tell-all book)."

Wasn't DOA Cool or Something Once?

Blazing Cat Fur wants to know, "And the Band Blayed On...DOA at Occupest Vancouver."

Actually, DOA was one of the hottest punk bands back in the day. What's not cool, however, is Joey Shithead lending his support to the Occupy Vancouver shitheads. Some woman died of a heroin overdose, which is not something you'd see at tea parties. But MFM reporting on the occupy losers is totally lame, but what else is new? More at Verum Serum: "Death at Occupy Vancouver, Mayor Announces Imminent Closure."

The studio version's still hot after all these years, and when I listen I just transport myself back to my teenage years, when I didn't know anything:

you peer through the darkness, billy clubs aimed.
they smash ya once or twice till ya don't look the same.
ya gotta know who your enemy is.
the enemy.

ya gotta know who your enemy is.
the enemy.

they rope ya to a time clock.
to keep you on the line.
and now your losin' the pieces of your mind.
ya gotta know who your enemy is.
the enemy.

ya gotta know who your enemy is.
the enemy.

the newsmen are lying.
drawing line like black & white.
makin' you believe it's your brother you gotta fight.
ya gotta know who your enemy is.
the enemy.

ya gotta know who your enemy is.
the enemy.

PREVIOUSLY: "On the Origins of the Occupy Movement."

Herman Cain Hammered in New Reuters/Ipsos Poll

See, "Cain's support dips after sex accusations: poll":

Allegations that Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain sexually harassed women in the 1990s have begun to damage his bid for the White House, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

The poll showed the percentage of Republicans who view Cain favorably dropped 9 percentage points, to 57 percent from 66 percent a week ago.

Among all registered voters, Cain's favorability declined 5 percentage points, to 32 percent from 37 percent.

The survey represents the first evidence that sexual harassment claims dating from Cain's time as head of the National Restaurant Association have taken a toll on his presidential campaign.

A majority of respondents, 53 percent, believe sexual harassment allegations against Cain are true despite his denials. Republicans were less likely to believe they are true, with 39 percent thinking they are accurate.

"The most striking thing is that Herman Cain is actually seeing a fairly substantial decline in favorability ratings toward him particularly among Republicans," said Ipsos pollster Chris Jackson.

#OccupyFail

I think pretty soon some of the more sober mainstream media types will finally say, "C'mon, who are you people kidding? Your movement is totally FUBAR and it's time for the news media to report the truth about it." Was Andy Rooney a conservative curmudgeon? Maybe he would have come out with a prime-time slap-down of these violent idiots and wannabe anarcho-revolutionaries.

In any case, here's a little roundup, in no particular order.

My good friend and collaborator Tania reports on her visit to the occupation yesterday, "Occupation Philly Update."

And the folks at Verum Serum have been blogging Occupy Wall Street like the dickens. This is too much, for example, "Occupy Oakland Takes Over Burger King (Video)." And keep clicking over there for all the reporting.

Also Lonely Conservative notes the #Fail factor: "Crime Raises ‘Concerns’ at Occupy LA."

Plus, from Glenn Reynolds at the Washington Examiner, "Occupy Wall Street gets the ink, Tea Party gets the voters." And more on #OccupyFail at Instapundit, where Glenn writes, "#OCCUPYFAIL: Hey, that hashtag seems to be getting some traction. So is #OccupyHollywood." And where we find Walter Russell Mead, "Occupy Blue Wall Street?", and Mark Steyn, "Corporate Collaborators: Standing with “the 99%” means supporting the destruction of civilized society."

Finally, from the Center for Global Research, "A Chill Descends On Occupy Wall Street; 'The Leaders of the allegedly Leaderless Movement'." (via Memeorandum and Linkmaster Smith).

Thomas B. Edsall: 'The Politics of Austerity'

He's reliably on the left, but Edsall's one of the better political writers working today.

A good piece, at New York Times:

The economic collapse of 2008 transformed American politics. In place of shared abundance, battles at every level of government now focus on picking the losers who will bear the costs of deficit reduction and austerity.

Fights in Washington are over inflicting pain on antagonists either through spending cuts or tax increases, a struggle over who will get a smaller piece of a shrinking pie. This hostile climate stands in sharp contrast to the post-World-War II history of economic growth. Worse, current income and employment trends suggest that this is not a temporary shift.

Read it all.

Ohio's Issue 2 Goes Down to the Wire

At Los Angeles Times, "Ohio voters look set to dump Republicans' anti-union law."

An aggressive Republican drive to weaken the labor rights of government workers appears to have crested, at least in Ohio, where voters are expected to throw out a far-reaching anti-union law this week.

The referendum over collective bargaining for public employees, potentially the most important contest in off-year elections around the nation, is being closely watched for clues about shifting voter trends in a state expected to play its usual outsized role in next year's presidential contest.

Barely seven months ago, newly elected Gov. John Kasich joined other Republican governors, including Wisconsin's Scott Walker, in defying angry street demonstrations to push through a measure designed to curb the power of public-employee unions.

Tuesday's vote "will reverberate in a major way across the country, because Ohio is still Ohio," said Dale Butland of Innovation Ohio, a liberal think tank with ties to organized labor. "We are one of the linchpins of any presidential election."

Kasich, the focus of both sides in the referendum fight, touts his blue-collar roots as the son of a postman. But he warns that a victory by organized labor would undercut his efforts to hold the line on government spending and rebuild the state's economy.

"Look, I understand that people are nervous about this in the public sector," he told a northeastern Ohio rally in support of the anti-union law he signed in March. But, he added, "if we want to continue on this path of pulling Ohio out of this ditch, the state of Ohio has to be responsible."

RTWT.

Also, at the Portland Maine Press-Herald, "Voters to decide labor's reach across Ohio." And at the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, "'Proud former union member' Sarah Palin joins home-stretch campaign to uphold SB 5."

The Roots of Oakland's Discontent

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan's actually a radical progressive who showed herself completely unprepared for governing. She grew up at the bosom of an extreme left-wing community that now hates her.

Here's this at Los Angeles Times, "The roots of Oakland's discontent run deep: The Occupy protest is the latest chapter in a long tradition of dissent."

Events of the last several weeks have raised knotty questions — about how this racially and economically divided city became home to the most active Occupy effort outside of Manhattan. About whether Quan, once celebrated as Oakland's first Asian American mayor, can salvage her career. And about the future of the tent city and its steadfast occupants, who hope to spend the foreseeable future making a stand on Frank Ogawa Plaza.

Some of the answers seem to lie in Oakland's history as a center of liberal protest, others in the decades of strained relations between residents and a Police Department now operating under court oversight.

Police have arrested Occupy protesters throughout the country. They have taken down tents and tried to evict campers in places like Denver, Minneapolis and Atlanta. But beyond the original New York encampment — whose protesters have marched on Times Square, the Brooklyn Bridge and Goldman Sachs headquarters — the most attention grabbing-effort in the nation has been Oakland's.

It would be difficult to find a city more tailor-made for a protest against income inequality than this one.

Wealth is largely clustered in its rolling hills, poverty and crime in its hard-scrabble flats. Across the bay is flossy San Francisco, whose unemployment rate is just over half that of her beleaguered sister to the east. Nearly one-fifth of the city lives in poverty, and the median household income is almost 20% lower than the state as a whole.

At a meeting called Thursday night to address the fate of Occupy Oakland, Councilwoman Nancy Nadel described her home town as a "split society. We don't have much of the 1%, but we do have 30% of our people who have Ph.Ds and 30% who can't read above fourth-grade level."

And for many of Oakland's struggling residents, the juxtaposition of the rag-tag Occupy encampment against the graceful City Hall is telling.

"These people in these buildings, they don't care about the people, the lower class," said Darryl Cook, who came downtown with his wife this week to run an errand.

Cook, a 48-year-old truck driver, said he has had trouble finding work because of a criminal record from a drug habit kicked years ago. And he thinks Quan "needs to get. She needs to resign."

His wife, LaTonya, decried everything from underfunded public schools to shuttered youth centers. Of their city's politicians, she said, "Y'all caused this."

GQ: Rock and Roll Survivors

See: "Survivors Music Portfolio."

And from Keith Richards' interview:

What remains for you to achieve?

"I've never tried to achieve anything. I achieved everything I wanted to achieve by being in the Rolling Stones and making records. That was the only real goal in my life, ever, but since that happened so quickly, like a laser beam...I think the next goal was not to become one-hit wonders. I mean, after that, no real goal, except to sort of keep on going. I mean, what does an entertainer do, basically? You get onstage and make other people feel happy. Make them feel good. Turn them on."

Amen.

Mississippi Measure Would Define Personhood at Conception

At Los Angeles Times, "Mississippi attempts to define the start of personhood."

Also, at Jill Stanek, "Why they’re really, really scared about the Mississippi Personhood Amendment."

Pepper-Spray Those Occupy Mofos!

Well, that's what the Modesto Knuckledragger did, "Modesto ain't New York, motherfucker. We don't go for that shit around here."

A little language warning there, if you didn't notice already.

Jobs Crisis

From Adam Davidson, at New York Times, "Can Politicians Really Create Jobs?":

The current economic downturn has been called a housing crisis, a financial crisis and a debt crisis, but the simplifying logic of the political season has settled on what is really more a result than a cause. We are now, according to nearly everyone running for office, in a jobs crisis. Every politician currently has a “jobs plan,” very often a list of vague proposals filled with serious-sounding phrases like “budget framework” and “regulatory cap” that are designed, for the most part, to mean both everything and nothing at all.

RTWT.

GOP leaders say they have a plan, and at Minority Leader Eric Cantor's page, "The Republican No Cost Jobs Plan."

The NFL Won't Share 'All-22' Television Footage

This is interesting.

At WSJ, "The Footage the NFL Won't Show You: Despite Its TV Ubiquity, the League Won't Share 'All-22' Footage; Second-Guessing the Coach."

Obama Rejects FDR Prayer for WWII Memorial

Sent along by my good friend Norm Gersman in New York.

At Fox News, "Obama Administration Opposes FDR Prayer at WWII Memorial."

And for your late-night reading pleasure, check the roundup at Proof Positive: "Saturday Link-Around."

Keystone XL Pipeline Protesters to Encircle the White House

Here's a post at the Tar Sands Action website: "Huge Momentum for Tomorrow."

And get a kick out of Robert Redford, via Blue Collar Philosophy:

And more at the Montreal Gazette, "Seinfeld's 'Elaine' adds voice to Keystone protest." And at Toronto Sun, "Keystone XL pipeline a slippery issue."

On the Origins of the Occupy Movement

Reading this New York Times editorial, "Occupying the National Debate," it's becoming increasingly clear that very few people now contributing to the mainstream discourse have a clue as to the occupy's movement's raison d'être. I started dealing with the media's cluelessness yesterday at my post, "Hypocritical Occupy Oakland Supporters Denounce Anarchy and Violence of Occupy Oakland Protesters."

The occupiers are fundamentally anarcho-communist revolutionaries. My friend Tania Gail was out to Occupy Philly today, and she comes back with a powerful black-and-white photo-set that captures the more raw collectivist ideologies of the protests:

The Toronto Star has a report up that gets closer to the theme I'm working on here. See: "Occupy Wall Street: The Origins of An Occupation." But as I noted last night, I've been writing on this movement for a couple of years now, since student activists in California and New York appeared to be mobilizing an anti-capitalist revolutionary occupation program. Here's one of the essays I pulled up from some of my previous blogging. See Take the City!, "Let Them Bury Their Dead":

As far as we can tell, the coalition of movement-builders (hereafter abbreviated CoMB), consists of assorted Trotskyists, Marxist-Leninist-Maoists (MLM), anarchists, and radical liberals. While their ideologies are diverse, the CoMB insist that the student movement requires leadership, transparency, clearly-defined goals, and democracy. Their ultimate criterion is quantitative: numbers of protesters, numbers of rallies, numbers of newspapers sold, numbers of endorsements, ratios of disadvantaged to privileged, dollars of damages, etc. They privilege form over content, while largely ignoring the qualitative aspects of collective action and its potential for a revolutionary trajectory. As for the various Leninists, their idealist conceptions of the ‘necessary’ forms of struggle are a-historical caricatures that suit their ideological hang-ups. They would superimpose patterns of revolutionary struggle borne against a Czarist regime almost a century ago onto the decadent capitalism that exists today in New York City.

The CoMB’s elevation of ideal structures and concepts results, at best, in call for a rally or demo with large numbers – at worst, in full-on counterrevolutionary policing of the movement. Leadership of the CoMB kind can just as easily manipulate and suppress as it can do any “good”. The formal preoccupation with transparency, which for many in the CoMB is just a call for democratic-centralism, has the potential to undermine more militant and forward-thinking action, especially in an epoch of growing state repression. The insistence on defining goals often forces people to think within the realm of reform, thereby legitimating bankrupt power in a time of crisis when militancy and direct action are crucial. The fetishization of formal democracy (especially in an environment dominated by ‘experienced organizers’) can undermine autonomous endeavors that may point to novel and potentially effective forms of struggle. And yet, these abstract ideals are accepted without question within the CoMB. We believe that, as always, self-organized workers, students, and the unemployed — in solidarity with one another — will figure out these issues through the course of struggle itself, through their own successes and failures.

In focusing on quantitative criteria as the sine qua non of effective action, the CoMB tow the same line as bourgeois politicians, social scientists and statisticians, and miss the real point. What is far more important than the question of “how many” is the question of “how”: How are these actions manifesting the antagonisms of class society? How is this activity building the preconditions for greater collective action? How are these modes of struggle confronting real material and social needs? How are they contributing to a new repertoire of tactics that address the unique conditions of this era? These lead to other questions: What good is an enormous rally if everyone feels less powerful once it’s over? When does “movement building” actually build movement as opposed to suppressing it? If we apply a critical reading of history, we can see that in many instances more people have been mobilized far more quickly and passionately through collective militant action than through teach-ins, rallies, panel discussions and newspaper articles. The recent uprisings in California are a good example of this.

I think you can see what I mean. I'll be looking around and writing more about this, because the mainstream press sure doesn't get it. And while folks from Barack Obama to Richard Trumka might not know the specifics of these revolutionary collectives --- and they probably don't much care --- they're all too ready to exploit the occupiers to further consolidate and entrench the left-labor coalition and expand middle-class entitlements (which will of course bankrupt the state). These people aren't much better than the Chinese Communist Party elites now getting air purifiers installed at the CCP headquarters in Beijing. Statist leaders simply rape the movement they ostensibly claim to represent. And as for the student anarchists and genuine occupation forces, their movement will last only so long as it doesn't get co-opted and become mainstream. After that, their spontaneous collectives will become institutionalized tyrannies and genocidal bureaucracies. The alleged anti-statists will become statists. Ideologies of pure human freedom will soon give way to the blood of terror. There is no other long-term trajectory. Idealism descends to the misery of death and violence soon enough.

Violent Occupy DC Protests at Koch Brothers Americans for Prosperity Summit

Last night I noticed Kerry Picket of the Washington Times pictured at this MSNBC photo-blog, and she included it in her report: "PICKET: (video) Occupy protesters attempt to bust into DC event."

And at The Other McCain, "‘F– Michelle Fields!’ — Interview With Reporter Harassed at Occupy DC Protest."

More from Clare O'Connor at Forbes, "Occupy The Koch Brothers: Violence, Injuries, And Arrests at DC Protest."

Added: Michelle Fields, at Daily Caller, "Occupy protest turns violent outside Washington Convention Center." (At Memeorandum.)

PREVIOUSLY: "Goons From 'Occupy Wall Street' Storm Americans for Prosperity 'Dream Summit'."

Swing States Pose Obstacles to Obama's Reelection

I was starting to hedge a bit on my prediction of President Obama's defeat next November, but maybe I shouldn't worry about it. Reelection looks pretty remote at this point.

See USA Today, from earlier this week, "Swing States poll: Obama's path to 2nd term an uphill climb":

WASHINGTON – For President Obama, the path to a second term is going to be an uphill climb.

While Americans across the nation are downbeat about the economy and the future, a special USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds that voters in a dozen key battleground states for the 2012 election are in an even deeper funk about their lives, Obama's tenure and the nation's politics.

One year before Election Day, the debut Swing States survey charts a narrower and more difficult course to victory for Obama than he navigated four years ago — and shows opportunities for Republicans in some states that have gone Democratic for decades.

Obama has "had some really good ideas … but he's struggling with trying to get his ideas into place and dealing with Congress, and he hasn't done a very good job with that," Mary Jo Jones, 57, of Grand Rapids, Mich., said in a followup interview after being surveyed. She supported Obama in 2008 but would consider switching in 2012 to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, if Republicans nominate him. "He seems to be a pretty good businessman, and he might have some ideas to help us on the economy."

Michigan, which has backed the Democratic candidate in the last five presidential elections, is among the 12 swing states likely to determine the outcome next year. The others are Florida, North Carolina and Virginia in the South; Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico in the Mountain West; Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin in the Midwest; and New Hampshire and Pennsylvania in the Northeast.

Continue reading.

Unemployment's down to 9 percent nationwide --- pretty lousy, I know, but we have the Electoral College, so it's the state numbers that will matter most. I've mentioned Ohio quite a bit in earlier analyses. Ohio's unemployment rate is 10 percent and the state has 18 electors. Pennsylvania's cited as a swing state and the state's got 20 electors. Pennsylvania reported an 8.3 percent unemployment rate in September, which apparently triggered the extension of unemployment benefits. Pennsylvania's unemployment was 8.8 percent when Obama took office, so folks will be hammering him on the campaign trail: "Where are the jobs?" We'll just continue to look at the key swing states for developments. It's hard out there for a Democrat.

RELATED: At Invincible Armor, "Obama: “We’re Better Off Today Than When I Took Over”."