Obama and the Occupy Wall Street Movement

The most honest and genuine development I've seen with Occupy Wall Street is the protesters marching on the White House. The New York Times has this, "Protests Offer Obama Opportunity to Gain, and Room for Pitfalls" (via Memeorandum):

WASHINGTON — Anti-Wall Street protesters marched past the gates of the White House on Thursday, bringing their message of economic injustice to the capital and posing an opportunity, but also a threat, to President Obama, who presents himself as a fervent defender of the middle class.

Brandishing placards that said “No More Wall Street White House” and chanting “Shame! Shame!” the crowd took aim at the president, even if it saved most of its vitriol for the nearby headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — or as one banner labeled it, “Chamber of Corporate Horrors.”

To hear some Democratic analysts tell it, the mushrooming protests could be the start of a populist movement on the left that counterbalances the surge of the Tea Party on the right, and closes what some Democrats fear is an “enthusiasm gap” between their party and Republicans in the 2012 election.

But that assumes the president is able to win the support of these insurgents, rather than be shunned by them.

Mr. Obama, in a series of recent hard-edged speeches around the country, has channeled many of the grievances of the movement known as Occupy Wall Street: deepening economic inequity, a tax code that gives breaks to the wealthy and corporate interests and banks that profit from hidden consumer fees.

Yet the president also oversaw a bailout of those banks, appointed a Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, who is viewed by the protesters as a shill for Wall Street and pushed a reform of the financial industry that many in the movement condemn as shamefully inadequate in curbing its excesses.

“There’s a lot of discontent with Obama’s policies,” said Kevin Zeese, an organizer of the protest, which drew about 500 people. “Obama is out of touch. He’s busy going around the country raising $1 billion to run for re-election.”

At his news conference Thursday, Mr. Obama seemed to recognize the potential and pitfalls of the moment. He sympathized with the frustration of the protesters and criticized Republicans for trying to roll back regulations. But he also defended the bailout and the financial reforms known as Dodd-Frank.

“These days, a lot of folks who are doing the right thing aren’t rewarded, and a lot of folks who aren’t doing the right thing are rewarded,” he said. “And that’s going to express itself politically in 2012 and beyond until people feel like once again we’re getting back to some old-fashioned American values.”

Even before the protests welled up, Mr. Obama’s political advisers said he would focus heavily on the issue of fairness, tapping into a widespread sense among middle class voters that they lost the most in the recession.

Underscoring his more populist tone, Mr. Obama confirmed that he was open to paying for his $450 billion jobs bill by levying a tax surcharge on people with incomes of more than $1 million. The White House had earlier been cool to the proposal, made by Senate Democrats, in favor of taxing a broader group.

The comparison between Occupy Wall Street and the tea parties is bogus, of course. And it's frankly obscene that folks think Obama should benefit politically from these protests. The White House has been in bed with Wall Street. The dilemma for the Democrats is how they can channel the protests against the Republicans without getting caught up in a generalized anti-government tsunami in 2012. As was clear at the press conference yesterday, the president will basically lie through his teeth, blaming the economic crisis on his predecessor and waging a morally bankrupt class war on the high-income earners.

Nazar Al Bussam, Drug-Dealing Doctor Linked to Patient Overdose Deaths, Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison in Los Angeles Federal Court

One of my students came to office hours on Tuesday to ask about the writing assignment. Students complete a News Analysis Notebook for the critical thinking requirement in the course. Students write on (or they're supposed to write on) U.S. politics and public policy, although there's lots of room for topics on the margins of the top news. My student mentioned that her brother died a few years ago and that his story was going to be featured in the Los Angeles Times. My student didn't mention much more than that. She mostly wanted to know if she could write about the Times' piece in her notebook. I said sure, but I wanted to take a look at it first. The story ran yesterday, and it turns out it was a big investigative report: "Deaths linked to doctor accused of recklessly prescribing painkillers":

And from the article:

As California's top prescriber of narcotic painkillers and other commonly abused drugs, Dr. Nazar Al Bussam made hundreds of thousands of dollars feeding the addictions of strung-out patients who packed into his offices in Downey and Los Angeles, according to authorities.

Federal prosecutors concluded it was "pure luck" that his reckless prescribing had not resulted in any known deaths.

A Los Angeles Times review of coroners' records, however, reveals that at least three of the doctor's patients died of drug overdoses in 2007 and 2008. Two other people died — one from an overdose, the other by falling off a cliff — with drugs in their systems and pill bottles bearing Al Bussam's name in their possession.

A judge is expected to sentence Al Bussam on Wednesday. Prosecutors have asked for nearly 20 years in prison for the 71-year-old physician, arguing that his conduct was worse than that of a street corner drug dealer.

"Unlike a street dealer, defendant well understood the effects of the poison he peddled," wrote Assistant U.S. Attys. Ariel A. Neuman and Benjamin R. Barron.

Al Bussam, who graduated from the University of Baghdad College of Medicine in 1963 and began practicing in California more than three decades ago, is the latest in a string of Southern California physicians accused of violating their oaths by dealing drugs. The charges come amid a prescription drug epidemic that recently pushed drugs ahead of traffic accidents as a cause of death nationwide.

Al Bussam was arrested last October after a three-year investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. He was accused of operating a so-called pill mill in which he wrote prescriptions in exchange for cash, regardless of a patient's true need for the drugs ...

Ryan Thompson, 30, died on the doorstep of his younger sisters' Costa Mesa home a day after being prescribed methadone pills by Al Bussam, records show. His sisters cared for him while he suffered through a withdrawal, throwing up so often his vomit was streaked with blood. He wanted to kick his methadone habit and had been sober for weeks when he got his last prescription, family members say. Al Bussam wrote him a prescription for 100 methadone pills to be taken three at time three times daily, records show.

Thompson's sister Hailey said he came home obviously high that evening. Upset and saddened by his relapse, she told him they would discuss it in the morning.

When Hailey found her brother sitting cross-legged outside her front door, a friend began CPR, but it was too late. Toxicology tests later revealed methadone, as well as morphine and oxycodone, in his body. The coroner ruled his death an accidental overdose.

Thompson's mother, Niki, said a coroner's investigator told her that if her son had resumed taking methadone at the amount he was used to before kicking the habit, it could have killed him.

"If you know someone is an addict, why in the world would you hand them a bottle of pills and say, 'Here, take three at a time,'" Niki said.

Gluck, Al Bussam's attorney, said he did not believe that Thompson was a patient of his client. Coroner records list Al Bussam as his doctor and show that Al Bussam's office provided medical records to an investigator.

Others who, according to coroner records, died after being prescribed drugs by Al Bussam or while in possession of drugs he prescribed are:

• Christopher Vargas, 47, who overdosed in his Echo Park apartment in May 2007 on a cocktail of prescription drugs, including a commonly abused muscle relaxant sold under the brand name Soma, which had been prescribed by Al Bussam 26 days earlier, according to coroner's records. Vargas had multiple drug-related arrests, the records state.

• Terry Ridgeway, 42, who family members said had been a crack cocaine abuser but had been clean for seven years before developing a prescription drug habit. He was found dead on the kitchen floor of his Santa Monica apartment in December 2008. A pill bottle containing an anti-anxiety drug prescribed by Al Bussam was found in his bedroom. That drug was one of three that caused his death, coroner's records show. The vial bearing Al Bussam's name had a partially torn label, which law enforcement officials say is a sign of illegally traded drugs. Gluck said he did not believe that Ridgeway was a patient of Al Bussam.

• Lisa Vanzandt, 49, who was an aspiring nurse and primary caretaker of her elderly mother, according to coroner's records. Vanzandt had several medical problems, including back pain, her mother said. She was fond of walking along the cliffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula near where she grew up in Redondo Beach. A friend told coroner's investigators that the family lost their home and that Vanzandt had always dreamed of moving back. The friend said Vanzandt had a prescription drug problem and speculated that she fell off the cliff while intoxicated. Prescription bottles bearing Al Bussam's name were found in Vanzandt's purse. The same drugs as he prescribed — a painkiller and anti-anxiety medication — were among a cocktail of drugs found in her body, coroner's records show. The labels on both bottles were torn. The death was ruled an accident.

Al Bussam was sentenced yesterday, "Drug-dealing doctor sentenced to seven years in prison":

A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a drug-dealing doctor who was once California's top prescriber of narcotic painkillers and other commonly abused drugs to seven years in federal prison, saying he was being somewhat lenient because he did not want the 72-year-old physician to die behind bars.

"It fills me with shame to stand before you today," Dr. Nazar Al Bussam told the judge shortly before he was sentenced. "I failed to live up to the standards I tried to set for myself. I can only hope for some opportunity to redeem myself, so help me God."

As Al Bussam spoke in the downtown Los Angeles courtroom, his adult son put his head in his hands and quietly wept. His wife stared straight ahead, expressionless. Minutes later, the doctor was stripped of his tie, jacket, belt and watch and was led from the courtroom in handcuffs by U.S. marshals.

U.S. District Judge S. James Otero imposed the sentence after telling the court he had read a Times report Wednesday that linked Al Bussam to the deaths of three patients to whom he had prescribed drugs and two other people who had drugs prescribed by him in their possession.

Authorities did not discover those deaths during their three-year probe of Al Bussam, who they said generated nearly $2 million in cash while recklessly prescribing addictive narcotics to drug addicts and dealers.

Before sentencing, prosecutors Ariel A. Neuman and Benjamin R. Barron brought the article to the judge's attention, saying they thought he should be aware of it, but did not seek to enter it as evidence or to postpone sentencing to conduct further investigation.

Otero, after summarizing the report aloud in court, said it would be improper for him to consider the article for a number of reasons, including that it contained statements from people who had not testified in court. After imposing the sentence, the judge said that if he had considered the "very troubling" information in the article and found the doctor responsible for the deaths, he probably would have imposed the nearly 20-year sentence prosecutors had requested.

'George Harrison: Living in the Material World'

I watched Part I last night.

And the day before, Los Angeles Times had this: "Documentary examines George Harrison."

When Martin Scorsese and Olivia Harrison first sat down about five years ago to strategize about a documentary on the life of George Harrison, both quickly zeroed in on a letter the young Beatle wrote to his family at the height of Beatlemania.

"It was a letter George had written when he was not more than 22," Harrison said of the man to whom she was married for 23 years before his death from cancer a decade ago. "It was in 1965, and the Beatles would have been really cresting at that point. He was writing home and told his family, 'I know that this isn't it. I knew I was going to be famous, but now I know I can reach the real top of what man can achieve, which is self-realization.' He knew then that [material reward] wasn't it."

That letter figures into a pivotal moment in Scorsese's film, "George Harrison: Living in the Material World" (taken from the title of Harrison's 1973 album), which premieres on HBO over two nights Wednesday and Thursday to accommodate its 31/2-hour length.

In the scene, George says how lucky the Beatles were to acquire so many of the material goods early on that most people spend their entire lives yearning for, because they learned relatively young how hollow such things ultimately ring.

Olivia Harrison gave Scorsese and his team virtual carte blanche access to home movies, family photos, audio recordings and other items from her husband's estate for use in the film, which paints a richly detailed and unvarnished picture of the man initially pigeonholed as "the quiet Beatle."

A more accurate sobriquet might have been "the spiritual Beatle" to reflect the inward quest that seemed to capture Harrison early in a life about which he once famously said that his biggest break had been getting into the Beatles; his second biggest, getting out.

More at the link.

Also, "TV review: 'George Harrison: Living in the Material World'," and "George Harrison: A video miscellany."

Getting It Right: Dean of George Mason Law Sets Excellent Example

At FIRE:

Recently, two student groups at George Mason University School of Law, the Federalist Society and the Jewish Law Students Association, have taken heat for inviting controversial activist Nonie Darwish to campus for a lecture. Specifically, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the school to disinvite Darwish because of her past statements regarding Islam. (Above the Law has more.)

So what happened next? Did GMU cancel the speech, as other institutions have done when faced with calls for disinvitations of unpopular or controversial speakers? Did it impose heavy security fees on the student groups, a sadly common tactic for campus censors looking to silence outside speakers?

No. Instead, GMU School of Law Dean Daniel Polsby got it exactly right. In a statement sent to students and faculty late last week, Polsby issued a stirring defense of free speech on campus.

I'm very pleased to reprint his statement in full...

Check that top link to RTWT.

Plus, "Victory at UW-Stout: Chancellor Folds after Censorship of 'Firefly' and Anti-Fascism Posters."

Parole Denied for Omaima Nelson, Ex-Model Who Ate Husband's Body Parts

This is the strangest case.

At LAT, "Parole denied for woman who cooked, ate husband."

Michael Jackson Audio Clip Played at Conrad Murray Trial

At LAT, "Murray's iPhone offers snapshot of Jackson's final weeks."

Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011

Apple founder Steve Jobs has died.

At New York Times, "Steve Jobs, Apple’s Visionary, Dies at 56."

Also at Memeorandum.

Sarah Palin Won't Run for President in 2012

I cant' remember how long it's been, but I wrote off a Palin candidacy long ago.

And now, apparently, we have official word, at ABC News, "Sarah Palin Will Not Run for President":

Sarah Palin will not run for president. She made the announcement in a letter to supporters Wednesday night.

Read Palin’s letter here:

October 5, 2011
Wasilla, Alaska
After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.

My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.
From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.

I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.

Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.

In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.

Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country!

God bless America.

– Sarah Palin

Also at Los Angeles Times, "Sarah Palin says she will not run for president in 2012," and National Journal, "Palin Won't Run for President."

And The Right Scoop has the full interview: "UPDATE: Full interview added – BREAKING: Sarah Palin NOT running for president."

Wall Street's 99 Percent Took Out Too Much Student Loan Debt

Ezra Klein gives it the old college try, but I'm not buying it. See: "Who are the 99 percent?" (via Memeorandum):

College debt shows up a lot in these stories, actually. It’s more insistently present than housing debt, or even unemployment. That might speak to the fact that the protests tilt towards the young. But it also speaks, I think, to the fact that college debt represents a special sort of betrayal. We told you that the way to get ahead in America was to get educated. You did it. And now you find yourself in the same place, but buried under debt. You were lied to.

I don't think so. Scroll down at the website, "WE ARE THE 99 PERCENT." I honestly don't know what people expect? What are they thinking? They attend college, perhaps for a Bachelor's degree, and graduate with $100 thousand in student loans? That's gotta be the definition of insanity. I graduated with a Bachelor's of Political Science at the age of 30 with no debt. None. Zero. Nothing. My first year of graduate school I continued working part time on Saturdays for extra income. That allowed me to borrow less that I could have in federal student loans. Then by the second year of the program I won a four-year fellowship that paid for tuition along with a stipend and teaching employment (guaranteed two TA assignments per year). I quit my part time job to attend my studies. I graduated with my Ph.D. with about $60 thousand in loans. I've been paying them down ever since. It was a good investment. But I would've never taken out that kind of money for a Bachelor's. These young people haven't been betrayed by the poor economy. They've been lied to and ripped off by all the people who told them they could borrow their way through undergraduate college rather than pay their own way.

Added: From Bruce Kesler, at Maggie's Farm, "Tea Partiers Against The Biggees, Wall Street Protesters Want To Be Biggees."

Two Mountain Lions Found Sitting Outside of Home in Sierra Madre

Those are huge cats.

At KABC-7 Los Angeles, "2 mountain lions spotted outside Sierra Madre home."

More at Instapundit.

President Solyndra

From Steven Hayward, at Weekly Standard:

The spectacular collapse of Solyndra has all of the trappings of an epic Washington scandal, with serial revelations of embarrassing and potentially improper White House machinations to secure a $535 million federal loan guarantee for a startup company with dubious prospects of success. The sudden bankruptcy of the Fremont, California, manufacturer of solar panels​—​after it was feted as a model creator of “green jobs” by President Obama and Vice President Biden​—​has already featured FBI raids, contentious congressional hearings, and demands for a special prosecutor to investigate. The plot thickened further last week when Solyndra’s two top executives, who made 20 trips to the White House while their loan application was under consideration, invoked the Fifth Amendment rather than answer questions from the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Even if the administration eventually escapes any finding of legal wrongdoing, Solyndra threatens to haunt the green energy campaign in much the same way that the collapse of Lincoln Savings became the emblem of the savings and loan industry’s recklessness in the 1980s. The Solyndra story includes Obama campaign donors and everybody’s favorite Wall Street whipping boy, Goldman Sachs, in the middle of the whole sorry mess. Yet it would be a mistake to mark the story down as merely another excrescence of crony capitalism. It is much worse.

More at the link.

And see WSJ, "White House Brushed Off Solyndra Worries, Emails Show."

Stock Market Nears Bear Territory

At Wall Street Journal yesterday (and at Google):

After turning in the worst quarter since the financial crisis, U.S. stocks started the new one by approaching the level considered a bear market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 2.4% Monday, leaving the index down 16.8% from its April high, 3.2 percentage points away from the 20% decline that many analysts believe signals that a bear market is under way. The broader Standard & Poor's 500-stock index also fell sharply and is even closer to bear-market territory, down 19.4% since April. The indexes are at their lowest closing levels in more than a year...

Check those links at top to continue.

NewsBusted: 'Recent crowds have gathered near Wall St. to protest corporate greed and wealthy Americans'

Via Theo Spark:

Hank Williams Jr. Apologizes for Obama-Hitler Comparison

At Los Angeles Times, "Are you ready for Hank Williams Jr. for president?":

Hank Williams Jr. apologized Tuesday for comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler, saying he let his mouth get the better of him.

But, if some of his fans had their way, Williams wouldn't apologize to anyone. Further, he'd run for president and oust "the enemy," as he labeled Obama.

Williams found himself in hot water Monday after letting loose on Fox News, saying that Obama playing golf recently with GOP House Speaker John A. Boehner was like Hitler doing so with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also called the president not only "the enemy," but one of the Three Stooges. By day's end, ESPN had pulled Williams' "Are You Ready For Some Football?" song and video from its "Monday Night Football" opener, a position that it has held since 1989.

Williams initially stood firm in the face of controversy...

Continue reading.

VIDEO CREDIT: The Lonely Conservative, "Hank Williams Jr Booted By ESPN After Bizarre Fox and Friends Interview."

"The Top 150 Conservative Websites — 4Q11"

From Doug Ross.

My blog came in at #112.

Herman Cain's Mojo

I mentioned that Herman Cain was catchin' the big mo' over the weekend. And he's really got it going this week. At WaPo, "Rick Perry slips, Herman Cain rises in bid for GOP nomination, poll finds":

After a quick rise in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has experienced an almost equally dramatic decline, losing about half of his support over the past month, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Perry’s slide, which comes after several uneven performances in candidate debates, has allowed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to resurface atop the GOP field. But the most direct beneficiary of the disenchantment with Perry is businessman Herman Cain, who is now tied for second place.

Also at Public Policy Polling, "Cainmentum" (via Memeorandum). Cain's rise could be temporary, and this sounds pretty accurate:

The Republican race has always been pretty wide open, but never more so than it is now. The fact that Cain and Gingrich, pretty much given up for dead just a few weeks ago, could have this kind of poll surge is really indicative of how weak anyone's support is right now- very few Republican voters are strongly committed to a particular candidate and most of them can shift in a heart beat. I'll be pretty shocked if Cain is still leading our state polls a month from now but if there's any lesson to be learned from the GOP race at this point it's not to be surprised by anything.

VIDEO: Roseanne Barr Wants Guillotine for the Rich

At Hot Air, "Great new idea from the Hollywood Left: Behead the bankers."

PREVIOUSLY: "The American Revolution Was Not About Wealth Redistribution."

BONUS: Additional reading at Larwyn's Links.

Dr. Martin Hertzberg Letter at the Vail Daily Skewering the Gore-Hansen-IPCC Climate Change Clique

It's so clear and logical, via Anthony Watts, "Thanks to Michael Mann’s response, a newspaper censors a letter to the editor ex post facto" and Pastebin:

Knowledgeable scientists, including the more than 30,000 such as myself who have signed the Oregon Petition, know that changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide do not correlate with human emission of carbon dioxide, that human emission is a trivial fraction of sources and sinks of carbon dioxide, that the oceans contain about 50 times more dissolved carbon dioxide than is present in the atmosphere, that recycling of carbon dioxide from the tropical oceans where it is emitted to the arctic oceans where it is absorbed is orders of magnitude more significant than human emissions, and that the carbonate-bicarbonate buffer in the oceans makes their acidity (actually their alkaline pH) virtually insensitive to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The data for the glacial coolings and interglacial warmings for the past 500,000 years always show that temperature changes precede atmospheric carbon-dioxide changes by about 1,000 years. That indicates that temperature changes are driving carbon-dioxide changes and not the reverse as the Gore-Hansen-IPCC clique claims. As oceans warm for whatever reason, they emit carbon dioxide, and as they cool they absorb carbon dioxide.

The carbon-dioxide “greenhouse effect” argument on which the fearmongering hysteria is based is actually devoid of physical reality. The notion that the colder atmosphere above can reradiate its absorbed infrared energy to heat the warmer earth below violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics. For details, see “Slaying the Sky Dragon: Death of the Greenhouse Gas Theory,” co-authored by myself and several other scientists, which was published earlier this year by Stairway Press.

In any case, if one compares the effect of water in all of its forms (polar ice, snow cover, oceans, clouds, water vapor in the atmosphere) with that of human emission of carbon dioxide, the carbon-dioxide emission is about as significant as a few farts in a hurricane...

Go to Watts Up With That? for the background.

And see climate hoax-monger Michael Mann's letter to the editor, attacking Hertzberg, which apparently got the latter's pulled from the web and perhaps a lot more: "Vail Valley Voices: Global warming denier's claims are falsehoods." Amazing how Mann refuses to acknowledge that Hertzberg's a scientist. The author's book biography is here: Slaying the Sky Dragon: Death of the Greenhouse Gas Theory.

A Homecoming Queen With a Helmet

Pretty cool.

At New York Times, "Homecoming Queen and Winning Field Goal on the Same Night":

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In his 18 years at Pinckney Community High School, Jim Darga, the principal, said, the homecoming queen had always been crowned at halftime of the school’s football game. Never before, though, had she had to be summoned from the team’s locker room.

And that was just the beginning of Brianna Amat’s big night.

If being named homecoming queen is a lifetime memory for a high school student, so, too, is kicking a winning field goal. For Amat, 18, they happened within an hour of each other.

On Friday, with Pinckney leading powerful Michigan rival Grand Blanc, 6-0, at the half, Amat, the first girl to play football for the school’s varsity, was asked to return to the field. When she arrived, she was told that her fellow students had voted her queen. When the tiara was placed on her head, she was wearing not a dress, like the other girls in the homecoming court, but her No. 12 uniform, pads and all.

A short while later, with five minutes to play in the third quarter, Amat was called to the same field to attempt a 31-yard field goal. She split the uprights.

RTWT.

The Yo-Yo Effect: Mexican Immigrants Repeatedly Brave Risks to Resume Lives in United States

At New York Times, "Crossing Over, and Over."

I'm borrowing from the Times for the title of this post. I guess repeated border hoppers are "brave," as if there's something noble about illegal immigration. The big takeaway here is simply how badly we're failing at staunching the flow of illegal immigrants. And the aliens know it:

Maria García, 27, arrived here after being deported for a traffic violation. She said she had spent six years living in Fresno, Calif., with her two Mexico-born sons, 11 and 7. She was one of many who said that without a doubt, they would find their way back to the United States.

"They can’t stop us," she said.

'The Insidiousness of Racism'

I saw WaPo's article trending yesterday, "At Rick Perry’s Texas hunting spot, camp’s old racially charged name lingered." Governor Rick Perry used to have a Texas hunting ranch near Paint Creek that he used for gatherings and political events. Apparently, a huge rock with the name "Niggerhead" greeted visitors at the entrance gate. The New York Times picked up the story today, stating that the "latest flare-up ... injected the issue of race into the Republican nominating fight..." Interesting how this "flare up" was completely invented by the mainstream press. I doubt folks really care about some old rock painted with an offensive moniker that was not only painted over when Perry's father took lease of the property, but had been turned upside down as well. But the Democrat-Media-Complex continues its endless jihad to portray conservatives as racist bastards, and "Niggerhead" must be the moment's perfectly ugly remnant of the South's racist past.

And still, the responses are over the top, especially from Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic. That's his term, "the insidiousness of racism." And it is that, the real racism that historically infected society, as I've reported here many times from personal experience. But Ta-Nehisi is one of the left's most prominent institutional race-mongering asshats. He literally lives and breaths racial victimology. It's not that we're occasionally confronted with the wildly bigoted old codger who still uses racist epithets and could care less what folks think. No, with Ta-Nehisi and his ilk every singular example of racist bigotry is an indictment of the whole of American white society. Forget for a moment that we now have a black president. Forget that it's now almost 60 years since the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Nope, for progressives no benchmark of progress is enough. To recognize even the slightest vestige of racism's past is to provide progressives with yet another hammer against their political enemies.

So let's be honest: There's no defending this "Niggerhead" rock. But show me the Texas Republicans who paint similar rocks at their hunting grounds. Where are they? I doubt there are many, since the old Jim Crow racism is more repudiated than ever. In any case, see Michelle's piece on this, "Rick Perry and the Macaca Media":

The same lib media outlet that took down George Allen over a dunder-headed moment on the campaign trail in order to perpetuate the GOP=racist meme is trying to kick up dirt over a stone — a stupid stone — that has been painted over and turned over for years.

What does it say about Rick Perry? Nothing. Nada. Zip.

While the Post tries to impose an old narrative on Perry and squeeze blood from a stone, the reality is that Perry has gone out of his way to pander to left-wing impulses on race.

This is the guy that has disparaged his own base as racist in two separate GOP debates.

Remember?

Follow that link.

'Someone Like You'

Some music until later:

RELATED: At Entertainment Weekly, "Adele releases heartbreaking, beautiful 'Someone Like You' music video," and Billboard, "Adele Wanders Paris in 'Someone Like You' Video."

World War II: The Allied Invasion of Europe

A phenomenal photo-essay, from Alan Taylor, at The Atlantic.

Keeping MTV Hip

I loved MTV when it first came out. I hardly watch it nowadays. I just liked the music videos, I think, like Wall of Voodoo, "Mexican Radio." Anyway, an interesting piece at Los Angeles Times, "MTV remakes itself for the millennial generation."

Obama Adviser Valerie Jarrett: 'We are working hard to lift people out of poverty...that's what government is supposed to do'

There's video at The Blaze, "OBAMA’S SENIOR ADVISOR VALERIE JARRETT: THE POINT OF GOVERNMENT IS TO GIVE PEOPLE A LIVELIHOOD SO THEY CAN PROVIDE FOR THEIR FAMILIES."

Commentary at Maggie's Notebook, "Valerie Jarrett: Purpose of Government to Give You a Job – It’s a World Vision for the Obama Administration," and Townhall, "Obama Adviser: Lifting People Out of Poverty is 'What Government Is Supposed to Do'."

Actually, Jarrett's comment isn't so explicitly "socialist" as it might appear. I don't think, for example, that one can reasonably argue --- after decades of efforts to regulate the economy --- that government has no role in helping to "lift people out of poverty." Economic issues are always important, and when the economy tanks, stimulating employment will certainly be the foremost issue for voters. The problem is that progressives have raped the idea of "lifting people" up. I recall a student arguing last semester that the Constitution's preamble was a manifesto on expanding welfare problems, since it states that this government is established to "secure the general welfare." This student mentioned she listened to NPR, so there you go. No doubt, then, that the left's world vision sees government's role as creating public programs to redistribute wealth so that no one will be poor, but that's not the same thing as stating that government's job is to lift people out of poverty. Social contract theories and institutional economics both conceive of government as providing the basis for firm property rights so that individuals and firms can create and accumulate wealth according to the rule of law. In turn, government increases confidence in markets. Credible commitments by actors in the market ensure that buyers, sellers, investors will seek market transactions. Specialization follows and increasing complexity and sophistication increases not just wealth but social capital. As more of society participate in the market the scope of wealth will expand. This is where conservatives split from progressives, since conservatives see the need to limit the role of the state, as it's long been understood to crowd out the natural constraints and incentives of markets and to introduce all kinds of perversions and corruptions into the economic realm. Frankly, we need to find a way to encourage markets to work more effectively, for labor to flow more freely and for businesses to create and expand absent the heavy-handed government redistribution of wealth. And we won't get there as long as progressives are in power, since they view wealth as inherently evil, or at least as means to an end --- which is the consolidation of the massive European-style socialist welfare state.

I think that needs to be laid out like that before we automatically attack Jarrett's comments. Government has a role in stabilizing and encouraging markets and economic growth. To argue that the opposite is simply ridiculous, and thus it'd be nice if we had some more elevated discussion about these things, especially on the left.

Lady Gaga or Britney Spears?

During the drive out to Rincon for the Don Henley show, my wife said she'd like to go see Lady Gaga in concert. I wasn't surprised, although I quickly replied that I'd rather see Britney Spears. She just seems so much more wholesome. And that statuesque beauty is irresistable:

Amber Heard at LA Times Magazine

A photo-essay, "Best Suited."

RELATED: At The Improper, "Playboy Club's Amber Heard Gets Kinky With Herself (photos)."

The Coming Post-Obama Renaissance

From Victor Davis Hanson, at Pajamas Media:

The Parting of the Clouds

In every literary, historical or cinematic masterpiece, times must grow darkest before the sunrise and deliverance. Tolkien worked that classical theme to great effect. A sense of fatalism overtook a seemingly doomed Gondor — right before the overthrow of Barad-dûr and the dawn of a new age of men. The historian Herodotus, in literary fashion, also brilliantly juxtaposed the Greek collapse at Thermopylae (the Spartan King Leonidas’ head impaled on a stake), and the Persian firing of an abandoned Athens, with Themistocles’s sudden salvation of Western civilization at Salamis. In the classic Western film, hopelessness pervades until out of nowhere a Shane rides in.

What Was Hope and Change?

We are living in an age of such morality tales, though the depressing cycle reminds us that the gloom is hardly fiction or artistry. For those with a little capital there is only a sinking stock market. It seems to wipe out more of their 401(k)s each week, as if each month cancels out yet another year of prior thrift. Near zero interest means any money on deposit is only insurance, not any more a source of income. Millions are trapped in their unsold houses, either underwater or facing an end to any dreams of tapping equity by sale.

And for the greater number without savings? Stagnant GDP, 9.1 unemployment, another $5 trillion in debt, $1.6 trillion annual deficits, and sky-high fuel and food prices have combined to crush any notion of upward mobility. (If in 2004 5.7% unemployment was supposed to mark a “jobless recovery,” what exactly is 9.1% called? If Bush’s average $500 billion deficits over eight years were abhorrent, what must we say of Obama’s average $1.6 trillion over three? Really bad?)

In response, the Obama administration — let me be candid here — seems clueless, overpopulated as it is by policy nerds, academic overachievers, and tenured functionaries (cf. Larry Summers’ “there is no adult in charge”). They tend to flash Ivy League certificates, but otherwise have little record of achievement in the private sector. Officials seem to think that long ago test scores, a now Neolithic nod from an Ivy League professor, or a past prize translates into knowing what makes America run in places like Idaho and southern Michigan...

RTWT.

The American Revolution Was Not About Wealth Redistribution

Toward the end of this ABC News report, reporter T.J. Winick suggests that Occupy Wall Street has "yet to attain tea party-like influence," and he poses the possibility that the protesters might have a comparable tea party-like impact on the 2012 elections. This comparison to the tea parties is interesting. The progressive political establishment did everything it could to discredit and destroy the tea parties. Now though the tea party movement has set the modern standard for successful political change. But Winick's comparison is inaccurate in a fundamental way. Tea parties call on the heritage of the American Revolution as a model to return to the rule of limited government. The Occupy Wall Street protesters, on the other hand, are demanding, in this modern age of the gargantuan state, an even larger government role in public life, and especially the expansion of government power to forcibly confiscate personal income and wealth and redistribute it to a relatively undefined strata of today's petit-bourgeois and mass proletariat. Not only do the Wall Street protesters have the backing of the International Socialist Organization, but radical progressives aligned with the Democrat Party are agitating for revolutionary change. Commenting on the "Declaration" from the Occupy Wall Street General Assembly, David Atkins of Hullabaloo writes:

The General Assembly in this well-considered document has hearkened back to a much older and more florid declaration that similarly began with a statement of principles and a list of grievances.

It is an important beginning. The General Assembly has lit the match. Now it's up to America at large to understand what is at stake, and turn a protest into a revolution.

Adkins' link takes us to the Declaration of Independence. But this is incorrect as well. The American colonists were rebelling against unjust taxation and the rise of British tyranny. In contrast, the protesters in New York, and their allies such as Michael Moore and Rosanne Barr, are really agitating for revolution based on a entirely different statement, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. That declaration, issued in 1789, is a fundamental document of the French Revolution, and was heavily influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It embodied the Rousseauian concept of the "general will," which was a Counter-Enlightenment precursor to the forced collectivization of the 20th century's communist gulags. This is actually very elementary political philosophy. ABC News makes the comparisons to the American Revolution, which implies a more mainstream or reformist purpose. Adkins cloaks his revolutionary agitation, erroneously, in the Jeffersonian model. This is pure progressive lies and deceit, for what today's radical left really wants is regime change like the Russian Revolution of 1917, which led the the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1921, or the Cuban Revolution of 1959, which replaced Fulgencio Batista with the communist regime in Cuba. It won't happen any time soon. But as long as the economic crisis continues the hardcore progressive-socialists will gain increasing media attention, and the sympathies of the modern left's celebrity fifth columnists and useful idiots.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: David North, at World Workers Party, "Equality, the Rights of Man and the Birth of Socialism."

VIDEO CREDIT: Jane Hamsher's communist Firedoglake, "'To Express a Feeling of Mass Injustice': #OccupyWallStreet Hits a Tipping Point."

Kelly Brook Rule 5

Well, I think I've found my new favorite Rule 5 hottie.

And it's a good thing too, since the Wombat link-master left off my last week's entries from today's roundup at The Other McCain. I need to step up my game!

See: "Rule 5 Sunday: White Lies."

And more Kelly Brook at London's Daily Mail, "'Whose skin am I in? Just my own': Kelly Brook strips off in nude photo for PETA campaign but covers her curves for launch."

PREVIOUSLY: "Hot Reebok Photo Shoot with Kelly Brook."

And click the image at left to enlarge. She's got a beautiful smile.

Herman Cain, America's Candidate, Catchin' the Big Mo'

Hermain Cain's catchin' some big momentum, and he deserves it.

For example, Michael Barone gives him a huge shout out: "Time to raise Cain to contender status" (at Memeorandum). And Barone points us to Daniel Henninger's piece this week, "Taking Cain Seriously":

Conventional wisdom holds that this week's Chris Christie boomlet means the GOP is desperate for a savior. The reality is that, at some point, Republicans will have to start drilling deeper on their own into the candidates they've got.

Put it this way: The GOP nominee is running against the incumbent president. Unlike the incumbent, Herman Cain has at least twice identified the causes of a large failing enterprise, designed goals, achieved them, and by all accounts inspired the people he was supposed to lead. Not least, Mr. Cain's life experience suggests that, unlike the incumbent, he will adjust his ideas to reality.

Herman Cain is a credible candidate. Whether he deserves to be president is something voters will decide. But he deserves a serious look.

PREVIOUSLY: "Signs of Rising Momentum for Herman Cain." Linked there is The Other McCain, who continues his outstanding Herman Cain coverage. See, "Herman Cain Rhymes With Hurricane: Fund-Raising Surges in Third Quarter." And click "home" over at McCain's to get his commiserations on the lack of recognition for his Cain coverage.

BONUS: From Jonathan Tobin, "Re: Herman Cain?"

Also, at WaPo, "Presidential candidate Herman Cain says Christie is too liberal for Republican conservatives."

U.S. Marines Honor Pamela Geller

Go over there and read the whole thing, "Overwhelming." The Marines gave her the flag flying above Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan on September 11th, 2011:

I cannot describe to you my shock, my awe. I hardly know what to say -- these items are sacred. Our freedom is written in the blood of these heroes, but they honor me with these treasures. I do not deserve such precious gifts. But I heard that Harry Reid had requested this 911 flag, and the heroes at Camp Leatherneck said "No, we are giving it to Pamela Geller." Let me tell you, that was delicious.

I have had U.S. military personnel, both active and retired, thank me for my blogging, and it's the most satisfying honor. Congratulations to Pamela! I would be floating on a rocket ship to outer space! This award just shows once more how great an American she is. Don't stop what you're doing, ever!! And thanks again!

Did Angela Merkel Save the European Union?

This was at the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, "Germans Reconsider Ties to Europe: Merkel Scrambles on Bailout Vote as Key Allies Desert Her" (and at Google):

BERGISCH GLADBACH, Germany -- As Angela Merkel races to convince Germans that their continued prosperity rests on preserving the euro, she is encountering strong resistance even from those in her own party who have been traditionally among the country's most pro-European politicians.

When German lawmakers vote Thursday on whether to put more money into Europe's bailout fund—a step many investors see as essential to prevent a market panic—several conservative deputies, including Wolfgang Bosbach, a prominent champion of European integration, are expected to vote "no." Mr. Bosbach, a high-ranking conservative in Ms. Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, has recently become an outspoken critic of the bailout strategy.

"The first medicine didn't work, and now we are simply doubling the dose," said the lanky Mr. Bosbach of the Greek debt crisis. "My fear is that when the big bang happens, it won't just be us who will have to pay but generations hereafter."

The lawmaker rebellion underscores a broader shift among Germans about their nation's role in Europe since the crisis erupted nearly two years ago. While the Thursday vote is expected to pass, and a vast majority of Germans continue to feel a strong, historical commitment to Europe, with a common currency as its anchor, many have grown doubtful of whether it's worth the ever-growing cost of saving the euro.

Like many Europeans, few in Germany today fear the return of armed conflict in Western Europe, the decades-long impetus behind what Germans still often call the "European peace project."

Instead, economic prosperity and stability have become the main rationale for monetary union, an argument many Germans say they have trouble reconciling with one ineffective bailout after another.

Unable to persuade an increasingly skeptical German nation to go along with more rescue measures, Ms. Merkel risks presiding over Germany's growing isolation and the dissolution of the euro—the crowning achievement of Europe's post-World War II drive toward integration.

See if you can get through at those links. It's a fascinating piece. Seventy-five percent of German voters opposed Merkel's vote on the European bailout fund, which was approved Thursday.

And a roundup of opinion at Der Spiegel, "'Europe Can Breathe Easier' after Crunch Vote":

"The markets would prefer more and more money, and ever-increasing loans, but in the end, the money will not have much value anymore. The first serious experts are already talking of an impending need for currency reform, a traumatic idea for the Germans."

"Countries that live beyond their means should not be allowed to expect more money. Banks who make bad deals must be allowed to go bankrupt, without putting the whole system in danger. Creating the necessary structures to allow that is the task of politicians. What's needed are clear rules for national bankruptcies. It is also necessary to force banks to accumulate, as quickly as possible, enough capital so that they can survive a debt restructuring by, for example, Greece."

Man, that's harsh.

Merkel bought some time, and not a whole lot else.

Republican Race for President Is Up for Grabs

I've said it a couple of times, but this is a strange year for GOP nomination politics. Candidates are still considering entering the race with a little over a year until November 2012. That goes against the normal imperatives of presidential nominating politics, at least in recent years, and I'm a little surprised.

In any case, at LAT, "In GOP contest, anything could happen":

Barely three months before the first votes are cast, the Republican race for president is up for grabs, complicated by the absence of a clear front-runner and the rules that have guided the GOP's selection process for the past several decades.

The rise of the "tea party" movement, with its contempt for convention, has undermined the tradition of bestowing the nomination on the candidate presumed next in line, who usually paid their dues through long service or a previous White House try.

At the same time, a new way of awarding delegates has largely eliminated the winner-take-all system that hastened selection of a nominee and forced the party to quickly close ranks.

The rise of so-called super PACs, independent political financing organizations unfettered by spending limits, also means that a candidate can stay competitive long after their campaign's donor base taps out, potentially extending the race beyond the first few contests.

The upshot is a GOP nominating race that is at least as unsettled as the competition four years ago, when Sen. John McCain of Arizona rose from the political graveyard and rallied to claim the nomination.

"We knew from the beginning this was going to be one of the most competitive nominating fights we've had," said Dick Wadhams, a Republican strategist who is neutral in the race. "We thought we had one back in 2008, but this one has already taken on more twists and turns than anything that happened in '08."

Continue reading.

VIDEO CREDIT: The Other McCain, "Is #PerryFail the Hot New #tcot Hashtag?"

Glenn Reynolds Interviews Michael Yon for 'InstaVision'

Via Instapundit:

New Navy Destroyer, USS Spruance, Commissioned in Key West

This is cool.

At Forbes, "USS Spruance commissioned in Key West."

About 3,400 spectators witnessed the first navy vessel commissioning ceremony ever to take place in Key West, despite the island being a base for naval operations for almost two centuries.

The battleship Maine sailed from Key West prior to her 1898 sinking in Havana, leading to the Spanish-American War. In 1917, Navy seaplane and blimp activity began at Naval Air Station Key West. The facility expanded to nearby Boca Chica Key in 1943 and today remains a strategic air base.

"We have such a proud history and tradition with the U.S. Navy down here all the way back to the Civil War," said Key West Mayor Craig Cates. "To have the navy commission a new warship in our city makes us so very proud."

Christie Team Considering the Possibilities for Presidential Run

At New York Times, "Christie Team Assessing How Fast a 2012 Campaign Could Be Mounted."

The question isn't should Christie run, but what are his chances of beating Mitt Romney? Might be tough, at this point, and he's vulnerable on the issues just like Rick Perry, who's now kinda crashing after the big debut. And of course Christie will face endless attacks for his weight, which isn't just unfair, but genuinely cruel. The Los Angeles Times asks, "Is Christie's weight fair game, or did Letterman cross the line?" And do we even need to ask?

RELATED: From Andrew Breitbart, at Human Events, "Man, I Like That Guy: Chris Christie's Dude Factor."

Longest Surviving Two-Faced Cat Makes Guinness Book of World Records

A great story, at LAT, "Meow meow. Two-faced cat wins place in record book."

'Burying the Hatchet': James Q. Wilson Reviews Steven Pinker's 'Better Angels of Our Nature'

This is interesting, at Wall Street Journal, "The long, arduous and incomplete process of civilizing humankind and suppressing its most violent impulses." (Via Small Dead Animals.)

SIDE NOTE: James Q. Wilson is an eminent political scientist and past president of the American Political Science Association. If the profession cultivated more scholars like him I'd express more hope for the discipline.

And check the book at Amazon: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.

'Inflamatory' Casey Anthony Video Released

Well, I can see why it was sealed at trial. Doesn't show much at all.

At LAT, "Judge releases controversial footage in Casey Anthony case."

A judge on Friday ordered the release of a video that authorities say captures Casey Anthony's initial response to learning that law enforcement officials had discovered human remains while searching for her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

The video shows Anthony rocking a bit in her chair, and then hunching over. Later, Anthony is seen talking to her attorney.

The quality of the video -- taken in a waiting area near the jail's medical facility -- is poor. It's grainy. It does not contain audio. And it's shot from so far away that it's difficult to detect any facial reactions. Anthony can be seen breathing heavily at one point, and she bends forward several times.

Her reactions could be interpreted in various ways, and a previous judge had ordered the video sealed, saying it might be inflammatory, affecting her chance of getting a fair trial.

Anthony has steadfastly denied killing her 2-year-old daughter, who went missing in 2009. And a jury agreed.

SlutWalk NYC Protests Rape Culture and Sexual Violence

Well, that would have been some protest.

Check the minimalist homepage at SlutWalk NYC. And at Socialist Worker (where else?), "Join us at SlutWalk in New York City."

And the report at London's Daily Mail, "Scantily-clad 'slutwalk' women march on New York after police tell them to 'cover up' to avoid rape."

Protesters dressed in their underwear have taken to the streets of New York today after it emerged the NYPD were warning women in Brooklyn to cover up in the face of sex attacks.

The latest 'slutwalk' protest comes a day after women in Park Slope were warned short skirts should not be worn and shorts that show too much leg have been deemed inappropriate.

On today's march the protesters chanted 'No means no - however we dress, wherever we go.'

This protest was in addition to Occupy Wall Street, which occupied the Brooklyn Bridge for a bit today, with 100s of arrests.

Sizzlin' Saturday Rule 5

And it really is sizzlin', too!

See Bob Belvedere, "Rule 5 News: 01 October 2011 A.D." And Eye of Polyphemus, "It Cannot Hurt to Throw in a Photo of Karen Gillan, Too."

Plus, at Zion's Trumpet, "Mexican Actress Mayrin Villanueva." And Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart: Debora Campos."

PHOTO CREDIT: Theo Spark.

BONUS: At Maggie's Farm, "Maggie's Scientific Poll: Working with appealing persons of the opposite sex."

Radiohead Hoax at Occupy Wall Street

I see no mention of it at the Occupy Wall Street Twitter feed.

But see DNAinfo, "Occupy Wall Street Apologizes for Getting 'Hoaxed' By Radiohead Claim." And at Village Voice, "How Occupy Wall Street Got Hoaxed: The Email From Radiohead's 'Manager'."

And at Instapundit:

NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME: Occupy Wall Street protest, swelled by Radiohead hoax, marches on NYPD HQ, but gets lost. I would be harsher on these people, but given how thoroughly Obama has been in bed with Wall Street, and vice versa, it’s hard for me to get very excited.

And this just in at DNAinfo, "Occupy Wall Street Protesters Arrested on Brooklyn Bridge." And New York Post, "Wall St. protesters shut down Brooklyn Bridge." Yeah, that's gonna build a lot of support for the movement:

One irate driver, a Ground Zero construction worker, blasted the pedestrians.

"I work my ass off all day, and these goddamned hippies close down the Brooklyn Bridge so I can't get home?" he said. "This ain't right!"

Sex Education in Canada: Forcing the Progressive Agenda on Kids

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Brian Lilley: MSM Mocks Parents Concerns Over McGuinty's Perverse Ontario Sex Ed Curriculum."

And background here, "BREAKING: National Post apologizes for pro-family ad, donates proceeds to gay activist group."

And here it is: "An apology from the National Post."

I would be pissed, frankly. See: "Sex workers, Palestinian solidarity mentioned in 6-year-old’s TDSB official school planner."

And the calender's here. May 17th is "International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (International)." Who knew??!!

Awlaki More Important Than Bin Laden?

Could be.

See Ed Morrissey: "Video: Was Awlaki mission more operationally important than bin Laden?"

AQAP had become the most virulent arm of al-Qaeda in the past few years, and it was Awlaki who provided the inspiration for the most difficult of terrorists to find and stop — the home-grown jihadis, like the Times Square bomber and Nidal Hasan, among others. Getting both Awlaki and Samir Khan interrupts a network that not only recruited terrorists but repeatedly demonstrated its ability to launch operations against the US, including inside the US, something that bin Laden’s group failed to accomplish after 9/11. AQAP isn’t destroyed by this strike, but their best assets against the US have been and are not likely to be replaced. Getting bin Laden was a much bigger psychological coup, but Awlaki’s removal does more to make the US safer.

Political Scientists Barbara Walter and Andrew Kydd Beclown Themselves with Theory of Palestinian Bargaining

Here's the authors' op-ed from yesterday's Los Angeles Times, "A win-win strategy for the Palestinians." And the key passage of beclownment:

The Palestinians are playing a long-term bargaining game, and any move toward the goal of statehood has to be considered a victory. Statehood will not come immediately, or when a vote is taken in the Security Council. What will happen is that support for it will slowly and surely increase among average citizens around the world. The extreme positions of Israel and the United States — their refusal to pursue real efforts to allow Palestinians to rule themselves and be free of military occupation — will be increasingly revealed, and tolerance for these positions, even among Israelis and Americans, will decline. Going to the Security Council knowing the bid will be publicly and persistently rejected, therefore, is an inspired strategy. Palestinians appear peaceful and reasonable. Israel and the United States do not.

Walter and Kydd are offering a strategic theory, and any theory like this is based on a number of assumptions, like the assumption of actor rationality. As highlighted above, the authors also assume Israeli and American intransigence. But a model is only as good as its assumptions, and the intransigence assumption here is fatally flawed, and hence their larger analysis falls apart. Case in point: Also out yesterday was Charles Krauthammer's column at Washington Post, "Land without peace: Why Abbas went to the U.N." Krauthammer explicitly challenges Walter and Kydd's assumption that Israel and the U.S. "refuse to pursue real efforts" free of military occupation:

While diplomatically inconvenient for the Western powers, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s attempt to get the United Nations to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state has elicited widespread sympathy. After all, what choice did he have? According to the accepted narrative, Middle East peace is made impossible by a hard-line Likud-led Israel that refuses to accept a Palestinian state and continues to build settlements.

It is remarkable how this gross inversion of the truth has become conventional wisdom. In fact, Benjamin Netanyahu brought his Likud-led coalition to open recognition of a Palestinian state, thereby creating Israel’s first national consensus for a two-state solution. He is also the only prime minister to agree to a settlement freeze — 10 months — something no Labor or Kadima government has ever done.

To which Abbas responded by boycotting the talks for nine months, showing up in the 10th, then walking out when the freeze expired. Last week he reiterated that he will continue to boycott peace talks unless Israel gives up — in advance — claim to any territory beyond the 1967 lines. Meaning, for example, that the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem is Palestinian territory. This is not just absurd. It violates every prior peace agreement. They all stipulate that such demands are to be the subject of negotiations, not their precondition.

Abbas unwaveringly insists on the so-called “right of return,” which would demographically destroy Israel by swamping it with millions of Arabs, thereby turning the world’s only Jewish state into the world’s 23rd Arab state. And he has repeatedly declared, as recently as last week in New York: “We shall not recognize a Jewish state.”

Nor is this new. It is perfectly consistent with the long history of Palestinian rejectionism. Consider...

Keep reading for Krauthammer's examples, from Camp David in 2000 to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert peace deal of 2008.

So think about it: Who's intransigent? It's the Palestinians who are refusing "to pursue real efforts" at self-rule, which would allow themselves to "be free of military occupation." And it's for this reason that the Palestinians have gone to the United Nations. They don't want to negotiate. They've never wanted a final negotiated settlement, because it would mean leaving the Israeli state at the center of the territory to which they claim historical rights.

So notice what we really have: Two fairly prominent political scientists, writing in one of the nation's national newspapers, offering a fancy theory of Middle East bargaining and diplomacy that's based on a theoretical assumption that's a pure lie. And notice further: This example illustrates the power of the global left's campaign of delegitimation against Israel. Statements alleged as fact are shown to be complete fabrications after an elementary review of the historical record. But it goes on and on like this. Modern "progressive" societies buy into a historicism of deceit the exists for the sole purpose of exterminating the Jewish state. And notice one more thing: Walter and Kydd, who I've never met, again show us how often tragically useless is contemporary political science in explaining the world. At a basic level, rigid ideology is a poor foundation for problem solving, since to sustain an ideology requires the erection and perpetuation of myths such as, in this case, Israel's strategic intransigence. By contrast, some basic historical pragmatism shows that in fact the Palestinians have repeatedly rejected peace, having instead opted for violence --- indiscriminate violence, at that --- and war. And when Israel responds it's the one who's rebuked for employing force. I have hard time taking a lot of modern political science seriously precisely because scholars have poisoned their minds with really dishonest ideological presumptions. The idea that Israel is the reason for the failure of peace in the Middle East is false. It's an enormously malicious falsehood. And it's one more tragedy of the political science discipline that scholars rest serious substantive arguments on it.

RELATED: "The Tragedy of John Mearsheimer."

Awlaki's Operational Role in al Qaeda

Well, folks got Gleen Greenwald's side, so how about the pro-targeted killing argument?

Check Kenneth Anderson, at Volokh, "Anwar al-Aulaqi Apparently Killed by Drone in Yemen":

My view of this targeted killing is straightforwardly, congratulations, Mr. President. What has been visible publicly leaves little or no doubt in my mind that Al-Aulaqi was deeply involved in AQAP in operations, and indeed at the highest levels.

And at the update:

Who? As an international law matter, is Al-Aulaqi a lawful target? The US government sees him as taking part in hostilities, part of the operational leadership of an associated force with Al Qaeda, the AQAP. So, yes, he can be targeted with lethal force — and targeted without warning, without an attempt to arrest or apprehend as a law enforcement matter.

Where? Does it matter that he was in Yemen, and not an “active battlefield” in a conventional hostilities sense? The US government does not accept the idea that the armed conflict with Al Qaeda — or armed conflict generally — is confined as a legal matter to some notion of “theatres of conflict” or “active battlefields” or related terms that have been used in recent years by academics and activist groups. As I understand the US government position, it sticks by the traditional concept of “hostilities,” and that where the hostiles go, the possibility of armed conflict goes too (I try to explain this evolution of these views in this short essay). So the fact that he was present in Yemen does not make him beyond targeting, because he is not present in some “active” battlezone such as Afghanistan.

This claim — the conflict follows the participants — frequently leads to a complaint that this means the US might target him in Paris or London. The US position is that the standard for addressing non-state actor terrorists taking safe haven somewhere depends on whether the sovereign where the terrorist is hiding is “unwilling or unable” to address the threat. No, there won’t be Predators Over Paris; Yemen or Somalia is another matter, as President Obama has repeatedly and without cavil said in speeches over the last few years.

Still more at the link.

Heidi Klum Promotes New Fragrance 'Shine'

At London's Daily Mail, "Heidi Klum dazzles in animal print as she premieres her new fragrance Shine."

This Rule 5 is dedicated to my attorney, David Carr, who enjoys the (babe) blogging here and at The Other McCain.

Americans Give GOP Edge in Handling Nation's Problems

At Gallup:

Given a choice, Americans at this juncture appear slightly more inclined to believe that the Republican Party is better situated than the Democratic Party to handle the problems facing the nation. That could be because a Democrat is in the White House at a time when Americans are dissatisfied with the state of the nation and the government. Americans also express interest in a third party to challenge the two major parties, although this level of interest is not unusually high. Additionally, there doesn't appear to be strong sentiment that the current divided control in Washington is the major problem with government.

RELATED: "Democrats Dispirited About Voting in 2012."

Left and Right Come Together

See Ronald Brownstein, at National Journal, "Coming Together":

Two iconoclastic new studies challenge the grim fatalism surrounding the congressional super committee charged with identifying the next steps toward taming the long-term federal debt.

The glum, growing consensus in Washington is that the super committee is more likely to perpetuate than resolve the parties’ stalemate over the deficit. The betting is that, with Republicans still rejecting any tax increases (even though federal revenues, as a share of the overall economy, now stand at their lowest level since 1950), Democrats won’t accept any meaningful restraints on entitlement spending (even though payments to individuals now consume more than three-fifths of the federal budget, squeezing all other liberal priorities). Conventional wisdom now assumes that the committee will offer just enough savings to avoid complete failure (which might further rattle spooked financial markets) but not enough to truly confront the long-term problem.

Yet the two recent studies from unusual left-right coalitions show the opportunity for greater boldness. In each report, groups that started with diametrical ideological views about the role of government coalesced behind reform programs that would substantially reduce the deficit by eliminating programs that are either ineffective or that unnecessarily subsidize special interests.
The agendas offered by these odd-couple alliances alone are not sufficient to stabilize the long-term budget—that can only be done by restraining entitlements and raising more revenue. But these plans show how austerity can enable reform: They underscore the opportunity to use the deficit challenge to rethink federal expenditures that are now justified by little more than the strength of the lobbies protecting them...

Interesting.

More at that top link.

Pornography at a XXX-roads

At The Economist, "The adult industry is seeking respectability—and profits."

Shocking Video Captures Brutal Shooting Near Brooklyn College

At New York Post, "McDonald's Shooting Caught on NYPD Camera":

Occupy Wall Street, 'Leaderless Resistance Movement', Gets Front-Page Treatment at Los Angeles Times

The Times is jonesin' for news.

This is ridiculous. See: "Occupy Wall Street protesters driven by varying goals."

Actually, they have no goals. I'm reminded of Discharge, in any case, "Protest and Survive." These dudes are still protesting and surviving after almost thirty years. We're still on course for the savage mutilation, I guess:

The savage mutilation of the human race is set on course
Protest and survive, protest and survive.

It's up to us to change that course
Protest and survive, protest and survive...

BONUS: Well, perhaps they're actually serious about this protest and survive stuff. See Occupy Wall Street's, "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City" (at Democratic Underground and Memeorandum):

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known...

And at Firedoglake, "The Goal and Message of Occupy Wall Street."