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”."

Membership Has Its Privileges: Top Chinese Communist Party Members Enjoy Purified Air Machines

Remember, communist societies are based on the supposition of equality, but the elite is more equal than others.

At New York Times, "The Privileges of China’s Elite Include Purified Air."

News that Chinese leaders are largely insulated from Beijing’s famously foul air comes at a time of unusually heavy pollution in the capital. In recent weeks, the capital has been continuously shrouded by a beige pall and readings from the United States Embassy’s rooftop air monitoring device have repeatedly registered unsafe levels of particulate matter.

Air purifiers were approved by the CCP's Politburo Standing Committee. Membership has its privileges.

Also at Astute Bloggers, "CHINA'S DISGUSTINGLY SELFISH RULING ELITE - (YES, THEY HAVE ONE AND IT'S NOT RIGHT-WING; IT'S LEFT-WING!)."

Buckley, If Not God, Returns to Yale

From Neal Freeman, at Wall Street Journal (via Google).

Added: Peter Berkowitz, at RealClearPolitics, "God and Man at Yale Turns 60."

Prime Minister George Papandreou Survives Confidence Vote

At Telegraph UK, "Greek prime minister survives confidence vote."

And at New York Times, "Greek Leader Survives Vote, Bolstering Deal on Europe Debt." And at Business Week, "Papandreou Seeks to Form Unity Government to Avert Default":

Prime Minister George Papandreou is seeking to form a government of national unity that will enable Greece to convince international leaders to resume aid before the nation runs out of funds next month.

Papandreou met with President Karolos Papoulias today as pressure mounts on the 59-year-old to step aside after he was forced to cancel a referendum that may have led to Greece being ejected from the euro. The premier won a confidence motion early this morning after pledging to disaffected members of his ruling Pasok party that he would not stay on.

Papandreou proposed “contributing definitively to creating a government of wider cooperation with the main goal of guiding legislation and anything else related to the historic Oct. 26” agreement with international lenders, the premier told reporters after meeting the president in Athens today. Last month’s accord “is a prerequisite for our remaining in the euro.”

Israeli Consulate Occupied in Boston

But hey, it's not anti-Semitic or anything.

At Future of Capitalism, "Occupy Boston Occupies Israeli Consulate."

Also, at Power Line, "IS DEMOCRATS’ DEMAGOGUERY FUELING ANTI-SEMITISM?"

Aid Package Elusive at G-20 Summit at Cannes

At WaPo, "G-20 sends a strong message to Europe," and LAT, "G-20 summit ends with little action on European debt crisis."

BONUS: Eswar Prasad, at The Daily Beast, "Crisis Kills G-20 Progress."

Holiday Angels 2011 — Victoria's Secret

That fashion show's coming up in a little more than three weeks.

Pat Condell: Irrational Islamic Jew Hatred is the Root Cause of the Problem in the Middle East

Via Blazing Cat Fur:

Occupy Wall Street Militancy Just Getting Started

At IBD:

Now that Oakland's streets have been "redecorated" with shattered glass, cement chunks and burning garbage from the Occupy Wall Street movement, it's critical to see that these acts are no aberration, but came after calls for force and violence. What makes it disturbing is how close the White House is to them as election time approaches.

United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, speaking on radio host Ed Schultz's show last Monday, declared, "What we need is more militancy." Asked to clarify, Gerard said: "I think we've got to start a resistance movement. If Wall Street Occupation doesn't get the message, I think we've got to start blocking bridges and doing that kind of stuff."

Continue reading.

John Hawkins: The Police Should Crack Down On Occupy Wall Street

At Right Wing News:

And at Los Angeles Times, "Occupy Wall Street protesters get their own potties." Awesome! Maybe the protesters will defecate in the outhouses instead of on cop cars.

Night Walk with 4-4 Cav

At Michael Yon's:

It’s amazing how many lights can be seen on a dark night. Especially if you are with the US military. Different-colored lights are useful for differing purposes. The color you use can depend on your job. For medics, blue light is good for blood. It’s also good for tracking blood trails. Bright white is best but then the enemy can shoot you. Red light can make blood disappear, but then again blue light makes petroleum look like blood, and so if you are treating patients at night from after an IED strike on a vehicle, there can be confusion. American military maps are made to be “red light readable” because red light preserves night vision and is harder to see from a distance. The question of lights and how to use them can soak up thousands of words and so let’s keep it simple and move on.

Amazing photo-essay. Check the whole thing at the link.

Gabrielle Giffords' Remarkable Recovery

From last night's World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer, a video here.

And Representative Giffords' book is coming out November 15, "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope."

And at Los Angeles Times, "In new book, Gabrielle Giffords vows to return to Congress."

'Young Americans'

I had to run into the office yesterday morning to pick up my jacket, which I'd forgotten on Thursday. Here's The Sound L.A. Friday morning on the drive back home. I'm on a Bowie jag, so here you go, "Have you been an un-American?":

9:38 - It's Only Rock And Roll by Rolling Stones

9:50 - Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy

9:55 - My My, Hey Hey by Neil Young

9:58 - Somebody To Love by Jefferson Airplane

10:02 - Young Americans by David Bowie

10:08 - Life In A Northern Town by Dream Academy

10:12 - Shooting Star by Bad Company

Goons From 'Occupy Wall Street' Storm Americans for Prosperity 'Dream Summit'

At The Other McCain, "#OWS Protesters Attempt to Storm AFP Defending the American Dream Summit."

And at MSNBC, "Occupy DC spills in to street near convention center." (Kerry Picket is at right in the bottom photo.)

VIDEO: Attorney Joel Bennett Issues Statement on Herman Cain Sexual Harassment Allegations

This is a flaming skull story at AoSHQ, "ONE CAIN ACCUSER SAYS SHE HAS CHOSEN "NOT TO RELIVE" THE DETAILS OF THE INCIDENT' SEES "NO VALUE" IN TALKING ABOUT IT PRIVATELY OR PUBLICLY."

And Legal Insurrection has a series on the day's developments:

* "NRA should release everything, or nothing."

* "The case (or not) against Herman Cain."

* "Cain accuser – now not willing to talk // ADDED: Politico and NY Times spin refusal as accuser “confirming” and “standing by” her complaint."

* "Politico now owns most misleading headline ever."

Also, at Hot Air, "Lawyer for Cain’s accuser: On second thought, she’d rather not relive this publicly," and The Other McCain, "Herman Cain Accuser’s Lawyer: ‘No Value of Revisiting the Matter … Now’."

Israel Navy Intercepts Boats Bound for Gaza

At New York Times, "Israel Intercepts Two Boats Bound for Gaza":

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said on Friday that it had boarded two small boats that were sailing toward Gaza to challenge Israel’s maritime blockade of the Palestinian coastal enclave. There were no reports of violence or injuries.

The boats, one Canadian and the other Irish, were carrying 27 pro-Palestinian activists, journalists and crew members from nine countries. The military had stated that it would prevent the boats from reaching Gaza, which is ruled by the Islamic militant group Hamas.

The Israeli Navy initially notified the vessels that they were en route to an area under blockade and advised them to turn back, or to sail to a port in Egypt or Israel, the military said in a statement.

Also at Israel Matzav, "Here we go again... Flotilla refuses navy order to turn around; UPDATED WITH VIDEO."

Republicans Hit Obama After Jobs Report

At CNN:

And at New York Times, "Report Shows Gain in Jobs but Growth Is Still Sluggish."

Sarah Palin: Occupy Wall Street Wants Bailout (VIDEO)

At Weasel Zippers, "Palin Slams “Entitled” Occupy Wall Street Protesters…"

'Girl Panic'

Via Cindy Crawford:

More supermodels from Duran Duran.

Hypocritical Occupy Oakland Supporters Denounce Anarchy and Violence of Occupy Oakland Protesters

Only an idiot is going give these freaks the time of day:

As longtime readers will recall, I've been following the Occupy Movement for a couple of years. The movement's ideological foundations are in anarcho-socialism and revolutionary violence. A guiding credo is common (socialist) property rights enforced by direct action. See this week's "Declaration of Solidarity with Neighborhood Reclamations," for example:

Occupy Oakland, in solidarity with the Occupy movement and with the local community, has established the principle of claiming for open use the open space that has been kept from us. We are committed to helping this practice continue and grow. Here in Oakland, thousands of buildings owned by city, banks, and corporations stand idle and abandoned. At the same time social services such as child and healthcare, education, libraries and community spaces are being defunded and eliminated.

Occupy Oakland supports the efforts of people in all Oakland neighborhoods to reclaim abandoned properties for use to meet their own immediate needs...

Underneath these demands is an ideological agenda of militant anti-capitalism, for example, yesterday's "Communique from the Crisis Center":

Tonight we open the Crisis Center. In this abandoned building that once provided services to those in need, we open the Occupation Crisis Center. Capitalism cannot avoid crisis. Capitalism cannot resist crisis. But capitalism is not the crisis. We are the crisis. Capitalism is not hungry, homeless, jobless, excluded, exploited. We are. And across the globe, across the nation, across borders, across Oakland, we are moving to meet our immediate needs. We are reclaiming space that has been unused, used against us, left empty while we sleep outdoors, while we cook and organize and struggle outdoors. We open this building in this moment of crisis — in our moment — to continue our occupations, continue our struggles, to seize this crisis and make of it a new world in which everything belongs to everybody...

And here's this on the downtown rioting and violence, "Statement on the Occupation of the former Traveler's Aid Society at 520 16th Street":

We are well aware that such an action is illegal, just as it is illegal to camp, cook, and live in Oscar Grant Plaza as we have done. We are aware that property law means that what we did last night counts as trespassing, if not burglary. Still, the ferocity of the police response surprised us. Once again, they mobilized hundreds of police officers, armed to the hilt with bean bag guns, tear gas and flashbang grenades, despite the fact that these so-called “less-than-lethal” weapons nearly killed someone last week. The city spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect one landlord's right to earn a few thousand every month. Why is this? Whereas the blockade of the port – an action which caused millions of dollars of losses – met with no resistance, the attempt to take one single building, a building that was unused, met with the most brutal and swift response.

The answer: they fear this logical next step from the movement more than anything else. They fear it because they know how much appeal it will have. All across the US thousands upon thousands of commercial and residential spaces sit empty while more and more people are forced to sleep in the streets, or driven deep into poverty while trying to pay their rent despite unemployment or poverty wages. We understand that capitalism is a system that has no care for human needs. It is a system which produces hundreds of thousands of empty houses at the same time as it produces hundreds of thousands of homeless people. The police are the line between these people and these houses. They say: you can stay in your rat-infested park. You can camp out here as long as we want. But the moment that you threaten property rights, we will come at you with everything we have...

And even more, see "Open Letter From Anarchist Participant in Oakland Strike":

After the successful national day of action and general strike in Oakland, naturally, we see the topic of violence and non-violence growing within our movement and within the voices of corporate media networks. Obviously this is a result of certain actions that individuals and groups within the movement decided to partake in. Unfortunately we are hearing a great deal of slander, and nonsense at the forefront of this discussion. As someone who has been with the occupation as much as possible, I feel it's necessary to confront this.

Isolating people based on their willingness to engage in self-defense by actively protecting the spaces we’ve all worked so hard to build together, and the symbolic defiance of exploitative property by making absurd claims of them being “Outside agitators” as if it they are some how separate from the many people who have been actively involved in building these spaces of 'direct-democracy' and communal living should not only be considered an attack on solidarity, but an attack on movements of the people. What divides movements of the people, weakens movements of the people.

Many of us out there today and tonight were Anarchists, but many were also not. We are the ones who were in the streets, ready to provide support & solidarity with all of our brothers and sisters. We were ready to brave against the violence of the state arm and arm with you, to protect one another, and provide medic support to anyone who fell victim to the police assaults. We are the ones whom also involved themselves with serving food to the commune, providing sanitation, organizing actions and broadening the movement. We are not separate from the movement. We are not outside agitators. We are a part of the movement, we are involved with the struggle. We stood with the occupation before day one, we stood with the occupation tonight and will continue to do the same in the future. Don’t let age old divide and conquer tactics convince you otherwise, please...

These are not new sentiments. When Adbusters began agitating for the occupation of Wall Street, the publishers there were familiar with the anarchist roots of the movement. This is what "occupation" means. The movement is about exploiting the current "contradictions of capitalism" (foreclosures, recession, unemployment) to propel the revolutionary moment. And so please disregard stupid editorials and blog posts like these linked below, for such lamebrains are trying to glom onto a movement they either don't understand or are willingly attempting to disguise: "Occupy Oakland Vandals are Nothing But Overgrown Overage Adolescents," and "Oakland Not On Fire, Fox News Lies Re: Occupy Oakland."

Mostly, though, I think there's just a mass stupidity on the left among those who've identified with a movement that's fundamentally about radical, violent change. It's a sign of how bankrupt is progressive politics in this country. From Michael Moore to Keith Olberman to President Obama, the left is scratching desperately for anything to take attention away from the Democrat failures of the last three years. The anarchists have long pushed for violence and bloodshed and the new order. They are having their day, and their enablers and useful idiots now decrying the very violence they ignorantly have signed on to support. It all proves, altogether, the ideological and intellectual hollow core of the movement.

Occupy Oakland

At Michelle's, "More ugly Occupy Oakland pictures that won’t make MSM front pages."

Plus, "Occupy Oakland’s dangerous “strike” follies; Plus: Capitalism-bashing, cop-hating rapper Boots Riley is back; Updated."

Communist Angela Davis Gives Opening Speech at Occupy Oakland 'General Strike'

Notorious communist Angela Davis has been making the rounds nationwide, speaking out for the "occupation." And from Oakland, see: "Black Panthers and Communist Revolutionary Thug Angela Davis in Oakland."

'We Are Under Attack': Jamie Glazov on the Michael Coren Show

Via FrontPage Magazine:

The Cain Bonfire

At WSJ:

Lesson one of the Cain mess is that running a campaign for the Presidency of the United States is unlike anything else in politics, or anything else in American life for that matter. Mr. Cain's remarkable success so far, riding to the top of the GOP preference polls, is a testament to his skills at communicating and his willingness to offer bold policy proposals.

Mr. Cain has proven there is a hunger in the public for roiling the political status quo. If he has disappointed his supporters, which remains to be seen, it is because he hasn't displayed sufficient self-awareness of the requirements of being a top-tier presidential candidate.

Anyone who makes it to the front of the candidate line is going to come under close—make that withering—scrutiny. If in one's past exist two sexual harassment suits formally settled by one's employer, that is going to become public. It is a certainty. Allowing oneself to drift through a campaign until the day the buried bombs go off is amateur hour. Republicans have a right to ask Mr. Cain what he would have said if he won the nomination and the news had broken after Labor Day next year. The Cain campaign would have been smarter to leak the story pre-emptively.

I raised these points days ago, but continue reading the editorial.

RELATED: At Saberpoint, "Raise the Black Flag: Take No Prisoners," and "Men's Rights Online: Reasons for False Charges of 'Sexual Harassment'."

'Under the Bridge'

More music, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, from yesterday's afternoon playlist at The Sound L.A.:

2:30 - Radar Love by Golden Earring

2:36 - 25 Or 6 To 4 by Chicago

2:41 - Changes by David Bowie

2:48 - Somebody To Love by Queen

2:53 - Clampdown by Clash

2:57 - Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf

3:01 - Feel Like Makin' Love by Bad Company

3:06 - Witchy Woman by Eagles

3:10 - Under The Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers

3:18 - Darkness Of The Edge Of Town by Bruce Springsteen

3:23 - Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

3:32 - Knockin' On Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan

Thanks to all of my awesome readers. More blogging tonight.

Beating Righthaven

I've been meaning to put up a big entry on my successful defense against Righthaven. I was thinking I'd write some big fancy post on my motion to dismiss, which I filed with the help of David Kerr of Santangelo Law Offices in Fort Collins, Colorado. But I've been too busy and haven't taken the time. So, with recent developments indicating the end is most-likely near for the reviled copyright trolling concern, I might as well post on it for the record.

Righthaven sued me for alleged copyright violation on March 8, 2011. The docket listing is here. The lawsuit claimed that I'd infringed the copyright held by the Denver Post for its picture of the invasive pat down at this article: "Controversy over pat-downs, body scans lands at DIA." Like dozens of other bloggers, I'd featured a full-size screencap of (the article and) the crotch-grab photograph in a post on TSA's "touching junk" backlash. I filed a motion to dismiss pro se. Attorney David Kerr provided legal advice pro bono.

Righthaven files "no warning" lawsuits. That is, it gives no advance notification to defendants, which violates the norm of providing "take down notices" to those suspected of copyright violations. By doing this, Righthaven --- which made a speciality out of suing small-time bloggers and "mom-and-pop" businesses --- was able to scare the bejesus out of its targets, who then would settle out of court generally in the three to five thousand dollar range. Defendants were threatened with the possibility of a $150,000 judgment and the forfeiture of their website's domain name (URL address). Let me tell you: It's frightening as hell opening up that letter of service and reading the lawsuit. You can't even believe you're being sued, but you can't ignore it or wish it away. A non-response would result in a default judgment, so there's no time to dilly-dally. No wonder so many defendants settled out of court rather than attempt a legal defense, especially since obtaining legal counsel and going to trial would probably run into the tens of thousands of dollars on average. I first found out about the lawsuit from Steven Green of the Las Vegas Sun, who left me message on Facebook and then the link to this article mentioning me as a defendant.

Righthaven's model is entirely predatory, and the company soon earned everlasting enmity by filing lawsuits against folks who were unemployed, on public assistance or disabled. Righthaven, for example, sued cat-blogger Allegra Wong of Boston, who was unemployed and receiving "financial support from a companion." Righthaven also sued Brian Hill of North Carolina. Hill is autistic and chronically ill and is supported by Social Security disability benefits. My attorney David Kerr successfully defended Hill, whose story was featured in the New York Times, "Enforcing Copyrights Online, for a Profit."

After the Hill case, Righthaven seemed to come under withering fire from defendants who refused to settle with what many considered a bloodsucking copyright troll. In a series of cases out of Federal District Court in Nevada, defendants were able to show that Righthaven in fact failed to own the copyrights for the materials over which it was suing. The company had entered into a "strategic alliance agreement" with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and in April, Roger Hunt, the Chief U.S. District Judge for Nevada, ordered the agreement unsealed in a case involving the Democratic Underground. In the following weeks and months Righthaven continued to suffer defeats at the hands of judges in Nevada, and then later in Denver as well, where soon enough Senior U.S. District Judge John Kane would start handing down a series of devastating defeats for Righthaven. Eventually the Denver court threw out 34 cases filed there alleging copyright violations (including mine), most likely all of them involving the TSA pat down photo. See: "Judge: Righthaven lacked standing, abused Copyright Act."

That was about five weeks ago. Since then Righthaven's been hit with judgments totaling several tens of thousands of dollars and it's been unable to make good on the payments, instead asking for leniency and extensions from the courts. But time's running out. The news out this week is that the District Court in Las Vegas has ordered U.S. Marshals to seize more than $63,000 in Righthaven assets. See: "Marshals ordered to seize Righthaven assets." And see this report from Nate Anderson, at Ars Technica, "US Marshals turned loose to collect $63,720.80 from Righthaven":

Looks like it's time to turn out the lights on Righthaven. The US Marshal for the District of Nevada has just been authorized by a federal court to use "reasonable force" to seize $63,720.80 in cash and/or assets from the Las Vegas copyright troll after Righthaven failed to pay a court judgment from August 15.

Righthaven made a national name for itself by suing mostly small-time bloggers and forum posters over the occasional copied newspaper article, initially going so far as to demand that targeted websites turn over their domain names to Righthaven. The several hundred cases went septic on Righthaven, however, once it became clear that Righthaven didn't own the copyrights over which it was suing. Righthaven, ailing, was soon buffeted by negative court decisions as a result.

In August, the case Righthaven v. Hoehn was tossed by a federal judge in Nevada, who went a step further and declared that defendant Wayne Hoehn's complete copy of a newspaper article in a sub-forum on the site "Madjack Sports" was fair use. On August 15, the judge awarded $34,045.50 to the Randazza Legal Group, which represented Hoehn. Righthaven, which had spent so much time thundering to defendants about just how badly the federal courts would make them pay... didn't pay.

Instead, it filed a flurry of appeals alleging (among other things) that having to pay the money would involve "the very real threat of being forced out of business or being forced to seek protection through bankruptcy." Righthaven contended that it could eventually win the case on appeal and thus should not be bankrupted before it had the chance to make its case.

But the increasingly disorganized organization couldn't even get its appellate filings in on time. Yesterday, Righthaven had to admit that it missed the October 31 deadline for its opening brief in the case. It blamed the problem on a "misunderstanding," then noted it would need a few more weeks to actually write the brief, since "Righthaven’s counsel is scheduled to undergo a surgical procedure for which it is estimated that he will be recovering outside of the office for approximately one week."

Randazza shot back that Righthaven was "prolonging the appellate process by deliberately creating a manufactured deadline crisis. It is nobody’s fault but Righthaven’s that it cannot file a single opening brief with this Court within the original briefing schedules Righthaven knew of, and could have reviewed at any time." All the while, Randazza Legal Group was ringing up more fees with every brief it wrote.

The appeals court has refused to act on Righthaven's request to delay its August judgment further, and the money was due last Friday. When it didn't show up, Randazza Legal Group went back to the Nevada District Court to request a Writ of Execution to use the court's enforcers, the US Marshals, to collect the money. The court clerk issued the writ today, and Righthaven's $34,045.50 judgment has now ballooned to $63,720.80 with all the additional costs and fees from the delay.

There's still more at the link.

I can't say I haven't learned a lot through all of this, although involuntary education isn't my style.

And I want to again thank my attorney David Kerr for being a super stand-up guy and wise counsel. I reached out to a number of law offices in the beginning. It was going to be expensive and I didn't know if I'd be able to afford a defense. David took an interest in my case and my blog and ended up helping me file the defense. That was cool.

More on this later.

Nate Silver: 'Harassment Allegations Could Cut at Core of Cain's Appeal'

And I'm quoted at the post, at FiveThirtyEight.

Ericka Anderson Runs 36th Marine Corps Marathon

That's gotta be one of the greatest personal accomplishments ever, and Ericka's a veteran at this stuff, apparently.

See: "Marine Corps Marathon #3: So You Think You're a Rockstar..."

And see the news report at WaPo: "36th Marine Corps Marathon: Charles ‘Chad’ Ware wins men’s race; Tezata Dengersa wins women’s."

And more running at Ericka' blog: The Sweet Life. She's so energetic!

Ericka is Senior Digital Communications Associate at the Heritage Foundation.

BONUS: At New York Times, "The Once and Future Way to Run":

We were once the greatest endurance runners on earth. We didn’t have fangs, claws, strength or speed, but the springiness of our legs and our unrivaled ability to cool our bodies by sweating rather than panting enabled humans to chase prey until it dropped from heat exhaustion. Some speculate that collaboration on such hunts led to language, then shared technology. Running arguably made us the masters of the world.

Frank McCourt Agrees to Sell Dodgers

At LAT, "McCourt and Major League Baseball will seek approval from Bankruptcy Court to auction the team that he bought in 2004."

Plus, "Peter O'Malley wants to run Dodgers":

Peter O'Malley, whose family owned the Dodgers for nearly half a century, said Wednesday he would like to run the team once again.

O'Malley said he hopes to lead an investment group that would buy the Dodgers, enabling him to return as the team's chief executive.

"I want to reconnect the team and the community," O'Malley said.

When he spoke out last fall, in urging owner Frank McCourt to sell the Dodgers, O'Malley said he had no interest in returning as owner or president of the team.

McCourt agreed to sell on Tuesday, in an abrupt end to his two-year court fight to retain ownership of the Dodgers.

"The health of the organization has deteriorated in the last 12 months," O'Malley said. "The standing of the organization in the community has deteriorated.

"I am confident I can restore it to respectability quicker, sooner and probably better than — or at least as well as — anyone else."

Let's hope so. I'd hate to see the Dodgers sold out of area, or go belly up altogether.

NewsBusted: 'Occupy Maine protest was attacked with a stink bomb last week'

Via Theo Spark:

Jennifer Rubin: Cain's Race Politics 'Reprehensible'

Well, folks got after Jennifer Rubin last week for thrashing Rick Perry, although it turns out she's an equal opportunity thrasher. She really hammers Cain here: "Cain’s noxious racial politics":

This is reprehensible....

Cain and his defenders, like actors in a theatrical tragedy, are falling prey to the very evil they labored against: the propensity to assign political identity by race and to invoke race to shield one from personal responsibility. Cain is in trouble because he didn’t handle a past claim that even a political novice would know would come to light.

VIDEO: Texas Judge Beats Daughter

Man, that's a ferocious beating.

At ABC News, "Family Court Judge Caught Beating Ill Daughter on Videotape." And at London's Daily Mail, "'It had happened before and was escalating': Judge's disabled daughter reveals why she posted YouTube video of her father brutally beating her."

Also, at KRIS-TV Corpus Christi, "Judge Videotaped Beating Daughter - Full Coverage."

Herman Cain Chief of Staff Accuses Rick Perry Campaign of Leaking Sexual Harassment Bombshell

Well, whoever dug the dirt has to be twisting his mustache with glee at this point. The Herman Cain campaign implosion has reached near-meltdown, and soon there won't be much left of it, and it's only Wednesday. Dan Riehl pulls no punches with the headline: "You Lie! Cain's House of Cards Collapses as He Tries to Blame Perry." And following the link takes us to Richard Miniter, "Cain Says Perry Camp Behind Sex Harassment Leak." And from Jonathan Karl, at ABC News, "Cain Adviser Accuses Perry Campaign of Leaking Harassment Story, Demands Apology."

The Cain story just took another bizarre turn.

That's for sure.

Check Memeorandum for all the links, and also Dan Collins, "What We Still Don’t Know About the Herman Cain Accusations." And at The Caucus, "Cain Faults Perry as More Allegations Emerge."

'Stay'

Well, I'm in the mood for more Bowie. For years he was my favorite artist and I think I've been neglecting him here at the blog. Check back for more blogging this afternoon:

A Greek Lesson in Democracy

At New York Times, "Greek Revolt on Bailout Vote May Oust Prime Minister."

ATHENS — The government of Prime Minister George Papandreou teetered on the verge of collapse on Tuesday, threatening Greece’s adherence to the terms of a new deal with its foreign lenders and plunging Europe into a fresh bout of financial turmoil.

Several lawmakers in the governing Socialist Party rejected Mr. Papandreou’s surprise plan for a popular referendum on the Greek bailout, raising the possibility that he will not survive a no-confidence vote scheduled for Friday that depends on his holding together a razor-thin parliamentary majority.

An emergency cabinet meeting convened by Mr. Papandreou ended at nearly 3 a.m. Wednesday, with the cabinet saying that it unanimously supported the prime minister’s call for a referendum, local news outlets reported. The opposition and some members of his own party, however, were calling for new elections immediately.

The impasse in Athens seemed likely to delay — and perhaps scuttle — the debt deal that European leaders reached after marathon negotiations in Brussels last week. Financial markets cratered on Tuesday for the second straight day, wiping out the gains since the Brussels deal was announced last week. Some analysts said that Greece was now coming closer to a messy default on its debt, and perhaps a departure from the zone of 17 countries that use the euro as their common currency.

And at Wall Street Journal, "A Greek default would provide a lesson in what happens to countries that can't live within their means":

George Papandreou became the most unpopular man in Europe on Monday by announcing that his government would put the terms of last week's EU-IMF bailout package to a referendum, so that Greeks can decide their economic future for themselves. The Prime Minister's announcement sent markets tumbling world-wide, took Italian government-bond yields to a near euro-era high, and had German officials privately denouncing his behavior as un-European.

An alternative view is that Mr. Papandreou has done his own people, and all Europeans, a considerable favor. Who would have thought the Greeks had something to teach the world about democracy?

Yeah, who would have thought the Greeks would know something about democracy? They're living beyond their means, no doubt, but this news is like a breath of fresh air. What a crisis!

Also at WSJ, "Greek PM's Referendum Plan Stuns Europe, Rattles Markets."

Long Beach Defense Work Bulks Up Boeing's 3rd Quarter Profit

This was last week, at Long Beach Press-Telegram, "Boeing's 3rd quarter profit tops $1 billion."

Boeing reported a $1.1 billion quarterly profit on Wednesday that beat expectations because of strong growth in its defense business.

The company's passenger jet profit grew more slowly and manufacturing problems have forced it to cut its forecast for deliveries of its two newest jets.

A large share of Boeing's defense work is done in Long Beach and surrounding communities, including production of the C-17 Globemaster cargo jet, satellite research and development in Seal Beach, and engineering and other work in Huntington Beach.

Boeing also maintains a large defense workforce in El Segundo, where crews operate the world's largest satellite manufacturing facility, said Paula Shawa, Boeing's regional spokesperson.

Photo: "Long Beach Boeing C-17 Tour."

Heidi Klum Skinless Dead Body Costume

A report at New York Times, "Project Halloween."

Manners Decline in the South

This is fascinating, despite the racial grievance undertones. At New York Times, "A Last Bastion of Civility, the South, Sees Manners Decline."

Herman Cain Campaign Knew of Politico Hit Piece 10 Days in Advance

As outrageous as this whole thing is, I'm still pretty taken aback by how amateurish was the Cain's campaign's response to the revelations. Here's this from the front page at this morning's Los Angeles Times, "Harassment allegations trip up Herman Cain":

Many conservative activists were quick Monday to rally behind Cain. L. Brent Bozell III, a frequent media critic, called the allegations a "high-tech lynching," summoning the language Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas used when accused of harassment at his explosive 1991 confirmation hearings.

"This will play to his advantage with the grass roots," predicted K.B. Forbes, a GOP strategist who has worked for previous insurgent candidates. "One of their favorite lines is, 'It's the liberal media.'"

But for insiders — donors, Republican strategists and others among the political establishment — the episode could raise further doubts about Cain as well as concerns about the wherewithal of his seat-of-its-pants campaign operation.

According to Politico, campaign operatives knew the article was coming for 10 days. And yet in its initial statement — which was widely circulated — the campaign did not deny the harassment allegations. That was left, many hours later, to Cain.

The campaign had almost two weeks to prepare. Cain needed to have a press release ready to go, which would have also served as his crib sheet in responding to allegations. This is Campaigns and Elections 101. It's the basics of rapid response politics. Had Cain come out with a strong statement Sunday night he could have stayed on message all day yesterday, during his whirlwind network interview rounds. Instead, he dug a hole from which he needs to quickly extricate himself.

EARLIER: "Herman Cain's Accuser Speaks Out."

Herman Cain's Accuser Speaks Out

Lots of developments in the Herman Cain sexual harassment scandal.

CNN has this, "Attorney for Cain accuser: Cain is lying."

Also, at Los Angeles Times, "Herman Cain accuser wants to talk, her lawyer says":

One of Herman Cain’s accusers wants to be heard.

Her lawyer told the Washington Post on Tuesday that she is ready to tell her side of the ongoing saga involving allegations of sexual harassment while Cain was head of the National Restaurant Assn. in the late 1990s.

But, the lawyer, Joel Bennett, said the woman remains bound by the confidentiality agreement she signed as part of a settlement of her claim with the association.

“It is just frustrating that Herman Cain is going around bad-mouthing the two complainants, and my client is blocked by a confidentiality agreement,” Bennett told the Post. “The National Restaurant Assn. ought to release them and allow them to respond.”

In an appearance Tuesday evening on Fox News Channel, Cain demurred when asked whether the woman should be given a chance to provide her version of events.

“There are legal implications if the restaurant association waives that. I just found out about this today -- there are legal implications" he said, adding that "we can't answer that right now. It's too soon."

Cain was asked on Fox whether he had breached the agreement by discussing the allegations publicly, thus freeing the woman to talk. He said he hadn’t because he had never identified the name of the one woman who’s complaint Cain says he recalls.

At New York Times, "Cain Accuser Got a Year’s Salary in Severance Pay."

'Diamond Dogs'

Okay, back on the grid.

I laughed when I hopped in the van for the round trip back home. Stevie Ray Vaughan popped on the radio, at The Sound L.A. I had SRV posted this morning for my placeholder entry, so I'll pick it up for some evening blogging with the next in the queue, David Bowie in 2004. My wife and I caught this show at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater:

4:22 - Crossfire by Stevie Ray Vaughan

4:26 - Diamond Dogs by David Bowie

4:32 - American Girl by Tom Petty

4:36 - Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix

4:39 - Bad Company by Bad Company

4:49 - Band On The Run by Paul Mccartney And Wings

4:55 - Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy

5:02 - You Might Think by Cars

5:05 - You Can't Always Get What You Want by Rolling Stones

5:18 - Black Friday by Steely Dan

5:21 - Rock And Roll Band by Boston

5:25 - You Really Got Me by Kinks

5:27 - Baby Hold On by Eddie Money

5:30 - Have A Cigar by Pink Floyd

'Couldn't Stand the Weather'

Lighten it up here, with Stevie Ray Vaughan:

Passin' through this business of life
Raisin’ sand if I'm needed to
Ain't so funny when things ain't feelin' right
Daddy's hand helps to see me through
Sweet as sugar, love won't wash away
Rain or shine, it's always here to stay
All these years you and I've spent together
I guess, we just couldn't stand the weather

Like a train that stops at every station
We all deal with trials and tribulations
Fear hangs the fellow that ties up his years
Entangled in yellow and cries all his tears
Changes come before we can grow
Learn to see them before we're too old
Don't just take me for tryin' to be heavy
Understand, it's time to get ready for the storm

Herman Cain on PBS NewsHour

Here's Judy Woodruff with the interview. Herman Cain has aligned the story lines. We'll see what comes up through the rest of the day, because boy, the Democrat-Media-Complex sure smells blood:

And stay with it all the way through. Cain starts to lay out some intriguing thoughts on foreign policy. I like what he says about China in particular.

RELATED: The big story at New York Times, "Cain Confronts Claim From '90s of Sexual Harassment."

Kevin Williamson on Herman Cain Allegations

See: "Why This Could Be the End of Cain."

It's a competence critique, focusing on the managerial side of things.

I'm more worried about the initial waffling, which is another word for indecision, which is not supposed to be characteristic of Herman Cain.

Ann Coulter: Politico's Herman Cain Smear 'Another High-Tech Lynching'

And see Roger Simon, at PJ Media, "Politico and Cain: Return of the High-Tech Lynching."

In Santa Ana, Mexicans Attack New Businesses for 'Ethnic Cleansing'

At New York Times, "New Faces and a Contentious Revival":

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Business has never been slower at Mina Bridal, which sells billowing taffeta ballroom dresses in colors like hot pink and electric blue for quinceañeras, the traditional 15th birthday celebration for Mexican girls.

Mina Madriles, who has run the downtown store for nearly three decades, said that a generation ago girls would have elaborate parties just as their parents had — where a $1,000 dress was just a fraction of the expense. Now, she is giving away her dresses to some families who hire her to coordinate the party at their homes to save money.

“Nobody has any money anymore; there’s nothing we can do,” Ms. Madriles said.

Fourth Street — also known as Calle Cuatro — has long been the center of Latino business in Orange County, the place where Mexican immigrants could find nearly anything they might have looked for in their homelands. Along some stretches, it is impossible to hear anything but Spanish. The signs beckon customers to travel to Guadalajara or buy a pair of snakeskin cowboy boots for a “super discuento,” and the sidewalk vendors shout, “Frutas, frutas,” as they call attention to their freshly cut coconuts and mangos.

But as the economy has soured, many of these stores have struggled to stay afloat. Some stores closed, others asked their landlords for a reduction in rent. At the same time, several property owners began pressing to create a group to improve downtown Santa Ana.

The owners, who were mostly white, were determined to make it more welcoming to English-speaking clients and bring in customers from more affluent parts of Orange County. What they really wanted to do, opponents said, was scrub away any suggestion that it is an immigrant hub, in a city that is 85 percent Latino. Fiesta Marketplace changed its name to “East End,” and the pink buildings that might evoke a Mexican plaza were repainted in muted hues. A few stores put up signs proclaiming, “Stop ethnic cleansing.”

I grew up in neighboring Orange, and Santa Ana's been a Mexican enclave for decades. With 85 percent of the population Hispanic, I don't think folks need to worry about "ethnic cleansing." The economy hitting everybody pretty hard, and you'd think Santa Ana locals would be pleased with new businesses entering the market.

RELATED: At Los Angeles Times, "Children of immigrants hit an economic ceiling."

PREVIOUSLY: "Santa Ana Enclave Tops Orange County In Proportion of Single-Parent Households."

U.S. Will Withhold Funds For U.N. Agency After Vote to Grant Membership to Palestinians

At Fox News and Memeorandum:

And at Pamela's, "It's Halloween! No Money for UNICEF Jihad," and "US Cancels Funding to UNESCO, "This was a failure of US power," said "Palestinian" official after UN Body Grants Full Membership to Jihad Terror State."

VIDEO: Man Beheaded in Saudi Arabia for 'Sorcery'

At London's Daily Mail, "The moment man was publicly beheaded in a Saudi Arabian car park for being a 'sorcerer'."

Via Pat Dollard, "Footage Surfaces of Saudi Arabian “Sorcerer” Being Publicly Beheaded – With Graphic Video."

Occupy Oklahoma Protester Found Dead

At News 9 Oklahoma City, "Occupy OKC Protester Found Dead In Tent In Downtown OKC."

And a WaPo, "Man found dead in tent during Occupy Okla. City protest; police say death not suspicious."

Verum Serum has video: "Man Found Dead at Occupy OKC (Video added)." And at Occupy OKC on Twitter.

Kim Kardashian Divorce: 'This was not an easy decision'

Yeah, but it wasn't the least bit surprising.

At London's Daily Mail, "'This was not an easy decision': Kim Kardashian files for divorce from Kris Humphries after just 72 days of marriage (that's $250,000 earned every 24 hours)."

Virginia GOP Says Halloween-Themed E-Mail Over the Top

I wondered why I was getting a lot of hits yesterday to this post.

See Los Angeles Times:

Virginia Republicans were in apology mode Monday over a Halloween-themed email that depicted a zombie-like President Obama with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head.

The northern Virginia-based Too Conservative blog first flagged the mailer from the local Republicans in Loudon County promoting a local holiday parade. It also offers a ghoulish caricature of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi D-San Francisco).

"I am no fan of Barack Obama, but putting up a photo of him as a zombie with a bullet hole in his head?" the blog stated. "Someone should send this to the US Secret Service."

Well, I'd say the Democrats' reaction was over the top.

More at Bret Baier, "Grapevine: Halloween Trick for Virginia Republicans."

Justina Jensen and Walter James Casper III

See New Hampshire Union Leader, "Woman charged with pimping teen recruited at Occupy NH rally."

Justina Jensen, charged with felony prostitution in New Hampshire, and convicted on a similar charge earlier this year in New York.

Walter James Casper III, a.k.a. Repsac3, progressive hate-blogger, busted repeatedly by conservatives for ultra-creepy online harassment and stalking.

The woman, Justina Jensen (pictured at top), was caught attempting to turn tricks with with a 16-year-old girl. According to the police prosecutor, Jensen "was convicted of a similar charge earlier this year in New York." I find that pretty amazing, because she sure looks ashamed at her mug shot, which is posted at the Union Leader's report. Maybe whatever self-recrimination she feels at the time of arrest dissipates upon release. In other words, a woman like this is a sociopath who has no firm underlying moral code. The numbers are too small, but my sense that's a pattern that's particulary prevalent on the left, considering the outbreak of criminal activity that's been taking over the occupy movement. See: "Not a political movement; a crime wave!" And the immediate comparison I had was to my deranged stalker Walter James Casper III (pictured at bottom above), who has now escalated his campaign of harassment to include personal e-mail stalking and threats. Like Jensen, there is no bright line of wrongdoing for Walter James Casper. He's perhaps even worse, for at his photo above, which is not Photoshopped, there's a bit of a diabolical smirking in evidence. And it turns out that when the Independent Realist blocked Walter James Casper from commenting at his blog, criminal Casper tracked him down on Facebook, and Independent Realist blocked him at that location as well. See Independent Realist's reply to me from last week:

Thank you Dr. Douglas for the kind words and links to the Realist. I am afraid that the longer Walter (Walter James Casper, III) continues with his delusional rantings, the further he will slip down into the depths of his paranoia. There is nothing that we can do other than to block him from our blogs and such (I've already had to block him from my blog and Facebook page), and simply allow him to rant on his own site. Eventually he will alienate himself from even his own followers as they begin to realize the depth of his illness.

And as Walter is reading this blog, I would offer him this advice: seek professional help and seek it now. Do not wait.

See the whole thing: "Repsac3, W. James Casper - The Final Word."

WALTER JAMES CASPER III = RACIST REPSAC3! A sociopathic poster manchild for the progressive left. Dude, you're clinical. Get some freakin' help before you hurt someone!

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

We Should Not be Surprised by the Left's Racist Hit Job on Herman Cain

Rush Limbaugh (via Memeorandum):

This story appears to me to be a close relative of the hit job that the Washington Post is doing on Marco Rubio. It's not a news story. This is gutter partisan politics, and it's the politics of minority conservative personal destruction, is what you've got here. Rubio and Cain unfit to lead, don't you see. We cannot have a black Republican running for the office of president. We can't have one elected. We can't have an Hispanic. The left owns those two groups, and those two groups are gonna forever be minorities. Those groups cannot ever be seen to be self-sufficient or rising above, on their own. Those two groups are owned -- lock, stock, and barrel -- by the Democrat Party and anything good that happens to any black or Hispanic in American politics can only happen via the Democrat Party. "If it happens elsewhere, we're gonna destroy those people -- a la Clarence Thomas."

VIDEO: Herman Cain Interview with Greta Van Susteren

And William Jacobson's got an excellent entry, "A taste of the medicine."

And talking about the original Politico hit piece, Glenn Reynolds adds:

Would Jonathan Martin, Maggie Haberman, Anna Palmer and Kenneth Vogel have put their names on a similar piece, with no named sources, aimed at Barack Obama? Would Politico have run it? I think we know the answer.

More links at the post.

Also, at Memeorandum and London's (salacious) Daily Mail, "'I don't even remember her name': Herman Cain denies sexual harassment claims as he admits he knew BOTH women."

PREVIOUSLY: "Herman Cain Sexual Harassment Scandal Upends GOP Presidential Race."

Herman Cain Sexual Harassment Scandal Upends GOP Presidential Race

I'm just now getting back on the grid, and Herman Cain's story seems to be going through some transformations. Here's the short version of Cain's denial of the allegations on Fox News this morning:

I listened to the longer version this morning at Hot Air, "Cain: “I was falsely accused” of sexual harassment at trade group." Cain sounded completely confident and he gave a flat-out denial.

Except, was it the truth? Maybe there's some shading going on and the story's basically the same. The update's at Hot Air, "Revealed: Cain describes hand gesture that led to harassment claim; Update: Small settlement, says Cain." Check that post. One of those interviewed in the original Politico report is no longer taking questions. I'm still learning on this, but The Other McCain has huge roundup, "Herman Cain at the National Press Club." And here's video of Cain's statement at the Press Club:

Time has that, "Facing a Media Scrum, Cain Boisterously Denies Harassment Allegations":

Ever since he began topping presidential polls, the media has been drafting pieces of Cain’s political obituary: unpacking his campaign’s organizational woes, his tortured answers to questions on abortion and foreign policy, his puzzling scheduling strategy. Now they wanted to witness the last breaths. But the candidate showed up boisterous and smiling, and after skating through a stump speech laden with humor and light on policy, Cain mopped a patina of sweat from his brow and stepped to the lecturn to face his questioners. “I would be delighted to clear the air,” he said.

“Number one, in all of my over 40 years of business experience … I have never sexually harassed anyone,” Cain announced. “Number two, while at the restaurant association, I was accused of sexual harassment. Falsely accused, I might add. I was falsely accused of sexual harassment, and when the charges were brought, as the leader of the organization, I recused myself and allowed my general counsel and my human resource officer to deal with the situation. And it was concluded after a thorough investigation that it had no basis.

“As far as a settlement,” Cain continued, “I am unaware of any sort of settlement. I hope it wasn’t for much, because I didn’t do anything.” He declined to speculate whether the source of the Politico article cataloging the allegations was an opposition leak, called the kerfuffle “a witch hunt,” and suggested there was nothing further to pursue.

And now back to Politico for the latest, "Cain acknowledges settlement details."

I don't expect too much damage to Cain's candidacy, barring any 11th hour revelations. What's troubling is the changing story line, which makes Cain looks amateurish if not inept. His demeanor is vigorous in responding, fortunately, but these late acknowledgements raise questions of veracity.

An upside is that Cain's getting a lot of "earned" media (which really unearned, in a sense) which may have the salutary effect of bolstering Cain's rise in the polls, especially if regular folks agree that these are specious allegations amounting to an opportunistic witch hunt, as Cain suggests.

Here's the latest Memeorandum link. I'll have more later.

Added: From Jennifer Rubin, "Cain gets tripped up on the facts: Will this kill the campaign?:

The error Cain made was in not getting the entire story out early, completely and truthfully. He left the day with voters and the media more confused than ever.

This may not be the end of the Cain campaign, but it will take a toll. The never-ending stories here suggest Cain hasn’t been honest with the public. That’s going to be harder to explain than the original allegations.

He should be okay if that's the end of the allegations. But if more facts come out that Cain hedged or denies, well, it's not going to be pretty.

Legal Insurrection in the O.C.

Last Tuesday, William Jacobson published a picture of the windmills off Interstate 10 near Palm Springs: "Open – A Tape from California." It turns out William and his wife flew into Orange County Airport and rented a car to head out to Rancho Mirage for a legal conference. I contacted William and we met up for some coffee last night near his hotel near the airport.

He posted an update on their travels last night: "Open – Live from The OC."

It was great meeting William and his wife. We hit it off and had lots to talk about, but there wasn't enough time. I'll look forward to seeing them again, either in New York or perhaps next time they make it to California. It's a bummer the county's so big sometimes, although that's one of the great things about blogging: I've met more wonderful people over these last few years. It's been something to really cherish.

Head on over to see what's going on at the blog. He's just as big a blogging junkie as I am!

World Population Grows by 1 Billion in Only 12 Years

At the Occupy Orange County protest the other day, I asked a guy passing by at the information booth what he thought of the movement. He kept saying "they" have a plan to control the world economy. And I asked who's "they"? He's said "it's not a conspiracy or anything, but the 1 percent really do control the whole world." And from there he somehow squeezed in some yammering about how the world's population was now at 7 billion. I didn't really make the connection, but then I saw news reports that the world's population was about to hit 7 billion. Well that was it, I thought, no doubt this gives left-wingers plenty more fear-mongering material.

See Los Angeles Times, "World population hits 7 billion on Oct. 31, or thereabouts."

It took only a dozen years for humanity to add another billion people to the planet, reaching the milestone of 7 billion Monday — give or take a few months.

Demographers at the United Nations Population Division set Oct. 31, 2011, as the "symbolic" date for hitting 7 billion, while acknowledging that it's impossible to know for sure the specific time or day. Using slightly different calculations, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the 7-billion threshold will not be reached until March.

Under any methodology, demographers agree that humanity remains on a steep growth curve, which is likely to keep climbing through the rest of this century. The U.N.'s best estimate is that population will march past 9.3 billion by 2050 and exceed 10.1 billion by the end of the century. It could be far more, if birthrates do not continue to drop as they have in the last half-century.

Nearly all the projected growth this century is expected to occur in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, while the combined populations in Europe, North America and other wealthy industrialized nations will remain relatively flat. Some countries, such as Germany, Russia and Japan, are poised to edge downward, their loss made up mostly by ongoing growth in the United States, which is bolstered by waves of immigrants.

That's so ominous sounding, "they" had to pick Halloween for the date, or something.

Of course, not mentioned is the fact that the earth can sustain billions more without any problems. See Power Line, "POPULATION BOMB EPIC FAIL."

This Was the Week That European Democracy Died

From Janet Daley, at Telegraph UK:

So this is where we are. The agreed EU “stability union” triumphantly paraded before the media in Brussels will have the power to approve or disapprove budgets of countries in the eurozone – that is, to vet and police them – before they are submitted to the elected parliaments of those countries. In other words, parliaments which are directly mandated by, and answerable to, their own populations will not control the most essential functions of government: decisions on taxation and spending. Even without the ultimate institutions of economic and political union, which still elude the EU, actual power over fiscal policy will be taken from the hands of national leaders. And if, as a voter, you cannot influence your prospective government’s tax and spending policies, what exactly are you voting for?