Oligarchy and Democracy

From Jeffrey Winters, at American Interest:

It is a confounding moment in American political history. On the one hand, evidence of democratic possibilities is undeniable. In 2008, millions of Americans helped catapult a man of half-African descent into the White House long before observers thought the nation was “ready.” Democratic movements have won major victories in recent decades, spreading civil rights, improving the status of women and ending unpopular wars. This is the continuation of a trend with deep roots in American history, reaching back at least to the Jacksonian era, of extending the equality principle into American culture at large.

On the other hand, democracy appears chronically dysfunctional when it comes to policies that impinge on the rich. Despite polls consistently showing that large majorities favor increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans, policy has been moving for decades in the opposite direction. Reduced taxes on the ultra-rich and the corporations and banks they dominate have shifted fiscal burdens downward even as they have strained the government’s capacity to maintain infrastructure, provide relief to children and the poor, and assist the elderly.

Everyone is by now aware of the staggering shift in fortunes upward favoring the wealthy. Less well understood is that this rising inequality is not the result of something economically rational, such as a surge in productivity or value-added contributions from financiers and hedge-fund CEOs, but is rather a direct reflection of redistributive policies that have helped the richest get richer.

Such outcomes are inexplicable on standard, commonly understood democratic grounds. The tiny proportion of wealthy actors among eligible voters cannot account for the immense political firepower needed to keep winning these policy victories. While motivated and mobilized minorities—those organized over issues like gay marriage, for example—can sometimes win legislative victories despite broad opposition from the electorate, America’s ultra-rich all together could barely fill a large sports stadium. They never assemble for rallies or marches, sign petitions, or mount Facebook or Twitter campaigns. So how do they so consistently get their way?

One increasingly popular answer is that America is an oligarchy rather than a democracy. The complex truth, however, is that the American political economy is both an oligarchy and a democracy; the challenge is to understand how these two political forms can coexist in a single system. Sorting out this duality begins with a recognition of the different kinds of power involved in each realm. Oligarchy rests on the concentration of material power, democracy on the dispersion of non-material power. The American system, like many others, pits a few with money power against the many with participation power. The chronic problem is not just that electoral democracy provides few constraints on the power of oligarchs in general, but that American democracy is by design particularly responsive to the power of money (a point Adam Garfinkle makes clear in his introduction to The American Interest’s January/February 2011 issue on Plutocracy and Democracy).

I read parts of that issue at the time.

My interest in this is mostly theoretical. I think all this whining about inequality is misplaced, and reading any Mark Steyn essay provides a quick corrective. We're losing our liberty. Most of those complaining about "rising inequality" end up proposing policies that expand the state, and hence reduce freedom. This is our problem.

Continue reading the Winters piece here.

Newsweek Circling the Drain

I tried reading it after Daily Beast took it over, but for the life of me, that magazine is the worst.

At New York Times, "Publisher and Two Top Editors Are Out at Newsweek/Daily Beast."

They need to put Jonathan Alter out on his ass.

How Mitt Romney Could Win

Well, since I've been blogging Mitt Romney, it turns out NYT's Bill Keller's got a hankering:

Election Day is nearly a year off and the first primaries aren’t until January, but I’m ready to skip ahead to the main event. The last serious hope of the Tea Partiers, Rick Perry, and their last not-so-serious hope, Herman Cain, are in campaign death spirals. Unless God has a cruel sense of humor, Newt Gingrich will pass like a tantrum. That leaves us with a general election between two serious and certifiably sane candidates. Phew!!

If you want to go into hibernation now and re-emerge in August for the campaign home stretch, I understand. But just to put the season of vaudeville firmly behind us, let’s contemplate the choice that awaits: two confident, intelligible, no-drama, rather distant men, each of whom seems to have overcompensated for bigot-arousing origins (Obama’s race, Romney’s religion) by being rational to a fault.

Despite efforts to polarize our politics into ideological base camps, in presidential elections the deciding vote still belongs to the middle. These voters have been drowned out lately by the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, but they are the main prize in 2012. Bruce Gyory, who is a consultant and teaches voting trends at the State University of New York at Albany, calls them the “40 within 40” — 40 percent of the electorate self-identify as independent, and 40 percent of those independents describe themselves as moderate. That means about one in six voters are up for grabs. Obama won them in 2008. The Democrats lost them badly in 2010.

We cannot know whose advertising arsenal will be most effective, which candidate will excel in the debates, or what blunders might tilt the outcome. We don’t know whether the MoveOn left or the evangelical right will simply stay home. We don’t know if Ron Paul will siphon off some of his libertarian devout into a third-party run. But we can, even at this distance, imagine the arguments that will be made to win over those decisive swing voters for Romney. Here are four.

Read it all.

Note how it's also a manifesto for defeating Romney, and Keller confesses he misses Bill Clinton.

PREVIOUSLY:

* "Obama Plan: Destroy Romney."

* "Presidential Debates Take Toll on GOP."

Israeli Sovereignty Over Judea and Samaria

At talk with Caroline Glick, from earlier this year:

Every Generation Has Its Heroes...

Via Kristina Ribali:

Obama Plan: Destroy Romney

I'm borrowing the headline from Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin at Politico.

The Mitt Romney campaign is convinced that the Obama White House has Romney in the crosshairs, and they're out with a new press release, "You're My Obssession":

“With each passing day, it is becoming increasingly clear that President Obama and his Democrat allies are fixated more on Mitt Romney than on turning around our struggling economy. If the past is any guide, we expect this obsession will grow. A Romney Administration will be focused on reviving the economy and adding jobs, not consumed by campaign politics.” – Andrea Saul, Romney spokeswoman.

Well, there's more for the White House to consider. Although Newt Gingrich has now emerged as Romney's key challenger for nomination (given the developing collapse of Herman Cain), Romney leads in the Wall Street Journal's poll out last night, "WSJ/NBC Poll: Cain, Perry Woes Bolster Romney and Gingrich":

A week of turmoil in the race for the Republican presidential nomination has damaged Herman Cain and devastated Texas Gov. Rick Perry, all apparently to the benefit of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, according to new polling numbers from the Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey. (The full results are here.)

The Journal/NBC News polling team late last week went back to re-interview Republican primary voters who had taken the Journal/NBC poll earlier this month. The results of 102 interviews, while not scientifically conclusive, are instructive.

Among those recontacted, 32% now say they favor Mr. Romney for president, up from 27% when they were surveyed between Nov. 2 and Nov. 5. During that earlier canvas, those 102 Republican voters favored former pizza executive Mr. Cain over Mr. Romney in a head-to-head race 51% to 47%. That same group now favors Mr. Romney 56%-43%.

I know a lot of conservatives aren't pleased with Mitt Romney. He's not my first pick, by any means. But as I noted previously, the left's institutional character assassination machine will attempt to rip the GOP nominee to shreds, and that may well be Romney, so the Obama/Occupy/Organizing or America thugs aren't wasting any time.

Health Law Puts Focus on Limits of Federal Power

At New York Times:

WASHINGTON — If the federal government can require people to purchase health insurance, what else can it force them to do? More to the point, what can’t the government compel citizens to do?

Those questions have been the toughest ones for the Obama administration’s lawyers to answer in court appearances around the country over the past six months. And they are likely to emerge again if, as expected, the Supreme Court, as early as Monday, agrees to be the final arbiter of the challenge to President Obama’s signature health care initiative.

The case focuses on whether Congress overstepped its constitutional authority in enacting parts of the law. Lower courts have reached divergent conclusions.

Even judges in lower courts who ultimately voted to uphold the law have homed in on the question of the limits of government power, at times flummoxing Justice Department lawyers.

“Let’s go right to what is your most difficult problem,” Judge Laurence H. Silberman, who later voted to uphold the law, told a lawyer at an argument in September before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “What limiting principle do you articulate?” If Congress may require people to purchase health insurance, he asked, what else can it force them to buy? Where do you draw the line?

Would it be unconstitutional, he asked, to require people to buy broccoli?

“No,” said the lawyer, Beth S. Brinkmann. “It depends.”

Could people making more than $500,000 be required to buy cars from General Motors to keep it in business?

“I would have to know much more about the empirical findings,” she replied.

Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, who ended up in dissent, then jumped in. “How about mandatory retirement accounts replacing Social Security?” he asked.

“It would depend,” Ms. Brinkmann replied.

Ms. Brinkmann was cut off before she could elaborate on her answers. In other settings, she and other administration lawyers have described what they see as the constitutional limits to government power, though not typically using concrete examples.

Keep reading.

It's a great piece.

Are there limits to federal power? The question is now before the Court.

See, "Supreme Court to Hear Case Challenging Health Law" (via Memeorandum).

Also at Althouse, "Supreme Court takes the Obamacare case":

If the Court takes down the entire Act, it would do Obama a great favor, which is why I'm predicting the Court will do just that. That was my prediction a few weeks ago, reading, not the the existing doctrine, but "the political forces at play and assessing the Court's vulnerability to those forces."

But would John Roberts really want to do Obama a favor? Interesting...

Bachmann Says CBS News E-Mail Shows Bias

Well, perhaps the MFM isn't blowing off Bachmann after all.

At New York Times, "A Finger Slips, and the Bachmann Camp Pounces":

It is not exactly a state secret that the news media tend to lavish more coverage on perceived front-runners in presidential campaigns.

But CBS News’s political director, John Dickerson, made the mistake of saying basically that in an e-mail and accidentally sending it to the campaign of Representative Michele Bachmann.

In a slip of the finger that quickly ignited a furor among Mrs. Bachmann’s supporters, Mr. Dickerson e-mailed his colleagues that he would prefer to “get someone else” other than the Minnesota congresswoman for an online show after the CBS News/National Journal debate on Saturday night. The e-mail said that Mrs. Bachmann was “not going to get many questions” in the debate and that “she’s nearly off the charts” — an apparent reference to her low standing in many polls.

The problem was that Mrs. Bachmann’s communications director was copied in on the e-mail, and Mr. Dickerson hit “reply to all.” Oops.

The incident highlighted the tricky calculus media organizations must engage in when deciding which candidates to pay attention to, and which not, as they factor in criteria like standing in the polls, fund-raising and more nebulous things like momentum.

Aides to Mrs. Bachmann, who is polling in the single digits, seized on the e-mail as evidence of liberal bias by CBS News and used the episode to rally its supporters against a favorite Republican foe: the mainstream media.

Is Bachmann whining? Althouse claimed she was acting like a progressive. Actually, it see it more like a gimme. She got an opening from the blasted e-mail and she took it. And it's buying her some consideration at the New York Times, of all places, not to mention the Los Angeles Times, "Michele Bachmann sees bias in stray email."

Michigan's Macomb County May Not Break for Obama in 2012

Following up on some of my general election analysis from last night, the Los Angeles Times reports on Macomb County, Michigan, and President Obama's reelection chances, "Swing county in Michigan isn't sold on batting for Obama."

Reporting from Sterling Heights, Mich.

Macomb County's mercurial "Reagan Democrats" have long served as a barometer of the national mood. Their abandonment of their own party to support Ronald Reagan helped usher in GOP rule nationally. Three decades later, Barack Obama pulled them back into the fold, sweeping the county by more than 8 points and winning Michigan by the largest margin for a Democrat since 1964.

The size of that win — particularly in a white, blue-collar swing county like Macomb — might have been enough to convince Republicans that Michigan wasn't worth the effort in 2012. But as Obama seeks a second term, the Democratic loyalty demonstrated three years ago appears tenuous.

Unemployment, which peaked at 14.1% in summer 2009, is still the third-highest in the nation at 11.1%. After declining for 19 months straight, it climbed a full point between April and August.

Though Obama helped rescue two Michigan-based auto companies — a move his advisors credited with saving 1 million jobs — his economic policies draw little praise from independent and Democratic-leaning voters in Macomb County.

Among two dozen interviewed recently, some said they felt sorry for the president because congressional Republicans have thwarted him at every turn. Some were disappointed that he had not been able to accomplish more in the area of job creation when he had a Democratic majority in Congress. And some, like Donald and Arlene Wittmer of Sterling Heights, have simply concluded that he is out of his depth.

"His first stimulus was ridiculous; he spent [$787 billion] and got nothing out of it," Donald Wittmer said. "Now he wants to do it again and still doesn't really have a plan."

"We're just sinking," he said. "We're losing ground."

Michigan is Romney territory, and the state's 16 electors will go a long way toward a GOP victory in the Electoral College.

But continue reading the Times' report here.

Israel Women Fear Setback

This is interesting.

At Los Angeles Times, "As ultra-Orthodox flex muscle, Israel feminists see a backsliding":

Women who thought Israel's battle for gender equality was mostly won warn of a new assault from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox, seeking to expand religious-based segregation into the public realm.

When public buses rumble to a stop in some of Jerusalem's religious neighborhoods, women often dutifully enter by the rear door and sit in the back, leaving the front for men.

There's no law requiring the women to do so, but those who don't risk verbal taunts and intimidation.

It's a curious sight given Israel's history as an international trailblazer for women's rights.

The country produced one of the democratic world's first female heads of government with Golda Meir's election in 1969. Women lead Israel's Supreme Court and two of the nation's main political parties. Israel drafts women into military service and has some of the world's toughest laws against sexual harassment and rape.

Yet Israeli women say that recently some of their most basic rights have come under attack, including singing and dancing in public, vying for student government positions at a religious college, appearing on billboards in Jerusalem, speaking on a religious radio station and even using the sidewalk during religious celebrations.

Feminists who once thought Israel's battle for gender equality had been mostly won are warning of a new assault from Israel's fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community, which is seeking to expand religious-based segregation into the public realm.

"We are going backward and losing all our achievements," said Rachel Liel, executive director of the New Israel Fund, which advocates for civil rights and equality. "A 21st century democracy is not a place where women sit in the back of the bus."

And further down at the piece:

Ultra-Orthodox leaders agree that the problem is one of encroachment, but they insist that it is the secular and the liberal religious communities that are seeking to impose modern values and prevent the ultra-Orthodox, also known as haredim, from practicing a stricter form of Judaism. Those traditional values typically include restrictions on television and the Internet, modest dress codes and segregation of the sexes, which haredi leaders say is needed to protect women from sexual exploitation and men from temptation.

"Women walk down the street as though they are at the beach," said Rabbi Shmuel Pappenheim, a spokesman and leader for an umbrella group of ultra-Orthodox factions. "If in the past this was typical only of Tel Aviv, today it has reached Jerusalem as well. They encroach on our way of life, prompting our people to impose new restrictions, deepen separation and erect higher barriers to keep it away"...

Many activists criticize mainstream politicians for failing to speak out more aggressively against the segregation, particularly female leaders such as Kadima party Chairwoman Tzipi Livni, Labor Party head Shelly Yachimovich and Supreme Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch. All three declined to comment for this article.

That last section, in bold, is telling.

Anyway, the piece mentions Hila Benyovits-Hoffman, an Israeli progressive who writes at the hard-left website +972: "No, a woman’s voice is not “pubic” – the song must go on."

To Catch a Journalist: Project Veritas and Amy Ellis Nutt of New Jersey's Star-Ledger

This is really outstanding.

James O'Keefe's a national treasure: "To Catch a Journalist - Part IV - 'Hiding in Plain Sight'."

Via Small Dead Animals.

Gilad Shalit and the Rising Price of an Israeli Life

This was the cover story at yesterday's New York Times Magazine:

On the afternoon of June 27, 1976, Palestinian and German terrorists hijacked an Air France flight originating from Israel and directed it eventually to Entebbe Airport in Uganda, where most of the non-Israelis on board were immediately released. More than 100 hostages remained, 83 of whom were Israeli. They were held for the next six days, until an elite team of Israel Defense Force commandos freed them in the famous raid known as Operation Entebbe. The name of the mission became synonymous with Israel’s refusal to give in to the demands of terrorists and its willingness to go to extraordinary lengths, and risk many lives, to free Israeli hostages.

Despite Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s final decision to use a military operation to rescue the Entebbe hostages, recently declassified documents tell a more complex story, one that reveals Rabin’s doubts about the mission and exposes the inescapable dilemma, which has only intensified over the years, at the heart of Israel’s policy toward its own captured citizens. We now know that even as the raid was being planned, the Rabin government was making contact with various international middlemen to obtain a list of the hijackers’ demands, and Rabin himself privately said he was willing to release the 53 prisoners the terrorists had named. During the secret discussions prior to the Entebbe operation, Rabin, who agreed to the mission after much persuasion by intelligence and ministry planners, effectively established the principle that is still followed by all Israeli leaders facing hostage situations: if the necessary intelligence is available and the operational circumstances allow, force — even a great deal of it — will be used to free hostages; if not, Israel will negotiate a prisoner exchange.

Rabin signed off on the Entebbe plan only after intelligence agents assured him that aerial surveillance showed Ugandan soldiers guarding the terminal where the hostages were being held, indicating that the building was not booby-trapped. (These same documents also reveal the orders to follow if the commandos ran into Idi Amin himself. “He isn’t a factor,” Rabin said. “If he interferes, the orders are to kill him.” To which the foreign minister, Yigal Allon, added, “Also if he doesn’t interfere.”)

Amos Eiran, who was then director general of Rabin’s office, told me recently: “On the morning of the operation, Rabin summoned me and went over the wording of the resolution he was going to propose to the cabinet on the subject of the operation. He was wearing a dressing gown and was very tense. He accompanied me to the elevator and said: ‘Prepare for me a draft letter of resignation. I give the operation a 50-50 chance. If it fails, I’ll accept all the responsibility and resign.’ I asked, ‘What will you see as a failure?’ and he replied, ‘Twenty-five or more dead.’ ” When the mission was completed, three passengers and one Israeli soldier were killed.

Thirty-five years later, many who took part in Operation Entebbe at the highest levels were also involved in the negotiations to bring home Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was abducted by Palestinian commandos on June 25, 2006, and whose capture has consumed Israeli society for the last five years...

I love that bit about Edi Amin!

But continue reading:

On the day Shalit was released, the country held its breath. Service in banks came to a halt because clerks could not stop watching the live video of Shalit’s movements, from Gaza to Egypt and then from Egypt to Israel. All over the country, banners and signs were hung, welcoming him home. Gilad was everyone’s son, everyone’s brother. To Israelis, his release was arguably the most significant event of the last 10 years. The exuberance at his return drowned out whatever protests existed of the deal that was made to bring him home.

It is hard to fathom the price Israel paid for Shalit without placing it in the context of previous prisoner swaps, originally with Palestinian organizations and later with Hezbollah. The first to grasp how sensitive Israeli public opinion was on the issue of hostages and M.I.A.’s — and therefore what a powerful weapon abduction could be — was Ahmed Jibril, the leader of a faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In 1979, Israel reluctantly agreed to its first disproportionate exchange with a guerrilla organization when Jibril insisted on getting 76 P.L.O. members in exchange for one hostage...

It's a long essay. But worth reading in full.

Communists at Occupy Portland? Who Knew?

Well, police dismantled the encampment, so this dirtbag will have to troll some other city for the anti-capitalist revolution:

Why Obama Should Take Out Iran's Nuclear Program

From Eric Edelman, Andrew Krepinevich Jr., and Evan Braden Montgomery, at Foreign Affairs, "The Case for Striking Before It's Too Late":

The November 8 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report casts further doubt on Iran's continual claims that its nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful use. Rather than halting its weapons program in 2003, as was reported in a controversial 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, Iran has apparently continued to develop the various components necessary to produce a nuclear weapon, including neutron initiators, which trigger nuclear chain reactions, and complex explosives needed to build a warhead small enough to place atop a ballistic missile. Meanwhile, Tehran has openly worked to increase its stockpile of low-enriched uranium -- especially uranium enriched to 20 percent -- which could be further refined to weapons grade. If the IAEA's suspicions are correct, Iran might have both the technology and material to build a nuclear bomb in a matter of months.

To date, the United States has relied on a combination of sticks and carrots to prevent Iran from going nuclear. It has tightened economic sanctions against the regime, isolated it diplomatically, and offered improved relations in return for Tehran abandoning its nuclear ambitions. The attractions of this approach are readily apparent. The main alternative, a military operation against Iran's nuclear infrastructure, would likely be extremely costly and might not even succeed. Moreover, by slowing Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon, sanctions and isolation buy time for a "silver bullet," such as an internal political change that brings a more moderate Iranian leadership to power or a sabotage effort that derails the program for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, no such solution has presented itself: The current Iranian regime has remained in control despite popular unrest and an ongoing dispute between the president and the supreme leader, and the new IAEA report suggests that efforts to disrupt Iran's nuclear program have so far yielded naught. All the while, Iran is getting closer to crossing the nuclear threshold.

Even so, the U.S. government might persist with its existing approach if it believes that the consequences of a nuclear-armed Iran are manageable through a combination of containment and deterrence. In fact, the Obama administration has downplayed the findings of the new IAEA report, suggesting that a change in U.S. policy is unlikely. Yet this view underestimates the challenges that the United States would confront once Iran acquired nuclear weapons....

RTWT.

Measuring Success in Afghanistan

A pessimistic report, at Los Angeles Times, "Afghanistan success is in eye of beholder":

With an American troop drawdown underway and expected to accelerate in the coming year, the NATO force insists that violence is declining, that the insurgency's strength is flagging and that Afghan forces are demonstrating a growing ability to take the lead in safeguarding the country.

Many Afghans, however, subscribe to a darker view: that daily life has grown more perilous, that national and local governance has become even shakier, that the country's police and army are chronically unable protect its citizens, and that the Taliban movement is hunkering down to wait out the Western presence.

Recent months have seen escalating tension over so-called metrics that can be used to chart either progress or deterioration.

RTWT.

And at Michael Yon, "Fool’s Gold & Troops’ Blood," "Report to Congress," and "Question for Congressman Pompeo: What is your Position?"

A Year in the Life of Adriana Lima — Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Countdown

The countdown continues:

PREVIOUSLY: "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Taping." And scroll for more videos at the link.

RELATED: At Eye of Polyphemus, "Blogroll Spotlight #119," and Pirate's Cove, "If All You See…is a Gaia acceptable way to dry your hands without getting your own clothes wet, you might just be a Warmist."

BONUS: At Proof Positive, "San Francisco 49ers Cheerleaders." And Bob Belvedere's, "Rule 5 Saturday: Nancie Li Brandi."

Presidential Debates Take Toll on GOP

Michele Bachmann gave a commanding performance at the Spartanburg debate, although she was off a bit in her comparison between China and the Great Society:

If that's a gaffe, it didn't get much coverage, perhaps because insiders have written off Bachmann's campaign. She's not pleased with the situation, of course, and she sounded off about the biased moderating by the debate panel. That said, I've already discounted the debates as largely overload and spectacle, similar to the thesis at this report from The Hill, "Debates take toll on Republican field." The most important debates are those for the general election. The primary debates are useful, but they seem like an inconvenience almost, with so many of them taking place. Of course, candidates like debates because they provide "earned media coverage," especially after a strong performance. Newt Gingrich is already something of the last man standing --- next to Mitt Romney at least --- and his masterly performance in South Carolina will be touted as confirming his new-found top-tier credentials.

But who wins? Do primary voters really benefit from all of this? Ideologues aren't pleased when their preferred candidates flub or when they're slighted by the MFM. (I wish Bachmann was still in the top tier, for instance, so there's my two cents.) And 0f course, it's not GOP activists who'll be deciding the election next year, and so that helps explain this sense that Mitt Romney will be the one. But the Romney juggernaut is dispiriting for hardcore conservatives. See Nice Deb, for example, "Is Conservatism Doomed In 2012?" I like Mitt Romney personally, but the campaign has shown again that he's simply putty when put up against hard choices. His finger is always to the wind, and despite the tough talk on Iran at the debate, would a President Romney waffle on international challenges because public opinion polls showed muted support for American action overseas? You betcha! Still, Romney appears seasoned on the trail, and he's honed a message of business competence domestically and support for American exceptionalism abroad. I like that. But his waffling is the Achilles Heel, and he's extremely vulnerable to the left's institutional character assassination machine. Nothing will be out of bounds. Romney's Mormonism? Campaign 2012 will make the left's attack on religion and Proposition 8 look like a picnic. RomneyCare? Well, it's going to be a factor, which neutralizes the potency of healthcare as a general election issue. I don't even know what other things he'll be hit with, but hit he'll be. I guess the consolation is that Romney's a fighter. He's tough and he'll stand up for his values. And of course, Obama's poll numbers are still down in the sewer, and we're still not expecting any robust GDP growth for some time. All of that makes it a tightly contested race, should it be Obama vs. Romney. And considering how reviled are the Democrats among conservatives, I imagine the right will close ranks around a Romney candidacy soon enough. It's going to be huge.

Investors Watch France Amid Europe's Worsening Debt Crisis

It's astounding, when you think about what's happening.

At New York Times, "France Keeps a Watchful Eye on Financial Turmoil in Italy."

After you finish that, check New York Post, "America’s Future: Italy."

Now take a big gulp!

Maxim's 2011 Hometown Hotties: Windy City's Jelena

Dude, I'm slackin'!

More babe blogging at the link.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces.

And more at Reaganite Republican and Theo Spark.

RELATED: At Michelle's, "White House Calls Solyndra Subpoena ‘Unreasonable Burden on the President’s Ability to Meet His Constitutional Duties’," and "Obama Supporter’s Company Wins $433 Million No-Bid Contract for Experimental Smallpox Drug."

Police Shut Down Occupy Portland

A live blog at The Oregonian, "Police end Occupy Portland; camps at Lownsdale and Chapman squares dismantled (live updates)."

Also write ups at Los Angeles Times, "Occupy Portland in standoff with police as other cities make arrests," and Time Magazine, "Occupy Portland Protesters Defy Eviction Order."

Mitt Romney: Iran Will Get Nuclear Weapons If Obama Wins

Dana Pico has a huge post on Mitt Romney's foreign policy, "Mitt Romney: Si vis pacem, para bellum."

Personally, that's the kind of unequivocal statement that could come back and bite you in the ass. Since sanctions and multilateral diplomacy haven't worked, you're basically edging toward not just military strikes, but regime change. That's big.

I'll come back to that.

There's more on Romney at the New York Times, "After a Romney Deal, Profits and Then Layoffs." It's a devious hit piece that might as well have originated in the White House press office, for example:

Mr. Romney’s career at Bain Capital, which he owned and ran as chief executive, is a cornerstone of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination — a credential, he argues, that showcases the management skills and business acumen that America needs to revive a stalled economy. Creating jobs, Mr. Romney says, is exactly what he knows how to do.

The White House, though, is already preparing a less flattering portrayal, trying to frame Mr. Romney’s record at Bain as evidence that he would pursue slash and burn economics and that his business career thrived by enriching the elite at the expense of the working class.

From 1984 to 1999, Mr. Romney and his deputies made fortunes by investing in, acquiring and then selling about 150 companies. It was high-stakes work that shaped Mr. Romney’s values and views, taught him the art of salesmanship and negotiation and took him deep inside the boardrooms and factories of American business.

Because financial data for many of the acquisitions are not publicly available, it is difficult to fully tally the wins and losses, the jobs created and the jobs eliminated on Mr. Romney’s watch. But the experience with Dade, Bain’s biggest transaction at the time, shows how Bain managed its investments, structuring deals so it would be hard for Mr. Romney and his partners not to come out ahead.

In other words, we don't have extensive evidence for our attack on Romney. Just a few anecdotes from a single case. But that ought to be enough to exploit the rage against Wall Street and the corporate rich.

Get ready for the NYT/OFA campaign steamroller.

Republican Candidates Hammer Obama on Iran Policy During Spartanburg Debate

At WaPo, "GOP candidates hammer Obama on his Iran policy during South Carolina debate."

And at London's Daily Mail, "Google releases satellite images of Iranian facilities which UN says may be used to develop nuclear weapons."

100,000 Fans Cheer at Penn State, but the Mood Is Numb

At New York Times:

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The tone for a Saturday football game under a bright sun was born in the darkness of a Friday night vigil at the epicenter of the Penn State campus. Spread across a grassy plain yards from the streets where demonstrators clashed with the police days earlier, several thousand students gathered holding lighted candles, a quickly organized rally in support of sexual abuse victims that concluded when a university bell tower chimed 10 times to mark the hour.

About 12 hours later, more than 100,000 fans descended on Beaver Stadium for Penn State’s game with Nebraska, arriving in a mood that was less than celebratory and noticeably subdued. For decades, fall Saturdays at Penn State have provided a chance to see Joe Paterno lead one of the nation’s most successful football programs. On this day, however, it was an opportunity to witness the extended university community wrestling with its conscience. The ritualistic tailgating went on as usual — adults drank beer and children threw footballs back and forth — but the numbing effects of a wrenching week of shock, scandal, resignations and recrimination were evident at every turn.

More at that top link.

And at Los Angeles Times, "Penn State loses to Nebraska, but at least focus is on field," and Miami Herald, "‘We are Penn State’ evokes a range of emotions."

VIDEO CREDIT: Althouse, "'He gets drilled at the 22-yard line! What a stick!'"

Michael Coren Interviews Niall Ferguson

Via Blazing Cat Fur:

Arab League to Suspend Syria From Meetings

At Fox News:

CAIRO - The Arab League voted Saturday to suspend Syria in four days and warned it could face sanctions if it does not end its bloody crackdown against anti-government protesters.

The decision was a symbolic blow to a nation that prides itself on being a powerhouse of Arab nationalism.

Qatar Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim said 18 countries agreed to the suspension, which will take effect on Wednesday. Syria, Lebanon and Yemen voted against it, and Iraq abstained. The Arab League also will introduce political and economic sanctions against Syria, he said.

Wow! That'll really teach Damascus!

Also at Los Angeles Times, "Arab League votes to suspend Syria."

Invoking 'Academic Freedom' to Silence Debate

Kenneth Marcus, at FrontPage Magazine, writes about former Israeli consul official Ishmael Khaldi, who gave a lecture at Kent State University, and who had Islamist Professor Julio Pino protest during the question time. Pino stormed out of the hall yelling, "Death to Israel!"

The goal of such protests is not merely to disrupt, embarrass, or discomfort Israeli speakers but to silence them. “But ultimately,” as the Arab American News quotes [Bilal] Baydoun, “our goal is to prevent someone like this from even arriving on campus in the first place and we feel confident that we will be able to accomplish this as we continue to spread awareness.”

In this respect, Khaldi’s treatment resembles the so-called Irvine 11’s orchestrated disruption of Ambassador Michael Oren’s speech at UC Irvine last year. In that case too, the protesters admitted that their intent was to shut down the pro-Israel side of the debate. Indeed, it is now fair to say that there have been efforts nationwide to prevent university speakers from delivering presentations that deviate from the anti-Israel orthodoxy that reigns on too many campuses.

It is ironic that academia’s self-appointed guardians of academic freedom and freedom of speech do not recognize this concerted effort to squelch one side of the debate. On the contrary, some are all too eager to recognize academic freedom only when it does not apply and to ignore anti-Semitism where it does. Those who support academic freedom should insist that it not be used as a weapon in support of the silencers and against their victims. If they cannot speak out on the right side of this debate, they should at least not join the wrong side.

The 2012 Election Field Is an Embarrassment to Democracy

From Charles Pierce, at Esquire. It's basically snark, but Pierce skewers folks pretty hard, so it's worth it for the comical insight to smug left-wing intellectualism:

By any conventional measure, and not entirely through no fault of his own, Barack Obama is a staggeringly vulnerable incumbent. The economy is slowly sinking up to its wheelwells. Unemployment is said to be at a now-all-but-permanent nine percent. His own base is dubious. The independents are as unreliable and dumbassed as ever. There is an energy in the streets that any Democratic president who hadn't listened to Bob Rubin or hired Tim Geithner would have been able to tap with ease. Instead, the incumbent offers platitudes about "understanding their frustration" and moves along. He has only one thing going for him.

By any conventional measure, and entirely through their own fault, the Republicans have produced a field of candidates so utterly comical, so completely devoid of conventional political merit, that the field itself is strong evidence for the elimination of the Republican party. The frontrunner is a simuloid fake. The leading contender is a horndog as surprised to discover that women did not want him as he was to discover that China had The Bomb. The leading "intellectual" thinks Barack Obama "...is about as candid and accurate as Bernie Madoff in what he tells the American people" and then, of course, decries the incivility that is drowning out the important discussion we need to have about the issues facing This Great Nation. The rest of them are concerned about zygotes, black helicopters, and whatever else is simmering in the Bachmann-Paul-Santorum stewpot. And there is Jon Huntsman, the invisible former governor of Utah, reasonably sentient human, and proven non-horndog. This isn't a primary campaign field. It's a condo-board election at the Hell Country Estates.

And that's how progressives see the GOP. We'll see who has the last laugh, however.

Robert Scalapino, 1919-2011

Berkeley Political Scientist Robert Scalapino has died.

An obituary is at New York Times, "Robert A. Scalapino, a Scholar of Asian Politics, Dies at 92":

Robert A. Scalapino, an eminent scholar of Asian politics who achieved prominence during the Vietnam War for his strong defense of American policy as opposition to it was growing, died Nov. 1 in Oakland, Calif. He was 92.

The cause was complications of a respiratory infection, the University of California, Berkeley, said. Professor Scalapino taught there from 1949 to 1990 and founded its Institute of East Asian Studies in 1978.

The author of 39 books on Vietnam, China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan, Professor Scalapino was also editor of Asian Survey, a scholarly publication, from 1962 to 1996 and advised the State Department and other government agencies.

In 1965, he wound up arguing the Johnson administration’s case for escalating the war at what was billed as a national teach-in on Vietnam policy. The event was a debate by a panel before an audience of 5,000 in Washington and more than 100,000 people at more than 100 campuses who had gathered to hear the debate by radio hookups.

McGeorge Bundy, the national security adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson, had been scheduled to attend, and many participants had hoped to hear his pro-war views and confront him. When he canceled at the last minute, it fell to Professor Scalapino, who had also been invited to join the panel, to take the lead in defending the White House’s policy. He argued that the United States was fighting communism, not Asian nationalism, and that China would regard the United States as a “paper tiger” if it abandoned the war.

He continued to make that argument the following year in a long article in The New York Times Magazine. He wrote that the war tested “the American capacity to respond to a threat that is important but not terminal.

RTWT.

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Taping

At WSJ, "Show Time on Victoria's Runway"

It was hard to know where to look at the taping of Wednesday night's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. The beautiful models scantily clad in lingerie are the obvious draw, but when they share the catwalk with Kanye West, it gets more complicated. Add a surprise appearance by Jay-Z, with his wife, Beyoncé, slipping into the crowd to sing along, and it gets tougher still.

The annual spectacle, set to air Nov. 29 on CBS, is an elaborate marketing tool for Limited Brands, the parent company of mall-based lingerie chain Victoria's Secret. The TV special airing during the crucial holiday selling period mixes beautiful women and A-list entertainers. And every year, it becomes less about fashion and more about show—not that there's anything wrong with that.

I just like the beauties!

BONUS: A slideshow at NYT, "With Wings and Little Else: Behind Victoria's Secret Fashion Show."

The Republican Unreality Show

Peggy Noonan on the debate earlier this week, and the GOP campaign, at Wall Street Journal (via Google):

One of the people in the debate was bombastic to the point of manic, and another was more pointedly aggressive than her usual poised and beautiful self. But enough about Jim Cramer and Maria Bartiromo. It was a revealing debate. It would be wonderful to see President Obama grilled as the Republicans were Wednesday night in Michigan. What exactly will you cut in the entitlement programs? How will you solve the foreclosure crisis? And we'd like you to answer in 30 seconds while we look at you with the sweet-natured gaze of a cop at a crime scene.

Those who say the debates are hurting the Republicans may be right. There is a freak-show element. But seeing Republicans repeatedly walk through fire may in the end make them seem far more impressive than the Democrat who doesn't have to. People notice the disparity. And this isn't a bad time in history to see would-be leaders get nailed, and fight back up.

But there was a moment in the debate that suggests something bad. Too many people in that audience were fully locked into Republo-world, a nice place but one that exists apart from the reality-based community. More on that in a moment. First a quick overview...

Read it all.

For European Union and the Euro, a Moment of Truth

At New York Times, "Even as Governments Act, Time Runs Short for Euro."

BERLIN — The window of opportunity to save the euro is rapidly closing, as the sovereign debt crisis erodes the solvency of Europe’s banks and drives up borrowing rates for even once rock-solid countries like France.

A growing consensus about the urgency of Europe’s situation has brought some drastic and tangible steps toward dealing with it: first by Greece, then by Italy, where lawmakers on Saturday signed off on austerity measures and cleared the way for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to step down.

Both countries are moving toward more technocratic governments that are committed to delivering the difficult reforms demanded by the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. But there are a host of problems that could quickly overwhelm that progress.

Looming over all the discussions of reform and financing mechanisms is the slowdown in the Continent’s already anemic growth rate, to 0.5 percent in 2012, and even the threat of a double-dip recession, the European Commission said in a forecast for the euro zone last week.

That calls into doubt the adequacy of the euro zone’s latest attempt to placate the markets, the lagging effort to bolster the $605 billion European Financial Stability Facility to $1.4 trillion or to find other funding. The task will become that much harder in a recessionary environment, especially as France’s credibility with investors begins to decline.

More at that top link. Plus, at Telegraph UK, "Germany must decide if it wants the eurozone to survive or perish":

European debt and equity markets ended a tumultuous week with a rally on Friday. So shares in the US and across the rest of the world rose too. But the threat of a "euroquake" – a systemic collapse which would make Lehman Brothers look tame – is by no means over. Far from it.

Europe's leaders don't know how to solve this crisis because they don't know what they want.

Should attempts be made to hold the eurozone together, with Greece staying in? Or should the threat to expel Athens be followed through, at the risk of causing further defections, with monetary union being reduced to a Franco-German rump?

This is an enormous question, which only Germany can answer. Until an answer is forthcoming, chaos will continue to ensue.

Michelle Malkin at BlogCon 2011

Phil Klein speaks briefly, then it's all Michelle.

Via Nice Deb:

And at Michelle's blog, "K Street’s Super Committee Splurge: Party time for Pork Chop Patty Murray."

Record-High Levels of Inequality?

From Robert Frank, at Wall Street Journal, "The Myth of ‘Record-High’ Inequality":

We hear more and more about our country experiencing “record levels of inequality.”

The gap between the rich and poor, we hear, is higher than ever. A new poll from the Washington Post and ABC News shows that 61% of Americans believe that the gap between “how much money wealthy people have” compared with the rest of the population is larger than it’s been historically. Only 31% believe it’s the same. Fully 61% also believe the gap between the wealthy is “much larger” than it’s been historically.

Unfortunately, the survey respondents and much of the media is wrong.

Inequality is clearly at high and (to many) disturbing levels. Over a 30-year period it’s undoubtedly gone up.

But by the latest measures, inequality is actually lower than it was four years ago, and well below its recent highs. While many people cite inequality as a cause for the recession and joblessness, inequality was actually higher during the boom times of 2007 and 2008, when unemployment was under 5%.

Continue reading.

Poor Babies! Righthaven Whines About 'Scorched-Earth, Anti-Righthaven Litigation Tactics'

Oh, this is rich.

At Las Vegas Inc., "Attorney complains about anti-Righthaven campaign":

A Las Vegas lawyer for copyright company Righthaven LLC complained Friday that opposing attorneys are engaged in “scorched-earth, anti-Righthaven litigation tactics.”

Righthaven as a company is regularly criticized for its 275 no-warning lawsuits charging that websites, bloggers and message board posters used content from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post without authorization.

The criticism is that the suits are unnecessary as the defendants would have complied with takedown requests and that rather than protecting copyrights, Righthaven is running a money-making scheme involving dubious legal claims and shake-down legal tactics.

Righthaven and its partners at the Review-Journal regularly respond that the lawsuits were needed to crack down on rampant online theft of newspaper industry content.

Lately, the Righthaven criticism has been targeted at its main outside attorney, Shawn Mangano.

Attorneys at Randazza Legal Group in Las Vegas, which represents several Righthaven lawsuit defendants in Nevada and Colorado, stepped up the pressure on Mangano on Oct. 25, when they asked a Nevada federal judge to sanction him.

The sanctions motion charged that Mangano regularly uses stall tactics so Righthaven can avoid paying judgments to defendants who defeat the company in court.

Continue reading.

Also, "Judge scolds Righthaven lawyer, adds another $32,000 judgment," and "Marshals execute against Righthaven bank account."

PREVIOUSLY: "Beating Righthaven."

Michele Bachmann Dominates CBS News/National Journal Debate

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann gave a dominating performance in tonight's GOP debate in South Carolina. She displayed a mastery of details and a willingness to go after both President Obama and her GOP opponents, especially Congressman Ron Paul. Particularly impressive was Bachmann's forthright defense of the use of force in American foreign policy. She articulated a strong defense of America's conduct of the war on terror, even defending targeted killings under this administration. And she did not waver in stating her readiness to authorize enhanced interrogations for captured enemy combatants in the field.

Bachmann's performance was on par with Speaker Newt Gingrich's, the latter evincing his usual mastery of policy details. And Bachmann's grasp of policy nuances, for example in discussion of Pakistan, far surpassed that of Governor Rick Perry, who struggled to recover from his brain freeze from earlier this week. And Bachmann performed much better on Pakistan and the war in Afghanistan than did putative frontrunner Mitt Romney.

I'll update with video as it becomes available. Herman Cain appeared to struggle and Rick Santorum appeared competent but on the periphery of the debate. Jon Huntsman sounded like the diplomat he is, and is even further to the sidelines than Santorum.

Overall, Michele Bachmann's performance stood out as the breakout display that she needed to regain some traction in the race. A positive spin among media pundits could help Bachmann's campaign, which has appeared on the ropes since her intemperate Gardasil comments back in September.

Expect updates.

7:00pm PST: Live blogging at Maggie's Notebook and The Other McCain, "Greetings From Spartanburg! REPUBLICAN DEBATE ON CBS --- UPDATE: 'No Runs, No Hits, No Errors'."

7:40pm PST: At National Journal, "Perry's Rambling Remarks on China: China Should Change Its 'Virtues' -- VIDEO."

7:50pm PST: At HotAir Pundit:

The audio at the clip goes out at the end, which might be related to problems with the live feed. See Gateway Pundit, "Fail. CBS Airs Online GOP Debate – Loses Live Internet Feed."

8:30pm PST: At The Right Scoop, "Rick Perry cleverly jokes about gaffe from last debate."

And at Hot Air, "Video: Gingrich schools Pelley on “rule of law” on terrorists":

Bachmann's USS Yorktown Speech Lays Out Foreign Policy Doctrine

At MinnPost, "Bachmann Doctrine: Her foreign policy views":

WASHINGTON — When protesters interrupted her speech on the USS Yorktown in South Carolina Thursday, Michele Bachmann was in the middle of what her campaign had deemed a major address on the Minnesota congresswoman’s foreign policy positions.

Bachmann, like the other Republicans looking for their party’s presidential nomination, has been outlining bits and pieces of her foreign policy goals throughout the first five months of her campaign. But the race so far has been largely focused on economic issues, and the candidates have generally tiptoed around foreign policy up to now.

In her speech Bachmann essentially laid out a tried and true conservative foreign policy agenda, with the notable caveat that she’s looking to cut defense spending along the way. The speech was a way for her to ease into the foreign policy arena while keeping some of the focus on the issues she’s run on up to now.

Here are the basic topics Bachmann addressed (quotations come from the prepared text of her speech, from which she frequently deviated) and, if they’ve come at any of the recent Republican debates, what other candidates have said on the same issue.

There is, of course, more nuance to each candidate’s positions than what is presented here; consider this a primer for Saturday night’s foreign policy debate in South Carolina.

RTWT.

The text is here: "Keeping America Free, Safe and Sovereign: Michele Bachmann’s address aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown, November 10, 2011."

Also, at The Shark Tank, "Michele Bachmann Supports Enhanced Interrogation Techniques."

Italian Parliament Approves Austerity Package

At New York Times, "Berlusconi Steps Down, and Italy Pulses With Change" (via Memeorandum).

And at Bloomberg, "Berlusconi Resigns as Monti Prepares New Italian Government." Also, at Telegraph UK, "Silvio Berlusconi finally resigns as Italy's prime minister, to cheers from supporters and jeers from foes":

Silvio Berlusconi has resigned as Italy's longest-serving post-war prime minister, bringing to an end a tumultuous, 17-year political career which was marred by sex scandals, corruption allegations and gaffes on the international stage.

His departure came hours after the country's lower house of parliament approved, by a margin of 380 votes to 26, an urgently-needed package of economic reforms designed to tackle the country's €1.9 trillion debt, revive its sluggish economy and prevent it from going the way of Greece.

After the vote, the 75-year-old billionaire media baron held a final meeting with his cabinet, and was then driven home to his official residence. There he consulted with party advisers, the final step before going to the presidential palace, on Rome's Quirinale Hill, where he gave his resignation to Italy's 86-year-old president, Giorgio Napolitano, a former Communist.

The president released a statement saying that consultations on forming a new government would start on Sunday.

Michele Bachmann Slams Occupy Protesters as 'Ignorant and Disrespectful'

At CBS News, "Bachmann calls Occupy Wall Street protesters 'ignorant and disrespectful'."

"If they understood the heavy price that was paid for that 1st Amendment right, they'd be much more respectful. Because I was surrounded by heroes yesterday on the USS Yorktown who paid a big price for them, and they're just ignorant, that's all. They're ignorant and they were disrespectful, but someday hopefully they'll come to know the price that was paid for them."

Michele Bachmann is a generally cheerful woman. But you can see how deeply pissed she is at the videos. What's interesting to me is actually how many of those protesters stood up and heckled. That's a security issue. I wonder if they did a bag check before admitting guests to the event. Occupy Portland has activists throwing Molotovs, so who knows?

Also at Reuters, "South Carolina protesters disrupt Michele Bachmann speech."

Cities Around the Nation Confront Question of How to Deal with Occupy Protesters

The news summary at the beginning of this clip is especially good.

Protesters are planning to occupy the Rose Parade? Folks down in Pasadena won't take too kindly to that. And Portland Mayor Sam Adams sounds tentative in his crackdown on the protesters, and Jim Oliver, the representative of Occupy Portland started out by reading some communique, but he warms up and sounds pretty articulate toward the end of the video:

And at Christian Science Monitor, "Officials crack down on Occupy Wall Street camps around the country."

Plus, at Gateway Pundit, "Federal Judge Denies #Occupy St. Louis Permission to Continue Hobo Camp at Kiener Plaza" (via Memeorandum).

PREVIOUSLY: "Pressure Is Growing to Shut Down 'Occupy' Camps Across the Nation."

Pressure Is Growing to Shut Down 'Occupy' Camps Across the Nation

You think?

See New York Times:

Leaders across the country felt increasing pressure on Friday to shut down protest encampments after two men died in shootings and another was found dead from a suspected combination of drugs and carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a propane heater inside a tent. Citing a strain on crime-fighting resources, police officers pleaded with Occupy Oakland protesters to leave their encampment at the City Hall plaza where a man was shot and killed late Thursday. The Oakland Police Officer’s Association issued an open letter saying the camp was pulling officers away from crime-plagued neighborhoods. “Please leave peacefully, with your heads held high, so we can get police officers back to work fighting crime in Oakland neighborhoods,” the letter said. Late in the afternoon, police officers acting at the direction of Mayor Jean Quan distributed fliers to protesters warning that the camp was in violation of the law and had to be disbanded immediately...

More at the link.

Here's the letter: "AN OPEN LETTER TO OCCUPY OAKLAND FROM THE OAKLAND POLICE OFFICERS' ASSOCIATION" (via Memeorandum). Also at Hot Air, "Oakland police union to occupiers: It’s time."

PREVIOUSLY: "Seven Dead at Occupy Protests So Far."

Europe's Rescue Plan

This was at The Economist last week:

YOU can understand the self-congratulation. In the early hours of October 27th, after marathon talks, the leaders of the euro zone agreed on a “comprehensive package” to dispel the crisis that has been plaguing the euro zone for almost two years. They boosted a fund designed to shore up the euro zone’s troubled sovereign borrowers, drafted a plan to restore Europe’s banks, radically cut Greece’s burden of debt, and set out some ways to put the governance of the euro on a proper footing. After a summer overshadowed by the threat of financial collapse, they had shown the markets who was boss.

Yet in the light of day, the holes in the rescue plan are plain to see. The scheme is confused and unconvincing. Confused, because its financial engineering is too clever by half and vulnerable to unintended consequences. Unconvincing, because too many details are missing and the scheme at its core is not up to the job of safeguarding the euro.

This is the euro zone’s third comprehensive package this year. It is unlikely to be its last.

More at the link.

And also at The Economist, a special report, "Staring into the abyss."

And now, the latest news:

* At Der Spiegel, "Wobbling Domino: What Comes Next for Troubled Italy?"

* At IBD, "Strained By Its Debts, EU Is Breaking Up."

* At Los Angeles Times, "Italy lawmakers press to ratify reforms so Berlusconi can leave."

* At New York Times, "Italy and Greece Act With More Force on the Debt Crisis."

* At Telegraph UK, "Eurozone split 'would destroy single market’."

Greeks Vexed By Growing Crime

At Der Spiegel, "A Symptom of the Crisis":

With a struggling economy, massive austerity measures and increasing uncertainty, crime is surging in parts of Greece. This has sparked a boom for some in the private security business. Greek officials are considering plans to make the streets of Athens safer.

A few steps from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, where visitors gawk at statues of Zeus and other ancient treasures of antiquity, a man crouches under a tree, wraps a rubber band around his arm and shoots up heroin.

Nearby, dirty streets are congested with drug sellers and buyers. Athenians say that cases of drug trafficking, prostitution, murder, thefts, burglaries, petty crime and illegal immigration have all increased as the Greek economy contracts.
Locals say they are seeing more signs of societal strain, with unemployment having risen to 16.3 percent in the second quarter -- up from 12 percent a year ago. Graffiti and shuttered store fronts speckle the winding downtown streets of Athens. Stray dogs and cats, some discarded by families unable to feed them, roam neighborhoods. With refuse workers often on strike these days, it is not uncommon for garbage to pile up on the streets, providing a feast for stray animals. Meanwhile, an uptick in muggings and armed robberies of even gated homes in Athens suburbs has proven deeply unsettling for Greece's middle and upper classes.

"The city's historic centre and other major areas are suffering desertification, all manner of criminal activity and manifestations of violence, insecurity, lawlessness, the impoverishment of significant numbers of people -- both native inhabitants and foreign nationals, illegal prostitution and illegal drug trading," the Athens City Council said in a statement.

Continue reading.

'Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie'

The Red Hot Chili Peppers:

From the new CD, "I'm With You," available at Amazon.

It's Not Just About the Millionaires

The kind of realities most folks don't talk about.

From Adam Davidson, at New York Times:

It serves the interest of both parties to argue about taxes on corporations and the wealthy because neither wants to discuss the alternative, which is where things get touchy. To solve our debt problems, we have to go to where the money is — the middle class. People who earn between $30,000 and $200,000 a year make a total of around $5 trillion and pay less than 10 percent of that in taxes (owing mostly to tax incentives and the fact that most families make less than $68,000, where larger tax rates begin). Increasing the middle-class tax burden an additional 8 percent, however, would actually have a bigger impact than taxing millionaires at 100 percent. Still, many experts say we don’t need to raise the tax rate on the middle class; we just need to get rid of some of those despised loopholes (or beloved incentives). Most reform proposals suggest gradually eliminating the most popular tax deductions, like mortgage interest rates ($120 billion per year) and workplace health insurance ($200 billion per year). Regardless, most economists acknowledge, and most politicians privately concede, that the middle class will have to give up some benefits (Social Security, Medicare) or it will have to pay more in taxes. Actually, it will probably have to do both. The millionaires will be paying more, too. Leading Democrats are proposing a nearly 10 percent hike.

RELATED: "Occupy Michael Moore."

Kids' Return Home Takes Toll on Parents

I was 28 years-old when I moved in with my old man in Fresno. I was transferring to Fresno State and Dad gave me a place to live. It was really hard. I think the toll wasn't on my father but on me. I moved out after the first year. And there was a lot of animosity by the time I met my future wife and we moved to Santa Barbara for grad school. But I'm glad I did it. Looking back at it now, the time I spent with Dad in Fresno was irreplaceable. Strange how the later years provide perspective.

The circumstances are different at this WSJ piece, but I can imagine how it is for a lot of young people moving back in with their folks. See, "The Toll on Parents When Kids Return Home":

As recent college graduates scramble to find full-time jobs, numerous parents are helping their children pay bills or letting them live at home again. About 59% of parents provide or recently provided financial assistance to children aged 18 to 39 who weren't students, concluded a May survey of nearly 1,100 people by the National Endowment for Financial Education.

According to Census data, 5.9 million Americans between 25 and 34 years of age—nearly a quarter of whom have bachelor's degrees—live with their parents, a significant increase from 4.7 million before the recession.

But many parents can't afford the extra expense. A full 26% of those polled by the nonprofit group took on more debt to help their offspring, 13% delayed a planned life event such as a home purchase, and 7% postponed retirement.

Glenn Reynolds Test-Drives the Nissan Leaf

And what was cool about it is that the dealer loaned him the car for a couple of days.

See: "TEST-DRIVING THE NISSAN LEAF." It's a good review.

When Students Can't Safely Display the American flag in an American School, Something is Badly Wrong

Says Eugene Volokh, "Not Safe to Display an American Flag in an American High School":

When we’re at the point that students can’t safely display the American flag in an American school, because of a fear that other students will attack them for it — on May 5 or on any other day — and the school feels unable to prevent such attacks (by punishing the threateners and the attackers, and by teaching students tolerance for other students’ speech), something is badly wrong. Here’s an excerpt from the court opinion describing the facts that led the court to uphold the restriction...

Read it at the link.

The Scandals of Silvio

A photo slideshow, at Der Spiegel.

90 Foot Wave!

Via Theo Spark:

Seven Dead at Occupy Protests So Far

See Gateway Pundit, "Salt Lake City Occupier Found Dead in Tent – Death Toll at 7."

Also at The Salt Lake Tribune, "Death at Pioneer Park results in closure of Occupy SLC camp."

The dead include (1) a young man who passed away at the Occupy Oklahoma encampment; (2) a woman at Occupy Vancouver overdosed; (3) a protester in Bloomington, Indiana, was found dead; (4) a man was found dead in his tent at Occupy New Orleans; (5) a man shot himself in an encampment at Occupy Burlington in Vermont; (6) a protester was shot dead at Occupy Oakland; and now this death at Salt Lake City brings the grim toll to 7 deaths.

Occupy Denver Protesters Get Slammed at BlogCon

And "slammed" isn't just metaphorical.

See Weasel Zippers, "Video: Occupy Denver Tries to Storm BlogCon, Hippy Body Slam Ensues…":

And a huge roundup at Hot Air, "One Occupy protester arrested at conservative conference in Denver." And Yid With Lid has even more, "Occupy Denver Fails in Attempt to Invade BlogCon."

BONUS: "Occutards show up at BlogCon (more video below)" (via Memeorandum). And The Other McCain, "#OccupyFail at #BlogCon11: What Fun!"

Rick Perry Media Blitz After 'Oops' Debate Catastrophe

At New York Times, "Perry Goes on TV to Regain Footing After Debate":

WASHINGTON — Gov. Rick Perry of Texas tried to neutralize an onslaught of ridicule with a dose of humor on Thursday, appearing on television from morning until night in an urgent attempt to deflect grave concerns about his candidacy and to keep the Republican presidential race from advancing without him.

As Mitt Romney sought to capitalize on the moment by persuading Republicans that he is the party’s strongest nominee to confront President Obama, the campaigns of Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich also jostled for new attention in the wake of Mr. Perry’s memory lapse that left him speechless at a debate on Wednesday.

Less than two months before the party’s nominating contest opens, Mr. Romney is taking steps to increase his investments in Iowa and South Carolina, two early-voting states with conservative electorates. He has played down the two states, but his advisers are moving closer to competing more aggressively in an effort to win over Republicans who have spent the year searching for another candidate.

But Mr. Perry plans to accelerate his television advertising campaign next week in Iowa to elicit empathy, minimize the damage from Wednesday’s debate performance, and at least keep voters open to supporting him. His aides said that he has sufficient resources to compete heavily in Iowa, but that he is increasingly turning to donors in Texas to make up for a falloff in national fund-raising.

It just looked so bad, the "oops" moment. Yeah, we all have memory lapses, but not during a presidential debate. That's why we have these debates in the first place.

Anyways, perhaps Mitt Romney's consolidating his lead. See Political Wire, "Romney Retakes Lead, Gingrich Surges Past Cain."

RELATED: At Hot Air, "Gingrich passes Cain for second place in Marist poll."

Cooking With the Troops

Bruce McQuain is working with a number of individuals and organizations to sponsor the event: "Cooking With the Troops."

Please give generously:

It really is simple: Donate so we can help the wounded, their families, and the U.S. and Allied troops on the line. There is no such thing as too small a donation, because they all can and do add up into something grand. So, please don’t hesitate as all are appreciated and needed!

Check the link for the donations page.

Black Sabbath Reunion and Tour

At Rolling Stone, "Black Sabbath Announce New Album Produced by Rick Rubin."

Obama's Virginia Defeat

An excellent piece, from Kim Strassel, at WSJ:

Virginia Republicans added seven new seats to their majority in the House of Delegates, giving them two-thirds of that chamber's votes—the party's largest margin in history. The GOP also took over the Virginia Senate in results that were especially notable, given that Virginia Democrats this spring crafted an aggressive redistricting plan that had only one aim: providing a firewall against a Republican takeover of that chamber. Even that extreme gerrymander didn't work.

Every Republican incumbent—52 in the House, 15 in the Senate—won. The state GOP is looking at unified control over government for only the second time since the Civil War. This is after winning all three top statewide offices—including the election of Gov. Bob McDonnell—in 2009, and picking off three U.S. House Democrats in last year's midterms.

Topline figures aside, what ought to really concern the White House was the nature of the campaign, and the breakout of Tuesday's election data. Mr. Obama may have big plans for Virginia, but the question is increasingly: him and what army?

Elected state Democrats—who form the backbone of grass-roots movements—couldn't distance themselves far enough from Mr. Obama in this race. Most refused to mention the president, to defend his policies, or to appear with him. The more Republicans sought to nationalize the Virginia campaign, the more Democrats stressed local issues.

And as I noted earlier, I think Los Angeles Times went a little over board with the analysis here: "This Week's Election Could Be Sign of Voter Backlash." And check the response there from ace commenter Bruce Hall.

The Continuing Appeal of Communism in the West

From Ron Radosh, at PJ Media:

The OWS crowd certainly don’t call themselves “communists.” If anything, those who get the most comment are self-proclaimed anarchists and others are socialists, radicals of various stripes, demagogues, anti-Semites, members of various fringe ultra-left groups like the Workers World Party and International Answer, and others of that ilk. But put together, they form a sometimes incoherent but nevertheless group of radical activists bent on overthrow of the system — not banking reform, political change in Washington, or anything remotely possible. Unlike the Tea Party activists, who moved to try and have a political influence, these protestors demand “revolution,” an all-encompassing phrase that means little but which reveals their favored stance.

Even Paul Berman, whose comments in The New Republic reveal the brilliant and subtle thinker succumbing to the revolutionary romanticism of his youth, writes the following:

Yes, yes, at Occupy Wall Street the madmen, the madwomen, the Groaners and the neo-Muggletonians will eventually have their day, and the movement will be ruined. Already the Maoists of the Revolutionary Communist Party are at work, together with Ron-Paul-ists, according to another of my informants. Visiting the demonstration on Thursday I noticed that the Workers World Party (which secretly controlled some of the big anti-Iraq War demonstrations, in the name of advancing the cause of North Korea) was already in evidence. The costumed neo-hippies and neo-anarchists will prove to be no match to the fanatics of Leninist discipline. Sooner or later the screw-ball groupuscules will wreck the whole thing. “Creative destruction” is originally Bakunin’s phrase, but the destructiveness of the Revolutionary Communist Party will not be creative. So the movement will stumble and fall, and a lot of young people will feel a little embittered and distraught.

I can excuse Berman for hoping that the message of Wall Street’s failures is the main concern of the occupiers — rather than the foolish remedies they are demanding. Yes, as he correctly writes, “Wall Street has led the country and the world over a cliff.” But OWS is doing very little to pressure for the kind of meaningful political change that will put them in their place.

This Week's Election Could Be Sign of Voter Backlash

I'm not down with all the analysis here, but check the last few paragraphs discussing President Obama's new populist tone. There might be something to that. At Los Angeles Times, "Election hints at larger populist backlash against deeply divided government."

And at New York Times, "Recall Election Claims Arizona Anti-Immigration Champion."