Local Governments Face Fiscal Desperation Amid Soaring Pension and Retiree Health Costs

I've got two related pieces that were front-page news stories yesterday at the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, respectively.

First, at LAT, "Stockton residents watch their port city slip away."

Read it all at that link. Stockton's on the verge of declaring bankruptcy and the city government is in mediation over its debt obligations:

Within the next three months, Stockton could become the nation's largest city to file for protection from creditors under U.S. bankruptcy code. Using a new California law, the City Council is trying to slow or stop the bust by entering mediation with creditors, including public employee unions. In the meantime, the Central Valley port city of 300,000 has suspended several bond payments and will not cash out vacation or sick time for employees who leave.

And also at NYT, "Deficits Push N.Y. Cities and Counties to Desperation":

Even as there are glimmers of a national economic recovery, cities and counties increasingly find themselves in the middle of a financial crisis. The problems are spreading as municipalities face a toxic mix of stresses that has been brewing for years, including soaring pension, Medicaid and retiree health care costs. And many have exhausted creative accounting maneuvers and one-time spending cuts or revenue-raisers to bail themselves out.

The problem has national echoes: Stockton, Calif., a city of almost 300,000, is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Jefferson County, Ala., made the biggest Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing in history in November and stopped paying its bondholders. In Rhode Island, the city of Central Falls declared bankruptcy last year, and the mayor of Providence, the state capital, has said his city is at risk as its money runs out.

New York City’s annual pension contributions have increased to $8 billion from $1.5 billion over the past decade.

“We really are up against it,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said during a recent trip to Albany, urging the state to reduce pension benefits for future public employees. In a radio interview on Friday, Mr. Bloomberg noted the spreading financial woes of local governments, saying, “Towns and counties across the state are starting to have to make the real choices — fewer cops, fewer firefighters, slower ambulance response, less teachers in front of the classroom.”

And Thomas S. Richards, the mayor of Rochester, recently described a grim situation facing New York’s cities in testimony to the State Legislature, saying, “I fear that Rochester and other upstate cities are approaching the point of financial failure and an inevitable financial control board — as is the case in Buffalo — unless something is done now.”

This is the big shakeout.

And to fix things will require massive reform --- and changes in expectations for the pay and benefits for public workers. I'm hearing dire chatter about the expected fiscal situation in California over the next year, and the dreaded notion of "reductions in force" (layoffs) is being mentioned a bit more often. In the end it will be a Schumpeterian period of creative destruction, where the market forces major changes on the public sector. It's basically like a payback after years of essentially socialization of the economy. And while this process is going to take a while, it'll be a good thing. It's a rationalizing process, one that's completely foreign to the public sector consciousness.

Amazing, isn't it?

Israel Defense Forces Celebrate International Women's Day

Well, this is nice, from the IDF:

RELATED: At First Street Journal, "Rule 5 Blogging: IDF Edition."

German Tabloid Bild Quits Daily Nude 'Page One Girl'

Well, it's rough out there for Rule 5!

At Der Spiegel, "Ta Ta! German Tabloid Strips Front Page of Daily Nude."

The Mystery of 18 Twitching Teenagers in Le Roy

From the New York Times Magazine, "What Happened to the Girls in Le Roy":

Before the media vans took over Main Street, before the environmental testers came to dig at the soil, before the doctor came to take blood, before strangers started knocking on doors and asking question after question, Katie Krautwurst, a high-school cheerleader from Le Roy, N.Y., woke up from a nap. Instantly, she knew something was wrong. Her chin was jutting forward uncontrollably and her face was contracting into spasms. She was still twitching a few weeks later when her best friend, Thera Sanchez, captain of one of the school’s cheerleading squads, awoke from a nap stuttering and then later started twitching, her arms flailing and head jerking. Two weeks after that, Lydia Parker, also a senior, erupted in tics and arm swings and hums. Then word got around that Chelsey Dumars, another cheerleader, who recently moved to town, was making the same strange noises, the same strange movements, leaving school early on the days she could make it to class at all. The numbers grew — 12, then 16, then 18, in a school of 600 — and as they swelled, the ranks of the sufferers came to include a wider swath of the Le Roy high-school hierarchy: girls who weren’t cheerleaders, girls who kept to themselves and had studs in their lips. There was even one boy and an older woman, age 36. Parents wept as their daughters stuttered at the dinner table. Teachers shut their classroom doors when they heard a din of outbursts, one cry triggering another, sending the increasingly familiar sounds ricocheting through the halls. Within a few months, as the camera crews continued to descend, the community barely seemed to recognize itself. One expert after another arrived to pontificate about what was wrong in Le Roy, a town of 7,500 in Western New York that had long prided itself on the things it got right. The kids here were wholesome and happy, their parents insisted — “cheerleaders and honor students,” as one father said — products of a place that, while not perfect, was made up more of what was good about small-town America than what was bad. Now, though, the girls’ writhing and stuttering suggested something troubling, either arising from within the community or being perpetrated on it, a mystery that proved irresistible for onlookers, whose attention would soon become part of the story itself.

Keep reading.

And here's a clue:

Where there were once single-family homes owned by their residents, there is a higher than average number of rental properties, meaning a more transient population. And the town’s changes in family structure follow a trend that is particularly pronounced in working-class communities — more divorce, more single mothers. In 1980, Le Roy had fewer single mothers living there than in most of the country; now that number, too, is higher than the national average. Economically, “you see a decline in Le Roy, relative to the rest of the country,”said Andrew Beveridge, a sociology professor at Queens College and a consultant in census statistics for The New York Times. “The change in household structure — that’s quite stark.”

Minnesota Girl Sues Minnewaska Area Middle School in Facebook Case Alleging Invasion of Privacy

This sucks.

At Telegraph UK, "12-year-old US girl suing school over Facebook comments row":

A 12-year-old girl is suing her school in Minnesota after being forced to hand over her Facebook password and punished for posts she made on the social networking site.

The case has been brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and comes amid growing concern in the United States about individuals' ability to keep their email and other online accounts secret from their school, employer and government authorities.

A number of prospective employees have complained that they were forced to hand over their passwords to Facebook and Twitter when applying for jobs.

In the Minnesota case, the 12-year-old girl, known only as RS, is said to have been punished by teachers at Minnewaska Area Middle School for things she wrote on Facebook while at home, and using her own computer.

The ACLU is arguing that her First and Fourth Amendment rights, which protect freedom of speech and freedom from illegal searches respectively, were violated.

She is said to have been punished with detention after using Facebook to criticise a school hall monitor, and again after a fellow student told teachers that she had discussed sex online.

Another case of public school system totalitarianism.

Ban Jane Fonda Not Rush Limbaugh

See Dan Riehl at Big Journalism.

And more background at iOWNTHEWORLD: "This Reads Like Political Parody."

RELATED: From Andrew Bolt, "The Rise of the Totalitarians" (via Glenn Reynolds).

Rick Santorum on 'Meet the Press' — 'I'd Like Everybody to Get Out' (VIDEO)

National Journal has a report, "Santorum: 'I'd Like Everybody to Get Out'" (via Memeorandum).

Santorum sounds pretty confident about things. And I love that map David Gregory puts up at about 4:00 minutes, where he says to Santorum, "You're winning kind of the heartland of the country right now ... it's almost like a presidential red, uh, blue map ... you've got Governor Romney winning the coasts, New England, and he's winning the West with the help of Mormons voters." And I love Santorum's response. But listen at the clip.

Also, at Robert Stacy McCain's, "Rick Santorum’s Daughter Elizabeth Will Campaign for Her Father in Hawaii."

PREVIOUSLY: "Rick Santorum Leads President Obama 46% to 45% in Latest Rasmussen Presidential Tracking Poll."

Washington Post-ABC News Poll: 60 Percent in U.S. Say Afghanistan War Not Worth It

Afghanistan is in the news big time today, with the reports that an American soldier has killed at least 16 civilians in Kandahar province. And in response, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has called for a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. In contrast, Senator John McCain, appearing on Fox News Sunday just after Gingrich spoke, argued that:

“It is one of those things that you cannot explain except to extend your deepest sympathy to those victims and see that justice is done” ... He warned against allowing incidents such as the shooting to undermine the nation’s resolve in Afghanistan.

McCain's is the minority opinion, as measured by a new poll out from the Washington Post, "Poll: Few in U.S. sense Afghan support for war":

Few Americans sense widespread Afghan support for what the United States is trying to do in that country, a perception that bolsters public backing of a troop withdrawal, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Overall views of the war in Afghanistan are in the pits: 60 percent of Americans see the war as not worth its costs, nearly double the 35 percent saying the decade-long effort has warranted the expense and lost lives. There has been consistent majority opposition to the war for nearly two years....

Overall, 54 percent of all Americans want to pull out U.S. troops from Afghanistan even if the Afghan army is not adequately trained to carry on the fight. About six in 10 Democrats and independents back this position, but the number slides to just under four in 10 among Republicans.

As the report indicates, public sentiment on the war has been deteriorating for some time. And the increasing number of incidents, such as the attacks on American forces by Afghan police, etc., has added to the drumbeat for withdrawal. I've been personally torn on this for some time, but my gut reaction is to stay the course. Things may not get better soon, but they could get a whole lot worse in a hurry. And frankly, I hate the idea of losing a war --- which is exactly the line that progressives will spin out over and over again when U.S. vital interests are threatened in the future.

The Washington Post had an outstanding editorial on this a few weeks back, which summarizes my thoughts pretty well, "Despite the deepening crisis, the Afghan strategy is worth saving":

THE LATEST CRISIS in Afghanistan strikes at the heart of the U.S. strategy for preventing the country from reverting to Taliban rule or becoming a base for al-Qaeda. If those goals are to be achieved, the Afghan security forces that have been recruited, trained and equipped at enormous cost over the past several years must be sustained — something that will require continued training and advising by NATO, and heavy outside funding, for many years to come. That prospect seemed to be endangered last week when four U.S. soldiers were killed by Afghans in uniform. After an attack inside the Interior Ministry in Kabul, U.S. and NATO advisers were withdrawn from all ministries.

Fortunately, Pentagon and White House officials are describing the move as temporary and have said that the Obama administration and NATO remain committed to the underlying strategy. Yet the episode seems likely to strengthen those in and outside the administration who seek to accelerate the drawdown of U.S. troops next year and slash funding for Afghan forces. While perhaps appealing to voters in an election year, those steps would only compound the challenges facing the Afghan mission....

The popular backlash in Afghanistan nevertheless reflects deeper problems. There is understandable weariness with foreign troops after more than a decade of inconclusive war; resentment at the death of civilians in NATO operations; and frustration with the corruption and fecklessness of a U.S.-backed government. The Obama administration’s poor handling of Mr. Karzai has magnified these problems, while its setting of politically motivated timetables for troop withdrawals and aggressive pursuit of negotiations with the Taliban has convinced many Afghans that the United States is preparing to abandon the country.

The only secure and honorable means of exit is to finish the work of creating an Afghan army and police force capable of defending the country from the Taliban and other extremists, with backup from U.S. special forces and air power. Achieving that goal by the end of 2014, the current NATO timetable, will be hard enough, as the events of the past week vividly show. If the Obama administration chooses to accelerate the timetable or significantly reduce the funding — and thus the size — of Afghan forces, it will become nearly impossible.

More later...

Sunday Cartoons

Well, a little late getting this up, but you know the old saying...

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

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

BONUS: From Jill Stanek, "Stanek Sunday funnies: “Hypocritical Liberal Misogynist Pigs” edition."

Obama's Favorite Professor at Harvard Was America-Hating Marxist

At IBD, "Derrick Bell: The Jeremiah Wright of Harvard":

Presidential Vetting: Obama's days at Harvard have been shrouded in secrecy. But a new video lifts a corner of the veil, revealing his creepy embrace of the "Jeremiah Wright of academia."

It turns out his favorite law professor was the late Derrick Bell, a black radical who taught classes trashing the Constitution as racist.

He liked Bell so much he led a law school "strike" in support of him in 1991, when the professor went on unpaid leave to protest the lack of affirmative-action hiring on campus.

A video clip posted by Breitbart.com captures Obama praising Bell for "speaking the truth" and hugging him.

Not long before this show of affection, Bell had been called into the university president's office to explain why he had sent him a letter filled with violent fantasies — including their own death from a bomb planted in his office by white racists. Bell explained that such extremism is what it would take to get the administration to agree to grant more affirmative-action programs.

Harvard's honcho wasn't amused. Bell groused he just didn't get it. But who would? Apparently his star pupil. And that's what's so unsettling.

Bell's nutty ideas — including that America is a "racist nation" carrying out a "quasi-genocide in the inner cities" — were well known to Obama. Bell came highly recommended by Obama's America-hating preacher Rev. Wright. He and Bell were pals. In fact, Obama just traded Wright's pews for Bell's desks.

At the pro-Bell rally, Obama took to the mike as if he were his spokesman. He commended Bell's "excellence in scholarship," adding that he "changed the standards of what legal writing is about."

More at the link.

And previously: "Breitbart's Bombshell: Obama Harvard Protest Tapes (VIDEO)."

The reason progressives have attempted so aggressively to minimize the Bell video is because it hits so close to home. Soledad O'Brien chortled repeatedly, "Where's the bombshell? Is this the bombshell?" It's a sick kind of postmodern denialism that posits a different standard of truth and decency. Progressives deny Derrick Bell is radical because they're radical, and they claim their ideology is mainstream when it's in fact the diametric opposite. It's the same progressive secular moral relativism that dismisses Bill Maher's misogyny as "comedy" while demanding that Rush Limbaugh be taken off the air. And it's this kind of hypocrisy that Andrew Breitbart exposed over and over again. And that's why with Andrew gone, it's more incumbent on all of us to #BeBreitbart and never let progressives live down how f-king sick they are and how badly their programs are destroying the county.

When An Intruder Invades Your Classroom

You have to start from the beginning on this one, but the interesting thing is the author, Alexandrea Ravenelle, teaches at community college, and frankly, in my experience, you're likely to have more of an urban (and perhaps socially distressed) demographic at such institutions.

See "Each Teacher Wonders, Is This the One?":

Every time I hear about a school shooting — whether in a college, like the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007; a public high school, like last month’s attack; or a private academy, like the one in Jacksonville, Fla., where, on Tuesday, a fired teacher killed an administrator and himself — I say a silent prayer for the students and teachers who were injured or died. I think about their families and those who watched their peers mowed down, about the warning signs that may or may not have been there. And I wonder if it could happen to me.

For nearly a decade, I’ve served as an adjunct sociology instructor at various colleges in New York City, from Yeshiva University to Hostos Community College in the Bronx. I’ve taught in schools with high-tech smart boards and integrated audio systems and in schools that reeked of roach poison and featured electric rat traps in the faculty lounge. I’ve lectured in classrooms at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where clusters of headless mannequins offered a silent rebuke for bad jokes.

I like and admire my pupils; many of them are juggling work and families along with school. And most of the time I think they like me too. Students send me post-term thank-you notes, and to my delight a few have even told me they became sociology majors thanks to my class.

But students have also gotten angry at me and blown up. I’m used to people crying when they don’t get the grades they think they deserve. A woman once threw an umbrella across the length of the classroom because I marked her late. When I told another student that he had been dropped from the class for nonattendance, he recorded the exchange and threatened to report me to my supervisor. Two years ago one student, angry about his D, sued me three times. I was interviewed by a high-priced law partner in a Midtown skyscraper and spent hours sitting in plastic chairs in courthouse holding rooms, the air heavy with annoyance and anxiety, before the cases were dismissed.

I know I’m not the only teacher who, facing down an angry student, worries that he could come back firing off more than snide comments.

The levels of trust and openness that are necessary for teaching are diminished every time someone opens fire in a classroom. Idle comments become vaguely menacing threats. Classrooms are no longer just about learning but also about observing — watching to see who seems upset, uninvolved, angry.

I've had so many classroom incidents of various degrees of danger that at this point nothing surprises me. The only thing that is truly surprising is the fake urgency that such threats are met with by college administration. And to be clear, folks in law enforcement who work with the college, and the front-line supervisors who deal with faculty concerns, are indeed responsive to the seriousness of the kind of disruptions and dangers that are part and parcel to the teaching experience nowadays. It's the higher ups in administration who either do not care enough to fully support faculty in their battles against dangers and disciplinary issues in the classrooms or who will side with disruptive students over teachers (especially if a student claims "civil rights" violations) as part of a totalitarian consolidation of power. I hate to say this, but folks going into public teaching nowadays should be prepared to lower their expectations a bit. What I do is I really cherish the moments when it all goes well and college is working like we idealize it. The rest of the time I throw up my hands and remind myself that retirement isn't that far around the corner.

When Even Casual Sex Requires a State Welfare Program, You're Pretty Much Done For

From Mark Steyn, at O.C. Register, "Miss Fluke Goes to Washington" (via Blazing Cat Fur):

I'm writing this from Australia, so, if I'm not quite up to speed on recent events in the United States, bear with me – the telegraph updates are a bit slow here in the bush. As I understand it, Sandra Fluke is a young coed who attends Georgetown Law and recently testified before Congress.

Oh, wait, no. Update: It wasn't a congressional hearing; the Democrats just got it up to look like one, like summer stock, with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid doing the show right here in the barn and providing a cardboard set for the world premiere of "Miss Fluke Goes To Washington," with full supporting cast led by Chuck Schumer strolling in through the French windows in tennis whites and drawling, "Anyone for bull****?"

Oh, and the "young coed" turns out to be 30, which is what less-evolved cultures refer to as early middle age. She's a couple of years younger than Mozart was at the time he croaked but, if the Dems are to be believed, the plucky little Grade 24 schoolgirl has already made an even greater contribution to humanity.

She's had the courage to stand up in public and demand that someone else (and this is where one is obliged to tiptoe cautiously, lest offense is given to gallant defenders of the good name of American maidenhood such as the many prestigious soon-to-be-former sponsors of this column who've booked Bill Maher for their corporate retreat with his amusing "Sarah Palin is a c***" routine ...)

Where was I? Oh, yes. The brave middle-age schoolgirl had the courage to stand up in public and demand that someone else pay for her sex life.

Continue reading.

Steyn's hilarious, and completely right on.

Pot Backers' Ballot Effort in Disarray in California

Well, no surprise there.

Roll one, smoke one, bro.

At Los Angeles Times, "Effort to put marijuana legalization measure on ballot is in disarray":

Just weeks before the deadline for state ballot initiatives, the effort to put a marijuana legalization measure before voters in the general election is in disarray as the federal government cracks down on medical cannabis and activists are divided on their goals.

After Proposition 19 received 46% of the vote in 2010, proponents took heart at the near-miss. They held meetings in Berkeley and Los Angeles and vowed to put a well-funded measure to fully legalize marijuana on the 2012 ballot, when the presidential election would presumably draw more young voters.

Instead, five different camps filed paperwork in Sacramento for five separate initiatives. One has given up already and the other four are teetering, vying for last-minute funding from a handful of potential donors.

Backers need more than $2 million to hire professional petitioners to get the 700,000-plus signatures they say they need by April 20 to qualify for the ballot. But they are getting little financial support from medical marijuana dispensaries that have profited from laws that pot activists brought forth in earlier years.

Certainly, some dispensaries cannot help because they are paying large legal bills to fend off the federal government. But like growers, dispensary operators know that broader legalization could lower prices and bring more competitors into their business.

Of the four possible initiatives, the one apparently with the most vocal support within the movement is the Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act, written by defense attorneys who specialize in marijuana cases. The measure would repeal state criminal statutes on marijuana possession, except those for driving while impaired or selling to minors. The state Department of Health would have 180 days to enact regulations before commercial sales became legal.

Amazing.

Pot dispensaries don't want to legalize it, since they've got the monopoly on the wild and free demographic. Hey man, be cool, ya'll.

The Resilience of the U.S. Private Economy

I mentioned this in my earlier report: "Unemployment Rate Holds at 8.3 Percent in Longest Jobs Slump Since Great Depression."

See the comments at Wall Street Journal, "The Jobs Rally":

Sometimes you simply have to marvel at the resilience of the private economy in America, and yesterday's upbeat jobs report was one of those moments. Employers shook off the dysfunction in Washington and added 227,000 new workers in February.

The December and January jobs numbers were also revised upward by 61,000 hires. Almost every part of the economy is healing, with job gains recorded in manufacturing (31,000), business services (82,000), leisure and hospitality (44,000) and health care (61,000). Only construction (-13,000) is still limping, as the housing depression lingers. The all-important labor force participation rate—the share of employable adults working—ticked up to 63.9%, though it is still near a 20-year low....

There are a few troubling signs worth keeping an eye on. The unemployment rate for Hispanics (10.7%) and for blacks (14.1%) rose in February. The black unemployment rate is now almost twice the rate for whites, and those without a college degree are still more than twice as likely to be unemployed than those with a diploma. The recovery may be bypassing part of President Obama's voting base: minorities and those with low skills.

The unemployment rate of 8.3% is still historically very high. The long-term unemployed—those without jobs for six months or more—is still over five million, which is 42.6% of all jobless workers. If we hadn't seen about three million people drop out of the job market since 2008, the reported unemployment rate would be closer to 10.8%. And hourly earnings growth over the last year of 1.9% is running a full point below inflation, a cost-of-living squeeze that is getting tighter with higher gas prices.

The U.S. will need to sustain this pace of job growth for at least two more years to get unemployment below 7% and to recover the five million net loss of jobs since 2007. ObamaCare's mandates on businesses, the $1 trillion annual federal deficit forecasts and the huge tax hikes coming on January 1, 2013 are a few of the governmental impediments to job growth that lie ahead. The challenge for the economy now will be whether employers continue to hire in the face of those headwinds.

Hypocrisy on Tape: Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Jan Schakowsky Refuse to Condemn Bill Maher's Misogyny

Via Tina Korbe at Hot Air, "Video: Female Democratic lawmakers refuse to speak out against Bill Maher’s misogynism."

The World's Greatest Snowboarding Opossum

Well, that's what they say.

HAT TIP: Breitbart.

Interviews From Breitbart Memorial Service in Washington, D.C.

Good stuff.

It's not just Robert Stacy McCain, but he's at the freeze-frame at the YouTube, and the video's posted at The Other McCain. See: "Breitbart DC: Instapundit Interviews."

Rick Santorum Leads President Obama 46% to 45% in Latest Rasmussen Presidential Tracking Poll

Both Mitt Romney and Santorum lead Obama nationally, while Romney leads Santorum nationally for the GOP nomination. The poll also shows high unfavorables for the president's handling of the economy.

See, "Daily Presidential Tracking Poll":

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19 (see trends).

Looking at Tuesday's upcoming primaries, the GOP race in Alabama is essentially a three-way tie, while Mitt Romney leads by eight in Mississippi.   Nationally, Romney now leads Rick Santorum by 12 points.  Regardless of who they want to win, 80% of Republican Primary Voters nationwide believe Romney will be the party's nominee.

With the perception growing that he will be the GOP nominee, Romney leads President Obama by five points in a hypothetical 2012 matchup. Today's numbers show Romney at 48%, Obama at 43%. That’s Romney’s largest lead since December. Matchup results are updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update).

If Santorum is the Republican nominee, he is up by one point over the president, 46% to 45%. This is the second time since polling began in 2011 that Santorum has had a slight lead over Obama. Romney is the only other candidate to lead the president more than one time in the polls.

Although 80 percent expect Romney to win the nomination, he's no shoo-in, and continued victories for Santorum could work to deny Romney the necessary delegates he needs to secure the party's not by the end of the primaries in June. See this video report at ABC News, "Kansas Caucus 2012: Rick Santorum Claims New Victory."

Angelina Jolie: 'I don't know anyone who doesn't hate Joseph Kony'

Well, look out if Angelina starts talkin'!

Well, actually, star power won't be enough to capture Kony. See Robert Stacy McCain, "#Kony2012 Video Prompts Uganda to Vow ‘Dead or Alive’ Manhunt for Terrorist," and Michael Wilkerson, at Foreign Policy, "Joseph Kony is not in Uganda (and other complicated things)."

Rick Santorum Wins Kansas Republican Caucuses

Actually, I hadn't even been following along with the primaries this weekend.

Interesting.

At National Journal, "Santorum Wins Kansas."

And at Los Angeles Times, "Rick Santorum wins Kansas caucuses."

ADDED: At The Other McCain, "SANTORUM SCORES ‘DECISIVE’ WIN IN KANSAS REPUBLICAN CAUCUSES."

Obama's Radical Professor Derrick Bell: They Give 'White Boys' Tenure

Via Breitbart:

Unemployment Rate Holds at 8.3 Percent in Longest Jobs Slump Since Great Depression

While some media outlets are pumping up the "momentum" on the economy, it's the business cycle swinging back towards growth more than any kind of federal economic stimulus that explains things. Continued improvements in the perceptions of the economy could help Obama's reelection. So the trick for the eventual GOP nominee will be to cheer the natural resiliency of the American economy while highlighting how the failed stimulus and ObamaCare sopped up entrepreneurship and enterprise as employers held back in a negative regulatory climate.

IBD has a report, "Payrolls Jump Again, Bringing In More Job Searchers":

While the pace of job growth has improved since the summer, it's the bare minimum to support an employment recovery and probably won't get much better, said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak: "I don't see any signs of acceleration going forward."

The next few months may see similar payroll gains, but weaker business investment points to a drop later this year as employers finish playing catch-up, Wilkinson predicts.

The share of working-age Americans employed or looking for work ticked up to 63.9% in February from January's 31-year low of 63.7%. Despite the positive job news since last summer, there's a long way to go. Those unemployed for over six months have been falling, but remain at an elevated 5.43 million. Payrolls have been below their last peak for 49 months, the longest slump since the Great Depression. With employment still 5.33 million off the high reached in January 2008, that streak looks to continue for years.

More at the link.

And see Lonely Conservative, "Chart of the Day: Obama’s Jobs Deficit."

Victoria's Secret Angels — Very Sexy Video

Some Rule 5 from Victoria's Secret:

The Meaning of Breitbart

Robert Stacy McCain makes an appearance (and he's got a post here):

Sarah Palin Slams 'Game Change'

The HBO movie premieres tonight at 9:00pm EST.

And here's the Palin video, via Greta Van Susteren, "Gov. Palin slams – politely – HBO movie “Game Change” in new web video."

And at Los Angeles Times, "Television review: 'Game Change'."

British Hostage Killed During Rescue Attempt in Nigeria

This is awful news.

At London's Daily Mail, "Hostage rescue ends in tragedy: Briton executed by captors as special forces close in on Al Qaeda gang's lair."

And at Telegraph UK, "Doomed rescue launched amid fears hostages were about to be killed":

The doomed rescue bid of British hostage Chris McManus was urgently launched because the Nigerian terrorists holding him were about to kill him and dump his body in the desert, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The gang feared a raid was imminent after one of their senior members disappeared and could not be contacted.

The man, known by the alias Abu Muhammad, had been arrested on Tuesday and it was his interrogation that gave away the kidnappers’ location and telephone numbers.

Other gang members were also picked up and telephone intercepts showed the remaining kidnappers had become increasingly agitated and were ready to kill their captives and flee to neighbouring Niger.

It also emerged the gang, while connected to known terror groups, may have been acting alone and become frustrated by their inability to launch an effective ransom demand.

Mr McManus, an engineer, and Italian colleague Franco Lamolinara, were executed by their captors on Thursday as commandos from the Special Boat Service and the Nigerian army launched their dramatic rescue bid.

Yeah, and the Italian government is not pleased.

See New York Times, "Failed Raid to Rescue Hostages in Nigeria Stirs Italy’s Anger."

More Hypocritical Left-Wing Anti-Conservative Misogyny: Obama Super-PAC Chief Bill Burton Claims Maher Hate-Talk is 'Comedy'

These people are the biggest assholes.

Seriously. Progressives really test my patience.

Via Gateway Pundit, "Obama’s Super-Pac Argues That “C-nt” and “Tw-t” Are Not as Bad as Slut."

BONUS: At Althouse, "On his show tonight, Bill Maher says he's not defending Rush Limbaugh."

Gloria Allred Calls for Criminal Prosecution of Rush Limbaugh

Check Volokh for the legal discussion.

And from Tina Korbe, at Hot Air, "Gloria Allred to West Palm Beach prosecutor: You really should go after Rush, you know."

Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza

At New York Times, "Israeli Airstrikes Kill Militants in Gaza."

The video shows a terrorist rocket launch thwarted:

ShePAC Slams Progressives' War on Conservative Women

Via Marooned in Marin:

Check the ShePAC hompage here.

Sarah Palin: Obama Wants to Go Back to 'Pre-Civil War Days'

I was watching the interview last night on Hannity's. Palin's a beauty:

... He is bringing us back, Sean, to days that… You can hearken back to days before the Civil War, when, unfortunately, unfortunately too many Americans mistakenly believed that not all men were created equal. And it was the Civil War that began the codification of the truth that here in America, yes, we are equal and we all have equal opportunities, not based on the color of your skin. You have equal opportunity to work hard and to succeed and to embrace the opportunities, God-given opportunities, to develop resources and work extremely hard and, as I say, to succeed.

Now, it has taken all these years for many Americans to understand that that gravity, that mistake that took place before the Civil War and why the Civil War had to really start changing America. What Barack Obama seems to want to do is go back to before those days when we were in different classes based on income, based on color of skin ...

The whole interview is at C4P, "Governor Palin’s Interview on Tonight’s Hannity."

And also, checking over at Memeorandum, it looks like the progs are looking to counter Breitbart's Obama tapes with the totally unsurprising meme of --- wait for it! --- RAAAAACISM!!

See Paul Waldman, at The American Prospect, "The Race-Baiting Continues."

Look, progressives only have one rebuttal to conservative criticism of Barack Obama: RAAAAACISM!! Waldman's piece is particularly odious in how it gives pass to the truly reprehensible racism of Professor Bell. And even more, the guy misrepresents the people he attempts to criticize, as Dan Riehl notes, "Paul Waldman at The American Prospect Shouldn't Misrepresent My Work":

All Waldman does in response is spew nonsense, ridiculous charges and misrepresentations. Only Waldman and others on the left would suggest this is about trying to tell white people blacks are out to get them. Bell's thinking as embodied in Critical Race Theory is obvious and easily understood.

I have called Bell a racialist, not a racist, though any race should see him as that. His position was, any race will always and forever act in group think and out of a race-based self-interest over any other race. Consequently, every multi-racial society must be inherently racist, because the majority will act without interest in, or concern for any minortiy race residing within it.

I reject that short-sighted thinking and put my faith in individual liberty, not race-based liberty. The argument we're having is no more complex than that. There is nothing nutty, racist, or evil in understanding Bell's thinking and asking to what extent it may have influenced Barack Obama's thinking, and to what degree it still may. If anything is cause for concern, it should be Obama and the left's failure and fear as regards even engaging this debate honestly.

Exactly. But again, all the left can do is lash out with allegations of RAAAACISM!! It's a pathetic smokescreen for their own truly sick  and racist --- and I do mean racist --- critical race paradigm.

See John Podhoretz for more on that, "Derrick Bell in 1994: ‘Jewish Neoconservative Racists’" (via Memeorandum). And Robert Stacy McCain picks up on that with a beefy entry, "Explosive: Obama’s Mentor Derrick Bell on ‘Jewish Neoconservative Racists’."

So, yeah, Sarah Palin is absolutely correct. President Obama and his progressive defenders are taking us back to an earlier era of racial castes and race hatred. It's awful.

The Lies of Soledad O'Brien

I'm not convinced that Soledad O'Brien is ignorant of critical race theory and that perhaps production assistants were reading Wikipedia into her earpiece. But there's no doubt that she's aggressively lying about the genuine ideological program of critical race theorists. I read "Faces at the Bottom of the Well" years ago. The book's a collection of Bell's essays and it lays out the thesis that the civil rights movement was basically a sham allowing whites to claim race progress while continuing the subjugation of blacks. The theory argues that the law is an institutional structure of the racist state. The giveaway is how hard O'Brien attempts to smack down Joel Pollak. And she does appear to stumble when defining the theory. It looks like a canned response. But she was an acolyte of Bell, so the actual degree of knowledge is less important than her program of artifice. It's really, really reprehensible.

The folks at Breitbart.com are all over this. Most closely related to the point I'm raising is Dan Riehl's essay, "Derrick Bell: Liberal Whites Are Oppressors."

But check Jeff Goldstein, who brings the heat, "“The Vetting: CNN Implodes Over Breitbart’s Obama/Bell Video”":

We don’t need to apologize for vetting Barack Obama. We don’t need to let Soledad O’Brien try to redefine and neuter critical race theory and dissemble about what its aims were. We don’t need to fear smirking innuendo that, because we have actually read and understood what “theorists” like Professor Bell advocate, we are somehow pasty racist pussies afeared of the revenge of Mandigo.

We are allowed to reject those premises — and rather than take the easy way out and try to avoid being put into positions where thinly-veiled accusations of racism are levied against us (we’re still being counseled to watch what we say, so as not to draw the attentions of those whose very goal it is to comb our political speech for snippets they can remove from context and use to create false narratives about what we believe, which they pin back on us) — we need to make our political opponents express their indictments directly, and then beat them back forcefully until they come to understand that the ease with which they launch these smears has the consequence that the public recognizes just how cynical and disingenuous and ideologically motivated they are.

In any case, check Breitbart's homepage for all the updates. Here's this, for example, "Obama Assigned Reading: Bell Says Whites Might Enslave Blacks."

BONUS: "Obama Assigned Bell at University of Chicago Law School."

'Surrender'

My youngest boy still loves just about anything that comes on my channel, 100.3 The Sound LA. And Cheap Trick came on just as I was taking him to school yesterday morning. We heard "Surrender" a week ago or so as well, so my boy says, "turn it up"! (He's a little rocker.)

I can dig it.

I'll have more later tonight.

Breitbart's Bombshell: Obama Harvard Protest Tapes (VIDEO)

From Doug Ross, "The Vetting of Obama begins: Breitbart reveals video of young Obama embracing racial eliminationist Derrick Bell."

And from Joel Pollak, at Big Government, "Obama: 'Open Up Your Hearts and Minds' to Racialist Prof." And John Nolte, at Big Journalism, "Ben Smith on Obama Harvard Tapes: Nothing to See Here."

Also at Marooned in Marin, "Hannity Plays College Tape Of Obama Hugging Radical Professor, Obama's Mentor Boasts "We Hid This," Rec'd Visit From Pres. Last Summer." And from Michelle Horstman, "A Few Fun Facts About Professor Derrick Bell Jr."

FLASHBACK: From Campaign '08: "Professor Obama's Radical Syllabus."

Black Students, Especially Boys, Face Much Harsher Discipline in Public Schools, Department of Education Report Claims

All this really tells us is how f-ked up our public discussion of public schools has become. I listened to Secretary Duncan at the clip and there's literally zero emphasis on personal and family responsibility, and then UC Berkeley's Professor Christopher Edley piles on about how "racist" this all is, because suspending students means they aren't in class to learn, blah, blah. No, these kids are getting disciplined in the first place because they're disrupting classes so badly that teachers can't teach and no one can learn. And that's why these students face "harsher" punishment, which when translated into the civil rights victimology jargon, is allegedly "disparate treatment," and then voila!, problem students' parents can sue the school, keep their kids in classes, and it all starts over again!

See the New York Times, "Black Students Face More Discipline, Data Suggests."

Althouse has a problem with the racial victimology here:

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan characterized these findings as a "civil rights" problem, a violation of "the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise." But what is the real problem here? Is it believed that the teachers are racially prejudiced? Are there "white" (or middle class) standards of behavior that are used unfairly to judge and punish black children? Are there female standards of behavior that are used to judge boys?

These are very uncomfortable and disturbing statistics, and the solutions are far from clear. But certainly, you can't even out the numbers by going after white kids. There needs to be one set of rules and individuals must be treated as individuals, based on what they did. That's a "principle of equity" that cannot be abandoned.

More at the link.

And out of all of those cited above, I'll bet I'm the only one commenting from personal experience --- I have these kinds of students in my classes, and they're disciplined more often because they cause the most problems. It's not racist and it's not a civil rights problem. It's a breakdown of society problem.

PREVIOUSLY: "Realities of Higher Education in California," and "Volunteers at Community Colleges? Of Course Not, That Would Threaten the Power of California's Educational Administrative Commissariat."

Michelle Malkin: 'This is all about Alinskyite control of who tells the story'

Michelle has just been on fire lately!

Via Daley Gator, "The Vetting: In 1991, Obama Protested in Support of Racialist Havard Professor."

More video at The Right Scoop, "Malkin: We will NOT just shrug our shoulders at Obama’s radical connections."

Sean Hannity Exclusive: Unedited 1991 Video of Barack Obama Embracing Radical Views of Harvard Professor Derrick Bell

I was looking forward to this program all day yesterday. Twitter was on fire with all kinds of #Breitbart tweeting.

Super Tuesday Reinforces GOP Divide

At Wall Street Journal, "Republican Split Decision: Romney Had a Good Night but Santorum Has Cause to Fight On."

Republican elites are aching to declare this race over and take aim at Mr. Obama. The fear is that the intraparty debate is hurting the GOP brand and the image of the candidates. Some of that is inevitable in any primary campaign, but November is a long way off and the American public hasn't concluded that Mr. Obama deserves another term.

The hand-wringing is fruitless in any case. The voters are in charge and their split decision shows that Republicans still haven't settled on a standard-bearer.

See also John Avlon and Ben Jacobs, at The Daily Beast, "No Clear Path to Victory for Romney" (via Memeorandum).

Progressives Attack Alleged Conservative 'Sluts' With Impunity: Political Fallout Hits Only Commentators On the Right

Freakin' double progressive standards.

Some video first.

Below is the disgusting hate-talker Ed Schultz. If Bill Maher takes the cake for progressive anti-conservative misogyny, the chunky MSNBC hack is right up there on the awards platform for the silver medal.

And see Michelle Malkin for a report, "The War on Conservative Women" (via Memeorandum):

I’m sorry Rush Limbaugh called 30-year-old Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a “slut.” She’s really just another professional femme-a-gogue helping to manufacture a false narrative about the GOP “war on women.” I’m sorry the civility police now have an opening to demonize the entire right based on one radio comment — because it’s the progressive left in this country that has viciously and systematically slimed female conservatives for their beliefs.
We have the well-worn battle scars to prove it. And no, we don’t need coddling phone calls from the pandering president of the United States to convince us to stand up and fight.

At his first press conference of the year on Tuesday, the Nation’s Concern Troll explained that he phoned Fluke to send a message to his daughters and all women that they shouldn’t be “attacked or called horrible names because they are being good citizens.” After inserting himself into the fray and dragging Sasha and Malia into the debate, Obama then told a reporter he “didn’t want to get into the business of arbitrating” language and civility. Too late, pal.

The fact is, “slut” is one of the nicer things I’ve been called over 20 years of public life. In college during the late 1980s, it was “race traitor,” “coconut” (brown on the outside white on the inside) and “white man’s puppet.” After my first book, “Invasion,” came out in 2001, it was “immigrant-hater,” the “Radical Right’s Asian Pitbull,” “Tokyo Rose” and “Aunt Tomasina.” In my third book, 2005′s “Unhinged,” I published entire chapters of hate mail rife with degrading, unprintable sexual epithets and mockery of my Filipino heritage.

If I had a dollar for every time libs have called me a “Manila whore” and “Subic Bay bar girl,” I’d be able to pay for a ticket to a Hollywood-for-Obama fundraiser. To the HuffPo left, whore is my middle name.

Michelle's got links at the post, and examples of Ed Schultz's attacks, so continue reading.

And see Nick Gillespie, "It's Like Totally Different When a Liberal Blowhard Guy Calls a Conservative Woman a Twat!" (at Memeorandum).

Jessica Simpson Nude, Pregnant for 'Elle' Cover

Well, I used to post a lot of Jessica Simpson Rule 5, but not lately, for obvious reasons. But here she is taking it all off for some nude and pregnant publicity, so here you go for the curiosity angle.

See USA Today, "Jessica Simpson poses nude, pregnant for 'Elle' mag."

And Us Magazine, "Whoa! Pregnant Jessica Simpson Poses Nude, Says She's Having Girl."

RELATED: At New York Post, "Jessica: It’s a girl!"

Progressives Attack Actor Kirk Cameron for Alleged Anti-Gay 'Hate Speech'

Well, this is a huge surprise! Huge!

At ABC News, "Exclusive: Kirk Cameron Responds to Critics, 'Hate Speech'."

And at WND, "Kirk Cameron Fires Back."

You just don't hear this stuff that much these days. And amazing segment:

Sarah Palin Won't Rule Out Presidential Campaign in Case of Open Convention

At Telegraph UK, "Sarah Palin refuses to rule out presidential run saying 'anything's possible'."

And at CNN, "Palin on open convention: Anything is possible."

RELATED: You gotta read this one from yesterday morning, "Super Wednesday: GOP establishment lays down the law to the right."

And from Robert Stacy McCain, "If You Think Mitt Romney Is ‘Electable’…"

Mitt Romney Wins Ohio GOP Primary: Long Campaign for Convention Delegates Remains

Well, that was a genuine nail-biter.

CNN held off until the end of the night before projecting at winner, and by that time reporter Candy Crowley was snarking on Twitter that Mitt Romney was already asleep.

See Washington Post, "Romney wins the grand prize of Ohio."

And at Wall Street Journal, "Romney Extends His Lead With Ohio Win":

Mitt Romney eked out a narrow win in Ohio and extended his delegate lead on Super Tuesday, but voters failed to deliver a decisive victory that could have brought a swift end to the Republican nominating contest.

Mr. Romney notched wins in Ohio, Massachusetts, Idaho, Virginia and Vermont, while Newt Gingrich took Georgia and Rick Santorum won Tennessee, Oklahoma and North Dakota. Alaska returns were the last tallied.

The down-to-the-wire contest in the important battleground of Ohio illustrated both Mr. Romney's vulnerabilities as a front-runner and his organization's capacity to beat back a stiff challenge. Mr. Romney had a four-to-one advantage in TV and radio advertising.

Each of the top candidates showed strength, as expected, in friendly territory—Mr. Romney in the Northeast, including Massachusetts, where he had served as governor, and Mr. Gingrich in the state he represented in Congress. In winning Tennessee and Oklahoma, Mr. Santorum carried states where his social conservatism had been expected to resonate.

The returns came as voters turned out for primaries and caucuses in 10 Super Tuesday contests packed with consequence for all four of the major GOP presidential candidates.

Tuesday was billed as a test of Mr. Romney's national reach as the party's front-runner, as well as a measure of whether Mr. Gingrich or Mr. Santorum would emerge as his toughest challenger.

Mr. Santorum now has a strong claim to that role after winning at least three states and battling to a close second in Ohio. Outside of Georgia, Mr. Gingrich finished no better than third place on Tuesday.

Continue reading.

The Romney campaign is preparing for a continued slog to the nomination.

See also Los Angeles Times, "Mitt Romney wins key Ohio battle: Narrowly edges Rick Santorum in victory."

'I Will Follow'

Dana Loesch tweeted this on the day we lost Andrew:

Realities of Higher Education in California

I mentioned previously that the community colleges are going to a "rationing" model for educational access, putting a priority on class registration for students who're making normative time toward a degree or university transfer. There's actually a jumble of factors that have gotten us to this point, and a good many of those are not budgetary. So I'm interested to see this editorial at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, which really gets to the nub of a lot of the issues facing the public higher education system, especially for those demographics with limited economic means. See, "Cost of Ignorance - I'll Prepared Students a Burden for Colleges":

Budget cuts have forced California's public colleges and universities to make tough choices about how to continue to serve students. They are cutting back on classes, limiting enrollment and raising tuition. And one reason is the cost of the remedial education they have to provide.

For example, fully 90 percent of students who enter Long Beach Community College need remedial classes in math and English. That dismal number comes despite efforts by the Long Beach Unified School District, which does more than most to ensure students' success, and its partners at CSULB and LBCC to prepare students for college.

Called the Long Beach College Promise, the program guaranteed LBUSD graduates admission to California State University Long Beach if they met the minimum requirements for college. Now, under a plan being discussed by CSU officials, the bottom 10 percent of those students would have to take remedial courses at LBCC before they could be admitted.

Given the elimination of tens of millions of dollars in funding for CSU and UC schools, the days of guaranteeing the lowest performers a place in the classroom could be over, and rightly so....

The reality of higher education is that less money is available as more students compete for scarce spots. The other reality is that far too many high school graduates can't read and write and do math. That puts an unnecessary burden on community colleges, which have to offer far too many remedial classes.

Volunteers at Community Colleges? Of Course Not, That Would Threaten the Power of California's Educational Administrative Commissariat

I had to share this letter to the editor at the Orange County Register, "No volunteers at community colleges." The author, Richard Callahan, is retired finance executive with over 40 years in the private sector. He's taught business classes at UCLA and other universities, and he's offered his time free of charge to private colleges. But when he approached some of the community colleges to offer his services, he was given a cold shoulder and sent packing. Be sure to read it all. I thought his conclusion was a devastating indictment:

With my apologies to the majority of the public school teachers who are hard working and dedicated, our public education system today is inwardly focused, protectionist, money driven and broken.

The system is run by politicians, unions and administrators whose apparent goal is to extract the maximum amount of funds from the taxpayer. Instead of educating children to function and excel in society, they are molded into a society of underachieving conformists who will give up their liberty and acquiesce to the government’s power and authority while devoting more of their personal resources, particularly financial, to expanding government.

I've recently written a couple of times about my dealing with the crushing bureaucratic totalitarianism at my college. Oh, boy, if only I'd known 15 years ago what I know today, but then again, you live and learn and become wiser. Let's just say that I'm facing a lot of restraints on the job, and these are the kind that are frankly political and ideological in nature --- and the administrative bosses fit perfectly into that power-hungry template outlined by Mr. Callahan above. What's depressing is that all the stuff you hear about driving out the best and the brightest from the public schools is true, or at least in my case, if I decide on the earliest retirement possible because of what's essentially a hostile workplace environment. It's pretty ridiculous. In any case, at some point I'll be able to tell the full story on all of this, but not yet, not just yet.

Meanwhile, heading back over to the O.C. Register, hear's another primer on the corruption of power in the public realm. From the editors, "Bound Up."

PREVIOUSLY: "What Has America Become?"

In the Mail: Should Israel Exist?: A Sovereign Nation Under Attack by the International Community

I started reading it last night, from Michael Curtis, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Rutgers University.

Check it out at the link.

I'm very pleased with it, and I've just started. Professor Curtis really calls out the global left's genocidal campaign against Israel and the Jews. This work is on par with Melanie Phillips', and Curtis is an academic. An amazing contrast to Mearsheimer and Walt, and no doubt those two thugs will be making an appearance in these pages.

I'll update when I have more.

Ohio Is Biggest Prize in Today's Super Tuesday Primaries

See the Los Angeles Times, "In Ohio, voters share unease about the future":

Reporting from Dayton, Ohio— In the fading evening light, Jeff Snider played catch in the middle of the street with his 14-year-old son, the baseball thwacking their mitts. They stepped out of the way and waved when cars passed. The friendly neighborhoods in hilly Oakwood, a picture-perfect suburb nestled against Dayton, belong in a brochure for the American Dream. But the tranquillity hides a churning discontent.

A lanky high school math teacher, Snider worries about the mortgage and the cost of sending four children to college. He's dismayed by the federal debt, unhappy that the bank bailout "benefited people with huge, huge salaries," irritated that politicians cater to the rich and the poor but not the middle class, and distressed "big time" by the nation's division into hostile political camps.

In this season of political promises, the 44-year-old had a crisp response to whether he believed the country was headed in the right direction, or the wrong one. "No direction," he pronounced. "I look at the candidates running for president, and I say, 'That's the best they can do?' "

For almost a decade, as manufacturing jobs ebbed and cities shrank, Ohioans have told pollsters they are discouraged about the fate of the nation, putting them at the head of the pessimism curve. Even as Super Tuesday's 10 contests — with Ohio the key battleground — arrived with undercurrents of an economic revival, interviews with voters in the Dayton area found that deep anxieties remain.

Continue reading.

And at the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, "Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum make one last run at Ohio voters before Super Tuesday":

Ohio, where polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., is one of 10 states holding nominating contests today. But far and wide it is being watched as a decisive prize in a primary season that has gone on longer than many anticipated. The Buckeye State awards 66 delegates to the Republican National Convention and remains a top electoral target in the fall.

Also, from Dan Riehl at Big Government, "Super Tuesday Preview." And from Erin McPike and Scott Conroy at RCP, "How the Super Tuesday States Shape Up."

Andrew Breitbart Speech at Ground Zero Mosque Protest, September 11, 2010

Via Atlas Shrugs:

That speech was shown on the rally's Jumbotron large-screen via live video feed.

It was one heckuva day: "Faith, Freedom, and Memory: Report From Ground Zero, September 11, 2010."

Ezra Levant Remembers Andrew Breitbart

Via Blazing Cat Fur:

Natan Sharansky AIPAC Video

Awesome!

Michele Bachmann on Rush Limbaugh Attacks: 'I Have Never Seen This Level of Outrage On the Left'

No, you don't get this bullsh*t when progressive hacks smear conservative women.

Rep. Bachmann hits it out of the park:

And see Dana Loesch, at Big Journalism, "Where's My Presidential Phone Call?"

BONUS: At Michelle Malkin's, "The anti-Rush revival revived — and Barack Obama’s petty presidency."

Sandra Fluke Law Review Article Argued for Mandatory Health Coverage of 'Gender Reassignment' Surgery

At The Other McCain, "Sandra Fluke Argued for Mandatory Coverage for Sex-Change Surgery."

Congratualations, America: You’ve been scammed!

Following the link takes us to College Politico, although the server's crashed with all the attention. Here's the Memeorandum link, and check Media Research Center as well: "Sandra Fluke, Gender Reassignment, and Health Insurance."

RELATED: From Dan Riehl, at Big Journalism, "The Left's eWar On Rush."

And see Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary, "Despite Gaffe, Limbaugh Won’t Be Silenced."

Sandra Fluke Rejects Rush Limbaugh Apology

The Fluke rejection is at Breitbart, "Fluke Snubs Rush Apology: 'Read Media Matters'," and NewsBusters, "Sandra Fluke Refuses to Accept Rush Limbaugh Apology."

It's all over Memorandum, as well.

And here's Rush Limbaugh, "Why I Apologized to Sandra Fluke" (via Memeorandum).

And ICYMI, see William Jacobson, "Welcome to Total Political War."

News reports indicate that up to a dozen advertisers have now pulled their ads from Limbaugh's show. I'll be looking around for more information on that and will update.

Obama at AIPAC

I've got the whole speech below.

And here's the report at New York Times, "Obama Tells Aipac He Won't Tolerate a Nuclear Iran." (At Memeorandum.)

Obama gets a lot of polite applause, but there's a few lines went over flat. Commentary is the go-to website this morning on AIPAC, for example, "What’s Missing From Obama’s AIPAC Speech? Red Lines on Iran and Palestinians," and "White House Official: We’re Making Israel’s Decision to Attack Iran “Hard as Possible”."

Meanwhile, UCLA's Barbara Efraim is at AIPAC at tweeting all day. Check it out.

Will Super Tuesday Put Republicans at Ease?

Well, Tuesday's the big day, and frankly, the candidates are all over the map, literally. Ohio's the big prize for either Romney or Santorum, but Georgia also key, since Newt Gingrich is resting his final hopes there.

I'll have more on all of this. Meanwhile, at Los Angeles Times, "Republicans grow anxious for primary race to end":

After a dozen contests, 20 debates and the prospect of weeks or even months of continued skirmishing, there is a growing clamor among Republicans to bring the presidential nomination race to a close for fear of hopelessly damaging the party's chances against President Obama.

Republicans designed their plan for picking a nominee to test their candidates with a longer, more grueling campaign. But the move threatens to backfire in favor of a Democratic incumbent who has gained strength as the increasingly nasty GOP contest has worn on.

"There's been plenty of preliminaries," said Curt Steiner, a Republican strategist in Ohio, the most important of the nearly dozen states voting this week on Super Tuesday. "It's time to focus on the general election."

Steiner backs Mitt Romney, so it's no surprise he would like to end the primary season with the former Massachusetts governor ahead, if still far short of the 1,144 convention delegates needed to secure the nomination. Sending a signal from Washington, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia on Sunday announced his endorsement of Romney ahead of his state's Tuesday primary.

It's not just Romney backers, though, who worry about the toll of a prolonged and increasingly nasty contest.

"The campaign has become deeply personal and very negative," said Steve Schmidt, who managed Arizona Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign and is staying neutral this time. "There is no optimistic vision. It's all about stabbing the opponent."

The damage, Schmidt said, is evident in polls that show Obama gaining ground against challengers while negative views of the Republican field increase. More worrisome from the GOP perspective is the shift of political independents toward Obama and the risk of further alienating those swing voters as the discussion strays from economic issues to the merits of contraception and the separation of church and state.

"This is stuff that will do great harm to the Republican Party," Schmidt said, a view shared, quite happily, by the Obama camp.

That sounds like a lot of establishment fear-mongering to me. Let's see how it all plays out on Tuesday. Then we'll really know how this primary race will affect the GOP. If Romney's not wrapping things up there's good reason for that. He's not broadening his base of support, which so far has been the media's attack on the other challengers to frontrunner status.

That said, here's this at NBC News, "NBC/WSJ poll: Primary season takes ‘corrosive’ toll on GOP and its candidates" (via Memeorandum).

More later...

Looking Forward to the Release of the Obama Tapes

This is worth a look, from Dr. Sanity, "Maybe Obama's Past With With Ayers Will Be Revisited After All."

And the rollout has begun, at Breitbart's Big Government, "The Vetting, Part I: Barack's Love Song to Alinsky."

And it's all over Memeorandum.

As I've been saying, it's going to be a big week.

Newt Gingrich Turns Tables On the 'Elite Media'

This is a phenomenal clip, via William Jacobson:

The Race Card is the Most Effective Tool the Democrat Media Complex Has

From the forthcoming documentary, "Runaway Slave":

'Warning to America'

An outstanding interview with Britain's Liam Fox at the Heritage Foundation, via Big Government:

RELATED: At New York Times, "China Boosts Military Spending by Double Digits."

Vladimir Putin Wins Russia's Presidential Election Amid Allegations of Vote-Rigging and Ballot Fraud

At Toronto's Globe and Mail, "Vladimir Putin declares ‘open and honest victory’ in Russian elections." And Telegraph UK, "Russia election: Tearful Vladimir Putin declares victory":

Vladimir Putin declared victory in Russia's presidential election Sunday night, but his historic win was overshadowed by widespread reports of vote-rigging and ballot fraud.

Addressing a rally outside the Kremlin, Mr Putin had tears rolling down his cheeks as he claimed he had won an "open and honest battle" and secured "clear victory" over his four rivals.

Early results suggested he had won more than 63 per cent of the vote, enough to avoid a run-off against another of the candidates and deliver him an unprecedented third term.

However, he faces mass protests after opposition activists said they had recorded more than 4,000 instances of alleged vote-rigging and malpractice that rendered the contest illegitimate.

They promised to bring tens of thousands of people on to the streets on Monday after claims that the regime had sought to guarantee victory by transporting groups of supporters around multiple polling stations to vote several times over.

However, as he spoke to an estimated crowd of 100,000 outside the Kremlin, Mr Putin, who was flanked by the outgoing president, Dmitry Medvedev, insisted: "We have won in an open and honest battle.

"I promised you we would win, we won. Glory to Russia!"

His voice hoarse with emotion he added: "We showed that no one and nothing can tell us what to do. We were able to save ourselves from political provocations that have just one aim: to overturn the Russian state and usurp power. Such attempts will not succeed on our land. They won't succeed!"

And check Russia Today, "Video: Teary-eyed Putin addresses 110,000 crowd near Kremlin."

Plus, at the New York Times, "Putin Wins Vote but Faces More Friction With Opponents."

Tina Korbe Handicaps Super Tuesday

Well, besides her Santorum interview at CPAC, I haven't seen a lot of clips of Tina Korbe, but Robert Stacy McCain mentioned that she might have gotten her Hot Air gig on looks alone (or mostly looks). So, what do you think? Is she a crack political analyst?

Not bad, I'd say, although I can see the point that Hot Air perhaps needed to extend the bench a bit to look more, ahem, attractive for those booking slots on Hannity, O'Reilly, and CNN. Maybe that's politically incorrect, but Ms. Korbe might want to set up her Skype interviews with some bookshelves in the back. That would look, let's say, more scholarly.

Basic Combat Training Rule 5

Well, my good friend Dana at First Street Journal has been Rule 5 blogging, and he gets first mention tonight.

See: "Rule 5 Blogging: Basic Rifle Marksmanship."

Plus, more at Astute Bloggers, "LOVELY BRIT ROSIE ROFF IS GUARANTEED NOT HALAL, BUT IN 18 YEARS IT WILL LIKELY BE ANOTHER STORY."

And see American Perspectives, "Miranda Kerr - Rule 5," and Maggie's Notebook, "Rule 5 Saturday Night: Joanna and Marta Krupa."

More at Pirate's Cove, "If All You See…is an evil fossil fueled airplane, you might just be a Warmist."

More still, at Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart: Jenna Webb." And Proof Positive, "The Women of PETA XXXI."

And at Gator's, "DaleyGator DaleyBabe Elisabetta Canalis," and The Last Tradition, "Helen Flanagan: I love to show off my figure but as for going topless... I'll save that for my boyfriend."

That's all the links I've got right now.

Add yours in the comments and I'll update. Thanks.

CNN Attacks Andrew Breitbart Hours After His Death

If you haven't been over there yet, the Breitbart "Bigs" got a huge makeover today, and John Nolte has this, at Big Journalism:

What an honor it was to work for a man like Andrew Breitbart, a man so uncommonly decent that those who would seek to defame him in the hours directly after his death would only have complete and utter falsehoods to work with.

I'm looking at you, CNN.

Thursday, in private, we reached out to CNN, with the request that they correct the record. Since they have made the choice to let their falsehoods stand, we are now publicly requesting CNN make a full retraction.

Just hours after his death, during two different segments, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux and Howard Kurtz epitomized everything Andrew Breitbart dedicated his life to fighting: the intentional furthering of completely false narratives; the attacking of people unable to defend themselves (which, sadly, is the position Andrew is in today), and the repeating of that which isn't true until it "becomes" true.

This first clip with Malveaux aired Thursday morning at right around 11:25 ET. Please watch and listen closely:

More at the link, and go surf around over at the new Breitbart homepage.

It's going to be a big week.