California Voters Back November Ballot Measure to Raise Taxes on 'Wealthy'

Well, actually, the poll finds two-thirds support for raising taxes on "high earners," but for the progressives and unions who browbeat Governor Brown, it's actually a classic soak-the-rich scheme.

See the Los Angeles Times, "Strong majority backs Jerry Brown's tax-hike initiative":

California voters strongly support Gov. Jerry Brown's new proposal to increase the sales tax and raise levies on upper incomes to help raise money for schools and balance the state's budget, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.

Sixty-four percent of those surveyed said they supported the governor's measure, which he hopes to place on the November ballot. It would hike the state sales tax by a quarter-cent per dollar for the next four years and create a graduated surcharge on incomes of more than $250,000 that would last seven years. A third of respondents opposed the measure.

Brown's new plan, rewritten recently amid pressure from liberal activist and union groups that had a competing proposal, relies on a larger share of revenue from upper-income earners than his original measure. Correspondingly, it leans less upon sales taxes, which are paid by all California consumers. The poll shows that taxing high earners is overwhelmingly popular.

"These poll results illustrate that Brown was very smart to put together this initiative the way he did," said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.

Shirley Karns, 74, an independent voter from the Northern California town of Lakeport who backs the governor's new plan, said the wealthy should pay more.

"Those who have an unbelievable amount more than those who do not should contribute more," she said. "And on the sales tax, the more you buy, the more you pay. It's pretty tough on low-income people who have to pay an extra nickel here and there, but we've got to get the money from somewhere."

Brown reached a deal with a coalition led by the California Federation of Teachers to tweak his tax measure. In exchange, the group dropped its rival proposal — also aimed at the November ballot — which would have increased levies exclusively on incomes of more than $1 million.

See what I mean? The Governor's earlier proposal would have taxed folks making more than $1 million a year, which is more in the "wealthy" neighborhood than $250 thousand annually. My wife and I cleared $150 thousand on our taxes for 2011, and I'll tell you, money's been tight. But the left's constant class warfare agenda has successfully defined down who's "wealthy," according to a Gallup poll out late last year: "Americans Set "Rich" Threshold at $150,000 in Annual Income."

Meanwhile, public employees continue to live like Bourbon royalty. See CBS Sacramento, "California Public Employees Highest Paid of Any State."

I'll have more later. Recall that executives at the California State University continue to pull down huge salaries and bonuses, while classes are being cut at CSU, and elsewhere layoffs are being threatened around the state. See: "Cal State University Executive Pay Scandal."

I'll be more sympathetic to tax hikes when I see public officials using public funds with greater care and judiciousness.

The Fight for Freedom

From the Heritage Foundation:

Three Reasons to End ObamaCare

Via Theo Spark:

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Seeks Shift by Hamas for Co-Existence With Israel

I'll believe it when I see it.

At New York Times, "Islamist Victors in Egypt Seeking Shift by Hamas":

CAIRO — As it prepares to take power in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is overhauling its relations with the two main Palestinian factions in an effort to put new pressure on Israel for an independent Palestinian state.

Officials of the Brotherhood, Egypt’s dominant Islamist movement, are pressing its militant Palestinian offshoot, Hamas, which controls Gaza, to make new compromises with Fatah, the Western-backed Palestinian leadership that has committed to peace with Israel and runs the West Bank.

The intervention in the Palestinian issue is the clearest indication yet that as it moves into a position of authority, the Brotherhood, the largest vote getter in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, intends to both moderate its positions on foreign policy and reconfigure Egypt’s.

Brotherhood officials say that they are pulling back from their previous embrace of Hamas and its commitment to armed struggle against Israel in order to open new channels of communications with Fatah, which the Brotherhood had previously denounced for collaborating with Israel and accused of selling out the Palestinian cause. Brotherhood leaders argue that if they persuade the Palestinians to work together with a newly assertive Egypt, they will have far more success forcing Israel to bargain in earnest over the terms of statehood.

“Now we have to deal with the Palestinian parties as an umbrella for both of them, and we have to stand at an equal distance from each,” said Reda Fahmy, a Brotherhood leader who oversees its Palestinian relations and is now chairman of the Arab affairs committee in Egypt’s upper house of Parliament. “Any movement of the size of the Muslim Brotherhood, when it is in the opposition it is one thing and then when it comes to power it is something completely different.”

The shift in the Brotherhood’s stance toward neutrality between Hamas and Fatah — acknowledged by officials of both groups — may relieve United States policy makers, who have long worried about the Brotherhood’s relationship with the more militant Hamas. The United States considers the Palestinian group to be a terrorist organization. But the shift in Egypt’s policies may unnerve Israel, because it is a move away from former President Hosni Mubarak’s exclusive support for the Western-backed Fatah movement and its commitment to the peace process. Israeli officials have said they will not negotiate with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas.

But Mr. Fahmy said the Brotherhood believed that Palestinian unity could break the deadlock in talks with Israel. “A Palestinian negotiator will go the table and know that all the Palestinian people are supporting his project,” Mr. Fahmy said.  “This will be a huge change and very important to both sides.” Jailed at times by the Mubarak government for his role in the Brotherhood, Mr. Fahmy spoke this month from an ornate hall of Parliament.

I'm skeptical, frankly.

According to Gallup, more Egyptians favor the 1979 peace treaty with Israel than oppose, although the numbers are down by more than 10 percent from before the revolution. See: "Egyptians Sour on U.S., Eye Closer Ties to Turkey, Iran: Perceptions of Peace Treaty with Israel steady."

But see Barry Rubin, "Egypt is a Volcano, The West Snoozes, But Israel Won't Play the Role of Pompeii":

Reality: Those who are, or will soon be, governing Egypt view themselves as being at war with Israel for all practical purposes.  It matters relatively little that there is still a peace treaty. In Cairo, there are no thoughts of peace.

This is the second biggest disaster of the “Arab Spring.” The same applies to the Egyptian government’s attitude to the United States. That is the biggest disaster.

It is a disaster that U.S. policymakers and journalists have not even begun to recognize, much less counter.

Well, there you go.

Continue reading at the link.

Marijuana Growers Cultivating More Potent Pot, Smooth and Aromatic, the Kind Expected by Ever-More Discriminating Buyers

You know, you'd think the editors at the Los Angeles Times like to bogart some fat ones, or something.

See, "'Master growers' cultivating a higher grade of marijuana":

Behind the bolted steel doors of an old brick warehouse, Big Wes meets a nutrient company scientist to see if he can increase his crop yield. Rows of hydroponic marijuana plants soak up solution flowing through plastic troughs and light blazing from high-pressure sodium lamps.

Big Wes has spent more than half his life calibrating his system of growing high-grade marijuana to its utmost efficiency. At 50 years old, he harvests a crop of dozens of plants every week from five rented warehouses scattered along the rutted streets and alleys around the docks of Oakland.

His problem is that OG Kush, the ultra-popular strain he specializes in, produces notoriously low yields of bud per plant. For this reason the scientist has come with a nutrient solution made from deep-sea algae, which he promises will boost the output. Big Wes — who asked that his real name or certain identifying traits not be revealed because his career could land him in federal prison — is going to test it against his usual concoction, and try 15 different combinations of the two.

Big Wes is new breed of cultivator, a "master grower" who produces marijuana that is potent and mold-free, tastes smooth and has a pleasing aroma — the kind of product now expected by ever-more discriminating consumers who frequent medical cannabis dispensaries.

He and others like him have revolutionized weed in recent years, growing sophisticated new varietals with scientific precision and assembly-line efficiency. Their expanding role in the burgeoning industry is shifting cultivation from clandestine rural plots to highly controlled indoor grows in urban centers.

"It's kind of becoming the big leagues now," said Kyle Kushman, a writer for High Times magazine and a grower who teaches organic and "veganic" cultivation classes. "Just like any other industry, as it gets older, the talent gets better."

No mention of who are those patrons visiting the "dispensaries." I'll bet they look more like Wiz Khalifa than some old run-down hospital patients.

This whole "medical marijuana" thing is a f-king scam. Let's just be out with it: The legalization movement is for recreational drug users, and the culture is moving towards legalization. Seriously. The Times' story is on the front page, with a full-color photograph of blooming, booming high-grade buds. So quit with the bulls-t about medical users, blah, blah. Regular folks just want to get stoned, so proponents should stop lying about it.

PREVIOUSLY: "Pot Backers' Ballot Effort in Disarray in California."

BONUS: California voters defeated Prop. 19 in 2010, and polls showed just under half of all voters opposing the measure. But nationwide, there's been a trend toward increasing acceptance of legalization. See Gallup from last October: "Record-High 50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana Use."

More later...

Trayvon Martin Case Threatens Race War in America

Well, I can't recall this much racial recrimination since the O.J. Simpson trial.

See Jason at The Western Experience, "The Trayvon Martin Narrative Changes Suddenly: Witnesses Say Martin Beat Up Zimmerman Before Being Shot."

And William Jacobson, "Spike Lee didn’t “Do the right thing”" (via Memeorandum). (And see my post from yesterday, "Progressives Tweet George Zimmerman's Address, Issue Death Threats.")

But progressives have their meme, and they're sticking with it. See The New Yorker, "Emmett Till in Sanford":

The killing of Trayvon Martin nearly went down the memory hole. He had just turned seventeen when he was shot dead late last month in Sanford, Florida. His killer, a neighborhood-watch volunteer named George Zimmerman, was not even arrested. Zimmerman told the police that he had fired his nine-millimetre handgun in self-defense. The police actually knew better. They knew that Trayvon Martin had been unarmed. They knew that Zimmerman, who is twenty-eight, outweighed Martin by more than a hundred pounds. They knew, because Zimmerman had called them when he spotted a “black male” in a gated townhouse community, that Martin had been on foot while Zimmerman tracked him in his S.U.V., and that Zimmerman had ignored the police dispatcher’s request that he stop following Martin. And yet self-defense is a potent claim under a 2005 Florida law known as “Stand Your Ground.” “If we arrest, we open ourselves to a lawsuit,” said Sergeant Dave Morgenstern, of the Sanford Police Department, presumably unaware of how pitiful (and pitiless) that sounded. Zimmerman wasn’t even tested for drugs or alcohol. Those tests were conducted on Trayvon Martin’s body, after he was sent to the medical examiner as a John Doe.

Keep reading.

And at Los Angeles Times, "Florida killing raises questions about 'stand your ground' laws."

More tomorrow, if I'm not too tired. This was a big weekend with my family as it is, but this story is literally dominating everything else in the news.

Ted Kennedy Haunts Mitt Romney’s Career

Twitchy has the headline I was looking for, "NYT: Mitt Romney haunted by flabby, inebriated ghost of Ted Kennedy."

And here's the article, "Kennedy Helped Shape Romney’s Career, and Still Haunts It":

BOSTON — When Gov. Mitt Romney signed legislation in April 2006 requiring most Massachusetts residents to have health coverage, Senator Edward M. Kennedy stood by his side, beaming like a proud father. They were onstage at historic Faneuil Hall in Boston, a setting that had a special resonance for the two.

Twelve years earlier, they shared that stage as opponents in a bitter Senate race. Back then, Mr. Romney accused Mr. Kennedy of waging “untrue, unfair and sleazy” personal attacks. Now, the Republican governor was introducing the liberal Democratic senator as “my collaborator and friend.”

Mr. Romney’s complicated relationship with Mr. Kennedy, from campaign foe to health care partner, helped shape both his political career and his image. Today, as a Republican candidate for president, he is courting conservative voters, a constituency that does not look kindly upon Mr. Kennedy or the Romney approach to health care, which will come under scrutiny again this week when the Supreme Court takes up challenges to a similar measure championed by President Obama.

But try as he might to distance himself, Mr. Romney cannot escape Mr. Kennedy’s influence. On the campaign trail, he uses the senator, who died in 2009, as a foil, denouncing Mr. Kennedy’s “liberal welfare state” policies and boasting of how Mr. Kennedy “had to take out a mortgage on his house to make sure he could defeat me.”

He has said losing to Mr. Kennedy was “the best thing” that could have happened to him, “because it put me back in the private sector.”

Mr. Romney’s attempt in 1994 to “out-Kennedy Kennedy,” as people here say, led him to take stands on issues like abortion and gay rights that he has since backed away from, giving rise to accusations that he is a flip-flopper. Mr. Kennedy’s tough campaign advertisements, which portrayed Mr. Romney as a cold-hearted financier, rattled him, and his bruising loss in the race “viscerally pained” him, one friend said.

But he emerged tougher, convinced that it is better to punch first than to counterpunch later — lessons his campaign is putting to use today.

At Reason, Peter Suderman commented earlier on the video of Romney's bill-signing in 2004, "Watch GOP Frontrunner Mitt Romney Praise Liberal Lion Ted Kennedy For His Role In Passing RomneyCare":

Despite copious evidence to back up the connection, GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney has yet to admit the link between the Massachusetts health care overhaul he signed into law as governor and the federal overhaul President Obama passed last year. You can understand why he's declined: Given that Romney is running as an establishment conservative for the Republican nomination, the friendly connection to the rival party's leader and his most prominent policy achievement would be, well, kind of awkward.

But when the Massachusetts law first took effect, Romney did praise a different prominent liberal collaborator as one of the law's "parents" whose work was "absolutely essential" to passage: former Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, a longtime universal coverage advocate whose proposed 1975 health care overhaul was ditched after the Congressional Budget Office estimated that it would cost three times what Kennedy's staff had claimed.

Well, I like Romney --- and I have no confusion that he'd be light years better than Barack Obama as president --- but let's be honest: He's not conservative, or at least, his conversion to conservatism has been exceptionally recent. See Warner Todd Huston, "Dear Conservatives: Romney Isn’t One of Us But We Still Hold The Power If…":

Romney is not conservative. Anyone that says he’s conservative is only trying to convince themselves and is willfully ignoring not only Romney’s entire executive record when he was governor of Massachusetts, but ignoring all the tell-tale signs that his current conservative-tinged campaign rhetoric is just a show to get the nomination. Romney doesn’t mean a word of what he says. But we still hold the power to force him to stay on a more or less conservative path if he wins the White House.

Continue reading.

Los Angeles Times Poll: Mitt Romney With Double-Digit Lead in California

This is hardly surprising, but California's the biggest state, and the election could well go down to the wire.

See, "California Republicans get behind Mitt Romney":

Republican voters in California have swung behind Mitt Romney, with the national presidential front-runner crushing his rivals by double digits and substantially expanding his support in the state, a new poll has found.

Romney won 42% of registered Republican voters, with his closest rival, Rick Santorum, trailing by 19 points, according to the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul were a distant third and fourth.

Romney's support has risen by 15 points since a November USC/Times poll, when Herman Cain was his closest competitor. (The former businessman has since dropped out.)

Yet there remains a palpable lack of enthusiasm for the Republican field. Half of GOP voters said they wished other candidates were running for president.

Barbara Foley, a 73-year-old Republican, said she would prefer former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio or Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin. She decided to vote for Romney by process of elimination — she says Santorum is too socially conservative, Gingrich is smart but a "loose cannon," and Paul — "well, I just think he's nuttier than a fruitcake."

"I vote the lesser of two evils, unfortunately," said the Alpine retiree, who deeply disapproves of President Obama, notably his healthcare law, and fears the nation has grown increasingly socialist under his watch. "Mitt Romney is the lesser of the evils."

Continue reading.

That "lesser of two evils" sounds pretty disappointing, actually. But Republican enthusiasm will kick back up around the time of the GOP convention, and Mitt Romney can fire up the base with a shrewd pick for the V.P. slot. (And the emphasis there is on shrewd, not reckless --- see, "Raising the Bar for Vetting a No. 2.")

Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers Debunks Democrat Scare Tactics on Women's Health

Rep. McMorris-Rodgers exposes leftist lies on the so-called "Republican war on women":

She was also on "Hardball" this week, with video at the link.

And see the Weekly Standard, "By 21-Point Margin, Americans Oppose Birth Control Mandate," and at New York Times, "President Obama’s Approval Rating Drops."

And from Robert Robb, at the Arizona Republic, "'War on women' a Dem exaggeration":

The effort by Democrats to make the case that Republicans are waging a "war on women" has been interesting to watch. As often is the case in politics, the accusation reveals more about the accuser than the accused.

At the national level, that's been the spin to try to wrest control of the flap over the Obama administration not providing an exemption for religious-affiliated institutions -- principally Catholic schools, hospitals and charities -- from its mandate that all health- insurance plans include free contraceptives.

RTWT.

BONUS: At New York Times, "On the Right, Santorum Has Women’s Vote."

Dick Cheney Recovers After Heart Transplant Surgery

I'm glad he's okay.

See the New York Times, "For Cheney, 71, New Heart Ends 20-Month Wait."

In appearances since he left office in 2009, Mr. Cheney has appeared gaunt and increasingly frail. Last August, he published an autobiography, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” written with his daughter Liz Cheney, in which he reported that a team of doctors assessed his heart condition before George W. Bush chose him as his vice-presidential running mate in 2000. He also described writing a letter of resignation shortly after taking office and giving it to his counsel, David S. Addington, to be delivered to President Bush if he were incapacitated.

In a government career with few parallels, Mr. Cheney, who was vice president for all eight years of Mr. Bush’s presidency, has been chief of staff to President Gerald R. Ford, represented Wyoming in Congress and served as defense secretary under the first President George Bush.

He is widely considered to have been among the most powerful vice presidents in American history, working behind the scenes on policies as varied as energy and counterterrorism and advocating an aggressive assertion of presidential power.

He was a lightning rod for critics of the Bush administration, and his influence as vice president during Mr. Bush’s second term was considerably diminished. But he remains revered on the political right and in the Republican Party and has been one of the Obama administration’s toughest critics, speaking out regularly despite his fragile health.

And see Lonely Conservative, "Dick Cheney Recovering from Heart Transplant, Liberals React as Expected – Updated with More Lefty Hate." And Memeorandum.

French Killer Mohamed Merah's Path to Jihadist Rampage

At the Wall Street Journal, "A French Killer's Path to Jihadist Rampage":

PARIS — The death of Mohamed Merah, the suspected French killer who met his end Thursday in a barrage of special-forces gunfire, left officials piecing together how he became the alleged homegrown terrorist behind the most violent attacks on French soil in almost two decades.

On Thursday, a more-complete picture emerged of Mr. Merah, who police say conducted seven point-blank killings in and around Toulouse over the previous 11 days.

Over recent years, according to the emerging accounts, the French citizen of Algerian descent appeared to be looking for a place to belong—seeking twice, without success, to join the French armed services.

He had also, according to his own account, sought to belong to al Qaeda. On Wednesday, as he was pinned inside a Toulouse apartment by special forces, he told a police negotiator he had trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan and in the Pakistani militant stronghold of Waziristan. Western intelligence agencies couldn't confirm his claims.

Controversy emerged Thursday over whether French authorities should have been watching Mr. Merah more closely. The U.S. put him on its no-fly list as a suspected terrorist, U.S. officials say, because in 2010 he had been in custody in Afghanistan and then sent back to France. France put him on a watch list of suspected Islamist militants, but stopped short of including him on a narrower surveillance list.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé on Thursday said authorities should investigate whether there was a failure by French intelligence gatherers. "I can't tell you what kind of failure, but we need to shed some light on that," he told French radio.

Continue reading.

Also, "French Shooting Suspect Was on U.S. No-Fly List."

New Black Panther Party Offers $10,000 Bounty for George Zimmerman, Dead or Alive

At Right Truth, "Wanted: Dead or Alive."

And Chicago Tribune, "Trayvon Martin case: New Black Panthers offer $10,000 bounty for capture of George Zimmerman."

And it was a Day of Rage yesterday at Memeorandum.

PREVIOUSLY: "Progressives Tweet George Zimmerman's Address, Issue Death Threats — 'Ima get a group of niggas to KILL George Zimmerman'."

Atheists Rally at the National Mall in Washington D.C.

At Washington Post, "Atheists rally on National Mall in show of political force."

And Reason Magazine declaims any organizational affiliations:

Reason.tv headed down to the National Mall for the Reason Rally (no affiliation!) in Washington, DC. The March 24 event was billed as the "largest gathering of the secular movement in world history" and drew a several thousand-strong crowd of damp, enthusiastic unbelievers (and a few protesting believers) to the National Mall.

Liberty and ObamaCare

More on the health care arguments coming up on Monday at the Supreme Court, from the Wall Street Journal, "The Affordable Care Act claims federal power is unlimited. Now the High Court must decide":

Few legal cases in the modern era are as consequential, or as defining, as the challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that the Supreme Court hears beginning Monday. The powers that the Obama Administration is claiming change the structure of the American government as it has existed for 225 years. Thus has the health-care law provoked an unprecedented and unnecessary constitutional showdown that endangers individual liberty.

It is a remarkable moment. The High Court has scheduled the longest oral arguments in nearly a half-century: five and a half hours, spread over three days. Yet Democrats, the liberal legal establishment and the press corps spent most of 2010 and 2011 deriding the government of limited and enumerated powers of Article I as a quaint artifact of the 18th century. Now even President Obama and his staff seem to grasp their constitutional gamble.

Consider a White House strategy memo that leaked this month, revealing that senior Administration officials are coordinating with liberal advocacy groups to pressure the Court. "Frame the Supreme Court oral arguments in terms of real people and real benefits that would be lost if the law were overturned," the memo notes, rather than "the individual responsibility piece of the law and the legal precedence [sic]." Those nonpolitical details are merely what "lawyers will be talking about."

The White House is even organizing demonstrations during the proceedings, including a "'prayerful witness' encircling the Supreme Court." The executive branch is supposed to speak to the Court through the Solicitor General, not agitprop and crowds in the streets.

The Supreme Court will not be ruling about matters of partisan conviction, or the President's re-election campaign, or even about health care at all. The lawsuit filed by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business is about the outer boundaries of federal power and the architecture of the U.S. political system.

More at the link.

And at Reason, "$2 Trillion For a Decade of Expanded Health Coverage Under ObamaCare?"

Jihad in Toulouse

From the Wall Street Journal (via Google):

Mohamed Merah died Thursday morning in a hail of bullets as he leapt from the window of his Toulouse flat, firing on the way down. During the preceding 33-hour standoff, the 23-year-old Frenchman said he wanted to die "gun in hand." Nobody should feel sorry that the authorities obliged him.

Merah began his murder spree 12 days ago when he gunned down French paratrooper Sgt. Imad Ibn Ziaten in Toulouse. Four days later he killed two more uniformed paratroopers, Cpl. Abel Chennouf and Pte. Mohamed Legouad, in nearby Montauban. On Monday Merah attacked Toulouse's Ozar Hatorah Jewish school, killing Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his two young sons Gabriel and Arieh, and seven-year-old Myriam Monsonego. What made the killings all the more grotesque was that Merah filmed them, a reminder that terrorism is, in some sense, also a form of pornography.

The reaction of the French has been commendable. Revulsion at the murder of Jewish children gives the lie to the notion that France is fundamentally anti-Semitic. Muslim leaders have lined up to condemn the killings. Security authorities have been criticized for not acting more effectively—Merah was already on a terrorist watch-list—but every free society will always be at an initial disadvantage against individual killers. "We have shown our sang-froid, our cool and our ability to overcome this kind of terrorist threat," President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday. "We must be implacable in defending our values."

Well said. Less useful was initial speculation that the killer must have been a white supremacist since he seemed to target Jews and North Africans equally—a line of thinking that seems to have been inspired by the notion that Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik represented a larger underground movement...

Check that top link to continue reading.

And from Mark Steyn, at National Review, "Lather, Rinse, and Repeat." (Yeah, it's about Islam, despite the MFM accounts.)

And at Pamela's, "Toulouse Jihad: The Devout 'White Emir' Who May Have Inspired Jew-Killing Jihadist Mohamed Merah."

Rick Santorum Wins Louisiana Primary

At CNN, "Santorum takes Louisiana" (via Memeorandum).

And at New York Times, "Santorum Gets a Boost in Winning Louisiana":

Rick Santorum easily won the Louisiana Republican primary Saturday night, capturing a deeply conservative state with a hefty portion of the kind of evangelical Christian voters who have helped him claim victories in 10 other states.

The win gave Mr. Santorum a much-needed psychological boost but it will be unlikely to change the dynamics of the race. Only 20 delegates were up for grabs on Saturday, with 26 more to be allocated later. Even if Mr. Santorum were to claim most of them, he would still have only half the delegates that Mitt Romney, his chief rival, already has.

Mr. Romney’s win last week in Illinois, as well as his subsequent endorsement by Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, dimmed Mr. Santorum’s political prospects, although his victory in Louisiana showed how he could still complicate Mr. Romney’s efforts to capture the 1,144 delegates needed for the nomination.

In a fund-raising letter sent out Saturday night, Mr. Santorum said the results in Louisiana had sent “shock waves” through the political world.

“Tonight with our strong victory in Louisiana, our campaign has now won 11 states, tying a record and proving we can win in the West, South and Midwest,” the letter said. “Not since Ronald Reagan in 1976 has a conservative candidate won as many states as we have.”

More from Robert Stacy McCain, who's on the ground in Louisiana, "LOUISIANA PRIMARY RESULTS HQ: Santorum Wins by Wide Margin."

And at Washington Post, "Romney roundly defeated in Louisiana":

At the same time, this is likely one of the last times Romney will face such a difficult electorate.

Louisiana is the last state from the Deep South that will vote, bringing an end to what has been Romney’s most difficult region of the country.

Next month’s contests will take place almost totally in the Northeast — a region where Romney is thus far undefeated.

In addition, a few of those states award their delegates on a winner-take-all basis — something only two states have done so far — allowing Romney to expand his delegate lead more quickly than he has to this point.

I think from here on out we'll likely see Mitt Romney roll up the delegates on the way to the GOP nomination. It's been an extremely impressive run for Santorum, but polls in upcoming states indicate an uphill slog. See, for example, Los Angeles Times, "California Republicans get behind Romney."

More on that poll later...

Saturday Night Kelly Brook Rule 5

Dana Pico brings us more of the hot women in the military: "Rule 5 Blogging: Cover Girl Cosmetics Edition."

But I'll share some more Kelly Brook, who keeps getting loads of media coverage at London's Daily Mail.

See: "Don't know where to look! Kelly Brook goes for maximum exposure in see-through top and hot pink trousers."

PREVIOUSLY: "Thursday Night Kelly Brook Rule 5."

Plus, check the archives for some earlier Kelly Brook Rule 5.

More later.

Progressives Tweet George Zimmerman's Address, Issue Death Threats — 'Ima get a group of niggas to KILL George Zimmerman'

At Twitchy, "Spike Lee retweets George Zimmerman’s address."

And the now-deleted tweet from @Simply_Reiona:

"Ima get a group of niggas to KILL George Zimmerman ( the fat ass racist ass white man who killed Trayvon Martin ) ! He deserves to DIE !!!!— Couldnt Care Less (@Simply_Reiona) March 24, 2012"

She now whines about taking flak:

Right.

Why are they on his side? Well, most folks aren't down with black lynch mobs.

RELATED: From Doctor Zero at Human Events, "George Zimmerman: Wanted Dead or Alive," and at Weasel Zippers, "New Black Panther Party Circulating “Wanted Dead or Alive” Poster For George Zimmerman…"

ADDED: Linked at Instapundit. Thanks!

Witness Says Trayvon Martin Attacked George Zimmerman

Well, first I think folks should just keep checking the left's narrative a bit, no?

So here's Sandy Banks at the Los Angeles Times, "Anger over teen's shooting transcends race":

[George] Zimmerman hasn't been arrested, claiming self-defense under Florida's Stand Your Ground law. Now protests are spreading across the country, turning Trayvon's death into a national symbol of racial prejudice and violent bias.

But this is not just about the color of skin, but the color of authority.

It's about a neighborhood bully allowed to carry a gun, encouraged by a reckless law to wield it and absolved by local police, who had barely begun to investigate before declaring the killer "squeaky clean."

Does race play into it? Certainly. I have no doubt Trayvon would be behind bars if he'd been the shooter in that scenario.

But what is moving America now owes its resonance to a bag of Skittles, a can of iced tea and a hoodie pulled low against the cold.

And the heartbreaking photo we can't seem to avoid, of a bright-eyed kid in a Hollister shirt smiling broadly into the camera, who was shot to death walking to his dad's home by someone who felt he didn't belong.

Heartbreaking!!

Everyone wants to talk about that "Hollister" photo, right? But the hoodie is out of bounds, remember?

Fucking progressive hypocrites.

And here's this at Fox News Tampa Bay, "Witness: Martin attacked Zimmerman."

More at Weasel Zippers, "Race Pimp Jesse Jackson On Trayvon Martin Case: “Blacks Are Under Attack” … Obama’s Victory Has “Triggered Tremendous Backlash”…"

There's more at LAT and Memeorandum.

This is one of those cases where your natural sense of decency is to have due process afforded and justice prevail, but the left has cooked the narrative and now we've got this bogus national outcry over a fictitious "race war" against blacks. No wonder American politics is so polarized. That's the only way the Obama-Dems can gain any traction.

ADDED: At Raw Story, "Trayvon Martin case ‘not as conclusive as people think’, says legal expert."

MORE: From London's Daily Mail, "Now witness claims TRAYVON attacked Zimmerman: Anonymous onlooker told police neighbourhood watch captain was provoked... as friends insist teen was not violent and protests mount."

And at Riehl World View, "As Media Reports Conflict, Why Was Trayvon Martin Photo Altered?" (Via Memeorandum.)

STILL MORE: From the Orlando Sentinel, "George Zimmerman's father: My son is not racist, did not confront Trayvon Martin":

Police have released little information about what happened that night and no details about how Trayvon and Zimmerman came to be face to face.

No one disputes that Zimmerman called police from his SUV, then left it and encountered Trayvon on foot as the teenager returned from a 7-Eleven candy run.

Before an officer arrived, Trayvon and Zimmerman got into a fight, according to police, and witnesses heard one or both calling for help, and Zimmerman shot Trayvon once with a 9 mm handgun.

Zimmerman told police he acted in self-defense. Police found blood on his face and the back of his head as well as grass on the back of his shirt.

That jibes with what Cheryl Brown's teenage son witnessed while walking his dog that night. Thirteen-year-old Austin stepped out his front door and heard people fighting, he told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday.

"I heard screaming and crying for help," he said. "I heard, 'Help me.' "

It was dark, and the boy did not see how the fight started, in fact, he only saw one person, a man in a red shirt — Zimmerman — who was on the ground.

The boy said he is not sure who called for help. After a moment, his dog escaped, and he turned to catch it and a few seconds later heard a gunshot, he said.

"When I heard the shot, the screaming stopped," he said.

He then rushed inside and told his sister to call police.

And check the roundup at Instapundit, "NEW WITNESS IN THE TRAYVON MARTIN CASE..."

Plus, linked at Blazing Cat Fur: "Race Baiters Narrative Has Serious Flaw: Witness Says Trayvon Martin Attacked George Zimmerman." Thanks!

Rick Santorum in Louisiana: Looking to Expand Support Beyond Evangelicals and Tea Partiers

Rick Santorum is heading to victory in Louisiana, but the going will get tough after this last primary in the South.

See the Los Angeles Times, "Santorum, at home in Louisiana, tries to broaden his reach."

And the fallout continues over Santorum's comments on the choice for November:

“Republicans and conservatives who are so worried about, you know, getting control back — ‘We have to win and so we have to nominate someone who can appeal to more’ — no, you win by giving people a choice. You win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who’s just going to be a little different than the person in there. If you’re going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate of the future.”

At the New York Times, "Santorum on Defensive Over Remark on Romney."

It's not that big of a deal, although some folks are having second thoughts about Santorum. See Yid With Lid, "Withdrawing My Endorsement of Rick Santorum." And the folks at Hot Air are all over this, Ed Morrissey, for example, "No, Senator Santorum, Obama and Romney aren’t the same," and "Santorum spokewoman says he’ll support Romney if nominee … Update: Santorum statement added."

I'll have more on Louisiana later today.

Meanwhile, at Los Angeles Times, "Louisiana primary: Conservatives remain skeptical of Mitt Romney."

And Robert Stacy McCain is on the ground for today's primary, "Neutral Objective Journalism."

Pope Benedict XVI Slams Communism: Marxist Ideology 'No Longer Corresponds to Reality'

You gotta love this.

At London's Daily Mail, "'Communism isn't working here': Pope's outspoken warning days before he is due to land in Cuba."

Pope Benedict XVI has said that Marxism has no place in the modern world and urged Cubans to find 'new models'.

Cuba has remained a communist country for more than 50 years and his comments will no doubt cause irritation, just days before he is due to visit.

He said: 'Today it is evident that Marxist ideology in the way it was conceived no longer corresponds to reality. In this way we can no longer respond and build a society. new models must be found with patience and in a constructive way.'

Mohamed Merah — Man of the West

From Caroline Glick:

The massacre of Jewish children at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish day school in Toulouse presents us with an appalling encapsulation of the depraved nature of our times - although at first glance, the opposite seems to be the case.

On the surface, the situation was cut and dry. A murderer drove up to a Jewish school and executed three children and a teacher.

Led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, all of France decried the massacre and announced its solidarity with the French Jewish community. World leaders condemned the crime. The killer died in a standoff with French security forces. Justice was served. Case closed.

But dig a little deeper and it becomes clear that justice has not been served.

Indeed, it hasn't even begun to be addressed. The killer, Mohamed Merah, was not a lone gunman. He wasn't even one of the lone jihadists we hear so much about.

He had plenty of accomplices. And not all of them were Muslims.

An analysis of the nature of his crime and the identity of his many accomplices must necessarily begin with a question. Why did Merah videotape his crime?

Why did take the trouble of strapping a video camera to his neck and filming himself chasing eight-year-old Miriam Monsonego through the school courtyard and shooting her three times in the head? Why did he document his execution of Rabbi Jonathan Sandler and his two little boys, three-year-old Gavriel and six-year-old Aryeh?

The first answer is because Merah took pride in killing Jewish children. Beyond that, he was certain that millions of people would be heartened by his crime. By watching him shoot the life out of Jewish children, they would be inspired to repeat his actions elsewhere.

And he was surely correct.

Millions of people have watched the 2002 video of Daniel Pearl being decapitated. Similar decapitation videos of Western hostages in Iraq and elsewhere have also become runaway Internet sensations.

Led by Youssef Fofana, the Muslim gang in France that kidnapped and tortured Ilan Halimi to death in 2006 also took pictures of their handiwork. Their photographs were clearly imitations of the photos that Pearl's killers took of him before they chopped his head off.

The pride that jihadist murderers take in their crimes is not merely manifested in their camera work. US Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who massacred 13 US servicemen at Fort Hood in 2009, showed obvious pride in his dedication to jihad. Hassan gave a presentation to his colleagues justifying jihad. He carried business cards in which he identified himself as an "SOA," a soldier of Allah.

Similarly, Naveed Haq, the American Muslim who carried out the attack at the Seattle Jewish Federation building in 2006, murdering one woman and wounding another five, bragged to his mother and friend about his crime in monitored telephone calls from jail. Haq boasted that he was "a jihadi" and that his victims deserved to die because they were "Israeli collaborators."

The exhibitionism common to all the men's behavior makes it obvious that that their attacks were not the random actions of isolated crazy people or lone extremists. All of these killers were certain that they were part of a global movement that seeks the annihilation of the Jews, the subjugation of the Western world and the supremacy of jihadist Islam. And they were convinced that their actions served the interests of this movement and that they would be viewed as heroes by millions of their fellow Muslims for their killing of innocents.

THIS SITUATION is bad enough on its own. But what make it truly dangerous are the West's responses to it...

Continue reading.

The Islamist Version of Anti-Semitism the Most Virulent and Lethal

At Jerusalem Post, "The Anti-Semitic Disease":

After an extended standoff, Mohamed Merah, the 24-year-old French-Algerian terrorist who murdered three Jewish children and a teacher in front of their school in Toulouse, is dead. Unfortunately, that inexplicable disease called anti-Semitism is very much alive.

The deadliest form of anti-Semitism today is the sort that inspired Merah, who, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), was indoctrinated in jihadi camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan and had ties to Fursan al-Izza (Knights of Glory), the French branch of al- Qaida.

Only the warped, anti-Semitic mind of a member of al- Qaida could justify the murder of Jews living in France, including a three-year-old child, to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children – as Merah did.

Unfortunately, however, Merah was not the only one to link the massacre in Toulouse with Israel’s war on terror in the Gaza Strip. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also claimed that the murder of French Jews in Toulouse was somehow connected to “what is happening in Gaza.” She later repudiated her remark.

“When we think of what happened in Toulouse today.

When we remember what happened in Norway a year ago, when we know what is happening in Syria, when we see what is happening in Gaza and Sderot and in different parts of the world – we remember young people and children who lose their lives,” she said.

Though it would be an exaggeration to call Ashton’s remarks, made in Brussels before a crowd of “Palestinian refugee representatives,” blatantly anti-Semitic, her failure to draw distinctions – a crucial fault shared by many on the progressive Left – helps to set the stage for men such as Merah to be seen not as cold-blooded murderers motivated by irrational anti-Semitism, but as militants engaged in warfare.

Exactly.

Continue reading at the link.

And see Blazing Cat Fur, "Teacher Suspended: Asks Class To Remember 'Victim' Mohammed Merah." That's just one example.

'Obamaville'

At The Hill, "New Santorum campaign ad warns of desolate ‘Obamaville’ towns in the future." And Politico, "Santorum spokesman denies Obama-Ahmadinejad conflation in new ad" (via Memeorandum).

RELATED: On the campaign controversy today, whether Santorum would support Mitt Romney as the GOP nominee, see The Other McCain, "Rick Santorum in Cavuto Interview: ‘This Is the Hatchet-Job of All Time’ (Video Added)," and "What Santorum Said, What He Meant, and What Romneybots Want You to Think."

And from Pundette, "Etch A Sketch, continued; Update: Santorum's remark misinterpreted?", and Sister Toldjah, "Temperature check: Is Barack Obama preferable to Mitt Romney?"(via Memeorandum).

Geraldo Rivera on Trayvon Martin Shooting: 'This Whole Stylizing Yourself As a Gangsta ... Well, People Are Going to Perceive You As a Menace'

Here's the video.

Geraldo's 100 percent correct. But the left doesn't want to deal with this, that it's possible that Treyvon Martin appeared threatening and his hoodie gangsta styling contributed to his death.

PREVIOUSLY: "Justice for Trayvon Martin! Racial Tensions (and Hypocrisies) Flare in Wake of Florida Teen Shooting," and "President Obama's Comments on Shooting Death of 17-Year-Old Trayvon Martin."

Katy Perry Joins the Marines!

Well, temporarily, at least.

See: "Katy Perry Joins the Marines in 'Part of Me' Video."

Via Blazing Cat Fur, "Katy Perry made a smart move dumping Russell Brand..."

Justice for Trayvon Martin! Racial Tensions (and Hypocrisies) Flare in Wake of Florida Teen Shooting

Actually, I'm not criticizing the outrage over this shooting. What I am criticizing is the left's politicization of it. See Gateway Pundit, "It Begins… Far Left Media Ties Trayvon Martin Killing to Rush Limbaugh (Video)." Follow the link there to MSNBC analyst and Democratic strategist Karen Finney, who makes an aggressive attempt link the GOP presidential candidates to the death of Trayvon Martin. It's sick and disgusting and really has no place in the discussion. (And don't even get me started on this: "Farrakhan Tweets: 'Where There Is No Justice, There Will Be No Peace…Law of Retaliation May…Be Applied'.")

And while it's elevated, the discussion from last night's PBS NewsHour isn't that much better. I'm interested especially in the commentary from The Altantic's racial-grivance columnist Ta-Nehisi Coates, who is interviewed. Listening to the guy he's clearly less impressive an intellectual when one actually hears his patter on television. He sounds not much more than a homie with a suit. Worse though is this Donna Britt lady, who says "Thank God" Treyvon Martin "looks like a kid ... he looks like someone who is young and vulnerable and who matters. And that's part of the reason why people have responded so much..." That's really cold and offensive --- it wouldn't matter if the victim was a genuine black thug? --- and it's a way for black intellectuals to completely discount --- even hide --- the real pathologies in the black community. For example, I'm no fan of Geraldo Rivero, but I think he's right to point out that the way the boy was dressed could have been a factor in his killing. So notice the discrepancy here: A black intellectual confesses that we should thank God that the boy wasn't an invulnerable hardened criminal, and that's "part of the reason people have responded so much," but when Geraldo Rivera speaks out on gangsta attire that's "victim blaming." Honestly, only on the left do you see these kinds of disgusting double standards.

The whole video is good but scroll forward to Britt's comments at about the 10:00 minute mark:

More later...

President Obama's Comments on Shooting Death of 17-Year-Old Trayvon Martin

Obama suggested that we all need to do some "soul searching," although he sidestepped the issue of whether the kid should have been wearing a hoodie.

See New York Times, "Obama Speaks Out on Trayvon Martin Killing." (Via Memeorandum.)

More: An excellent commentary from Ed Morrissey, "Obama weighs in on Trayvon Martin case."

Kim Kardashian Flour Attack

Well, I'm not sure what purpose this serves, but again, if someone can get in there with a sack of flour they can get in there with something deadly.

And see London's Daily Mail, "Pictured: The moment Kim Kardashian got flour-bombed... before TV star jokes: 'I told my make-up artist I needed more powder'," and Vanity Fair, "An Unabridged Analysis of the Kim Kardashian Flour Attack, and What It Means for Her Career."

And some additional coverage at LAT, "Fashion News: Kim Kardashian 'flour-bombed' at fragrance launch."

PREVIOUSLY: "Kim Kardashian Steps Out in Revealing Low-Cut Ensemble After Church," and "Kim Kardashian and Sisters Khloe and Kourtney Promote Their Kardashian Kollection."

ObamaCare Slow to Gain Favor in Public Opinion

Gallup reported on ObamaCare's weak public support a couple of weeks ago: "Americans Divided on Repeal of 2010 Healthcare Law."

Less than half of all Americans support the law, and a large majority of Republicans favor repeal.

The numbers are interesting if we recall that Democrats argued that support for the law would increase as Americans began to experience the benefits. Well, that's not happening. See the Wall Street Journal, "Health Law Slow to Win Favor: Some Provisions Stumble in Practice" (click through at Google):

When the health-care overhaul became law after a bitter debate, many Democrats predicted Americans would grow to like it as they started enjoying some of the early benefits.

The day after the president signed the bill into law, which happened exactly two years ago, an average of major polls collated by the website Real Clear Politics showed 50.4% of Americans opposed. This week, that had changed only by a tenth of a percentage point, ticking up to 50.5%.

The health law remains a tough sell for reasons that go beyond the drumbeat from Republicans for its repeal and questions about its constitutionality that will be debated next week at the Supreme Court. Several of the law's early pieces, designed to win public support, haven't worked as well in the real world as on paper and have irked even some of the Americans they were designed to help.

Some elements have been a success. An estimated 2.5 million young adults have gained coverage from the provision saying children can stay on their parents' plan until they turn 26, and Medicare beneficiaries have saved on prescription drug costs.

But, among some other less-successful provisions, an insurance plan designed to help the sick and uninsured before the full impact of the law kicks in has drawn only a fraction of the expected participants, because of high premiums and strict enrollment rules. Some states have already burned through federal cash allotted to them as costs have come in higher than anticipated.

Francee Levin, a 59-year-old artist in Columbia, S.C., said in March 2010 that she thought the law would be a "godsend." Injuries from being hit by a drunken driver had left her unable to find coverage. But when Ms. Levin looked into South Carolina's version of the plan, she decided she couldn't afford the premiums of $650 a month.

She rolled the dice and remained uninsured. Last month, just after Ms. Levin had given a class at a middle school, her heart suddenly stopped and had to be restarted with a defibrillator. Early bills from her two-week stay in the hospital, including helicopter transportation and six days on life support, top $10,000.

Another piece of the law that seemed like a winner—eliminating co-payments for preventive health services—spawned a religious battle over contraception coverage that has turned some Catholic leaders against the Obama administration. That happened after an advisory body deemed contraception preventive care.

The law's curbs on how severely insurers can limit annual claims payouts sparked a backlash, with the administration giving 1,231 employers and insurers waivers after some companies threatened to drop coverage altogether.

In addition, federal officials halted the creation of a long-term-care insurance program several months ago after deeming it financially unsustainable.

President Barack Obama doesn't plan to tout the law publicly on Friday, the second anniversary of his signing the bill. A senior administration official said his involvement politicizes the matter, which makes it all but impossible to change negative public opinion about the law.

Be sure to read it all.

Charles Krauthammer: The ObamaCare Reckoning

Now this is someone whose analysis is genuinely worthy.

See Krauthammer at Washington Post, "Obamacare: The reckoning" (via Memeorandum).

James Taranto Bitch Slaps Linda Greenhouse

I read only the first paragraph of Linda Greenhouse's ObamaCare essay last night:

Journalistic convention requires that when there are two identifiable sides to a story, each side gets its say, in neutral fashion, without the writer’s thumb on the scale. This rule presents a challenge when one side of a controversy obviously lacks merit. But mainstream journalism has learned to navigate those challenges, choosing evolution over “intelligent design,” for example, and treating climate change naysayers as cranks.

That passage combines so much condescension and anti-intellectualism it's almost funny, but the primary effect of Greenhouse's idiocy was to have me click the back button to find something else to read. So imagine the laugh I got this morning seeing James Taranto go after Greenhouse with a well-deserved bitch slap. See: "The Ineffective Greenhouse" (via Memeorandum).

Just read it at the link. Taranto is reasonable, and frankly tentative, in his commentary, a sign of someone willing to consider possible outcomes that differ from his ideological preferences.

Mohammad Merah Shot Dead Following 32-Hour Siege

Here's an earlier headline at London's Daily Mail, "WHY DIDN'T FRENCH POLICE STOP AL QAEDA FANATIC SOONER?" (via Memeorandum).

That's what I was asking last night.

And here's the latest update: "Al Qaeda claims Toulouse fanatic shot dead by police was 'one of ours' as it emerges killer had sick video of himself executing victims."

Plus, at Telegraph UK, "I am on an al-Qaeda mission, taunts besieged gunman who shot children."

More at New York Times, "French Slaying Suspect Dead After Police Raid Hideout" (via Memeorandum).

Thursday Night Kelly Brook Rule 5

Well, here's to kicking off a great weekend of blogging.

There's no shortage of political news, so more of that in a bit.

But perhaps some Rule 5 readers will enjoy this piece at London's Daily Mail, "'My secret's out!' Kelly Brook reveals the key to her bountiful cleavage... a pair of Sport Relief socks."

BONUS: At Pirate's Cove, "If All You See…are wonderful trees capturing CO2, you might just be a Warmist."

2012 L.A. Woman — Skateboarding Tour of Los Angeles

Via The Sound L.A.:

The Story of Obama and Israel

Via Caroline Glick:

And at New York Times, "Hawks Steering Debate on How to Take On Iran."

'The Road We've Traveled'

From Karl Rove, at Wall Street Journal, "Three dismal years are spun into 17 minutes of fact-challenged campaign film":

This month, Barack Obama's re-election campaign released a 17-minute film, "The Road We've Traveled," that previews the Democratic general election narrative. Directed by Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim and narrated by actor Tom Hanks, the film explores Mr. Obama's most important decisions.

Viewers are told Mr. Obama deserves re-election for restoring America to prosperity after a recession "as deep as anything . . . since the Great Depression." He accomplished this in part, so the film says, by bailing out the auto companies—deciding not to just "give the car companies" or "the UAW the money" but to force them to "work together" and "modernize the automobile industry." The president, we're told, also confronted "one of the most worrisome problems facing America . . . the cost of health care."

Abroad, Mr. Obama ended the Iraq war and, in the "ultimate test of leadership," Osama bin Laden was killed on his watch. The film heralds Mr. Obama as a leader committed to "tough decisions" and as someone who "would not dwell in blame" in the Oval Office.

Where to begin? Perhaps with the last statement: Mr. Obama has spent three years wallowing in blame. His culprits have ranged from his predecessor, to tsunamis and earthquakes, to ATMs, to Fox News, to yours truly. If you Google "Obama, Blame, Bush" and "Obama, Inherited," you'll get tens of millions of hits.

As for inheriting the worst economy since the Great Depression: Perhaps Mr. Obama has forgotten the Carter presidency, which featured double-digit inflation, double-digit interest rates, and high unemployment.

The film is riddled with other inaccuracies and misleading claims. For example, the United Auto Workers may not have gotten "money" in the bailout, but as an unsecured creditor, the union received a 17.5% ownership interest in General Motors and 55% of Chrysler, while the companies' bondholders got hosed.

The film asserts that the auto companies "repaid their loans." But they still owe taxpayers $26.5 billion, and the Treasury Department's latest report to Congress noted that nearly $24 billion of the bailout money is gone forever.

The film includes Mr. Obama's 2008 claim that the death of his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, from cancer "could have been prevented" if only she "had good, consistent insurance." But earlier this year, a biography of Dunham by Janny Scott, "A Singular Woman," revealed that she had health insurance that covered most all her medical bills, leaving only a few hundred dollars a month in deductibles and uncovered costs. For misleading viewers, the Washington Post fact checker awarded this segment of the film "Three Pinocchios" ...

 More at the link.

Walker Recall Vote Key Test of Union Power

At IBD, "Wisconsin Scott Walker Recall Election a Key Test for Future of Public Employee Union Power."

And at Wisconsin Reporter, "Report: Public-sector unions using dues to fight political assaults."

But see National Review, "The Wisconsin Governor is Confident He'll Win."

Obama's Corrosive Energy Strategy

Via Lonely Conservative:

Toulouse Victims' Funeral in Jerusalem

Via Israel Matzav:

Are You Comfortable, Monsieur Merah? Can We Get You Coffee, a Croissant?

I'm not one to joke at a time like this, but chalk it up to gallows humor.

The French have this guy "under siege," still? And this is the guy who murdered the Jews of the Ozar Hatorah School, in cold blood? Why? What's taking so long? Oh, wouldn't want to be too harsh on the jihadi, that might be racist, to hear Steve Erlanger of the New York Times:

Here's this just now from the Toronto Star, "Toulouse killings: Siege on suspect’s apartment drags on more than 24 hours":

After a siege that lasted more than 24 hours, the man suspected of a killing spree that shocked and terrified France remained holed up in his Toulouse apartment.

Authorities said Mohamed Merah told negotiators that he killed a rabbi and three young children at a Jewish school on Monday and three French paratroopers last week to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and to protest the French army’s involvement in Afghanistan.

The slayings stunned France in their brutal and calculated execution. Eyewitness reports led French Interior Minister Claude Guéant to describe the gunman as “someone very cold, very determined, very much a master of his movements and, by consequence, very cruel.”

Merah, 24, was caught hours after the victims were buried amid scenes of profound grief. At the Jerusalem cemetery known as Har Hamenuchot, or the Mount of Rest, family members wept as they buried a rabbi, his two sons and an 8-year-old girl who were killed outside Ozar Hatorah School in Toulouse on Monday.

And Telegraph UK continues its live coverage.

And at Jerusalem Post, "Toulouse shooter standoff continues into second day":

Police have been trying to get 24-year-old Mohamed Merah to turn himself over after he fired through the door at them while they tried to storm his apartment in the suburbs of Toulouse in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Plus from D.G. Myers, at Commentary, "Removing All Traces of Islamist Terror from Toulous Shootings."

And from Melanie Phillips, at London's Daily Mail, "Laying the goundwork for the Toulouse massacre":

When the Toulouse school massacre happened, the media rushed to say that the perpetrator was a white far-right racist. The lone gunman had mown down at close range a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school, wounding several others. He was thought to be the same killer who a few days earlier had murdered three black French paratroopers in two separate attacks. A killer who targeted Jews and blacks – must be a far-right white racist, right?

Wrong. The suspect who the French police have now cornered turns out to be a jihadi Islamic terrorist with self-declared links to al Qaeda, who has made trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the past. Well, there’s a surprise.

Jews throughout the world are all potential targets for attack in a terrifying manifestation of global incitement to murder. Many Islamists regularly declare their intention to kill Jews wherever they can find them. Hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza at southern Israel over the past couple of weeks bear out daily the frenzied attempt to murder as many Jews as possible. In the Mumbai massacre in 2008, it turned out that the attack on the tiny ultra-orthodox Lubavitch centre was for the Islamic perpetrators of that atrocity the most important target. There have been repeated terrorist attempts on Jewish targets around the world. Oh - and Islamists have been murdering black people in Libya because they are black.

Yet all this is ignored by the mainstream media. Desperate to sanitise Muslim genocidal terrorism and prove that racism and Jew-hatred is confined to white people and the ‘far right’, the media simply did not entertain the possibility that the perpetrator of the French killings might have been a Muslim. So a range of likely perpetrators was canvassed – but they were all variations on white racists.

And even when the perpetrator turned out to be an Islamic terrorist the media were still trying to spin it away, with Sky News stressing the deprivation of the killer and his family and interviewing a French female journalist living in London who claimed that this was ‘an attack against diversity’. As blogger Edgar Davidson observed here:

‘She said that it was all down to the racist climate in France which had been made worse by Nikolas Sarkozy in the last five years and she picked out, as an example of racist lack of tolerance, the burka ban he had introduced.’

Not only are the media and ‘progressive’ commentators in the west desperate to sanitise Islamic terrorism and genocidal incitement; they also join in. The Toulouse jihadist said he was ‘seeking revenge for Palestinian children and French military postings overseas.’

But no Palestinian children have ever been targeted by Israel for murder. Quite the reverse: Israel regularly puts its own soldiers in harm’s way in order to any minimise civilian casualties in military operations against Palestinian terrorists and their infrastructure which  it undertakes solely to protect its own people from further murderous Palestinian attacks. Any Palestinian child casualties in such operations occur solely as a tragic and inadvertent by-product of war – and as often as not because the Palestinians have put their own children in harm’s way.

I'll have more later...

VIDEO: Police Raid Mohammed Merah Compound in Toulouse, France

This is a long siege.

See Telegraph UK, "Toulouse Siege: Live."

More at No Pasaran!, "First Images of the Toulouse Killer."

'Etch A Sketch'

What an amazing day in politics.

See Robert Stacy McCain, "Romney’s ‘Etch-a-Sketch’ Platform: Santorum’s ‘Act of God’ Moment?" (via Memeorandum).

And at the New York Times, "Shaking It Up With a Popular Low-Tech Toy: Etch A Sketch Becomes a Symbol of Second Chances":

THE United States is the great land of second chances. Change your name. Change your location. Change your life. If you’re a politician, change your ideas, and in so doing, change your prospects. It’s a deep-rooted American tradition that the Mitt Romney campaign has now given a colorful symbol.

It was widely reported that Wednesday on CNN, Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to Mr. Romney, predicted a fresh start for his boss’s campaign after victory in the Illinois primary. “Everything changes,” Mr. Fehrnstrom said. “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.”

Mr. Romney’s political opponents seized on the image as a sinister expression of the candidate’s pliability. But to millions of Americans, the Etch A Sketch has offered a precious life lesson: No matter how badly you screw up, you can always make a fresh start. The past does not exist. The Etch A Sketch offers total deniability in a neat rectangular package.

The Etch A Sketch was invented in the late 1950s by André Cassagnes, a French electrician, and the first model was manufactured for the American market by the Ohio Art Company on July 12, 1960. The device is simple and ingenious: a framed plastic screen coated with aluminum dust on the reverse side. Two knobs move a stylus vertically and horizontally, allowing the user to draw pictures as the tip of the stylus leaves a dark line against a light gray background.

If the results do not please, the user simply shakes the screen, causing polystyrene beads to create a fresh surface by smoothing out and recoating the inside of the screen. History, with a flick of the wrist, vanishes.

Over the years, the company has added color and electronic features, but the essential appeal of the device has remained the same. No matter how bad the drawing, how distant the final product from the original intent, the clock can be turned back.

More at Pundette, "The Etch A Sketch candidate."

And the response at Astute Bloggers, "ROMNEY ETCH-A-SKETCH BROUHAHA IS BULLSHIT."

And It's Too Late Baby, Now It's Too Late...

Some wonderful music until later.

I picked up this up at The Sound L.A. when I dropped off my kid at school. Here's set:

8:47  Feels Like The First Time  by Foreigner

8:43  Rocky Raccoon  by Beatles

8:39  Behind Blue Eyes  by Who

8:37  The Letter  by Box Tops

8:20  Free Bird  by Lynyrd Skynyrd

8:16  Gimme Three Steps  by Lynyrd Skynyrd

8:11  It's Too Late  by Carole King

8:08  I Feel The Earth Move  by Carole King

8:02  For You  by Bruce Springsteen

7:58  Evil Woman  by E.L.O.

French Forces in Standoff With Shooting Suspect Mohammed Merah

There are all kinds of conflicting reports, and it's not clear yet if the suspect is in custody.

Check the live updates at Telegraph UK.

Plus, at Washington Post, "Mohammed Merah, French shooting suspect, exchanges gunfire with police in standoff."

And at Jerusalem Post, "Juppe: Police not at fault for not arresting suspect sooner."

Israel Rebukes EU's Catherine Ashton on Comments Linking Gaza to Toulouse

Well, nothing's surprising anymore.

See New York Times, "Fury in Israel at Remark Linking Gaza to Toulouse."

And see Israel Matzav, "Ashton claims her remarks were 'grossly distorted'." Not.

With Loss in Illinois, Pennsylvania Rises in Importance for Santorum

At New York Times, "Pennsylvania Rises in Importance for Santorum After Loss in Illinois":

GETTYSBURG, Pa. — It may seem an odd choice, holding a rally here in Pennsylvania to “celebrate” the results of the Republican presidential primary in Illinois.

Rick Santorum’s staff said that he came here Tuesday night for a symbolic connection to the Land of Lincoln, as Gettysburg is “the very place President Lincoln gave his most poignant and passionate defense of freedom and the American spirit.”

But Mr. Santorum also came here to plant the flag. The Pennsylvania primary is not until April 24, but it is essential that Mr. Santorum, who represented the state for 16 years in Washington, win here if he is to have any hope of moving forward, particularly after his loss Tuesday night in the Illinois primary.

Despite the loss, Mr. Santorum sounded defiant Tuesday night while speaking to supporters in Gettysburg, saying he would press on.

“We have five weeks to a big win,” he said of the Pennsylvania primary, and he returned again to the theme of his parents and grandparents who worked in the mines, “men and women who worked and scraped and clawed so their children could have a better quality of life.”

While early polling in Pennsylvania shows him leading Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul in the popular vote, he has cause for concern in the more important contest for the state’s 72 delegates.

They can vote for anyone at the party’s nominating convention in August in Tampa, Fla. Some are in fact uncommitted, but many have connections to the state party and the establishment, which leans toward Mr. Romney.

By coming here Tuesday, Mr. Santorum could focus on trying to trying to persuade some of those uncommitted delegates to commit to his side.

“This will give him a chance to sit down around the table and say, ‘Let’s go through the list of who we’ve got lined up and who we have to go back to and revisit and work on,’ “ said one person close to the Santorum campaign who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. “There will be assignments from tonight, ‘Go back to visit with people, talk to your guys,’ and Rick will be reaching out to folks.”

Justice Department Opens Investigation in Killing of Trayvon Martin

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