Barack Obama's Stealth Money Operation Inside Bain Capital (VIDEO)

This is a big story, first reported in May, but back in the news as bloggers hammer Obama's epic hypocrisy.

See Gateway Pundit, "Oops!… Obama’s Top Bundler Jonathan Lavine Was In Charge of Bain During GST Steel Layoffs" (via Memeorandum), and Kerry Picket, at the Washington Times, "Obama bundler at Bain opens Obama camp to more criticism from Dems over Bain attacks."

And Jim Geraghty had this yesterday, "Obama: $34,250 in Donations from Bain Employees This Cycle":

Each time an Obama apologist tells you that Bain Capital is the root of all evil in the economy, remind them that President Obama has accepted $34,250 from employees of Bain Capital so far this cycle.

Most of the donors are senior executives who were with Bain when it made all of those allegedly controversial decisions from 1999 to 2002 that the Obama campaign is so focused upon.

Obama’s donors include managing director Joshua Bekenstein (at Bain since it began, including the Romney years); chief compliance officer Alan Halfenger; managing director & chief investment officer Jonathan Lavine (an Obama “bundler” of large donations from multiple donors), who has been with Bain since 1993; managing director Seth Meisel (began in 1999); managing director Mark Nunnelly (began in 1993); managing director Stephen Pagliuca (began in 1989); deputy general counsel Ranesh Ramanathan; and managing director Ted Berk (joined in 1997).

Of the above, Halfenger, Lavine, Meisel, Nunnelly, Pagliuca, and Ramanathan have donated the legal maximum of $5,000; two separate payments of $2,500 to Obama’s primary and general-election campaigns.

Jonathan Lavine is still at Bain. He's listed as a Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer."

And the Bain homepage staff listings are here.

The video above ran at CNN about six weeks ago. See: "Bain employees donate $ to Obama camp," and "Bain employees may have paid for TV ads bashing the company."

More at NewsBusters, "CNN Examines Obama's Donations From Bain Employees – But How Much Have They Actually Reported on It?":

Obama raised almost $125,000 from Bain Capital employees, including three who gave the maximum amount of cash the law allows. One of the donors was even helping the campaign raise money from other sources. "$125,000 is a lot of money from people who work at a company the Obama campaign and its allies vilify," Bash pointed out.

It is one thing for Obama to be a hypocrite by knocking Romney and Bain Capital while raising money from the financial sector and from the head of a private equity firm. It is an even bigger story, however, if he railed against Bain's practices and yet raised money directly from Bain employees. That is exactly what Bash reported, and yet that story has been largely – if not entirely – ignored by CNN.

Although CNN questioned the Obama campaign's attack ad on Romney and Bain, which first aired May 14, they did not report his donations from Bain employees in the hours after the ad broke.

Well, the bloggers are back on the story now. And CNN's actually been doing some solid reporting on the Bain lies this last week, so we'll see how it goes.

More at Memeorandum.

Elderly Florida Man Shoots at Two Would-Be Robbers at Internet Cafe

At the Miami Herald, "Video shows Fla. man shooting at would-be robbers."

Baseball Instant Replay Debated

So I'm watching the Phillies at the Dodgers last night with my wife. Philadelphia comes from behind in the 8th, scoring two runs off closer Kenley Jansen, who came in with two outs after Ronald Belisario lost his control, walking Chase Utley and beaning both Ryan Howard and Carlos Ruiz.

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Bullpen lets down Dodgers in loss to Phillies." ESPN has video snippets, and the Philadelphia Inquirer has a slideshow.

The Phillies' John Mayberry, Jr. scored off a single by Hunter Pence, and it was a close call at home. Umpire Wally Bell called Mayberry safe and my wife asks, "Do they have instant replay in baseball?" I said no, "baseball wouldn't be the same with instant replay."

So it's interesting that I see this piece at the New York Times this morning, "With Replay Being Debated, Missed Call in ’85 Resonates":

Visitors to the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame, beyond left field at Kauffman Stadium, can watch a short film about the history of the franchise. Nowhere in the film is the name Don Denkinger mentioned.

Denkinger was the first-base umpire for Game 6 of the 1985 World Series between the Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals. He missed a crucial call at first base that sparked a ninth-inning comeback for the Royals, who won the championship the next night. It was probably the most significant missed call in baseball history.

“I went down to the Cardinal clubhouse, and I was on the platforms and everything for the Denkinger call,” said the broadcaster Tim McCarver, then working his first World Series, for ABC. “And a horde came out of the woodwork to disassemble what I was standing on. So I figured I’ve got to get out of here, because they are actually moving the stuff underneath me.”

Perhaps the Royals were due for such a cosmic break; they had reached the postseason five times without winning before 1985 and have not returned. In any case, they benefited from the so-called human element, the imperfection in umpiring that baseball seems so eager to preserve.

All these years since the Denkinger call, baseball still resists the wide implementation of instant replay. Home run calls have been reviewable since 2009, but blatant mistakes by umpires have become so pervasive that even “The Simpsons” recently poked fun at them.

Commissioner Bud Selig should be lauded, to a point, for proceeding carefully with technology and wanting to preserve the traditional rhythms and pacing of the game. But Selig also seemed out of touch Tuesday when he insisted that nobody really wanted expanded replay, anyway.

“We’ve added some more, we’re going to continue to do that,” Selig said. “But I can tell you very candidly, the appetite for more instant replay in the sport is very low. Everyone. There are some people who think we’ve maybe gone too far already.”

It is hard to accept that, though, when viewers at home clearly see Todd Helton being awarded a putout while standing three feet off first base, or Dewayne Wise getting credit for a catch he never made.

The recent missed call with the most historical impact, of course, was the one that cost Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game in 2010. The first-base umpire who blew that call, Jim Joyce, worked the same spot at the All-Star Game on Tuesday.

There's video from the 2010 blown call here.

I guess the instant replay would bring baseball into the 21st century, but I still think the game wouldn't be the same --- maybe it would be better?

More at this June piece at NYT, "Challenge System Enters Baseball Replay Debate." (And it mentions there that replays are used for disputed home run calls.)

Mysteries of Saturn: New Photos From the Cassini Spacecraft

A fascinating piece, at London's Daily Mail, "Mysteries of Saturn revealed: Nasa probe captures clearest views of planet's rings - and the tiny 'mini-moons' swimming inside them."

Also at Independent UK, "A ringside seat to see Saturn and her moons."

Israelis Targeted in Tour Bus Attack in Bulgaria

Blazing Cat Fur reports, "Suicide Bomber Attacks Israelis In Bulgaria - 3 Dead."

And at Telegraph UK, "At least seven dead in Bulgaria tourist coach bomb."

'Settle Down': No Doubt's First Single in 10 Years

These guys are cool. Of course, they're from the O.C., so natch.

At London's Daily Mail, "The return of No Doubt: Gwen Stefani and co. release new music video after decade away from pop scene."

More at Metro UK, "Gwen Stefani looks better than ever in No Doubt's new video Settle Down."

And at MTV, "'Settle Down' Video: Five Key No Doubt References!"

No Doubt are back and they sound hella good. Watching the SoCal band's latest entry into the world of music videos, the colorful clip for the Diplo-produced "Settle Down," it's clear that the ska-infused quartet just doesn't age. They also haven't lost the spunk that made them global superstars after the release of 1995's Tragic Kingdom.

Suicide Attack Kills Syrian Defense Minister in Damascus

The New York Times reports, "Blast Kills Core Syrian Security Officials":

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A suicide bomber killed at least three top aides to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on Wednesday including the defense minister and Mr. Assad’s powerful brother-in-law, state television and opposition activists reported. The attack in Damascus, after three days of fighting in the capital, hit at the very military structure that has been directing the harsh repression of the 17-month-old uprising against Mr. Assad’s rule.

Also at Telegraph UK, "Syria: Assad's brother-in-law killed in bombing," and the Wall Street Journal, "Massive Bomb Strikes at Assad's Inner Circle."

Woman Tries to Ride Wheelchair on Escalator

Seems to me that's the first safety tip a wheelchair user would learn: never attempt to ride on an escalator. Apparently this lady didn't get the message:

The Boston Herald has the full video at the link: "MBTA warns: Wheelchair, escalator mix will flip you out."

Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer Calls for Limits on First Amendment Free Speech Rights

Although the Brett Kimberlin affair is fading from the limelight, at least temporarily, I continue to stand by my argument that the battle is indeed partisan. Recall my earlier entry: "Will People STFU About How Brett Kimberlin Affair is 'Non-Partisan'? This is an Epic Partisan Battle Over How 'Free Speech' Will Be Defined."

The key point, again, is that left and right define free speech differently. Democrats are now advocating limits on political speech, which has nothing to do with yelling fire falsely in a theater. But here's Sen. Schumer, in a late-night Senate debate on the Democrats' "DISCLOSE Act". See Rob Bluey, at Hot Air, "Schumer calls for “limits on First Amendment rights” during Senate debate."

Bluey has the transcript at the link.

I personally don't remember any instance where the First Amendment was argued to protect equality, but that's the rationale Schumer's proposing, that limits on free speech are needed to protect equality. Only radical progressive make such arguments. They make them when the attempt to shut down conservative speech. So I can't stress enough how it behooves those of us on the right to fight the progressive anti-speech effort with everything we've got. A successful push to amend the First Amendment is the real threat to equality, the equality of an open marketplace for political speech.

John Sununu Apologizes For Slamming Obama as Un-American

Picking up where I left off yesterday, the New York Daily News reports on John Sununu's apology: "Top Romney surrogate John Sununu, the fomer N.H. Gov., apologizes after charging that Obama needs ‘to learn how to be an American’."

Actually, I think Sununu's doing just fine.

PREVIOUSLY: "Romney Surrogate John Sununu: Obama Was 'In Hawaii Smoking Something'."

Romney Surrogate John Sununu: Obama Was 'In Hawaii Smoking Something'

At The Hill, "Obama Was 'In Hawaii Smoking Something'" (via Memeorandum).

BONUS: At Astute Bloggers, "THE REAL OBAMA: an effeminate privately schooled cocaine user who seemed completely white who defended Communism."

NRCC Hits Back: 'If You've Got a Business — You Didn't Build That'

Heritage had this yesterday, "Obama Tells Entrepreneurs “You Didn’t Build” Your Business."

And now here's this, from the National Republican Congressional Committee, via Ed Morrissey, "Video: NRCC hits Obama over small-business comments":

Added: From Weasel Zippers, "RNC Mocks Obama’s Belief That American Entrepreneurs “Didn’t Build” Their Businesses Without Government Help…"

Victoria's Secret Angel Barbara Palvin

Well, perhaps this is an improvement over Pauline Potter.

At Guyism, "Whoa… Barbara Palvin Works for Victoria's Secret." And the Sun UK, "Who's Hungary for Bra-bara Palvin?"

Pauline Potter, World's Heaviest Woman, Takes Off the Pounds With Marathon Sex

Dlisted has the story, "The World's Fattest Living Woman Is Sexing the Pounds Off" (via Linkiest).

Actually, this is say it ain't so territory.

More at London's Daily Mail, "'I've lost 7st thanks to marathon sex sessions!': World's heaviest woman has found a new way to slim down with husband who says her weight gain makes her MORE attractive."

ZOMG! Teresa Heinz Kerry Released the 'First Two Pages of Her 2003 Tax Return' — How Dare You Deflect Attention, Mitt Romney, How Dare You?

I guess it's working, a little bit, at least. Recall my report yesterday, "Mitt Romney Hits Back Against Obama's Shameless Dishonest Attacks." Romney mentioned that John Kerry's wife, Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira Heinz Kerry, one of the worlds richest women, never released her taxes in 2004. Well, here's the correction to that, at the Boston Globe, "John Kerry’s office blasts Mitt Romney over inaccurate claims about tax returns" (via Memeorandum):

In an interview on Fox News Channel Monday morning, Romney -- under pressure from not only the Obama campaign but also some in his own party to release additional tax returns -- suggested he is the victim of a double standard.

“John Kerry ran for president; you know, his wife, who has hundreds of millions of dollars -- she never released her tax returns,” Romney said. “Somehow this wasn’t an issue.”

In fact, Heinz Kerry’s reluctance to release tax returns, which she files separately from her husband, was a major story line during the 2004 presidential race. She eventually made public the first two pages of her 2003 return, which showed she earned $5.1 million that year, almost all of it from interest and dividends on investments. She paid $627,150 in federal taxes in 2003, only 12.3 percent of her total income.

Well, blow me down!

The first two pages! Neener, neener! Mitt Romney liar, liar pants on fire!

And checking back over at Memeorandum, the progs are all over this like it's the biggest scandal since Monica Lewinsky serviced Big Bill. And they're lying about it, at the aptly titled Crooks and Liars, for example:

While Romney is correct that Teresa Heinz Kerry declined to release any tax returns when her husband, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), ran for the White House in 2004, a candidate's wife is not usually held to the same standard as the candidate.

Oops! Not true, sorry. John McCain was under vicious pressure to release his wife's returns, and the Soros-backed Media Matters used the same lame Teresa Heinz Kerry comparison, "Several media outlets advanced comparison between Cindy McCain's and Teresa Heinz Kerry's release of tax info, ignoring key distinction." And Media Matters even deleted some of its smears, but the cached version of this one's still available, "Double Standard for Candidate Spouses."

Not such a double standard after all, it turns out. Ultimately, the McCain campaign released Cindy McCain's full 2006 tax returns, not just the first two pages: "Campaign releases 2006 tax filing for Cindy McCain."

Maybe some of the progs can set record straight? And kudos for Mitt Romney on turning back the left's false narratives. It's just a start though, so Team Romney better get cooking.

PHOTO CREDIT: Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira Heinz Kerry via Wikimedia Commons.

Presidential Attacks Seek to Demobilize Opponent's Supporters

Attack ads are essentially demoralizing. But they work, so campaigns keep using them. I do think this year we're seeing a new low on the Democrat side, but that's politics. Frankly, Romney needs to go negative in a big way, or get out.

In any case, the Los Angeles Times notes that both camps are seeking to demobilize support for the other's campaign, but since it's Obama that's been mostly on the attack, clearly the left's desperation factor is at the tipping point. See, "In Bain Capital campaign fight, key voters are the prize":

With the economy still sluggish, Obama has little likelihood of greatly increasing his support between now and November among voters who disapprove of his performance. But by portraying his rival as an unacceptable choice, he may be able to reduce the number who turn out to vote for Romney.

Romney, for his part, doesn't generate huge enthusiasm among voters, but has been counting all along on getting people to vote for him because they've decided to fire Obama.

As a result, a big part of the campaign right now is a contest to determine which man those voters dislike less. Both sides have been fairly open for months about how they planned to accomplish that goal.

Again, while the Times piece is pushing the "both sides do it" angle, the Obama campaign is out with yet another round of attacks this morning, at the video above and at CNN, "Obama ad continues to hammer Romney over taxes." (Via Memeorandum.)

RELATED: From Da Tech Guy, "Demoralized as Hell: the Obama Prevent Defense Edition":

They aren’t spending their money in the middle of summer in the hopes of defining Romney to an audience that isn’t paying attention, they are spending the money NOW to keep their poll numbers from collapsing prior to the fall campaign season. This isn’t about getting ahead, it’s about treading water long enough for something ANYTHING to come along and save them.

Via Instapundit.

New Video Shows Rebels Abusing Muammar Gaddafi's Body After Death

Blazing Cat Fur has the headline: "New Video Shows Love For Charlie McCarthy Shared by Libyan Rebels & Muammar Gaddafi."

And at London's Daily Mail, "Shocking new video shows Gaddafi's body 'being used by rebels as ghoulish ventriloquist's doll'":

A gruesome new video which appears to show Muammar Gaddafi's dead body being abused by rebels has surfaced online.

In the shocking clip, which was posted to YouTube on Monday, high-spirited demonstrators apparently use the Libyan dictator's corpse as a ventriloquist's doll.

The footage came to light after a Syrian activist linked to it on Twitter, aiming a threat at Syria's leader Bashar Al Assad.

Google Executive Marissa Mayer Named President and CEO of Yahoo!

At Business Week, "Marissa Mayer Is Yahoo's New CEO."

And at the New York Times, "A Yahoo Search Calls Up a Chief From Google" (via Memeorandum):

Marissa Mayer, one of the top executives at Google, will be the next chief of Yahoo, making her one of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley and corporate America.

The appointment of Ms. Mayer is consider a coup for Yahoo, which has struggled in recent years to attract top talent in its battle with competitors. One of the few public faces of Google, Ms. Mayer, 37, has been responsible for the look and feel of some of the search company’s most popular products.

Despite her background, Ms. Mayer — who will be Yahoo’s fifth chief executive in less than a year, two of them interim — will face a daunting challenge.

A pioneering Internet company that helped shape the industry in the 1990s, Yahoo is trying to remain relevant after failing to adapt to changing innovations like sophisticated search technology and social media tools. As Google and Facebook have emerged as Web giants, Yahoo has struggled to create a distinct strategy, even though its audience remains among the largest on the Internet. Now, the company is moving to lay off thousands of employees, in the face of slumping profits and a lackluster stock.

The big question is whether Ms. Mayer — or anyone — can help Yahoo regain its former stature.

Also at WSJ, "New Yahoo Chief Seen Reinvigorating Company's Product Offerings."

And the biggest angle is the Mayer's pregnant. See Fortune, "New Yahoo CEO Mayer is pregnant" (via Memeorandum).

And this is interesting, from Lisa Belkin at HuffPo, "Marissa Mayer: The Most Powerful Pregnant Woman In America":

So what value and obligation does Mayer have to working mothers? (And she does have one. As long as women with children are the exception at the top they are, willingly or not, role models.) It is to be aware of what she has that others need. To create a culture where jobs are as flexible as possible, so all parents can mold them around their family needs. To understand that a pregnancy doesn't diminish a woman's brain cells, or her worth. And that being a parent makes you a better, more committed, more focused worker, not a lesser one.

I wonder if Amanda Marcotte's down with that?

The Amazing Creativity and Productivity of the Free Market

An excellent essay from Andy Kessler, at the Wall Street Journal, "The Incredible Bain Jobs Machine":

The productive use of capital is not an automatic process ... It is all about constant experimentation. And it is never permanent: Railroads were once tremendously productive, so were steamships and even Kodachrome. It takes work, year in and year out—update, test, tweak, kill off. Staples is under fire from Amazon and other productive online retailers. Its stock has halved since its 2010 peak and is almost at a 10-year low. So be it.

With all the iPads and Facebook and cloud-computing growth, why is unemployment still 8.2% and job creation stalled? My theory is that productivity is always happening but swims upstream against those that fight it. Unions, regulations and a bizarre tax code that locks in the status quo.

In good times, no one notices. But in slow-growth economies, especially in the last 10 years, regulations and hiring rules and employer mandates and environmental anchors have had a cumulative dampening effect on productivity.

How can government do the right thing to help productivity and the employment it fosters? Get out of the way. Every government-mandated low-flow toilet, phosphorous-free dishwasher detergent, CFL light bulb, and carbon-emission regulation is another obstacle on the way to a productive, job-creating economy that produces things consumers really want.

RTWT.

Obama's ‪#WarOnWomen‬: 80% of the 2.6 Million Net Jobs Created Since '09 Have Gone to Men

Well, it's not like Romney's hurting for attack material. This economy's a freakin' disaster for women. See the Los Angeles Times, "Newly Created Jobs Go Mostly to Men":

Even as women have moved up the economic ladder and outpaced men in earnings growth over the last decade, they are lagging behind in a crucial area — getting new jobs.

Since the recession ended in June 2009, men have landed 80% of the 2.6 million net jobs created, including 61% in the last year.

One reason: Male-dominated manufacturing, which experienced sharp layoffs during the recession, has rebounded in recent years, while government, where women hold the majority of jobs, has continued to be hit hard.

But there's something else at work. Men are grabbing a bigger share of jobs in areas, such as retail sales, that typically have been the province of women, federal data show.

That's not necessarily good news for women or men. So-called women's work often pays less and offers skimpier benefits and less opportunity for advancement than the jobs men previously held.

Paul Cordova and his wife, Betty Mowery, a 40-something San Francisco couple, found that out in short order. Three days after Cordova lost his job managing facilities at a San Francisco law firm in April 2009, Mowery was laid off as a customer service representative at an air freight company.

Cordova got a new job working as a clerk in a grocery store, but, at $9 an hour, it paid much less than his previous job. Mowery couldn't find any job and finally stopped looking. She went back to college this year to retrain for a career in mental health.

"It's a huge step down," Mowery said of their family income, close to $100,000 before the start of the recession at the end of 2007.

Postcards from the Obama Depression.

Elton John Admits It's 'Heartbreaking' for Son Zachary to Grow Up Without a 'Mummy'

Every now and then some top celebrity utters the brutal truth about the radical homosexual rights agenda. A few months back Cynthia Nixon admitted that homosexuality is a choice (an admission that didn't go over too well with the homosexual extremists at Towleroad).

So here comes Elton John confessing that it's "heartbreaking" that his son Zachary won't have a "mummy." At London's Daily Mail, "It will break my son's heart to realise he hasn't got a mother, says Elton as he reveals he'd like Zachary to have a sibling."

And remember, John doesn't back homosexual marriage, or at least he didn't in 2008, saying that:

"I don't want to be married. I'm very happy with a civil partnership. If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership," John says. "The word 'marriage,' I think, puts a lot of people off.

"You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships."

Right.

Also, John admits he wasted much of his life with drug abuse, not something that the left's brain dead pro-pot cult wants people to talk about: "'I wasted a big part of my life': Sir Elton John confesses he squandered some of his best years due to drug addiction."

Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO)

This is cool.

At USA Today, "Drones fight IEDs in Afghanistan."

Plus, two JIEDDO clips from last year:

Theo's Monday Hotties

More lovelies.

See, "Monday Mopsies...", and "Bonus Babe..."

Plus, "Bedtime Totty..."

Rush Limbaugh: Barack Obama 'Hates This Country'

Here's the audio, via Legal Insurrection:

And here's the transcript: "Barack Obama Hates This Country."

BONUS: At Twitchy, "David Axelrod wants Mitt Romney to denounce Rush Limbaugh."

Mitt Romney Hits Back Against Obama's Shameless Dishonest Attacks

It's a pretty good interview. I especially like Romney's discussion of the demands to release more tax returns. John McCain released just two years of returns in 2008, and Teresa Heinz Kerry --- one of the wealthiest women in America, worth over $1 billion by some estimates --- released absolutely none in 2004:

RELATED: At Huffington Post, "Mitt Romney Ad Taken Down Over Copyright Claim." Apparently YouTube yanked a Romney ad mocking Obama for singing Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." I smell double standards. See more at U.S. News, "BMG Shuts Down Romney Campaign's Singing Obama Ad."

It's going to be like that all year, with the exception of a few media outlets.

Meanwhile, Team Romney is out with a polling memorandum, "After weeks of negativity from the Obama campaign, the ballot is within the margin of error" (via Memeorandum):

President Obama’s campaign will never have a more substantial advertising advantage than it has had over the past few weeks, yet there is no evidence to suggest that the ballot has moved. If throwing the kitchen sink at Gov. Romney while leveraging a two-to-one ad-spending advantage doesn’t move numbers for the President, that’s got to tell you something about the state of the electorate: Voters are frustrated with President Obama’s failure to keep his promises from the 2008 campaign and don’t truly believe the next four years will be any different from the last three and a half. The Obama campaign’s misleading advertising can’t make up for the failed policies of this Administration.

Okay, that's good, so far as it goes. The bigger problem is that, again, Romney is slow to overturn the left's false narratives, and it shows in the polling data. I'm going to agree with Markos "Screw 'em" Moulitsas (who reviews the battleground polls). With Obama's lame job approval, it's surprising that O's campaign is doing as well as it is (or, Romney really should be doing better, considering the Democrat clusterf-k economy).

Daniel Halper has more at Weekly Standard, "Good News, Bad News" (at Memeorandum).

Female Genital Mutilation in Great Britain

See Bare Naked Islam, "GETTING GENITALLY MUTILATED….what thousands of Muslim girls living in the UK do on their summer vacation."

And from the Independent UK last month, "Female Genital Mutilation might be illegal, but it still takes place in the UK":

Two weeks ago, two men were arrested after undercover investigators from the Sunday Times filmed medical professionals in the UK offering to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls as young as ten. They have denied any wrongdoing, but it is estimated that 100,000 women living in the UK have survived FGM, with a further 22,000 girls under 16 at risk. I spoke to Nimco Ali from the Bristol-based organisation Daughters of Eve about her work to eradicate this harmful practice and support survivors of FGM.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is defined by the World Health Organisation as “all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”. It is mostly done on girls under the age of 16, by a traditional circumciser who will practice without anaesthetic or proper medical equipment – often leading to horrific complications both at the time and in later life.

Continue reading.

Also, at Daily Mail in April, "'Cheat genital mutilation ban by going abroad': British Muslim leader caught on camera advocating female circumcision," and from Guardian UK in 2010, "British girls undergo horror of genital mutilation despite tough laws."

Facts Don't Support Obama's Charges Against Romney

Well, Democrats certainly aren't ones to let facts get in the way of an epic smear.

But see David Gergen, in any case, at CNN (via Memeorandum):

Has Romney basically lied about when he actually departed Bain?

Has he tried to mislead the public or investors? Here we come to the heart of the recent controversy. I may be wrong but based on what we know so far, I would conclude that we do not have persuasive evidence to show that he has.

Romney has argued for years that after he was called in to rescue the Salt Lake City Olympics in February 1999, he turned his full attentions there and no longer exercised active management at Bain. The story is a complicated one because Bain was a complex partnership and because the company filed various SEC papers after February 1999 still listing Romney in various key roles, including CEO and chairman. But if one takes time to look behind the SEC filings, what emerges is much more supportive of Romney's statements.

When the story first broke Thursday in The Boston Globe suggesting that Romney and Bain had fudged, CNN asked if I would do some reporting. I reached two of the top people whom I know in the company and, on background, they told me the same story that Bain sources told CNN's John King: When the call came from the Olympics that February, Romney met with his partners and said he and wife, Ann, had concluded that they had to do this and as difficult as it would be for the partnership, he had to leave in a matter of several days.

That set off consternation within Bain because the company had exploded in size and Romney was not only CEO (or managing partner) but was also deeply tied into a variety of investments and partnerships. The partners had to turn quickly to reorganizing their teams and the way they ran their business. That was their priority.

Had they known that one day Romney would be running for president, they might have acted with equal haste on cleaning up the many filings and paperwork that bore Romney's name but at the time, they didn't think that was an urgent task. So, as the company slowly unwound its records, some papers from Bain continued to list Romney even though he had left the partnership.

A sloppy mistake? Yes. An attempt to mislead? The evidence so far doesn't show that. Also of note: At the time, it seemed that he might return from the Olympics to active management, but in any event, he did not. Secondly, I do not know of (nor is there any controversy suggesting) his involvement in other companies during that time. As the New York Times reports Monday, there was an expectation at first that Romney might return to active management of Bain so he did not sever his ownership ties right away -- an additional reason why his name was not struck from documents for a while. The Times account goes on to say there is no evidence that during this interim he was actively engaged in managing the firm.

Both partners with whom I spoke firmly and unequivocally said that after he physically left in February 1999, Romney no longer made decisions for Bain regarding investments, hiring, firing or any other management issues. Subsequent to that February, the firm in 2000 offered another round of financing and, according to Bain, the investors well understood that Romney was no longer actively managing the company.

Gergen has a lot more to say, including a call for Romney to release more tax documents and so forth. Be that as it may, I think this phase of the Obama attacks are played out. Romney's Bain record will simply become part of the larger Democrat attacks on the free market, which will play into voters' fears of economic uncertainty. It will also work to deflect attention from the administration's historically abysmal record on the economy. And as Gergen notes, Romney hasn't handled his response very well ---- even coming off unprepared. That means this period of the campaign is a turning point, and the left could actually get the upper hand. Again, not because of the facts. It's pure politics. And you've got to hit back twice as hard when progressives attack, because the only thing that will work is superior firepower.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz Doubles Down on 'Felony' Charge Against Romney

From John Nolte, at Big Government, "DNC Chair Doubles Down on 'Felony' Charge Against Romney."

And see Doug Powers, at Michelle's, "Axelrod: We’re not saying Romney is a felon — just that he might be; Update: Debbie Wasserman Schultz agrees."

Plus, from faux-conservative David Frum at CNN, "Mitt Romney's painfully bad week" (via Memeorandum). Actually, it was a bad week for Romney, not on account of anything factual, or course. It's the lackadaisical response that's killing him. It's like Marc Thiessen said, "Take the Mitts Off, Mitt!"

Take the Mitts Off, Mitt!

You can say that again.

From Marc Thiessen, at the Washington Post, "Forget the apologies and take the mitts off, Mitt":

Here is the state of the presidential race in a nutshell: The Obama campaign charges that Mitt Romney might have committed a felony by misrepresenting his position at Bain Capital to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Outraged, Romney fires off this response:

“He sure as heck ought to say he’s sorry.”

Ward Cleaver, call your office.

Not surprisingly, President Obama brushed off Romney’s request and continued to hammer him over the weekend. Obama is playing by the brass-knuckle rules of Chicago politics. Rather than calling for apologies, Romney needs grab a bottle, break it on the bar and start fighting back.

Hey, sounds good to me.

Continue reading.

Western Nevada College Professor Requires Students to Masturbate in Order to Pass 'Human Sexuality' Class

And that's bad enough.

Students also have to reveal their most private sexual fantasies.

See Robert Stacy McCain, "Professor Pervo’s Subsidized Wanking Class and the Higher Education Bubble."

RELATED: At Blazing Cat Fur, "The Latest in Teacher Resource Kits: It's The Ejac-O-Matic!"

That's out of Britain, but the U.S. can't be far behind. I mean, really, it's got artificial semen to make those ejaculating condom demonstrations virtually the real thing!

Yay progressives!

And by the way, everyone's plugging the Higher Education Bubble, and ain't it the truth?!!

Lucky Dog: Toronto Muslim Cabbies Say No Ride for Rover

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Toronto: Muslim Cab Drivers Allowed to Refuse Riders With Dogs."

I'm sure Canada's animal rights lobby will be all over this.

And those Muslim cabbies won't be picking you up from a liquor store either.

Sheesh, if they're going to be like that I'll just wait for the next taxi.

Marriage is Key to Family Wealth, Well-Being, and Stability

Reihan Salam calls this an "extremely important article," so important, in fact, I'm surprised it's even running at the New York Times.

See Jason DeParle, "Two Classes, Divided by ‘I Do’":

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Jessica Schairer has so much in common with her boss, Chris Faulkner, that a visitor to the day care center they run might get them confused.

They are both friendly white women from modest Midwestern backgrounds who left for college with conventional hopes of marriage, motherhood and career. They both have children in elementary school. They pass their days in similar ways: juggling toddlers, coaching teachers and swapping small secrets that mark them as friends. They even got tattoos together. Though Ms. Faulkner, as the boss, earns more money, the difference is a gap, not a chasm.

But a friendship that evokes parity by day becomes a study of inequality at night and a testament to the way family structure deepens class divides. Ms. Faulkner is married and living on two paychecks, while Ms. Schairer is raising her children by herself. That gives the Faulkner family a profound advantage in income and nurturing time, and makes their children statistically more likely to finish college, find good jobs and form stable marriages.

Ms. Faulkner goes home to a trim subdivision and weekends crowded with children’s events. Ms. Schairer’s rent consumes more than half her income, and she scrapes by on food stamps.

“I see Chris’s kids — they’re in swimming and karate and baseball and Boy Scouts, and it seems like it’s always her or her husband who’s able to make it there,” Ms. Schairer said. “That’s something I wish I could do for my kids. But number one, that stuff costs a lot of money and, two, I just don’t have the time.”

The economic storms of recent years have raised concerns about growing inequality and questions about a core national faith, that even Americans of humble backgrounds have a good chance of getting ahead. Most of the discussion has focused on labor market forces like falling blue-collar wages and lavish Wall Street pay.

But striking changes in family structure have also broadened income gaps and posed new barriers to upward mobility. College-educated Americans like the Faulkners are increasingly likely to marry one another, compounding their growing advantages in pay. Less-educated women like Ms. Schairer, who left college without finishing her degree, are growing less likely to marry at all, raising children on pinched paychecks that come in ones, not twos.

Estimates vary widely, but scholars have said that changes in marriage patterns — as opposed to changes in individual earnings — may account for as much as 40 percent of the growth in certain measures of inequality. Long a nation of economic extremes, the United States is also becoming a society of family haves and family have-nots, with marriage and its rewards evermore confined to the fortunate classes.

“It is the privileged Americans who are marrying, and marrying helps them stay privileged,” said Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University.

Right.

Privileged Americans.

I tell you what: the left's expansion of the welfare state, starting especially with the Great Society programs of the 1960s, is the root cause of what sociologists now call a "privileged" institution. Women no longer needed a stable marriage for security. They could go on welfare. And top that off with the feminist revolution that made men the source of evil in the world, and it was pretty much straight downhill from there. But you're not supposed to say that stuff. It's not politically correct and all.

Speaking of politically incorrect, it's not too late to get married when you're on your 15th kid, right? See Robert Stacy McCain, "‘Her Fiancé, Garry Brown Sr., the Man Who Fathered 10 of Her 15 Children …’" Better late than never, I guess.

Oh, and don't forget to finish up the DeParle piece. It's a keeper.

Former Laverne & Shirley Star Michael McKean Attacks Michelle Malkin as 'Dick of the Week'

Same misogyny, different day.

Twitchy reports, including an update that McKean's apologized: "Stay classy: Actor Michael McKean calls Twitchy’s Michelle Malkin ‘dick of the week’; Update: McKean apologizes."

Sincere apologies to the actual @MichelleMalkin; nothing personal, just angry re "back of check" bit. I shall no longer give the award.
— Michael McKean (@MJMcKean) July 16, 2012

As this post gets scheduled for overnight, Michelle has yet to respond on Twitter, but things should be interesting later today. And don't miss the rest of the comments at that Twitchy entry. Man, the left just goes batsh*t with the anti-Malkin hatred.

New York Times Confession: 'No Evidence Has Yet Emerged That Mr. Romney Exercised His Powers at Bain After February 1999...'

When the New York Times has to bury the lede, you know the left's meme's in the crapper. See, "When Did Romney Step Back From Bain? It's Complicated." And the key passages, buried at the end of the article:

Indeed, no evidence has yet emerged that Mr. Romney exercised his powers at Bain after February 1999 or directed the funds’ investments after he left, although his campaign has declined to say if he attended any meetings or had any other contact with Bain during the period. And financial disclosures filed with the Massachusetts ethics commission show that he drew at least $100,000 in 2001 from Bain Capital Inc. — effectively his own till — as a “former executive” and from other Bain entities as a passive general partner.

An offering memorandum to investors in Bain’s seventh private equity fund that was circulated in June 2000 also suggests that Mr. Romney was no longer actively involved in managing firm investments at the time. The memorandum, first published by Fortune, provides background on the “senior private equity investment professionals of Bain Capital.” Eighteen managers are listed; Mr. Romney is not among them.

On another filing with Massachusetts officials, Bain Capital listed all of Bain’s directors and officers for 2001. The form lists Michael F. Goss as “president, managing director and chief financial officer,” along with seventeen other managing directors. Mr. Romney is not among them, suggesting that while he still owned Bain’s management company, he was not an officer of the company.

I think that Stephanie Cutter apology is long overdue by now. Maybe today?

Karl Rove: Obama Attacks are 'Gutter Politics of the Worst Chicago Sort'

You know, Stephanie Cutter doubled down, but I'm not going to be surprised if O's campaign backtracks with an apology.

Check The Hill, "Karl Rove: Obama Attacks are 'Gutter Politics of the Worst Chicago Sort'."

Obama Bain Attacks Continue

The Boston Globe, which helped get all of this going last week, reports: "Sparring over Bain details continues." And I missed this clip with Charles Krauthammer earlier, but it's excellent:

And here's this morning's editorial at the New York Times, "Mitt Romney’s Complaints":

On Thursday, a Boston Globe article demonstrated Mr. Romney’s continuing ties to Bain through 2002, and Mr. Obama said it raised questions for his opponent. “I think most Americans figure if you are the chairman, C.E.O. and president of a company,” he said, “you are responsible for what that company does.”

Mr. Obama’s campaign aides did go too far, perhaps, in suggesting Mr. Romney may have legal problems over this issue. But Mr. Obama’s criticism is fair. Mr. Romney has persistently refused to tell voters about his finances. Even now it is not clear how much money he has made from Bain in the 13 (or 10) years since he left the company.

Went a little too far? How about jumped the shark, as Krauthammer suggests?

Whatever Happened to Hope and Change?

At the Des Moines Register, "Romney ad in Iowa questions: ‘Whatever happened to hope and change?’"

Well, some of that hope and change has been offshored, "Busy Month for Obama Campaign with Fundraisers in Switzerland, Sweden, Paris and Communist China."

RELATED: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool ALL of the people ALL of the time." (Attributed to Abraham Lincoln.)

Stephanie Cutter, Obama Deputy Campaign Manager, Doubles Down on Discredited Bain Attacks

She's one hella piece of work. Remember, Cutter's the one who attacked Romney as a "felon."

The Hill reports, "Cutter: Romney is ‘not going to get apology’."

The Obama campaign on Sunday said it would not apologize to Mitt Romney for remarks made suggesting he may have committed a felony.

“He’s not going to get an apology,” said Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter , who made the controversial comments, during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday.

Cutter said Romney should “stop whining” about the attacks from the Obama campaign which have targeted him over his work at private equity firm Bain Capital and his offshore financial holdings.

More video here and here.

I wrote on this yesterday, "Mitt Romney 'Retired Retroactively' From Bain Capital."

But see Joel Pollak, "Obama's Media Allies in Retreat: Unable to Defend Bain Attacks, They Embrace 'Truthiness'":

The New Yorker's Alex Koppelman, for example, takes up the Romney campaign's response to Obama's false claims -- and instead of taking Obama to task, merely asks: "What Is Truth, Anyway?":

Judging by this ad, and the controversy generally, it seems like this election is likely to involve a lot of what we saw this week: two Presidential campaigns constantly swapping accusations of lying back and forth. It makes for good entertainment, but it may not ever get us any closer to the real truth.

No -- there is, in fact, a real and verifiable truth, which even Romney's harshest media critics cannot deny: that he left active management of Bain Capital in February 1999, and that the Obama administration itself has spent billions of taxpayer dollars outsourcing jobs (while the Obama campaign raises cash overseas as well).

In addition, outsourcing--actually offshoring--is an irreversible part of the global economy. It creates opportunities for both the host and destination countries--lowering prices, increasing profits and creating more jobs overall. The only reason this debate--which defies economic sense--is happening is that the Obama campaign is attempting to use xenophobia to recover some of the support it has lost over the past four years, swapping "divide-and-rule" for "hope and change," and attempting to paint Romney as unpatriotic.

The Obama campaign has lost (for a while, anyway) some of the credibility the mainstream media normally grants it so readily. By any measure--and certainly by the polls--Obama's attacks on Bain capital have not worked. Yet Koppelman tries to spin Obama's desperate tactics as a blow to Romney--when in fact Romney has been handed a bona fide narrative of "Obama as liar" that he can, and likely will, use through the end of the campaign.

Scranton to Pay Government Workers Minimum Wage

This is harsh. And given the over the top corruption and malfeasance at the local level (at least in California), I can't see how the public employees should have this deep a cut. Minimum wage? They say it's a temporary stopgap, but how about the cuts at the top?

At the Los Angeles Times, "Scranton ignores judge's ruling, cuts worker pay to minimum wage."

And at the Fiscal Times, "Scranton's Fiscal Mess May Lead to Bankruptcy":

More at CSM, "Cities going broke: Can Scranton's minimum wage plan work?"

International Committee of the Red Cross: Syria Now a Civil War

This is good, in the short-term.

Long-term we still have to worry about the radical Islamists coming to power in Damascus.

At the Guardian, "Bashar al-Assad could face prosecution as Red Cross rules Syria is in civil war." Also, at Toronto's Globe and Mail, "‘Civil war’ designation opens Assad to possible war crimes charges."

The Islamist Ascendancy

From Charles Krauthammer, at the Washington Post:

Post-revolutionary Libya appears to have elected a relatively moderate pro-Western government. Good news, but tentative because Libya is less a country than an oil well with a long beach and myriad tribes. Popular allegiance to a central national authority is weak. Yet even if the government of Mahmoud Jibril is able to rein in the militias and establish a functioning democracy, it will be the Arab Spring exception. Consider:

Tunisia and Morocco, the most Westernized of all Arab countries, elected Islamist governments. Moderate, to be sure, but Islamist still. Egypt, the largest and most influential, has experienced an Islamist sweep. The Muslim Brotherhood didn’t just win the presidency. It won nearly half the seats in parliament, while more openly radical Islamists won 25 percent. Combined, they command more than 70 percent of parliament — enough to control the writing of a constitution (which is why the generals hastily dissolved parliament).

As for Syria, if and when Bashar al-Assad falls, the Brotherhood will almost certainly inherit power. Jordan could well be next. And the Brotherhood’s Palestinian wing (Hamas) already controls Gaza.

What does this mean? That the Arab Spring is a misnomer. This is an Islamist ascendancy, likely to dominate Arab politics for a generation.

Continue reading.

NewsBusted: 'President Obama Makes No Apologies for ObamaCare'

Via Theo Spark:

Hillary Clinton Motorcade Pelted With Tomatoes in Egypt

And shoes.

She was pelted with tomatoes and shoes.

At Agence France Presse, "‘Monica, Monica’ chants taunt Clinton in Egypt" (via Memeorandum). And London's Daily Mail, "Hillary's motorcade pelted with tomatoes and shoes as Egyptian protesters shout 'Monica, Monica'."

'Avengers' Director Joss Whedon Goes Off on Epic Anti-Capitalist Diatribe at Comic-Con

Zombie's got it, at PJ Media, "Another Hollywood Millionaire Outs Self as Faux-Socialist Hypocrite."

This guy should be the epitome of free-market success. According to his Wikipedia entry, Whedon "wrote and directed the film adaptation of Marvel's The Avengers (2012), the third highest-grossing film of all time."

God, what a faux-socialist douche.

More at The Wrap, "Comic-Con 2012: Joss Whedon: America Is Turning Into ‘Tsarist Russia’."

The Socialist State's Insatiable Demand for More Taxes

At the Orange County Register, "Taxpayers besieged on many sides":

When government coffers are flush, it's hard enough to reduce taxes. With deficits, public worker layoffs and municipal bankruptcies, expect an all-out assault for higher taxes.

The persistence of those demanding more taxes is typified by the June ballot's failed $1-per-pack tax increase on cigarettes in California, whose backers, despite losing by nearly 30,000 votes, now demand a recount.

he epitome of relentless demand for more taxes is the Affordable Care Act. What Congress and President Barack Obama promised was a penalty for not buying government-approved insurance, the U.S. Supreme Court says is a tax – actually a tax increase because it didn't exist before. Obamacare bundles 20 new taxes, incredible in variety and ingenuity, ranging from disallowing previous deductions for charitable hospitals and tax increases on biofuel to taxing medical device manufacturers and a surtax on investments. Obamacare's new taxes are listed at the website of Americans for Tax Reform: bit.ly/LGAD2d.

While critics say Obamacare may be history's largest tax increase, there will be a comparable hit if the Bush-era tax cuts are allowed to expire Jan. 1. The 10-percent income tax bracket would rise to 15 percent. The next four brackets each would increase 3 percentage points, and the top 35 percent bracket would go to 39.6 percent, according to Yahoo Finance. Taxes on capital gains and dividends would jump from 15 percent to 20 percent and 39.6 percent, respectively. The marriage penalty also would increase.

More at the link.

Australia Surfer Killed by Great White Shark

At Independent UK, "Let us kill great whites, says Western Australia as protected species claims its fifth victim":

Western Australia called on the federal government yesterday to lift a ban on the fishing of great white sharks following an unprecedented fifth death in its waters within less than a year.

Speaking after a 24 year old surfer, Ben Linden, was bitten in half by a "massive" shark on Saturday, the state's Fisheries Minister, Norman Moore, said the spate of fatal attacks was "cause for great alarm". He added that he was "open to any suggestions from anybody as to where we go to now, because we seriously have got a problem".

The killing of Mr Linden, who was paddling his board near remote Wedge Island, 100 miles north of Perth, has cemented the west coast's reputation as the world's deadliest shark attack zone. A hunt for the fish that killed him, believed to be up to 16 feet long, was called off yesterday afternoon. Ministers had ordered any shark of that size to be killed on sight.

A jet-skier who witnessed the attack and tried to retrieve Mr Linden's remains said the shark went for him. "By the time I got out there, half of him had been taken and the shark was circling," Matt Holmes, 22, told the Australian TV channel ABC. "There was blood everywhere. I reached to grab the body … but as I did that, the shark came back and nudged the jet-ski to try to knock me off."

After looping around, Mr Holmes returned to the scene. "I just thought about his family and if he had kids," he said. "I just wanted to get him to shore. [But] when I came back the second time, it took the rest of him." The shark - which other surfers had noticed over the previous four days and nicknamed "Brutus" because of its size - was last seen heading out to deeper waters.

Also at the Sydney Morning Herald, "Order to destroy 'massive' shark that killed Perth surfer Ben Linden."

Kelly Brook Bursting Out of Low-Cut Dress on Sky Ride Manchester

She sure gets around. And as lovely as ever!

At London's Daily Mail, "Setting a stylish example! Kelly Brook is the lady in red as she promotes Sky Ride Manchester in a plunging scarlet dress."

And here's the Sun's headline, "Kelly Brook's too hot to handle as she wears low-cut dress... for bike ride."

Moshe Silman Self-Immolation Mobilizes New Protests Against Israel

Here's a follow up to my entry from last night, "'Social Justice' Protester Self-Immolates in Tel Aviv."

Here's a new clip with a different angle:

And here's the latest at the Jeruselem Post, "Protesters attempt to set National Insurance Institute (NII) on fire." And at Haaretz, "Hundreds of Israelis protest state's social policy, in wake of self-immolation."

And here's the editorial at JPost, "Emulating immolation?":

Moshe Silman, 58, was hospitalized in Tel Hashomer on Saturday night in critical condition. He is suffering burns on over 90 percent of his body after he doused himself with fuel and lit himself on fire during a social protest in Tel Aviv.

Doctors fear that the severe damage to most of his skin will result in kidney and liver collapse and other complications that will keep him in a life-threatening state for the near future. We join in prayers for his speedy recovery.

Silman’s personal story – including his self-immolation – is a tragedy. In 2002, his shipping and delivery company went bankrupt after one of his four trucks was confiscated as collateral for an outstanding loan. After suffering a stroke, he was left partially handicapped, making it nearly impossible for him to work. For a variety of complex psychological and social reasons, Silman had supreme difficulty dealing with the setbacks in his life.

Silman’s case raises ethical issues regarding the limitations of our welfare state. No matter how extensive the social aid provided by the state – this one or any other – there will always be individuals like Silman who will somehow fall through the safety net. More specifically, since Silman’s immediate concern was housing, perhaps renewed efforts can be invested in implementing the long-term housing reforms recommended by the Trajtenberg Committee.

Improving public transportation so that commuting from outlying areas, where real estate prices are lower, becomes more feasible and streamlining the process of rezoning state land for construction were two recommendations. A reexamination of public housing or state-subsidized mortgages might also be in order.

Silman’s tragedy should also spark debate about the increasing atomization of Israeli society. Was Silman so devoid of support from friends, family and the community that he opted for suicide?

But, as opposition leader Shelly Yechimovich warned, Silman’s self-immolation “cannot be used as an example or inspiration for youth or adults, and it certainly must not be seen as a symbol of the social protest.”

Well, it already has become a symbol of social protest.

See the Independent UK, "Israel's man on fire is symbol of economic injustice." Also at International Business Times, "Israel: Self-Immolation of Moshe Silman Could Define Social Movement."

There's a big roundup at Vice, "I SAW A MAN BURNING ALIVE ON THE STREETS OF TEL AVIV."

California Progressives Fight Desperately Against 'Paycheck Protection' Initiative, Proposition 32

I was forwarded an email from Mike Myslinski, who is the public relations director at the California Teachers Association:

From: "Myslinski, Mike"
Date: July 14, 2012 10:57:47 AM PDT
To: CTA XXX XXXX XXXXX

Comrades:

I posted this blog on the CTA Facebook page this morning. Steve Smith of California Labor Federation and Brian Brokaw of the No on 32 campaign are quoted...

http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/07/12/the-war-on-workers-comes-to-california-in-disguise/

Mike Myslinski

CTA Communications

You gotta love the "comrades" salutation, for one thing, which is how Communist Party members greet each other. And then note how the state's far-left teachers union goes to radical left-wing blogs for talking points. The link goes to David Dayen at Firedoglake, "The War On Workers Comes to California, in Disguise." It's actually a good discussion of the initiative, with all the left-wing spin naturally, but this part is key:

Unions can ask their members to voluntarily donate to political causes, say the backers of Prop 32. But the initiative contains an additional measure that requires an annual written authorization from each union member on even voluntary contributions. Unions typically have an automatic process to collect dues and use them in part for political ends. Now they would have to go through a time- and resource-consuming process of collecting all dues individually, getting written authorization for how the dues can be used, in such a way that would be logistically impossible.

The fact is, my union doesn't notify employees about opting out of union political activities. You can do that, if you learn your rights, but you have to go to the union reps to fill out special paperwork, and even then, just 20 percent or so is prohibited from political activities, when in fact much more of what unions do, as a ratio of their activities, is interest group political lobbying and campaigns. In fact, CTA is THE BIGGEST political contributor in California politics, although it ends up funding Democrat political issues and candidates exclusively, which then misrepresents the political interests of the members who are conservative or Republican. You're basically screwed as a CTA member. So that's why the paycheck provisions of Prop. 32 are especially attractive. See Labor Pains for a discussion of this issue nationally, "UNIONS DISREGARD MEMBERS’ POLITICAL PREFERENCES."

The Dayen piece above cribs a bunch of those quotes right from the left's anti-Prop. 32 talking points. The CTA has not one but two websites to oppose the measure, the CTA's page, "No on 32: Stop Special Exemptions," and "Stop the Special Exemptions Act." And here's their marquee ad:

Unions are the "schoolhouses of socialism."

The conservative public sector reforms are crucially necessary to break these f-kers and drive 'em six-feet under.

See Ballotpedia for more, "California Proposition 32."

Hope Isn't Hiring

I miss the tea party rallies. The movement moved on to the grassroots work of interest group opposition and political campaigns, but I never tire of the tea parties themselves. Linkmaster Smith has a roundup of the Barack Obama protest out in Virginia yesterday, "Northern Virginia Tea Party Protests Barack Obama, Supports Mitt Romney in Centerville, 14 July 2012."

My favorite:

Mitt Romney 'Retired Retroactively' From Bain Capital

That's the big buzz this afternoon. Adviser Ed Gillespie argued that Romney retired "retroactively" in 1999. See National Journal, "Gillespie: Romney 'Retired Retroactively' from Bain."

Lots more at Memeorandum.

And check the banner headline at the Hufffington Post, "Ed Gillespie: Mitt Romney 'Retired Retroactively' From Bain Capital." Also, "Mitt Romney Bain Capital Document Lists Him As 'Managing Member' In 2002."

To read Huffington Post things look just horrible, just completely horrible, right?

Not really. The fact is Romney left Bain in 1999. He continued to have a consulting role with the company but did not have executive decision-making responsibility. According to Ed Conard, a partner at Bain until 2007, "Mitt's names were on the documents as the chief executive and sole owner of the company ... Legally, on documents, I suppose, yes." That's an interview with radical leftist Chris Hayes at MSNBC. Conard also says Romney kept legal ties to the firm during negotiations over his compensation package:

We had to negotiate with Mitt because he was an owner of the firm....

He'd created a lot of franchise value, and we were going to pay him for that...

We had a very complicated set of negotiations that took us about two years for us to unwind. During that time a management committee ran the firm, and we could hardly get Mitt to come back to negotiate the terms of his departure because he was working so hard on the Olympics...

It's indicative that the commenters there are unhappy with Conard's interview, since his version corresponds with Romney's statements. But progressives think they've got the magic bullet to destroy Romney (and the intensity of the attacks are noteworthy in light of Obama's abysmal track record), so every seeming inconsistency will be raked over as the biggest lie in American history. Whatever happens, it's not a very compelling reelection platform, and even some lefties are shrugging their shoulders. Here's Kevin Drum at Mother Jones, for example:

Politically, I understand why this story has gotten so much oxygen. And it's worth digging into, since Romney has inexplicably opened himself up to it by insisting over and over that he had literally zero involvement with Bain during the 1999-2002 period, something that seems unlikely for a CEO and sole shareholder. But honestly, as Dave Weigel says, there's nothing all that new about this story. Romney took a leave from Bain in 1999, probably had a bit of contact with Bain's management during the next few years, and was involved in both strategic and daily decisionmaking only tangentially. In other words, not very involved, but not quite zero either. Beyond that, the details hardly matter.

There you go.

PREVIOUSLY: "Mitt Romney Had 'Absolutley No Involvement' in Bain Management After Departure in 1999," and "Mitt Romney Left Bain Capital in February 1999."

'Social Justice' Protester Self-Immolates in Tel Aviv

A report at Jerusalem Post, "Social justice activist sets himself on fire in Tel Aviv."

Actually, the guy was less a "social justice" protester than a disgruntled social services flunky. The anti-Israel +972 blog posts the guy's suicide letter:

The State of Israel has stolen from me and robbed me, left me with nothing

and the Tel Aviv District Court blocked me from getting justice. — registrar at the Tel Aviv District court, broke the law, disrupted legal proceedings, out of condescension.

It won’t even assist me with my rental fees

Two committees from the Ministry of Housing have rejected me, despite the fact that I have undergone a stroke and was granted 100% work disability

Ask the manager of Amidar, in Hafia, on Hanevi’im Street.

I blame the State of Israel

I blame Bibi Netanyahu

and [Minister of Finance] Yuval Steinitz

both scum...

More at that above link.

And Ynet identifies the man as Moshe Silman. See: "Man sets himself on fire during TA rally."

Google Mondoweiss for more, if you're interested. I'm not linking to that hate-site this time around.

5 Ways Liberalism Destroys Virtue

Well, as always, I like to say "progressivism," but see John Hawkins, at Right Wing News:

The more completely a person, group, or organization embraces liberalism, the less virtuous it becomes. It’s almost like a mental sickness in that respect. People or groups who are lightly infected can soldier on without having it eat them alive. However, the deeper the sickness goes, the more it changes them. Eventually the liberal disease inside of people can grow so much that it warps their morals, their religious beliefs, and their way of thinking until they can no longer tell right and wrong. This destruction of virtue is a natural consequence of the fundamental beliefs that go along with liberalism.

And that reminds me: "The Left's Celebration of Nihilism," and some of those real life examples.

Sylvester Stallone's Son, Sage Stallone, Dead for Days Before Being Discovered

It's already a sad story, but the delayed discovery kinda bummed me out yesterday.

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Sage Stallone found dead: Autopsy planned, some details emerge":

An autopsy is planned for Sage Stallone, actor Sylvester Stallone's eldest son, who may have been dead for several days before he was found Friday afternoon at his home in the Hollywood Hills.

Authorities told L.A. Now that foul play was not suspected in the death of the 36-year-old actor, writer and producer, who made his film debut opposite his father playing Rocky Balboa Jr. in "Rocky V."

Word that the younger Stallone may have been dead for a while comes via law-enforcement sources who spoke to TMZ, explaining that Sage's housekeeper had been following standing instructions not to enter his bedroom, but ultimately checked on him Friday after his mom could not get in touch with him.

More at the link.

Tremseh Massacre Induces More Hand-Wringing on Syria

It's long past time for regime change in Damascus. The question is how to do it without making things worse.

Here's Reuel Marc Gerecht's plan, "To Topple Assad, Unleash the CIA":

Does President Barack Obama want Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to fall?

He's said he does, but fear of an interventionist slippery slope, re-election concerns, and anxiety about America's prominence in the Middle East have severely limited U.S. efforts to topple the Damascus regime. Shaming Russia into forsaking its Syrian ally appears to be the coup de grâce that Mr. Obama and his indignant secretary of state are still counting on.

This approach may not differ much from that of Mitt Romney, who has studiously avoided revealing what he would do in Syria. Even on the more hawkish right, there isn't a lot of appetite for committing U.S. military power to the conflict, except perhaps via the air in conjunction with Turkey. Tempers in Ankara are rising against the Assad regime, but Turkish civilian and military leaders still don't want to send tanks to establish Syrian "safe havens" for rebels and refugees whom Turkey is supporting on its side of the border.

Yet there is an alternative that could crack the Assad regime: a muscular CIA operation launched from Turkey, Jordan and even Iraqi Kurdistan. The trick for Washington is to go in big, deploying enough case officers and delivering paralyzing weaponry to the rebels as rapidly as possible.

Press reports already suggest that a rudimentary, small-scale CIA covert action is under way against Assad. But these reports, probably produced by officially sanctioned White House leaks, reveal an administration trying not to commit itself. According to Syrian rebels I've heard from, the much-mentioned Saudi and Qatari military aid—reportedly chaperoned by the CIA—hasn't arrived in any meaningful quantity.

Odds are that it won't, as the Saudis and Qataris are incapable of running arms on the scale required. Institutionally, intellectually and culturally, it's not their cup of tea. And intelligence officers tell me that the White House hasn't ordered Langley to move the weaponry. To the extent Syria's rebels have recently improved their performance, the reason is better coordination among the Free Syrian Army's units, more defections from regime forces, and raids on regular army depots.

But Langley can move weapons and rapidly develop complementary intelligence networks inside Syria. It may not do these feats brilliantly, but it can certainly do them better than anyone in the region.

And FWIW, see the report from Charles Dunne, David Kramer, and William H. Taft IV, at the Washington Post, "What the U.S. should do to help Syria."

RELATED: Telegraph UK has the background, "Analysis: What lies behind the Syrian massacres?"