South African Police Open Fire on Striking Miners (VIDEO)

Longer versions of the video show the miners armed with huge machetes, and thus the police will be able to claim self-defense. Still, it's too much. At least 18 dead? It's just too much.

The New York Times reports, "Mine Strike Mayhem Stuns South Africa as Police Open Fire."

MARIKANA, South Africa — The police fired on machete-wielding workers engaged in a wildcat strike at a platinum mine here on Thursday, leaving a field strewed with bodies and a deepening fault line between the governing African National Congress and a nation that, 18 years after the end of apartheid, is increasingly impatient with deep poverty, rampant unemployment and yawning inequality.

In a scene replayed endlessly on television that reminded some South Africans of the days when the police of the apartheid government opened fire on protesters, heavily armed officers shot into a charging crowd of workers who walked off the job last Friday, demanding higher wages.

The strike has pitted the country’s largest mine workers union, which is closely allied with the governing A.N.C., against a radical upstart union demanding sharp increases in pay and faster action to improve the grim living and working standards for miners.

The strike and the government’s iron-fisted response are emblematic of the frustration with the slow pace of transforming South Africa’s largely white-owned business establishment and the growing perception that the A.N.C. and its allies have become too cozy with big business. As a result, many people here, especially the young, have looked for more radical solutions.

“N.U.M. has deserted us,” said one of the striking workers, who gave his name as Kelebone, referring to the older union, the National Union of Mineworkers, by its abbreviation. “N.U.M. is working with the white people and getting money. They forgot about the workers.”

Also at Guardian UK, "South African police shoot dead striking miners."

Ryan Pick Shifts Focus From Economy to Ideology

I noted this point earlier, and I'm thrilled about it.

At the New York Times, "Choice of Paul Ryan Shifts the Focus From Economy to Ideology."

However, I wouldn't put too fine a point on it. You can't lose focus of the economy in this economy. Obama is the emperor with no clothes. He can run, he can demonize his opponents, but he can't hide. The campaign's ideological focus sharpens differences on the economy. The Times implies Ryan's a liability, of course. Only the election will tell. But we know conservatives are energized and Team O's shaking in its boots. The Dems are walking a living nightmare.

Ecuador Grants Asylum to Julian Assange

At the New York Times, "Ecuador Grants Asylum to Assange, Defying Britain." (Via Memeorandum.)

Economic Downturn, High Taxes Hurt Hollywood as TV Production Joins Film Exodus

California's so uncompetitive that even the basic core of the state's historic entertainment industry is looking for more fertile pastures.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Los Angeles losing the core of its TV production to other states":

The five broadcast television networks will be rolling out 23 new one-hour dramas for the upcoming season. That would normally be good business for Hollywood's hometown industry — with bookings for soundstages and plenty of work for the costumers, camera operators and caterers needed to put a show on the air.

But not this year. Just two of the 23 new fall and midseason shows will be shot in Los Angeles County, as cost-conscious producers seek tax-friendly production havens in New York, North Carolina, Georgia and other states.

The exodus has been going on for years, especially in feature film production. But television dramas such as"CSI,""Criminal Minds"and"Desperate Housewives"have long been anchors of Los Angeles' entertainment economy, helping to offset the decade-long slide in moviemaking. One 22-episode-a-year network series has a budget of $60 million and generates 840 direct and indirect jobs, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

That economic bang is beginning to fizzle. Fewer than 10% of new network dramas this season are based in Los Angeles, down from 50% in 2010 and nearly 80% in 2005.

"The loss of hourlong dramas is very significant," said Kevin Klowden, director of the California Center at the Milken Institute, noting that a typical drama shoots for eight to nine months, compared with just six to eight weeks for a film. "This is the heart of television production. If this continues, you're going to see a direct impact on the employment base of Los Angeles."

Though L.A. still hosts the bulk of new half-hour comedies and reality shows, dramas are more prized because they use bigger crews and have bigger budgets. That translates to more spending in the local economy....

New York had a record year for TV production last year and is on track to repeat in 2012. More than half a dozen new fall and midseason network dramas are expected to shoot in New York this season, including the CW's"The Carrie Diaries,"CBS'"Elementary" andABC's"666 Park Avenue."

At least seven new broadcast dramas will be shooting in Canada, includingABC's"Zero Hour," in Montreal, and "Hannibal" and"Beauty and the Beast,"both in Toronto, which also hosts the new drama "The L.A. Complex," about a group of actors trying to make it in Hollywood. Other new dramas are being filmed in North Carolina, Georgia, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Tennessee.

To be sure, creative reasons also factor in the decision-making. It made sense to shoot"Dallas"in Texas because the story is based there. But tax credits offered by Texas were also important, said Michael Robin, an executive producer on the series, who is also a producer on the new cable crime drama "Longmire," which is set in Wyoming but filmed in New Mexico, partly to take advantage of tax credits.

"The cost of producing these shows goes up every year, but the bottom line doesn't," said Robin, who is also producing the new cable drama"Major Crimes"locally. "The tax credits help close the gap."

"The reality is, as long as Sacramento continues to balk at having real incentives, we're going to continue to lose the most lucrative forms of television and film production," said Paul Audley, president of FilmL.A. Inc., the nonprofit group that handles permits for the city and county. "We're losing tens of thousands of jobs to New York."

The Concours d'Elegance Car Show at Pebble Beach

I think my buddy will be up at Pebble Beach again, with his 1913 American Underslung.

And it looks like it's going to be one hella show, "1936 Mercedes may break record at Pebble Beach auction."

Former Special Forces Officers Slam Obama Over Bin Laden Leaks

At the New York Times, "Ex-Officers Attack Obama Over Leaks on Bin Laden Raid."

Shooting at Family Research Council

The report from MyFoxDC, "Shooting at Family Research Council Headquarters."

And at Instapundit:

AMERICA’S WEIMAR MOMENT? Reader Kevin Hedges writes:

Many years ago in an undergrad World History course, the professor asserted that German democracy died not in 1933 with Hitler becoming Chancellor but years earlier. It died when roving bands of Brown Shirts beat up Jews in the streets, and the average respectable German citizen responded by looking the other way. I am reminded of that today with the FRC shooting and the MSM pretending it didn’t happen. Leftist shootings, vandalized Chick-fil-As, Black Panthers at voting stations, many, many churches burned and vandalized, media silence and the drumbeat of hate and demonization continues. I honestly wonder if democratic pluralism is dead. Some are openly saying it is. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Fascism.

Professor Reynolds responds, at the link.

And see Gina Dalfonzo, at National Review, "Leo Johnson of the FRC and the Best and Worst of Human Nature":

When early eyewitness reports — not yet confirmed by the police or the FBI — suggested that the shooter had said disparaging things about FRC’s views, the rhetoric got even crazier. The narrative that has emerged among certain members of the Left goes something like this: When a right-winger shoots a left-winger, the right wing is at fault. And when a left-winger shoots a right-winger, the right wing is also at fault, because people with their views are just asking for it.

Have we really gotten to the point in this country where some of us are willing to legitimize violence this way?

We have to be honest when talking about the motives of any given criminal. There’s no point in trying to hide or ignore them. But can’t we also be honest about the fact that on both sides of the aisle, violence tends to come only from the marginalized and deranged? Pinning the blame for a crime on an entire mainstream movement or belief system is a highly dangerous exercise. It means that when a crime is committed by someone who agrees with you — as will inevitably happen, since criminals come from all backgrounds and belief systems — you then have to quickly twist things around and protect yourself from any possible guilt by association. And if that means blaming the victim, well, so be it.

Yes, but it's the left that almost always does the twisting. Personally, I've never seen such hatred in my entire life. And yes, progressives will blame and attempt to destroy the victim. That's what they do. They have no grace.

PREVIOUSLY:

* "CNN Waited 2 Hours and 45 Minutes to Report Shooting at Family Research Council."

* "SPLC Gives Cover to Hate."

* "Depraved Homosexuals Blame Family Research Council for 'Climate of Violence' After Leftist Attempts Massacre."

* "Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Attacked Family Research Council as 'Hate Group' in 2010 Report."

* "Family Research Council Shooting at Washington, D.C., Headquarters."

Mitt Romney: Obama Will 'Do Anything' to Get Elected

I hope he keeps hammering O as he's been the last few days. I've been tweeting Team Romney with my concerns, so who knows, maybe I'm getting through. I know someone got through to Mitt over the last week or so. That Chillicothe speech was a knock out.

The Hottest Woman in the World

I don't know if Bar's the hottest in the entire world. She's up there, and extremely easy on the eyes, but I can think of a few others who top the list.

In any case, previously, "Bar Refaeli Rocks Maxim September 2012 Cover in Luscious Lingerie Shoot."

CNN Waited 2 Hours and 45 Minutes to Report Shooting at Family Research Council

Mary Katharine Ham noted CNN's long delay in her post yesterday, "Cops: Suspect in FRC shooting volunteered at Washington LGBT center." Also on Twitter.

No one was killed, but still. This incident really was political, whereas Aurora, Tucson were not. And it was big breaking news. Some were suggesting if it were "HRC" and not "FRC" the media clamor would have rivaled the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. An LGBT volunteer looking to massacre Tony Perkins and the staff at the conservative policy organization? Doesn't fit the left's accepted narrative.

SPLC Gives Cover to Hate

An outstanding essay from William Jacobson, at Legal Insurrection, "SPLC’s hatewatch gives cover to hate."

William notes that he was a big supporter of the SPLC when the organization's primary emphasis was exposing the KKK. But they've moved on to attack as "hate speech" any conservative speech with which the y disagree. Recently the organization moved to provide cover for the homosexual left on same-sex marriage. SPLC has provided creds to the "hate group" charge, and it's just taken off in recent weeks, with terrible consequences:

And so it came to pass, support for retaining the centuries old definition of marriage as one man, one woman, routinely now is labeled as “hate speech” on campuses and increasingly in the liberal-dominated media. Groups which support retaining the definition now are hate groups — with SPLC cited as the authority.

Chick-fil-A brought to the surface the hysteria. A company whose executives supported retaining the traditional definition of marriage was threatened by politicians with denial of business licenses, its products were called “hate chicken,” its employees were rudely confronted, and protesters outside its stores harassed and belittled those who disagreed. Now Chick-fil-A is being banned from campuses.

And in almost every instance, the justification is that support for retaining the traditional definition of marriage is hate speech, and often the SPLC is cited as the authority because it has designated groups like the Family Research Council as a hate group.

SPLC gave cover to those who use the “hate speech’ and “hate group” labels to shut down political and religious speech, and now it has spiralled out of control.

PREVIOUSLY: "Depraved Homosexuals Blame Family Research Council for 'Climate of Violence' After Leftist Attempts Massacre."

It's the Progressives Who Seeks to Put Us in Chains

Mike at Cold Fury's on fire with this post, "Is Romney learning"?

I had it at the sidebar Blog Item Finder but it deserves a full entry of its own. Read it at that link.

Depraved Homosexuals Blame Family Research Council for 'Climate of Violence' After Leftist Attempts Massacre

The Hill reports on the political reaction to today's attempted massacre at the Family Research Council, "Shooting spurs heated debate on gay rights, 'hate group' label" (via Memeorandum).

The left has been firing unhinged hatred all day, from some homosexual lowlife on Twitter, for example (via Twitchy):

Yo @ewerickson, a shooting at #FRC HQ was a long time coming. Though I'm surprised the #AFA wasn't 1st. Hate begets hate. #NOH8 #Bigotry
— Chase J. (@Way2Blue4You) August 15, 2012

Plus, here's Sally Kohn on Twitter:

Yes, Family Research Council is a hate group — and calling them such condemns climate of violence FRC has encouraged
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) August 15, 2012

And there is so much bottled hatred in this Jessica Naomi Twitter feed, it's shocking:

@wiz1965 I DO NOT TOLERATE FUCKING GAY BASHING JESUS FREAKS LIKE YOU & @dloesch & I DO NOT NEED FUCKING JESUS FREAKS TO TOLERATE ME
— JessicaNaomi (@JessicaNaomi828) August 16, 2012

@joemygod who cares what gay basher tyrannical theocRAT @dloesch spews, let her shove her kill gays bible down her own throat & choke on it
— JessicaNaomi (@JessicaNaomi828) August 16, 2012

And Joe.My.God. unleashed a torrent of tweets condemning Tony Perkins, for example:

.@dloesch Do you also condemn the FRC's claim that gay people are inherently mentally ill pedophiles? bit.ly/wKMrjj
— JoeMyGod (@JoeMyGod) August 16, 2012

Epic hate-filled homosexual Dan Savage piles on:

Let's remember why FRC was labeled a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center. It wasn't opposition to gay marriage: splcenter.org/get-informed/i…
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) August 15, 2012

And another epic hater, John Aravosis:

@causeofourjoy Hate is hate. And sadly, a lot of "traditional values" groups are simply collections of people who hate.
— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 15, 2012

And Aravosis has a blog post justifying the violence, "Does the shooting at the Family Research Council exonerate the group's 20 years of hate?":

The information is still coming in, but someone apparently started shooting in the lobby of the religious right hate group Family Research council in Washington, DC today. A security guard was unfortunately wounded.

Conservatives, such as CNN's Erick Erickson, are already trying to tie Democrats to the attack. Why? Because people on the left had the audacity to challenge the Family Research Council's decades of hateful and bigoted attacks against gay and lesbian Americans. And other conservatives are calling for the Southern Poverty Law Center to no longer list the FRC as a hate group because of today's violence. That would be wrong.

Because of conservatives trying to take political advantage of the shooting I'm now forced to recap just how hateful and bigoted an organization the Family Research Council really is. I'd have preferred to have avoided that this so soon after the attack, but conservatives leave us no choice.

Continue reading.

I guess Aravosis doesn't get the satanic irony of defending the violence against FRC (because they "hate"), and then attempting to reject the shooting on the other hand (because violence is "never justified).

Unlike conservatives, the left has built up an industry attacking conservatives, and people with "traditional values," as "haters." After a while you reap what you sow.

Jonathan Tobin had a thoughtful piece earlier today, "Will the Left Pause After DC Shooting?":

...liberals who have often jumped to the conclusion that all Tea Partiers are violent racists because of stray comments from extremists need to remember that such tactics cut both ways. Those who have repeatedly cautioned conservatives to mind their tongues and be careful about using language that would delegitimize their opponents now must think about what they have been saying in recent weeks and months about the so-called “war on women” or supporters of Chick-fil-A. If they thought violent rhetoric emanating from the right was a problem that could be linked to violence, then they must understand that incitement against conservatives is just as noxious. That is all the more true because almost all of the accusations of right-wing involvement in violence have been proven false while the Washington gunman’s statements make it clear that he was motivated by left-wing politics.

Word.

And also from John Hinderaker, Power Line, "THOUGHTS ON THE FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL SHOOTING":

One of the most troubling aspects of contemporary public life is the frequency with which violent episodes take on a political coloration....

A wrong turn was taken in the Jared Loughner case. Loughner was a lunatic, so deranged that it remained doubtful for a long time whether he would even be competent to stand trial. There is no reason to think that his killing spree was politically motivated, and to the extent that he had a (crazy) political outlook, it was leftist; he listed The Communist Manifesto as one of his favorite books.

No matter. The Democratic Party and the media tried, incredibly, in retrospect, to blame Loughner’s shootings on Sarah Palin....

Then we had the absurdity of the Aurora, Colorado Batman shooter being identified breathlessly as a possible Tea Partier by ABC’s Brian Ross. No such luck. Another nut.

Today a public school teacher named Floyd Corkins II walked into the Washington, D.C. office of the Family Research Council, armed with a recently-purchased 9 mm pistol. He was stopped by the guard; news reports don’t clearly explain why. Perhaps he had already drawn his gun, or perhaps he just looked suspicious. Some reports say he was carrying a Chick-Fil-A bag. He shot the guard, who wrestled him to the ground. Along the way, Corkins made observations about the political positions of the FRC, and, when the guard pointed a gun at him–it is not clear, to me anyway, whether the guard was armed or he took Corkins’s gun away from him–Corkins begged him not to shoot, saying something to the effect that it was nothing personal, he just had a problem with the FRC’s politics....

...denouncing proponents of traditional marriage as “haters” isn’t the only instance of over-the-top liberal rhetoric; on the contrary, hysteria is their stock in trade. Thus, we see Barack Obama claiming that Mitt Romney causes cancer, and Joe Biden asserting bizarrely that Republicans want to put someone–African-Americans, I guess, by a process of elimination–”back in chains.” Liberals should take a deep breath and re-think how they talk about public policy issues. If they are looking for haters, it would seem that the mirror is a good place to start.

I've followed the homosexual left on almost a day-by-day basis since Proposition 8 passed on November 5th. 2008. It's been almost four years of non-stop intimidation, thuggery, crime, and violence. Today's attempted massacre was only the logical outcome of the left's long campaign of hatred. I think Moonbattery nailed it here, "Armed Moonbat Attacks Family Research Council":

Imagine if it turns out that Obama’s disgraceful election was the high water mark of moonbattery, and that faith, family, and freedom are the future. Libs aren’t going to get any less angry.

No, they're not. And that reminds my of some thoughts I wrote in 2008, "Shattering Myths on Domestic Radicals: 'The Baader Meinhof Complex'." There will indeed come a day in America when the radical left, the homosexual extremists, the Occupy Wall Street criminals, and the assorted enablers in the fever swamps of the Democrat (Socialist) Party finally get fed up with mainstream politics and take to the banner of revolutionary murder and violence.

Today's attempted massacre was indeed the culmination of left-wing hate and agitation. The seething anger is so palpable, it's bleeding from your screen. Someone's going to get killed one of these times, and the perp will be a radical leftist. The MSM's Obama-enablers are going to be shocked to have to report that the same people they've been pumping up for decades are in fact simply fanatical murderers who reject debate and won't take no for an answer.

RELATED: At The Other McCain, "I Blame Rachel Maddow!"

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Attacked Family Research Council as 'Hate Group' in 2010 Report

I'm sure there's lots more recent attacks, but this SPLC hit piece garnered at lot of attention at the time. See: "18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda." And SPLC's got an FRC information page as well.

The FRC responded with a campaign called "Stop Hating | Start Debating":

Tell the radical Left it is time to stop spreading hateful rhetoric attacking individuals and organizations merely for expressing ideas with which they disagree. Our debates can and must remain civil -- but they must never be suppressed through personal assaults that aim only to malign an opponent's character.

Yeah, personal gun assault. No doubt the progressive "tolerance" brigades missed the memo.

More from Kerry Picket, "Human Rights Campaign posted Ryan would speak at 'hate group's annual conference' day before shooting at FRC." And At Twitchy, "Dangerous: Left screeched about Ryan speaking at ‘hate group’ FRC; HuffPo labels FRC hate group again." And, "Shooting at Family Research Council, suspect in custody; Update: Bomb squad enters building; Update: Mitt Romney issues statement; Update: Shooter ID’d."

More at Legal Insurrection, "HuffPo attacks Family Research Council just hours after shooting."

And the damage control begins, at GLAAD "LGBT organizations release joint statement regarding the shooting at Family Research Council (FRC)." (Via Memeorandum.)

PREVIOUSLY: "Family Research Council Shooting at Washington, D.C., Headquarters."

'Back in Chains': The Race Clownery of Obama-Biden

From Michelle's syndicated column, "Black like us: The race clownery of Obama-Biden."

Looks like Vice President Joe Biden has been taking extracurricular Democratic jive-talking lessons. The results of condescending liberals’ cynical racial pandering attempts are, as always, seismically cringe-inducing.

At a campaign event in Danville, Va., the gaffetastic veep dropped his g’s and picked up a bizarre twang in front of an audience of black voters. Middle-Class Joe swapped his Home Depot apron for an A.M.E. preacher’s robe and sermonized about the big, bad GOP.

Romney’s “gonna let the big banks once again write their own rules,” Biden shouted. “Unnnn-chain Wall Street,” he exclaimed with pulpit bravado. “They’re gonna put y’all back in chains,” the pasty Delaware wheeler-dealer faux-drawled. Extra-emphasis on the “y’all.”

Yes, Biden is rattling chains like an extra in “Roots.” This is the same politician of pallor who cracked jokes about Indians who work in 7-Elevens and who referred to his now-boss as “clean” and “articulate.” Yet, Biden’s demagoguery was met with approving hoots and hollers. Or rather, hollas.

Continue reading.

IMAGE CREDIT: The Looking Spoon.

Family Research Council Shooting at Washington, D.C., Headquarters

Thank God no one was killed.

The Wall Street Journal reports, "Guard Shot at Family Research Council Headquarters."

And at the Washington Examiner, "FRC was attacked as a ‘hate group’."

And at Instapundit, "I BLAME THE HATE-FILLED ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION AND ITS SUPPORTERS..."

No doubt.

More at Memeorandum. And Hot Air has updates. Turns out a second person was shot as well.

UPDATE: At Twitchy, "Crosshairs: Left calls Family Research Council ‘hate group,’ reacts to shooting; Shooter yelled about FRC’s ‘values’; Update: Left offers fake sympathy for FRC shooting; qualifies with ‘totally had it coming, haters’." And, "Unconfirmed reports: Family Research Council shooter carried Chick-fil-A bag, posed as intern; Update: NBC confirming."

Apparently the suspect, reportedly seen at this picture, was carrying Chick-fil-A promotional materials, attempting to look sympathetic to FRC's policy agenda. In contrast to recent shootings like Aurora and Tuscon, the FRC suspects's a vicious, hate-addled left-wing criminal perp. More at JWF, "Suspect Identified in FRC Shooting." Plus video reports at Associated Press and The Right Scoop.

The big story coming up will be the Obama-media's reporting. That Chick-fil-A angle is especially devastating to the radical left's bullshit "tolerance" agenda.

More, from ExJon on Twitter:

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” RT @jaketapper i'm told the WH will have a statement on the FRC shooting...
— Jon G. (@ExJon) August 15, 2012

JWF updates, "Suspect Identified in FRC Shooting; Update: Was Volunteer at LGBT Clinic."

ZOMG! The Return of the 'Lightworker'

In 2008, the MSM's Obama-enablers constantly built up the Democrat candidate with ethereal, other-worldly iconography. The worst messiah-worship was from Mark Morford at the San Francisco Chronicle, which was deconstructed by Michelle Malkin quite mercilessly, "Obama the Lightworker." And media photography repeatedly portrayed Obama with the celestial imagery of a halo, for example, "The Halos of Barack Obama."

So you can imagine my chagrin at this AP photo at left, published at Buzzfeed, "Barack Obama Is A Wizard," with the disclaimer, "This photo from the AP has not been doctored in any way." And the caption below the picture reads, "A light shines behind President Barack Obama as he speaks during a campaign event at Bayliss Park, Monday, Aug. 13, 2012, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, during a three day campaign bus tour through Iowa."

So there you go, "The Lightbringer."

Isn't that wonderful? Indeed, hard-line leftist Libby Spencer felt the thrill up her legs, "The Magic Moment":

Took me all day to decide if I liked this photo or not. Decided that I like it a lot. BuzzFeed billed it as The Wizard. I think I would have called it The Visionary. Either way it's a brilliant catch by the photograher. Confirmed to be authentic, as in not photoshopped.

Oh brother. "The Visionary."

Yeah, Obama can envision trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, and then some. Even after four years Ms. Spencer still elevates Obama atop some mystical pedestal of "visionary" enlightenment. Who knows, perhaps O can employ his light-working skills to a circus job next January, that is, if he has time out for a vocation after his hectic golfing schedule.

And by the way, recall that Libby Spencer is the neo-communist blogger who, along with the antiwar Newshoggers hacks, cheered the insurgency's use of mentally-challenged women suicide bombers in Iraq as a "brilliant" tactical innovation. You can't make this stuff up. See: "Surge 'success' fades with resurgence of violence."

For the record, assuming it's true, I think it's just horrible that whoever was behind this latest disaster used Down's women to perpetrate the bombings but I don't see it as a sign of desperation. I see it as a sign of adaptation and a brilliant one at that.

Right.

A "brilliant" adaptation.

Despicable, but it makes sense. Ms. Spencer reflects perfectly the kind of demonic antiwar radicalism that candidate Obama presented in 2007, when he was the single most anti-American member of the U.S. Senate. Obama launched his presidential bid by declaring the war in Iraq a "complete failure." Basically, with our men and women dying in the field, progressives like this were rooting for their defeat. The enormous depravity involved in this is staggering, almost unfathomable. But you see it all the time if you keep your eyes on the neo-communist left. God have mercy on these people. Seriously.

RELATED: See, "The Great Betrayal: Obama's Wars and the War in Iraq."

BONUS: Last October, Libby Spencer's co-blogger Captain Fogg contacted my college with libelous complaints in one more of the many despicable attempts to get me fired from my teaching position. At the time there were two complaints, both anonymous. I knew Fogg complained because he cribbed his email to my college off the comments he left at the hate-blog American Nihilist. This was in response to comments I left at The Impolitic, Ms. Spencer's blog. So logic would suggest it was these two tag-teaming the workplace intimidation at my college. See: "W. James Casper's Demonic Band of Progressive Totalitarians."

This is the kind of evil you have to deal with when you stand up for decency and right out here. It's a lot of work, but vital for the preservation of freedom.

More later...

Mitt Romney Campaigns in Chillicothe, Ohio

I don't see the full video anywhere, but below's a highlight clip from the haters at Daily Kos.

And see The Hill, "Romney slams Obama in tough new speech" (via Memeorandum):

Mitt Romney used a tough new campaign speech to personally blast the Obama campaign on Tuesday, saying comments earlier in the day from Vice President Biden are "what an angry and desperate Presidency looks like."

"Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago," Romney said while campaigning in Ohio.

Romney was responding to Biden's suggestion that the GOP ticket's economic policies would “put y’all back in chains."

The vice president made the remark while campaigning in Virginia, during a discussion of Wall Street regulation.

"They’ve said it. Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they’re proposing. Romney wants to let the — he said in the first 100 days, he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules — unchain Wall Street," Biden said. "They’re going to put y’all back in chains. He’s said he’s going to do nothing about stopping the practice of outsourcing."

Romney repeatedly and harshly criticized Team Obama for the remarks.

The New York Times is also calling it a tough speech, "Romney Delivers a Harsh Rebuke of Obama at Final Stop on Bus Tour":

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Hours after the vice president said that the Republican presidential ticket wanted to put Americans “back in chains,” Mitt Romney concluded a four-day bus tour with his harshest rebuke of the Obama administration to date, saying that its negative campaign tactics have “disgraced the presidency.”

In a speech that was striking in its stinging sweep, which aides said was animated by personal frustration with the recent tone of the race, Mr. Romney lashed out at attacks that he called “wild and reckless.”

“His campaign strategy is to smash America apart and then cobble together 51 percent of the pieces,” Mr. Romney said. “If an American president wins that way, we all lose.”

The latest offense, Mr. Romney said, came on Tuesday, when Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. delivered a speech in Iowa. Mr. Biden mocked Mr. Romney for seeking to undo regulations on big banks. “Unchain Wall Street,” the vice president said. “They’re going to put y’all back in chains.” Later, an Obama aide said the White House stood by those provocative words.

Continue reading.

Plus, Robert Stacy McCain was on the ground, "THE CHILLICOTHE ADDRESS: Romney’s Best Speech of the Campaign":

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — Folks, Mitt Romney’s event tonight in Chillicothe was the best I’ve seen of this campaign. The crowd was huge — estimated between 5,000 and 6,000 — and the setting was awesome: In front of the beautiful courthouse downtown, with the sun just setting behind the courthouse and the sky glowing golden.

The speech itself was awesome. I’d already heard Mitt speak twice earlier today — first at a coal mine in Beallsville and then in downtown Zanesville — and parts of the speech were already familiar. But I noticed Mitt was reading from a teleprompter at the Chillicothe event, so this particular speech was prepared in advance. But given the content, including references to the “wild and reckless accusations . . . a few hours ago in Virginia,” it was obvious that it had been updated quite recently.

At several points, Mitt was interrupted by cheers and applause, and at times the crowd broke into chants of “Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!” or “USA! USA! USA!” The candidate was fired up and the crowd was fired up, and it was very exciting to be there with my 13-year-old son Jefferson. Afterwards, as we left, I talked briefly to a National Correspondent Whose Name You Would Recognize and said, “Great speech, huh?” The correspondent replied: “He wrote it himself, you know.” My reaction was skeptical. Does any big-time politician write his own speeches anymore? I said, “Really? He wrote it himself?”

The correspondent said, “Swear to God. He wrote it himself” — and then did a cross-my-heart motion.

How would the correspondent know Mitt wrote the speech himself? I don’t know, but his confidence was such — and the speech was so genuinely awesome — that I called my source at Romney campaign HQ in Boston and asked him if he he had a text of the speech he could send me. It just arrived by e-mail and so here, ladies and gentlmen, is what I call The Chillicothe Address...

Read the full speech at the link.

More at The Lonely Conservative, "Romney to Obama: “Take Your Campaign of Division and Anger and Hate Back to Chicago”." And at Weasel Zippers, "Chutzpah: Obama Campaign Accuses Romney of Being “Unhinged”…"

I'll be updating this post with some of my earlier commentary on Romney's rapid response efforts. This is good, but Eric Fehrnstrom, Andrea Saul and the others can't continue falling down on the job.

Off! Opened for Red Hot Chili Peppers' Two-Night Stand at Staples Center

RHCP made it a punk rock homecoming at Staples Center over the weekend.

At LAT, "Review: Red Hot Chili Peppers celebrate L.A. at Staples."

"Hello L.A., my beautiful home, my beautiful home!"

The words were heartfelt and unsurprising from Flea (nee Michael Balzary), spoken Sunday with intense passion by the acclaimed bassist at the second of two sold-out nights at Staples Center with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

It is all part of the band's life mission, which was never just musical, but also remains an endless celebration of the city and punk-rock scene that birthed them in the early 1980s.

The Chili Peppers catalog includes many lyrics and song titles about "Hollywood," "L.A." and "California," and the same message was there onstage, down to the Lakers banner draped across Flea's amplifiers and their opening act, Off! — homegrown punks chosen specially for the two Staples shows.

It's a glowing write-up, by Steve Appleford, and he concludes with hip review of Off!'s performance:

Off! is a band at all times stripped down to the punk-rock essentials, each of them dressed in T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, raging on guitar, bass and drums. The foursome — also including guitarist Dimitri Coats, bassist Steven McDonald and drummer Mario Rubalcaba — erupted immediately with "Panic Attack," as band members raged and hopped and banged their heads.

Bearded in ripped jeans and with long dreadlocks down his back, Morris barked with rage, humor and charisma, slapping his forehead or leering at the crowd. Songs were barely a minute in length, drawn from the band's two collections, including its album "Off!"

There were no covers from their former bands. No Circle Jerks or Black Flag favorites, just new tunes to set the stage on fire.

Sounds awesome. RTWT at the link.

Mountain Lion Roaming Los Angeles Griffith Park

I love the stories of mountain lion in the local parks, but this one is unusual in that Griffith Park is completely surrounded by urban areas. The lion must have crossed at least one freeway to get up there. It's a three-year old puma and, boy, he's a beefy sucker.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Mountain lion makes itself at home in Griffith Park."

The photos are here, "A mountain lion has settled in Griffith Park."

Sarah Palin on Biden's 'Back in Chains' Comments: 'Unhinged'

A great interview with Governor Palin, at C4P, "Governor Palin Goes ‘On the Record!’ (Video)."

Palin shakes her head and denounces Vice President Biden as a "drag on the ticket." She suggests Hillary Clinton should be brought on the bolster the ticket, jettisoning the Biden "unhinged" dead weight. Good Stuff.

RELATED: At LAT, "Biden clarifies 'chains' remark, takes shot at GOP rivals."

Paul Ryan Interview With Brit Hume on Fox News

Here's the video clip, at Fox, "Paul Ryan on Medicare, budget plan, relationship with Romney." If you're pressed for time, Ryan discusses Medicare, quite effectively, at about 10:00 minutes.

And FWIW, check the related piece from yesterday's Los Angeles Times, "A closer look at Paul Ryan's federal budget plan."

Russia Helps Syria Evade U.S.-European Economic Sanctions

I read the Wall Street Journal's report early yesterday, "Syria's Russian Connection: Regime Attempts to Sidestep Sanctions by Using Foreign Banks in Oil Sales."

And CNN had an interesting segment yesterday afternoon, and the video clip is here "Syria, Russia plans to bypass U.S.-EU sanctions?"

WSJ's report is behind the paywall, but the Current.Mil-Tech.News blog cross-posted it. An excerpt:

Syria's embattled regime laid plans to use Russian banks as part of an emergency effort to sidestep American and European sanctions on oil and financial transactions, according to Syrian government documents and correspondence reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The documents offer an inside look at how a shrinking group of regime loyalists is working to prop up Bashar al-Assad's government. Over the past several weeks, senior Syrian officials have held a series of meetings to discuss how to conduct business after being cut off from most Western banking institutions and trade, the documents indicate.

The documents, which span a period from March until early July, also underscore the difficulties facing Western governments in sustaining comprehensive sanctions against Syria, as long as Damascus keeps its strong diplomatic alliance with Moscow. Earlier this month, Russia received a delegation of top Syrian economic officials, including its oil and finance ministers, to discuss the possibility of government loans and long-term oil deals, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil said in a news conference.

The sanctions, which began last year and were strengthened this spring, are aimed at Syria's oil and financial sectors. The unilateral actions are coordinated by Western and Middle Eastern countries allied against Syria, but aren't legally binding on Russian and other companies that don't have operations in the U.S. or Europe. Russia and China have used their veto power at the United Nations Security Council to block the possibility of international sanctions.

A cache of documents reviewed by the Journal includes what appears to be authentic correspondence between Syrian government officials and certain foreign companies. In interviews with the Journal, some people who were parties to correspondence confirmed details. None of the people reached by the Journal questioned the authenticity of documents referenced in this article, although some denied conducting any business with Syrian entities.

Syria isn't a globally significant oil producer. The 360,000 barrels of crude it pumps daily represent less than 1% of the world's daily oil production. But Syria's oil sales are one of the last sources of foreign currency for President Assad.

The roughly 150,000 barrels per day Syria has available for export, after its domestic needs are met, are worth approximately $380 million per month at current prices. That is a key reason why the U.S. and the European Union targeted Syria's state oil companies, its central bank and financial sector. The sanctions have cut Syria off from its traditional buyers in Europe, including in Italy, Germany and Spain...

The Syria crisis reminds me of Cold War international politics, which I've written about previously. See: "U.S. to Focus on Forcibly Toppling Syrian Government."

Republican Political Professionals 'Fret Over' Paul Ryan

I didn't read this Politico hit piece yesterday, at Memeorandum, "GOP pros fret over Paul Ryan."

Romney's Ryan pick is so bold and significant I almost laughed at the headline.

So now it turns out that the editors at the Wall Street Journal were irked enough to write about it. See, "The Bedwetter Caucus: GOP 'pros' trash the Republican ticket."

BONUS: Bryan Preston at PJ Media hammers Politco's "Frummish" report, "Attack of the Raging Professional Moderates!"

Anything Goes for Morally Bankrupt Obama Campaign — And There's No Price to Pay

From Roger Aronoff, at Accuracy in Media, "For the Left, Anything Goes and No Price to Pay":

It shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point that Stephanie Cutter, the deputy campaign manager of the Obama presidential campaign, could be so completely caught in a lie, as she was last week in the cancer ad produced by the Obama-linked Super PAC that was shown to be dishonest on so many levels, with no price to pay. She came back on numerous shows—NBC’s The Today Show, Andrea Mitchell’s show on MSNBC—and wasn’t even asked about that. On Andrea Mitchell’s show today she was asked about Vice President Joe Biden’s comment earlier in the day before an audience in Danville, Virginia that included several hundred black supporters. Biden told them that if elected president, Mitt Romney was “going to put y’all back in chains.” Cutter told Mitchell that President Obama stood behind both the sentiments and the comments themselves.

They're abject f-king liars.

More at that top link, and also seen there, Victor Davis Hanson, "Our Not So Best and Not So Brightest."

Mitt Romney 'Has Not Launched the Type of Aggressive Messaging and Counter Offensive Necessary to Beat the Campaign of a Saul Alinsky Acolyte'

From Laura Ingrahm on the O'Reilly Factor last Friday, the day Team Romney announced Paul Ryan's veep selection. Hey, it's been pretty awesome since then, but with the exception of the grassroots enthusiasm for Ryan, I'm not seeing the kind of really hard punch back we should be seeing. I'm personally enthusiastic, but still waiting for #RomneyRyan to get Obama on the ropes, to hammer him until he's staggering.

Here's Ingraham, "Laura Ingraham: What Mitt Romney has to do to turn his campaign around":

Now, I realize that some of you won't like hearing this, but if the election were held today, Romney would probably lose. Two surveys released within hours of each other by CNN and Fox reported Obama up by seven points and nine points respectively.

The swing state story is not a good one either. The real Clear Politics average has Obama up seven in Pennsylvania, five in Ohio, and three in Virginia. Obama leads by slim margins in Florida and Colorado.

So with unemployment still above eight percent and two-thirds of the country thinking that we're going in the wrong direction, how on earth is Obama still ahead? Is every poll other than Rasmussen flawed or biased? First reason, negative ads and Romney brand management.

Just about every week this summer, Democrats have launched a new attack against Romney. And by August, they've stereotyped him as a tax dodging, cancer causing, outsourcing, 1950s aristocrat with a car elevator. Romney has spent a lot of time raising money which is important and he's done that well. But he has not launched the type of aggressive messaging and counter offensive that is necessary to beat the campaign of a Saul Alinsky acolyte.

The Obama team throws a knife and Romney's team tosses a pillow. An effective rapid response team would have nailed Obama on the Super PAC cancer ad. I would have said something like this, we're all getting sick, sick of this poisonous style of campaigning and sick of politicians like President Obama who blame others for their broken promises and failed policies. Instead, Romney's spokeswoman responded by lauding universal healthcare in Massachusetts. Terrible...

Watch it at the link.

See also Politico, "Laura Ingraham: 'Romney's losing'."

PREVIOUSLY: See also my earlier concerns, "Mitt Romney Sought 'Pact' With Obama to Take 'Business or Family or Taxes' Off the Table."

Ashley Greene Bikini Pics!

Looking good.

At London's Daily Mail, "Making them Greene with envy! Ashley shows off her incredibly toned bikini body as she goes paddle-boarding with an equally buff mystery man."

I just mentioned Ms. Greene the other day. See, "Helen Gurley Brown, Former Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan, Dead at 90."

Emily Hart's 10 Reasons Why Dating Sucks

Quite a change of pace from Karen Alloy, right old chap?!!

See London's Daily Mail, "'There's no point dating someone that you can't see impregnating you.' Emily Hart discusses the dating game in her weekly 10 reasons why blog."

And on YouTube here.

She's funny.

Theo Spark is On Fire!

Man, Theo's been posting all kinds of lovely ladies over there!

See Tuesday's "Bedtime Totty...", and "Tuesday Totty..."

And, "Bonus Babe..."

PHOTO: Monday's "Bedtime Totty..."

'Off the Grid' Voters and Campaign 2012

Here's a new poll from SAY Media, "Research Abstract: Voters Going Off the Grid: 2012."

And here's the write-up, "Will “Off the Grid” Voters Decide the Next Presidential Election?"

Plus, see Emily Steel at the Financial Times, "Voters turn on but tune out political ads":

American voters are increasingly oblivious to the political ads dominating the airwaves during this election campaign, according to a study of media consumption habits.

Nearly a third of likely voters had not watched live TV in the past seven days, according to a June poll conducted by Say Media, a digital publishing company, in conjunction with two political advertising consultancies and two pollsters that represent both Democrats and Republicans....

For years, TV has dominated US political ad budgets. About 66.8 per cent of all US political ad dollars – or $6.6bn – is expected to be spent on broadcast and cable television this year, according to the research firm Borrell Associates.

But political campaigners must now doubt whether television ads will still sway voters. Simply dusting off tried and tested strategies for political advertising no longer works. In closely fought elections, campaigns that deploy the savviest digital advertising strategies increasingly claim victory, political consultants say.

More at the link.

Home Field Advantage: British Athletes Subsidized in London Olympics

At the New York Times, "British Athletes Spurred by Home Fields and Subsidies":

In the 2012 Games, the British squad of 541 competitors, known as Team GB, won 65 medals across 14 sports. Only two other countries, the United States and China, won more gold medals, 46 for the United States and 38 for China. While winning only 24 golds, Russia won 82 medals, pushing Britain into fourth place in the overall medal count.

By the measure of medals won in proportion to its population of 62 million, Britain — with 5 percent of China’s population, 20 percent of the United States’ and 43 percent of Russia’s — could claim to have outperformed the nations that finished ahead of it in the medals table. It easily outpaced, too, its own medals haul from the 2008 Beijing Games, when it won 19 golds and 47 medals over all.

More compelling than any medal count, though, were the performances turned in by individual athletes. There was Helen Glover, a gold medalist in the women’s coxless pairs, who never sat in a rowing boat until after the Beijing Games, when she answered a newspaper ad posted by Sir Steve Redgrave, a five-time Olympic rowing gold medalist, asking for tall, strong volunteers for elite performance training.

There was Nicola Adams, a 5-foot-4 flyweight from an inner-city community in the northern city of Leeds, who became the first British female boxer to be awarded an Olympic medal, defeating a Chinese world champion to win gold, then delighting her fans with her modesty about her achievements in a sport that was barred in Britain until 1996.

“It gives me goose bumps,” she said, clutching her medal.

There was, too, Mo Farah, son of a Somali immigrant, with a goat-herding family still working the Somali scrublands, who won the 5,000- and 10,000-meter races, then leaned in to the camera to tell millions watching on BBC television that the country to which he owed his success was Britain, and that the formula for winning was simple. “It’s just a matter of hard graft,” he said....

An important factor in the British success, British competitors, coaches and commentators have agreed, has been the home-team advantage that has meant a surge in medals for many of the countries that have hosted the Games, often followed by a steep falloff at subsequent Olympics.

A case in point is Australia, which soared in the medals count with a total of 58 at its home games in Sydney in 2000, then dropped to 49 in Athens in 2004, and 46 in Beijing in 2008, and 35 in the London Games, a performance that has set off a debate among Australians about what went wrong — and anxiety in Britain, which has competed with its former colony for sports bragging rights for more than a century, to ensure that it does not suffer a similar reverse.

One British winner after another has cited the roar of the home crowd and the sea of waving Union Jacks. Exulting in British performances that have served, at least for the moment, to boost national confidence at a time of dismal economic news, the crowds have drowned out the urgings of the athletes’ coaches, and left competitors saying an hour or more afterward that they still have a ringing in their ears.

But along with the home-field factor, British commentators have acknowledged that much of the British success has been owed to what many here have seen as a very un-British decision in recent years to subsidize its Olympic competitors, putting them on the payroll in return for winning medals at the Games.

Through a program run by a government-created agency called UK Sport, more than a billion dollars in officially regulated lottery money and taxpayer subsidies have been poured into selected sports since the mid-1990s, nearly half of it in the four years since the Olympics in Beijing.

The program is similar to others among the 200 nations and territories that competed at the London Games, but notably different from the approach in the United States, where Olympic competitors, with no government financial support available, rely on corporate and other private financing.

Well, Britain's proudest moment of the opening ceremonies was the celebration of the National Health Service, so it's no surprise that their athletes were on the government dole.

At least things worked out for them. U.S. reporter Meredith Viera had a thumb infection, but was advised not to use the public health system, at Twitchy, "Meredith Vieira trashes Britain’s NHS on ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’."

PHOTO CREDIT: Mo Farah, via Wikimedia Commons.

CNN's John King: Obama Campaign Admits 'Privately' That Joe Biden's Racist Comments 'Not Helpful'

CNN's where the action is lately, man. I was watching Wolf Blitzer in The Situation Room earlier, and this is a bombshell segment with John King:

Via RealClearPolitics, "CNN: Senior Obama Official Said Biden's Comment "Not Helpful" And Knocked Campaign Off Message":

"Publicly, Obama aides are defending the Vice President. Privately, they're not so happy," CNN's John King said about Biden's "chain" comment.

"Privately, though, I just had an email exchange, Wolf, with a senior Obama campaign adviser who said this is not helpful. The President is here in Iowa today. He wants to talk about energy. He wants to talk about farm programs. He wants to stay on message because he is trying to win this and other key battleground states and they believe that the Vice President has knocked them off track," King said.

Also at Weasel Zippers, "Romney Campaign Calls On Obama To Denounce Biden’s “Back In Chains” Remark…" (via Memeorandum).

Massive Python Found in Everglades National Park

At the Atlantic, "Scientists Show Off the Largest Python Ever Found in the Everglades."

'Put an Obama Bumper Sticker on Your Head When You Do This...'

Ed Morrissey has it, at Hot Air, "Video: Soledad O’Brien’s membership in Mantra Club confirmed."

PREVIOUSLY: "CNN's Soledad O'Brien Cribs 'Talking Points Memo' in Feeble Attack on Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan."

"CNN's independent analysis" means "Talking Points Memo."

Katy Perry Bikini Bottom Slips While Boogie Boarding at Raging Waters in San Dimas

She's a good sport!

At London's Daily Mail, "Bottoms up! Katy Perry shows off a bit too much as she suffers a major wardrobe mishap going down a water slide."

Man, that's something else.

Barack Obama, Stephanie Cutter Double Down on Joe Biden's Disgusting 'Back in Chains' Slur

Twitchy reports, "Gaffetastic new tone! Biden in Va.: ‘They’re going to put you back in chains,’ ‘We can win NC again’," and "How low can they go? Obama agrees with Biden’s ‘they’re going to put you back in chains’ comment."

And Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter is down with it as well, "Biden’s ‘Back in Chains’ Remark Draws Fire":

Mr. Obama’s deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, told MSNBC that the campaign doesn’t have a problem with Mr. Biden’s comments because he was using them as a metaphor for the consequences of rolling back Wall Street reform.

“The bottom line is that we have no problem with those comments,” Ms. Cutter said.

Mr. Biden has a history of statement and gaffes that have made headlines. In fact, in the same speech Tuesday, Mr. Biden told the Virginia voters: “With you — and I mean this — with you, we can win North Carolina again.”

More at The Hill and Memeorandum.

Democrats Demagogue Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan

From the DNC Chair on down, the Democrats are lying, and spinning, and demonizing Paul Ryan's Medicare proposals.

This CNN report below is pretty fair, and here's the front page report at today's New York Times, "Medicare Rises as Prime Election Issue":

TAMPA, Fla. — With Mitt Romney’s selection of Representative Paul D. Ryan as his running mate, Florida quickly emerged on Monday as a critical test of the nationwide Republican gamble that concerns over the mounting federal debt can blunt potent Democratic attacks on conservative proposals to revamp Medicare.

As Mr. Romney campaigned through Florida on Monday, Democrats greeted him with a barrage of assaults, including a Web advertisement featuring worried elderly voters in this battleground state. The campaign took on a more heated air as President Obama suggested in Iowa that the Republican ticket would “end Medicare as we know it,” a warning echoed in North Carolina by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. ...

Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan signaled that they intended to go on the offensive, challenging the assumption that Republicans were better off playing down the issue. They are gambling that anxiety about deficits, the influence of the Tea Party movement and changing demographics will give them a chance to convince voters that the time has come to confront the rapidly mounting costs of sustaining entitlement programs. Mr. Ryan is scheduled to visit Florida this month.

“Every even-numbered year in Florida, seniors are accustomed to Mediscare tactics; that’s what Democrats do,” said Ed Gillespie, a senior adviser to Mr. Romney. “The fact is, we’re going to go on offense here. Because the president has raided the Medicare trust fund to the tune of $716 billion to pay for a massive expansion of government known as Obamacare.”

“There won’t be a single senior citizen in Florida who won’t know that by November,” he said.

Well, freakin' right, I was beginning to wonder there for a minute.

More at Big Government, "Paul Ryan Didn't Gut Medicare, Barack Obama Did."

CNN's Soledad O'Brien Cribs 'Talking Points Memo' in Feeble Attack on Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan

At Big Journalism, CNN's Soledad O'Brien Quotes Left-Wing Blog to Attack Ryan Plan.

Here's the first part of the Soledad's segment, headlined "scare tactics," just like Democrat talking points. She shuffling the Talking Points Memo piece at 3:23 minutes. It's all leftist talking points!

Later in the segment Barbara Comstock, Virginia Statehouse Delegate and Romney adviser, smacks down O'Brien, who then fidgets through the TPM hit piece to get back on point. NewsBuster has that segment, "Soledad O'Brien Caught Reading Liberal Blog During Heated Debate With Romney Adviser." O'Brien's seen flipping through TPM's crib sheet at 2:41 minutes.

O'Brien's not "keeping them honest." She's shilling for the administration. She's so transparently partisan it's ridiculous. But you gotta love her look of deep consternation as she ruffles through the papers and the camera cuts back to Ms. Comstock. She's getting mad! Mad that someone has key info to smack down the left's lies!

Again, I was starting to get worried. Maybe Team Romney's finally getting with the program.

The Other McCain has more, "Caught! CNN’s Soledad O’Brien Uses Liberal Blog TPM for Show-Prep."

Three Dead in Shooting Near Texas A&M University

At the Los Angeles Times, "Three killed in shootings near Texas A&M University."

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Just after noon Monday, Brazos County Constable Brian Bachmann embarked on a seemingly routine chore — serving an eviction notice in a pleasant neighborhood a few blocks from Texas A&M University.

But a man at the house on Fidelity Street opened fire, killing Bachmann, 41. That triggered a 30-minute shootout with police that left the gunman and a bystander dead in an outbreak of violence that shocked this serene college town.

Police killed the gunman, but not before he shot and killed a 43-year-old man and wounded a 55-year-old woman. An officer who responded to a 911 call about the constable was wounded in the leg.

More at that top link.

And at Twitchy, "Anti-gun advocates use shooting near Texas A&M to push for gun control."

Egypt Is Now an Islamist State

From Caroline Glick, "The IDF's Egyptian fiasco":

So Muslim Brotherhood President of Egypt Mohamed Morsy just sacked the leaders of the military junta General Hussein Tantawi and the Egyptian Army's' Chief of Staff General Sami Enan.

Morsy has also cancelled the constitutional protections that the Egyptian military has enjoyed and overturned their edicts circumscribing his control over foreign and military policy.

That is, as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has declared, today Morsy completed the Egyptian revolution. Egypt is now an Islamic state. Its leaders drink from the same well as al Qaida, Hamas and all the rest. Egypt, with its US armed military has reemerged after 30 years as the greatest military threat that Israel has ever faced.

Continue reading.

Vietnamese Airline's In-Flight Bikini Show (VIDEO)

It's VietJetAir, via News.com.au, "Airline fined for inflight bikini dance."

And there's a YouTube clip here.

Talk about flying the friendly skies!

Paul Ryan Surges With Seniors

I guess they're not too worried about Ryan throwing 'em off a cliff.

At Director Blue, "As Seniors Flock to Paul Ryan and Fiscal Sanity, Axelrod Campaign Dials Smear-Ray Setting to '100'."

Mitt Romney Sought 'Pact' With Obama to Take 'Business or Family or Taxes' Off the Table

As I reported earlier, the race is basically tied, and while the it's still too early to tell the size of the Paul Ryan polling bump, the campaign is clearly energized and appears ready to take it to the sleazebag Democrats.

I say "appears ready" because I have lingering doubts that Mitt Romney fully understands the depth of Team Obama's moral abyss (infinitely bottomless) and whether he's ready to fight back twice as hard to destroy the left's morally bankrupt politics of personal destruction. Progressive are animals, they're pigs. The toxic mudslinging this fall's going to make even Sarah Palin blush.

Michelle Malkin expressed a sense of hope the other night on Twitter, when Romney cheered the hearts of activists across the land by picking the conservative chair of the GOP House Budget Committee:

Now, if we never see Andrea Saul stumbling & rambling on TV again, that would really be a relief. michellemalkin.com/2012/08/11/thi…
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) August 11, 2012

In recent interviews Michelle's been exhorting Team Romney to stand up the the lies: "Hey Team Romney, 'Get a Hang of Yourselves!'"

I think we all need to redouble the call, considering the news that Romney sought a "pact" with Team Obama to keep "business or family or taxes" off limits. See the Los Angeles Times, "Obama seizes lead in race to define Romney." The report suggests that Obama's attack ads have been "trashing" Mitt Romney, and the Republican nominee's been slow to respond. But this part is jaw-dropping:

In ads airing heavily in states most likely to decide the election, the president is already weaving those attacks into a larger case against Romney on the economy — and, more important, against the Republican fiscal agenda championed by none other than [Paul] Ryan.

"You work hard, stretch every penny," an announcer says in a new Obama ad about Romney. "But chances are you pay a higher tax rate than him. Mitt Romney made $20 million in 2010, but paid only 14% in taxes — probably less than you." The ad says Romney wants to "give millionaires another tax break and raise taxes on middle-class families," which Romney denies. "He pays less, you pay more," the ad says.

The potency of Obama's attacks is best measured by Romney's response. He recently hired corporate crisis PR specialist Michele Davis to mount an aggressive defense. He told NBC that he wanted a pact with Obama to stop attack ads on such subjects as "business or family or taxes." And Romney told Fox News that his "biggest challenge is making sure that my message is able to break through all the clutter that comes from the Obama team."

Romney's selection of Ryan is by far the candidate's most important move to address that challenge, even if its potential effectiveness is open to debate. Obama's campaign has pounced on Ryan's candidacy to amplify its message that the Republican's proposals favor wealthy taxpayers like Romney over the middle class.

On ABC's"This Week"on Sunday, Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod called Ryan a right-wing ideologue who "constructed a budget that, like Romney, would lavish trillions of dollars of tax cuts, most of them on the wealthy."

Strategists in both parties say Romney made a serious error in neglecting to respond quickly to Obama ads trashing his record as the leader of Bain Capital, the Boston investment firm that he founded. The millions of dollars spent by presidential candidates on TV advertising in battleground states can be hugely influential with voters, and Romney gave Obama a three-month head start in defining him.

"In those voters' minds, they're starting to fill in — choosing colors from the palette — who Romney is, and the Romney campaign didn't offer them any colors to choose from," said John Weaver, who was a top advisor to Republican John McCain, the 2008 nominee. "I don't think it's been wise to wait this long to deal with it."

Continue reading.

The piece cites top Democrat strategist Bob Shrum, who worked for (loser) John Kerry in 2004. Shrum suggests the Democrat attacks are hitting home and its getting late in the game to turn things around, as the Times summarizes, "Romney's failure to start telling his life story while Obama's team was assailing his business record would make it harder to accomplish now."

Team Romney must know that the Obama campaign will do anything, f-king anything. They. Simply. Do. Not. Have. Ethics. They don't care. Recall from last week, "Obama campaign: Don't blame us for ad blaming Romney for cancer death." The Democrats are working on lies and deceit, and they know they can get away with it. Over the weekend, CBS News' Nancy Cordes gave Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter a pass on the Joe Soptic scandal, and just yesterday Soledad O'Brien also served as an Obama lapdog, failing to grill Cutter on the Obama campaign's improprieties, "Stephanie Cutter’s free pass from media extends to Anderson Cooper 360."

Despite this, Team Romney has failed to pick up the pace and effectively slam the Obama campaign for its lies. Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom had twelve minutes on Sunday's "Meet the Press" to call out Cutter for the lies, and he never raised the issues directly. I was practically pulling my hair out watching that clip. What is wrong with these people?!! The MSM hacks won't do it for you. Republicans will get lucky when idiots like Debbie What-An-Ass Schultz make gaffes so big you could drive a Mack Truck through them. And Wolf Blitzer corrected the DNC chair in a manner that one would expect from the media across the board. But it won't happen. You'll get a gift here or there, but it's not happening media-wide, across the information battlespace. I've been saying it, and many others, but Romney's running against the Obama campaign and his political enablers in the Democrat-Media-Complex. It's not a fair fight. Republicans can assume nothing resembling even-handedness, so they've got to seize the initiative themselves. The talks shows get a lot of play, not just during the initial airing but in the blogs and campaign spots later. Team Romney can't waste a single opportunity.

Advice to Romney: This is war man! It's time to go of offense and do it now! Game on!

'This election will be a nauseating journey through the most foul corners of the Democrat psyche...'

The Democrats as Jason Voorhees, at Bookworm Room, "The Democrats’ 2012 campaign: A bloody spectacle, almost too horrible to watch."

Yeah, it's definitely shaping up as a horror show. The bloodbath comes on November 6th.

New Zogby Poll: 'The Ryan Effect'

See Newsmax, "John Zogby Poll: Ryan Gives Romney Big Push in Swing States, Independents."

Mitt Romney’s campaign has gotten a decisive bump upwards with the selection of Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate, a new poll by JZ Analytics reveals.

The poll — the first survey conducted after Romney announced Ryan as his vice presidential choice — shows the Romney/Ryan ticket tied with Obama/Biden at 46 percent.

But a JZ Analytics poll from a few weeks ago had Obama leading Romney by 5 percentage points, and most major polls also had Obama comfortably in the lead before the Ryan selection.

Continue reading.

And see Nice Deb, "The Ryan Bump: New Zogby Poll Shows Huge Boost for Romney in Swing States."

Zogby finds 45.2 percent of independents back #RomneyRyan, compared to 40.1 for Obama/Biden. But the methodology doesn't indicate how swing states were sampled. See: "Methodology, JZ Analytics Poll of Likely Voters in United States, 8/11/12 thru 8/12/12." And the summary is here: "New JZ Analytics Telephone Poll: 'The Ryan Effect'."

I take Zogby's polling with a bigger grain of salt than usual. He's basically a leftist pollster with some credibility problems. The methods look pretty good but I'm not sure if he randomly sampled folks in swing states, and there's no cross-tabs at the links.

That said, here's Rasmussen, "Presidential Tracking Poll":

Monday, August 13, 2012 -- The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 47% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 44%. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.

Data available to Platinum Members shows that Romney does a bit better when leaners are included....

These results are based upon interviews conducted nightly and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, two-thirds of the interviews conducted for today’s update were completed after it was announced that Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan will be Romney’s vice presidential running mate. The announcement so far has had little impact on the numbers. See tracking history.

And Gallup's presidential election tracking poll shows the campaign tied up at 46 percent through August 12th, "Election 2012 Trial Heat: Obama vs. Romney."

It's going to take a few more days of polling to really get a feel for Ryan's impact, although Gallup also reports that the response to Ryan is historically low for veep selections, "Reaction to Ryan as VP Pick Among Least Positive Historically: But Republicans more OK with Ryan compared with past vice presidential candidates."

More on this later...

Croydon 12-Year-Old Tia Sharp 'Smothered', Body Found in 'Bin Bag: Murder Rocks Britain After Glorious Olympic Games

They threw her in the trash. She was murdered and thrown in a "bin bag," a trashcan liner.

A bit story, at The Sun UK, "Tia 'smothered' and body found in binbag in loft" (via Twitter)":

TRAGIC Tia Sharp was "smothered" and her body was found wrapped in a black sheet and bin liner in the loft of her step-grandfather's home.

The details emerged as Stuart Hazell appeared in court via video - charged with the schoolgirl's murder.

Police feared taking Stuart Hazell to Camberwell Green Magistrates Court in person could spark violence - with baying mobs trying to attack him.

More at Telegraph UK, "Tia Sharp: step-grandfather in court charged with murder amid attack fears."

And at London's Daily Mail, "Box-ticking coppers with no common sense, and why I despair that my old force took eight days to find Tia":

The Police have won praise for their smooth organisation and good humoured efficiency at the London Olympics.

But away from the razzmatazz of the Games, they have come in for severe criticism for their handling of the case of Tia Sharp, the 12-year-old schoolgirl whose body was found in the loft of her grandmother’s home in Croydon.

The subsequent murder charge brought against Stuart Hazell, the partner of Tia’s grandmother, has thrown into question the catalogue of errors the police seem to have made in this grim saga.

Continue reading.

Plus, a video from Telegraph UK, "Tributes laid at makeshift shrine for Tia Sharp."

CNN's Wolf Blitzer Schools Befuddled DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz!

I've got CNN on right now, and it's all Medicare all the time, and by the looks of Debbie What-An-Ass Schultz, the Dems haven't got a clue.

Here's Wolf correcting the DNC chair:

PREVIOUSLY: "Campaigns Spar Over Medicare."

Paul Ryan Heckled in Iowa (VIDEO)

Althouse has it, "Paul Ryan, heckled in Iowa, said 'We're used to this in Wisconsin'."

More at Instapundit, "PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: So the community organizers Obama n’ Axelrod have sent hecklers to Ryan’s speech in Iowa. Time to mirror them."

Lots of links at the post, but that first quote's from Monica Crowley on Twitter.

MORE at The Other McCain, "Iowa Flashback: August 2011" (via Memeorandum).