California Teachers Association is State's Top Political Bully

I posted on CTA recently, "California Progressives Fight Desperately Against 'Paycheck Protection' Initiative, Proposition 32."

And here they are again, at the Los Angeles Times, "California Teachers Assn. a powerful force in Sacramento":

SACRAMENTO — Last year, as Gov. Jerry Brown hammered out final details of the state budget, he huddled around a conference table with three of the most powerful people in state government: the Assembly speaker, the Senate leader — and Joe Nuñez, chief lobbyist for the California Teachers Assn.

California was on the edge of fiscal crisis. Negotiations had come down to one sticking point: Brown and the legislators would balance the books by assuming that billions of dollars in extra revenue would materialize, then cut deeply from schools if it didn't.

Nuñez said no.

Opposition from the powerful union, which had just staged a week of public protests against budget cuts, could mean a costly legal challenge. So the group took a break, and the officials retired to another room to hash out something acceptable to CTA while Nuñez awaited their return.

It may seem unorthodox for an unelected citizen to sit with Sacramento's elite as they pick winners and losers in the annual spending sweepstakes. But few major financial decisions in California are made without Nuñez, who represents what is arguably the most potent force in state politics.

The union views itself as "the co-equal fourth branch of government," said Oakland Democrat Don Perata, a former teacher who crossed swords with the group when he was state Senate leader.

Backed by an army of 325,000 teachers and a war chest as sizable as those of the major political parties, CTA can make or break all sorts of deals. It holds sway over Democrats, labor's traditional ally, and Republicans alike.

Jim Brulte, a former leader of the state Senate's GOP caucus, recalled once attending a CTA reception with a Republican colleague who told the union's leaders that he had come to "check with the owners."

CTA is one of the biggest political spenders in California. It outpaced all other special interests, including corporate players such as telecommunications giant AT&T and the Chevron oil company, from 2000 through 2009, according to a state study. In that decade, the labor group shelled out more than $211 million in political contributions and lobbying expenses — roughly twice that of the next largest spender, the Service Employees International Union.

Since then it has spent nearly $40 million more, including $4.7 million to help Brown become governor, according to the union's filings with the secretary of state.

And CTA's influence, unlike that of other interests, is written directly into California's Constitution. More than two decades ago, the group drafted an initiative to guarantee public schools at least 40% of the general fund and waged a successful multimillion-dollar campaign for it. As author and defender of that law, the union established a firm grip on the largest chunk of the budget.

Continue reading.

'This is Our Defining Moment ... This is Our Generation's Time...'

California's no swing state, which is a bummer: I doubt I'll get a chance to see a #RomneyRyan2012 campaign rally.

Paul Ryan is a spectacular candidate, and Team Romney has the progressives shakin' and quakin' so hard, it's almost unreal.

See Glenn Reynolds, "DOUBLE STANDARDS: Post-racial progressives count white faces at The Villages; President campaigns in ‘affluent’ 97%-white Windham, NH. 97% white? That’s almost as white as Obama’s Chicago Campaign headquarters. Too bad these folks can’t achieve the diversity of a Tea Party Rally."

VIDEO HAT TIP: Theo Spark.

Julian Assange Calls on President Obama to End 'Witch Hunt'

At the Guardian UK, "Julian Assange takes aim at United States as row deepens."

'Crimson Tide' Director Tony Scott Jumps to Death

The man appeared to have everything. But suicide is so wrong. Perhaps there was nothing, no counseling, no medication, no words of love and healing, that could help him. I don't know.

Say a prayer for those he left behind.

At the Los Angeles Times, "'Top Gun' director Tony Scott leaps to his death from bridge."

Also, "Witnesses saw 'Top Gun' director Tony Scott jump off bridge, police say."

More at Guardian UK, "Hollywood director Tony Scott dies."

And the Vincent Thomas Bridge is a huge landmark, a massive structure. Wikipedia's entry is here, with lots of pictures.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

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

More a Jill Stanek's, "Stanek Sunday funnies: “Biden, chains of fool” edition."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

Obama's Gotta Go? Newsweek Tries to Save the Brand

I wrote just a couple of weeks ago, "Newsweek Circles its Final Swirls Down the Drain."
At issue was Michael Tomasky's completely lame cover story, "Mitt Romney: Too Wimpy for the White House?" So I guess Tina Brown's reading my blog, or something. Because this Niall Ferguson piece is way more in line with the prevailing zeitgeist, "Obama's Gotta Go" (at Memeorandum):

I was a good loser four years ago. “In the grand scheme of history,” I wrote the day after Barack Obama’s election as president, “four decades is not an especially long time. Yet in that brief period America has gone from the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. to the apotheosis of Barack Obama. You would not be human if you failed to acknowledge this as a cause for great rejoicing.”

Despite having been—full disclosure—an adviser to John McCain, I acknowledged his opponent’s remarkable qualities: his soaring oratory, his cool, hard-to-ruffle temperament, and his near faultless campaign organization.

Yet the question confronting the country nearly four years later is not who was the better candidate four years ago. It is whether the winner has delivered on his promises. And the sad truth is that he has not...

No, has not. Which is why Obama can't run on his record. He's a presidential failure.

But keep reading.

And the progressives are outraged. Outraged! How dare Ferguson take over the cover of the Democrat house organ?!!

Paul Krugman, the depression economist, quibbles with CBO numbers on ObamaCare deficits --- numbers of which no one outside the think tanks have read --- and even then it's not the numbers that bother Krugman, but Ferguson's interpretation of them. See, "Unethical Commentary, Newsweek Edition."

And Jew-bashing Scott Lemieux, at the discredited hate-blog LGM, posts yet another "Hactacular!" entry --- number 24 according to the URL, which means that when the idiot "Lame-ieux" can't actually rebut an argument, he attacks the author as a "hack." And remember, the LGM blog publisher over there screens "Che"-worshipping movies for his seminars in American counter-insurgency strategy, amazingly, since that gets the arrows of national loyalty going the wrong way, "Patterson School of Diplomacy, University of Kentucky, Screens Steven Soderbergh's Che to Commemorate Fiftieth Anniversary of Bay of Pigs."

In any event, you gotta hand it to Tina Brown. Some say she's actually a quite savvy editor, with her finger to the pulse of cutting-edge opinion. And no doubt that's the case with the Ferguson cover story. Indeed, Obama's gotta go, and not a moment too soon.

Britney Spears Picture Perfect in White Bikini Summer Beach Photo

She tweets, "Y'all ready for summer to end? I'm definitely not!"

May all your summers be endless, sweetie.

More babe blogging at Bob Belvedere's, "Mary Elizabeth Winstead Rule 5." And Teresamerica, "Jenna Jameson Supports Mitt Romney Rule 5."

More still at Pirate's Cove, "If All You See…is a planet healing bicycle which everyone else should be forced to ride, you might just be a Warmist," and "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup."

Also from The Last Tradition, "Rule 5 Sunday - Maureen O’Hara, red-haired beauty of the 40 and 50s."

Randy's Roundtable has my favorite, Kelly Brook, for his "Thursday Nite Tart." And Gator Doug has "DaleyBabe Giulia Olivetti."

And from Three Beers Later, "Rule 5 — Hillbilly Girl!"

And check this, at It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World, "The Friday Pin Up." Plus, "A Man, A Dog, and His Gun, "Weekend Women #55, Olivia Wilde."

Plus don't miss Eye of Polyphemus, "Christina Ricci." Also at Wirecutter's, "Feel good picture of the day."

Reaganite Republican has some hot policy orientation, "Paul Ryan Medicare Plan Clearly Explained by the Stunning Michelle Fields."

Still more from First Street Journal, "Rule 5 Blogging: Advanced Rifle Marksmanship." A View From the Beach has "Rule 5 Saturday – Tara Reid."

And as always, don't miss Theo, "Sunday Totty..."

BONUS: Some non-Rule 5 family pics from American Perspective, "Greetings from California (pics of kids)."

If I've missed your hot babe-blogging post, drop it in the comments and I'll update.

Thanks for ogling!

ADDED: From Proof Positive, "49'er Preseason Continues (cheerleader hotties)."

MORE: At From Bear Creek, "Saturday Gingermageddon."

Al-Quds Day a Celebration of Hatred and Terrorism

From Michael Coren, at Sun TV, "It's all about power" (via Five Feet of Fury):

Beyond the hatred, the racism and the anger, there’s a certain irony surrounding Al-Quds Day, commemorated this weekend internationally and to its shame — in Toronto.

The event was founded by the Ayatollah Khomeini, and is an overwhelmingly Shiite Islam event. Anybody who knows Islam will understand that the Shiites are despised in most of the majority Sunni world. They were treated as second-class citizens in Lebanon, they are murdered in Pakistan, they are thought as being, golly, even worse than the Jews in Syria, and there aren’t any in Egypt because Saladin killed them all.

So spare me the lies and propaganda about Islamic brotherhood and the fraternity of Muslim believers. You have not seen genuine hatred if you haven’t seen how Muslim sect treats Muslim sect. And you’ll see a lot more of it when President Assad falls, and his fellow Alawites, a version of Shiite Islam, are likely slaughtered like cattle.

While this sordid event can take place in Canada, it would likely be banned or violently suppressed in most Muslim countries. Believe me, it’s not about Jews; it’s about power, and the psychotic inability of international Muslim leadership to tolerate anybody who does not agree with the established position.

Continue reading.

And Blazing Cat Fur updates on yesterday's hate fest, "What The World Needs Now - Isn't Al-Quds Day."

Americans Continue to Give Obama Low Marks on the Economy

At Gallup:

Obama's ratings on the economy are significantly worse than all three prior successful presidential incumbents at this same point in their first term, according to the available Gallup trends. His 36% approval rating on the economy is well below George W. Bush's rating in August 2004 (46%), Bill Clinton's in August 1996 (54%), and Ronald Reagan's in July 1984 (50%). Still, in terms of comparisons to presidents who lost, Obama's economic rating is substantially better than that of George H.W. Bush in July 1992 (18%).

He sucks.

IMAGE CREDIT: The Looking Spoon, "Why There Is Nothing Obama Won't Say About Romney..."

Grim Cycle: Black Communities Struggle to Break the Killing

At the Wall Street Journal, "Communities Struggle to Break a Grim Cycle of Killing" (via Google):

BATON ROUGE, La.—Police found Silas Gibbs Jr. early in the morning of March 3, slumped against the seat belt in a red Mustang, with blood streaming from his ears and mouth. He had been shot, allegedly by one of his closest friends.

Mr. Gibbs, 24 years old, is one of hundreds of young black men across the U.S. to die violently in the past six months. Their deaths are overshadowed by tragedies like the massacres at the Aurora, Colo., movie theater and the Sikh temple in Wisconsin, as well as the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. The latter case prompted nationwide outcry in part because of its racial aspect: Mr. Martin's killer is white and Hispanic, and Mr. Martin was black.

But Mr. Martin's death is a racial aberration, according to data kept by the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Law-enforcement officials nationwide are battling a far more widespread and intractable problem: the persistent killing of young black men by other young black men.

Homicide victims usually are killed by people of their own race and ethnicity. The pattern goes back at least a generation.

Bureau of Justice Statistics data show that from 1976 to 2005, white victims were killed by white defendants 86% of the time and black victims were killed by blacks 94% of the time.

Bureau of Justice Statistics data show that from 1976 to 2005, white victims were killed by white defendants 86% of the time and black victims were killed by blacks 94% of the time.

Then there is the matter of who is dying. Although the U.S. murder rate has been dropping for years, an analysis of homicide data by The Wall Street Journal found that the number of black male victims increased more than 10%, to 5,942 in 2010 from 5,307 in 2000.

Overall, more than half the nation's homicide victims are African-American, though blacks make up only 13% of the population. Of those black murder victims, 85% were men, mostly young men.Despite the declining U.S. murder rate, killings remain stubbornly high in poor pockets of cities large and small. In some cases, the rate is rising sharply. That increase is draining resources from police, prosecutors, social workers and hospitals.

As of Friday, Philadelphia police had been called to 223 homicides, compared with 198 last year. Chicago has recorded 337 murders, compared with 263 in the year-earlier period, a 28% jump. Public outcry there escalated after June 27, when stray bullets fired by an alleged gang member killed 7-year-old Heaven Sutton in a poor area on the city's West Side. Uproar over the little girl's death led Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to announce a gang crackdown in neighborhoods with high murder rates. The increase isn't uniform. In New York, 246 people this year have been murdered as of August 5, a 17% decline from a year earlier, police say.

Something the gun control freaks don't talk about too much. Chicago, for example, has some of the heaviest gun control laws in the country. A lot of good they do. Just scroll through Instapundit's archives on Chicago's gun violence. I've said it many times, but I'd hoped Obama'd have focused the nation on urban renewal, especially on values and family responsibility. He talked a good talk back in 2004, when he uplifted the Democrat National Convention. But he hasn't walked the walk since then, and it's gone downhill since then.

More at IBD, "Decline In Obama's Chicago Clue to His Second Term."

Vice President Biden Should Apologize for 'Back in Chains'

The Boston Globe calls out Joseph "Big F'n Embarrassment" Biden.

See, "Biden should apologize for “back in chains” remark" (via Memeorandum):

When Vice President Joe Biden warned a Virginia rally of hundreds of African Americans that Republican efforts to loosen bank regulations meant “They’re going to put y’all back in chains,” Stephanie Cutter, Team Obama’s deputy campaign manager, said the president would have “no problem with those comments.”

But imagine if Republican Paul Ryan uttered comments like that. Mitt Romney’s pick for vice president would be pilloried for racial insensitivity — and so would Romney. In the fight for civility and substance over pointless hyperbole, Biden may not be the worst offender. But he’s an offender nonetheless, and he should apologize.

Keep reading.

CARTOON CREDIT: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Hope in Chains."

Trogloraptors

This is cool.

At Telegraph UK, "Trogloraptor spider discovered in US cave."

Referendum on Europe Gains Support in Germany

Germany has been the most important state slowing moves toward deeper European integration, so I doubt this is something that will come to pass. But then again, Germany reinvented itself after the Nazis and World War II, so who knows?

At the New York Times, "Support Grows in Germany for Vote on Giving Up Power to European Bloc":

BERLIN — It has become the buzzword of the summer in Berlin: referendum. The foreign and finance ministers as well as opposition leaders have all come out in favor of allowing Germans to have a direct say in whether to give up more power to European Union institutions.

Although the idea of a referendum is for the moment more notional than concrete, it is gaining currency in Germany’s political debate. Approving it would amount to the exceptional step of a national vote to change the Constitution to allow Germans to relinquish some executive authority to Brussels.

Proponents say that if such a referendum were approved, it would send a strong signal of Germany’s commitment to the euro. It would also streamline the steps needed to save the common European currency, they argue, and appease mounting complaints by Germans that even as they are being asked to pay more to bolster or bail out their troubled euro zone partners, they have no say in where their taxes are flowing or how they are being spent.

Such a referendum comes with the built-in risk that Germans could vote against Europe, with potentially damning consequences for the common currency and the future of the European Union.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has consistently promoted a vision of “more Europe” as the answer to the euro crisis, meaning tighter integration but also stricter oversight of European fiscal policy. Currently, steps in that direction have ended up in Germany’s highest court, facing legal challenges from opponents who say that handing over more money and authority to the European Union violates the country’s Constitution.

On Sept. 12, the high court is poised to rule on the constitutionality of the fiscal pact arduously negotiated among European Union members that is the cornerstone of Ms. Merkel’s plans. It will also rule on the legality of Germany’s $27 billion commitment to back up a permanent bailout fund for the union.

Should the challenge prevail, and German support be withdrawn, it would almost certainly doom the project of greater integration and send a potentially calamitous signal to financial markets looking for urgent steps to buttress troubled euro zone economies...

Read it all.

The one thing that's fishy, though, is that Merkl's fiscal pact agenda in fact could be something of a Trojan Horse for Germany's domination of the EU. But I've never read the plan, so I can't comment on that until later...

There's a Feeling Inside I Want You to Know...

Flashback to some late-1990s teeny-bop rock, from BBMak, "Back Here."

How Long Until Progressives Attack Paul Ryan's Mom?

Well, if she keeps stumping for her son the veep nominee, it won't be long. Not long at all.

William Jacobson has it, "How long before they go after Paul Ryan’s mom?"

And "Ryan's mom is new face in Medicare wars" (at Memeorandum).

Can You Really Trust the Pollsters?

Glenn Reynolds interviews Michael Barone:

Red Rover

At LAT, "Mars rover Curiosity can vaporize rocks, roam the Red Planet."

And NASA's viral video, "We're NASA and We Know It (Mars Curiosity) Satire."

BONUS: At New York Daily News, "Britney Spears tweets Mars rover — and Curiosity tweets back."

Proving Media Bias

Via Pat Dollard:

'This' @AoSHQ

Yeah, "This" is rockin'!

Read it all, baby, at the link, via @AoSHQ on Twitter.

NewsBusted: '8-Year-Old Deemed Security Risk at Obama Campaign Rally'

Via PA Pundits International:

Toronto's al-Quds Day Hate Fest

Virtually the entire radical-left hate campaign is built on lies, and stupidity

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Racial "'Superamacy'."

And "Al Duds Day In Toronto."

Plus, at Dodo Can Spell, "Grassroots protest by real Canadians at Toronto's Hate Fest also known as Al Quds day .... part I."

Plus, "Grassroots protest by real Canadians at Toronto's Hate Fest also known as Al Quds day .... part II, and "Grassroots protest by real Canadians at Toronto's Hate Fest also known as Al Quds day .... part III."

At least Dodo indeed can spell.

And previously, "BDS: More Than Just a Boycott":

The BDS campaign is cast in rights-based, non-violent and tolerant terms that are smooth and soothing to Western ears; this is why secular bodies such as trade unions have embraced the campaign. So too, as might be expected of religious bodies that thrive on victimology, has the National Council of Churches in Australia.

Yet behind the rhetoric, the BDS objectives disclose a darker purpose: to damage and delegitimise the Jewish state by questioning the basis of its creation and its continued existence as a liberal democracy.

SOURCE: Peter Kurti at the Australian, "Anti-Israel campaign is more than just a boycott."

Nevada Woman Gives Away $260 Thousand Winning Ticket in California Lottery

She tried to get it back, appealing to the state lottery board, but a security camera caught her giving the ticket away as an act of charity.

See London's Daily Mail, "Emily Leach: Two-time lottery winner who claims beggar 'pressured' her into giving him $260000 jackpot ticket will NOT get the money back."

Respect Women! Dress Up Like a Vagina for Equal Rights!

Vaginas vote! Make your uterus heard!

Yeah, way to respect women!

Here's this from Allison Sesso on Twitter:

More at Twitchy, "Code Pink members attend We Are Woman rally in vagina costumes."

And endorsed by sex-starved Sandra Fluke:

Sending my support to everyone at the #WAW rally in D.C.Sorry to miss it, but thanks to all of you for making your voices heard!
— Sandra Fluke (@SandraFluke) August 18, 2012

With the obvious reply from RedGalBlueState:

@sandrafluke I think you meant to say "thanks for making your VAGINAS heard", since that seems to be the extent of their vocabulary.
— RedGalBlueState (@RedGalBlueState) August 18, 2012

No Memeorandum thread yet, or a post at The Other McCain. Robert's much funnier than I am, so I'll bug him to run an off-season "Offend a Feminist" entry. The punch lines practically write themselves. And seriously, if you call folks like Medea Benjamin the "C" word now, you won't be far off.

RELATED: "Jodie Evans is Barack Obama's Code Pink Liaison to Taliban Insurgents."

Added: From Amy Alkon, "Also Don't Go to a Job Interview Dressed As a Giant Penis." That might be good advice.

More: From Blue Crab Boulevard, "In the first sign that the Fukushima nuclear disaster may be changing life around it, scientists say they’ve found mutant butterflies."

Georgia Dog Lover Rebecca Carey Killed by Dogs She Had Rescued (VIDEO)

At Maggie's Notebook, "Rebecca Carey Killed By Rescue Dogs in Her Home."

Fire Roy Edroso!

Well, maybe not fire him.

Lay him off like some of the others at the Village Voice.

See Foster Kamer, at The New York Observer, "Layoffs Hit Editorial Staff at The Village Voice":

Layoffs are hitting the editorial staff at The Village Voice today, and they’re hitting some of the most widely-read staff writers in the office. The Observer has heard from multiple sources familiar with the situation that the bad news is beginning to spread around the office, and that the following people are out at the Voice:

Camille Dodero (Staff Writer), Steven Thrasher (Staff Writer) and Victoria Bekiempis (Staff Writer), and we also heard Araceli Cruz was cut to part-time status. Cruz, who has been with the Voice since 2007, is a senior associate editor who works on both event listings and features across the paper.

Yeah, well, add the idiot Edroso to the list, the freakin' progressive creep.

Oh, and the publishers didn't even tell the laid off staffers in person. Homosexual staff writer Steven Thrasher was locked out at the website along with some of the others. See BuzzFeed, "How Management Killed “The Village Voice”."

We'll see, but perhaps Roy "Bikini Burlesque" Edroso's getting locked out as well. No word at Alicublog, and Roy's last Village Voice column is here, "Rightbloggers Rejoice as Ryan Revives Romney, Reaganesquely."

Check back for updates on the creep. I'll be happy to post the news of Roy's firing, the dirtbag.

More from William Jacobson, "The Village Voice is dead, long live Nat Hentoff." (Via Memeorandum.) And see Jim Remenesko, "VILLAGE VOICE ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE?"

Added: Rick Moran comments, at PJ Media, "A Stilled Voice?"

Linked by Big Fur Hat. Thanks!

Sabine Jemeljanova at Egotastic!

She's a Latvian beauty.

See: "Sabine Jemeljanova Nuts Photoshoot Outtakes July/August 2012."

Texas Teacher Brittni Nicole Colleps Found Guilty After Group Sex With High School Students

I don't know what this lady was thinking. She has three kids and her husband was deployed overseas!

The story's been at the Daily Mail for a few days, "Jury sees video of English teacher 'having group sex with four students during orgy in her home while another taped it'."

And here's the news, "Teacher, 28, jailed for FIVE YEARS for having sex with her students at home as husband vows to stand by her after telling court how they liked to engage in orgies."

Scenes from the courtroom, with the husband crying, at this video clip.

Radical 83-year-Old Spits in Face of Mitt Romney Supporter

Some reports indicated the 83-year-old perp is a Planned Parenthood extremist, so it figures.

At Lonely Con, "Video: Woman Spits in Face of Romney Supporter."

And Marooned in Marin, "#NEW TONE: Liberal Spits In Face of Female Romney Supporter."

You gotta love how the Romney supporters smacked that lady on the head. Progressives need more of that, being smacked down when they commit their vile, socially repugnant acts, which is pretty much all the time.

Paul Ryan Has Ear of Washington's Conservative Establishment

Well, you would think so.

At the New York Times, "Conservative Elite in Capital Pay Heed to Ryan as Thinker":

WASHINGTON — With the debate over the federal deficit roiling last year, David Smick, a financial market consultant, held a dinner for a bipartisan group of connected budget thinkers at his expansive home here.

At the table were members of the city’s conservative policy elite, including Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, and William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard.

But that evening, none drew more attention than a relatively new member of that best-of class: Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and now Mitt Romney’s running mate, who spoke passionately about the threat posed by the national debt and the radical actions needed to rein it in.

“I thought, ‘This is the one guy in Washington paying attention,’ ” said Niall Ferguson, the Harvard economic historian and commentator, who spent some of the rest of that evening, along with Mr. Kristol, trying to persuade Mr. Ryan to run for president.

Much has been written about Mr. Ryan’s intellectual influences: canonical conservative thinkers like Friedrich von Hayek, the Austrian economist, and Ayn Rand, the novelist and philosopher. Mr. Ryan’s enthusiasm for them dates at least to his days as a precocious undergraduate at Miami University in Ohio.

But since first coming to Washington in the early 1990s, Mr. Ryan has been closely tied to an intellectual world more concerned with the political agenda of low taxes, light regulations and small government than philosophical ruminations on work and freedom.

And since his emergence as the key Congressional Republican on the budget issue, Mr. Ryan has become a particular favorite of — and powerful influence on — the intellectuals, economists, writers and policy makers who are at the heart of Washington’s conservative establishment.

Mr. Ryan “is the good think-tanker-as-politician,” said Stuart Butler, the director of the Center for Policy Innovation at the Heritage Foundation, a right-of-center research institution. “When I’m having a discussion with Ryan, I’m talking to someone who knows the material as well as, if not better than, I do.”

More on that top link.

And following-up on yesterday, TMZ has this, "Paul Ryan - THE TOPLESS PHOTO."

RELATED: The deranged progs have been trying to smear Ryan as a slavish Ayn Rand follower, but the Objectivist Standard, a major outlet for Objectivist philosophy, issued a major corrective, "Paul Ryan Rejects Ayn Rand’s Ideas—In Word and Deed."

So much for the "reality-based" idiots.

WBBM-TV's Vince Gerasole Goes for Air Show Ride Along

He's not enjoying it.

Watch: "Reporter freaks out on air show ride-along."

French Industrial Policies Are Killing Peugeot

At Der Spiegel, "Peugeot on the Brink: How Paris Is Killing French Industry":

French carmaker Peugeot is fighting for its survival. But, by keeping its plants in-country and supporting wage hikes, the government is ignoring the rules of survival in the age of globalization. In the end, the workers it is trying to help might be the biggest losers.

Well-meaning people can often be particularly dangerous. Take French President François Hollande and Minister of Industrial Renewal Arnaud Montebourg, for example. They want to rush to the aid of French automaker PSA, which has driven itself into a crisis with its Peugeot and Citroën brands. Representatives of the CGT trade union, such as Jean-Pierre Mercier, also want to help. "We will fight for our jobs and the livelihoods of our families," says Mercier.

The French government and the unions want to prevent Peugeot from closing its plant in Aulnay-sous-Blois, outside Paris, and slashing 8,000 jobs. But if politicians and labor leaders are successful, they will only make things worse. Perhaps they'll manage to save a few thousand jobs in France in the short term. But, by doing so, they will put the company's future into even greater jeopardy. The company, which has been making cars since 1890, is fighting to survive. Sales have plummeted, and plants are not operating at anywhere close to capacity. PSA is currently losing €140 million ($173 million) a month.

For the 3,000 Peugeot workers in Aulnay-sous-Bois, their work ended temporarily at 10:30 p.m. on July 26. The plant was closed for five weeks, as it is every year for the summer vacation. But, this time, things were a little different. The commencement of the annual vacation period had a bitter aftertaste. Workers had just learned that the plant was to be permanently shut down in 2014.

President Hollande reacted immediately, saying that PSA's downsizing plans were "unacceptable" and had to be renegotiated. Minister Montebourg said that he had little faith in company management and speculated that perhaps the car company was merely playing the "imaginary invalid." He also said that he had a "real problem" with the company's strategy and the behavior of its main shareholder, the Peugeot family, which owns more than a quarter of its shares and received a substantial dividend last year.

Both CEO Philippe Varin and Supervisory Board Chairman Thierry Peugeot were called on the carpet, and the Peugeot family was forced to hear Montebourg deliver a lecture on patriotism. The company, the minister said, doesn't just belong to its shareholders, but also to "the history of France, a territory, a national idea."

The French state owns a share of Renault, the country's second-largest automaker, but not of Peugeot. Nevertheless, the government behaves as if Peugeot actually were a state-owned company. In this respect, it is demonstrating how matter-of-factly French politicians intervene in the management of major corporations.

Continue reading.

Shut Up: Too Much Debate's a Problem in the Modern Academy

From Naomi Schaefer Riley, at the New York Post, "Peter Wood, Mark Regnerus, and Me":

For the second time in three months, the Chronicle of Higher Education has allowed a violation of academic orthodoxy — and professors are calling for the head of another Chronicle contributor.

The higher-ups seem to have decided it’s not worth the trouble and are shutting down two of its blogs entirely next week. If you can’t take the heat, close the kitchen? Last month, Peter Wood, the head of the National Association of Scholars, published a post on the Chronicle’s Innovations blog in which he suggested that Jerry Sandusky’s serial child molestations weren’t the only thing Penn State had tried to cover up in recent years.

Wood pointed at the university’s investigation into the conduct of Prof. Michael Mann, who played a major role in the “Climategate” memos.

The probe, he said, hardly rigorous; it was conducted by a university vice president – who, as others have noted, had clear incentive to go easy, since Mann brought a lot of research money to the university.

In short, Wood argued, “Penn State has a history of treading softly with its star players.”

The comments section lit up with accusations that Wood had libeled Mann. A blogger called “Profmandia” launched an online campaign demanding that the Chronicle retract the post and apologize.

What might lead Profmandia — whose day job is in the physical sciences department at Suffolk Community College — to believe the Chronicle would respond to his demands? Well, he had history on his side.

Schaefer Riley talks about her story of being fired after a fascist firestorm at the journal (she criticized black studies), then continues:

Perhaps the only idea that competes with these two for their sacredness at universities today is the notion that gender is a social construct and its corollary that children of gay parents have the same (if not better) outcomes than children of heterosexual parents.

Mark Regnerus, a professor at the University of Texas, Austin, recently challenged this idea with an article in Social Science Research, in which he suggested that children of gay parents tend to have lower levels of economic success and more problems with mental health.

Some scholars have reasonably disagreed with Regnerus’ methodology, but interest groups and the guardians of sociology’s orthodoxy have demanded his head. As a result, UT has launched an investigation into accusations of scientific misconduct.

Though the article was peer-reviewed and published by a respected academic journal, one columnist wrote that Regnerus’ study was “designed so as to be guaranteed to make gay people look bad, through means plainly fraudulent and defamatory."

Reasonable people may disagree about Regnerus’ conclusions, Wood’s views of climate science or my opinions on black studies, but on these topics, there is no room for discussion in the Ivory Tower.

And the enforcers of this orthodoxy are shameless. A study out next month in Perspectives on Psychological Science finds: “In decisions ranging from paper reviews to hiring, many social and personality psychologists admit that they would discriminate against openly conservative colleagues. The more liberal respondents are, the more willing they are to discriminate.”

At least they’re honest.

'Putin Lights Up the Fires'

The new Pussy Riot single is here.

And at the National Post, "‘Putin Lights Up the Fires’: Pussy Riot puts out single as conviction sparks protests around the world."

Animal Rights Activists Decry Massachusetts Monster Shark Hunt Contest

Well, this is one case where I don't blame them.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Battle for sharks off Martha's Vineyard":

This was the moment Matt Connelly had waited years for: the sudden yank on the line, the violent tug that dragged him to the edge of the boat and nearly into the cold Atlantic.

After 90 exhausting minutes, the battle was over.

Connelly and his crew mates peered down at the massive fish beside their 29-foot boat, Rogue Angel. They pulled out a tape measure to make sure their eyes weren't playing tricks on them. Finally, convinced the fish was big enough to haul in, they gaffed it, guessing its weight at 275 pounds.

They were off by more than 50 pounds. The fish weighed 334 pounds when it was hoisted onto the scales on Day One of the Monster Shark Tournament, which depending on your point of view is a premier sportfishing contest, a bloody assault on an elegant species, or a chance for scientists to get a close-up look at some of the ocean's biggest predators.

"Controversy sells," said Steven James, the tournament organizer, dismissing the opposition to the 26-year-old grandaddy of shark tournaments.

"Are they hurting me? No, they're not," James said of his critics as he drove through the quiet streets of Martha's Vineyard before dawn, delivering 40-pound buckets of chum and boxes of bait to competitors.

By the time he finished, hundreds of anglers would be heading out to sea, hoping to bring in the biggest catch of the two-day tournament and claim tens of thousands of dollars in cash and prizes.

It is one of dozens of shark-fishing contests held each year in the United States. In recent years, some have bowed to pressure from animal rights and environmental groups to require competitors to release what they catch. But the Monster event goes on as is, its popularity fueled in part by a spate of shark-human encounters in the area that evoked images of "Jaws," the 1975 blockbuster film that was filmed nearby.

"The very most fundamental human, primal fear is the thought that you might be eaten alive," said James, who runs a charter fishing boat business south of Boston and is on a National Marine Fisheries Service advisory panel on migratory species.

It's a little much.

More at the link.

BDS: More Than Just a Boycott

From Peter Kurti, at the Australian, "Anti-Israel campaign is more than just a boycott":

The BDS campaign is cast in rights-based, non-violent and tolerant terms that are smooth and soothing to Western ears; this is why secular bodies such as trade unions have embraced the campaign. So too, as might be expected of religious bodies that thrive on victimology, has the National Council of Churches in Australia.

Yet behind the rhetoric, the BDS objectives disclose a darker purpose: to damage and delegitimise the Jewish state by questioning the basis of its creation and its continued existence as a liberal democracy.

Read it all.

Paul Ryan 'Is the Embodiment of the Machine That Our Music Has Been Raging Against...'

Well, if they say so.

See the New York Times, "Rage Against the Machine Isn’t Returning Ryan’s Love."

San Francisco's Municipal Railway Doesn't Support This Message

At Atlas Shrugs, "CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO TO PLACE SHARIA-COMPLIANT DISCLAIMERS NEXT TO EVERY AFDI PRO-ISRAEL BUS AD."

And Pamela's organization was branded by the SPLC as a "hate group," and the progs have run with it, "Hate group places Islamophobic advertisements on San Francisco buses."

Express an opinion the left disagrees with and you wind up in the crosshairs.

Occupy's Pussy Riot Outrage

At the Daily Beast, "Occupy Wall Street Veterans Mass to Protest Pussy Riot Verdict."

PREVIOUSLY: "Topless FEMEN Activist Chainsaws Memorial Cross in Kiev, Ukraine (VIDEO)."

David Coulthard, Formula 1 Grand Prix Driver, Speeds Through Lincoln Tunnel at 190mph

At London's Daily Mail, "Ever wondered what it feels like to drive through the Lincoln Tunnel at 190mph? Cockpit video shows F1 car taking less than 30 seconds to speed through NY crossing."

Watch it here.

'Run, Joe. Run'

Via Theo Spark:

Between "Back in Chains" and "niggerization" the left once again has bludgeoned race relations with a hammer. It's not carelessness, especially on Biden's part. These people think that others agree with them. Turns out, not so much. At Politico, "MSNBC's Toure apologizes for 'N-word'."

Doubts Grow Over Mark Zuckerberg's Role as Facebook CEO

And I'm sure the doubts will continue growing even if he's replaced. Frankly, I don't see how Facebook's going to perform for its investors. It's basically a fad. (And anecdotally, I never click their ads --- and that's if I even log on, which is hardly ever.)

At the Los Angeles Times, "Is Mark Zuckerberg in over his hoodie as Facebook CEO?":

The deepening slide in  Facebook Inc.'s stock is fueling talk once considered implausible on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.

Should Mark Zuckerberg, the social media visionary but neophyte corporate manager, step aside as CEO to let a more seasoned executive run the multibillion-dollar company?

In that scenario, Zuckerberg would remain as the creative force propelling Facebook's technological innovation. But the 28-year-old would cede the CEO title to someone better suited to overseeing operations and building rapport with finicky investors — mundane but essential duties for which Zuckerberg has shown little appetite or aptitude.

"There is a growing sense that Mark Zuckerberg, talented though he may be, is in over his hoodie as CEO of a multibillion-dollar public company," said Sam Hamadeh, head of research firm PrivCo. "While in many cases a company founder can, and does, grow into the job, things are happening so quickly that there is precious little time here for Zuckerberg to do that."

Doubts about the Facebook founder intensified Thursday as the stock closed below $20 for the first time. The shares, which slipped to $19.87, have shed nearly half their value since Facebook's disastrous initial public offering three months ago....

*****

Zuckerberg's indifference to traditional corporate etiquette — he wore sneakers and his trademark hoodie for Facebook's first big investor meeting — is viewed as disrespectful of the corporate world he needs to win over.

"His behavior is what I would expect of someone his age — the hoodies and everything else," said Chris Whalen, senior managing director at Tangent Capital Partners in New York. "He's trying to appeal to his audience instead of being responsible to his investors. His job now is to run the company."

Even Apple Inc.co-founder Steve Jobs, who was known for favoring turtlenecks and jeans, donned a suit in his early days when he was touting his upstart.

More here, "Internet users debate Zuckerberg's future at Facebook." And at Techmeme.

PREVIOUSLY: "Facebook Shares Fall to New Low as Investors Dump Holdings."

Left-Wing 'Wave of Hatred' Greeted News of Family Research Council Shooting

From Michelle's morning appearance on Fox & Friends:

And all the day's related FRC news at Memeorandum.

Grim Frustration: Plight of California's Jobless Cracks Window on Depths of Obama Depression

An interesting piece on the depths of the human toll from the Obama depression, at the New York Times, "Unemployment Depths Seen in California Peer Group":

CORONA, Calif. — The analysts pore over the numbers every month, the full menagerie of economic indicators. President Obama and Mitt Romney trade barbs over who is at fault for a sluggish recovery. But here, in a region with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, other numbers often loom larger.

There are the roughly 1,600 résumés that Byron Reeves has sent out since he lost his job in accounting nearly four years ago, and the paltry 10 or so interviews they have produced. There is the $300 check that Yundra Thomas could not write to send his daughter to band camp, because he has been out of work for six months.

Each week, Mr. Reeves and Mr. Thomas gather with 40 or so other unemployed workers in a small, barren and fluorescent-lit room here, in a kind of self-help program that is part of California’s official effort to help residents find jobs. Most have been unemployed for months or years. Time spent with them at several gatherings over many months reveals a postrecession landscape where grim frustration battles with the simple desire to find a way out.

RTWT.

PREVIOUSLY: "LBCC Plans Full-Time Faculty Layoffs: Administration Cites Need to Cut $2 Million in College Programs." And Governor Brown wants to raise taxes, which will drive more businesses out of state and put more people out of work. We're in the best of hands!

Topless FEMEN Activist Chainsaws Memorial Cross in Kiev, Ukraine (VIDEO)

This is a serious story, actually. The New York Times reports, "Russian Band Given 2-Year Term for Stunt Deriding Putin."

But FEMEN cutting down a memorial to Stalin's victim's is a bit over the line. At the Sun UK, "Topless blonde's Pussy Riot chainsaw protest."

More at Blazing Cat Fur, "Oh yea, that'll help: FEMEN saws down cross for Stalin victims in aid of Pussy Riot."

NSFW:

Reaganite Repubican Hates Kim Kardashian!

My good friend Reaganite took issue with my recent Kim Kardashian blogging:

This one never did anything for me - NO class...

And I responded:

Are you kidding, she's got a body that won't quit!

And Reaganite replies:

More plastic in her than your wife's Honda lol...

My wife drives the Jeep, actually, but that's beside the point, ha!

Frankly, I thought Kim was all natural.

It turns out she's posted some old Playboy pics for her Flashback Friday tweets, seen at London's Daily Mail, "Now Kim Kardashian digs out racy behind-the-scenes snaps from 2007 Playboy shoot for another tweet treat." I'm not seeing the silicone, but then again, Robert Stacy McCain's the expert, not me.

And Kim's also been tweeting some Hawaii vacation pics:

They say Kim's getting marriage-serious with Kanye (complete with the high-profile denials), so the dirtbag digs do have some credibility. But as long as she keeps tweeting those hot bikini bod pics, I'm down for some Rule 5 blogging on that.

LBCC Plans Full-Time Faculty Layoffs: Administration Cites Need to Cut $2 Million in College Programs

LBCC President Eloy Oakley sent out a campus-wide internal email yesterday, and the faculty union president followed-up, indicating that the administration personally contacted those full-time faculty members facing lay-offs.

And here's the report at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "Long Beach City College to cut more programs, staff to save $2 million":

LONG BEACH — Long Beach City College is planning to eliminate several instructional programs next year in an effort to cut $2 million from its budget, officials announced Thursday.

The cuts, planned for the 2013-2014 school year, could include the loss of up to 20 programs and layoffs for around 10 full-time faculty members, said LBCC President Eloy Oakley.

The college has about 200 academic programs and 308 full-time faculty.

Oakley said the latest round of reductions is part of the college's ongoing plan to remain fiscally stable in the face of severe state budget cuts. The college has seen an overall 7.4 percent reduction in state funding.

In April, the Board of Trustees approved a plan to lay off 55 employees and reduce contracts for 96 positions for a savings of more than $5 million. The reduction in staffing was one of the largest in the college's history.

While LBCC has made some difficult decisions, even tougher cuts loom on the horizon if voters fail to pass a November tax initiative designed to fund education, Oakley said.

More at the link.

California can't afford a tax increase --- we're already the nation's economic basket case. But the Democrats are pushing hard for it anyway, "Gov. Jerry Brown formally kicks off Prop. 30 tax hike campaign."

PREVIOUSLY: "LBCC Announces 55 Layoffs — Tensions High as Faculty Union Prepares Jobs Actions and Protests," and "Dr. Gaither Loewenstein Appointed New Vice President of Academic Affairs at Long Beach City College."

RELATED: LBCC's in the national news, at the Chronicle of Higher Education, "At Calif. Public Colleges, Dreams Deferred." (The entire text is cross-posted to the LBCC website.)

Reckless Rhetoric: Southern Poverty Law Center Threatened With $100 Million Lawsuit

The Christian Group LivePrayer may sue the SPLC. National Review reports, "Christian Group to File $100 Million Lawsuit against SPLC" (via Memeorandum):

Bill Keller’s group just issued a press release warning the Southern Poverty Law Center to remove him and LivePrayer from their hate-group list within 72 hours or face a lawsuit. SPLC was founded in order to use civil litigation to bankrupt genuine hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, interestingly enough. Any lawyers out there who could evaluate LivePrayer’s prospects for success?

Check the link for the press release.

Plus, at Legal Insurrection, "Neo-Nazis in Rhode Island? SPLC exaggerates again." And The Other McCain, "Rhode Island Neo-Nazis and Other Mysteries of 21st-Century Hate."

More from Da Tech Guy, "Dana Milbank on SPLC “hate” or What a difference a little bloodshed makes." It turns out that the Washington Post disabled comments to the Milbank piece. No doubt the "tolerance" brigades were getting a little intolerant. Check Memeorandum for the link.

PREVIOUSLY: "Is SPLC a 'Hate Group'?"

Is SPLC a 'Hate Group'?

The left's über race-baiter Mark Potok of SPLC responds to the Family Research Council, "SPLC: Family Research Council License-to-Kill Claim ‘Outrageous’" (at Memeorandum):

... FRC President Tony Perkins attacked the SPLC, saying it had encouraged and enabled the attack [on the Council's headquarters] by labeling the FRC a “hate group.” The attacker, Floyd Corkins, “was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center,” Perkins said. “I believe the Southern Poverty Law Center should be held accountable for their reckless use of terminology.”

Perkins’ accusation is outrageous. The SPLC has listed the FRC as a hate group since 2010 because it has knowingly spread false and denigrating propaganda about LGBT people — not, as some claim, because it opposes same-sex marriage. The FRC and its allies on the religious right are saying, in effect, that offering legitimate and fact-based criticism in a democratic society is tantamount to suggesting that the objects of criticism should be the targets of criminal violence.

The gentleman doth protest too much (and apologies to the noun "gentlemen").

Labeling every single person or group you disagree with on policy grounds is not "fact-based criticism." It's demonization, which is why SPLC is under fire for giving cover to hate.

Here's your hate, on steroids: "Depraved Homosexuals Blame Family Research Council for 'Climate of Violence' After Leftist Attempts Massacre."

More from Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary, "After DC Attack, Law Center Deserves Flak":

After holding off on making any statement about the shooting attack on his group’s Washington headquarters by a critic of their positions on social issues, the Family Research Center’s Tony Perkins spoke out today and placed at least some of the blame for the incident on the Southern Poverty Law Center, a generally respected liberal watchdog group. This will come as a shock to many whose knowledge of the SPLC comes from the good press it gets for its work over the years monitoring extremist hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan. But in recent years, they have expanded their definition of a hate group to include not just the likes of David Duke and neo-Nazis but non-violent conservative advocacy groups. While the SPLC says it condemns violence, their actions have placed a bull’s eye on groups it dislikes and rendered them vulnerable to intimidation.

According to the SPLC’s way of thinking groups like the Family Research Center that oppose abortion and gay marriage are pretty much the moral equivalent of the Klan. Shockingly, the SPLC also lists on their website’s roster of haters people like Washington think tanker Frank Gaffney because of his position on the threat from Islamist terror groups like the Muslim Brotherhood which they interpret as a form of Islamophobia. Indeed, Gaffney is listed on the SPLC’s website on a roster of profile of hatemongers such as Louis Farrakhan and a leader of a white nationalist militia. While one may disagree with the Family Research Council’s religious conservatism or Gaffney’s ideas about the threat from shariah law, the idea that they deserve to be placed in such a context is outrageous. In doing so, they are also responsible for creating an atmosphere in which those who take such positions are to be intimidated into silence. Yesterday’s events ought to cause the Law Center to rethink its irresponsible labeling of political opponents.

The Law Center gained a certain degree of fame and respectability as a more secular counterpart to the Anti-Defamation League, which also monitors hate groups from a Jewish perspective. But the SLC seems to have made a strategic decision in recent years that it might be easier to raise money if it increased its scope from activities monitoring genuine hate groups to advocates of causes that they dislike like such as the Family Research Center who are deeply unpopular among liberal donors.

Recently, the Law Center has also taken up the largely bogus charge that America is suffering from a wave of Islamophobia. In doing so, it put Gaffney in their cross hairs and has now taken to treating the former Reagan administration Defense Department official as being no different than David Duke or Farrakhan. Just as outrageous is that, as Lori Lowenthal Marcus writes in the Jewish Press today, they have teamed up with the likes of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and the Center for American Progress (CAP) to support the branding not just Gaffney but scholar Daniel Pipes and his Middle East Forum and investigative journalist Steven Emerson as part of a network of hate against Muslims. Again, one needn’t agree with Gaffney, Pipes or Emerson on every position they take, but the idea that they can be treated like KKK members is a frightening example of the way the left operates these days...

Well said. And Tobin goes on to note the irony of the SPLC allying with genuinely hateful groups like the Center for American Progress, which has been roundly criticized by Jewish organizations for its reprehensible anti-Semitism. But as Tobin points out, that's the way it is on the left nowadays. The SPLC, by its own logic, could be smeared as a "hate group."

And here's David Sessions at the left-wing Daily Beast, "Is the Family Research Council Really a Hate Group?":

Conservatives were outraged when the SPLC revised its list of hate groups in 2010, adding the Family Research Council and the American Family Association. The shooting on Wednesday brought the ire flooding back, as conservative journalists and bloggers insisted that the SPLC is the true hate group. Maggie Gallagher, the president of the National Organization for Marriage, linked to a 2010 article that quoted a SPLC research director saying her group sees no difference between anti-gay evangelical groups and white supremacists. “Trying to lump Tony Perkins with the guy who shot people at the Sikh temple is morally bankrupt on its face,” Gallagher wrote.

William Jacobson, a professor at Cornell Law School and author of the conservative blog Legal Insurrection, has attacked the SPLC for, in his view, expanding its focus to include more mainstream conservative political groups as well as racist groups. On Wednesday, Jacobson repeated the implication that the SPLC’s designation of the Family Research Council as a hate group is based on FRC’s opposition to gay marriage. “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 spiraled out of control,” Jacobson wrote.

There is no doubt that Perkins, the Family Research Council, and other conservatives are deploying the shooting to score political points. But they have raised a substantive concern that defies a simple answer, especially in a situation fraught with political and religious tension: which organizations can fairly be called hate groups? Can a word like “hate,” packed with visceral connotations, be part of a civilized debate about a public-policy issue?

More at the link.

Even Brian Levin, of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSU San Bernardino, cited by Sessions, rejects the "hate group" designation for FRC.

Tony Perkins comments are seen at the video here, "Before Shooting: Southern Poverty Law Center Put Family Research Council on ‘Hate Map’."

IMAGE CREDIT: Digger's Realm, "Hate and Slander For Profit - Part 1."

World Freedom Congress, September 11, 2012

At Atlas Shrugged, "September 11, 2012: D-Day in the Information Battle-Space."

More "ADL's Defamation of Proud Jews," and "VIDEO: Pamela Geller on NBC News Report on AFDI's “Islamorealism” Ads."

Mitt Romney's Whiteboard Lecture on Medicare Reform

Schooling Obama.

At Hot Air, "Oh my: Romney busts out the white board on Medicare."

Bill Whittle's Afterburner: 'The Democrats Are Terrified' of Paul Ryan

A cutting --- and cutting-edge --- analysis, with humor.

Lebanon Abductions Escalate Conflict in Syria

This is pretty amazing.

At the New York Times, "In Lebanon, Sunnis Threaten Shiites as Kidnappings of Syrians Rise":

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Sectarian tensions escalated across Lebanon on Thursday as Sunnis in border towns threatened Shiites after several Shiite families who had already abducted more than 30 Syrians added several more to their hostage total.

The expanded kidnapping wave occurred as the war in Syria staggered on — with battles in Aleppo and dozens of bodies found in a landfill outside the Syrian capital, Damascus, according to activists — and it suggested that the threat of regional chaos was increasing.

Lebanon has long been a country where international rivalries play out, and Lebanese security officials said Thursday that Syria’s 17-month-old conflict had pushed Beirut and the border regions closer to civil strife.

“It’s a very critical moment,” said one senior security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the heightened tensions. “We are open to the fact that there are going to be surprises.”

Those surprises included more kidnappings. A group of Shiites from the Zeeiter tribe told reporters on Thursday that they had kidnapped four members of the Free Syrian Army from hospitals in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, which borders Syria. Another tribe in the area, according to local news reports, kidnapped four other rebel fighters just across the border inside Syria.

The abductions on Thursday came a day after members of the powerful Mikdad family abducted nearly 40 Syrians to avenge the kidnapping of a relative, Hassan Salim al-Mikdad, by Syrian rebels on Monday.

The families of 11 other Lebanese hostages held inside Syria have also kidnapped several Syrians, after conflicting news reports suggested that some or all the Lebanese hostages had been killed by a Syrian airstrike. By Friday their fate had become clear: four had been killed, the Syrian rebel commander said in an interview on Lebanese television.

And while the Mikdads told reporters on Thursday that they had stopped taking hostages, the cycle of tit-for-tat abductions seemed to be spreading. Residents of some Lebanese border communities said Sunnis had also threatened to start kidnapping Shiites.

More at the link.

Hmm, it's hard to dismiss the idea that a U.S.-led protection force in Syria could long ago have prevented this kind of escalation. Of course, it would have never been approved before the U.N. But the U.S. bombed Kosovo in the 1990s without U.N approval, so it happens. Would that have risked war with Russia? Perhaps, although we're practically back in the Cold War with Moscow as it is. And Mosow's a smidgeon of its former self under Soviet rule. I doubt we'd make it anywhere near DEFCON 3 alert, as we were in the 1973 Middle East crisis. But I think that's getting ahead of things. Russia would probably huff and puff these days, as U.S. forces proceeded to toppled the regime in Damascus and install a friendly regime committed to secular politics and democratization.

More from Max Boot, at Commentary, "Extremists Filling Power Vacuum in Syria."

An Open Letter to MSNBC's Touré on Real Racism

From Kira Davis:

Progressives are horrible people.

That was my dad's generation. And I was called "nigger" when I was in school. I still have progressives launching racist attacks on me, amazingly. But they're supposed to be tolerant. See: "It's Come to This: Progressives Reduced to Racist Slurs Against American Power."

PREVIOUSLY: "Niggerization."

BONUS: At Big Journalism, "Romney Camp 'Discussing' Racial Slam with MSNBC Execs."

The Media's Strangely Subdued Reporting on Family Research Council Shooter

From Jill Stanek, at NewsBusters:

I was camping yesterday morning when a friend alerted me via Twitter on my iPhone there had been a shooting at Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Frightened for my friends, I began scanning Google for news reports. Ten minutes later the first story popped up, stating an FRC security guard had been shot in the arm, and the shooter had been arrested.

A bit relieved, I went ahead with a planned day trip, tuning in to news radio in the truck to keep up with the latest. Nada.

I switched to WLS radio, the Chicago ABC affiliate. More nada.

I thought to myself had this been a shooting at a NARAL or GLAAD headquarters, or at a Planned Parenthood clinic, the journalistic world would have stopped. But because FRC is conservative, a shooting wasn’t so big a deal.

Continue reading.

No one was killed, so that explains a lot of it. But as I noted yesterday, had it been HRC rather than FRC, well, you know... See: "CNN Waited 2 Hours and 45 Minutes to Report Shooting at Family Research Council."

Paul Ryan Shirtless!

Forget about the non-existent #RomneyRyan war on women. This guy is hot. Even Gayle King at 'CBS This Morning' noted Ryan's great shape during her interview with Mitt the other day.

And at PolicyMic, "Paul Ryan Shirtless: How the Romney VP Pick Became a Ryan Gosling Viral Sensation."

IMAGE CREDIT: Stoaty Weasel.

'Troops of Tomorrow'

So I'm clicking around on YouTube last night, cruising through some punk clips, and I find an upload from The Exploited's 1985 concert at The Olympic Auditorium. That was something else. I remember hanging out in the back, staying clear of the massive mosh pit. What a memory. The flyer's here, "The British Are Coming."

Below is a studio version of "Troops of Tomorrow," the title track off the band's second album, released in 1982.

I loved their sound, but The Exploited had issues. When I first saw them play, at The Lingerie nightclub in Hollywood, Wattie, the lead singer, started waling on the guitarist, and then the whole stage was in brawl. And that was it. Concert over. We (me and my buddies) were so f-king pissed. The club was half full. I was standing right at the stage. It was going to be fabulous. But Wattie was drunk off his ass and it ended up being a waste. Not a total waste, if I recall, since my buddy Victor and I met up with some smokin' beautiful women whom we'd met previously as some other gigs. (Victor was the drummer in the band F-Beat (which included Right Wing News blogger Michael Fell on base.) Here's an old Flipside Fanzine interview with Wattie from 1984, and he talks about the fight at The Lingerie:

Frank: Last time you were here you didn't get to play your scheduled show here in L.A. so you were gonna play a free show at a Roller Rink, what happened with that?

Wattie: Me and Gary got in a fight and I knocked his front four teeth in. We were still gonna play, we were still pals and stuff, but it cost us $400 to get his face stitched up. Gary had really bad breath, and he was picking on the drummer right, 'cause he was drunk, and he stuck his face near mine. And if I'm drunk, if somebody puts their face near me I'll just hit them, I'm paranoid about that...

(Wattie tells us how Carl "lost" his guitar in Spain: the Exploited did some minor damage and were asked to pay a lot for it. When they refused, the police were called who arrested the band and put them in jail. By then the bill had doubled, the Exploited gave them all the money they had plus Carl's guitar and they got out. He finally got a new guitar after their four shows in L.A.)

More at Wikipedia.

PREVIOUSLY: "The Exploited - 'Hitler's in the Charts Again'."

Facebook Shares Fall to New Low as Investors Dump Holdings

At the Wall Street Journal, "Facebook Shares Fall to New Lows as Lockup Ends":

Facebook Inc. shares sank 6.3% to a record low on Thursday, falling below $20 a share on a day when some early investors were allowed to unload their stakes, adding further pressure on the beaten-down stock.

Rules expired Thursday that had restricted some early investors from selling down their stakes after Facebook's initial public offering. More than 271 million Facebook shares became eligible for sale Thursday, though holders could also choose to keep some, or all, of their stakes. Any additional shares would add to the 421 million already in circulation.

Facebook declined $1.33 to $19.87 on the Nasdaq Stock Market at 4 p.m. Thursday, after hitting a record intraday low of $19.69.

The prior closing low of $20.04 was hit Aug. 2. Upward of 141 million shares had traded by 3:30p.m. New York time, more than triple the stock's daily average over the past 30 days, according to the WSJ Market Data Group. That was greater than the full-day activity in all but two sessions: the first two days Facebook was public and the day after it reported second-quarter results in July.

"It's basically supply and demand," said Evercore Partners analyst Ken Sena. "You have a lot of supply of shares coming to market, so even to those who feel that the stock is priced attractively at these levels, there's no reason to step in and buy."

More at the link.

Politically Correct Olympics on Verge of Fascism

From Yulia Latynina, at the Moscow Times, "The Most Politically Correct Olympics in History":

The London Games have gone down in history as the most politically correct Olympics ever. Moreover, it was political correctness in its worst form — on the verge of fascism.

First, the leadership of the Greek Olympic Committee removed triple jumper Paraskevi Papachristou from the games for the following joke she made on Twitter: "With so many Africans in Greece … the West Nile mosquitoes will at least eat homemade food!"

The joke is certainly offensive, but ruining someone's life over this matter — someone who has spent her whole life preparing for this competition — is pure fascism. It is the Ministry of Love punishing thoughtcrime.

In another case, a member of the German rowing team, Nadja Drygalla, was forced to drop out of the competition because of a comment that was made on Facebook. But she had nothing to do with it. It was her boyfriend, a former neo-Nazi, who complained of having to travel on a train "with blacks and Pakistanis."

Maybe the Olympic Ministry of Truth can answer one question for me: Why should Nadja Drygalla answer for the contents of her boyfriend's Facebook page?

What's next?

Disqualifying an athlete for the actions of his father? Or because another athlete's grandfather served in the SS? Or maybe because somebody's great-grandfather suppressed the Sepoy Rebellion in India?

But the most surprising aspect is the shameless double standards of the International Olympic Committee, or IOC. The Ministry of Love, standing by with a hot iron ready to dole out punishment for having politically incorrect boyfriends, turns out to be surprisingly tolerant of Nazism of another variety.

Take, for example, when several Lebanese Olympic athletes refused to train in the same room as Israelis. That is much worse than a tasteless joke on Twitter. It's pure racism. The IOC should have clearly said to the Lebanese athletes, "Your demand is contrary to the very spirit of the Olympic Games, so we are excluding you from the competition."

But instead of doing that, the committee simply put up a partition in the training room to appease the Lebanese racists and ensure that their tender feelings weren't offended....

I blogged a few of these example, but continue reading.

The enormously vile leftism is the main reason lots of folks revile the Olympic Games.

How to Manage Your Bulging Email Inbox

I have two email accounts, and the spam folder for my private Gmail works really well, blocking out not just spam, but also idiot progressive trolls like Walter James Casper III, who continues his obsession with this blog, the f-king freak.

 Check the report at the Los Angeles Times, "Tech Savvy: How to manage your bulging email inbox."

'Niggerization'

Touré's the perfect representation of progressive Democrat Party political, policy, and moral bankruptcy. 

And God bless S.E. Cupp for calling out that idiot's blatant race-hustling double standards.

At Hot Air, "Video: Touré pretty sure that Romney calling Obama “angry” is racial" (via Memeorandum).

Penélope Cruz Looks Awesome in New 'Super Mario Bros. 2' Advertisement (Video)

I had Penélope Cruz in mind yesterday, when I mentioned that Bar Refaeli wasn't the world's most beautiful woman. Ms. Cruz is swoon-worthy. At London's Daily Mail, "Penelope Cruz as you've never seen her before! Star transforms into Super Mario for new Nintendo advert."

Previous Penélope Cruz blogging is here. I've been slacking!