Saturday, September 14, 2013

Death Sentences in India Gang Rape Case

Do they matter?

See the New York Times, "Many Doubt Death Sentences Will Stem India Sexual Attacks":


NEW DELHI — There was no mistaking the whoop of joy that rose outside Saket District Court on Friday, when word got out that four men convicted in last December’s horrific gang rape and murder had been sentenced to death by hanging. People burst into applause. They hugged whoever was beside them. They pumped the air with their fists.

“We are the winners now,” said a woman holding a placard. Sweat had dried into white rivulets on her face, but she had the look of a woman who had, finally, gotten what she wanted. And it was true: A wave of protests after the December rape have set remarkable changes in motion in India, a country where for decades vicious sexual harassment has been dismissed indulgently, called “eve-teasing.”

But some of India’s most ardent women’s rights advocates hung back from Friday’s celebration, skeptical that four hangings would do anything to stem violence against women, a problem whose proportions are gradually coming into focus.

“I think a lot of people were hugging each other because they thought this evil is localized, and it will be wiped out, and that is not the case,” said Karuna Nundy, a litigator who has argued before India’s Supreme Court. “The sad truth is that it is not a deterrent.”

From the moment it broke, the story of the 23-year-old woman who became known as “Nirbhaya,” or “fearless,” awoke real rage in the population.

Hoping for a ride home from a movie theater, she and a male companion boarded a private bus, not realizing that the six men aboard had been cruising Delhi in search of a victim. After knocking her friend unconscious, they took her to the back of the bus and raped her, then penetrated her with a metal rod, inflicting grave internal injuries. An hour later, they dumped the pair out on the road, bleeding and naked. She died two weeks later of her injuries.

Young men and women, mobilized through social media, joined protests that spread across India, demanding tougher laws and more effective policing.

“As a woman, and mother, I understand how protesters feel,” Sonia Gandhi, India’s most powerful female politician and the president of the governing Congress Party, said at the time. “Today we pledge that the victim will get justice.”

After intensive public discussion of the case, some changes followed with extraordinary speed. Reports of rape have skyrocketed; in the first eight months of this year, Delhi’s police force registered 1,121 cases, more than double the number from the same period in 2011 and the highest number since 2000. The number of reported molestations has increased sixfold in the same period.

The government created a fast-track court for rape cases and introduced new laws, criminalizing acts like voyeurism and stalking and making especially brutal rapes into a capital crime. Scholars have delved into the social changes that may be contributing to the problem, as new arrivals in India’s huge cities find themselves unemployed and hopeless, stuck in “the space below the working class,” as the writer Rajrishi Singhal recently put it in an editorial in The Hindu.

But many were thinking of something more basic — punishing the six (one, a juvenile, got a three-year sentence in August, and the driver was found dead in his cell in March) who attacked the woman in the bus. It was those people who found their way to the Saket courthouse on Friday. Many came like pilgrims, hoping to find closure in a case that had haunted them.

Kiran Khullar arrived in a wheelchair, accompanied by her daughter, 17. “I have come here as a mother,” she said. “I came here only to see these men get the death penalty.”
More at that top link.

And change to India won't come until the culture changes, and it's a sick culture, for example, "‘Two-Finger’ Test for Rape Needs to End, Experts Say."

Screw That Guy and His New Agey 'Medium' Crap

Says Film Ladd on Twitter:



Click through for the Tech Crunch article.

Failure to Define the #AlQaeda Network Has Confused American Policy and Strategy

Via AEI:


Obama's Larger Syria Strategy in Disarray

You think?

That's the AP headline at the ABC News site, via Memeorandum.

Hot Shots Calendar 2014

The full roster of lovelies.


Fake Follower @Twitter Spam Mars Company's IPO Rollout

Well, that Twitter IPO has a lot of folks atwitter, with some looking forward to a huge payday (see NYT, "The Payday at Twitter Many Were Waiting For").

But for us grunts down in the Twitter trenches, everyday is Twitter gulag defense day. And there's none more hip to that reality than Robert Stacy McCain, who's been plagued by a literal plague of fake followers in some deranged coordinated attack to have his account suspended. TGDN!

See, "Crime Is a People Problem: Why @Twitter Must Prosecute Fake Account Makers."

 photo Twitter_Fake_Avatar_zps4a9034cd.jpg
Online as in real life, every time a criminal gets away with illegal activity, he will be emboldened to further crimes, until he becomes so arrogant about his ability to evade prosecution that his continued spree of criminality is like an advertisement of the ineffectiveness of law enforcement: “You can’t catch me, cops!” Where wrongdoers no longer fear justice, the innocent must always fear wrongdoers.

Twitter is permitting this lawlessness. If they were genuinely determined to prevent the mass creation of fake accounts, there would not be — there could not be — these tens of thousands of fakes that have descended on my account like Egyptian locusts. After nearly 48 hours of this plague, I’m not just angry about the harassment, I’m becoming angry at other people for not being angry about it.
Continue reading.

Hey, it makes me angry, especially that Twitter's known about this problem all along, and is still looking to score that big payday without so much as a reckoning from the markets.

In any case, Robert's at least making a jovial time of it. More here, "‘Gosh, Stacy, There’s No Way @Twitter Could Spot All These Fake Accounts’," and "Dear @Twitter Security: Kill These Fake Accounts (Real People RT, Please)."

Winged Victory of Samothrace

Here's the real thing.

I love it.

Via Wikipedia:
The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace, is a 2nd-century BC marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory). Since 1884, it has been prominently displayed at the Louvre and is one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world. H.W. Janson described it as "the greatest masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture."

Winged Victory of Samothrace photo Nike_of_Samothrake_Louvre_Ma2369_n4_zps8480e675.jpg

I had art history in college and we used H.W. Janson's, History of Art. It must've had an impact on my, because I'm still amazing by that sculpture.

PREVIOUSLY: "LBCC Academic Senate Retreat at Rancho Los Alamitos."


Elizabeth Hasselbeck Fox News Debut September 16th

Via Fire Andrea Mitchell.



How Muslims Celebrate September 11th

With cake. What else.

Via My Pet Jawa.

 photo aa1d9a44-cad2-479f-bd93-bd0f41cd2be2_zpsa5761bd5.jpg

And of course if you criticize this you're RAAAAACIST!!

More Pamela!

Via Blazing Cat Fur, "Pamela Geller Speaks at AFDI 9/11 Press Conference, Ground Zero."



And at Atlas Shrugs, "WHAT HE SAW AT GROUND ZERO ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2013."

Previously: "Muslim Brotherhood Haters Try to Shut down Pamela Geller/Robert Spencer Event in Canada." And back over to BCF for more information on that, "Pamela Geller & Robert Spencer - Hilton Suites Hotel - 8500 Warden Ave. Sept. 17, 2013 @ 7:30 PM."

Muslim Brotherhood Haters Try to Shut down Pamela Geller/Robert Spencer Event in Canada

Pamela reports.

Can't have a diversity of opinion, no can we?

Muslim Brotherhood photo 6a00d8341c60bf53ef019aff640690970d-500wi_zps7dbbc107.png

Dude Wears Lana Del Rey Shirt. Lana Del Rey Digs It.

Via Tumblr.

 photo tumblr_mosms87roR1rge47no1_1280png_zpsd15a07d3.jpeg

Her YouTube Vevo page is here.

Communist Groups Helped Organize Petraeus Protest

Well, I could've told you that, lol.

At National Review:
Protests against General David Petraeus Monday by CUNY students were organized by an ad hoc committee that includes several Communist groups.

A leaflet for the protests, which refers to Petraeus as a “war criminal” and “mass murderer,” says that the events were organized by the Ad Hoc Committee Against the Militarization of CUNY and were endorsed by the Internationalist Group, Workers Power-US, and IGNITE.

These groups are explicitly Communist in nature. Workers Power states that it is a “revolutionary, communist organization . . . in the tradition of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky.” The Internationalist Group uses the hammer and sickle alongside its articles. IGNITE is a self-described “communist youth league.”
No surprise here. I've been covering campus communists for years now. What's particularly bothersome is how they pick up so much support from rank-and-file students, to say nothing of Democrat Party and so-called progressive organizations. It's no enemies on the left, as I always say.

Friday, September 13, 2013

LBCC Academic Senate Retreat at Rancho Los Alamitos

The college Academic Senate met for a special meeting and retreat today at the historic Rancho Los Alamitos, a colonial rancho that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. (Check the history lesson at the National Park Service page.)

Here's the main rancho, which is maintained as a museum and educational facility by the City of Long Beach:

Rancho Los Alamitos photo photo3-1_zps61c13b8a.jpg

Background from Wikipedia:
The history of the 85,000-acre (340 km2) Rancho Los Alamitos is almost a microcosm for the history of expansion throughout Southern California, from the Native Americana cultures to contemporary times.[3] The area was first the location of the major circa 500 C.E. - 1780s Tongva—Gabrieliño sacred cere­monial and trading village of Povuu'nga, now an archeological site.[4] After Spanish occupation the ownership was to change and the boundaries would shrink many times. Situated in the floodplain between the mouths of the ever-shifting Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Santa Ana Rivers, the coastal plain terrain of the rancho is virtually flat rich soil, and was subject to frequent flooding. The rancho building itself is located near Puvunga springs alongside on one of the few small hills, Alamitos Mesa, in the area.

Rancho Los Alamitos was one of five ranchos that resulted from the partition of the original Rancho Los Nietos grant given to Manuel Nieto, a former sergeant in the Spanish army, in 1784 by governor Pedro Fages, coincidentally his former commander.[5] Nieto's grant was not only one of the first three awarded by the Spanish in Alta California, it was also the largest. After Nieto died, his children requested his original grant be partitioned. In 1834, Mexican governor José Figueroa officially declared Rancho Los Alamitos as one of the five partitions.
Out in back of the house is a classic old red barn with a blacksmith's shop:

Rancho Los Alamitos photo photo4-2_zpse636292d.jpg

Rancho Los Alamitos photo photo3-2_zpsbf578726.jpg

Rancho Los Alamitos photo photo2-3_zpsf6f72865.jpg

Some beautiful horses too:

 photo photo5_zps5bb2d1f7.jpg

Rancho Los Alamitos photo photo4-1_zpsc7e02bbd.jpg

At the main educational exhibition room there's a showroom with a huge map of the rancho on the floor. You can see that the original Spanish land grant stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the San Gabriel Mountains. The history of the rancho is considered a microcosm of California history from colonial times to the present.

Rancho Los Alamitos photo photo5-1_zps09eeb6cd.jpg

There's a huge patio canopy for meetings at the side of the ranch house:

Rancho Los Alamitos photo photo2-2_zpse310ef92.jpg

The Bixby family, the last owners of the property, were connoisseurs of fine art. They owned American impressionist works and other fine paintings, and replicas hang inside the house. (Apparently the Los Angeles County Museum of Art stores and maintains the original works.) Out in the gardens I noticed this replica of the famous Nike of Samothrace. I got a kick out of that:

Rancho Los Alamitos photo photo1-2_zpsee003c8e.jpg

A great day, very educational!

Julia Ioffe: Obama Got Played

She's a good lady, appearing yesterday on Jake Tapper's show at CNN:



And see "The Syria Solution: Obama Got Played by Putin and Assad" and "How Long Before the Syria Deal Fails? Any Minute Now."

Also, "Here's What Went Unmentioned in Putin's New York Times Op-Ed."

George Will's Libertarian Evolution

At Reason, "George Will's Libertarian Evolution: Q&A on Obama, Syria, & the Power of Choice."


On the Crapper, Obama Gets Some Help

Via Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Stranded."

Obama Gets a Hand photo Clean-Up-590-LI_zps13eb6cf2.jpg

Last Boeing C-17 Delivered as Production Ends at Long Beach Plant

At the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "Boeing's last Air Force C-17 leaves Long Beach plant."

And at LAT, "Boeing to deliver final C-17 cargo jet to Air Force."


I toured the plant in 2011. Time goes by so fast. It's been a good run over there.

Republicans Rising

They're gonna keep rising too.

Democrats are gonna be flattened in 2014.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Poll Finds Republicans Gain Favor on Key Issues."

Republicans Rising photo NA-BY034A_POLL_G_20130912183304_zps08b40c64.jpg

The Republican Party is gaining a public-opinion edge on several key issues ahead of the 2014 elections, as Americans question President Barack Obama's leadership on Syria and worry about the country's overall direction, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows.

Republicans are now rated higher than Democrats on handling the economy and foreign policy, and the GOP's lead has strengthened on several other issues, including dealing with the federal deficit and ensuring a strong national defense.

On topics such as health care, Democrats have seen their long-standing advantage whittled to lows not seen in years.

The poll also reflected unease over the economy. Just 27% of Americans think the economy will improve over the next year, the lowest since July 2012, while nearly two-thirds think the country is on the wrong track.

The public tilt on several issues in favor of the GOP, particularly among independents, comes as Mr. Obama's own job-approval rating has hovered around 45% for three months, a tenuous place for a president trying to build support for likely battles with Congress over possible military action in Syria, a proposed overhaul of immigration law and the budget.

"There is no question that a president below 45% job approval starts having a little more difficulty with the bully pulpit," said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster who conducted the survey with Democratic pollsters Fred Yang and Peter Hart.

Mr. Hart described a president swerving from crisis to crisis who faces a "very bumpy road" this fall. His success going into next year, Mr. Hart said, may best be measured "by his ability to simply keep his head above water."

The jolt of support for Republicans falls well short of a renaissance, as the party itself remains widely unpopular by other measures. In the poll, just 28% of Americans said they hold positive views of the GOP, compared with 40% who view the Democrats positively. Less than half of conservatives see the GOP favorably, and just 13% of independents.

The Democrats' standing has slipped as the White House has dealt with myriad challenges, including widespread opposition to military action in Syria and revelations about government snooping into private communications.

Americans now give Republicans a seven-percentage-point edge on foreign policy. The party lagged behind the Democrats by nine points in the Journal's last sounding on the subject, in 2006, as public opinion turned against the Iraq war. The GOP also has made notable gains since February on which party is seen as best in dealing with the federal deficit and the economy.

The poll of 1,000 Americans also points to challenges for Democrats as they try to maintain their Senate majority and work to gain House seats next year. The poll found Americans giving the party increasingly less credit as stewards in areas long seen as Democratic franchises. The party holds a 17-percentage-point advantage in looking after the middle class, the lowest in decades of Journal polling on the issue.

The Democrats' eight-percentage-point advantage on dealing with health care also was a new low, and half the edge the party held on that issue in February.

At the same time, Mr. Obama faces modestly rising discontent even among the his political base. His approval among all Democrats fell to 78% from a high this year of 88% in January, and among African-Americans it dipped to 85%, from a 2013 high of 93% in April.

Putin's New York Times Op-Ed the 'Fruits of an Epically Incompetent Foreign Policy'

Oh boy.

Charles Krauthammer lays it down cold.



Added: Here's Krauthammer's Friday column, "The fruits of epic incompetence" (via Memeorandum).

9/11: America's Unfinished Business

Here's Michelle Malkin's September 11th essay, which leaves me shaking my head in disgust at this terror-coddling White House:
I’m sick of 9/11 anniversary ceremonies by politicians who pay lip service to peace and justice for our country, but refuse to secure them all the way, every day. Remembrance is worthless without resolve. Resolve is useless without action.

Want to honor the 9/11 dead? Take care of unfinished business here at home. Put America first.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

The Collapse of the Obama Presidency

From Peter Wehner, at Commentary:
How bad has 2013 been for Barack Obama? Let us count the ways.

In the first year of his second term, the president has failed on virtually every front. He put his prestige on the line to pass federal gun-control legislation–and lost. He made climate change a central part of his inaugural address–and nothing has happened. The president went head-to-head with Republicans on sequestration–and he failed. He’s been forced to delay implementation of the employer mandate, a key feature of the Affordable Care Act. ObamaCare is more unpopular than ever, and it’s turning out to be a “train wreck” (to quote Democratic Senator Max Baucus) in practice. The most recent jobs report was the worst in a year, with the Obama recovery already qualifying as a historically weak one. Immigration reform is going nowhere. And then there’s Syria, which has turned out to be an epic disaster. (To be sure, Mr. Obama’s Middle East failures go well beyond Syria–but Syria is the most conspicuous failure right now).

In watching the Obama presidency dissolve before our eyes, there is a cautionary tale to be told. Every presidency falls short of the expectations that the candidate sets. But no man has ever promised more and delivered less than the current occupant of the Oval Office.
Continue reading.

Devastating.

Worst. President. Ever.

Added: See Neo-Neocon's contrarian take, "Is Obama’s presidency in collapse?"



Texas Whooping Cough Outbreak

This story makes me sad, especially the infant coughing.

At CBS News, "Texas battling whooping cough epidemic."





Smokin' Army Sergeant Theresa Vail is First Tattooed Miss America Contestant

At the New York Post, "Meet the Army’s bowhunting beauty."

Theresa Vail photo BUAY3QrIEAAao6M_zps4ab20233.jpg

Also at People, "Miss America's Sgt. Theresa Vail Is First Contestant to Expose Tattoos."

PHOTO CREDIT: New York Post on Twitter.

Angela Giron, Ousted Gun-Grabbing Democrat, Blames #Colorado Recall on 'Voter Suppression'

At Twitchy, "‘Call it for what it is!’ Visibly frustrated Angela Giron blames her recall on voter suppression [video]."



Plus, "Angela Giron’s pre-recall tweets don’t exactly scream concern for ‘voter suppression’."

And at the Blaze, "‘I’M GOING TO CUT YOU OFF RIGHT THERE’: CNN ANCHOR CALLS OUT OUSTED COLORADO DEMOCRAT FOR BLAMING RECALL ON ‘VOTER SUPPRESSION’."


America 3.0 — On America the Resilient and Our Nation's Once and Future Prosperity

Because I believe in American exceptionalism --- and our people's ability to overcome the most devastating adversity --- I remain very optimistic on the future of America, with one caveat: The sine qua non of America's future revival will depend not just on an end to the Obama regime but also upon the complete annihilation of the radical statism that is represented by the president's party and the leftist cult of grievance, hate and envy. I know that is perhaps Utopian, but if we can't achieve a total obliteration of leftists and leftism, we need to at least marginalize them so far to the periphery that it will take decades before they can at least make the barest bid for legitimate political viability again.

That's a long-term project, no doubt, and it's one that fellow conservatives and patriots are currently fighting for with a passion.

More on that later, in any case. What got me thinking about this, especially about the optimism-in-America part, is David Swindle's wonderful essay at PJ Media, "On 9/11 and Benghazi’s Anniversary, We End Conservative Pessimism and Right-Wing Apocalypticism."

David showcases the new book from James C. Bennett and Michael J. Lotus, America 3.0: Rebooting American Prosperity in the 21st Century - Why America's Greatest Days Are Yet to Come.

I love that title, and David's got a screen-cap with excerpts:

 photo 45038_10101409789806928_346122022_n_zps39a490aa.jpg

More about America 3.0 --- and the future of America --- at PJ Media.

Foreign Policy by Gaffe!

And Vladimir Putin's in the driver's seat!

Right on.

Andrea Tantaros is on fire at this clip from last night's Hannity:


What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria

Well, Vlad's stirring up a storm with his op-ed at the Old Gray Lady.

See, "A Plea for Caution From Russia." (At Memeorandum.)

Read it at the link, but I'll be honest: It's a loathsome piece of anti-American concern trolling that reveals Russian weakness vis-a-vis American power (yes, American power endures even under President Barack Obumbler.) All that crap about international law is the giveaway. The U.N.'s a neat idea in principle but an extremely flawed institution in practice. The less the U.S. defers to that body (and to ill-informed international legal norms) the better.

In any case, I agree with Jedediah Bila regarding Putin's penultimate dig against America and American exceptionalism:



And at Twitchy, "Checkmate: Garry Kasparov rips apart ‘pathetic’ NYT for providing Putin a platform for ‘condescending propaganda’."

AoSHQ on the Colorado Recall

See, "Two Different Perspectives on the Colorado Recall Which Ejected the State Senate Leader, and a Toady, Over Their Support for Bloombergian Gun Grabbiness."

And speaking of AoSHQ, R.S. McCain confesses his blog unworthiness, "Ace Keeps Killin’ It Every Day."

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

'Two Million Bikers' Ride to Washington, D.C., for 9/11 Anniversary

You can't keep good patriots down.

At LAT, "Bikers roar into Washington to mark 9/11 anniversary."

And at 1389, "9/11 motorcycle ride denied permits for non-stop trek in D.C."



'I hate these kids' — Dana Perino and 'The Five' Rip Disgraceful Student 'D-Bags' at CUNY

There's a roundup on this at Memeorandum.

General David Petraeus surrounded and harassed by a scummy mob of anti-American "d-bags" at City University of New York.



Also from Ed Driscoll, "Flashback: The Worst Day of Their Lives."

New Apple iPhone 5C and 5S

Here's the main story at NYT, "Apple Unveils Faster iPhone, and a Cheaper One, Too."

And check Daring Fireball, "Thoughts and Observations on Today’s iPhone 5C and 5S Introduction":


I got this one wrong.

I fixed my thinking by this week, but as of a month ago, I had it wrong when I wrote “The Case for a New Lower-Cost iPhone”.

Here’s the thing. The iPhone 5C has nothing to do with price. It probably does have something to do with manufacturing costs (which are lower for Apple), but not price. Apple’s years-long strategy hasn’t really changed. They offer three phones:
This year’s, with the latest technology.
Last years’s, starting $100 lower.
The two-year-old model, with meager storage, free on contract, $200 lower unsubsidized.
It’s just that instead of putting the year-old iPhone 5 in slot #2, they’ve created the 5C to debut in that slot. The 5C is, effectively, an iPhone 5. Same A6, same camera, same just about everything — except for the most obvious difference, its array of colorful plastic shells. This is not an iPod Touch with a cellular antenna (the iPod Touch, which was not updated today, still has an A5 chip and roughly 4S specs). The prices of the iPhone tiers remain the same as last year. What changes with the 5C is that the middle tier is suddenly more appealing, and has a brand of its own that Apple can promote apart from the flagship 5S.

In marketing, what looks new is new.

Yes, it’s plastic, but there’s nothing cheap about it. It has a far better fit and finish, and feels way better in your hand, than Apple’s previous foray into plastic iPhones, the 3G and 3GS. The 5C feels like a premium product.

This move is about establishing the iPhone as a two-sibling family, like how the MacBooks have both the Airs and the Pros. Think of the 5C as the Air, and the 5S as the Pro. Or iMac and Mac Pro. The iPhone is growing up as a product family.

This is the first year when last year’s specs remain good enough to serve as the mass market new iPhone. Take a look at apple.com today and note which new iPhone appears first: the 5C, not the 5S. Which phone did they show a commercial for during the event? The 5C. Part of this too is that the 5C is going to be available in greater numbers sooner. Apple is taking pre-orders for the 5C but not the 5S because, I have reason to believe, they expect the 5S to be in constrained supply. That’s not surprising — plastic is easier to manufacture than aluminum, and the 5C’s components are all a year old. And it makes sense to promote the phone that you can actually fulfill demand for.

Schiller repeated, almost mantra-like, that the 5S was Apple’s “most forward-thinking iPhone”. In his wrap-up, Tim Cook echoed that line. This isn’t about downplaying the 5S, but rather, I think, about establishing the 5S as the top tier in what is now a two-tier lineup. The Lexus to the 5C’s Toyota; the Banana Republic to the 5C’s Gap. (The 4S is Old Navy.) Soon enough, all iOS devices will have 64-bit CPUs, motion-tracking sub-systems, fingerprint sensors, and point-and-shoot caliber cameras. But you get those things first in the iPhone 5S.

Some other thoughts and hands-on experiences from today’s event...
Continue reading.

Well, markets are all meh.

At AllThingsD, "Apple Shares Down More Than Five Percent Following New iPhone Event."

Whoa! Public Policy Polling Spiked Its Own Poll Predicting Democrat Downfall in Colorado Recall

PPP is the Tom Jensen outfit that polls for Daily Kos and won plaudits for its accuracy during last year's presidential campaign. But now it turns out that accurate polling is less important that helping your side win. Just one more example of our system's corruption by left-wing partisan polarization these days.

At the Hill, "Firm suppressed Colorado recall poll":
Public Policy Polling (PPP) sparked controversy Wednesday after the left-leaning firm declined to release a survey it conducted last weekend that accurately forecasted the successful recall of a Democratic state senator from Colorado.

The survey PPP conducted, but did not release, showed Colorado District 3 Sen. Angela Giron (D) would be recalled by a 54 percent to 42 percent margin.

“In a district that Barack Obama won by almost 20 points I figured there was no way that could be right and made a rare decision not to release the poll,” Director Tom Jensen wrote in a post on the firm's website. “It turns out we should have had more faith in our numbers because she was indeed recalled by 12 points.”

Nate Silver, whose FiveThirtyEight blog at TheNew York Times accurately predicted every state in the 2012 presidential election, criticized the firm over Twitter.
The tweets are embedded at the link (via Memeorandum).

Jensen's explanation is disingenuous. All polls have a margin of error and they're always published with the normal disclaimers of systematic bias, etc. Clearly, the guy was morbidly terrified that his own survey would demoralize the left and drive down Democrat turnout. So, what to do? Spike your findings with the lame excuse that "there was no way we could be right." Oh sure. There was "no way." And this coming from the pollster who best predicted the 2012 presidential election results.

Here's the full response from PPP, "Reflecting on the Colorado recalls" (via Memeorandum).

Obama's Amateur Hour

MoDo shreds Barack Obumbler as only she knows how, "Who Do You Trust?":


WASHINGTON — Vladimir Putin, who keeps Edward Snowden on a leash and lets members of a riotous girl band rot in jail, has thrown President Obama a lifeline.

The Russian president had coldly brushed back Obama on Snowden and Syria, and only last week called John Kerry a liar.

Now, when it is clear Obama can’t convince Congress, the American public, his own wife, the world, Liz Cheney or even Donald “Shock and Awe” Rumsfeld to bomb Syria — just a teensy-weensy bit — Pooty-Poot (as W. called him) rides, shirtless, to the rescue, offering him a face-saving way out? If it were a movie, we’d know it was a trick. We can’t trust the soulless Putin — his Botox has given the former K.G.B. officer even more of a poker face — or the heartless Bashar al-Assad. By Tuesday, Putin the Peacemaker was already setting conditions.

Just as Obama and Kerry — with assists from Hillary and some senators — were huffing and puffing that it was their military threat that led to the breakthrough, Putin moved to neuter them, saying they’d have to drop their military threat before any deal could proceed. The administration’s saber-rattling felt more like knees rattling. Oh, for the good old days when Obama was leading from behind. Now these guys are leading by slip-of-the-tongue.
Continue reading.

12th Anniversary of September 11 Attacks

There's nowhere I'd rather be today than in New York, but alas, not this year.

I'll be back out there again, though. I can't wait to see the Freedom Tower again, and to see the bustling burst of freedom and memory that you find in Lower Manhattan at this time.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Twelve Years Later, Nation Pauses to Reflect: Ceremonies in New York, Washington Commemorate Sept. 11 Anniversary":


Wednesday marks the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, with events planned across the country to commemorate the tragedy.

The official New York City tribute began at the National September 11 Memorial plaza at the World Trade Center site. Wednesday morning, the names of the 2,983 victims lost in 2001 and the bombing of the site in 1993 were being read, and six pauses were to mark when the planes hit the towers, when they fell and when the Pentagon and Flight 93 were attacked.

Hundreds of families gathered at the memorial, hoisting balloons, pictures and signs into the air as names are read. One family let a group of balloons into the air.

"I miss you every moment," said the mom of Joshua Todd Aron, after she read his name.

With so many years having passed since the attacks, some of the relatives who read names stopped to tell their missing loved ones about milestones: children born, youngsters who have grown up to look like a lost parent.

Christine and Bernard Resta have returned every year since the attacks that killed their son, John, his wife Sylvia Sanpio Resta and the couple's unborn grandchild. "At first when we came, it was all destroyed and leveled, and then little by little it came back to life," Christine Resta, 83 years old, said.

Seeing the spire ascend into the sky—and the reality that people will soon work here again—brings mixed emotions to the couple.

"When I think of the tower, I wonder how people are going to work in it," John Resta, also 83, said. "All I can think about is my son and his wife and the baby." A few seconds later, looking up at the structure, he said "but it's a beautiful building."

His wife said she appreciated the notion that the tower stands for America's resilience—"that we aren't going to take it." But when the couple comes from Florida, where they retired, it's still not easy. "This is sacred ground," she said. "As long as they save the place for that."
Continue reading.


Benghazi One Year Later

At USA Today, "Since Benghazi attack, Libya worse off, families in lurch":


TRIPOLI, Libya — A year to the day since an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi that killed four Americans including the ambassador Christopher Stevens, the security situation in Libya has gone from bad to worse, say locals and analysts.

On Wednesday morning, unknown assailants detonated a car bomb near Benghazi's Foreign Ministry building that decades ago housed the U.S. Consulate, security officials said. No one was killed in the blast.

It is the latest in a string of bombings and assassination attempts plaguing Benghazi, the cradle of the Libyan revolution, which ended with the death in late 2011 of former leader Moammar Gadhafi.

In the United States, the families of those killed a year ago at the consulate say the Obama administration has yet to tell them what really happened, and why it is that none of the killers has been captured or killed.

It's hard, I never expected this from my government," Patricia Smith, mother of Sean Smith, told Fox News. "All they have to do is tell me the truth."

Sean Smith was an information officer at the consulate who was among four people killed in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.

President Obama and then-secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton initially blamed the attacks on a spontaneous protest against a U.S.-made anti-Islam video despite a CIA report that discounted that explanation. Smith and other family members say the State Department and the White House have rebuffed their attempts to find out why security was so lax under Clinton, and why Obama did not order military assistance to the embattled officials that night.

The White House has said it has provided all the information it can on the attack, and Obama alluded to Benghazi as a "phony scandal." Meanwhile, those responsible for murdering the Americans that night are presumably still in Libya or the region.

Obama said last month that the U.S. was still committed to capturing those who carried out the assault. Obama said his government has a sealed indictment naming some suspected of involvement.

The leaders of an independent review board that investigated the Benghazi attack will testify at a House hearing next week. Retired admiral Michael Mullen and former ambassador Thomas Pickering will appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Sept. 19.

Meanwhile, in the two years since Libya was freed of Gadhafi due in large part to a Western air campaign aiding rebels, the country has failed to build a stable government, strong military or police force.
Also at Hot Air, "CIA Director promises to produce Benghazi survivors for Congressional testimony" (via Memeorandum).

U.S. Open: The World's Most Star-Studded Sporting Event

I tuned into the match during the end of third set, and the tide was just beginning to shift permanently toward Rafael Nadal.

With the exception of Spain's Queen Sophia, the network didn't show any celebrities, so I thought this was a pretty good bit at London's Daily Mail, "DiCaprio, Timberlake, Beckham and Connery turn US Open final into the world's most star-studded sports event."

US Open Celebrities photo article-2416498-1BBBDCFC000005DC-631_636x382_zps8a308eec.jpg

Devastating Video Montage of the Worst U.S. Foreign Policy Team in American History

The lulz are literally hurting now. On Twitter folks are embarrassed for the United States.

You just want this to be over.

Via Instapundit:



The Creepy OFA-Style 'Help Kickstart World War III' Video

Via Instapundit:



Just One-Third of Americans Approves of Obama's Handing of Syria Crisis

It's not going well for our presidential amateur.

A New York Times poll, "Survey Reveals Scant Backing for Syria Strike."


No Syria photo Obama-syria-cartoon-650x462_zps2cf894cb.png
In the Syrian crisis, 6 in 10 Americans oppose airstrikes, according to the poll, with similar majorities saying they fear military action could enmesh the United States in another long engagement in the Middle East and would increase the terrorist threat to Americans.

But the antipathy to foreign engagement extends beyond the current crisis. Sixty-two percent of the people polled said the United States should not take a leading role in trying to solve foreign conflicts, while only 34 percent said it should. In April 2003, a month after American troops marched into Iraq, 48 percent favored a leading role, while 43 percent opposed it.

When asked whether the United States should intervene to turn dictatorships into democracies, 72 percent said no while only 15 percent said yes. That is the highest level of opposition in a decade of polling on this question. At the start of the Iraq war, 48 percent favored staying out and 29 percent favored getting involved.

“A lot of people bought the idea that if we create democracy in the Middle East, the terrorists would stop coming,” said Walter Russell Mead, a professor of humanities and foreign policy at Bard College. “But that conflation has disappeared, and that makes it harder to gin up the popular support for foreign military intervention.”

For Mr. Obama, who has repeatedly ruled out sending troops to Syria and promised a “limited, tailored” operation, the findings reinforce his failure so far to make his case to the American public, which has seemed as skeptical as some of the nation’s allies.

Nearly 80 percent of those surveyed said the Obama administration had not clearly explained its objectives in Syria, while 69 percent said Mr. Obama should not go ahead with a strike without Congressional authorization. Fifty-six percent of people said they disapproved of how the president has handled Syria, while 33 percent approved.

The Worst Day in Diplomatic History

Here's Ambassador Charles Crawford, at Telegraph UK, "Syria, chemical weapons, and the worst day in Western diplomatic history":
Monday 9 September, 2013, was the worst day for US and wider Western diplomacy since records began...
And following a bit on John Kerry's bumbling statements about Assad giving up his WMD, Crawford continues:
Chemical weapons are relatively easy to make and store (and fire), but much harder to dismantle safely. The chemicals themselves are fiendishly dangerous and need to be destroyed with specialist equipment without creating environmental hazards. Plus the explosive part of the delivery shell needs careful handling. Destroying CW stocks is therefore a complex and expensive operation, even under calm conditions. Both the United States and Russia have both heavily failed to meet internationally agreed deadlines for destroying their massive Cold War legacy chemical weapons stocks.

There is no precedent for attempting anything like this in a country wracked by civil war. It just can’t happen. No Syrian chemical weapons will be destroyed or "handed over" quickly.
It's been a whirlwind couple of days, that's for sure.

And now the Wall Street Journal rakes the president over the coals, "Obama Rescues Assad":
What could be worse for America's standing in the world than a Congress refusing to support a President's proposal for military action against a rogue regime that used WMD? Here's one idea: A U.S. President letting that rogue be rescued from military punishment by the country that has protected the rogue all along.

That's where President Obama now finds himself on Syria after he embraced Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer to take custody of Bashar Assad's chemical weapons. The move may rescue Mr. Obama and Congress from the political agony of a vote on a resolution to authorize a military strike on Syria. But the diplomatic souk is now open, and Mr. Obama has turned himself into one of the junior camel traders.

What a fiasco. Secretary of State John Kerry, of all people, first floated this escape route for Assad on Monday in Europe where he was supposed to be rallying diplomatic support for a strike. The remark appeared to be off-the-cuff, but with Mr. Kerry and this Administration you never know. In any case before Mr. Kerry's plane had landed in the U.S., Russia's foreign minister had leapt on the idea and proposed to take custody of Assad's chemical arsenal to forestall U.S. military action.

The White House should have rebuffed the offer given Russia's long protection of Assad at the United Nations—a fact noted with scorn on Monday by Mr. Obama's national security adviser Susan Rice. Instead Mr. Obama endorsed the Russian gambit as what "could potentially be a significant breakthrough." The Senate immediately called off its Wednesday vote on the military resolution. By Tuesday Assad had accepted the offer that he hopes will spare him from a military strike.

France will press for a U.N. Security Council resolution supposedly for U.N. inspectors to supervise the dismantling of Syria's stockpiles, though Russia will no doubt try to put itself in the lead inspecting role. On Tuesday Russia was even objecting to a French draft that would blame the Syrian government for using chemical weapons. Mr. Putin also insisted the U.S. must first disavow any military action in Syria, even as he and Iran make no such pledge.

On second thought, fiasco is too kind for this spectacle. Russia has publicly supported Assad's denials that he used sarin gas, but we are now supposed to believe it will thoroughly scrub Syria of those weapons. We are also supposed to believe Assad will come clean about the weapons he has long denied having and still denies using.

Oh, and we can be confident of this because U.N. or Russian inspectors or someone will be able to locate the entire chemical arsenal, pack up arms that require enormous care in transport, and then monitor future compliance in the continuing war zone that is Syria.

Even if you believe this will happen, or is even possible, Assad will emerge without punishment for having used chemical weapons. He can also be confident that there will be no future Western military action against him. Mr. Obama won't risk another ramp-up to war given the opposition at home and abroad to this effort.

Oh, and we can be confident of this because U.N. or Russian inspectors or someone will be able to locate the entire chemical arsenal, pack up arms that require enormous care in transport, and then monitor future compliance in the continuing war zone that is Syria.

Even if you believe this will happen, or is even possible, Assad will emerge without punishment for having used chemical weapons. He can also be confident that there will be no future Western military action against him. Mr. Obama won't risk another ramp-up to war given the opposition at home and abroad to this effort.

Assad will also know he can unleash his conventional forces anew against the rebels, and Iran and Russia will know they can arm him with impunity. The rebels had better brace themselves for a renewed assault. At the very least, Mr. Obama should compensate for his diplomatic surrender by finally following through on his June promise to arm and train the moderate Free Syrian Army. Otherwise he runs the risk of facilitating an Assad-Iran-Russian triumph.
Continue reading.

This is perhaps the most devastating WSJ editorial ever. This sentence near the end really encapsulates things:
A weak and inconstant U.S. President has been maneuvered by America's enemies into claiming that a defeat for his Syria policy is really a triumph...
And:
America's friends and foes around the world will recalculate the risks ahead in the 40 dangerous months left of this unserious Presidency.
An utterly unbelievable disaster. What's not unbelievable is the total mendacity of the Obama operatives in the leftist press. I guess if anyone could wring a "victory" from the jaws of defeat it's the king of the juicebox mafia, Ezra Klein. As I tweeted:


It's almost like a dream, a really bad dream. But then again, as WSJ notes, we have 40 months left of this leftist-presidential nightmare.

Anthony #Weiner Flips the Bird After Leaving Election Night Defeat Headquarters

On Twitter:


And at Twitchy, "Parting shot: Anthony Weiner flips the bird to journos as he drives away from election loss [pics]," and "Sydney Leathers, new implants campaign outside Weiner HQ (against Weiner) [Update]." (She crashed the party as well.)

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

President Obama National Address on #Syria Crisis

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Obama: U.S. must respond in Syria; President takes airstrike case to doubtful public."

And at the Washington Post, "Obama takes Syria case to people: Says failing to act would embolden Assad, Iran."

Also, "FULL TRANSCRIPT: President Obama’s Sept. 10 speech on Syria."



O's getting hammered on Twitter, but I think he gave it the old college try, especially considering how deep a hole he's dug for himself.

I'll have more reactions, but this Ron Fournier piece is quite good, at National Journal, "Syria Tells You Everything You Need to Know About Barack Obama":
A Democratic strategist who works closely with the White House, and who requested anonymity to avoid political retribution, told me, "This has been one of the most humiliating episodes in presidential history."

Obama Can't Move Public Opinion — His Speech Tonight Won't Do Jack

From George C. Edwards III, at Politico, "Why President Obama’s Syria speech won’t matter":

Obama War photo obama_zpsbfd9945c.jpg
Let’s get one thing clear: President Barack Obama’s upcoming media blitz, to include interviews on six television networks and a primetime Oval Office address, is not going to rally the public behind U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria.

It’s hard to fault Obama for trying. The belief in the dominant president who moves the country and the government through strong leadership has deep roots in American political culture. We frequently attribute extraordinary persuasiveness to the chief executives Americans revere most — from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. These past masters of the bully pulpit moved the public when they needed to do so. Or did they?

Actually, we know better. Even great communicators typically failed to move the public to support their initiatives. Bill Clinton, “the great explainer,” could not win public backing for his economic stimulus bill or his cornerstone proposal for reforming the health-care system. Nor did the public (or congressional Republicans) support his 1999 bombing in the Balkans.

The public moved against increased defense spending as soon as Reagan took the oath of office, and he never achieved even plurality support for his high-priority policy of aiding the Contras in Nicaragua. Nor could he convince the public to support limiting domestic policy expenditures or environmental regulations. Rescuing Americans in Grenada was an easier sell.

World War II posed the greatest crisis of the twentieth century. FDR, the century’s supreme politician, was continually frustrated in his efforts to convince Americans to rearm and aid their allies against Adolf Hitler’s onslaught. It took events in Europe and then Pearl Harbor, not a fireside chat, to change voters’ minds. The president’s plan to “pack” the Supreme Court split the Democratic Party, gave birth to the Conservative Coalition, and effectively ended the New Deal.

These presidents were not stymied in their efforts to persuade the public because they avoided engaging the public, framed their positions ineffectively, or articulated their views in unappealing terms. They failed because of the nature of public opinion and the president’s communication environment.

The president faces strong competition for the public’s attention, and most people are not attentive to him. Barely a tenth of the population watched Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address. Moreover, many people who do pay attention miss the president’s points, and the less people know, the more confidence they have in their pre-existing beliefs and resist factual information. A desire to avoid risk and distrust of government make people wary of policy initiatives, especially when they are complex and their consequences are uncertain, as is the case with virtually every proposal for a major shift in public policy and undoubtedly is the case of military action against Syria.

What’s more, the opposition gets to have its say. Committed, well-organized, and well-funded opponents can undermine the White House’s efforts to write its own narrative and place the president’s performance in a favorable light. Republicans are not accepting the White House view that attacking Syria will weaken Assad and deter his use of chemical weapons. Then there’s partisanship, which is especially likely to bias perceptions, interpretations, and responses to the president. Most people seek out information confirming their opinions and ignore or reject arguments that contradict their predispositions.

The deep polarization of today’s politics only exacerbates these tendencies. Why should we be surprised that Republicans are less likely than Democrats to support military actions against Syria? Partisanship trumps the party’s traditional hawkish outlook on world affairs. Meanwhile, the Internet, cable television, and talk radio amplify the strident differences among partisan elites and facilitate the public’s selective exposure to information through “narrowcasting” to particular audiences.

Is there any reason to think Syria is different? One might think that opinion about military action against Syria would be fluid because the issue is relatively new. The president would be wise to couch his presentation in terms of a unique situation posing a grave threat to the nation’s security rather than the general international responsibilities of a humane superpower. The latter frame activates opinions that counsel against taking action.

Nevertheless, the president is unlikely to change many opinions...
He ain't gonna to change jack.

Nearly the entire world is opposed to this shuck and jive operation.

The only people supporting this idiot are the equally idiotic rainbows-and-unicorns skeeze-balls of the far-left Democrat base. The biggest losers supporting the worst president. It's pretty sad.

Still more at that top link.

The Implications of Fundamental Change

From David Limbaugh, at Town Hall:
Do you ever get the idea that this nation is not only in decline but completely rudderless under the Obama administration? Well, it's not really rudderless; it only appears rudderless because Obama isn't pursuing the same goals as past presidents.

Let's first concede that Obama expressly admitted his goal of fundamentally changing the nation -- an alarming thought to most patriots. Let's also acknowledge that Obama's perception of pre-Obama America is largely negative. He has made that abundantly clear during the past five years, with his incessant harping on the state of the African-American community, his articulation of class warfare themes, his virtually overt war on our domestic energy industries and his harsh criticism of American health care, the insurance industry, the "wealthy" and various other targets.

By pitting Americans against each other, he produces both the distraction and the fuel to facilitate his goal of fundamental change.

Neither he nor his like-minded leftist colleagues look to America's founding with pride. They regard America's international record as unacceptably imperialistic, and they still believe we are on the wrong side of history on civil rights and other issues.

Though it has taken some a long while to come to terms with Obama's radicalism -- and it would be an understatement to label it as anything less -- many are finally opening their eyes to it.

Only if we fully come to grips with the sincerity of Obama's goal of fundamental transformation will we have the proper context within which to evaluate his policies.

By seeking transformational change, Obama does not mean that he wants to return unemployment and economic growth to their traditional levels. He doesn't mean that he wants to ensure that America remains the world's lone superpower, committed to defending itself and its allies and to opposing radical jihadis in the war on terror.

He has shown that he doesn't necessarily even share these domestic and foreign policy goals or that if he does, they are far down on his list of priorities.

Obama cannot be completely candid about his goals, because even today, most Americans would probably oppose his ideas if they fully understood them. He gives us many hints about where he's ultimately headed, but he also remains vague and cloaks his goals in euphemisms of "fairness" and "equality," by which he means something entirely different from America's traditional commitment to equality of opportunity and equality under the law. He means moving toward equality of outcomes to achieve "fairness."

If Obama were like other presidents, he would at least be alarmed by the enormousness of the national debt and the entitlements that are driving our unfunded liabilities into the stratosphere. He would be concerned that the economy has remained anemic his entire five years in office and that we're experiencing the worst recovery since World War II.

But you never hear Obama expressing genuine concern over the debt, our unfunded liabilities, our perpetual lack of growth or the explosion of our welfare and food stamp programs, which he may well regard with pride.

Why? Because his head is elsewhere.
Yes, elsewhere scheming the destruction of America both home and abroad.

But continue reading at that top link.

Obama's Efforts to Do Something About Syria Invite Only Criticism and Push Back

And ridicule.

From Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today, "Obama is a laughing stock":
Remember that dumb cowboy George W. Bush, who alienated all our allies and dragged us into wars of choice in the Mideast? And remember that goofball Mitt Romney, whom Joe Biden a year ago accused of wanting to go to war in Syria?

Both of them must be having a big laugh over the way things are going for Obama now. When I wrote last week on our bumbling Syria diplomacy, it seemed that things couldn't possibly go further downhill. Boy, was I wrong.

Last week, it seemed our only ally was France. But now the French are having second thoughts. Obama's efforts to get support at the G20 conference came to nothing. Even the pope is undercutting him.

Meanwhile, at home, polls show Americans are against a strike, and Obama is facing double-digit defections among Democrats in the Senate. The outlook for passage in the House, meanwhile, looks so bad that a resolution to authorize war may not even make it to a vote. If it's sure to fail, why force members -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- to go on record? You can bet they don't appreciate Obama putting them in this position. The Pentagon isn't happy, and even The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates, a reliable Obama supporter, calls his policy "dumb."

Some critics are even comparing the collapse of American influence under Obama to the end of the Soviet Union. Well, that may be an exaggeration -- but Obama promised a "fundamental transformation," after all...
Continue reading.

Obama May Look Incompetent on Syria. But His Behavior Fits His Strategy to Weaken America Abroad

From Norman Podhoretz, at the Wall Street Journal, "Obama's Successful Foreign Failure":
It is entirely understandable that Barack Obama's way of dealing with Syria in recent weeks should have elicited responses ranging from puzzlement to disgust. Even members of his own party are despairingly echoing in private the public denunciations of him as "incompetent," "bungling," "feckless," "amateurish" and "in over his head" coming from his political opponents on the right.

For how else to characterize a president who declares war against what he calls a great evil demanding immediate extirpation and in the next breath announces that he will postpone taking action for at least 10 days—and then goes off to play golf before embarking on a trip to another part of the world? As if this were not enough, he also assures the perpetrator of that great evil that the military action he will eventually take will last a very short time and will do hardly any damage. Unless, that is, he fails to get the unnecessary permission he has sought from Congress, in which case (according to an indiscreet member of his own staff) he might not take any military action after all.

Summing up the net effect of all this, as astute a foreign observer as Conrad Black can flatly say that, "Not since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, and before that the fall of France in 1940, has there been so swift an erosion of the world influence of a Great Power as we are witnessing with the United States."

Yet if this is indeed the pass to which Mr. Obama has led us—and I think it is—let me suggest that it signifies not how incompetent and amateurish the president is, but how skillful. His foreign policy, far from a dismal failure, is a brilliant success as measured by what he intended all along to accomplish. The accomplishment would not have been possible if the intention had been too obvious. The skill lies in how effectively he has used rhetorical tricks to disguise it...
More at that top link.

Hat Tip: AoSHQ, "EVIL."

Obama Masterminds 'Operation Shuck and Jive'

It's Rush Limbaugh, via Blazing Cat Fur.


Monday, September 9, 2013

Marie Elizabeth Johnson, 16-Year-Old Irvine High School Student, Dies in Santiago Canyon Car Crash

Another one of my son's friends. He'd been going to school with the girl, Marie Elizabeth "Lizzie" Johnson, since 8th grade.

Last time, in the Newport Beach crash in May, the driver was going at least 100mph and hit a tree on the center divider. This time two Honda Civics were driving out on Santiago Canyon Road, a winding two-lane highway in the O.C. back country. This was at 1:45am on a Monday morning! One of the drivers slammed on his brakes after seeing a deer and the second driver slammed his brakes and lost control of the vehicle. Lizzie wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the car on impact. The driver, 19-year-old Antonio Escamilla, was arrested for driving under the influence.

At KTLA, "16-Year-Old Killed in Silverado Crash; 6 Others Injured."

My wife forwarded me the email sent by my son's principal, and the IUSD has published it, "Superintendent issues statement after car crash claims the life of an Irvine High student":
Today, we mourn the loss of Marie Elizabeth Johnson, an Irvine High School student whose life was cut tragically short as the result of a car accident along Santiago Canyon Road. Lizzie, as she was known to friends, would have begun her junior year on Tuesday. At 16 years old, her life was just beginning, and now we are left to grieve and cope with a loss that is difficult to comprehend.

To assist our students and staff, the Irvine Unified School District will dispatch additional counseling support to Irvine High for as long as there is a need. These professionals, including counselors, guidance assistants and psychologists, will specifically reach out to friends and classmates, but they will also be available to anyone who may need extra support. Additionally, Irvine High will open up a space for students who wish to speak with a counselor or share their feelings in writing.

Above all, at this difficult hour, our thoughts and prayers are with Lizzie’s family, friends and loved ones.
Needless to say I'm pretty upset with this. But talking to my son he said he wasn't surprised because he knows a lot of kids at his school who are running on the wrong side of the law, drinking and doing other things. My son's a good kid, thank goodness. He keeps safe. Plus, we keep good tabs on him and his friends, and I'm almost always warning him about doing drugs or drinking alcohol. He's a licensed driver now. You can't be too careful.

I'll say a prayer for the family when I bed down for the night.

Tony Abbott Daughters

So, the new Australian prime minister's got a lovely brood, via R.S. McCain, "Prime Minister’s Good-Looking Daughters Become Australian Campaign Issue."

Also at International Business Times, "SEE EXCLUSIVE Pictures of the Stylish First Daughters of Australia - Bridget, Frances and Louise Abbott."

Tony Abbott Daughters photo Tony_Abbort_Australia_zps3b2624db-1.jpg

And besides the hot daughters, CSM has more, "Tony Abbott to be Australia's new prime minister. Who is he?"

And I love this headline at Canada's National Post, "Carbon tax sinks Australian government to worst defeat in 80 years." And at the Globe and Mail, "Australian carbon tax to be repealed by incoming conservative government."

Labour's Kevin Rudd resigned as party leader amid defeat, although it looks like the recriminations have only just begun, at Sydney Morning Herald, "Labor MPs at odds over Kevin Rudd's future."

Secretary of State John Kerry Remarks with U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague

Here's the full video and text via the State Department's page, "Remarks With United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Hague."

And at the New York Times, "Kerry’s Comments on Syria Are a Shift Over Strike":


WASHINGTON — When Secretary of State John Kerry dangled for the first time on Monday actions that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria could take to avoid a military strike, it seemed an acknowledgment that Congress, America’s allies and the Russians were all looking for an off-ramp for what a week ago seemed like inevitable military action against Syria.

The concept has taken on many permutations in the past five days, but its essence is this: force Mr. Assad to turn his huge stockpile of chemical weapons over to some kind of international control and recognize the international ban on chemical weapons. The appeal of the idea is that, if successful, it could create a far more lasting solution than a brief strike on Syria’s chemical weapons infrastructure, especially a strike that Mr. Kerry characterized Monday morning as “unbelievably small.”

Yet, experts on chemical weapons and the Syrian government said that it would be next to impossible to know with certainty where all of Mr. Assad’s sprawling, constantly moving arsenal is residing, much less who is controlling it. And flying it out of the country is not as simple as picking up nuclear components — as the United States did in Libya in late 2003 — and moving them to a well-guarded site in Tennessee.

Though Mr. Kerry also expressed skepticism that the Syrians would take up the idea, his comments were notable because as recently as the middle of last week he was not talking about any diplomatic initiatives to secure the stockpile. A proposal by Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, both junior members of the Democratic caucus, to give Mr. Assad 45 days to sign on to the Chemical Weapons Convention and begin to turn over his weapons had yet to catch Mr. Kerry’s attention.
There's more at the link. And see, "Video of the Kerry Remark Russia Seized Upon in Game of Diplomatic Chess."

And from Stephen Hayes, at the Weekly Standard, "The Way Out?" (via Memeorandum):
Is this the beginning of the White House turn?

At this point, it’s risky and probably futile to try to understand the ad hoc decisionmaking and zig-zagging public rhetoric of the Obama administration’s handling of Syria. But even before Barack Obama shares his latest thoughts on the crisis with the American people, in television interviews today and a speech tomorrow night, a new proposal and the administration’s eager response suggest another zig (or zag) might be coming.

Although State Department officials quickly moved to downplay Kerry’s comment, saying he was speaking extemporaneously and wasn’t making an actual proposal, the Russians leapt at the comments and offered to help Assad comply.
Plus, here's the controversy over the "unbelievably small bit, at Politico, "John Kerry under fire for 'unbelievably small' comment." Plus, "John McCain: John Kerry ‘unbelievably unhelpful’."

These people are all messed up, lol.

Global Cooling

I'm sure this'll drive the "global warming" cuckoos crazy.

At London's Daily Mail, "And now it's global COOLING! Record return of Arctic ice cap as it grows by 60% in a year."

And at Telegraph UK, "Global warming? No, actually we're cooling, claim scientists."

BONUS: At Watts Up With That?, "Tough Times For Sea Ice Melt Enthusiasts…"

The Military/Civilian Disconnect

From Selena Zito, at the Pittsburgh Union-Tribune, "Our isolated military":
Six miles from downtown Pittsburgh, Sgt. Ryan Lane's youthful image is eternally captured on a banner with two American flags as its background. Dozens of the banners hang from street poles in the business district of Castle Shannon, Lane's hometown.

The 25-year-old, who was assigned to the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, was killed in a battle with Taliban forces in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

When he was brought home to be buried, mourners lined the streets of a neighboring community to honor him; most of them didn't know the young man whose flag-draped coffin was carried by fellow soldiers into the family church.

American soldiers are not forgotten in their communities. But they are a rapidly shrinking minority among their neighbors, because they are part of an all-volunteer military and because of our prickly political age of austerity in which base closings and consolidations have made the military a smaller component of fewer and fewer communities.

While governing elites are less and less likely to serve in the military themselves, citizens too are becoming less likely to interact with the military in their daily lives — which effectively isolates the military in American society.

The military has responded, in this time of war, by withdrawing into itself as a profession. That might allow it to maintain its fighting edge on the battlefield, but it does little good for civilian-military relations.
Continue reading.

#FireKiffin

I was going to watch the USC game on Saturday night and said screw it when I couldn't find it on the remote. Next thing I know I see the news that the Trojans got beat by Washington State, 10-7, at the Colosseum. That just won't do for SC fans, and now there's a big push (an even bigger push, actually) to get rid of Coach Lane Kiffin.

See Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angles Times, "Trojans are bad; fans are mad at Lane Kiffin; is Pat Haden listening?":


Two games into the 2013 season, there are two words that perfectly describe the state of the USC football program.

They are two words that echoed through the bowels of the Coliseum late Saturday night, two words chanted by thousands of voices, two words illustrating how a loyal and sunny crowd have been drenched in anger and hopelessnesss.

Lane Kiffin returned to work in front of Trojan fans for the first time this fall after being jeered into last winter, and it was as if the coach had never left.

With three hours of boos preceding the ominous late chant, Kiffin’s Trojans were poorly coached, poorly managed, and ultimately embarrassed in a 10-7 loss to Washington State.

Fire Kiffin? Everyone worried that this Trojan season would turn bad under the embattled young coach, but few could imagine it would turn this bad, this quickly.

Fire Kiffin? Even in an athletic department run by a guy who clearly doesn’t want to dirty his hands, this could still be the official beginning of the end of his stormy four-year tenure, a nail in the Kiffin.

Pat Haden and his rose-colored spectacles can’t ignore what happened on the field and in the stands in Saturday night’s home debut, and how it mirrors what has happened with Kiffin since the middle of last season. This is no longer about the smoke and mirrors of deflated footballs and phony jersey numbers. This is about reality of defeats that are embarrassing to the program’s rich tradition, a culture whose proud legacy is under the care of Haden, whose effectiveness is also now being seriously questioned.

Before this season Haden said he’s "100%" behind Kiffin, yet the coach has now lost six of his last eight games in a stretch that includes embarrassing losses to Arizona, UCLA, Georgia Tech in last year’s Sun Bowl debacle, and now, Washington State.

This was the same Washington State that had been outscored 146-22 by USC in their last three meetings, that had lost eight straight to the Trojans, that had not beaten them in the Coliseum in 13 years.
RTWT.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

FMJRA on NYT's 'Gender Equity' Case Study

That's Brooke Boyarsky at the front page of today's New York Times. She's the Harvard Business School graduate who pulled herself up by pluck to emerge as one of the great standouts of her class.

And I wanted to post a FMJRA for Blazing Cat Fur and The Other McCain, who both linked my entry.

Also linked at Bad Blue. Thanks!

Added: Bob Belvedere links, "Warning to the West: Leftist Re-Engineering Unbound."

Thanks!

Gender Equity photo BTrSkzTCQAAUEw-_zps668781ba.jpg

Syria and Obama: Wrong Time, Wrong Place, Wrong Plan, Wrong Man

From Peggy Noonan, at WSJ, "Why America Is Saying 'No'":
The American people do not support military action. A Reuters-Ipsos poll had support for military action at 20%, Pew at 29%. Members of Congress have been struck, in some cases shocked, by the depth of opposition from their constituents. A great nation cannot go to war—and that's what a strike on Syria, a sovereign nation, is, an act of war—without some rough unity as to the rightness of the decision. Widespread public opposition is in itself reason not to go forward.

Can the president change minds? Yes, and he'll try. But it hasn't worked so far. This thing has jelled earlier than anyone thought. More on that further down.

What are the American people thinking? Probably some variation of: Wrong time, wrong place, wrong plan, wrong man.

Twelve years of war. A sense that we're snakebit in the Mideast. Iraq and Afghanistan didn't go well, Libya is lawless. In Egypt we threw over a friend of 30 years to embrace the future. The future held the Muslim Brotherhood, unrest and a military coup. Americans have grown more hard-eyed—more bottom-line and realistic, less romantic about foreign endeavors, and more concerned about an America whose culture and infrastructure seem to be crumbling around them.

The administration has no discernible strategy. A small, limited strike will look merely symbolic, a face-saving measure. A strong, broad strike opens the possibility that the civil war will end in victory for those as bad as or worse than Assad. And time has already passed. Assad has had a chance to plan his response, and do us the kind of damage to which we would have to respond.
Especially the "wrong man." But RTWT.

More Sabine

She's on Instagram as well.

Sabine Jemeljanova photo d1737e340333f2c7f7364787b712bafe_zps996e621e.jpeg

And from yesterday, "Sabine."