Behold John Hinderaker's Breathtaking Demolition of Washington Post Far-Left Reporter Juliet Eilperin

Here's the Power Line piece that was top-trending all day yesterday at Memeorandum, and is still up top, "The Washington Post Responds to Me, and I Reply to the Post."

It's John Hinderaker responding to this hacktacular smear by Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, at Thursday's WaPo, "The biggest lease holder in Canada’s oil sands isn’t Exxon Mobil or Chevron. It’s the Koch brothers."

Hindaker's original takedown is here, "WASHINGTON POST FALLS FOR LEFT-WING FRAUD, EMBARRASSES ITSELF [UPDATED WITH POST'S RESPONSE]."

And here's the authors' response at WaPo, "Why we wrote about the Koch Industries and its leases in Canada’s oil sands."

Hinderaker performs one of the most effective demolitions of leftist media bias I've seen in a long time. Be sure to check the links. But as I was reading through it was the personal background on Juliet Eilperin that was especially clinching:

Why would the Washington Post embarrass itself by republishing a thoroughly discredited attempt to link the Koch brothers to the Keystone Pipeline? Because that is a Democratic Party talking point, and the Post is a Democratic Party newspaper. But the truth is a little worse than that.

Who is Post reporter Juliet Eilperin? Among other things, she is married to Andrew Light, who writes on climate policy for the Center for American Progress. The Center for American Progress is an Obama administration front group headed by John Podesta, who is a “special advisor” to the Obama administration. CAP’s web site, Think Progress, has carried out a years-long vendetta against the Koch brothers that has focused largely on the environment. Ms. Eilperin’s conflict in writing about environmental issues has already been a subject of controversy at the Post. The paper’s ombudsman should examine this latest example of Ms. Eilperin throwing facts to the winds in her eagerness to promote her (and her husband’s) far-left agenda.

I'm not one to believe that perfect objectivity is possible, even for journalistic institutions whose very legitimacy is sustained by a purported commitment to rigorous nonpartisanship. But when reporters are so thoroughly corrupted by just ridiculously outlandish conflicts of interest we can throw all benefit of the doubt out the window. Eilperin's sham objectivity is simply disgusting.

Hinderaker has yet another update, "THE POST: DEPANTSED BUT NOT DELOUSED." And embedded there is Brit Hume on Twitter:

Two @washingtonpost reporters respond to @powerlineblog's evisceration of their work. They get eviscerated again. http://t.co/6dgRw1amdP

— Brit Hume (@brithume) March 22, 2014

'Microaggressions': The Left's Latest Bogus 'Racism' Meme

I first heard about "microaggression" last November during the flap at UCLA, where Professor Val Rust was attacked for correcting mistakes on writing assignments:

About 25 students participated in the sit-in, in the classroom of Val Rust, professor emeritus of education. Watson – a student in that class – said Rust’s course was one of many in which students of “color and consciousness” have experienced discrimination. Of about 10 students in the class, 5 participated in the sit-in. Participants read a letter listing their complaints and a series of demands for reform. Regular coursework was suspended for about an hour because of the sit-in.

“A hostile campus climate has been the norm for Students of Color in this class throughout the quarter as our epistemological and methodological commitments have been repeatedly questioned by our classmates and our instructor,” the group’s letter reads. The statement accuses “the professor” (it does not identify Rust by name) of correcting “perceived grammatical choices that in actuality reflect ideologies” and “repeatedly questioning the value of our work on social identity and the related dynamics of oppression, power and privilege.” The “barrage of questions by white colleagues and the grammar ‘lessons’ by the professor have contributed to a hostile class climate,” it continues.

Also, from William Jacobson, at Legal Insurrection from last year, "UCLA Prof accused of racist “micro-aggression” for correcting student grammar."

And tonight, "2014 – Year of the Microaggression."

That's great.

I tweeted to William last night as well, a piece from the New York Times:

.@LegInsurrection Students See Many Slights as Racial ‘Microaggressions’... http://t.co/vh210wslzy

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 22, 2014

Vans Skatepark Huntington Beach Grand Opening

I took my youngest son down to H.B. today for the grand opening of the new skatepark.

The O.C. Register had a write-up yesterday, "Vans to open free skatepark in H.B. Saturday."

And at the Vans homepage, "Vans Skatepark in Huntington Beach, CA Grand Opening 3/22."



I'll have more later. That clover bowl is even bigger than it looks in pictures!

Matt Drudge Liberty Tax

A little dust-up yesterday, at Twitchy, "Matt Drudge: ‘Just paid the Obamacare penalty for not ‘getting covered”."

Also at Liberty Unyielding, "Liberals race to shoot down Drudge’s ‘liberty tax’ Obamacare tweet," and Big Government, "‘LIBERTY TAX’: WHITE HOUSE, MEDIA ATTACK AFTER DRUDGE PAYS OBAMACARE OPT-OUT PENALTY." (Via Drudge Report, "OBAMACARE TAX COLLECTION BEGINS; WHITE HOUSE SLAMS DRUDGE 'LIE'.")

Obama media teams know they will not get audited for avoiding taxes. I don't have this luxury. So they mock, ridicule http://t.co/Cg23N734R9
— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) March 21, 2014

Belle Knox Update

At the Other McCain, "Is Everything Feminist ‘Empowerment’ Now? Or Is @Belle_Knox a Sociopath?"

And at Journal 14, "The Feminist Empowerment of @Belle_Knox."

BONUS: At Reason, "Porn Star Belle Knox on Being Libertarian..."

Chinese Satellite Spots Possible Debris from Flight MH370

At BCF, "Chinese satellite spots possible plane debris in southern Indian Ocean - again."

And at Telegraph UK, "MH370: Chinese satellite detects 'floating object'."

Still more at London's Daily Mail, "MH370 LATEST: China says satellite has located 72ft object in Southern Indian Ocean 75 miles from where previous possible wreckage was located as Australian pilots spot small objects."

2014 Major League Baseball Opens in Sydney, Australia

The Dodgers and the Diamondbacks opened the 2014 today at the Sydney Cricket Grounds, which was transformed for major league baseball.

At SI, "Watch: MLB reinvents historic Sydney Cricket Ground for Opening Day baseball." And, "Dodgers, Diamondbacks go down under for Opening Day in Australia."

And at LAT, "Baseball is a change-up for Sydney Cricket Ground." Plus, "Scott Van Slyke leads Dodgers past Arizona, 3-1, in season opener."

'Hot-shaming really is a thing now...'

Well, you can't be flaunting your hotness, heh.

At Instapundit, "THAT’S THE LAST TIME I WORK OUT AT THE HARRISON BERGERON FITNESS CLUB: Gym Tells Hot, Fit Woman to Cover Up Because She’s Intimidating Others. 'Hot-shaming really is a thing now'."

Theft, Assault, and Vandalism Charges Filed Against Professor Mireille Miller-Young

From Eugene Volokh, at the Washington Post, "Theft, assault, and vandalism charges filed against UC Santa Barbara professor."

And don't miss the comments section, heh.

PREVIOUSLY: "UCSB Police Department Releases Report on Professor Mireille Miller-Young."

Challenges Ahead for Reds Closer Aroldis Chapman

An analysis of the pitcher's prospects after getting nailed by that line drive, at NYT, "Tough Path for Closer After Liner to the Face."

First Kiss

It's a viral hit.

See NYT, "A Kiss Is Just a Kiss, Unless It’s an Ad for a Clothing Company."

Kate Upton is New Face of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics

She's living the American dream.

At LAT, "Kate Upton, Bobbi Brown share collaboration, admiration."

Taliban Gunmen Kill Nine in Attack on Serena Hotel in Kabul

Absolutely vicious, cold-blooded murderers.

At the Wall Street Journal, "A Taliban Massacre Jolts Heart of Kabul: Attack Fuels Fears of Widespread Bloodshed Ahead of Election":

KABUL—The four men sat down for dinner, ordered juice and then excused themselves to the bathroom. There, they extracted tiny pistols from the soles of their shoes, and, after returning to the restaurant of Kabul's most luxurious hotel, started shooting patrons point-blank.

The first target was the Afghan family of Sardar Ahmad, a 40-year-old Afghan journalist with Agence France-Presse, the government said. The gunmen shot dead Mr. Ahmad, his wife, his 5-year-old daughter Nilofar and 3-year-old son Omar. His youngest son Abuzar, not even two, is in coma with bullets in his head.

Then, the gunmen shot other prominent Afghans and foreign officials who had gathered on Thursday night for a festive dinner at the Serena Hotel here. Soon after, at least nine guests—including a U.S. citizen, two Canadians and a Paraguayan election observer—and the four attackers were dead and several injured. Even by the grim standards of the Afghan war, the Serena bloodbath was shocking.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the killings, saying that such attacks "are carried out for the purposes of the outsiders and unfortunately, the victims are innocent civilians, children and women."

The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, have carried out a series of assaults in recent days aimed at disrupting the presidential elections on April 5 to pick a successor to Mr. Karzai.

A successful election—combined with the planned departure of foreign forces—would mark the first democratic transfer of power in Afghanistan's history.

That would undercut the Taliban's appeal, rooted in resentment against foreign presence and the widespread corruption of Mr. Karzai's administration. This explains the Taliban's attempts to derail the vote and undermine its legitimacy.

The Taliban's tactic is certain to reduce the international role in vote monitoring. The National Democratic Institute, a Washington nonprofit that planned to observe the vote, ordered its personnel out of the country Friday after one of its members was killed in the Thursday attack.

As some of the leading candidates voice fears that Mr. Karzai's favorite will win the presidency by fraud, the presence of foreign election observers is needed to legitimize any result. In contrast, their departure as a result of the Serena attack would make any dispute over the outcome much more difficult to adjudicate. Such a dispute could fracture the country's political and military establishment to benefit of the Taliban, who hope to retake political power..

Mr. Karzai isn't allowed to run for president again under the Afghan constitution. The leading candidates in the race—former Foreign Ministers Abdullah Abdullah and Zalmai Rassoul, and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani — have been crisscrossing the country this week, holding campaign rallies despite Taliban threats....
Posing as diners and hiding six tiny palm-sized pistols in the soles of their bulky shoes, the four gunmen managed to get past the metal detector at the entrance to the hotel, Afghan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.

Mr. Sediqqi said the government was investigating whether the attackers had some inside help at the hotel. Serena manages its own security force.

Waiters at the hotel said the men then took a table at the buffet-style restaurant, where guests had gathered to celebrate the Persian New Year, known as Nowruz.

With many other eateries in the city off-bounds to foreigners after the January attack that killed 21 at a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul, the supposedly safe Serena was one of the few locations where international diplomats, aid workers, United Nations officials and prominent Afghans still gathered regularly.

On Thursday night, four parliament members were dining there. As the gunmen shot and injured one of the lawmakers, the others tried to fight back by throwing glasses at the Taliban, Mr. Sediqqi said.

The wife of Mr. Ahmad, the slain journalist, yelled at the gunmen, telling them "Shoot me, not my children," said waiters at the hotel. Pictures of the attack's aftermath showed her lying on the ground, trying to protect the children with her hand...

No Lifeline for Illegal Alien Josue Noe Sandoval-Perez as U.S Denies Appeal of Deportation Order

Of course, the New York Times wants people to feel sorry for this guy. For me it's like what took so long?

See, "Paying Price, 16 Years Later, for an Illegal Entry":

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The cellblock intercom awoke Josue Noe Sandoval-Perez at 1 o’clock on a frigid January morning at a detention center in northwest Missouri: Get your things, get ready to go. Immigration officials were preparing to whisk him away.

A day earlier the government denied an appeal of his deportation order, but no one told his family, nor was he allowed to call.

So while Mr. Sandoval-Perez, 41, an illegal immigrant with a previous deportation on his record, was beginning his journey back to his native Mexico, his family was clinging to hope at a rally in a park here. Holding signs, they argued that he had been in the country for 16 years, had no criminal record, paid taxes and was the primary breadwinner for his children — one an American citizen, the other an immigrant who is here legally.

He was dropped off that night in Matamoros, a violence-ridden Mexican border town. When he called his wife, Josefina Aguilar, from outside a bus station to tell her what happened, gunshots could be heard.

“I was just crying a lot, like my world was over,” Ms. Aguilar, 40, recalled.

Mr. Sandoval-Perez’s case — as described by him, his family and court documents — previews the difficulties President Obama will face in a review he ordered last week, asking the Homeland Security secretary, Jeh Johnson, to come up with a more “humane” deportation policy.

Like Mr. Sandoval-Perez, many immigrants here illegally might qualify for protection from deportation if strong ties to family and community and steady work records were taken into account, but they also have past immigration violations that could count heavily against them.

The review comes too late to help Mr. Sandoval-Perez. But his case was among dozens that immigrant advocates presented to the White House last Friday as an example of how Mr. Obama’s enforcement policies had torn apart generally law-abiding families, separating breadwinning parents from children who have known no other country but the United States.

“Josue is a perfect example of a case that they should have exercised prosecutorial discretion on,” said Richard Morales, the detention prevention coordinator at the PICO National Network, an organization of faith-based community groups. “We welcome the news from the president, but we need to see details.”

In an interview at an apartment that he shares with his sister-in-law in Mexico City, Mr. Sandoval-Perez was more pointed about what he wanted from Mr. Obama.

“He has the power to end this discrimination, to change this,” said Mr. Sandoval-Perez, holding a blue plastic folder with all his deportation documents. “Families have to stop being separated.”

Obama couldn't give a sh*t about this f**ker. The Democrats just want amnesty as a massive leftist voter registration drive. Meanwhile, the White House has been deporting the sad loser aliens in record numbers in order to take some of the heat of the Dreamers initiative. Damned Democrats got you coming and going in immigration, the sneaky bastards.

Transcript of Final Moments of Flight MH370

It's interesting, even if it's not telling us a whole lot.

Revealed: the final 54 minutes of communication from #MH370. http://t.co/1IHo0Wvovp

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 21, 2014

CNN's been getting a ratings boost out of the tragedy. But you can't keep this clunker of a story around much longer. Sad.

After Crimea, Is Estonia Next?

At the New York Post, "Vladimir’s next move":

Biden channels Khrushchev - updated: http://t.co/w8yq1db6X1 #TCOT pic.twitter.com/UvSNQLgMVi

— The People's Cube (@ThePeoplesCube) March 21, 2014

Is Estonia next? In language disturbingly similar to that used by Vladimir Putin before Russia moved into Ukraine, a top Moscow official has now expressed “outrage” over the treatment of ethnic Russians in the former Soviet republic.

Some dismiss these fears as overwrought. We direct them to Mikheil Saakashvili, former president of Georgia, who says that in 2008 “almost every Western politician to whom my government raised concerns in those days said that Russia would not attack and urged us to keep calm and not react to Russian moves.” Today Russian troops still occupy a good slice of Georgia, and the sanctions we imposed in the wake of that invasion were reversed in Obama’s “reset” of US-Russian relations, in hopes our good will would be reciprocated.

We now know how that turned out.

On Thursday, President Obama announced new sanctions directed at 20 individual Russians and a Russian bank. He said he had also signed an executive order giving him the authority to sanction specific areas of the Russian economy as well.

Unfortunately, sanctions amount to little more than a tax on an action that the secretary general of NATO calls “the gravest threat to European security and stability since the end of the Cold War.” The NATO chief says Putin aims to intimidate Russia’s neighbors from seeking closer integration with Europe and the West.

President Obama himself says “we need action.” We agree. There remain many options far short of American boots on the ground, ranging from restoring the promise of missile defense for Eastern Europe to loan guarantees for Ukraine — and the threat of military assistance to Kiev if Putin moves farther than Crimea.

As for Crimea, even Ukraine’s leaders concede it is lost. The question is whether America and Europe have the will to stop further aggression...

Keep reading.

'Cold War-Hungry Neocons' Stage-Managed Liz Wahl's Resignation from Russia Today? — ROTFLMFAO!!

OMG this is too much!

The epic Israel-hating scumbag Max Blumenthal posted a huge write-up to the communist rag Truthdig:

Wow. @MaxBlumenthal and @Truthdig reveal Neocons staged Liz Wahl's onair resignation from RT. http://t.co/aGIYllHDEQ
— Sean Kerrigan (@SeanJKerrigan) March 21, 2014

And hilariously Russia Today's picked it up and pumped the "neocon conspiracy" meme during its programming.



Hey, no doubt dreaded neocons are pushing for a bombing run on Moscow! World War III! We're on our way to a new clear day!



Meanwhile, left-wing whackjob Kevin Gosztola's been hassling Ms. Wahl on Twitter, even at one point misrepresenting himself as a reporter for Glenn Greenwald's First Look startup.

@kgosztola It's really sad when someone lies about their employment demanding answers. Please stop harassing me.

— Liz Wahl (@lizwahl) March 21, 2014

In any case, secure your tinfoil hat because there's more on this, from Dave Weigel, at Slate, "Your Guide to the Developing and Hilarious War Between RT and Neocons":

Yesterday afternoon I belately sat down with Liz Wahl, the former RT reporter who resigned on the air in protest of the Crimean incursion. We happened to meet up right after the left-leaning site TruthDig ran a piece that connected a bunch of facts that had never been concealed—for example, that the Foreign Policy Initiative was founded by Bill Kristol, and that Wahl's champion James Kirchick worked for it—so Wahl and I ended up talking about that.

A few readers have informed me that this controversy was impenetrable. Let me explain, because it's a deeply strange story and I'd hate for you to miss out.

Oh that is juicy. Keep reading! The suspense is excruciating!

And bonus! Here's even more lulz from Daniel Greenfield, at Frontpage Magazine, "Max Blumenthal Now Shilling for Putin":

Max Blumenthal, a creepy fellow you may know as Clinton aide Sid Blumenthal’s son who caught some public attention for writing a book that even critics of Israel referred to as a selection of the Hamas Book of the Month Club, is going Full Greenwald.

After an anchorwoman for Putin’s RT propaganda network resigned, Max Blumenthal wrote up an “expose” claiming that “Cold War-Hungry Neocons” were behind it.

By “Cold War-Hungry Neocons”, Blumenthal means James Kirchik, a gay writer for the Daily Beast who was around 9 when the USSR fell.

Apparently a “cadre of neoconservatives” hungry for Cold War and Hot Dogs targeted a propaganda news network that 99 percent of its viewers only encounter while searching for dashcam accidents on YouTube…. “to deepen tensions with Russia.”

Forget invading Crimea. The real tension deepening comes from an on-air resignation.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to head down for a supply check in my underground bomb shelter, lol.

Obama's Pathetic Response to Putin's Invasion of Crimea

From the inimitable Charles Krauthammer, at the Washington Post (via Memeorandum):

Early in the Ukraine crisis, when the Europeans were working on bringing Ukraine into the EU system and Vladimir Putin was countering with threats and bribes, one British analyst lamented that “we went to a knife fight with a baguette.”

That was three months ago. Life overtakes parody. During the Ukrainian prime minister’s visit to Washington last week, his government urgently requested military assistance. The Pentagon refused. It offered instead military ration kits.

Putin mobilizes thousands of troops, artillery and attack helicopters on Ukraine’s borders and Washington counters with baguettes, American-style. One thing we can say for sure in these uncertain times: The invasion of Ukraine will be catered by the United States.

Why did we deny Ukraine weapons? Because in the Barack Obama-John Kerry worldview, arming the victim might be taken as a provocation. This kind of mind-bending illogic has marked the administration’s response to the whole Crimea affair.

Why, after all, did Obama delay responding to Putin’s infiltration, military occupation and seizure of Crimea in the first place? In order to provide Putin with a path to de-escalation, “an offramp,” the preferred White House phrase.

An offramp? Did they really think that Putin was losing, that his invasion of Crimea was a disaster from which he needed some face-saving way out? And that the principal object of American diplomacy was to craft for Putin an exit strategy?

It’s delusional enough to think that Putin — in seizing Crimea, threatening eastern Ukraine, destabilizing Kiev, shaking NATO, terrifying America’s East European allies and making the West look utterly helpless — was actually losing. But to imagine that Putin saw it that way as well and was waiting for American diplomacy to save him from a monumental blunder is totally divorced from reality.

Keep reading.

Patterns of Education Inequality Along Racial Lines

A crying shame. The obvious problem, of course, not discussed at the piece, is that those cities with the highest concentrations of at-risk minority students are Democrat Party strongholds.

It's just like the old days. Jim Crow is alive and well for large numbers of America's black youth.

At the New York Times, "School Data Finds Pattern of Inequality Along Racial Lines":

Racial minorities are more likely than white students to be suspended from school, to have less access to rigorous math and science classes, and to be taught by lower-paid teachers with less experience, according to comprehensive data released Friday by the data released Friday by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

In the first analysis in nearly 15 years of information from all of the country’s 97,000 public schools, the Education Department found a pattern of inequality on a number of fronts, with race as the dividing factor.

Black students are suspended and expelled at three times the rate of white students. A quarter of high schools with the highest percentage of black and Latino students do not offer any Algebra II courses, while a third of those schools do not have any chemistry classes. Black students are more than four times as likely as white students — and Latino students are twice as likely — to attend schools where one out of every five teachers does not meet all state teaching requirements.

“Here we are, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the data altogether still show a picture of gross inequity in educational opportunity,” said Daniel J. Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the University of California at Los Angeles’s Civil Rights Project.

In his budget request to Congress, President Obama has proposed a new phase of his administration’s Race to the Top competitive grant program, which would give $300 million in incentives to states and districts that put in place programs intended to close some of the educational gaps identified in the data.

“In all, it is clear that the United States has a great distance to go to meet our goal of providing opportunities for every student to succeed,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.

One of the striking statistics to emerge from the data, based on information collected during the 2011-12 academic year, was that even as early as preschool, black students face harsher discipline than other students....

In high school, the study found that while more than 70 percent of white students attend schools that offer a full range of math and science courses — including algebra, biology, calculus, chemistry, geometry and physics — just over half of all black students have access to those courses. Just over two-thirds of Latinos attend schools with the full range of math and science courses, and less than half of American Indian and Native Alaskan students are able to enroll in as many high-level math and science courses as their white peers.

“We want to have a situation in which students of color — and every student — has the opportunity and access that will get them into any kind of STEM career that takes their fancy,” said Claus von Zastrow, director of research for Change the Equation, a nonprofit that advocates improved science, technology, engineering and math education, or STEM, in the United States. “We’re finding that in fact a huge percentage of primarily students of color, but of all students, don’t even have the opportunity to take those courses. Those are gateways that are closed to them.”

The Education Department’s report found that black, Latino, American Indian and Native Alaskan students are three times as likely as white students to attend schools with higher concentrations of first-year teachers. And in nearly a quarter of school districts with at least two high schools, the teacher salary gap between high schools with the highest concentrations of black and Latino students and those with the lowest is more than $5,000 a year.

Now, keep in mind the discipline problem is endemic to the black culture, and I don't blame teachers one bit. Still, it's an abomination that courses as basic as algebra II and chemistry aren't offered to so many of America's minorities. And believe me, all the Common Core crap won't do a thing to change this crisis of Democrat urban machine politics. Those f-kers own it.

Nancy Pelosi Calls #ObamaCare — Wait, I Mean the 'Affordable Care Act'! — a Winner for #Democrats in 2014

This lady is certifiably insane.

At U.S. News, "Pelosi says health care law a political plus for Democrats."

And at the NRCC, "6 Awful Moments From Nancy Pelosi’s News Conference “Celebrating” ObamaCare."

Also from Ericka Johnsen, at Hot Air, "Pelosi: Stop calling it ObamaCare. It’s the Affordable Care Act. Affordable, affordable, affordable."

Of course, it's simply not "affordable." At the Hill, "O-Care premiums to skyrocket."

It's going to be a Democrat bloodbath in November. I can't wait.

Amy Green for Zoo Today

She's nice, "X-rated, fair-haired fittie Amy Green presents Blondes: Uncensored!"

YouTube here: "Amy Green: Blondes Uncensored Teaser Video!"

Starbucks to Expand Alcohol Sales Across U.S.

I'm not exactly sure why I'd be going to Starbucks for a drink.

I rarely have coffee over there any more as it is. But hey, it's business.

At the New York Post, "Starbucks to expand beer, wine sales throughout U.S."

And checking Google I see this previously from the O.C. Register, "Starbucks adds beer, wine in south O.C."

"Starbucks Evenings" they're calling it. I'm sure all the cool hipsters will be swarming over there for cheese and Cabernet.

Reason's Remy Slams Dianne Feinstein on Surveillance Hypocrisy

Heh. A good one.

At Reason, "Isn't it Ironic: Government Surveillance Version (with Remy)."

Obama Ups Sanctions on Russia Over Crimea

At WaPo, "Obama expands sanctions against top aides, associates of Putin over annexation of Crimea." And Politico, "Obama expands sanctions against Russia."

Also, from Max Boot, at Commentary, "A Much-Improved Slate of Russia Sanctions."

None of these things will drive Putin out of Ukraine, but at least the response is grudgingly moving in the direction toward greater firmness. See the editors at the Washington Post, "TThe U.S. should keep tightening the sanctions on Russia":

THE SANCTIONS against Russia that President Obama announced Thursday were far tougher than those previously taken in response to the invasion and annexation of Crimea. But they remained carefully calibrated: Mr. Obama aimed to inflict economic pain on Vladi­mir Putin and his inner circle of financiers and cronies, not on the Russian economy as a whole. Mr. Putin was not named, but his personal banker and bank were locked out of the U.S. financial system, as were key aides and several longtime friends who have become billionaires under his regime and who may handle some of his investments.

The U.S. strategy could have the advantage of punishing Mr. Putin while minimizing the collateral damage to the U.S., European and global economies that could come from a broader economic war. At the same time, Mr. Obama sought to deter further Russian aggression by granting authority for sanctions against Russian economic sectors, including the energy industry, and making clear that they would be imposed if other parts of Ukraine were attacked....

If the latest sanctions do not quickly sober them up, Mr. Obama must not hesitate to expand the range of sanctions from Mr. Putin’s inner circle to the pillars of the Russian economy.

Word.

Universities: The Least Free Places in America

Following up from yesterday, "UCSB Police Department Releases Report on Professor Mireille Miller-Young."

Don't miss Darleen Click, at Protein Wisdom, "Female supremacy and the “rape culture” meme," and the video linked there:



More at Blackmailers Don't Shoot, "Trigger Warning: Butthurt; Excessive Self-Regard."

NATO's Anders Fogh Rasmussen: Crimea Tensions 'Greatest Threat' Since Cold War

Well, acknowledging you have a problem is a first step.

At the Washington Post, "Russia’s moves in Ukraine are ‘wake-up call,’ NATO’s Rasmussen says in speech":

Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is a “wake-up call” for the Atlantic military alliance and other international institutions that have buttressed European security and stability for decades, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday.

“We live in a different world than we did less than a month ago,” Rasmussen said in a previously scheduled Brookings Institution speech that was adjusted to reflect a sudden crisis that he called Europe’s “gravest threat . . . since the end of the Cold War.”

Irony: No Funeral for Hate-Preaching, Funeral-Protesting Westboro Church Founder Fred Phelps

I despise Westboro Baptist. Their funeral protests against America's service personnel are probably the most evil form of free speech this side of the KKK. But it's their right to do it, and frankly, Phelps has never been a model for conservatives on opposition to the radical left's homosexual agenda.

So it's pretty ironic that Phelps' own family won't hold a funeral for the old man. At WIBW Topeka, "No Funeral, After Death Of Westboro Church Founder Fred Phelps."

And a rare expression of decency on the left, from Erica Cook, at Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, "Show love to Fred Phelps's family instead of hatred":

The very post I saw his death reported also had a call to picket his funeral as he has done to so many. This was by a friend who has seen his hate, and understandably wants to exact revenge. But if the actions of his life have shown anything it is that the funeral is no place for revenge or the spirit of hate. We may not feel sorrow at his death. It may even be a day of relief. But this is the time to show why he was wrong to protest the funerals of our family.

This is the chance to show the world how we are better people. We aren’t people who make the death of a man the reason to celebrate, no matter who that man is. We are the better people. And no matter who he is to us, he was someone’s father, grandfather, brother, and uncle. We may still be fighting against them, but today they need the respect they didn’t have the capacity to give when it was us. If we act in any way other than respectful we become no better than them. In stooping to that we relinquish the right to call what they do wrong.

Like I said, a rare example of leftist decency.

I'm sure there was plenty of leftist joy around today, for example:

Yes, this queer person is happy phelps is dead. He made life harder for people. May he rot.

— aliceinthewater (@aliceinthewater) March 20, 2014

Leftists dance on conservative graves every time a right-winger dies. And leftist hatred of conservatives hasn't abated in recent years (Duck Dynasty anyone?). But hey, leftists always need someone to hate. Might as well be Fred Phelps.

Tucker Carlson Apologizes to BuzzFeed's Rosie Gray

At TPM, via Memeorandum, "Tucker Carlson Forced to Apologize for His Reporter's Disgusting Tweets."

It's been awhile since I blogged about Tucker Carlson, for good reason. He was right to apologize here, though. Maybe he'll fire his reporter, Patrick Howley, if he hasn't already. The latter's deleted his Twitter page, so obviously stupidity caught up to him.

The tweets that will hopefully haunt @PatrickHowleyDC for awhile. Team @RosieGray, obviously. pic.twitter.com/NFb5t75NAB
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) March 19, 2014

.@ryanjreilly @tuckercarlson he has. I accepted his apology.
— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) March 20, 2014

And it turns out Firedoglake got this whole party started, the losers.

Unbelievable, grotesque, sexism toward a young reporter from the progressive @firedoglake. http://t.co/3teaD3aqmp pic.twitter.com/cKk7DIy5Ik
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) March 19, 2014

Via PuffHo, "Tucker Carlson Forced to Apologize to BuzzFeed Reporter for Awful Tweets."

Duke University Porn Star Belle Knox Returns to Campus Despite Threats

A news report at ABC, "Porn Star Student Returns to Duke University Campus."

She says she's "empowered" by making porn flicks to pay her way through college. Okay, whatever.

And one of the ladies interviewed at the clip says Knox is getting threats for being "assertive." Yeah, I'm sure.

More at the Other McCain, "On ‘The View,’ @Belle_Knox Says ‘Most People’ Start Watching Porn at Age 12," and "Also, @Belle_Knox Is a Psycho."

Leftists Slam Film Critic Anthony Lane for 'Creepy' Profile of Scarlett Johansson

At LAT, "Anthony Lane criticized for 'creepy' Scarlett Johansson profile":

Pregnancy looks pretty good on Scarlett Johansson. http://t.co/nYmYqi3PNs pic.twitter.com/5KaIya9fxr
— Maggie Coughlan (@MaggieCoughlan) March 20, 2014

New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane is catching heat for his recent profile of Scarlett Johansson, which detractors say fawns over the actress without bothering to comprehend her.

Johansson has two films coming out on the same day (April 4):  "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Under the Skin," and has recently been linked to separate controversies involving SodaStream and Woody Allen.

As critics of Lane's profile point out, he devotes much of it to cataloging Johansson's allure, describing "the honey of her voice" and declaring that she "looks tellingly radiant in the flesh" or seems to be "made from champagne." And yet, these critics say, the profile tells readers very little about Johansson as an actress or an individual.

Slate's Katy Waldman, for example, criticizes Lane's "inappropriate-uncle creepiness" in the profile.

The problem with the piece, Waldman writes, "is not [just] that it salivates over ScarJo, but that it refuses to treat her as a human subject, with qualities of mind. (If this is because Lane didn't have much time with Johansson, maybe the magazine shouldn't have run the piece.) When Lane isn't characterizing Johansson as strangely blank and opinionless, he’s trafficking in the dream of the remote, unknowable Woman — a flat projection of male desire."

She adds, "The worst part, however, is that Lane wants it both ways: He pants over ScarJo as the generic representative of a certain erotic fantasy and then has the chutzpah to critique her, slyly, for lacking substance."

Esther Breger of the New Republic similarly writes, "Lane's piece, the worst profile I can remember reading in The New Yorker, can be reduced to one basic takeaway: Anthony Lane thinks Scarlett Johansson is radiant, and wants to tell you all about it."

Breger, whose post is titled "Anthony Lane's Scarlett Johansson Profile Turns The New Yorker into a Men's Magazine," also writes, "Try to imagine The New Yorker running this about Matthew McConaughey, or Michael Fassbender. Sadly, this kind of fawning isn't unusual, as far as profiles of attractive actresses go … but I prefer my glossy-mag sexism sans highbrow pretensions."

Kay Steiger of Talking Points Memo doesn't mince words either, calling Lane's profile "gross." It's also indicative of another issue, she says: the dearth of female editors at major magazines.

And here's Lane's profile, "HER AGAIN: The unstoppable Scarlett Johansson."

Look, she's a smokin' hot movie star. But for idiot leftist feminists, to notice ScarJo's a smokin' hot movie star is "objectification" and all "uncle creepy" sexism.

Seriously. You can't win with idiot progressives. They're terrible people who've bled the lusty fun out of life --- and believe me when I say I know about this first hand, the f-kers.

(Thankfully, the New York Post isn't so obsessed with political correctness, at that top Twitter link.)

Lucy Pinder for Nuts March 2014

She's often called the "perfect" gal.

Honestly, it's hard to disagree on that count. What a beauty.

At Egotastic!, "Lucy Pinder Lingerie Goodness for Feel Good Feelings."

UCSB Police Department Releases Report on Professor Mireille Miller-Young

Instapundit snarks, "Lefty thinking in a nutshell."

At the Santa Barbara Independent, "UCSB Police Department Releases Professor-Protester Incident Report: Mireille Miller-Young Said She Had ‘Moral Right’ to Take and Destroy Anti-Abortion Activists’ Sign":

The UC Santa Barbara Police Department has released its official report on the confrontation between Professor Mireille Miller-Young and a group of anti-abortion activists during which Miller-Young stole one of the activists’ signs, tussled with a teen girl trying to get it back, and then destroyed the sign with the help of her students.

In the report, Miller-Young, who is pregnant, said she was “triggered” by the graphic images of aborted fetuses on the large posters and said she felt the demonstrators didn’t have a right to be on the university’s campus, because their messages were upsetting to her and students. When asked by police if there had been a struggle between her and the activists when she took the poster, Miller-Young responded, “I’m stronger, so I was able to take the poster.”

America's college campuses: literally the most f-ked-up places in the nation.

More.

Plus, background at the Other McCain, "Feminist Professors Gone Wild."

Reds Closer Aroldis Chapman Drilled by Line Drive, Hospitalized

Hardball. Never take the brutality of the game for granted. It's tough out there sometimes.

At Fox Spots, "Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman hospitalized after being hit in face by line drive."

And watch at MLB, "Chapman carried off on stretcher after hit in head." Be sure to RTWT.

Mick Jagger Statement on L'Wren Scott's Death

They were together for 10 years. He's crushed.

At Rolling Stone, "Mick Jagger on L'Wren Scott: 'I Will Never Forget Her'."

Suspected Immigrant Stash House Bust in Houston

Because our immigration system is working so well, and new immigrants are so law-abiding.

At LAT, "Authorities rescue 108 people from squalid Houston stash house."

Acting Ukrainian Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh: 'I Am Prepared to Die for My Country'

At Der Spiegel, "Interview with Ukrainian Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh":

SPIEGEL: Mr. Admiral, are you concerned about a possible war between Russia and Ukraine?

Tenyukh: The situation is serious. But our government is doing all it can to find a peaceful solution. I am proud of our officers and our soldiers on the Crimean peninsula. Despite the blockade imposed by Russian special units, they haven't allowed themselves to be provoked into firing a single shot.

SPIEGEL: Could that not also be a product of the Ukrainian army's weakness? Your ministry recently informed interim President Oleksandr Turchynov that only 6,000 soldiers out of a total of 41,000, and just one in six airplanes, are available.

Tenyukh: Of course Russia is vastly superior. But we stand with our weapons at hand ready to defend the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Many young men are now reporting to bear arms. I too am prepared to die for my country.

SPIEGEL: Might Ukraine attempt to take back the Crimea if it is annexed by Russia following the referendum?

Tenyukh: That is a question for the political leadership of our country. This so-called referendum won't just be seen by Ukraine as a violation of international law, rather by the entire world.

SPIEGEL: Yet many people on the Crimean peninsula sympathize with Russia.

Tenyukh: But there are more people there who are opposed to being annexed by Russia.

More.

Also, "Ticking Timebomb: Moscow Moves to Destabilize Eastern Ukraine," and "Crimea Sanctions: Europe Should Impose Stiffer Penalties."

'The Man'

Aloe Blacc.

His new album is out, "Lift Your Spirit."

Go ahead and tell everybody...

Girl, you can tell everybody
Yeah, you can tell everybody
Go ahead and tell everybody
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man
Yes, I am, yes, I am, yes, I am
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man

I believe every lie that I ever told
Paid for every heart that I ever stole
I paid my cause and I didn't fold
Well, it ain't that hard when you got soul
This is my world
Somewhere I heard that life is a test
I been though the worst but I still give my best
God made my mold different from the rest
Then he broke that mold so I know I'm blessed
This is my world

Stand up now and face the sun
Won't hide my tail or turn and run
It's time to do what must be done
Be a king when kingdom comes

Girl, you can tell everybody
Yeah, you can tell everybody
Go ahead and tell everybody
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man

Girl, you can tell everybody
Yeah, you can tell everybody
Go ahead and tell everybody
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man
Yes, I am, yes, I am, yes, I am
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man

I got all the answers to your questions
I'll be the teacher, you could be the lesson
I'll be the preacher, you be the confession
I'll be the quick relief to all your stressing
This is my world
It's a thin line between love and hate
Is you really real or is you really fake?
I'm a solider standing on my feet
No surrender and I won't retreat
This is my world

Stand up now and face the sun
Won't hide my tail or turn and run
It's time to do what must be done
Be a king when kingdom comes

Girl, you can tell everybody
Yeah, you can tell everybody
Go ahead and tell everybody
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man

Girl, you can tell everybody
Yeah, you can tell everybody
Go ahead and tell everybody
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man
Yes, I am, yes, I am, yes, I am
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man

I'm the man
Go ahead and tell everybody what I'm saying y'all
I'm the man
Go ahead and tell everybody what I'm saying y'all

Girl, you can tell everybody
Yeah, you can tell everybody
Go ahead and tell everybody
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man

Girl, you can tell everybody
Yeah, you can tell everybody
Go ahead and tell everybody
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man

Girl, you can tell everybody
Yeah, you can tell everybody
Go ahead and tell everybody
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man

Girl, you can tell everybody
Yeah, you can tell everybody
Go ahead and tell everybody
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man
Yes, I am, yes, I am, yes, I am
I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man...

Days Passed Before Officials Acted on Malaysia Airlines Satellite Data

At the Wall Street Journal, "Critical Data Was Delayed in Search for Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight: Investigators Are Still Working to Recover From the Delay":

Four days went by before officials acted on satellite data showing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 flew for several hours away from the area being covered by a massive international search, people familiar with the matter said—a delay from which investigators are still working to recover.

The satellite's operator, Britain's Inmarsat PLC, on March 11 turned over to a partner company its data analysis and other documents indicating that the plane wasn't anywhere near the areas on either side of Malaysia where more countries and ships had been searching for three days since the plane disappeared. The documents included a map showing two divergent north and south corridors for the plane's route stretching some 3,000 miles from the plane's last previously known location, the people said.

The information was relayed to Malaysian officials by Wednesday, March 12, the people said. Inmarsat also shared the same information with British security and air-safety officials on Wednesday, according to two of the people, who were briefed on the investigation.

Two additional people familiar with the Malaysian side of the probe said the information could have arrived in Kuala Lumpur as late as the morning of March 13.

Malaysia's government, concerned about corroborating the data and dealing with internal disagreements about how much information to release, didn't publicly acknowledge Inmarsat's information until March 15, during a news conference with Prime Minister Najib Razak. Malaysia began to redirect the search effort that day to focus on the areas the information described, and said for the first time that deliberate actions were involved in the plane's disappearance.

The disclosures about how the information made its way into the investigation underline how international efforts to find the plane have been repeatedly marred by distrust among the countries involved, confusion in many of Malaysia's public statements, and criticism from many countries that has led some to suspend or change their search efforts in frustration.

The lost days and wasted resources have threatened to impede the investigation, according to some officials involved with the probe.

The delay also means that 12 days after Flight 370 vanished, investigators are still refining search maps, dividing regions to cover and seeking satellite-surveillance records from several countries along the routes the aircraft is now suspected of taking...

Yes, and it's not hard to understand the anger of all the passengers' families.

More at that top link.

RELATED: At the New York Times, "Newly Detected Objects Draw Searchers for Malaysian Plane," and "Plane Debris Would Be Modest Clue Two Weeks After a Crash, Experts Say."

#Ukraine Abandons Its Military Bases in Crimea

At WSJ, "Military Personnel and Their Families Would Move to Mainland Ukraine."

Revolt Against the Testing Tyrants

From Michelle Malkin:

Have you had enough of the testing tyranny? Join the club. To be clear: I’m not against all standardized academic tests. My kids excel on tests. The problem is that there are too damned many of these top-down assessments, measuring who knows what, using our children as guinea pigs and cash cows.

College-bound students in Orange County, Fla., for example, now take a total of 234 standardized diagnostic, benchmark and achievement tests from kindergarten through 12th grade. Reading instructor Brian Trutschel calculated that a typical 10th-grade English class will be disrupted 65 out of 180 school days this year alone for mandatory tests required by the state and district. “It’s a huge detriment to instruction,” he told the Orlando Sentinel last month. The library at one Florida middle school is closed for a full three months out of the 10-month school year for computerized assessments.

“It’s horrible, because all we do is test,” Nancy Pace, the school’s testing coordinator, told the newspaper. “There’s something every month.” My Colorado 8th-grader has been tied up all week on her TCAPs (Transitional Colorado Assessment Program), which used to be called CSAPs (Colorado Student Assessment Program), which will soon be replaced by something else.

Now, pile on the latest avalanche of federal pilot testing schemes tied to the Common Core racket. When they’re not preoccupied with getting ready for Iowa basic skills tests, NAEPs, ACTs, PSATs, revamped SATs, CLEPs, FCATs, TCAPs and scores of other state exams, American kids will be busy testing new tests. Because the Common Core testing scheme mandates computerized administration and because the tests incorporate bandwidth-hogging videos and graphics, school districts across the country must spend gobs of time and money on test preparation.

The San Francisco Unified School District shelled out more than $800,000 this year for new computers, keyboards and headsets for testing, and will buy 5,300 Apple computers next year to start standardizing the district on a single operating system, according to the EdSource.org website. Rural students will be yanked out of the classroom and herded on buses over the course of several days to get to tech-connected districts, where they will spend several hours each day (on top of hours of travel) taking experimental Common Core-aligned field tests that won’t count until next year.

The federally funded testing consortium called PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers), which raked in $186 million through Race to the Top to develop nationalized tests tied to the top-down Common Core program, will dragoon more than one million students into field testing this spring. The other federally funded testing consortium, the $180-million tax-subsidized Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, was supposed to start field tests this week for three million students in 23 states. But last-minute “glitches” have delayed the untested tests by at least a week, disrupting district instructional plans and calendars in 20,000 schools — and in some cases, interfering with other test schedules for high-stakes Advanced Placement and SAT exams that do count. Parents, teachers and administrators are fed up with Fed Ed...

Indeed.

Continue reading.

Russia Swallows Crimea? Check. Next Stop Estonia

Another reminder of why the 1930s analogy works.

At the Sydney Morning Herald, "Moscow signals concern for Russians in Estonia":

Geneva: Russia signalled concern on Wednesday at Estonia's treatment of its large ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state with what it said was a call in Ukraine to prevent the use of Russian.

Russia has defended its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula by arguing it has the right to protect Russian-speakers outside its borders, so the reference to linguistic tensions in another former Soviet republic comes at a highly sensitive moment.

Russia fully supported the protection of the rights of linguistic minorities, a Moscow diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to a summary of the session issued by the UN's information department.

"Language should not be used to segregate and isolate groups," the diplomat was reported as saying. Russia was "concerned by steps taken in this regard in Estonia as well as in Ukraine", the Moscow envoy was said to have added.

Yes, and Russia needs Lebensraum, no doubt.

More at that top link.

Relatives of Missing Flight 370 Passengers Dragged Away at Press Conference

At NYT, "Distraught Relatives of Missing Flight 370 Passengers Dragged Away From TV Cameras by Malaysian Officials."

'Rape Culture' Fraud

Be sure to tweet this out to Professor Caroline Heldman, who's foisting this fraud on campus, and in TED talks as well, I'm sure.

From KC Johnson, at Minding the Campus, "Unmasking a Delusion":

Anyone who follows the contemporary media closely is doubtless familiar with the suddenly ubiquitous phrase "rape culture." In the context of higher education, the phrase implies two interlocking beliefs. First: despite crime statistics showing sexual assault (as well as all violent crimes) to be very uncommon on campus, colleges and universities are, in fact, hotbeds of rape (but not, it appears, of all other violent crimes). Second: despite the fact that most college faculties and nearly all administrations are extraordinarily sympathetic to the activists' position on gender issues, the campus culture over which these figures preside nonetheless--somehow--actually encourages the prevalence of rape at college.

That little, if any, evidence exists to sustain either of these beliefs has not deterred the "rape culture" believers; if anything, the lack of evidence for their claims appears to have emboldened them. Nor have they been deterred by the revelation of high-profile false rape claims on campus (ranging from the Duke lacrosse case to the Caleb Warner affair at North Dakota); if anything, the increasing build-up of sympathy for clearly railroaded males has intensified the rage of those who discern a "rape culture" on campus...

Keep reading.

Time Mag Rolls Out Web Redesign as Newsweek Returns to Print

At Ad Age.

While Newsweek botched its return to print, I've been enjoying Time Magazine's new website. It's quite user-friendly. Their journalism's often very good, including recent pieces from smart contributors like Camille Paglia.

Interesting, in any case.

Not Your Father's Cold War

From Jonah Goldberg, at the Los Angeles Times:

Will everyone please stop talking about a new Cold War?

However badly things work out between Russia and the United States and the West, a new Cold War isn't in the cards because Russia today isn't the Soviet Union. Sure, we are in a diplomatic and geostrategic conflict with Russia, which was the heart of the old Soviet Union. Also, Russia wants much of the real estate that belonged to the Soviet Union before it collapsed. And Vladimir Putin is a former KGB colonel who now waxes nostalgic for the good old days. That's about it.

That's hardly nothing, but the Cold War was far more than a conflict with Russia. Everyone should agree on that. Communism, anti-communism and anti-anti-communism divided Americans for decades, particularly among academic and media elites. Right and left may still argue over the merits of those divisions, but no informed person disputes that the topic of communism — the real version and the imagined ideal — incited riots of intellectual and political disagreement in the West for a half century.

Meanwhile, Putin's ideology holds little such allure to Americans or the populations of the European Union. With the exception of a few cranky apologists and flacks, it's hard to find anyone in the West openly defending Putin on the merits. And even those who come close are generally doing so in a backhanded way to criticize U.S. policies or the Obama administration. The dream of a "greater Russia" or a "Eurasian Union" simply does not put fire in the minds of men — non-Russian men, at least — the way the dream of global socialist revolution once did. And that's a good thing.

Cranky flacks? Like the "realist" apologists for Putin?

Heh.

Continue reading.

How Putin Parried Obama's Overtures on Crimea

At WSJ, "Five Years After Russia 'Reset,' Ukraine Crisis Shows Limits of U.S. Approach" (via Google):

LONDON—U.S. officials negotiating with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over the future of Ukraine were surprised last week after the experienced diplomat excused himself to phone President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

His making such a call wasn't unusual: Mr. Lavrov often sought instructions from the Kremlin leader. The Americans were stunned, however, when Mr. Lavrov reported that Mr. Putin had refused to take his call.

Coming during the final U.S. attempts to preserve the modern borders of Europe, the episode with Mr. Lavrov here last week underscored the Obama administration's inability to penetrate the Kremlin and its struggles to comprehend Mr. Putin's calculations five years after President Barack Obama decided to reset Washington's ties with Moscow.

Russia's rapid move this week to absorb Crimea came despite breakneck U.S. diplomatic efforts, showing the limits of that approach with Moscow and marking a renewed chill with an expansionist-minded partner still seen as vital to core American interests around the world.

The Obama administration is now left crafting a more confrontational policy toward Mr. Putin, but it remains unclear how far it will go. The inner workings of the Obama administration's diplomatic push, including Mr. Lavrov's phone call, were described by several senior U.S., European and Russian officials who were familiar with the recent negotiations.

Since the crisis over Ukraine erupted last month, the White House gave Secretary of State John Kerry the task of aggressively engaging Mr. Lavrov. But the administration soon concluded that the Soviet-trained bureaucrat wasn't empowered to cut deals on the Kremlin's plans to annex Ukraine's Crimean region.

The White House, sensing its isolation from Mr. Putin, desperately set about to find alternate channels to influence Russia's strongman and to step up Mr. Obama's outreach to him, according to senior U.S. officials.

The moves included establishing back channels with Moscow-friendly foreign leaders. Mr. Obama phoned German Chancellor Angela Merkel multiple times, as well as British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President François Hollande, and reached out to Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's ruler, the White House said. Mr. Kerry has met with Israel's Russian-born foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, at least once, U.S. and Israeli officials said. The efforts didn't seem to have much impact. (Mr. Nazarbayev recognized the Kremlin's annexation of Crimea on Tuesday.)

Mr. Obama in four phone calls with Mr. Putin over the past month totaling 4½ hours also failed to make headway with a leader he had cultivated as a crucial ally in trying to roll back the spread of nuclear weapons and international terrorism.

This dynamic created a growing unease in Washington that Mr. Putin was simply using diplomacy—and Mr. Lavrov—as political cover for moving his forces into Crimea and possibly greater Ukraine. Mr. Lavrov repeatedly assured Mr. Kerry that Russia planned to respect Ukraine's borders.

Kremlin officials have said Russia's diplomatic efforts were genuine. Mr. Lavrov couldn't be reached for comment...

That's rich.

Keep reading.

The Iraq War: George W. Bush's Speech 11 Years Later

The video says "10 years later," but it came out last year, heh.

Russia Swallows Crimea — Ukrainian Soldier Killed as Shots Fired at Military Base

At LAT, "Russia signs treaty to annex Ukraine's Crimea region." And London's Daily Mail, "A step closer to all-out war: One Ukrainian officer shot dead, one militia killed and dozens rounded up by masked gunmen at under-siege Crimean army base as interim PM says crisis with Russia has moved from political to military."

Plus, at NYT, "Putin Reclaims Crimea for Russia and Bitterly Denounces the West":

MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin reclaimed Crimea as a part of Russia on Tuesday, reversing what he described as a historic injustice inflicted by the Soviet Union 60 years ago and brushing aside international condemnation that could leave Russia isolated for years to come.

In an emotional address steeped in years of resentment and bitterness at perceived slights from the West, Mr. Putin made it clear that Russia’s patience for post-Cold War accommodation, much diminished of late, had finally been exhausted. Speaking to the country’s political elite in the Grand Kremlin Palace, he said he did not seek to divide Ukraine any further, but he vowed to protect Russia’s interests there from what he described as Western actions that had left Russia feeling cornered.

“Crimea has always been an integral part of Russia in the hearts and minds of people,” Mr. Putin declared in his address, delivered in the chandeliered St. George’s Hall before hundreds of members of Parliament, governors and others. His remarks, which lasted 47 minutes, were interrupted repeatedly by thunderous applause, standing ovations and at the end chants of “Russia, Russia.” Some in the audience wiped tears from their eyes.

A theme coursing throughout his remarks was the restoration of Russia after a period of humiliation following the Soviet collapse, which he has famously called “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.”

He denounced what he called the global domination of one superpower and its allies that emerged. “They cheated us again and again, made decisions behind our back, presenting us with completed facts,” he said. “That’s the way it was with the expansion of NATO in the East, with the deployment of military infrastructure at our borders. They always told us the same thing: ‘Well, this doesn’t involve you.’ ”

The speed of Mr. Putin’s annexation of Crimea, redrawing an international border that has been recognized as part of an independent Ukraine for 23 years, has been breathtaking and so far apparently unstoppable.

While his actions, which the United States, Europe and Ukraine do not recognize, provoked renewed denunciations and threats of tougher sanctions and diplomatic isolation, it remained unclear how far the West was willing to go to punish Mr. Putin. The leaders of what had been the Group of 8 nations announced they would meet next week as the Group of 7, excluding Russia from a club Russia once desperately craved to join.

Certainly the sanctions imposed on Russia ahead of Tuesday’s steps did nothing to dissuade Mr. Putin, as he rushed to make a claim to Crimea that he argued conformed to international law and precedent.

More.

And at WaPo, "As U.S. ponders next moves on Crimea, experts rethink NATO’s defense posture."

The Price of Failed Leadership

From Mitt Romney, at the Wall Street Journal:

Why are there no good choices? From Crimea to North Korea, from Syria to Egypt, and from Iraq to Afghanistan, America apparently has no good options. If possession is nine-tenths of the law, Russia owns Crimea and all we can do is sanction and disinvite—and wring our hands.

Iran is following North Korea's nuclear path, but it seems that we can only entreat Iran to sign the same kind of agreement North Korea once signed, undoubtedly with the same result.

Our tough talk about a red line in Syria prompted Vladimir Putin's sleight of hand, leaving the chemicals and killings much as they were. We say Bashar Assad must go, but aligning with his al Qaeda-backed opposition is an unacceptable option.

And how can it be that Iraq and Afghanistan each refused to sign the status-of-forces agreement with us—with the very nation that shed the blood of thousands of our bravest for them?

Why, across the world, are America's hands so tied?

A large part of the answer is our leader's terrible timing. In virtually every foreign-affairs crisis we have faced these past five years, there was a point when America had good choices and good options. There was a juncture when America had the potential to influence events. But we failed to act at the propitious point; that moment having passed, we were left without acceptable options. In foreign affairs as in life, there is, as Shakespeare had it, "a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries."

Keep reading.

And from Seth Mandel, at Commentary, "Romney’s Vindication Is Complete."

Two Dead in Helicopter Crash Near Seattle Space Needle

At the Seattle Times, "‘Unusual noise’ before helicopter crashed near Space Needle."

And a news roundup at the Lede, "TV News Helicopter Crashes in Seattle, Killing at Least Two."

Mariah Carey Rocks a Shamrock and Bikini to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day

Well, I know there's more important news with Putin's national address on Crimea today. But that'll have to wait for this equally important update on yesterday's St. Patrick's Day celebrations.

At London's Daily Mail, "'Shamrock not permanent, just for laughs!': Mariah Carey shows her St Patrick's Day spirit and a new tattoo while in a bikini."

Mysterious Lack of Cellphone Calls from Missing Flight MH370

One of my biggest questions this whole time, since the plane went missing. How come we haven't heard from any of the passengers?

At the New York Times, "Questions Over Absence of Cellphone Calls From Missing Flight’s Passengers":

SEPANG, Malaysia — When hijackers took control of four airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, and sent them hurtling low across the countryside toward New York and Washington, frantic passengers and flight attendants turned on cellphones and air phones and began making calls to loved ones, airline managers and the authorities.

But when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 did a wide U-turn in the middle of the night over the Gulf of Thailand and then spent nearly half an hour swooping over two large Malaysian cities and various towns and villages, there was apparently silence. As far as investigators have been able to determine, there have been no phone calls, Twitter or Weibo postings, Instagram photos or any other communication from anyone aboard the aircraft since it was diverted.

There has been no evidence “of any number they’re trying to contact, but anyway they are still checking and there are millions of records for them to process,” said Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, at a news conference on Monday.

The apparent absence of any word from the aircraft in an era of nearly ubiquitous mobile communications has prompted considerable debate among pilots, telecommunications specialists and others. Most of the people aboard the plane were from Malaysia or China, two countries where mobile phone use is extremely prevalent, especially among affluent citizens who take international flights.

Some theorize the silence signifies that the plane was flying too high for personal electronic devices to be used. Others wonder whether people aboard the flight even tried to make calls or send messages.

According to military radar, the aircraft was flying extremely high shortly after its turn — as much as 45,000 feet, above the certified maximum altitude of 43,100 feet for the Boeing 777-200. It then descended as it crossed Peninsular Malaysia, flying as low as 23,000 feet before moving up to 29,500 feet and cruising there.

Vincent Lau, an electronics professor specializing in wireless communications at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said that the altitude might have prevented passengers’ cellphones from connecting to base stations on the ground even if the phones were turned on during the flight or had been left on since departure.

The hijacked planes on Sept. 11 were flying very low toward urban targets when passengers and flight attendants made calls from those aircraft, he said.

Base station signals spread out considerably over distance. So cellphones in a plane a few miles up, like Flight 370, would receive little if any signal, he said...

And another thing: Terrorists usually claim responsibility, make demands on target nations, and crow about how they brought death and destruction to hated enemies, blah blah. Where are the claims and crowing? Terrorism's pretty pointless if no one's able to make political hay out of it.

'Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On...'

From yesterday's drive-time at the Sound L.A., "10at10: 3/17 Shaking Songs."

And if you have time, get a kick out of this Steve Allen segment in full, featuring Jerry Lee. Amazing, prodigious advertising all over the place. Quite a throwback.

If Crimea can vote to join Russia...

You gotta love it:

If in less than a few days #Crimea can vote to join Russia; Then by this time next week... Welcome To Texas! #tcot pic.twitter.com/usur7gxa59

— Andy Wendt (@AndyWendt) March 16, 2014

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters: '100 Percent Certainty ... Putin Is Not Satisfied. He Will Take at Least Eastern and Southeastern #Ukraine When He's Ready...'

A great segment on last night's O'Reilly Factor:



ICYMI: "Can Sanctions Hurt Putin Enough to Make Him Give up Crimea?"

L'Wren Scott, Fashion Designer and Girlfriend to Mick Jagger, Has Died

She was millions in debt, apparently.

At the New York Times, "L’Wren Scott, Whose Designs Melded Daring and Sophistication, Dies at 49":

L’Wren Scott, a fashion designer whose creations were known for their discreet elegance, though with a soupçon of daring and glamour evoking her days as a celebrity stylist in Hollywood and her romantic partnership with Mick Jagger, was found dead on Monday in her Manhattan apartment. She was 49.

Pierre Rougier, a spokesman for Ms. Scott, confirmed the death. Two police officials said that the cause appeared to be suicide, but that the medical examiner had not yet made a determination.

Ms. Scott had earlier texted an assistant, asking her to come by the apartment, The Associated Press reported, quoting police officials. She was found kneeling with a scarf wrapped around her neck that had been tied to the handle of a French door, The A.P. said, adding that no note was found and that there was no sign of foul play.

Ms. Scott, whose work was sold in dozens of stores and included eyeglasses, handbags and fragrances, began marketing her own designs in 2006; they became known as especially suitable for the kind of leggy, statuesque woman she was herself.

Initially based on the idea of making the “little black dress” appropriate for women who want to appear both alluring and adult, her designs evolved to include wide variations on that theme.

Her signature gowns, worn by celebrities like Ellen Barkin, Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Kidman, were sheathlike, some with a chic, retro, businesslike flavor, others with a brassy, Op Art pattern or overlaid with a vivid embroidery winkingly drawn from various sources — the Victorians, say, or outer space — but always with an aura of sophistication. Ms. Scott’s designs, she said, were mindful of women’s sensitivity about their figures, something her clients appreciated.

“These dresses do extraordinary things to anybody,” Ms. Barkin told The New York Times in 2012, adding, “If I looked naked like I look in her dresses, I’d be very happy.”

More.

And at London's Daily Mail, "The moment Mick heard L'Wren was dead: Jagger's face is etched with grief after hearing 'embarrassed and millions in debt' fashion designer lover had killed herself." Also, "Tortured soul of a glamorous gazelle: L'Wren was only just recovering from 'self harm' incident a few weeks earlier."

Charles Krauthammer: Obama's 'Humiliating' Sanctions Against Russia

Humiliating for us. A "preposterous" response to Russia's brazen territorial revisionism.

The administration's not doing jack.



PREVIOUSLY: "Can Sanctions Hurt Putin Enough to Make Him Give up Crimea?"

March Madness? Administration Creates #ObamaCare Bracket Game

This is just freaky, at Truth Revolt.

Can you say desperate much? Gawd, this is so pathetic it's like DOOM!

More at AoSHQ, "Of Course: Obama Using March Madness Brackets to Sell ObamaCare":

Obama's dwindling fans are encouraged to fill out their own brackets, in which the "Sweetest 16 Reasons to #GetCovered" will be competing as the best reason to sign up for bad, overpriced insurance.