Michele Bachmann Surges to Second in New WSJ/NBC Poll

At Washington Wire:

Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has stormed into second place among Republican primary voters in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, but former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney remains the front-runner, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

The poll, taken between July 14 and July 17, found continuing turmoil in the Republican race to be the “anti-Romney.” Mr. Romney remained the first choice of 30% of GOP primary voters in July, the same number as June. But beneath him, the stability ends.

Keep reading.

Texas. Gov. Rick Perry's looking pretty good there as well (and Ron Paul, who I ignore), but Tim Pawlenty's gotta be disappointed.

And while Romney remains the frontrunner, Bachmann's getting intense media scrutiny. See New York Times, for example, "Bachmann Says Migraines Won’t Be a Problem if She’s Elected President." That piece links to Daily Caller, "Stress-related condition ‘incapacitates’ Bachmann; heavy pill use Alleged."

And there's more. See Time, "Reporter Accosted After Bachmann Comments on Migraines." And it's ABC News reporter Brian Ross, who's very well-known. Apparently, he was rebuffed upon approaching Bachmann, and:

Ross dashed after Bachmann, repeatedly asking whether she had ever missed a House vote due to a migraine. She ignored him. Ross pursued her into a parking area behind the stage. Her aides grew alarmed. When Ross made a beeline for the white SUV waiting to carry Bachmann away, two Bachmann men pounced on him, grabbing and pushing him multiple times with what looked to me like unusual force. In fact, I have never seen a reporter treated so roughly at a campaign event, especially not a presidential one. Ross was finally able to break away and lob his question at Bachmann one more time, but she continued to ignore him.

Headaches. Wow. And this will be all over the broadcast news tonight.

More at Memeorandum.

ADDED: The full report at Wall Street Journal, "Bachmann Vaults Into Second Place in GOP Race."

Alternative Media is Today's Free Press

From George Scaggs, at Pajamas Media:

The rise of a new press is nothing less than an attempt to re-establish a free press — an essential component of a free society. Sadly, this too has also been misconstrued and confused in the public mind. In our modern age, everything is politicized precisely because government has involved itself in virtually all aspects of life. Having willingly assumed a supporting role in advancing the concept of government which infinitely expands in size and scope, big media has been a central player in this phenomenon.

Big media joins together with government, academia, and various corporate interests to constitute what Angelo Codevilla succinctly identified as “the Elite Ruling Class” in his prodigious essay on the subject.

This relatively minute class is adept at manipulating that plurality of Americans who have come to view the state as an entity that does “for them” rather than “to them,” creating a self-perpetuating momentum. Over time, modern society has become conditioned to adopt whatever this ruling class chooses to foist upon it. Anything goes, from light bulbs to TSA pat-downs.

Used as a tool to keep the whole sordid system propped up, one of big media’s primary roles is to simply parrot big government’s daily proclamations, aiding in creating the perception of omnipotence.

RTWT.

This reminds me of the John Hawkins debate on blogging. Bloggers help keep America free.

I might have more on this later today, but I'll be running around a bit. Hopefully soon though ...

VIDEO: Rupert Murdoch Attacked During Testimony at News Corporation Hearings

This just now at Telegraph UK, "Rupert Murdoch attacked by protester at committee."

The New York Times has earlier updates, "Latest Updates on Phone Hacking Scandal."

Steve Wynn: 'It's Obama That's Responsible for This Fear in America...'

I was just over on the North end of the Las Vegas Strip last week, and the Wynn properties looked fabulous. We haven't stayed there yet, but we will. They send us invitations for multi-night stays, but the schedule hasn't worked out so far. But listening to Wynn's conference call makes me want to speed it up. Business people know what it's like to create jobs, and in Las Vegas you see it first hand. People are working. They are bustling and making good money. Democrats want to kill it, and Wynn says business owners are waiting it out.

Joe Weisenthal has the commentary, "Wynn CEO Goes On Epic Anti-Obama Rant On Company Conference Call." And the full transcript's at Seeking Alpha, "Wynn Resorts' CEO Discusses Q2 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript":

Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America. You bet. And until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it's not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, "Oh God, don't be attacking Obama." Well, this is Obama's deal, and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America. The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution, and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest or holding too much money. We haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody's afraid of the government, and there's no need to soft peddling it, it's the truth. It is the truth. And that's true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I'm telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he's gone, everybody's going to be sitting on their thumbs.

Japan Stuns U.S. in Women's World Cup Final

I watched the final period and caught the Amy Wambach goal. The penalty kick final was something else. Japan's team had some magic going, and their goalie was on fire.

At Los Angeles Times, "Sentimental favorite Japan stuns betting favorite U.S. in Women's World Cup final":

It was the most gut-wrenching, most emotional and most dramatic final in the history of the Women's World Cup.

It produced the most surprising, most gloriously happy and most deserving world champion women's soccer has yet seen.

As far as Sunday nights in Frankfurt go, this one will take some beating. As far as fairy tales go, even Germany's Grimm Brothers could not have penned this story.

Japan, riding the emotions of a domestic tragedy and the overwhelming goodwill of neutral fans worldwide, won the sixth Women's World Cup, defeating the United States, 3-1 on penalty kicks, after a 2-2 tie in extra time.

Twice, the Japanese were on the canvas, or at least the green grass of Frankfurt's sold-out Commerzbank Arena. Twice, they got up off the ground and tied the score.

When it came down to penalty kicks, the Americans strangely lost their nerve while the Japanese held theirs.

The result was that the U.S. failed in its attempt to become the first three-time world champion, while Japan succeeded in becoming Asia's first Women's World Cup winner — barely four months after the nation was devastated by a magnitude 9 earthquake and a deadly tsunami.

RTWT.

RELATED: Steve Sailer, "Diversity Is Strength! — It’s Also, Paradoxically, All-White US Women's Soccer."

Click here for video [YouTube pulled].

British Prime Minister On the Defensive

At LAT:

Reporting from London— After barely a year as Britain's prime minister, David Cameron is facing the gravest crisis of his political career, forced onto the defensive by a spiraling phone-hacking scandal that has sown turmoil in the press, Scotland Yard and the hallowed halls of No. 10 Downing Street.

Cameron came under increasingly heavy fire Monday for appointing a former tabloid editor, Andy Coulson, as his communications director, bringing into his inner circle a man now suspected of conspiring to hack into people's cellphones and of bribing police officers for information. Coulson, who resigned as the government's chief spin doctor in January, was arrested last week.

Normally sure-footed and silver-tongued, the prime minister has struggled to rebut accusations that he displayed alarmingly poor judgment in hiring Coulson over the reservations of other senior politicians and that he cultivated inappropriately close ties with executives working for media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

"He was warned and warned about Andy Coulson," said Jonathan Tonge, a politics professor at the University of Liverpool. "This is Cameron's first crisis for which he is solely accountable."

More at top link.

On Making Love and Having Sex

From David Solway, at Pajamas Media (via Instapundit):

Today there is no doubt that we tend compulsively to think in terms of object, function, or mechanism whenever we consider the incalculably human. Love is something to be “worked at” like a problem in mathematics that must be solved for the sake of its practical application. Friendship is called a “support system.” A Pascalian terror before the cold immensity of the universe is excessive “stress,” as if one were absorbing too much force for the mental “structure” to distribute and resolve successfully. For post-structuralists, a novel or a poem is only the manifestation of an “abstract model.” Wisdom is a kind of “flexible adaptability.” Desire is libidinal “tension” which must be “discharged.” And what was once called “making love,” an expression that however glibly it was employed still retained the implication of a genetic mystery, is today airily dismissed as “having sex,” a phrase which seems to concede in the direction of honesty but really betrays our attitude of therapeutic mechanism — like having an enema, a check-up, or an operation. Sex is an excellent way of running the machine.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Seeks Limits on U.S. Aid to Pakistan, Palestinian Authority

At Astute Bloggers, "GOP LED HOUSE MOVES TO LIMIT AID TO PAKISTAN AND THE 'PALESTINIANS'."

THIS ONCE AGAIN PROVES WHY ELECTIONS MATTER...

'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'

A really well-done video montage, a wakerupper:

Borders to Close All Stores

At Wall Street Journal, "Borders Forced to Liquidate, Close All Stores":

Borders Group Inc. said it would liquidate after the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain failed to receive any offers to save it.

Borders, which employs about 10,700 people, scrapped a bankruptcy-court auction scheduled for Tuesday amid the dearth of bids. It said it would ask a judge Thursday to approve a sale to liquidators led by Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Group.

The company said liquidation of its remaining 399 stores could start as soon as Friday, and it is expected to go out of business for good by the end of September.

RTWT.

Seems weird. For a long time I enjoyed Borders more than Barnes and Noble. But times change.

News of the World vs. WikiLeaks

From Bret Stephens, at Wall Street Journal:

It's probably inevitable that this column will be read in some quarters as shilling for Rupert Murdoch. Not at all: I have nothing but contempt for the hack journalism practiced by some of the Murdoch titles. But my contempt goes double for the self-appointed media paragons who saw little amiss with Mr. Assange and those who made common cause with him, and who now hypocritically talk about decency and standards. Their day of reckoning is yet to come.

Rupert Murdoch Tuesday Testimony Before British Parliament

A big report at Wall Street Journal, "Showdown Time Comes for Murdoch: Reputations at Stake as News Corp. CEO Testifies Before U.K. Panel on Tabloid-Hacking Scandal."

Tuesday's scheduled appearance by Rupert Murdoch before a panel of U.K. lawmakers was prompted by a phone-hacking scandal dogging News Corp. But it is the culmination of a 40-year love-hate power struggle between the News Corp. chief and Britain's public and politicians.

At stake is both the reputation of a global empire—which has 51,000 employees and annual revenue of $32 billion—and the level of support that the Murdoch family, particularly Rupert and his son James, will have among investors.

RELATED: At Telegraph UK, "Sean Hoare, the News of the World whistleblower, found dead."

Herman Cain Stands Up for Israel

At LAT, "Herman Cain to Iran: 'If you mess with Israel you're messing with the USA'."

And get your Herman Cain fix at The Other McCain.

Gay Men's Penis Sizes

Here's the Traditional Values Coalition petition against federal funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Some grant money goes to gay penis size research, apparently. See Daily Caller, "Feds pay for study of gay men’s penis sizes."

Actually, there's been some serious research on this, starting back in the 1930s: "The Relation Between Sexual Orientation and Penile Size." One suggestion is that gay men were more likely to lie about length and girth, and hence the finding of greater penis size among gay men. Weird, I know. The problem is that NIH is still funding this type of research, for example, "The Association Between Penis Size and Sexual Health Among Men Who Have Sex with Men." The abstract's at the link, and you have to admit it's pretty fascinating:

Men with below average penises were significantly more likely to identify as “bottoms” (anal receptive) and men with above average penises were significantly more likely to identify as “tops” (anal insertive). Finally, men with below average penises fared significantly worse than other men on three measures of psychosocial adjustment. Though most men felt their penis size was average, many fell outside this “norm.” The disproportionate number of viral skin-to-skin STIs (HSV-2 and HPV) suggest size may play a role in condom slippage/breakage. Further, size played a significant role in sexual positioning and psychosocial adjustment. These data highlight the need to better understand the real individual-level consequences of living in a penis-centered society.

Well, that's scientific language for who's on top, etc. And this bit about the "penis-centered society." That sounds more from radical gender studies than queer theories. But who knows? I had no idea these were academic specializations while I was in grad school.

See also Fox News, "NIH-Backed Study Examined Effects of Penis Size in Gay Community."

RELATED: At Jawa Report, "Bringing New Meaning To 'Stimulus' Dollars."

LulzSec Targets Murdoch-Owned Papers

At New York Daily News, "Turnabout: Internet hackers attack Rupert Murdoch, wreak havoc with The Sun's website." And New York Times, "Lulz Security Says It Hacked News Corporation Sites."

This is pretty nasty, but it's hard to feel bad for News International. Check The Real Sabu on Twitter.

And at Telegraph UK, "The Sun's website 'hacked by LulzSec'":

On Twitter, LulzSec also claimed to have hacked into News International email accounts and began posting what appeared to be passwords to individual email addresses as well as mobile numbers for editorial staff.

There were some indications that the information accessed may have been several years old.

One tweet mentioned a Sun email address for Rebekah Wade - the unmarried name of Rebekah Brooks, News International's chief executive.

Mrs Brooks has used her married name since 2009 and she left the The Sun to become a News International executive the same year.

It also posted a mobile number for Pete Picton, a former Sun online editor who left .

Also at TechCrunch, "Updated: The Sun and News International sites hacked, Lulzsec claims responsibility" (via Mediagazer).

'I'm seriously considering staying with Blogger'

That's Ann Althouse, and I've seriously considered leaving Blogger.

Well, so much for role models!!

Danny Ayalon: The Truth About the West Bank

An outstanding clip, via Theo Spark:

Dan Riehl Responds to the 'Slow, Painful Coming Death' of the Conservative Blogosphere

I guess John Hawkins hit a nerve.

Dan Riehl responds, "John Boy Hawkins Gots 'dem Cosmic Conservative Blogosphere Blues."

This part echoes some of my thoughts from last night:

... when it comes to what John seems to be lamenting, that lone, sometimes howling voice of the true Indie blogger - as I see myself when writing here at my site and not for Breitbart Media, it will always be something of a haphazard, hard to make a living effort done for love of something, perhaps America or a particular political ideology, for most. It's not a bug it's a feature, as Instapundit might say. But it's damned important that people do it and should be to you for its own sake if you plan on staying with it for any length of time; otherwise, you'll only get discouraged and go away. There's nothing new in that.

Dan's thoughts don't really make me adjust mine. If nobody's reading your blog it's hard to stay motivated. Do we need to consolidate into some kinda big-business model, as John suggests? Probably not. But blogging's gotten way more professionalized. The big media outlets have eaten up a lot of the space on the Internet. Readers will have less incentive to search out the niche blogs when there's so much alternative content sponsored by big guns in the background. It's tricky. But Dan's right that there's nothing new in the online patriots pounding out a platform, and hopefully some of these folks break through for the recognition.

When I was checking the blog rankings last night, The Lonely Conservative came up #57 on Technorati --- and that's really impressive, as Lonely Conservative often mentions the limited time she has for blogging. Congratulations!

Anyway, more later. I'll be checking into the Wordpress switch over I was talking about. A little change can keep the blog fires burning.

James O'Keefe Uncovers Medicaid Fraud

At Daily Caller, "New O’Keefe investigation uncovers Medicaid fraud [VIDEO]."

Also at Hot Air, "O’Keefe’s latest sting target: Medicaid bureaucrats."

And at O'Keefe's website, "Project Veritas Investigates: Medicaid."

Progressive Trolls? Update on W. James Casper, Commissar of State Security, People's Commissariat for Internet Affairs

The Lonely Conservative responds to John Hawkins and American Power: "The Death of Independent Conservative Blogs?"

Last night I mentioned how my comment threads have been destroyed by progressives, and she writes:

I know what he means about the progressive trolls. Sigh.

Yeah. Sigh.

That reminds me of W. James Casper.

I continue to have private communications with readers who indicate they've never seen someone as evil as this. He's a communist storm trooper, and ultimately I see no difference between W. James Casper's hardline program and the totalitarian terrorism of the insurgents at this video.

He's a bad man: