Americans Continue to Give Obama Low Marks on the Economy

At Gallup:

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

He sucks.

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

Grim Cycle: Black Communities Struggle to Break the Killing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vice President Biden Should Apologize for 'Back in Chains'

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

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

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

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

Keep reading.

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

Trogloraptors

This is cool.

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

Referendum on Europe Gains Support in Germany

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read it all.

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

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

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

How Long Until Progressives Attack Paul Ryan's Mom?

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

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

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

Can You Really Trust the Pollsters?

Glenn Reynolds interviews Michael Barone:

Red Rover

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

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

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

Proving Media Bias

Via Pat Dollard:

'This' @AoSHQ

Yeah, "This" is rockin'!

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

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

Via PA Pundits International:

Toronto's al-Quds Day Hate Fest

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

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

And "Al Duds Day In Toronto."

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

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

At least Dodo indeed can spell.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vaginas vote! Make your uterus heard!

Yeah, way to respect women!

Here's this from Allison Sesso on Twitter:

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

And endorsed by sex-starved Sandra Fluke:

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

With the obvious reply from RedGalBlueState:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fire Roy Edroso!

Well, maybe not fire him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Linked by Big Fur Hat. Thanks!

Sabine Jemeljanova at Egotastic!

She's a Latvian beauty.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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