Bank Robbery Suspects Toss Cash From SUV During Chase

At LAT, "Robbery suspects toss cash into air during pursuit":

Even in the land of police chases, it was a wild ride.

A pair of bank robbery suspects Wednesday led cops on a bizarre, dangerous pursuit, hurling fistfuls of stolen cash from their car in a failed getaway bid that sent hundreds of people scrambling into the path of oncoming police cars as they lunged after the flying bills.

Although it was almost certainly a self-serving gambit meant to slow their pursuers, the robbery suspects' decision to share the loot in such brazen fashion made them instant heroes to many in the impoverished South L.A. neighborhoods where the chase came to an end.

PHOTOS: Bank robbery suspects toss money
"It's our neighborhood stimulus package!" laughed Diane Dorsey, who watched the bedlam unfold from her front yard at the corner of Kansas and Vernon avenues.

"Kids were smiling like it was Christmas," added a neighbor, who gave only his first name, Desean.

More than a few compared the suspects to a certain folk outlaw known for robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Los Angeles Police spokesman Cmdr. Andy Smith tried to knock down such talk. "Robin Hood is not how I would describe these guys," he said. "It's just the worst side of human nature."

The made-for-Hollywood chase began 40 miles to the north in Santa Clarita...

Continue reading.

U.S. Denies Warnings on Embassy Attacks

From John Hinderaker, at Power Line, "A NON-DENIAL DENIAL FROM THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION":

The Obama administration is denying the Independent’s report that it had warnings of possible attacks on diplomatic installations in the Middle East, but failed to act. Steve and I both wrote about the Independent story. Now Politico reports that the Obama administration indignantly denies the Independent report.

Only, if you look more closely, it isn’t much of a denial. Here is what the administration says about the claim that it had warnings of possible attacks:

Shawn Turner, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, emailed: “This is absolutely wrong. We are not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent.”

Of course, the Independent story didn’t say that the Obama administration had “actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent.” It said that “the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted,” but did nothing to step up security. The administration’s denial does not contradict the Independent’s statement, and the fact that the denial is phrased so narrowly suggests that the Independent’s report is, in fact, accurate.

RTWT.

The Independent's piece is here: "Revealed: inside story of US envoy's assassination — Exclusive: America 'was warned of embassy attack but did nothing'."

Ambassador Christopher Stevens Obituary

At the New York Times, "For Veteran Envoy, Return to Libya Was Full of Hope."

I just shake my head at the loss. He was a diplomat's diplomat.

And see yesterday's report at the Wall Street Journal, "Libya Attack Sparks Crisis: U.S. Sends Marines After Ambassador, Three Other Americans Killed; 'We Couldn't Stop Them'."

Chicago Teachers' Union's Occupy Che Protest

Via My Pet Jawa:

The editors at the New York Times, shilling for the White House, aren't pleased: "Chicago Teachers' Folly."

9/11/12 — The Day the Roof Fell In

From Walter Russell Mead, at Via Meadia:

Sometimes trouble blows up out of a clear blue sky. That’s what happened to the White House yesterday.

Coming out of the Democratic Convention, despite an uninspiring speech, President Obama had a united party and a comfortable bounce. While the economy was no great shakes, the President’s stewardship of foreign affairs helped give his administration an air of competence and professionalism. At a time when war-weary and terror-wary Americans, buffeted by storms at home and upheavals abroad, want nothing more than a quiet life, “no drama” Obama was ready to campaign as a safe and experienced steward of the national interest against a gaffe-prone challenger.

But that was before 9/11/12, the day the roof fell in. The Chicago teacher strike raised doubts about the President’s domestic leadership, the publication of Bob Woodward’s new book raised questions about his economic management and political skills, and 11 years to the day after the 9/11 attack, radical America-hating Islamists stormed the U.S. embassies in Cairo and Benghazi, assassinated the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others even as U.S. and Israeli relations sank to another low point.

Continue reading.

Michelle Malkin Slams Obama Administration's Dhimmitude

Man, she fired up and on fire!

And at Michelle's blog, "Egyptian faux-rage, deadly American dhimmitude, and the return of Islamic Rage Boy; Update: US Ambassador to Libya, Foreign Service officer, two Marines dead."

What a disgusting and disastrous, but wholly predictable, way to end this day. As you may have heard, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo chose the 11th anniversary of 9/11 to apologize for “hurt Muslim feelings” as radical Egyptian clerics stoked faux-rage over an obscure documentary attacking Islamic extremism. The Obama administration’s mortifying apology, of course, did not mollify the Muslim agitators. Appeasement has never mollified the practitioners of the Religion of Perpetual Outrage.

Naturally, the Muslim mob stormed the Embassy compound, anyway — and the pretextual violence spread to Libya, where an American State Department worker was killed today*

(UPDATE: FOUR killed, including the US Ambassador to Libya and Foreign Service information officer Sean Smith, along with TWO U.S. MARINES). The feckless State Department has deleted its groveling tweet and the White House is in pathetic damage control mode.

How Obama Radicalized the Middle East: Favored Islamists Over Secularists – The Timeline

At Maggie's Notebook: "The Creeping Obama Legacy of Islamization."

Where Were the Marines?

From Michael Patrick Leahy, at Big Government:

Early reports of the militant attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed our Ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans offer a confusing picture of the facts surrounding these murders.

CBS News is reporting that Ambassador Stevens suffocated to death while two Marines and an embassy staffer were shot to death. CBS also reported that more Marines were being sent to Libya. But these reports raise more questions than they answer...

Continue reading. And see Allahpundit, at Hot Air, "Report: U.S. consulate in Benghazi had no Marine protection."

PREVIOUSLY: "Body of Ambassador Chris Stevens Dragged Through Streets of Benghazi."

Mitt Romney Press Conference on Attacks on U.S. Mission in Libya

The GOP candidate made more news than the president, taking questions when the commander-in-chief wouldn't.

PREVIOUSLY: "JournoList Press Corps Interrogates Mitt Romney While Obama Administration's Foreign Policy Goes Down in Flames."

Lacey Banghard Topless Zoo Photo Outtakes September 2012

What a lady.

At Egotastic, "Humpday Huzzah! Lacey Banghard Topless Outtakes Bring Out Her Inner Animal."

Arab Spring Rage

Via Theo Spark:

About the Presidential Horse Race...

This ---> "OMG, Romney’s back, SURGE, Comeback Kid, clutching victory from jaws of defeat, nothing to fear but fear itself, it ain’t over ’till it’s over, I can see U.S. hockey victory over Obama from my poll, U.S.A.! U.S.A.! …"

Word.

And we'll be seeing more developments in public opinion. I think Team Romney's finding its stride with the adminstration FUBAR fiasco in the Middle East.

JournoList Press Corps Interrogates Mitt Romney While Obama Administration's Foreign Policy Goes Down in Flames

The Democrat-Media-Complex and allied establishment foreign policy "experts" have successfully turned one of the biggest foreign policy fiascos of this administration into a referendum on Mitt Romney's fitness to serve.

Huh, what?

You read that right. Here's AoSHQ on Twitter:

Now, as The Foreign Policy President's (TM) foreign policy bears bloody fruit, the press wants to know why Romney brought us to this pass.

— (he said ironically) (@AceofSpadesHQ) September 12, 2012

And see Twitchy, "Ace of Spades, NRO destroy ‘real journalists’ covering for Obama at Romney foreign policy presser."

Also from Katrina Trinko at National Review, "The Insane MSM Questions Romney Faced at Presser."

And at the Wall Street Journal, "Romney Offends the Pundits":

Tuesday's assaults on the U.S. Embassies in Benghazi and Cairo have injected foreign policy into the Presidential campaign, but suddenly the parsons of the press corps are offended by the debate. They're upset that Mitt Romney had the gall to criticize the State Department for a statement that the White House itself disavowed.

We're referring to the statement issued Tuesday under the headline "U.S. Embassy Condemns Religious Incitement." The statement came in response to Muslim protests against a 13-minute anti-Islamic video making the rounds on YouTube.

In response to anger in Egypt at the video, the Embassy in Cairo issued its statement saying that "The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims—as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions." It added that, "Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others."...

Mr. Romney reacted late Tuesday with his own statement: "I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks." He followed Wednesday with a press conference reinforcing his criticisms of the Administration's "mixed signals" on "our values."

The Obama Presidential campaign jumped on the remarks Wednesday as inappropriate, yet a "senior Administration official" had told the website Politico later on Tuesday night that "The statement by Embassy Cairo was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government." So the White House can walk away from its own diplomats, but Mr. Romney can't criticize them?...

The broader point is that the attacks on the embassies do raise questions about how America has fared in the world in the last four years. (See above.) Throughout his candidacy, Mr. Romney has supported the necessity of America's global leadership, sometimes against the wishes of Republican voters. His comments this week are consistent with that worldview, which is also consistent with that of every recent conservative President.

His political faux pax was to offend a pundit class that wants to cede the foreign policy debate to Mr. Obama without thinking seriously about the trouble for America that is building in the world.

BONUS: At the Lonely Conservative, "Video: Mitt Romney Statement on Embassy Attacks in Egypt and Libya – Updated" (via Memeorandum). Also at Weekly Standard, "Press Coordinates Question to Ask Romney," and NewsBusters, "Video: CBS and NPR Reporter Plot to Insure Romney's Asked If He Regrets Obama Critique."

Body of Ambassador Chris Stevens Dragged Through Streets of Benghazi

While depraved progressives are attacking Mitt Romney for criticizing the White House, reports indicate the Ambassador Stevens' dead body was dragged through the streets, in a burst of jihad-driven anti-Americanism — and also in what's reminiscent of the downing of the Black Hawk helicopters in Mogadishu in 1993, when the bodies of U.S. forces were dragged through the streets by Somali mobs.

The Gateway Pundit reports, "ISLAMISTS DRAG DEAD BODY OF US AMBASSADOR THROUGH THE STREETS OF BENGHAZI! (Updated) …Another Photo!"

Legacy media sources aren't reporting on this atrocity. The New York Times barely mentions the debauchery, "One photograph showed a man closely resembling Mr. Stevens apparently unconscious, his face seeming to be smudged with smoke and his eyes closed." A Google search turns up almost nothing specific, although International Business Times has this, "Libya Prophet Attack: Picture Shows US Ambassador Christopher Stevens Carried through Benghazi Streets [GRAPHIC IMAGE]." Following the link takes us to the Italian website, Corrierre della Sera, and its piece, "The final attempt to save the Ambassador Stevens."

IBD and other reports continue to suggest that "protesters" were attempting to transport Stevens to a hospital, but clearly a mob is parading the body around in frenzy of victory. Check that Gateway Pundit link, and also Atlas Shrugs, "LIBYA DECLARES WAR ON US: U.S. AMBASSADOR TO LIBYA, 3 OTHERS, KILLED IN ATTACK."

And at Israel Matzav, "It's come to this: Libyan 'protesters' dragged dead body of US ambasador through the streets of Benghazi."

President Obama Statement on Attacks on U.S. Diplomatic Missions

The president said the U.S. will seek "justice" following the attacks. And U.S. Marines are on the way to the region. We'll see how it goes throughout the day.

I'll be teaching today. More commentary and analysis this afternoon.

Mitt Romney Hammers Obama Administration's Response to Violence in Egypt and Libya

Freedom's Lighthouse reports, "Mitt Romney Hammers Initial Obama Administration Response to Attack on U.S. Embassy in Egypt." And at the Washington Times, "Romney hammers Obama over response to assaults on diplomatic missions."

More at WaPo, "Romney calls Obama administration response to Libya attacks ‘disgraceful’." (At Memeorandum.)

The progs are going apeshit over this, but no matter Romney's criticism, the attacks on Americans raise serious questions about the administration's foreign policy, and events could throw the presidential campaign into turmoil. Toby Harnden has more on that, "How murder of U.S. ambassador to Libya plunges Obama's re-election campaign into crisis." (At Memeorandum.)

Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens Killed in Attack on U.S. Consulate in Benghazi

My prayers and condolences go out to the ambassador's family, and to the families of the others who were killed in Libya.

The New York Times reports, "U.S. Envoy to Libya Is Killed in Attack: Died After Rockets Fired in Revenge for Anti-Muslim Film."

I'll of course have more on this story later today. Meanwhile, Jake Tapper reports, "The Politics (Ugh, Yes, the Politics) of the Attacks on the US Diplomatic Posts in Benghazi and Cairo." (Via Memeorandum.)

April Rose Maximum Exposure: Back to School Edition

She's smokin'!

Speaking of back to school, see the Los Angeles Times, "California community college board OKs new registration policies":

According to a recent survey by the chancellor's office, more than 470,000 students began the fall semester on waiting lists, unable to get classes they need, while overall enrollment dropped from about 2.9 million in the 2008-09 academic year to 2.4 million in 2011-12. The number of class sections offered, meanwhile, decreased from 522,727 in 2008-09 to 399,540 in 2011-12, a nearly 24% decline.

State funding was cut by $809 million since 2008.

"Some students will struggle for any number of reasons, but having said that we are at a point in time where we don't have as many resources as we used to and we've got to place some criteria around registration," Himelstein said. "This will place priority on students who are motivated and showing good progress above those who in some cases quite frankly are meandering through the system."

Harsh.

Nation Pauses to Reflect on September 11 — Progressives Mount Pathetic Political Attacks on Bush Administration

I spent the day teaching. Normally each year on September 11, and the day before or after, so that all my classes benefit from the discussion, I recall where I was that morning and how the terrorists attacked us. Although there were ceremonies around the country today, it seems that each year the nation is more detached from the day's events and 9/11 feels more like a plain old historical milestone. This is especially true for young people. If some of my students are 17 or 18-year-old freshmen then they were 6 or 7-year-olds in 2001. I always pull up on the projection screen the first chapter of The 9/11 Commission Report, "We Have Some Planes." Reviewing just a few paragraphs, using the example of American Airlines Flight 11, students are introduced to the shocking efficiency of the 19 terrorists on that clear late-summer day. Sometimes we have a lot of discussion. This year students seemed to have less knowledge of this history, and also less opinion of the war on terror. I try to impart the ways that the country has changed over these last few years, and that young people today are the generation of Americans living in the shadow of the largest attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor.

I thus tend to discuss September 11 as a matter of the civic culture. I don't talk politics. The attacks mean different things to different people, and I personally try to put myself in the shoes of the fallen, their families, and of the first responders. Unlike past years, there wasn't much of a dramatic build-up to the 2012 anniversary. But reading around the horn on my breaks and during office hours, it was amazing --- if not shocking, though I'm inured to it by now --- to see how intensely politicized the day became. Progressives really went after President Bush, of all people, and his administration. In Groundhog Day-like redundancy, the left replayed the old canard that the Bush administration failed to prevent the attacks and that the response to 9/11 was inept and morally bankrupt. Yeah, I know. Where have we heard those things before? Martin Longman at Booman Tribune really got off on some kind of supreme arrogance, to the effect that since he knew people --- that neighbors and co-workers suffered --- he had some elevated understanding of events. It's the moral fallacy of hubris --- again. Booman took the whole "I knew people who suffered" meme to the sickly opportunistic conclusion that we shouldn't politicize the day, unless of course it was to attack the hated Bush regime. So trite. So small. And so typical for the hate-addled progressives of the antiwar left. See, "Thoughts for 9/11." President Obama comes in for criticism too, conveniently, but since it was Bush in power at the time, clearly that's the "leadership" Booman decries.

And don't miss idiot Robert "Che" Farley piling on at Lawyers, Guns and Money. Read it at the link for the context, but slamming the Bush administration, our Patterson School national security "expert" writes: "...who knew that putting a staggeringly inept man surrounded by frauds, liars, and sociopaths into the White House could lead to bad things?"

Perfessor Farley is responding to Kurt Eichenwald's essay at today's New York Times, "The Bush White House Was Deaf to 9/11 Warnings." Folks can read it at the link. How pathetic. NewBusters has this, "On 9-11 Anniversary, New York Times Op-Ed Blames Bush." Plus Abe Greenwald offers a must read piece at Commentary, "Nobody Was Prepared for 9/11."

And don't forget Greenwald's classic piece from last year at Commentary, "What We Got Right in the War on Terror."

Plus, from this morning's Los Angeles Times, "9/11 -- 11 years later: A nation pauses to reflect and mourn anew."

BONUS: At American Glob, "Liberals Stupidly Believe Foreign Policy Is Obama’s Secret Weapon."

At Least One American Killed in Attack on U.S. Consulate in Libya

At USA Today, "American shot dead in Libyan attack on U.S. Consulate."

And Robert Stacy McCain reports, "We Are Prepared to Come Kill You UPDATE: One American Killed, Another Wounded in Libyan Attack."

PREVIOUSLY: "Egypt Protesters Scale U.S. Embassy Wall."