Alessandra Ambrosio and Lais Ribeiro for Fabulous by Victoria's Secret

I've got a thing for Alessandra. What a sweetie.

We'll be having that Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in no time.

Sean Hannity Radio Interview with Mark Levin

It's good.

Listen at the link: "Sean Hannity Radio show interviews Mark Levin on the upcoming election."

Barack Obama on David Letterman Show

It's all bullshit, naturally. In the 2008 primaries O slammed Americans who cling to their guns and religion, which was captured on a secret camera (although not played to the hilt like Romney's 47 percent "SECRET VIDEO"):

More, at PJ Media, "Lying on Letterman: Obama Claims He Hasn’t Questioned Anyone’s Patriotism."

And Instapundit, "BUSTED: Obama Lies To Letterman, Says He Never Called Opponents Unpatriotic. Let’s go to the video..."

The video's at the link.

Fox News Battleground States Poll: Obama Up in Florida, Ohio and Virginia

It's Fox News, so will cocooning conservatives beset by epistemic closure blow this poll off as a desperately biased survey of the Obama-enabling MSM?  I wouldn't be surprised. And me? I'm tired of trying to parse the bright spots in all these recent polls showing Romney getting hammered.

From Dana Blanton, "Obama has edge over Romney in three battleground states" (via Memeorandum):

President Barack Obama has the edge over Republican Mitt Romney in three potentially decisive states in the presidential election.

Obama tops Romney by seven percentage points among likely voters in both Ohio (49-42 percent) and Virginia (50-43 percent). In Florida, the president holds a five-point edge (49-44 percent).

Obama’s lead is just outside the poll’s margin of sampling error in Ohio and Virginia, and within the margin of sampling error in Florida.

The good news for Romney is that among voters who are “extremely” interested in this year’s election, the races are much tighter. Obama is up by just two points with this group in Virginia (49-47 percent), Florida is tied (48-48 percent), and Romney is up by one point in Ohio (48-47 percent).

Independents are nearly evenly divided in each of the states, as well.

Majorities of voters are unhappy with how things are going in the country, yet in all three states more say they trust Obama than Romney to improve the economy. Likewise, in each state more voters believe the Obama administration’s policies have helped rather than hurt the economy -- albeit by slim margins: By two points in Florida, three points in Ohio and five points in Virginia.

Continue reading.

Okay, sounds like there's some bright spots in there, right? Well as I'm posting this entry CBS News is reporting the results from its new poll also showing Obama up in Virginia. See, "Wisconsin Offers Window on Hurdles Ahead for Romney":

RACINE, Wis. — To Mitt Romney, the 10 electoral votes in Wisconsin may be more essential than extra, a critical backup plan if a first-tier battleground state falls out of reach.

Seven weeks until the election, with Mr. Romney facing new questions about his ability to gain trust among voters experiencing economic hardships, his campaign is increasingly pointing to Wisconsin as a place where a statewide Republican resurgence could rub off on Mr. Romney.

But President Obama has overtaken Mr. Romney on who would do a better job handling the economy, according to a new Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News poll of likely Wisconsin voters. The poll also found that Mr. Obama has a 17-point edge over Mr. Romney when voters are asked if a candidate cares about their needs and problems.

As the president makes his first campaign visit of the year to Wisconsin on Saturday, the poll found that Mr. Obama was the choice of 51 percent to 45 percent for Mr. Romney among likely voters. The six-point lead, which includes those who said they were leaning in one direction or another, marks a slight shift in Mr. Obama’s direction since Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin joined the Republican ticket last month.

The findings of the poll, along with the fallout from newly exposed remarks Mr. Romney made at a fund-raiser in which he bluntly suggested that 47 percent of Americans saw themselves as victims who are dependent on the government, offer a window into the challenges confronting his campaign here and other important swing states during the final 48 days of the race.

Rob Jankowski, an independent voter who supported Mr. Obama four years ago but has been disappointed by his economic leadership and disapproves of his health care plan, is among the 3 percent of voters in the survey who say they are still undecided. He said he did not feel loyalty to Mr. Obama simply because he supported him last time, but he said Mr. Romney had not made his case.

“Obama is putting out his plans and his details and being more public on that, but with Romney it’s kind of gray,” said Mr. Jankowski, 39, speaking in a follow-up interview Tuesday afternoon here in Jefferson Park, as a cool breeze rustled the tree leaves. “I’d like to know more — educate me.”

The New York Times, in collaboration with Quinnipiac and CBS News, is tracking the presidential race with recurring polls in six states. The latest collection of surveys also included Colorado, where Mr. Romney is running nearly even with Mr. Obama, and Virginia, where Mr. Obama has a narrow advantage of four percentage points, both of which are inside the survey’s margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for each candidate.

But for Mr. Romney, Wisconsin offers one of the best chances to fight on Mr. Obama’s terrain in the Midwest and expand the battleground map. The Romney campaign has redirected some of its money and manpower once intended for Michigan and Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, hoping to create as many paths as possible to reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

I've highlighted that part on Virginia.

We'll see, but time's running short.

If it's any consolation, Rasmussen has Romney up 47/46 in its nationwide tracking poll today. So, who knows? Maybe even Fox News polls are in the tank for Obama?

One-Year Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street

The anarcho-communist assholes:

PREVIOUSLY: "The Lamest Thing You'll Read All Day."

Added: From Glenn Reynolds, "OCCUPY WALL STREET: Pushing Up Daisies, Not Pining For The Fjords."

As Arctic Ice Melts, Nations Scramble for Natural Resources Bounty

I doubt this is the kind of response that radical environmentalists were expecting with the melting of the polar ice caps.

At the New York Times, "Race Is On as Ice Melt Reveals Arctic Treasures":

NUUK, Greenland — With Arctic ice melting at record pace, the world’s superpowers are increasingly jockeying for political influence and economic position in outposts like this one, previously regarded as barren wastelands.


At stake are the Arctic’s abundant supplies of oil, gas and minerals that are, thanks to climate change, becoming newly accessible along with increasingly navigable polar shipping shortcuts. This year, China has become a far more aggressive player in this frigid field, experts say, provoking alarm among Western powers.

While the United States, Russia and several nations of the European Union have Arctic territory, China has none, and as a result, has been deploying its wealth and diplomatic clout to secure toeholds in the region.

“The Arctic has risen rapidly on China’s foreign policy agenda in the past two years,” said Linda Jakobson, East Asia program director at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, Australia. So, she said, the Chinese are exploring “how they could get involved.”

In August, China sent its first ship across the Arctic to Europe and it is lobbying intensely for permanent observer status on the Arctic Council, the loose international body of eight Arctic nations that develops policy for the region, arguing that it is a “near Arctic state” and proclaiming that the Arctic is “the inherited wealth of all humankind,” in the words of China’s State Oceanic Administration.

More at that top link.

Amazing that it's China pushing most aggressively for Arctic development. Beijing's not too concerned about pollution, in any case, but it's interesting how this places enormous pressures on other countries not to fall too far behind in exploiting these treasures.

There's an Antarctic Treaty dating back to 1961 that regulate international relation on that continent, with codicils for the environment added in 1981. Keep your eyes peeled for an increasing multilateral push for a companion treaty arrangement for the North Pole. See, "As the Far North Melts, Calls Grow for Arctic Treaty."

James Earl Carter IV Goes Alinsky on Mitt Romney

You gotta read this report from Michael Isikoff, "How the Romney video leaked: For Carters, it was personal." I mentioned before that the "SECRET VIDEO" release was well-played, and it's more than that: it's political revenge. James Carter IV has been literally pissed off for some time that Republicans have been slamming his grandfather's "weak" foreign policy, with comparisons to the Obama administration:

"It gets under my skin -- mostly the weakness on the foreign policy stuff," Carter said. "I just think it's ridiculous. I don’t like criticism of my family."

More at the link.

And at the video, radical MSNBC host Rachel Maddow is about to explode with orgiastic delight at the news of the "SECRET VIDEO." She can barely contain her glee and literally cannot speak at a couple of points, as she tries to spew out partisan talking points. Note too how Maddow, in her explanation of events, is extremely careful to claim that she had nothing to do with the initial versions of the Romney clip posted to YouTube under her name. But given how extremely damaging the clip's turned out to be, she's positively giddy that James Carter tracked down the person responsible for the tape. The added bonus is listening to David Corn rattle on about the story. He sounds like he's pulled off a criminal enterprise, or something. No doubt the guy's got a raging woody out of sight there at the studio. And he sure wants to make a point that the host of the fundraising, millionaire investor Marc Leder, allegedly sponsored kinky hot-sex parties like a deranged hedge-fund pervert. It's all designed to make Mitt Romney look bad, really bad, and these people are reveling it it:

Meanwhile, there's simply too much commentary on this to do an adequate roundup. I'm not latching onto one of the right-wing memes that this is just another blip on the radar screen, and that Romney just needs to catch his breath and keep plugging. Check some of the links at Memeorandum for all the buzz. He has to do that, sure, but I suspect this is more of a turning point in the campaign than folks are letting on, if they even realize it. There's really one last chance for Romney to shift some momentum back in his direction, and that's the presidential debates. And the hour is late. He's been on the defense literally for months now and it was just this week that the campaign was looking for a reset. That's not happening at this point.

I'll have more in any case. I hope I'm wrong, obviously. But it's been months of folks saying that Romney was about to change the dynamics of the race, and all the supposed game-changing moments have come an gone --- the veep pick, the conventions, the so-called post-convention bounce --- and Romney's still battling to find some traction against the Democrat-Media-Complex and its extremely dirty Alinskyite politics.

Idiot Progressives Protest 'Muslim Rage' Cover at Newsweek

Actually, that cover is da bomb!

Dylan Byers compares it to Newsweek's 2001 cover story by Fareed Zakaria, "Why Do They Hate Us?" -- which I've been reminded of this last week, naturally.

But see the knee-jerk progs at Think Progress, attacking Newsweek with the phony "Islamophobic" slur, "Newsweek Publishes Islamophobic ‘Muslim Rage’ Cover In Response to Embassy Attacks."

In contrast, check "Ayaan Hirsi Ali, "The Last Gasp of Islamic Hate":

Until recently, it was completely justifiable to feel sorry for the masses in Libya because they suffered under the thumb of a cruel dictator. But now they are no longer subjects; they are citizens. They have the opportunity to elect a government and build a society of their choice. Will they follow the lead of the Egyptian people and elect a government that stands for ideals diametrically opposed to those upheld by the United States? They might. But if they do, we should not consider them stupid or infantile. We should recognize that they have made a free choice—a choice to reject freedom as the West understands it.

How should American leaders respond? What should they say and do, for example, when a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s newly elected ruling party, demands a formal apology from the United States government and urges that the “madmen” behind the Muhammad video be prosecuted, in violation of the First Amendment? If the U.S. follows the example of Europe over the last two decades, it will bend over backward to avoid further offense. And that would be a grave mistake—for the West no less than for those Muslims struggling to build a brighter future.

For a homicidal few in the Muslim world, life itself has less value than religious icons, such as the prophet or the Quran. These few are indifferent to the particular motives or arguments behind any perceived insult to their faith. They do not care about an individual’s political alignment, gender, religion, or occupation. They do not care whether the provocation comes from serious literature or a stupid movie. All that matters is the intolerable nature of the insult.

Continue reading.

The idiot progs'll slam her as "Islamphobic" as well, except that she's Muslim. The left's despicable slurs simply haven't got a chance against that moral clarity.

Walter James Casper III: Jewish 'Neocons' Should 'Stop Whining' About Being Slurred as 'Puppet Masters' for Bush/Cheney War Cabal

ICYMI, on Sunday the New York Times published Maureen Dowd's anti-Semitic screed, "Neocons Slither Back." The essay was a despicable attack on the GOP ticket reprising some of the oldest anti-Jewish slurs known to history. Dowd was widely ridiculed, and not just by the "evil" neoconservatives. The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, a Jewish moderate who served in the IDF, hammered MoDo, "Happy New Year, Puppet Masters." Highlighting the essay's attack on Romney advisor Dan Senor as the "puppet master" mouthpiece for the GOP ticket's "Manichaean worldview," Goldberg writes:

Maureen may not know this, but she is peddling an old stereotype, that gentile leaders are dolts unable to resist the machinations and manipulations of clever and snake-like Jews...

This sinister stereotype became a major theme in the discussion of the Iraq war, when critics charged that Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, among other Jewish neoconservatives, were actually in charge of Bush Administration foreign policy. This charge relegated George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Stephen Hadley and the other Christians who actually set policy to the status of puppets.

Actually, Maureen does "know this," for this is hardly the first time she's attacked Jews with vicious anti-Semitic tropes. So why bother with it, if it's getting so routine? Well, I found it particularly interesting to note how many vile thugs of the left doubled down to defend the hatred. Of course, long-standing Jew-bashing troll Walter James Casper III, a.k.a. Repsac3, couldn't resist piling on the anti-Jew attacks. The vicious Repsac calls Jewish outrage at such "blood sucking" attacks as nothing more than "neocon whining." That figures, naturally, since Repsac3's on record as a huge backer of the eliminationist, anti-Semitic Occupy Wall Street movement.

The Anti-Semitic Slur Surfaces Once Again motherjones.com/kevin-drum/201… via @motherjones IOW, stop whining, neocons...
— J. Casper (@repsac3) September 17, 2012

And it's fitting that Repsac3's linking Kevin Drum, the dumbest progressive blogger this side of Matthew Yglesias. At that link, Drum spills out the stupid: "There's nothing anti-Semitic in Dowd's column..."

Actually, there is something anti-Semitic: Dan Senor, for one thing, is Jewish. Moreover, as The Future of Capitalism points outs:

...depictions of Jews as snakes or puppeteers are classical anti-Semitic images, right up there with blood-sucking. The snake image has roots in the Christian Bible; the puppet-master goes back at least to Nazi Germany, and when Glenn Beck used it to talk about George Soros, who, unlike Dan Senor, has actually been hostile to Israel, the left was all over him for it.

Right.

More of those leftist double-standards. It's only racist when the other side does it.

And it wasn't just the reprehensible Internet loser Walter James Casper III spreading the hate. Barbara O'Brien at Mahablog piled on as well, lamely attempting to justify anti-Semitic puppet master slurs because these are just the same as the "old Robert Heinlein novel about slugs from outer space that invade earth," or something. I know. She's so f-king stupid it hurts.

Anyway, I could go on like this, but again, why bother? Progressives are anti-Israel and they hate Jews, especially Walter James Casper III.

More of that at Memeorandum.

Decades After Title Fight, Pain Endures for Families of Ray Mancini and Duk-koo Kim

At the New York Times, "Families Continue to Heal 30 Years After Title Fight Between Ray Mancini and Duk-koo Kim":

As a boy, Ray Mancini would pore over his father’s scrapbook, a collection of brittle-brown newspaper clippings and sepia-toned glossies, inevitably pausing to study the photograph of his father as a young fighter, his features bloodied and swollen, the right eye clenched shut like the seam of a mussel shell.

“I didn’t win ’em all,” Lenny Mancini would tell his son. “But I never took a step back.”

The elder Mancini had been a No. 1 contender in the abundantly talented lightweight division. But his dream of a title shot ended Nov. 10, 1944, near the French town of Metz, when he was hit with shrapnel from a German mortar shell.

Four decades later, his son entered the national consciousness. Ray called himself Boom Boom, too, just like the old man. But coming out of Youngstown, Ohio, at the cusp of the 1980s, Ray also represented those felled when the steel belt turned to rust. As refracted through the lens of television, he became The Last White Ethnic, a redemptive fable produced by CBS Sports.

Mancini won the lightweight title with a first-round knockout live from Vegas, the broadcast sponsored by Michelin (“the company that pioneered the radial”), Michelob (“smooth and mellow”) and the Norelco Rototract rechargeable. That was 1982. He was only 21, but already a modern allegory, as bankable as he was adored.

Then he fought Duk-koo Kim.

Kim had hit the Korean exacta at birth: dirt-poor and dark-skinned. But the prospect of a title shot seemed to ennoble him. He became fierce for the sake of his family. At the time of the Mancini fight, his fiancée was pregnant with their son.

If only Kim had taken a step back, he might have lived to see that boy.

These days, Ray is likely to be found at a trattoria in a Santa Monica strip mall. He’ll likely be joined by one of the regulars — the playwright David Mamet; the actor Ed O’Neill, an old friend from Youngstown; or maybe Ray-Ray, now 15, the youngest of Mancini’s three children.

Occasionally, patrons pull the waiter aside and point at Ray.

“What was he in?” they ask.

“That’s Ray ‘Boom Boom’ Mancini,” the waiter says. “Lightweight champion of the world.”

“He’s the guy who killed the guy, right? The Korean?”

Continue reading.

At the video, scroll toward the end for the knock out. Kim tries to stand but the referee calls the fight. Both Kim's mother and the ref, Richard Green, later committed suicide.

Mi Pueblo Food Center's Plan to Use E-Verify Stirs Anger

At the Los Angeles Times, "Latino food chain's participation in E-Verify leaves a bad taste":

SAN JOSE — When customers enter Mi Pueblo Food Center to do their weekly shopping, the goal is to make them feel at home.

Each of the grocery chain's 21 outlets, which are scattered throughout the Bay Area, Monterey Bay region and Central Valley, is styled to emulate a distinct Mexican region. Boisterous rancheras stream from the stores' speakers. Vivid primary colors and architectural references cover the walls: the adobe church of San Juan Nuevo, Michoacan, in San Jose's flagship store; the Maya pyramid of Chichen Itza in the Salinas market.

Mi Pueblo's employees, all bilingual, wear name tags that list their hometowns.

It's a formula that helped turn the business founded more than two decades ago by an illegal immigrant from the town of Aguililla into a $300-million enterprise.

"Those of us who don't speak English, we come here because we're comfortable," Yoselina Acevedo of San Jose, a 53-year-old immigrant from Michoacan, said while shopping one recent day.

So the company's announcement late last month that it was participating in a voluntary federal program that checks the immigration status of all new hires elicited anger and confusion from workers and customers alike.

Company officials said that, although they were critical of E-Verify, they felt "tremendous pressure" from immigration officials to sign up. Community organizers have pledged to launch a shoppers' boycott Oct. 8 if Mi Pueblo founder Juvenal Chavez, who is now a legal U.S. resident, does not change his mind.

"He says he has suffered the pain of being an immigrant. I don't believe it," said Rogelio Marquez, 37, who said he was laid off from the Gilroy store after becoming active with a workers union. "We support the economy of this country. Why is this man now checking papers?"

Well, complying with the law might be a good reason, although I love the reconquista entitlement mentality.

More at that top link.

'Atlas Shrugged: Part II'

At Reason, "Atlas Shrugged Part II: Theatrical Trailer."

I think that "Going Galt" meme will pick up again if Obama's reelected.

As Criticism Mounts, Angels General Manager Stands Behind Mike Scioscia

I mentioned earlier this season that I expected Mike Scioscia would be getting canned this year, but not yet. Not yet.

See the Los Angeles Times, "Angels general manager continues to support Mike Scioscia":

Within seconds of Mike Scioscia's latest decision-gone-horribly-wrong Saturday night in Kansas City, when he pulled starter Zack Greinke in the ninth inning with a 2-0 lead and closer Ernesto Frieri gave up two home runs for a 3-2 loss, fans began spewing vitriol toward the Angels manager on Twitter. Again.

It has become a typical, predictable and somewhat tiresome pattern: key move doesn't work out, scream at television, go to keyboard, type "fire the manager!" hit send button.

While Jerry Dipoto may not agree with what seems to be a growing number of fans clamoring for Scioscia to be canned in this season of unfulfilled expectations, the Angels general manager can empathize with such anguish and frustration.

Growing up a New York Mets fan in New Jersey, Dipoto criticized managers such as Joe Torre and Davey Johnson with as much fervor as fans are hammering Scioscia, though Dipoto didn't have the vast array of electronic media outlets at his disposal that fans have today.

Dipoto has vivid memories of his reaction to Johnson leaving Doc Gooden in to face a supposedly weak left-handed-hitting Dodgers catcher in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 1988 National League championship series.

With one of the league's best left-handed relievers, Randy Myers, in the bullpen, the right-handed and tiring Gooden — he threw 133 pitches — gave up a score-tying, two-run homer, the Dodgers won in 12 innings to even the best-of-seven series, two games apiece, and they went on to win the series.

That Dodgers catcher who hit that series-turning home run? Scioscia, of course.

"I remember thinking, 'What are you doing?'" Dipoto, a college sophomore at the time, said of Johnson, now the Washington Nationals manager. "I certainly understand the critical nature of the fan, because I've been one all my life. You're naturally critical. The ebbs and flows of a baseball season bring that on."

Dipoto, having blown his share of saves in seven years as a big league reliever and having spent more than a decade in various front-office positions, has developed a different perspective on the moves he used to second-guess.

And now that he has the power to fire a manager whose decisions he may not like, Dipoto has a broader, more rational view of the game and how he evaluates those playing and managing it.

RTWT.

Romney Stands by '47 Percent of Americans' Comments

William Jacobson has some analysis, "About that Romney tape":

There is nothing remarkable about Romney’s comments except that because on a secret video, they appear more nefarious.

There is no doubt that this was an Obama campaign operation, and likely we will see more such tapes dribbled out a week at a time.  The team which obtained sealed divorce records of rivals certainly can plant donors at private fundraisers.

Don’t fall for pronouncements that Romney’s campaign now is over.  Such pronouncements now come weekly by a media seeking a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Whether it was the insane overreaction to Romney’s comments on Libya or the declaration that the polling showed Romney had lost, every week there will be a new meme circulated.

Yeah, well, I mocked the f-k out of it, "Newsflash! SECRET VIDEO Catches Mitt Romney Talking CAMPAIGN STRATEGY at GOP FUNDRAISER!"

That said, it was pretty well played, I must admit. The story's leading on all the major newspapers, at NYT, for example, "Romney Calls 47% of Voters Dependent in Leaked Video." And Mitt took to the airwaves in an attempt to tamp down the damage (even though his comments weren't in fact controversial).

There's absolutely nothing the Democrats won't do to win. I'm not shocked at all by this. But at this point I'll be surprised if Romney's able to eke out a victory come November. Charlie Cook gave O the edge, and now the progs are trying to put things away with the dirtiest of dirty tricks. History will record this era as one of the darkest in recent political history. Politics ain't beanbag, that's for sure. The trick is to out Alynsky these f-kers and the hour is getting late.

More at the Washington Post, "Romney stands by his remarks in leaked video" (at Memeorandum).

Barrett Brown Arrested: Crazed Ex-Anonymous Hacker Taken Into Custody After Threatening FBI Agent

On Sunday, I tipped off Robert Stacy McCain to the raid on Barrett Brown, and the former subsequently did a huge write-up on the case. See: "‘Anonymous’ Spokesman Barrett Brown Arrested After Bizarre Video Meltdown."

Long ago, Barrett made one of these videos denouncing me for one thing or another. I've forgotten. He did not threaten me, however. I actually got along with Barrett pretty well, until he went off the deep end.

Newsflash! SECRET VIDEO Catches Mitt Romney Talking CAMPAIGN STRATEGY at GOP FUNDRAISER!

It's over.

Mittens ought to concede right now. He's been found out!

See this TOP SECRET report from DAVID CORN at the crack progressive INVESTIGATIVE website Mother Jones, "SECRET VIDEO: Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks of Obama Voters."

To protect the confidential source who provided the video, we have blurred some of the image, and we will not identify the date or location of the event, which occurred after Romney had clinched the Republican presidential nomination.

Because the Mitt mafia will be dispatched on the double to teach this spy a lesson! Never cross the Rombino crime family!

Oh brother.

It's not like progressives aren't all about "Obama Bucks," or anything. And the progressive fever swamps are all bent that Romney would actually talk strategy like this at a private fundraiser? No shit. IT'S JUST HORRIBLE that Mittens would talk about government dependents like that! I mean, it's perfectly fine for "The One's" reelection committee to create a prototypical dependency robot named "Julia" who lives cradle to grave sucking at the government's teat, but when the GOP nominee admits he'll never get the Democrats' welfare handout vote, well, THAT'S A SCANDAL!

Like I said. Time to concede. We're done. The Democrats are just too wily for us. They'll have us locked down in dependency before you know it. DOOMED!!

Added: At LONELY CONSERVATIVE!, "Who Paid $50,000 to Record Mitt Romney at a Private Fundraiser?"

Well, maybe those progs aren't that smart after all. $50,000? Somebody's been suckered and bad.

Ambassador Stevens' Photo on Front Page of 'Los Angeles Times'

I've been reading the hard-copy version of the New York Times of late, because I want to bring the paper to class to have examples for the students' writing assignments. I bring both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times with me. I normally raise current events issues at the beginning of classes, but this last week we spent more time discussing things than usual. On Thursday I was a little surprised that the Times ran the picture of Ambassador Stevens being carried through the streets of Benghazi, or his body being dragged through the streets, depending on your perspective. I posted on that here: "Body of Ambassador Chris Stevens Dragged Through Streets of Benghazi."

So then it was pretty interesting to read the reader backlash at the Times as well, at the letters to the editor over the weekend. See, "Stevens' photo on the front page":

Reader reaction was strong to Thursday's front-page photo of a mortally wounded J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

Stevens was killed Tuesday along with three other Americans in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. As the article that accompanied the photo noted, he was the first U.S. ambassador killed in the line of duty since 1988.

Some readers called the photo graphic, unwarranted, inappropriate, disgraceful, gratuitous and insensitive.

"It was very distasteful and disrespectful to post the picture of Stevens, in death in such graphic detail, on the front page," Donna Shontell of Sherman Oaks said. "This plays into the hands of those responsible for these types of horrendous acts. I respect The Times for excellence in journalism, not for tabloid exploitation."

"Stevens was a dedicated, brave, and honorable man who died serving his country. He deserves our respect and gratitude," Betsy K. Emerick of Monrovia wrote. "Instead, by printing that photo, you have taken away his dignity and turned his sacrifice into an opportunity for exploitation and sensationalism."

"It seems to me a picture of the burning embassy in Benghazi would have been quite graphic enough," Virginia G. Berg of Culver City wrote. "The ambassador's family will never be able to forget the horrible pain and suffering he went through, and in my opinion they did not need to see this very graphic photograph to make it even worse."

"Your front-page photo of a dying Stevens was unwarranted and inappropriate," wrote Tim Sunderland of Rancho Cucamonga. "With freedom of the press comes a responsibility to honor the most sensitive of moments. This was one of them, and The Times failed."

David Latt of Pacific Palisades asked: "What was gained by this photograph? Was it newsworthy? We know the ambassador was attacked by a mob. We know he died. Can you imagine the added grief his family and friends felt when they viewed that photograph? And what about your readers? What was gained by attacking your readers' sensibilities?"

Editors discussed the photo at length on Wednesday. Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin explained the thinking...

More at the link.

EXTRA: "Blood Stains: Pictures From Benghazi Consulate Indicate Horror of Final Moments Before Death (PHOTOS)."

Guns Sales Surge on Prospects of Obama Reelection

Well, I hadn't thought about it that much, trying as I might to sift through all the polling data and what not, but I can see the reasoning of folks looking to arm up for the next four years. I wrote some apocalyptic blog posts when O was first elected. Glenn Beck was some inspiration, come to think of it. But living until 2016 under the Obama regime will try men's souls, so better to be armed to the teeth while riding out the radical deluge.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Gun Sales Hinge on Obama Re-Election: Cabela's, Other Retailers Prepare for Surge in Demand."

Learn by Doing: Obama's Radically Different Approach to Use of Force

Foreign policy is the last area one would expect to see a trial-by-error approach by a presidential administration, but as the Muslim world's nations are aflame with fanatical anti-American protests, we're literally living our way through it with President Touchy-Feeling.

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Obama's foreign policy approach: Act cautiously, and not alone":

Obama's approach to the use of force, as seen most clearly in Libya, is the cornerstone of a foreign policy that differs sharply from that of his predecessor, George W. Bush, but also from the paths pursued by recent Democratic presidents.

Leading a nation confronting the limits of its power after two draining wars — and with budget strain at home — Obama shies from the type of ambitious and high-risk missions with which Bush aimed to reshape other countries. Under Obama, the United States has been more picky about missions aimed at humanitarian relief, peacekeeping and maintaining world order.

Yet more than other Democrats of the recent past, Obama has been willing to wield military power. As he nears four years in office, Obama has sent U.S. forces into at least eight countries, from Pakistan to West Africa, often covertly and with little public debate.

Supporters of the administration point to the military intervention in Libya as an example of success for the Obama doctrine, despite the storming of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi last week. While agreeing that the deaths there of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans show that Libya is still threatened by Islamist radicals and other armed groups, they say the radicals remain weak and that Libya has made a promising start after decades of dictatorship.

Obama's critics, however, say that by putting the U.S. more often in a supporting role, he has abandoned America's commitment, as President Kennedy put it, to "pay any price, bear any burden" to assure the "survival and the success of liberty." In the presidential campaign, Republicans have cast Obama as feckless and reactive, too willing to be shaped by events, rather than taking charge and clearly leading the nation and its allies.

Obama's record of incremental steps is seen by supporters as patient determination and by critics as timidity.

He has had no grand foreign policy triumphs, but neither has he had any major disasters. He has made no breakthroughs in trouble spots such as Iran, North Korea and Cuba. But the covert war against militants from Pakistan to North Africa succeeded in killing Osama bin Laden and dismantling much of Al Qaeda's leadership.

As a candidate in 2008, Obama promised to engage with regimes that Bush had shunned, rekindle the Israeli-Palestinian peace effort and intensify the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan that he believed Bush had neglected.

By his third year, he had been forced to adjust his approach on almost every front.

Obama's approach to the Middle East shows the clearest shift from the idealism of his 2008 campaign to the incremental realpolitik that has characterized much of the last two years.

When Iran's leaders refused his outstretched hand, Obama helped organize a campaign of unprecedented international sanctions that has battered the Iranian economy. Officials remain hopeful that the sanctions — backed by the threat of force — may prod Tehran into agreeing to limits on its disputed nuclear program.

On Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Obama tried to restart the process by pressing Israel for concessions on settlements. That plan quickly collapsed, forcing him to backtrack and essentially give up for now on substantive progress. The experience soured relations between the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but overall cooperation between the two countries has continued.

When the "Arab Spring" uprisings began early in 2011, Obama promised U.S. help for any country struggling toward democracy. But he didn't abandon Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Washington's authoritarian ally, until it appeared clear that Mubarak was on his way out. Obama subsequently opened ties to Islamists who won election in Egypt, yet he kept $1.5 billion in aid flowing to the generals of the old regime even as they harassed U.S.-funded pro-democracy groups in the country.

All sides in Egypt ended up feeling somewhat alienated, but the U.S. avoided a definitive rupture with Cairo as power changed hands.

In recent months, as Syria careened toward chaos, Obama resisted pressure to provide arms to the rebels. Instead, the administration encouraged Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other neighboring states to cooperate to undermine Bashar Assad's regime. The results of that strategy remain to be seen.

Obama similarly switched course on Afghanistan as it became clear that he lacked a reliable government partner there. He lowered his sights regarding the change the U.S. could bring to that country, ordered military withdrawal by the end of 2014 and began seeking a power-sharing deal with the Taliban and neighbors...

RTWT.

IMAGE CREDIT: The Looking Spoon.

Rep. Allen West Delivers Weekly Republican Address, September 15, 2012

Congressman West lays into President Obama with a personalized attack unusual for even these tough partisan times.

And see The Hill, "GOP Rep. West presses Obama to help avert looming defense cuts."

Also at the Heritage Foundation, "Budget Control Act Sequestration Would Hit Defense Hardest."