'It Really Was Something You'd Expect From State-Run Media'

Here's Kirsten Powers yesterday slamming Steve Kroft's "60 Minutes" Barack-Hillary softball interview:

And I watched Kroft's interview with Piers Morgan last night, and he defends his pussy interview style as key to maintaining access to "The One." Talk about state-run media, at Newsbusters, "CBS's Kroft on Why Obama Does 60 Minutes: 'He Knows We're Not Going To Play Gotcha With Him'."

Syria FSA Insurgent Blown to Bits in RPG Misfire

This dude get f-ked up bad.

Hat Tip: Pat Dollard.

Gov. Jerry Brown Looks at Reshaping California's Higher Education

I wrote on this previously, "Governor Brown Seeks Dramatic Community College Makeover."

And now at the New York Times, "In California, Son Gets Chance to Restore Luster to a Legacy":

LOS ANGELES — During a 1960s renaissance, California’s public university system came to be seen as a model for the rest of the country and an economic engine for the state. Seven new campuses opened, statewide enrollment doubled, and state spending on higher education more than doubled. The man widely credited with the ascendance was Gov. Edmund G. Brown, known as Pat.

Decades of state budget cuts have chipped away at California’s community colleges, California State University and the University of California, once the state’s brightest beacons of pride. But now Pat Brown’s son, Gov. Jerry Brown, seems determined to restore some of the luster to the institution that remains a key part of his father’s legacy.

Last year, he told voters that a tax increase was the only way to avoid more years of drastic cuts. Now, with the tax increase approved and universities anticipating more money from the state for the first time in years, the second Governor Brown is a man eager to take an active role in shaping the University of California and California State University systems.

Governor Brown holds a position on the board of trustees for both Cal State and UC. Since November, he has attended every meeting of both boards, asking about everything from dormitories to private donations and federal student loans. He is twisting arms on issues he has long held dear, like slashing executive pay and increasing teaching requirements for professors — ideas that have long been met with considerable resistance from academia. But Mr. Brown, himself a graduate of University of California, Berkeley, has never been a man to shrink from a debate.

“The language we use when talking about the university must be honest and clear,” he said in a recent interview. “Words like ‘quality’ have no apparent meaning that is obvious. These are internally defined to meet institutional needs rather than societal objectives.”

California’s public colleges — so central to the state’s identity that their independence is enshrined in its Constitution — have long been seen as gateways to the middle class. Mr. Brown said his mother had attended the schools “basically free.” Over the last five years tuition at UC and Cal State schools has shot up, though the colleges remain some of the less costly in the country.

Governors and legislatures are trying to exert more influence on state colleges, often trying to prod the schools to save money, matters that some say are “arguably best left to the academic institution,” said John Aubrey Douglass, a senior research fellow of public policy and higher education at Berkeley. So far, Mr. Brown has not taken such an aggressive approach, but half of the $250 million increase for the university systems is contingent on a tuition freeze.

“He’s creating stability, but basically he’s looking at cost containment with an eye on the public constituency,” Mr. Douglass said. “But the system has been through a very long period of disinvestment, and this may meet an immediate political need, but it is not what is going to help in the long term.”

I think he could do more for education --- and for the state as a whole --- by expanding economic growth and opportunity. It would take pressure off the higher education system, for one thing. As it is now the colleges and universities are expected to be saviors for all manner of societal failure, especially crime, poverty and social breakdown. A strong economy, through deregulation and business expansion, would help create a rising tide to lift all boats. I hope that doesn't get overlooked amid all the hoopla about increasing tax revenues. People need to learn the lessons of the past decade.

More at that top link, plus interesting photos.

And from some not unrelated thoughts, see Joel Kotkin, at the O.C. Register, "California Is Becoming Less Family-Friendly."

Commissioner Kelley Says NYC's Real Enemy is Illegal Guns

At the New York Post, "'This is the enemy:' Are handguns worse than assault weapons?":

The nation’s looming assault-weapons ban is plain common sense, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday — but the city’s real enemy is illegal handguns.

“For us in New York City, and I believe in most urban centers throughout America, the problem really is concealable handguns,” Kelly said.

The city’s top cop made the remark on CBS’s “Face the Nation” during a discussion on Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s pending legislation to severely tighten restrictions on military-style firearms and high-capacity ammunition clips.

“We don’t want them on the streets, make no mistake about it,” Kelly said, referring to AK-47s and AR-15s, such as the one used in the Newtown, Conn., elementary-school massacre. “But the problem is the handgun.”

Handguns account for nearly all murders by firearm in New York City and state, data show. An analysis by the NYPD determined that assault weapons were used in just three of the 1,400 instances of gunplay in the city last year.

The biggest obstacle in stemming the flow of the illegal weapons — both assault rifles and handguns — is the less restrictive laws in other locales, Kelly said.

A universal background check would eliminate loopholes that allow these guns to be sold with virtually no questions asked and without documentation, he and other supporters say.

Responding to Kelly’s national call for action against handguns, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) told The Post, “Whether it’s handguns or assault weapons, universal background checks will help prevent both from falling into the wrong hands.”

I doubt it.

Adam Lanza just stole his mother's guns. And Aurora murderer James Holmes bought all of his stuff legally. His psychiatrist didn't give authorities warnings of his likely violent inclinations. The university was on epic freak out mode when the news of the massacre broke. Gun legislation didn't do jack to stop that carnage. We all support keeping guns out of the hands of criminals. But the Democrats want just the opposite: keeping guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens. It's really perverse. Authoritarian even.

Doctor Shot and Killed Inside Newport Beach Medical Office

Details are sparse, but see the Los Angeles Times, "Doctor fatally shot in exam room of Newport Beach medical office."

And a video report from KABC 7 Los Angeles, "Doctor shot, killed inside Newport Beach medical office."

These are medical offices run by Hoag Hospital of Newport Beach. My youngest son was born at that hospital. And his pediatrician's office is just up Newport Boulevard, about a half-mile away. I'm going to say a prayer in a few minutes when I get into bed. And I'll be updating this story tomorrow. I've got a couple of posts queued up for overnight.

Until then...

David Frum, CNN's Faux Conservative, Claims Americans 'Do Not Need Firearms to Protect Themselves, They Are Safer Than Ever Before...'

There's a lot going on at this Erin Burnett OutFront segment from earlier today, seen below.

Burnett starts off very skeptical, announcing to viewers, "Obama the skeet shooter. Yeah, I’m not making this up, and if someone is, it isn’t me" (check Mediaite on Twitter for full clip). She then asks contributor Roland Martin if the president need to provide "proof" that's he's really skeet shooting at Camp David. (Martin of course freaks out like this is the beginning of yet another allegedly racist attack on Obama, like when Obama had to "go through four years" trying to prove he was American, or whatever.)

And most sensational is when Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn challenges Obama to a skeet shooting contest, "TRENDING: Doubting congresswoman challenges Obama to skeet shooting match" (via Memeorandum).

But what frankly shocked me there was listening to so-called "conservative" pundit David Frum claiming that the gun debate is "not about hunting" but "fear of crime." And that allegedly crime has dropped so dramatically, perhaps to the lowest point in the history of the republic, "and what Americans need to know if they're going to think intelligently about the use of weapons, is how much crime has declined in the country over the past 20 years. People don't appreciate, I think, the magnitude of this drop, and how if you look at the statistics today Americans are safer from crime than ever before, since good records began, and probably ever before in the entire history of the republic. If people knew that, that would have an impact --- they do not need ... they do not need ...  they do not need firearms to protect themselves. They are safer than ever before. That's the point to drive home. And meanwhile they are risking accidents, they are risking suicide among their loved ones. That's what the gun debate is about..."

Listen at the last half of the clip:

It's been an amazing month and a half or so since the Newtown massacre, and I can't remember a more important teaching moment over the divide in this country between the Washington political establishment ---- a.k.a. the permanent political class --- and the regular rank and file "bitter clingers" among the rest of us. It's everyday Americans who send the party hacks to D.C. on election day and who underwrite the cable news sinecures of these stupid elitist snobs like David Frum trough the television viewing. The straw man argumentation is enormous here. Frum shifts the debate away from Barack Obama, by alleging that the president is "missing the target here." Well, no he's not. The president must be feeling enough political heat from the gun-toting electorate that he's reduced to making up stories of skeet shooting at presidential retreats. I think people indeed want to know if he's really shooting skeet on the weekend. So kudos to Marsha Blackburn. She's got his number. What is more, Frum's shift to the crime thing just dodges the issue even further. Who cares what the statistics are on crime? They're important? Okay, but that's not the issue. The issue is the right of Americans to keep and bear arms. The issue is the right of Americans to be free and independent people and not dependent of the appendages of the state for protection. As the News Junkie indicates at Maggie's Farm, "Police rarely prevent crime. They cannot be everywhere. Their main job is to find [criminals] after the crime. Your own job is to prevent crime against you and your family." And folks should read over at Protein Wisdom, as well, for more on why the right to bear arms is central to liberty, "“Feinstein Says She Wants to Go After More Than Just ‘Assault Weapons’”."

I've never seen such a brazen across-the-board assault on the basic liberties of the people in my entire life. When we see commentators writing about a growing grassroots insurrection, it's easy to see why --- I can feel a growing popular insurgency against the Washington political class in my bones. It's a feeling of anger and contempt for the idiots touting themselves as our bettors. When I walked around the gun show last weekend I saw everyday people, buyers and sellers, entering into free exchange and commerce as a free people. That's the way it should be. But the Democrats in Washington and their Beltway enablers haven't the slightest clue about how badly they're misjudging how deeply Americans cherish their freedoms. A storm is brewing, and it's going to be a frightening sight if the political class fail to back the f-k off.

Obama Bundler Anna Wintour's Boyfriend Owes $1.2 Million in Back Taxes

According to a report last week at PuffHo, Anna Wintour "is the editor of Vogue and the role model for the character played by Meryl Streep in the movie The Devil Wears Prada. She is a citizen of the United Kingdom as well as the United States so it may not be clear which government she is serving. But she is one of the President's biggest bundlers." But according to New York Magazine, she's no long being considered for the post, and I've heard little about it lately, so who knows? She and her boyfriend are certainly members in good standing of Washington's permanent political class. Although a wee bit of boyfriend back taxes might have been an indelicate subject at Wintour's confirmation hearings.  See Telegraph UK, "Anna Wintour's boyfriend 'owes US government $1.2 million in taxes'":

J. Shelby Bryan, the long-term boyfriend of Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor in contention to be Barack Obama's next ambassador to Britain, owes the US government more than $1.2 million (£760,000) in taxes.

Mr Bryan, a former adviser to Bill Clinton who helped raise funds for Mr Obama's re-election campaign, has owed the money to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) since 2006, according to court filings obtained by The Daily Telegraph from Texas.

Mr Bryan, who has been in a relationship with Ms Wintour since 1999, was also pursued for outstanding Texas property taxes, and has had energy companies he owns in the state chided by local authorities for falling behind on their financial filings.
The findings may threaten Ms Wintour's confirmation as a US ambassador if nominated by Mr Obama. Her appointment would need to be approved by the US Senate, which has in the past objected to irregularities in the tax affairs of nominees and their partners.

Mr Bryan, 66, was said to have a fortune of $30 million when he left his second wife, Katherine, for Ms Wintour 13 years ago. He reportedly suffered a decline in personal wealth amid the financial crisis, however, and frequently stays at Ms Wintour's $10 million townhouse in Manhattan.

Ms Wintour was one of Mr Obama's leading fundraisers during his re-election campaign, bringing in $500,000 to the president's coffers. At one $35,000-a-plate fundraising dinner in August, Mr Obama thanked "Anna and Shelby for being such extraordinary hosts".

Continue reading.

RELATED: At Big Journalism, "Bannon on Boomtown: Media Must Investigate Permanent Political Class."

God, you can say that again.

Some Overdue Lucy Pinder Rule 5

I haven't posted pics of this lady in awhile, via Twitter.

And more at Subject to Change, "Rule 5." And from Bob Belvedere, "Rule 5 Saturday: Haley Marie."

More at Pirate's Cove, "If All You See……is an ocean that will rise up and cover all the land, you might just be a Warmist."

Also Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart (on Friday): Jessica Cediel." And The Other McCain, "Rule 5 Sunday."

(This is a brief round --- add your links to the comments and I'll update with your post!)

Why Women Prefer AR-15s

Hey, listen to Celia Bigelow make the case for the AR-15 with the 30-round magazine:

Michael Kinsley's Hate Mail

This is really a story of Michael Kinsley slinking back to The New Republic for the umpteenth time. He first wrote at (for) the magazine 36 years ago. He's been just about everywhere else since, including an extremely undistinguished stint as the editorial and opinion editor of the Los Angeles Times about a decade ago. In any case, here's his piece, at the completely made-over TNR, "Sixth Time's the Charm: My Journalistic Life in (Nasty) Letters":

In 1979, I received a letter that I can still recite by heart, because it was very short, and it was taped on the wall next to my desk for many years, reminding me of the first time I came back to The New Republic. I had quit as editor in an ethical dispute with the editor-in-chief.

Ted Kennedy was challenging President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination. At this point, before he remarried, Kennedy's dual reputation for girth and senatorial statesmanship had not yet overcome his reputation as a party boy. My position was that Kennedy's attitude toward women was a legitimate issue; the editor-in-chief's position was that even Ted Kennedy had a right to privacy. I sulked for a couple of weeks, reflected on the nature of capitalism, and slunk back to work.

The letter arrived a few days later. I don't remember who from. It made up in pith what it lacked in colorful details. It read:

Dear Mr. Kinsley:
I didn't know that you had gone, but I'm sorry to see that you're back.

That reader has suffered a lifetime of disappointment, because this week marks—depending on how you count—the fifth or sixth time I have knocked on The New Republic's door. And each time, they have let me back in. My reasons for leaving have varied: greater glory (or so I thought), bigger audience, more money, disputes with the management, an opportunity (one of two that, according to Gore Vidal, you should never turn down) to appear regularly on television. But I always came back eventually.

It's 36 years since I first worked for The New Republic, 23 years since the last time I wielded the editor's scythe, and 17 years since I have written for the magazine regularly. The last time I resigned as editor, the current editor-in-chief and owner was five years old. Needless to say, he is wise beyond his years.

This time, I return not as the editor (please direct your complaints and article submissions elsewhere) but as "editor-at-large." I see this as a sort of avuncular role, in which my primary duty will be cornering the young people in the office and forcing them to listen to tedious anecdotes about the old days. I also plan to write self-indulgent, lachrymose memoirs of journalistic colleagues and friends as they, one by one, drop off their perches.

Project Bore the Interns will be immeasurably aided by my recent discovery of several boxes of letters hidden in a corner of my garage.

Continue reading.

It's actually an interesting piece. And I used to think Kinsley was interesting back in the old "Crossfire" days. But by this stage in the game I've read too many of his very left-wing op-eds to be that excited. Although TNR's publishing makeover looks pretty snazzy. More on that at the New York Times, "The New Republic Reimagines Its Future" (along with the additional commentary at Mediagazer and Memeorandum).

The World According to Dianne Feinstein

More knowledge-based goodness from Emily Miller:

And she's got still more at the Washington Times, "The high-capacity magazine myth: Anti-gun crowd deliberately misleads the public."

Straight Shooting Jessie Duff!

An interview with Judge Pirro:

And ICYMI, "Jessie Duff - World Champion Shooter with Sean Hannity."

Blood of Tyrants

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." — Thomas Jefferson.

The left's gun-grabbers are fomenting a patriotic insurrection so fierce even old Thomas Jefferson would be gobsmackingly astonished.

At SHTF Plan, "Will You Submit & Obey?":

In New York, we have a prequel of what’s to come – the repeal of the Second Amendment and summary criminalization of peaceful citizens merely for possessing the means of self-defense, even in their own homes. As in Great Britain, citizens of NY face prison if they use proscribed weapons against murderous thugs – even in their own homes. The tyrants Michael Bloomberg and Andrew Cuomo have made their decision. Now New Yorkers will have to make theirs. And so will the rest of us – if, as seems likely, the federal tyrants succeed in issuing a New York-style fatwa that applies to the rest of the country. Which brings us to the question:

What will you do?

It is a very hard question. Perhaps the hardest question Americans have had to face since 1861. As then, there may be no peaceful way to preserve our rights. There may be blood. As then, one side is absolutely determined to impose its will at bayonet-point. To murder us in the thousands – perhaps millions, this time - if we refuse to submit. There is no reasoning, no discussing. What we face is violence against our persons by people who absolutely will not leave us in peace – no matter how peaceful we try to be – until we have submitted to them utterly and for all time to come. We wish only to be left alone – and demand that our right to defend ourselves against those who will not leave us alone be respected. That self-defense is the most basic of rights – a right conceded even to the lowest animal. They do not acknowledge our rights; they despise the very notion of us having any rights at all. They regard their power over us as limitless in principle – and rage at even the smallest assertion of freedom of action. They loathe our guns because our ownership of guns is an expression of our determination to defend our very lives – and thus, of self-ownership.

And that is what cannot be tolerated. Which is why the current bum-rush to disarm us has become absolutely frantic. The moment is at hand. We will either stand up and be reckoned with as free men – or we will sit down forever and accept any degradation, any humiliation. And in that case, we shall have proved worthy of such treatment. Future generations will look upon us with the same mixture of incomprehension and contempt that our generation looked upon those who meekly lined up naked in queue for their turn at the edge of the pit. Because it will come to that, in time.

Continue reading (via Director Blue and Cold Fury).

RELATED: At the New York Post, "Only rebellion can save America," and Canada Free Press, "Understanding the Obama Conspiracy & U.S. takeover."

EXTRA: At Right Wing News, "2/23/2013 Will Be a Day of Resistance."

President Obama and Secretary Clinton on Benghazi

At the Daily Beast, "Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s Lovefest on ‘60 Minutes’." And at Weasel Zippers, "Obama on Benghazi: “Somewhere, Somehow, Somebody In the Federal Government Is Screwing Up”…"

And previously, Sen. Kelly Ayotte:

The Lightworker's Cosmic Essence

At the Other McCain, "BREAKING: Lightworker Astride Unicorn Transcends Space-Time Continuum."

Rep. Carolyn McCarty: Women Can't Handle AR-15s

Snarks Moonbattery, "Funny, this woman learned how to handle an AR-15 quickly enough":

At at the Truth About Guns, "Carolyn McCarthy: Traditional Rifles Better for Women’s Self Defense Than AR-15s."

How Do You Kill 11 Million People?

Via BigFurHat:

Future of the NFL

From Sam Farmer, at the Los Angeles Times, "NFL future: Feeling a bit woozy":

NEW ORLEANS -- Over the last two decades, the NFL seemingly could do no wrong.

The Dallas Cowboys, bought by Jerry Jones for $150 million in 1989, are now valued at $2.1 billion. Twenty of the league's 32 teams are valued at $1 billion or more.

Eight of the country's top 15 most-watched TV programs were Super Bowls, and more than 100 million people around the globe are expected to tune in for next Sunday's matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers. Fans will pay thousands of dollars per ticket just to get inside the Superdome to watch the game in person.

Even after the labor meltdown and player lockout of 2011, when another league might have lost legions of fans, the NFL had a typically captivating season — including the unexpected bonus of Tim Tebow — and grew in influence and popularity.

But fissures have formed in the once-pristine NFL edifice. More than 2,000 former players are suing the league over head injuries, and what they were and weren't told about the long-term damage of concussions. Junior Seau, among the greatest linebackers in league history, committed suicide last spring and was later found to have a concussion-related brain disease. Seau's family this week filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the league. A study released last week shows signs of an ailment similar to Seau's in five living NFL alumni.

"The culture of the athlete is still too much of a play-through-it, rather than player-safety mentality," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in November in a speech to the Harvard School of Public Health. "Many players have publicly admitted to hiding concussions and other head injuries.… This is unfortunate, but we are working with players, team doctors and coaches to change that culture. It is changing, but will take more time, resolve, patience, and determination."

The NFL is considering the drastic move of doing away with kickoffs in the name of player safety. However, Goodell and team owners also have explored the possibility of expanding the regular season from 16 to 18 games, potentially increasing the likelihood of injuries. There also have been discussions about expanding the playoff field from 12 to 14 or 16 teams.

"There's an uneasy feeling around the NFL, because although the league is arguably more popular than it's ever been before, there are also these glaring areas of deep concern about player safety on the field, and the players' health off the field and after their careers are over," said Michael MacCambridge, author of "America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation."...

Well, if President Obama had a son he wouldn't let him play football, so it's just one more nail in the coffin of American exceptionalism.

Just enjoy it while it lasts, I guess.

More at that top link, in any case.

Israel Attack on Iran's Fordo Nuclear Facility?

I saw news of this on Twitter yesterday, and my good friend Norm in New York gave me a hat tip as well.

See the Times of Israel, "Israeli minister welcomes report of huge blast at Iran nuclear plant."

And at Astute Bloggers, "BREAKING: IRAN NUKE FACILITY BOMBED?" And Israpundit, "Blast hits key Iranian nuclear site?"

With so much at stake you'd think there'd be more coverage of this, but when Israel took out a Syrian nuclear facility a few years back, the reporting was sparse. Don't doubt that Jerusalem will act without U.S. cooperation. The Israelis won't take a chance on Tehran obtaining nuclear strike capabilities.

Lawyers Behaving Badly Get Dressing Down From Civility Cops

At the Wall Street Journal, "Adversarial System Grows Obscenely Nasty; 'Get More Results With Sugar'":

In New York one night recently, U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan donned his robes, walked onstage and belted out to his colleagues this heartfelt plea for lawyerly politeness (to the tune of "If I Were a Rich Man"):

"If lawyers were more civil

Daidle deedle daidle daidle daidle deedle daidle dum

They'd treat their breth-er-en with more respect

Wouldn't always yell, 'object.' "

The ditty struck a nerve—and brought down the house, a largely pinstriped crowd of 80 or so lawyers there for a musical refresher course on the virtues of civility.

But it is no laughing matter to those who fret that a tide of rudeness has engulfed the legal profession.

From courtroom yelling matches to insulting letters and depositions that turn into fistfights, some lawyers and judges worry that the adversarial system of justice has gotten a little too adversarial.

To rein in "Rambo" litigators, the politeness patrol is pushing etiquette lessons, and even seeking to have civility included in attorney oaths.

The well-mannered caution that lawyers who shout, lie and shoot off vulgar emails don't merely alienate judges and juries. They also slow the wheels of justice and cost clients money.

"Lawyers already have a bad enough reputation," said Stewart Aaron, a litigator and head of Arnold & Porter LLP's New York office. He performed alongside Judge Sullivan in the revue.

Continue reading.

This is professional civility, not political civility, or what Althouse calls the "civility bullshit."