American Power

At Los Angeles Times.

Also, "A cloudy vision of U.S. spaceflight."

When the orbiter Atlantis lands at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, ending the 30-year-old space shuttle program, NASA will have its sights set on the next big exploration mission: sending astronauts to an asteroid in about 15 years.

But the path to that goal remains poorly defined, jeopardized by a bleak budget outlook and a weak political consensus. It has left a deep angst that U.S. leadership in space flight is in rapid decline and the very ability to fly humans off the Earth is at risk.

"I'm very disappointed about where we are today," said Robert L. Crippen, who flew on the first space shuttle mission and went on to senior leadership jobs in both NASA and the aerospace industry. "NASA's future is very fuzzy right now."

NASA has a complicated plan that would include operating the International Space Station, tapping a private launch service to ferry astronauts to orbit, and building a new launch system to send humans on deep space missions, including an asteroid by the mid-2020s.

Engineers and technicians are busy at plants across the nation, building new crew capsules, testing hardware in vibration chambers and preparing to conduct demonstration flights, all part of supporting the future steps that NASA envisions.

Nonetheless, the overall plan has failed to gain widespread support, reflecting serious concerns about the costs, risks and the lack of detail about the most difficult aspects of the exploration mission.

But see, Nicholas de Monchaux, "Spirit of the Spacesuit."

Added: A killer piece at Daley Gator, "Home At Last: Atlantis Makes Historic Final Landing As Nasa’s 30-Year Shuttle Program Comes to An End."

Check it out. It's smooth looking and modern.

Most of the blog updates folks are doing use the online magazine format, which honestly I don't love as much as the traditional reverse chronology. There are great blogs, for example, Lonely Conservative and Maggie's Notebook, but I'm still so resistant to change I guess I'd go with more of a Legal Insurrection look. Whatever happens, I'm looking forward to comment registration. As noted at Wizbang:

The Disqus comment system appears to be working out well. There are lots of features available to Disqus users that are documented in their knowledge base. As there are years of comments that have been imported from our old site, regular commenters may be able to merge their profiles and claim old comments. There’s even some tricks like being able the enter the @username of another commenter. While some do not like the fact that commenters must be registered, I think I’ve made it as easy as possible to leverage other identity systems as opposed to having to create a whole new persona. Requiring registered commenters makes for a better community and will allow us to police it more effectively.

This is exciting. I'm hoping to restore some of the previous vitality I had at the comments here. Wordpress is cool with the registration function, so that's a big incentive for change. I'm also talking to potential contributors to build a multi-author roster of right-bloggers.

Stayed tuned.

A Robert Stacy McCain exclusive, "EXCLUSIVE: Hollywood Teen Bride’s Mom Blames Jealousy, ‘Insecurities’ for Criticism of Courtney and Doug Hutchison."

A book review, from Evgeny Morozov, at The New Republic, "Don't Be Evil: Google and the Technocratic Conscience":

For cyber-optimists and cyber-pessimists alike, the advent of Google marks off two very distinct periods in Internet history. The optimists remember the age before Google as chaotic, inefficient, and disorganized. Most search engines at the time had poor ethics (some made money by misrepresenting ads as search results) and terrible algorithms (some could not even find their parent companies online). All of that changed when two Stanford graduate students invented an ingenious way to rank Web pages based on how many other pages link to them. Other innovations spurred by Google—especially its novel platform for selling highly targeted ads—have created a new “ecosystem” (the optimists’ favorite buzzword) for producing and disseminating information. Thanks to Google, publishers of all stripes—from novice bloggers in New Delhi to media mandarins in New York—could cash in on their online popularity.

Cyber-pessimists see things quite differently. They wax nostalgic for the early days of the Web when discovery was random, and even fun. They complain that Google has destroyed the joy of serendipitous Web surfing, while its much-celebrated ecosystem is just a toxic wasteland of info-junk. Worse, it’s being constantly polluted by a contingent of “content farms” that produce trivial tidbits of information in order to receive a hefty advertising paycheck from the Googleplex. The skeptics charge that the company treats information as a commodity, trivializing the written word and seeking to turn access to knowledge into a dubious profit-center. Worst of all, Google’s sprawling technology may have created a digital panopticon, making privacy obsolete.

Well, who's right?

If you've read Morozov previously you might have an idea. Either way, continue reading.

Well, a change of pace from The Beatles (via GSGF):

It's funny. A Rebecca Black cameo, Corey Feldman and more!

I've dealt with this issue for years. I even had a buddy who did a pretty good job scalping tickets. The trick is to get them when they're first issued. But who gets them?

A report on concert middlemen, at New York Times, "Scalping Battle Putting ‘Fans’ in the Middle":

It’s the summer concert season and, as usual, many fans are frustrated that rampant ticket scalping online has made seeing their favorite performer almost as much a frustration as a thrill. But now a new group says it wants to help.

This week a new nonprofit group, the Fans First Coalition, announced itself with a mission of protecting ordinary consumers from predatory ticket scalpers. The group appeared to have broad support from the industry, including prominent artists like R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, Maroon 5 and Jennifer Hudson.

What fans might not know is that the coalition is financed by Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, and that it has grown out of a lobbying fight between Live Nation and StubHub, the biggest legal online ticket reseller, over control of the multibillion-dollar secondary ticketing market.

Muddying the waters further, there is another group with a confusingly similar name, the Fan Freedom Project, which also claims to represent the interests of consumers. But it is largely financed by StubHub, a division of eBay.

The organizations, which were introduced with the help of Washington public relations firms, are of a sort typically referred to as astroturf groups. They are unusual for the entertainment industry but to political watchdogs, the idea of powerful interests creating apparently populist nonprofits is all too familiar.

I'm old fashioned. I like to have ticket in hand when I head out the door. All I've got to do is get to the concert and get inside. But RTWT. The issue is how are markets for concert tickets organized. There's just a couple of big players, and few outlets drive up prices. Interesting, in any case. I'd like to see more concerts, especially with front row tickets.

You think?

For the last few days you'd have thought Michele Bachmann was the GOP frontrunner. And what's the big deal about headaches? Yeah, Congresswoman Bachmann's like the rest of us. She's sometimes out of it. Wow. You're disqualified!!

Anyway, that's Brian Ross with Bill O'Reilly. I saw him yucking it up on "The View" yesterday. All fun and games for the intrepid media hounds, I guess.

See Wall Street Journal:

NORWALK, Iowa—Michele Bachmann has captivated conservative activists here as she pushes to establish herself as a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination.

That fast start comes amid new scrutiny of her background and physical health as she seeks to translate grass-roots enthusiasm for her campaign into votes at a crucial straw poll next month in Ames.

he Minnesota congresswoman returned to Iowa early Wednesday morning as polls show her gaining ground nationally as a top alternative to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the early front-runner for the GOP nomination. Since formally entering the race last month, she has eclipsed other Republicans in the field, including fellow Minnesotan Tim Pawlenty, who has been actively campaigning all year.

The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll offered a statistical glimpse at their diverging fortunes. In the poll, 16% of the registered Republicans picked Ms. Bachmann as their top choice, putting her second behind Mr. Romney, who remains the first choice of 30% of the Republicans polled. In the same survey, 2% of registered Republicans chose the former Minnesota governor as their top pick, down from 6% in April.

Keep reading.

The Daily Caller gets a mention.

The La Mesa resident, who issued a racist online diatribe against Barack Obama during campaign 2008, was convicted on charges of threatening to kill a major presidential candidate. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the lower court's decision. At Los Angeles Times, "Court reverses conviction in online rant against Obama":

With the Internet now a popular forum for political discourse, courts are increasingly called upon to relocate the moving boundary between protected speech and credible threats to political figures.

The 9th Circuit recently heard testimony in another case involving an Arizona man's threats to shoot Super Bowl spectators in Phoenix eight years ago that were never carried out. The appeals court has yet to rule on whether the threat itself was a crime, even though it wasn't committed.

Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said that he thought the majority "got it right" in interpreting Americans' free speech protection but that the ruling "pushes it to the limit."

"I only feel comfortable saying that having 20-20 hindsight in knowing that the threat wasn't carried out," Scheer said.

Debra Hartman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego that brought the case against Bagdasarian, refused to comment on the case or the appeals court action.

Bagdasarian's attorney, Ezekiel E. Cortez, declined to comment or make his client available to discuss the ruling.

Bagdasarian's lucky.

From Dennis Prager, at FrontPage Magazine:

The leftist weltanschauung sees society’s and the world’s great battle as between rich and poor rather than between good and evil. Equality therefore trumps morality. This is what produces the morally confused liberal elites that can venerate a Cuban tyranny with its egalitarian society over a free and decent America that has greater inequality.

None of this matters to progressives. Against all this destructiveness, they will respond not with arguments to refute these consequences of the liberal welfare state, but by citing the terms “social justice” and “compassion,” and by labeling their opponents “selfish” and worse.

Yes, worse. Much worse.

I'll have more on this later. But progressivism is ideological destructiveness personified. And while there may be individual progressives who "are fine people," as Prager suggests, in my experience they're one in a million. Progressives are selfish immoralists who'll take your money while calling you racist, sexist, an exploiter, etc. They're losers. The trick is to never back down, even when they open up with all they've got. They'll still lose, because deception and thuggery can't be sustained over goodness of moral clarity. That's why I'm not progressive. These people are ASFL and they suck, a bunch of idiots slapping high fives and visualizing raping conservative women. The reckoning's coming. I'm loving it!

A big essay on Rebecca Black at The Atlantic.

She's from the O.C.

More at WaPo, "With ‘My Moment,’ Rebecca Black premieres follow-up to viral hit ‘Friday’."

RELATED: At LAT, "Rebecca Black's 'Friday': There are a million good reasons you can't get it out of your head."

At Blazing Cat Fur, "The Toronto District School Board Lied About Muslim Prayers - The Community Has Complained."

The TDSB lied when the stated they had not received complaints about the Islamic prayer rituals they have allowed in public schools. Unless of course you don't count the author of the following e-mail, a retired TDSB Teacher, as a member of the "community".

This is a bombshell blog post, so go over there and RTWT.

Well, again, I hadn't planned on engaging this debate too much further, but my ace commenter and good friend Jan bravely ventured over to enemy territory today to repudiate the vile hatred that boils at American Nihilist. I've already attempted to talk reason with these people, but that's impossible, as I noted in an earlier post.

I'm not linking American Nihilist directly, as I rarely send traffic to epic asshole W. James Casper. Here's the Google link for the thread. I take my hat off to Jan, wading through that muck of pure dreaded evil. A cesspool of cowardice and lies. Repsac3 refuses to answer questions because he's ASFL and a sick little stump of a man. Jan states:

"I don't think that anyone should be falsely accused of anything...it just isn't right. We all have faults, no one is perfect, but I don't see the good in making false accusations, or trying to make others look bad."

And here's the cowardly W. James Casper's total spineless dodge:

I'm not sure what you meant by that... but I'm hoping that it's placement in the comments of this particular post are not simply a matter of happenstance...

It'd be funny if this wasn't so serious and evil. It's a straigthforward statement. I posted the details to my final comment at the previous thread yesterday. W. James Casper refuses to acknowledge the facts. His allies have "falsely accused" me of sexual harassment, impersonation, civil rights violations (alleged mandatory requirements of exploitative materials), etc. This is fact. And coward W. James Casper runs like a burnt chicken. The whole thread's one big fraudulent scam. And W. James Casper's lying. He writes earlier at the post:

Why has he been using my full name in his recent posts (or, what he thinks is my full name, anyway), when he and I had a conversation several years ago about my preferring to use this screen name online? Don't you think he's attempting to do me some harm by doing so?

Hello? No one's doing any "harm" to W. James Casper. I've never contacted his employer and W. James Casper blogs publicly, and he's done so as long as he's been stalking me and attempting to get me fired. He's a fraud, cheat, liar and coward. Here's his PuffHo page, with his name displayed for the entire world:

W. James Casper's avatar is a slithering reptile, and it's available on all his blogs, Twitter, and social networks. He's lying when he alleges he's being violated or "outed." The fact is he's an accomplice to bad acts that have crossed the line of propriety. When my good friend Jan called him out he went limp, avoiding the statement with "I'm not sure what you meant by that..."

Wrong. W. James Casper knows exactly what Jan meant by that. But his evil program of hatred forces him to lie and equivocate. He's like a vampire exposed to the sun. He's dying when forced with the truth.

That's what I have on my side: The truth and goodness. W. James Casper has lies and deceit.

A big essay at Camp of the Saints, "When Mark Steyn Starts To Talk About The Break-Up Of The United States…." (Via King Shamus.)

This part is relevant to my recent experience:

Leftism is incompatible with American Values. It despises custom, morality, and Right Reason. It rejects the importance of tradition and, in fact, scorns and spits on it. Leftists seek not to learn from the wisdom of those who have come before them. They disdain the hard-won knowledge that politics is the art of the possible. They seek to remake the world in their image, to be as gods.

How can you deal with such people?

Well, actually you can't. Progressives (leftists) evince the mob mentality of violence and anti-rationalism. Anyone reading this blog over the last few days has seen the pure thug psychology at work among those who see themselves as enlightened. Michelle Malkin posted the violent death-wish hate mail yesterday, and I added a little reminder of the atheistic campaign of intolerance launched at my college last December. It's like a totalitarian regime with brownshirts beating those who think independently. According to TCOTs:

... there is no possible way normal reasonable people can deal with such people — nor should they because they will be outgunned every time because, unlike themselves, the Left will not feel any pressure to conform to the rules of Right Reason and civilization. The Right plays by a set of rules first forged by the hand of God on Mount Sinai; the Left makes up it rules as it goes along, believing the ends [Illumination, Heaven On Earth] justify the means [anything goes].

Anything goes. Absolutely. I'm living it. But I'm still standing to fight another day. And you have to fight:

The Left will not compromise in the ends they desire to force upon us — they are the most feverish and fervid and fanatical of believers, who are unbound to any sense of morality.

Gator Doug has more, "How can we live with the far Left? How indeed?":

There are those who will scoff at Bob’s belief that the Left are the true fanatics seeking to force their religion, Marxism, down all of our throats. But, nothing could be more obvious. The Left practices no tolerance, nor does it embrace, in the least, any diversity. The Left welcomes only those who march and speak in lock step with the Left. Those who do not are targeted for utter destruction.

Utter destruction. Sounds familiar.

Doug Ross has the post I meant to write when I first read the migraines story.

At Director Blue, "I'll Give You Three Guesses Who's Behind The Daily Caller's Migraine Hit Piece on Michele Bachmann (Or Should I Call It 'The Daily Cromney'?)."

On the road today. I'll have more blogging tonight.

Meanwhile, a don't miss editorial at Wall Street Journal, "News and Its Critics."

There's more on this, at Fox News, "Black Caucus 'Furious' Over GOP Rep. West's Email to Dem Party Chief." (At Memeorandum.)

PREVIOUSLY: "Follow-Up on Congressman Allen West." (James Joyner responded at the comments.)

Here's the original clip of Wasserman Schultz on the House floor (via Lonely Conservative):

Allen West was scheduled for a Monday fundraiser in the O.C. this week, but the event was cancelled due to the ongoing budget negotiations in Washington. West is tentatively committed to an October fundraiser, so I'm crossing my fingers for that. He's a good man and it was my honor to meet him at CPAC last February.

So following up on my post last night, "Rep. Allen West Slams Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz Over 'Vile' Comments on Floor of House of Representatives."

The Hill has this, "Wasserman Schultz brushes off West email." (At Memeorandum.)

One the things I admire about Allen West is his willingness to stand up to progressive abuse. At town hall meetings he's challenged malicious attackers, people making false allegations of "racism," etc. He's repeatedly rebuked the left's thuggery and violent intimidation. And you know what, people don't like that he's standing up. In response to West's Wasserman Schultz smackdown, James Joyner posts a tiny little hit piece, "Allen West is an Embarrassment." James uses West's Iraqi interrogation incident to take a cheap shot, writing:

Somehow, he persuaded people that he was a war hero and rode that to Congress–despite the local Veterans of Foreign Wars endorsing his opponent.

Somehow?

You don't get elected to Congress without the approval of the voters, and West's rigorous bearing must have satisfied his constituents. West has taken responsibility for his actions and said he'd do what the moment required if faced with the same circumstances today. That's called integrity in my book.

Meanwhile, the boys at Outside the Beltway take cheap shots from the bleachers, while the terrorists abroad and progressives at home slap high fives at the useful idiots doing their bidding.

Okay, I thought I was done with W. James Casper's ring of hatred, but reader Jan e-mailed. And she's right: RESPAC = CASPER = RACIST = MISOGYNIST = CRIMINAL HARASSER. The blog is a ring of organized hatred, and Kevin Robbins indicates that he'd rape commenter Jan if he wasn't homosexual. As always, this is what progressives are all about:

I've never been so disgusted!

I've been following this for awhile, but haven't been over to his site, until today. I went with an open mind, determined to try to see both sides of the story if I could, and what I saw was worse than I thought.

I don't know how anyone could say that his site is not one of hatred, ridicule, and pure maliciousness! If it is supposed to be humorous, as he claims, I wish someone would show me where to find the humor!

I certainly didn't find the comment from Kevin Robbins, in reference to me, humorous at all! And all because Repsac was commenting on a comment that I had posted on your blog last year. I had no idea that he had replied to that comment on his blog, but now they are milking it for all its worth, I guess.

They seem to take some delight in being as vulgar, evil, and hateful as possible, as evidenced by this comment from Mr. Robbins:
Kevin Robbins said...
So much hilarity Don. Really glad Reppy invented you.

'Some of my commenters, Jan for example, have risked their safety to enter into your comment threads to point out your evil.'

Don't worry Jan is safely tied up in the Rim Station basement. Soon as I get my Snidely Whiplash moustache grown out it's the railroad tracks for her. Hope Amtrak is on time.

Lucky we're all such fags over here or we'd be having our way with her. Well, late for mutual hummer time. Toodles Donnie! And don't worry you are still the wingnuttiest wingnut on the internet. Sorry was that derisive?
I think that pretty much demonstrates the calibre of his commenters, and their mindset.

Good luck, Professor, in ever getting an apology out of that bunch of....never mind. I won't say, because I don't want to sink to that same level.

I do wonder, though, if they would like to have anyone say such things about their wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, as Mr. Robbins said about me?

Maybe not, since they seem not to care how cruel, or unkind, they can be, anyway.

Background is here: "W. James Casper Continues Campaign of Intimidation and Criminal Harassment."

The Calgary Herald has a nice background report, "Turning school into a mosque victimizes minorities."

And here's Ezra Levant with Kathy Shaidle, via Blazing Cat Fur, "Ezra Levant & Kathy Shaidle On The Marxist Racists At The Toronto District School Board":

Also a great report from Mark Steyn, "HOW UNCLEAN WAS MY VALLEY."

And at National Post, "Spreading Islamist misogyny -with your tax dollars":

It's rare that I see a photograph that makes my blood roil in anger. Or that leads me to share the opinions of Toronto Star columnist Heather Mallick. But a picture published in Saturday's Star managed to do both in one afternoon.

The photo depicts a row of girls sitting in the cafeteria of Valley Park Middle School in Toronto. The row is segregated behind a mass of students who are participating in an Islamic prayer service. The reason the girls in the back are not praying is because -wait for it -they have their periods.

One is tempted to say: Is this the Middle Ages? Have I stumbled into a time warp, where "unclean" women must be prevented from "defiling" other persons? It's bad enough that the girls at Valley Park have to enter the cafeteria from the back, while the boys enter from the front, but does the entire school have the right to know they are menstruating?

These aren't college kids, who are adults or on the verge of adulthood, and can make up their own minds about whether they are comfortable with religious practices that relegate women to the back of the bus. These are impressionable young women, Grade 8 students, who are being sent a very clear message: You are second-class citizens compared to the boys in your school, and third-class at certain times of the month.

And yet more, from Bruce Bawer, at Pajamas Media, "Sharia in Toronto: the Muslim Girls on Their Period Have to Sit in the Back."

Blazing Cat Fur has the links.

It's up in Canada, but I'd be there if I could. See, "FD in Ottawa Court - July 21st - Baglow Dismissal Motion," and "Tonight Richard Warman sued FD AGAIN! Lawsuit number FIVE!"

And a commenter left this J.S. Mill quotation:

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.

Progressives stand against this tradition. That's why people of good moral standing must continue the fight. See: "W. James Casper Continues Campaign of Intimidation and Criminal Harassment."

From Naomi Schaefer Riley, at Wall Street Journal, "As more students question rising college costs, professors defend useless research and their lack of teaching."

Read it at the link. The key is academe's divorce from the real world, and I'd pile on about how this is killing the education of waves of students.

Photos at InStyle, "Who's Wearing Who."

I saw Camilla Belle in Push (2009), with Chris Evans (and he's starring in Captain America: The First Avenger, in theaters this Friday).

A few reports:

* At Telegraph UK, "I was 'disgusted' by Milly Dowler phone hacking."

* At The Guardian, "Rebekah Brooks: phone-hacking payments were not my responsibility."

* At New York Times, "Murdochs Caught a Break at Hearing, Stock Analysts Say."

After days of intense anxiety over their appearance before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, there seemed to be consensus inside the company and out that the Murdochs and the News Corporation had finally caught a break.

Instead of finding a signal that this was the beginning of the end of Rupert Murdoch’s run at the helm of his company, analysts stressed that there was no single revelatory moment during the proceedings. If the Murdochs seemed at times distant, even oblivious, to what was going on in their own company, there were no obvious admissions of wrongdoing or glaring contradictions in their testimony, analysts said.

“This was the best day these guys have had in a really long time,” said David Bank, media analyst for RBC Capital Markets. “No shoe dropped, no smoking gun was found, it all sort of sounded kind of contained.”

RELATED: At Wall Street Journal, "Brooks's Husband's Laptop Found in Garbage":

At Michelle's, "You’ve got hate mail: Midsummer night edition; Update: And now…a lawsuit threat."

A sample:

from Lou Typ faktory81@yahoo.com
to writemalkin@gmail.com
date Sat, Mar 12, 2011 at 3:52 PM
subject Hopefully your cousin dies you cunt and you never rest again
mailed-by yahoo.com
signed-by yahoo.com
Every time you sleep I hope you wish you weren’t such a piece of shit. Maybe if you weren’t a cunt nothing would’ve happened?

Keep reading at the link.

This reminds me of the Elizebeth Edwards episode. I finally closed the comment thread after some idiot progressive wrote, "Donald Douglas is a contemptible political hack who can eat shit and die." And closing the comments enraged these terrorists even more. I got a few personal e-mails. And of course, these brilliant death-wish masters thought it'd be a great idea to contact my college, for example, "On Religious Right Grave-Robbers."

This is what they do. Tolerance?

RELATED: "W. James Casper Continues Campaign of Intimidation and Criminal Harassment."

An apology to readers: I've been in and out all day today, and I've also been trying to get progressives to take responsibility. So, here's an update to my post from the other day: "Progressive Trolls? Update on W. James Casper, Commissar of State Security, People's Commissariat for Internet Affairs."

I'm currently in the process of getting written apologies and retractions from the criminal progressives who mounted campaigns of workplace intimidation, and as W. James Casper has been a ringleader, by his own words, I'm putting this comment here for the record:

You recruited bloggers to harass, ridicule, and intimidate:

'I intended for American Nihilist to be a one off joke on the silly "nihilist" meme you created. I sent invites to all the "nihilsts" I could find, thinking we'd all just have a quick laugh at the expense of the silly little meme, & that'd be it... But some of 'em wanted to sign up, and once they did, and started writing--in character--it became something better than the one off joke I intended...'

YOU CROSSED THE LINE!!!!!

These are your words. They are posted at your own blogs. You thought it be just a laugh, but quickly escalated into workplace intimidation and outrageous campaigns of harassment. THAT IS ILLEGAL. YOU HAVE LEGAL LIABILITY AND YOU ARE ON RECORD. Your very words show you ORGANIZED a conspiracy. And you have people currently in your threads making threats, issuing taunts, and spiking the football.

YOU've not denounced a bit of it. Why? Answer that. Why? Because I blog and "attack" people. That's what you say repeatedly. Because I blog and "attack" people you decided to round up a lynch mob. YOUR words. This is what you have done and continue to do. YOU are on record.

YOU are the administrator of this blog and YOU thought it perfectly fine to publish this.

When that was posted you didn't reject it. YOU didn't repudiate it. YOU endorsed it and clapped about how my my college administration should "be aware of his antics." Then later you pulled the post when your lackey left you hold the bag of sh*t. YOU f**ked up. It was never the right thing to do. Always an evil act. It's done. It's on record. YOU are the accessory to make this happen. That sucks you got used. But you recruited people who then f**ked you up. Sucker!! You deserve it. It's you who organize the hate. Make it right by apologizing.

And YOU continue to promote the hate. YOU consort with criminal progressives who continue their campaigns. YOU are doing this. YOU sponsor it right here in this thread. THIS thread.

YOU pledged an intimidation campaign: "As long as Donald Douglas is posting a public blog that accepts comments, I'm going to continue to comment on what he posts, whenever and wherever I choose'

I banned YOU. But you publicly admitted my wishes were to be disrespected and that you would taunt, harass, and intimidate "whenever and wherever I choose."

And one of those places was my college. YOU had henchmen do it for you so you could claim plausible denial. But the cat's out now. YOU are liable.

And YOU ignore, deny, distort and blow off the facts of YOUR evil as some 'crazy paranoid allegations'.

Not.

Don't deny. Don't ignore. Don't dismiss. Don't prevaricate.

Man up to your program. THIS is what you do.

These are your words. YOU recruited all you could find to harass, ridicule and intimidate. YOU endorsed, as the admin, a campaign by (O)CT(O)PUS. And YOU have defended all the others right here in this thread. YOU do not denounce the hate and criminal activity.

YOU are the ringleader of hate. THIS is a hate site. I POINT OUT your evil action. YOU deny because you're without a shred of decency.

You need to be right with goodness in the world and issue that apology!!

I know some readers wonder why I deal with this, and believe me, it's not fun. But since my college has been involved there are a lot of loose ends legally that I'm working to wrap up. W. James Casper harbors a clinical hatred for me and he's long mounted a war of personal destruction. I can't impinge his free speech rights, but he's got no legal right to his continued campaign of criminality and the politics of personal destruction. He's a sad man, I know. But he's more than the laughingstock of the progressive left. He's Satan's henchmen working to destroy those of good will who stand up for what's right. I'll keep fighting because that's what you do: Never back down to the mob. It only emboldens them and they will kill and maim even more. This is what these people are about.

At Washington Wire:

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

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

Keep reading.

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

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

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

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

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

More at Memeorandum.

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

From George Scaggs, at Pajamas Media:

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

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

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

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

RTWT.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RTWT.

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

Click here for video [YouTube pulled].

At LAT:

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

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

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

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

More at top link.

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

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

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

THIS ONCE AGAIN PROVES WHY ELECTIONS MATTER...

A really well-done video montage, a wakerupper:

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

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

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

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

RTWT.

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

From Bret Stephens, at Wall Street Journal:

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

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

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

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

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

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

And get your Herman Cain fix at The Other McCain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well, so much for role models!!

An outstanding clip, via Theo Spark:

I guess John Hawkins hit a nerve.

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

This part echoes some of my thoughts from last night:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah. Sigh.

That reminds me of W. James Casper.

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

He's a bad man:

Via Theo Spark:

The question's only slightly rhetorical.

John Hawkins tweeted last night, and he got me thinking:

The right side of the political blogosphere is dying. I don't think anything smaller than say 50k views a day will be relevant in 5 years.

I was, well, "Hmm ... I don't know ..."

I'd just seen Glenn Reynolds post on this the other day, and he linked to Technology Review, "Google+ Marks the End of Blogging as a Means of Personal Expression." I'd read that earlier, so I Googled, and came up with Felix Salmon's, "Is blogging dead?" There's an interview with The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal, and both Salmon and Madrigal stress the same point: Independent, single-author blogs are a dying breed:

... old-fashioned single-person blogs are largely a thing of the past, with the exception of enthusiastic practitioners in the fields they write about, be it banking or science or anything else. And those people normally blog independently, rather than as part of an old- or new-media company.

I've been blogging for 5 and a half years. I'm averaging probably 2,500 visitors a day, the majority of those through search. I don't have a large commentariat, for various reasons, not the least of which is that progressives trolls ruined the threads. But I keep plugging away because I enjoy it for me. I get my news and entertainment from blogging, and I have enough of a core readership to get feedback and encouragement to keep it up. Besides, I don't trust the MSM most of the time, so I feel an obligation to keep going, for the public good, however marginal my contribution might be.

In any case, I checked my blog ranking at Technorati. I'm still in the top 100 of political blogs, which surprised me. At one point American Power was ranked #40 at Technorati, and for a while I was in the top 50 at Wikio (I'm #94 now). Doug Ross recently ranked my blog #100 in the conservative blogosphere.

Blog rankings generally reflect the volume of incoming links, i.e., how many other blogs are linking to you. But it seems as though it's gotten more difficult to stay ranked, although the traffic has improved over the years, through search and through greater opportunities for networking and marketing. That said, change is in the air. I'm thinking about a Wordpress switch-over soon, transforming American Power into a more sleek, professional blog. I'm also thinking of soliciting a team of bloggers, people who share my ideological goals and a desire to expand the blog into a multi-media portal and neoconservative repository.

Anyway, I tweeted John Hawkins back and he said he was going to work up a post based on that earlier tweet. And he did: "The Slow, Painful Coming Death Of The Independent, Conservative Blogosphere." There's a lot of wisdom there, for example:

The market has ... become much more professionalized. When I got started, back in 2001, a lone blogger who did 3-4 posts a day could build an audience. Unless your name is Ann Coulter, you probably couldn’t make that strategy work today.

Instead, most successful blogs today have large staffs, budgets, and usually, the capacity to shoot traffic back and forth with other gigantic websites. Look at Redstate, which is tied into Human Events, Hot Air which connected with Townhall, Instapundit, which [is] a part of Pajamas Media, Newsbusters which is a subsidiary of the Media Research Center and other monster entities like National Review and all of its blogs, Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, and the Breitbart media empire. An independent blogger competing with them is like a mom & pop store going toe-to-toe with Wal-Mart. Some do better than others, but over the long haul, the only question is whether you can survive on the slivers of audience they leave behind. This plays into #5.

Go read the rest.

John's got a couple of suggestions, and I'm going to be working on integrating those into my blogging soon.

Stay tuned.

At New York Times, "Where Families Are Prized, Help Is Free":

TEL AVIV, Israel — Jewish and Arab, straight and gay, secular and religious, the patients who come to Assuta Hospital in Tel Aviv every day are united by a single hope: that medical science will bring them a baby.

Israel is the world capital of in vitro fertilization and the hospital, which performs about 7,000 of the procedures each year, is one of the busiest fertilization clinics in the world.

Unlike countries where couples can go broke trying to conceive with the assistance of costly medical technology, Israel provides free, unlimited IVF procedures for up to two “take-home babies” until a woman is 45. The policy has made Israelis the highest per capita users of the procedure in the world.

“It’s amazing when you think about it,” marveled Keren, 35, who asked to be identified only by her first name. She was seated in a waiting room at Assuta’s in vitro fertilization clinic, a beige canister of her husband’s frozen sperm at her feet. The sperm had been delivered from another hospital where she had her first IVF attempt three years ago, resulting in the birth of her daughter.

“I want at least three kids, and if we had to pay so much money I’m not sure we would be able to do this,” she said.

RTWT.

I love how non-discriminatory the program is. Definitely goes against the "evil" Israel meme. Shoot, progressives ought to be loving a policy like this. Sheesh.

At Fausta's, "Chavez going to Cuba, not Brazil, for chemo VIDEO":

It's a miracle.

At WYFF-TV Greenville, SC, "Couple Sees Jesus In Walmart Receipt."

Photobucket

Also at Daily Mail, "He is coming.... to Walmart: Eerie image of 'Jesus' appears receipt after church service."

I shared my thoughts already.

Here's Holy Taco, "The Minuses of Google+" (via Linkiest):

99% of social media is masturbation (the metaphorical kind). No one really needs it to keep in touch with their good friends, you probably talk to those people other places, like in person and other crazy things. You use social media to make jokes, post links you like, hilarious photos and tell everyone what you’re doing in status updates. It’s not social media so much as “I’m important” media. If anything, with its circles and segregation, Google + makes it harder to be lazy about telling people what you’re up to.

At Fox News:

Presidential candidate Herman Cain on Sunday defended his opposition to a new mosque in Tennessee, expressing concern about Shariah law and declaring Americans "have the right" to ban mosques in their communities.

Cain, who stirred controversy this year by saying he would be uncomfortable appointing a Muslim to his Cabinet if elected, first expressed concern Thursday about the controversial mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn. That mosque has been the subject of demonstrations and legal challenges in the wake of the controversy over the so-called "Ground Zero mosque" in New York City.

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Cain said he came out against the Tennessee mosque after talking to members of that community. He said the site is "hallowed ground" to Murfreesboro residents and that they're concerned about "the intentions of trying to get Shariah law" -- the code governing conduct in Islamic societies.
"It's not just a mosque for religious purposes. This is what the people are objecting to," he said.

See also Robert Stacy McCain's exclusive report, "VIDEO: Herman Cain Talks Mosques, Sharia and the Muslim Brotherhood."

And at Atlas Shrugs, "Herman Cain gets it. He will be slammed by the leftist/Islamic machine as they continue to enforce Islamic blasphemy laws, bulldoze the American people and bulldoze individual rights."

Via Bare Naked Islam, "Barack Hussein Obama’s favorite negotiating partners, the Taliban, dish out Taliban justice to 16 civilians in the Swat area of Pakistan."

Content Warning: Extremely graphic.

I don't see a date on this at Live Leak, but Bare Naked Islam links to Bivouac-ID, "Shock Video: The Afghan Taliban execute 16 civilians with machine guns at the border of Pakistan Shaltalu (July 16)," and from there to Himal Southasian, "From across the border (June 28)."

The insurgents are likely Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant organization allied to Mullah Omar, who was the Supreme Leader in Afghanistan prior to the initial rout of the Taliban during Operation Enduring Freedom. Mullah Omar in turn was closely linked to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. Today, speculation is that Pakistan's ISI provides safe haven for Mullah Omar, as it was with Bin Laden. Americans are fighting these insurgents. U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan will be a victory for the terrorists. Obviously, this is precisely why I've opposed the administration's drawdown from the region. It's been a long time, ten years since September 11, 2001. And we're all tired of this war. But we'd been doing well with the Petraeus surge in Afghanistan staring in 2009. Some argue that Obama's withdrawal agenda will cancel out all that we've gained. See Robert Kagan, at the Washington Post, "Military leaders know Obama’s decision is a disaster." Also, Max Boot, at Los Angeles Times, "Staying the course in Afghanistan."

*****

UPDATE: Okay, more information coming in on this. See Long War Journal, "Video of brutal Taliban execution of Pakistani policemen emerges." (At Memeorandum.)

The Taliban videotaped the brutal execution of more than a dozen Pakistani policemen who were captured during last month's raid in a remote area of northwestern Pakistan.

The graphic video, which shows 16 Pakistani policemen who are lined up and then gunned down by Taliban fighters wielding AK-47s, was taken in early June in the Shaltalu area of the district of Dir in northwestern Pakistan, a Pakistani official and US intelligence officials who track the region told The Long War Journal. The executions were filmed after the policemen were captured during several days of heavy fighting.

So these were apparently police units and not civlians. Be sure to RTWT at Long War Journal.

See also New York Times, "Taliban Video Shows Execution of 16 Pakistanis":

At KABC-TV Los Angeles, "Carmageddon ends, 405 Freeway back open early."

Also at LAT, "Carmageddon ends: 405 Freeway reopens to traffic."

At San Francisco Chronicle, "Syrian Troops Expand Crackdown on Protest While 30 Die in Fight." Also at Jerusalem Post, "Syrians clamp down on restive eastern area."

And see Los Angeles Times, "Syria security forces attack protesters across the country" (on Friday's developments).

The top video was just posted at a Syrian YouTube page, while the bottom two, which show skirmishes, were posted earlier:

Check Haaretz as well, "Syrian troops arrest dozens in town near Lebanon border."

And at Christian Science Monitor, "Syria opposition unity bid thwarted by Assad regime's brutal crackdown."

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has resigned.

See Wall Street Journal, "Scotland Yard Chief Resigns":

LONDON—Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson resigned on Sunday amid a phone-hacking and police-bribery scandal that has tarnished the police in Britain's capital.

His resignation comes amid a growing uproar in the U.K. over the reporting tactics of News Corp.'s now-closed Sunday tabloid News of the World, which is being investigated by British authorities for allegedly intercepting voice mails and paying bribes to police in pursuit of scoops.

Sir Paul's resignation follows Sunday's arrest of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International—News Corp.'s U.K. newspaper unit—who stepped down from her post on Friday. She is the most senior executive at News International to be arrested in connection with the scandal.

As of late Sunday, Ms. Brooks remained in police custody and hadn't been charged.

Also at New York Times, "Scotland Yard Chief’s Resignation Statement." (At Memeorandum.)

Plus, at Telegraph UK, "Sir Paul Stephenson: rise and fall of a no nonsense copper."

I've been seeing the Karl Rove Crossroads GPS ads on television, and they're covered at today's Los Angeles Times, "Independent groups getting a head start on 2012 campaign":

Reporting from Washington

An early television war fueled by independent groups is poised to shape the focus and landscape of the 2012 presidential race much as "tea-party"-backed organizations helped set the stage for Republican victories in 2010.

This summer — a full 16 months before the general election — television viewers across the country are already confronting hard-hitting commercials jousting over President Obama's record on the economy. Such political ads are usually confined to places such as Iowa and New Hampshire at this point in the race.

The ads aren't the work of the president's reelection campaign or the Republicans jockeying to run against him — they are the product of a new breed of well-funded outside groups seeking to define the contours of the 2012 campaign.

One of the biggest, Crossroads GPS, has pledged to spend $20 million in television advertising in July and August alone.

"I supported President Obama because he spoke so beautifully, but since then, things have gone from bad to much worse," says the character of a worried mom in the group's latest spot, running nationally on cable as well as on broadcast stations in six states.

Keep reading.

I'll look around for some of the other groups highlighted at the piece. The trend is not new, although the scale of outside spending for 2012 may break records.

Pirate's Cove has the Sunday blog roundup: "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup."

And speaking of lovely women, I'm reading my wife's People Magazine, which features the beautiful Catherine Middleton on the cover:

No one's exploited Kate Middleton like R.S. McCain: "Ye Merry Olde Upskirt Traffic." And check the FMJRA roundup over there as well.

RELATED: At London's Daily Mail, "A waist that made Nicole Kidman look dumpy and why Kate deserves to be more than just a clothes horse."

From David Leonhardt, at New York Times, "How the Bursting of the Consumer Bubble Continues to Hold the Economy Back." (At Memeorandum.)

THERE is no shortage of explanations for the economy’s maddening inability to leave behind the Great Recession and start adding large numbers of jobs: The deficit is too big. The stimulus was flawed. China is overtaking us. Businesses are overregulated. Wall Street is underregulated.

But the real culprit — or at least the main one — has been hiding in plain sight. We are living through a tremendous bust. It isn’t simply a housing bust. It’s a fizzling of the great consumer bubble that was decades in the making.

The auto industry is on pace to sell 28 percent fewer new vehicles this year than it did 10 years ago — and 10 years ago was 2001, when the country was in recession. Sales of ovens and stoves are on pace to be at their lowest level since 1992. Home sales over the past year have fallen back to their lowest point since the crisis began. And big-ticket items are hardly the only problem.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently published a jarring report on what it calls discretionary service spending, a category that excludes housing, food and health care and includes restaurant meals, entertainment, education and even insurance. Going back decades, such spending had never fallen more than 3 percent per capita in a recession. In this slump, it is down almost 7 percent, and still has not really begun to recover.

The past week brought more bad news. Retail sales in June were weaker than expected, and consumer confidence fell, causing economists to downgrade their estimates for economic growth yet again. It’s a familiar routine by now. Forecasters in Washington and on Wall Street keep saying the recovery’s problems are temporary — and then they redefine temporary.

If you’re looking for one overarching explanation for the still-terrible job market, it is this great consumer bust.

Well, I'd suggest that the housing crash underlies the consumer bust, and folks increasingly see this as caused by Democrat Party policies. See Glenn Reynolds, "REX MURPHY: 'If America falls, it will not be from external enemies...'."

And ICYMI: At Wall Street Journal, "A Home Is a Lousy Investment," and "The Housing Headache Felt All Over."

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Monday, July 18, 2011

Sunday, July 17, 2011

About Me

Rockin' the Blogosphere!

Memorandum

Blog Item Finder

Links

eXTREMe Tracking

Blog Archive