It's Real for the #Dodgers — and Magical

The Dodgers won again today, 4-0 over Philadelphia.

At LAT, "Dodgers keep it going on the road."

And see Bill Plaschke, "Dodgers' wins are the real thing":

The #Dodgers are the first club to go 41-8 in a 49-game span since the 1944 Cardinals.

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 17, 2013

With the #Dodgers, it's starting to get magical.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 17, 2013

This is real.

To those sitting in Dodger Stadium late Wednesday night as another comeback victory filled the joint with a dizzying chill, the conclusion was inescapable.

For those who kicked over their long-empty plastic cups and nacho trays when leaping into the air with Andre Ethier's game-tying, pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning, there can be no other explanation.

For those who slapped their fists together in imitation of Yasiel Puig's booming celebration on second base after he stole a double to set up the winning run in the 12th inning, what else could they think?

This is real. The Dodgers are real. Their current 48-game stretch — they’ve won 40, hello, you kidding me? — has sometimes felt like magic and occasionally appeared to be luck, but it’s been neither.

You don't win nine out of 11 games against three probable playoff teams during that span by chance. You don't win four of your last eight games when trailing entering the ninth inning with mirrors. You don't win 17 of your last 18 road games — this so surreal as to be unbelievable — on bloops and breaks.

This is as real as the red stains that covered the pants of Adrian Gonzalez late Wednesday after teammates doused him with sports drink after he delivered the winning hit in the 12th inning in the Dodgers' 5-4 win over the New York Mets. Fittingly, it was two buckets' worth. This team has taken every reasonable explanation and doubled it.

"All this stuff doesn't happen by accident," Skip Schumaker was saying earlier this week. "It just doesn't."

Everyone knew they have the richest payroll in baseball history. But who would have thought that guys like Schumaker would help turn this into baseball's richest experience?

It's exciting.

The Attacks on American Betrayal: An Update

I linked earlier to Diana West's WND article in which she argues the attacks on her book threaten her very livelihood. Things are heated, so it's logical that she's been both busy and aggressive in smacking down the various salvos against her book.

To call this an "academic debate" at this point is pointless. The behavior of Ron Radosh, in particular, reminds me more of a mafia kingpin eliminating gangland rivals than of a dispassionate analyst clarifying the historical record. It's out of hand.

It turns out Conrad Black has a new criticism up at National Review, "Defaming FDR," and Radosh was quick to send Diana a "collegial email" to give her the heads up:




Diana responds here, "Another Day, Another Attack on American Betrayal."

Plus, it turns out David Horowitz pulled out the big guns for another shot on Diana at Diana. See the big piece from John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, at FrontPage, "Was Harry Hopkins a Soviet Spy?"

It took me a little while to get through that one, it's so detailed. It's very scholarly though, and completely avoids ad hominem arguments, and is thus a vast improvement over the harsh screeds Radosh has been blasting.

And finally, Robert Stacy McCain jumped back into the debate, "Major Jordan, Carroll Reece, Birchers, Buckley and the Attack on Diana West":

I lamented this controversy when it first arose, and declared myself committed to defending Diana West, and remain resolute. Radosh and Horowitz say that they have serious reasons as conservatives for their crusade against American Betrayal, and despite my general admiration for their work, I think they are misguided in this effort.

Whatever West’s errors, she doesn’t deserve this treatment, and I think serious people need to ask what could be so dangerous about West’s book that it has engendered such extreme hostility.

RTWT.

Egyptian Bloodbath on Muslim Brotherhood's 'Day of Rage'

At Reuters, "Dozens die in Egyptian bloodbath on Islamists' ‘Day of Rage’" (via Memeorandum):

(Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood defiantly called for a week of protests across Egypt starting on Saturday, a day after more than 100 people died in clashes between Islamists and the security forces that pushed the country ever closer to anarchy.

Undeterred by the bloodshed in which about 700 have been killed since Wednesday, the Brotherhood urged its supporters back onto the streets to denounce the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and a crackdown on his followers.

"Our rejection of the coup regime has become an Islamic, national and ethical obligation that we can never abandon," said the Brotherhood, which has accused Egypt's military of plotting the downfall of Mursi last month to regain the levers of power.

Many Western allies have denounced the killings, including the United States, but Saudi Arabia threw its weight behind the army-backed government on Friday, accusing its old foe the Muslim Brotherhood of trying to destabilize Egypt.

Plus, a clip featuring Jamie Colby at Fox News, "Dramatic Video: Egyptian Protesters Jump From Bridge to Escape Gun Fire."

Previous entries here, here, here, and here.

Melanie Griffith on Jimmy Kimmel Live

I hadn't seen Ms. Griffith in a long time.

It's not that she looked bad on the show (seen here and here), she just looked different. If we'd been sitting together at a Starbucks I don't know that I'd have recognized her, or at least not immediately. Her surgeries have been that dramatic. I linked to an older critical piece last night.

Wow. Watching Melanie Griffith on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Not the "Working Girl" I remember. (Confer: http://t.co/la1QxabJH3.)

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 16, 2013

And here's this afternoon at London's Daily Mail, "Smoking girl! Melanie Griffith puffs on a cigarette after Jimmy Kimmel appearance... and shows off incredible figure aged 56."

I think "growing old gracefully" should include gracefully accepting changes in your appearance. It's aging. And it's part of life. That's not to say folks can't be fitness fanatics, or whatever floats the boat, but the over-the-top surgery regimes are pretty pathetic. (I must say, though, that the beautiful Louise Mensch admitted to a facelift and it was so well done I'd have never known she had the work. So maybe there's something to it with moderation, if you're not turning yourself in a plasticized celebrity-bot.)

Egypt's Anguish

At the Los Angeles Times, "After Egypt crackdown, charred remains of the Islamists' cause."

And, "Egypt crisis not likely to damage U.S. security interests in region."

Well, that depends on how you define the word "interests."



Previous entries here, here, and here.

Lisa Daftari on the Latest Egypt Violence

This segment was on just in the last hour.



This morning's earlier entries here and here.

New Bloodshed as Egypt Crisis Escalates

At the New York Times, "New Bloodshed in Egypt as Islamists Defy Threat of Force."

All Ready for the Fall Semester

I was at the office on Monday finalizing my syllabi for the fall semester, which begins August 26.

The top photo shows my office as I was leaving, and below is the view looking east from the main entry to the new administration building toward the new parking structure.

And this article features a photo of the new classrooms in the same building, "At Long Beach City College, summer enrollment on the rebound."

I'm looking forward to getting back to work. It's been a great summer.

David Horowitz Responds to Diana West

And to her supporters.

At Big Government, "What Difference Does It Make?' A Response to Diane West":

Let me be perfectly clear: There is no disagreement between West and us over whether the Roosevelt administration was infiltrated by Soviet agents, or whether pro-Soviet dupes and fellow-travelers were influential and affected administration policy. Radosh and other conservative historians whom West chooses to trash actually pioneered the work of tracking these Soviet agents and pro-Soviet influences, and analyzing their impact. There is also no disagreement about the infiltration of the Obama administration by Islamists or the Obama-Hillary support for the Muslim Brotherhood, America’s mortal enemy. The issue between us is not political in this sense, and it would be helpful if West and her followers would acknowledge that and stop treating our disagreement as political treason.

The real question for us is this: Does it matter if conservatives regard Lend-Lease and D-Day as Soviet plots, and describe allied wartime decisions--however mistaken--as being orchestrated not by Roosevelt and Churchill and their generals, but by Joseph Stalin?

Continue reading.

It's his utter condescension that bothers me, but the whole thing should be winding down by now.

I'll be reading more widely on these issues now (the left's treachery), so that's one upside of the debate.

Added: Diana's got a new piece up at WND, "In Defense of My Livelihood."

Blood on Muslim Brotherhood's Hands — and Obama's

From Ralph Peters, at the New York Post, "This blood is on the hands of Muslim Brotherhood":

What do we want the future Egypt to look like? A flawed, hybrid democracy, or a Sunni Muslim version of Iran? Based on his bluster yesterday about events on the Nile, Secretary of State John Kerry prefers the latter.

And Kerry’s remarks must have had White House approval.

In full outrage mode, America’s most famous windsurfer castigated the Egyptian authorities, insisting that the Muslim Brotherhood had a right to “peaceful protests.” Apparently, “peaceful” means armed with Kalashnikovs, killing policemen, kidnapping and torturing opponents, turning mosques into prisons, attacking Christians and burning Coptic churches.

The Brotherhood protesters rejected all offers of compromise and all demands to disperse. The interim government’s response was heavy-handed, but the Muslim Brothers chose violent resistance — using women and children as shields (a tactic typical of Islamist terrorists).

Do we really need to have sympathy for the devil?

With its blundering, fickle, late-in-the-day support for whoever appeared to be gaining the upper hand, the Obama administration has managed the remarkable feat of alienating every faction in Egypt. And it’s a sorry day when an American administration abets religious totalitarianism, as this White House did when the “democratically elected” Morsi regime tried to Islamize Egypt’s government and society for keeps.

There was, indeed, a coup. But not all coups involve tanks. The real coup came after Egypt’s premature, badly flawed election, when Morsi and the Brotherhood excluded all non-Brothers from the political process; curtailed media freedoms and jailed journalists; attacked Christians; and rushed toward an Islamist state that the majority of Egyptians did not want.

Tens of millions of Muslims took to the streets to protest the Brotherhood’s plunge toward tyranny. Only after attempts to persuade an unrepentant Morsi to compromise failed, did the military move against the regime. The people cheered.

Yet our breathtakingly inept ambassador backed the Morsi regime right to the end. That isn’t diplomacy. It’s idiocy.

But all you have to do to create witless panic in Washington is cry “Military coup!” Well, sometimes — regrettably — a military is all that stands between a population and deadly (and anti-American) fanaticism. Despite yesterday’s bloodshed, would we really prefer a return to Brotherhood rule? Stuff the political correctness and get real.

Great piece.

More at the link.

Bizarre Stop-Motion Vines

I had no idea.

At BuzzFeed, "17 Stop-Motion Vines That Make The World Seem So Much Better Than It Is."

Obama Wants $5.00 Annual Phone Tax

Another Democrat tax.

From Erika Johnson at Hot Air, "Obama’s plan to raise taxes for Internet in schools: A “no-brainer”?":

It’s all too easy to commandeer what looks like the moral high ground with claims of, “it’s just a few dollars, and it’s for a good cause!” — but where does that mightily convenient but intellectually bankrupt reasoning end? Republicans too often allow themselves to be branded as the party of “no,” because Democrats do a pretty good job of making it sound like Republicans just must not care about the children when they oppose this sort of thing, or the hungry when they propose cuts to the food stamp program, or the poor when they oppose tax hikes on the wealthy, blah blah blah.

The problem, however, is not only that those ‘mere’ $5 or so have real opportunity costs out in the real world and real consequences for families, but that these type of initiatives on such a massive scale have too huge a potential for waste, fraud, abuse, and general mega-inefficiency and convolution. This is a perfect example of something that could and should be happening on a much smaller scale: Why not allow the states, even local governments, to determine whether they want to raise taxes to set up high-speed Internet access in their school districts, and spur competition and innovation with more focused programs instead of imposing a top-down bureaucratic nightmare that reliably comes with heavy unintended consequences and is slow to readjust in the event or error?

IMAGE CREDIT: The New York Post, "Obama wants to tack on $5-a-year phone tax to fund high-speed Internet in schools - critics blast 'end run' of Congress and 'endless expansion of program at the expense of rate payers'."

#ObamaCare Monstrosity Causes Historic Drop in Work Hours Across Industries

A devastating piece at Investor's Business Daily, "ObamaCare Fuels Sharp Workweek Drop In 4 Industries."

Read it at that link. The article relies on industry data, which confirms anecdotal information about the staggering effects of the so-called "Affordable Care Act." It should be repealed.

Joan Jett on Jimmy Kimmel Live

She was on last week.



She also played a new song, "Any Weather."

Lacey Banghard Slams British Left's War on 'Page Three Girls'

I wrote about this in March, "The Left's Campaign to Ban 'Page 3' of the Sun Newspaper."

And now the lovely Lacey Banghard is speaking out:

The @NoMorePage3 page actually infuriates me. Wish they would put this much time and energy into real world issues #Pathetic

— Lacey Banghard (@laceybanghard) August 15, 2013

And there's more from Ms. Lacey at the link.

Bill O'Reilly on Internet Addiction

I just watched this. The 8:00 o'clock O'Reilly is on right now.

An interesting discussion at the clip. I took my youngest son to the doctor today and I was on mobile Twitter on my iPhone while waiting for the nurse to come into the examination room. After she came in and started updating my son's information, asking me some questions, my wife texted me with a reminder about the doctor appointment. I was holding my phone and started to reply to my wife. I'm in the doctor's room and my wife telling me the appointment's not until later. Huh? I start writing my wife back and then stopped. The nurse was still asking me questions. I apologized and put my phone away and concentrated on what was going on in real time.

Now, I don't use the phone very much so that was strange. On the other hand I'm on the laptop all day, while I'm having coffee in the morning, while I'm watching the afternoon news shows on CNN and Fox News, and later in the evening if I'm watching a game. I'll usually be blogging and tweeting through all these things. I'm just connected all the time. It's some kind of addiction. I wouldn't be happy if I couldn't go online and do all the things I do. And I wouldn't be able to work and teach effectively. It's just part of what I do.

But there's a time and place for it. And especially for young people, children, teenagers, and college students, people who grew up on the technology and is not a part of their lives but is their lives, I think it's creating a dangerous rewiring of human consciousness. As I mentioned the other day, I rarely see young people readings books. When I was young I always had a book. I never went somewhere without a book. If someone saw me and I wasn't holding a novel or something they'd say, "Hey, where's you book?" Nowadays, what students have read --- at least what I find from my students when I ask what they're reading --- is what they've been required to read in school, often some great literature. But I come across few students who are independently rich in reading skills, who read widely unprompted. The culture has changed, and this problem with Internet addiction, along with the larger issue of entire lives built around this social media, has led to a deterioration of social skills, literacy, and who knows what else. The Daily Mail reports today that young boys sext girls because their personal development has been completely arrested --- they don't know how to talk to girls even if they wanted to.

As people aways say, with all things, moderation is key.

Youth Unemployment

Via Gabriella Hoffman.

Teen Predator Kaitlyn Hunt Accused of Violating Terms of Pretrial Release in Statutory Rape Case

A huge entry at the Other McCain, "Prosecutors: Kaitlyn Hunt Violated Order, Sent Messages, ‘Lewd’ Photos to Victim UPDATE: Hunt Accused of Sending Masturbation Video to Teenage Victim UPDATE: Lesbian and Victim Had ‘Intimate Contact’ Until Two Weeks Ago."

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Lesbian high school cheerleader offered plea deal on her 19th birthday to avoid jail for having sex with classmate, 14, after thousands sign petition to support her."

Well, that plea deal might be falling through now, with the new revelations. As R.S. McCain writes:

Oh, my goodness: Just saw the document filed with the court, and it is absolutely devastating to Kaitlyn Hunt. “These photographs are explicit and depict the defendant [i.e., Hunt] nude, sometimes engaged in sex acts such as placing her fingers inside her vagina.” According to the document, Hunt also sent the younger girl at least one video that “explicitly depicts the defendant [i.e., Hunt] masturbating by rubbing her vagina with her fingers while moaning.”

Read it all at the link.

I'm sure there's going to be some interesting updates on this.

Some Afternoon Paris Hilton Rule 5

At London's Daily Mail, "Double the fun! Paris Hilton shows off her super svelte figure in two bikinis... before getting covered in foam during Ibiza DJ set."

And from last month, "Catch of the day: Hotel heiress Paris Hilton hits the beach in a skimpy red bikini and fishnet kaftan."

Obama Approval Rating Nosedives to 35 Percent

Because rodeo!

At Gallup, "Obama's Economic Approval Slips to 35%":

PRINCETON, NJ -- Despite President Barack Obama's renewed focus on the nation's economy this summer, he scores worse with Americans on the economy than he did in June. His approval rating on the issue, now 35%, is down seven percentage points, and his ratings on taxes and the federal budget deficit are each down five points. During the same period, his overall approval rating is down three points.

But hey, bring in the clowns!

BONUS: At Twitchy, "‘Perfect!’ James Woods skewers Obama’s economy with brutally hilarious pic."

Natural progression... pic.twitter.com/t1bDAe1eoG

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) August 10, 2013

Lulz.

Michelle Malkin Slams Marco Rubio's 'Craven' Open Borders Capitulation

Always good.

Never cave to the Democrats, the communist open-borders ghouls.

And Michelle hammers the idiot  race-baiting regressives on the Missouri State Fair "racism" nontroversy. See, "10 images mocking George W. Bush that were far worse than a harmless rodeo clown."

The clowns on the White House don't like the competition.

Bwahaha! 'Abortion Barbie' Wendy Davis in Vogue

Yeah, way to get the "serious" media coverage you need for a legitimate gubernatorial bid.

What a fembot freak.

At Twitchy, "Strike a pro-abortion pose: Fembots squee over Wendy Davis in Vogue [pics]."

Our WendyDavis in Vogue "Stand and Deliver."Well Done @WendyDavisTexas! http://t.co/iQcgaMDIJP #SWTW #StandWithWomen pic.twitter.com/H8RFmjRPvh

— UniteWomen.org Texas (@UniteWomenTX) August 15, 2013

FBI Identifies Suspect in Teen USA 'Sextortion' Case

The background is here, at LAT, "FBI investigating 'sextortion' case targeting Miss Teen USA."

And the update, "Suspect identified in Miss Teen USA 'sextortion' case."

The young woman, Cassidy Wolf, is from the O.C.

Atlanta Braves Batboy 'Removes' Live Bat From Field

Not something you see too often.

At the Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Braves bat boy scoops up live bat."

And I put "removes" in parentheses because the bat flew away, even if Dan Uggla didn't see it. (Deadspin's on the case.)

#Dodgers Beat Mets in 12th-Inning Walk-Off Win

I was watching the game but my wife came home and we switched the channel over to "Big Brother." I forgot to switch back to the game but was then watching the 11:00 o'clock news, and there it was --- yet another come-from-behind victory for Los Angeles.

The New York Times has it, "Dodgers Rally Past Mets, Adding Drama to Sweep."



Also at Newsday, "Mets blow four-run lead, lose to Dodgers in 12th."

Can Leftists Be Trusted to Fight Real World Threats From Urban Crime and the War on Terror?

Of course not.

But don't ask me. It's Daniel Henninger's query.

At WSJ, "The Soft-on-Security Issue Returns."

George Will: Obama Worse Than Nixon

At the Washington Post, "Obama’s unconstitutional steps worse than Nixon’s":

President Obama’s increasingly grandiose claims for presidential power are inversely proportional to his shriveling presidency. Desperation fuels arrogance as, barely 200 days into the 1,462 days of his second term, his pantry of excuses for failure is bare, his domestic agenda is nonexistent and his foreign policy of empty rhetorical deadlines and red lines is floundering. And at last week’s news conference he offered inconvenience as a justification for illegality.

Explaining his decision to unilaterally rewrite the Affordable Care Act (ACA), he said: “I didn’t simply choose to” ignore the statutory requirement for beginning in 2014 the employer mandate to provide employees with health care. No, “this was in consultation with businesses.”

He continued: “In a normal political environment, it would have been easier for me to simply call up the speaker and say, you know what, this is a tweak that doesn’t go to the essence of the law. . . . It looks like there may be some better ways to do this, let’s make a technical change to the law. That would be the normal thing that I would prefer to do. But we’re not in a normal atmosphere around here when it comes to Obamacare. We did have the executive authority to do so, and we did so.”

Serving as props in the scripted charade of White House news conferences, journalists did not ask the pertinent question: “Where does the Constitution confer upon presidents the ‘executive authority’ to ignore the separation of powers by revising laws?” The question could have elicited an Obama rarity: brevity. Because there is no such authority.

The ground's well trod here. Obama won't be impeached. Congressional Republicans are timid. And besides, it's so 1990s. We've got a transformational presidency. Impeachment? Nah. For the rubes.

More at the link.

Obama's Department of Education Throws Lifeline to San Francisco City College

Well, you gotta love this.

Remember, SFCC is wholly owned by the hip urban diversity interests, and they weren't going to stand for an outside accreditation agency's adverse evaluation. So what to do? Go right to the race-obsessed Obama administration for a bailout, what else?

At LAT, "U.S. faults panel that criticized City College of San Francisco." And see KTVU San Francisco (also known as the "Ho Lee Fuk" broadcasting corporation), "CCSF teachers laud Fed's letter questioning ACCJC."

I read the initial, disastrous accreditation report. The college is f-ked up. So what did you union do? It alleged that there wasn't enough "diversity" on the accreditation visiting team, for one thing. (Too many administrators and not enough faculty members, who would no doubt be union hacks quick to ram through a positive evaluation.)

In any case, here's my initial report, "City College of San Francisco, Nation's Largest Two-Year College, On Brink of Closure."

'All Systems Fail'

Here's some Varukers for you:

You try to fight the system
But it's to no avail
All that the systems doing
You could only fail
All, All, All systems fail, systems fail.
Now that the system is falling to pieces,
Now that the system's failed no more deceiving

Studio version here.

Drew Barrymore for Guess

Frankly, I don't remember this.

But don't doubt the recollective powers of the folks at BuzzFeed.

See, "20Awesome Photos From Drew Barrymore’s Guess Campaign."

Elvis Live from Tupelo, Mississippi, 1956

I've forgotten now, but the Sound L.A. played some Elvis Presley the other day while I was running errands, either "Don't Be Cruel" or "Treat Me Nice."

In any case, trolling around on YouTube I came across this vintage concert footage from 1956. Pretty cool.

U.S. Pleas Fail to Stave Off Crackdown

Amazingly so.

At WSJ, "Hundreds Dead in Egypt: Security Forces' Efforts to Clear Cairo Sit-Ins Sparks Violence; At Least 421 People Killed Across Egyptt":

CAIRO—Egypt's military regime, aided by snipers and bulldozers, swept the streets of Islamist protesters Wednesday—setting off a day of violence that left at least 421 people dead, the government fractured and ties with its international partners in tatters.

Cairo's streets were calm Thursday morning following a curfew overnight, with funerals for the dead and further protests expected later in the day.

Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers stormed police stations Wednesday, burned down churches and battled with government supporters in several neighborhoods, after police sweeps left scores of protesters dead at two Cairo squares. The raid ended more than a month of sit-ins by thousands of Brotherhood supporters—sometimes joined by families, and daring the government to disperse them—who demanded the reinstatement of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

Egypt's interim president declared a monthlong, national state of emergency—raising Egyptians' fears of extended conflict, further crackdowns and the prospect that the military regime they struggled to overthrow in 2011 was reasserting control.

The country's interim vice president, Mohamed ElBaradei, resigned. His exit stripped away an important veneer of civilian participation in the regime set up by the military's chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who responded to popular protests against Mr. Morsi by removing him and installing the interim government.

Swift and severe condemnation of the deadly attacks and state of emergency rolled in from Turkey, Europe and the United Nations. The U.S., one of Egypt's chief allies and benefactors, called the events deplorable and threatened to call off joint military exercises that were set to start next month.

More here.

Plus, "U.S. Can't Prevent Massive Loss of Live."

You think?

Awesome Gary Sinise Interview with Martha McCallum on Fox News

I did a double take yesterday when I looked up at the TV and there he was.

A great interview. Sinise is the embodiment of the American spirit.

'Bachelor' Star Gia Allemand Dead at 29

I saw this at the New York Post initially, but that was before the cause of death was known. (The updated article is here.)

And I'm thinking, "Man, that's awfully young to "pass away."

Sadly, she committed suicide.

See London's Daily Mail, "Bachelor star Gia Allemand dies two days after heartbroken NBA player boyfriend 'found his 29-year-old lover hanging at home'."

Bradley Manning Apologizes in Court

At iOWNTHEWORLD, "Mentally Ill Bradley Manning Takes to the Stand and Apologizes to Judge."



And drama queens all around, at WikiLeaks, "Response to Today’s Bradley Manning Statement."

Also at NYT, "Manning, Facing Prison for Leaks, Apologizes at Court-Martial Trial." (Via Memeorandum.)

Clinton Foundation Meltdown

It's pretty staggering, and epic hilarious, because the Clintons.

Check the Lonely Conservative, "New York Times Outs Clinton Foundation Cronysim: Glitzy Spending Troubles Attorneys."

(And that's cross-posted from Maggie's Notebook, "Clinton Foundation: Multimillion-Dollar Deficits, Rotating Clinton Cronies – Chelsea Worried About Inheritance.")

Ima Have Me Some Kentucky Fried Chicken!

Actually, I was just getting back online and R.S. McCain tweets me about epic loser Thers at Whiskey Fire. Turns out the sad clown was trolling both me and Robert, and while clicking around (reminding myself of the douche's assholery) I came across this hilarious RAAAACISM freakout post at the perfectly titled blog Freakout Nation.

Too good to be a Photoshop, but someone should seriously superimpose Michelle Obama's face on that fat b*tch. Well, come to think of it, BigFurHat routinely roasts the First Lady of Cheesburgers. (More here.)

Lulz.

Amanda Seyfried or Oprah Winfrey: Who'd You Rather?

An amazing newsstand juxtaposition, seen while on a CVS run earlier today.

Who'd you rather?

Smokin' Amanda Seyfried or lying liar Oprah Winfrey?

More at Instapundit, "Is Oprah Pushing Racism Story to Promote New Movie? YES, ALMOST CERTAINLY. NEXT QUESTION? "

Photos from Cairo's Rabaa al-Adaweya Square

On Facebook.

And extremely compelling.

Of course, authenticity is unverified, although there's lots more breaking news on Twitter.

And at eNews Channel Africa, "Twitter updates on Egypt 'massacre'," and Global Post, "Massacre in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adaweya Square."



Previous reports here and here, here, here, and here.

Burglar Breaks Into Famke Janssens's NYC Apartment

A burglar freak, it turns out. At the Post, "X-Men creep-out: Burglar breaks into Janssen's apt., leaves kid's book."



Also at TMZ, "Famke Janssen -- Cops Investigating CREEPY Incident at NYC Pad."

California's Golden Shower of Hits

At Blackmailers Don't Shoot, "The Golden Showers State":

The transgender thing was the new moronic academic fad at around the time when I was contemplating dropping out of grad school, and now it’s making its way into official policy. It was annoying having to hear about transgender rights and “transphobia” from PC academics, but when California’s government puts the business of a fraction of a percentage point of the population over the many other problems in the state, it becomes downright offensive. High unemployment? Transgender elementary students. State is broke? Transgender elementary students. Rising gas prices? Transgender elementary students.

Yeah, it's pretty f-ked up.

And following the links takes us to the Regular Guy, "California: Wee-Wee and Poo-Poo Go Coed."

And Wirecutter has your golden shower right here.

Hey, non-surgical trannies pissing on queer feminists in the "ladies' room"? Priceless.

Massacre at Egypt's al-Nahda Square in Giza

Warning: This graphic video reportedly shows charred bodies from the assault on the protest camp at al-Nahda Square.



An eyewitness account here, "Clearing of Brotherhood’s Nahda Protest Site: An Eyewitness Statement." And on Facebook here.

More at #Nahda on Twitter.

And at the Middle East Monitor, "Egypt security forces launch operation in Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda squares."

Previous reports here and here, here, and here.

Asmaa Beltagy Killed in Egypt Crackdown

Just 17-years-old --- what an age to die.

Via Twitter.

Hat Tip: New York Times.



Previous reports here and here, and here.

Egypt Bloodshed May Be Ill Omen for Broader Region

This is really f-ked up.

Previous reports here and here.

And a new report at the New York Times":

The ferocious assaults by Egyptian security forces to rout Islamist protesters on Wednesday have reinforced fears that political change toward tolerant democracies in the Arab world, exalted as the possible outcome of the revolutionary fervor that toppled autocracies in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia a few years ago, has faded into a fleeting and perhaps unattainable ideal.

In Egypt, where the first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, has been languishing in detention for more than a month, the polarization of society and economic paralysis have reached new extremes, a state of emergency has been declared and protester encampments in the capital, Cairo, are like war zones.

In Tunisia, the birthplace of the so-called Arab Spring, the moderate Islamist government that took power is increasingly fragile.

Libya remains marred by violent lawlessness and Islamist extremism nearly two years after its strongman, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, was killed. Syria, where the political opposition once drew inspiration from Colonel Qaddafi’s demise, has sunk into a catastrophic and jihadist-tinged civil war, with no sign that President Bashar al-Assad has any intention of leaving power and with increasing indications that his country could be the next big haven for Al Qaeda and its affiliates.

Throughout the region, the demands of millions of ordinary citizens who have clamored for change — for jobs, food, health care and basic security to live their lives in peace — have not been addressed by the political upheavals so far. If anything their grievances have worsened.

“What started out being an Arab Spring is quickly morphing into something much larger,” said Andrew J. Tabler, a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. In Egypt’s case, he said, “you’re not only seeing unprecedented levels of clashes, but I think you’re seeing the increased demands of everyday people — now part of the governance factor. This is proving to be extremely unstable.”

Continue reading.

It's an ill omen for Barack Hussein's Muslim reset foreign policy as well. He went to Cairo to proclaim a new era, yet America's backing of the Muslim Brotherhood is one of the major causes of the bloodshed.

Journalists Killed in Egypt Crackdown

Picking up on my earlier entry, here's London's Daily Mail, "British cameraman shot dead while reporting for Sky on Egypt bloodbath as protesters say as many as 149 have been killed."

Sky News cameraman Mick Deane has been killed. More at WaPo, "Husband of former Post reporter among journalists killed in Egypt violence."

Also at Reuters, "Egypt imposes state of emergency after 149 people killed in clashes."

More at Memeorandum.

Added: From the New York Times, "Scores Killed in Crackdown on Morsi Supporters."

Sick: 'The Nation' Denies Harry Dexter White's Soviet Espionage

Well, this is fascinating, especially given the whole debate over Diana's West's American Betrayal.

It turns out Katrina vanden Heuvel's rag has published a review denying that Harry Dexter White ---- Franklin Roosevelt's man at the U.S. Treasury and Bretton Woods ---- was a Soviet mole.

Jonathan Tobin reports, at Commentary, "Portrait of Denial: ‘The Nation’ and Communist Spies":

You might think that having the most liberal president since Jimmy Carter would free The Nation from their commitment to keep fighting the old ideological battles. There are, after all, a host of contemporary arguments to engage in that, notwithstanding the weakness of the left-wing case, are not vulnerable to disproof by incontrovertible historical evidence as is the case with the delusional effort to defend White. Yet after so many years of pretending that Soviet infiltration of Washington in the 1930s and 1940s was a figment of the imagination of demagogic right-wing anti-Communists, keeping the flag of denial flying is their way of asserting that being left wing means never having to say you’re sorry.

Doing so can be dismissed as a mindless loyalty to their past as a publication, but one suspects there is also something else at work. Admitting the truth about Communist espionage doesn’t validate contemporary conservative critiques of other traditional left-wing positions on the economy like the minimum wage or the folly of socialized medicine and its forerunner, ObamaCare. But at The Nation, the notion that any cracks in what in another era would have been called party solidarity undermines all their beliefs still seems to prevail.

Why else would they bother beating the dead horse of espionage denial if not for the fact that doing so somehow bucks them up in the idea that the right is always wrong, even when it is obviously right.

Word.

Remember, with Democrats, it's always no enemies on the left, and that's to the dying end.

I wrote about this earlier, on Benn Steil definitive reporting on White as the ultimate Soviet mole, even more important than Alger Hiss. See, "Harry Dexter White, Franklin Roosevelt's Man at Bretton Woods, Was Communist Mole Who Passed State Secrets to Soviet Union."

Steil's book is here, The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order.

Israel Begins Release of Palestinian Prisoners

At the New York Times, "Israel Releases 26 Palestinian Prisoners, to Cheers and Anguish."



Also at Israel Matzav, "Israel releasing 26 murderers tonight," and "'Palestinians' disappointed by murderer release."

And see Naftali Moses, at the Times of Israel, "When the killers go home":

As the final preparations are made tonight for the release of the first wave of terrorists, my thoughts are with my friends and acquaintances who are reliving some of the worst pain they have ever felt. At least I know that the vicious terrorist who took my son’s life five years ago at Mercaz HaRav has lost his, stopped in his terrible rampage by a valiant soldier and a brave civilian. I have been spared the agony of wondering how my son’s killer has been faring—in prison, or on the run from justice...

Continue reading.

Boston Bombing Survivor Jeff Bauman Starts Over

Pamela has a must-read post at Atlas Shrugs, "After Jihad."

Photos too. Spend a few minutes with that. Bauman was knocked to the ground with the blast, but didn't even know he'd lost his legs until he looked at his friends face and then looked down. Luckily a doctor was right there to give him some help.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula Speaks to CNN

At American Glob, "CNN – YouTube Video Was Not the Reason for Benghazi Attack."

And at LAT, "'Innocence of Muslims' wrongly blamed for attacks, filmmaker says."



Hat Tip: BigFurHat.

Cory Booker Wins New Jersey Senate Primary

At Politico, "Cory Booker wins N.J. Senate primary."

And at National Journal, "Christie Won't Help Cory Booker’s GOP Opponent In Senate Campaign."

Well, they say Booker's a shoo in, so we'll see.

Also at Twitchy, "Cory Booker easily wins US Senate primary, breaks promise to finish mayoral term," and "Heckuva job, Cory! Vulgar celeb tolerance brigade comes out strong for Booker."


Yeah, vulgar.

NEW JERSEY!! Vote 4 CORY BOOKER for Senate TODAY! Polls close at 8 PM. Find your polling place. #NJsen #Booker4Senate http://t.co/D4No2K6NUS

— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) August 13, 2013

Ex-Mistress Reveals Communist George Galloway's Deviant Sexual Perversions

Ha!

At Blazing Cat Fur, "George Galloway's Bizarre Sexual Fetish":

Galloway is never far away from controversy and uses the resulting media attention to his benefit to push his anti-British, communist and pro Islamic views.

Yet this is one scandal he is very quiet on.

Video at the link.

Dana Loesch on California's Transgender Disaster in K-12

A mind-boggling thing.

Background at the Los Angeles Times, "Transgender students now able to use preferred bathroom in school."

Playboy Month in Review — July

Nice.

Race-Baiting Liar Oprah Winfrey 'Apologizes' for Swiss Racism Allegations

At Big Journalism, "RACE HOAX? OPRAH 'APOLOGIZES' AFTER ACCUSED RACIST CALLS HER A LIAR."

Oprah got called out for her false race-baiting allegations and she said was "sorry" that the whole thing "got blown up."

I'm sure lots of folks won't be cryin' if she "got blown up."

PREVIOUSLY: "The Left's Program of 'Kill Whitey'."

Dozens Killed as Police Clear Protest Camps in Cairo

The Wall Street Journal's got the lowball figure, "Ten Killed as Egyptian Troops Move Against Pro-Morsi Sit-In: Muslim Brotherhood Leaders Had Vowed to Send Supporters to March on Government Buildings."

But see Reuters, "Egyptian police kill at least 30 in protest crackdown: Brotherhood," and Telegraph UK, "Egypt troops clear Morsi protests: live."



More video here.

Lea Michele Tearful Dedication to Cory Monteith at Teen Choice Awards

At the Hollywood Reporter, "'Glee's' Lea Michele Dedicates Teen Choice Win to Cory Monteith (Video)."

Well, Lady Gaga's No Slacker on Feedin' the Media Beast

I was joking about this the other day, "You Must Feed the Never-Ending Demands of the Multi-Media Beast!"

But Gaga's not joking. She keeps the media in feeding frenzy mode, seemingly 24/7.

At London's Daily Mail, "You've got something on your face! A mucky Lady Gaga bares all (again) in arty shoot for V magazine."

And check V Magazine on Instagram.

Jessica Gomes and Anne V in China

For Sports Illustrated.



And at SI, Jessica and Anne V.

Two British Women Busted in Peru Cocaine Arrest

The pair had six kilos of coke in their bags, the idiots.

At London's Daily Mail, "Pictured: The moment two British girls were caught 'trying to smuggle £1.5million of cocaine out of Peru hidden in food bags'," and "Caught on video: British teenagers seen laughing and eating cake in Peru jail days after arrest for 'smuggling £1.5m of drugs'."

And at Guardian UK, "Peru: British women to attend court on cocaine smuggling charges."

New York's Finest Warn of Gotham Crime Spiral After Court Ruling

The New York Post has loads on this.

See, "NYPD cops warn Gotham residents officers will become overly cautious with stop-frisk, predict crime hike."

And at the front page, "Cops could soon wear video cameras after stop-and-frisk ruling," and "Federal monitor tapped to rein in stop-and-frisk vows to work with cops: 'I'm a big supporter of law enforcement'."

And from the opinion pages, "Death wish, the sequel":

This one will hurt: A federal judge took a powerful whack at New York City’s crime-fighting efforts in ruling against the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policies. If the judge’s ruling is allowed to stand, the price to the city will be incalculable. And the victims of her judicial caprice will overwhelmingly be our city’s poor and minority populations.

In a pair of decisions that ran 234 pages, Judge Shira Scheindlin found the stops of those people police deem suspicious unconstitutional. She blasted the NYPD for racial bias and for its “deliberate indifference to constitutional deprivations” of those who are stopped. Her remedies include a court-appointed monitor to institute the court-decreed reforms she believes necessary.

None of this comes as a surprise. Scheindlin has long been vocal about her opposition to stop-and-frisk. She has always harbored deep misgivings about the police. Even before the trial began, she cited “powerful evidence of a widespread pattern of unlawful stops” and blasted the NYPD’s “deeply troubling apathy toward New Yorkers’ most fundamental constitutional rights.”

San Diego Hooters Won't Serve Bob Filner

Hooters corporate tweeted their support.

And here's Vodka Pundit, "No Hooters Girls for Mayor Filner." (Via Memeorandum.)

Also at Twitchy, "Colossal boobs not welcome: San Diego Hooters will not serve Filthy Filner [pic]."



PHOTO CREDIT: Stephen Puetz, Chief of Staff to San Diego Councilman Kevin Faulconer, on Twitter.

#MockObamaDay

On Twitter.

#MockObamaDay: Cult of Personality ~ pic.twitter.com/xz72YOprEF
— Adam Baldwin (@AdamBaldwin) August 13, 2013

Has the Pendulum Swung Against Tough-on-Crime Policies?

An interesting piece at the New York Times, "Two Powerful Signals of a Major Shift on Crime":

WASHINGTON — Two decisions Monday, one by a federal judge in New York and the other by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., were powerful signals that the pendulum has swung away from the tough-on-crime policies of a generation ago.

Critics have long contended that draconian mandatory minimum sentence laws for low-level drug offenses, as well as stop-and-frisk police policies that target higher-crime and minority neighborhoods, have a disproportionate impact on members of minority groups. On Monday, Mr. Holder announced that federal prosecutors would no longer invoke the sentencing laws, and a judge found that stop-and-frisk practices in New York were unconstitutional racial profiling.

While the timing was a coincidence, Barbara Arnwine, the president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said that the effect was “historic, groundbreaking, and potentially game-changing.”

“I thought that the most important significance of both events was the sense of enough is enough,” said Ms. Arnwine, who attended the speech in San Francisco where Mr. Holder unveiled the new Justice Department policy. “It’s a feeling that this is the moment to make needed change. This just can’t continue, this level of extreme heightened injustice in our policing, our law enforcement and our criminal justice system.”

A generation ago, amid a crack epidemic, state and federal lawmakers enacted a wave of tough-on-crime measures that resulted in an 800 percent increase in the number of prisoners in the United States, even as the population grew by only a third. The spike in prisoners centered on an increase in the number of African-American and Hispanic men convicted of drug crimes; blacks are about six times as likely as whites to be incarcerated.

But the crack wave has long since passed and violent crime rates have plummeted to four-decade lows, in the process reducing crime as a salient political issue. Traditionally conservative states, driven by a need to save money on building and maintaining prisons, have taken the lead in scaling back policies of mass incarceration. Against that backdrop, the move away from mandatory sentences and Judge Shira A. Scheindlin’s ruling on stop-and-frisk practices signaled that a course correction on two big criminal justice issues that disproportionately affect minorities has finally been made, according to the advocates who have pushed for those changes.

Again, just so much MSM bull.

See Heather Mac Donald, at the New York Post, "Ignoring the realities of NYC crime":

New York’s 20-year reprieve from debilitating violence may well be over. Yesterday, US District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the New York Police Department has been willfully targeting blacks and Hispanics for unlawful stop, question and frisks based on their skin color alone, in violation of the Constitution.

She has appointed a federal monitor to oversee the department and to develop new policies to end its alleged practice of biased policing. If the monitor adopts Judge Scheindlin’s definition of unconstitutional policing, it is not too soon to start looking into relocation plans.

The key moment of Scheindlin’s ruling comes with her discussion of the stops performed by one of the NYPD’s most hard-working members.

During a three-month period of 2009, the high-crime Fort Greene area of Brooklyn had been experiencing a spate of robberies, burglaries and gun violence. The robbery victims described their assailants as four to five black males between the ages of 14 to 19; the burglary victims reported the suspect as a Hispanic male between 5’8’’ and 5’9’’, in his 30s; and the shooting suspect was described as a black male in his 20s.

During that same period, Officer Edgar Gonzalez of Brooklyn’s 88th Precinct conducted 134 stops, 128 of which had black or Hispanic subjects. That stop ratio is consistent not only with the specific crime patterns then afflicting Fort Greene but also with the overall rate of crime in Gonzalez’s precinct. Blacks and Hispanics commit nearly 99 percent of all violent crime in the 88th Precinct and over 93 percent of all crime.

Scheindlin, however, apparently believes that population ratios are the proper benchmark for measuring the legality of stop activity. She points out that Gonzalez’s racial stop rate “far exceeds the percentage of blacks and Hispanics in the local population (60 percent).”

In other words, though whites and Asians commit less than 1 percent of violent crime in the 88th Precinct and less than 6 percent of all crime, according to Scheindlin 40 percent of all stops should be of whites and Asians, to match their representation in the local population.

Never mind that the suspect descriptions that Gonzalez was working off of gave blacks and Hispanics as robbery, burglary and shooting suspects. To avoid an accusation of racial profiling, he should have stopped whites and Asians for crimes committed — according to their victims — exclusively by blacks and Hispanics....

The rest of Scheindlin’s opinion is equally blind to the realities of New York crime and policing. She evinces little understanding of what it means to live in a high-crime neighborhood, where youths congregating on the corner can be the prelude to gun violence or a street rampage. She has accepted at face value the most far-fetched evidence against the NYPD, such as state Sen. Eric Adams’ absurd and uncorroborated accusations against Commissioner Ray Kelly. She has potentially restricted the NYPD’s ability to monitor the performance of its commanders and officers and to make sure that they are actually working to keep the city safe.

The result is not only an insult to the most effective, professionally run department in the country. It may also signal the end of the freedom from fear that New York’s most vulnerable residents have enjoyed for two decades.

Regressive leftist idiocy in action once again.

Additional case in point: Scott Lame-ieux at Lawyers, Gangs and Muggings.

BONUS: At the Last Tradition, "Crime Softy Eric Holder seeks to avert mandatory minimum sentences for some low-level drug offenders to curry favor with minority groups":

For progressive[s] like Attorney General Eric Holder it’s not about being an effective crime fighter. What’s more important to them is politically correct policing that may garner votes, but leads to real crime.

Ding ding!

Obama's Imperial Presidency

Imperial yes, but it's also the incompetent asshole presidency.

But see the Foundry, "Morning Bell: The Imperial President Will Act on His Own":

In a recent email to supporters, President Obama lamented the frustrating inadequacy of his office. “There’s only so much I can do on my own” without Congress, he confessed.

As a matter of constitutional interpretation, he’s right. But in practice, the President has shown a distinct contempt for the legal limits on his power.

Obama’s imperial presidency has manifested itself in many ways. Often he willfully neglects his constitutional duty to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” As we’ve seen with education, immigration, and health care, suspending the law amounts to rewriting the law.

Other times, the President is more direct. The legislative power may be vested in Congress, but that didn’t stop him from rewriting welfare legislation on his own, hollowing out the successful federal work requirements.

Unfortunately, it appears that this is only the beginning of Obama’s imperialism.

Continue reading.

The #ImperialPresident indeed: pic.twitter.com/ZiV1xXtvfO

— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) August 13, 2013

Queer Feminist @SaraAlcid Screams 'Intimidation' and 'Rape' After Being Mocked Hilariously on Twitter

You know, in the history of blog flamewars and Twitter throwdowns, Ima put my neck out and argue that Ms. Alcid's overreacting just a wee bit.

I tweeted so much earlier:

@SaraAlcid You're not being "harassed." You're being mocked, hilariously, and there's a difference.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 13, 2013

What's particularly interesting to me about this women is that she's merely a robotic automaton for the mindless lockstep ideology of the post-civil rights left. When one claims with a straight face that abortion and reproductive health issues (i.e., birth control) are LGBT issues you've seriously jumped the shark. At this point it's about political correctness on steroids. And the woman's reaction is a sort of plasmatic feedback loop in which just a mere masculine response to feminist inanity, even a snicker, is evidence of "rape culture." In other words, it doesn't get any better than this. Just grab some popcorn and get ready for side stitches.

The background is here, "Robert Stacy McCain Goes Deep Inside the World of Hardcore Feminism."

And Robert updates, "Disagreement as ‘Harassment’? @StephHerold Says Tell the FBI."

Michelle Malkin Slams Depraved Left's Defense of Filthy Filner

Democrats from Pelosi on down have been covering for this for years.



More at the San Diego Union Tribune, "Filner: 'Not the time to go backwards': Embattled mayor responds to recall effort."

The Twilight Zone of Leftist Hypocrisy

At the Looking Spoon, "9 Reasons liberals need to STFU about how much "Rodeo Clown Obama" offends them."



RELATED: At Michelle Malkin's, "The progressive “climate of hate:” An illustrated primer, 2000-2010."

Lake Bell for New York

It's a Rule 5 world!

From the magazine's fall fashion issue, "'New York' Fashion Issue Cover Preview: Lake Bell Wears a Tattoo."

More at Egotastic!, "Lake Bell Painted Nekkid Covered Bits in New York Magazine."



Also at the Los Angeles Times, "Lake Bell on the 'soapbox moment' in her 'In a World...'"

Obama Administration Abolishes Free Speech on America's Campuses

From Walter Olson, at Commentary, "Sentence First, Verdict Afterward":

Perhaps the Obama administration was not expecting a great public outcry this spring when it unveiled a “blueprint” for how campuses across the nation will henceforth need to handle complaints of sexual misconduct. Under the scheme as announced on May 9, colleges must crack down on a wide array of sexually oriented conduct defined as “unwelcome” to one or more persons, including many instances of what the feds quaintly term “verbal conduct,” better known as “speech.”

Colleges will also have to tighten up disciplinary procedures that the feds view as excessively observant of due process toward those accused of sexual misbehavior. For example—in what one critic called an “Alice in Wonderland” standard of “Sentence first, verdict afterward”—colleges will often need to take action against an accused student or faculty member before an investigation reaches any conclusion as to whether the charges against that person are accurate.

The initiative, a joint project of the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the U.S. Department of Justice, took the form of a “resolution agreement” sent to administrators at the University of Montana. As the term “blueprint” indicates, however, the new scheme is meant to bind colleges and universities across the nation, at least those that receive federal money in one form or another—which in practice means nearly all of them.

Whether or not the administration was expecting an outcry, it got one. The civil-libertarian lawyer Wendy Kaminer wrote in the Atlantic that the blueprint unacceptably blurs the line between unwanted date requests and rape: “If a student feels harassed, she may be harassed, regardless of the reasonableness of her feelings, and school administrators may be legally required to discipline her ‘harasser.’” Kaminer dubbed this “an educational nightmare.” The “breathtakingly bold” move has “mandated the effective abolition of free speech on college campuses, as well as the almost certain conviction of large numbers of students, many of whom will be innocent, of ‘harassment,’” contended another noted civil libertarian, Harvey Silverglate, writing with Juliana DeVries. George F. Will called the blueprint “so patently unconstitutional that it will be swiftly swatted down by the courts” and stated that it “underscores today’s widespread government impulse for lawless coercion.” Education blogger Joanne Jacobs said the scheme “makes every student a sex harasser.”

Not quite three weeks later, the Office of Civil Rights backed down, or seemed to, on a couple of the blueprint’s most outrageous aspects. In a May 29 letter sent to members of the public who had expressed concern, the agency said it did not expect universities to discipline students for conduct that was not objectively offensive after all, or for isolated low-level offensive conduct that did not add up to some more serious pattern. (In good bureaucratic fashion, OCR refused to concede that it had modified its position at all, insisting that it was merely clarifying the policy it intended all along.)

Even with that concession, the blueprint is a document full of ominous portent: for the fairness of the disciplinary processes that have now come under federal prescription, for the once proud independence of the higher-education sector, and, yes, for the continued health of what passes for free speech on the American campus.

RTWT.

Man, it's gonna take a while to root out and eradicate the disease of leftism destroying the country. As folks warned during 2012, with Barack Hussein's reelection America's become virtually unrecognizable. But no reason to lose hope. The pendulum is swinging back. When Missouri officials ban a circus clown for mocking the president we've clearly reached some macabre, farcical threshold. Of course we'll see more of such perfidy as the left gasps toward decimation in 2014 and beyond.

RELATED: "Wall Street Journal Weekend Interview: Greg Lukianoff, 'How Free Speech Died on Campus'."

The Left's Program of 'Kill Whitey'

The Mad Jewess sounds the tocsin, "In USA: If You LOOK White, You ARE a Target. If You Don't GET This…You’re an Idiot."

Plus, more on the racist left's program, featuring the execrable Oprah Winfrey, race-baiter extraordinaire.

Oprah, An American #BlackPrivileged Brat, Gets Told Off By 'Shop Girl' From Switzerland http://t.co/hCtZ4sy76M

— The Mad Jewess (@MadJewessWoman) August 12, 2013

Oprah's a rank liar. Sick.

Robert Stacy McCain Goes Deep Inside the World of Hardcore Feminism

Or I should say "patriarchal oppressor" Robert Stacy McCain is entertaining as hell with all his recent reporting on the "radical Marxist lesbians" of the "totalitarian feminist left."

Really.

He's been posting up a storm. See, "Blame Joan of Arc," and "Yes, Ma’am, However…"

Robert's mostly humorous at the two posts cited above, but he whips out some beefy feminist fluency at his more recent entries, "Taking Feminism Seriously," and "Why Does Lesbian @SaraAlcid Want to Help More Women Kill Their Babies?":

It isn’t every day that a “Queer Feminist” with a diploma from Bryn Mawr (undergraduate tuition $42,870 a year) decides she needs my attention, but I’m so grateful for Miss Alcid’s encouragement to expand on what I said this morning:

“Professor Aptheker is exactly right: If you want to be a true feminist, you must be a Communist lesbian.”

The inherent radicalism of the women’s movement — its theoretical foundation in Marxism, its implacable antagonism to traditional marriage and other institutions of bourgeois society — is not generally understood outside such campus cauldrons as Bryn Mawr.

Feminism is a totalitarian ideology. It cannot be co-opted or moderated. You cannot negotiate or compromise with feminism, because the ambitions of feminism are without limit. They can accept nothing short of the complete overthrow of “hitherto existing society” (Marx and Engels) resulting in their own dictatorial authority. Halfway “reform” (to which the bourgeoisie may agree in its attempt to stave off this upheaval) can ever placate the revolutionary, because the radical does not seek reform, but rather destruction. And the problem that most conservatives have, in trying to cope with radical movements, is that the typical conservative cannot imagine how fanatical — how rigidly unreasonable, how full of passionate destructive hatefulness — the radical really is. Notice how Sara Alcid illustrated her Valentine’s Day article...

Continue reading.

The post is da bomb. The woman's a freak. A walking oxymoron, she's claims herself a "queer feminist" while working for some totally obscure reproductive health advocacy group --- because, you know, birth control and abortion is all about LGBT rights, or some bullsh*t.

And now apparently shocked at the "intimidation" of being quoted on the Internet, Ms. Alcid has protected her tweets --- a victim, no doubt, of "patriarchal oppression":

@AmPowerBlog She's now a heroic victim-martyr of the patriarchy!
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) August 13, 2013

You can't make this stuff up...

Missouri State Fair Bans Clown Who Mocked President Obama

I saw Dana Loesch tweeting on this last night, "Clown Dresses as Obama at MO State Fair, Democrats Cry “Racism®” *UPDATED."

More at Twitchy, "Smash! Dana Loesch pulverizes Dems, media over #MOStateFair racist rodeo clown idiocy."

And at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Missouri State Fair bans rodeo clown who mocked Obama."






More at Legal Insurrection, "Video killed the rodeo clown."

And check Memeorandum.

Nancy Pelosi Outraged Over 'Slap Hillary'

Now she's outraged.

Leftists weren't upset when Democrats put up a "Slap Palin" hate-site.

At Big Government, "Pelosi Outraged by 'Slap Hillary' Site, Silent on 'Slap Palin' Game":

"Pelosi and her fellow travelers on the left don’t denounce games like 'Slap Hillary' because they’re 'sick' like 'all violence against women,'" BizPacReview wrote. "They denounce them because they don’t like their politics."

IMAGE CREDIT: The Hillary Project.

Sinkhole Swallows Florida Resort

Pretty wild.

At NYT, "Sinkhole Swallows Part of a Building at a Resort in Florida."

Lady Gaga Steps Out in Los Angeles

Well, it's a little more than just stepping out. With Lady Gaga she's gotta shock the crowd with a totally sheer mesh bodysuit, black bra and thong underwear.

Wild.

At London's Daily Mail, "Taking fashion tips from Britney? Lady Gaga wears a jewel-encrusted, sheer bodysuit over a black bra and thong."

And folks wondered previously if she'd had plastic surgery on her nose. She seen here with her dog Fozzi, via Twitter.

Plus, at the Hollywood Reporter, "Lady Gaga Releases 'Applause' One Week Early After Leaks, Anti-Piracy Campaign." And at Rolling Stone, "Listen: Lady Gaga Breaks Out Disco Stick for 'Applause'."