GALLUP: Trust In Legislative Branch Falls To All-Time Low. Of course, my take on hearing that only 36% trust Congress was: “That many?!!!”

CHRISTOPHER COATES’ TESTIMONY ON THE DOJ RACISM SCANDALS makes the Washington Post front page.

A veteran Justice Department lawyer accused his agency Friday of being unwilling to pursue racial discrimination cases on behalf of white voters, turning what had been a lower-level controversy into an escalating political headache for the Obama administration. . . . The rare spectacle of a Justice Department lawyer publicly rebuking the department’s leaders came amid heightened legal and political fallout from the case. The commission is to issue a report on the matter next month, and an internal probe by the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility is pending. . . .

“We had eyewitness testimony. We had videotape. One of them had a weapon. They were hurling racial slurs,” Coates said. “I’ve never been able to understand how anyone could accuse us of not having a basis of law in this case.”

I guess this story has officially broken out of the blogosphere now. I’m not sure that attacking the Civil Rights Commission is a smart response by DOJ.

Related: Hans van Spakovsky: Time for Change: Gov’t Must Address Lawlessness Uncovered by Christopher Coates. “Unless senior officials at Justice take steps to repudiate such policies, they will destroy public confidence in the legitimacy of the Civil Rights Division’s enforcement of voting rights laws, and its stewardship of the election process. If Fernandes and King have the views described by Coates, they should resign or be fired. And Perez has a responsibility to explain why he misinformed the Civil Rights Commission and why he took no steps to investigate problems Coates identified to him.”

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN LIFE EXTENSION, you might want to check out my friend Chris Peterson’s Life Extension Conference in San Francisco.

TEN STATES ABOUT TO SUFFER in the U.S./China Trade War.

Or is it a case of “We’ve got ‘em right where we want ‘em!”

UPDATE: Related: Daniel Drezner: China has a longer learning curve than I had anticipated. “Now, it is possible that Beijing has simply decided that its internal growth is so big that it can afford the friction that comes with a rising power. My assessment, however, is that they’re vastly overestimating their current power vis-a-vis the United States, and they’re significantly undererstimating the effect of pushing the rest of the Pacific Rim into closer ties with the United States (and India).”

JOHN KERRY: Dems Are In Trouble Because Voters Are Stupid.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Thoughts From A Country Mouse. “I suppose what I’m doing is retracing on a personal level the Great Migration of Americans from the cities to the suburbs and exurbs after World War Two. A nation of subway and tram riders turned into a nation of motorists — and gradually lost its taste for Progressive era reforms. City dwellers know they need the state; there was no way I could commute by car to Manhattan and find parking at a reasonable time or cost. The government stepped in to help me with subsidized mass transit. Suburban and exurban people aren’t so sure about the government’s role. Out here, I want government to do its job and fix the roads, but otherwise stay out of my hair — and stop wasting my time and taking my money. . . . The shift from the world of Norton, Ralph, Trixie and Alice to the world of Ferris Bueller or even Roseanne is changing the way the country thinks about government. My own little migration up the Hudson River is helping me understand why.”

RUSS CARNAHAN laughed at by forum audience.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN WE’D HAVE PRO-TORTURE OFFICIALS IN PLACE — and they were right! “Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s loose-lipped gaffe that he’d like to ‘slowly torture’ the accused killers of a Domino’s Pizza deliveryman are ‘inflammatory’ and could poison the pool of prospective jurors, one of the defendants’ lawyers said yesterday.”

ONLY A COUPLE OF DAYS LEFT in the Amazon Fall Blowout Sale.

HIGHER-EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Reader Brian Wohlgemuth writes:

My wife and I are getting hounded with four/five calls daily for various for profit universities trying to speak to my daughter. I’ve overheard their approach and it can be best described as a “desperate used car salesman”. I’ve told them to stop calling, some have listened. Some have also apparently outsourced their marketing to overseas call centers.

Last night they called at 10:06pm EDT. I have a feeling I’m going to get more calls like that…

If my theory of the higher-ed bubble is right, its bursting will show first in those places that are (1) most dependent on student loan money, and (2) least able to convince students to go into debt for their services. So desperation here would be a leading indicator, I think. It’s when traditional colleges start showing similar desperation that we’ll know it’s really happening.

SHOCKER: Despite denials, Soros revealed as funding liberal Jewish group J Street.

WELL, THEY HAVEN’T WORKED SO FAR: Memo to Dems — Tea Party Attacks Won’t Fly.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, THE FBI WOULD BE RAIDING THE HOMES OF ANTIWAR PROTESTERS: And they were right! “The homes of five Twin Cities activists, including three prominent leaders of the Twin Cities antiwar movement, were raided Friday by the FBI in what an agency spokesman described as an ‘investigation into activities concerning the material support of terrorism.’ The office of an antiwar organization also was reportedly raided.”

RECOVERY SUMMER! Durable goods orders drop in August, new-home market still flatlining.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case: ‘Bombshell’ for Obama?

UPDATE: A photo critique from reader Mike Spellacy: “I notice the picture accompanying the CSM story shows Black Panthers raising their fists against neo-nazis, as opposed to Black Panthers raising their clubs against white voters. How could those who so nobly oppose racism ever be suspect?”

And reader John Copella notes that the bombshell is being ignored: “As of this instant, absolutely no mention of this on ABC News web site.” Nope, but there’s a big headline story about a movie about Facebook!

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: “Lost amid the campaign politicking are several growing crises that all, to one degree or another, reflect the general global appraisal that the United States has abdicated its traditional role, either on the grounds of fiscal erosion or self-doubt about our moral authority to pass judgment on aggressors.”

“LEGACY” ADMISSIONS: Affirmative Action For The Rich?

“CORD-CUTTING” IS REAL: “The party line from cable executives is that the ‘cord-cutting’ phenomenon–consumers swapping cable subscriptions for Internet video–is a myth. Or, at best, greatly exaggerated. Not so, says Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg. He told the crowd at Goldman’s media conference this morning that the cable bundle is going to go the way of the wireline telephone business. That is, the next generation of consumers won’t have any interest in paying for it.”

MICKEY KAUS’S VICTORY DANCE: Pajamas’ Revenge: CNN’s Jon Klein Fired, Finally. “Klein’s departure is terrible news for kausfiles, which will no longer be able to get cheap items by deriding his latest preening jag.” Some background on Klein, here.

UPDATE: Reader Hugh Akston writes:

For about 18 months I’ve been wondering why CNN and MSNBC don’t move a little to the right since Fox is killing them in the ratings. I came to the conclusion that ideology trumps ratings. Today I learn that Zucker and Klein have been fired from NBC and CNN, respectively. Now I’m wondering if there’s a sea change occurring in the main stream media. Could this signal a move to the right (or at least to the center)? Call me crazy, but I think not…… I’m pretty sure that the main stream media will continue to bash the Tea Party and paint a rosy scenario for the economy. But, then again, maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps ratings will trump ideology after all. Capitalism is a wonderful thing.

Well, stay tuned.

TYLER COWEN ON FOR-PROFIT VS. NONPROFIT SCHOOLS: “It’s not about the recent lending scandals, but rather the general question of why for-profits do quite well in vocational areas and in areas where the student is eventually certified by relatively objective tests. Non-profits, in contrast, remain dominant in the liberal arts and in areas where quality is harder to measure. What can we learn from this pattern of market segmentation about a) the true nature of education, and b) trust and agency problems in both non-profits and for-profits? These cross-sectional questions have received surprisingly little attention and for-profit education in general has not attracted much research scrutiny, relative to its size and rate of growth. Yet these questions date back to Plato, Socrates, and the Sophists.”

JOHN NOLTE: Stephen Colbert: Dems’ Trained Clown Trotted Out to Distract From Obama DOJ Scandal.

ANDREW BREITBART: Which Malik Shabazz Visited The White House in July 2009, Mr. President?

AT AMAZON, it’s the Friday Sale.

PJTV: UNEQUAL JUSTICE: Post-Hearing Analysis on the State of President Obama’s Department of Justice.

And video of the entire Civil Rights Commission hearing, streamed live earlier, is now online.

REASON TV: Porkers of The Month for September 2010: Senators Blanche Lincoln and Patty Murray!

UPDATE: Sorry, they’ve taken the video down.