INTIMIDATING THE OPPOSITION: Ladies In White violently attacked yesterday by Castro State Security.

BYRON YORK: Author Who Debunked Obama Insurance Tale Doesn’t Want To Talk.

WELL, I SUPPOSE TURNABOUT IS FAIR PLAY, NOW: SEIU Manual On Intimidation Revealed.

Despite these tactics, it’s not like the SEIU has done particularly well lately. But then, it’s hard to get good goons nowadays.

FACTCHECK: Does Washington Have A Revenue Problem, Or A Spending Problem?

MICKEY KAUS: Weinergate’s Incomprehensible Afterlife.

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, WE’D SEE THIS KIND OF THING — AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Justice Department: We Can Force You To Decrypt That Laptop.

OBAMA POLLING BADLY ON DEBT-CEILING, BUT GOP NOT WINNING THE ISSUE: “It’s no surprise that even President Obama doesn’t get majority support on this issue. Given the generally public distaste for raising the debt ceiling to begin with, they’re likely not pleased with anyone just about now. Nonetheless, the GOP’s hardline would seem to be appealing to the ‘no debt ceiling increase’ crowd. And, yet, that doesn’t appear to be the case. The GOP should take that as a warning, I think.”

Why doesn’t the GOP propose a 5% across-the-board cut in spending? I doubt that very many voters will believe that there’s not 5% that can be cut in any department of the federal government, and compared to the cuts most households have made it’s minor indeed. Then they could do it again next year . . . .

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark emails: “Until I hear a better explanation, I’m inclined to your ‘not enough opportunities for graft’ as the best explanation for no one in DC proposing an across-the-board 5% cut or the like in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.” Probably right.

ANOTHER UPDATE: CBS’s sample includes only 24% Republicans, so maybe the GOP isn’t polling as badly as it seems. At least, if they have to resort to that kind of chicanery to get a good number, you have to wonder. . . .

NOTE TO OLDER SINGLES: You can still get STDs. Apparently, this message hasn’t sunk in. “Many of my patients are respectable men and women in their 50s and 60s, newly single and sexually active for the first time in perhaps decades. We treat 18,000 people a year and, at a rough estimate, I’d say 80 per cent are from the top socio-economic backgrounds.”

WEALTHY BRITONS PREPARE TO FLEE: “Taxation, perceived better living standards abroad and the weather mean that only 44% are certain of remaining here.” Well, global warming should help with the weather, anyway. . . .

NOW OUT: Modern Ink Magazine.

DEFENDING AMERICA: Three Guys vs. 10 Billion Asian Carp. “With the 3.3 billion for each of us we knew we had some work to do as we cast off into the Illinois River aboard the good ship Sulaco II.”

PRIORITIES: Obama generated twice as many campaign contributors as new jobs through second quarter of 2011.

DIRTY SECRETS: THE RAPE OF MEN. “His captors raped him, three times a day, every day for three years. And he wasn’t the only one. He watched as man after man was taken and raped. The wounds of one were so grievous that he died in the cell in front of him. . . . It’s not just in East Africa that these stories remain unheard.”

Plus this:

Stemple’s findings on the failure of aid agencies is no surprise to Dolan. “The organisations working on sexual and gender-based violence don’t talk about it,” he says. “It’s systematically silenced. If you’re very, very lucky they’ll give it a tangential mention at the end of a report. You might get five seconds of: ‘Oh and men can also be the victims of sexual violence.’ But there’s no data, no discussion.”

As part of an attempt to correct this, the RLP produced a documentary in 2010 called Gender Against Men. When it was screened, Dolan says that attempts were made to stop him. “Were these attempts by people in well-known, international aid agencies?” I ask.

“Yes,” he replies. “There’s a fear among them that this is a zero-sum game; that there’s a pre-defined cake and if you start talking about men, you’re going to somehow eat a chunk of this cake that’s taken them a long time to bake.” Dolan points to a November 2006 UN report that followed an international conference on sexual violence in this area of East Africa.

“I know for a fact that the people behind the report insisted the definition of rape be restricted to women,” he says, adding that one of the RLP’s donors, Dutch Oxfam, refused to provide any more funding unless he’d promise that 70% of his client base was female. He also recalls a man whose case was “particularly bad” and was referred to the UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR. “They told him: ‘We have a programme for vulnerable women, but not men.'”

And protecting their cake is the most important thing, of course.

WELL, THAT’S BIG OF HIM: So Long as He Gets What He Wants, Obama Is Flexible in the Budget Negotiations.

THE HILL: Coburn to unveil plan to slash spending and raise billions in new tax revenues.

I wonder if he’s looked at my revenue-enhancement proposals? It’s not too late, Tom!

GOVERNMENT POLICY and campus show trials.

J.E. DYER: Gunwalker and the budget: Crises in the integrity of government.

As I’ve said before, Obama isn’t just clueless on the nature of financial capital, he also doesn’t understand the importance of moral capital.