HEH: “The Fish Filet™ Commercial KFC Doesn’t Want You To See (Anymore).”

GALLUP: Underemployment At 19.2%.

I WAS NEVER A FAN OF THAT ROTTEN GLOBAL COPYRIGHT TREATY. Wikileaks ACTA cables confirm it was a screwjob for the global poor. Among others.

I DIDN’T SEE SARAH PALIN’S SPEECH LAST NIGHT, but Randy Barnett saw it, and emailed: “I must admit it was an impressive speech. The first I have heard her give since she accepted the VP nomination, only much better. Reaganesque even.” When Sarah Palin is getting that kind of praise from Georgetown law professors, it suggests that there’s something missing from the narrative. Is there a transcript somewhere?

UPDATE: Sorry — video link before was wrong. Here’s the right one. And here’s a C-SPAN link. Plus, here’s Byron York’s report.

HMM: “The Distributed ‘Party of We’ Is Already In Control.” I don’t think that’s quite right. I think that claims that “code trumps law” are premature, at least. Power, ultimately, grows out of the barrel of a gun, not a modem.

On the other hand, there is a certain Army of Davids quality to the analysis: “This really is a moment when centralized top-down legacy systems are coming into conflict with distributed, decentralized, bottom-up systems — and not understanding them at all.” That’s clearly true.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: For Lila Rose, Planned Parenthood video ‘sting’ is about revolution. “The ultimate goal of this new generation of right-wing muckrakers is the overthrow of the perceived liberal-leaning mainstream media narrative on touchstone political issues such as guns, racism, and abortion. Rose casts her work in light of the civil-rights movement of the 1960s, and her videos are the tinder for peaceful social insurrection.”

Plus this:

The videos are “possibly unfair coverage,” but no more unfair than the preponderance of news coverage directed at, for example, the Natonal Rifle Association in the past, says Mr. Patrick, who has studied how media organizations present conservative viewpoints.

“The classic NRA story from The New York Times or The Washington Post was a reporter would go to an NRA convention of 80,000 people and find some dummy in the parking lot with a coonskin hat and interview him,” he says. In the case of the Live Action videos, Patrick adds, “they might have found the dummy with the coon skin hat” at Planned Parenthood.

Indeed. Though in this case, the dummies worked at the clinics. And Planned Parenthood has the JournoList crowd plotting their media defense. I’m in favor of legal abortion, but this stinks.

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark emails:

Here is an example of a type of action cheered by liberals and the left in the past confident that their oxen would never be gored; perhaps with good reason given the limited numbers of news outlets in the past and the control that a handful of gatekeepers exercised. None of them imagined the open source paradigm for news and commentary, and what that might mean for politics. All I can say to the Planned Parenthoods of the world and their supporters is, “get used to it”. Not even the Journolistas of the world can cover for them now. We’ve moved to an age where the consequences of belief and policy will be documented, publicized, and politicized.

And, of course, inevitably I have to say: They told me if I voted Republican, women would be getting abortions from unlicensed quacks in sleazy back-alley clinics without state oversight. And they were right!

DAVID CAMERON: STATE MULTICULTURALISM HAS FAILED. Why yes, yes it has.

PAPER THAT DECLARED “THE END OF BLOGGING” now run by famous blogger.

CHANGE: America’s Most Miserable Cities: “California has never looked less golden, with eight of its cities making the top 20 on our annual list.”

HOW TECHNOLOGY HAS transformed New York’s sex trade. “It’s hard out there for a pimp—especially now. Changes in the sex industry have rendered them superfluous.” I see it as just an extension of the “comfy chair revolution.”

WELL, THEY SAID “SMART DIPLOMACY,” NOT “SMART DIPLOMATS.” BUT STILL. Ex-Ambassador Left Luxembourg Embassy in ‘State of Dysfunction,’ Watchdog Finds.

Described as “aggressive, bullying, hostile, and intimidating,” President Obama’s ambassador to Luxembourg left the U.S. embassy there “in a state of dysfunction” and unable to carry out its duties after her recent exit, according to report released this week by the State Department Inspector General.

Cynthia Stroum, one of President Obama’s top 25 fundraisers — a bundler who raised more than $500,000 for the his campaign — was chosen for ambassador in 2009. Since then, auditors say her autocratic, bossy and demanding style led to complete failure of the embassy in Luxembourg’s ability to function as an arm of the U.S. government in one of the world’s smallest and wealthiest nations. . . . Stroum, who had no apparent qualifications for the job, quit last week, citing business and family obligations.

The country’s in the very best of hands.

MORE OF THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” WE WERE PROMISED, I GUESS: “Wikileaks cables reportedly indicate that, consistent with its policy of selling out friends in order to curry favor with enemies, the Obama administration betrayed British military secrets to Russia as part of the New Start treaty.”

RICHARD FERNANDEZ ON who’s who in Egypt.

MARCIA MORRISSEY: Hoist that Lantern; Shake that Salt!

DARRIN MOORE ON FACEBOOK: “If Obama thinks a leader should step down simply because large crowds of people protest in the streets of the capitol for a week or so, I’ve got an idea.”

LIFE’S LITTLE METAPHORS: Democrat on House Financial Services Committee declares bankruptcy.

AT AMAZON, markdowns on Blu-Ray.

SPENGLER: Food And Failed Arab States. “Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer, beholden to foreign providers for nearly half its total food consumption. Half of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day. Food comprises almost half the country’s consumer price index, and much more than half of spending for the poorer half of the country. This will get worse, not better.”

IS BILL NELSON in trouble?

MORE ON THAT “UNLICENSED ENGINEER” SCANDAL AT THE NORTH CAROLINA DOT: North Carolina Transporation Secretary Doubles Down:

Bryant said Lacy was trying to intimidate Cox and his neighbors and suppress their rights to petition government officials.

“No one signed it as an engineer,” Bryant said. “They simply put together their feelings and their information. When we can’t do that without fear of potential criminal prosecution, that takes away our rights.”

A spokesman for Perdue said the governor, a Democrat, had pledged to take politics out of transportation planning. . . .

Transportation Secretary Gene Conti, a Perdue appointee, said the DOT has used residents’ feedback to change the Falls of Neuse project. He endorsed Lacy’s request for an investigation.

Disgraceful.

UPDATE: Reader Steven Lantz — a Professional Engineer — emails:

Suggest the NCDOT “investigation” also look into the technical credentials of a State Transportation Secretary with the following academic resume:

Ph.D., Anthropology, Duke University, 1978
M.A., Policy Sciences and Public Affairs, Duke University, 1978
B.A., Sociology/Anthropology, Eastern Michigan University, 1971

Not much in that there regarding engineering & transportation unless he happens to use the anthro degree to analyze road rage on the Carolina Byways.

Heh.

BRING YOUR OWN HOT CHOCOLATE: The St. Louis Tea Party will be protesting at Claire McCaskill’s office on Delmar Blvd. tomorrow. If you’re there, send me a pic and a report.

RETRACTO THE CORRECTION ALPACA is going after NPR.

ROBERT FARAGO: High-Cap Mag Bill Story Started By Senator Dick Durbin.

RUBE: Matthews loses his tingle over Egypt, declares himself “ashamed.”

GLENN BECK VS. Michelle Goldberg. Like Ann Althouse, I find Beck’s delivery hard to take. On the other hand, he’s correct here, and Michelle Goldberg is displaying her deep ignorance. I mean, really, we’re going on ten years since 9/11 and the idea of an “Islamic Caliphate” is news?