ATF GUNRUNNING SCANDAL UPDATE: The Hill: Issa rips Obama’s silence on ATF gun-tracking matter:

At a press conference Wednesday, Obama reiterated that Attorney General Eric Holder did not order the gun-tracking program, which was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and allowed known and suspected straw purchasers to buy thousands of weapons in hopes of tracking them to members of Mexican drug cartels.

Holder called for the Inspector General to investigate the matter to determine who approved of the operation. Obama said he would comment further on the issue once the investigation is completed. . . .

But Issa, who held a charged hearing on the issue earlier this month, has indicated that responsibility for the operation rests with some of the highest officials at the Justice Department and the ATF.

They’ll stall until after the election if they can.

FISCAL SOBRIETY: The Economist: A bipartisan vote to end ethanol subsidies is a small but heartening sign.

RICK PERRY TAKES ON Eric Holder And The Gaza Flotilla. “In his letter to Holder, the governor specifies the U. S. laws which he thinks are being violated by the American individual and corporate participants in the flotilla.”

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR JOHN MCCAIN, EMINENT LAW PROFESSORS WOULD BE PROCLAIMING A “LAWLESS PRESIDENCY.” AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Bruce Ackerman: The Lawless Presidency. “The present confrontation over the War Powers Act requires Congress to rethink some tragic events of the past decade. It has been tempting to view the torture memos as an unfortunate accident—the result of legal ideologues finding themselves at key positions at a moment of crisis. But the debate over President Obama’s bombing campaign in Libya forces us to ask whether there is an emerging crisis of legality within the executive branch.”

OPERATION DISTRACTION: Dems Set To Demonize Gun Owners With Gunwalker Hearing.

The hearings two weeks ago saw Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents testify about their role in Operation Fast and Furious, the multi-agency scheme that allowed gun smugglers to arm Mexican drug cartels with 2,000 or more weapons as federal law enforcement officers watched. Issa’s hearings included evidence of damning emails that showed acting ATF chief Kenneth Melson to be intimately familiar with the program, which has been blamed for the deaths of two U.S. federal agents and more than 150 Mexican police and soldiers.

The ATF’s parent agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ); the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) were all directly involved in the operation, which could not even have occurred without State Department approval.

But the committee hearing today isn’t about what Obama administration officials in the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security knew, or when they knew it, or about bringing those responsible for the dangerous plot to light to face accountability or possible criminal charges.

Instead, the minority hearing by Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings will be a forum for gun control activists such as Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke. . . . Instead of seeking answers from those Obama administration officials who are culpable for a rogue government program that has left cops, soldiers, and civilians dead, the congressman from Baltimore will use his position in order to provide airtime to those who would place blame at the feet of American citizens.

A reminder for gun owners of where the Administration stands.

HOLLOWING OUT the Ivory Tower. “So does increasing the number of people with degrees amount to a surefire way of increasing the majority’s earnings? Wolf is not convinced.”

JAMES TARANTO ON OBAMA: Is he really going to campaign on his economic record?

Hey, he killed Osama bin Laden, you know. Osama bin Laden is Osama bin Dead. Dead Osama. Killed, killed, killed bin Laden.

L.A. WEEKLY: L.A. County’s War On Private Property. Watch the well-connected people who wind up with this land a little while down the line.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Nerves Show On Team Obama: Recent scrambling by the president’s political advisers indicates they’re very worried about his reelection chances. With reason, given his performance to date.

GREENPEACE TAKES ON VOLKSWAGEN, gets mauled by Jim Treacher.

HEATH SHULER MAY DITCH CONGRESS TO BECOME U.T. ATHLETIC DIRECTOR? Hmm. I guess the new job’s more popular with constituents than the old one, but it’s close . . . .

THEY REALLY DO SELL EVERYTHING AT AMAZON: Markdowns on high-end lab equipment. Er, and if by some chance you do buy that automated tissue processor, please do it through my link . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Steve Eimers writes that Amazon really does sell everything: “You’re not kidding! I needed a new 32′ ladder for my window cleaning business. I weigh less than 200 pounds but have only ever been able to buy the 32′ ladder locally that was rated for 300 pounders. That ladder is much heavier! Amazon has a 32′ type 2 ladder that weighs much less. When you are carrying around a ladder all day it is nice to have a lighter one.” Well, I weigh 210, so this would even work for me, though happily I don’t need a ladder that long. I think my extension ladder is 24 feet. But yeah, ladders, tissue processors, whatever you need. Except fresh produce, and they’re working on that.

WISCONSIN UPDATE: “Under the new Wisconsin budget repair, one school district goes from a $400,000 deficit to a $1.5 million surplus. . . . Let’s stop and think of all the protesters who carried signs asserting that their opposition to Scott Walker was for the children.”

WELL, IT’S A GOOD THING WE ELECTED OBAMA AND PUT A STOP TO THAT THEN: Cost of Wars Estimated at 3.7 Trillion.

REUTERS: S&P to deeply cut U.S. ratings if debt payment missed.

A SYMPOSIUM ON ADVANCING LIBERTY, at Broadside Books.

AFTER OBAMA’S CLASS-WARFARE TIRADE, expect more of the “unexpected” economic news.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Testing Harvard’s Mettle With A Flood Of Gold:

When the thermostat gambit failed to make up for the $10-billion hit, Harvard waited until the campus emptied out for the summer and then laid off almost 300 clerical and technical workers. The top administrators who lost the money and the full-time faculty members who received the money were unscathed.

That’s because the real priority of elite higher education, as the receding tide of money has exposed, is the greater glory of elite higher education and the administrators and faculty members who work there. That’s where all the money went, and that’s where, now that some of the money turns out to have never existed in the first place, it needs to come from.

And when those cuts happen, as they must, Harvard and its peers should take the chance to assess why they made the choices they made with their huge piles of gold, and how long they can keep making them in the future.

Read the whole thing.

BYPASSING DEFENSES WITH A RED-BLOODED DRUG DELIVERY DEVICE:

Liangfang Zhang and colleagues filled the red blood cell membrane with a cocktail of anti-cancer drugs. According to the researchers, the device stayed inside the bodies of lab mice for nearly 72 hours.

It’s the first time that scientists have combined a natural cell membrane with a synthetic nanoparticle for drug-delivery applications, Zhang said in a statement. “Such a nanoparticle platform will have little risk of immune response,” he said.

Next, they’ll add a targeting molecule so it can seek out and destroy only certain kinds of cancer cells.

Faster, please.

JOURNALISM: Quote-doctoring among the elite.

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Despite Faculty Opposition, CUNY Board Votes to Standardize Some Requirements and Streamline Transfers. I don’t see why transfers shouldn’t be easier among colleges and universities in general. I think it’s absurd that you can switch institutions and lose a big chunk of your credits.

MORE JOBS DESTROYED BY BIG-SPENDING GOVERNMENT: Amazon Shuts Down California Affiliate Program.

WANT A SPACE SUIT? You might just find one at auction.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in biographies and memoirs.