BACKPEDALING: Democrats Back Off Claim that Romney Causes Cancer. “Almost lost in the excitement over Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate is the Democratic Party’s discomfiture over the Priorities USA ad that accused Mitt Romney of causing a woman’s death from cancer. The ad was so over the top that it led us to ask, Has the Obama campaign finally gone too far? Apparently so, as the ad was greeted with universal condemnation. So now the Democrats are trying to distance themselves from it.”

FAIL: Sad: President Who Cut $700 Billion From Medicare Attacks Paul Ryan Over Medicare. Politico shares in the fail.

DECONSTRUCTING Thomas Friedman.

WHEN IN DOUBT, BASH THE SOUTH: Northerners may hate its culture, but they at least ought to try to understand the nation’s fastest-growing region. They might even want to think about whether there’s a connection between the South’s culture, and the fact that it’s the nation’s fastest-growing region. I’m just sayin’ . . . .

STACY MCCAIN: Shout It Out Loud. “The boldness of Romney’s choice surprised some, including the mysterious blogger Allahpundit at the popular conservative Hot Air site, who invoked a science fiction analogy: “It’s like watching C-3PO lead the raid on the Death Star.” (This comparison of Romney to C-3PO, the comically effete robot of the Star Wars film series, might dismay Democrats who have spent the past several weeks trying to convince voters that Romney is actually Darth Vader.)”

WE NEED FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LEGISLATION IMPOSING STRICT LIABILITY FOR NO-KNOCK RAIDS: St. Paul Cops Shoot Dog in Wrong-Door Raid, Force Handcuffed Kids to Sit Near the Corpse.

David Bernstein comments: “The family has filed a $30 million lawsuit, but tar and feathers would be more appropriate.” The remedies are not mutually exclusive.

And actually, I think remedies involving public humiliation are particularly appropriate for this kind of official misconduct. Just be sure the supervisors are included.

AN IDEA FORMED WITHIN A BUBBLE: UCLA Tries to Back Away From ‘National Dream University’ for Illegal Immigrants.

TRANSPARENCY: White House TSA petition goes dark as it nears the finish line, disappears when the lights come back on. “A White House petition about the TSA’s screening procedures was 90 percent of the way to completion when Wired ran a story giving it a final push. The White House’s petition site went down for unannounced maintenance, and when it came back up, the petition had ‘expired’ — though the Electronic Privacy Information Center says it still had time left on the clock.”

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): U.S. back-to-school shoppers in no mood to splurge. “Money wise, I still feel like we are in a recession.” Do tell.

PATHS TO MARKET: Kickstarter vs. Quirky: Startups Provide New Routes for Invention.

CHINESE BUSINESS OWNERS GO GALT: Shenyang Shops Close En Masse Fearing Inspections and Fines.

“More deserted than even Spring Festival [when everybody goes back to their hometown to celebrate the holiday]” is the feeling of many city residents. What more, the situation was even worse in the surrounding areas, because at least in the big city of Shenyang the big supermarkets and restaurants were still open whereas according to local news, 95% of the shops and stores in places like Liaozhong County were closed, to the point where for a time it was impossible to find someplace to buy rice or oil. One Liaozhong resident who was unsuccessful in buying rice said to local media, “If you were to come to Liaozhong at this time and stayed for 5 days, you’d probably starve to death!” . . .

As reported by Shenyang’s local media, ever since July 13th, a large number of businesses in markets such as Dongbei and Wu’ai had closed their doors, the reason being rumors of law enforcement inspecting and cracking down on fake or shoddy products though no one knew just who was doing the inspections. At the time when reporters had contacted both the Industrial and Commercial Administration of the district and the city, both of them said they had not been notified of any law enforcement activities. According to a report by Dongbei News Net, because the crackdown was too ruthless and too strict, some shop owners would rather suffer losses from closing their shops than opening their shops to be checked.

Afterwards, Anshan, Fushun, Benxi, Dalian, and other areas one after another witnessed the phenomenon of large numbers of stores being closed. According to their local media reports, the situations were more or less the same, all reporting rumors of a crackdown on counterfeit or shoddy goods or major inspections to see if the business owners had “all 5 certificates”, “all 6 certificates” or “all 7 certificates” though no one knew just what certificates were required or what authority was making the inspections, only rumors that any problem discovered would result in severe fines, and people didn’t want to “ask for trouble” so they decided to just close their shops for the time being.

One shop owner told this reporter that normally he’s not afraid of inspections, but he thinks the inspections this time aren’t the normal kind, with rumors at the time saying the fines levied were in the tens of thousands of yuan each, and that they were even arresting people and confiscating goods.

Does Thomas Friedman know about this?

PAUL HSIEH: The Federal Government’s War on Medical Innovation.