AT AMAZON, up to 40% off on back-to-school clothing.

Also, most wished-for products in Beauty Supplies.

Plus, today only, up to 60% off select SanDisk memory cards and flash drives.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Federal Program: Become an Activist Leftist Lawyer, for Free.

PUBLIC PENSION UPDATE: Salon Warns Public Workers: Your Pensions Are Not Safe. Something that can’t go on forever, won’t. Debts that can’t be repaid, won’t be. Promises that can’t be kept, won’t be. Plan accordingly.

ALAS, I’M QUITE FAMILIAR WITH IT: The Gruesome Story of a Murdered Tennessee Couple You May Have Never Heard – But That You Will Never Forget.

MASSACHUSETTS’ MISTAKES: Reader Jim Meigs emails:

Your link to the American Interest piece on Massachusetts’ bizarre anti-innovation tax reminded me of when I interviewed tech visionary Dean Kamen a few years ago for Popular Mechanics.

He started his first medical device business as a teenager literally in his parents’ basement on Long Island. The business took off and Kamen and his team eventually decided to leave Long Island and started looking for a better location for their high-tech business. They considered California and Boston (where a lot of their customers at research hospitals were based). But on his many trips to the Boston area, Kamen often noticed cars from New Hampshire, with their “Live Free Or Die” license plates. That sounded pretty good to him, so he drove up to take a look at the famously low-tax and pro-business state. They eventually settled in Manchester NH and today Kamen’s current company, DEKA Research and Development Corporation, sits in a row of beautifully reconditioned old textile mills on the banks of the Merrimack River where the company anchors a cluster of vibrant tech companies. I doubt Kamen has ever regretted not basing his business in Silicon Valley or Boston’s Route 128 loop.

More on Massachusetts’ idiotic policy here.

OF COURSE NOT: CBS Doesn’t Mention Jesse Jackson Jr. is a Democrat in Story About His Sentencing. It’s in the Style Guide: Party affiliation of disgraced pols is only relevant if they’re Republican.

WHITE HOUSE: Gun-free zones are fine for you peasants, but important people like us need armed security.

THEY PUSHED IT OFF UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION, BUT IT HASN’T GONE AWAY: Wolf renews call for special Benghazi panel after new questions surface.

Rep. Frank Wolf is renewing his call for the creation of a special House committee devoted to investigate the Benghazi attack after an attorney for a State Department whistleblower claimed that 400 surface-to-air missiles intended for Syrian rebels were stolen, fueling a cover-up.

The Virginia Republican, who has served in the House for more than three decades, circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter Tuesday that touted former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Joe DiGenova’s comments on a Washington radio show Monday morning arguing that the real scandal about Benghazi is the theft of 400 surface-to-air missiles by some “very ugly people.”

“These new allegations are another reason why a select committee is needed more than ever to investigate the truth behind the Benghazi attacks,” Wolf wrote in the letter.

DiGenova, who represents one of the Benghazi whistleblowers, went on to claim that the Obama administration remains fearful that those missiles could be used to shoot down an airplane or blow up an embassy, contributing to the concern that led the State Department to shutter a record number of embassies in the Muslim world last week.

That “smart diplomacy” stuff sure has been paying off for us.

Related: Filmmaker of movie initially blamed for Benghazi attacks: Obama administration was irresponsible. Ya think?

The man whose anti-Muslim film was wrongly cited for sparking protests that led to the Benghazi debacle doesn’t hold a grudge against the U.S. government, although he was shocked at how it all played out and is working on a book about his experience.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper after his release from prison, says the Obama administration acted irresponsibly in initially linking the deadly terror attack last September 11 on the U.S. diplomatic compound in eastern Libya to outrage over “The Innocence of Muslims.”

A YouTube trailer of the film, which cast the Prophet Mohammed in an unflattering light, was highlighted by Egyptian media and did spark protests in parts of the Muslim world.

The 55-year-old Egyptian-American has been granted supervised release from a federal prison, according to the Justice Department. Bureau of Prisons records show he is at an undisclosed halfway house in Southern California and is due to be formally freed next month.

He landed in jail after the uproar over his film for a probation violation related to a 2010 bank fraud conviction

Asked how he felt when the administration tied his film to the attack by armed militants that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, Nakoula said he was shocked. . . .

Asked if he thought the administration put him in danger, Nakoula declined to comment. But he said the government is “hiding” him.

There seems to be a pattern with this administration scapegoating people who then have to go into hiding. George Zimmerman was unavailable for comment. Because, you know, he’s in hiding. . . .

VOTING INTEGRITY: Ohio: Voting problems prompt retraining of poll workers; Hundreds in Hamilton Co. will be trained again, but 163 won’t be asked back.

JAMES TARANTO: Groundhog Day: If Mrs. Clinton sees her shadow, it’ll be 39 more months of campaigning.

Finally in paragraph 9 we get to the point, in a quote from Robert Gibbs, a former Obama White House press secretary: “I think having a place such as this for a platform gives her a great launching pad into 2016.” If Gibbs is right, Mrs. Clinton is using a sinecure at a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization–that’s the kind that’s supposed to be extremely limited in its political involvement–as a nascent campaign organization.

Now, the man currently in the White House, President Asterisk, made good on his “jocose” 2009 threat to subject his political opponents to Internal Revenue Service audits. Mrs. Clinton is a former rival of his, and there is reason to think there remains bad blood between Barack Obama and the Clintons. Could an IRS full-body search of the Clinton Foundation be in the offing?

Dream on. By all accounts the Obama IRS only goes after little guys.

Indeed.

WASHINGTON POST: IRS probing thousands of small businesses, raises eyebrows in Congress. “The Internal Revenue Service has sent letters to thousands of small business owners questioning whether they shorted the coffers this past year, sparking criticism from some lawmakers who believe the agency is bullying mom-and-pop companies.”

ROLL CALL: Put Food Stamps in Final Farm Bill, Democrats Urge Boehner. I assume that’s because they don’t think they’ll pass on their own.

WASHINGTON POST: IRS drumbeat continues with Congress on break. “House Republicans opened a new front Tuesday in their examination of the IRS targeting issue, demanding all work-related e-mails from the personal account of agency official Lois Lerner. House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) requested the communications in a letter to Lerner, who was placed on administrative leave in May after an inspector general’s report revealed that the agency had screened groups for extra scrutiny based on their political ideology.”

VINDICTIVE: Now they’re going after George Zimmerman’s wife.

OBVIOUSLY RACIST: Shock: Satirist Depicts the President as a Monkey.

EGYPT: Scores Dead As Troops Storm Pro-Morsi Camps.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): The Administration of the “Least Untruthful Answer.” But honestly, they don’t even live up to that standard.

D.C. CIRCUIT SMACKS OBAMA: “The president may not decline to follow a statutory mandate or prohibition simply because of policy objections.”

Seems like this might apply in quite a few situations.

THE HILL: Defense industry girds for drone drawdown.

YEAH, IT’S NOT LIKE CONNECTICUT NEEDS INVESTORS OR ANYTHING: Hartford City Council Denounces Possible Koch Brothers Takeover of Courant.

If you needed any more proof that the trad-media are just part of the Democratic political apparat, the hysterical reaction to the prospect of the Koch Brothers buying newspapers should do the trick. Note the involvement of the “Working Families Party,” an ACORN fellow-traveler group last seen staging astroturf protests at executives’ homes.

EVERY DAY THAT HE’S AROUND REMINDS PEOPLE OF THE DRAMA THAT ALWAYS SWIRLS AROUND THE CLINTONS: Clintonworld vs. Weiner.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Poll: Less than 3 percent of federal workers want to join Obamacare.

Reader George Milonas writes: “If I were in charge of the Republican Party I would have govt workers interviewed on tv commercials saying how obamacare is going to hurt their families: It [will] lessen their care and cost them more money. It would separate govt employees from their traditional Democratic base.”

THE HILL: Snowden: NSA targeted journalists critical of government after 9/11. What about rodeo clowns?

YES, ALMOST CERTAINLY. NEXT QUESTION? Is Oprah Pushing Racism Story to Promote New Movie?

My favorite bit is this, though: “We have to come to grips in this country that we have unconscious bias.” In this country. Oprah’s story was about Switzerland. Maybe the unconscious bias is in assuming that everyone’s as racist as Democratic media folks.

Plus, from the comments: “A story about personal experience with racism probably shouldn’t be set in a Swiss boutique for rich tourists. For future reference.”

And pushback from the store: “Maybe she was somewhat offended because she was not immediately recognized.” Hey, it’s not like she’s still on TV or anything.

Finally, Oprah rows back and TMZ isn’t having any of it: Passive Aggressive Oprah Gives BS Apology for Switzerland Racist Flap. “O’s full of it. What did she think was going to happen when she went on national TV and cried racism? The media was just going to ignore that?? Oprah once ragged on hamburgers and single-handedly CRIPPLED the beef industry. She knew damn well how the media was going to handle the Switzerland situation … which is why she went to the media in the first place. Her mission was to destroy the shop.”

Turns out she did more damage to her own brand. What’s left of it.

UPDATE: “I don’t know why she is making these accusations. She is so powerful and I am just a shop girl.” Race-talk these days is mostly a way for the powerful to keep the ‘shop girls’ in their place.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: “Suddenly, I wished my women’s studies professor from Sarah Lawrence were there.”