FROM CARRIE LUKAS, a nice review of the Insta-Wife’s Men On Strike. “Men on Strike is a compelling work that may succeed in launching a much-needed conversation about the treatment of men in America. As Smith observes, often conversations about the state of men are considered necessary solely because men’s problems spill over to affect women, children, and society more broadly. The men themselves are just an afterthought.”
Buy two copies — one for you, one for your local library!
HEY, DON’T FORGET EAST TENNESSEE: Remington Arms scouts Middle TN after N.Y. bans its rifle.
AT AMAZON, up to 40% off on Dockers.
Plus, up to 60% off on Men’s Shoes. Also, on Women’s Shoes, Sandals, & Boots.
And, today only: 50% Off Kids’ Character Clothing, Shoes & More.
MICHELLE FIELDS: The Administration Scandal Game: Nixon or Obama?
CHATTANOOGA: United Auto Workers Fairy Tales.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): 39 percent of unemployed workers have been out of work longer than 27 weeks. “Mitchell also points out that the share of long-term unemployed during the Great Recession is far greater than at any other post-World War II period, peaking at 45 percent of the unemployed. Sadly, the long-term unemployed comprise the greatest share of unemployed workers.”
JAMES TARANTO: Partisanship and ‘Voting Rights:’ A left-leaning legal scholar lets the mask slip. “The Constitution is silent about political parties, but the 15th Amendment forbids racial discrimination in voting and it stipulates that ‘the Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.’ If a state is found to engage in racial discrimination, Sections 2 and 3 of the Voting Rights Act allow the Justice Department or private plaintiffs to obtain relief. But how could it possibly be ‘appropriate’ to tip the scales in favor of one party where there has been no showing of discrimination in two generations?”
AFTER THE OVERWHELMING POPULAR REJECTION IN THE STREETS, THAT’S NOT A SURPRISE: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood appears at risk of falling apart.
STUFF IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD IS STILL GOING FOR LESS THAN IN 2005: Is the housing market really recovering?
CRONY PROTECTIONISM: DC government deals blow to Uber, consumers.
Taking a cab in Washington will continue to be a frustrating experience more often than it should, thanks to the District of Columbia Taxi Commission.
The DCTC approved new regulations Wednesday that restrict consumer choice. Critics believe the regulations are intended to prevent UberX from serving customers in the District.
Uber, the popular limo service that allows customers to order a sedan or SUV from an app on their smartphones, launched UberX as a way to compete more directly with traditional taxis.
UberX allowed customers to order a cab the same way they ordered a regular Uber ride, but at less cost than a cab ride.
For instance, a four-mile trip with UberX would cost $10, but a standard taxi would cost $11.37, according to Reason Magazine. Uber responded to the new regulations on its blog, claiming DCTC Chairman Ron Linton seeks to crush competition.
Of course they do. That’s what earns them the graft.
TRANSPARENCY: Dana Milbank: The price Gina Gray paid for whistleblowing.
President Obama, in his news conference this month, said that Edward Snowden was wrong to go public with revelations about secret surveillance programs because “there were other avenues available for somebody whose conscience was stirred and thought that they needed to question government actions.”
This is a common refrain among administration officials and some lawmakers: If only Snowden had made his concerns known through the proper internal channels, everything would have turned out well. The notion sounds reasonable, as do the memorandums Obama signed supposedly protecting whistleblowers.
But it’s a load of nonsense. Ask Gina Gray.
Gray is the Defense Department whistleblower whose case I have been following for five years. She was the Army civilian worker who, before and after her employment, exposed much of the wrongdoing at Arlington National Cemetery — misplaced graves, mishandled remains and financial mismanagement — and she attempted to do it through the proper internal channels. Pentagon sources have confirmed to me her crucial role in bringing the scandal to light.
For her troubles, Gray was fired. . . . Sadly, Gray’s case is emblematic of the way this administration has handled whistleblowers. Obama came into office pledging transparency and professing admiration for government workers who expose abuses. But his administration has pursued more cases under the 1917 Espionage Act than all previous administrations combined (including the prosecution of National Security Agency workers who tried to register their objections through “proper” channels). And the alleged intimidation of would-be whistleblowers goes beyond those involved in sensitive intelligence. For example, diplomat Gregory Hicks told a House committee that he was demoted because he gave congressional investigators a description of the attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya, that was at odds with the official version of events.
It’s Chicago Rules. You see something, you say nothing.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Law School Applicants From Top Colleges Plunge 26%.
TED CRUZ BIRTHERISM: Ed Driscoll: The Washington Post’s Next Macaca Marathon is Well Under Way. Plus: “The Post’s addiction to the Macaca meme has done wonders for its bottom line. (Shrinking it down to where the once-illustrious paper was bought this month for walking around money by Jeff Bezos, that is.)”
Maybe Bezos will institute a higher commitment to actual journalism, instead of aircover for Democratic candidates.
IRS SCANDALS: The Missing Koch Report: Treasury won’t let the conservative donors see the results of an inspector general’s investigation. “In late September 2010, Iowa senator Chuck Grassley and six of his colleagues grew suspicious that a senior Obama administration official had improperly accessed the tax information of industrial behemoth Koch Industries. After Austan Goolsbee, then-chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, made an erroneous statement that implied direct knowledge of the company’s confidential tax status, the senators demanded that the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration (TIGTA) investigate. Now, more than two years since the completion of that investigation, and despite repeated requests from Koch Industries and Senator Grassley himself, the results have yet to see the light of day.”
DEFENSIVE GUN USE: Iowa husband shoots, kills escaped inmate who held him, wife hostage.
COMPETENCE: Report: NSA doesn’t know the extent of Snowden damage. “The National Security Agency (NSA) doesn’t know how much information leaker Edward Snowden was able to obtain because of an underdeveloped capacity to audit its own data, according to a NBC News report released late Tuesday.”
This is criminal. Every single thing he did should have left an audit trail, both as a guard against misuse, and for damage assessment in a case just like this.
I didn’t say “criminal incompetence,” because if the need for an audit trail is obvious to such as me, it surely must have been obvious to higher-ups at NSA. If the systems lack the capacity for this, it’s because somebody doesn’t want the records kept. That suggests abuse at a systemic level. (It also undercuts claims of extensive auditing here.)
Then there’s the incompetence of letting someone like Snowden have such free-ranging access to the system: “The NSA had poor data compartmentalization, said the sources, allowing Snowden, who was a system administrator, to roam freely across wide areas. By using a ‘thin client’ computer he remotely accessed the NSA data from his base in Hawaii.” Snowden and Bradley Manning. That’s who’s in charge of our secrets?
Disgraceful. The whole operation needs to be reviewed at the highest levels. Instead, we’re more likely to see some cosmetic fixes and promises that this was a one-off.
MICKEY KAUS: CATO’s Schizo on Welfare. “If the only thing that mattered in terms of getting people off welfare was providing an economic incentive to work, maybe these liberal answers would do the job. Experience has shown they’re not enough, though–as long as people can get by on welfare (or by working sporadically off the books while collecting welfare) a good number will wind up doing just that, even if they’d be financially better off taking a minimum wage job and applying for the Earned Income Tax Credit and Obamacare, etc. One reason might be that if you go to work you have to, you know, work.“
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Law Dean Sanctioned for Submitting False Admissions Data.
MARK MOVSESIAN: The Persecution of Egypt’s Christians.
HOMELESS: New Jersey’s People Of The Woods.
AT DRUDGE, “Talk To The Hand” plus Counter-Trayvonism.
DISINFORMATION: This report is obviously just intended to serve as a cover story / distraction from the Alien Invasion preparations. Do not be fooled, my friends. . . .
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