TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 112.

BUMMER: Theft and Sabotage Destroy Nigeria’s Oil Dreams.

“Industrial scale oil theft, sabotage and technical problems” have caused output from the oil-rich Niger delta to plummet to a four-year low, the FT reports, and that’s only the beginning of the story.

Shell announced in July that thieves were stealing 60,000 barrels of oil every day—just from Shell’s lines. The Nigerian government, which gets 80 percent of its revenue from oil, lost $10.9 billion between 2009 and 2011 due to theft and sabotage. “Oil fouls everything in southern Nigeria,” Tom O’Neill reported for National Geographic back in 2007. “It spills from the pipelines, poisoning soil and water. It stains the hands of politicians and generals, who siphon off its profits. It taints the ambitions of the young, who will try anything to scoop up a share of the liquid riches—fire a gun, sabotage a pipeline, kidnap a foreigner.”

Managerial incompetence and corruption are largely responsible for creating an environment that encourages widespread theft. In 2009 the government began making payments to rebels to encourage them to stop kidnapping oil workers, but since then, the FT reports, “the theft of oil has grown into a vast and lucrative enterprise involving well-connected officials and security personnel.”

As corruption becomes ever more entrenched, average people are mired in poverty.

Port Harcourt is where my Nigerian family is from. It used to be a nice place.

CONTRACTING-OUT: CostCo’s Second-Class Citizens. “It seems that the majority of people who I interact with on a Costco trip actually work for someone else.”

WHEN THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE AND THE HOUSING BUBBLE MERGE.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Kitchen & Dining.

Also, today only: 50% off on Diesel clothing and shoes.

INSTAVISION: Don’t Forget Amnesty: I talk with Mickey Kaus about the immigration debate. “The entire Republican elite,” says Kaus, is in favor of amnesty and looking for a way to sneak it through. Plus, my own “hot or not” proposal for immigration reform.

NOW THEY TELL US: National Journal: Obama’s Affordable Care Act Looking a Bit Unaffordable: Independent National Journal analysis finds premiums higher under Obamacare as employers weigh dropping coverage. “Republicans have long blamed President Obama’s signature health care initiative for increasing insurance costs, dubbing it the ‘Unaffordable Care Act.’ Turns out, they might be right.”

Do tell.

COMRADE, YOUR LOYALTY TO THE STATE IS IN QUESTION: Allison Benedikt: If You Send Your Kid to Private School, You Are a Bad Person. Does that mean she thinks Barack and Michelle are bad people? Racist.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Bryan Preston: How the FBI and DoD Blew and Continue to Miscast the Fort Hood Massacre.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Retiring Texas A&M president to receive $850K golden parachute, iPad, reveal secret docs. “Outgoing Texas A&M University President R. Bowen Loftin will receive $850,000 in cash, an iPad, and a job that pays $311,000 annually when he steps down next year, according to private documents obtained by a conservative student publication. Surprisingly, however, the documents also reveal that President Loftin attempted to hide his demands for an even higher compensation of over $2.5 million, according to the documents obtained by The Aggie Guardian through a Texas Public Information Act request.”

WELL, THAT’S AN IMPROVEMENT: Geoffrey Stone Added to NSA Surveillance Review Committee. Though my first choice would be Bruce Schneier.

Related: Democratic Members of Congress Press Eric Holder for Answers on Use of NSA Surveillance Data in the War on Drugs.

GETTING IT GOOD AND HARD: It’s Fact, Not Anecdote, That ObamaCare Is Turning Us Into A Part-Time Nation.

MICHAEL BARONE: Latest Result Of Global Warming: Cooler Temperatures. “For years global warming alarmists have claimed that any unusual or unpleasant weather is the result of global warming, even as, inconveniently, global temperatures seem to have plateaued or fallen over the last 15 years, contrary to global warming theory.”

GOOD: Roll Call: Heller Wants All Congressional Staff in Obamacare Exchanges. “Sen. Dean Heller is asking the Office of Management and Budget to require all congressional staff to get health care through the new exchanges. The Nevada Republican’s letter comes one day after two other Senate Republicans announced legislation to require senior executive branch officials and all congressional staff to get their health care through the Obamacare exchanges. Those senators were Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming and David Vitter of Louisiana.”

I agree. No titles of nobility!

DEBATE: The Pros And Cons Of Attacking Syria. My thoughts on the merits are unimportant, given the near-certainty that Obama will screw it up if we attack. And, in fact, after all the bluster and talk of “red lines,” he’s already managed to screw up not attacking, too.

JAMES TARANTO: The Harms Race: Hate-crime hoaxes and “counter-Trayvonism.” “Saul Alinsky’s fourth rule was: ‘Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.’ The counter-Trayvonists may ultimately be wrongheaded, but if they can provoke as conventional a liberal as Josh Marshall into disparaging ‘the racial victimization bus’–a colorblind sentiment if ever there was one–then perhaps they serve a dialectical purpose.”

MICHAEL TOTTEN: The Looming Strike Against Syria.

PUSHBACK: States Find New Ways To Resist Health Law.

THE HILL: Boehner: Obama must make the case for action in Syria.

Related: 116 House members say Obama needs approval from Congress on Syria.

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Long after spotlight has faded, IRS official Holly Paz faces attacks. “Senior Internal Revenue Service official Holly Paz, who helped oversee the agency’s internal review of how it scrutinized conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status, hasn’t been formally accused of any wrongdoing. But she has been on administrative leave since early June, and has been subject to harassment after coming under fire from congressional Republicans, according to her lawyer, Roel Campos.” My sympathy is not extensive.

LAUREL CONRAD: 15 liberals who can’t handle the truth about the Oberlin racism hoax.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Donor cancels $100,000 gift to Westfield State. “A major donor has withdrawn a planned $100,000 gift to Westfield State University, saying he was ‘appalled at the lavish spending’ by president Evan Dobelle, joining a growing backlash against the school after reports that Dobelle used the school’s private fund-raising arm to foot the bill for luxury hotels, limousine rides, and other high-end purchases, including a trip to Asia. A long-awaited review, part of which was obtained by the Globe this week, of Dobelle’s spending habits, shows that Dobelle freely mixed personal spending with official business in credit card charges of more than $180,209 billed to the Westfield State College Foundation over a 30-month period. Even after months of analysis, however, the accountant who conducted the review said it was impossible to tell whether many of the expenses were legitimate.”

Expect more donor pushback as the reality of university finances becomes understood.

MICHEAL LEDEEN consults Angleton on Syria.

ROB NATELSON: The Myth of a Runaway Amendments Convention.

SLUTSHAMING: Why Are Feminists Judging Miley Cyrus?