READY FOR HILLARY BILL! Dems want bigger role for Bill Clinton.

Democratic fundraisers are urging Hillary Clinton to make Bill Clinton a bigger part of her presidential campaign, particularly when it comes to fundraising.

The donors, who have contributed some of the biggest checks to President Obama and the Democratic Party, are disappointed by the lack of face time, overall communication and gratitude from Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail.

“Fundraising is not a natural strong suit for Hillary,” one top Democratic fundraiser bluntly said.

Hillary Clinton is “lacking a certain personal touch,” the person said. The source added that the former secretary of State “publicly, is a little stiff.”

Donors think Bill Clinton, who so far has been on the sidelines of his wife’s presidential bid, could fill a void for the campaign.

“She doesn’t come across as naturally comfortable in these settings,” the donor said. “Bill Clinton is the complete opposite. The more social an environment, the more at ease he feels.”

Uh huh.

WE SHOULD BE SO LUCKY: Governor Scott Walker’s Campaign Legacy: His Labor-Policy Reforms..

PETER GRANT’S: War to the Knife.

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN DO: Green Energy Failure of the Week.

WITH THE HELP OF HANDY STEAM SHOVELS, NO DOUBT: Team Obama’s so-called Syria policy hits a new low.

WHAT THE H*LL, CORNELL: Cornell Seeks Diversity Ph.D., Qualifications Irrelevant. This is up there with reading being the least efficient way of deciding if a book is good.  You’ve heard of jumping the shark?  These people are jumping entire oceans.

LAYERS AND LAYERS OF … FACTCHECKERS? Epic Media Fail of the Year.

WASH YOUR VEGETABLES THOROUGHLY: Cucumber-linked salmonella infections, deaths continue to rise.

OH, GOODY: New Virus Found in Blood Supply — But Don’t Freak Out Just Yet.

It looks a little like the hepatitis C virus, which can cause permanent liver damage, and a little like the human pegivirus, which appears to be harmless, the team reports in the journal mBio.

They’ve named it human hepegivirus-1 (HHpgV-1).

“We have been able to find a new virus. It’s clearly transmitted as a result of human (blood) transfusion,” said infectious disease expert Dr. Ian Lipkin, who oversaw the study team at Columbia University.

“It is the first transfusion-associated virus that’s been described in a long time. We don’t know if it is going to be a significant cause of human hepatitis,” Lipkin told NBC News.

But probably not, the researchers said.

“So far there is no need to be concerned,” said Amit Kapoor, an assistant professor at Columbia University who led the study.

“We really don’t know if there is ongoing transmission of this virus. It may be good for you.”

Lipkin agreed.

“I’m not really worried about this particular virus,” he said. “This is not SARS. This is not MERS. This is not HIV.”

To find it, the team sampled blood banked at the National Institutes of Health from 46 volunteers between 1974 and 1980. They found it in two samples. Both patients appear to have “cleared” the virus and there is no evidence it caused any disease.

Well, good.

FASTER, PLEASE! Heart Attack-Related Scarring Could Be Treated With New Protein Patch That Stimulates Tissue Regeneration. “The protein Follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1) was found to stimulate cultured heart cell muscles to divide. In animal models that had undergone an experimental form of myocardial infarction, a patch that applied these proteins proved to rebuild the damaged heart tissue and reduce scarring, two factors that current heart attack treatments fail to address.”

BUT REMEMBER, IT’S THOSE NASTY RIGHT-WINGERS WHO WANT TO CONTROL PEOPLE’S SEX LIVES: Porn Stars Panicked by California Health Record Subpoenas.

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VOLKSWAGEN CEO RESIGNS OVER DIESEL CHEATING SCANDAL: Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn “could try and appease the EPA gods by arguing that VW’s  scam should buy it some offsetting carbon indulgences. But that of course would require these gods to understand the concept of tradeoffs. So all said and done, he is screwed. It might have been a different story if he represented an American automaker like GM instead of a German one like VW. Then he could have put killer Cobalts on the road and gotten away with a $900 million fine.”

Is the real problem German versus American, or simply non-UAW versus the unions and their DC and Sacramento enablers?

A COMMENT SECTION GOES HORRIBLY WRONG: In order to pretend they didn’t completely jump the gun on the Ahmed the clockmaker story, the DIY-oriented Hackaday Website runs – just out of the blue, totally for kicks and grins, no reason, just seems so pleasin’ – a story titled “Clocks for Social Good.” Things begin to go awry in the comments, starting here:

You know how you periodically investigate a kick-starter, going over public pictures and asking real questions about “is this real”?

The difference in the way you are approaching Ahmed’s clock and a random kickstarter is really really painful to watch. Your credibility is on the line here and you really really need to say “yeah okay we were taken in by a story that was too good to check”.

Ahmed’s clock was just a disassembled commercial clock. It’s painfully obvious. And to your readers, it’s even more painfully obvious than it is to a lay person.

I’m embarrassed for you guys. You keep doubling down on “lay people hate science” when what they really hate is being lied to to advance a narrative.

Right now, it’s starting to look like you either are incapable of spotting an obvious fake, or that you don’t like facts get in the way of the story you want to tell. Neither is good for your credibility.

All that said, these are really cool clocks, and the bomb post was good too. But it’s obvious you’re trying to cover up your error. Quit blowing smoke and own up to it.

Hey, you knwo what? It would make a good “fail of the week” post. And for the same reasons. Failure happens, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, and we cant’ let it get in the way of trying. We need to normalize admitting error so that more people will do it.

I also think a post where you examine Ahmed’s clock the way you examine anything else, trying to identify chips, boards, and model numbers would be good forensic work.

Well, that article’s already been written. The video version is much shorter for those who don’t wish to type TLDN in response:

But stop by the comments section yourself if you’d like to join in on the “fun.”

(Headline inspired by this long running series at Small Dead Animals.)

I’M NOT SURPRISED: Ian Tuttle over at NRO explains, “Ahmed Mohamed Didn’t Build a Clock.”

[A]s Ahmed enjoys his newfound celebrity — on Monday he was a VIP at a Google science fair, and on Wednesday the family is flying to New York City, where Ahmed will be feted by United Nations dignitaries — the details of the story become, well, curiouser and curiouser. Over the weekend, a blogger at Artvoice “reverse engineered” Ahmed’s clock from media photographs. His conclusion: Somewhere in all of this – there has indeed been a hoax. Ahmed Mohamed didn’t invent his own alarm clock. He didn’t even build a clock. . . . He took apart an existing clock, and transplanted the guts into a pencil box, and claimed it was his own creation. (emphasis original) According to the blogger, Ahmed took apart this 1986 Micronta digital alarm clock, and reassembled it in this Vaultz Locking Pencil Box. . . .

And add to all this that Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Elhassan, is something of a self-appointed Islamic activist. . . .

Ahmed’s father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, is a two-time presidential candidate (in 2010 and 2015) in his native Sudan who has an apparent penchant for publicity.

Ahmed’s actions resulted in his being invited by President Obama to the White House, to the Google Science Fair as a VIP guest, and even to him being called a “ideal student” by an MIT astrophysicist, who surprised Ahmed with a live invitation on MSNBC to tour the university.

All of this because Ahmed brought a device to school that would have easily gotten my blond-haired, non-Muslim daughter summarily expelled. The dangerousness of the progressive/liberal overreaction to “support” Ahmed’s behavior is staggering.

USA TODAY: Disclose Airline Seat Sizes. “If it seems that airline seats are getting smaller, you’re not imagining it. Airlines have been shrinking seat width and legroom to let them cram more seats into planes and sell more tickets. And it’s working. Airline profits are at record levels, but so too, it seems, are passenger crowding and discontent. Back before airlines were deregulated in 1978, seats were wider and had more legroom; average seat pitch (a proxy for legroom) in coach has shortened from about 35 inches to about 31 inches. Average seat width has narrowed from about 18 inches to 17 inches or less.”

THAT NARRATIVE DOESN’T WRITE ITSELF, YOU KNOW: Ahmad the Gentle Clock-Builder’s Sister Got Suspended for Alleged Bomb Threat; Daily Beast Reporter Not Only Fails to Follow Up on this Major Story Thread, But Fails to Show Any Interest Whatsoever.

THE OMINOUS PARALLELS CONTINUE TO STACK UP:

Shot:

David Brody [CBN correspondent]: “Who is God to you? What are some of your thoughts on this?  Clearly, you’re a smart man, you’re a smart businessman, you’ve contemplated this before or have you contemplate this?”

Donald Trump: “Well I say God is the ultimate. You know you look at this? Here we are on the Pacific Ocean. How did I ever own this? I bought it fifteen years ago.  I made one of the great deals they say ever. I have no more mortgage on it as I will certify and represent to you. And I was able to buy this and make a great deal.  That’s what I want to do for the country.  Make great deals.  We have to, we have to bring it back, but God is the ultimate. I mean God created this (points to his golf course and nature surrounding it), and here’s the Pacific Ocean right behind us. So nobody, no thing, no there’s nothing like God.”

—“Brody File Video Exclusive: Donald Trump Exclaims, ‘God Is The Ultimate!'”, CBN News today.

Chaser:

Falsani: 
Do you believe in sin?

OBAMA: 
Yes.

Falsani: What is sin?

OBAMA:
 Being out of alignment with my values.

Falsani: What happens if you have sin in your life?

OBAMA:
 I think it’s the same thing as the question about heaven. In the same way that if I’m true to myself and my faith that that is its own reward, when I’m not true to it, it’s its own punishment.

—“TRANSCRIPT: Barack Obama and The God Factor Interview,” excerpt from the then-Illinois state senator’s interview with Cathleen Falsani, then religion reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times,  March 27, 2004.

To sum up the juxtaposition in visual terms:

UPDATE NEWSPEAK DICTIONARIES ACCORDINGLY: Legendary linguistic scholar Gwyneth Paltrow replaces the word “divorce” with the “California dreamin’” phrase “conscious uncoupling:” “Is ‘Conscious Uncoupling’ Really the Path to Self-Fulfillment?”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Harvard Business Review study: Learners credit MOOCs for pay raises, promotions, academic progress.

OBAMA’S COLLAPSING WAR ON THE ISLAMIC STATE:

For the Obama administration, the news from the Middle East keeps going from bad to worse. Vladimir Putin’s power play, moving significant military forces into Syria to support his ailing client, Bashar al-Assad, caught the White House flat footed and unsure how to respond.

Although the administration gave the Kremlin de facto control over American policy in Syria some two years ago when it walked away from its own “red line,” granting Russia a veto on Western action there, President Obama and his national security staff nevertheless seem befuddled by this latest Russian move.

 “It appears one of the great challenges that President Obama has had to overcome in office is that no one around him is as good at their job as he is,” Jim Geraghty once wrote as part of a round-up of Mr. Obama’s more hubristic statements. For politicians who love to pose as the smartest guys in the room (not the least of which being their boss), the Obama administration sure seem befuddled by all sorts of stuff, don’t they?

VOLKSWAGEN: WHEN THE GLEICHSCHALTUNG COMES FULL CIRCLE: “Gleichschaltung is a German word (in case you couldn’t have guessed) borrowed from electrical engineering,” as Jonah Goldberg wrote in 2010:

It means “coordination.” The German National Socialists (Nazis) used the concept to get every institution to sing from the same hymnal. If a fraternity or business embraced Nazism, it could stay “independent.” If it rejected Nazism, it was crushed or bent to the state’s ideology. Meanwhile, every branch of government was charged with not merely doing its job but advancing the official state ideology.

Now, contemporary liberalism is not an evil ideology. Its intentions aren’t evil or even fruitfully comparable to Hitlerism. But there is a liberal Gleichschaltung all the same. Every institution must be on the same page. Every agency must advance the liberal agenda.

And this is where the Catch-22 catches. The dream of a nimble, focused, problem-solving government is undone by the reality of hyper–mission creep. When every institution is yoked to an overarching philosophy or mission, its actual purpose can become an afterthought. In 2005, volunteer firefighters from all over the country offered to help with Katrina’s aftermath. But FEMA sent many of them to Atlanta first to undergo diversity and sexual-harassment training (which most already had).

Such examples are everywhere. What is political correctness other than the gears of the liberal Gleichschaltung? The financial crisis was worsened because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became tools for liberal social engineering. Let’s not even mention public schools.

The White House is determined to be a great friend (i.e., servant) to the unions, so everything from the stimulus to the automaker buyout to the Gulf spill must first pass union muster. Remember those vital, “shovel-ready” weatherization jobs the stimulus was supposed to pay for? The Labor Department delayed them for nearly a year while trying to figure out how to comply with pro-union “prevailing wage” rules for each of more than 3,000 counties.

Liberalism has become a cargo cult to the New Deal, but many of the achievements of the New Deal would be impossible now. Just try to get a Hoover Dam built today.

President Obama likes to say that “if we could put a man on the moon,” we can do anything, from socializing medicine to abandoning fossil fuels. That’s nonsense on stilts for a host of reasons. But it’s also ironic, given that we can’t even put a man on the moon anymore. Not when NASA’s foremost priority is boosting the self-esteem of children and Muslims.

And what is radical environmentalism, but a demand to bypass free markets and freedom of choice to advance the left’s agenda. Volkswagen, which was born of the Gleichschaltung as part of the German Labor Front in 1937, is now getting clobbered by 21st century socialism’s updated version of the Gleichschaltung. There’s plenty of irony in that, but as Glenn mentioned earlier, plenty of pain for everyday VW owners as well.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Health Insurance Deductibles Outpacing Wage Increases, Study Finds.

TO FIX YOUR VW, IT WILL BE NECESSARY TO RUIN IT: VW Owners Aren’t Going to Like the Fixes for Their Diesels. “So if the government is making VW recall your car and your fuel economy and performance will take a hit because of it, why not just ignore the recall notice in your mailbox? People ignore recalls all the time, even when they’re to fix critical safety issues. A 2011 GAO report found just 65 percent of recalled cars are repaired. The man can’t compel you to get it fixed. Except here, maybe he can. These Volkswagens are a public health threat and exuberantly break federal law. It’s not crazy to think state agencies or NHTSA would flag them, and refuse to issue a new registration, or let them pass a smog test, unless proof of a fix is offered.”

I have a friend in Knoxville who has one, and he has no plans to do the recall. Luckily, we don’t have smog testing here.

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