ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: FEBRUARY 29, 2008. “Kenyan elders threatened to fine Hillary Clinton for circulating a racist photo of Obama in Muslim garb. The move could have cost her many cows:”

Kenyan elders may impose a fine on U.S. presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, payable in livestock, after a photo of her rival Barack Obama in robes dragged their people into the race for the White House.

The picture, which appeared on a U.S. Web site, showed the Illinois senator in a white headdress and traditional Somali attire during a 2006 visit to Wajir in Kenya’s remote northeast.

Obama has battled a whispering campaign by fringe elements who wrongly say he is Muslim and his aides accused Clinton’s campaign of “the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering” after the photograph was published.

Wajir elders resolved to file an official complaint with the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, dropping earlier plans to hold a protest after Friday prayers.

They said they would also convene a traditional Somali court to investigate the matter. It can impose fines that are payable in cattle, goats or camels.

Why, it’s like Hillary was the original birther or something. No word yet if swapping cattle futures would have been considered an acceptable payment. I hear Hillary has a few of those to spare – and they’re poised to go up like a rocket.

JOE PATRONI HAS LEFT THE HANGER: RIP George Kennedy, 91.

YOU WANT REAL CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM? BAN COMMISSIONS FOR POLITICAL AD BUYS: Jeb Bush’s ambitions paid dividends for GOP admaker over the years.

ANOTHER “SMALL BLOG” PLUG: Rebuttals By Martin Bashir. Not actually by Martin Bashir. He was that doctor on Star Trek, right?

DONALD TRUMP HAS MADE THIS DISCUSSION EXTRA-TIMELY: Alex Long: The Lawyer as Public Figure for First Amendment Purposes.

YUPPIE MARRIAGES PROMOTE INEQUALITY: “It’s this notion of this growing equality between husbands and wives having this paradoxical effect of growing inequality across households.” Plus: “Whatever happened to the olden days when a man being rich was like a girl being pretty? The rich man found the most beautiful woman and the family income averaged down, more like that next family. Now, we’ve got ‘assortative mating,’ in which “people marry others they enjoy spending time with, and that tends to be people like themselves.”

RACISM STRAIGHT UP: “IT SPEAKS! Justice Clarence Thomas asks a question in court for the first time in 10 YEARS in gun case” is a headline currently up at the London Daily Mail; here’s a screen cap in case they come to their senses and change it:

“It Speaks?” First class bit of “othering” there fellas, as if Thomas is a subhuman animal or Frankensteinian monster previously thought incapable of speech. I missed the memo, when did Margaret Sanger or Woodrow Wilson buy the Daily Mail?

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why It’s Still Rare For Women To Propose.

THESE AREN’T THE DRONES YOU’RE LOOKING FOR: Outdoor sets of next year’s Star Wars Episode VIII may be protected by anti-drone drones.

Some of the scenes for the movie are being filmed in Croatia in the tourist town of Dubrovnik, according to the tech site Blastr. They relay a report from the Croatian Star Wars site MosCroatia that the sets for Star Wars; Episode VIII could be protected by as many as 600 guards, and there may be guard drones as well to counter anyone who might be trying to get some illicit footage with a drone of their own.

The notice of the security measures, translated from Croatian, indicate there will be “a special team with drones that will remove the uninvited drones so that no recording can be conducted by the public.”

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good UAV-killing UAV at your side, kid.

IN MOSCOW, MUSLIM NANNY BEHEADS 4-YEAR-OLD GIRL: “Some media reported that she yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ — Arabic for ‘God is greatest’ — and threatened to blow herself up…One eyewitness at the underground station told MK how the woman screamed: ‘My child was killed…I will blow up everyone.’ She also shouted: ‘I hate democracy.’”

As Michael Walsh writes, “Naturally, the police are stumped as to a possible motive.”

AMERICA’S HIPPEST STREET: “A CYCLE OF BOHEMIANS HATING EACH OTHER:”

“The hippies didn’t much like the Beatniks and they really hated the punks. The punks didn’t much like the hippies and they really hated the hardcore kids. So it’s been this cycle of bohemians hating each other,” says Ada Calhoun, author of the acclaimed book St. Marks is Dead: The Many Lives of America’s Hippest Street.

A native of the four-block-stretch in Manhattan’s East Village which has served as the nation’s capital of the counterculture for more than a hundred years, Calhoun spoke with Reason TV about her book which lovingly details the endless creative destruction that has kept St. Mark’s Place a vibrant home for everyone from early 20th century anarchists to Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground, to the punk rockers of the CBGBs era, to the hardcore kids and skaters of the 80s, to the lamented NYU students of today.

You may recognize the building on the cover of Calhoun’s book from the cover of Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti double album. Exit quote: “I think the line between poseurs and authentic bohemians is pretty thin.”

LADY GAGA PUSHES ‘ONE IN FIVE’ CAMPUS SEX ASSAULT MYTH AT THE OSCARS: “Even Vice President Joe Biden, who introduced Gaga for her performance, didn’t include the flawed statistic. People have either begun to omit that particular statistic or admit that it is at the very least controversial. Only those most dedicated to the myth still use the number,” Ashe Schow writes at the Washington Examiner.

Read the whole thing.

MEMO TO THE TRUMPETERS: Trump University as a window to Donald Trump’s soul, from Roger Kimball.

DISPATCHES FROM THE ONE PERCENT: Bernie Sanders thanks hedge fund manager Alan Grayson for endorsement. “Rep. Alan Grayson is under House Ethics Committee investigation for a hedge fund he ran that was located in the Cayman Islands, but with Hillary Clinton’s lead widening, Bernie Sanders will apparently take any endorsement he can get.”

Has anyone informed Bernie’s screaming Viking helmet guy fan about this latest multimillionaire bankster endorsement?

WELL, MINE WOULD HAVE A WATERBED IN THE BACK: Peter Egan: In Search Of The Ideal Van.

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: What exactly did Donald Trump say to the New York Times editorial board — off the record — about deporting 11 million illegals?

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Don’t Surrender To The Government War On Cash: Cash Is The Currency Of Freedom!

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Former top deputy at consumer bureau quietly joins Capital One.

Another high-ranking official at the Obama administration’s financial protection agency has gone to Wall Street this month, The Hill has learned.

Meredith Fuchs, who most recently served as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) acting deputy director, has gone to the credit and banking giant Capital One.

She now serves as the bank’s senior vice president and chief counsel on regulatory issues, her recently updated LinkedIn page says. There have been no press releases from the agency or Capital One announcing her move.

Capital One and the CFPB did not immediately return a request for comment.

It is the latest in a slew of departures from the young agency, which was created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law in 2010.

Since it opened its doors in 2011, at least 45 CFPB employees have left the agency for the private sector, snapped up by companies including JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, PayPal, Bank of America and BlackRock.

Just another argument for enacting my revolving-door surtax. And let’s face it — Elizabeth Warren and the other champions of this “consumer protection” agency knew this was going to happen all along. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!

EVERGREEN HEADLINE: The Democrats lurch to the Left.

WHAT HATH FRAU MERKEL WROUGHT? After Falling For 50 Years, Xenophobic Extremism On Rise In Germany. “Germany’s tolerance and moderation are being tested as never before in its post-war history. The firewall it has built between respectable conservatism and the extreme right may be breaking down.”

Well, if the “respectable” politicians won’t talk about something that matters a lot to the public, then the public will listen to people who do talk about it, even if they’re not “respectable” people. This is being made very clear on both sides of the Atlantic.

#FREESTACY WON’T SHUT UP: “I reached out to Sarkeesian: no response. I reached out to a woman who tweeted that McCain harassed her friend: no reply. McCain would talk. He noted that of the 40 organizations on the Twitter Council, many are left-leaning and none is conservative or libertarian. The Twitter Council is an echo chamber. ‘There are some people who just can’t stand the idea that someone could have access to Twitter or anything, or a platform to be able to criticize them,’ McCain told me. They don’t believe in freedom of expression for others. Free speech is not safe. And Jack Dorsey has made them Twitter’s bouncers.”

Read the whole thing.

OBAMA TO VISIT ARGENTINA on 40th anniversary of military coup.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Was Middle-Class Retirement Just A Credit-Bubble Fantasy?

DEMOCRAT #WARONWOMEN UPDATE: The New Republic’s New Owner Covered Up The Fact That Oregon’s Governor Was a Rapist.

Where have you gone, Marty Peretz? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.