Blog Heap of Links for the day 8 October 2012

As for the audit, Root is certain it was politically-motivated, seeing as he has made thousands of media appearances during which he has decried the president and his policies.

“That order had to come from the highest levels of government,” Root proclaimed. ”Obama is using the power of the IRS and other government agencies to punish his political opposition and intimidate and silence his critics.”

And Root isn’t taking the alleged political persecution sitting down. He’s calling for Congress to investigate to ensure that the Obama administration is operating within its bounds. Citing his wife and four children, he lamented what he sees as a top-down, government-led “witch hunt.”

In talking with former GM employees, I learned Obama has been sending non-union jobs like product design, engineering and drafting jobs to China. GM is investing heavily in China, with your taxpayer dollars. And, as you will see below, GM may well be headed right back into the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court.

Last week, Obama wanted everyone to think he made a gaffe when he said he wanted to "see us export more jobs, uh... export more products." He then stuttered for a second and then smoothly said, as if rehearsed, "Excuse me. I,I,I was channeling my opponent for a second." But the real truth, Obama is at war with middle-class, NON-UNION jobs in America. He is shutting them down wherever he can and now we see he is actually exporting them to China.

“That’s all good for Barack and Michelle, but what happens to the rest of us? We ain’t getting squat from any of this. Worse, we don’t get to exploit the white guilt any more because that’s not there these days. It’s all gone. He done did it. He ruined it for us. White people don’t feel guilty no more and won’t do stuff for us now that they used to do so fast you wouldn’t believe it”, a Thinker in a bright, pretty pink blouse offered. ”All of it is gone. They used it all up to elect him and to scream at anyone who said boo to him in the last four years. White people got used to being called racist all the time and aren’t scared about it anymore. I have no idea how I’m going to get funding for my programs now because I always counted on white people being too scared to say no to anything we needed at work. This is a disaster for the black community and it’s all because they put all the eggs in his basket and he f***ed it all up”.

About three dozen American anti-war activists are headed toward Pakistan’s militant-riddled tribal belt to protest U.S. drone strikes, but a faction of the Taliban has warned that suicide bombers will prevent their demonstration. [l'arôme d'ironie!]

In August, the National Urban League's State of Black America 2012 report found that nearly all the economic gains that the black middle class made during the last 30 years have been wiped out by the economic downturn.

My eyes are up here, Hill! [Photo]

first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like electronics, books, artwork and furniture, as well as CDs and DVDs, without getting permission from the copyright holder of those products … which the Supreme Court has recognized since 1908 … challenged now for products that are made abroad, and if the Supreme Court upholds an appellate court ruling, it would mean that the copyright holders of anything you own that has been made in China, Japan or Europe, for example, would have to give you permission to sell it … copyright holder would now want a piece of that sale. [This seems to me to be exactly the opposite of the direction copyright jurisprudence should be taking. An appeallate court upheld this??] … In August 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court’s ruling that anything that was manufactured overseas is not subject to the first-sale principle. Only American-made products or “copies manufactured domestically” were. “That’s a non-free-market capitalistic idea for something that’s pretty fundamental to our modern economy,”

New data from the spacecraft, which I will discuss below, indicate Voyager 1 may have exited the solar system for good. If true, this would mark a truly historic moment for the human race — sending a spacecraft beyond the edge of our home solar system.

At last check, NASA scientists said they were not yet ready to officially declare that Voyager 1 had officially exited the solar system by crossing the heliopause.

The mayor, police chief and media have figured out what is behind a wave of black-mob violence in Columbia, S.C: White kids drink too much. … This time, 8-10 black people are seen punching then stomping an unconscious Josh Bosworth. Bosworth was taken to a hospital with a broken jaw and severe bruising about the head. Three of the assailants have been arrested. All are students at Benedict, a nearby black college. This was the first of at least three violent black mob incidents in Five Points that night. And just one of dozens in that college town over the last year.

"The death penalty? Give me a break. It's easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy. Nobody ever thought the Constitution prevented restrictions on abortion. Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years, it was criminal in every state," Scalia said at the American Enterprise Institute.

Obama's debate notes [graphic]

SNL does Debate #1 [Video]

Following Wednesday’s presidential debate, it was obvious that the crew on MSNBC was taking President Barack Obama’s lackluster performance hard, and it turns out their excessive on-air melancholy was enough to earn them a spot on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” last night. [video]

“The first purpose of a strong military is to prevent war. The size of our navy is at levels not seen since 1916,” Romney said Monday. ”I’ll restore our navy to the size needed to fulfill our missions by building 15 ships per year, including three submarines.”

“I’ll implement effective missile defenses to protect against threats and on this, there will be no flexibility with Vladimir Putin.”

Bob Schieffer, spinning for CBS, takes the last debate on October 22. Schieffer is a good choice for the progressives. He's one of the meanest liberals in television, and one of most polished practitioners of the art of media spin and disinformation. Schieffer wrote a character assassination book on Ronald Reagan, The Acting President. You can buy the book for one penny on Amazon.com -- more than it's worth. The long knives will be out October 22, and Schieffer will be in Obama's corner. Romney needs to watch his back. Warning bells are going off on this one.

William A. Jacobson's preview of VP Debate [videos]

Obama campaign has chosen not to use industry-standard verification methods for its on-line contributions. In fact, the campaign has to pay higher fees to credit card companies because they don't use these methods. So, the campaign is paying millions of dollars for the privilege of not utilizing basic security procedures. Why would they do this?

The clear implication is that they will reap more money without these security procedures than they would with them. Democrats are only wasteful with other people's money. To some extent, then, they are knowingly collecting on-line donations that would otherwise be rejected by basic security protocols. Hmm.

RT @iowahawkblog: For a puppet who supposedly promotes education, Big Bird certainly has a lot of angry subliterate fans.

— Brandon Dutcher (@brandondutcher) October 6, 2012

The current Federal steward of radio frequency assignment authority is the low-level Office of Spectrum Management buried in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. While ostensibly it has the responsibility for “managing” the Federal spectrum inventory and assignments, it has minimal legal or delegated authority, power, or clout to actually efficiently or effectively manage the nation’s spectrum for the benefit of the Nation or the U.S. taxpaying public. In reality, they are a caretaker and bookkeeper of the nation’s spectrum, not a manager of it — no one is. … There is no coherent Federal policy that spectrum is a valuable scarce resource that needs to be conserved, well-managed and put to its highest and best use for the Nation and the American taxpayer. There is no formal annual spectrum budget process in the executive or legislative branch, where government spectrum holders have to justify their continued use of the spectrum, defend why they can’t share their spectrum with other bureaucracies, or why they can’t clear it for public auction.

There is no regular audit or accountability process to ensure that this valuable spectrum is being efficiently-used, fully-utilized and not wasted. There is no OMB-level review — independent of the departments and agencies that control the spectrum — to verify that it is being responsibly managed. There is also no required economic opportunity-cost analysis or cost-benefit analysis of Federal spectrum use.