† The Summer Of Our Discontent: “Pessimism about the economy permeates almost every poll that has been released this week, and it is starting to be one of the first defining characteristics of next year’s race,” The Washington Post reports:

 

A new CNN/Opinion Research poll shows that nearly half of Americans think a new Great Depression is likely to occur in the next year. …

 

The 48 percent of people who said a new Great Depression appears imminent did so even after it was explained to them just how bad the last one was. The question prefaced that, in 1929 and the 1930s, “roughly one out of four workers were unemployed, banks failed across the country, and millions of ordinary Americans were temporarily homeless or unable to feed their families.”

 

Even when banks were failing and the unemployment rate was rising quickly in 2008 and 2009, the same poll showed Americans didn’t think another Great Depression was so imminent. Just 41 percent said so in 2009 and 38 percent in 2008.

 

The Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that Americans are very concerned about the national debt:

 

A large majority of Americans say the U.S. economy would probably suffer serious harm if Congress fails to give the federal government more borrowing authority. But barely half support raising the government’s debt limit, even if lawmakers also sharply cut spending.

 

A Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that 55 percent of Democrats and half of Republicans and independents support a debt-limit deal that includes a steep reduction in the size of government. But 37 percent of Republicans, a third of independents and nearly a fifth of Democrats say they are against raising the debt limit, under any circumstances.

 

The survey highlights the political pressures facing lawmakers and the White House as they lurch toward Aug. 2, when the U.S. Treasury says it is likely to default on its obligations unless Congress agrees to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit. Bipartisan talks aimed at reaching a compromise are set to resume Thursday on Capitol Hill, focusing on Democratic demands for fresh revenue as well as possible mechanisms for enforcing a multi-year agreement to cut spending.

 

† Obama Doctrine Taking Shape: Almost a year ago to the day, The Stiletto noted: "By now it's painfully clear that if the Obama Doctrine (“Never mind what I said about unclenching your fist. Gimme a fist bump!”) succeeded in unclenching any fists, those hands are either flipping America the bird or slapping Uncle Sam's face."  

 

On his blog, Daniel Pipes takes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to task for giving Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu a high five - OK, it's not a fist bump, but still - when they met for a bilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi on June 9, 2011:  

Clinton should be ashamed of herself, horsing around like this with the representative of a hostile state whose government is just three days away from elections. This sends precisely the wrong message of endorsement by the U.S. government.

 

Well, she may not be ashamed of herself but The Stiletto is ashamed of her - and ashamed for the rest of us.

 

† Can We Be Adult About Stem Cell Research?: In a paper published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature, British scientists say they've found dormant cells in the hearts of mice that can be reactivated to make new muscle that can repair dead muscle after a heart attack, The Associated Press reports:

 

The cells are found in the outer layer of the mouse heart. Researchers found that if they injected mice with a particular substance and gave the animals a heart attack, the cells migrated to the site of injury and made new muscle. They also found several indicators that the heart then worked better, although they said it's not clear whether that's due to the new muscle or other known effects of the injected substance.

 

Steve Houser, director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at Temple University, who wasn't involved in the study, said other teams have also reported potential repair cells in the heart, including some cells being tested in humans.

 

He also cautioned that "very little in the cardiac world has translated from mice to man."

 

Yet, he said the new research was well done and will "stir the field" of heart regeneration studies.

 

† John Edwards: The King Of Heels Now And Forever: Like The Stiletto, John Steele Gordon has compiled his own history of U.S. political sex scandals. Is John Edwards still at the top (or bottom) of the heap as The King Of Heels? You be the judge after reading his recap of sex scandals involving former Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-NY), Rep. Vito Fossella (R-NY), Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, President Thomas Jefferson, President Grover Cleveland, FDR’s undersecretary of State 

Sumner Welles, Rep. Wilbur Mills (D-AR) and Sen. Bob Packwood (R-OR).

 

[Editorial Note: The Stiletto’s list of historical horndogs was limited only to those who ran for, or were serving as, president. Gordon’s list is more comprehensive, but for some reason he omitted “Gay American” former Gov. Jim McGreevey (D-NJ), who appointed his lover to a government job; former Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY); and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA).]

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (The Magic Is Gone): Democrats privately concede that “[t]here are many states, such as Indiana, that Obama could lose that he won in 2008, but few he could shift the other way,” The Washington Post reports:

 

“The (Obama) map is going to be smaller than 2008,” said one Democratic fundraiser who has been briefed by 2012 Obama campaign officials.

 

Taken collectively, the battleground states represent the cross pressures facing the two parties as they look forward to the 2012 election. In Florida, Nevada, and Ohio, the economy continues to lag badly, presenting the Obama political team with a major challenge.

 

In Virginia, liberal-leaning transplants from the northeast and young voters fuel Democratic optimism. In New Mexico and Colorado, burgeoning Hispanic populations will force Republicans to grapple with their continued struggles in the Latino community.

 

Republican National Committee political director Rick Wiley argued in a recent memo that those six states, as well as three others - Indiana, Iowa and North Carolina - that both Obama and previously Bush carried in 2008 and 2004, respectively, have moved away from the president.

 

As evidence of the GOP’s momentum, Wiley noted that since 2008, Republicans have won a Senate seat, four governor’s races, seven state legislative chambers and 17 House seats in those nine states combined

 

“His (Obama’s) path to re-election must go back through those states, but his prospects there are far from certain,” wrote Wiley. “In only two and a half years, his position in those states, and in many others, has deteriorated dramatically, and Republican strength is in plain view.”

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (The Day Newt Gingrich’s Candidacy Died): Well this puts the final nail in the coffin of Newt Gingrich's zombie presidential campaign: This entire staff quit while he and his wife, Callista, were kicking their heels up on a two-week cruise (to nowhere, as it turned out).  USA Today reports:

 

Among the departed: national campaign manager Rob Johnson and press secretary Rick Tyler. Politico said the aides quit over a "different vision" for the campaign.

 

"It's clear there wasn't a path to success," Schoenfeld told the Iowa newspaper. …

 

Scott Rials, one of the Gingrich aides who resigned, told the AP that he had doubts about Gingrich's ability to win the GOP nomination. "There was a question of commitment," Rials said.

 

Schoenfeld told The Des Moines Register he was also concerned about Gingrich's ability to raise money and spend time in the state to make an impact with voters who will be participating in the Iowa Straw Poll in August.

 

"You have to be able to raise money to run a campaign and you have to invest time in fundraising and to campaign here in the state, and I did not have the confidence that was going to be happening," Schoenfeld said.

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth item, A Teeny Weenie Scandal): With signs that Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) plans to stick it out, Washington Post columnist EJ Dionne wants him to use his head and take the long view, and offers this advice:

 

[T]he Scandal Management Handbook, 36^th edition, offered him the perfect way out. When caught, fess up immediately, declare right from the start that you are a victim of a terrible addiction, go into treatment and disappear for a while.

 

You are rarely challenged these days when you take a loss of virtue and turn it into a medical condition. And you avoid the problem of encouraging your allies to defend you on a matter about which you know you are guilty. Weiner’s congressional colleagues are reluctant to defend him because they accepted his denial and feel badly burned.

 

On a serious note, in an op-ed piece published by The Daily Beast, political pundit and former Weiner squeeze Kirsten Powers refutes the assertion that sex scandals tar family-value Republicans, but not progressive Democrats (emphasis, The Stiletto):

 

[E]ven if I could see past the lying and extreme narcissism that is noteworthy even by Washington standards, there is the issue of his attitude toward women. What has emerged is a picture of a predator trolling the Internet for women - some half his age - with which to engage in cybersex. We know only about the women who were responsive to his overtures. The odds are very high that he struck out with many, and other women were victim to his unsolicited sex talk. Women should be able to “friend” a married - or unmarried - congressman on Facebook or follow him on Twitter without fear of being the recipient of lewd talk or behavior. Just because a woman “likes” your video on Facebook doesn’t mean you can send her a picture of your penis. This is textbook sexual harassment. It may not be illegal, but it’s definitely unethical. He is in a position of influence, and many women -especially a 21-year-old - would be afraid to report a congressman doing that to them because he holds so much power. Also, he claims none of the women he contacted were underage, but how could he possibly know that?

 

By far the most disturbing information that we have been privy to -there is, no doubt, more out there that we don’t know -is the transcript of a nine-month "sexting" relationship Weiner had with a Las Vegas blackjack dealer. Radar Online posted the transcript, and it is rife with misogyny and distorted views about women. In referring to oral sex, Wiener tells her, “You will gag on me before you c** with me in you” and “[I’m] thinking about gagging your hot mouth with my c***.” This is not about sex. It’s about dominating and inflicting physical pain on a woman, a fantasy the hard-core porn industry makes billions of dollars on selling to men. You don’t want to gag a woman with your penis unless you have some serious issues with the way you see women.

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth item, A To Z Approach On Illegal Immigration In AZ): As expected, Gov. Robert Bentley (R-AL) has signed into law what is touted as "the nation's toughest immigration law," Reuters reports:

 

The measure will require public schools to determine the citizenship status of students - a provision not included in an Arizona law that has been at the forefront of actions by several states to curb illegal immigration.

 

Under the Alabama law, police must detain someone they suspect of being in the country illegally if the person cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason.

 

It also will be a crime to knowingly transport or harbor someone who is in the country illegally. The law imposes penalties on businesses that knowingly employ someone without legal resident status. A company's business license could be suspended or revoked.

 

The law, which is scheduled to take effect September 1, requires businesses to use a database called E-Verify to confirm the immigration status of new employees. …

 

Immigration rights advocates called the new law "draconian " and vowed to challenge it in court. Rights organizations have sued to block similar measures in Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia. The U.S. Justice Department also sued over Arizona's law.

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item, The TSA Emperor Wears No Clothes: Part II): More evidence that the TSA has not trained its agents to deal with disabled people and those who have medical issues. that a family travelling with their 29-year-old son, Drew, who has the mental capacity of a two-year-old went through “hell” at Detroit's McNamera Termina. His father, Dr. David Mandy, tells WJBK-TV (Channel 2, Detroit), “I honestly felt that those two agents did not know what they were doing,":

 

[T]hey asked Drew to place his feet on the yellow shoe line, something he didn't understand. They proceeded to pat his pants down, questioning the padding which was his adult diapers. When the agents asked Drew to take his hand and rub the front and back of his pants so they could swab it for explosives, his dad stepped in and tried to explain that Drew was mentally challenged.

 

"They said, 'Please, sir, we know what we're doing,'" Mandy said.

 

The TSA agents saw Drew holding a six-inch plastic hammer.

 

"My son carries his ball and his hammer for security. He goes everywhere with (them)," said Mandy.

 

The TSA it seems saw the toy as a weapon. …

 

Dr. Mandy was told he would need to have the toy shipped if he wanted to keep it, a process which caused them to almost miss their plane, so he pitched it.

 

"It just killed me to have to throw it away because he's been carrying this like for 20 years," Mandy said.

 

After Mandy wrote a letter of complaint to the TSA, he got a promise that the agents at Metro Airport will be retrained to deal with special needs travellers. Great. What about all the other airports?

 

BTW, Drew’s mother had a second toy hammer in a carry-on bag that went through the screening process without any problem, and she was able to give it to her son so he would remain calm during the trip.

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (third item, Regrets Only): Thomas Vinciguerra offers another medley of sorry apologies that every sorry pol sorry to be in the position of having to say (s)he is sorry has recently stuttered (complete with footnotes). Here are just the first 10:

 

Today, I want to briefly address a private matter. (1) I’d like to take this time to clear up some of the questions that have been raised over the past 10 days or so, and take full responsibility for my actions. (2)

 

There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate. (3) I was blind to how arrogant and self-centered I had become; I did not recognize that I thought mostly of myself. The worst part about this is I even tried not to become caught up in my own self-importance. Unfortunately, the urge to believe in it was stronger than the power to fight it. (4) I know that my public comments and my silence about this matter gave a false impression. (5)

 

I made a serious mistake. (6) I haven’t told the truth, and I’ve done things I deeply regret. (7) I’ve been unfaithful to my wife. (8) That was a mistake, and I deeply regret it. (9) This is no time for evasions, denials or alibis. I fully accept responsibility and I am truly sorry for my actions. (10)