† Every Bubble Bursts Eventually: People who sell political souvenirs and memorabilia insist that these tchotchkes are a leading indicator or a candidate’s political fortunes. Dexter Morse, 45, a manager a downtown D.C. emporium where tourists shop for souvenirs tells The Washington Times, “Come in here next year, and I can predict who will win the election”:  

Money talks, and as the economy limps, our leaders snipe, and the rough beast of our divided government slouches toward next year’s presidential election, the political memorabilia tills have a tale to tell: For the president, it’s a scary one. …

According to a spokesperson for online retailer CafePress, pre-election sales volume for Bush-themed merchandise in both 2000 and 2004 was “overwhelming,” while Obama outsold McCain by more than 30 percent in the weeks before the 2008 election.

Employees at online retailer Zazzle saw a predictive pro-Obama surge throughout the 2008 campaign.

“McCain and other candidates had their fair share of products, but not like Obama,” said Josh Neuman, Zazzle’s director of acquisitions. “It was pretty easy to see he had a good chance of winning.” …

John McNulty, a political science professor at Binghamton University, cautioned against using souvenirs as a proxy for public opinion. But vendors maintain that sales sometimes can provide unique insight. …

As of last week, about 42 percent of CafePress’ 1.9 million Obama T-shirts were negative, while 29 percent of the site’s 407,000 Sarah Palin shirts were negative.

With all due respect to McNulty, if you do not have the financial resources to attend $25K-a-plate dinners, spending $15 or $20 for a T-shirt is a more attainable way of putting your money where your mouth is in support of a candidate or cause.

† Bank Behaving Badly: VA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) is suing the Bank of New York Mellon, alleging that the company “skimmed money off the top” of transactions on behalf of the commonwealth’s retirement system, The Washington Times reports:

The suit, filed Thursday in Fairfax County Circuit Court, alleges the bank, which oversees the $54 billion Virginia Retirement system, of defrauding Virginia taxpayers by fraudulently valuing foreign currency exchanges during trades. …

The state of Virginia pays the bank $4.5 million a year to manage Virginia’s pensions; Mr. Cuccinelli is also suing on behalf of the retirement systems of Arlington and Fairfax counties.

The lawsuit seeks $120 million in damages and about $811.6 million in civil penalties - $11,000 for each of more than 73,000 trades that have been purported to skim the retirement funds.

The Bank of New York Mellon denies any wrongdoing.

† Depends What The Meaning Of The Word “Liar” Is: Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), who was officially rebuked by his colleagues for shouting his "You lie!" from the House floor after President Barack Hussein Obama claimed that “the [healthcare] reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally” during a speech to a joint session of Congress in September 2009, has been vindicated, CNSNews.com reports:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Tuesday that it has awarded $28.8 million to 67 community health centers with funds from the Obamacare health reform law.

Of that $28.8 million, "approximately $8.5 million will be used by 25 New Access Point awardees to target services to migrant and seasonal farm workers," Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Spokeswoman Judy Andrews told CNSNews.com. HRSA is a part of HHS.

Andrews said that grant recipients will not check the immigration status of people seeking services.

“Health centers do not, as a matter of routine practice, ask about or collect data on citizenship or other matters not related to the treatment needs of the patients seeking health services at the center,” Andrews said.

Further, the grant recipients are required to serve "all residents" who walk through their doors. …

Because the health care centers receiving $8.5 million in Obamacare money "to target services to migrant and seasonal farm workers" will not check the immigration status of the migrant workers who seek their services it is inevitable that they will serve illegal aliens.

† Obama - Not McCain - Will Be Bush III: To National Journal, “Obama's recent finger-pointing toward Congress … brings to mind … President George W. Bush [whose] … job approval had just hit an all-time low [and was] was having trouble getting economic initiatives passed by a divided government.” And they put together a video mash-up to prove it.  

† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, The Magic Is Gone): The bad news for President Barack Hussein Obama isn’t just that just 39 percent of U.S. adults approve of his job performance in a new Gallup poll, it’s that he’s also hit “all-time lows” with women, blacks and Dems, CNSNews.com reports:

Before last week, Obama’s approval among women had hit its record-low 43 percent in the weeks of Aug. 1-7, 2011 and April 11-17, 2011.

Also before last week, Obama’s approval among blacks had hit its record-low 81 percent in the week of Feb. 28-March 6, 2011.

However, prior to last week - when it dropped to 74 percent - the president’s approval had never fallen below 76 percent among members of his own party. It had hit the previous low of 76 percent in the week of Aug.16-22, 2010.

† Updates To Previous Posts (seventh item, Obama Creating Green Jobs That Americans Won’t Do): Evergreen Solar - the company that famously received taxpayer largesse in the form of $43 million in grants and $22 million in tax credits from the government of MA to open a solar panel plant in the state, then fired 800 American workers and moved its factory to Wuhan, China -  is $485.6 million in debt and has filed for bankruptcy, The Boston Herald reports:

Evergreen - hurt by lower-cost competition in China and plummeting prices for solar panels — also said it will cut more jobs - 65 layoffs in the United States and Europe, mostly through the shutdown of its Midland, Mich., manufacturing facility. That would leave Evergreen with about 68 workers according to a head count listed in the bankruptcy filing.

To cut costs, Evergreen shifted some of its production to Wuhan, China, last year. That joint venture will remain operating subject to financing talks with Chinese investors.

In January, after Evergreen announced it would close the Devens factory, [Gov. Deval Patrick (D)] told the Herald he was disappointed in the job losses but did not regret making the investment.

“I think we did what we could have and should have,” he told the Herald. …

Shares of Evergreen, which are in danger of delisting from the Nasdaq Stock Market, plunged 57 percent today to 18 cents. The company launched in 1994 and went public in 2000.

† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item, There’s Many A Slip ‘Twixt The Cup And Lip): On Friday a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta voted 2-1 to strike down ObamaCare’s, individual mandate to purchase health insurance on the grounds that it “represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority: the ability to compel Americans to purchase an expensive health insurance product they have elected not to buy, and to make them re-purchase that insurance product every month for their entire lives.”

Two months ago a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati went the other way and voted 2-1 that the individual mandate is constitutional under the Commerce Clause.

So now that there is a circuit split, the matter will have to be decided by the Supreme Court, right? Well … probably, but there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and lip. Santa Clara University law professor Bradley Joondeph, who clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and writes a blog devoted to healthcare “reform” litigation tells The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. Supreme Court won’t get involved if the entire Eleventh Circuit hears the case and reverses the en banc ruling. He adds that even though the Thomas More Law Center has asked the high court to hear its appeal of the Sixth Circuit ruling, its cert petition may not be granted: 

[Friday’s] ruling makes it more likely that the court will take the Thomas More case. … But the court could just as easily decide to wait. It could say ‘Look, this is an extremely divisive issue — much like the situation in Bush v. Gore - and there are going to be some people who are really really upset with whatever we do, so not eagerly jump in. Let’s wait to see if we get further clarity from a full panel on the 11th Circuit, etc.’ …

At the same time, the Obama administration has some influence on the timing as well. …

The court nearly always grants cert when the U.S. government asks it to after a federal law has been struck down. So if the Obama administration wants this settled quickly, we might see them not putting up much fight to Thomas More’s request to hear the case soon. At the same time, it could try to drag things out by asking the 11th Circuit to hear the case en banc.

We could get a clue on the Justice Department’s position soon; it has to respond to the Thomas More cert petition by August 29.

Joondeph also lays out the pros and cons of the Obama administration having the case heard before and after the 2012 elections:

If the court upholds the law, the Republican base gets energized four months before the election. If it gets struck down, well, there go the guts of the centerpiece of Obama’s domestic agenda. Neither of these things seem all that appetizing. …

[A] Republican victory in 2012 would make it easier for the court to strike it down. … Who has the levers of power can be very important in the context of the Supreme Court.

† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth item, Obama Is Just About Every U.S. President All Rolled Into One!): At one time or another since he won his party’s nomination in 2008, President Barack Hussein Obama has been likened to … just about every president, save a handful. Now that he has a track record, people are noticing dissimilarities between him and his predecessors, save Jimmy Carter. Here’s another president that Obama’s not, according to Jonathan Tobin:

Obama is no Truman. Truman was a feisty man of the people took easily to the role of battling underdog. Obama may have many gifts but his arrogance and his enormous self-regard make him ill suited [sic] to take plays from Truman’s playbook.

While those who completely write off an incumbent president’s chances 14 months before he faces the voters are probably jumping to conclusions, President Obama is a very different sort of leader than the 33rd president and he has problems that a Truman-style whistle stop campaign can’t fix.