Must See TeeVee: The Obama Legacy (Download it before it gets yanked)
Quote and matching story of the day: “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.” –Josef Stalin Soros and liberal groups seeking top election posts in battleground states
Bumper Sticker o’ the Day: 2012 and Get in line, first they have to legalize marijuana
The Must Read Fisking of the Day: Patterico guts and field dresses Time magazine’s article on “Does the Constitution Still Matter?”
Seriously, this piece in Time Magazine is either utter bullsh-t, or he is literally incapable of reading and understanding the words of the Constitution and other related laws. I was so stunned to read this drivel in Time Magazine that I then looked up who the hell Richard Stengel is, and apparently he is their Managing Editor! And by the time you are done reading this post you will be stunned with the cluelessness on display.
So strap yourself in, we’re going to have an old fashioned fisking. And it’s a long one, because this piece is one of the most clueless pieces I have ever read on the Constitution or the law generally.
Japan and the softly glowing world…
- BBC
- NHK in English(Live feed in upper right corner)
- Telegraph of London
- Kyodo Wire
- Japan Times
- Asahi Shimbun
- The Daily Yomuri
- Japan Today
- ImTranslator – Online Translator, Dictionary, TTS add on for Firefox (It comes in handy)
- Japanese government list of nationwide radioactivity concentration
- Japan Geigermap
- Ibaraki Prefecture Geiger Counter Readings
- US National Radiation Map (updated every minute)
- Via Soylent Green: Radiation Exposure in Daily Life
- Radiation Dose Chart
- Radiation Converter
- ZeroHedge commenter Max2205′s excellent post about radioactivity including a list of radioactive elements and their half lives.
- Donations to the American Red Cross that are being designated to Japanese Earthquake relief are already getting to the folks in Japan and are most helpful.
Made-In-Japan Robot “Quince” Joined the Also-Failed at Fukushima I Nuke Plant
By the way, the above AP article, just like any other reports by the Japan-based media, continues to say:
TEPCO and the government have said they hope to achieve a cold shutdown of the reactors by January by bringing the core temperatures to below 100 Celsius (212 Fahrenheit.)
A “cold shutdown” cannot even be defined for a broken reactor where the fuel core had melted away along with control rods and other in-vessel equipment and got out of the Reactor Pressure Vessel and probably out of the Containment Vessel. The RPV is broken, and so is the Containment Vessel. Sure, TEPCO measures temperature of the RPVs, but what does that mean, when the corium is already out of the RPVs? How could a temperature of a broken RPV be an indication for a “cold shutdown”? Do they know how hot the escaped corium is, or where exactly the corium is right now?
T-Hawk Helicopter Crashed onto Reactor 2 Building
The US-made unmanned helicopter T-Hawk crashed on the roof of the Reactor 2 reactor building of Fukushima I Nuke Power Plant as it was taking air samples for radiation measurement.
Never a dull day at Fukushima I.
Doctors: 3,000+ microsieverts of internal radiation for residents in town 40 km from Fukushima plant
High level of radiation exposure estimated
They estimate that residents have been internally exposed to up to 3.2 millisieverts for about 2 months, measuring from the date of the accident in March until early May.
Three millisieverts is 3 times higher than the long-term annual limit for ordinary people recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.
Sunflowers to clean radioactive soil in Japan
Service held ahead of ancient pagoda renovation
World News:
Inevitable Catastrophe – The Fruits Of Moral Hazard On A Global Scale
Identify the common characteristic of these three statements:
1. The Federal Reserve will never let the stock market decline, i.e. the “Bernanke put”
2. The Chinese government will never let property prices decline
3. The European Central Bank will never let Greece default
The answer of course is moral hazard: a person who is insulated from risk will have an insatiable appetite for risky bets because any gains will be theirs to keep but any losses will be covered by the central bank or government. The global financial authorities’ success in propping up assets (stocks in the U.S., real estate in China, banks in Europe, etc.) over the past three years has strengthened this asymmetric disregard for systemic risk into a dangerously quasi-religious faith that central banks and governments have essentially unlimited power to keep asset prices aloft via printing money, manipulation of markets and financialization of their economies.
What happens if markets crumble despite massive, sustained central bank and government intervention? The institutions that created moral hazard will be revealed as false gods, and that faith will be destroyed.
This loss of faith in the transparent functioning of markets will trigger what I call the delegitimization of both the markets and the institutions which have essentially promised a permanent upward bias in assets.
Italy bank shares dive on credit rating alert
France’s Sarkozy Urges Action Against the ‘Plague’ of Food Price Surges
Angry Greeks say new taxes to hurt middle class, again
Fighting (for?) Europe-How European Elites Lost a Generation
Spainis currently experiencing the worst crisis since it became a democracy. Thousands of young people have occupied the central squares in several Spanish cities for weeks now. Sagarra sums up the mood of his generation in a short sentence: “It’s every man for himself.” Forty-four percent of young people are unemployed.
“I finished school more than a year ago,” says Sagarra. “There were more than 50 of us who graduated with degrees in physics here in Barcelona. Only one person found a job. One of more than 50. I speak several languages and I’m a physicist, and I’m living in the room where I lived as a kid.”
Some from Sagarra’s class have gone to the Netherlands or Germany to pursue their doctorates. For them, Europe is a place that promises work. Sagarra doesn’t question Europe as an idea, nor does he see Europe as the enemy. “A lot would be achieved if politicians weren’t serving the business lobbyists and special interests, but the people instead,” he says.
The young protesters’ demands are modest. They want more citizen involvement, a reform of voting rights and curbs on the power of banks. One of the protest signs reads: “We are not against the system. The system is against us.”
Always remember that Obama and the MSM calls the Muslim Brotherhood a ‘moderate’ organization. Muslim Brotherhood Calls For Revolution In West To Establish Global Islamic State, “The United States of Islam”…
Gaddafi is being tracked ‘lair to lair’ by Nato… but only HALF its airstrikes hit their targets
Hezbollah moves missiles from Syria to Lebanon, fearing fall of Assad regime
In recent weeks, Hezbollah has moved hundreds of missiles from storage sites in Syria to bases in eastern Lebanon, the French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Saturday.
According to the report, Hezbollah moved the missiles due to the concern that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad will fall and that a new Syrian government will cut off ties with Hezbollah.
Syrian security forces open fire on demonstrators
While Obama Finds Excuses For Lybia, Syria Is Still Killing Activists
But, Syria would be hard work, and there is golfing to be done
Lebanon’s Top Sunni Clerics Say Banning Marital Rape Is “Heresy” And Contradicts Sharia Law…
Army fires on funeral procession in Yemen
Netanyahu’s Son: Muslims “Celebrate Hate And Death,” “Terror Has A Religion And It Is Islam”…
Hey, you can’t state the obvious, that’s racism!
Even though it won’t stop the libs from feigning outrage, he wrote it after Palestinians were shown celebrating the terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Itamar where five members of the Fogel family were murdered in their sleep, including two children and an infant.
The Color Purple Author Alice Walker Says US & Israel Are Terrorist States; Will Join Gaza Flotilla
Iran giving out condoms for criminals to rape us, say jailed activists
Prison guards in Iranare giving condoms to criminals and encouraging them to systematically rape young opposition activists locked up with them, according to accounts from inside the country’s jail system.
A series of dramatic letters written by prisoners and families of imprisoned activists allege that authorities are intentionally facilitating mass rape and using it as a form of punishment.
Mehdi Mahmoudian, an outspoken member of Iran’s Participation Front, a reformist political party, is among those prisoners who have succeeded in smuggling out letters revealing the extent of rape inside some of the most notorious prisons.
Afghanistan: Suicide Car Bomber Attacks Hospital, 60 Killed…
Bin Laden Wanted New Name For al-Qaeda to Reflect Its Islamic Nature…
I would have suggested “the Democratic Party.”
I don’t know what to say. The bigger the problem gets, the more intractable it gets.
Pakistan is a country of some 130 million people, many of them terrorist maniacs, and not only has nukes, but acts as a nuclear Johnny Appleseed throughout the world.
Russia Slow to Wrap Itself in Multicultural Tapestry
Break out the tissues. The Beeb jerks some tears over the failure of Russia to roll out a sufficiently plush red carpet for colonists from Africa..
Tell you what, Rwandans. If you don’t like your free houses in Russia, why don’t you head back to Rwanda?
Christmas Gloom for China Toymakers as Orders Shrivel
“Our customers, mainly in the United States, still have good levels of inventory after restocking last year,” said Cheung, managing director of Wah Lung Toys, which operates several factories in southern China employing nearly 8,000 workers.
After wrenching change that saw hundreds of toy factories in China shut down in the 2008 financial crisis, hopes were high for a rebound. But Europe’s debt crisis and a sluggish U.S. economic recovery are curbing Western demand, while cost and labour pressures within China are mounting.
Another example of the end of the beginning in Europe…The Netherlands to Abandon Multiculturalism
The Dutch government says it will abandon the long-standing model of multiculturalism that has encouraged Muslim immigrants to create a parallel society within the Netherlands.
A new integration bill (covering letter and 15-page action plan), which Dutch Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner presented to parliament on June 16, reads: “The government shares the social dissatisfaction over the multicultural society model and plans to shift priority to the values of the Dutch people. In the new integration system, the values of the Dutch society play a central role. With this change, the government steps away from the model of a multicultural society.”
The letter continues: “A more obligatory integration is justified because the government also demands that from its own citizens. It is necessary because otherwise the society gradually grows apart and eventually no one feels at home anymore in the Netherlands. The integration will not be tailored to different groups.”
The new integration policy will place more demands on immigrants. For example, immigrants will be required to learn the Dutch language, and the government will take a tougher approach to immigrants to ignore Dutch values or disobey Dutch law.
The government will also stop offering special subsidies for Muslim immigrants because, according to Donner, “it is not the government’s job to integrate immigrants.” The government will introduce new legislation that outlaws forced marriages and will also impose tougher measures against Muslim immigrants who lower their chances of employment by the way they dress. More specifically, the government will impose a ban on face-covering Islamic burqas as of January 1, 2013.
US News:
BREAKING NEWS: FBI called in as two bombs found in bookshop in busy Denver shopping mall
Mexican Military Crosses Undefended Border
A country that doesn’t defend its own borders is not a country but a piñata waiting for someone to come along and smash it open to get the goodies inside. The wait is about over:
A convoy of three military trucks loaded with Mexican soldiers crosses the border at Bridge Number Two clearly violating international law.
It happens as Customs and Border Protection inspectors try to figure out what to do. …
Some noted had it been Mexican drug lords they could have taken inspectors by surprise and easily crossed the international border deeper into the United States.
Not that the Mexican government — which has been aggressively colonizing the Southwest with the dregs of its population and the federal government’s assistance — is significantly less hostile.
It’s a travesty that even a single American soldier should be risking life and limb overseas when our border lies undefended
Land of the Six Dams News and Info sources:
- KELO-Sioux Falls, SD
- KFYR-Bismarck, ND
- KCAU-Sioux City, IA
- KETV-Omaha, NE
- Say Anything
- Plains Daily
- “Land of the Six Dams” flood gage status interactive map.
- Live streaming coverage of the flood from KXMC-Minot, ND
- Minot flood map.
- North Dakota Road Report
I have been watching/listening to the live coverage out of Minot and right now they are tearing down bridges in the city because they are blocking debris going down river and becoming dams. They also have severe thunderstorms moving in. One thing that I am finding interesting is that KXMC’s coverage of the flood heralds a new way of Television stations covering events of this nature. Along with using ENG trucks/satellite uplink trucks and video they shot in the field they are also making use of things like webcams that they have placed on top of buildings and Skype. Instead of ‘in house’ generated graphics they are using maps and charts generated online by NOAA and the CoE.
Latest Photos And News From Minot Flooding
Some Before And After Pictures Of Minot Flooding
Minot, the Atlantis of the Plains
From an email sent to Instapundit concerning the Minot flood.
The only silver lining to this disaster has been the response of the community. I am not from this part of the country (I hail from the East Coast) and nowhere that I have lived has ever faced this kind of adversity. But I would be proud to call this town my home. I have not seen one person whine or complain. I have not heard one hopeless person ask when the government or FEMA would rescue them. The town mobilized itself days ahead of the impending disaster and began planning for the worst; secondary levees and sandbag walls went up with breathtaking speed, and thousands of homes were evacuated without incident. Think of it as the anti-Katrina. Once the townspeople saw that their worst fears were about to be realized, and their homes and livelihoods destroyed, instead of giving up, they have only redoubled their efforts to save what can be saved. Their stoic determination in the face of absolute catastrophe amazes me.
I think liberals view conservatives and libertarians as some sort of Randian caricature: every man for himself, all government is evil, etc. But this, to me, is closer to the truth. Not a community that shuns the government, but a community that is willing to fight for itself rather than wait for the federal government to show up with a checkbook. It will probably take years, but I have no doubt that this place will rebuild itself.
Ft. Calhoun nuke plant now around 3 feet from 500-year flood levels
Consider the source when reading this…Ft Calhoun Spent Fuel In Ground Pools, Flooded Already?
Calhoun stores its spent fuel in ground-level pools which are underwater anyway – but they are open at the top. When the Missouri river pours in there, it’s going to make Fukushima look like an x-ray. But that’s not all. There are a LOT of nuclear plants on both the Missouri and Mississippi and they can all go to hell fast.
BTW, US plants hold about four times OVER capacity in their spent fuel pools PLUS all the new and recently removed fuel from Calhoun…the plant was officially being refueled.
Be aware that Ft Calhoun isn’t a BWR like Fukushima – it’s a PWR. But that doesn’t matter, because the fuel is all sitting OUTSIDE the reactor waiting to wash away or explode – which will destroy about 15,000 square miles of what used to be the corn belt.
That’s all being washed away by the flood waters anyway.
Calhoun may already be spewing radiation into the flooding Missouri…the public will be the last to be told. Therefore, everything the river water touches on its way downstream will or could become contaminated.
Just A Reminder, FEMA Is Broke
Green Luddites Responsible for Midwest Floods That Threaten Millions
Three dead in rural rail crossing tragedy as Amtrak train collides with tractor-trailer
Two HUGE intel leads in my email box this morning from way-back contacts that I’ve had for years, that are actually somewhat connected concepts.
1. File this one under “Now It All Makes Sense”. A Missouri farming and ranching contact just got off a conference call wherein he was informed that the federal government is sending out letters to all of the flooded out farmers in the Missouri River flood plain and bottoms notifying them that the Army Corps of Engineers will offer to BUY THEIR LAND.
Intentionally flood massive acreage of highly productive farmground. Destroy people’s communities and homes. Catch them while they are desperate and afraid and then swoop in and buy the ground cheap. Those evil sons of bitches.
2. Speaking of evil sons of bitches, George Soros appears to be “investing” in farmground through the same puppet company that he used to get into the grain elevator and fertilizer business. The company is called Ospraie Capital Management and is buying up farmground in a joint venture with Teays River Investments as a partner.
It is not surprising to see the cost of Pasta go up. The land being flooded in North Dakota is where they grow all the Durum wheat. Durum wheat is the wheat used to make pasta. Gas Prices May Be Falling, But Food Keeps Going Up
While gasoline is off more than 5 percent over the last month, prices for coffee, fruit, bacon, pasta and a slew of other food items have registered gains over the past year as high as 40 percent.
Just in April—the most recent month for which data is available—grapes went up nearly 30 percent, cabbage jumped about 17 percent and orange juice surged more than 5 percent.
So while the energy prices that helped fuel inflation have eased a bit recently, the items that Americans use to feed their families and host summertime picnics are continuing to rise and rise fast.
“This is a serious problem in the middle- to lower-income parts of the country,” says Richard Hastings, consumer strategist at Global Hunter Securities in Newport Beach, Calif. “A little bit of inflation in the United States is actually a big problem because of how many lower-income people we have. It’s a serious long-term fiscal problem.”
Three Inflationary Case Studies: Coke, Pasta And Rent
There are at least three products in which inflation has proven to be particularly stubborn, all due to a unique set of factors. The first one is Coke (the drink, although probably not isolated thereto), which just announced plans to hike prices 3 yo 4% due to still surging commodity costs. The second is pasta, whose prices are also set to soar, this time due to adverse climatic conditions. Per Bloomberg, “Unrelenting rainfall may have slashed U.S. planting of durum wheat to the lowest level in more than 50 years, fueling a surge in the price of pasta and noodles as mills scramble for supply of the grain.” And the last, and possibly most perverse price spike, is the one which will actually hike the CPI, due to an increase in the shelter, or rents, component, as more and more Americans forgo owning a home in exchange for renting, in the process pushing up the one component that accounts for 41% of core CPI. In this way we see three completely unrelated channels in which inflation will continue to push through even as stocks plunge: an event which most MMT theorists always perceive as inherently deflationary.
Even in a crowd of rising food and commodity costs, corn stands out, its price having doubled in less than a year to a record $7.87 per bushel in early June. Booming global demand has overtaken stagnant supply.
But rather than ameliorate the problem, the government has exacerbated it, reducing food supply to a hungry world. Thanks to Washington, 4 of every 10 ears of corn grown in America — the source of 40 percent of the world’s production — are shunted into ethanol, a gasoline substitute that imperceptibly nicks our energy problem. Larded onto that are $11 billion a year of government subsidies to the corn complex.
Corn is hardly some minor agricultural product for breakfast cereal. It’s America’s largest crop, dwarfing wheat and soybeans. A small portion of production goes for human consumption; about 40 percent feeds cows, pigs, turkeys and chickens. Diverting 40 percent to ethanol has disagreeable consequences for food. In just a year, the price of bacon has soared by 24 percent.
A Change To America’s Power Grid Could Make Your Electric Clock Run Up To 20 Minutes Fast
The North American Electric Reliability Corp. recently proposed an update for the nation’s grid that will make it more efficient, but also loosen that fixation on 60 Hz.
Consequently any electrical item that uses a clock could be affected: think traffic lights, coffee-makers security systems and computers. Electric clocks for instance could become up to 20 minutes fast.
Scheduled to start in mid-July, the test date may change as public reactions pour in. Regardless of when it happens, company officials say it will be an interesting experiment.
For some perspective on the long-term performance of the stock market, today’s chart presents the Dow priced in another global currency – gold (i.e. the Dow / gold ratio). For example, it currently takes less than a mere eight ounces of gold to ‘buy the Dow’ which is considerably less than the 44.8 ounces it took back in 1999. Priced in gold, the Dow has been in a massive 11-year bear market. Recently, the Dow (priced in gold) stopped declining for long enough to break above its six-year, accelerated downtrend channel. However, shortly after the break out, the Dow (priced in gold) pulled back to post-crisis lows.
What Does The SPR Release Mean For Gold Trading
Is it a coincidence that the government announced the release of crude from the SPR just days after it was disclosed that Dodd-Frank will make trading in OTC spot products illegal? Perhaps. On the other hand if there is indeed a concerted and very politicized effort by the government to encroach and “centrally plan” yet more industries, the implications for precious metals trading could be substantial. FMX Connect summarizes these as follows: “Our two cents are as follows. It does not pay to fight the government right now. Even though Bernanke can’t print more oil it is clear that we are entering into a new phase of a centrally planned economy. To us this smacks of price controls. When you combine it with the Dodd-Frank bill prohibition of OTC gold trading, you might see that we are setting up for something worse. Tin Foil Hat Alert: All gold will trade through exchanges and while we don’t think ownership will be prohibited it may be taxed to death.”
Retirement As We Know it Is “Dead”
He continues by saying “Americans are have negligible savings, the real estate market is still in secular decline, stock prices are in a decade’s long morass, real incomes are falling, public pension plans are insolvent and our entitlement programs are bankrupt.”
Pento believes these issues could be resolved if the government takes the right steps. What might those be? He recommends lowering taxes, reducing inflation and balancing the budget as a means to increase the value of the dollar. If the dollar had more purchasing power and interest rates were higher, retirees would be able to live off their fixed income, he says.
WSJ: Bernanke’s Darker Outlook Sparks Fear Of Currency Volatility
Investors are bracing for bigger currencyswings after Federal Reserve officials signaled they won’t do more to help the sluggish U.S. economy, judging from bets in the foreign-exchange derivatives market.
On Thursday, a gauge of expected volatility in the options market rose for many major and emerging-nation currencies. A widely-watched measure of bearish bets on the euro, called the “risk reversal,” hit 2.75 from 2.55 a day earlier. That’s near its 2.85 peak in late 2008 after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s collapse sparked a global economic crisis.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments on Wednesday “spooked the market,” says Ashwath Venkataraman, global head of emerging-market foreign- exchange options at HSBC Holdings PLC in London. Bernanke indicated Fed officials aren’t planning new steps to pump money into the financial system even though the U.S. recovery remains weak.
However, “Bernanke was just a trigger,” Venkataraman says. “There was a lot of underlying weakness in the market and Bernanke’s comments just happened to push things.”
Here Are The 5 Worst Places To Be When The Dollar Collapses
“You can ignore reality, but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” -Ayn Rand
To sum up, those areas that have lived highest on the hog in the dollar paradigm will most likely be the worst places to live when the dollar collapses. Many of you will find this article with passing interest, but rest assured this dollar collapse is coming. It is a mathematical inevitability. We will not be as fortunate to muddle through this collapse like we did in 2008 when it was a corporate problem. This time around, it is a national and global problem. The global Ponzi scheme has run out of gas as the demographics decline, as cheap abundant oil declines, as hegemonic power declines. This comes at a time when we reach the exponential or collapse phase of our money. The Irresistible Force Paradox says, “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?” We are about to find out, when infinite money hits a very finite world.
Who could have predicted that the president’s virulent anti-job policies would result in rampant unemployment?
Unions are a death sentence for a business and capitalism as a whole, at some point they will destroy the company, it’s just a matter of when.
President Abracadabra: “Hey, Here’s Another $500 Million For Manufacturing”
This is simply a continuation of Obama’s core idea: throw money around, and Something Will Happen (remember, Liberals tend to think in capital letters).
“With these key investments, we can ensure that the United States remains a nation that ‘invents it here and manufactures it here’ and creates high-quality, good-paying jobs for American workers,” the president will say.
What he means are good union jobs, that end up killing the industry. But, of course, he thinks that throwing $500 million around will magically create a product that will …… be manufactured in China, because US government regulation tends to stifle manufacturing domestically.
“If we can lead in these kinds of technologies, we can revitalize manufacturing and make America the destination of choice for people who want to make things,” the official said.
Except for that pesky high corporate tax rate. All the regulations. Unionization. Regulations. Laws. Remember when light bulbs used to be manufactured in the USA? Televisions?
Here, in a nutshell, is the Obama administration and the Democrats ‘economic policy’…Geithner: Taxes on ‘Small Business’ Must Rise So Government Doesn’t ‘Shrink’
Pencil-neck president frames another strawman argument: “We can’t simply cut our way to prosperity”
No one said anything about “prosperity.” The only question on the table is how to avoid complete and total economic collapse.
Obama Can’t Even Get Economic Messaging Right
The trouble with Obama is that he has no real experience in the private sector, so, he has no idea what private businesses are looking for the government to do, why they hire, and why they expand (or contract). He’s so beholden to certain private institutions, such as unions, that he will sacrifice all for them. He has surrounded himself with academics, again, with little real world experience, who know how the economy works on paper, and are always surprised when their classroom ideas never work. And, finally, Obama thinks he is the smartest guy in every room, and that his ideas should magically create jobs and economic success.
Let me get this straight… the US government is creating maddening rules & regs that chase away business, which costs the US economy countless jobs and hammers GDP. So instead of simply not doing the things that are chasing off business and investment in the US, the government is going to spend taxpayer money to beg these companies to return to the US — apparently by granting waivers from federal regulations via some expensive and probably red-tape entangled “initiative”? I guess the message is clear: If you currently operate a business in the US, threaten to leave or actually leave and maybe you’ll be offered some relief from the idiocy. But first I’m sure they’ll want to see your track record on political donations.
Liar Pelosi: Bush Created the Debt (Video)
When Speaker Nancy Pelosi took over Congress the national debt was $162 billion. When she left office it was at $1.29 Trillion dollars.
Barack Obama (and Pelosi) doubled the US debt with his failed stimulus plan.
Pelosi: Constitutional Freedom = Ever Expanding Federal Government
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.” – Federalist #45
Apparently Pelosi never read the federalist papers. Nor did Conyers, since they believe that the infinite expansion of the federal government is the only path to freedom. So slavery is freedom. Someone page George Orwell. Neither do these people believe what is written in the Declaration of Independence, specifically that our unalienable rights come from The Creator, not from the state. In the chain of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they already dismissed life starting with the murder of the unborn, and are now chipping away at the last two.
CBO report shows debt would be unsustainable even with Clinton-era tax revenue
So let’s be clear: when Democrats talk about revenues needing to be part of the solution, for them to really be part of the solution, taxes as a proportion of the economy would have to exceed record levels. And not just marginally, but by a substantial degree.
Sen. Sessions challenges Obama to make debt-ceiling talks public
The ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee says President Obama needs to bring the negotiations over increasing the debt ceiling out into the open.
“We might as well stake it out publicly to see what the disagreements are,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Friday in an interview with The Hill. “I believe Majority Leader [Harry] Reid and the president desperately are working not to have to reveal their vision for the future, financially. Their vision will include, from what glimpses we’ve seen, an advocacy for more taxes and less spending cuts.”
Sessions said Democrats have been avoiding making public the negotiations and laying out precisely what they want in a debt-limit package because “what they’re advocating for, I don’t think would be popular.”
GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy Yells At Obama To “Get Off The Golf Course”…
Fighting Words: DeMint Warns Republicans They May Be ‘Gone’ if They Support Debt Ceiling Increase
GOP-Backed Patent Reform Ignores the Constitution, Costs $1 Billion +, and Taxes Innovation
Why a bill that so clearly stifles innovation, creates additional taxes on the drivers of the American economy, and increases spending by creating a billion dollars worth of more bureaucracy isn’t attracting more grassroots opposition from groups like the Tea Party is beyond me. But the good news is that, as the bill still has to go through the reconciliation process, there is still time to stop it.
Is Obama’s Oil Dump A Political Ploy?
The spigots have been opened just twice — in 2005 by President Bush, who released 11 million barrels after disruptions from Hurricane Katrina, and in 1992 by President Bush Sr., who tapped 20 million barrels in the wake of the Gulf War. President Obama’s release — which is far bigger than either of those two emergencies — is supposedly in response to disruptions from Libya, which isn’t even a U.S. supplier. It isn’t our crisis.
Instead, Obama has said this release is part of a “coordinated” effort by the International Energy Agency to lower world oil prices and “save” the global economy.
It’s more than that, given that the IEA’s 60 million barrel release amounts to twice Libya’s daily lost output. This looks a lot more like a blatant effort to manipulate oil prices globally, using U.S. resources.
Frankly, the president doesn’t have a right to do that.
Big Government Vastly Expands Food Stamps, Prevents Prevention of Fraud
Something even more insidious is at play than the Pigford Pigout style looting sprees you would expect after voters were duped into handing over the keys to the liquor store to a community organizer in 2008. A prime objective of the federal government even before the Obama Regime has been to reduce the stigma attached to receiving stolen property from the government in the form of food stamps. Every time a moocher chooses wrong over right by accepting food stamps, our rulers are one step closer to their objective: totalitarian oligarchical collectivism.
They will achieve their nightmare dystopia only if they can corrupt us into deserving to live in it.
Krauthammer: This is outright lawlessness from Obama admin
Krauthammer says that this is outright lawlessness on the part of the Obama administration because they are doing the same thing with the Dream Act that they did with Cap and Trade, using the EPA to enforce it anyway. He says we have a rule of law where the Congress creates the laws and the Executive executes them. By forcing agents to not deport illegals who are studying in high school or college is running an end around Congress. Further, he adds, by not basing this on the rule of law, the criteria that agents and prosecutors will use to make these judgments becomes arbitrary and unfair which means someone may get to stay that should be deported and visa-versa.
When addressing the political implications of this, that the Republicans risk becoming the party of deportation as suggested by his colleagues, Krauthammer simply states that the Constitution trumps politics. He adds that if we secure the border and then try to work out some type of program to give illegals a path to citizenship, then the American people will be generous if they know this is the last batch that will need this type of program. But if the border isn’t secured and illegals just keep pouring in, then the American people won’t go for it.
ICE Amnesty Rules Already in Effect: Illegals Released in PA
Who needs Congress when a megalomaniac can make all the important decisions all by himself by executive order?
“Undocumented” folly: A liberal reporter’s illegal alien sob story
The DREAM Act mob is on the march again — and this time they have a prominent left-wing journalist leading the charge. My syndicated column below spotlights the serial law-breaking of former Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas, who is now an illegal alien activist clamoring for amnesty with the backing of the radical Tides Center, a project of George Soros and the former chief organizer of ACORN, Drummond Pike. (Hey, maybe they’ll hire Obama’s grousing illegal alien aunt Zeituni Onyango as a senior fellow.)
Vargas’s splashy revelations in the New York Times come — no coincidence, of course — amid a renewed push for the DREAM Act illegal alien student bailout.
Remember: This is a brazen “down payment” on a larger shamnesty.
Remember: This is nothing more than a 2.1 million future Democrat voter recruitment drive and a massive open-borders entitlement program for untold numbers of multi-culti ethnic tribalists who pretend to embrace assimilation for show.
And remember: The CBO score estimated that the last, failed DREAM Act bill would increase projected deficits by more than $5 billion in at least one of the four consecutive 10-year periods starting in 2021.”
Citizenship is a privilege, not an entitlement.
What part of “no” doesn’t the open-borders lobby understand?
Jose Antonio Vargas: From Journalist to Illegal Immigrant and Political Activist
One has to wonder how often in the past Vargas has allowed his political activist’s ideas to invade his “reporting.”
With his newest adventure, Jose Antonio Vargas has proven himself to be a lawbreaker, a man that participates in a cabal of lawbreakers high in California’s education sector, and a demagogue that will say anything to push his political ideology.
Vargas claims to be an American — “No one can take that away from me,” he says. Well, depending on one’s point of view, he may or may not be an American, but with his actions it most certainly doesn’t seem that he’s a good American.
Thanks to the Democrat Party, millions upon millions of illegal immigrants have entered this country without any review whatsoever. No TSA pat-downs, no background checks, no civic tests, no paperwork.
The inevitable result? Drugs, crime, slavery, disease, poverty and Balkanization. Which is why we have a process for this sort of thing.
Waiting lists. Background checks. Education on the Declaration and Constitution.
We must seal the border first and foremost and then invite the best and the brightest from other countries.
And this is on top of the two men arrested in Seattle today over plans to attack a military recruiting station. But don’t worry, Peter King is still a bigot and a racist for holding hearings on radical Islam in America.
Sheila Jackson Lee unavailable for comment
Dems Plan Proves Medicare Dead by 2024
Democrats have tried to claim that it is Republican cost cutting that dooms Medicare, but this is simply untrue. By the very rules under which it now works, it seems that Medicare is already headed for doomsday.
100% of Tested IRS Databases Are Vulnerable to Hackers
From the ‘if Bush or Palin had said this the MSM Orcs and LLP Trolls would be foaming at the mouth for years about it’ department…
And, given that he was also the first living recipient since the Vietnam War, you’d think this might leave a lasting impression on the Commander in Chief. You’d be wrong.
It’s a shame whoever loaded TOTUS with that speech didn’t care half as much about this very simple detail as he did making sure his boss took credit for something. And it’s doubly shameful that Obama didn’t catch it, but we all know he just reads whatever is on the ‘prompter anyway
This ranks up there as one of his worst gaffes ever.
How awful.
It’s all so clever of Obama to schedule these events so we can pick up the tab for his fat-cat fundraisers. Just like we’ll be doing next week when his wife pulls the same stunt.
Obama Praises Robots That “Boost The Performance Of Diapers”…
Let me get this straight, ATM machines are bad but robots that help with diapers are good? Oh yeah, that makes total sense.
Soros Forks Over $75K To House Democrats Super PAC, Unions Led By SEIU Give $300K…
Fatcat Fundraisers Flee From Obama: ‘The Democratic Business-Donor Community is Demoralized’
“The Democratic business-donor community is demoralized,” a Democratic fund-raiser told The Post before the three cash-currying events Obama was attending in Manhattan over a three-hour span. “There’s not the level of enthusiasm or excitement. They don’t believe he’s interested in what they have to say.”
Among those feeling burned by Obama are financial execs sick of being demonized by the White House and made a scapegoat for the nation’s economic woes.
Although Obama raked in lots of cash last night from a dinner at the Upper East Side restaurant Daniel — where about 70 hedge-funders and other deep pocketed donors forked over $35,800 a head — it was big-time execs turning down the invitation who raised eyebrows.
Both JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon and Citigroup boss Vikram Pandit had made it clear they would not attend the event, which was closed to the press.
Mooch to hold three fundraisers in one day — Barry to hold two on the same day
Because they plan to bleed their gullible constituents of every last drop, as they completely destroy the American economy — and that without remedy.
Weak: Obama punts on gay marriage at NY LGBT fundraiser
Face it, gay Democrats, he’s just after you for your money
Face it, guys, Obama just wants your money, like the cute boy who sweet talks you at the bar while ordering a $20 cocktail, then reaches for his wallet, only to feign shock when he just can’t find it. “Maybe you can help me look for it,” he says as he puts his hand on your knee and looks into your eyes, but once he’s taken a few sips from the pricey drink you’ve bought him, he manages to slip away. And you don’t see him again, until having run up a $100-dollar bar bill (somehow he managed to slip another drink on your tab), you stumble out of the night spot and discover him talking with some hunky fitness model. He tries to avoid making eye contact, but when you do, he promises he’ll get back to you just as soon as he catches up with his “old friend” whom he just “happened” to run into.
Face it gay Obama donors, you’ve been had. Obama pretends to be your champion, but he had to be dragged kicking and screaming into moving forward on DADT repeal and doesn’t seem to be in any great rush to move forward on civil unions.
But, heck, you got to have a photo opportunity the President of the United States. I’m sure the photo will look nice right next to your autographed picture of Lady Gags.
Obama-Weary Nation Tunes Out Afghanistan Speech
These numbers were actually even worse than his speech on Libya three months ago when that “conflict” was going to be wrapped up in 72 hours or something.
Obama: Who Needs Victory When We Can Negotiate With The TahleeBahn?
Naturally, Obama used this occasion to veer off into a campaign speech. Obama called the “one trillion dollars” that these wars have cost a cost that should be turned toward “nation building here at home.” This, of course, is mere campaign-speak. First of all we don’t need to build a nation at home. We have one already. And what is with this business about “jobs,” anyway? He’s been there three years and done precisely zip about jobs yet now he shoehorns the topic into a foreign policy speech? The man has no sense of propriety.
Amusingly, in his campaign speech portion Obama essentially said that we need to live within our means, but this is interesting talk from a man that leads a party that has gone over 780 days without bothering to propose a budget. This is even more interesting talk from a man that proposed two, count ‘em, TWO, failed budget ideas — both of them stuffed full of a bacchanalia of spending and higher taxes.
Once again we have a failed attempt to make policy. Obama’s is a policy of veering wildly from one idea to another without satisfactorily finding a “doctrine” or central theme other than “we lost.”
“There’s a pretty clear line — or there should be a clear line,” Meredith McGehee of the Campaign Legal Center, which presses for tighter controls on campaign finance, recently told POLITICO. “I don’t have a problem with the president inviting Wall Street people to the White House to discuss policy, but why does it need to be DNC-sponsored? I think that’s what raises the eyebrows. Even if it’s not a fundraiser, it’s a cultivation.”
Michelle Obama Thanks Media For Caring About Children …Really? What About the Palin Kids?
But, as Politicons reported, the First Lady must have forgotten about the state-run media’s brutal treatment of the Palin kids.
Really? The media absolutely hates Sarah Palin and they attack her children more viciously than anyone (Besides Sarah).
For example: Katie Couric attacked her children, Wonkette made fun of her down syndrome child Trig, or even when they attacked her 10 year old daughter Piper. To say that the media loves children is a compete understatement. You should have said, the media loves my children.
Michelle Obama Says She Doesn’t Feel “We’ve Gone Backwards” On Race Relations…
Yeah, about that, since your husband was elected the MSM/Dems/liberals have leveled non-stop accusations of racism at conservatives. We can criticize him without being called every name in the book.
CAIR And UC Berkeley List Their Top Islamist-Apologists Of 2010…
I guarantee, you won’t be surprised.
Weiner Delivers FTD I-Pulled-My-Pants-Up Bouquet to Wife
The dandelions he picked for her a couple of days ago must have died.
Gunwalker/Fast & Furious
Only the guilty pull crap like this…‘Gunwalker’ Goes Pravda: White House Unleashes MSM
The Obama administration is lashing out through its media surrogates against those wishing to discover who was behind the potentially felonious debacle that is Gunwalker. One can only wonder what they are trying to hide, and who they are trying to protect.
Gunwalker: Issa Defends ATF Whistleblowers from Retaliation
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice claims they did comply with a subpoena by Issa by sending him more than 90 pages of documents — most of them all but completely redacted. One person familiar with the case said an “insane amount” of the pages were redacted, so many they didn’t bother to count. Indeed, Issa himself said in a hearing that DOJ may as well have sent him a ream of blank printer paper.
While all this is going on, and Issa and his staff are preparing for the next round of hearings, the New York Times, Washington Post and presumably the rest of the mainstream media are attempting to take Issa down.
As PJM reported on June 22, the New York Times has run an editorial claiming what is needed is a new assault weapons ban, while continuing to make the claim that most weapons in Mexico came from the U.S. — an assertion which was debunked months ago. This editorial gives credence to the theory the entire Gunrunner operation was nothing but a stunt to promote gun control. The Post is employing a different tactic, trying to destroy Issa’s credibility: their article claims Issa was aware of the operation from the beginning — and uses anonymous sources to say so. Which brings up the question: if Issa really was briefed in on the operation, why would WaPo need to hide the identity of their sources?
In the end it seems clear the rot at ATF — and the DOJ — goes deep, and no one knows at this point where the bottom of the sewer is.
‘Gunrunner’ Whistleblower Vince Cefalu Speaks (PJM Exclusive)
Cefalu says there should be prosecutions in the failed Operation Fast and Furious case, also known as “Gunwalker.” When asked if ATF had violated the law in this case, he responded:
Of course if violates the law! They conspired to traffic firearms, you can’t do that under color of law. … There was no intent to follow the guns, this never had a chance of succeeding. It was a failed plan from the beginning.
He also says there is no huge gun-trafficking operation, no “IronPipeline” of firearms traveling from the U.S. to Mexico — just lots of buyers who can make a couple thousand dollars selling weapons across the border.
In addition, he has some more explosive allegations: he says the Mexican government was not made aware of the operation, and neither was the U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
And he says people within the Justice Department had to be aware of the operation — contrary to what Attorney General Eric Holder claimed. Cefalu says no one runs a major operation like this without getting approval from their boss.
Federal ATF chief said to resist pressure to step down
Kenneth E. Melson, who has run the bureau for two years, is reportedly eager to testify to Congress about the extent of his and other officials’ involvement in the operation, code-named Fast and Furious.
Melson does not want to be “the fall guy” for the program, under which ATF agents allowed straw purchasers to acquire more than 1,700 AK-47s and other high-powered rifles from Arizona gun dealers, the sources said. The idea was to track the guns to drug cartel leaders. But that goal proved elusive, and the guns turned up at shootings in Mexico, as well as at the slaying in Arizona of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in December.
“He is saying he won’t go,” said one source close to the situation, who asked for anonymity because high-level discussions with Melson remained fluid. “He has told them, ‘I’m not going to be the fall guy on this.’ “
Added a second source, who also requested anonymity: “He’s resisting. He does not want to go.”
The war that dares not speak its name…US and Lybia:
*crickets*
LOL! I guess Obama is no longer Louis BFF…Farrakhan: The White Man Made Obama Bomb Libya
The White Man made him do it.
Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan recently unmasked the reason for President Barack Obama’s unpopular, non-congressionally authorized, War Powers Resolution-violating decision to bomb Libya, a country that poses no imminent threat to the United States.
“We voted for our brother, Barack,” said Farrakhan, “a beautiful human being with a sweet heart, and now he’s an assassin. They’ve turned him into them.”
“Them,” of course, refers to the evil, racist, manipulative, all-powerful White Man, who as in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” seized Obama’s mind, body and soul, and changed him into an enemy of the poor, the downtrodden, the black.
Don’t snicker. Farrakhan may be on to something.
Hillary to congressional Libya critics: Whose side are you on?
This is really just the cherry on top of the sundae that is our Libya mission, isn’t it? First, the guy who became famous for opposing “dumb wars” launches a new mission in Libya. Then he fights tooth and nail to avoid getting congressional approval, going so far as to ignore his own lawyers as to whether operations there are legal. Then his own secretary of state — who spent years trying to make amends to the anti-war crowd for voting to invade Iraq — turns around and kinda sorta questions the loyalty of administration critics. What’s next, MoveOn.org running ads needling Boehner for being a hippie?
*snip*
Diplomatically, they’re in even bigger trouble: Italy, which has to live next door to Qaddafi, has suddenly broken with NATO to call for a ceasefire on “humanitarian” grounds. The Arab League has also expressed “misgivings” about civilian casualties and joined the ceasefire call, and Time notices some unrest in French and British diplomatic circles. With every day of stalemate that passes between a tinpot desert dictator and a U.S./UK/France coalition, NATO’s global credibility as a viable military alliance shrinks — which, as Jonah Goldberg notes, ironically makes victory increasingly important. That’s why Hillary’s demagoging this. Somehow, they’ve bungled their way into making an otherwise unimportant mission a very big deal.
Hillary Clinton’s Guide To Patriotism — Now And Then…
Someone let Pant Suits know you can’t flip-flop on patriotism.
Via David Harsanyi:
Hillary Clinton in 2003.
I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you’re not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.
Hillary Clinton in 2011.
But the bottom line is, whose side are you on? Are you on Qadhafi’s side or are you on the side of the aspirations of the Libyan people and the international coalition that has been created to support them? For the Obama Administration, the answer to that question is very easy.
As far as what’s actually happening in Libya? I don’t know. The comforting thing is no else seems to either.
One US Congressman says the US Admiral running the Libya war says of course we’re trying to kill Gaddafi and oh yeah, when he’s gone we may have to send in ground troops.
If US ground troops wind up in Libya (and there’s almost no chance NATO would send theirs if we don’t pony up some of ours), lawmakers will come to regret giving Obama such a free hand in his little adventure.
Good News: I Am Unpatriotic and Unprincipled on Libya (and You Might Be, Too)!
For some reason I can’t read that as a defense of protecting civilians, something that seems better defended by the simple phrase “we’re just protecting civilians – how can you oppose that?” Of course, the UN is still pretending we’re just protecting civilians in much the same way the administration is just pretending we’re protecting civilians per UN mandate in official written justifications for our actions. Therefore it will be interesting to see if any administration officials will abandon that pretense in their congressional testimony in support of our support to kinetic activity constrained to protecting civilians mission in Libya and follow Hillary’s “hey, we’re kicking Qaddafi’s ass here – you’re either with us or with the terrorists” format. (A line even President Bush didn’t apply to his domestic opponents.)
*crickets*
Look for the Union Label/Whackademia:
NJ Unions Dealt Crushing Defeat
Union members chanted outside the Statehouse and in the Assembly balcony, and dissident Democrats tried to stall with amendments and technicalities. Although they successfully convinced top lawmakers to remove a controversial provision restricting public workers’ access to out-of-state medical care, they failed to halt a historic defeat for New Jersey’s powerful unions and a political victory for Republican Gov. Chris Christie.
Nearly 8500 people gathered in the streets surrounding the Statehouse in Trenton to defend their stance on pension and benefit reform. Collective bargaining was the overall theme, but some delved deeper as to what exactly is important to them and their families as a bill awaits a vote in the state assembly.
“Together, we’re showing New Jersey is serious about providing long-term fiscal stability for our children and grandchildren,” Christie said in a statement released after the vote. “We are putting the people first and daring to touch the third rail of politics in order to bring reform to an unsustainable system.”
Imagine, a governor keeping the promises he campaigned on.
By the way, support was bipartisan. The media should love that, right?
Supporters of the bill — including Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) — have said the state needs to cut costs because the pension and health systems are underfunded by more than $120 billion in total.
Leftist Agitprop for Kindergarteners
The California Federation of Teachers produced the perfect solution with “Trouble in the Hen House: A Puppet Show.” To spare you the unpleasantness of reading this bilge, here’s the basic plot: a bunch of hens feel “oppressed” by the farmer, so they band together and create Hens United. The angry unionized chickens are too powerful a force for the farmer to handle, so he capitulates to the hens’ demands. Here’s a key excerpt:
Henrietta (the hen): Farmer Brown, we have something to say. This is what we chickens want:
1. More and better food. No mold, no sand in our corn.
2. Freedom to walk around outside and a bigger hen house.
3. Each hen will lay an average of four eggs a week.
4. Stop punishing us. Let Hortensia come back.Farmer: No way! Who ever heard of chickens telling the farmer what to do? Shut up and get back to the henhouse!
Chickens: No, Farmer Brown, not this time! And besides those things, you have to recognize our union, Hens United, or we’ll all stop laying eggs!
Farmer: OK, OK, if I have no eggs to sell, I’ll go bankrupt. We’d all starve, so I guess I’ll have to do what you say. Since you’re all together, what can I do?
Chickens: We won! We stuck together and we won! Si, Se puede.
With this puppet show, educators now have a way of teaching children how to use mob tactics to get what they want from those in positions of power.
No doubt they got the idea from Animal Farm, which like 1984is regarded as an instruction manual on the Left.
Liberals are a small percentage of the population. But by taking control of the media, they have taken control of the government. By taking control of education, they will take control of the future.
In Other News…
Commie Van Jones to Start Socialist Tea Party
The
Cocoa Party,One Nation,“F*ck Tea“Coffee Party, “American Dream Movement” was announced this week.
Union Chief Richard Trumka Announces AFL-CIO Joining Van Jones “Progressive Tea Party”…
Nothing good can come out of having Van Jones, MoveOn.org and the AFL-CIO together in one group.
Hate Mail Of The Day: Murder Trig Palin
After reading that, you’re probably thinking, “What the hell is wrong with these people?” Now, me? Knowing the number of conservative women I do, I’m thinking, “Sarah Palin probably gets 100 emails a day like this from liberals, but you just never hear about it.”
This is the sort of commentary that conservative women have to be able to put up with on a regular basis once they become prominent — and, yes, it’s 10 times worse for conservative women than liberal women. That’s because liberal men tend to be much more misogynistic and truth be told, the only reason they’re not typically that repulsive with liberal women is because they believe they agree with them. In other words, all the piggish and disgusting things liberal men say about Michele Bachmann, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, or Sarah Palin, they think about liberal woman as well — but they hold back as long as the left-wing ladies toe-the-line. Any liberal woman who doesn’t think that is kidding hersel
George Will- Rick Perry: A Texan’s ‘exceptionalism’
French cuffs and cowboy boots are, like sauerkraut ice cream, an eclectic combination, but Perry, who wears both, is a potentially potent candidate for the Republican presidential nomination because his political creed is uneclectic, matching that of the Republican nominating electorate. He was a “10th Amendment conservative” (“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people”) before the Tea Party appeared. And before Barack Obama’s statism — especially Obamacare’s individual mandate — catalyzed concern for the American project of limited government.
Social issues, especially abortion, are gateways to the Republican nominating electorate: In today’s climate of economic fear, a candidate’s positions on social issues will not be decisive with his electorate — but they can be disqualifying. Perry — an evangelical Christian, like most Republican participants in Iowa’s caucuses and the South Carolina primary — emphatically qualifies.
Pausing in his enjoyment of a hamburger the size of a hubcap, Perry, the Eagle Scout son of Democratic tenant farmers, says that he entered politics as a Democrat: “I never met a Republican until I was in the Air Force.” Perry’s father had been a B-17 tail gunner flying out of England in 1944. Perry, stationed abroad flying C-130 transports, became a captain and a believer in American exceptionalism.
Huntsman ‘Love Letter’ to Obama Speaks Volumes
Huntsman Backpedals on Calling Obama a ‘Remarkable Leader’
Is there anything more pathetic than a suck-up trying to recant?
Forget Cigarettes, These are the Warning Labels America Needs
The Status Anxiety of Liberal Elites
No wonder a combative liberal intellectual like Krugman thinks of the fifties and early sixties as a “paradise lost.” That’s the last time his belief in his comrades’ intellectual and moral superiority over rank-and-file conservatives was acknowledged even by conservative elites. How times have changed. It was an artful provocation for William F. Buckley to say over forty years ago (I’m paraphrasing) that he’d rather be governed by the first 2000 names in the phone book than the Harvard faculty. Now it’s a tired platitude, usually recited to remind liberal elites of their diminished intellectual and moral authority.
When the Tea Partiers revolted against the Obama administration and a Democratic Congress in summer of 2009 liberals dusted-off that old chestnut of 1960s liberal social commentary, the “paranoid style of American politics.” The general idea was that right-wing extremism is a regrettable byproduct of social progress, animated by the status anxiety of people in a mass society coming to grips with their economic and cultural displacement. Funny, no one ever talks about the status anxiety of beleaguered liberal intellectuals.
Reagan’s vision lives on in Texas
What’s the secret behind the Texas Miracle? Low taxes, predictable and limited regulation and restrained government spending. Sound familiar?
Texas stands as an example the rest of the nation should be emulating. In fact, many states want to do so. Earlier this year, a contingent of lawmakers from California traveled to Austin to meet with Mr. Perry to try to figure out just what Texas was doing to make it such an attractive destination for relocating California businesses and residents.
As the son of the former governor of California, I can appreciate the irony of a Golden State contingent traveling to Texas to learn the lessons originally taught by Ronald Reagan.
Texas has not slowed down, either. Analyzing weaknesses in its already jobs-friendly climate, Mr. Perry and other state leaders recognized the need for further tort reforms to make the state even more attractive. Just last month, shortly after signing off on a budget that dramatically cut state spending, Mr. Perry put pen to paper and signed into law a “loser pays” component to the Texas court system that adds further protections to victims of lawsuit abuse.
Mr. Perry is smart enough to realize that endless – and often frivolous – lawsuits are just another hurdle standing in the way of private companies seeking to grow their businesses.
Texas Lawmakers AWOL For Vote On TSA Groping Bill
Leftist Hackers Post Names & Addresses of AZ Law Enforcement Officers Online
They want them dead.
Vietnam Vet Threatened With Legal Action For Flying American Flag Outside His Home…
Rhode Island becomes France, refuses to turn murderer over to feds due to possible death penalty
Chicago’s new “top cop’ is teh crazy, he might as well change his name to Dupnik.
As GWP notes, he said this at radical leftist and Obama’s spiritual adviser Father Pfleger’s church.
“She was caribou hunting and talking about the right to bear arms. Why wasn’t she at the crime scene with me?”
Hey, McCarthy! Why weren’t you at these crime scenes and why haven’t you done anything about these ‘teen mobs’ running amok in Chicago? Could it be because it is black ‘teens’ who are the ones pulling this crap and you would rather have people get beaten, robbed and possibly killed then to be called a raaaaaacist for actually doing your job? I guess it is OK to you seeing as it is the crackers white people that are getting beaten and robbed…
Civilization is coming unraveled in the city that gave us Barack Hussein Obama and much of his crew. But don’t be racist by noticing:
Pardon the unintentional rhyme, but Chicago is under attack by packs of wild Blacks. (Paul Kersey is all over this.) They’re storming buses 15 at a time, beating White people with bottles and robbing them (NBC Chicago, June 8). Gangs of 15 or 20 are ambushing White pedestrians and bicyclists (CBS Chicago, June 5 and June 6; Chicago Tribune, June 6). Smaller packs are using pepper spray to disable their White victims (CBS Chicago, June 3 and June 5). …
Until recently, the hopelessly biased mainstream media were content merely to ignore, to suppress, to censor the race of these savages — that’s race, not races. But censorship wasn’t enough. It couldn’t stop readers from seeing the photos. It couldn’t stop them from watching the videos. It couldn’t stop them from looking out their windows at the dark-skinned mobs rampaging outside.
And it couldn’t stop the White victims from telling everyone they knew.
So the readers noticed, and pretty soon they cracked the secret code: if a story omits the race of the perpetrators, it’s not because the reporter doesn’t know what race they were. It’s because they were all Black.
That’s when readers started to complain.
The Chicago Tribune responded to the complaints by denouncing its own readers and by shoveling out the usual politically correct pabulum about how awful it is to acknowledge facts liberals deem to be racist (see here and here and here and here).
Meanwhile, Chicago’s government is blaming the mayhem on Sarah Palin, the Constitution, and of course racism.
Elections have consequences. In this case you end up with a judiciary system chock full of radical moonbats who will ‘legislate’ their agenda in via the bench. I wish people would understand this…Obama-Appointed Federal Judge Blocks Indiana Law Defunding Planned Parenthood…
City of Boca Raton Charges Tea Party $6,000 for Police & Barricades But MoveOn.org Gets Free Pass
DDOT Directors Driving Shiny New Hybrid SUVs
Dealing with budget shortfalls, cuts to the Detroit Department of Transportation include laying off bus drivers, mechanics and cutting bus routes.
How is it then that DDOT directors get to drive home brand new hybrid SUV’s and have the insurance and gas paid for them?
How is that DDOT employees 1300 people, but only 700 of them are drivers or mechanics, what do the rest of the employees do?
My Take On NY Gay Marriage Bill
If you believe that “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” then you have to agree that states control their own legal definitions of marriage, and that such definitions are subject to the state political and judicial processes.
That political process in NY State was ugly at times, but it resulted in passage of a definition of marriage which, while contrary to the historical and religious definitions, likely is acceptable to the majority of people in NY State. The religious protections built into the law held much sway, including the fact that the law by its terms may not be severed (meaning that if the religious protections are stricken by a court the entire bill must be stricken).
*snip*
My hunch is that the new law will have much more long lasting acceptance because the political process was allowed to work, as opposed to states such as California where gay marriage was imposed by judicial fiat based on strained legal reasoning against the popular will.
Whiny Liberal Blames GOP For NC Forced Sterilization Program
The GOP is at fault for not giving more money. It matters not that the Democrats had control of the General Assembly most of the time over the past 100 years (this is the first time in 110 years that the GOP controls the House and Senate) and had plenty of time to make restitution. Doesn’t matter that the sterilization policies were institutes by progressives/Democrats, who loved pushing abortion and eugenics programs, particularly on minorities. Doesn’t matter that they controlled the sterilization board, attorney generals office, and governors mansion way more than the GOP did over that time period: no, it’s all the GOPs fault.
Those civil rights violations can be laid directly at the feet of liberals/progressives/Democrats, and now the GOP has to, as usual, clean up their mess. And not just in North Carolina, but 37 other states, and all due to Democrat policies.
Of course, the unhinged tool has to manage to bring Sarah Palin into the story. And, let’s not forget, it is the left which wants to institute population reduction policies in the name of the climate change hoax. Which is simply used as an excuse for their eugenics beliefs.
Public Pays for Half-Million-Dollar L.A. Tourism Salary
Los Angeles is already the center of the American entertainment industry, which provides more free advertising for the area than any quasi-governmental entity could manage. It’s pretty widely understood, in the United States and abroad, that Malibu has beautiful beaches and Rodeo Drive offers a unique upscale shopping experience. I do not remember a time when I did not know the word “Hollywood.” What could LA Inc. possibly be offering in the way of tourism-boosting that would justify its cost?
As an extra irony, that cost is coming out of the other end of the tourism business. By not imposing massive hotel taxes and airport fees in the first place, L.A. could help its tourism business in a way that can be justified without flimflammery: If you make it less expensive to come here, people will be more likely to come here.
San Francisco’s anti-circumcision initiative threatens religious liberty and public order.
‘I Think He’ll Start Talking and He’ll Start Taking People Down’
It’s probably a safe bet there are a lot of current or former FBI agents and Boston cops who are sweating today as Whitey Bulger is returned to the scene of his crimes. The better hope he’s diagnosed with Alzheimer’s so they can worm their way out of a jam.
Is it right for Yahoo! to snoop on your emails?
Invisible Artists Explain Their Work
If the government is going to spend our money, maybe it should be going into state hospitals instead of NEA grants.
Let’s beat up smokers and feel good about ourselves
THE big push to get Americans to live healthier continues. We biggie-size the verbiage just like the drive-throughs biggie-size the drinks.
Fat gave way to overweight, which gave way to obese, which was upgraded to morbidly obese; our language expands with American waistlines.
By any measure, though, as a nation we are not exactly svelte.
So we tell ourselves as we munch our cheese doodles that at least we don’t smoke.
Well, 80 percent of the adult population in America does not smoke and that makes us feel better about ourselves.
Every society has a caste system of some sort. And there is always somebody at the bottom who the rest of us dump on.
We chose smokers.
Take Another Bite Of Your Apple Economy
History’s Mysteries: The O.J. Simpson Jury
Like it or not, the jury made the correct decision.
MSM Circus and Celebutard Side Show:
Obamunism on the Cover of Time
The latest cover of Time Magazinetells you all you need to know about the agenda of the left-wing media establishment that installed Barack Hussein Obama in power so that he could oversee the “fundamental transformation” of America
To ask a question like this is to give the answer, which is: not to our moonbat rulers it doesn’t.
The July 4 cover date is reminiscent of the “Is God a Fairy Tale?” covers we see around Easter.
John Stossel: ACORN Story Spiked Due to ABC ‘Politics’
Well, this just figures. That huge ACORN story that Breitbart ended up becoming quite famous for was turned down because of politics at ABC. For those that say there is no liberal media bias, please explain this one to me: Stossel Reveals: Turned Down ACORN Story Due to ABC ‘Politics’
While discussing the rise of New Media with Andrew Breitbart on his Fox Business Channel show, John Stossel revealed that Breitbart pitched him the ACORN story as an exclusive and due to the political climate at ABC, he turned it down.
Dumbest Website on Internet Spouts Off Against FOX – May Lose Tax Exempt Status (Video)
If George W. Bush would have made a monumental gaffe like this, it would have been the top story on every network nightly newscast for probably more than just a day. But when Barack Obama does those things, as far as CBS, NBC and ABC are concerned, it’s as if they never happened
Politico’s shame: Anatomy of a smear
I’m calling Politico out. They are participating in a smear of a political leader who they oppose and fear. That’s the story here.
WaPo’s Colby King Calls Michele Bachmann “Barbie With Fangs”…
Remember the golden rule, it’s not sexist when the left does it.
NPR: Obama Speech on Afghanistan Was Comparable to Abraham Lincoln…
Pa-friggen-thetic.
You know, in a way, I admire their shamelessness here. The NYT editorial board isn’t stupid; surely they know how preposterous it is for them to be taking a line this hawkish (especially on a war as compromised as this one is) after the past eight years. But darn if they didn’t do it to help Obama out. No pretense of consistency or neutral principles, just raw partisanship. There’s honesty in that, as hackish as it is.
They’re all corrupt, they’re all liberal, they’re all biased, and they’re all dishonest.
However — that is not to say there are not distinctions between them.
Some outfits engage in bias. Others, like the New York Times, now engage in Orwellian disinformation.
This guy is in so far over his head I almost feel bad for him, it’s no wonder MSNBC still hasn’t given him a name for his show.
Caught on Camera: Garofalo and Olbermann Hold Private Conversation on Tea Party “Racism”
Brace yourself, because this is one of the most imbecilic, untethered discussions on the tea party you’re ever going to hear. My head is still throbbing from watching it. Must be my limbic brain taking over, or something.
Lefty Gasbag Bill Maher: Current Health Care System Like “Slavery”…
I wonder what his opinions on the treatment of gays under the sharia are? Maybe he would be ‘happy’ to be hanged…Celebrity Nitwit Of The Day: Singer Prince Says Muslim Women Are “Happy” Being Forced To Wear A Burqa
“It’s fun being in Islamic countries, to know there’s only one religion. There’s order. You wear a burqa. There’s no choice. People are happy with that.”
A crappy Basketball player by any other name is still a crappy Basketball player…Basketball Player Ron Artest Changes Name to Metta World Peace
Global Warmening:
When it comes to beheading a fat, fraudulent liar in public, it just doesn’t get better than this. And it is only “Part 1.” I can only hope that the other parts come complete with a wooden stake and a sledge hammer.
Ted Turner: Global Warming Is The Most Serious and Complex Problem That Humanity Has Ever Faced
If that were the case, Turner would have changed his lifestyle to reflect his belief rather than flying around in his CO2-spewing private jet. And his gigantic home(s). And his carbon-heavy lifestyle. Ted Turner believes we should kill our economy which will do nothing to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Human activity, after all, is responsible for only 3% of CO2 emissions, the vast majority being produced by oceans and vegetation decaying.
In related news, Al Gore announced he’s opening a new line of global warming reeducation camps.
The science is settled: US liberals really are the dumbest creatures on the planet
NASA Climate Change Alarmist James Hansen Caught Profiting Off of Climate Change Advocacy
A list of payoffs that James Hansen took from environmental groups includes:
– A shared $1 million prize from the Dan David Foundation for his “profound contribution to humanity.” Hansen’s cut ranged from $333,000 to $500,000, Horner said, adding that the precise amount is not known because Hansen’s publicly available financial disclosure form only shows the prize was “an amount in excess of $5,000.”
– The 2010 Blue Planet prize worth $550,000 from the Asahi Glass Foundation, which recognizes efforts to solve environmental issues.
– The Sophie Prize for his “political activism,” worth $100,000. The Sophie Prize is meant to “inspire people working towards a sustainable future.”
– Speaking fees totaling $48,164 from a range of mostly environmental organizations.
– A $15,000 participation fee, waived by the W.J. Clinton Foundation for its 2009 Waterkeeper Conference.
– $720,000 in legal advice and media consulting services provided by The George Soros Open Society Institute. Hansen said he did not take “direct” support from Soros but accepted “pro bono legal advice.”
Uh Oh: Abrupt Climate Change Doomed Greenland’s Vikings
They were very good farmers, but didn’t invest much in hunting, whaling, or raising livestock. So, when the massive heat hit, and the seas rose 30 feet in two weeks, because they failed to invest in bird killing wind turbines and mercury laden light bulbs, along with a failure to properly inflate their cart wheels, globull warming killed them off…..oh, wait
But around that same time, the European researchers have concluded in a study published in the journal Boreas, a prolonged stretch of cold weather on Greenland appears to have led to the demise of the Norse settlements there. And any chance of a renewed effort by the Scandinavian seafarers to colonize Canada disappeared with them.
“Our study shows a major shift towards cooler conditions and extensive sea-ice which coincides with the estimated time for the collapse of the western settlement in AD 1350,” University of Copenhagen geologist Sofia Ribeiro said in a summary of the new study.
Said cooler period lasted for around 500 years, before the Earth warmed back up, dooming us all!!!!!!
The Sock Drawer:
New Zealand investment adviser Gareth Morgan, who is leading an expedition to Antarctica next February, offered Happy Feet a trip home aboard a Russian icebreaker. But it would not be for another eight months.
‘Of course until that time Happy Feet will have to be cared for here in Wellington, where we’re lucky enough to have a great community of wildlife experts, capable not just of pumping sand but also ensuring this wayfaring fellow is hosted appropriately until it’s time to set sail,’ Morgan wrote on his website.
‘A sea passage is far more akin to the animal’s natural rite of passage across the Southern Ocean than any trip in a Globelifter jet might be, with no risk of deep vein thrombosis,’ Morgan added jokingly.
Whether officials choose to take Morgan up on his offer may depend on Happy Feet’s health.
Emperor penguin not out of the woods yet
Asteroid the size of an office block to narrowly miss Earth on Monday
Who else had a ping pong ball gun?
Even if this wasn’t your youth how many of these 36 items and images do you recognize?
Tiny camera reveals the inside of a Mayan tomb that has been sealed for 1,500 years
Existence of 200 ‘uncontacted’ tribal people in Brazilian rainforest confirmed (PHOTOS)
7 Deadliest Arrow Poisons on Earth
Moscow’s Wild Dogs Ride Subways To City Center In Search Of Food
Each morning, like clockwork, they board the subway, off to begin their daily routine amidst the hustle and bustle of the city.
But these aren’t just any daily commuters. These are stray dogs who live in the outskirts of Moscow Russia and commute on the underground trains to and from the city centre in search of food scraps.
Then after a hard day scavenging and begging on the streets, they hop back on the train and return to the suburbs where they spend the night.
Experts studying the dogs, who usually choose the quietest carriages at the front and back of the train, say they even work together to make sure they get off at the right stop – after learning to judge the length of time they need to spend on the train.
Constructed of 1000D Cordura in Universal Digital Camo, MultiCam, Coyote, MARPAT Woodland, or NAVPAT, the Tactical Grilling Apron features three rows of modular attachment across the waist and two rows across the chest. These PALS/MOLLE compatible attachment points allow your Tactical Grilling Apron to accept any of your current kit, whether it be a holster, mag pouches, general purpose pouches, or a med kit, the Tactical Grilling Apron can fit your mission requirement: Steak or Stakeout.
Snow in JUNE? Actually no, it’s just a field of blooming poppies
