Today’s Must Reads:
The long years of liberal wilderness, out of power, had turned into a shrillness. The expanding economy had made life good and gave one the leisure to listen to the unhinged like Code Pink, Cindy Sheehan, or Michael Moore.
Obama was right out of upper-middle-class, liberal white guilt central casting: charismatic, young, half-African, an exotic name, hard-left credentials to the left of the hackish Hillary and Bill, full of platitudinous mush about “hope and change” and “millions of green jobs,” all directly imported from the faculty lounge, where gassing the car or changing light bulbs become complex endeavors.
And so we got an inexperienced, hard-left, messianic president whose job apparently was to enjoy life, politick, play golf, hang out at Martha’s Vineyard, pick up prizes and awards, and turn the economy and foreign policy over to the Ivy League professoriate.
As I said, the madness abated in November 2010, and once again money is real and has to be paid back, debts are not stimulus, and the world abroad is not hopey-changy mush, but back again as a scary place.
that is the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The US paper Boston Globe had a series of photos in June that were supposed to show how much recovery the earthquake/tsunami affected areas in the Tohoku region of Japan has made in only 3 months.
Looking at those photographs, some Japanese, particularly those who have actually been there as volunteers for cleanup or who have relatives and friends there still trying to figure out what to do and how to do it, felt something didn’t feel right. “Recovery? What recovery?”
Recovery alright, as the number of people displaced by the quake/tsunami and living in temporary housing dipped below 100,000 for the first time since March 11, to 99,236 (number from Yomiuri Shinbun, 7/10/2011). This is after 4 months of “recovery”.
This blog has had personal accounts and reporting of the aftermath of March 11 earthquake/tsunami in the Tohoku region, and I’m happy to present the account by “Hiromi”, whose close friends have been deeply affected by the devastation of their home town, Kesennuma City in Miyagi Prefecture.
Quotes of the Day:
- “The only way for Obama to stimulate the enormous private sector job growth needed to ensure Obama’s reelection is for Obama to announce he is not running for reelection, which would unleash a wave of investment and economic activity not seen since the Great Depression.”-Obama’s Catch-2012
- “A technicality doesn’t give anyone a right to come to this country and rape, torture and murder anyone.”-Rachel Terry
- “Einstein said the theory of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. There, my friends, is the core principle of Democratic policy. Insanity.”-Jeffrey Carter
“Fun Fact” of the day: By the End of His Term, Obama Will Have Spent More Than All Other 43 Presidents Combined — Congratulations!
Well, at least he’s the best president at something!
Billboard of the Day: Postcard From Heber, Arizona
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.
Worse than a ‘melt through’ – a ‘melt out’? — See Graphic
Humans Entered Reactor Bldg and Did What Bots Couldn’t Do
TEPCO seems to be in a great hurry to start the nitrogen injection into the Containment Vessel of the Reactor 3. At first I thought it was just a window-dressing effort for the national government who had decided, on some inexplicable reason or unreason, it would be safe enough for people to come back to their homes in the planned evacuation zone as long as the nitrogen gas was pumped into the Reactor 3 Containment Vessel, just so that the government could tell the citizens “See what we’ve done for you? It’s now so much safer you can go back!”
Or, the Reactor 3 is actually in danger of blowing up in a hydrogen explosion.
They have hardly done any work on other reactors. The Reactor 1′s basement water, last seen as gushing out 4 sieverts/hour steam through to the 1st floor, hasn’t been touched. That water doesn’t even go to the water treatment system. I haven’t heard any news of TEPCO sampling the water for analysis. There’s hardly any news on the Reactor 2, after they opened the double door and supposedly drove out the radioactive materials and moisture inside. They still don’t know the water level (if any) inside the Reactor 2′s Pressure Vessel, because the pressure gauge and water gauge don’t work. As for the Reactor 4, they’ve been injecting water into the Reactor well and the equipment pool from the bottom of the Reactor Pressure Vessel, which seems peculiar. Other than that, and the photo of a hot-spring-like Spent Fuel Pool on the 5th floor, there’s not much information coming out.
Uh huh…And when their teeth start falling out they will blame it on ‘poor dental hygiene’…3 men exposed to over 250 millisieverts — TEPCO claims no ‘immediate’ impact on health
Contaminated Water Also Leaked from AREVA’s System
Sigh. TEPCO never learns. The first press conference was held yesterday morning (over in Japan); 6 hours had already passed since the accident but they didn’t have any information other than the photo. The information had to wait until the evening press conference, more than 12 hours after the accident: that the contaminated water also leaked.
They Will Start Charging Workers for Food at J-Village
(UPDATE: Someone on Twitter says they are going to charge for a shower, too.)
Starting July 13, the workers at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant will have to pay for food at the J-Village, a staging area for the work at the plant.
For the umpteenth time since the triple disasters of earthquake/tsunami/nuke struck, I am rather ashamed and disappointed to be Japanese. The first time was when the Japanese government had TEPCO dump the contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean, and the government made a middle manager at TEPCO announce, who was in tears, while PM Kan hid and said nothing.
Tepco Shuts Down Cooling System At Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant After Sparks Detected
The cooling system at Fukushima’s Daiichi sister plant was closed earlier today after Tepco announced that “sparks were detected”. According to TEPCO this is no cause for alarm and the situation will be restored back to normal shortly. According to yet other news, after 4 months of lies, TEPCO has started telling the truth. From Reuters: “The operator of Japan’s Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, located near the tsunami-crippled Daiichi plant, on Thursday halted the cooling system at one of its reactors after electrical sparks were detected, Kyodo news agency reported. Tokyo Electric Power , the plant’s operator, expects to be able to restore the cooling system at the Daini plant’s No.1 reactor before the end of Thursday, Kyodo said.” Fair enough. We will be sure to check in later today to validate this latest “fact.”
1,800+ bq/kg radioactive cesium detected in tea 160 km from Fukushima plant
How Cows and Pigs Evacuated from Fukushima
You wouldn’t need a so-called “conspiracy theory” when you have the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries who is eager to register the Japanese cuisine as “world intangible cultural heritage”.
Several readers asked whether the cows and pigs in Fukushima Prefecture had actually been evacuated or sold. Answer is yes, and it’s been happening since March, and more so after the end of April, thanks to this particular Ministry’s guidance.
Considering how much the Obama’s love Kobe beef they might start glowing in the dark. On the ‘bright side’ they would be using ‘green energy’ because they would not need to use electric light and they would be glowing ‘green’ not to mention in Japan the farmers can find their Cows at night….Tokyo gov’t says cesium found in cow meat — 2,300 bq/kg and Update on Fukushima Beef: It Was the Feed That Had 75,000 Becquerels/Kg Cesium
3200 Becquerels/Kg Cesiuim Detected from Beef from Minami-Soma City in Fukushima
These cattle were allowed to be sold, as long as they were scrubbed clean of radioactive materials on their skin, thanks to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the same ministry that is pushing to have the Japanese cuisine recognized as UNESCO’s “world intangible cultural heritage”.
70,800 Becquerels/kg Cesium from Burning Household Waste at Kashiwa City, Chiba
Japan’s nuclear industry credibility crumbles amid email scandal
“There is growing suspicion that power companies are playing fast and loose with data to support their cause and will go so far as to orchestrate public support,” said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University’s Japan campus.
“The more the media pulls back the veil, the angrier the public is getting.” The e-mail scandal has been daily fodder for mainstream media, often accused of being soft on the industry.
World News:
I may have the Sister Kittehs of DOOM!™ but Iceland has the Sister Volcanoes of DOOM!™…
“The movements around Hekla have been unusual in the last two to three days,” University of Iceland expert Pall Einarsson said.
While this might not necessarily mean an immediate blast, “the volcano is ready to erupt,” he stressed.
“The mountain has been slowly expanding in the last few years because of magma buildup,” he explained.
The volcano, dubbed by Icelanders in the Middle Ages as the “Gateway to Hell,” is one of Iceland’s most active, having erupted some 20 times over the past millennium, most recently on Feb. 26, 2000.
I wrote about the possibility that Katla is Iceland might become active again in this decade here, based on a swarm of earth quakes. Now those quakes are getting more intense.
Every time Katla has erupted in human history the human race has suffered. Now, with our dependence on air travel to transport food and people for business and tourism the impact will be significant in the short term. Long term the shortening of the growing season will impact the global food supply. The northern grain growing regions in the US, Canada and Russia will be unable to produce the surpluses that have fed hungry mouths around the world. Some regions will shift southward, but will not be enough to feed the hungry.
Driest place on Earth: Atacama desert in Chile buried under feet of snow
According to the national emergency centre in Chile, the area had not seen this amount of snow in close to 20 years. Some areas received up to 80 centimeters (32 inches) of snow, leading to closed roads and stuck vehicles. The temperature in Santiago, Chile dropped to as low as -8.5 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. Other countries in Latin America such as Uruguay and Argentina have also been affected by the cold front.
Indeed, temperatures over much of middle-latitudes South America have been averaging 5°-10° C below normal for the past week.
Another Nail In The Dollar’s Coffin: CME Launching Renminbi Futures On August 22
Regulatory Panic Spreads As Italy Orders Short Sellers To Disclose Positions
Italy May Enforce Naked Short Selling Ban As Early As Tonight To Prevent Market Rout
Welcome to the second, and final, part of the European insolvent dominoes contagion, the one which culminates with everyone bailing each other out… and the death of the euro currency of course.
In case you missed it, the European debt crisis escalated in Portugal and spread to Italy last week. Here are a few articles if you missed them.
- Italian Yields Hit 9-Year High, Spreads Record High vs. Germany; Italy’s Finance Minister in Rent Scandal
- Michael Pettis Warns of “Virulent Political Turn Against Euro”, Adds Clarification to “Gold’s Honest Discipline”
- ECB Suspends Collateral Rules for Portuguese Debt, Hikes Rates .25; Trichet Says “No” to Selective Default, Market Yawns
In response, the EU does what it always does.
- Blame Short Sellers
- Declare an Emergency Meeting
- Deny there is an Emergency Meeting
Here’s Why Italy’s CDS Are The Biggest Risk For The Eurozone
European Rescue Fund Insufficient To Rescue Italy, May Be Doubled To Over $2 Trillion
Your tax dollars at work…US Taxpayers Just Paid $780 Million To Fund The Latest Greece Bailout Tranche
Not Just Anarchists: New Democracy Movement Blooms In Greece
Greece’s image has taken a hit from both U.S. and international media, as scenes of protests against the new austerity measures under vote in parliament show self-styled “anarchists” — or what in Greek translates to “hood-wearers” — fighting against the police with a mutual exchange of tear gas and marble chipped from buildings.
But this is a sideshow.
Hundreds, if not thousands of the aganaktismeni — loosely translated as “those who are fed up” — have been undertaking a peaceful, around-the-clock protest in front of the Greek parliament building in Syntagma Square. They sleep in tents in the main square and are extremely organized, with special teams assigned to keeping the square spotless. It’s cleaner than it ever was during the days of the 2004 Olympics
An interesting on the ground report from Greece…The Battle for Syntagma
A Christmas Warning from the United Kingdom: Retailers Facing Credit Issues
If things are that dire in the United Kingdom, what is the underlying condition of some of the large retailers in the United States and their ability to obtain credit to purchase Christmas season goods, much less survive if the holiday season is a retail disaster?
The enviroweenie leftists and their Obama administration allies are tying our hands in drilling in the artic. Russia has no similar problems and wants a bigger piece of the pie…US and Russia stir up political tensions over Arctic
Islam ‘Was The First Organized Socialist Movement In The World’
The death docs may be using their expertise to play “Hide the IED” in body cavities that bomb-detection equipment cannot penetrate. At least one Saudi operative has been nabbed with explosives in his bum, and British intel picked up on Arab website chatter last year about possible breast-bomb inserts. Officials are now said to be on the lookout for physicians’ notes requesting that passengers be allowed to carry syringes — which could carry detonation chemicals.
Lest you shrug off reports of these literal booby-traps as empty fear-mongering, listen up:
“It’s more than aspirational,” one U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal. “They’re trying to make this happen.”
There should be no shock at the role of purported healers in these and other hellish plots to destroy masses of innocent lives in the name of Allah. Anyone who still clings to the bleeding-heart belief that poverty breeds terrorism — including, alas, our commander in chief — is willfully blind to past history and present reality.
Medical charities have long served as front groups for jihad. Palestinian jihadists used ambulances owned and operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) — subsidized with billions in American tax dollars — to ferry explosives and gunmen from attacks. Hezbollah terrorists used ambulances as props in Lebanon to stage anti-Israel propaganda and elicit sympathy from Western media.
And radical Islam’s bloody perversion of the medical profession traces back to the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, the global terror operation that wooed wealthy young docs and other intellectual elites with cushy union benefits.
Has anyone seen all the American and international anti war foaming at the mouth moonbat leftist and their phony baloney ‘human rights organizations” who were howling about Gitmo and Abu Garib a couple years ago?
Thus, it’s hard to see why it was adjudged as convenient to hold the al Shabab leader as a shipboard prisoner for more than two months, with intelligence officials flying in and flying out, rather than transporting him to Guantanamo. Of course, there are no defense lawyers with writs of habeas corpus congregating on shipboard, and the courts have had little occasion (at least for the last 150 years) to address a writ of habeas corpus to a ship’s captain. But by the logic of the decision on Guantanamo habeas corpus, a military ship that is not engaged in combat might—if the lingering presence of a prisoner were known—also be the subject of demands for presentment in a federal court.
It is thus another occasion when the pledge to live by the letter of the law has tripped up the Obama administration. And in this case, it’s ironic that the unyielding presidential pledge to shut down Guantanamo may have been the tripwire for failing another test of humanitarian law.
But then, Davy Jones has not been this Administration’s strong suit. Of all people on earth, Osama bin Laden deserves to sleep with the fishes. But the Administration did not stop to explain why the provisions of Article 20 of the Second Geneva Convention (requiring ordinary burial “[i]f dead persons are landed”) and Article 17 of the First Geneva Convention (requiring a marked grave that may be found) also did not apply. There are strong reasons of state and prudence that might tempt one to vary from these texts. But this requires a pragmatism of the very sort that President Obama has professed to eschew in so many other settings.
Judith LeBlanc and the Communist Party USA can take a big part of the credit for America’s likely decision to slash defense spending, through their control of the US “peace movement” and their influence inside the eighty strong Congressional Progressive Caucus.
All this on the verge of a possible worldwide economic meltdown and international instability not seen since WW2!
The Communist party USA is allied with China, Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea, and the communist parties of Russia, Palestine and Iraq – all of whom have a strong interest in reduced American military power.
The Communist Party USA and the US “peace movement” are “5th columnists” for the enemies of America.
Though they will deny it, the facts speak for themselves.
What if they gave an anti-Israel protest and everyone booed?
People’s tolerance for having their air travel messed with, by irrelevant third parties engaging in political shenanigans, is at an all-time low these days. Air travel is annoying enough as it is. Even if the fly-in protesters can pull off some kind of video moment at Ben Gurion, I think they have miscalculated the effect it will have. How many people do you know who would look at a group protesting host-nation policy in an airport and feel sympathy for them? I very rarely deploy this word, but I think it’s appropriate here. I’m pretty sure most witnesses, regardless of their political sympathies, would think the protesters were morons.
Google Earth Used to Help Gaza Terrorist Select Targets Inside Israel
Google as a weapon.
Mutual Friends Bemoan Obama’s Shafting of Gaddafi
When Obama betrayed his former ally Muammar Gaddafi by launching an unexplained third war against Libya, it got old friends like Malik Shabazz and Louis Farrakhan wondering who might be next to go under the bus, to judge by this squawking (see video at link)
Barack Hussein had better invite Shabazz back to the White House to explain why he hasn’t been shooting any white people.
Libya: regime attacks supply route
Libya: Cold Gaddafi threatens to launch attacks on Europe
“Hundreds of Libyans will martyr in Europe. I told you it is eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. But we will give them a chance to come to their senses,” the Libyan leader said in an audio speech carried on Libyan television.
Gaddafi, whose forces have been battling rebel fighters increasingly encroaching on his territory and NATO warplanes, was speaking in the desert town of Sabha, 500 miles south of Tripoli.
The speech, to a crowd of about 50,000 people, appeared designed to show that Gaddafi still enjoys support in areas of Libya he still controls.
“You will regret it, NATO, when the war moves to Europe,” he said, adding that the Canary Islands, Sicily, other Mediterranean islands as well as Andalusia in southern Spain were Arab lands that should be liberated.
Egyptian Leader Threatens Jews, Christians…All of Humanity: ‘Whole World Belongs to Us’
US Ambassador to Syria Visits Hama – Mass Arrests Follow (Video)
How the West lost the War on Terror: Don’t Fire at the Taliban bombers
Iran ‘fired two long-range missiles into the Indian Ocean’… right under the noses of the U.S.
Top U.S. Military Officer: Iran Is In a Shooting War With America. OK, Where’s the Policy Response?
A government that will not protect the soldiers it has sent into danger by acting against those who would kill them does not deserve to lead those troops. Admiral Mullen knows it (his statement above sounds like a plea for help from Congress and the American people) and so does the recently resigned Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and so does everyone who works at the Pentagon and serves in the U.S. armed forces. But they cannot speak publicly because they are serving. That’s the real “Don’t ask, don’t tell policy.”
Go back and read that paragraph about what Mullen said. Revolutionary Islamism, Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, and others are at war with the United States. America needs a president who recognizes that fact and will do something about it.
Heartbreak for the Obamamessiah…A New Nation is Born — and “South Sudan” Gives Thanks….to President Bush
South Sudan independence: Juba celebrates the birth of a nation
Jubilant scenes in South Sudan
The Republic of South Sudan becomes the world’s newest country in the climax of a 2005 peace deal
Heartbreak for the Obamamessiah…George W. Bush Statue Unveiled in Muslim Albania
Translation: as the OPEC oil cartel dies with Saudi Arabia unable to balance its fealty to the US, and specifically Obama’s reelection chances, with its requirement to act as a monopolist, another one is born, and one whose cartel behavior will see commodity prices surge as soon as the market realizes that producers are forced to pass on incremental taxes to end consumers. Ironically, what will be the West’s loss, is about to become a windfall for the developing economies who are doing all they can to stock up their own commodity reserves, further shifting the balance of power from the US to emerging markets.
Horn of Africa drought: A vision of hell at the Dabaab refugee camp
Malaysia police arrest 500 after street battles for electoral reform
Those looking for price inflation can easily find it if they open their eyes and look at the much beloved BRICs, Brazil, Russia, India, and China, as opposed to where everyone is looking, which is to say the United States.
Guangzhou Opera House falling apart
The Guangzhou Opera House has been described as the most alluring opera house built anywhere in the world for decades, with a sleek “intergalactic” form that leaves architecture-lovers swooning.
But just a year after the south China opera house opened to the public, large cracks have appeared in the walls and ceilings, glass panels have fallen from its windows, and rain has seeped relentlessly into the building.
The opera house, which also has no resident opera company, cost more than £130 million to build over five years and has been praised as a triumph for its architect, the Iraq-born Zaha Hadid.
Equal treatment under the law.
Tourist buses attacked in Buenos Aires
Overseas visitors are an easy target for delinquents in the Argentine capital
Cuba and Venezuela Worst in the World for Child Sex Trafficking, but Liberals Love Them
Heritage Foundation has a report today on Cuban sex trafficking, now considered among the worst human rights violators in the world. Think of that every time you see an American liberal posing with a Castro. Due to the utter failure of the communistic economic system, communist leaders resort to selling their own children for sex to balance their national budget. And America liberals applaud them as the example we should follow.
Good news: all-out civil war explodes on our unprotected southern border
But, by all means: let’s not secure the border with the failed narco-terror state to the south. Especially since Mexico now appears to be hosting Hezbollah terrorists in addition to bloodthirsty drug cartels.
More than 40 bodies found in just 24 HOURS after three shootings in Mexico’s drug wars
Hezbollah and Iran south of the U.S. border, some experts say
Investigative journalist and Senior Fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center Douglas Farah said Hezbollah is establishing roots in parts of Latin America and blurring lines between terrorism and criminal activity. He noted the group’s alliance with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at a congressional meeting Thursday.
Both Chavez and Hezbollah are “bound by a common aim of the asymmetric defeat of the U.S., and a shared view in favor of an authoritarian state that tolerates little dissent,” Farah said.
In April, the U.S. commander in charge of overseeing efforts in Latin America, Gen. Douglas Fraser, testified at another congressional hearing that he was concerned about Iran’s growing presence in the region. Hezbollah receives funding from Iran, and Iran works closely with Venezuela.
Kate Middleton suffers wardrobe malfunction
US News:
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.
Army Corps predicts Missouri River will overflow up to 70 more levees
Military helicopters looking for new signs of trouble at flooded Ft. Calhoun nuke plant
The Omaha Public Power District has said that, as of today, they are trying to replace the punctured aqua dam that they said they didn’t need anyway but now they do because the water really IS going to flood the plant.
If you have ever played with water toys you can imagine how much fun it will be trying to fill a 2,000 foot-long innertube in 7 feet of running Missouri river water.
Nothing to see here, just like there is nothing to see with all the radiation blowing over from Fukushima. Move along…Radiation data from 36 air monitors around Los Alamos still not released, “should be available soon” — Feds say preliminary sampling showed no ‘dangerous’ or ‘significant’ levels
Speaking of Fukushima…If there truly is ‘nothing to see here’ then why are they doing this? it isn’t because of Hanford because Seattle is upwind from there. I am going to guess that the EPA is going to be raising the “acceptable amount of radiation exposure” limits again. Feds to conduct aerial radiation survey near Seattle to get ‘baseline readings’ — Measuring gamma emitters like radioactive cesium and iodine
Kauai Station Suspects New Traces of Fukushima Radiation
If you look at the areas affected you will note that they are our major corn/wheat (especially Durum wheat which is used to make pasta)/sunflower/canola producing areas. You might want to stock up on items made from those commodities just in case…Summer floods threaten record levels as rain predicted
“There is nowhere for any additional water to go,” Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s NWS Jack Hayes said in the NOAA statement. “While unusual for this time of year, all signs point to the flood threat continuing.”
NOAA’s Climate Prediction Service has forecasted above-average rain in already-vulnerable areas of the upper Midwest and Northern Plans in the next two weeks, and for much of the region in monthly outlooks.
Rising temperatures over the Rockies will add to the flood threat, releasing water from the remaining snowpack.
The highest flood risk areas include rivers of the North Central region in North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa; the Lower Missouri River regions from the Nebraska and South Dakota border through Missouri to the Mississippi River; tributaries to the Lower Mississippi in North Dakota; the lower Ohio River Valley; and the East and West of Rockies, including Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana and Utah.
Insider trading and collusion to drive a commodity price higher? Nah, nothing to see here…Bidders For 30 Million Barrels Of Strategic Petroleum Reserve Disclosed; JP Morgan Requests $158 Million In Crude
Probably the most notable (if not completely expected) discovery is that JPM, that FDIC-insured depositor bank, has requested 1.5 million barrels at a price of $105.33 for a total of $158 million. We wonder just what JPM plans on doing with this crude, which as predicted, will be transported by vessel, and offloaded at such time as JPM sees fit, probably well after the product is trading at a substantial premium to the purchase price. Other potential buyers include Valero, Vitol, Shell, Conoco, Plains and various other E&P companies. Ironically, JPM wants more crude than Sunoco and Tesoro: so next time one tries to gas up their car, we suggest looking for the JP Morgan gas station.
One thing is certain: with each passing day until July 22 or T-Day, the day by which Congress has to pass the debt ceiling legislation, of which there are precisely 10 working days, the market, which has so far completely ignored any concern about a failure in the debt talks, will start getting increasingly more nervous. As a reminder there is a 4 week Bill auction this Tuesday: the last one priced at 0.000%. If the logjam in DC continues after Monday, something tells us the government will not get ultra short-term funding for free.
Several Inconvenient Truths About The Debt Ceiling And “Deficit Reduction”
None of the above will be noted anywhere by the great diversionary media spin machine over the next two weeks, since July 22 is the date by which Congress says it needs to pass the debt ceiling legislation so it can get it to Obama’s desk for his signature by August 2.
Today’s Cartoon by Antonio Branco: “Kleptocracy”
According to my research, last week’s stock market rally was the sharpest such surge since 1644, just before the Ming Dynasty collapsed and Europe was decimated by an epidemic of plague. Perhaps that is coincidence, perhaps not. The Status Quo always tries to brighten the outlook just before things fall apart, and nothing cheers flagging spirits more than a sudden rise in wealth. The rally in barley in Babylon during the last week of December 1748 BCE was almost as robust, a peculiar coincidence given the next sharpest rally on record was the rebound in Dutch tulip bulb contracts which also occurred in the month of December, 1636. Shares in the South Seas Company recovered much of their initial losses in a similar rebound in London, September, 1720, a welcome respite for all the investors who were about to be wiped out by the 80% decline in share value when that bubble popped. More recently, condos in Florida saw a sharp uptick of sales and prices fetched in August, 2007, just before that market collapsed in a great heap. You see the pattern: the sharper the rally, the closer the market is to the bubble’s end-game.
Things That Make You Go Hmmm – The Past, Present And Future Of The Dollar
The truth is that every time the dollar appeared like it was on the verge of irrelevance, a gold standard of some form was reestablished, however briefly. We are now at one such crossroads. Yet only fools know for a fact what will happen hours from now, let alone years. Which is why as Williams concludes, ” Whatever happens from here, there are a few of things of which we can be quite certain” :
- To paraphrase Winston Churchill’s quote about America: Governments will always do the right thing – after they’ve run out of every possible way to avoid doing so
- The can will be kicked down the road until we run out of road – and into a brick wall
- The ultimate judge of the success (or otherwise) of every political decision made since Lehman Brothers went to the wall is shiny, yellow and costs about $1,500/oz
John Boehner Statement On Practically Agreeing To A Debt Ceiling Hike
Zero Hedge translation: in two weeks we get news of no tax hikes, and no deficit reduction, which will be spun by the great diversionary media machine as the great compromise, and, of course, leading to a $2.5 trillion debt ceiling hike. Win, win for everyone. Except America’s people of course, but who gives a rat’s ass about them: certainly not their “elected” muppets, all of which are for sale to the highest Wall Street bidder.
Boehner tells Obama ‘no’ on big debt deal
Speaker John A. Boehner told President Obama on Saturday night he will not agree to the president’s most ambitious plan for deficit reduction, citing the administration’s pursuit of tax increases as one of the main hurdles.
“The White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes,” the Ohio Republican said in a statement released Saturday night. “I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase.”
White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer issued a statement later Saturday night repeating the president’s call for a “balanced approach” on deficit reduction and urging congressional leaders to keep negotiating with the administration on the largest possible deal.
Conrad budget cuts $800B from Defense
Well, This Is Going To Piss Off The “Greatest Generation” Crowd
Well the Democrats have a plan on what they want to do to address the budget mess in Washington. Unfortunately, it is forcing the supposed “Greatest Generation” to make a choice.
They can either continue to enjoy their monthly government checks, which came about because of reforms enacted by FDR and later Democrats in the form of their Social Security checks and Medicare, or they can squander away all of their sacrifice in WWII by relegating the United States to a third world status as far as military might is concerned, thereby quite possibly enabling yet another world war. You see, in the history of mankind the one constant has always been the presence of a super power, and without that presence we devolve into chaos. For reference see: Decline of Roman Empire and the Dark Ages.
Feds’ deficit streak hits record 33rd straight month
An Open Letter to @SpeakerBoehner and Sen. McConnell: You Blow This and You Are Political Toast
Sarah Palin To Leadership: “Tackle The Debt or Expect A ‘Do-Over’ in 2012″
As a governor, I had to deal with facts, even unpleasant ones. I dealt with the world as it is, not as I wished it to be. The “elite” political class in this country with their heads in the sand had better face some unpleasant facts about the world as it is. They’ve run out of money and no amount of accounting gimmicks or happy talk will change this reality. Those of us who live in the real world could see this day coming.
… The same “experts” who got us into this mess are now telling us that the only way out of our debt crisis is to “increase revenue,” but not by creating more jobs and therefore a larger tax base; no, they want to “increase revenue” by raising taxes on job creators who are taxed enough already! As Margaret Thatcher said, “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” That’s where we are now. Hard working taxpayers have been big government’s Sugar Daddy for far too long, and now we’re out of sugar. We don’t want big government, we can’t afford it, and we are unwilling to pay for it.
This debt ceiling debate is the perfect time to do what must be done. We must cut.
… We are in desperate need of real leadership, but President Obama’s solution to everything is to grow government by borrowing more money, spending more money, printing more money, and taxing our job creators.
The Democrats equivalent of the crazy aunt that no one talks about…Has Pelosi been marginalized?
As the leader of a House caucus in a clear minority, Pelosi has already become largely irrelevant, especially after losing the midterms in such spectacular fashion. Now Newton-Small says that Barack Obama might make her even more obsolete by directly dealing with her lieutenant, Steny Hoyer, to get the moderate Democrats on board any deal:
But some Republican and Democratic sources point to Pelosi’s question in Thursday’s meeting as one that highlights how out of touch Pelosi has become on policy as she crisscrosses the country fundraising and recruiting candidates, working to regain the majority and her speakership. The President, these same sources suggested, could rely on House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer to deliver moderate Democrats to help pass the debt ceiling, thus circumventing Pelosi.”I think it’s clear she is not taken seriously by White House, Senate and Republican leadership,” said one Democratic member on the condition of anonymity. …
“Constitution In 2020″: Obama Left Moves War On Founding Document Into Final Stages
Since the Presidential campaign of 2008 conservatives have complained that the U.S. Constitution has been under assault by progressives who view the document as a roadblock to the implementation of their goals. Obama stated that the Constitution is flawed because it restricts government power to encroach on the individual rights of citizens, and that a corrective is needed to positively state what the government can do.
The docrines of ‘enumerated powers’ and ‘checks and balances between the 3 equal branches of government’ have been thrown out the window as the Executive Branch has seized unprecedented power through ‘executive orders’ that bypass the necessary approval of Congress. And all of this was done with the tacit approval of a Congress dominated by Democrats who gave Obama anything he wanted, including abdicating their responsibility to provide oversight to the Executive Branch…
…is there a broad-based progressive plan to subvert the U.S. Constitution by changing the definition of words so that the meaning becomes something entirely different than the original intent of the Framers?
And that answer would be yes.
It is called ‘The Constitution in 2020.’ Among the goals of this consortium of leftwing law schools and legal experts is to broaden the definition of individual freedom to include social and economic freedom. Those who adhere to Obama’s view of a flawed Constitution believe that one of its ‘glaring oversights’ is the failure to address economic and social justice, i.e., the redistribution of wealth…
Desperate, Devious and Dangerous: The Left’s 14th Amendment Ploy
To sum it all up: As the 14th Amendment states, debt must be “authorized by law.” As Article 1 states, only Congress can do that authorizing.
The Left’s effort to reverse this is desperate, devious and dangerous. They have seen polls showing 60 to 70 percent of the public oppose an increase in borrowing, so they are desperately trying to preserve big government. Their twisting of the Constitution is devious. And ignoring the debt ceiling would be dangerous to future generations and to today’s economy.
Imagine the chaos in financial markets if they could not distinguish Congressionally-approved and valid Treasury notes from Presidentially-authorized and questionable debt. The Left has a bad answer for this: Get the Federal Reserve to buy the new debt. That would mean printing more currency, inflating our money and further devaluing the dollar.
The entire 14th Amendment ploy needs to be shot down and denounced for what it is—another liberal maneuver to bypass both the Constitution and public opinion and to protect big government at all costs.
Adding a constitutional showdown on top of our economic crisis would only make things worse.
Today’s Democrats and Slaveholders
Today it is the same. The danger is different, but no less divisive or perilous to the long term viability of republican government.
No one can sincerely believe that the leftists take their own argument seriously. This is their modus operandi. When they are up against a wall, they scour the Constitution for any semblance of a phrase that can be managed to support their position, then proceed to lecture the rest of us on the founders’ intent.
They might fool themselves, but patriots cannot let them persuade anyone else.
Justice Department Determined to Make a Sequel to the Housing Crisis
Welcome to Shakedown City. Population “You.”
Retirement Fund Plunder Update: $206 Billion So Far, $62 Billion Left
As of today, since the debt ceiling breach on May 16, the Treasury has plundered about $206 billion from the two primary retirement accounts: the G-Fund and the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, according to calculations performed by Stone McCarthy. The full breakdown for sticklers is provided below, however what is more important is that with just 4 weeks left until the D-Day, there is about $62 billion in available debt ceiling stretching options. In other words, Tim Geithner has burned through 75% of his dry powder just 50 days into the debt ceiling breach.
Coal industry braces for massive layoffs
Liberal blogs and pundits are hugely perplexed at the horrible job numbers recently. They just can’t figure it out. They blame businesses for trying to sabotage Obama. They blame Republicans for not letting them spend trillions more in stim money. They blame the American people for voting for the GOP in the first place.
Maybe they should look in a mirror:
US adds 18,000 jobs, Canada adds 28,400
The United States added 18,000 jobs in June. Canada added 28,400 — to keep its rate at 7.4%.
The June unemployment rate was 9.2%, the federal government just announced.
Under President Obama, the national unemployment rate increased from 7.6% to 9.2%.
The number of unemployed people has risen by 2.5 million people.
Black unemployment rose from 12.6% to 16.2%.
Why are many Americans out of the workforce?
Consider the major milestones in the Democrats’ job-destroying policies:
03-01-2009: SNAP (Food Stamp) Participation Rates Leap
11-06-2009: Unemployment Extension Adds Up to 99 Weeks of Benefits
03-23-2010: Obama Signs Health Care Bill Today as GOP Challenges Constitutionality
04-02-2010: Census hiring expected to reach peak in next several months
05-27-2010: Obama Extends Moratorium; Agency Chief Resigns
09-16-2010: New PPACA [Obamacare] Provisions Take Effect in September – But Do Your Clients Know?
02-03-2011: U.S. in Contempt Over Gulf Drill Ban, Judge Rules
06-11-2011: Utility threat to shutter coal plants fuels EPA battle
07-08-2011: Report: Obama’s oil company tax proposal would jeopardize thousands of jobsThese are but a few of the employment-crushing steps embarked upon by Obama and the Democrats. And, as you can see, more are on the way.
They have yet to figure out that if you reward sloth, you get more sloth. And the worst is yet to come.
Remember in 2012.
Obama Senior Adviser: ‘People Won’t Vote Based on the Unemployment Rate’
Because nobody cares about unemployment. Well, except for all those people who can’t find work. This is arrogance on steroids.
“What did David Plouffe really say about unemployment?”
Now let’s look more closely at that possibly clever notion of Plouffe’s: Any given voter is going to ask not what the facts are about Americans in general, but how do I feel about what’s happening to me personally and do I believe that the President cares about me.
This is how people* got hooked into voting for Obama in the first place! Plouffe and company massaged people into the place where they had a feeling about Obama. Hope. Change. Yes We Can.
And Plouffe is gearing up to do it again. The difference this time is that Obama is not an outsider to the current conditions. He represents not change, but: the same. And the current situation is dreadful. Plouffe knows that, and his comments show how he’s planning, this time, to do the same thing but different. Do I believe the president makes decisions based on me and my family? Yes, you do. Or you will. Plouffe hopes.
Carney: Yeah, we don’t think Americans care about GDP, jobless numbers
Arguing that they don’t matter at all is absurd — and it demonstrates a complete intellectual bankruptcy in dealing with the economy and joblessness. They really don’t have a Plan B, and now they want everyone to believe that it doesn’t matter.
Paul Krugman Addresses the Lousy Jobs Report: This Calls for Immediate Government Spending!
Paul Krugman, Nobel Economic Laureate (stop laughing — if Barack Obama can get a Peace Prize then Krugman can get a Nobel for economics), has reviewed what he called a “seriously ugly jobs report” and concluded that more government spending is needed quickly:
The situation cries out for aggressively expansionary monetary and fiscal policy. Instead, however, all the political push is in the opposite direction.
Earlier a person on Twitter (if I remember who I’ll link it) wrote something along the lines of “this is like trying to cure someone’s meth-mouth by administering more meth.”
Liberal spin on 9.2% unemployment
From Joe Sudbay: “No doubt, GOPers, who created the economic recession and have done nothing to fix it, will be gleeful (at least among themselves.)”
Yes, I am really gleeful that my son has no job.
From Heather Boushey: “The economy will not be able to withstand the shock of running into the debt ceiling, but it will be a tragedy if the negotiations lead to reductions in public spending while the job market is so weak.”
Keep drilling those holes to let the water out of the boat.
From Steve Beden: “This jobs report is a flashing red light. It’s a wake-up call. It’s a screaming siren. Pick your metaphor — the point is, we have a jobs crisis, not a debt crisis. The longer we’re stuck in the wrong conversation, the longer it will be until conditions improve.”
It never occurs to them that we are in a job crisis because of the debt crisis.
Not just “the Democratic Party as most of us have known it,” but the post World War II structure may abruptly be juddering to an end. We are living through the crisis of the elites, whose ranks encompass but a few of the “oligarchy” Hamsher fears. Big government, multinational institutions, giant welfare states, and large scale public sector unionism may be dying.
All her heroes are now wearing black hats and losing the gunfight. And they will not go gentle into that good night.
What the jobs report signals is the impossibility of President Obama’s reelection by any ordinary means at a time when in the eyes of the Left it has become imperative to achieve by any means necessary. Disappointed that the buttons aren’t working, they are prepared to push them harder. Whenever the Left has found its nostrums wanting, it has always responded with an act of faith in itself. The jobs crisis signals an existential threat to the liberal project, at least for now, and perhaps for years to come. It will be interesting to watch the response of a dream that is running out of money.
Actual 16% Unemployment is Bad, But There’s Another Statistic that is EVEN WORSE
We haven’t yet said anything about today’s disastrous employment news. What is to be said? Unemployment is up to 9.2%, with underemployment much higher. A mere 18,000 jobs were added in June, less than one-fifth of what economists expected. Job growth in April and May was revised downward by 44,000. Another 272,000 Americans gave up and dropped out of the labor force. The news was unrelentingly bad.
One wonders whether, when the history of this era is written, today might go down as a turning point. Americans have been steadily giving up on the Obama administration, as evidence accumulates that its policies have failed and it has no solutions to the nation’s economic problems. Not only that, its purported solutions–most of which are really just pretenses for government takeovers–have made the situation worse rather than better.
Great News: Friday’s Anemic Jobs Number Are Likely Bogus
If you want to send your resume to one of these companies, don’t bother. They probably don’t exist, and neither do the jobs the government thinks they are creating. These figments of the imagination of the Labor Department’s computers will probably disappear when the numbers are checked early next year.
Look even deeper in the June report and you’ll see something else you really don’t want to know. The more broadly defined U-6 unemployment rate, which includes people who are underemployed, went from 15.8 percent in May to 16.2 percent in June.
These are workers who want full-time jobs but can’t find them. And the U-6 figure doesn’t even include people who’ve given up looking for work because they believe it’s hopeless.
Since this entire column is filled with bad news, I may as well give it all to you at once: The job numbers are only going to get worse in the months ahead.
“Soft patch”?!?!?! If that is the case then falling off an abyss is little more then hitting a “soft patch”, too….May-June Hiring Pace Just 10% That Of February-April
Weak economic reports usually contain glimmers of hope. Friday’s jobs report was just grim.
Employers added a scant 18,000 workers in June, the Labor Department said, far below views for 80,000. May’s gain was cut to 25,000 from the initial estimate of 54,000. It’s the starkest evidence of an economic soft patch: The May-June hiring pace was just 10% of the 215,000 average in February-April.
But the bleak job market raises the specter of much worse. It could trigger a vicious circle. Here’s how. Slow employment growth depresses consumer spending and confidence. Cautious consumers in turn cause companies to curb hiring and new investment, which feeds back into lower growth and confidence. Should this unhappy sequence unfold, it would surely transform the economic debate (do we need more “stimulus”?) and the 2012 campaign.
Yesterday I laid out why the U.S. will inevitably experience The Great Reset. What comes after that systemic devolution/crisis is unknown, but we can speculate on the shape of things to come. Though we cannot know the outcome, we can certainbly discern the outlines of the crisis itself. These destabilizing conditions will force a crisis at some point and will be resolved one way or another. The resolution of these brewing instabilities could be orderly or disorderly. In an orderly scenario, a new Constitutional Convention is convened, and a leadership backed by an enlightened public hammers out a consensus to limit the political and financial dominance of Financial Power Elites and corporate cartels. The new consensus reorients the Central State to its original purpose of limiting predation of the citizenry by Elites and criminals, defending the nation and imposing the rule of law as defined by the Constitution. The Savior State would be dismantled in an orderly process. In a disorderly resolution, the Status Quo and the public both refuse to deal with reality and instead cling to the Titanic, demanding magical solutions that will keep the doomed ship from sinking. There is no such magic, of course, and so the ship will go down, and disorder will reign. It might take the shape of a financial crisis such as a devaluation or hyperinflation, or it might take a political crisis such as a “Quiet Coup” by Elites or an outbreak of resistance to the heavy-handed Central State.
Another Day, Another Lie… Obama Blames His Record Deficit & Debt On Bush Again
The hallmark of being an adult is taking responsibility for your own actions. Obama and the Democrats are not adults and should be treated as such and never be allowed in a position of authority ever again…
President Obama’s defenders are taking to the airwaves to rebut the charge that his actions have caused the dire employment figure we see today. The rebuttals mirror those the President is making, and they sure don’t lack in audacity.
Some of the president’s enablers, for example, continue to claim that the unemployment rate is the fault of George W. Bush (even though it has been steadily rising two and a half years after Mr. Bush left office). Others say it is the structural result of deindustrialization. A third excuse making the rounds asserts that stalled talks over raising the debt ceiling have caused uncertainty and made businesses not hire.
Let’s quickly review the record.
From USA Today:
During his brief remarks in the White House Rose Garden today, Obama cited five reasons for slow job growth: A string of natural disasters across the globe, higher gas prices, state and local budget cuts, fiscal problems in Greece and the Euro zone, and concern about whether the government will default over failure to raise the debt ceiling.
The biggest blame belongs to that person inside Obama’s mirror.
A little more than 2 years ago, nearly 70% of America stood behind this president and gave him $787 billion. He promised 7% unemployment.
He delivered 9%.
In January 2009, The Won told House Majority Leader Eric Cantor: “I won! I will trump you on that!”
Now The Won wants to blame Republicans for his colossal mistakes?
- Obama: Don’t Look at Me… It’s the Earthquake, Tornado, State Budget Cuts, Gas Prices, Local Budget Cuts, Greece’s Fault
- Meet The Press’ David Gregory Hits Treasury Secretary Geithner With Economic Numbers, Geithner Blames the Weather
- Deficit Hawk Obama: ‘We Finally Need to Get Our Fiscal House in Order’
“The good news is, we agree on some of the big things,” he said. “We agree that after a decade of racking up deficits and debt, we finally need to get our fiscal house in order.”
A decade of racking up deficits and debts? Uh, more like 30 months. But nice try and thanks for playing.
Seems to me when he speaks of shared sacrifice he’s talking about the GOP sacrificing their campaign pledges to go along with him.Used to be everyone laughed at his jokes. It appears these days the laughter has died, along with his political future.
Translated: nobody is buying already built cars. But yes, keep blaming the collapse in auto “production” on Japan.
Time is running out on President Obama’s self-imposed deadline to rescue the nation’s slumping economy by his third year in office or risk losing re-election — a cavalier pronouncement punctuated yesterday by dismal jobless figures that prompted even Democrats to second-guess the president’s audacious 2009 assertion.
From the “Even the Devil can quote scripture to serve his purposes” department: Charles Rangel on Debt Ceiling Debate: What Would Jesus Do?
Ever wonder why Rangel, Pelosi, et al, never ask what Jesus would do on the issue of abortion? But when it comes to trying to stop them from bankrupting America under the weight of their irresponsible spending addiction, suddenly they turn to the Lord
Pelosi: Hey, Anyone Notice How There’s No Celebratory Bill Signings at the White House Anymore?
Yeah, ’cause we really miss seeing the Democrats spike the football right in our faces as they sign unread, unfunded, and unwanted bills.
I knew Casey Anthony reminded me of someone else who chills the blood…
With “Elites” Like These, Is It Any Wonder We’re Screwed?
You don’t even have to get past the subhead for the first “WTF?” moment. Five-year plans? Are you f**king kidding me? In the article, he elaborates (without any sense of irony):
In every meeting we attended, with four different customers of our company as well as representatives from four different arms of the Chinese government, our hosts began their presentation with a brief discussion of China’s new five-year-plan. This is the 12th five-year plan and it was announced in March 2011. Each of these groups reminded us that the new five-year plan is primarily focused on three things: 1) improving innovation in the country; 2) making significant improvements in the environmental footprint of China; and 3) continuing to create jobs to employ large numbers of people moving from rural to urban areas. Can you imagine the U.S. Congress and president emerging with a unified five-year plan that they actually achieve (like China typically does)?
Head, meet desk. I’m sure Herbold’s a smart guy and all, but you’d think he’d be a little suspicious of this. First, when I hear “five year plan”, I think of the Soviet Union’s endless series of them. Well, endless until the USSR dissolved, anyway. Oh, this is China’s 12th such five-year plan, you say? I rest my case.
Also, these five-year plans seem to lead to the building of a lot of ghost cities and deserted railway terminals. Chinese Potemkin Villages with high-speed rail … wherever Tom Friedman is, I bet he just sprung a woody.
The Obama Wrecking Ball to American Economy: The Cost of “Unprecedented” Over-regulation
It’s fair to say the Obama regime is the most radical and punishing administration in US history.
And after two and a half years they continue to target the American people with their job-killing radical socialist agenda. This week the extremists in the Obama EPA pushed new rules on 26 states that will kill thousands of jobs, cost billions of dollars and increase electricity rates for every family.
And get this… America-hating EPA director Lisa Jackson had the gall to claim that 34,000 lives will be saved from her latest radical job-killing regulations. Not 35,000 or 33,000… 34,000 lives. What absolute rubbish!
She is a criminal.When is enough, enough?
Instapundit with more on Obama’s war against Texas: IT’S AS IF THE EPA IS MAKING A SPECIAL EFFORT TO HURT TEXAS or something. “Three blue states and two swing states get left off, while Texas gets added even though the EPA’s own model shows little evidence that emissions from Texas impact other states at all. Nah, there’s no politics here.” Well, it’s embarrassing for Obama when Rick Perry’s Texas is creating the jobs that the blue states aren’t. Must undercut potential rivals as early as possible.
Thieves and perverts…
In the spirit of the New Transparency, I will come right out and tell you that I have done some shameful things before with pants. I have dropped pants, torn pants, flung pants, lost pants, pantsed pants and gotten into pants where I probably didn’t have any business whatsoever. Nothing to top this, however:
While most Transportation Security Administration employees are busy groping people or taking naked pictures of them, the cops say one of those employees was putting fliers’ electronics down his pants.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office says 30-year-old Nelson Santiago stole around $50,000 worth of electronics over the past six months from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport’s Terminal 1.
Santiago — a TSA officer since 2009 — was caught earlier this week by a Continental Airlines employee taking an iPad out of someone’s luggage and stuffing it into his pants, the cops say.
- 6-Year-Old Boy on His Way to Disneyland Patted Down by TSA
- TSA Continues to Indoctrinate Kids – One Child’s Book at a Time
Remember little piglets… Don’t let strangers touch you in your privates unless they are Obama’s TSA.
Then it’s good. It’s “for your own safety.”
Thomas Alva Edison heroically expanded choices for American citizens. Washington robs choices from Americans — except for abortion. What a long shadow this frightful town casts across the nation.
In this case, quite literally.
The biggest waste of money I know of is funding Chu’s employer – the federal government.
This would seem to sum it up nicely
In a conference call with reporters, [Energy Secretary Steven] Chu said the more-efficient bulbs required would save consumers money over the life of the product, even if the up-front price is higher.
“We are taking away a choice that continues to let people waste their own money,” he said.
And isn’t that what government is for, to take away the choices stupid people would otherwise make? $20 for a single light bulb vs. $0.37 cents, but who knows better than Washington how you should spend your money?
Amnesty Costs 70 Times More Than Enforcement
The cost of amnesty: $999 billion.
The cost of attrition by enforcement: as little as $14 billion.
Amnesty would cost up to 70 times as much as enforcing existing law.
La Raza Group Teams Up With Feds To Push Govt. Aid In Spanish
President Obama’s favorite La Raza group has teamed up with a federal agency to promote one of the administration’s many government cash giveaways with Spanish ads encouraging Latinos—possibly illegal immigrants—to apply for free U.S. taxpayer dollars.
The new campaign warns Hispanics that time is running out to get up to “$50,000 in help” from Uncle Sam to pay their mortgage, past due charges, taxes, insurance and even legal fees associated with their home. The money is being disbursed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of a billion-dollar Emergency Homeowner Loan Program (EHLP).
In 2008 the agency revealed that some 5 million fraudulent or defaulted home mortgages were in the hands of illegal immigrants, who obtained the loans from banks that were pressured by the government to offer them. In fact, the agency in charge of preserving and promoting public confidence in the nation’s financial system, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), began pushing banks to offer services to illegal aliens years earlier and many still do today.
Think tank to Obama: Defense budget not your domestic ATM
“The president’s accounting failures aside, there’s an even bigger problem at work,” Brownfield wrote. “Obama is of the belief that, for starters, $400 billion can be cut from the defense budget over the next 10 years without putting the military at risk” on top of cuts already made to the Pentagon budget in recent budget cycles, he added.
The Heritage writer faults Obama for wanting to “take those dollars and apply them to pay for his pet projects at home,” adding that it appears “the President is proposing those cuts irrespective of the military’s needs.”
Manufactured News of the Day: Medicaid is Just Wonderful
Gee, some group out of Harvard and MIT put their eggheads together and came up with a study saying how great a government program going broke is?
ObamaCare, ObamaCars, and Government-Mandated Broccoli
Ready for the government to regulate the interstate commerce in your stomach?
Is the era of Big Government space over?
What is really coming to an end is an anomalous and, in a sense, un-American era of belief in Big Government in space. It started in the panic of Sputnik and the “missile gap,” and was exacerbated by being beaten again when the Russians sent the first man into space — in response to which Pres. Jack Kennedy called for a race to the moon. In so doing, he established a paradigm for how we would do space flight that was a huge departure from Dwight Eisenhower’s conception of NASA. NASA was never intended to develop and operate launch systems, but was supposed to provide the technologies needed to keep the young American space industry on the leading edge, as the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics had with aviation for decades. With Apollo’s success, most accepted this mode as normal, despite the fact that the moon program was ultimately canceled because of its high cost. At that point, moving the huge existing NASA centers and contractor base (and political contributions and votes) on to a next big project — the Shuttle — seemed natural, though in retrospect it was as absurd as a country developing its own unique airplane and using it as the basis for a state-run airline, with exactly the results one might expect from such a project.
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) Introducing Bill That Would Spend $2 Billion (More) on Batteries
It seems like only yesterday that President Obama and Sheriff Joe Biden were in Michigan touting the $1 billion from the stimulus that would be spent in the state for “alternative energy” R & D — in other words, the exact same thing. Has that money gone up in green smoke already?
This is like some Field of Dreams re-make in Bizarro World. These Democrats must be awakened a nightly basis hearing a soft voice speaking in an Al Gore-ish drawl whispering, “If taxpayers fund the batteries, demand for expensive hybrids will come.”
Abortion opponents are calling for Congress to investigate Planned Parenthood.
Among the allegations:
- Misuse of federal health care and family planning funds.
- Failure to report criminal child sexual abuse.
- Failure to comply with parental involvement laws.
- Assisting those engaged in prostitution and/or sex trafficking.
- Dangerous misuse of the abortion drug RU-486.
- Misinformation about so-called “emergency contraception,” including ella.
- Willingness to provide women with inaccurate and misleading information.
- Willingness to refer to substandard clinics.
These are serious accusations and over the years Lila Rose has documented several incidents where Planned Parenthood employees may have violated the law regarding abortion and young girls.
‘Liberal-Leaning’ Obama and Wasserman Schultz at Odds Over Cuba
Of course since both Obama and DWS are considered far to the left in most cases, these media outlets still cannot even bring themselves to properly label them.
Obama and Wasserman Schultz — both liberal-leaning Democrats — are usually on the same page when it comes to policy issues. But they’re at sharp odds over how best to pressure Cuba’s Communist regime, led by brothers Fidel and Raul Castro.
Now it’s simply dishonest to call either of them liberal-leaning. Keeping the Cuba issue out of it, is there a more unctuous, belligerent House Democrat these days than Wasserman Schultz? Every time she opens her mouth she produces cringe-inducing demagoguery about Republicans wanting to kill old people and starve people. Then Obama. What can you possibly say? The guy has been easily the most far left president in our history and yet he’s got to be sold by his media lackeys as some sort of calm, reasoned centrist. Not even liberal, but just leaning liberal. It’s ridiculous.
What would constitute an actual full-blown liberal to these people?
Captain obvious: President Obama Admits Welfare Encourages Dependency
Obama’s Next Book: ‘Dreams of My Father Putting Me Up for Adoption’
Boy, this is really going to hurt Bammy’s self-esteem.
Heartbreaking: Obama Cancels Weekend Getaway
He’s actually going to pretend he’s working this weekend? Somehow I imagine he’ll still manage to squeeze some golf into his “busy” schedule.
From Fox News: “President Obama Cancels Montana Vacation Scheduled for this Weekend.”
What?
The most joy-riding, partying and vacationing president since JFK is canceling a road trip?
Culture of corruption: 90% of Obama Travel at Least Partly Politics
It is illegal for politicians to use taxpayer money for political purposes. As with all other laws, tis one doesn’t apply to the political ruling class. It’s the Chicago way…
Barack Obama must be the worst investment Warren Buffett has ever made.
Inescapable conclusion: Spending is what is out of whack.
The federal government does a lot more today than it did in 1960. Are those things worth what they’re costing us? The price difference between Eisenhower’s Washington and Obama’s Washington is about 8.4 percent of GDP in 2011, or about $1.25 trillion, roughly the annual economic output of Australia, the thirteenth-largest economy in the world, or just shy of two Switzerlands.
If Warren Buffett thinks that’s a good buy, he’s losing his edge.
Speaking of Warren Buffet…I may not be a financial rocket scientist but I think Warren is going a bit senile if he truly believes this one…Buffett predicts job growth when housing rebounds
Michele Bachmann supports slavery?
Really?
That is the Democratic Party’s plan to save Barack Obama and the Senate?
George Soros should demand his money back.
Speaking of Soros owned political entities…MoveOn.org Threatens Boycott of Obama Re-Election
Gunwalker/Fast & Furious
43 weapons in Phoenix traffic stop linked to ATF strategy
What a Shock… Obama to Unveil New Gun Control Reforms
Obama Stimulus Cash + Fast and Furious gunwalking program = dead US border agents & Mexican Police + new Obama regulations
Gunwalker Synopsis: ATF + FBI = FUBAR
I’ve been vacillating on this thing wondering whether it was: (a) a plan to support gun control legislation by goosing the “X% of guns used in Mexico come from the US” stat or (b) a bureaucratic clusterf**k so massive that it could only be pulled off by the federal government.
The right answer, of course, is “yes.”
Operation “Castaway: Second ATF Gun-Running Scandal Exposed in…… Honduras
Though the guns procured in “Operation Castaway” were initially “walked” to the Honduras, those weapons didn’t stay there. Instead, they were “smuggled through Honduras and other Central and South American countries before being used in violent crimes in Mexico and other countries in the region. A number of the firearms trafficked by the defendants in Operation Castaway have been linked to violent crimes around the world.”
This new version was reported on last September 2010 by Brian Albritton, the US Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. At that time, he proudly announced the assistance of Virginia O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge of the central and northern Florida Bureau of ATF operations.
Though Albritton may claim ignorance of what those guns were doing, poor old O’Brien hasn’t that luxury. You see, before she transferred to Florida, she first worked as an ATF agent in Phoenix, Arizona(you know, the city that ran “Fast and Furious”). And by strange coincidence, her new cityof Tampa, Floridais “walking” guns to Hondurasby using the “same failed strategy as the Phoenix Field Division’s”. It gets worse. Apparently O’Brien has left a trail of emails in which she evidently tried to cover up her deeds by advising others they didn’t have to report their “walked guns” on the technicality that Tampa Field Division isn’t part of the Southwest Border or Project Gunrunner. Those emails could be a teensy problem; and, by golly, the “first person source” informing the reporters seems to agree. As that individual crudely phrases it, O’Brien “is sh*tting herself trying to cover it up.”
From the first I suspected that this program was designed to provide an excuse for more gun control in the US. It made no sense from any other perspective. We did not need this program (Fast & Furious) to identify Mexican drug cartel leaders, straw gun purchasers or their Mexican handlers. The only thing that made sense is to allow the administration to claim that US guns were the primary source of violence in Mexico. Thanks to this government program the Obama administration became primary supplier of guns to Mexican drug cartels.
Thank goodness Obama is a Democrat. If he were a Republican this would be a scandal.
Time to Impeach and Indict: Obama and AG Holder Planned “Fast and Furious” Gun Scam in 2009
Our theory is that this was a Machiavellian move by the president and Attorney General Eric Holder to “gin up” public support for assault gun and other weapon controls.
This theory becomes even more compelling by the president’s own announcements this past week that he will “bypass Congress” to institute gun controls “of some kind” soon.
We are in a constitutional crisis with this administration. We have accessories to murder and obstruction of justice in the White House. Who will take action?
These guns “walked” into the hands of some of the most violent criminals in the world, and have been connected to the murders of two Border Patrol agents and several dozen Mexicans. Many innocent people have died to further the radical liberal gun-control agenda of the White House.
Barack Obama and Eric Holder should go to jail for this. Will the shameful, ideological American news media ever begin to cover this scandal?
In addition, the book Mexico-U.S. Relations: Issues for Congress alludes to Holder’s vociferous support of these types of operations.
Holder praised Mexico-U.S. cooperation in the investigations that led to [the] indictments [of 43 Mexican drug dealers]… …ATF has begun a new intelligence-driven effort known as Gunrunner Impact Teams (GRITs)… and beefed up its Project Gunrunner program as a part of its efforts to stop the flow of guns into Mexico… …on August 13, 2009, DHS and DOJ, along with Mexico, signed a letter of intent to develop a coordinated, bilateral arms trafficking strategy…Not only did Holder lie to Congress, but President Obama likewise has feigned ignorance. Yet Gunrunner was part of the “Stimulus package” signed by the President in 2009.
No Answer From White House on Involvement in Fast and Furious
Given the scale of the operation, and that its apparent purpose was to generate dead bodies killed with American guns to use as ammunition against the Second Amendment, it would be surprising if the White House wasn’t involved too.
With a hostile press, Obama’s reelection would already be out of the question. The obsequious lapdogs of the establishment media have their work cut out for them, keeping him propped up.
Compliments of Zappatrust.
This could be, no pun intended, the proverbial smoking gun in a growing administration scandal that deserves as much mainstream media attention as Iran-Contra or Watergate.
Right there in the stimulus bill that no one in Congress bothered to read is $10 million for Project Gunrunner (aka Operation Fast and Furious), which resulted in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and increased drug cartel violence.
Right there in the “shovel ready” stimulus, no black humor intended, is a provision for $40 million for “state and local law enforcement assistance” along our border with Mexico and in high drug-trafficking areas, “of which $10 million shall be transferred to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, salaries and expenses for the ATF Project Gunrunner.”
Attorney General Eric Holder’s “I know nothing” imitation of TV’s Sgt. Schultz has evaporated with the discovery of an April 2, 2009, speech to authorities in Cuernavaca, Mexico, in which he took Gunrunner credit for himself and the rest of the Obama administration.
Anyway, the problem with Holder’s feigned ignorance is that he gave a speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April 2, 2009, in which he boasted about Operation “Gunrunner” and told Mexican authorities of everything he was doing to insure its success.
Holder told the audience:
Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. (Italics mine)
But once the whole thing got crazy, and “Fast and Furious” left Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry dead, Holder and others in the Justice Department went from boasting about such projects to pressuring people like Acting ATF Director Melson to keep their mouths shut.
ATF’s Fast and Furious: Shovel-Ready Jobs for Gravediggers
Obama Sold, Tracked, Same Guns To Cartels He Hoped To Ban Because They Were Tracked From Cartels
Senior agents including Dodson told CBS News they confronted their supervisors over and over.
Their answer, according to Dodson, was, “If you’re going to make an omelette, you’ve got to break some eggs.”
There was so much opposition to the gun walking, that an ATF supervisor issued an e-mail noting a “schism” among the agents. “Whether you care or not people of rank and authority at HQ are paying close attention to this case…we are doing what they envisioned…. If you don’t think this is fun you’re in the wrong line of work… Maybe the Maricopa County jail is hiring detention officers and you can get $30,000 … to serve lunch to inmates…”
And which guns did the ATF sell to the cartels? AK-47-type assault rifles and Barrett .50 BMG sniper rifles. Exactly the types of guns that Obama hoped to ban due to their use by the cartels.
I’m not saying that the Obama Administration intentionally magnified the precise circumstances that they were using to justify their gun control proposals. However, their reckless policy not only had this effect, but provided guns to criminal gangs that were used to murder U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata and about 150 Mexican law enforcement personnel. Those involved in this tragic irony must be punished accordingly. It is vital that the public comes to know who in the administration knew what and when they knew it. Kudos to Congressman Issa for bringing this deadly scandal into the light. Shame on the MSM for not making this a top story.
Rep. Allen West (R-Fl.) Calls for Attorney General Holder’s Resignation
The war that dares not speak its name…US and Libya:
*crickets*
Look for the Union Label/Whackademia:
Video: Autoworker Testifies on Union Election Intimidation and Harassment
It’s funny that the Democratic Party purports to be the party of democracy, but out of the public limelight hates democracy. Besides the elected representatives in Wisconsin and Illinois that fled the state to subvert the democratic process, witness democracy in action courtesy of the UAW
Rep. Mack Grills Obama’s Car Czar on ‘Agreeing’ with Mao
Millions of people died under Mao’s “Great Leap Forward,” so what’s truly amazing is that leftists wonder why some of us have such a problem with them using any part of Mao’s philosophy as a model for re-designing America (or “fundamentally transforming” it, I should say). Obama’s left-wing “Car Czar,” Ron Bloom, is such an example.
At a House hearing late last month, Bloom was questioned, and somebody finally put him on the hot seat over his past comments.
Investigation into APS cheating finds unethical behavior across every level
Despite Massive Cheating Scandal, Donors Still Shower Money on Atlanta Public Schools
Despite a massive cheating scandal, the Atlanta Public Schools probably have nothing to worry about yet. The national media will do their best to downplay possible criminal behavior since we all know teachers are above reproach. And then we have these chumps like Bill Gates oblivious enough to keep pumping millions into this criminal enterprise.
Before Atlanta There Was Newark, NJ
As for parental involvement which Dr. Hall cites as being important to her, here is what one parent had to say at that meeting in New Jersey.
Allegedly, Hall has since attempted to deny parents their 1st Amendment rights by sending investigators to the homes of parents who speak out at Advisory Board meetings.
This report from 1997 also contains allegations of mismanagement and misuse of funds, cronyism and the picture of a woman who ruled with an iron fist and would tolerate no insubordination in the ranks while painting only a rosy picture of the system she was in charge of.
Something she continued when she relocated to Atlanta in 1999. So if you want to read yet another damming report on this All Star of Academia go ahead and click on the link.
Disgraced School Superintendent Has Time To Check Facebook
From a secret undisclosed location, probably one with no extradition agreement with the US, the disgraced former superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools system, Dr. Beverly Hall, has posted a message letting us know that everything that happened wasn’t her fault and just the rogue acts of a few individuals. Umm, yeah like a 178 of ‘em.
In Other News…
Former First Lady Betty Ford Dies
He forgot the Kobe beef, the Lobsters with tons of butter that Michelle Obama loves to chow down on washing it down with Cristal champagne…Libs Outraged Over Paul Ryan’s $350 Bottle of Wine… But Were Silent When Nancy Pelosi Pounded Down $101,000 of Booze On “Pelosi One” …Update: And Obama Served $399 Bottles of Wine to Chi-Coms
Patriotic Stirrings in the Real America
Out here in the real America, patriotism supersedes socioeconomics. Furthermore, “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design” antithetical to American freedom, “it is their right, it is their duty,” to become active in the civic realm — and to set things right. Those children in Independence Day parades — all across the “red” and “purple” states of the USA — certainly deserve no less
The inspiring College Democrats of America video that provided young moonbats an opportunity to explain their chosen party affiliation was deleted from Vimeo, apparently when the creator realized that it made Democrats look like the creepy, clueless fools that so many of them are. It has been replaced with a video featuring more appealing and reasonable college Democrats
ISP Piracy Warnings: What You Need to Know
Many ISPs already provide warnings to users if sketchy behavior is detected, but the Copyright Alert System is intended to provide a standardized approach that all ISPs will use. But how does it actually work? Is my ISP going to be snooping on my Web activity to catch me illegally downloading an episode of “Dexter”? Will ISPs hand this info over to the RIAA and MPAA so they can sue me? We took a look at the new plan and some of the top questions that have emerged since the announcement.
From The Bad Idea File: Installing Spyware on Apple Store Computers as an ‘Art Project’
Perry testing the Iowa waters?
That Was Quick… Romney Uses Plouffe’s Outrageous Jobs Comments in New Video
Bachmann first presidential candidate to sign anti-Sharia pledge
Democrats Urge Justice Department to Investigate… Democrats?
As the number of states passing voter ID laws is increasing, Democrats are up in arms about disenfranchisement of voters. Despite this, there are good reasons to believe that fraud might be widespread and producing identification hardly seems like a difficult barrier.
Nonetheless, a group of Democratic Senators recently sent a letter to the Justice Department asking them to scrutinize the states that have recently passed voter ID laws
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! From the “Be careful to keep your words sweet because some day you may have to eat them” Department:
Democrats have publicly demonized the Koch brothers ever since Barack Obama singled out one of the organizations they sponsor in an August 2010 speech.
It came as a surprise this past month then when the Koch Brothers received a letter from the DSCC begging for cash.
Philip Ellender, President, Government & Public Affairs at Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC was quick to answer back with this unforgettable response to the request.
Over the past year Democrats have publicly demonized the Koch brothers ever since Barack Obama singled out one of the organizations they sponsor in an August 2010 speech.
Democrats even carried “Koch sucker” signs at their rallies.
The left even accused the Koch Brothers of murder for supporting liberty and free markets.
Yesterday the Koch Brothers reported on an outrageous request by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for campaign cash. The Koch brothers released an audio request and email response to the democratic group for donations.
Today the DSCC fired back at the Koch Brothers after their donation request was rejected.
Joplin, Missouri continues to rebuild and recover from a devastating May 22, 2011 E-5 tornado which has now taken 159 lives. Please help how you can. This is the ugly stage: Volunteers have dropped off, federal aid is “iffy,” insurance companies are giving nothing but mush-mouth. Help, America. Where, by the way, is Hollywood? Where are the compassionate limousine liberals? Shame on you. Is Joplin too white and too Christian and too Republican for you? SHAME ON YOU! Raising money for Obama? Vacationing? HELP JOPLIN!
Muslims to defend sharia law in NY, NJ, Texas
Defend meaning promote. It’s part of terror-linked ICNA’s National Sharia Campaign featuring the grandson of the founder of the infamous Muslim Brotherhood. The ‘Islamic Circle of North America’ or ICNA seeks an Islamic super-state governed by sharia law.
The campaign and this sharia roadshow is the Muslim response to Americans who are becoming increasingly aware of Islamic sharia law and its encroachment into U.S. courts, and want it banned.
New Jersey Dem Leader Nearly Struck By Lightning While Bashing Christie (Video)
It’s a sign!
Top New Jersey Democrat Stephen Sweeney was nearly hit by lightning while he was bashing Republican Governor Chris Christie.
Rhode Island Democrats Pass Voter ID Bill, ‘Communities of Color’ Hardest Hit
Obviously, it’s racist. Oh wait, Democrats passed it and Lincoln Chafee signed it? Well, it’s just good government in that case.
Connecticut: When Government Liberals Are Set Free
You would not believe what Libs have been up to here lately. A series of posts on this will erupt from time to time, when I can scrape my heart off the floor. But here’s a headline-links dump, to give you a taste.
- Largest Tax Increase In Connecticut History
- Nobody Even Reads These Bills, Do They?
- Connecticut’s Version Of ‘The Bridge To Nowhere’ Unproductive Pork Project With Federal Money
- Early Release Program For Felons
- In-State Tuition For Illegal Immigrants
And it goes on and on.
NYC Atheists Winning Friends and Influencing People
File this one under the category of Know When to Pick Your Fights. This isn’t one of them. But in the non-stop assault on religion, there’s no level of pettiness people won’t stoop to, apparently.
Ralph Gullickson never found his firefighter brother’s remains after 9/11. All he has is a street sign honoring him – and now a city atheist group wants to take it away.
The Manhattan-based NYC Atheists are demanding the city change the name of a Brooklyn block christened “Seven in Heaven Way” in honor of seven area firefighters killed in the Sept.11 attacks.
“We weren’t even able to recover my brother’s remains. These little things like a sign is all we have left,” said Gullickson, 44, referring to his brother Joseph. “How dare these people try to take it away from us.”
Union-Busting Governor Axes 400 Jobs
Just imagine the howls of outrage if a Republican governor axed 321 jobs.
Considering that over 80% of the residents of Washington DC vote for Democrats these guys are getting the Hope and Change™ they voted for…District of Criminals Puts the Screws to Cabbies and Their Fares
The statists who have been squeezing the life out of our country are presented by their allies in the establishment media as the champions of minorities, immigrants, and the working class. Let’s have a liberal explain how this corrupt, tyrannical lunacy benefits minorities, immigrants, or the working class
Top NY Democrat Actually Lives in Virginia
If he really wants to spend more time with his family, perhaps he should get off the government payroll and find a real job. Of course in this disastrous Obama economy, that’s probably not going to happen any time soon.
In Ohio, folks fighting Obamacare with proposed state constitutional amendment
It’s almost eerie to me how very, very little Obamacare seems to have factored into the debt discussions so far, given what a documentable driver of the deficit the Affordable Care Act will ironically prove to be. But in Ohio, at least, citizens continue to talk about the massive new entitlement program — and, in fact, to do more than talk.
The combination of decades of Democratic party rule, ‘social justice’ policies, letting radical leftist ‘community activists’ run rampant creating an class of people who think everything is owed to them and jacking up taxes sky high to pay for it all will do this to a city…From Motown to Ghost town: How the once mighty Detroit is heading down a long, slow road to ruin
It’s an Obama World… Michigan Woman Faces Jail Time for Veggie Garden
But, didn’t Michelle want us to grow our own produce?
This is what happens when you let alot of Bleu state refugees into your state. What these kiddies don’t know is that Texas will shut them down in ways that they will not like or will not live long enough to decide whether or not they like it. It’s time to bring back the shotgun squads, that will stop this kind of sh*t quick! FLASH MOBBERY DALLAS – Minority Youths Trash & Rob Another Convenience Store
Another black youth mob trashed and robbed a convenience store — This time in Dallas.
Security cameras caught the flash mobbery in real time
Viva Texas and Governor Perry! Murderer Humberto Leal is EXECUTED in spite of Obama
Burn IN HELL, Humberto Leal, Mexican illegal alien murderer. On that fire, let’s also throw: Barack Obama, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico, and the International Court of Justice in the Hague. Does anyone care about the murder victim of Humberto Leal? Here are a few facts about this death penalty case the liberals don’t discuss.
Texas governor Rick Perry refused to halt the execution of convicted rapist-murderer Humberto Leal
The liberal aristocracy, including President Obama and the President of Mexico, and some international tribunal in Europe somewhere, tried everything they could to stop a convicted vicious rapist- murderer from being executed legally under the law of the great state of Texas.
Note below in their legal arguments that they cynically scold Texas for possibly “endangering Americans abroad” because of the decision to execute a Mexican citizen who killed someone in our country. THIS from the administration which won’t secure our borders with Mexico? Barack Obama, who is having his Justice department sue the state of Arizona for trying to protect its border that Obama won’t defend? This is the sick, pretzel logic of liberals. Texas blogger, Mel Maguire has a good column discussing how Americans are mistreated in the Mexican legal system. The president of Mexico has a lot of nerve preaching to us about “rights.”
Late Thursday, JUSTICE PREVAILED.
Adria Sauceda was 16 years old when she was gang-raped and then murdered by Humberto Leal
Read what absolute drivel the President of the United States and his liberal water-carriers on U.S. Supreme Court used to try to interfere with states’ rights. Read carefully what their flawed, immoral reasoning was. Liberals want horrific murderers to walk free. Is this the world you want?
Illegal Alien Who Raped and Murdered Teenager Executed Over Obama’s Strenuous Objections
This isn’t the first time the Manchurian Moonbat has shown his eagerness to side with Mexico against an American state in support of illegal colonists. At least we know where his sympathies lie.
Uhh, Texas, About That New School Superintendent Y’all Just Hired
Dr. Augustine had a legal and ethical duty not to falsify, misrepresent, omit or erroneously report information submitted to governmental agencies. We conclude that Dr. Augustine violated this by duty by intentionally causing a letter containing false information to be transmitted to the state. Specifically, Dr. Augustine caused and allowed a letter to be transmitted to the state indicating that the investigation into allegations of cheating at Deerwood Academy was complete and that no evidence of cheating had been found.
We conclude that Dr. Augustine either knew or should have known cheating and other misconduct was occurring in schools in the APS system.
Finally, when questioned about the Deerwood Academy investigation and other matters, she made false statements.
Yeah, other then the part about the teachers sitting in the break room changing answers on the test while other teachers were surprised to discover that students who had previously been unable to read passed the CRCT test with flying colors. Of course, the principal making an occasional visit to the break room to get a candy bar and check up on their progress wasn’t suspicious in the least.
The ball is in their court now. Let’s see just how far that slogan “Don’t Mess With Texas” goes.
“Stealth” Move to Pass All-Internet Voting in California — Citizens’ Group Warns of Fraud Potential
Has anyone noticed that California is about to go totally online with voting?
This is a big red alert. It is being billed as a way to save money, but it is a HUGE invitation to even more vote fraud in California. [Read about 2010 here.] Governor Jerry Brown was pushing “vote by mail” a few months ago, which is bad enough. Voting online is impossible to police.
Facts About Tax: Top 5 “Tax Haven” States and California Tax “Hell”
Los Angeles Prepares for “Car-Mageddon” as the 405 Freeway Is Closed for 53 Hours
They call it “Car-Mageddon” in Los Angeles, people in the Northeast call it a normal summer day.
Regulating California’s Auto Industry into the Electric Chair
Californians, especially Southern Californians, love their cars, from a big Jeep a la Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” to a slick Mercedes Benz. With such a large number of auto consumers, it seems safe to say that a Californian will know what sort and what priced car is best for him. Yet the California Air Resources Board is working on a new proposal to be unveiled this September that will exhort Californians to buy electric cars. A regulatory agency with unelected members is picking which products are winners and which are losers in the state’s legendary and diverse auto marketplace.
The California Air Resource Board, or CARB, is proposing an update to the existing Zero Emissions Vehicles, or ZEV, program with new fines for automakers if they do not sell enough electric cars, pushing an ultra green agenda on the Golden State’s consumers. In addition to the current $7,500 rebate on models such as GM’s Chevy Volt, the new regulatory proposal will mandate that a certain percentage of all new cars produced and sold in California must be zero emissions vehicles, or ZEVs, according to Elise Keddie, the Air Resources Board Implementation Manager. Automakers failing to meet this quota will be fined up to $5,000 for each vehicle they failed to produce and sell. California, too, relies on coal-fired electricity but because it cannot produce enough coal to satisfy its electricity needs, it imports a great deal of ‘dirty’ electricity from neighboring states. Thus, although the intent behind the bill is to increase the use of zero carbon emissions vehicles in California, instead it may simply be exporting the very emissions it seeks to avoid to its neighbors.
Why There’s No Hope for San Francisco Chap. # 76: $1.6 Billion for 1.7 Mile Subway???
Well, we’ve been saying California should do more to be like Texas…
According to Ilya Somin, California would have to consent to splitting up before it could happen. Would they? Dunno. This guy Stone will have to give them good reason to go along with it. An offer they can’t refuse, so to speak. Or at least an overwhelmingly positive popular referendum.
What an interesting precedent that would set. Imagine the possibilities, if it worked. Southern Illinois splitting away from Chicago’s domination. Upstate New York doing the same. East Texas and West Texas? Nah, Texans are too proud of being Texans.
What about parts of states joining other states? Florida’s panhandle digging a trench and joining Georgia, for example? Or…
Y’know, in 1842, northern Illinois voted by a 2 to 1 margin to join Wisconsin, once Wisconsin became a state.
Liberals don’t understand criminal justice
How did Caylee Anthony die?
After 3 years of Nancy Grace braying night-after-night on national TV, we still do not know.
In the certainty that is the hallmark of American justice, the jury — tears and all — unanimously decided she is not guilty.
The editorial, which meandered through a few other infamous cases concluded: “The Anthony case probably will join other enigmas in the annals of justice riddles.”
It is not an enigma.
Prosecutors failed to prove she killed her kid.
Two words for those who think she should have been convicted anyway: Sam Sheppard.
As for the editorial, I just think the Gazette had a bad day.
Double amputee Iraq war veteran dies after he was flung off roller coaster at 50 mph
This ‘womyn’ has a future as an MSNBC anchor…A Moonbat Explains Why She Hates the Troops
We’re the terrorists; America is bad; American heroes are either dumb or evil. Scratch most any liberal and this grotesquely sanctimonious ideology will seep to the surface like pus from an infected wound. They view patriotic Americans not as opponents in a debate but as an enemy to be destroyed.
MSM Circus and Celebutard Side Show:
NY Times Thinks Economy Runs Thanks To Government
It’s rather tiresome watching the Fish Wrap editorial board take meth before snapping out their editorial, but, at least it gives them an excuse to be so drastically wrong.
Cut Expenditures In The Tax Code For… Hollywood
The other interesting thing I note is that liberals always seem to understand that lower taxes spur economic activity — but if and only if it is themselves getting the favorable tax treatment.
Hollywood of course lobbied for this special break, most likely to keep productions from moving to other countries (first England, and lately, Canada).
So when it comes to their industry, they get that higher taxes –and higher production costs due to unionized labor!– create a barrier to economic production, and lower taxes and lower production costs due to cheaper labor create an environment for economic creativity.
But when it comes to every other industry? Every other American?
Suddenly they get dumb and pretend like they forgot about this.
Alec Baldwin, I’m sure, is currently the beneficiary of a special break for productions filmed in New York City.
AP Report Interrupts Two-Sentence Boehner Statement With Seven Grafs of Obama-Related Hype
Given the opportunity to directly relay the two sentences of House Speaker John Boehner’s statement on the status of debt-ceiling and budget negotiations tonight, the Associated Press’s Andrew Taylor and Jim Kuhnhenn, in their 9:29 p.m. report (saved here at my web host for future reference, fair use and discussion purposes) disgracefully cut the Speaker’s statement off after its first sentence and inserted seven paragraphs designed to minimize its full impact, leaving readers unaware of Boehner’s full statement with the impression that its second sentence was uttered sometime and somewhere else.
AP notices we’ve driven out of the ditch and are heading towards a cliff.
NAACP Blasts CNN’s Lack of Diversity
Of course Fox employs more blacks, as well as liberals, than CNN employs conservative voices. But hey, they have to work that swipe in at Fox somehow.
Curiously escaping their ire was lily-white MSNBC.
‘It’s a Great Gig To Be Paid by CNN So That You Can Promote Your Clients’
It’s bad enough most of CNN’s on-air “talent” wave their pom-poms for Barack Obama. Now they’re actually putting one of his own pollsters on as a so-called corespondent. No doubt the tax-eating grifters at Media Matters will be all over this obvious conflict of interest.
The most trusted name in news, right?
His political career ended with a bang, his television career with nary a whimper.
CNN has canceled its television talk show hosted by former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, despite a major revamp less than six months ago.
Media Bias 101: How liberal lies seep into our pop culture and become “fact”
Last week, in an attempt to explain a little better my thoughts on the influence of mainstream media bias, I wrote a post in which I talked about how the MSM actively inserts itself into the public debate over various hot button issues with emotion-based reporting that routinely ignores or paints in a negative light the other side of a given argument. I summed up by saying the following:
This is why we as conservatives so often face uphill battles. Busy people with hectic lives and, for that matter, people who aren’t particularly interested in diving in deeper into any given issue, read the insta-news and quickie headlines on their cellphones and laptops and that’s the extent of their research. Ideally, what we’d get is mainstream media reporting that doesn’t have any angle on it other than just a simple reporting of the facts – free from spin, while letting the reader draw their own conclusions. Unfortunately, I’m afraid, those days are long gone. Fortunately with the rise of blogs over the last decade-plus the tide is turning for people who want to get the other side of the story rather than just the mainstream media version, but we still have a long way to go to counter the inherent liberal media bias that we encounter no matter where we go.
Well, guess what – hate to say it but I “toldjah so.” It’s happened – again. This time with the help of a prominent liberal blog funded by George Soros. We’ll start off with the article in question.
What these leftards forget is that two can play that game and their Democrat/radical left allies have alot more to hide and alot more to lose…
Is this the oppo research of the future? What jackasses we are becoming!
TPM should be ashamed of itself passing along this embarrassing story and for the way it presented this material. In the middle of the piece, TPM informs us of Congressional ethics rules barring expensive gifts from lobbyists. I was thinking: Oh, maybe this is a serious problem. But if you keep reading, much further down, you see that Ryan paid for the meal with his own credit card, and TPM saw the receipt. Ridiculous! What hackery from the once-respectable Talking Points Memo!
That’s pretty much the most important thing that you should take from neo-Puritan* Susan Feinberg’s decision to make a scene in a restaurant by accosting (drunkenly?) Rep. Paul Ryan’s choice in alcoholic beverages (which he paid for on his personal card): the man subscribes to the “20% is the new 15%” rule of tipping in this wonderful new economy that Reid, Pelosi, and (after 2008) Obama has wished upon us. Which I do myself. After all, aside from the aforementioned bad economy waitstaff don’t really have that great a job. I mean, at any point they may be called upon to… I don’t know, handle low rent, belligerent drunks who are accosting folks who are just trying to peacefully enjoy their dinners. You know. Trash behavior.
Out of curiosity, Susan Feinberg: how much did you tip your server? After all, as Mediate – MEDIATE, forsooth! – noted, you’re able to afford dinner at that restaurant, too.
Soros-funded Media Matters, the dumbest website on the internet, and Democratic groups have formed a new far left research organization to track GOP candidates in the field. American Bridge 21st Century will arm their young socialist brigade with cameras hoping to catch GOP candidates in embarrassing gaffes.
The far left group hope to assist failed president Barack Obama in the 2012 election.
Patti LaBelle’s Body Guard & Hairdresser Charged for Assaulting West Point Cadet (Video)
Worst Ratings In The World: Keith Olbermann’s Ratings Take a Nose Dive
At this point, Olbermann is being paid $40 a year for every daily viewer he is attracting. Hard to imagine they are making any money off his show.
Best bang-for-the-buck since the Stimulus.
Global Warmening:
Solar activity report: the sun is still in a funk
100 years ago today, “climate disruption” traveled back in time to kill 652 people
There’s always a lot of squawking about “climate disruption” from politically funded disinformers like Joe Romm, Bill McKibben, and their ilk anytime there is a heat wave anywhere these days. But, it doesn’t hold up. One only has to look at all the faux noise made last year over the Russian heat wave, which NOAA later analyzed and said was not connected in any way to “climate change”.
The heat wave of 2003 in Europe has often been cited as proof that AGW is making heat waves worse. But, at a time when we had far less people, and far less CO2 in the atmosphere, a very deadly heat wave occurred.
History: 100 years ago today, In the US 652 deaths in a week reported during heatwave 9th July 1911 despite a lower composition of CO2 in the atmosphere. The only possible explanation? “Climate Disruption” has the power of time travel /sarc
No “Glo-Bull” Warming in Canada and Way too Much Bull ‘Moose-ing”
In Newfoundland, Canada there is one moose for every 4 people
Global warming “hysterics” keep losing steam and credibility. Neurotic climate change biologists regretfully report: Polar bear populations are booming.
And uh oh: Moose are way too plentiful up North, too.
Record highs? – NOAA staffers are beginning to doubt the accuracy of the measurement system
While Joe Romm squawks about record highs being “obscenely hot” over at Think-Climate Progress, there’s a quiet bit of questioning going on within NOAA about the veracity of the surface temperature measurements, particularly related to ASOS stations at airports, which have made up a significant number of recent record high temperatures in the USA in June.
But the most precious nugget in the story is this: “He wrote that after clashing with Lindzen, he tried to improve his communications skills by reading English novels out loud to his wife. ‘It improved my vocabulary, but not my tact.’”
Good thing I had finished my coffee when I got to that part, or I would have ruined yet another keyboard. I can just see Hansen now, hopefully reading the most appropriate title for him, Pride and Prejudice. I wonder if he got to the part, near the end of the novel in Chapter 59, where Elizabeth reflects:
How earnestly did she then wish that her former opinions had been more reasonable, her expressions more moderate! It would have spared her from explanations and professions which it was exceedingly awkward to give. . .
UN Report: And the Cost of ‘Greening’ the Entire World Will Be…
Two years ago, U.N. researchers were claiming that it would cost “as much as $600 billion a year over the next decade” to go green. Now, a new U.N. report has more than tripled that number to $1.9 trillion per year for 40 years.
So let’s do the math: That works out to a grand total of $76 trillion, over 40 years — or more than five times the entire Gross Domestic Product of the United States ($14.66 trillion a year). It’s all part of a “technological overhaul” “on the scale of the first industrial revolution” called for in the annual report. Except that the U.N. will apparently control this next industrial revolution.
The new 251-page report with the benign sounding name of the “World Economic and Social Survey 2011” is rife with goodies calling for “a radically new economic strategy” and “global governance.”
Throw in possible national energy use caps and a massive redistribution of wealth and the survey is trying to remake the entire globe. The report has the imprimatur of the U.N., with the preface signed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon – all part of the “goal of full decarbonization of the global energy system by 2050.”
Make no mistake, much of this has nothing to do with climate.
“Has nothing to do with the climate” indeed. It’s just a massive wealth transfer plan — or “prosperity spreading opportunity” as they say in the White House.
A mini-movie in blackboard form – Why The Left’s Global Warming Agenda Is Wrong
World War II bombing raids offer new insight into the effects of aviation on weather
The Sock Drawer:
There is a new product at Ikea. Here is the instruction manual-HENJ
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2: Gone with the wand
JK Rowling’s books provided the perfect template for wonder. Each special effect – the candles that float on the ceiling, the pen that punishes its writer by scratching words into the skin, the centaurs that appear from the woods or the dragons that screech through the sky – has a quality that fulfils every child’s longing for magic. Each was faithfully reproduced by an exceptional special-effects team.
But Rowling also handed to the filmmakers the most archetypal of stories – the orphan child who must defeat the ultimate evil. Best of all, she gave him two friends: the clown and the sage – Ron and Hermione. Then she placed them in a school, where there were teachers good and bad, happy times and lonely ones.
No wonder children and teenagers have so embraced the stories: they are at the heart of them. Despite the fantastical setting, a teenage filmgoer can recognise him- or herself in this trio as they grow up and sort out the universe at the same time.
Major grocery chain gets rid of self-checkout
In retail, the customer experience isn’t merely about speed. It’s about something that makes you feel good (or at least doesn’t make you feel bad) every time you do it.
One wonders whether, at the heart of Albertsons decision lies the truth that self-checkout is about as much fun as calling Comcast or Time Warner and getting one of those recorded voices that runs you through fifteen options in at least two languages. When all you want to do is talk to a human being.
Polish man spends 18 days stranded at Brazilian airport
A Polish man spent more than two weeks stranded at a Brazilian airport in a case that echoes Steven Spielberg’s film “The Terminal.”
Giant storm on Saturn has massive lightning activity caught on tape
Rock Paper Scissors (the expanded rules)
The world’s most expensive paintings
How do canvas panels covered with pigment acquire price tags of more than $100 million? Who buys them – and why? On the eve of his new TV show about the world’s most expensive paintings, Alastair Sooke explains how art became the ultimate status symbol.
Scientists baffled as Mount Etna ‘knocks clocks 15 minutes fast’
New Orleans has its own ‘special’ version of the Pamplona bull run…
San Fermin in Nueva Orleans (SFNO) is an annual festival in New Orleans featuring an Encierro (bull run), which replicates and pays homage to the world famous Encierro of Pamplona, Spain, or “The Running of the Bulls”, only our bulls are none other than members of the Big Easy Rollergirls and select participants from other rollerderby leagues across the country!
This year, San Fermin in Nueva Orleans will be celebrated from July 7 – July 10, featuring an Encierro on Saturday, July 9, 2011 at precisely 8:00 a.m.
At this point you might be asking yourself “Why?”, to which we can only respond, “¿Por qué no?”
Roman first-aid kit discovery sheds new light on medicines used in ancient times
Cephalosporin Susceptibility Among Neisseria gonorrhoeae Isolates — United States, 2000–2010
