Must Reads of the Day:
- Mark Steyn: Debt ceiling more an abyss
But in the early 21st century foreign and domestic debt is a threat to liberty. As the Brokest Nation in History drowns in its profligacy, its commissars will grow ever more rapacious and desperate. If you think Obama’s dreary attempt to blame America’s woes on corporate-jet owners is unbecoming to the chief of state, wait till he’s reduced to complaining about two-car families. By the way, if you’re reading this out on the runway at O’Hare, what’s the difference between a corporate jet landing and Obama flying in?
With Air Force One, even when they switch the engines off, all you can hear is the whining.
No author writes a dystopian apocalyptic doomsday book because he wants it to happen: Apart from anything else, the collapse of the banking system makes it hard to cash the royalty check. You write a doomsday book in hopes you can stop it happening. But time is running short. If you think we’ve got until 2050 or 2025, you’re part of the problem.
- Walter Russell Mead: The Invisible Hand Is Writing On Our Wall
We are not at the end of the road, but we are close enough now that the specter of national bankruptcy is becoming discernible through the mist. The frantic twisting and turning in both America and Europe as our societies come to realize just how we have overpromised and underpaid is only the start. We will blame the politicians as much as we can, but we the people have also lied to ourselves. We accepted promises that sounded too good to be true, we accepted counterfeit promises and passed them along as good money.
Denial has been our closest companion and our best friend. Unfortunately it will betray us in the end; following the news from Europe and Washington these days I keep thinking of Carlyle’s meditations on the looming bankruptcy of the French monarchy as that country’s revolution approached:
Great is Bankruptcy: the great bottomless gulf into which all Falsehoods, public and private, do sink, disappearing; whither, from the first origin of them, they were all doomed. For Nature is true and not a lie. No lie you can speak or act but it will come, after longer or shorter circulation, like a Bill drawn on Nature’s Reality, and be presented there for payment, — with the answer, No effects. Pity only that it often had so long a circulation: that the original forger were so seldom he who bore the final smart of it! Lies, and the burden of evil they bring, are passed on; shifted from back to back, and from rank to rank; and so land ultimately on the dumb lowest rank, who with spade and mattock, with sore heart and empty wallet, daily come in contact with reality, and can pass the cheat no further.
To put it more succinctly if a tad less high-mindedly, Gore is calling for a revolt of the asses, not the masses. He wants the elites to take to the streets. (Hey, we’re a poet, and we didn’t even know it.)
The odd thing is, the prog elites are already revolting. And not just against Kochfoxspecialinterestscorporatejetowners but against their own leaders and institutions. Take former Enron adviser Paul Krugman. (Please.) In an extraordinary rant on the New York Times website, Krugman takes Obama to task for his economic leadership (or lack thereof). He quotes Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, as saying, “We do not believe that there is a threat of a double-dip recession,” and responds:
For two years the White House has been determinedly cheerful, always declaring that the recovery was on track, that its policies were working fine. And all it did was squander its credibility. Maybe admitting the truth, saying that in fact we hadn’t done nearly enough, would not have helped get useful legislation through Congress. But at least it would have conveyed the message that the WH was living in the same reality as ordinary workers.
Now they’re doing it again. To what purpose? Do they think the markets will be reassured? Do they think consumers will be reassured? At this point, after the “summer of recovery” came and went a whole year ago?
Spin is part of politics. But sometimes you have to know when to stop.
We do not think that racism is the primary reason, or even a significant factor, in the failures of Obama’s presidency. Obama is failing because of his inexperience, poor political skills, and rigid adherence to bad ideas. America is ready to be led by a black president; the problem is that the particular man we elected president turned out not to be, and still is not, ready to lead.
To blame Obama’s failures on racism is to hold him to an unreasonably low standard. It is also to give in to a false sense of despair about racial progress in America.
Classic Post of the Day: After reading the article below under World News entitled “Iran Plans For A World Without America” read this one from 2006- The End of the City on the Hill.
Must See TeeVee!
The entire problem with this economy is the notion that some people have of “unfairness” in markets. In fact, that’s how we got here in the first place. Government intervened to correct what was seen as “unfairness” in the housing market by guaranteeing risky loans, which set off a housing bubble that left the economic system in ruins. We got Obamanomics as the end result of that, which is all about “fairness,” and which has utterly failed to produce growth thanks to the arbitrary and punitive ways it treats investors.
- LOLOLOLOL! E-Trade Baby Loses Everything.
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.
Summary (Part 1) of Professor Tatsuhiko Kodama’s Interview with Daisuke Tsuda on August 5
“Scientists talk based on certain assumptions. But when the assumptions are wrong, then everything based on those assumptions is wrong.”
700 Liters of Highly Contaminated Water Leaked
According to TEPCO, the leak was found at the hose that routes the water used to flush the vessels [Kurion's system] back into the treatment system. Cesium-134 was detected at 5,500,000 becquerels/cubic centimeter, and cesium-137 was found at 6,270,000 becquerels/cubic centimeter. The level of cesium is about the same as that of the contaminated water in the basements of the turbine buildings at Reactors 3 and 4.
What? That’s the level of contamination in the water in Reactors 3 and 4? That’s news to me also. Water in the basements of Reactors 1 and 2 is considered even more radioactive.
Yokohama City Finally Admits It May Have Been Feeding School Children with Radioactive Beef
25 to 40 grams of the meat was used per serving. The Board of Education says “Since it was a small amount, it’s hard to believe it would affect the health.”
Here we go again. Citizens of Yokohama, take down the names of the people who said this.
So, the concerned citizens in Yokohama was raising the issue since April, and the they were dead right. They raised the issue with the city, and the city refused to do anything. Why? They could have tested the meat in April, and could have stopped using it. Instead, they did nothing, forced kids to eat school lunches (many parents were upset with school principals refusing to allow home-made lunch). Too afraid to find out? Too cheap to test?
Member of Parliament: Health Canada “negligent” on Fukushima radiation threats
World News:
Saudi Markets down 5.46% Today but the real show is Sunday
Remember when we said (yesterday) that Germany will soon balk over the fact that it is pledging its entire economy to bail out an insolvent Europe? Well, that moment has come.
For a world that has supposedly largely priced in the US downgrade, the amount of emergency conference calls this weekend is a little disturbing.
PIMCO: “U.S. Downgrade Heralds A New Financial Era”
Time for deeply introspective Op-Eds galore. Not too surprisingly, the first one comes from blogging powerhouse Pimco, and its chief literary superstar, Mo El-Erian, titled “U.S. Downgrade Heralds a New Financial Era.” While Mohamed’s outlook is mostly politically correct fluff, he does bring up the absolutely spot on point that FrAAAnce is about to become FrAAnce, which also means that Germany’s worst nightmare: that of backstopping the EFSF entirely on its own, is about to become reality.
The meek and somnolent shall inherit nothing, because Europe just came back online and the apocalypse has resumed.
French, Italian CDS Hit Record, Yen Resumes Climb
Yep. Europe again. Following comments from Generali’s CEO Giovanni Perissinotto based on a transcript from a conference call earlier that the Eurozone is at risk of breakup (something which everyone knows, but nobody dares to say, especially not anyone whose CDS is trading in lockstep with those of Italy), the USDCHF just plunged to fresh all time lows. And so all the goodwill created by the robotic buying on the NFP headlines is gone.
Eurozone Manufacturing Recovery Loses Momentum In July
China To Obama Admin: “The Good Old Days Of Borrowing Your Way Out Of Messes” Are Over…
They still hate us, but now they’re not afraid of us too
The breadth and depth of the Obama’s administrations screwed up priorities is straggering.
It’s not bad enough that they are on the wrong side of big government history domestically, we have witnessed a wholesale abdication of power abroad in a myriad of ways.
Your tax dollars at work…U.S. Taxpayers Help Pay Millions in Salaries to Jailed ‘Palestinian’ Terror Suspects’
“The U.S. funds the PA’s general budget. Through the PA budget, the U.S. is paying the salaries of terrorist murderers in prison and funding the glorification and role modeling of terrorists,” the report reads.
The average salary of a prisoner is greater than Palestinian civil servants – prisoners on average receive $3,200 a month compared with $2,800 for civil servants.
The U.S. government provided nearly $600 million to the PA last year, including $225 million in direct budgetary assistance to the PA, the report stated. But the PA’s new law may violate congressional rules for providing financial aid to the region.
Under a 2010 funding legislation that lays out the rules for supplying money to the West Bank and Gaza, the secretary of state “shall take all appropriate steps to ensure that such assistance is not provided to or through any individual, private or government entity, or educational institution that the secretary knows or has reason to believe advocates, plans, sponsors, engages in, or has engaged in, terrorist activity,” according to the report.
The State Department, which oversees foreign aid, did not return numerous messages seeking comment.
Video: Al-Shabaab Spokesman Claims There’s No Famine In Somalia…
Somalis Starve as Shabab Islamists Bar Escape From Famine
Pakistan Jails 25 For Eating During Ramadan…
Iran Plans For A World Without America
“One nightmare scenario posed,” according to Peter Vincent Pry, an expert on EMP who sits on a congressional panel looking into the threat of such a weapon, “was a ship-launched EMP attack against the U.S. by Iran, as this would eliminate the need for Iran to develop an ICBM to deliver a nuclear warhead against the U.S. and could be executed clandestinely, taking the U.S. by surprise.”
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., calls it the one way we could lose the war on terror.
As he notes, a single nuclear warhead, detonated at the right altitude, would interact with the Earth’s atmosphere, producing an electromagnetic pulse radiating down to the surface at the speed of light.
Nobody would be harmed or killed immediately by the blast. But life in the world’s largest economy and only superpower would come to a screeching halt as a nation dependent on cutting-edge technology instantly regresses in time by almost a century.
As it is, our shrinking Navy doesn’t have enough Aegis-equipped warships to defend Japan and Hawaii against North Korea. How is it also going to protect the Atlantic coast and Europe against this threat, which may now come from a derelict Iranian freighter?
Remote-controlled TOY truck saves the lives of six U.S. soldiers after it finds Taliban bomb
31 US Special Forces Troops Killed in Afghanistan Crash – Taliban Takes Credit
In June the White House confirmed that they were holding peace talks with the Taliban.
Indonesia: Ramadan Begins With Over 100 Muslims Torching Two Protestant Churches…
Scotland:Students Urged to Sell Kidneys to Repay Student Loans
Polar Bear Kills One In Norway…MSM Blames Rightwing Extremists
One man was killed and four others were injured by a Polar Bear in the Arctic Circle of Norway yesterday. I guess they shouldn’t have been so eager to try to give the bear a bottle of Coca Cola and try for a photo op.
Tied to a drainpipe while she ponders whether to jump… how China deals with suicide attempts
US News:
A Drudge Ku that I am going to call “Party like it’s 64AD”
Obama has big birthday bash at WH...
Packed with Hollywood stars...
Dancing barefoot in Rose Garden...
HIP-HOP IN EAST ROOM...
Obama’s party–paid for, the White House said, by the First Couple–was closed press and not on his official schedule. Obama’s team was not eager for pictures of the bash, coming as the stock market was plunging and a new jobless report comes out Friday morning.
Eddie Gehman Kohan, who presides over Obama Foodorama, the website of record about entertaining in the Obama White House, put together a detailed report about the five-hour barbeque, based on interviews of people who were there. Read her entire article here.
Transparency! Obama’s WH Birthday Bash Closed to Press
After nearly three years of greed and excess, the Obamas decided photos of his big birthday bash wouldn’t look so cool as the stock market was crashing.
Obama’s party–paid for, the White House said, by the First Couple–was closed press and not on his official schedule. Obama’s team was not eager for pictures of the bash, coming as the stock market was plunging and a new jobless report comes out Friday morning.
So they paid for it? Um, can we see the receipts?
A dispatch from MOTUS on Baby BamBam’s birthday party…Sustaining the Unsustainable
Butt no reason to focus on economic stuff when we’ve got a good party to discuss. On the menu: chicken, steak, world famous Chicago dogs (neon green relish not optional, we do things the Chicago way around here), salad (“locally grown” of course, if you get my drift) beans and corn and several kinds of Big Guy’s favorite pies. Oh, and Birthday cake. Of course. It was his 50th birthday you know.
If you thought the markets went crazy last week you ain’t seen nothing yet! Watch what happens starting Sunday night in the US when the Asian and Australoceanic markets open then watch it spread around the world with the Sun….
I ‘went liquid’ on Monday…He’s Historic, Alright: Standard & Poor’s Downgrades US Debt to AA+
Papa B told me that he had gone liquid a few days ago, anticipating some sort of reaction by the rating agencies after the pathetic debt ceiling “deal”. I assume he meant his investments and not some geriatric G.I. condition. And it looks like he was prescient, because rating agency S&P just downgraded U.S. debt to AA+ for the first time in history.
CATASTROPHE!… S&P DOWNGRADES US CREDIT RATING FOR FIRST TIME EVER!
U.S. Treasuries, once undisputedly seen as the safest investment in the world, are now rated lower than bonds issued by countries such as the UK, Germany, France or Canada.
S&P Drops U.S. Credit Rating to AA+ // Obama and Reid’s Crowning Achievement
Democrats own the downgrade. They fought Republicans and Tea Party supporters every step of they way, and forced a deal which was insufficient. They played class warfare and race politics against arguments that we needed to drastically change our spending habits.
This is Barack Obama and Harry Reid’s crowning achievement.
S&P Downgrades US Credit to AA+, With a Negative Outlook
S&P officials later called administration officials to say they agreed with the administration’s critique, though they did not say whether it would affect their rating. White House officials remained waiting Friday evening to see what the company would do.
Turbo Tax Tim’s Treasury calls out one of the credit ratings agencies that led us into the financial collapse and is now downgrading our national credit — and turns out to be right: S&P made a $2 trillion mistake. So, yeah, it’s hard to have much confidence in any of these people.
More: Just a small point of compare and contrast here — while President Obama has presided over the unprecedented downgrading of US credit, a certain governor of a large southern state has presided over the elevation of his state’s credit rating.
That’s right. Rick Perry has led Texas to the point where its credit rating is equal to that of the United States.
Ask yourself: Which would you rather have as president?
Unprecedented: S&P Downgrades US Debt to AA+
There has been some argument about the numbers here. The administration claimed there was a $2 trillion error (against the US’s favor) in S&P’s calculations, and the administration challenged that error.
Honestly, I thought that was probably bullshit and said so on Twitter: I happen to know the Obama Administration is fond of double-counting and faked numbers, so why should I give their claims credence?
Not sure how all of that worked out, but S&P ultimately rejected the argument.
Another Great Obamachievement: America Loses Its AAA Rating
Of course, this is probably a great time to note that if the Democrats hadn’t blocked Cut, Cap, and Balance, we’d still have our AAA rating today. The Democrats called pushing that bill extreme, “hostage taking,” terrorism — when it fact, it was just the bare minimum we needed to do to be financially responsible. Democrats might counter that Barack Obama had a “plan” that might have saved our AAA rating, too, but the problem was that it didn’t exist. If you say it did, show me the text and the CBO score….save yourself some time, because that information doesn’t exist.
Most people don’t quite realize it, because there are no falling buildings, no clash of arms, and no people throwing themselves out of windows, but this is one of the worst days in American history. It’s a negative tipping point brought on the Democratic Party’s belief that they can spend as money as they want, for as long as they want, without ever having to pay it back. Unless something changes, it entirely possible that the country may never recover from their foolishness.
FLASHBACK: ‘No risk’ the US will lose its top credit rating, says Treasury’s Geithner
The Official Calls For Change Roll In: “Fire Geithner”
The first official demand for a change at the top as a result of the S&P downgrade has come in, courtesy of Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who has just demanded the head of the most incompetent and tax evading Treasury Secretary in US history, on a silver platter. “President Obama should fire U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner over the debt downgrade. If Obama won’t remove him, then the US Senate should withdraw its consent of Geithner’s appointment to U.S. Treasury because someone in the White House needs to be held responsible for this disaster.” Zero Hedge fully endorses this perspective.
S&P Executives Have Donated Almost Exclusively To Democrats During Recent Election Cycles…
One excuse out the window.
Roundup of Reactions to the Downgrade of the World’s Largest Debtor Nation
Have I mentioned before that President Obama is ‘historic‘?
Yesterday, as everyone knows, Standard & Poor’s downgraded US credit one notch to AA+, the first time since 1917 that we have fallen below the top AAA rating. Most people wonder what this will mean for the country and for us as individuals. How will a lower bond rating affect us? ABC has a pretty good five-point explanation, but it tends to assume that the rating drop came out of nowhere. I’ll address them point by point:
- US debt service costs will rise — From this point forward, we may have to pay higher yields to get people to buy our Treasury notes. That’s probably true, but it’s not necessarily a given, since the EU is also in the process of melting down. There aren’t a lot of options for bond buyers at the moment. However, ABC’s estimate of around $75 billion a year in increased interest costs in the long run is a pretty good assumption.
- Interest rates for individuals and businesses will go up — Again, that might be true, but it’s not certain. First, banks have trouble getting qualified borrowers now, at least individual borrowers, which is why mortgage and loan interest rates are so ridiculously low. The bump upwards will cost those borrowers who do get loans more and make them less inclined to borrow, which will force interest rates down again. Businesses can’t get loans for reasons of qualification, not availability. Besides, with loan costs at historic lows, a modest rise in rates shouldn’t create much of a problem for healthy businesses and individual borrowers, which more or less negates the next three arguments …
- Increased costs will shave 1% off of GDP — I suspect the actual impact will be much less, for the reasons described above. It won’t help GDP, and it might have a mild impact, but I don’t think it will kill $143 billion in American production in the next year (that’s 1% of GDP). We have a lot of other policies killing a lot more production and growth than the S&P rating. We should be worried more about those.
- Stock markets could lose 1100 points on the Dow/6-10% from slowing economy — This downgrade could be seen for months, and I think investors more or less priced it into the markets some time ago. If the economy slows, this could happen, and since Wall Street is all about market psychology, it might happen with the downgrade regardless of whether the economy slows or not, and regardless of why the economy slows.
- An increase of 0.5% in interest rates could cost 640,000 jobs — Really? Did dropping interest rates over the last few years create millions of net jobs? Don’t forget that interest rates (on loans, not bonds, which is what ABC means here) are at historic lows and we’re still not creating jobs. This is a kind of Rube Goldbergish assumption that looks at the worst possible theoretical consequences.
In the space of two years, you have done more damage to this economy — which means the future not only of this country but the rest of what you would disdain to call the civilized world — than any President in history. You are a poor man’s Jimmy Carter, a midget Herbert Hoover, a disaster for this country and the world.
Tea Party Vindication: S&P Says It Favors Spending Cuts Over Tax Hikes To Fix Credit Rating…
Downgrade shows DeMint was right
Throughout the debate over the debt ceiling, the media did all of us a great disservice. They reported as though the Republicans were threatening to ruin America’s credit unless they got their way.
Closer to the truth: If only conservatives like Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., had gotten their way — i.e., huge spending cuts — perhaps we wouldn’t have just been downgraded by S&P. DeMint predicted ahead of time that none of the debt deals on the table except for “Cut, Cap and Balance” would prevent a downgrade. He has been vindicated.
The bond-rating houses kept saying all along that they weren’t worried about the debt ceiling not being increased. Rather, they were worried about the long-term prospects of the U.S. government paying back $15-plus trillion, which is where our national debt (both publicly held and obligated to trust funds) will be shortly.
Because last weekend’s deal didn’t cut spending deeply enough, S&P has just downgraded us. We’ll see just how disastrous this becomes — some are arguing it’s not such a big deal — but consider this the market’s revenge for TARP and the stimulus package. You run up the debt, Mr. President, you lose your good credit.
Insane: Dingy Harry Reacts to S&P Downgrade With Call for Tax Increases
At what point do these maniacs give up on the class warfare and realize the mess they’ve gotten us into isn’t working?
S&P Lowers America’s Bond Rating, Will Media Mention Spending as a Cause?
In an analysis posted on its website, S&P explicitly stated that it “takes no position on the mix of spending and revenue measures,” however that is a fact that will likely be glossed over by the self-described mainstream media.
There is much more in the analysis, but since you won’t likely see this info in the big media outlets, I am reproducing portions of the report which repeatedly mention excessive spending as a problem
Left Rushs to Blame the GOP for S&P Downgrade
And S&P clearly believes that the cuts the debt deal made were not enough. And who opposed big cuts? Why yes, a guy named Barack Obama and the Democrats.
We view the act’s measures as a step toward fiscal consolidation. However, this is within the framework of a legislative mechanism that leaves open the details of what is finally agreed to until the end of 2011, and Congress and the Administration could modify any agreement in the future. Even assuming that at least $2.1 trillion of the spending reductions the act envisages are implemented, we maintain our view that the U.S. net general government debt burden (all levels of government combined, excluding liquid financial assets) will likely continue to grow.
The Democrats can spin this as blaming the GOP all they want since they clearly got outplayed and still saw a downgrade, but the S&P downgrade has nothing to do with any specific policy.
Former Obama Economic Adviser Gets Chuckle Out of S&P Downgrade: “We’re F**ked” (Video)
Former Obama economic adviser Christina Romer got a chuckle out of the news yesterday that the US credit rating was downgraded for the first time in over a century. She told Bill Maher, “We’re f*cked.” Then they laughed.
How Obama Will React To U.S. Downgrade And How Conservatives Should
Unfortunately, an ideologue like Obama is not likely to heed any warning and alter his view. He might talk the talk but he will not walk the walk of prudence. Most likely, Obama will look to use the downgrade as supportive of the need to increase taxes. On the campaign stump, Obama is more likely to begin talking about shared sacrifice and the need for all Americans to step up and do their fair share in bad economic times. He will also likely focus much of his rhetoric on the rich to continue his never-ending class warfare; however, we should all know better than that.
The kind of wealth Obama needs to drain from the private sector to prop up an ideology that has already failed world-wide does not sit in the bank accounts of some number of millionaires. It rests in the hands of a suffering, if not dwindling, middle-class. Obama will not hesitate to confiscate as much of it as he can to empower his failing agenda.
In the end, what this represents is a tremendous opportunity for America, as well as fiscal conservatives. Obama’s deceptive rhetoric in support of his Leftist politics and economics must not be allowed to dominate the public discourse during the coming election year. Along with focusing on jobs, the Right must also make this election about prudent economic policy to educate Americans on the need for and wonder of free market capitalism.
That debate, more than anything else, has the potential to direct the future course of this great nation. For America’s sake, our children’s sake and our own sake, the Right must win that debate, as well as next November’s elections. The long-term future of our nation may well depend upon it.
Your ‘surprisingly unexpected’ economic news of the day:
Big Government Burns Through Most of Debt Ceiling Increase in 1 Day
Fed Will Roll Out QE3 After S&P Rating Downgrade…
Turbo Timmy last seen firing up the printing presses.
In fact, as the AP notes, a big reason for the .1% decrease in unemployment rates is “because some unemployed workers stopped looking for work.” How many? The AP doesn’t see fit to mention the number, but Bloomberg does: “193,000 people left the labor force.”
In other words, the number of discouraged job seekers who left the labor force was much larger than the number of new jobs added. 117,000 jobs were added, but we lost 193,000 job seekers. Why isn’t that the headline?
Of course, the Administration will tout the new job report as proof of the wondrous power of Obamanomics, and clear evidence that we won’t be having that double-dip recession after all. Beating projections by 56,000 jobs will be the only thing they talk about. Losing 76,000 more job seekers than jobs created will not be mentioned at all. Neither will falling 133,000 jobs short of overall employment growth.
And, of course, we’ve got the inevitable “revisions” of today’s job numbers to look forward to. Not only do the figures naturally change as more data becomes available, but the government has been known to play games with the numbers, to produce good headlines with the initial report.
Earlier today the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the long-anticipated jobs report for July. On the surface, the news was good: the official unemployment number (U-3) dropped from 9.2% to 9.1%. But a closer inspection revealed the cockroaches that infest the ongoing Obama depression
Labor Force Participation Rate Drops To 63.9%, Lowest Since January 1984
Average Length Of Unemployment Surges To New All Time Record 40.4 Weeks
When Dollar Stores Are Too Expensive
You know the economy is in bad shape when customers can’t afford to shop at dollar stores anymore.
How bad must it be when banks don’t want your money?
Don’t squeeze the greenbacks! Marc Faber: “Next Week We Will See If Bernanke Is A True Money Printer Or Just An Amateur”
Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
Thank the Democrats, especially Chris Dodd and Barney Frank for this one…Fannie Demands Another $5.1 Billion In Aid From Treasury In Q2, $103.8 Billion Total Since Conservatorship
Eric Cantor: “Our country is suffering”
The interview runs for 22 minutes. Cantor comes across throughout as a reliable witness and a genuine person. The interview warrants viewing in its entirety. This is worth your time.
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy (except for the UN, of course):
This is where our taxes are going!!!
Obama Strangles Economy in $Billions Worth of Red Tape
Taxation and inflation aren’t the only tools our rulers are using to destroy capitalism. There’s also red tape:
Many House and Senate conservatives are reviving their battle against federal regulations, claiming that the president hasn’t stopped issuing job-killing rules during the debt ceiling fight. “While Washington and Americans have been focused on the debt ceiling, the Obama administration has continued to roll out more crushing red tape,” said a spokesperson for Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso, who’s been championing the regulation fight.
… In a memo Barasso handed out to the lawmakers, he claimed that the administration in July only has put in $9.5 billion in new regulatory costs by proposing 229 new rules and finalizing 379 rules. Among those he cited were EPA, healthcare reform, and financial regulatory reform rules.
The EPA alone could plunge us into a depression, given another term of free reign to do maximum damage under Obama. Already it is a more serious threat to our power supply than anything other devoted enemies of America like the Nazis and Imperial Japanese could have dreamed of.
Hilarious: Obama Calls for Bipartisan Efforts to Spur Job Growth
So he’s ready to work with those tea-bagging terrorists now?
More likely he’s just looking for someone to blame when his failed policies continue to fail
John F’n Kerry: Media Has Duty To Not Give Equal Time To Tea Party
The last resort of liberals, confronted with evidence of media bias, is always to smugly claim “The truth has a liberal bias.”
Preparing the battlespace, as Instapundit often remarks. The media of course wants to cover the 2012 elections in as biased a fashion as politically effective (push it to the limits without going so far over the line that the public sees it for what it is); every presidential cycle some liberal Democrats step forward to offer some sort of a jackass intellectual defense for doing so, in case the media couldn’t think of one themselves.
Of course the Tea Party did not, in the main, seek a default. What they said was that we have a very big disagreement on the size of government, and we are willing to flirt with default unless those who have grown government by 30% in just two years (!!!) agree to the mandate delivered in 2010 to cut the size of government to something more recognizably American.
Either party could have given ground on this issue to avoid a default. Note that all the liberals who whine about the Tea Party’s “terrorist” tactics didn’t give an inch on this point.
One side was expected to cave, as it always has done before, and when it refused to cave outright, the liberals had a temper tantrum
Let there be light on the budget super committee
In their letter to Reid and McConnell, the six senators contend that “all aspects of the federal budget, including revenue increases, could be subject to the committee’s recommendations. If our colleagues wish to raise taxes or propose spending cuts, the American people have a right to see that process unfold. All Americans should have the ability to see how the committee crafts a concrete plan for our fiscal future.”
That is exactly right. It is said that laws and sausages ought not be seen in the making, but such thinking creates a screen that hides the very dark things that the public most needs to see in the full light. As Patrick Henry said in 1787, “the liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be secure so long as the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.” Let’s not conceal the deliberations of this supercommittee.
Government Efficiency: Post Office Loses $3.1 Billion in Second Quarter
Lisa Jackson is Using the EPA to Destroy the Coal Industry
Lisa Jackson is dutifully executing the President’s radical environmental agenda, having explicitly stated that he intends to put the coal industry out of business, originally through Cap and Trade. His failure to get that job killing monstrosity passed into law has merely changed his path. The objective remains the same.
The Obama regime is doing its best to destroy domestic energy production: EPA Attempts Hostile Takeover in North Dakota
EPA is not satisfied with imposing costly, job-killing regulations at the federal level. Now, it wants to take over North Dakota’s federally authorized regional haze program because it doesn’t think the state’s rules will be tough enough to regulate two power plants. This is the second time EPA has invaded state jurisdiction over clean air, following last summer’s decision by EPA to invalidate large portions of Texas’s air permitting programs. Talk about a regulatory agency in Washington thinking it knows better.
Like rules being imposed in Texas, this action by EPA seems, in the words of the chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, as “intended not so much to improve the environment as to impose unnecessary, expensive federal controls on industry and to increase the costs of energy to citizens.”
Unlike much of the country, North Dakota is experiencing an economic boom from oil development and agriculture. You know that story about a goose laying golden eggs? North Dakota has a good thing going. EPA shouldn’t mess with what is working there.
Is the American Lung Association EPA’s chief lobbyist?
So the Red Carriage ad is not about protecting public health. It’s about protecting EPA’s power. And it’s about the American Lung Association acting like EPA’s chief lobbyist.
That doesn’t look good because the EPA paid the American Lung Association’s Washington headquarters $7.7 million, according to the EPA’s website. here (http://yosemite.epa.gov/oarm/igms_egf.nsf/Reports/Non-Profit+Grants?OpenView).
The EPA website also shows the agency paid $20.4 million taxpayer dollars to 61 American Lung Association affiliates. That looks like collusion and conflict of interest to me.
Not that ALA needs the money. The group’s Internal Revenue Service Form 990 shows that 2010 revenue was $47.7 million, and only $796,150 of that came from government grants. (Where’s that $7.7 million?) ALA’s president and chief executive officer, Charles D. Connor, received compensation in excess of $370,000.
These well-off people manipulate our emotions to bolster crumbling confidence in an agency running on ideology rather than fact. It’s ironic that the Red Carriage ad’s mommy voice tells us that “Congress can’t ignore the facts. More pollution means more childhood asthma attacks.”
Scientists disagree. Two Australian immunologists, Kendle M. Maslowski and Charles R. Mackay, wrote early this year in the journal Nature Immunology:
“The hygiene hypothesis is now the prevailing explanation for the increase in asthma and atopic disorders in Western countries. It suggests that excess cleanliness in the environment has led to a decrease in the number of infectious stimuli needed for proper development of the immune system.”
Listen up, mommy: EPA can’t ignore the facts. Excess cleanliness in the environment means more childhood asthma attacks.
Transsexual TSA Freakazoid Extravagantly Rewarded
When parasites extract settlements from the government, they are extracting them from you — or rather from your children, since Big Government has already blown through this generation’s money.
Yang hasn’t undergone surgical mutilation; he just decided that everyone should have to pretend he’s a woman. Note that part of his alleged oppression was being expected to pat down male instead of female passengers. Anyone who likes the idea of coercively groping girls and doesn’t mind dressing as one might want to consider a career in the TSA.
ObamaCare is Medicare Windfall for Massachusetts Hospitals…
Corruptocrats taking care of their own.
The New Civility™:
Flying-Pig Alert: NY Times Columnist Apologizes For Calling Tea Party Republicans “Terrorists”…
Why the New York Times blacked out the Biden terrorist comments story
Hypocrisy, irony, and the New Civility
The “hobbits” remark was an ad hominem, and a dumb one, as I wrote at the time. And ad hominems are at their core uncivil. If there was any real descriptive value at all in “hobbits” as a political label, it escaped everyone, including the writer of the editorial.
However, calling someone a “hobbit” is not the same as calling him or her a “terrorist.” There is a specific definition of terrorism that has become all too real in the last ten years for Americans, and it doesn’t mean someone who works within the political system for policy change. Harrop says that the ends justify the uncivil means for her, even if it doesn’t for everyone else:
Yes, I was angry, but I’m engaging in the defense of my country. I know the tea partiers say the same, but their behavior is that of a national wrecking crew.
If there is a better example of liberal hypocrisy on restoring civility, I’d like to see it. It’s a blatant statement that Harrop wants her political opponents held to a different standard because, well, she’s angry, and besides, she’s right — in her own opinion, of course.
She did point out that the Wall Street Journal called Tea Party members hobbits in an editorial.
I do not see that as uncivil. One, hobbits are fictional creatures that are short and furry and if not loveable, pretty harmless.
Terrorists are real.
Al-Qaida bombers are real.
It is uncivil and discourteous to call people people mad bombers simply because you disagree with them. Grandly declaring such imagery as “fact” does not make it true.
Caught in her hypocrisy by the Wall Street Journal, she lashed out at the Journal’s editorial board and then at the victims of her incivility: “Blowing up the U.S. economy to make a point would be an even more serious attack, in my book. And that’s what the tea party saboteurs were threatening. They are what they are.”
If you demonize the opposition enough, you can rationalize any stupid behavior and sadly, I speak from mine own experience.
But please, carry on, diehard and clueless liberal columnists. The lengthy list of know-it-alls who are clueless about the Tea Party and its membership. I will drop Froma Harrop and her colleagues a clue: Tea Party members used to read your newspaper.
2012: The Fork in the Road…
Communist Party Endorses Obama
But in light of what he’s been doing to our country, any support from anyone is a feather in Obama’s cap to be displayed with pride.
Meanwhile, the CPUSA is delivering this message of harmony to its faithful:
It is urgent for President Obama, the Democrats, the labor movement and all progressive allies to rally the troops, expose the danger [of anti-socialist resistance] and prepare for war.
At least this time we won’t have to listen to Obamunists bleat that their tin-pot messiah will “unite” us. Not even a moonbat could get that out without choking on laughter.
Get Ready for the Communist Party USA “Stealth” Slime Attack on the Tea Party
“Communist Party rhetoric is not usually this extreme. The fact that they are throwing caution to the wind, tells us they understand the huge stakes in next year’s election cycle.
If the Communist/Dems win in 2012, America’s march towards socialism will be almost impossible to stop.
If the “Tea Party” wins (NOT the GOP), Americans will have a fighting chance to save their country.
The Communist Party USA understands this.
Do you?”
Obama’s Approval Hits All-Time Low Among Poor, Says Gallup
The Left Will Never Abandon Obama
If the left stood with the Democratic party in 1940, 1960, 1996, and 2000 (mostly), there is no way it will abandon Barack Obama next year. The reason is simple: liberalism does not have political life outside the Democratic party.
Liberals might be frustrated now, but during the campaign next year the Democratic party will activate their partisan sentiments by casting the Republican nominee as the bane of all that is good, true, and noble – and the left will buy it. The same liberals who are complaining about Obama today will be earnestly proclaiming that his reelection is the only thing that stands between America and the abyss.
Obama will win 90 percent or so of the Democratic vote, and 90 percent of the liberal vote. It’s a guarantee.
For some time now, Obama has trailed a generic Republican opponent in likely voter polls. Next year, that is probably what the GOP needs: a generic Republican. The Democrats will try to distract voters’ attention from Obama’s record by making the race about his Republican opponent. As a result, we are in for the dirtiest campaign ever, and the Republicans need a candidate without unnecessary loose ends and eccentricities. Still, no matter how low the Democrats stoop, a president’s campaign for a second term inevitably turns on his record. Barring some kind of miracle, and with all the usual qualifications about how far away November 2012 is, it is hard to see how Obama’s dismal record can lead voters to reward him with another four years.
Media Battlefield Preparation in 2004 and 2011
But seriously, as the Anchoress perceptively noted last year, the media’s strategy in 2008 was much the same in 2004, except that Obama was a much more glamorous candidate than Boston-based retread John Kerry.
Which brings us to Virginia Postrel’s new column, and a reminder that glamour (particularly when spelled old-school style like that, as Virginia is wont to do) requires distance to maintain. Obama’s Slurpee-sippin’, Republicans in the back of the bus rhetoric last year did much to take the polish off his image. Is it possible to be a glamorous Alinskyite rhetorical bomb thrower? It’s not an image that seems consistent with being the president.
We’ll take the jobs and economic growth, you keep the credentials
One of the greatest mistakes we make is to confuse academic credentials with leadership.
Barack Obama, who guards his transcripts like they’re the equivalent of the formula to Coke, presumably had very good grades at Harvard Law School because he graduated with high honors, a purely grade-based achievement. Obama’s college grades are more of a mystery. Obama’s transcripts are strictly off limits to the media, however, which never questions why Obama has not released the type of information released by both George W. Bush and John Kerry when they ran for president.
Not so with Rick Perry. His grades are of great importance, apparently. Someone at Texas A&M leaked Perry’s college transcripts to Huffington Post, which ran an article which highlighted the less than impressive results in the headline: Rick Perry’s College Transcript: A Lot of Cs and Ds. This smells like payback for Perry’s efforts to reform the state higher education system, about which I posted yesterday.
Not an impressive collection of grades, but Perry has put together an impressive collection of economic and job growth in Texas while the rest of the nation has suffered under Obama.
Democrats can keep Obama’s academic credentials, we’ll take the jobs and economic growth.
Obama Glamour Can’t Fix Charisma Deficit
If you think of Barack Obama as a charismatic president, it is hard to explain why his supporters are so angry. He should be able to win them over. But if you understand his appeal as glamour, then his problems aren’t surprising.
With glamour, any specific action that stands outside the fantasy breaks the spell, alienating supporters who disagree. Even trying to remain above the fray, as Obama often does, infuriates those who want a fighter.
A well-established sales tool, glamour is a tremendous asset if you’re running for office. But once you have to govern, it’s a problem. Although charisma can continue to inspire, glamour is guaranteed to disillusion. The only thing surprising about Obama’s predicament is how few people expected it.
The Blogosphere is doing the job the MSM refuses to do. While the MSM digs in every nook and cranny of personal background and demands every Republican candidates records they have done their best not to look at that steaming dung heap that is Obama’s personal background and records. It is no wonder that the very first thing Obama did after becoming President is to seal all his personal records and silence all who have any knowledge of them. Still, as the saying goes, the truth will out… Obama State Senate Records Show Him as Confused, Off-Topic
Gunwalker/Fast & Furious/Castaway
Gunwalker: It Must Have Been Eric Holder
The one and only way that this multi-agency operation could have been organized and forced into action against the wishes and better judgment of seasoned professionals is through a top-down push from high-level executives within the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, State, and Treasury, which all played a role in the plot. Four executive branch departments, led by cabinet-level political appointees loyal to the Obama administration, worked on an operation together that was explicitly doomed to failure from the outset.
Was the goal of the project ever law enforcement?
The most logical explanation for Fast and Furious and related operations was that it was not a law enforcement operation, but a political operation designed to advance an anti-gun political agenda that Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama have been pursuing since the beginning of this presidency.
This explosive scandal at the heart of Gunwalker isn’t a matter of “what did he know and when did he know it?” It now instead seems to be a matter of who will come forward, and how much evidence will they provide to implicate officials at the highest levels of a lawless government
Documents: Feds allegedly allowed Sinaloa cartel to move cocaine into U.S. for information
The case could prove to be a bombshell on par with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Operation Fast and Furious,” except that instead of U.S. guns being allowed to walk across the border, the Sinaloa cartel was allowed to bring drugs into the United States. Zambada-Niebla claims he was permitted to smuggle drugs from 2004 until his arrest in 2009.
In conducting this massive covert action, we lied to officials in this neighboring sovereign country, even though their people (and cops, and officials) were getting killed with our weapons.
As far as I know, we haven’t taken any action beyond arresting a few straw buyers… who could have easily been arrested, with the weapons, when they attempted to smuggled them or sell them.
We have not taken down any cartels at all.
In fact, we’ve not done anything except murdered people by indirect, but perfectly foreseeable, US covert action.
And the only outlet that is following this is FoxNews, so you can tell Fox is biased.
ATF Death Watch 50: “The cover-up is probably worse than the crime”
This isn’t Watergate. No one died bugging the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Operation Fast and Furious is drenched in blood. The aforementioned ATF conspiracy is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The United States government has been aiding and abetting Mexican narco-terrorists for at least a decade.
Uncle Sam has sanctioned hundreds of millions of dollars of American arms sales to the Mexican military and law enforcement—knowing full well that U.S. guns and grenades have been “seeping” to Mexican drug cartels. More to the point, Operation Fast and Furious would not have been possible without the direct cooperation and informed consent of the DOJ, ICE, FBI, CIA, DEA, DHS, State Department and White House.
Yes, the White House. Anyone who believes that the all the President’s men didn’t know American guns were flowing to Mexican drug cartels—via the ATF and official sales—must then conclude that the Obama administration was wholly incompetent. As an NRA email blast put it this morning, either DOJ jefe Eric Holder lied to Congress about his knowledge of Fast and Furious or he’s a nincompoop [paraphrasing].
Even the liberal media is beginning to get it, with a growing inkling of what’s at stake. Truth be told, the Gunwalker scandal could bring down the President of the United States. That distant vision has the late-to-the-party (that they didn’t want to attend in the first place) MSM spooked. And rightly so.
The war that dares not speak its name…US and Libya:
*crickets*
Look for the Union Label/Whackademia/The Badger Rebellion:
Wisconsin Recall Elections Coming Down to the Wire
UNION PROTESTERS Crash & Disrupt Tea Party Rallies in Wisconsin
The far left union hacks were out in force today in Wisconsin.
But they didn’t stop the patriots from coming out to support conservative candidates who demand fiscal sanity from their lawmakers.
Disgrace: Union Goons Protest Scott Walker During Opening Of Wisconsin State Fair…
From ‘The Truth Hurts’ department…Public university forced to pull boxes of Obama ‘disappoint-mints’ after complaints
Glenn Reynolds, who teaches constitutional law at the University, said: ‘Let me make very clear, there is no candy exception to the First Amendment.
‘Free speech is free speech. If you make fun of the president in a mint, it is just as much free speech as it is if you make fun of the president in a political cartoon.
The ‘Post-Partisan’ University
Public criticism of higher education continues to gather momentum; the primary issues are cost, quality and political bias. The objective evidence regarding high and rising cost is compelling and the body of evidence suggesting a secular decline in quality is also growing.
The political bias issue is more controversial, although it is nonetheless important. Bias is an existential threat to higher education’s central mission (scholarship and instruction). If society cannot trust the academy to produce nonpartisan scholarship and instruction, why should it support higher education? Financial support is always dependent on the public’s perception with respect to our value added. There is no escaping that rude fact. In an era of compromised economic prospects and rising global competition, these are not issues that can be ignored without consequence.
Teachers union disavows internal memo endorsing deception of parents
It’s a sad truth, but one Americans must understand: Teachers unions don’t fight for children. And that’s not why teachers join them. Teachers, as much as they love children and their jobs, know unions provide excellent job insurance.
Unions know that to increase their political influence, they must respond to the self-interest of dues-paying members, not some altruistic concern for children or teaching excellence.
At the same time, because it’s more socially palatable and protects their true interests, unions must pretend to care for ridding schools of bad teachers, squeezing the most out of taxpayer dollars, and other public concerns.
Of course the disavowed report represents AFT, just not its public position. Being honest about that would destroy the union.
Pelosi participates in CWA union activist call
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi participated in last night’s Communications of America union activist call. It was an odd choice. The wealthy Pelosi and her husband are part owners of Napa Valley Auberge Du Soleil Resort, an exclusive property that is non-union, as is the restaurant chain Piatti, which the couple also partially owns. Yet during the call, the San Francisco liberal declared, “We will prevail because we must, our democracy depends on a strong middle class which benefits from all the organizing you are doing.” (See previous sentence.)
Pelosi stressed the importance of “jobs, jobs, jobs jobs,” which also is odd, because President Obama is America’s first anti-business president. The president’s 50th birthday was noted–Pelosi asserted “The president wouldn’t be in the White House” without the labor movement.
The national debt has soared 37 percent since Obama took office, which of course was not mentioned during the call. But Pelosi addressed that issue: “They’re using the deficit as an excuse to destroy the public’s faith in our country,” she said.
In Other News…
The coming hazard you haven’t heard about
The coming disaster is the new EPA regulations will shut down coal-fired energy plants in Texas that provide 11,000MW to our grid.
Removing 11,000MW from our grid will put capacity way under we’ve needed this week to combat the severe summer heat.
If we exceed capacity, ERCOT must enact brownouts and blackouts, meaning no air conditioning in the summer heat for those affected.
We previously wrote about the unreasonable new EPA standards, which will leave our capacity somewhere south of 60,000MW, way below what we’ve needed every day this week.
The EPA rules that will shut down 18 Texas plants are called Utility MACT and Cross-State Air Pollution Rule.
Graves of plantation slaves revealed by Texas drought as reservoir dries up
Classy: Rick Perry Offers A Prayer For Obama And His Family At National Prayer Event In Texas…
Sadly, Obama only recognizes prayers that have “God damn” in them.
I bet they would not attack him if he were a Muslim….Unreal… Far Left Religious Leaders Protest Rick Perry For Attending Prayer Rally
Former reporter and Director of the Texas ACLU, Terri Burke, is leading the protest movement against Rick Perry’s First Amendment rights. Perry will take part in a prayer rally on Saturday.
Far left religious leaders and community organizers are holding a protest today against Governor Rick Perry. The far left leaders are upset that Rick Perry is attending a prayer service that is Christian
Forget That Credit Downgrade and Tanking Stock Market, Rick Perry’s Holding a Prayer Gathering!
But its political overtones, which are broadcast particularly to the antennae of social conservatives, are unmistakable.
Ooh, how ominous! Political overtones coming from a politician! Quick, hide the kids who haven’t been aborted, this crazy Christian is coming!
The event has drawn scrutiny from civil liberties groups, which have criticized the apparent lack of separation of church and state and are upset about some event participants’ beliefs about same-sex relationships.
Well, golly gee, some people don’t believe in gay marriage. Must be those terrorist teabaggers we’ve been warned so much about.
Strange, but I don’t recall the media reacting with such umbrage when Obama made racial arsonist Al Sharpton his ambassador to the black community. Doesn’t he use the moniker Reverend before his name? Where were the cries about separation of church and state when Jesse Jackson ran for president?
But no, a man who’s a very successful governor and poses a threat to Obama embraces religion and the media west themselves. Just pitiful.
Pamela Geller’s Book Stop the Islamization of America Is a Work of Love, not Hate
The effective anti-jihad activist pays the price for disturbing the Left’s delusions.
In related news…Foreign Influence in American Politics—Imad Ramadan in Virginia
Believe In States’ Rights? You’re A Racist
But radical conservatives, frightened by the country’s demographics and the potential long-term voter realignment, and also emboldened by a federal judiciary that puts “federalism” limits on Congress’ enforcement powers, are now raising the terrible visages of voter suppression and states’ rights once again.
You know why? Because some may require *gasp* ID to prove identity when voting. So, obviously, those states that are passing/pushing laws which require people to prove who they are when performing one of their most sacred duties is intentionally raaaaacist, as evil conservatives attempt to disenfranchise minorities. Well, we are trying to disenfranchise dead people, who may be minorities. And dogs and cats, who may be owned by a minority. And Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Jesus II, Bart Simpson, Family Guy, King Kong, Doodad Pro, and Good Will, among others, will be disenfranchised.
But, any of you who believe in ALL the Amendments are raaaaacists. Period.
Maine Approves “Opt-Out” for Controversial [Big Brother] “Smart Meters”
Note how hard the media tries to cover up or spin the fact that the people doing the robbing and beating are black and their victims are all white.
Witnesses told WTMJ-AM (620) that dozens to hundreds of young black people were beating white people as they left the fair late Thursday night. Patrice Harris, a spokeswoman for the fair, said a police alert she was given indicated four people were hurt.
“It looked like they were just going after white guys, white people,” Norb Roffers of Wind Lake told WTMJ-AM. He said he left the State Fair entrance near the corner of S. 84th St. and W. Schlinger Ave. in West Allis.
One eyewitness, a concession worker who works near the midway area, told the Journal Sentinel that large groups of African-American youths ran through the midway area, knocking over young children and adults, disrupting midway rides and tearing signs up.
“I have never seen anything like it,” the worker said. “It was mob mentality.”
The concession worker said the incidents began at 7 p.m. “All of a sudden a wave of kids were running through the midway,” he said.
Milwaukee police said that around 11:10 p.m., squads were sent to the area for reports of battery, fighting and property damage being caused by an unruly crowd of “hundreds” of people. One officer described it as a “mob beating.”
Police said the group of young people attacked fairgoers who were leaving the fair grounds. Police said that some victims were attacked while walking. They said others were pulled out of cars and off of motorcycles before being beaten.
Witnesses’ accounts claim everything from dozens to hundreds of young black people beating white people as they left State Fair Thursday night.
Authorities have not given official estimates of the number of people involved in the attacks.
“It looked like they were just going after white guys, white people,” said Norb Roffers of Wind Lake in an interview with Newsradio 620 WTMJ. He left the State Fair Entrance near the corner of South 84th Street and West Schlinger Avenue in West Allis.
“They were attacking everybody for no reason whatsoever.”
“It was 100% racial,” claimed Eric, an Iraq war veteran from St. Francis who says young people beat on his car.
“I had a black couple on my right side, and these black kids were running in between all the cars, and they were pounding on my doors and trying to open up doors on my car, and they didn’t do one thing to this black couple that was in this car next to us. They just kept walking right past their car. They were looking in everybody’s windshield as they were running by, seeing who was white and who was black. Guarantee it.”
The Frankenstein monster pointy-headed liberals have created with their welfare programs and toxic rhetoric has been set free by Hope & Change.
- ‘The black guys were just going after white guys’: Police probe ‘race’ attacks by mob at Wisconsin State Fair
- State Fair melees produce 11 injuries, 31 arrests
The incidents Thursday night come as the State Fair Board has worked to increase diversity at the annual fair, expanding its entertainment lineup and attempting to appeal to a younger, more multicultural audience. Diversity was a priority for former State Fair Park Chairman Martin Greenberg, who spoke of making it a “place of inclusion, not exclusion.”
“My wife’s brother jumped out of the car – his natural reaction was to try to break it up. Before you knew it, five or 10 guys were on him and started punching at him. My wife was able to pull him back in the car. So now they surrounded my car and just started punching through the windows, kicking and shaking the car, screaming racial things.”
Not a lot of ambiguity in those accounts. Which makes this comment by Milwaukee’s Democratic Mayor, Tom Barrett, rather bizarre:
Barrett said there would be no tolerance for violence at festivals and that perpetrators will be prosecuted – regardless of race.
Regardless of race? What is that supposed to mean? Is this a deviation from Milwaukee’s usual policy? If so, it would go a long way toward explaining last night’s events.
Hallelujah!… 100 Youths Leave Church Picnic to Riot in Pittsburgh
When reporter Dave Bondy arrived at the scene, police were everywhere. At least a dozen officers were ordering hundreds of teenagers to leave Penn Avenue.
A group of juveniles ran into Target and, according to an employee, they caused a mess in the toy aisle.
“They came in Target, they were throwing chairs, everybody went running,” said witness Shauny Bowe.
“Everybody was just running everywhere,” said Bowe. “They went to McDonald’s, and they told people to get out, cussing and swearing. They were about to taze people. I was scared for my life.”
During a bus ride in Philadelphia, Lefenus Pickett saw a mother spanking her child for running in the aisles so the 37-year-old intervened and told her: ‘That’s child abuse’. Soon he would regret trying to be the Good Samaritan. The woman, Penny Chapman, 20, is said to have made a call on her cell phone and minutes later two thugs began firing at the bus with an assault rifle and a handgun.
Illinois Welfare Director Imprisoned for Stealing Welfare Funds
At the time she was hired in 2003, Picasso was awaiting trial on charges she stole $25,000 in state welfare funds during her previous job as a caseworker for the Illinois Department of Human Services. She pleaded guilty later that year and was sentenced to two years of probation, records show.
Obviously that was a resume enhancer.
Good times, good times: There’s nothing like a Chicago ‘coincidence’
…The agency [After School Matters] — chaired by Maggie Daley, wife of former Mayor Richard M. Daley — for years has been known informally as the unofficial City Hall charity.
…The city’s vendor, contract and payment information site indicates the group was awarded a new, $6.5-million city grant on May 12 — four days before Mr. Orozco’s former boss Mr. Daley left office.
The contract actually was signed on May 2 by then-Budget Director Eugene Munin in what must have been among his last official acts.
A wonderful coincidence, no? After School Matters gets a grant agreement worth up to $6,480,000 “to support ongoing summer jobs and after-school programs for youth” just four days before Rahm Emanuel is sworn into office, vowing to search high and low for potential cuts to balance a budget that’s $635 million in the red.
Well, it’s good to know that Chicago can afford a meaty, useful program like… whatever it is the ex-Mayor’s wife runs.
NY Democrat Facing Possible Criminal Charges
Don’t worry, he’ll just play the race card. It’s worked wonders for Chuckie Rangel.
Drunken Democrat Mayor Martin Resendiz Won’t Pay Bills
The Albuquerque Journal reports Thursday that Resendiz acknowledged during a deposition that he had been drinking for several hours with executives of the architectural design firm Synthesis and didn’t know what he was signing.
The town owes $1 million for work performed under the contracts, but according to Resendiz, his being drunk means it doesn’t have to pay. It’s a novelty to find a Democrat who deals with bills without raising taxes or debt ceilings.
Resendiz plans to run for Congress. Given the caliber of the modern Democrat Party, he ought to go far
U.S. budget ax hangs over California
The dirty little secret is that California’s current state budget is not $85.9 billion, the size of the much-debated, deficit-plagued general fund. You’ve got to add in the special funds ($34.2 billion) — much of them fed by fees dedicated for specific purposes — plus bond money ($9.4 billion). That totals $129.5 billion, but it still ignores federal dollars.
The real state budget includes an additional $79.2 billion in federal largesse, representing 38% of total state spending. This brings the grand total to $208.7 billion.
So the state of California is getting a nearly $209-billion spending program while putting up less than $130 billion itself.“It’s extremely significant,” notes state Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills). “If it were not for federal spending and the stimulus package, the recession in California would have been dramatically worse. The impact on schools and state services would have been devastating.”
California stakeholders urge feds to reject Gov. Brown’s Medicaid cuts
Los Angeles Times Editors Drink Their Own Sewage, but Blast GOP Water Policy
California’s multi-billion-dollar bullet-train boondoggle was predictable—and predicted.
Florida: LeMieux Campaign- Hasner “Masquerading” as a Conservative
LeMieux also attacked Rubio as a tax-raiser, telling the Miami Herald that ”Marco Rubio supported the largest tax increase in Florida history when he wanted to raise the sales tax by 2 or 3 pennies,” LeMieux said of Rubio’s 2007 tax swap (the Democratic Party also used that as an anti-Rubio talking point). This remark was almost immediately debunked as a false attack by Politifact.
The problem with these attacks is the same as it was then as it is now- they are being used against someone whom most reasonable people would agree is a credible conservative with a legislative track record to back it up. The attacks hurled at Rubio by Crist, LeMieux and others in 2009 did not work because Rubio had built his own reputation as a conservative.
LeMieux faces the same challenge again today against Hasner. While there are certainly votes here and there that can be used against Hasner, any objective overall analysis of Hasner’s time in the legislature leads to the conclusion that he was a solid conservative.
I wonder if they would have raided them if they employed illegal aliens ‘undocumented workers….Who cut the cheese? Police raid raw dairy producers in L.A., destroy inventory
Scientists: Dieting Forces Brain To Eat Itself
Keep Fussell’s essay in mind when you hear people sigh in dismay about the bad thing America did on August 6th and 9th 66 years ago.
If Spiderman is Gay, Does that mean that Flash is the FTD Florist?
MSM Circus and Celebutard Side Show:
Even HuffPo is Piling on Obama Now
Even the Huffington Post is getting tired of President Obama’s “now is the time to focus on jobs” broken record rhetoric. So much so that they compiled a video montage of all the times Obama has pledged a laser-like focus on the economy
NYT: Calling hip hop artists hip hop is racist
Apparently some young people hip-hop danced.
And one of the artists attending was Keyshia Cole, whom Wikipedia described as singing hip hop.
And also appearing was Jay Z, whom Wikipedia described as hip hop.
But calling hip hop “hip hop” is racist to the New York Times.
NYT Essentially Ignores Its Own Poll Findings
This isn’t anything new; they always do this. It’s a wonder they even bother spending money on polls at all.
If the polls support a Democratic position, that goes in the headline, of course.
But if the polls do not support the Democratic position, they “read deeper,” past the big-ticket questions any real news organization would focus on, to soft, meaningless stuff like Public Still Not Embracing British Celebrity Chefs; Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver Hardest Hit.
Native American Sues NBC Over Harassment: ‘They Are Very Creative Racists’
Why do the lily white folks at NBC hate people of color?
A Native American NBC studio technician was tormented about his ethnicity by cruel colleagues, who strung up an Indian doll on a noose and called it his “long-lost daughter,” he claims in a lawsuit.
Faruq “Peter” Wells — who worked on the “Today” show, “Dr. Oz” and “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” — endured the abuse after returning from a vacation and eventually quit his job when NBC’s Human Resources Department told him to ignore the problem, the court papers charge.
The worst indignity came when one co-worker pelted him with the doll and barked, “Here’s your long-lost daughter!” the papers say.
What Damon’s superficial tirade lacked, however, was any real-world understanding of the deterioration of core curricular learning in America. Students can’t master simple division or fractions because today’s teachers — churned out through lowest common denominator grad schools and shielded from competition — have barely mastered those skills themselves. Un-educators have abandoned “drill and kill” computation for multicultural claptrap and fuzzy math, traded in grammar fundamentals for “creative spelling,” and dropped standard civics for save-the-earth propaganda and Alinskyite activism.
Consequence: bottom-basement U.S. student scores on global assessments over the past two decades. Blaming the tests is blaming the messenger. The liberal education establishment’s response to its abject academic failures? Run away. This is why the Save Our Schools agenda championed by Damon calls for less curricular emphasis on math and reading — and more focus on social justice, funding and “equity” issues.
Out: Reading is fundamental.
In: Feeling is fundamental.
Bill Maher: Mormons Are More Like Muslims Than Christians
Liberals Petitioning PBS To Have Bert & Ernie Get Married On Sesame Street…
Because what parent wouldn’t want their child subjected to liberal indoctrination while they’re still a toddler?
Global Warmening:
Rather than actual privation on behalf the climate, it seems to me that environmentalists are more interested in purchasing green badges of courage. These are ostentatious environmentalist wares that broadcast to the world their owners’ support for the idea of fighting climate change, and in this manner, they substitute for actually fighting climate change. After all, it’s much easier to support the principle of an energy tax, than it is to pay more for gasoline. A green badge of courage alleviates the compunction that environmentalists feel when they consider their own patterns of conspicuous consumption.
This is what the so-called green movement is about: a lot of pretty words, attempts to spread awareness, getting people to donate or buy something, and trying to get someone else to pay, but, never actually practicing what they preach.
Make sure to read the whole thing, especially you believers in AGW.
The Sock Drawer:
MOPping Up: The USA’s 30,000 Pound Bomb
Side by side: LED, CFL, and incandescent bulbs
