Quote of the Day: “I must confess, when I see anyone with an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool.” –Allen West
Must Read of the Day:
- UBS’ Andy Lees On Why The US Economy Is, All Else Equal, Doomed
- Thomas Sowell: Pyrrhic Defeat From The Jaws Of GOP Victory
- Victor David Hanson: An Anatomy of European Nonsense
So the West indeed totters, but the general culprit — whether evidenced in the North-South divide in Europe, the rancor over borrowing an unsustainable $16 trillion in the U.S., or the dichotomy between the financial health of red- and blue-state America — is an unsustainable redistributive state.
- More Victor David Hanson awesomeness: Paralytic Western Society
We seem able to admit that massive federal and state entitlements have created a sense of dependency, a loss of self-respect and initiative, and a breakdown of the family, yet we still seem to fear that trimming the subsidies would lead to some sort of cold-turkey hyper-reaction. We assume that society is to blame for disaffected youth and therefore are hesitant to use commensurate force to quell the violence or even to make it clear that perpetrators are responsible for their own conduct. Yet at some point — when the violence reaches middle-class communities or, in serial fashion, downtown or suburban stores — we likewise assume that sufficient force will be used. Sociological exegesis will go out the window. Reality has a way of dispelling such cognitive luxuries.
- Andrew Klaven: Insults, Stupid Arguments, and Lies
The insults we all know. Disagree with the left and you’re a racist, a sexist, an Islamophobe — whatever. What do such insults even mean, really? Let’s say you oppose Barack Obama — and let’s say you really are a racist — does that mean his share-the-wealth ideology works? Of course not. If you’re a sexist, does that make women less interested in babies or more interested in trucks? If you’re Islamophobic, does that change the odds that the man who murders you will be named Mohammad? We are what we are and the world is what it is regardless of our personal merits and failings. The insults — for the information of all you teabagging terrorists out there — are just the sound of the left indulging in base intimidation, hoping they can keep you from spreading the word that their philosophy has failed — failed always and everywhere.
- Transcript of Hugh Hewitt’s interview with Mark Steyn on After America: Get Ready For Armageddon
I think the question is, whether there are enough of them, because at some point, people in certain states where that spirit survives will think, well, do we really want to be…if Illinois and California and New York are determined to go down this path unto oblivion, do we want to go down it with them? That’s what is the question that’s being asked in Europe at the moment – the Scandinavian economies, the German taxpayers. The German taxpayers are figuring well, do we really want to yank our future, tie our chain to the Greeks and the Portuguese and the Spaniards and the Italians? And I don’t want people to start asking that question in the United States. But they will, they will, if the national government does not get the hell out of people’s lives to the degree it’s in them at the moment.
Screencap of the Day: “Obama Blames”
Must See TeeVee!
Check out this great video about one of the president’s possible replacements. It wasn’t produced by the potential candidate’s team, since the candidate in question hasn’t even declared yet.
Economic News:
Today’s Drudge Ku:
European Shares Fall on France Downgrade Rumor...
French Bank Stocks Plunge...
UK Lowers Growth Estimate...
Korean Broker Leaps to Death...
Gold Explodes, Futures Touch $1801
If you’re interested. Here’s the text of “Rule 48,” which the NYSE invoked to smooth the open today. Here’s the Cliffs Notes version:
(a) In the event that extremely high market volatility is likely to have a Floor-wide impact on the ability of [Designated Market Makers] to arrange for the fair and orderly opening, reopening following a market-wide halt of trading at the Exchange, or closing of trading at the Exchange and that absent relief, the operation of the Exchange is likely to be impaired, a qualified Exchange officer may declare an extreme market volatility condition with respect to trading on or through the facilities of the Exchange.
(b) In the event that an extreme market volatility condition is declared with respect to trading on or through the facilities of the Exchange, a qualified Exchange officer shall be empowered to temporarily suspend at the opening of trading or reopening of trading following a market-wide trading halt: (i) the need for prior Floor Official or prior NYSE Floor operations approval to open or reopen a security at the Exchange (Rules 123D(1) and 79A.30); and/or (ii) applicable requirements to make pre-opening indications in a security (Rules 15 and 123D(1)).
And The Hits Just Keep On Coming: Fitch Downgrades Cyprus To BBB, Outlook Negative
Italy Bank Update As Dow Jones Wipes Out Entire Post-FOMC Surge
The Run On SocGen Begins? Bank Down 17% On Rumors It Is On The Verge
Merkel faces revolt over eurozone deal
Why Launching The EFSF Means Career Suicide For Merkel And A German Political Crisis
Economic Uncertainty Leading to Global Unrest
Great Britain and other parts of the world are experiencing unrest at a time of global economic uncertainty and stock market volatility.
Here’s a look at what’s happening around the world and how economic downturns are bringing protestors into the streets.
The Price Of A Big Mac Is Now $17.19 In Zurich
It’s all about supply and demand. Increased demand for the Swiss franc coupled with expanded supply of dollars and euros has caused the franc to surge over the last weeks and months. It wasn’t too long ago that it would take 1.20 francs to buy a US dollar. Now it takes $1.40 to buy a single franc. I can think of a lot of words to describe the performance of the US dollar. Farce. Joke. Lunacy. Embarrassment. Disgusting. But it’s more clearly summed up like this: the price of a Big Mac is in Zurich is now so high (at $17.19) that a minimum wage employee in Minneapolis, Minnesota, would have to work for nearly 4-hours in order to afford it. This is what stability looks like to Ben Bernanke.
Latest SNB Intervention Half Life – One Hour 15 Minutes
Intesa Sanpaolo Halted Twice On French Downgrade Rumor, Euro Drops
2011 Greek State Budget Deficit Widens 24% Through July
South Korea Joins Greece In Banning Short Selling
The traditionally last ditch attempt by a regulator losing control of events: making short selling illegal, is starting to appear in random places, first showing up in Greece, and now in South Korea, where the capital markets commissioner just said no most shorting for 3 months.
“The Fed Just Basically Announced Recession”
To promote the ongoing economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate, the Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent. The Committee currently anticipates that economic conditions–including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run–are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through mid-2013.
Now, what major economic changes would have taken place by “mid-2013″ to allow for higher growth rates?
With any luck, a new President will have assumed office in January. He or she will have have begun unwinding the huge regulatory bureaucracies (the EPA and the NLRB foremost among them) that have destroyed businesses large and small; rescinding the ability for federal employees to unionize; defunding HHS to begin the eradication of Obamacare; begun implementing sensible spending policies like Cut, Cap & Balance; etc.
Marc Faber: “The Best Thing The Fed Could Do For Markets Would Be To Collectively Resign”
Goldman Sachs: “QE3 Is Now Our Base Case”
Quote Hatzius: “This would probably mean more QE if their forecast converged to our own modal view of a flat-to-higher unemployment rate through the end of 2012, let alone our downside risk case of a renewed recession.” But what about the historic dissent? Ah, therein lies the rub: “We view Chairman Bernanke’s willingness to live with the dissents as a strong signal that he and the rest of the Fed leadership view the need for renewed easing as more important than the institutional norm of consensus decisionmaking.” So there you go. The market will wake up tomorrow with a hangover, and say the one word it always does: “More.” Absent that, the slide will, as predicted, resume, and it is none other than Goldman Sachs who has once again, just like back in 2010, set the strawman up for the Fed doing simply more of the same which does nothing to actually fix the economy, but bring us all closer to that epic meltdown discussed by Andy Lees earlier, and by Zero Hedge over the past two and a half years.
Futures Surge Overnight Following Accelerating Central Planning Takeover Of Global Capital Markets
Anyone just waking up and noticing futures trading just barely below the closing print may get the impression that things are fine. They are not. Here is what has happened overnight as the global central planning cartel does everything in its power to prevent the global market rout, which has so far wiped out $7.8 trillion in market value around the world, from morphing into the catalyst that ends the status quo.
To wit: ECB resumes buying Italian and Spanish bonds (UniCredit says the bank is losing a “game of chicken” with lawmakers by not holding out for budget cuts and higher taxes, and may eventually need to print money), the G-20 is prepared to take joint measures to stem a global crisis, Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said. Greece’s securities regulator banned all short-selling on the Athens exchange for two months starting today. Taiwan’s government bought stocks yesterday and this morning through four funds it controls. South Korea’s regulator asked pension funds, brokerages and asset-management companies to step up efforts to stabilize the market. South Korea also bans short selling for three months starting August 10. And lastly, rumors of an emergency Fed announcement are ripe. So… after all this global cartel intervention, is it any wonder that futures staged a near vertical move up overnight?
The only economic data point of the day is a disappointment as non-farm productivity drops 0.3% on consensus of -0.9%, although we once again get an unprecedented revision from the BLS whose data can no longer be trust for anything, as Q1 productivity was cut by whopping 2.4% from 1.8% to -0.6%! This is the first consecutive quarterly drop since 3Q, 4Q 2008. Net, this is very disappointing data and means that the economic slow down is far more broad than previously expected. And, not at all surprisingly, we get the same thing with labor costs rising 2.2% on consensus of 2.4%. The kicker yet again is in the revision, which speaks for itself: from 4.8% to 0.7% in Q1. US economic reporting is rapidly becoming a bigger joke than the Chinese Department of Truth.
“The S&P Is Worth No More Than 950″
Grand Policy Failure: Liquidity Traps And Financial Black Holes
All three Keynesian policies have been tried, and all three have failed completely. The massive “shovel-ready” fiscal stimulus caused a minor blip up in activity, but it did not spark any regeneration of borrowing and spending. All it did was enable further deleveraging as consumers and businesses struggled to pay down their crushing debt loads. As for devaluing the currency, the Fed’s policies devalued the U.S. dollar 32% from the early 2000s, and 17% from 2008. Rather than spark a boom of spending and investment, this massive devaluation sparked a dramatic loss of purchasing power which households experience as high inflation. No nation ever prospered in the long-term by devaluing its currency. Devaluation is just another Keynesian “quick fix.” Borroing 40% of Federal spending didn’t “fix” what’s wrong with the economy? Then borrow 50%. That devaluation wasn’t enough? Then takes the dollar down another 10%. These are the policies of debt-junkies, not legitimate long-term growth based on capital formation and productive investment.
You might as well use Charmin, ChuckECheese tokens, Unicorn farts and glitter as currency, too. They have the same value as what the Fed is printing… Greenspan: US Will Never Default Because We Can Just Print Money
Try the “I printed the money” approach in any high school accounting class to explain how you fixed ugly discrepancies on your balance sheet and you’ll fail the course. Do the same thing as a former Fed Chairman you’re an economic guru.
Revenge of the Rating Agencies: “These Are Not the Bonds You’re Looking For”
So, Obama-Wan Kenobi’s attempt to employ the hope-and-change Jedi mind-trick that “These aren’t the bonds you’re looking for” with the rating agencies aligned with the Dark Side has failed. We warned here a couple weeks back that an insufficient debt ceiling agreement would actually make a downgrade more likely, and as John points out, the left’s attempt to blame this on the Tea Party is laughable.
On the surface it is supposed that the Darth Vaders of Standard & Poor’s are engaged in a belated CYA operation after having failed to raise an eyebrow about the bubblicious creditworthiness of housing finance a few years back, or otherwise have it out for Obama out of some partisan animus. But wait!—it turns out S & P executives were overwhelmingly Obama donors in 2008.
Thought Of The Day: Would We Still Have Our AAA Credit Rating Without The Stimulus & Obamacare?
Certainly, if Democrats, who originally wanted no cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, had agreed to the Ryan Plan or Cut, Cap, and Balance, we wouldn’t have lost our AAA rating. It’s also worth noting, however, that it’s entirely possible that we wouldn’t have lost our AAA rating without the Democrats ramming through a trillion dollar stimulus and Obamacare, a new entitlement program that everyone knows, phony baloney numbers aside, will add trillions to the national debt over the next couple of decades. Take that spending out of the equation and America’s long-term prospects would still be bad, but our medium term prospects would look considerably better, and it’s entirely possible that our AAA rating would be intact.
S&P Cuts AAA Rating On Thousands Of Municipal Bonds
They may have been amused by the constant drumbeat from the likes of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi that the time has come to turn our attention from deficits to jobs, as if the creation of larger deficits will do anything to stop the bleeding job market. The way the Obama administration sees it, if the private firms continue to inexplicably sit on their mountains of cash, the government has to intervene with yet another failed stimulus program.
The disconnect between the debt crisis and the Obama administration was made clear by a recent announcement from Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius: the Obama administration, acting under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, has created yet another new entitlement that requires insurers to provide women with contraceptive services for free.
The clear lesson to the S&P folks is that entitlement spending, which was immunized from the debt ceiling compromise, remains on autopilot. No matter how much discretionary spending is curtailed, the revenue situation will only get worse if entitlements continue to rise, which they will unless meaningful regulatory reform takes place pronto. Yet that cannot happen as long as the Democrats keep control of the Senate and the White House.
Moonbat Dem Rep. Dennis Kucinich Demands S&P Hand Over Company Financials Or Face “Thorough Investigation”…
More leftist thuggery.
Suddenly every lefty is an expert on S&P
Lefties are super-duper smart with the magic power to become instant experts on any subject.
Look at how they are all experts on such things as genetics (you are born gay — end of subject) and meteorology (man-made global warming — end of subject) and now high finance (S&P is a bunch of liars — end of subject).
Humor: S&P Hates Black People
Don’t make me pull out my commemorative Obama White House blackjack, bub! I would hate to do this the Chicago way!
Our mission is to discredit S&P at all cost; blame the Tea Party for our reckless spending and aversion to compromise; and we have to keep blaming George W. Bush for the mess our president inherited.
We also have to convince the country that more spending is the only solution in order to bring down the debt. What do you do when they cut up your credit cards? Easy, you get another one — and if they won’t issue you one you call them a RACIST.
This woman is part of the problem. Thieving banksters….‘Thanks for the downgrade… you should all be fired!’ Female banker hires plane to buzz S&P’s New York HQ with banner message to ratings agency
Obama Can’t Say the Word “China”
The Chinese will not change their policies, so they are accumulating dollars and therefore forced to reinvest them offshore. That reinvestment is flooding global financial markets with greenbacks. By flooding the world with them, Chinese officials are keeping dollar interest rates abnormally low and therefore making it too easy for the U.S. government to borrow. The U.S., therefore, would not be in such a debt fix if Beijing had allowed the renminbi to float and honored its trade promises, thereby allowing a more balanced trade between the two nations.
The current trading relationship between China and the United States is unsustainable, so one way or another it has to change. The sooner we deal with this, the more likely we will find a solution within the context of the existing international trading framework. In other words, there is a greater likelihood we will adopt a solution without resort to protectionist measures if this matter is resolved soon.
Because Beijing intransigently maintains its policies, America needs an honest national conversation about China—and fast.
“Not Much Further We Can Cut” & The Dog That Didn’t Bark
But there’s no sense, reading through this list, that the federal bureaucracy knows it is in crisis–a crisis that might one day cause a GS-12 or GS-15 somewhere in the D.C. metro area to actually lose his or her job in the sort of streamlining layoff private firms routinely go through. … In any case, a politician who says “there’s not much further we can cut” is blundering into trouble. Don’t voters want a President who spends a year or two at least trying to wring the fat out of government before he jumps to the conclusion that he needs to extract more in taxes? …
Exactly. Exactly.
Exactly.
Let me note the dog that didn’t bark.
Have you heard any stories of older, more expensive federal employees losing their jobs during this budget crisis — as corporations typically do when they are hemorrhaging money?
Have you read any stories about departments drastically cutting back and looking for money-saving solutions — doing more with less, as they say, or “working smarter, not harder”?
Has the media been full of stories by weary bureaucrats complaining, like teachers are apparently instructed by their unions to claim, that they have to buy their own supplies to properly do their jobs?
Has there been any grousing that federal employees are missing expected pay raises and promotions, being forced to work at their old salaries through this crisis?
The answer is no.
Why Is Nobody Talking About the $1 Billion Bet On US Downgrade?
Since American news outlets are ignoring this story, most people probably know nothing about it. I didn’t until someone emailed me the link to the first article linked above. I hate conspiracy theories, but as far as Soros is concerned, he took down the British Pound, so what’s to keep him from taking down America?
Update: Don Surber: “If it was Soros, he earned it. Look at all the work he did to put in someone dumber-than-Geithner into the Oval Office.”
Speaking of Geithner, I saw a headline earlier saying he was not going to resign to maintain “continuity.” Um, why on earth would we want to continue this economic nightmare? Continuity is the last thing we need right now.
Japan and the softly glowing world…
There was just too much going on elsewhere for me to get to this today. I will catch up on it in the next post.
World News:
Anarchy in the UK…
In the end the kind of thing we are seeing in London and around the world will be the death of Twitter, Facebook and all the rest of ‘social media’ and the mechanisms that enable it to be used in this manner (iPhone/Android phones/Blackberries and any other cell phone that does more then just make phone calls). Sell your Facebook, Twitter, Google and Apple stock while it is still worth something…Twitter refuses to close accounts of rioters to protect their ‘freedom of expression’
Rioting spreads as mobs hit Gloucester, Cambridge and Cardiff
London Rioters: “We’re Showing The Rich We Do What We Want”
If Obama and the Dems keep up with the endless class warfare rhetoric, does anyone doubt this could be the end result here in America? I don’t.
What do you do to a rabid dog? You don’t whack it with batons, you put a bullet through it’s skull…Britain’s cops fight back: Police caught on camera chasing down gang of rioters and beating them with batons
There will be a temptation to beat ourselves up as a society for not doing enough to address problems faced by these groups, especially the inadequate education and consequent lack of qualifications that makes it hard for them to get jobs, which largely go to immigrant workers from eastern Europe. That should be resisted. Billions of pounds have been spent trying to improve schools and regenerate run-down areas. The suggestion from some Left-wing politicians, such as Ken Livingstone, that the riots were due to the impact of Government spending cuts is grotesque. If anything, the biggest problem has been the creation of a sense of entitlement sustained by an overly generous (and no longer affordable) welfare system, which expects nothing in return for the benefits dispensed.
Her Majesty’s Government surrenders to the rioters
Stunner. Far Left Cheers On Mob Violence in London
The first outbreaks of violence, on Saturday night, were peripherally connected to the shooting of a man by police last week, but more about that another time. Things have escalated by an order of magnitude tonight, with violence breaking out in various parts of the capital. Saturday’s riots, and Sunday’s copy-cat violence, were mere scuffles compared to what I, and probably millions of other TV viewers, are watching unfold right now. There are also reports of violence in Birmingham, England’s second city. And it’s only just getting dark here. People’s homes and businesses are being destroyed, and I’m very afraid that someone will be dead by the morning.
I’d planned to write a post about how the hand-wringing liberals and self-appointed ‘community leaders’ have spent the last two days making excuses for the rioters – the usual crap about boredom, lack of opportunity, ‘heavy handed’ policing and so on. But it’s not worth bothering with those idiots just now, and with several parts of the capital in flames the news channels seem to have wisely decided to stop letting those individuals run their stupid mouths.
Brendan O’Neill on the London riots
What we have on the streets of London and elsewhere are welfare-state mobs. The youth who are ‘rising up’ – actually they are simply shattering their own communities – represent a generation that has been more suckled by the state than any generation before it. They live in those urban territories where the sharp-elbowed intrusion of the welfare state over the past 30 years has pushed aside older ideals of self-reliance and community spirit. The march of the welfare state into every aspect of less well-off urban people’s existences, from their financial wellbeing to their childrearing habits and even into their emotional lives, with the rise of therapeutic welfarism designed to ensure that the poor remain ‘mentally fit’, has helped to undermine such things as individual resourcefulness and social bonding. The anti-social youthful rioters look to me like the end product of such an anti-social system of state intervention.
Give a man a fish, and he’ll riot for free fish
New events have just been announced for the 2012 London Olympics: the Molotov throw, synchronized looting, and the 400-metre dash for your life.
Beyond Parody: Iran Calls On Britain To Avoid Violence Against Rioters And Show “Restraint”…
London-Santiago: Coincidence or convergence?
While the London demonstrators are “showing the rich”, the Santiago demonstrators want private universities to provide education for free. They also want a new constitution, which of course would be subject to their approval.
It is indeed interesting that the US’s staunchest European ally, and South America’s most successful capitalist country have both come under attack following Black Thursday’s crash and the S&P downgrade.
After America may be sooner than we think.
The Annihilation of Civilizations
Today we see another approach to dealing with the Islam of annihilation. We ignore the history of annihilation and say that all we need to do is love Muslims and we will live in harmony, a wonderful multicultural civilization. A history of 1400 years without a single exception to the rule of annihilation and we will repeal it with a smile and a hug. All you need is love; love is all you need; all you need is love; love is all you need. Repeat that again and again, it will make a doctrine and history of annihilation go away. Actually, the way it works is that the history is never known. It is a cliché to say that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. It is a cliché but it is true. We have our foot on the path to annihilation today because we refuse to know history.
What is the lesson? Islam, peaceful Islam, is about destruction of all Kafir civilization. Only if the Kafirs realize the goal of Islam is annihilation of their culture, can the destruction be stopped. Islam is at war with Kafirs, and Kafirs are trying to “nice” their way out of destruction. Islam is at war, we are at nice. Mohammed has a dream that is coming true while we sleep.
Your tax dollars at work…New Break-Away Jihadist Faction Emerges In Gaza Strip, Linked Directly To US-Funded Fatah In West Bank
CIA Predator Drones Kill 7 Haqqani Network Fighters In North Waziristan…
Feel good story of the day.
Seven killed in brawl, shootout in Russia
North And South Korea Exchange Artillery Fire
US News:
The only ones who pull this kind of shite are Islamofascists and Obama…White House Scrubs Israel From Its Website
Disgraceful.
Obama marks Ramadan with Iftar dinner
Running Scared: President Downgrade Cancels Public Appearances, WH Scraps Press Briefing
They’re like little babies hiding behind their mommies. Used to be Obama would be on the television 24/7. Now that his presidency is in ruins, he’s too cowardly to even show up in public.
Thank a Democrat….Entire U.S. stealth aircraft fleet grounded over oxygen and power system faults
Photos Of The Fallen: Americans Killed Aboard SEAL Team 6 Helicopter In Afghanistan…
Rest in peace, brave American heroes, you served your country well.
The RPG that felled the SEALs may have been a random act of war. The Taliban could have just gotten lucky. Or they could have been plotting and waiting for revenge, looking for helicopters that might be carrying more SEALs on another mission, a big bull’s-eye painted on their backs by a vice president who forgot that loose lips sink ships — and can get Navy SEALs killed.
More on Biden and His Fat Mouth
You know, it’s really strange, Matt, that 90 some-odd days ago SEAL Team 6 had a big victory, and possibly sheep in high places said things that made many of us very uncomfortable. And now some 90 some-odd days later, SEAL Team 6 has suffered a terrible tragedy. And I just pray that during these last days, these next days, they ‘ll allow SEAL Team 6 — the wives, the children, the families — to grieve, to bury their dead, and not make it political.
Next October when Hollywood is spending tens of millions to release a big “Obama killed bin Laden” movie blockbuster to influence the election, let’s keep in mind what the buffoons — the sheep — like Biden did. Is that me making it political? No, sir. It’s me noting when others do. When morons like Biden run their mouths, they put good men at risk. When the Obama administration decided to release all the information about who killed bin Laden, they put good men at risk.
And for this they should be re-elected?
This is me spitting at that idea.
Of course, the downgrade more than likely would not have happened if Tea Party activists had really gotten their way — which, except perhaps for avoiding tax increases, they mostly didn’t. But it could have been much worse. As Rick Santelli said on Monday after the market’s close: “If it wasn’t for the Tea Party, they’d have passed the debt ceiling thumbs-up, (and) we’d have been rated triple-B.”
You would think that such an obvious pack of lies from the left would have no chance of gaining traction. Think again: According to Rasmussen, they already have 29% of Americans believing that Tea Party members are “economic terrorists.”
This cannot stand. We know who started the fire, we know who fed and worsened it with their failed “solutions,” and we know who is utterly out of ideas. Incredibly, fewer Americans are working full-time now than were when the recession technically ended. Democrats and all too many RINO accomplices have had their way for 30 months, and all they can show for it is a frightening trail of misery.
Democrat Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said not long ago that her party owns the economy. They still do: lock, stock, and barrel. The Tea Party must focus its attention on limiting the damage during the next 17-1/2 months, educate-educate-educate the public, recruit solid candidates who can chase as many hard-leftists and RINO poseurs out of office as possible, and hope against hope-and-change that we really can survive until January 2013.
Sarah Palin on Obama: The More He Tries to Fix Things, the Worse They Get
“The more he tries to “fix” things, the worse they get because his “solutions” always involve spending more, taxing more, growing government, and increasing debt. This debt problem is the greatest challenge facing our country today. Obviously, President Obama doesn’t have a plan or even a notion of how to deal with it. His press conference today was just a rehash of his old talking points and finger-pointing. That’s why he can’t be re-elected in 2012.
Our economic news is disheartening and the task before us can seem daunting, but we must not lose our sense of optimism. People look around today and may see only the negative. They see a culture and a nation in decline, but that’s not who we are! America must regain its optimistic pioneering spirit again. Our founders declared that “we were born the heirs of freedom.” We are the heirs of those who froze with Washington at Valley Forge, who held the line at Gettysburg, who freed the slaves, carved a nation out of the wilderness, and allowed reward for work ethic. We are the sons and daughters of that Greatest Generation who stormed the beaches of Normandy, raised the flag at Iwo Jima, and made America the strongest and most prosperous nation in the history of mankind. By God, we will not squander what has been given us!”
Obama’s penchant for speeches now sounding hollower by the word
Trouble is, real leadership is more than talking and calling for things. It takes a while, but over time listeners begin to notice rote rhetoric, predictable patterns, empty words.
At first, President Obama had no public events on his schedule Monday. Then, after markets opened down sharply, the White House announced Obama would speak at 1 pm. Then 1:30. Then he finally emerged at 1:52. By that time, the market had dropped 410 points. Obama then said absolutely nothing new. He attacked S&P’s downgrade decision, something his aides had already done. He blamed Republicans for the downgrade, something his surrogates had already done. And he called for extending unemployment benefits, extending the payroll tax cut, more infrastructure spending, and higher taxes; all policies he has been pushing for months.
Later, the White House press corps pressed spokesman Jay Carney on whether Obama would be unveiling a deficit reduction plan “in a form of being scorable by the Congressional Budget Office.” When Carney demurred, Politico’s Glenn Thrush asked: “You said he will be contributing to the process, talking about the super committee, but he won’t be leading it. He is the leader of the free world. Why isn’t he leading this process?” Carney responded: “Glenn. Look, this President, his leadership on these issues is quite established.”
Quite established to whom? After Obama’s statement, the markets fell another 210 points. Obama is unwilling to call Congress back from its August recess and push for a larger stimulus agenda because he fears alienating already skeptical independents. But he can’t bargain constructively on deficit reduction with Republicans because liberals will abandon him if he pushes for real entitlement reform. As a result, Obama is paralyzed politically. All he can do is watch the market, and his reelection chances, drop.
Rather surprising considering the source. Milbank is a deep drinker from the ObamaKool-Aid well…The most powerful man on Earth?
The economy crawls, the credit rating falls, the markets plunge, and a helicopter packed with U.S. special forces goes down in Afghanistan. Two thirds of Americans say the country is on the wrong track (and that was before the market swooned), Obama’s approval rating is 43 percent, and activists on his own side are calling him weak.
Yet Obama plods along, raising gobs of cash for his reelection bid — he was scheduled to speak at two DNC fundraisers Monday night — and varying little the words he reads from the teleprompter. He seemed detached even from those words Monday as he pivoted his head from side to side, proclaiming that “our problems is not confidence in our credit” and turning his bipartisan fiscal commission into a “biparticle.”
WaPo columnist suddenly discovers Mr. Cool is rather cold
Somewhere in Richard Cohen’s column for today’s Washington Post shines a little light of belated understanding. Cohen tries to hide it behind a broadside against the GOP, writing — and obviously hoping — that Barack Obama’s eventual 2012 challenger will be “stuck in the amber” of extremism from the primaries and will end up rescuing Obama from himself. That doesn’t change Cohen’s conclusion about Obama as an overrated narcissist, even if Cohen can’t quite make the diagnosis explicit:
Obama, in contrast, was raised in the great American muddle, not rich and not poor. Yet when the stock market fell more than 500 points last week and the image that night was of the president whooping it up at his birthday party, the juxtaposition — just bad timing, of course — seemed appropriate. He does not seem to care.
This quality of Obama’s, this inability to communicate what many of us think he must be feeling, has lately cost many trees their dear lives — reams of essays and op-ed pieces. One of the more interesting ones, by Drew Westen, a psychology professor at Emory University, ran in Sunday’s New York Times. It cited Obama’s frequent inability or unwillingness to explain himself or to appear empathetic. All this is true. But Westen’s most salient point was contained in the title: “What Happened to Obama?” The answer: Nothing.
‘He’s Turned Into a Gutless, Quivering Wimp’
Granted, this woman is completely clueless as to why the market is tanking and why our credit has been downgraded, but at least she realizes what a sniveling worm Obama is. When you’ve got the diehard Koolaid drinkers in such a lather, a primary challenge can’t be far off.
In other words, it’s not just the way President Obama’s policies have not worked out that invites the Jimmy Carter parallel. It’s also the over-the-top praise each received before entering office. In both 1976 and 2008, each Democrat was presented as the kind of smart, cool, new politico who was going to—fill in the cliché—”transcend politics as we know it,” “appeal across traditional lines,” “bring America together,” etc.
Ironically, here Mr. Romney has a case, for some of the differences between the two presidents favor Mr. Carter. Faced with raging inflation and a declining dollar, President Carter appointed Paul Volcker chairman of the Federal Reserve. He supported deregulation. Most of all, in contrast to President Obama, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because he wasn’t George W. Bush, President Carter actually earned his, at least for the Camp David Accords that brought about peace between Israel and Egypt.
Mr. Obama can’t be blamed for the excesses that saw him hailed as the new FDR, the new JFK or the new Lincoln, or for the Norwegian committee that bestowed upon him a Nobel. He can be held to account for encouraging them: by delivering a campaign speech in Berlin, by accepting a prize he hadn’t earned, by breaking out not only a Lincoln quotation but the Lincoln china and the Lincoln Bible for his inauguration.
Karl Rove: Obama More Like James Buchanan than Jimmy Carter (Video)
Rove explained to Bill O’Reilly that this is an administration that can only do one thing at a time. They can only play politics.
Rove also compared Obama to failed President James Buchanan who sat by as the nation fell apart around him before Lincoln came into office.
Obama: Creating jobs “not rocket science”!
Setting aside the fact that we’ve already tossed zillions away in the first stimulus, let’s review our situation. We’re worse than broke, in debt beyond what we’ll ever be able to pay; the economy is stagnant, our credit has been downgraded, and the stock market’s crashing. And all Obama can think about is spending more trillions?
He’s right — it’s not rocket science; it’s criminal lunacy.
Look on his works, ye mighty, and despair.
While America Sinks, Obama Raises Reelection Funds
No wonder Obama doesn’t understand the value of the money the government has been pouring down the drain. He’s floating in cash. If it floats him into another term, America will not survive as anything we will want to recognize.
Tragedy Averted: Fire Breaks Out At Obama’s $20 Million Martha’s Vineyard Vacation Home, Will Be Repaired Before He Arrives Next Week…
Michelle Obama Takes Secret Vacation to Oregon
The White House has so far said little about the trip, which was unannounced. It’s unclear how long the vacation will last.
Mrs. Obama and family members flew on a Boeing C-40B, the military version of a 737 that serves as Air Force 2.
Mrs. Obama has in the past incurred criticism for her travels, including an early departure for her most recent Hawaiian vacation and a luxurious 2010 trip to Spain. Most of the costs of her travel are borne by taxpayers.
The C-40B included a flight crew of eight to 10 people, according to one report. Mrs. Obama is traveling with one of her daughters – it’s unclear which one – and her mother.
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy (except for the UN, of course):
Government logo fail of the day
As Rob wrote me this morning: “Check out the logo. 3 interlocking gears arranged in this fashion will not move in any direction. They are essentially locked in place. Which when you think about it, is a perfect analogy of today’s government!”
Also a perfect analogy for a hapless administration’s pretense of entrepreneurial expertise: Total non-starter.
Harry Reid’s Three Senate ‘Super Committee’ Picks Are…
Isn’t the term “super committee” an oxymoron, especially in this context?
Wasserman Schultz Ignores House Franking Rules with Taxpayer-Funded Mailer
The cost of transportation of goods goes up means that the cost of everything you buy goes up….Obama Regime Attacks Transportation Sector With New Fuel Efficiency Mandates
It only appears that Obama is doing nothing about the economic crisis. Even as he plays golf and raises reelection funds, his army of bureauweenies is busily working away — to continue making the crisis worse:
The White House on Tuesday will unveil the first-ever federal fuel efficiency standards for a range of heavy-duty trucks, a move the administration is casting as a key part of its plan to cut foreign oil imports and slash harmful air pollution.
The planned announcement [delayed for now] comes amid growing economic uncertainty and increasing jitters on Wall Street. The Obama administration is expected to argue that the standards will result in major benefits to the ailing economy.
Bwahaha! At least they’re keeping their sense of humor. If compelling upgrades that will cost up to $2,200 per truck without producing any wealth will help the economy Obama has crippled with his spending and regulations, why not also mandate a coating of gold leaf for all vehicles? That ought to lift us right back to prosperity.
Shutting down coal fired power plants=rolling blackouts, ‘skyrocketing energy prices’, more job losses and deaths. It is a ‘win-win’ scenario for the Obama regime….Cincinnati to Lose Another Coal Plant to the EPA
For Obama, this Green Peace wacko, and other committed leftists, it is about ideology and its implementation to destroy the American economy.
Make no mistake, President AA+ and his leftist allies have declared a war against jobs, technology, and your way of life.
Obamacare has nothing at all to do with health care. It’s about control. Punishing enemies and rewarding friends. It’s about a Soviet-style form of government that has as its core the destruction of the Constitution and of our individual liberties. Removing the options you have for medical treatment and replacing them with a one-size-fits-all, centralized health care regime is a huge step in the direction of totalitarianism.
Obama’s New Gifts to Organized Labor
Government encroachments typically come as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, Justice Antonin Scalia once observed, but occasionally they are brazen—then, the “wolf comes as a wolf.” The Obama administration recently proposed a pair of rules to help unions win workplace elections. One rule is obviously a wolf. The other is a pretty creepy looking sheep.
The “wolf” is a proposal of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to enable unions to force organizing elections with as little as 10 days’ notice
Reviewing the Resumes: The Politicized Hiring of Eric Holder’s Voting Section
Eric Holder’s Justice Department wields enormous power over the American political landscape heading into the 2012 elections. Under the Voting Rights Act, sixteen states must submit any election law change to the Justice Department for approval. The law also gives the states the right to go to federal court for approval instead.
States need to understand the biographies of the DOJ officials who will be responsible for managing the review of these submissions. PJM has learned their backgrounds weigh in favor of bypassing the DOJ and going straight to court.
PJM has been investigating an unprecedented hiring blitz by the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department since Obama’s inauguration. In these lean economic times, Eric Holder went on a hiring frenzy, bringing over 130 high-paid government attorneys onto the federal payroll.
A Balrog of Morgoth speaks…John McCain Not Sorry for Reading ‘Tea Party Hobbits’ Line on Senate Floor
If John McCain were in the midst of a campaign to retain his seat, he’d have arrived at this townhall meeting dressed as Bilbo Baggins and sported a “Taxed Enough Already” t-shirt and a hat with teabags dangling from it, but McCain isn’t running for anything for quite a while, and it shows…
Now that’s what I call “Distance Learning”
I’ll bet that for every Democrat who says government spending can’t be cut I can find a thousand of these boondoggles scattered hither and yon within the federal leviathon.
Is sending inner city kids on a tropical vacation a cool idea? Absolutely.
Is it something we can afford to do given the current economic and budgetary outlook? Um, no.
So before anybody starts prattling on again about “raising revenues” how about we first scour the budget and purge each and every one of these potentially worthy but non-essential line items. The times, they have a-changed. Caribbean vacations are a luxury, and the luxury fund is bone dry
Want Proof of How Democrats Would Shut You Up, Tea Partiers?
If John Kerry and his comrades on the far left had their way, they’d use the force of law to shut you up, Tea Partiers. The left would not use the Fairness Doctrine for anything “fair.” They’d use it as a but another Alien and Sedition Act to shut down the access to the public square now enjoyed by conservative ideas.
Talk radio, cable TV, newspapers, magazines, the Internet all would be targeted for Kremlin-like control of their contents by Washington D.C. if the left had its way.
In fact, speaking of the Internet, there is a new stealth Fairness Doctrine in the works. It’s called Net Neutrality, just another way for the left to impose state control of the news.
2012: The Fork in the Road…
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! Communists Sue Democratic Party For Stealing Platform
Prediction: When Fall 2012 rolls around the killer question in the Presidential debates will be….
Watch out
Doctor DoofenshmirtzPresident Obama, Perry the President will foil your dastardly plans! He’ll deactivate your Downgrade-inator and get this country working again! And since he’s not another establishment retread like Mitt Romney he’ll be more appealing to a wider range of voters too.The pro-Perry ads are already popping up. Good. The media is busy tut-tutting over his prayer rally this past weekend. Feh. There’s no shame in praying for a better tomorrow. It beats blaming everyone else but yourself for the train wreck around you. And Texas leads the nation in job creation, or as I heard it told, “Do you know who else inherited a crappy economy from George W. Bush? Rick Perry.”
No wonder then that Obama’s EPA is trying so hard to put the brakes on Rick Perry’s Texas job creation machine. Can’t have one of these upstart conservatives making El Jefe look bad!
But these days, El Jefe is doing a fine job of looking bad all by himself.
Obama-Linked Dem Strategist: We Have To “Kill Romney”…
New tone!
Top 20 #ObamaBusTourNames My favorite one is #9- America Under the Bus Tour
Gallup: Obama’s Approval Rating Ties All-Time Low, 40%…
The only thing keeping Obama from dropping into the mid-30s is his support among liberal and black voters, once his base starts to crack he will be in George W. Bush territory.
Gallup: Obama state approval numbers show a fluid map
Frank Luntz: “I think his re-election is in jeopardy”
LUNTZ: …The difference between Obama and the Republicans is that the Republicans get it. They understand what is happening in their districts. They are all holding town hall meetings, they are all engaging with their voters and they’re going to come back with more cuts. They are going to stop these tax increases that Barack Obama keeps pushing.
But the president, unless he starts listening more effectively for the first time I’ve ever said on this network, for the first time, I think his re-election is in jeopardy. Because he doesn’t get just how mad — it is not anxious, it is not fear, it’s anger — that the public is with what is happening in Washington and how it is hurting them. It’s not what Washington does for you anymore. It’s now what Washington is doing to you.
STEYN: Yes, Clinton felt your pain. This guy doesn’t even feel your.
LUNTZ: He’s causing your pain.
STEYN: He’s causing your pain.
LUNTZ: And he doesn’t feel it while he’s causing it.
STEYN: Yes. And he can’t be bothered pretending that he feels.
In what could well be the lamest attempt at making President Downgrade look good, I came across a piece on New England Cable News this morning where they cite Gallup poll numbers showing New England states reportedly giving Obama high approval ratings for the most part. Just one minor little problem. The poll was taken from January to June. Yet they cite it as “the latest” poll numbers.
Dems Beginning To Fear That Obama is Unelectable
Democrats Have a Brand New Motto For 2012
At Fundraiser Obama Blames Bush and Europe For the Country’s Problems
Poll: Just 17% of Americans Believe the Government Has the Consent of the Governed
Texans didn’t ask for any of this or give our consent for any of this. We voted in a Congressional delegation that doesn’t support any of it, and our state government has fought all of this every step of the way, loudly and publicly. And at least in the case of the EPA regs, Congress itself didn’t vote for any of these actions to be taken. When a Democrat-controlled Congress had the chance to weigh in on cap and trade (upon which the EPA’s actions are largely based) it declined. The government’s agencies have simply assumed powers not granted them, and Congress is evidently powerless to stop them now.
I love this country as much as anyone and served in the military to defend it, but the fact is, we’ve crossed a few lines in the past few years. So if you asked me directly if government has my consent to do what it’s doing, I would answer no. With a modifier or two if I’m in a particularly foul mood. Not only does the government not have my consent, it hasn’t even asked for my consent. The president has dubbed me an “enemy” and treated my state like a hostile power via federal agency power grabs.
I’d wager that every red state and several swing states have similar stories to tell in the Obama years. The Rasmussen poll reflects the spread of a “Come and Take It” mood across much of the nation.
The Conservative Crazy Eyes Cliche & Other Stupid MSM Photo Tricks
Disseminating unflattering photos of conservatives isn’t journalism. It’s Alinskyite narrative-shaping. And for holier-than-thou highbrow poseurs from Time and Newsweek to the Soros zoo and rage photog Jill Greenberg, it’s a hard habit to break.
Awful… Newsweek’s Sexist Bachmann Cover So Nasty Even NOW Issues a Statement
“Who has ever called a man ‘The King of Rage?,’ NOW president Terry O’Neil told TheDC. “The ‘Queen of Rage’ is something you apply to wrestlers or somebody who is crazy. They didn’t even do this to Howard Dean when he had his famous scream.”
Bachmann’s political touch turns doubter into fan
Fellow politicians used to say of Bill Clinton that he would not be happy unless he had won over every doubter in a room. Sometimes he would devote an inordinate amount of time to the effort. Bachmann was a little like that in Atlantic on Monday. Most analyses of her success focus on her Tea Party politics and strong views. But there’s another reason she’s moving up in the polls here. She’s good.
President Phony to attack Mitt Romney as phony
This strategy of seek and destroy is not really surprising. Obama is such a dismal failure that he can win only by tearing down others. In 2008, Obama ran a highly negative campaign, including a pervasive use of the race card, but was able to hide behind a media lovefest and John McCain’s unwillingness to play hardball. The strategy against Romney simply is the true Obama campaign without the gloss.
The attack strategy also proves a couple of points I have made. First, do not put too much stock in what current polls tell us about who will do better against Obama, because only Sarah Palin has felt the full Obamamaniac onslaught. After several months of David Axelrod’s sleazy messaging, we’ll see where Romney stands. If I were Romney, I’d get out ahead of the issue and wear the Politico story as a badge of honor and turn it around on Obama.
Second, those establishment Republicans who have piled on Palin in turn will see their candidates get the treatment. They have no right to complain when their candidate is isolated and targeted, because they joined in the anti-Palin frenzy.
Gunwalker/Fast & Furious/Castaway
“Fast and Furious” Goes All the Way to the White House
But although neither Obama or Holder have claimed they had knowledge of the operations until quite recently, both are now actively doing their best to “[stonewall] the oversight committee investigation” that is trying to get to the bottom of this mess. Of Obama in particular, Issa has said, “President Obama has been keen to talk about who didn’t know about the program and who didn’t authorize it. These answers will not suffice. The American people have a right to know, once and for all, who did authorize it and who knew about it.”
It doesn’t take long to connect the dots on this one. We have a president who funded these programs, who talked to Mexican President Calderon two months later about tracing guns, and whose National Security Director for North America received communications from ATF Special Agent Newell regarding the operations. The Justice Department is littered with people who knew about the program, and nearly every federal law-enforcement agency besides the Secret Service was involved.
The President gets away with laughing off the fact that “shovel-ready jobs” weren’t as shovel-ready as he thought they were. But there’s no way he should be allowed to laugh this one off.
Of course they want gun control, all totalitarian dictatorships do…A Fast And Furious Assault On Private Gun Sales
The war that dares not speak its name…US and Libya:
*crickets*
Look for the Union Label/Whackademia/The Badger Rebellion:
Democrat Humiliation in Wisconsin: ‘The Revolution Has Not Occurred’
I’m surprised they haven’t started rioting yet.
GOP Victory In Wisconsin Could Reverberate Around Country
Last update for the night/morning: 12:43am August 10 – Local media call the race for GOP Darling.
Translation: $30 million spent by the Left for two state Senate seats, fall one short of taking control of state Legislature.
A Twitter friend adds: “Democrats in #Wisconsin spent about $263 per vote to not get a majority in the state senate.”
Next: Two fleebagger Dems are up for recall next week.
Dear rank-and-file union members: Maybe it’s time to recall your own profligate Big Labor bosses.
Unions go 0 for 2 in Wisconsin
Translation: in a straight-up race, Republicans win in Wisconsin these days. It doesn’t help these progressive activists that Walker and the GOP produced the best budget proposal in 15 years, and that the PEU reform has already begun to save Milwaukee $11 million this year and much more across the state. It also doesn’t help Democrats to have President Obama “leading” us into a credit downgrade, massive deficits, and no apparent plan to pull us out of the economic stagnation his policies have produced.
That’s not the end of the bad news for Democrats and their progressive-activist supporters, either. Next Tuesday, two more recall elections take place for the state Senate, this time two of the fleebagger seats, thanks to the reaction from the GOP to the union’s efforts to recall Republicans. It’s possible that the unions will go 0 for 3 in 2011 and end up handing back the two pickups they got last night. The unions will have ended up spending millions to end up right where they began — locked out of Madison — while adding a powerful display of electoral impotence to their brand. They have discredited themselves with Wisconsin voters in a way that Walker and the GOP couldn’t possibly have planned, the victim of their own arrogance in attempting to overturn elections for no other reason that protecting their own featherbeds.
Strange things can happen in special elections. Generally speaking, the victory usually goes to the side with the largest organization, although as the election between David Prosser and Joann Kloppenburg proved in April, that’s not always the case. Unions have that advantage, and while the debate focused solely on the bargaining-rights reform for PEUs, they had the passion and the momentum, too.
Having the terms of the election broadened doesn’t do Democrats or unions much good. The fight today now mainly reflects the same debate Wisconsin voters had just before they booted Democrats from control of the state government. Its prior focus on the supposedly radical nature of the new Governor left Democrats vulnerable to stories about his success, such as last night’s news about the millions of dollars Scott Walker’s law will save Milwaukee. Nationalizing the election will have voters looking at the performance of Democrats in Washington on the economy, especially the downgrade of US Treasuries by S&P and the contrast in direction taken by Republicans in Madison toward fiscal sanity and responsibility.
New Wisconsin collective bargaining law will save Milwaukee millions in health-care costs
Yeah. Walker should have just trusted unions to voluntarily pay more, because that’s what public-employee unions are famous for. Putting the taxpayer and fiscal solvency first.
Verizon Offers $50,000 Reward After Sabotage On Day Two Of Militant Union Strike
You stay classy Verizon strikers!
In Other News…
Grand jury indicts U.S. private in Fort Hood plot
Clear and Present Danger: Time for a National EMP Awareness Day
Communications would collapse, transportation would halt, and electrical power would simply be nonexistent. Not even a global humanitarian effort would be enough to keep hundreds of millions of Americans from death by starvation, exposure, or lack of medicine. Nor would the catastrophe stop at U.S. borders. Most of Canada would be devastated, too, as its infrastructure is integrated with the U.S. power grid. Without the American economic engine, the world economy would quickly collapse. Much of the world’s intellectual brain power (half of it is in the United States) would be lost as well. Earth would most likely recede into the “new” Dark Ages.
Yet, despite the fact that the EMP threat represents a clear and present danger for the United States, little has been done to protect the nation. While Congress and the Administration have the ability to help protect the United States from this grave threat, by funding comprehensive missile defense and developing a national recovery plan, they remain mired in inaction.
Governor Kasich Explains How He Did It – Ohio Credit Rating Was Just Upgraded By S&P (Video)
Obama could learn a few things from Governor Kasich.
Kansas Returns a $32 Million ObamaCare Grant, Plus More Bad News for ObamaCare
The debt deal was none too kind to ObamaCare. Here’s more bad news for this misguided law:
- Kansas becomes the second state (after Oklahoma) to return to the federal government one of ObamaCare’s lavish “Early Innovator Grants.” Coming from Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius’s home state, that’s gotta hurt.
- The latest ObamaCare eruption shows the law could cost $50 billion more per year than advertised. If anyone but the government sold you something like this, we’d put them in jail.
- Many of the same Democrats who said it wasn’t a benefit cut when ObamaCare ratcheted down the price controls that government uses to pay health care providers now say it is a benefit cut when states do that.
Radical groups target St. Louis banks and energy companies
Let’s take a look at some of the “sponsors” of this “convergence”:
- Missourians Organizing Reform and Empowerment, or M.O.R.E., which is actually Missouri ACORN rebranded,
- SEIU
- Climate Action St. Louis
- Rising Tide
- Greening Detroit
- Organization for Black Struggle
Racist Philly mayor goes off on black flash mobsters
Somebody better tell that to Mayor Nutter and Mr. Mondesire, who – as black liberals themselves – are apparently hopelessly clueless on the issue of “the deteriorating black culture.” I hope that same somebody (someone who is hopefully a black liberal, which will help greatly in the credibility dept, since we conservative white folk are so clueless and all about black issues) also helpfully demonstrates to Mr. Kane, who I should note in fairness has called for the “thug” element to be dealt with, the difference between someone believing that the black culture (which once thrived as a family unit in spite of Democrat policies meant to keep them down, and which stopped thriving as a family unit thanks in part to 60s era programs designed to “help”) is deteriorating – as indicated by direct quotes from his column – versus believing it’s the “accepted norm” in the black community.
Hopefully this same black liberal somebody will also inform Kane that his “you can only hold those directly responsible responsible for the emerging black flash mob culture in Wisconsin” belief is in direct conflict with the (again the 60s!) 60s-era liberal belief system in which guilty defendants in the criminal justice system oftentimes get lighter sentences thanks to liberal defense attorneys who argue that “society” is more responsible for the crime(s) their respective clients committed than their clients themselves. You know, something that Kane himself did in the very piece in which he claims we should only hold the guilty responsible and no one else (bolded emphasis added by me):
[The "mostly white" readers who wrote in] insisted the root of the problem with black youth wasn’t poverty, segregation, lack of jobs or institutional racism but instead social programs such as welfare and food stamps.
July California Tax Revenues Plunge More Than 10% Below Expectations
New security cameras to keep eye on Muni buses
Warning! Graphic Images that may cause blindness…Deconstructing SlutWalk
MSM Circus and Celebutard Side Show:
If Only Americans Weren’t So Goddamned Stupid We Wouldn’t Have to Send Them to Re-Education Camps
COKIE ROBERTS: “The problem that we have here is the Constitution of the United States of America which actually does require people to come together from different perspectives whether it’s divided government or not.” – NewsBusters.org
Ah yes, the eternal “problem” of the Constitution. Always in the way of the progressives getting their way. It never occurs to them that, were they ever dispose of the problem document and “get their way,” the next thing on its way to them would be a bullet straight into their ear answering the eternal question about the progressive brain — “Will it blend?”. After all, any tyranny takes out the troublemakers first, and who makes more trouble with fewer life and career consequences than the Cokie Roberts of this land?
NBC News’ Thomas Roberts: GOP Opposition To Government Spending An “Act Of Treason”…
Because spending America into oblivion is totally patriotic.
CBS Pushes Liberal Talking Point About Tea Party ‘Downgrade’
And it gets worse, Fineman claims White House officials “weren’t dismissing it out of hand.”
Democrat Gasbag Barney Frank Farts On MSNBC…
Barney could use a new butt plug.
Maybe Obama can give him lessons…Video Gold: Al Sharpton Attempts To Read Off A Teleprompter, Non-Stop Hilarity Ensues
And we thought Obama was in over his head, what the hell was MSNBC thinking when they hired this clown?
Somebody call the WAAAAHbulance for Kayne…‘People look at me like Hitler’
The 34-year-old rapper known for his outbursts was the headline act at the Big Chill music festival Saturday night, where he ranted in the middle of his set about being misunderstood and underappreciated.
“I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street, and people look at me like I’m (expletive) insane, like I’m Hitler,” he said. “One day the light will shine through and one day people will understand everything I ever did.”
West received light boos from the crowd as a result.
Compare And Contrast: How Newsweek Treats Liberal Vs. Conservative Women…
In related news…Newsstand sales of US magazines down 9 percent
Global Warmening:
Al Gore’s ‘Bulls*#t’ Rant Audio
Thanks to the miracle of poor quality recording equipment, Al’s words can now be heard in all of their “I’ve got one foot in the cuckoo’s nest and the other on a carbon neutral banana peel” glory. It’s the sound of a level of frustration that only a man who recently bought a seaside mansion but who nevertheless expects everybody to believe the oceans are this close to rising and killing everything within 50 miles of the coast can muster.
Another round of questions for polar bear researcher
The Sock Drawer:
The World Wide Web Was Born 20 Years Ago Today
Antimatter belt discovered around Earth
Boeing Workers Will Fly to ISS Aboard Their Company’s New Spaceship
Do you have the right stuff? Better send your resume to Boeing.
Surviving NASA rover nears rim of Martian crater
Seeds of life on Earth may have originated in space
The truth about Happy Feet’s home
The bird was named after the movie Happy Feet, in which a dancing emperor penguin leaves Antarctica to alert humans to the problem of overfishing in his icy homeland.
There’s a suggestion that this penguin which washed up on a Kapiti beach is here to do exactly the same – except for the dancing bit.
It’s a long stretch, but one environmental group is pushing the penguin’s visit as a sign that all is not happy in the Ross Sea, where most of Happy Feet’s family lives.
Awwww…lookit teh kitteh! Rare Sand Cat kitten born
Glimpse of an ancient war in Jerusalem tunnel
The tunnel was intended to drain rainwater, but is also thought to have been used as a hiding place for the rebels during the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. That temple was razed, along with much of the city, by Roman legionnaires putting down the Jewish uprising in 70 AD.
On Monday, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority unveiled a sword found in the tunnel late last month, measuring 60cm in length and with its leather sheath intact. The sword likely belonged to a member of the Roman garrison around the time of the revolt, the archaeologists said.
“We found many things that we assume are linked to the rebels who hid out here, like oil lamps, cooking pots, objects that people used and took with them, perhaps, as a souvenir in the hope that they would be going back,” said Eli Shukron, the Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist in charge of the dig.
The archaeologists also found a bronze key from the same era, coins minted by rebels with the slogan “Freedom of Zion,” and a crude carved depiction of a menorah, a seven-branched Jewish candelabra that was one of the central features of the Temple.
Strutting their stuff: Brazilian jailbirds hit the catwalk for Miss Penitentiary beauty pageant
‘Lucky’ woman who won lottery four times outed as Stanford University statistics PhD
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