Quotes of the Day:
Okay, someone had better ‘fess up. Democrats lost a House seat in New York City, Barack Obama dropped below majority job approval in California, and now Senate Democrats are attacking Obama’s proposal to raise taxes to pay for Porkulus II: Economic Boogaloo. Did we flip over to the Terran Empire last night? And why do I have a goatee? –Ed Morrissey from No way Obama’s jobs bill will pass the Senate, say — Democrats?
A country whose military is vastly more respected than its political branches is in a dangerous situation. –Glenn Reynolds referring to this Poll
Must Reads of the Day:
And here’s a special bonus for the first 35,000 callers – act now and we will repair and modernize your kid’s school! Are you concerned about all the money we’ve already sunk into failing public schools just to watch dropout rates go up? Well, this time is different. This time we’re going to eliminate all the waste and fraud.
So don’t delay! Pass this jobs bill right now and companies will get a $4,000 tax credit if they hire anyone who has spent more than six months looking for a job. Plus free summer jobs for any teenager or illegal alien that ACORN registers to vote!
The Obama administration has launched yet another web campaign to get Americans to betray their friends, families and neighbors by reporting political dissenters to the tyrannical regime, presumably for “re-education” or gulag, whichever they think they can get away with.
Professor Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit asks, “HAVEN’T THEY TRIED THIS BEFORE?”The answer is, of course, that yes, they have. Snitches were previously asked by the government to rat out people opposed Obamacare to flag.gov, despite the fact that it was illegal for the lawless Obama regime to do so. Eventually the program was allegedly stopped, after much public outcry, but apparently the WTF campaign thinks we’ve forgotten about it because they are at it again. The PJ Tattler has the content of the mass email sent out announcing the new “Attack Watch” website HERE (h/t Insty). During the 2008 campaign, Obama had a similar site, “fight the smears” which of course was dedicated to vilifying anyone who raised legitimate concerns about his shady past and radical associations as RAAAAACIST.
Readers and friends are sending their Attack Watch poster designs. Obama can finally claim success — the Hilarity Stimulus is working!
- Sarah Palin: Crony Capitalism on Steroids from GE to Solyndra
Now as the truth comes out, we discover that the White House was heavily involved in the Department of Energy’s rushed decision to give the Stimulus funds to Solyndra, and they tried to move the money through so quickly they seem to have ignored concerns that the company was not viable. Why would they do this? Perhaps it’s because a large investor in the company (about 35%) is Obama campaign bundler George Kaiser. And with the way the deal is structured, Kaiser will get his debts paid before we the taxpayers see any relief. That is sickening. And that’s how it works: workers lose their jobs, wealthy political cronies stand a good chance of getting their money back, and the U.S. taxpayer gets the shaft. Again.
President Obama has his sights set on raising $1 billion for his reelection campaign. Raising that money won’t be easy. But if you can hand out other people’s money to friends, it must get a whole lot easier. This crony capitalism and government waste is at the heart of our economic problems. It will destroy us if we don’t root it out. It’s not just a Democrat problem or a Republican problem. It’s a problem of our permanent political class. This won’t stop until “we the people” say enough is enough, and we retire the permanent political class that votes for this.
The Gardasil controversy is vastly overblown. Perry’s vaccination order was never actually implemented, and it had an opt-out. He loses to Romney due to that? Really? A never-implemented vaccination order, compared to a fully-implemented Romneycare? Seems like Republicans will pick the lesser of evils on that one.
But in any event, there is at least some personal reason behind why Perry wanted to do something about HPV and cervical cancer. Call it a moment of weakness if you want. But he’s a bit more sympathetic than the half-crazed woman offering kooky anti-vaccine paranoia.
And by the way, Sarah Palin really ought to shut the hell up about Gardasil, since her policy as Alaska’s governor is hardly defensible by the standard she attempts to impose on Perry.
Americans have a way of fixing errors (theirs and frequently those of others, even when it isn’t their immediate best interest) that is far beyond the grasp of the average European (wallowing as we are in whatever the new and trendy nihilist ideology of the day) and that ensures their nation’s resilience, no matter what happens.
10 years after, the lesson of September 11, 2001 is that while Europe doubled-down on the path to societal suicide, America took the high road to survival.
I expect that despite a few bumps on the road, she can only gather speed now.
There is much comfort to be taken in that, and I simply cannot think of a better way to remember and honor the victims of that terrible day.
- After 9/11 (Just read the whole thing…)
I had forgotten about this until I saw it over on Ace of Spades: Take the Political Compass Test
This is my result:
The funny thing is that I am considered to be some ‘reich wing, redneck, teabagging bitter Klingon terrorist’ according to Obama, the Democrats and the MSM. 50 years ago a result like this would make me a JFK Democrat. Like Reagan said “I did not leave my party, my party left me.”
The Headline of the Day comes from the fine folks over at iOwnTheWorld!
Japan and the softly glowing world…
NOTE: I have taken out the links because there is so little coverage out there on this story anymore-I am down to about 4 sites that cover this story with any regularity and whose operators are not wearing tin foil hats. There have been no human workers allowed into the Fukushima nuclear plant since June 12th except for very short times due to the radiation. The Japanese government and TEPCO have tried their best to stifle any news outside of the ‘official propaganda reports’ and this includes people in Japan reporting on it via the Internet/Facebook/Twitter. All the radiation detectors in those links are probably giving bogus readings because they are run by the Japanese government and in some of the cases they can’t give accurate figures because the detectors are not capable of reading radiation levels that are as high as they are. The Japanese government is also trying to discourage the people from measuring the radiation too by curtailing their ability to get Geiger counters and other radiation detection equipment.
Japan Earthquake: Six Months Later
TEPCO Blacks Out Critical Information on Fukushima Severe Accident Report
Radioactive cesium from Fukushima on tour of Pacific Ocean
Scientists from the government’s Meteorological Research Institute and the Central Research Institute of the Electric Power Industry announced their findings at a meeting of the Geochemical Society of Japan this week, adding that some of the cesium will also flow into the Indian Ocean and, eventually, reach the Atlantic.
World News:
According to the major French TV network TF1, the area around the furnace remains in high temperature and no one can approach anywhere near it, and the prosecutors and the French nuclear control bureau haven’t made much progress in their investigation.
Le Figaro’s article on September 13 had these details:
Furnace was set at 1,500 degrees Celsius but the metal didn’t completely melt;
The employee tried to break the molten mass with a crowbar (“barre à mine”).
Oh boy. Crowbar?
Stratfor: The Crisis of Europe and European Nationalism
Europe Is Finished
Must read for anyone who wants a glimpse of the endgame. Oh, good luck China. You’ll need it.
‘Fear Is Coursing through the Corridors of Brussels’
First Anti-Euro Protest In Front Of The ECB
SO IT BEGINS: SOCGEN DEBT, DEPOSIT RATINGS CUT BY ONE NOTCH TO Aa3 BY MOODY’S, OUTLOOK NEGATIVE
Credit Agricole, Expectedly, Joins SocGen On The Moody’s Downgrade Path
For Purely Comedic Value, Here Is The Greek 1 Year Yield…
No, Greece will not be allowed to default. Pinky swear.
What Happens When A Nation Goes Bankrupt
Three years ago today, my best friend called me and told me to turn on my television. I remember the way he described it– “Lehman is finished.” The TV showed guys packing up their desks on Sunday afternoon, moving out of their offices forever. That was the precipice from which financial markets plunged the following day, taking the global economy along for the next three years. We appear to be at that moment once more. Greece is out of cash. Again. The Greek Deputy Finance Minister said on Monday that his country only has enough cash to operate for a few more weeks. As I write this note, French, German, and Greek politicians are all on a conference call, feverishly trying to figure out a way to avoid default. Everyone seems to understand the consequences at stake… given the chain of derivatives out there, a Greek default will completely dwarf the Lehman collapse. Unfortunately for the bureaucrats, dissent against the Greek bailout plan is spreading across Europe… and leaders can no longer ignore the growing wave of opposition in Finland, the Netherlands, Austria, and Germany.
Austria Fails To Ratify EFSF Expansion, EURUSD Plunges
Germany Is Stonewalling The Eurozone’s Rescue
Euro’s Crisis of Confidence: System May ‘Go Off the Rails’
Excerpts From EU Report Stating Euro Crisis Contagion Has Spread And Is Now Systemic
The latest headline is in, and judging by the swoon in the EURUSD it is not pretty. Sure enough, this one has nothing to do with the Coneheads coming to rescue the world, and everything to do with an EU document which says that the shit is about to hit the fan. Yep: the EU is now holding the gun against its head and threatening to shoot.
Wen Jiabao Says China Willing To Extend Help To Europe… For A Price
Granted, nothing new here, and it simply means that China will be happy to buy European assets at firesale prices and invest in 20%+ IRR projects, but the algos, which have not yet seen this news, are expected to kneejerk higher, regardless of how short the latest intervention halflife will be (recall that China already has sizable investment in Greece, Portugal, the EFSF and the EUR). Call it what it is – doubling down, all over again. That said, the bailout for Europe will not come free, and once that realization hits the market, this may have a completely opposite reaction that the one intended…
As China Prepares To Bail Out Europe, Who Is Preparing To Bail Out China?
Yet, once again the conventional wisdom leaves much to be desired. Such as the answer to one very simple question: China just may buy up a whole lot of Greek and Italian bonds, and even EFSF issuance, but… who will bailout China. Wait, China is in trouble? Why yes: from Marketwatch: ” China’s real-estate market may face an escalating credit crisis, with industry data for August providing clues that big developers are running short of cash, according to Credit Suisse analysts. The unfolding situation heralds a perfect storm for China’s home-building industry, and China’s deteriorating credit backdrop should be viewed by investors with alarm, the Credit Suisse analysts said.” That’s ok, by the time China is insolvent, Chinese stabilization of Europe will be complete, and Europe can boldly step up and rescue China in turn. And so on… And so on… In the wacky, wonderful, ponzi world of ours.
Praying in Paris streets outlawed
In December when Marine Le Pen, then leader-in-waiting of the far-Right National Front, sparked outrage by likening the practice to the Nazi occupation of Paris in the Second World War “without the tanks or soldiers”. She said it was a “political act of fundamentalists”.
More than half of right-wing sympathisers in France agreed with Marine Le Pen, at least one poll suggested.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s party denounced the comments, but the President called for a debate on Islam and secularism and went on to say that multiculturalism had failed in France.
Following the debate, Mr Guéant promised a countrywide ban “within months”, saying the “street is for driving in, not praying”.
The Dutch government will agree to introduce a ban on Friday making the Netherlands the third country in Europe to prohibit the burka, behind France and Belgium.
Women caught wearing a burka in public, on the streets, public transport and in schools or hospitals will be fined £330.
There will be exemptions for mosques, or other religious buildings and for foreign women travelling through the transit lounges of international Dutch airports.
Cabinet ministers will justify the ban with the argument that the burka does “not fit into our open society and women must participate fully.”
Slavery in the UK: Slaves found living in filth
He said the men had not been paid for physically demanding labouring jobs, were hardly fed and were given no clothes. If they complained they faced beatings.
”The men we found at the site were in a poor state of physical health and the conditions they were living in were shockingly filthy and cramped,” he said.
”We believe that some of them had been living and working there in a state of virtual slavery, some for just a few weeks and others for up to 15 years.”
The men were taken to a medical centre where their health was being assessed.
Spengler: Israel as the Dutch Republic in the Thirty Years War.
Without stretching the analogy too far, the religious conflict that surrounded 17th century Holland have something in common with today’s Middle East. Americans know almost nothing of the Thirty Years War; not a single Hollywood film nor one popular novel recounts its major events. It is a tale of unrelenting misery, of battles and marches and countermarches that left nearly half of Central Europe dead.
It degenerated into a duel between two powers who both acted out of the mystical conviction that they were God’s chosen people: the France of Cardinal Richelieu and the Spain of the Count-Duke Olivares. It foreshadowed the neo-paganism that nearly conquered Europe in what British statesman Winston Churchill called “the second Thirty Years War” of 1914-1945.
The conflict between Sunni and Shi’ite Islam may cause something like a Thirty Years War in the Middle East, as Arabs, Turks and Persians fight for the mantle of Divine Election. The difference is that Europe descended into the maelstrom from a peak of economic and cultural success; the Muslim nations of the Middle East are goaded by a profound sense of humiliation and failure.
What transpires may be even more horrific than the events of 1618-1648.
Obama presidency proves Palestinians have never wanted peace
IDF Prepares to Call Up Reserves
The IDF prepares for the possibility of PA Arab riots, and will call up reserves probably Sunday, September 18.
Islamic Spring… Netanyahu Orders Evacuation of Israeli Embassy in Jordan Ahead of Protests
Libya: Cameron and Sarkozy greeted by jubilant crowds
Pakistan suicide death toll reaches 15
Judith Tebbutt, the British woman kidnapped from her exclusive Kenyan lodge, is being held on an island in southern Somalia by armed pirates who are expected to issue a ransom demand within days, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
New Australian passports allow third gender option
No more Australian Dream: Pets pay the price
Haitian protesters demand UN departure
Protests were sparked by the alleged sexual assault of an 18-year-old Haitian man by UN peacekeepers from Uruguay in the southwestern town of Port-Salut in July.
The alleged assault was filmed on a mobile phone and the footage posted on the internet.
An Alberta judge has let a woman who strangled her newborn son walk free by arguing that Canada’s absence of a law on abortion signals that Canadians “sympathize” with the mother.
“We live in a country where there is no protection for children in the womb right up until birth and now this judge has extended the protection for the perpetrator rather than the victim, even though the child is born and as such should be protected by the court,” said Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition.
Katrina Effert of Wetaskiwin, Alberta gave birth secretly in her parents’ downstairs bathroom on April 13, 2005, and then later strangled the newborn and threw his body over a fence. She was 19 at the time.
Using Twitter Can Get You Murdered In Mexico
I wonder if this stuff was also sold to the Mexican drug cartels by the Obama regime via Gunwalker/Fast and Furious/Castaway/Grenadewalker, too? SIGINT: Drug cartels using encrypted commo network
The Mexican Marines reportedly dismantled a number of radio towers and encryption equipment that the Zeta drug cartel was operating to coordinate their activities in Veracruz. This is some true 5th Generation Warfare going on south of the border, a conflict that at least one commentator has dubbed as the world’s first “post-political war.”
US News:
Snow in forecast for mountains around Aspen
It’s official, NOAA shows the “Gore Effect” hitting America tonight
Scandals # 3 and #4 involving the Obama regime…
This is actually Major Scandal 3, because it broke yesterday. Drew’s post about the general being asked to change his testimony to help a donor’s company is Major Scandal 4.
In the thick of the debate over President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill, administration officials ignored warnings that one of its most controversial provisions was financially unsustainable and could leave taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars.According to a report released Thursday by a working group of congressional investigators, officials inside the Department of Health and Human Services ignored numerous red flags about the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program (CLASS) — and in some cases the officials went to work figuring out how to hide them.
Bombshell: General accused WH of pressuring him to change testimony for Democratic donor
According to officials familiar with the situation, Shelton’s prepared testimony was leaked in advance to the company. And the White House asked the general to alter the testimony to add two points: that the general supported the White House policy to add more broadband for commercial use; and that the Pentagon would try to resolve the questions around LightSquared with testing in just 90 days. Shelton chafed at the intervention, which seemed to soften the Pentagon’s position and might be viewed as helping the company as it tries to get the project launched, the officials said.
As Eli explains, it’s not unusual to distribute prepared Congressional testimony in draft form to other related agencies before giving the testimony. The review gives everyone a chance to make sure that the facts are correct and the testimony is as accurate as possible. But sending Shelton’s testimony to LightSquared would raise big red flags on its own — let alone the accusation that the White House attempted to dictate Shelton’s testimony to benefit LightSquared and their big donor.
Rep. Mike Turner told Eli that this was definitely an attempt to influence Shelton, bias his testimony, and essentially mislead Congress.
Now, I can get that there’s a general review of all testimony within the administration and that tweaking takes place but…leaking the testimony to the company involved? I’m not involved in defense contracts so maybe that’s not unheard of but it seems to have pissed off a lot of people in this case.
Given what we know of how this administration likes to work hand in glove with politically connected companies *cough*Solyndra*cough* and the fact that Shelton and Turner spilled the beans, this goes beyond the norm.
Well, it’s the norm for a Chicago hack pol like Obama.
Seems that alot of the fools who believed in the HopeyChangey™ have learned the meaning of the old adage: “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me”… Bloomberg Poll: Americans Reject Obama’s So-Called ‘Jobs’ Plan
Fully aware all it is is another massive permanent tax increase, Americas have firmly rejected Obama’s latest call for more spending and taxes. What a surprise.
Obama is getting desperate! He needs this to pass because he needs the money for the Democratic party slush fund and to pay off his purple and red shirted union thugs and race/ethnic warriors… Barack “You Must Pass This Bill” Obama Speaks (Again), Threatens Middle Class With Tax Hikes
You know it: the chief Nobel prize winner in Oration and Teleprompting is out and about and has already threatened that unless Congress acts, the middle class will see a tax hike. And by act he means “passing this bill.” That’s right: after half our readers were hospitalized with alcohol poisoning yesterday, the challenge is back for the second day in a row. The rules are known: a shot must be taken every time Obama says “You must pass this bill.”
OMG… Obama: “If You Love Me, Ask Congress to Pass My Jobs Bill” (Video)
He’s done. This was pathetic.
Obama tells supporters: “If you love me, ask Congress to pass my jobs bill.”
Really… He actually said this.
Obama’s Brain Valerie Jarrett Says Pass Jobs Plan ‘Right This Minute’
The President and his trusted “consigliere for life”[i] Valerie Jarrett, are promoting a sequel to the 2009 flop ‘Stimulus I.’ During an un-presidential temper tantrum last Thursday, Obama demanded another half a trillion dollars in order to finance Stimulus II. If the Republican controlled Congress goes along with this new ploy they may have what columnist Michelle Crouch calls a “money disorder.” “Repeatedly giving money to an adult child who is not learning from his mistakes” is a sure sign congressional representatives have a problem. When will they figure out Jarrett and Obama have been at this for a long time?
Appearing on MSNBC’S Rachel Maddow Show, Jarrett stated the President will take his traveling stimulus show on the road. This will be his third major tour in less than 3 years.
The president plans to do a full-court press with the American people. So, he’ll be in Virginia tomorrow. He’ll be in Ohio next week. As he said this evening, he intends to take this message all over the country.
Lynn Sweet from the Chicago Tribune once dubbed Jarrett “the other side of Barack’s brain”[ii] and Michelle Malkin pointed out in her book Culture of Corruption “the Obamas don’t make a move without Jarrett.” So it’s understandable Valerie’s rhetoric on Maddow’s show sounds exactly like her longtime partner.
Who’s Up For Another ‘Jobs’ Bus Tour?
“Will travel to non-battleground states” is easily crackable code for “taxpayers are going to pay for it again.”
Let the DNC Pay for Obama’s Pep Rallies
Why is he talking to children? Because he get’s interrupted by applause 72 times! I mean, seriously, why do you ask?
Adults realize that Obama is a faded rock star of questionable musical talent who had a couple of early hits but hasn’t been able to follow them up.
Another reason is that most of these impressionable kids will be old enough to vote in these key swing states, North Carolina and Ohio.
Obama to Tout Jobs Act at Company that Outsources
President Obama today is visiting a small North Carolina manufacturing company that has outsourced half its workforce to Costa Rica and whose president is a Democratic politician who has contributed $2,000 to Obama.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! Memo to Obama: This is what happens when you don’t actually have a bill before you shoot your mouth off screeching at people to call their congresscritters to tell them to ‘pass the bill’… GOP rep swipes name of Obama’s new jobs bill before Democrats introduce it in Congress
For Obama, it’s all about the unions. Remember: the public sector unions are funded by you, the American taxpayer. The unions take their members’ dues and funnel them back into Democrat politicians’ campaigns.
To complete the nefarious circle, the Democrats then use class warfare rhetoric and giveaways to convince enough weak-minded drones that more wealth redistribution — stealing from the makers to give to the takers — is both moral and warranted.
It is neither.
Ditzkrieg!
- Wasserman Schultz Last Week: “The Economy’s on an Upswing” …Wasserman Schultz This Week: “We Need a Stimulus”
- Latest DNC Spin: We Need Jobs Bill Because Moms Are Late for Football Practice and Astronauts Need Groceries (Video)
This is bad. Even I’m embarrassed for them…
DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz says we needs the president’s latest stimulus because moms are late for football practice.
This follows yesterday’s plea from Democrat Jim McDermott (D-WA) that we need Obama’s jobs bill so that astronauts can get groceries… or something.
Ihe AP notes understatedly that Republicans “grew notably more skeptical” when Obama announced his tax-hike plan. They weren’t the only ones. Hyperprogressive former labor secretary Robert Reich, writing at the Puffington Host, loves the idea of taxing the so-called wealthy, but he notes, again with understatement, that Obama’s is “an odd strategy.” After all, “if any Republican was prepared to vote for the jobs bill, this will send him or her scurrying.”
If Congress enacted Stimulus Jr., there would be a serious downside for Obama. If (or when), like Stimulus Sr., it made no discernible dent in the unemployment rate, the president would go into his re-election campaign having wasted over a trillion dollars on empty stimuli. The upside would be that since it could pass only with Republican support, the GOP would share the blame.
That is also one reason why Obama probably wasn’t going to get GOP support for Stimulus Jr. even without the massive tax hikes. His strategy, then, seems to be to make a virtue of necessity. Stimulus Jr. was meant not to be enacted but to be rejected, so that Obama can run against the “do-nothing Congress.”
Apparently the Senate’s resident cowboy poetry fan doesn’t share Obama’s sense of urgency.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid was in full form this morning, taking on the great issue of our day . . . bike paths!
“I think you need to pay your fair share for things we’ve decided are our national priorities,” Schakowsky added.
The things “we’ve decided.” Could be a slogan: “We decide, you pay.”
Always remember that the Democratic party is the party of lawyers… Great News: Obama’s ‘Jobs’ Act Makes it Illegal to Discriminate Against the Unemployed
Knowing Obama, there can be nothing good to come of this. So you’re unemployed (because of Obama), but you perceive someone isn’t hiring you because you’re unemployed (thanks to Obama). So what to do? Lawyer up, it’s lawsuit time!
The Keynesian Twilight Zone Starring Barack Obama
GOP Must Use Political Victories to Oppose Obama’s Stimulus in its Entirety
Ouch!… Rand Paul Mocks Obama While Pushing NLRB Senate Bill: “I’ve Got a Message for the President… Pass This Now” (Video)
Mooch Will Make “Major Announcement” In Nanny State Drive To Force Restaurants To Reduce Portion Sizes…
E-Verify ‘flags’ Obama’s Social Security Number
A private investigation reveals that the Social Security Number being used by Barack Obama does not pass a check with E-Verify, the electronic system the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has created to verify whether or not prospective employees have the required authorization to work legally in the United States.
Over the past few years, the E-Verify system has received national attention because of its ability to determine if prospective employees are illegal immigrants who have entered the United States without the legal authority to work.
By flagging fraudulent documents, including faked Social Security Numbers, the E-Verify system can assist an employer in the effort to make sure all prospective hires have authentic identification papers, including valid Social Security Numbers, issued to them and not to someone else.
Heartache: Federal Judge Denies Underwear Bomber’s Request To Be Tried By Islamic Law…
Your ‘surprisingly unexpected’ economic news of the day:
China to ‘liquidate’ US Treasuries, not dollars
So what Li Daokui said is not bad for the dollar as such. He said there is “$10 trillion” waiting to be invested in the US, if America will open its doors.
It is bad for bonds – or will be. The money will go into strategic land purchases all over the world, until the backlash erupts in earnest. It will go into equities, until Capitol Hill has a heart attack. It will go anywhere but debt.
Yet another reason to be careful of 10-year Treasuries and Bunds below 2pc yields. There is a big seller out there, just itching to let go.
Hope and Change!™
Median Household Earnings Fall for Third Year, Census Says
Just the summary for now:
- CPI: 0.4%, Core 0.2%, consensus for both was 0.2%; Inflation higher than expected
- Initial Claims, +428, Exp. 411K, up from 417K (414K was revised upward of course); 22 out of 21 400K+ prints; Employment looking bad again
- Empire Index: -8.82; Exp. -4.0, , decline from -7.72 previously; 4th consecutive decline; Manufacturing continues to look ugly
- Q2 Current Account: -$118 billion, exp. -122.4 billion; Previous revised lower from -119.3 billion to -$119.6 billion. Irrelevant for current GDP data, and only relevant for the final Q2 GDP revision.
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US “Misery” At Fresh 28 Year High
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Philly Fed Misses, Market Soars As Inflation Roars Back With Prices Paid Doubling
DOOM: Another day older and deeper in debt
Producer Inflation Declines Just In Time For Op Twist; Retail Sales Dive As US Consumers Withdraw
Social Security Ponzi Scheme Fast Approaching Point of Collapse
In its latest annual report, the Social Security board of trustees reported that the federal government’s total revenue from Social Security taxes in 2010 — $544.8 billion — was not enough to cover Social Security’s total benefit payments — $577.4 billion.
Obviously this isn’t going to last long. Congratulations to those who got in on the scheme early enough to get their money back. As for the rest of us, we can only wish it were a private company running Social Security, so the people responsible could be imprisoned for fraud.
Of course, if it were a private company, we wouldn’t be forced to participate at gunpoint, so Social Security is really closer to armed robbery than fraud.
Historic: Obama Records Another Trillion-Dollar Deficit
If you’re wondering what we’ve got to show for it, so am I.
David Rosenberg: “It’s Time To Start Calling This For What It Is: A Modern Day Depression”
To wit: “If the Treasury market is correct in its implicit assumption of a renewed contraction in the economy, then we could well be talking about corporate earnings being closer to $75 in 2011 as opposed to the current consensus view of over $110. In other words, we may wake up to find out a year from now that whoever was buying the market today under an illusion of a forward multiple of 10x was actually buying the market with a 15x multiple.” And since we are in the throes of a deep depression and a 10x multiple is more than generous, applying that to $75 in S&P earnings, means that the fair value of the S&P is… we’ll leave that to our readers.
We hardly needed confirmation that a) Bank of America is a den of criminals and thieves, that b) its toxic $1.3 trillion mortgage division, better known as Countrywide, is an even scarier and more putrid den of criminals and thieves, and that c) it retaliates against anyone who dares to remind the bank that there are such things as laws, and the aforementioned criminals and thieves actually have to follow these. Yet this is precisely what we just got after the Department of Labor said that it must pay $930,000 to an employee who led internal probes of abuses at its Countrywide Financial unit and was fired in violation of whistleblower protections.
Chuck Woolery Tries to Help the IRS and ‘Patriotic Millionaires’ Find a Love Connection
For some time now, the “Patriotic Millionaire” types, which would include Matt Damon, Warren Buffett and many others who think they have too much money and that the people who helped put the US almost $15 trillion in debt would spend it more wisely, have been begging the government to raise their taxes.
It’s been pointed out time and time again that these people (who undoubtedly employ armies of accountants to eek out every possible deduction at tax time) don’t need to wait for the government to confiscate their money — the Treasury Department will gladly accept their donations.
Chuck Woolery — yes, that one — has a similar message for them.
Surprising Facts about America’s Poor
Those exaggerations about the symptoms of poverty don’t solve the root causes of the problem, either. As Rector and Sheffield write, “Among families with children, the collapse of marriage and the erosion of work ethic are the principal long-term causes of poverty.” In order to truly benefit the poor, they say, welfare policy must require able-bodied recipients to work or prepare for work as a condition of receiving aid. And it should strengthen marriage in low-income communities, rather than ignore and penalize it.
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy (except for the UN, of course):
Card Check: It’s Baaack!
Recently, the NLRB issued three important rulings that will make it easier for workplaces to unionize. In the first, its members overturned a previous ruling that gave workers the right to ask for a secret ballot vote after an employer’s decision to recognize a union based on card check.
In another, the NLRB will allow unions to certify individual departments of a company, rather than requiring it to certify the whole full shop. This means that some people working at the same store could be unionized while others would not be, simply because they work in different areas of the business.
The third ruling will make it harder for employees (or a new owner of a unionized business) to challenge the existence of a union when a company is sold. Now, employees or a new owner will have to wait a “reasonable period” and give the union a “fair chance.”
For many union leaders and union activists, the NLRB’s moves are welcome news – particularly on card check. What could be wrong with making it easier to organize collectively?
Obama: ‘I’d like to work my way around Congress’
Facing growing opposition to his economic proposals and dimming prospects that Congress will pass other parts of his agenda, President Obama told a Hispanic group in Washington Wednesday that when it comes to the issue of immigration, “I’d like to work my way around Congress.”
“As I mentioned when I was at La Raza a few weeks back, I wish I had a magic wand and could make this all happen on my own,” Obama told a meeting of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “There are times where — until Nancy Pelosi is speaker again — I’d like to work my way around Congress.”
As he continued, Obama conceded that “we’ve got laws on the books that have to be upheld.” But he quickly added there are different ways to uphold the laws on the books. “You know as well as anyone that…how we enforce those laws is also important,” Obama said. Last month, the administration made a major, unilateral change in immigration law enforcement when it announced that the government will not initiate deportation proceedings against illegal immigrants unless they have committed serious crimes. To critics, Obama had indeed worked his way around Congress. To the Hispanic Caucus, Obama said his new policy will “prioritize criminals who endanger our communities, not students trying to achieve the American dream.”
Dem Rep. Luis Gutierrez Thanks Obama For Bypassing Congress On Immigration And Halting Deportations Of Illegals…
“We had a president of the United States that recently was speaking at National Council of La Raza who said during his speech, ‘There are those who simply wish me to bypass Congress when it comes to immigration,’ and many in the audience clapped, saying, ‘Yup, bypass Congress. . .’” Gutierrez told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) conference on Monday.
“He (Obama) said, ‘But I can’t bypass Congress,’ and people in the audience said, ‘Yes you can,’ and you want to know something? They were right — he could and he did, and I want to thank the President of the United States, and I want to thank all of those that work at the White House for issuing new guidance when it comes to deportations,” Gutierrez added.
Surprising considering the source… Obama’s EPA not a ‘rogue’ agency at all
Many analysts — including yours truly — have made the mistake of arguing that the Obama administration has no energy policy. But the evidence increasingly reveals that the administration does indeed have an energy policy, one that is designed to reduce access to fossil fuels by raising their price, thereby making “alternate” or “green” energy sources more attractive.
The administration’s approach is constantly on display: Use government policy to raise oil and gas prices, subsidize alternative energy sources, then mandate the use of the latter. The EPA, far from being a rogue agency, remains an important tool for implementing this policy.
In addition to the postponed ozone plan, here are some other plans the EPA has in store for us….
Food Stamps: A Microcosm of Out-of-Control Government
Too generous, duplicative, and fraud-riddled — yet ever-expanding.
New report cites ‘regulatory tsunami’ under Obama
The report says the Obama administration has “imposed 75 new major regulations costing more than $380 billion over ten years.” In addition, the report says there are 219 more “economically significant regulations” in the works which will cost businesses $100 million or more each year — for a minimum cost of $21 billion over ten years. The number of pages in the Federal Register, in which such rules are recorded, is increasing rapidly, the report says, and “pages devoted to final rules rose by 20 percent between 2009 and 2010, and proposed rules have increased from 2,044 in 2009 to 2,439 in 2010.”
Obama Now Trying to Intimidate Consultants and PR Firms of Businesses
So, what is the problem with this new requirement? Only that once all these various communications vendors register with the Dept. of Labor all their info will be available for unions to access. With this new rule in place unions can target said companies for attacks, pressure, boycotts, and other intimidation to get them to stop working for a company that is targeted for unionization.
Every Single One: The Politicized Hiring of Eric Holder’s Criminal Section
All ten new hires to the Justice Department’s Criminal Section have far-left resumes — which were only released following a PJMedia lawsuit. (This is the tenth of a series of articles about the Justice Department’s hiring practices since President Obama took office. Read parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine.)
Obama Administration Gave $17.2 Billion in Stimulus Funds to Green Projects – Only $645 Million to Small Business
GREEN CRIME: Obama Spent Nearly $17.2 Billion to Create Only 3,545 Green Jobs… Or a Staggering $4.8 Million Per Job
OBAMA REGIME STEALS BILLIONS FROM TAXPAYERS – BLOWS IT ON FAILED GREEN PROJECTS–
The Obama Administration spent nearly half of the $38.6 billion ($17.2 billion) set aside for his green energy programs and was only able to create 3,545 permanent green jobs.
This comes out to a staggering $4,853,000 per job.
Solyndra:
Solyndra LLC Chief Executive Officer Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer Bill Stover have postponed their previously scheduled congressional testimony until sometime next week. Harrison and Stover were scheduled to testify tomorrow after the company filed for bankruptcy protection following a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee.
Emails obtained by ABC News prove that the White House knew Solyndra was a failed business before it rammed the loan through the approval process. But I’m sure that had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Solyndra’s backers were huge Obama campaign contributors.
This is like having the Fox investigate the recent surge in deaths in the Chicken coop… Treasury Department Launches Investigation Into Solyndra Loan…
Interesting development but at the end of the day Tim Geithner is still head of the Treasury Department.
I wonder why he wants no investigation of this? Ed Markey keeping us in the dark
Those are the questions the House Energy Oversight committee was trying to answer when they issued their subpoena over Markey’s objection. Markey seems to love sunshine as a fuel source but hates it as a political disinfectant.
Is it because he’s such a die-hard Democrat he doesn’t want to know what Obama did? Or is it because Markey’s so devoted to the ongoing disaster of taxpayer-funded “green jobs” he doesn’t care what they cost?
Either way, Democrat opposition to disclosure in a corrupt, $535 million mess like this is one reason why polls show most Americans don’t believe the “new-new” jobs plan will lower unemployment.
In part this reflects America’s lack of confidence in the Obama presidency. But it also reflects the fact that, as Evergreen Solar and Solyndra prove, when it’s time to spend our money politics will always come first.
According to the Washington Post: “The August 2009 e-mails, released exclusively to The Washington Post, show White House officials repeatedly asking OMB reviewers when they would be able to decide on the federal loan and noting a looming press event at which they planned to announce the deal. In response, OMB officials expressed concern that they were being rushed to approve the company’s project without adequate time to assess the risk to taxpayers, according to information provided by Republican congressional investigators..’We have ended up with a situation of having to do rushed approvals on a couple of occasions (and we are worried about Solyndra at the end of the week),’ one official wrote. That Aug. 31, 2009, message, written by a senior OMB staffer and sent to Terrell P. McSweeny, Biden’s domestic policy adviser, concluded, ‘We would prefer to have sufficient time to do our due diligence reviews.’”
The answer to the question “What did they know and when” is this: They KNEW Solyndra was a risky, lousy deal for taxpayers. They KNEW on Aug. 19, 2009 that the financial models their credit reviewers used predicted Solyndra would run out of cash in September 2011. They KNEW it would fail. But they forged ahead, took our money to prop it up, and pimped the company in front of the TV cameras, anyway.
Cue: Screw up, move up, cover up in 3, 2, 1…
Oh, my: Emails show White House knew Solyndra was a disaster before it issued $535M crony loan
This is an immense scandal. The Obama administration appears to have laundered billions of taxpayer dollars through green companies using its political backers as front-men.
As Mark Levin said last night, “We need a special prosecutor.”
Worse and worse: New e-mails show White House rushed OMB to approve Solyndra loan
I was going to do a post about the White House’s stupid new AttackWatch website, where you — yes, you — can report someone saying something mean about Barack Obama. But instead of mocking it, let’s try to get on it. Here’s an attack for them: Why was it so desperately important that Joe Biden announce the Solyndra loan at the groundbreaking ceremony for the company’s new plant that federal analysts had to be rushed through their review of a $500 million deal?
Is that good enough to make the site? Or do I have to throw in something about Obama’s birth certificate?
WH Pushed Solyndra Loan So Biden Could Have a Photo Op
Maybe we’ll see a photo like this, where Joe Biden is being led in to testify on his role in this massive scandal.
The Obama White House tried to rush federal reviewers for a decision on a nearly half-billion-dollar loan to the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra so Vice President Biden could announce the approval at a September 2009 groundbreaking for the company’s new factory, newly obtained e-mails show.
Obama Watergate Update: Carney Denies Involvement In Solyndra Loan Review – Live Solyndra Webcast
You know what they say about official denials:
- CARNEY SAYS WHITE HOUSE COOPERATING WITH SOLYNDRA PROBE – Bloomberg
- CARNEY SAYS WHITE HOUSE DIDN’T TRY TO INFLUENCE LOAN REVIEW - Bloomberg
Will a doomed solar company, and a failed economic voodoo religion be Obama’s Watergate? We will know in a few weeks. In the meantime, someone should probably look into how much money Obama received courtesy of Solyndra 2, aka Mojave Solar LLC
- DOE ANNOUNCES $1.2B LOAN GUARANTEE FOR CALIFORNIA SOLAR PROJECT
- U.S. CITES LOAN GUARANTEE TO MOJAVE SOLAR LLC
Yeah, that’s right: even as the PR scandal of Solyndra is threatening to sweep the administration, it continues to funnel more taxpayer capital in failed solar projects!
The only “green’” they really care about is the “green” of the money they are ripping off from us… Former clean energy official succumbs to power of green
Cameron J. Potter pleaded guilty Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips to bilking the Department of Energy of more than $400,000 intended for legitimate use by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy to promote renewable energy sources, typically dubbed “green energy.”
Potter, 31, was employed as the chief financial officer for SACE when, in 2006, he concocted a scheme to siphon off money awarded the advocacy group by the DOE for his own personal gain, Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Dale told Phillips.
Gunwalker/Fast & Furious/Castaway/Grenadewalker
I wonder if this is one of the grenade launchers sold by the Obama regime to the Mexican drug cartels? Police discover ROCKET LAUNCHER after random search of car driven by boy, 15
Novato Police Corporal Nick Frey said: ‘It’s unusual for Novato to recover an RPG from the back of a vehicle.’
I know nothing, I hear nothing, I see nothing….
- Napolitano denies knowledge of Fast and Furious gun-tracking program
- Obama says he “did not learn about Fast and Furious until the operation went badly wrong .”
Justice Department tells GOP investigators: Guns from “Fast and Furious” linked to three more murders in Mexico
Three murders, that is, plus an attempted murder. Oh, and four kidnappings too.
The bad news for the White House? This is merely what we know right now. There may be more F&F-related violent crimes to come. The good news? If you’re caught between two hugely embarrassing scandals, better that the media focuses on the one without a body count, no?
Now you understand why the SorosStooges are so desperate to destroy Issa (see the following stories). I wonder what George Soros’s connection to all of this is outside of the fact that he hand picked Obama…. Gunwalker: Issa Says Fast & Furious Goes All The Way To The White House; 3 More Murders Linked To Gunwalker Weapons
In case you’re keeping score, there is a Soros connection to Fast and Furious. (Of course there’s a Soros connection to practically everything on the left.)
CBS News and the Los Angeles Times have reported that Dan Restrepo and two other officials, were in on ATF memos from the Gunwalker operation known as “Fast and Furious.”
Restrepo, the National Security Council’s top man for Latin America, was also one of the figures behind the U.S.’s deplorable Honduras policy in 2009. Hiding behind the curtain at that time too, was “the Puppetmaster”.
Prior to moving to the National Security Council, Restrepo was the director of the Americas Project at the Center for American Progress (CAP), the Soros funded liberal think tank, whose President and Chief Executive Officer is John Podesta…
Now Darrell Issa himself, is charging that this ethics complaint is being orchestrated by the White House.
Issa is obviously over the target.
Connecting the Dots: How the Left Works
Lux cites a 3,080-word investigative report published in The New York Times on Aug. 15 and reporting by Thinkprogress.org, a liberal media outlet.
There you have it. This is how the Left operates: they pay for lies to be published, and then demand investigations on the basis of those lies. Why are they out to get Issa? No secret there, either. His committee has embarrassed the Obama administration with its investigation of ATF’s Fast and Furious program. At this point, best case for the Obama administration is that the scandal ends with Attorney General Eric Holder. So Issa has become public enemy number one.
The word “corruption” is often tossed around in connection with politics, generally wrongly. In my opinion, this story illustrates the real corruption that infects our public life.
Obama in the Bunker: The Madness of King Barack
Barack Obama: still not ready for prime time
The idea of someone’s being a “statesman” is an old-fashioned notion and has pretty much been abandoned in the modern age. A statesman isn’t merely a politician. Instead, the term carries with it connotations of a true calling to serve the public and to behave in a way that is consistent with a nation’s highest aspirations. Barack Obama is no statesman. He’s a petulant, paranoid child (Paging Attack Watch: there was just an insult here). He lowers the standing of the entire presidency, not because of his policies, which are wrongheaded, but still supported by large numbers of people, but by the details of his conduct.
Obama Sends Out Creepy Email: “Sometime Soon, Can We Meet For Dinner”
President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign just sent out this creepy email, with the subject line “Sometime soon, can we meet for dinner,” asking supporters to donate to his campaign for a chance to have dinner with Obama.
“Maybe I’ll get to thank you in person,” it says.
If you have been following Ulsterman’s “White House Insider” series you already know all about this and more… You Sad, Bro? Gawker Claims That NYT Reporters Working On A Story About The President’s… Clinical Depression
I could understand if he were depressed. He didn’t seem to have a very realistic idea of his own capabilities, or the capabilities, even, of the office of the presidency; he seemed to think that everything would just work out, and he’d move from success to success, adoration to adoration.
Obviously that has not been the case. And perhaps he’s getting, as we’ve often speculated, his first cold splash of welcome to the real world.
And as we’ve also discussed, that would be sort of a scary thing.
Every person who runs for president, it’s fair to say, has a healthy ego. But Obama was different; the self-assurance, the arrogance, the sense that he viewed himself as a world-historical figure was almost palpable. “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions,” Obama told congressional Democrats during the 2008 campaign. A convention speech wasn’t enough; Greek columns needed to be added. “Generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment,” Obama said – a moment when, among other achievements, “the rise of the oceans began to slow.” And during the campaign, while still a one-term senator, Obama decided he wanted to give a speech in Germany– and he wanted to deliver it at the Brandenburg Gate.
Yet now we see the Obama presidency coming apart, piece by piece, day by day. Democratic lawmakers are attacking the president on the record. The unhappiness in Obama’s own party toward the president might soon evolve into an open revolt. Those who supported Hillary Clinton in 2008 are saying, with some degree of self-satisfaction, “I told you so.” And the words of Solomon will be proven right again. “Pride goes before destruction,” he wrote in Proverbs, “a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Obama’s new Snitch Central: AttackWatch
This is, at least, not nearly as offensive as running a Snitch Central out of the White House. It’s just as silly, though, and every bit as petty. The categories for passing along an “attack” include significant events like a TV interview or broadcast ad, but also include such trivial categories as “forwarded e-mail” and “rumor.” Presumably, the campaign would then debunk the “rumor,” which would then give it a lot more attention and oxygen than it otherwise might receive. In fact, it’s not inconceivable that people who really wanted to spread “rumors” would do so by reporting them through AttackWatch and waiting for the campaign to publicize rumors through their response.
This President and his team still haven’t learned the problems that come with punching below one’s weight. Besides, their big problems don’t come from rumors; they come from the record of abject failure that Barack Obama carries into this campaign. They’d do better to spend the money to hire better economists to consult the President than the coterie of academics that keep pushing the same Obamanomics that have flopped for the better part of three years. In the meantime, this serves as a good reminder as to just how thin-skinned and paranoid this President has been.
Obama Regime Opens New Site for Turning In Dissidents
Obama campaigned on the promise that he would “fundamentally transform” America to make it less like itself and more like the rest of the world. Most of the rest of the world is run by statist thugs who use fear to subjugate the population, so it should come as no surprise that his regime is encouraging us to rat out our neighbors for criticizing it — again.
As of yet this is still a soft tyranny. Until it becomes a hard one, we can at least laugh at the Mussolini wannabe in the White House, like they’re doing on Twitter.
This Attack Watch fiasco will go down in history as the moment Obama was laughed off stage. I’ve been on Twitter a couple of years and never have I seen an avalanche of ridicule as I’ve witnessed the past 18 hours.
Remember, this is the most tech-savvy administration ever!
I think we’ve reached that much-discussed tipping point.
The liberals, and the media (but I, as ever, repeat myself), have long protected Obama. While doing so, however, they were frustrated by him; they pushed their disappointment with him deep down.
But at some point, comes a tipping point, where you get license to say what you really think; you could keep suppressing that, but now you’ve got a justification to cut loose. (Yes, this is what has happened to me with respect to Palin and Bachmann; the mental retardation/unfounded accusations of crony capitalism were, to me, an announcement that the “Hey, guys, let’s not fiiight” rules were no longer in effect.)
This is not only a pretext for some long-suppressed venting at Obama, by the media, but probably a catalyst for even more of it.
Flashback: Obama in 2009, wishing he didn’t have to listen to people criticize him all the time
2012: The Fork in the Road…
So in this round up of Democrats angry at Obama, Politico couldn’t find one from a swing state that’s scared out of their mind because of Obama’s hard left policies? All the Democrats in swing states where Obama is getting trounced just want him to be more fighty-fighty and spend even more? The reason Harry Reid has put Obama’s “Pass this bill” jobs act on the shelf is it’s just to darn moderate? That’s the story you guys are going with? Fine by me.
Everyone knows baring some major unforeseen shakeup in the world as we know it, Obama is done. The presidency built on talk is simply being tuned out. He got no bump from his big jobs speech and none of the cable nets even carried his latest pitch for it yesterday. If Obama can’t fall back on “just words” he’s got nothing. Well, he’s got a 3+ year record of declining economic performance but I don’t think that’s what he’s looking for.
Poll: Obama’s Re-Elect Number Falls To 29%
Doom: Obama Falls Below 50% Approval … in California
When you’ve lost California, what’s the hope you can win any state?
HOBBITS BOBBITT TWITTER QUITTER!
At the end of his analysis of the GOP’s shock win in the race to replace now-resigned Rep. Anthony Weiner, Slate‘s Dave Weigel hits upon what should really terrify Dems, especially Congressional Dems, about the loss.
It’s not that Obama’s ratings are so low that even this historically Democratic district decided to send a message of disapproval. Obama’s ratings may pick up, after all.
It’s not that Israel and gay marriage emerged as medium sized ”wedge issues” (translation: issues) that drove some Democrats in a quirky district heavily populated by Orthodox Jews to vote for Republican Bob Turner. Few other districts look like NY-9. ….
It’s the possibility that the Democrats favorite issue–Social Security–didn’t work to save them because Obama, too, has embraced cutting Social Security and Medicare in “some undefined ‘everything on the table’ entitlement reform,” as Weigel puts it. Could it be that the differences between Obama’s Medicare cuts and GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare cuts–differences that seem so significant to policy analysts in Washington (and to me)–don’t have much salience in the crude argumentation of direct-mail electioneering? Now that’s scary for a Dem.
Democrats Discover the SCOAMF Factor
Nothing is sweeter in politics that those occasions when you deliver a victory so shocking in its implications that it sends the opposition into an existential crisis. Tuesday’s special election in New York’s 9th District — echoed by the lesser-noted GOP landslide in Nevada’s 2nd District — was such an occasion and, as the commentariat rushes to analyze and interpret this historic event, conservatives need to avoid liberal efforts to distract from the real message: Barack Obama is a Stuttering Clusterf**k of a Miserable Failure.
Democrats don’t want to admit this, for obvious reasons. Three years ago they interpreted Obama’s election as ratifying their own deepest beliefs – that the Republican ascendancy of 1994-2006 was a political mirage, that the conservative movement’s ability to influence the national discourse was on the wane, and that demographic trends were leading toward a permanent progressive majority. Years of efforts and many millions of dollars expended to attack and discredit conservative voices — the Media Matters/MSNBC onslaught against Fox News, talk radio, Andrew Breitbart, et al. — were designed to suppress criticism of the progressive message. And with Obama’s election in 2008, liberals got their hands on a cudgel that they were eager to wield with bloodthirsty zeal: If you don’t vote Democrat, you’re a racist!
Walter Russell Mead: Carville’s Panic Attack
If Carville wanted to destroy the Democratic Party he couldn’t have come up with a better plan.
After Turner Earthquake in Weiner District, Democrats’ Civil War Against Obama Begins
Many Democrats are awakening to the reality that their party has been hijacked by a radicalism completely unfamiliar to their parents’ and grandparents’ Democratic Party.
An internal, partisan civil war is now brewing in that party. What I think tonight is less important than what Joe Lieberman, Bill Clinton, Evan Bayh, and the rest of the former, and now defunct, reasonable wing of the Democratic Party is thinking tonight.
Democrats React Calmly to NY-9 Loss: ‘The Republicans Want Us to Repeal the 20th Century’
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), among the most senior House Democrats, sketched out those lines.
“The Republicans want us to repeal the 20th century, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, to turn us back to the robber barons running the country, and to eviscerate the environmental and other regulations to protect public health and safety,” said Waxman. “And to cut spending in ways that would be very harmful to people who rely on government.”Just keep talking. You’re doing wonders for the GOP.
The Jews get thrown under the Democrat bus: Chuck Schumer: NY-9 is just too darn Jewish for Democrats now
Yes, there are many immigrants in NY-9. And yes, they have a disproportionately larger Jewish population than many other parts of the nation. (Anywhere from 25% to 40% depending on which pollster you ask.) But they have traditionally been, and continue to be, fairly reliable Democratic voters because of a complex tableau of competing issues. For Schumer and Wasserman-Schultz (also a Jew) to try to spin this as some sort of negative for their candidate, and then turn around and predict that these same “turncoat Jews” will still back Obama next fall is…
I’m sorry. My dictionary just broke down. I’ll get back to you later.
PANIC SETS IN… Team Obama Passes Out Talking Points to Prove They Really Like Israel
Do you remember when Jesse Jackson said that under Obama Jews would lose all of their clout?
He was right.
Which is hilarious because they immediately dismissed the exact same rumor about Obama in 2008.
Maybe Obama’s faithful supporters at Gawker can add this to #attackwatch.
The Separation of Blackness and State
Clearly, if one were using an explicitly American historical template, it would be much more historically accurate to dispute the blackness of a half-white, half-Kenyan man than it would be to dismiss or dispute the blackness of an Allen West or a Herman Cain, whose ancestry would trace back to Western Africa and the Atlantic slave trade.
Of course, this historical analysis is neglected because (a) race is merely a political tool for the Democrats and (b) Republicans are too timid to talk about race, beyond their picayune squabbles against artificial foes like hyphenated Americanism and their championing of bizarre propositions like social colorblindness.
What is it that causes a black man like Herman Cain to have his blackness openly questioned by an illiterate grimalkin and white liberal like Janeane Garofalo?
What is it that causes a black man like Allen West to be disparaged by white liberals for calling himself the modern-day Harriet Tubman?
Why is it that “The First Black President” Bill Clinton gets a pass for likening Republican attempts to limit felons’ voting as an attempt to return to Jim Crow?
Why is it that Al Gore gets a pass for suggesting that people who assert the basic fact that carbon dioxide does not drive world temperature are morally equal to Bull Connor?
Clearly, being a Democrat gives even liberals with substantial deficits in melanin the authority to professorially dictate what constitutes black validity and acceptability. Meanwhile, the result of being a Republican is an automatic revocation of the privilege to cite black history while making political points — even when such a Republican is indisputably black. The only explanation for why white liberal Democrats have the unmitigated gall to brazenly question the blackness of black right-wingers is because blackness has been hijacked and politicized to the point where the terms “black” and “Democrat” are practically inseparable.
Dining with the Donald: Perry chats with Trump over dinner in New York City
Blast From Paul Krugman’s Past: “Social Security Is A Ponzi Scheme And Will Soon Be Over”
It is one thing (what thing that is we are not sure, but we have heard others say it, so like all good lemmings we will say it too) for Rick Perry to call Social Security a ponzi scheme. After all he is some crazy, foaming in the mouth conservative, as uber-Keynesian liberal Paul Krugman may call him. And that’s fine. What confuses us, however, is why Social Security would be called a ponzi by the same liberal noted previously: none other than Paul Krugman himself.
As a 58-year-old man, I can give a reason why Rick Perry, now 61, would have gone along with the mandatory vaccinations: polio.
Rick Perry and I are of an age when poliomyelitis plagued the playground. Michelle Malkin, 40, and Sarah Palin, 47, are a generation behind that truly epidemic disease and likely Michele Bachmann, 55, was too young to remember when Salk (1955) and the Sabin (1962) vaccines came on board. There are a number of nutballs out there who 50 years after the fact will tell you these vaccines do more harm than good. They are misguided. Gone are the iron lungs and the pain. To be sure, more children died of cancer and tuberculosis. But this was a disease that tore at the heart of people not because so many children died, but that so many survived. They were the “crippled children.” Vaccinations worked. Just as they had with smallpox.
This.
Is.
Not.
The.
Same.
As.
Polio.
Which of course, Rick Perry discovered the hard way.
I am willing to cut Rick Perry a little slack here. He saw a way of preventing cancer. The problem was, other people see it as a way of promoting promiscuity. No mother wants to think of a 12-year-old girl becoming sexually active and the very real fear is that this would signal to girls that it is OK to sleep around as if a vaccine has made them invulnerable to the consequences of coitus.
Bachmann Stayed Quiet on Mandatory Vaccinations While Serving Minnesota
Michele Bachmann has reached a new low of wretched politics by attacking a fellow Republican candidate as though his desire to protect children from death by cancer is in anyway similar to Obama’s wish for abortions to be as uneventful as eating breakfast. By conflating these two items, she has only served to diminish the pro-life movement for her own political gain and for that, she should be ashamed.
But her embrace of the wacko idea that the vaccine is dangerous or causes autism, mental retardation, or other risks is simply irresponsible. Is Bachman, Glenn Reynolds quipped, trying to go after the Jenny McCarthy vote? Meanwhile, Jim Geraghty over at National Review‘s Morning Jolt says Bachmann has embraced McCarthyism–Jenny McCarthyism. Hyuck-yuck. (Glenn also links to Jonathan Adler’s quick take on this, which is the same as mine.)
Dianne Feinstein, Other Dems, ‘Wiped Out’ by Theft of Campaign Cash
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is the latest lawmaker claiming to have been looted of campaign cash by a Democratic treasurer who’s been likened to Bernie Madoff.
Feinstein’s campaign, which had a cash balance of $5 million on June 30, believes it suffered losses but does not know how extensive they were, according to campaign adviser Bill Carrick.
The campaign is blaming Kinde Durkee, who managed the senator’s finances for years along with the accounts of several other top California politicians. Durkee was arrested and hit with fraud charges earlier this month. U.S. Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., told her contributors in a letter released Monday that her campaign was robbed of about $250,000.
Feinstein’s office said the senator was “wiped out” along with the other lawmakers, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Manchin’s strategy for surviving 2012 in a red state: Bash President Obama
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) might have found the formula for saving a vulnerable Senate Democrat facing a tough reelection bid in a red state: Bash President Obama and his policies.
Waah! Republicans may do something legal and constitutional
In Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers are considering adopting the method used in Maine and Nebraska to divvy up Electoral College votes. Presidential candidates would receive a vote for every congressional district they carry and the candidate who carried the state would receive two more (representing the senators). This proposal shocked the Left because, well, because — that is why — just because. Oh and it might mean Barack Obama is not re-elected.
From Nick Baumann of Mother Jones: “If Pennsylvania Republicans and their buddies in other states execute a plan to change election rules, Obama has a one-way ticket to Losertown.”
Look for the Union Label/Whackademia/The Badger Rebellion:
Walter Russell Mead: The War Against The Young: Detroit Edition
The reality is that American auto workers are not productive enough (and Detroit’s management is not creative enough) to justify their high wages. (Don’t get me started on the outrageous salaries that management gets for running their companies into the ground.) That’s sad but it’s a fact of life. But when it comes to adjustments, the union movement and the older generation at large makes sure that the pain falls on the young rather than spreading it around.
It’s a shame, especially since the young workers will also be paying taxes into Medicare to fund health care for seniors today that the country won’t be able to afford when today’s twenty-somethings want to collect.
One of the big questions in American politics: will America’s young people realize they are being systematically scammed and organize to stop it, or will the older generations continue to pull the wool over those adorable little eyes?
Two measly arrests in WA longshoremen union mob’s attack
The union thugs bring out the brass knuckles. The law combats them with…tickle feathers.
In Other News…
Our Canine Heroes and Islamic Dogophobia
A dog is loyal, Mohammed betrayed those who trusted him to keep his word. A dog learns the rules and follows them, Mohammed invented his laws and violated them whenever he saw something he wanted– such as his son’s wife. But most of all a dog loves honestly and truly. Islam teaches its followers the violent cruelty of the animal, but suppresses the natural affection, the sense of joy that living things are meant to have.
“There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam,” Khomeini said. Additionally there is no mercy, no tolerance, no trust, no faith, no honor, no decency and nothing but deceit and death. There is no room in it for the simple virtues of a dog or the higher virtues of a man.
From the dogs who walk the front lines in Afghanistan to the rescue dogs who took the lead at Ground Zero, to the animals who are tortured and murdered every day in the Muslim world– we can learn courage, loyalty and friendship. While the media insists on telling us how much we can learn from Islam– there is more of goodness, decency and honor to be learned from a dog, than there is from the entire Koran.
Quick Summary of the Proposed National Right to Carry Act (H.R.822)
The “National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011,” known also as H.R.822 or “The Streets Aren’t Red Enough Act” by the Brady Campaign has been talked about a lot in the news, but not many news organizations have taken the time to actually read through the damned thing and parse it out for their readers (despite the fact that it’s currently only six pages long). Seeing as I’m a bit of a legislation nerd I figured I would give it a go and walk you guys through exactly what’s being proposed.
The preamble, which is the first actual line of the bill, is supposed to succinctly state what the rest of the text is going to do. In this case it does a pretty good job.
To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide a national standard in accordance with which nonresidents of a State may carry concealed firearms in the State.
New Worry: RFID Tracking Chips in Firearms?
Always remember that the Democratic Party is the party of lawyers… Is The State Bar of Arizona Targeting Conservatives For Blogging And Fighting Illegal Immigration?
Blogging while conservative is not a crime. Fighting against illegal immigration and corruption is not a crime. However, misusing the justice system for purely political purposes is absolutely despicable and the more sunlight that shines in on this issue in Arizona, the more the cockroaches who are persecuting conservatives will start to scatter.
Minor Outbreak of Hopey Change in Minneapolis
If we let the decay continue to progress, outdoor seating will become a thing of the past. Restaurant patrons will have to huddle inside, where they will hopefully remain safe from the marauding savages who own the streets.
Hollywood Florida Residents Vote to Cut Pensions of Police, Firefighters, and City Employees
San Franfreakshow’s Moonbat Overlords Target Windows
Critics described the proposed regulations as costly and vague. “During a tenuous economic climate in a city that’s already very difficult to build in,” added architect Emily Bello.
While they’re at it, they might also want to ban Windex, commercials for which admit that it makes glass doors so clean you might walk right into them.
Meanwhile, despite their doting devotion to the best interests of birds, leftists continue to spend mountains of other people’s money propping up moronic wind power boondoggles that are far more effective at chopping up birds than they are at generating electricity.
If you were the devil, what would be your most important mission, other than inventing false religions? It would be to corrupt innocent children.
I’d start by kicking God out of the public schools and excising from textbooks the truth about America’s deeply Christian heritage. I’d get rid of glaringly obvious ties between Christianity and the Founders’ vision of unalienable rights and limited government. Children would be indoctrinated to think of themselves as cosmic accidents of random mutation and survival of the fittest, not precious beings with eternal souls created in the image of God. The result would be an effectively atheistic system of moral relativism.
Next, I’d cloak sexual promiscuity in terms of self-fulfillment, mix it up with junk science and lobby the teachers unions to openly promote the Kinsey sex education model of children as “sexual beings” whose “orientation” has no moral relevance.
Finally, I’d expose the kids to outright propaganda through clever websites designed to promote deviance and to brand anyone with any qualms, such as parents, as hate-filled bigots and bullies.
If any school districts resisted, I’d slap them with legal threats. And that’s where the devil’s law firm comes in.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is running around the country, shaking its fists at school districts and demanding that kids be exposed to whatever the homosexual movement deems appropriate.
More Pre-Pubescent Gender Bending
MSM Circus and Celebutard Side Show:
Liberal Radio Talks of Killing Rumsfeld, ‘Prehistoric Reptiles’ of Tea Party
It’s been a nasty week, just in the hours since “National Unity Day” on 9/11, for the liberal and hard-left talkers. Talk of killing right-wingers is in the air, as is talk of the Tea Party loving “the taste of blood in their mouths.” What is this, a Twilight movie?
Actual Surprise: ABCNews Covers Solyndra, Top of the Show
Tingles: “This Sounds Marxist” But I Think “Robots” At CVS And MSNBC Are To Blame For Poverty In America…
Wait, Karl Marx hated robots?
‘If the 2012 Election Were Held Today, Republicans Could Very Well Have Their Heads Handed to Them’
The Democrats just lost a House seat they’ve controlled since 1923, losing in a district where they outnumber Republicans by 3-to-1. But apparently we don’t yet realize 1964 is just around the corner.
Can this woman be any more clueless?
While Unions Storm Businesses and Take Hostages, CNN Calls Tea Party “Angry”
Considering how all last week this site covered what most news organizations would not: 500 union members stormed a business and held six hostages. Earlier that same week they were served a restraining order after they fought with cops and issued death threats.
The AFL-CIO.
Yes, that AFL-CIO whose head, on the same day that the above took place, sat VIP next to Michelle Obama at the jobs address.
Yet media insists that it’s the tea party who is angry and propelling the GOP with all their fist-shaking anger.
CNN Shows MSNBC How a Debate is Done
Olberdouche Calls Bush-Era Republicans “Leading Terrorist Group” In America…
Sorry, Keefy, you’re on Current TV, nobody can hear you.
Screenshots: Washington Post Alters Headline Critical Of Obama
I was skeptical when I saw a comment on Michelle Malkin’s website which suggested that the Washington Post changed their headline on a story that’s critical of Obama’s stupid new Attack Watch site.
Turns out the commenter is exactly right. See the screenshots below.
Global Warmening:
My Contribution To 24 Hours Of Captain Carbon
The Sock Drawer:
Portland’s unique solution to shrubbery problem – goats
The goats are used in weedy patches between buildings, in lots long gone to impenetrable thicket, in half-built construction sites gone to seed in the Great Recession.
Many of the goats are provided by Georgina Stiner’s rental business, one that mirrors other operations in Idaho and Washington state. She owns more than 100, in breeds ranging from Nigerian dwarves to Boers, and has raised most of them herself.
Here’s her sales pitch: Goats eat all day, but you pay by the acre, not by the hour. Goats don’t need time off, worker’s comp or health insurance – one California fire marshal called goats his 3,000 non-unionized employees. Goats are chemical-free. And goats will get the job done.
New species of dolphin found living in waters off Melbourne
I would imagine that his being ‘shunned’ had more to do with the fact that he is almost blind then what color his fur is… The loneliest seal in the world: Pup shunned for having ginger fur
Flying the Police Aircraft of the Future
How dark chocolate ‘boosts fitness in the same way as jogging’
