I have explained (or will explain) the reasons why to my friends and family for they are the people I originally created this blog for. For those few ‘anonymous’ readers who found this blog to be an interesting place to stop at on their journey down The Information Highway™ the reasons will remain hidden to you and for that I apologize. All I can say to you is that the reasons are good ones.

What has been posted will remain until Word Press takes it down.

I will update the Blogroll as I find new and interesting websites. The Blogroll has been my “fishing area”-all the links I have posted here have been found somewhere in their contents. It is a big ocean of information out there and those links will serve as guides for you to find the ‘fish’ that you desire. If you find blogs that you like and have the wherewithal to donate a few bucks to them do so, for almost all of them blogging is not their job but something they do because they want people to be informed.

I have done my best and it is now time for you to ‘fledge’ and go fishing for yourselves-be careful out there.

Without further ado here is the last post….

Quote of the Day:

“Sarah Palin has not spent one campaign dollar and she is within 5 points of ObamaRx? The crazy Cajun was right – Dems should be in panic mode.” –Commenter Old School Conservative on Don Surber’s blog.

Must Reads of the Day:

• Our Sputtering Economy by the Numbers: Poverty Edition

Last month, we detailed the dismal state of the nation’s economy. Now that the Census Bureau has released new poverty figures, we wanted to give you another snapshot of how Americans are faring more than two years after the recession.

• This looks like Sister Mary Penguin’s MSNBC-watching-Democrat-until-death brother’s ‘budget’… Bringing the Budget Numbers Down to Size

Why S&P Downgraded the US:
U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent [April] budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000

Let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
Annual family income: $21,700
Money the family spent: $38,200
New debt on the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Budget cuts: $385

Even as a self-described policy wonk, I found this eye-opening. It’s harder to pretend that Washington leadership is serious about restoring fiscal sanity when their budget cuts are seen in this context.

• Delightful: Ex-Romney Official Now Directing EPA Air Quality Oversight

With his shape-shifting policy positions and alignment with Leftist policies, Mitt Romney increasingly strikes me as Obama-Lite.

• Smut Peddlers Who Care…

This is all so Mafia…really. Liberals hang around in the same circles of smut. Therefore, there is that natural attraction. They probably even sniff each other’s butts. (Okay, these images come into my mind when I see Larry’s picture..I instantly think: Dog–sorry.)

Larry is die-hard, bi-polar, atheist, Democrat— although he once professed to be an evangelical Christian after meeting Jimmy Carter’s sister. And for all his babbling about ‘free speech rights,’ the Democrats won’t even let you utter a word that they do not agree with. But THEY can call you Nazi, raciest, and bigot.

Republicans have no free speech rights, but Larry doesn’t care as long as they buy his magazines and go to his clubs.  He is THE poster boy for the Democratic Club of whores if I may add.. and will do anything to help them out. Why he is not trying to find dirt on Mitt Romney tells you at least, that he considers Mitt a man of his liking.

• Go for the hilarity, stay to become informed! Elizabeth Warren is the guest of honor at a human piñata party over at Ace of Spades- Red Meat    Here is just a taste…

153 Lizzy Borden Warren took a tax
and gave your wallet 40 whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave your assets 41.

Posted by: Guy Fawkes at September 22, 2011 11:56 AM

Billboard of the Day!

Must See TeeVee! President Zero

Japan and the softly glowing world…

Conversion chart from Heath Canada

Chart via RealityCheck

Explosion Danger at Reactor No. 1? Worker says hydrogen levels over 4% in pipe leading to Containment Vessel — Mainichi: “Danger of explosion” if over 4%

It Is More Than 40,000 ppm Hydrogen Gas, not 10,000 ppm Inside Reactor 1 CV Pipe

And today [September 23; they knew about "over 10,000 ppm" the day before] we went to measure using the meter that can measure up to 4%. It was 4% max. So the work [to cut the pipe] was canceled, and TEPCO made an announcement. I didn’t know, as I’m not very knowledgeable about chemistry, but it seems there’s a chance of explosion if hydrogen gas is more than 4%.

He is wondering if zirconium cladding is still melting and reacting, producing hydrogen.

But as one reader of this blog points out after putting two posts from yesterday together (the one about Reactor 4 SFP water radiolysis and the one about the hydrogen detection in the Reactor 1 CV pipe), it may be possible that the water radiolysis is happening somewhere deep inside the reactor building where boiling water is getting irradiated and generating hydrogen gas.

Highest radiation levels in months inside Reactor No. 1 silt fence (GRAPH)

Large crane above Fukushima reactor goes down during storm conditions (VIDEOS)

Japan nuke expert: Melted fuel rods estimated to be 12 meters underground Reactors No. 1-3 — To be 100 feet deep in a year (AUDIO)

Government Researchers: Hydrogen Gas Generation by Radiolysis In Reactor SFP May Have Led to Explosion

The article by Mainichi Shinbun on September 13 (linked below) summarizes the findings well enough. According to the article, the government researchers at Japan Atomic Energy Research and Development Agency and at Tokyo University announced the result of their analysis that the explosion of Reactor 4 reactor building at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on March 15 may have been caused by a large amount of hydrogen gas produced by water radiolysis – dissociation of molecules by nuclear radiation in the Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool

Japan after the typhoon

“Good evening! I’m in Saitama.(North to Tokyo) I got soaked up in the rain twice yesterday,I couldn’t help it.
I’ve been suffering from headache since last night.Today I feel sick slightly too.

I feel fatigue in the evening recently.have unclear sight too. piles of hair get off from head as well. I’m concerned..”

In Utsunomiya,where is south west to Fukushima,they measured 330 Mbq/km2 of cesium 134.

This is as much as they detected in March,and there was no detection of cesium 137,so some people recognize it to be an error.

http://savechild.net/archives/9208.html

However, just like after the rain in March, yellow powder was found in North Kanto area, where Utsunomiya is.

Typhoon’s hitting Fukushima

Radiation level is spiking up around in Tokyo and Fukushima.

• In Kawasaki, 0.05 uSv/h →　0.10 uSv/h

• In Futabamachi, Fukushima,it’s 21 uSv/h now.

Wind is blowing from South to North,and it’s very salty.

It’s assumed typhoon is spreading the sea water around.

Radiation is assumed to have come from the sea.

Fukushima blackout

Now typhoon is east of Hokkaido,but still news from Fukushima power is shut down.

At 11PM of 9/21,Fukuichi camera showed a crane was leaning over the reactor 3.

Additionally,reactor 4 was severely damaged even before the typhoon.

We all want to know what is going on in the plant area.

Mistake? Local Gov’t: 330 Million bq/km² of radioactivity found yesterday 50 mi. from Tokyo — Had been ‘not detected’ for weeks — Now at March levels (CHART)

First Instance of #Radioactive Rice with 500 Bq/Kg of Radioactive Cesium from Nihonmatsu City in Fukushima

Dept. of Homeland Security-funded Study: Up to 430 pCi/liter of radioactive iodine found in N. California rain after Fukushima (CHART)

Report: Marcoule victim was irradiated, buried in shielded coffin — Locals disagree with French gov’t radiation story — Failure to disclose what was burned during explosion

World News:

Lehman Weekend Redux?

Germany Demands “Managed” Greek Default And 50% Bond Haircuts In Exchange For Expanding EFSF, Peripheral “Firewall”

Did Schaeuble Break The Precious Metals And Force Everyone To Raise Cash?

Why did Gold and Silver Plunge? No, It’s Not CME Margin Hikes; What will the Fed do Next?

Four Reasons for Metals Plunge

1. Fed did far less than expected
2. Mutual fund redemptions
3. Margin calls at hedge funds
4. China growth story fading

Is Gold No Longer A Safe Haven? Not According To Capital Economics: “Gold Will Surge When Euro Crisis Escalates”

How Gold Performs During A Financial Crash

Really, the basic steps are straightforward:

• Economic/financial crisis leads to asset liquidation and dollar shortage
• Dollar shortage leads to dollar appreciation and gold depreciation (in dollar terms)
• One form of asset liquidation – forced gold selling – leads to gold depreciation (in all currencies)
• Eventual monetary response creates surplus of dollars
• Surplus of dollars causes dollar depreciation and gold appreciation

Gold Says: Short term Deflation with a Worldwide Recession

The charts do not lie as a double top looks to be in place and all of the information leaked via the media thus far does not deflect the idea that the Federal Reserve decision this afternoon will disappoint markets and indicate that an economic contraction is permissible by the banksters to force the political elites to dance to their tune. It is a dangerous game of cat and mouse and will provide a massive accumulation opportunity if the trading range between $1450 to $1575 that could be reached in a matter of weeks would be validated by a move of the US Dollar index above the 80 level. Also, this provides those central banks one more chance to purchase gold at a bargain basement price and to cool the discussions of $2000, $2500, and $3000 gold by year end recently circulating in economic discussions.

There are wild cards which could blow this theory sky high and create what I hate to say would be the “super bull” an unstoppable frenzy to loftier levels…

Snort: Geithner Wants “Decisive Signal” On European Debt

Starting off the day with some humorous talk from a guy who isn’t capable of using TurboTax correctly, and whose boss has racked up 4 trillion in debt in two years

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has called on European leaders at the G20 in Washington to send a “decisive signal” that they have a strategy for tackling the debt crisis.

Mr Geithner said there had been an erosion of confidence and that there was a “huge premium” on early action.

But he added he was confident that Europe would do what was necessary.

Perhaps Geithner should speak to his boss first regarding the US debt. Or, maybe he has, and is sick to death of hearing Obama parrot the phrase “raise taxes, raise taxes. Obama want a cracker”.

EU Synopsis: No Method, No Strategy, No Calendar; Blatant Lies by French Finance Minister

Fear gauge enters the red zone

Europe’s debt crisis risks escalating out of control as the world economy slides towards a double-dip slump with few shock absorbers left to limit the damage.

Nervous Breakdown? 21 Signs That Something Big Is About To Happen In The Financial World

When Hope Fades

Financial Warfare

Let me explain. Anyone with a large long franc position also likely has a long gold position as they are (rather were) essentially the same macro bet. Such a massive move in a currency such as the franc would have been so unexpected and such an outlier event that it would have wrecked severe havoc on many portfolios. The central planners knew this and they used it to their advantage to stop gold in its tracks as it was headed to $2,000/oz and beyond. This was no coincidence. It was financial warfare. You MUST know your enemy to survive and win the war because the central planners can win battles but not the war.”

G-20 Pledges Strong, Coordinated (Sisyphean) Response To Global Challenges [UPDATED With Full Text]

Ironically, French minister Baroin says that the G-20 will release a statement in response to sovereign debt risk (after dinner of course). Isn’t it nice when we all get along? Well the response by the markets has been absolutely lackluster so far with after-hours gains being held but not accelerating.

UPDATED with full text of statement

Via Bloomberg:

*G-20 WILL ACT TO MAINTAIN FINANCIAL STABILITY, GROWTH: BAROIN

*G-20 COMMITTED TO ‘STRONG AND COORDINATED’ RESPONSE

*G-20 SEEKS BALANCE BETWEEN GROWTH, BUDGET BALANCING: BAROIN

*G-20 SEES ‘HEIGHTENED DOWNSIDE RISKS FROM SOVEREIGN STRESSES’

*G-20 SEES ‘FINANCIAL SYSTEM FRAGILITY’

*G-20 SAYS EURO AREA WILL IMPLEMENT EFSF STEPS BY NEXT G-20

China, Japan Tell Europe: “No Blank Check For You”

I love the smell of Napalm in the Morning: EURO/USD 1.34 print

TGI Failure Friday: Oslo Stock Exchange Closed For “Technical Difficulties”

The first of what is likely many. “Due to technical disturbances, Oslo Børs’ Equity and  Bonds markets are temporary halted. Members may  delete their orders in this state.  Further information will follow. “

The great euro swindle

Very rarely in political history has any faction or movement enjoyed such a complete and crushing victory as the Conservative Eurosceptics. The field is theirs. They were not merely right about the single currency, the greatest economic issue of our age — they were right for the right reasons. They foresaw with lucid, prophetic accuracy exactly how and why the euro would bring with it financial devastation and social collapse.

Meanwhile the pro-Europeans find themselves in the same situation as appeasers in 1940, or communists after the fall of the Berlin Wall. They are utterly busted

Technical Perspectives: Global Markets Starting To Un-Hinge

IMF to Bernanke: Thanks For Nothing, As Threat To International Monetary System Looms

We suspect the world was placing a little more ‘hope’ in Bernanke’s willingness to print-and-save-us-all as the IMF just announced the activation of its “New Arrangements to Borrow” for a further six months. Obviously, given the quota subscriptions and the nature of the NAB, we suspect the rest-of-the-world will get pound of flesh (or USD bailout) implicitly. This is not completely unexpected as we have been discussing the rise in borrowing arrangements/facilities at the IMF for a while – what is notable is the timing – given constant chatter out of Europe that all is ‘satisfactory’.

CDS: Blood On The Streets As Contagion Has Been Upgraded To Gangrene

If you think this morning has a September 12, 2008 smell and feel to it… You are right. Complete and total CDS bloodbath in sovereigns and fins means a global bailout may not be imminent, but the market sure demands it as contagion has been upgraded to gangrene. Bernanke has now officially blown it with the twist and Mr. Market demands a $1 trillion+ LSAP, or else…

Europe Opens Weak, Credit Ugly And Financials Floundering

Morgan Stanley’s Exposure To French Banks Is 60% Greater Than Its Market Cap… And More Than Half Its Book Value

Europe’s Communist Past Haunts Euro-Zone

It’s an overlooked aspect of the euro-zone debt crisis and Greece’s probable default: the hand that former European communists (now top members of the European Parliament) had in creating the euro-zone’s command-and-control economic system, along with the trappings of a common (and dubious) European culture. Now it’s all coming apart — a calamity that’s threatening the viability of the euro-zone and rattling the global economy.

The quest for a united Europe — one with a common currency (the euro) along with a single flag and anthem – was in retrospect a project for dreamers. And as euro-skeptics have said all along, the dreamers were European elites with autocratic tendencies.

So perhaps it’s not surprising to learn that a number of the elites who constructed a utopian political and economic union for Europe have something in common: communism.

Orphaned Markets

Story yesterday of “helping” the weakest 16 banks in Europe to recapitalize was met with a strong rally, quickly followed by a sell-off to new lows.  The realization that the EU has gangrene and decided to deal with some warts brought back the fear the the governments are once again behind the curve and just don’t get it. Then we rallied into the close because the G-20 would of course save us.  So far, not so much.  A wishy washy statement is just not enough for a market that has come to expect (if not depend) on more.   The BRIC’s are supposed to ride to the rescue, but in Brazil, the currency has been getting crushed, Chinese CDS is hitting new wides.  Brazil is busy imposing tariffs on China.  Russia is complaining about Chinese dumping.  Hardly the signs of a co-ordinated effort to rescue the world.

Greek Parliament Vote on Austerity Postponed Due to Insufficient Votes; Slovak May Reject ESFS; EU to Abandon Greece

The Ghost of America yet to come… ‘We Won’t Pay’: Greece’s Middle Class Revolt against Austerity

Small business owners in Greece have long been the backbone of the economy and reliable taxpayers in a country where tax evasion is rampant. That, though, is now changing. Self-employed workers like Angelos Belitsakos have had enough of rising taxes and have begun to revolt.

This Is NOT Sparta As Greece Threatens To Partially Withdraw From NATO Citing Poverty

A Greek ‘Twist’ of Global Deflation?

As I stated before, the “brilliant” economists at the troika are implementing measures which are counterproductive. Instead of focusing on growth, they are slashing wages, pensions, benefits, government jobs and increasing taxes hoping to restore “fiscal sanity.” All they’re doing is ensuring a Greek and European depression.

I ask again, why isn’t troika going after Greece’s biggest tax evaders who have parked billions offshore in Swiss and Cypriot banks and London real estate? I’ll tell you exactly why: because many of the worst tax evaders are corrupt government officials who accepted millions in bribes (remember the Siemens scandal) from rich Greek corporate cronies they’re now protecting. They all have a vested interest in hiding their ill gotten gains and shifting the debt burden on the poor and working poor.

Sex, sun, sand and drunks

Surveying the scene from her ceramics shop, Vasso Georgiadou heaves a sigh of resignation. ‘‘When they don’t drink, they are such good kids,’’ she says, adding that by the time the sun rises ‘‘there’ll be hundreds of them’’ wandering the resort in a drunken stupor. ‘‘But it’s not only their fault. Unfortunately, this is the tourism we Greeks have tolerated, we Greeks have gone out of our way to create.’’

Just like towns on Corfu, Rhodes, Kos and Crete, the once peaceful village of Laganas has managed to scale new heights in debauchery.

‘‘This is not the best image, but then Laganas is not Greece,’’ says the Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, George Nikitiadis. ‘‘Many times it is the system, the tour operators who co-ordinate these bar crawls, which makes these kids act in this way. We don’t want tourists to leave with this experience. Our country has so much more to offer.’’

The Ghost of America yet to come, part deux… Parents take legal action to force son, 41, to move out

After several failed attempts to convince their 41-year-old son to leave the nest, a Venetian couple have hired a lawyer in a last bid for domestic peace and quiet, Italian media have reported.

The parents, whose names were not published, were said to be exhausted by fending for their adult offspring, cooking his meals and doing his washing and ironing, according to the reports yesterday.

A Map of Emerging Global Risks From The Last Two Weeks

Netanyahu Eviscerates UN As “Theater of the Absurd” During General Assembly Speech (Video)

Video: Netanyahu’s U.N. Speech — “The Insatiable Crocodile of Militant Islam”…

Can we trade Obama for Netanyahu? He is a hundred times more pro-America than Dear Leader.

If you haven’t seen this you have to watch it. What a fantastic leader.

ABBAS REBUKES OBAMA – Submits UN Statehood Bid (Video)

Palestinian Officials Say It Will Be Obama’s Fault If U.N. Statehood Bid Fails…

Obama’s the best friend they’ve ever had in the White House and they still crap on him.

“Palestine” to Deny Citizenship to 45 Percent of its Palestinian Residents

This is simply unbelievable. For years, the world has backed a Palestinian state on the grounds Palestinians are stateless people who deserve a country of their own. And now, a senior Palestinian official has announced once they have received a state, most Palestinians will still be stateless – even those who actually live in “Palestine.”

Moreover, the new state won’t provide these residents with any services: It expects UNRWA – or, more accurately, the American and European taxpayers who provide the bulk of that organization’s funding – to continue providing their schooling, healthcare, welfare allowances, etc.

According to UNRWA, some 689,000 of the  West Bank’s 2.4 million Palestinians and 1.1 million of Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinians are refugees. Thus, aside from the 2.9 million Diaspora refugees, a whopping 45  percent of the new state’s residents will also remain stateless, deprived of both citizenship and services by the country the world fondly imagines is being created to serve their needs.

Memo from Israel to Palestine

“If this was 2013, Obama might be in a different groove”

The “occupation” is the cause of all the problems?. Oh wait, Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza and Gaza now is an Iranian missile base. Oh wait, the effort to drive the Jews into the sea started before the 1967 war, indeed, prior to the creation of Israel; just ask the Jews who used to live in the centuries-old Jewish community in Hebron before the 1929 Arab riots and massacre. Oh wait, Hamas does not agree to the existence of Israel. Oh wait, Abbas said just a few weeks ago he never — as in never — will accept Israel as a Jewish state.

Land for peace is risky enough; land without peace is a suicide pact.

Last Year Obama Pushed for a Palestinian State at the UN… This Year? Not So Much

OBAMA REBUKED BY ABBAS: Palestinians to Pursue UN Seat

Libyans flee siege in Gadhafi’s hometown Sirte

Walter Russell Mead: India’s Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts

Venal, arrogant and often incompetent bureaucrats and functionaries testify to the lack of accountability and the poor organization of India’s administrative infrastructure.  In many cases public sector salaries are so low in some positions that without bribery the officeholders could not make ends meet.  Like many government bureaucracies around the world, India’s government was designed to create patronage jobs rather than to work efficiently.

Many politicians (to say nothing of government workers) will fight tenaciously and cleverly against change.  We will be watching to see whether the anti-corruption movement has the stamina to stay in this fight for the long term.

Pakistan Threatens To Stop Being Our Friends Unless We Stop Talking About Their Support For Islamic Militant Groups…

Pretty please? It will save us billions of dollars a year.

With more space needed, U.S. planning major expansion at detainee facility in Afghanistan

Zimbabwe poachers poison water holes

Malaysia: Bikini Contest Leaves Islamists Hot And Bothered…

And as predicted: Putin to Return as Russia’s President

For those of my readers too young to remember the joys of the Carter years, you are getting an unfortunate treat. As for the nation of Russia, the return of Putin all but guarantees a despotic realm where intimidation from a police state now equipped with the best Western technology has to offer shall befall the citizens.

China signs deal for 150 Russian fighter jet engines: Report

China ‘Cancels’ an Entire City

“Chaohu’s development hasn’t been good, but Hefei is industrializing and urbanizing. It needs land, so absorbing Chaohu will benefit Hefei. The government hopes that redistributing the land will improve the entire province’s GDP,” he says.

In recent years, Hefei’s GDP growth has been an average of 17 percent. So this move serves the long-term aim of boosting Hefei’s competitive advantage by giving it land to expand, so it can challenge the more prominent cities of Nanjing and Wuhan.

It’s a pretty harsh message for a country to essentially give up on a city. The state of California recently considered a plan to do something similar in the economically troubled — and some say corrupt — city of Vernon. That plan was rejected by the state legislature, mainly over concerns that its passage would harm the local economy further. It’s tough to say what the exact result will be in the newly enlarged Hefei, but even a modest reduction in the city’s 17 percent growth rate would be hard for Chinese officials to worry about.

Oh Canada!

Today Canada has a superior tax regime to that of the United States, and a much sounder fiscal situation.  They are actually developing their energy resources, which they are happy to sell to us rather than the Chinese, just as soon as we approve the Keystone pipeline.  And lately Canada has upset Saudi Arabia with an ad campaign about “ethical oil,” pointing out the unsavory nature of Middle Eastern regimes that oppress women.  Seems the Saudis are not too happy about this, and are threatening lawsuits.  Thought experiment: imagine how CAIR and Keith Ellison would react if such ads aired in the U.S.

And then there’s this (hat tip: Glenn E):

Red Cross: Obese Now Outnumber Hungry

In statistics used to underline the unequal access to food, the IFRC stressed there were 1.5 billion people suffering obesity worldwide last year, while 925 million were undernourished.

“If the free interplay of market forces has produced an outcome where 15 percent of humanity are hungry while 20 percent are overweight, something has gone wrong somewhere,” secretary general Bekele Geleta [sic] said in a statement.

‘White folk’s greed runs a world in need’ — again. Damn those free markets.

Obviously, fat people must have their access limited, while the undernourished are given greater ‘access’ to food. And either the International Red Cross or the UN should be put in charge of administering that around the world.

Short of that, the clear solution is to give the IRC and UN more money. (After all, their hotel bills alone are astronomical.)

Asia-Pacific director Jagan Chapagain [sic] called it a “double-edged scandal” at a press conference in the Indian capital, adding that “excess nutrition now kills more than hunger.”

Which must mean that food now kills even more people than handguns. So where are the calls for ‘food control’? (That is, apart from Michelle Obama and ‘Mayor Doomberg.’)

Drill, Cuba, Drill: Chinese-built Oil Rig Positioned 50 Miles Off Key West

…Normally, what are called “economic zones” extend 200 miles off a country’s coastline. In some cases, there are conflicts based on resources and geography. In 1977, President Carter signed a treaty with communist Cuba that essentially split the difference and created for Cuba an “exclusive economic zone” extending from the western tip of Cuba northward virtually to Key West. Cuba then divided its side of the Florida Strait into 59 parcels and put them up for lease.
The U.S. Geological Survey recently estimated the North Cuban Basin contains as much as 9 billion barrels of oil and 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Other estimates range from 5 billion to 20 billion barrels of crude. Pools of oil and natural gas tend not to obey lines drawn on a map. It’s certain that at least some of Cuba’s wells will be tapping oil pools that straddle the boundary separating our zone from Cuba’s, meaning Havana will be getting oil that should be ours.

But fret not, peons: our thrifty President is carefully investing taxpayer dollars in savvy energy investments like Solyndra.

US News:

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you the ‘surprisingly unexpected’ economic news of the day:

Third Biggest Weekly DJIA Drop In History

Black Friday Arrives: Biggest Weekly Move In 30 Year Bond Since Black Monday

Has Operation Twist Played Out Already? Time to Short Bonds?

Endspiel: Fidelity Says “It Is Clear Now That The Fed Cannot Bail Equity Markets Out Any More”

Uh… did a member of the status quo just tell the truth? “It is clear now that the Fed cannot bail equity markets out any more and any interest rate cuts by the ECB may not have much of an impact on markets” Cue panic?

Five Banks Account For 96% Of The $250 Trillion In Outstanding US Derivative Exposure; Is Morgan Stanley Sitting On An FX Derivative Time Bomb?

And that’s your definition of Too Big To Fail right there: the biggest banks are not only getting bigger, but their risk exposure is now at a new all time high and up $5.3 trillion from Q1 as they have to risk ever more in the derivatives market to generate that incremental penny of return.

Stocks, commodities dive on recession fears

The NYSE Will Need A Bigger Rule 48

Panic?

That’s what we’ve been seeing on world markets since Thursday trading began in Asia; this morning it hit the US with the kind of sickening thud we remember too well from 2008. Amid the general hurricane of bad economic news a few things stand out.

• Chinese stocks fell almost 5 percent and key real estate company stocks were down by double digit percentages as fears grow that the long-delayed bursting of the China property bubble is here;
• the European bank crisis is deepening, with the IMF sticking to its guns about the massive capital losses faced by the continent’s banks and BNP Paribas apparently trolling the Middle East in search of a big capital injection
• the Federal Reserve’s new worries about the economy made a deeper impression on investors than its plans to support growth
• some US banks are starting to look shaky again.

There are many more reasons for concern.  The continuing inability of Europe to cope with the euro troubles, the political impasse over economic policy in the United States, and the deer-in-the-headlights immobility of Japan do not inspire confidence.  The emerging economies — China, India, Turkey and Brazil — face increased difficulties of their own and will not pull the global economy out of the dumps.  That large corporations are sitting on cash hoards or buying back stock rather than making new investments is bad news; that consumers are cutting down debt and doing what they can to increase their savings is good news for the long term, but bad news now.  And it seems clear that two years of frantic efforts in Washington have failed to breathe new life into the nation’s housing market.

Welcome To The Collapse Of 2011

Well, America (and the world), you’ve been scammed by the financial institutions and governments for the last 30 years.  2008 was the first spasm of recognition but was short-circuited by…. you guessed it…. even more scams.  Rather than demand truth and an end to the games the American consumer lapped up the frauds and schemes of the politicians on both sides of the aisle who conspired with the financiers to rip you off once again.

The opportunity to address these issues as I have been tirelessly attempting to do, was ignored by those in policy roles in Washington DC.  Those who have been reading The Ticker are well-aware of my efforts going back into 2007 and through the 2008 Presidential campaign on both sides of the aisle, along with my efforts since.

They’ve been ignored with the political establishment choosing to knob-job the banks and lie to you, the public, rather than address the fact that the entire last 30 years have been one gigantic economic scam and that what they were attempting to do could not, as a matter of mathematics, succeed.

Now recognition of that fact is dawning on people in a convulsive fashion, and markets of all sorts are reacting as one would expect when their entire worldview is exposed as having been a gigantic and intentional pyramid scheme constructed of debt layered upon debt that cannot be paid down.  The wrong thing was done in 2008 and there is zero evidence that our government has changed one iota in their singular focus on misdirection and lies in this regard.

Welcome to awareness; I hope you’ve taken the last couple of years to become prepared.

The Crash of Ages has Begun

With that established the charts now indicate the crash of ages, has begun. This move could retest S&P 1,000 easily, 840 more than likely, and if it violates the 666 March 2009 low, then the next stop is in the high 300′s.

The Dow? Well, after they remove the shattered remains of former components it could settle nicely around 6,000 or take a trip down memory lane and retest the 1987 highs.

Gold is destined to fall, hold, then turn around as the Fed realize that offering Lewinsky’s to the dollar does nothing and the blue dress is eventually exposed. Look for gold to fall, the Fed to panic and hyperinflate, and all hell to break loose next year. The course of action selected today is ineffective, impotent, and ignorant which means that the final solution, a total, complete commitment to printing until the cows, calves, bulls, steers, and reindeer all come home is their last bullet.

Shifting Deck Chairs on the Titanic Won’t Fix This Mess

Forgive the use of a cliché here, but one can’t help but think of hapless deckhands shifting chairs around the deck of the Titanic. This week’s stock market selloffs come as no surprise.

Borrowing rates are already at their lowest levels in four decades. The average rate for a standard 30-year loan stood at 4.09% earlier this week, according to Freddie Mac, an astonishingly low figure.

How much lower can it get before it prompts skittish buyers off the sidelines and into making what is likely to be the biggest investment of their lives? Who knows?

But that’s the point. Mortgage rates aren’t the problem. The problem is a pervasive fear that has embedded itself in the psyche of U.S. consumers and business owners such that both are afraid make any sort of investment big or small.

The final crisis of capitalism?

But I suspect that this crisis differs from that of the 30s and 70s.

In the 30s, profits were depressed by weak aggregate demand, something which could be cured. In the 70s, they were depressed by labour militancy, and when this was killed, capitalists’ desire to invest was rekindled.
But the problem now is deeper than then. Capitalism has lost its underlying oomph; investment was low, remember, even before the recession. And this suggests that its vitality cannot be restored by policy measures, be they Keynesian (“boost demand”) or Thatcherite (“attack workers“).

Herein, though, lies the problem. Even if capitalism is dying – and I say if – there is no-one to kill it off; Marx’s prediction that the working class would become a powerful agent of change was wrong. And there is no well worked-out vision of an alternative.  Gramsci’s words fit the bill:

The old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.

DOOM: Lie to me

We’re Sinking Under Obama’s Policies

Since this president took office, U.S. businesses have shed 3.3 million jobs. We are still 6.9 million below our peak employment reached in January 2008. Ordinarily, more than two years after a recession has ended, well over a million jobs have been added to payrolls.

By any meaningful measure, then, our president has followed the least-successful economic policies of any U.S. leader since World War II. As recession seems ever more possible, the IMF warns of a U.S. “lost decade.”

Whether it’s jobs, economic growth, energy prices, incomes, regulation, weak foreign policy, or the quality of our lives and the nation’s social fabric, America’s current course looks questionable at best.

No wonder the markets are so volatile. They discount not the present, but the future. And the future for investors is murky at best and downright dark at worst.

Peeling back the veneer on American decline

A new conventional wisdom is evolving to explain the causes of the decline and how to address them. Among the key elements of this new orthodoxy are the notions that the U.S. is lagging badly in innovation and education. This diagnosis, of course, leads directly to prescriptions for greater spending on and government support of R&D and much greater emphasis on getting students not only into and out of college but into advanced and professional degrees.

Of course, it is true that U.S. spending on R&D as a percent of GDP has fallen and stagnated in comparison with the glory days of yesteryear and the recent reports on SAT scores certainly seem to confirm that there are problems with U.S. education. And yet, as I consider Germany, I wonder.

Germany has higher wages, higher taxes, higher welfare costs, a lower percentage of college and professional graduates, and lower spending as a percent of GDP on R&D than the United States. Yet, in contrast to America’s chronically large trade deficit and high unemployment rate, Germany has a huge trade surplus and a low unemployment rate. What’s going on?

Rosenberg Presents The Three Ways Bernanke Disappointed The Market, And Why It Is Dumping

1. between six and 30 years), net interest margins in the banking sector will likely be negatively affected.
2. The dramatic decline in the 30-year bond yield is going to aggravate already-massively actuarially underfunded positions in pension funds
3. The Fed says it is going to extend this Operation Twist program through to June 2012. This is a subtle hint to the markets that barring something really big occurring, there is no QE3 coming — not over the near term, in any event, and certainly not at the next meeting on November 1-2. So a stock market that has continuously been fuelled on hopes doesn’t have any in this regard for at least the next month and a half.

So How Much “Capital” Really Exists?

Initial Claims Miss Consensus, Prior Bad Data Amplified, 103,000 Unemployed Fall Off Extended Benefits

Another day, another chance for the BLS to fudge jobs data by revising last week’s claims miss to an even worse number: sure enough last week’s -428K drop was just revised to -432K. Which means that this week’s consensus miss, which was at 420K, is irrelevant, with the weekly number coming at 423K because all headlines will blare than claims actually declined by 9K. The game has become so old (and we mean old: the BLS has been doing this very same fudge for 2 years in a row now) we are stunned anyone falls for it. And one thing that will also most certainly be ignored is that the 423K number is really 427K because as the BLS reported, a -3,776 drop in claims in Texas was due to “Fewer layoffs due to holiday” – well the holiday is over. Lastly, and most troubling for the economy is that another massive 103,000 people dropped off extended benefit claims in one week. Just as troubling is that 1.7 million people have dropped off the government’s dole in the past year as can be seen in the chart below: these are people that haven’t gotten a job, they have just stopped being counted by the govt.

On Eve Of Critical FOMC Decision, Republicans (Re)Send Letter To Bernanke Demanding No More QE

Boehner et al bring up a valid point, which is that the Fed policy now accentuates market uncertainty and promotes trade wars: precisely the topics discussed in an earlier article today. As stated by Boehner: “Our long-term growth depends on restoring confidence and certainty in our fiscal, regulatory, and trade policies — and not on government’s willingness to engage in additional stimulative measures. When asset prices increase due to anticipated Federal Reserve policy rather than economic fundamentals, it increases the potential for speculative action and erodes confidence in the economic outlook, making it more difficult to generate sustainable growth.” Regardless of its actual merit, one thing is without doubt: QE3, and the Fed, just become once again critically politicized, and as such, even more market uncertainty is imminent. All that said, the theatrical optics of this action are quite glaring.

“Very Unusual” Fed Action Fails To Boost Animal Spirits: Dow Drops 285

Bernanke sends stocks plunging

Ben Bernanke issued a death sentence on the PBGC yesterday

Let me be the first to predict that Ben Bernanke just signed the death sentence on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). What’s that you say? It’s yet another masterpiece of central planning, which happens to be bankrupt. Just like Social Security, Medicare, the FDIC, the Federal Highway Trust Fund, and everything else the Statists touch.

All of this means that taxpayers — your kids and grandkids included — will be on the hook for yet another of the Obama Democrats’ epic failures.

Suck It Up Buffett: BRK/A Below $100,000 For First Time In 20 Months

An oldie but worth reposting… The Coming Middle-Class Anarchy

TV has given us the illusion that anarchy is people rioting in the streets, smashing car windows and looting every store in sight. But there’s also the polite, quiet, far deadlier anarchy of the core citizenry—the upright citizenry—throwing in the towel and deciding it’s just not worth it anymore.

If a big enough proportion of the populace—not even a majority, just a largish chunk—decides that it’s just not worth following the rules anymore, then that society’s days are numbered: Not even a police-state with an armed Marine at every corner with Shoot-to-Kill orders can stop such middle-class anarchy.

Brian and Ilsa are such anarchists—grey-haired, well-dressed, golf-loving, well-to-do, exceedingly polite anarchists: But anarchists nevertheless. They are not important, or powerful, or influential: They are average—that’s why they’re so deadly: Their numbers are millions. And they are slowly, painfully coming to the conclusion that it’s just not worth it anymore.

Is The U.S. Government Stockpiling Food In Anticipation Of A Major Economic Crisis?

When he asked about why so much food was being ordered, the government source told him essentially that “you know what is coming”.  When pushed further, the government official did not elaborate.

It was unclear whether this was part of a larger food stockpiling program by the government.  Perhaps this order was just part of the normal preparations that government agencies make for potential emergencies.

Nobody could blame the government for storing up some emergency food.  That is something that we all should be doing.

The truth is that the government is taking emergency preparedness very seriously these days.  For example, you can see video of a high-level NASA official urging NASA employees to develop preparedness plans for their own families right here.

But what if this is a sign of something bigger?

We now resume our regularly scheduled programming already in progress…

Senate Has Enough Votes To Defeat Continuing Resolution: Government Shutdown Imminent

As predicted:

• SENATE HAS VOTES TO DEFEAT HOUSE SPENDING PLAN; VOTE CONTINUES – BBG

Next up: headline risk and a push for Bernanke to print more. Why? Because when all is said and done the market will have plunged (even more) on the realization there is no fiscal stimulus coming in the next two years, despite the Chairman’s clever gambit.

Democrats want a shutdown

The word must be out from the White House: Shut down the federal government on October 1. If true, this would be a last-ditch effort to make Republicans look obstructionist. The president’s re-election efforts are cratering, just as the global economy sinks in the pile of IOUs that governments across the planet have printed in order to pay for socialistic programs. This eerily looks like the collapse of the Soviet Empire some 20 years ago.

President Obama does not want to be left holding the bag, but even I can spot his Prada from a mile away.

Democrats Threaten To Hold Up Disaster Relief And Shutdown Government To Protect Green Energy Boondoggles

Is this whole thing less than ideal? Of course but everything is going to be less than ideal when you have deal with a Democratic Senate that simply refuses to pass a budget framework and a leftist in the White House. We’re simply not going to get fiscally sound polices in the current environment. The only solution to this is get them the hell out of there.

Now the House has dropped this in the Senate’s lap. Do they want to shut the government down and withhold disaster aid they say is desperately needed or do they want to protect green energy companies?

Democrats Reject Disaster Relief Bill For Suffering American Families

Democrats rejected disaster relief to thousands of suffering Americans today by voting down a $3.7 billion bill in the House.

Democrats were upset that the bill cut funding to one of their green projects.

Here it comes! Video from across globe captures doomed Nasa satellite finally plummeting to Earth in a green ball of fire

Purported sightings in Texas and California caught on video

Plunging satellite debris dropped somewhere over Africa or Canada

Exact time and location of satellite not yet confirmed

Debris fell to Earth some time between 11.23pm on Friday and 1.09am EDT today

Pieces of debris remain property of U.S. with people who find them ordered to hand them back

NASA Unsure About Falling Satellite, 100% Sure Globull Warming Will Kill Us All

So, with all the computers, all the observations, all the long term data, NASA isn’t quite sure. See, it’s complicated

“There are many variables that make predicting where a satellite will fall back to Earth very complicated. The reentry of UARS this evening is consistent with the modeling we prepared at Aerospace,” Dr. William Ailor (director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies) added.

Uh huh. But, certain people at NASA tell us with 100% certainty that anthropogenic global warming will warm the planet beyond what is safe for life in 5-100 years, despite all the myriad of causes, such as greenhouse gases, the Sun, volcanoes, ocean currents, glaciers, polar caps, land use, and other things that create climate, as they all interact, being “complicated”.

Hmmm… Massive terror exercise planned for metro area

Airport Insecurity: FBI Investigating Arabic Writing Discovered on Underbellies of SW Airlines Jets

The story doesn’t indicate what the messages translate to, but I’m sure it’s not “Eat at Joe’s” or “Goodyear.”

The reporter must have contacted Janet Napolitano for this last sentence:

The airline denied that the vandalism posed a safety or security threat.

Whew! That should make SW’s customers feel better!

Let me get this straight… they’ve discovered Arabic graffiti on jets, they don’t know how it got there or why, but they’re sure it’s not a security threat? I’m satisfied.

Exclusive Photo: The Ominous Markings on Southwest Airlines Jet Engines

I was sent this by someone who can’t be named. SWA has clamped down on anything coming from internal staff.
All this Arabic markings crap. They all know they are swords. My source says that some flights will only make $20.00 (why they like carry on dogs) and this could cause many to not fly and hurt business.

Thought you might like to see a real photo of what they look like. And, they only show when the engine is hot. (See photo at link)

I find it interesting that the ‘usual suspects’ who say they are against capital punishment did not say one peep about Lawrence Russell Brewer getting executed. This is especially surprising seeing as they would have gotten a bonus bashing of Gov. Rick Perry because he signed the execution order. One would think that they would be against ALL executions if they are truly against capital punishment. Hypocrites… White supremacist executed for Texas dragging

Texas Executes Murderer of James Byrd – After NAACP Smeared Bush On Hate Crimes Law

These men were prosecuted and sentenced under George W. Bush.  Brewer was executed under the auspices of Rick Perry.  Republicans, especially Texas Republicans, take heinous crimes very seriously.  Whatever problems Texas might have, being too soft on murderers is not among them, and the hate crime legislation the NAACP used to attack Bush would have had no impact on this case.  In fact, I’d imagine that many NAACP activists and most liberals who supported their actions are anti-death penalty, and as such believe that the hate crime committed against James Byrd Jr. was punished too harshly.

I won’t hold my breath for an apology from the NAACP to President Bush and the Republican Party.

Irony: Anti-Death Penalty Protesters Call For Execution Of George Bush

The White House’s Advice for Your Rabbi

As has become its annual practice, the Obama administration on Thursday convened a conference call with several hundred rabbis and Jewish leaders. According to a participant on the call, President Obama promoted his jobs bill—noting that those who have been more blessed should pay their fair share—and briefed the rabbis on U.S. efforts to counter the push for a declaration of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.

I was on another such call recently, the purpose of which—according to the Jewish rabbinical group that invited me—was to help listeners “understand the current state of the economy; learn about the impact of the proposed budget cuts on the poor and disenfranchised; consider the consequences of the increasing gap between the rich and poor in America; and, glean homiletic and textual background to help prepare their High Holiday sermons on this timely topic.”

The agenda of the call organizers was clear. Two speakers, one of whom was a (non-Jewish) Democratic senator, spoke of our country’s need for “raising revenue,” the new code phrase for tax increases. When I suggested that we separate politics from spirituality, a third participant pushed back, saying “the Torah is a political document.” A curious assertion in a crowd that would quickly denounce any invocation of the Bible in political discussions.

Charles Krauthammer: Return of the real Obama

That politician now returns. Obama’s new populism surely is a calculation that his halfhearted feints to the center after the midterm “shellacking” were not only unconvincing but would do him no good anyway with a stagnant economy, 9 percent unemployment and a staggering $4 trillion of new debt.

But this is more than a political calculation. It is more than just a pander to his base. It is a pander to himself: Obama is a member of his base. He believes this stuff. It is an easy and comfortable political shift for him, because it’s a shift from a phony centrism back to his social-democratic core, from positioning to authenticity.

The authentic Obama is a leveler, a committed social democrat, a staunch believer in the redistributionist state, a tribune, above all, of “fairness” — understood as government-imposed and government-enforced equality.

That’s why “soak the rich” is not just a campaign slogan to rally the base. It’s a mission, a vocation.

Class Warfare: American Communists of 1928 Compared to Barack Obama

Barack Obama may not be a communist, but his embrace of communist rhetoric and though from the 1920s on technology causing unemployment and his class warfare rhetoric truly make him the most far left President we have had in this country. It also complicates his re-election.

The model Obama intends to use is the Truman model of running against Congressional Republicans. But Truman gambled that the country was far more a Democrat country than a Republican country and he won. Obama has been gambling throughout his Presidency that the country is a left-leaning country and he has consistently lost as a result. Continuing the gamble will continue his losing streak. The fact is, however much Congress may be hated right now and however much congressional Republicans may be hated, the country is more ideologically on the right than with Barack Obama.

Everyone Must Sacrifice… Michelle Obama Wears $42,000 in Bling to DNC Fundraiser

WINDFALL PROFITS… Obama Supporter Who Was Awarded $107 Million For Windfarm Will Hold $25,000-Per-Person Fundraiser for President

Tom Carnahan, brother of Robin and Russ Carnahan, was gifted with $107 million in stimulus money for his wind farm project in Missouri.

The Carnahans got a windfall in stimulus dollars. We got the bill.

This coming week Tom Carnahan will host a $25,000-per-person fundraiser for President Obama.

It pays to go green.

Obama: My Half-Trillion Dollar Stimulus Jobs Bill Is For the Kids, or Schools …or Something

SCFOAMF… Obama: “I’m A Warrior For The Middle Class”

“Now the Republicans, you know when I, I talked about this earlier in the week. They said ‘well, this is class warfare.’ You know what? If asking a billionaire to pay their fair of taxes. To pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher is class warfare, then you know what? I, I, I, I, I’m, I’m a warrior for the middle class. I’m happy to fight for the middle class,”

Obama Repeats ‘Intercontinental Railroad’ Gaffe

In July I wrote this post that was really about Obama and the sycophantic media minions: Video: Dimwitted bimbo Sarah Palin claims Abraham Lincoln Built the “Intercontinental Railroad” (No Such Thing!). It was followed by this: Obama’s Intercontinental Railroad Gaffe – Part 2. There is no such thing as an intercontinental railroad connecting either the US to Europe or Asia. Or South America for that matter.

And if Sarah Palin made such a gaffe, she would immediately be labeled a stupid bimbo unfit for any office. Months later, Obama repeats the gaffe.

New Term For an Obama Fib: He ‘Over-suggested’

The competition for minimizing the reality of President Obama’s words and actions in the media is fierce. After all, Solyndra, according to the Associated Press, is an “embarrassment.” Heaven forbid that anyone in the establishment press call it what it really is: a “scandal” and, as described by Andy McCarthy at National Review, a “fraud.”

Then there was the AP’s May description of Obama’s failure to comply with the 60-day requirement to seek congressional authorization for continuing to have U.S. troops involved in Libya under the War Powers Act. In this instance, AP told its readers that Obama was merely “skipping a legal deadline.” Uh, no; he was breaking the law.

In July, Kevin Sack at the New York Times wrote that during the 2008 campaign and the runup to the passage of Obamacare, Obama had “mischaracterized a central anecdote about his mother’s deathbed dispute with her insurance company,” leaving “the clear impression that his mother’s fight was over health benefits for medical expenses.” In other words, he made audiences believe that his mother didn’t have health insurance as she fought ovarian cancer, when she did. There’s a three-letter word for this. It begins with “L,” ends with “E,” and has the ninth letter of the alphabet in the middle.

The Empty Promise of Green Jobs

Crony capitalism–in its full-blown version, national socialism–is always and everywhere a failure. You cannot create wealth by subsidizing the inefficient production of energy–a fundamental rule of economics that the Obama administration, sadly, has yet to learn.

Shovel Ready, Part II: Obama Tells Ohio and Kentucky He’s Got a Bridge To Sell Them

These are all mid-range projects, somewhere between two to four years away. It is simply a demagogic lie, and an absurd one, given that he’s told it before and has now eaten crow, to insist that major civil engineering projects requiring at least a year of surveying and planning are ready to produce jobs “right now.”

By his own ever-optimistic projections, we’ll be out of this rough patch of economy by then, anyway. (Riiiight?) So the stimulus aspect is missing, once again.

Incidentally, if he were at all serious about fixing this bridge, he could have, erm, included it in the first “stimulus” package. (In fact, $0 was devoted to the bridge last time ’round.)

If he had, then the engineering and planning work would have been done by now, and, in fact, men would be ready to start welding on the project.

Figures. Obama Touts Jobs/Spending Plan at Ohio Bridge That Won’t Qualify

Obama’s BFF crony capitalist and ‘Jobs advisor’ Jeff Immelt is creating jobs…in China. GE seeking to double Chinese business within three years

NC Dem Senator: ‘No, No There Are Not Any Bridges in North Carolina in Danger of Falling’

The only thing I can conclude from this is Obama is a shameless liar who would use fear to score cheap political points. Why am I not surprised?

Milking It Dry: Obama Mascot and Tax Cheat Warren Buffett to Appear at Obama Fundraisers

Maybe while he’s there he can bring an oversized novelty check for all the back taxes he owes. Is it just me or are you sick of Warren Buffett already?

Obama has spent every free moment this week in New York at lavish fatcat fundraisers, but we’re supposed to pretend he’s a man of the people or something.

Bluff Called… Republicans Demand Buffett’s Tax Returns

Senate Republicans demanded that Warren Buffett, the namesake of Obama’s tax hikes, turn over his tax returns so they can be compared to his secretary’s returns.

Buffett says his secretary pays more taxes than he does.

Someone call the WAAAAAAHbulance for them…. The NYPD Is Arresting Wall Street Protesters for Wearing Masks

Speaking of masks, the mask is really falling off the face of the unhinged radical left. I wonder if these guys will spare all the billionaires that fund them.… Village Voice Critic Calls For Mass Murder of NY Billionaires… To Feed Poor & Pay for Repertory Theater

Video: Sen Tom Harkin (D-IA) Encourages Citizens To Riot, ‘Get Arrested’ To Save Welfare

The predictable result of coerced government dependency

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it…. Millionaire Michael Moore Threatens Violence Against Rich (Video)

In related news… Michael Moore: “Patriotic Americans” Will Wait Longer For Healthcare

When those super-sized Big Mac meal finally catch up with Moore in the form of a heart attack you think he’ll be “patriotic” and wait for care?

Elizabeth Warren, Totalitarian Moron, Translated

‘In a Rush to Meet Your Deadline, We Made an Honest Mistake’

Remember this shrieking banshee from the other day? Looks like she’s already got some problems with the truth. For someone so eager to redistribute wealth she sure looks like she’s been able to cash in on your tax dollars.

What Solyndra, Soc. Security say about liberalism

During the 2008 campaign, Obama said that Bush-style Social Security reform “would gamble the retirement plans of millions of Americans on the stock market.”

In reality, the Bush proposal didn’t involve government gambling taxpayer money. It gave younger workers the option of investing a portion of their payroll taxes in personal accounts, choosing among investment funds rather than random stocks.

But looking beyond Obama’s distortions, his comments have fresh meaning in the wake of the Solyndra scandal and provide insight into what he and his fellow liberals consider appropriate risk.

Obama thinks it’s OK for government to risk taxpayer money on business ventures that he deems worthy of investment. But he’s outraged at the suggestion that younger Americans be allowed to have more control over the allocation of their own tax dollars.

Google is chock full of Obama’s BFF’s and BIG donors to his campaign…. What Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said before testifying at today’s antitrust hearing

But, for what it’s worth, Schmidt himself doesn’t seem concerned about the hearing whatsoever. He’s even said he’s looking forward to the “opportunity to communicate what [Google is] doing.” More than likely, he’s unconcerned because Google does serve its users well — but he might also be nonchalant because he’s covered his political bases. According to The New York Times:

As antitrust scrutiny has intensified, Google has ramped up its lobbying efforts in Washington and its communications campaigns nationwide. The company has shown television ads in some markets … that trumpet Google’s role in helping small businesses and creating jobs.

Plus, as an outspoken supporter of President Obama, Schmidt just this week hyped the need for short-term stimulus measures of the sort the president has proposed.

Remember that OnStar is a GM service and GM is owned by the government… OnStar Tracks Your Car Even When You Cancel Service

Neil Armstrong says US space program ‘embarrassing’

The Fable of the Shoes 

If everyone had always gotten their shoes from the government, writes Rothbard, the proponent of shoe privatization would be greeted as a kind of lunatic. “How could you?” defenders of the status quo would squeal. “You are opposed to the public, and to poor people, wearing shoes! And who would supply shoes . . . if the government got out of the business? Tell us that! Be constructive! It’s easy to be negative and smart-alecky about government; but tell us who would supply shoes? Which people? How many shoe stores would be available in each city and town? . . . What material would they use? . . . Suppose a poor person didn’t have the money to buy a pair?”

Such a bias toward the status quo similarly infects our thinking and debate on space policy. The highest achievement in the minds of many was landing a man on the moon, and such a feat is viewed as the epitome of a human spaceflight program, and the only model to follow. Ignoring the issue of the pork, such thinking resulted in the Constellation plan (“Apollo on Steroids”) and now it’s giving us the disastrous Senate Launch System (as I discussed over at Pajamas Media yesterday). It’s what I have called the Apollo Cargo Cult — in too many minds, if we don’t have a really big rocket developed and operated by NASA, we don’t have a Real Space Program.

 Bickering over rescue of Post Office escalates

The Obama administration unveiled its own plan to help the USPS this week. Under that plan, the government would return a $6.9 billion overpayment into a federal retirement program to the agency over a two-year span, while, as in the House GOP bill, USPS would transition to five-day delivery.

But Republicans on House Oversight have questioned the administration’s assertion that its proposals would cut billions, and are skeptical the government should give back the overpayment into the Federal Employees Retirement System, calling that a projected surplus.

An Oversight GOP staffer noted that the costs in the administration’s USPS plan — the retirement overpayment and a deferral of the retiree healthcare payments — would be borne by the taxpayers, while USPS alone would enjoy the proposal’s savings.

The Postal Service does not receive taxpayer money for operating expenses.

With that in mind, Oversight Republicans believe the president’s blueprint actually raises deficits another $10 billion to $20 billion.

The administration, meanwhile, argues that the costs and savings of the USPS proposals should be considered together.

President offers states an opt-out from NCLB — in exchange for more federal control of education

States will receive a waiver if and only if they agree to certain conditions set by the Education Secretary. CNN calls those conditions “credible commitments to close lingering achievement gaps.” Conservatives call those conditions “strings attached” and “legislating through the executive branch.”

Chief among the administration’s stipulations for a waiver: The adoption of college-and-career-ready standards (a.k.a. national standards). National standards and tests might sound sensible in theory, but, in reality, they would strengthen federal power over education and weaken schools’ direct accountability to parents and taxpayers. Moreover, they would most likely lead to the standardization of mediocrity rather than the standardization of excellence.

But national standards are a favored policy proposal within the Obama Department of Education — and, again, with today’s move to introduce a qualified opt-out from NCLB, the president has found a way to circumvent Congress to push through this policy preference and other preferred “reforms.”

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy (except for the UN, of course):

Agriculture Secretary: We Must “Adjust” Our Taste to Please the Government

When the amply-caboosed unofficial Diet Czar Michelle Obama barked ominously about restuarants’ duty to serve us less and worse-tasting food lest children get too chubby, corporate pansies characteristically scrambled to comply. Did they think that appeasement would keep the heavy fist of government from crashing down on their heads? If so, they’ve been proven wrong already:

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told members of the National Restaurant Association on Monday that Americans need to “adjust” their tastes so that they like the kind of food the government believes they should eat — and “we have to make sure that what we do is create the appropriate transition.”

Good News! Obama Wants To Kill Asthmatic Kids

The action is part of an agreement signed by the U.S. and other nations to stop using substances that deplete the ozone layer, a region in the atmosphere that helps block harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun.

But the switch to a greener inhaler will cost consumers more. Epinephrine inhalers are available via online retailers for around $20, whereas the alternatives, which contain the drug albuterol, range from $30 to $60.

Isn’t that wonderful? Punishing those with asthma, forcing them to take more time to go to the doctor for a prescription (which costs money), then going to the drug store and paying more for inhalers that help them breathe better. But, don’t worry, asthma sufferers, Obama cares about you, and just wants to save you from Globull Warming. Also, says The Weekly Standards Greg Hemingway

Well, tough cookies asthma sufferers! You should have written bigger checks to the Democratic party while you had the chance.

The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle, an asthma sufferer, points out that these kinds of regulations almost always lead to worse products.

Anthony Watts says “let the inhaler hoarding begin!” and wonders if the American Lung Association will come out with a new ad campaign against this regulation. I wonder about that too, considering they are freaking out over not enacting globull warming legislation which makes infants in red carriages cough. How about those with asthma, ALA?

Obamacare HHS rule would give government everybody’s health records

It’s been said a thousand times: Congress had to pass President Obama’s  health care law in order to find out what’s in it. But, despite the repetitiveness, the level of shock from each new discovery never seems to recede.

This time, America is learning about the federal government’s plan to collect and aggregate confidential patient records for every one of us.

In a proposed rule from Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal government is demanding insurance companies submit detailed health care information about their patients.

The HHS has proposed the federal government pursue one of three paths to obtain this sensitive information: A “centralized approach” wherein insurers’ data go directly to Washington; an “intermediate state-level approach” in which insurers give the information to the 50 states; or a “distributed approach” in which health insurance companies crunch the numbers according to federal bureaucrat edict.

Surprise! The company that will handle all that information just so happens to be one which is owned by a BIG Donor to the Democratic Party… Obama Donor, Now Medical Records Czar Gets Little Gov’t Job BIG Gov’t Contracts

Judith Faulkner is a woman that is very connected to the Democrat Party, is in deep with Big Labor, has her own electronic medical records company that she thinks should be the only such company to handle the nations records and this is the woman that Obama is asking to be impartial enough to help choose which company should get billions of tax dollars?

Instead of having the market determine which electronic medical records system will work best, Obama and his industry favorites will make the choice for us. It’s just another example of the sort of crony capitalism that Obama has become famous for.

Health care premiums to leap as much as 85% in Ohio; HHS response: spend $100MM investigating insurers

Just in time to combat the negative publicity, our beloved Department of Health and Human Services has cut checks worth $109 million (thankfully, only one-fifth of what the feds spent on Solyndra) to help states “fight unreasonable premium increases and protect consumers.”

I can save them some money. The root cause of these massive premium increases is a bunch of Statist, totalitarian masterminds trying to centrally plan a full one-sixth of the economy.

This is akin to the task of the Soviet Politburo, circa the sixties, announcing yet another successful wheat-growing season when, in fact, a large portion of the population was starving to death.

Study: Obamacare will jack premiums up 55%-85%

From National Underwriter: “The number with some kind of individual commercial coverage could increase to 7.4%, or 735,000, from 350,000. The percentage with some kind of government coverage, or coverage provided by a private insurer but paid for in whole or in part by the government, could increase to 31%, from 20% in 2010. Although the percentage of residents with coverage could rise by about 7.9%, the price of individual health insurance coverage might rise about 55% to 85%, excluding the impact of medical inflation, the Milliman consultants predict.”

That 55% increase in people getting Medicaid or other government subsidies will be paid by who? The people who will be socked with premium increases of 55%-85%.

Obama administration shelves long-term care plan

The Obama administration has shelved a financially troubled long-term care insurance plan. Officials said Thursday the staff has been cut and it’s an “open question” if the program will be implemented.

Known as CLASS, the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program was created under President Barack Obama’s health care law as a voluntary long-term care insurance program for workers. Doubts about its financial viability were raised early on and it has since languished in bureaucratic limbo, with Republicans in Congress pushing for repeal or defunding.

Why The Blogosphere Missed CLASS

The CLASS portion of ObamaCare was known to be unsustainable from the get-go, which is why the bill itself required it to be examined after passage before implementation. But, the estimated $75-billion revenues from its early years’ was key to falsely claiming that ObamaCare would not increase federal deficits, before CLASS itself went into huge deficits.

Meanwhile, ObamaCare has step-by-step been entrenching itself within healthcare and its organizations. Early victims are health insurance agents and those many who rely upon them. I’ve yet to find a major blog that has written about this. Their comp is being cut by up to 50%, with more cuts to come, and many are leaving the business and those who need them with lessened defense against ObamaCare or giant insurance companies most interested in profiting from ObamaCare. I wrote about this here, In Defense Of Health Insurance Agents, And You, and here, CBO: ObamaCare Within 5% Of Nationalizing Insurance Companies, and here, Are Health Insurance Agents Worth It: The Canaries In ObamaCare Mine.

There are many more examples I could easily point out. Assuming that after the 2012 elections there’ll be a Republican president and Congress, despite pledges to repeal ObamaCare, we’ll find much of it welded into our spines. The mandate issue is focused upon because it raises libertarian hackles and because it seems the only promising course in the courts. However, even judicially excising mandates may not uproot Obamacare, if found severable despite the ObamaCare bill not including a severability clause. Also, by then, if there is a then at the Supreme Court, many portions of ObamaCare will be so far along, and many aspects of current healthcare so changed, as to be irremovable. Welcome to Falling Skies, the ObamaCare version. Falling Skies next season is next Summer, just in time for the 2012 election season. Will we survive the aliens? Will we survive ObamaCare? Can we reverse the alien harnesses? Will the blogosphere get ahead of instead of behind the ObamaCare issues? Stay tuned.

Americans Say Federal Gov’t Wastes Over Half of Every Dollar

FBI Bows To CAIR’s Demands, Apologizes For Saying “Devout” Muslims More Likely To Be “Violent”…

Why is the FBI caving into the demands of an organization that instructs the Muslim community to “build a wall of resistance: don’t talk to the FBI”?

Judge questions honesty of Interior Department scientists

Wanger was angered by testimony from the two scientists, Frederick V. Feyrer and Jennifer M. Norris, that he said was “false,” “contradictory” and “misleading.” He accused the Interior Department of “bad faith” in providing the two scientists as experts, and claimed their testimony was “an attempt to mislead and to deceive the court into accepting not only what is not the best science, it’s not science.” An Interior Department spokesman defended Norris and Feyrer, telling the New York Times that “we stand behind the consistent and thorough findings by our scientists on these matters and their dedicated use of the best available science.”

Wanger and the Interior Department scientists cannot both be right. The judge’s assessment of their testimony and his conclusion about the agency’s conduct in the case raise profoundly serious questions about the integrity and honesty of all the federal officials involved in the delta smelt case. And if the judge is correct in that case, taxpayers should be wondering whether other government scientists have given impeachable testimony on behalf of questionable federal environmental policies.

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who represents a large portion of the Central Valley, is right to call for a congressional investigation “into the actions of Secretary Salazar and others at Interior in relation to California water policy. The recent U.S. District Court ruling, citing illegal actions and abuse of power on the part of Interior, must be addressed.”

Labor Secretary Demonstrates the Absurdity of the Administration’s All-or-Nothing ‘Green Job’ Philosophy

In the Hilda Solis fantasy-land hypothetical, people only ride the bus because it’s “green,” but it might come as a complete shock to her to learn that in the real world people actually ride the bus to get from point A to point B.

Solis just admitted that these “green jobs” are make-work, economically unsustainable BS — super-expensive buses to nowhere, ridden by noone, with unions getting the money and taxpayers taken for a ride.

‘Stingray’ Phone Tracker Fuels Constitutional Clash

Stingrays are one of several new technologies used by law enforcement to track people’s locations, often without a search warrant. These techniques are driving a constitutional debate about whether the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, but which was written before the digital age, is keeping pace with the times.

Abolish the Department of Homeland Security

You’d think that after Sept. 11 we would have focused our spending on securing the obvious terrorism targets, and in some cases we have. Too often, however, we’re not doing that – like when we buy a hazardous-materials trailer for a county in rural Ohio, a piece of equipment that later gets sold because it sits unused in a parking lot and costs too much to maintain. Or when we buy an 80-camera surveillance system to monitor an Alaskan town too small for a streetlight. Or when we satiate officials’ desire for NASA-style command centers and buy 55 flat-screen televisions for a local intelligence center only to find out that the TVs are all tuned to the same news channel.

House Members to Honor Crook Charlie Rangel With Unveiling of Official $64,000 Portrait Today

In December, the House voted overwhelmingly, 333-79, to censure Rangel over rules violations that stemmed from unpaid taxes on a villa he owned in the Dominican Republic, undisclosed financial assets and the improper use of his office for fundraising.

The portrait itself was the subject of controversy. Just nine months into his term as chairman, Rangel asked the Federal Election Commission for permission to use campaign funds to pay for the portrait, which his lawyer said would cost more than $64,000.

When pressed about the pricey picture, Rangel joked to reporters at the time that he would have preferred a mural.

Video Flashback: Charlie Rangel honored in PJTV Salutes Mr. Tax-Law-Writing-Tax-Evader

The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree: Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s parents involved in all kinds of skullduggery

Last July, Rubin’s wife resigned her post on the commission shortly before she was charged with seven counts of unlawful compensation.
According to investigators, Wasserman-Rubin voted at least 15 times to support of fund grants prepared by her husband on behalf of the Town of Southwest Ranches. In addition to his normal compensation, Rubin reportedly received three $15,000 bonuses for his work on successful grants that were supported by his wife.
Under Florida law, elected officials are not allowed to vote on matters that could benefit them or their spouse.

On September 1st, Rubin began his federal prison term.

Perhaps these articles help explain some of the lawless, unconstitutional and unethical behavior of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. She seems to hold the citizens of America in contempt and is willing to lie over and over again to retain her white-knuckled grip on power.

Video of Grassley: Heads Should Roll Over $16 Muffins

You may or may not have noticed that the ruling class throws around our money like wedding attendees throw rice. Case in point: Injustice Department Flings Our Money to the Four Winds

They’ve spared no expense

…the leftist ideologues running the rogue Justice Department — who help drug cartels smuggle weapons and will not investigate civil rights abuses if the victims are Caucasians — pay $16 apiece for muffins to munch on while they sit around conference tables bloviating uselessly.

[An Inspector General audit released Tuesday] found that DOJ employees attended or participated in 1,832 conferences with a total cost of $121 million in fiscal years 2008 and 2009. The Inspector General analyzed 10 specific conferences which cost $4.4 million.
The report revealed, “one conference served $16 muffins while another served Beef Wellington hors d’oeuvres that cost $7.32 per serving. Coffee and tea at the events cost between $0.62 and $1.03 an ounce. At the $1.03 per-ounce price, an 8-ounce cup of coffee would have cost $8.24.”

…This from the same government that has been leaning on restaurants to serve us less tasty food for the sake of our body mass indexes.

Dead federal retirees are paid $120 million annually, report says

Improper payments to dead retirees increased 70 percent in the past five years, far higher than the 19 percent climb in overall annuity payments, the report said.

The payments are on the rise because OPM is doing a poor job of tracking potential cheats, McFarland said. In one case, a deceased annuitant’s son continued receiving federal benefits until 2008 — 37 years after his father’s death. OPM learned about the improper payments — which exceeded $515,000 — only after the son died. The agency never recovered the money.

Obamascandal #1-Gunwalker/Fast & Furious/Castaway/Grenadewalker: The Scandal with a Body Count…

U.S. has yet to explain Fast and Furious to Mexico

Mexico’s attorney general also said the U.S. has not apologized for the violence inflicted by guns smuggled into Mexico under the watch of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the secret program based out of the ATF’s field office in Arizona. Morales characterized the operation’s main tactic, letting guns “walk” into Mexico, if, she said, that is what actually happened, as a potential “betrayal.”

On a conference call with reporters earlier this week, Rep. Darrell Issa expressed concern that the damage F&F has caused to U.S.-Mexico relations will be all but irreparable. It looks like his concern is well placed. Issa said it’s especially frustrating to be unable to share information with the Mexican government because the Department of Justice will not share the information with Congress in the first place.

The stonewalling has to stop — but it appears the Department of Justice would rather abolish the ATF than answer questions. Not that the evaporation of a government agency in general seems all that problematic to me — but it’s imperative that Issa and Grassley arrive at answers before everyone who knew anything — and who can confirm Eric Holder knew about the program, too — is out of office.

New Fast & Furious audio: Border Patrol agent killed by F&F weapons was “collateral damage”

It’s not an ATF agent who utters those magical words, it’s the Arizona gun dealer who was working with the ATF on Fast & Furious. He utters them to an ATF agent, though, to which she replies with a cryptic “mm-hmm.” Callousness — or strategy?

A Point Without Partisanship — A Scandal Everyone Should Be Concerned About

Now forget all the partisan points for a minute. We have more than 200 deaths attributed to this operation and an ATF agent on tape saying she thought the ATF needed to dig up dirt on a U.S. Senator to stop him from investigating the ATF. At some point we all, left, right, and center, need to recognize when the inmates have taken over the asylum.

This is the federal bureaucracy out of control and it needs a brighter spotlight on it.

Obamascandal #2-Solyndra: “Pay to Play” is “The Chicago Way”

A reader emails Glenn Reynolds:

The question I have not heard asked is, How many Solyndras are there?

How many have already failed? Or on the brink of failure? How many are still being planned?

When I first discovered I can Google my screen name and see posts I wrote from a few years ago, I had two choices: 1, abandon posting my thoughts and therefore my screen name, or 2, post so many thousands of posts no one would bother checking what I have said. I chose the 2nd route, although I have no idea if my strategy has worked.

But when you are talking TRILLIONS of dollars, I would think an overwhelming number of Solyndras would do the trick, as even the most ardent of watchdogs do not have the budget to seek out every Solyndra possible. It will take hundreds of volunteers hundreds of hours, even if they know what they are looking for. How many Social Security checks would these Solyndras pay for? How many Humvees could be armored? It is just disgusting in every way thinkable.

We seniors used to think Congress, specifically the House, controlled the purse. Now it seems as though anyone can start the presses and print up a zillion dollars. It has made our nation fling toward the poor house. My wife and I gave up our home and 4 acres. I weep for my country. I say the pledge with tears in my eyes. Time is standing still due to the thought that they still have time, 7 days a week to ‘good ole boy’ spending into oblivion. Republicans cannot unite even on this one issue, maybe because they too, know it is almost too late to grind out a solution.

President Solyndra and His Mean Green Wealth-Wasting Machine.

The Solyndra bankruptcy, alas, is not an outlier but a harbinger. This is the kind of economic calamity we will see more of unless the Obama administration sheds its ideological blinders​—​or until it leaves office. Meanwhile, capital will continue to be misallocated through perverse incentives and outright political favoritism, and large amounts of patiently acquired wealth will be wiped out.

New York Times Headline Blames U.S. for Missing Solyndra Warning Signs

The latest New York Times story about Solyndra is fairly open and honest regarding the Obama administration’s complicity in the $500 million boondoggle, but the Times’ headline writer is still in “protect Obama” mode:

The “U.S.” missed warning signs? The Bush administration ultimately voted against giving Solyndra a taxpayer-backed loan. To me it sounded like a sham from the start (as does just about anything into which this administration sinks its teeth and our money). The rest of America wasn’t consulted on whether the loan was a good idea or not — so it’s not really fair to say the entire country missed the warning signs. I guess this particular headline writer’s credo is “if you can’t blame Bush, blame the whole country.”

That said, there is a twinge of accuracy in that headline. Much of the U.S. is to blame for this mess: the part of America that voted to put Obama in the White House.

The Obama Administration’s Crony Capitalism Problem

Between Solyndra and now Lightsquared, it seems that a pattern is emerging in the Obama White House. In the 2000s, the left made a lot of political hay for Republicans over unsubstantiated allegations of a close relationship between Halliburton and the Bush White House. If we don’t make these much more serious cases a problem for President Obama’s reelection campaign, it’ll be a big mistake.

Government Loans to Nowhere

Well, another House hearing on Solyndra came and went this morning. In another Great Moment Of Transparency in the Age of Obama, the Solyndra execs took the Fifth as promised. The Democrats’ erstwhile chief inquisitor and witch hunter of Capitol Hill, Henry Waxman, demonstrated his trademark chutzpah by complaining that the GOP was “badgering witnesses” by having them invoke the 5th.

Subpoenas for Solyndra execs, say… Democrats?

Maybe it’s just me, but it certainly looks like there’s a whole lot of butt covering going on in Washington these days. Some of these folks appear to be positioning themselves to be on the right side of history before a bunch of questions begin coming up which include phrases like, “what did he know and when did he know it?”

It’s one thing to be unaware that all of this was going on, but as the old rule in politics teaches us, it’s always the coverup that gets you more than the actual deed. With Solyndra executives doing their best mobster imitation and taking the 5th, (perfectly legal, of course) they’re leaving the worst possible impression of the White House in the eyes of the public. If any of the President’s allies do anything at this point to give the impression that they’re hindering an investigation or facilitating a coverup, they could well find themselves having to fall on their swords later on. (Assuming that this turns out to be anywhere near as bad as it’s looking so far.)

Axelrod Denies Knowing Obama: ‘I Don’t Know Anybody Associated With Solyndra’

The best and brightest are suffering from some major memory loss.

Solyndra employees speak out about mismanagement and sloppy spending

“After we got the loan guarantee, they were just spending money left and right,” said former Solyndra engineer Lindsey Eastburn. “Because we were doing well, nobody cared. Because of that infusion of money, it made people sloppy.” …

With the loan guarantee in hand, Solyndra built a second, seven-acre factory with 19 loading docks. … Workers told The Post in interviews that they were shocked that summer when [Brian] Harrison, newly installed as CEO, told them that sales projections used to justify the new factory to federal agencies had been far too optimistic.

“Obviously their forecasts weren’t correct,” said Peter M. Kohlstadt, a research engineer. “We just didn’t have the sales we thought we had.” …

Kohlstadt said Solyndra’s collapse leaves him doubly affected.

“I’m being hit twice: As a taxpayer, $500 million, where did it go?” he said. “I’m hit a second time: I’m not getting money that is owed to me and the government hasn’t done anything to look out for us.”

Kohlstadt’s quote is right on the money and worth remembering. This scandal matters because we, the taxpayers, are on the hook for the loan.

And it’s looking more and more like Solyndra executives didn’t just suffer from bad business sense. It appears they deliberately misled the administration about the state of the company’s finances as recently as July of this year.

From Enron to Solyndra

Here’s the salient point: like Solyndra, Enron was a favorite of environmentalists, and Enron was a huge backer of the Kyoto Protocol.  A decade ago, people liked to talk about links between Enron’s chairman, Ken Lay, and President George W. Bush.  But they leave out that the main thing Lay was urging on Bush was the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.  Enron probably would have fared much better under a Gore administration.  Enron thought they’d make money on the trading operations from a cap and trade scheme.  After Enron’s collapse, an internal memo from the late 1990s came to light that said Kyoto would “do more to promote Enron’s business than almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring the energy and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States,” and concluded that Kyoto would be “good for Enron stock.”

Obamascandal #3-LightSquared: “Pay to Play” is “The Chicago Way” part deux

Color me not surprised by this news. Soros owns Obama and the Democratic Party… Soros turns up in Obama’s LightSquared imbroglio

As Republican lawmakers begin to dig into the White House’s cozy relationship with a startup wireless company and the wealthy Democratic donor who owns it, a new character has appeared on the story’s edges: liberal superdonor, conservative bete noire and controversial investor George Soros.

Soros reportedly invested in the telecom company LightSquared through a hedge fund, and many of the nonprofits he finances have backed LightSquared in regulatory and policy disputes.

LightSquared: Obama’s Dangerous Broadband Boondoggle

Obama in the Bunker:

The Shuttered White House and Its Fantasies

I know exactly what is going on inside the Obama White House; the outside world has been banned and only the true believers are welcome.

This has very little to do with the many unique features of this administration. It is typical of any administration under siege, and it is as understandable and inevitable as it is unfortunate and even dangerous.  I know it well, having seen it with my own eyes during the Iran-Contra siege of the Reagan White House 25 years ago, when the president’s men and women concentrated all their energies and all their passions on “saving” the president from what many of them believed was the return of Watergate. I don’t know if the Obama faithful have an historical template for the current crisis, but their behavior, like Obama’s, is altogether familiar. The White House is hermetically sealed to reality and the president simply repeats his mantras and tries to look unconcerned, even confident and feisty.

That there is little room for reality at the highest levels of the administration is all too obvious. The president’s public statements are repeatedly off key, responding to imaginary events rather than real ones, and sometimes totally dissonant, as when he gave a speech about jobs at a company that was closing down, or in his increasingly odd and incoherent efforts in foreign policy.

Obama’s Insidious Approach to America

I once thought Barack Obama was just unqualified and ill-suited by experience and viewpoint from holding the highest office in the land,  simply yet another in a long line of democrat party cardboard cutouts who have repeated the same Socialist boilerplate for fifty years, only in a better suit and with better speech writers. The stuff about turning back the rising tides, and bringing peace, brotherhood, and a chicken in every pot was just the sort of thing you’d expect a liberal politician to say. His mantra of Hope and Change was simply a recycling of every political bromide ever uttered since the days of Julius Caesar. Barack Obama, I thought, was always a creation of the Media; just someone with an interesting biography (that someone else wrote for him), or who gave a good speech (written by someone else) who would either grow into the job, by being constrained by cooler heads in Congress or the realities of the Constitutional System.

I was wrong.

Barack Obama, a recipient of Affirmative Action, educated in the Elite schools, politically-connected, who made his previous livings either sucking off the teat of the taxpayer or being paid to do work of no real economic value or benefit to others (Harvard Law Review), and paid for by the fruits of Capitalism, is doing irreparable harm to America. Obama is not a Socialist as we would generally understand the term. It’s much more insidious than that.
There is no other way to explain Obama and his policies other than to conclude that it’s all been deliberate, and that the deliberation has some ultimate purpose that goes beyond the shallow argument of Capitalism vs. Socialism.

The Most Awkward Embrace Since Al and Tipper Gore…

Note the distance between their bodies, the side kiss, the near grimace of Michelle Obama, how stiff the shoulders and arms of the president appear. (Steve Urkel anyone?) Trouble in paradise?  Certainly there have been whispers and the occasional speculative news reports of such.  No photo yet though has so clearly captured the seeming truth of such speculation.  It is the kind of kiss most often seen given unwillingly by suffering children to the odd and strange smelling older family member during the holidays.

It would appear the economy is not the only thing failing President Obama these days…

Barack Obama’s desperate Hail Mary

Meanwhile, sit back, grab some popcorn and watch Mr. Obama debate Mr. Obama over tax increases during economic downturns. Here he is in a 2009 interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd: “The last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of a recession because that would just suck up, take more demand out of the economy and put businesses in a further hole.”

The Republican campaign commercials just write themselves. Mr. Carville says the president should begin firing people, starting with whoever thought this tax-increase Hail Mary was a good idea. It doesn’t even pass the laugh test. They had to know this video of the president exists.

And so the presidential collapse continues unabated. I take no delight in this fact, recognizing it only as the least worst of possibilities, but this administration has become an affront to our liberty rather than a guarantor of it. As such, this president’s problems are of his own making, and history will not judge him kindly.

Bayes and Nice People

Given the paucity of investigative information on Obama, given his near absolute lack of a substantial track record, it was natural for Peretz, Brooks, and Noonan to be taken for a ride. Not because they were dumb, but because they were “quality” people.

Now the quality people can see certain kinds of truth, because they are familiar with the sort of data that now alarms them.  Now that they can observe the betrayal of Israel, the lunacy of Obamanomics, and the erratic management, the full magnitude of their error becomes apparent. But they didn’t see it at the outset; lurking on the edge of his expression as he campaigned, nor in the little niggling inconsistencies the media was determined to ignore. Now the problems are as big as life: upheaval in the Middle East, the bankruptcy of the country, the scandals of the administration. Now they can use the Bayesian.  Perhaps a little late, but better than never. “Welcome back to the fight, Rick. This time we win.”

But there’s one last thing that nice people don’t know. It is that hucksters aren’t confined by the same boundaries they assume everyone else is contained by. They are capable not only of sucker-punching you, but of exceeding limits you never thought could be transgressed.  Grifters are in some sense not part of the same civilization that Peretz, Brooks, and Noonan inhabit. Maybe they don’t believe this yet.  But they will. They will.

Obama drops $5 dinner raffle to $3 – again

Those of you who paid the $5. Well, you’ve been played. Again. Slurpee not included this time.

2012: The Fork in the Road…

Palin: “Mark My Word, It Is Going To Be An Unconventional Election”

New Tone… Maxine Waters Wants Obama to Drop the “Nice Guy(?)” and FIGHT the GOP, Tea Party

Poll: Obama’s Approval Rating Hits All-Time Low, 36%…

Crash and burn.

Democratic pollster: Panic

I am no pollster and I did not sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but it seems to me that if your man just fell 15 points in job approval in just 6 months, your prospects are dim and getting dimmer. But that is just me. And we are more than a year away. Maybe Obama pulls it off. Maybe Democrats pull off a 1972 and win a few of those seats back.

Oh did I mention that Republican state legislatures redistricted many of those 60 House districts?

Well, good luck, Democrats.

Blacks ‘Strong Support’ Of Obama Down 25%

By the way, remember how Reagan was called a racist who hated black people because black unemployment was so high at the start of his term?

Obama, who will speak before the caucus’s formal dinner this week, has been pushing the passage of his jobs acts and turning a focus to his black supporters. Last week he told a group of black bloggers and advocates that his plan would create jobs in the black community and asked them to “pump up” his plan…

Gillespie said the additional focus on African Americans by Obama and his reelection campaign is necessary. The sag in “strongly favorable” ratings is an important measure of intensity as the 2012 campaign approaches.

“The president cannot rest on his laurels with respect to black voter representation. Given the fact that people don’t necessarily strongly approve of President Obama, that could translate to less enthusiasm for his candidacy,” she said. “That doesn’t mean they will vote for the Republican candidate. It means they will not turn out.”

And what’s worse, they might not even riot if Obama doesn’t get his way.

Of course, there are always the unions.

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Democratic Party “Natural Home For Jewish Voters”

What exactly is ‘natural’ about Jews voting Democrat? Is Schultz stereotyping here?

Obama Craters in Florida

It’s time to ratchet up the class warfare and scare the daylights out of granny.

Good News: Obama Lets Biden Loose on Campaign Trail

Have the presidential election rules been changed to “party with the most foot-in-mouth incidents by November 6, 2012 wins”?

Bill Clinton Backs Obama 2009… Breaks With Obama 2011

Solving the Democrats’ Obama Problem

The worst-kept secret in Washington, D.C. is that Democrats are desperate to find a way to ease Barack Obama out of running for reelection, so Hillary Clinton can receive the nomination so carelessly denied her in 2008.  But how do you convince a failed narcissist to get out of the way so the grown-ups can take back the party?  And how do you keep the most loyal and important voting bloc, blacks, within the tent, while shoving aside the first black president?

On Friday, September 16, Rush Limbaugh said that if the Democratic establishment want to get rid of Obama, they must appeal to his ego and convince him to go on his own.  Rush has read Obama’s ego perfectly, and here is roughly how it could be handled.

Hillary Clinton, loyal Democrat that she is, has remained totally silent in public over her boss’s floundering.  But behind the scenes, she is or soon will be scrambling from one nation’s capital to another, whispering in the ears of world leaders.  Late in the winter, her hard work pays off handsomely.

LOLOLOLOLOLOL! She must think we are as stupid as the people who still support Obama! What is Obama doing in the UN right now? He is doing a total ‘180’ on giving Palestine a state because of what happened in NY-9…  Obama’s UN Ambassador Fires Back at Perry & Romney: Don’t Play Politics With Diplomacy

GOP leadership faces possible tea party revolt in 2012

President Snooki BaddaBing… Newsmax: Christie’s thinking of getting in

Senior aides to Christie have been quietly urging his supporters not to commit to Perry, indicating Christie was still mulling a bid and would make a final decision after New Jersey’s legislative races are completed in November.

That last bit suggests either that the story’s wrong or that Christie’s a doofus since the deadline to get on the ballot in Florida is October 31. Anyway: Explain to me again why he’d supposedly be such a gangbusters candidate in the primary. He is, to be sure, a supremely gifted messenger on entitlements and public-employee unions, and he’s already accomplished something significant vis-a-vis the latter. Beyond that, what’s the argument for his candidacy? He’s been governor for just two and a half years, he believes in global warming, he’s questionable on guns, he seems to support comprehensive immigration reform, he backed Castle over O’Donnell (RINO!), etc. That’s not to say he can’t win — if we were willing to nominate McCain, we could nominate Christie — but I’m not sure why anyone thinks he’d necessarily settle far north of, say, 25 percent. He’d be dynamite at the debates, but the debates don’t matter much except to hardcore political junkies like you and me. Why risk running now and flaming out instead of staying put as governor, building a record, and then steamrolling into the 2016 primaries when he wouldn’t have to face a Democratic incumbent in the general?

The Great American Idol Presidential Google Contest!

They had the debates: Romney won: They have a audience to give their opinion: Romney won…and then Romney comes on right away to talk to Fox’s Sean Hannity.

Gee…let’s not do him any big favors.

But the more important revelation is that— The America Idol Presidential Candidate Google Contest has finally come into its rightful place in American elections. Yes America– YOU will pick out the winner with YOUR votes! And WE will know just how to make who WE want to win, say just the right thing to get it!

Fox and Google…working together to bring you the new  ”democracy”  of online voting. The citizens sent in their video questions and they said that YOU picked the questions. (LOL)  Why..you could even give your thoughts online while you were watching

Lucky you citizen! You really do have a voice, comrade!

Debate Analysis: Winners And Losers Of The Fox/Google Debate

Florida Debate: The Score

In my opinion, the clear winners on Thursday were former Speaker Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain. Both were interesting, both came armed with great ideas and great one-liners. Cain’s 9-9-9 refrain got a little tired, but part of effective communication is making your ideas stick and his mantra did that. I’ll probably dream in nines tonight.

The headline coming out of the debate may well be Gov. Perry and immigration. It’s a complex issue that he has had to wrestle with as a border state governor, with no help from the federal government and often running against the grain of the party base here and there. Dick Morris tweeted that Perry won’t survive the immigration onslaught he experienced tonight. I don’t agree with that, but I won’t deny that he’ll have some ground to make up.

The Rick Perry of lore needs to show up real soon

I wanted to like Rick Perry and hoped he would be the conservative we had been hoping for.  But I didn’t jump on the Perry bandwagon unlike some other conservative bloggers in part because the field was not complete and in part because I didn’t know enough about him.

I brought Katie Thompson on for guest posts over the summer to make the case for Perry and she did a good job.  (Note: Katie now is a leader of Students for Perry)

I have been waiting for the Rick Perry of Katie’s posts to show up at the debates.  I’m still waiting.  The Rick Perry of lore needs to show up real soon.

How Bad Was Perry Last Night? So Bad Even Leading Tea Party Group FreedomWorks Is Saying Romney Might Not Be So Bad After All…

There’s no question about it, Perry was an absolute train wreck last night. FreedomWorks was actually protesting against Romney less than a month ago and now even they’re having serious doubts about the rest of the field.

The Truth About the Booing at the Debate

I was at the debate, in the audience on the right hand side about halfway back (here’s my tweet of the video screen that was right in front of us). The person who booed was just a few rows in front of us. The booing got an immediate and angry reaction from nearly everyone sitting around him, who hissed and shushed at him. Lots of loud gasps, “Shhhh!” “No!” “Shut up, you idiot!” etc.

No more debates

What Mitt Romney and Rick Perry need to do is tell MSNBC, CNN and Fox News that it is over. No more games. No more audiences applauding death or booing gay soldiers. Mitt Romney and Rick Perry have given them their time, now they and the networks should move on.

A new format of four candidates is needed. The moderator asks a question and the candidates, in turn, answer them. Then they rotate for the next question, with the guy who answered first answering last and everyone else moving up.

These debates are a farce and a detriment to the electoral process. All they do is open Republicans to mocking by a liberal-biased media. To hell with the debates because they do not serve Republicans at all.

Perry: “I Don’t Think You Have a Heart” If You Oppose In-State Tuition for Children of Illegal Immigrants

“If you say that we should not educate children who come into our state for no other reason than that they’ve been brought their through no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart,” Perry said. “We need to be educating these children because they will become a drag on our society. I think that’s what Texans wanted to do. Out of 181 members of the Texas legislature when this issue came up [there were] only four dissenting votes. This was a state issue. Texas voted on it. And I still support it today.”

Romney: If you oppose illegal immigration, it means you have a heart and a brain

Perry’s best defense of his in-state-tuition-for-illegals law is to remind voters that it was a state-level decision, implemented in a state that has to tackle the practical fallout from illegal immigration in a way a state like Massachusetts simply doesn’t. (As a reminder, Texas has ten times the number of illegals as Massachusetts.) Texas DREAM primarily affected the state budget of Texas and Texas taxpayers — and, presumably, Texan voters supported it at least indirectly by electing a state legislature that passed it. Offering in-state tuition doesn’t explicitly erode the rule of law as, say, amnesty for illegals would. If a state wanted to offer in-state tuition to international students, it could. If  a state wanted to offer a flat tuition rate to all students,  it could. Yes, as Rick Santorum pointed out last night, in-state tuition does nothing to discourage illegal immigration — but that’s not what such a law is designed to do in the first place. It’s designed to incentivize college enrollment (and, presumably, graduation). Whether that’s advisable is certainly debatable, but Perry’s support for Texas DREAM need not cost him the support of those who are strongly opposed to amnesty for illegal immigrants or who strongly support — as Perry puts it — “more boots on the ground” to secure our borders. In other words, Perry should reassure voters he’s not squishy on border security nor does he favor amnesty for illegals — and deflect attention from the Texas DREAM Act as much as possible, not call attention to it with self-righteous pronouncements.

Perry’s Brainless Invocation of Heartlessness

Romney Praises Obama’s “Race to the Top” on Wednesday – Denies It On Thursday (Video)

On Wednesday former Governor Mitt Romney praised Barack Obama’s “Race to the Top” program at a campaign stop.

The Politico reported:

At the event, Romney also praised Obama’s education secretary for the Race to the Top program that rewards state education systems for reaching specific goals. “I think Secretary Duncan has done some good things,” he said. “I hope that’s not heresy in this room.”

Ouch!… Rick Perry Blasts Romney on His Disappearing Quotes (Video)

Ugh. Romney Says Perry Is Unelectable – He’s Not Moderate Enough

The Perry camp shot back after Romney released questions he said the Texas governor should answer on Social Security, including details of how a pension system run by states rather than the federal government might work.

“Mr. Romney is again sounding like a Democrat, distorting the truth and trying to scare senior citizens,” Perry communications director Ray Sullivan responded in a statement. “Rick Perry and other conservatives are courageous enough to be honest about federal spending and entitlements, whether Mr. Romney and the liberals like it or not.”

Romney’s Electability Card Is a Joker to Perry’s Four Aces

How on earth will Mitt Romney fare in such a contest? He was born with a silver spoon the size of a thriving auto company, spent his adolescence in a posh private school, spent two years in Paris on the tab of the Mormons, then romped off to Brigham Young and soon landed in the rose garden of Harvard. Since then, Romney has spent nearly all of his adult life flitting from one corporate board room to the next, buying up companies, laying off workers in one downsizing maneuver after another, growing very, very rich on what Obama will say was the suffering of far more downtrodden and worthy souls. And if faced off with Barack Obama, the son of a goat herder and a teenage mom, Mitt Romney will become the white, posh, country-club punching bag for all the new Obama-impoverished voters and their limousine-liberal enablers.

On the other hand, Rick Perry came from genuine hardscrabble roots. Perry wasn’t a bookworm; he became an Eagle Scout instead of the teacher’s pet. But Perry’s no slouch in the brains department. One does not get certified to fly big jets for the U.S. Air Force without some heavy-duty brain power. All in all, Perry seems to have opted for learning the things that apply to real life, while perhaps shunning those things preferred by the eggheads in academia.

It seems more than a little naïve for Governor Romney to see himself as the more easily electable candidate in a face-off with Barack Obama. Evidently, Mitt has hung around most of his life amongst the shallow-civility crowd and does not even see the class-warfare and anti-Mormon dirt that Obama will soon be hurling his way – if he is the nominee.

Cocktail Party Moderation Equals Death

Settling for an “electable” moderate got us Bob Dole.

Settling got us John McCain.

This year, moderation is the difference between careening off the cliff at 60 miles an hour versus 80 miles an hour.

A moderate will not keep us from going over the cliff.

A moderate–no matter how slick he is on TV, or how “electable” the LSM says he is, how perfect his hair is, or how “presidential” he looks–is fundamentally incapable of making the piss-everyone-off decisions that are necessary to save this country.

Would Romney Repeal ObamaCare?

Not if it took political capital to do so, says Philip Klein, which it would.

Some of Romney’s many policy reversals have been overlooked in this campaign as old news, so I’ll just provide a brief refresher. Romney ran for statewide office in the Massachusetts twice, in 1994 and 2002, as a pro-choice candidate, only to become publicly pro-life in 2005, just as he was gearing up to seek the GOP presidential nomination instead of seeking a second term as governor of the liberal state. During the 2008 campaign he attacked various opponents for being for gun control, amnesty and campaign finance reform. Yet at earlier points in his career, Romney supported the federal “assault weapons” ban (and signed a state ban as governor in 2004), called the McCain-Kennedy immigration reform “reasonable” and “quite different from amnesty” and supported campaign finance reform measures far more draconian than anything in McCain-Feingold. During this campaign, he’s spent the last few weeks attacking his opponent Texas Gov. Rick Perry for criticizing Social Security too harshly, because he says it’s politically damaging to do so.

Romney, in short, has displayed zero political courage during his career. He has held opposite positions on nearly every issue, with one obvious exception. He still hasn’t disavowed the health care law he designed, campaigned for, and signed with a smiling Ted Kennedy at his side. And it happens to be the forerunner to Obamacare. There’s no reason to believe as cautious and calculating of a figure as Mitt Romney would stake the crucial first months of his presidency getting into a bruising political battle to repeal a law, when he still clings to its underlying policy ideas.

Klein forgets that Romney also refused to either support, or clearly oppose, the Surge in Iraq. A dicey, dangerous proposition at the time… so Romney punted, again.

Gov. Rick Perry Drops the Romneycare Bomb on Hannity (Video)

“You’re going to have a hard time finding a difference between Romneycare and Obamacare.”

Steve Forbes: Rick Perry Will Win the White House

The ‘Palinization’ of Perry. This is not surprising because Perry, like Palin, scares the the Democrats, their leftist allies, and the Yankee/Inside the Beltway ‘Cocktail Party’ wing of the Republican Party (which includes Fox News, BTW). Why? Because they know if either of them wins it means the destruction of their ‘world’… Larry Flynt offers $1 million for proof Rick Perry had an ‘illicit sexual liaison’

Detroit Free Press blasts GOP Prez field for not being able to save people, ignore Obama’s real record of economic destruction

Want to know what the Detroit Free Press thought of the GOP field in the debate last night? It can be summed up in one picture that the freep ran in their editorial by Stephen Henderson: Will any candidate rescue the millennials?

Which reminds me of this great Perry line (via Instapundit): “I am actually for gun control: Use both hands.” But I digress. The entire editorial is chock full of the liberal worldview. What will the government to for this person, what will the government do for that person, blah, blah, blah. And every now an then a potshot at Perry. Did you know that Perry wants to poison your water table? Henderson insists that simply lowering taxes and reducing burdensome regulations won’t work because the problem is more “complicated.” How it’s more complicated Henderson never says, but he insists it is. Never mind that Reagan simply lowered taxes, and dramatically at that, and the economy proceeded to create 20 million jobs, and tax revenue to the government actually increased, not decreased.

The ‘New Civility’ (Cont’d): Bristol Palin fights back heckler called her mother “whore,” “devil”

More of that ‘new tone’ we were promised by Democrats in the aftermath of the Giffords shooting in January (an obvious strong language warning): Bristol Palin verbally attacked by heckler ‘YOUR MOTHER’S A WHORE’

You know Bristol Palin is one tough cookie and instead of just ignoring this scumbag who called her mom a whore, she engages him and tries to find out exactly what her mom did to so upset this human piece of trash. Turns out, he’s got nothing and she makes him look ridiculous. But that doesn’t stop him from saying the most horrible things to her face. And no matter how awesome I think she might have handled herself, in all honesty what this degenerate said at the end just really pissed me off.

Media Celebrates Horrible Thug Who Verbally Assaulted Bristol Palin (“Your Mother’s a Whore”) – Who Was Earlier Seen With Levi Johnston (Video)

Look for the Union Label/Whackademia/The Badger Rebellion:

 Wisconsin’s long, strange trip

Carpocalypse, Now At The UAW

A bloated management, run-away costs, declining market share, imploding volume, a sell-off of assets and investments, headquartered in Detroit – what is it? No, it’s none of the Detroit automakers. It is their former nemesis and current co-owner, the United Auto Workers.

“Two years after the wrenching restructuring of the U.S. auto industry and the bankruptcies that remade General Motors and Chrysler, the UAW is facing its own financial reckoning. America’s richest union has been living beyond its means and running down its savings, an analysis of its financial records shows. Unless King and other officials succeed with a turnaround plan still taking shape, the next financial crisis in Detroit may not be at one of the automakers but at the UAW itself.”

The Big Labor aroma in Tacoma

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you’re familiar with the “aroma in Tacoma” — that infamous odor caused by the pulp mills and cow manure.

Well, there’s a different kind of aroma overtaking the city. It’s the stench of Big Labor intransigence as the public teachers’ union defies a court order to end its school strike. They’re on day six of job abandonment. For the children!

Maryland Democrat Stole Money to Pay for Wedding Expenses

Well, I suppose the upside here is she wasn’t redistributing taxpayers money. She just helped herself to it.

Malaise in Michigan

Michigan’s unemployment rate, consistently higher than the national average, soared above 15 percent between 2009 and 2010. No state, not even Katrina-stricken Louisiana, had seen this kind of unemployment in 25 years.

Not all of this is Big Labor’s fault — but much of it is.

Grand Valley State University economist Hari Singh found that if Michigan had been a right-to-work state, the auto industry would have seen a 25 percent gain in jobs since 1965. Instead, it lost 56.6 percent just between 2002 and 2009, shrinking its work force by 165,777. In a functioning market, high unemployment would lead to lower wages. But in Michigan’s auto industry, Singh found, wages actually rose 18.1 percent during that time.

Unions congratulate themselves for protecting workers’ wages, but they have imposed a heavy price on everyone else. Not a single foreign automaker has ever taken advantage of Michigan’s legions of out-of-work but highly trained employees, preferring to train novices in right-to-work states.

‘When You Get to Name Calling That Just Shows That There is No Logic to Your Argument’

Of course nothing will happen to this sniveling little punk because teachers are special and can do whatever they want, apparently.

Kansas State University Slogan Forbidden by Thought Police

University officials asked the school’s band to remove a formation highlighting the slogan “Every Man a Wildcat” from its pregame routine on Saturday.

Those who dislike the slogan say the word “man” is not inclusive. They prefer “Every Person a Wildcat.”

Those fluent in the English language know that “man” in this context means all members of mankind — whoops I mean personkind. Nonetheless the forbidden slogan will no longer be used by the university in any official context.

It’s Unanimous: “The Irvine 11″ All Found Guilty

U.C. Irvine is a hotbed of Muslim extremism.

The United States Department of Education has investigated more than a dozen incidents of harassment at UC-Irvine in the last decade:

• Rocks thrown at Jewish students;
• The destruction of Holocaust memorial displays;
• Threats and harassment of Jewish students;
• Recurring swastikas painted on campus;
• Official events including “Zionist Awareness Week”, which promoted antisemitism;
• Exclusion of Jews during “anti-hate” rallies;
• Graduation apparel that offered support for Hamas and other terrorist groups;
• And five other “isolated acts” that could not be addressed because they were reported more than 180 days after they occurred.

In Other News…

Five Ways to Screw Up Your Life with the Internet

One of the odd things about the Internet is that so many people don’t seem to understand that it’s real. Sure, they realize that there’s a computer in front of them, a “series of tubes,” and then…it gets kind of foggy. It’s like they think there are magical pixies from the land of Lulz on the other end, as opposed to their family, friends, co-workers, and old boyfriends who are obsessively poring over their Facebook page.

Granted, they are aware that they do need to be careful about a few things: viruses, hackers, identity thieves, Nigerian princes who want to give them millions of dollars — all the standard stuff. But there are some lesser known dangers of the Internet that can steamroll your life like Paris Hilton stampeding towards a line of cocaine

Mugged by Mythology

Sometimes talking with liberals is perplexing. You never know what claim they will make next or what name they will call you. Take David Axelrod’s response to Standard & Poor’s recent credit action: He calls it the “Tea Party downgrade.” Amazingly, he blames the United States’ loss of its AAA bond rating on the one group that has sounded the alarm about our fiscal crisis. How did the president’s leading adviser come up with a label so detached from reality? 

Comforting as it would be to dismiss this as a one-off comment, Axelrod’s words spring from the mental universe of liberalism. It is a vast sphere of assumptions that are found nowhere else. In an effort to promote the civility of debate that is so much in demand these days, here is a compendium of the myths underlying some of the strange things liberals say.

Don’t Surrender Your Freedom

The enemies of freedom are not so stupid to try and take our freedom(s) in a big, bold action. It is more effective to cook the American voter like the slowly boiled frog. Unexamined sayings like “from the get-go” are a symptom of the slow creep of authoritarianism, socialism and Marxism into our daily American lives.

Emboldened by the 2008 (D) sweep led by the as-yet-unrevealed Obama (who is not a Muslim), the (D) party rammed Obamacare down America’s throat in the dead of night with very few witnesses on the floor of Congress, and then signed it into law in a tiny White House ceremony. That bold but covert move sparked the TEA Party and the voter revolt that led to a (D) rout in 2010.

The (D) Party learns from its mistakes, and won’t likely repeat their over-step that is Obamacare. Therefore, we are back to the chess game of pawn warfare, where major victories are set up by strategic deployment of pawns taking very little steps.

 Rep. Allen West: “We Need Black Fathers, Not Washington D.C.”

“It’s great that we have President Barack Hussein Obama as the first black, African-American President of the United States of America, but I didn’t have to look at someone beyond my own dad,” West said. “When you look at the black family structure right now, less than 33 percent have mother and father in the home. That’s what we have been talking about here. Once upon a time in the black community you didn’t have to look at people outside your home for role models. We’ve have got to get that re-established. So we don’t have to look up to Washington D.C. You can look at your dads.”

A Lurid Look Behind the Scenes of Jesse Jackson’s Grievance Empire

The grievance business has been good to Jesse Jackson, allowing the cheap thug to live the life of a degenerate zillionaire. But what goes around comes around. The same identity politics victimhood that put him on his throne has now saddled him with a lawsuit…

10 Things I’ve Learned About Work

Is Your Choice Of Food A Fundamental Right?

You grow a garden; you expect to be able to harvest the food from that garden and eat it. You raise a cow; you expect to be able to milk that cow and consume the milk. You raise chickens; you expect to gather eggs and eat them. It’s uncomplicated, simple, a fundamental right. Perhaps you wouldn’t feel this way if you lived under some other form of government, but here, now, in America and other democratized countries, this is what you expect.

According to Wisconsin Judge Patrick J. Fiedler, you do not have a fundamental right to consume the food you grow or own or raise. The Farm To Consumer Legal Defense Fund, the pioneers in defending food sovereignty and freedom, recently argued before Judge Fiedler that you and I have a constitutional right to consume the foods of our choice. Judge Fiedler saw no merit to the argument and ruled against the FTCLDF. When they asked him to clarify his statement, these were his words:

“no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to own and use a dairy cow or a dairy herd;”

“no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to consume the milk from their own cow;”

“no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice…”

(source)

Talk about hammering a point home.

Career Ruin: Homeschooling

So in the middle of realizing that school is really just a babysitting service, I became militant. I realized that public school is like Social Security. There is no money to do what we are pretending we are aiming to do. We should just grow up and admit that we cannot have effective public schools for everyone.  Just like we cannot have Social Security for everyone.

But parents in the middle class can have one parent working and one parent home with their kids.

I feel like I have no choice. Because while I was waiting for the kids to go back to school, I was reading. And, of course, now my homeschool site makes me a magnet for research about school. And the evidence is overwhelming that schools are not meeting the educational needs of children…

Reason #5752424597 to homeschool your kids… Georgia: Middle School Kids Taught Saudi Women Feel “Very Fortunate To Have Sharia”

Oh yeah, they have it great. Just because they can’t leave the house without a male “chaperon,” can’t drive, can’t work, can’t leave the country, can’t be in the same room with unrelated men and on and on doesn’t mean they have it bad.

It begins: Fort Worth, TX, Honor Student Suspended For Saying Homosexuality Is Wrong

Want to see true intolerance? View the left.

Chicago Union ‘Pensions’ Give $56M To 23

Apparently, here is who is responsible, and the trick they used to quietly slip in these provisions:

Here’s what is clear: In April 1990, then-Sen. Emil Jones presented a bill aimed at increasing pension benefits for city employees in the municipal pension fund.

Lest we forget, Emil Jones was Barack Obama’s mentor in the Illinois legislature. In fact, according to some, Emil Jones made Barack Obama.

Changes to Illinois law often begin with something known as a shell bill, which usually alters one word or date in a specific article and section of the code. Shell bills are a type of placeholder that allows lawmakers to make more substantive changes later in the session, often without scrutiny.

Many of the pension provisions inserted in 1991 had corresponding shell bills that previously altered one word or date of the same article, section and paragraph. Among them was a bill that made a minor change to the exact section and paragraph where the union perk would be codified.

That bill was filed by two men who were state senators at the time: Jeremiah Joyce, a close political ally of former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s, and John Daley, a brother of the former mayor’s and now a Cook County commissioner…

Two days after the pension changes passed the Legislature, the city’s unions lined up to endorse Mayor Daley in his first re-election campaign. He would go on to serve as mayor for the next 20 years with firm support from organized labor…

Of course, the Daley family helped Barack Obama and Michelle throughout their brief careers in Chicago. In fact, they are still helping the Obamas, as Richard’s brother, William Daley, is currently Mr. Obama’s chief of staff.

And of course Obama is still helping the unions in his fashion. It’s ‘the Chicago way.’

Money for Nothing: Phoenix taxpayers foot the bill for union work

The total cost to Phoenix taxpayers is about $3.7 million per year, based on payroll records supplied by the city. In all, more than 73,000 hours of annual release time for city workers to conduct union business at taxpayers’ expense are permitted in the agreements.

The top officials in all of the unions have regular jobs with the city. But buried in the labor agreements are a series of provisions for those employees to be released from their regular duties to perform union work.

For top officers, the typical amount of annual release time is 2,080 hours, a full year of work based on 52 weeks at 40 hours each. They continue to draw full pay and benefits, just as if they were showing up for their regular jobs. But they are released from their regular duties to conduct undefined union business.

Connecticut Governor Enacts Card Check Through Executive Order

Continuing a fiat governance style that is right out of the Obama playbook, Democratic and Working Families Party Governor Dannel Malloy issued two executive orders yesterday that will force daycare providers and home healthcare workers in Connecticut to join unions.

The orders, his ninth and tenth since taking office in January, will force the state’s 4,000 daycare providers to add over $1 million in dues to union coffers, and remove the right to secret ballot election for these workers by instituting a card check process.

Teens Charged, Officer Hospitalized After Brawl

‘Buffett Rule’ a bust in California

If President Obama really wants to see the “Buffett Rule” in action, he should look at California’s tax system. The state has been plagued by it for years.

The revenue stream is unstable and the state budget has been a deficit disaster.

Soaking the rich — relying heavily on them for income taxes — has resulted in a precarious revenue roller coaster ride. It’s either boom or bust in Sacramento, depending on how the wealthy are faring in the stock market and their other investments.

MSM Forgets to Obsess on Race

As readers should have assumed, she is black; otherwise they would have given her race. Funny how the only time the media isn’t obsessed with race is on the rare occasions it is truly relevant, as when describing criminal suspects.

Terrific!… New “Air Claire” Billboard Welcomes Passengers to St. Louis Airport

Complementing the billboard campaign is a statewide radio advertisement, which uses real audio of McCaskill responding to questions about the private jet issue. Both the spot and billboard are part of the American Crossroads www.TruthAboutClaire.com campaign, and can be viewed and listened to here.

“We’re going to make Air Claire famous because McCaskill’s private jet symbolizes everything that’s wrong with her candidacy: living large on the public’s dime, dodging taxes while voting to raise ours, and being out of touch with everyday Americans’ lives,” said American Crossroads president and CEO Steven Law.

McCaskill is widely considered one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats up for re-election in 2012.

Educrats Confiscate Old Glory From Autistic 12-Year-Old

Theresa Stevens, of Dover, says her 12-year-old son, Shawn, brought the small flag to school to show friends. He had received it as a gift from a family friend whose son is in Afghanistan. …

“I got the phone call at 8:30 [Wednesday] morning,” she said. “‘This flag needs to be immediately removed from school because it can be considered a weapon.’ I don’t understand how an American flag can be considered a weapon.”

Black Man Admits Sending Threatening KKK Letters to City Hall

Another fake hate crime.

A black man in Illinois sent this to the local police and city hall: “Get all the blacks from Chevy Chase Apartments from out of O’Fallon before we burn the hole(sp) complex down. KKK warning.”

Jerry Brown Surprised He Still has to Work with Republicans

Needing a photo ID to drive a car, buy a bottle of booze or a pack of cigarettes is not considered to be a hardship or racist but asking for photo ID to vote all of a sudden becomes a hardship that smacks of racism… Photo ID Laws: Welcome Back, Jim Crow?

What is preventing these “voters of color” from acquiring a photo ID card? In what way are they different from their “White counterparts”? These are the kind of questions every black American should be asking, not just a handful that includes me. Where is the righteous indignation at being portrayed as helpless children? The only people who should take issue with voter ID laws are those who intend to perpetrate a fraud. No responsible, law-abiding citizen should have any problem with such laws.

It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to figure out why liberals engage in such hyperbole and condescension. Ninety percent of black voters choose Democrats, and if portraying them as eternally oppressed victims of racism and bias gets them to the polls, so be it.

Only Non-Smokers Need Apply At Baylor

Yet Another Reason Not to Buy Levi’s

If you aren’t boycotting Levi’s yet, you probably haven’t seen their “Go Forth” ad campaign, which glorifies the sort of rioting vermin that recently caused such havoc in Britain.

 Handicapped Kids…Better Off Dead

Imagine for a second eight years down the road when Bryan, bound to a wheelchair but otherwise functioning and interacting as a typical pre-teen boy, gets into an argument with one of his friends.  Without thinking, his friend shouts out something like, “Yeah, well, at least my parents wanted me!”  Perplexed, Bryan does a little digging and question-asking, and he eventually finds out that his parents were so upset at the thought of having to deal with him as he was that they would have preferred to kill him.  How many of the left’s cherished “self-esteem” classes will Bryan have to sit through to overcome that devastation?

For its part, the Palm Beach Post editorialized against the lawsuit.  Andrew Marra wrote for the paper:

The problem with their lawsuit is its premise that their son is more flawed or somehow worse than a person with four fully formed limbs[.] … Certainly, Bryan will face challenges that few have to consider, and that is tragic. Whether these obstacles mean his life is not worth living should be up to him to decide, not to Ms. Mejia and a jury of her peers.

While Marra is barking up the right tree, he doesn’t take his condemnation of this case far enough.  After all, there is nothing logically different about what Mejia and Santana are saying from what the left has said for years about the whole right to choose abortion.  Why should we be surprised when two people say that their son’s physical disabilities make him unworthy to live?  For years we have been condoning the left’s lie that an inconvenient child can be killed legally — so why not a handicapped one?  Surely if the financial burden, emotional strain, or psychological stress caused by an unplanned pregnancy is enough to justify abortion, the kind of grief provoked by finding out your child will face physical challenges should be as well, right?

MSM Circus and Celebutard Side Show:

Explosive Email Shows Anti-Palin Author McGinniss, Random House Likely Published Literary Hoax (Updated)

In the email below, sent in January of 2011, McGinniss reveals that his manuscript, then under legal review at Crown/Random House, could not prove its most headline-grabbing allegations. And yet, many of these “salacious stories” that lacked “proof” (in McGinniss’s own words) ended up in the book, and on televisions everywhere during the author’s current media tour … without proper sourcing, and without any apparent new evidence to support them.

McGinniss’s panicked state is evidenced by the identity of the recipient to whom he sent his email of distress. Jesse Griffin was the author of an obscure, low-rent, and now-defunct anti-Palin blog that obsessed over Trig Palin’s maternity–claiming, without any evidence, that Sarah Palin was not Trig’s mother.

Was Random House aware that its prized author was making a desperate overtime bid to save face? And if so, why did it allow him to come forth with most of those tawdry accusations without proof or proper sourcing?

Cop-Killer Is Media’s Latest Baby Seal

With death penalty opponents so fixated on Davis’ race — he’s black — it ought to be noted that all the above witnesses are themselves African-American. The first man Davis shot in the car that night was African-American. 
I notice that the people so anxious to return this sociopathic cop-killer to the street don’t live in his neighborhood.
There’s a reason more than a dozen courts have looked at Davis’ case and refused to overturn his death sentence.

He is as innocent as every other executed man since at least 1950, which is to say, guilty as hell.

MSNBC Anchor: Republicans Think “Slavery Was Cool”…

No low is too low for MSNBC.

Who Checks the Fact-Checkers?

Every election season, a variety of newspapers and other entities set themselves up as arbiters of the accuracy of politicians’ statements. These “fact-checkers” nearly always turn out to be liberal apologists who don a false mantle of objectivity in order to advance the cause of the Democratic Party. Maybe there are exceptions, but I can’t think of one offhand.

Oh Brother… Liberal CNN Reporter: Obama Has Morphed From Clark Kent Into Superman

Washington (CNN) — What did you do over your summer vacation?

If you’re President Obama, you’ve had a bit of a transformation. That is, from the mild-mannered Clark Kent into, well, Superman.

Or something like that.

Death of the Cool

Cool depended on liberalism. In fact, it was an offshoot of it, suckling on the mother’s milk of Keynesian economics. As long as there was plenty of deficit spending to go around, we could all be cool. Life would be one long evening at Max’s Kansas City.

Of course, it’s not. In today’s pay-as-you-go world, being cool is a luxury few can afford. This accounts for the extreme discomfort we may be seeing in our media and, to a lesser extent — they still have more money — Hollywood. Our media, our journos, depend on being thought cool and, consequently and perhaps more importantly, thinking of themselves as cool. When they suspect they are not, they begin to behave like worker bees when the queen is killed. They tend to run around and act out. After a while, they seem lost. Their numbers dwindle.

This is just because cool depended on a hive mind in the first place. It was little more than fad. We are well rid of it.

Mead vs Sullivan: No Contest

Sullivan is long past the point where things that do not feed his paranoia and conspiracy-mongering leave much of an impression.  The former maverick is increasingly a one-trick pony.

Video: Actor Morgan Freeman Attacks Tea Party As Racist

Perhaps most ironically, Freeman himself has now been institutionalized within the liberal plantation

Morgan Freeman Admits Hollywood has Failed Its Progressive Mission

Is that what it shows, or does it show that people – not just those in the Tea Party – have lost faith in this President?

Obama’s poll numbers continue to sink. This includes amongst reliably Democratic supporters such as Jews and African-Americans?

Have Jews and African-Americans suddenly become black haters?

The reality is that more and more people – even some in the media, perish the thought – are coming to the conclusion that Barack Obama was totally unqualified for the job as president, and that his performance in the past 32 months proves it.

What folks like Freeman don’t get is that there’s nothing racist about such feelings, and to make such an accusation is, well, racist.

Of course. But just for the sake argument, let’s assume Freeman is right — that America is a racist cesspool. What role does his industry play in shaping that? 60 years of films such as Stanley Kramer’s The Defiant Ones and Guess Who’s Coming Dinner. 20 years of Freeman himself alternating playing either God or the President. All for naught. If Freeman is right, then Hollywood has failed in the role that his fellow progressives set out for it. And he has failed in his choices of film roles.

Blocked by Alec Baldwin; Plus: Laughing at liberal hate

I’m attaching the very best and brightest in liberal hate tweets at the end of this post for your enjoyment (language warning, as usual). Long-time readers of my blogs, columns, and books know that I’ve been exposing prog intolerance/racism/sexism/bigotry for 20 years now (see here, here, here, here for fun flashbacks). Twitter just makes it more accessible.

MSM and entertainment rag coverage of Baldwin’s Twitter meltdown and mob followers has downplayed and whitewashed just how crazy their “new tone” is. As Kurt Schlichter pointed out, Baldwin used the Troy Davis story to trash American military leaders and troops and outrageously taunted MacPhail’s family to call for the death penalty against the Bush administration. Baldwin jeered: “Wonder if the McPhail (sic) family will seek death penalty for US leaders who killed thousands of US soldiers and countless innocent Iraqis.””

This is the link to that last appalling tweet. As you can see from clicking, he apparently deleted it. (The Atlantic also made note of the tweet and linked to it, but the link is dead.)

LOLOLOL! I find this kind of crap funny because all these “I’m moving’” leftards who said that they would leave because of Bush never left but during the Obama regime more Americans have left the country and renounced their citizenship then at any other point in history… ‘I Might Have to Move to Canada’

This could be the best reason to hope Sarah Palin runs for and wins the presidential race. Anything to rid us of this little turd.

“She’s 9 points behind Barack Obama right now. She’s looking good and she’s not even in the race,” said Johnston, who clearly hadn’t seen yesterday’s numbers that had Sarah within 5 points of the prez. “It’s scaring me a bit. I might have to move to Canada. If she’s running, you better believe I’m voting for Obama.”

Global Warmening:

The “broken planet” fallacy

Eco-Bullsh*t Ad Absurdum: Ugandans Expelled from Their Land so Multinational Corporations Can Grow Carbon Credits

This is the sort of land grab that probably happens all over the world; kleptocratic rulers of mainly poor, but land-rich countries “cooperate” with corporations to make deals involving the land, then use their police or military forces to evict the landowners. Then the rulers take heft financial kickbacks from the corporations as payment for their assistance.

So, no big deal right? This is the kind of corrupt dealing that goes on all the time. True, but what makes this so disgusting to me is that the perpetrator of this particular land-grab deal is a company that claims what they’re doing is good for the environment.

Another Smoldering Stogie of Misinformation from the Lung Association

Of course, this whole ALA crusade is a good example of groups that need to change their mission as time moves on, and becoming an adjunct of the left is usually the easiest way.  The ALA was founded more than a century ago to fight tuberculosis.  When I was a kid growing up, the ALA was mostly about convincing us to quit cigarette smoking.  Now that that mission is nearly accomplished, they have to move on to something else.  Trouble is, air pollution is going to prove a fading issue, too, because in another two or three decades there isn’t going to be much left here in the U.S.

Climate Weenies Say A New Approach Needed To Make Others Reduce Their CO2 Output

The Warmists will also surely go bat guano when the rolling blackouts turn the heat off, leaving them shivering with an indoor temperature of 40 and unable to have their fancy schmancy cocktail parties where they complain about deniers.

The solution put forward by the Sierra Club is a move away from coal to ‘grasping the opportunity for expansion of renewable energy initiatives including solar and wind power’.

The report rejects the myth that the world needs coal and states, “Down one path lies a dangerous future of impoverished people and an imperiled planet. Down the other is a new way forward made possible by harnessing the limitless and cost effective power of the wind and the sun.”

So, it seems that the alarmists are going to focus on eliminating coal, which provides roughly 50% of the world’s power supply. Just to play my well worn cassette, none of them ever suggest that they themselves practice what they preach. They just want to make others pay for their unhinged and anti-science beliefs.

The Sock Drawer:

Happily feather after: The hairless baby penguin rejected by its parents who grew a new coat

Studies suggest two waves of ancient Asia settlement

The second study was published online by the American Journal of Human Genetics. David Reich of Harvard Medical School and colleagues studied DNA from 243 people representing 33 populations in south and southeastern Asia, Australia and islands in the region. They looked for genetic signatures of ancient sexual encounters with Denisovans, a poorly understood relative of modern humans known only from DNA recovered from a Siberian cave.

Traces of Denisovan ancestry had previously been found in present-day inhabitants of New Guinea, but the new work also found it in aboriginal populations in Australia and the Philippines, and people from Polynesia, Fiji and eastern Indonesia. But no such trace appeared in western Indonesia or among mainland East Asians or particular ethnic groups from Malaysia or the Andaman Islands.

This result suggests that Denisovans ranged into Southeast Asia and interbred with the ancestors of some of today’s populations at least 44,000 years ago, a date suggested by archaeological finds, Reich said. When researchers used their findings to estimate mixing between ancestors of the present-day populations at that time, they found no sign that ancestors of today’s mainland East Asian populations were present. So those ancestors must have shown up in a later migration, the researchers concluded.

Revealed in all its glittering glory: Elizabeth Taylor’s £100m collection of gems, gowns and art goes on display at Christie’s

Organized American Mayhem — 4,000 People and 750 Balls

How “Probiotic” Microbes Control Your Mind

The Ruins of Dead Social Networks

Take the exit at the pot of gold: End of the rainbow is discovered… in the middle lane of the M25

No wonder he looks confused: The mystery creature that nobody can identify

Why Even Resolute Dieters Often Fail

How To Survive A Gunshot Wound

Jumping Off a Building With Bubble Wrap

Elderly man dies of ‘spontaneous human combustion’ in his sitting room

Just landed, the perfect cure for (non claustrophobic) stranded air travellers… the Sleepbox

How To Fix a Car Paint Scratch

10 Star Trek Episodes We’re Glad They Never Filmed

The vanishing passengers: It’s a mystery as bizarre as it is disturbing – why have 165 people gone missing from cruise ships in recent years?

Cruise ship holidays are enormously popular. According to the Passenger Shipping Association, 1.7 million cruises will be taken in Britain this year (many will be repeat cruises by the same holidaymakers). But what is happening to all these passengers who simply vanish while at sea, never to be seen again?

Are they the victims of a sinister crime wave? Have they had a mishap at sea and fallen overboard, or perhaps chosen to take their own lives?

The sad fact is that, in many cases, no one knows. And for the family and friends they left behind, that only compounds the heartache.

“Pitting one group of Americans against another is not leadership. The Joint Select Committee is engaged in serious work to tackle a serious problem: the debt crisis that is making it harder to get our economy growing and create more American jobs.  Unfortunately, the President has not made a serious contribution to its work today.  This administration’s insistence on raising taxes on job creators and its reluctance to take the steps necessary to strengthen our entitlement programs are the reasons the president and I were not able to reach an agreement previously, and it is evident today that these barriers remain.” -House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Must Read of the Day:

• Joyanna Adams: Barack Hussein Obama VS William Tecumseh Sherman

General Sherman was a man who fundamentally changed America forever. He was the Union’s most vicious officer, and whatever you may think of slavery, Sherman was not out to free the slaves. It was the Southern people he was out to destroy. In a letter he wrote to his wife he said:

“At least 100,000 men in the South must die or be banished before we can think of peace. I know them like a book. They can’t help it any more than the Indians can their wild nature.”

Sherman had little resistance as he marched his path of destruction to the sea…he literally burned his way through the South, destroying cities, railroads, and all the crops. It was Sherman who completely destroyed half the country, leaving thousands homeless, thousands hungry, and hundreds of thousands dead.  Yes, Sherman destroyed a whole civilization with an army. Obama is destroying America with his ruthless attacks on the very foundations that made it great.

• Mark Steyn: ‘Pass This Jobs Bill!’

Just to put it in perspective, the breezy $447 billion price tag for the Pass My Jobs Bill jobs bill is about 20 times higher than the most recent Greek government deficit currently threatening the stability of the entire eurozone. Indeed Greece’s projected 2011 deficit — $24 billion at last count — is little more than half of just one of Obama’s boutique, niche “green jobs” programs. As Churchill almost said, never in the field of human con tricks has so much been owed by so many to so little effect.

Fortunately, there is no “American Jobs Act.” Indeed, the other day, tired of waiting for Obama to turn his telepromptered pseudo-bill into a typewritten actual bill, the Texas congressman Louie Gohmert waggishly introduced an “American Jobs Act” all of his own. But back on the campaign trail the chanting goes on, last week’s election results in Nevada and New York notwithstanding. America has the lowest employment since the early Eighties, the lowest property ownership since the mid-Sixties, the highest deficit-to-GDP ratio since the Second World War, the worst long-term unemployment since the Great Depression, the highest government-dependency rate of all time, and the biggest debt mountain in the history of the planet. And the president has just announced to the world that he’s checked the more-of-the-above box. The Pass My Jobs Bill jobs bill proclaims that this is all he knows and all he wants to know.

• Victor David Hanson: The Great Obama Catharsis

Barack Obama has done the United States a great, though unforeseen, favor. He has brought to light, as no one else could, many of the pernicious assumptions of our culture from the last half-century. He turned theory and “what ifs” into fact for all America to see, experience, and, yes, suffer through.

• Tax The Mississippi Rich, Not The New York Rich

Honestly, I have a hard time knowing whether Sen. Chuck Schumer [D-NY] is evil or just stupid. Thankfully the English language conveniently provides the word “and’ to assist in situations like this.

You see, the good Senator from New York isn’t happy with President Obama’s new, old, current, ever thus, plan to make the rich pay their fair share. Actually, that isn’t entirely true, Chuck isn’t happy with the President’s plan to make the rich in New York pay their fair share. He is completely comfortable with taxing the rich in Mississippi, even if they aren’t what most normal people would consider rich.

+ In related news you will note that the vast majority of these places are in Bleu states… On the frontline of Obama’s tax war: Survey reveals the wealthiest towns where America’s millionaires live

• Mark Levin: Someone Could Come In And Say, Mr President There Is A Meteor That Is Going To Wipe Out New England. What Shall We Do? His Answer Would Be Raise Taxes On The Wealthy
• It’s Another “Us” Crisis

In her speech, Michelle Obama declared that childhood obesity was a national security problem. (Janet Napolitano has already declared that Global Warming is a national security threat.) To be clear about this, we have an administration that insists that America could survive another 9/11. That doesn’t care about the impact of repealing DADT on ground troops in combat. Which actually tried to move the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed into a civilian court. But considers kids who eat too many Twinkies to be a national security problem.

We have an administration which has chosen to grope little kids, rather than profile Muslims. But heaven forbid if little Billy has an extra snack before bed. Then the alarms will go off in the Department of Homeland Security, because little Billy might not lose weight on his own. And then he becomes a problem for the mandatory government health care system. With every American now a factor in a national health care monolith, it’s important to force Billy to lose weight in order to cut costs. Just as it will be important to cut off his treatment and encourage him to choose euthanasia when as an adult his health care costs rise too high.

As the Great Nanny State which beams down upon us all grows, like every private enterprise, it will treat people like numbers. Government does not exist outside the laws of economics, it only ignores long enough to get much deeper into debt. And when it does the math, there will be no appeal. The reasoning is obvious. The government has too many people to take care of. And the bigger the system, the more individuals become expendable within it.

• Spengler: Cairo, Egypt and Cairo, Illinois

A third of Cairo’s population lives below the poverty line and its unemployment rate is 12%. Three-fifths of its people are African-American. Obama singled it out as a subject for hope and change. There is a component of the American population whose marginalization compares to Egypt, and that is African-Americans aged 16 to 19 years. Their official unemployment rate is 46.5%, although the effective rate is much higher, for only 13% of blacks in that age bracket actually have jobs. Only a quarter of black high school seniors will graduate college.

Cairo, Egypt and Cairo, Illinois have another thing in common: their economic misery is the outcome of political models that warehouse the poor rather than prepare them for productivity. Like most Third World dictators, the rulers of Egypt from Nasser to Mubarak kept most of their people poor, illiterate, and down on the farm, while employing the putative higher education system as a political pressure valve. Starting with the Johnson administration, America’s incipient welfare state made the poor, and especially the African-American poor, dependent on a political regime that encouraged economic dependency.

Video of the Day:

• Amazing speech by Bill Whittle at Beverly Hills Tea Party
• Day of Raaaaaaage

 Every picture tells a story, don’t it? The Marching Morons Starring in “Where’s Wal[do|Mart]?”

“In which various dozens of members of various groups non-zero in number unite in various corners of New York’s Zuccotti Park (owned by Brookfield Office Properties [NYSE: BPO]) to oppose the dominance of various corporations and… like… stuff.”

Japan and the softly glowing world…

Conversion chart from Heath Canada

Chart via RealityCheck

Have a little look at this…Note the 400Sv/hr spikes at reactor 1. The site says the ‘meter is defective’. Uh huh. The only ‘defect’ I suspect the meter has is that the maximum reading it is capable of measuring is about 430 Sv/hr. You will also note that they do not even list reactor 4 anymore-you know, the one with the MOX fuel (Plutonium). Why? Did it magically disappear?

Extremely Powerful Typhoon No. 15 On Course to Fukushima I Nuke Plant

We are running out of time

The day after the question, Jirou Honzawa interviewed the member Murakami. “The plutonium is certainly buried deep within the basement, but where exactly is anyone’s guess, and no one is able to pin it down. Obviously, the ocean is right next to the facility, so there’s no question that underground water is flowing into the sea. TEPCO is absolutely avoiding checking this out, and the government and the mass media are keeping a tight lid on this whole stinking mess.

Mainichi: “It remains unclear where the melted fuel is situated” — “Temperatures of the pressure vessels alone are far from convincing”

Gundersen’s Latest: 60 holes in bottom of Fukushima-type reactors make core melt-through easier — Fuel only had to get through a thin pipe, not inches of steel (VIDEO)

Photographs of 60,000-Strong Anti-Nuke Demonstration in Tokyo: Japanese MSMs Called It “A Parade”

Calling it a “parade” and using the lowest official estimate by the police as the number of participants is a classic way to belittle a movement.

Kan reveals Tokyo nuclear evacuation plans

Japan’s former prime minister Naoto Kan has revealed he contemplated evacuating as many as 30 million people from Tokyo and surrounding areas during the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Speaking to Japan’s Kyodo News, Mr Kan, who was prime minister during the nuclear crisis, said evacuations on such a scale may have led to Japan being unable to function

TEPCO Admits to 200 to 500 Tonnes of Groundwater Flooding into Bldg Basements Every Day at Fukushima I Nuke Plant

Over 20 microsieverts per hour radiation dose now being measured in Futaba (MAP)

 Tsunami debris creates Pacific shipping hazard

Nikolai Maximenko from the University of Hawaii’s Pacific Research Centre says the debris is believed to be a few hundred kilometres east of the Midway islands.

The islands are more than 4,000 kilometres east of Tokyo.

It is expected large amounts of debris, including plastic and fishing nets, could reach the shores of Hawaii within months.

World News:

China Pulls The Rug From Under Europe, Halts French Bank Transactions, Makes Good On Trade War Ultimatum

A flurry of headlines out of China suggest global macro-economic volatility may be ready to take it to the next level. We discussed last week how China’s oh-so-generous offer of help to Europe was merely a veiled threat playing US against Europe in a game of who-gets-the-funding. Well, tonight, it seems, they are making good on some of those threats. Aggravated by EU’s lack of market economy recognition, they pull trading lines with French banks, express concern at the EUR’s safety (preferring US Treasuries) and indicate a clear preference for bonds over stocks – all the while warning of growing trade tensions – consider the sabre-rattled.

IMF Cuts Global Growth Outlook, Says Europe May Worsen Outlook

Flurry of headlines following an unscheduled IMF release:

• IMF CUTS GLOBAL GROWTH ESTIMATE, SAYS EUROPE MAY WORSEN OUTLOOK
• IMF SAYS DOWNSIDE RISKS ARE GROWING
• IMF SAYS ECB SHOULD CUT INTEREST RATES IF DEBT TENSIONS PERSIST
• IMF CUTS U.S. 2011 GROWTH ESTIMATE TO 1.5% VS 2.5% SEEN IN JUNE
• IMF CUTS U.S. 2012 GROWTH ESTIMATE TO 1.8% VS 2.7% SEEN IN JUNE
• IMF CUTS 2012 EURO-AREA GROWTH PREDICTION TO 1.1% VS 1.7%/JUNE
• IMF CUTS 2011 WORLD GROWTH FORECAST TO 4% FROM 4.3% IN JUNE
• IMF CUTS 2012 WORLD GROWTH FORECAST TO 4% FROM 4.5% IN JUNE
• IMF SAYS ECB MUST KEEP INTERVENING `STRONGLY’ IN DEBT MARKETS
• IMF CUTS SPANISH GROWTH FORECAST FOR 2012 TO 1.1%

S&P Downgrades Italy; Euro, Futures Tumble

Euro Bank Run Shifts To Insurance Companies As Lloyd’s Of London Pulls Cash From European Banks

Swiss Franc Plunges On Rumor EURCHF Peg To Be Widened To 1.25

Switzerland Launches Referendum To Stop SNB Lunacy, Save Swiss Gold

According to an article in Swiss newspaper NZZ (Neue Zuercher Zeitung) the SVP party (Swiss People’s Party) launched a referendum to “protect” the 1,000 tonnes of gold owned by the Swiss National Bank (SNB). Their aim is to:

• make it unconstitutional to sell gold
• force the SNB to hold 20% of its assets in gold (currently 16%)

The SVP said the sale of 1,500 of the SNB’s 2,500 tonnes of gold was regrettable, especially given the Swiss population had no say in this.

Slovenian Government Collapses After Confidence Vote Loss; EFSF Ratification To Be Delayed Until 2012

The Corporate Bank Run Has Started: Siemens Pulls €500 Million From A French Bank, Redeposits Direct With ECB

PIMCO Warns Global Central Banks Are Now Openly Defecting From The Status Quo’s Prisoner’s Dilemma

For now said belligerence has begun to manifest itself in plain vanilla trade wars, such as that pointed out last night with the Chinese response to Europe’s lack of response to its “bailout” overtures, and following up with the just announced complaint filed by the US against China on chicken prices. Naturally this is just the beginning. The real concern is that where trade wars end (which in turn begin when FX wars end), real ones start. When a year ago we first branded the Chairsatan as “genocidal” we were mostly joking. Perhaps it is time to reevaluate our definition, as it is far less comical under the current environment.

Europe Retorts To Geithner With Some Lecturing Of Its Own, Demands The World Promptly Fix Itself

In other words, if the rest of the world could promptly go ahead and fix itself and fall back in line so the status quo can resume its dutiful creep to previously unseen Ponzi heights asap, that would be wonderful and much appreciated by Brussels, and Europe can pretend its monetary union is still a viable long-term option.

Why the Eurozone Will Come Apart

In Europe, the countries are just too diverse to create a long-lasting currency zone. Languages and cultures are very different across European countries.

What Comes After ‘Europe’?

The riots of Athens will become those of Milan, Madrid and Marseilles. Border checkpoints will return. Currencies will be resurrected, then devalued.

Can China escape as world’s debt crisis reaches Act III?

China has not abolished economic gravity. Its policy of yuan suppression against the dollar and euro has been impossible to sterilize, leading to an imported credit bubble of epic proportions. Its export-led strategy has left it with a deformed economy that relies on perma-demand from exhausted debtors in America and Europe.

As China premier Wen Jiabao said in Dalian, “China’s development is not yet balanced, coordinated and sustainable.” The next five-year plan is a breakneck switch towards a domestic growth. Bravo, but awfully late.

Misleading Indicators – China’s Growth Won’t Last; Chanos on Chinese Property Bubble and Growth

Fund manager Jim Chanos spoke to Bloomberg TV’s Carol Massar about China’s economy, debt and real estate market. Chanos said that growth in China may be zero and that China has “European kind of numbers” when it comes to debt.

Europe’s Moral Decadence Fuels Spread of Islamic Fundamentalism

The greatest menace to Europe in our time is not Islam. No, it’s the mentality reflected in this comment — a moral decadence, born of multiculturalism, that is utterly incapable of perceiving either the peril of Islam or the preciousness of freedom.

The Wages of Multiculturalism in the Democratic West

Ironically, as Mansur exposes in Delectable Lie, Western societies welcome, under the banner of multiculturalism, those who are pledged to destroy them.  This month, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, tolerance borne of multiculturalism has brought us to the brink of U.S. acceptance of  total responsibility for the tragedy of 9/11 and the airbrushing of Islam out of the picture altogether. The West is tolerant and inclusive to a fault and doesn’t fight back against the threat Islam poses to a once-free society. It has even become racist to investigate Muslims, surveil mosques, and critically analyze Islamic doctrine or sharia even though Muslims comprise the vast majority of terrorists, mosques are centers of radicalization, and sharia violates all human rights enshrined in our Constitution

Islamic Sharia Law comes to Antwerp

The Sharia court is the initiative of a radical Muslim group called Sharia4Belgium. Leaders of the group say the purpose of the court is to create a parallel Islamic legal system in Belgium in order to challenge the state’s authority as enforcer of the civil law protections guaranteed by the Belgian constitution.

The Sharia court, which is located in Antwerp’s Borgerhout district, is “mediating” family law disputes for Muslim immigrants in Belgium.

New Saudi Fatwa Defends Pedophilia as ‘Marriage’

Obama’s Middle East Is in Tatters, Utter Tatters

Indeed, the president’s journey set the framework for the Ottomanization of modern Turkey’s foreign policy. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne formally abrogated the empire’s previous rights in North Africa, these being the rights it had lost in the First World War. From then on, the country was content to make trouble only for the Kurds across its borders and for Greece. A member of NATO, with more than 600,000 troops under arms (omitting more than half a million reservists and paramilitary), it certainly played a role in deflecting Soviet ambitions in the Mediterranean. Now, with the Russian threat (temporarily?) deferred, the military still faces minor annoyance from Georgia, Armenia, Iraq. But since Obama communed with Erdogan—by all accounts, it was love at first sight—the prime minister has been taking on new projects. Only in the last days has he made what can reasonably be called a conqueror’s march through Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, evoking the old empire’s rule in North Africa not so long ago.

After all, let’s face it: Egypt is simply spent. Erdogan can seduce it with a speech or two. Yet it does have up-to-date military equipment. But, if it were tempted by war with Israel, Jerusalem would not give it the respectful pity that it gave Cairo’s Third Army 38 years ago.

Palestinian President Abbas To Obama: “You Promised Me a State By September 2011 — I Hope You Will Deliver”‬…

Behind the scenes I have no doubt Obama is trying to deliver on that promise.

Obama Meets With Libyan Islamist Leader

Obama meets with Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who was last seen pledging to cheering crowds in Tripoli that the new Libya would be governed by sharia law.

Gadaffi evades capture in a Mercedes 4×4 bristling with anti-tracking systems… given to him by French President Nicolas Sarkozy

Egypt eyes to buy Turkish unmanned aerial vehicles

Mother of 4 Terrorist Murderers Leads Procession For Palestinian Statehood

How Paranoia Kills Children

In Pakistan, the government is threatening to arrest parents who do not allow their children to receive the polio vaccine. Those refusing families that are Afghan, will be forced to return to Afghanistan. For years, Islamic radicals, including some clergy, urged parents to refuse vaccination, as the radicals believed the vaccination was a Western plot to poison Moslem children. This particular fantasy has been rattling around for nearly a decade, and has prevented the UN from wiping out polio. Like smallpox (which was wiped out in the 1970s), once there are no people with polio, the disease is gone for good (it can only survive in a human host). The Islamic clerics urging parents not to vaccinate their children against polio, are providing the disease with hosts, and keeping it going. Last year, 17,000 children were not vaccinated in northern Pakistan because of this paranoid fantasy. Thus radical Islam continues to kill people in places, and ways, you never hear of.

7 Pakistani Women Suffer Acid Attacks in 2 Days

Seven women in Faisalabad suffered acid attacks in two days. One school girl was assaulted because she did not cover her hair at school. Another woman and her family were attacked after she would not go back home with her abusive husband.

Taliban Assassinate Former Afghan President With Suicide Bomb Hidden Inside Turban…

When an IED explodes: The shocking pictures of what really happens when the Taliban attacks

Allah Akbar… Somali Kids Win Bombs and Rifles in Koran Recital Contest

Gutsy Gals in Muslim Indonesia Hold Slut Walk Protest in Miniskirts & Leggings

Women carried placards saying “Don’t tell us how to dress, tell them not to rape,” and “My body is not porn, instead it’s your dirty mind.”

Fortunately, the hardliners didn’t blow them up. That’s a good thing.

UK: Islamist Group Says Singer Cheryl Cole Has Made Herself a Target For Jihadists By Visiting British Troops In Afghanistan…

I can’t think of anything to write, blinded by her hotness.

‘Hell on earth’: Detailed satellite photos show death camps North Korea still deny even exist

The Completely Outrageous Cost Of Everyday Life In Brazil

US News:

’100-foot flames’: Explosions rock Oklahoma oil rig and force families from their homes

Riddle of the empty cockpit: Reno plane crash investigators say elderly pilot could have been out cold as shocking new video emerges

The Dangerous Legacy of the Reno Air Races

 Disaster waiting to happen

What is rarely mentioned in all the proselytising about the smart grid is that it adds a vast layer of hackable points to the network—some 440m by 2015, according to Lockheed Martin’s Energy and Cyber Services. Every smart meter in the home will be a hackable device. The same goes for all the routers at substations. As the saying goes, if you can communicate with it, you can hack it. Today, you can cut off the power to someone’s home by shinning up the nearest electricity pole and throwing a switch at the top. Once smart meters become widespread, you will be able to do that remotely, from the far side of the world.

 Controversial Ground Zero mosque site opens – just two weeks after 9/11 anniversary

Gaffetastic!… President Downgrade Starts Waving During Pictures With World Leaders

A Democrat President, on Taxes, 1962

So how badly did Kennedy’s tax cuts impair federal revenues? “Tax revenues climbed from $94 billion in 1961 to $153 billion in 1968, an increase of 62 percent (33 percent after adjusting for inflation).”

Well darndy darn. It’s almost as if a healthy economy is better than punishing a badly damaged one with tax increases.

Stupid math.

Obama declares war on middle class: Families earning over $250,000-a-year are clobbered by President’s $1.5 TRILLION tax raid

Obama to Propose ‘Buffett Tax’ on Monday; Update: $1.5 Trillion in New Taxes — ‘This is Not Class Warfare, It’s Math’

Now Obama will be able to add “pass these tax increases” to the “pass this jobs bill” broken record so as to mix it up a bit.

But at least the “Patriotic Millionaires” might be about to get what they asked for, so there’s that little bit of economic schadenfreude. Just don’t get caught up in the stampede as they run to their accountants tomorrow to plan a way around these proposed new taxes they’ve been lobbying for.

It’s often been pointed out that Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem — and proposing something that might just chase more of America’s wealth overseas is the last thing we need, especially in this economy. Chances are Obama knows this won’t go anywhere, much like the jobs bill the tax increases would supposedly pay for, but the “Buffett rule” will be one more thing he can tell his diminishing base that he “tried” to do that Republicans blocked.

AP Fact Checks Obama; Finds The Rich Already Pay Much More, and Pay a Higher Rate In Taxes, Too

No, ya think? Budget analysts say Obama deficit plan is likely to miss its targets

Speaker Boehner: Giving Government More Money Is “Like Giving a Cocaine Addict More Cocaine”

So who will be the first lib to cry racism over these comments? You know it’s coming.

GOP Congressman to Obama: Today is ‘TALK Like a Pirate Day … Not ACT Like One’

Obama’s Bold New Plan: $3 In Tax Hikes For Every $1 In Spending Cuts

Most of this is in bad faith, anyway. Obama’s “proposals” are not true proposals. He doesn’t want a law; he wants an issue for the 2012 election. Every fake proposal he makes has a built-in poison pill to make it objectionable to Republicans, by design.

He’s already announced his plan for 2012 is a Harry Truman-like run against a “Do-Nothing Congress.” Obviously that plan can only work if Congress rejects his ideas; and he’s making sure they will, by always sticking a poison pill in.

That’s not an accident. And that’s not Republican recalcitrance. That is a cynical non-plan by a man who is willing to let the economy tank further so long as he can claw some political advantage out of the wreckage.

One point five trillion in tax hikes from the man who just recently said “He’s absolutely right, you don’t want to raise taxes in the middle of a recession.”

Passing Jobs Bill That’s Anti-Jobs Can’t Be Serious

President Obama said “everything in this bill will be paid for.” Over 10 years, he wants $41 billion more in taxes from oil and gas companies, $3 billion more from owners of corporate jets and $400 billion more from “the rich” (now defined as anyone earning $200,000 or more a year, or any family earning $250,000 or more) by limiting their itemized deductions for mortgage interest and charitable giving.

So right when we need a boost to housing, more domestic energy production and more charitable giving, Obama wants to enact new disincentives to all three.

Bottom line, Obama is saying we’ll get more jobs by way of less oil, less gas, fewer jets, fewer home sales and lower levels of charitable giving.

Has Obama quit already?

Judging by his plans for job creation and deficit reduction, the president has given up on policy accomplishments in favor of playing politics

White House: No, We’re Not Really Serious About Passing These Jobs And Tax Ideas

In this new phase, Mr. Obama must solidify support among Democrats by standing pat for progressive party principles, while trusting that a show of strong leadership for the policies he believes in will appeal to independents. Polls consistently suggest that perhaps the only thing that unites independents as much as their desire for compromise is their inclination toward leaders who signal strength by fighting for their beliefs.

I’m pretty sure if you a President are pretending to be “the adult in the room” by claiming to try and govern in a balanced and above it all way, it doesn’t help that your communications director is saying, “nah, we don’t want compromise, we just want to rally our base”.

In Pfeiffer’s defense he’s probably worried that the Democratic base is too stupid to realize they are being pandered too.

Obama: Cut Medicare

Medicare is a self-funding health insurance program for the elderly. It has operated at a surplus over the years and has a trust fund worth in excess of $300 billion. President Obama wants to take a huge hunk of that surplus in Medicare to offset some of his overspending — which will top $10 trillion if he gets a second term. This is a pretty stupid idea even for a Brainiac like him.

Ghastly New ‘Fees’ Found in Obama Tax Plan

It’s not just millionaires who’d pay more under President Barack Obama’s latest plan to combat the deficit.

Air travelers, federal workers, military retirees, wealthier Medicare beneficiaries and people taking out new mortgages are among those who would pay more than $130 billion in government revenues raised through new or increased fees.

Airline passengers would see their federal security fees double from $5 to $10 for a nonstop round-trip flight and triple to $15 by 2017, raising $25 billion over the coming decade. Federal workers would face an additional 1.2 percentage point deduction from their paychecks to contribute $21 billion more for their pensions over the same period. Military retirees would pay a $200 fee upon turning 65 to have the government pay their out-of-pocket Medicare expenses. They’d also pay more for non-generic prescription drugs.

Obama: I’ll veto any bill that isn’t “balanced” with tax hikes

With even his own party insisting that they’re not going to bite on more spending and higher taxes, Obama’s already starting to isolate himself on economic policy.  He issued this warning in a sad attempt to impress a few people on the Left with his “leadership,” but issuing empty threats isn’t real leadership.  It’s an expression of political impotence.

Reid Jumps Into The Class Warfare Game: “These Millionaires And Billionaires Have Contributed $3 Trillion To Our Deficit”…

Eat the rich!

Of course his party’s reckless spending had nothing to do with it.

Obama Campaign Chief: People Calling Deficit Bill “Class Warfare” Are Trying To “Trick Americans Into Thinking The Buffett Rule Will Hurt Them”…

Of course it will. According to the AP air travelers, federal workers, military retirees, wealthier Medicare beneficiaries and people taking out new mortgages, just to name a few, will be hit with $130 billion in new fees. Never mind the fact that “millionaires and billionaires” really means couples making more than $250K

Rush is right… It’s Time Democrats Pay Their Fair Share for the Mess They Created

Using taxes to punish people can never be fair, but it’s a constant of the Democrat Party. Class envy is something they own, exclusively. They own class envy. They own class warfare. They own “the rich aren’t paying their fair share.” They own all of these entitlement programs that have destroyed people’s lives. You know, if I had been a person voting Democrat all my life, and in the last five or ten years had had a change of heart, I don’t know if I’d get through the guilt of what I’ve done.

By electing Democrats, by electing liberals, by putting them in charge, what it’s done to the moral fabric of the country, what it’s done to the social fabric of the country. So I want to change the focus here. I want to change the way we look at this. Rather than “it’s time for the rich to pay their fair share,” it’s about damn time the Democrats paid their fair share. If we’re gonna start assigning blame, and Obama started it and that’s what this is all about, okay, let’s be honest about the blame. Anybody with a capital D after their name got elected, guilty. Anybody voted for ‘em, responsible. Therefore, your taxes ought to go up! Besides, you’ve been voting all these years for other people’s taxes to go up.

That’s what the Democrats have been telling you: They’re gonna raise somebody else’s taxes but yours. It’s about time you found out what it’s like. Doesn’t sound fair, does it? I don’t care. It’s right. In my world, that’s fair… In my world, this is what it takes here to fix the mess we’re in. You Democrats created it. Our country’s broke because of who you elected. The responsibility is yours. It’s time you paid your fair share of the mess. The point is no matter who you go after this way, it just doesn’t sound right, does it? You hear me, and I know some of you are applauding. I know that and I’ll take the applause.

Obama’s limited repertoire

It consists of spending, borrowing, taxing, demagoguing, and dividing. His Pass-It-Yesterday jobs bill (so urgent that the Senate might look at it next month) and his new debt-reduction plan to raise taxes by $1.5 trillion are reelection tactics, not serious ideas for boosting the economy. He knows Congress won’t pass either one. And when they don’t, he’ll run around the country accusing the GOP of protecting the “rich” (a.k.a., small business owners who create jobs and wealth) and trying to stick it to him personally, even if it hurts struggling Americans.

Obama Proposes New Czar

We’ve seen how the president’s czars respond to oversight from Congress. When Congress calls with questions and concerns, the White House staffer often hides behind the protection of Executive Privilege. And, the agency head, confirmed by the Senate, is held responsible. Agency heads and Cabinet officials must venture to the Hill and be accountable to Congress. Yet, the actual policy for that program has often been managed by one of the ubiquitous White House czars.

Obama has created yet another accountability challenge. In addition to their ability to hold positions on other Boards of both for-profit and non-profit corporations, AIFA not only has a Czar but also a 7-member Board of Directors, all with decision-making ability.  Often, when decision-making responsibility is divided among so many, accountability is reduced and the president can hide behind the skirts of a handpicked group of loyalists.  AIFA would essentially be a vastly more powerful NLRB complete with all of the known problems and dangers of a grasping group of unaccountable political cronies.

When problems arise, a finger-pointing frenzy often ensues and the American taxpayer is left holding the bag.   Of course, you have to admire Obama’s scheme,  as noted in section 346 (on page 116), that offers token reports and evaluation of the success/failure of the Czar and Committee’s spending decision some  four years after implementation.  In this way, the final report card will only be issued long after all Obama devotees are out of office.

Maybe Obama can work it in between Golf and his vacation to Bali… Obama’s urgent jobs plan: Right now, ‘right now’ means sometime next month maybe

So, given the president’s professed urgency, the next day, Sept. 9, everyone asked where was his jobs legislation?

And, well, it seems the urgent jobs bill hadn’t actually been written yet but should be ready in a week or two. When the laughter died, the White House said on second thought the legislation would be ready for a photo op the next Monday.

Well, here we are on the next Monday after that next Monday and we’ve just learned from the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin, that actually it seems that body won’t really be seriously getting into the legislation for a while yet. The Senate has some other more important business to handle. And then there’s this month’s congressional vacation, which in Washington is called “a recess,” like elementary school.

Imagination at work

Consider it another sign of the times when GE chief executive officer and Obama jobs czar Jeffrey Immelt lets it be known that he is not in full agreement with what the president “stands for.” When asked by Fareed Zakaria in an interview on CNN whether Obama is an opponent of capitalism, Immelt responded in part: “Do I believe everything the president stands for?…Definitely no.” That is not the answer Zakaria was looking for. If the rats are not leaving a sinking ship, they are at least preserving their options.

We Are All Warren Buffett’s Secretary

Quite amazing how MoveOn dot org had this ad all ready to go after Obama’s class warfare speech today. It’s almost like they’re acting in concert or something.

AP fact check: Secretaries don’t pay more taxes than their bosses

Buffett should know better than to make that kind of claim without checking his facts first, but no one elected Buffett to be in charge of anything, either.  The President of the United States has vast resources at his command to get the facts straight before speaking to the American people, especially before pushing a divisive and destructive policy like his tax plan with class-warfare rhetoric designed to gin up demand for government to start seizing more from the successful than they already do.  Either Obama doesn’t bother to do his homework, or he doesn’t care whether he’s passing along myths rather than facts.

Do secretaries REALLY pay more tax than millionaires, Mr President? Data shows most wealthy Americans pay more than the poor

Got $72,000 To Spare? You And Your Partner Can Have Dinner With Obama In New York Tonight

The Obama for America campaign confirms that Obama will attend a $71,600-per-couple “small dinner” tonight at the Park Avenue home of prominent Democratic bundlers Jane Hartley and Ralph Schlosstein. Individuals can attend for the paltry sum of $35,800 — the maximum a person can donate to the campaign and the DNC.

For those looking for something more glamorous (and cheaper), Obama and the First Lady are set to host a gala event, complete with a performance by Alicia Keys, Tuesday night at Gotham Hall. Seats are $2,500-a-head ($5,000 for premium seating), and $15,000 for dinner and photos.

The host committee for tonight’s dinner is a rather unremarkable list of longtime Democratic fundraisers from Wall Street. Hartley is the CEO of the Observatory Group, an economic and political advisory firm; Schlosstein, her husband, was a cofounder and president of BlackRock, and is now CEO of the boutique investment bank Evercore. Evercore was an advisor on the GM bailout deal.

Surprise! Obama Doesn’t Mention Tax Hikes On Rich . . . At $38,500 Per Person Fundraiser…

Obama Tells Super-Wealthy Lib NYC Donors: “We’re In a Battle For The Heart And Minds Of America”…

Apparently he’s liberating the non-enlightened bitter folk who are clinging to their guns and religion from the grip of conservative evildoers.

SEIU’s Stephen Lerner Tells Unionists And Liberals They Need To Break The Law, “Create a Crisis For Super Rich,” Spread It Across Country…

The left’s class warfare rhetoric is reaching a fevered pitch.

FAIL. Far Left Calls For 20,000 to Protest Against Capitalism on Wall Street… Only 300 Show Up

It was supposed to be their Day of Rage… It ended up being their day of whining.
The far left wanted to create a tent city on Wall Street…

Instead they got this- wasted hippies on the sidewalk.

Day of Rage: Occupy Wall Street

LaRouchians, Ron Paulians, Socialists, Anarchists, Racists and
a Hoo-la-hooper!

Anarchist Theater – Days of Stage

So, the event Saturday was merely anarchist theater – call it the Days of Stage. But that was only the opening act. The real production is the American Fall. If we don’t clean house of the Progressives in our midst on both sides of the aisle, America will fall hard and fast at some point. It won’t be a genteel slide into decay as Europe has done. No, we are a world power and you know the old saying, “The bigger they are, the harder (and faster) they fall.”

Figures. NY Times Says Crazy 7 Time Dem Presidential Candidate Is a Right-Winger

Funny how the media ignored these offensive signs at the far left rally, huh? Especailly after they made such a fuss out these same protesters at the tea party rallies.

The New York Times did however mention that the LaRouche protesters made an appearance. But, the Times claimed LaRouche was a right-winger – despite the fact that he ran for president seven times as a democrat .

From Now On, Let’s Keep This Kind Of Information To Ourselves

Under relentless pressure from Muslim Brotherhood front group CAIR (Council on Islamic-American Relations) and the Obama Regime, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will discontinue a lecture series that taught counter-terrorism agents that mainstream Muslims are violent.

The move comes after leaked documents revealed the controversial elements in the FBI’s training manuals. According to the FBI documents: most American Muslims are likely to be sympathizers to “terrorist” groups like al-Qaeda

Declining Birthrates, Expanded Bureaucracy: Is U.S. Going European?

But now many local and state governments — often with strong support from the Obama Administration — are implementing European-style “smart growth” ideas that would severely restrict the number of single-family houses and drive people into small apartments. For decades, areas with affordable low-density development (such as Houston, Dallas, Nashville, Raleigh and Austin) have attracted the most families. If we become a nation of apartment-dwelling renters, birthrates are likely to slide even further.

What does this suggest for the American future? History has much to tell us about the relationship between demographics and national destiny. The declines of states — from Ancient Rome to Renaissance Italy and early modern Holland — coincided with drops in birthrates and population.

Walter Russell Mead: Snail Mail Spam Subsidies Stuttering Towards A Stop

In any case, to look at the USPS is to see why enterprises built in the blue model heyday are falling apart.  The special relationship with the government used to be a strength; now it is mostly a weakness: irrational congressional mandates and regulations tie it down in red tape.  The large, unionized workforce used to provide job security to workers and a stable team of well trained and reliable workers for managers.  These days, the workers don’t get security, and union rules accelerate the rate at which the whole enterprise is falling apart.  The large integrated service that handled everything from birthday cards to parcels cannot match smaller, nimbler competitors that target market segments.  Email providers have largely killed first class mail.  E-readers are killing the periodicals business.  Fed Ex and UPS can do a better job with parcels.

Florida Democrat: Jail Republicans For Destroying The Country…

This guy would have been in heaven during Stalin’s purges.

Your ‘surprisingly unexpected’ economic news of the day:

Just remember that the unofficial motto of the State of North Dakota is “40 below keeps the riff-raff out”… Unemployed? Go to North Dakota

Fined for hiring too many people? No, this is not Atlas Shrugged.

30 Signs That The U.S. Economy Is About To Go Into The Toilet

As The Shadow Banking System Imploded In Q2, Bernanke’s Choice Has Been Made For Him

Because with D.C. in total fiscal stimulus hiatus, in order to offset the continuing collapse in credit at the financial level, the Fed will have no choice but to proceed with not only curve flattening (to the detriment of America’s TBTF banks whose stock prices certainly reflect what a complete Twist-induced flattening of the 2s10s implies) but offsetting the ongoing implosion in the all too critical, yet increasingly smaller, shadow banking system. And without credit growth, at either the commercial bank, the shadow bank or the sovereign level, one can kiss GDP growth, and hence employment, and Obama’s second term goodbye.

DOOM: The long grave already dug

The end of the American Dream? Fewer think they’ll ever become millionaires as economic doom kicks in

Peter Schiff On Obamanomics: “There Are Not Enough Open Minds In The Capitol To Keep This Ship From Sinking”

Peter Schiff wraps his congressional testimony on the Obama jobs plan, which was one of the most memorable such Congressional hearings on the topic to date, with the following letter of caution to all Americans. To wit: “I don’t think those few open minds in the Capitol are going to be enough to keep this ship from sinking. There just isn’t enough time or a strong enough will for reform from the American people. That is why it is so important for you to act individually to protect yourself and your family from the new age of stagflation. Please take the time to view my testimony, understand the problems we face, and align your investments accordingly.” We urge anyone who has not watched Peter’s testimony yet to do so below

 The Next Big Fear: The High-End Shopper Collapses

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy (except for the UN, of course):

Intimidation: Obama’s Dept. of Labor To Supply Replacement Worker’s Names AND Addresses to Union Thugs

With the long, long history of murder, property damage, beatings, and general harassment that unions have engaged in since unions came to this nation, the idea of having a worker’s name and address released to these union thugs so that unions can create hit lists of employees to attack is unconscionable.

Obama plans to put the property, family, and the very lives of thousands of workers in danger just so he can again give a big payoff to Big Labor.

This month the DOL has a public comment period on a 160 page rule change and tucked into that new rule is a section that will require staffing agencies to file with the government when they supply temp workers to businesses experiencing strikes, walkouts, or slow downs initiated by unions.

The new rule seems to also require that the people these temp agencies hire to also file their names and addresses with the DOL via a new form they would have to fill out. (See Labor Union Report for a copy of the form in question and for more technical info on this rule.)

These forms will be public knowledge as soon as the government gets its hands on them. That means that workers’ names and home addresses will also be public knowledge. That means that union thugs can get hold of these names and addresses so that they can amass lists of workers to scare away from their job in order to save union jobs.

ObamaCare – Now They Tell Us (Ongoing…)

Top Five Reasons To Abolish the Department of Education

In fact, do it for the children.

Who Are The Terrorists?! TSA Official Stabs TSA Employee To Death

TSA Creator: Dismantle, Privatize the Agency; “The whole program has been hijacked by bureaucrats”

US Companies Banned – But Cuba Will Begin Drilling Off Florida Coast By December

Thanks Obama… Thanks Democrats…

For decades, Democrats have blocked one effort after another to responsibly develop the energy resources our country possesses, transforming vast areas of opportunity into “The No Zone.”

Because of current U.S. policy, U.S. companies are prohibited from developing oil fields that lie in Cuban waters and come within 50 miles of Florida. However, Cuba is exploring and developing these oil fields, estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to possess more oil than the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and Cuba is partnering with China and other countries, such as Spain, France, and Canada.

The Castro Regime will begin drilling off the coast of Florida this year and will go deeper than the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April.

Despite Solyndra Failure, Obama DOE Wants To Quickly Spend $9.2 Billion

Hey, I’m all for alternative energy sources, but, government should not be the ones picking and choosing winners and losers (and shouldn’t do it with other types of businesses, either), especially with taxpayer money that we’ll never see paid back from companies that will probably never show a profit. And probably will never have an actual product people will buy.

Furthermore, rather than rushing these because of the deadline, they should take their sweet time and verify that these are good investments.

EPA Declares Hay to Be a Pollutant

The totalitarian fist of the EPA is tightening not only around industry and energy production. Our green rulers have learned from Stalin that the real key to power is choking off food. That’s why the malignant agency has declared hay a pollutant

Holder: Hey, we’re still totally going to close Gitmo

At this point, it’s getting difficult to determine whether the Obama administration is working harder to fool its allies, its base, or itself.   If they believe that Obama can run and win in 2012 on the I’ll-close-Gitmo platform, then I’m guessing it’s the latter.

Not surprisingly this is Chicago based. If I were a betting person I would be willing to bet that this has the Obama regime’s fingerprints all over it… Illegal immigrants get special 24-hour helpline to work out if they should be deported

A radical new way of dealing with illegal immigrants has launched in the U.S. where worried people can call a hotline and ask if they should be deported.

HELP-MY-F(amily) is the first time a dedicated 24-hour crisis line has been used for deportation issues.

More than 67 languages are spoken by staff in the Chicago call centre and even though it has only operated in one city on a month-long trial, staff have reported taking calls from all over the country.

Republican legal group files ethics complaint against Debbie Wasserman Schultz

“This carefully orchestrated political campaign is consistent with a disturbing pattern of President Obama’s misuse of official resources for political purposes,” read the RNLA’s complaint. “Now it appears he has not only misused the resources of his own office, but he has engaged Representative Wasserman Schultz in the misuse of coverage of House proceedings, in direct violation of her ethical duties as a Member of Congress.”

The rule in question is House Rule 5, clause 2(c)(1), which says, “Broadcast coverage and recordings of House floor proceedings may not be used for any political purpose.”

 The ‘Ponzi’ Sound Bite

Declining birth rates and greatly increasing lifespans have created havoc with Social Security’s finances, which are based on having the first generation’s pensions paid with money collected from the second generation — and the second generation’s pensions paid by the next generation, etc.

Any private financial scheme set up in a similar way would be illegal. That is why Charles Ponzi went to prison.

The politically expedient way of dealing with the situation is to “save Social Security” with short-term fixes that kick the ever-growing shortfall down the road for some later Congress to deal with — or to be overwhelmed by, when voters refuse to pay ruinous tax increases to keep the system going.

Another way to deal with the problem is to give younger workers the option to set up privately-owned retirement accounts instead. These accounts would be beyond the reach of politicians, and based on each generation setting aside money for its own retirement. Studies have shown that private accounts would pay retirees far better than Social Security.

Obamascandal #1-Gunwalker/Fast & Furious/Castaway/Grenadewalker: The Scandal with a Body Count…

Get your scorecards right here!

• The Gunwalker Scandal: Overview and Timeline

• The black cloud of the Obama 3

Obama’s Operation Fast and Furious Program Linked to Over 200 Murders

Secret recording: ATF agent suggests digging up dirt on Sen. Chuck Grassley to help forestall Gunwalker investigations

Agent: That’s kind of what my suggestion but nobody thought that was funny like if I were a P.I. I’d put him on Grassley, I’m sure there’s a lot would go away. Actually my one suggestion was just tell him in a registered Republican. I’m sure if he knew that everything would be fine, they didn’t like that either.

Did I just imagine this, or did an ATF agent suggest having a private investigator tail Chuck Grassley, presumably to dig up dirt on the Senator and thereby forestall further investigations through, ahem, blackmail?
Nah… that must be my imagination.

The Administration’s Tangled Web

In a curious conversation on the tapes, Agents MacAllister and Howard also discuss various Republicans and Democrats in Congress who are investigating Fast and Furious. They express concern that whistle-blower ATF special agent John Dodson has further evidence that could be damaging to the government.

Also curious is why the Justice Department’s Inspector General, supposedly independent and above board, gave copies of the tapes to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, itself under investigation in the affair.

Was this to give them a heads-up on what those doing the investigating had?

Report: Secret Recordings Uncovered in ‘Fast and Furious’ Case

CBS News has posted what it claims is a secret recording between a senior ATF Agent and an Arizona gun store owner at the heart of the botched operation “Fast and Furious” weapons sting. The tape could be proof that the ATF tried to suppress evidence found at the crime scene of murdered U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry.

Whistle-blowers allege corruption, cartel ties

Two former law enforcement officers allege that they cannot get anyone to investigate allegations that the Mexican drug cartels have corrupted U.S. law officers and politicians in the El Paso border region.

Greg Gonzales, a retired Doña Ana County sheriff’s deputy, and Wesley Dutton, a rancher and former New Mexico state livestock investigator, said that instead of arrests and prosecutions of suspects, their whistle-blowing activities have resulted only in threats and retaliation against themselves.

“I lost my job for a security company at the federal courthouse in Las Cruces because I would not keep my mouth shut, and someone threatened me by holding a knife to my throat,” Gonzales said.

Dutton, a rancher in Southern New Mexico, said an election official stopped by his ranch to ask him what was it going to take for him to retract his allegations concerning the official.

Gunwalker’s Body Count Grows, Along with the Obama Administration’s Cover-Up

While the Oversight Committee investigation is far from over and a special prosecutor’s investigation hasn’t even begun, it is beginning to appear that the evidence and testimony being compiled so far indicate that the Obama administration was willing to break federal laws and get hundreds of people killed in Mexico and the United States in order to fabricate conditions that would help them implement their domestic gun control policies.

If so, it is entirely unethical and illegal, and it seems like only a matter of time before administration officials face felony indictments for their role in Operation Fast and Furious and perhaps the other alleged gun-walking operations that make up the Gunwalker scandal.

If that is indeed the path this scandal takes, the question may need to be asked whether U.S. justice is enough for the co-conspirators, or if  Attorney General Morales should be given the opportunity to prosecute Obama administration officials in Mexico for actions that have left so many of their citizens dead and injured.

Obama Burns Bridges to Mexico With Fast & Furious

Now that Barack Hussein Obama is President, all the world loves us, just as liberals promised. But don’t tell that to the allies he has knifed in the back, like Britain, Israel, Poland, and Honduras — or to our next door neighbor to the south, which is understandably enraged that our federal government has been helping violent drug cartels smuggle guns across the border. The more details of the Fast & Furious outrage manage to penetrate Obamunist “transparency,” the more Mexican heads are exploding in anger:

Mexico still waiting for answers on Fast and Furious gun program

Marisela Morales, Mexico’s attorney general and a longtime favorite of American law enforcement agents in Mexico, told the Los Angeles Times that she first learned about Fast and Furious from news reports. And to this day, she said, U.S. officials have not briefed her on the operation gone awry, nor have they apologized.

“At no time did we know or were we made aware that there might have been arms trafficking permitted,” Morales, Mexico’s highest-ranking law enforcement official, said in a recent interview. “In no way would we have allowed it because it is an attack on the safety of Mexicans.”

Morales said she did not want to draw conclusions before the outcome of U.S. investigations, but that deliberately letting weapons “walk” into Mexico would represent a “betrayal” of a country enduring a drug war that has killed more than 40,000 people.

Gunwalker: more evidence of a third gun at the Terry murder — updated

Obama’s ‘enterprise’: Serious questions

It’s time for congressional investigators to determine if this enterprise rises to corrupt and criminal.

Surprising considering the source… Shine a light on gun operation

Obamascandal #2-Solyndra: “Pay to Play” is “The Chicago Way”

Charles Krauthammer On Solyndra: A “Toxic Combination Of Lenin Socialism and Crony Capitalism”

Issa Announces Congressional Probe Into Obama’s Dealings With Solyndra…

Popcorn time.

Top Obama Bundler & Solyndra Investor George Kaiser Boasts of Cashing in On Stimulus Funds (Video)

Reuters: Solyndra CEO & CFO Will Plead The Fifth And Decline To Answer Questions During Congressional Hearing On Friday…

It’s almost like they have something to hide.

Why Was Congress Forced To Subpoena Head Of Obama’s Budget Office To Get Info On Solyndra?

As more developments arise in the Solyndra case, we find the specifics of how it was none other than Jacob Lew, the head of the Office Management Bureau, elsewhere known as the guy who puts together all those forecasts that Obama pulls out of his hat as seeing growth of 3.7% in 2012 here and budget savings of $4 trillion there, got subpoenaed, and not just over anything, but over the deal that is rapidly becoming Obama’s Solargate: Solyndra. As a recap: the man who is the “expert” on how the US will get out of its multi-trillion deficit had to be subpoenaed by Congress to explain his secretive actions that ended up most likely harming US taxpayers for reasons still unknown (but not for long), and what is far worse, Congress has to subpoena the head of the OMB because it failed to exercise proper oversight of the stimulus money in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act… and all this under the tutelage of a White House which recently won an award for Anti-Secrecy….which was present to the president by among other Gary Bass of OMB Watch…And somehow we are expected to believe that fiscal stimulus in America has even a remote chance of being allocated productively (a fatal Keynesian flaw which Andy Lees described earlier) instead of pumping up crony capitalism schemes that enrich vested interests, and which drown in opacity and obscurity over which not even Congress has any supervision?

Rahm Emanuel: Solyndra? Never Heard of It

With the White House facing a possible criminal investigation over the Solyndra scandal, look for more and more current and former members of the Obama administration to go full blown Sgt. Schultz.

Another great video from Misfit Politics! The Lost Solyndra Grant Proposal

I guess they have figured out that blaming Bush isn’t working… Obama admin attacking China for subsidies in solar tech as reason why our subsidies didn’t work, or something

China floated $30 billion in subsidies to its solar sector?  Wow, that’s so totally unfair.  Why, the US would never stand for such a thing!  That’s why Obama included almost $40 billion in green-sector subsidies as part of his 2009 Porkulus package, of which $17 billion has already been spent. And let’s not forget that over a half-billion dollars of that money got spent specifically on Solyndra alone.

To call this hypocrisy undersells the laugh factor.  This is nothing less that chutzpah, as well as a strange sort of xenophobia in laying the blame at the feet of the Chinese for this administration’s decision to invest in a fiscally unsound enterprise like Solyndra.  China didn’t force Obama to expedite the approval of Solyndra’s loan application over the objections of internal and external auditors.  Hilda Solis now want to make an argument that China’s subsidies were inherently unfair, while ours were — what?  Merely incredibly stupid, and possibly corrupt?

The corruption comes from the proximity of Obama donor George Kaiser to the Solyndra sinkhole.  Kaiser was one of Solyndra’s big investors, and the Obama administration restructured its loans late in the game to favor Kaiser in a bankruptcy.  Kaiser and his Solyndra colleagues were frequent visitors to the White House, which raises questions about the administration’s efforts to steamroll auditors in getting a quick approval of the loan.  The Daily Caller reports today that Kaiser may have been sweetening the pot a bit by dropping some big money into the coffers of a charity favored by the Obamas

Fury over Solyndra loan threatens to sunset solar energy investments

Two Obama scandals blend risky tech, politics and money

President Obama has been hit with a one-two punch in recent weeks with two scandals that both involve risky tech startups, politics, money and the question of how to create innovation around national infrastructure, one for energy and the other for communications. While I covered solar maker Solyndra’s bankruptcy, which took down with it an over $500 million government loan, Stacey Higginbotham has been writing about wireless network company LightSquared’s plans and emerging political story.

Here’s where I see these two narratives connecting in various places, and some potential lessons from these two scandals…

Obamascandal #3-LightSquared: “Pay to Play” is “The Chicago Way” part deux

Obama an ‘Early Investor’ in LightSquared

If you are unfamiliar with the LightSquared scandal, see my earlier post. The Obama administration pressured an Air Force general to alter his testimony in order to downplay the havoc the company’s signals could wreak on military GPS systems. We knew that some of President Obama’s donors are invested in LightSquared. What we didn’t know (or at least I didn’t) is that Obama himself was a LightSquared investor. But don’t take my word for it, this was published at the Huffington Post, hardly a news outlet that should fear being referred to Attack Watch.

Obama himself was an early investor and came to the presidency a firm believer in expanding broadband. He remains close to other early investors, like Gips and investment manager George W. Haywood, inviting some to luxe social events at the White House and more intimate gatherings like a night of poker and beer.

Light Squared Founder Says He Never Met Obama

White House offered “guidance” to second witness in LightSquared inquiry

Congress needs to look into the allegations of witness manipulation on behalf of LightSquared, especially Shelton’s claim of being pressured to make LightSquared look good.  If that pressure included insinuations of career damage for testifying honestly, then Congress needs to shine as much light on the connections between LightSqaured and the White House, and the decision to pressure the military on behalf of a donor.  At the very least, any further witnesses to Congress from this administration should be asked whether their testimony is entirely theirs, or whether someone else told them to testify in a particular manner.

Second Government Official Comes Forward To Charge That White House Lobbied Him On His Testimony, To Make It More Helpful To Donor/Ally LightSquared

Did Obama’s former investment play role in pressuring 4-star general to change testimony?

Presidents put their investments into blind trusts when they take office in order to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest.  Well, most modern Presidents do, anyway.  It seems that Obama considers himself an exception to this rule, or at the very least he did until April 2010.  The Washington Post’s Michael Shear reported at that time that Obama had refused to establish a blind trust:

In fact, President Obama has rejected the approach taken by most of his predecessors in the modern era.

His personal wealth — which is rapidly growing — is not shielded from his view.

Why not?

Officially, the answer is that the president wanted more transparency in his personal finances — fitting in with his pledges to be the most open White House in history.

“The choice not to have a blind trust is an effort to be transparent about where his money is kept, and the public can see his latest financial disclosure documents, which we have made public and accessible on the Web site,” a senior White House official said.

Well, sort of.  The records are not on line, but the White House website does have a request page, which promises to send a PDF of the financial disclosure forms quickly.  I’ve requested a copy and will check to see whether Obama still holds any position with LightSquared.  I’m going to guess no, only because it appears from Shear’s article that Obama converted most of his holdings into bonds in order to avoid the blind trust.

Republicans Want An Investigation Into LightSquared’s Ties To The Obama Administration

Recent reports and test results from a number of government agencies have found that if built, LightSquared signals, which occupy spectrum extremely close to the bandwidth used by GPS and, as they would be five billion times stronger than the GPS signal, would effectively drown it out.

Despite looming concerns over LightSquared’s interference with the millions of GPS signals shared by multiple government agencies from the FAA to the Department of Transportation, recent reports from media organizations depict the company lobbying the White House intensely for the deal to go through. The White House is seemingly complying.

One of the majority shareholders of LightSquared, Philip Falcone, is a major Democratic donor whose giving patterns in the past few years have skewed heavily leftward.  In an ongoing investigation into the company, the Center for Public Integrity has revealed the extent of Democratic ties in the company, as well as records of lobbying efforts timely coinciding with large political donations from the company.

Obama in the Bunker:

Captain Queeg? Or an overrated Heisman winner?

In downgraded America, the president has become scary. Both scary as in being pathetic and a failure, which is frightening because he’s in charge for a least another year. And scary because he’s gone more bellicose and angry.

Worst of all, is his personality fragmenting under the pressure?

Some say the president is now pathetic. Others defend him as “not evil.”

Which of course is like saying “I am not a crook.”

But that doesn’t mean he’s incapable of doing evil, in the old sense of causing great damage and hurt.

Anita Dunn on Obama White House: ‘This Place Would Be in Court For a Hostile Workplace’

“I remember once I told Valerie that, I said if it weren’t for the president, this place would be in court for a hostile workplace,” Dunn is heard telling Suskind. “Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”

Ironically, as this book comes out, so-called “feminists” are busy raising money so women can enjoy four more years of a hostile work environment.

The Wonk Who Wasn’t There

As one of the commenters at the Brothers Judd blog notes, the Home Alone analogy cuts both ways — Summers is admitting that there are no grown-ups in the Obadministration, and inadvertently including himself amongst the small-fry.

President Lazy

Face it, President Obama is lazy. CBS News can claim that President Bush took hundreds of days of vacation, but the fact is, President Bush’s vacations were to a Western White House in Crawford, Texas.

The problem with Barack Obama is he lacks a work ethic. He fancies himself as being part of the professorial class and once was an instructor on constitutional law. Academicians do not put in many hours of work — one study said the average 32 hours a week — and classes are held less than 30 weeks a year.

President Obama likes the perks of the job — parties, travel and vacation, vacation, vacation — but he lets the job slide too often. For all his pass-the-bill-now nonsense, President Obama has yet to write the bill to pass.

2012: The Fork in the Road…

The first shot of the Democratic Party Civil War. Note the people who are backing a primary challenge-environmentalists, unions, race warriors and run of the mill radical leftists. This will serve two functions: 1: Push the few remaining moderate/centrist JFK Democrats out of the party and 2: make for a very interesting convention. Chicago 1968, anyone? I hope the Charlotte PD is well trained in riot control. There is a wild card to all of this-if Hillary decides to run you will have a trifecta of implosion!… Liberals vow to challenge Obama in Democratic primaries

Mr. Nader and Mr. West are joined by Christ Townsend, of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, and Brent Blackwelder, president emeritus of Friends of the Earth.

Democratic Strategist: Obama Will Drop “Hope And Change” From 2012 Campaign Message…

For obvious reasons.

Obama’s 2012 Campaign: ‘No Hope, No Change’

You never really bought that hope nonsense, did you? Well, now that Barack Obama’s term as president has become nothing short of a complete disaster, the only way he can save his presidency is to play the class warfare game, divide Americans and trash his opponents. A truly uplifting message. Let’s face it, it could work, especially since he’s got a willing and enabling media to help carry water for him.

He’s Toast… 49% of Voters Will Definitely Not Vote for Far Left Obama Including Clear Majority of Independents

McClatchy-Marist Poll: Obama’s Approval Rating Hits New Low, 39%…

This would be the second major polling firm to find Obama falling below 40% as Gallup has had him in the 30s for a few weeks.

With Hispanic support for Obama waning, could Latino vote be up for grabs in 2012?

Obama Doesn’t Have a ‘Jewish Problem’ — He Has a People Problem

Former Hillary strategist: Obama plan is awesome — if he wants to lose the election

Voters see it as a last resort because the call for higher taxes always seems to follow a rapid increase in spending.  That was certainly true in 2010, when Democrats lost 63 seats in the House and nearly lost the Senate as well.  Penn reminds the White House that the anger over spending hasn’t yet dissipated from the midterms, and Obama is now stoking even more discontent by positioning himself as a typical tax-and-spend liberal — exactly as Mondale did in 1984.

That’s not the only historical parallel, either.  Penn thinks that Al Gore had the 2000 election sewed up until Gore went to his left and tried to run as a firebreathing populist.  John Kerry did the same thing in 2004, Penn says, with the same result.  Even in good times, voters don’t respond well to class warfare.

That will be especially true for Obama, who won in 2008 with what Penn says was a unique coalition of low- and high-income voters.  Obama lost the middle-class vote but in the end transcended income classes.  This latest John Edwardsesque iteration of Obama could solidify his hold on low-income voters, but he’s about to chase off everyone else.

Unsound Bites

How can we get away from the straitjacket of the current media “debate” format?

That format may serve the interests of the media by producing a fast-paced program, covering every candidate with even a remote chance of winning. But it does not serve the interest of the political party whose candidates are all diminished by being displayed in such large numbers, including many who are obviously just along for the ride, and in a setting where their attacks on each other turn them into a circular firing squad.

Either each political party can refuse to sanction “debates” in this format or the leading contenders can refuse to take part. Viable candidates are going to get covered in the media, whether they are part of a cattle show or not — and focussing on viable candidates can end the time-wasting distraction of the also-rans.

Tommy guns Wisconsin

He said much of what he plans to work on in a Senate run involves the issue of entitlements.

While on the show, Thompson criticized President Obama’s proposed tax moves.

“He is addicted to spending and taxes,” said Thompson.

“I cut taxes 91 times, and every time I cut taxes, we were able to expand the economy and create jobs. 14 years ago, when I was the governor, we increased the jobs in the state of Wisconsin by 742,000 new jobs.”

Keep This Image In Your Head From Now Until Primary Day

Mitt Yucking It Up With Teddy and Friends When Signing RomneyCare into Law.

The Texas Story Is Real

Perry Rips Obama’s “Naïve, Arrogant, Misguided And Dangerous” Anti-Israel Policies, Time To Stop Our “Appeasement Toward The Palestinians”…

Those policies aren’t going to change until we toss Obama from the White House.

Soros-Funded Liberal Bedwetters Outraged Rick Perry Cites His Christian Faith As a Reason to Support Israel…

It’s called Judeo-Christian heritage, maybe they should look into it.

I guess Michelle has read her latest poll numbers… ‘I was just relaying what the woman said’ Bachmann claims she did not say the HPV vaccine can cause mental retardation

Ron Paul Buys California GOP Straw Poll

Besides, the joke’s on the Paulians.  Despite many being purists and holding views far outside the Republican mainstream, they gave $37,000 or so to the Republican Party in return for a completely meaningless win.

HOLY. FREAKING. CRAP.

Does FCC know about this? How about AttackWatch? Now that I think of it, have we heard from Jill Filipovic, Jessica Valenti, Melissa McEwan or any of the other feminists? Because if Sarah Palin weren’t a Republican, I think they’d probably be outraged by this.

Look for the Union Label/Whackademia/The Badger Rebellion:

Obama’s Pleas for Civility Don’t Apply to Union Leaders

Californians: Do not get sick between Thursday and Saturday, because the unions are on the move

I’m surprised that there’s so little news about an upcoming nurses’ strike in Northern and Central California. This story should be a big deal, in large part because the nurses who are going on strike in thirty-four Northern and Central California hospitals actually have no complaint. Instead, they’re putting thousands of patients at risk because their union wants to show its sympathy to another union (emphasis mine):

Thousands of registered nurses plan to walk off the job at 34 hospitals in northern and central California on Thursday in one of the largest such labor actions here in years.

Up to 23,000 nurses could be involved in strikes at Children’s Hospital Oakland and the large Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente systems, union leaders said.

[snip]

Kaiser nurses signed a contract earlier this year, but they plan a sympathy strike Thursday to support members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, who will walk off the job at Kaiser facilities in a separate contract dispute.

Visitors “profoundly shaken” by “evil” at academic pro-pedophilia conference

“These mental health ‘professionals,’ and self-described pedophile and ‘gay’ activists were inexplicably able to cavalierly discuss, in an almost dismissive way, the idea of child rape,” Barber told LifeSiteNews. “They used flowery, euphemistic psychobabble to give quasi-scientific cover to a discussion about the worst kind of perversion.”

 Your tax dollars at work… Million Dollar Grant To 42-Year-Old Liberal Arts College Sure To Find A Way To Make The 9000-Year-Old Agriculture Industry “Sustainable”

In Other News…

Lying on the Internet a Felony? The Terrifying New Computer Fraud Act

So what constitutes a felony under this draconian act. Well according to Orin S. Kerr, a former federal prosecuter, law professor, and guest writer to the Wall Street Journal; a lot.

The Fraud Act may make anything that “exceeds authorized access” a felony. If this doesn’t sound terrifying than you might want to think again.
To Mr. Kerr this means a lot of things. Lying on Social Media, accessing anything on the Internet that your boss doesn’t want you to such as Facebook, even saying your 6 foot on a dating site when your really 5’11.

Will prosecutors actually charge a person who has violated this disgusting law? Well will just have to find out. But judging from the ludicrous charges prosecutors bring against ordinary American’s I wouldnt be suprised. They’re just doing their jobs.

Silver skydiver, 60, detached chute at 8,000ft to kill himself after leaving a suicide note

The Day I Left the Left

Ironically, it was precisely this hands-on advocacy journalism that led me to abandon leftist thought entirely. It was a long and painful process, like an old car where the parts start to go and then one day the engine finally throws a rod. One experience after the other led to more chinks in my ideological armor than there were Chinks in Mao’s Red Army. Against my better wishes, I found I do not have the inexhaustible capacity for cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias that most leftists seem to possess.

Sometimes the comments section of an article are more interesting and insightful then the article itself… The “Christianists” Aren’t Taking Over This Week

Outrageous: Rep.Mike Quigley (D-Il) apologizes to Muslims on behalf of America.

At about the 2:15 point in the above video, Quigley apologizes “on behalf of the country” for the discrimination that Muslims have suffered here in America.  I am so dumbfounded by his remarks that I am completely speechless.  I don’t think I even need to analyze this moron’s speech or give possible reasons as to why he would say something so stupid and un-American (like he’s suffering from an incurable mental illness or he’s on medication that makes him say crazy things). 

It’s obvious why he would feel the need to apologize to Muslims on behalf of the country….

He’s a Democrat.

FYI Mr. Quigley…You DO NOT speak for me because we owe NO ONE an apology…especially Muslims.

You could have FedEx’ed it for alot cheaper… Airlines accused of sky-high rip-off for charging $450 for just ONE oversized bag

Three Worst States to Conduct Business: California, New York, Illinois

The White City

Among the media, academia and within planning circles, there’s a generally standing answer to the question of what cities are the best, the most progressive and best role models for small and mid-sized cities. The standard list includes Portland, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, and Denver. In particular, Portland is held up as a paradigm, with its urban growth boundary, extensive transit system, excellent cycling culture, and a pro-density policy. These cities are frequently contrasted with those of the Rust Belt and South, which are found wanting, often even by locals, as “cool” urban places.

But look closely at these exemplars and a curious fact emerges. If you take away the dominant Tier One cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles you will find that the “progressive” cities aren’t red or blue, but another color entirely: white.

Connecticut Supreme Justice Tells Susette Kelo (Homeowner Victimized In Kelo Decision) “I’m Sorry”

The New Most Dangerous Cities In America

Monroe car bomb seriously injures three, ATF & several law enforcement agencies on scene

Attacked by thugs, but then ignored by Minneapolis cops

Rafael Lopez is a U.S. Army veteran who served two yearlong tours in Iraq. The first, in 2003-2004, he describes as nerve-racking. The second, which came after the troop surge, he describes as almost like a vacation.

But the war did not prepare the 27-year-old for what happened to him and a group of his friends one recent morning in downtown Minneapolis, which some folks say resembles the Wild, Wild West these days.

Lopez, of Coon Rapids, and two married couples he knows were attacked by a gang of 10 men ages 16 to early 20s, shortly after the group of friends left the Aqua nightclub in the city’s Warehouse District early Sept. 2. The brazen assault took place not more than 30 feet from the 1st Police Precinct station on Fourth Street between Hennepin Avenue and First Avenue North.

Now, if I were going to get assaulted, I would think that being next to a police station would be the best place to be. Help is next door, right? Not that morning, according to an internal affairs unit complaint filed by the group last weekend.

Massachusetts Millionaires Ask to Pay More Taxes

While this reform would increase taxpayer choice, it might generate little revenue. Arkansas, Massachusetts, and Virginia taxpayers already may pay above and beyond their usual top rates, though few do this. When Massachusetts cut its top tax rate to 5.3 percent in 2001, it let guilty liberals pay the old 5.85 percent rate if they wished. According to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, as of June 15, only 930 taxpayers opted to do so on their 2004 returns generating an extra $246,505. In 2002, 2,215 taxpayers paid the higher rate, yielding $341,829. Among 3,218,572 returns filed in 2003, only 1,488 (or 0.046 percent) paid the voluntary higher rate, adding $209,216 to state coffers.

This is why Obama is coming after your wallet. His rich friends won’t voluntarily pay higher taxes, so he’s coming after you.

CASA de Maryland: The Illegals’ ACORN

Cheating by teachers invalidates schools’ test scores

Twenty-two California schools had their test scores thrown out this year for reasons ranging from outright cheating to comparatively minor mistakes, such as failing to cover up bulletin boards or stumbling over instructions.

When Obama said “A [light-rail] project in Houston that will help clear up one of the worst areas of traffic in the country.”  in his jobs speech I howled with laughter. Anyone who knows anything about the subject knows that it is essentially ‘light rail to nowhere’ and it does absolutely nothing to alleviate ‘traffic problems’ outside of hitting lots of cars and pedestrians. There is a good reason why the locals call it “The Danger Train”… Major Texas Metro Areas Are Confirming Failures in Rail Transit

Saving indigenous people from themselves

And this is really the core point to this post:  A lot of people in America spend an inordinate amount of time and money keeping indigenous people “down on the farm,” so to speak.  But are we really doing them a favor ensuring that they get to enjoy the same marginal subsistence life they’ve had for centuries (or more), rather than giving them a passport to the modern world?  Do they really deserve to be forced to be living archeological museum pieces to protect them from the poison of Western civilization?

Netflix CEO: ‘I slid into arrogance’

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has issued an apology for the handling of a recent price hike that had Netflix subscribers in a lather and led to a number of subscriber cancellations and a drop in stock price. And he’s also announced that Netflix will split into two separate services: Netflix for streaming and “Qwikster” for DVDs by mail.

“I messed up,” Hastings says in a blog post published tonight (the complete text is at the end of this post–along with an accompanying video about the new Qwikster service). “It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology.”

‘Dancing with the Stars’ wanted Bill Clinton to join show, but ‘I didn’t have time to train for it’

The former President revealed to Rachael Ray on Thursday that the ABC show actually reached out to him about putting on his dancing shoes (and those sparkly costumes).

Although Clinton, 65, said he found the offer “interesting,” unfortunately he couldn’t work it into his busy schedule.
“I told them I didn’t have the time to train for it,” said Clinton. “You know you actually go out there and you train, you really work at it. So I had to pass. But I think it’s a hoot.

Tennessee Republican Resuscitates Man at Airport: ‘The Guy Was Dead’

One of those occasions when you need a doctor and there he is happening by.

Is atheism linked to autism? Controversial study points to relationship between the two

MSM Circus and Celebutard Side Show:

Liberal Blob Michael Moore: Obama’s Class Warfare Rhetoric “Music To My Ears”…

Obama earns the coveted Jabba the Hutt seal of approval.

David Brooks Admits: “I’m an Obama Sap”

Supposedly he’s a “conservative,” at least on fiscal matters, and ergo should have opposed Obama on those grounds. But for David Brooks, the idea of a man with an impeccably-creased trousers, who spoke with a Bluffer’s Guide fluency about Reinhold Niebuhr, who would make our national dialogue possibly sound more like Firing Line than Crossfire, trumped all tangible political goals such as keeping government spending down and limiting government’s expansion into new areas which it could screw up.

But no. For David Brooks, a sharp trouser crease trumped a sharp demarcation of the boundary of government intrusiveness.

Consider what this says about David Brooks.

What I mean is this: If this weak, vague, gauzy crap is your greatest concern, what does that say about you?

NYT’s Keller: With Obama’s Term Two-Thirds Over, Everything Is Still Bush’s Fault

As John Podhoretz of Commentary tweeted Monday morning: “Shorter Bill Keller: Obama’s troubles are Bush’s fault. So that means Bush passed both the stimulus and Obamacare!”

I only need one paragraph of Bill Keller’s “writing” to fisk an entire op-ed

Voluntary Taxes? Obama Will ‘Ask the Rich’ to Pay More, Claims New York Times

Note this paragraph, because you’ll see it again:

The Obama proposal has little chance of becoming law unless Republican lawmakers bend. But by focusing on the wealthiest Americans, the president is sharpening the contrast between Republicans and Democrats with a theme he can carry into his bid for re-election in 2012.

Oh Brother… New York Magazine Calls Obama the First Jewish President

In May Barack Obama urged Israel to hand over half of Jerusalem, the Wailing Wall, The Temple Mount, Old Jerusalem, and the tomb of Jesus Christ to the Hamas-Fatah terrorist alliance.

Despite this, and his continued disrespect of our American ally, New York Magazine this week contends that President Obama is the First Jewish President.

If this is the case his mother must have been one of the stars at a ‘dog and pony’ show because he is a Jackass… Nice. Dem Strategist Bob Beckel Accuses Texans of Scr*wing Sheep (Video)

Super creepy Joe McGinniss on Today Show promoting his slimey “book”

What do Tom Friedman and Hamas have in common?

Greta VanSusteren and Tucker Carlson Go At It, Hard, Over Daily Caller’s Tyson/Palin Post

“I think you’re lying, Tucker.”

He responds by asking her why she gives convicted rapist Mike Tyson puff interviews.

Then it starts to get personal.

Can The Daily Caller survive?

Carlson tried to call it mere news reporting, but it was pure traffic baiting.  Greta saw it for what it was, and Carlson just kept digging.

The damage to The Daily Caller is enormous.  It now is the subject of widespread mockery, such as this “Hitler” video from Three Bears Later blog.

This is a disaster compounded by the folks at The Daily Caller digging while in a hole, and digging even harder when people called them out on it, and doubling down on the digging as it went viral.

Can The Daily Caller survive?  Should it?

Depends on how much money its investors want to throw at it, because at this point it’s a pretty deep hole they’ve dug.

Tony Bennett: America To Blame 9/11, “They Flew The Plane In, But We Caused It Because We Were Bombing Them And They Told Us To Stop”…

Rumor: ‘Glee’ Readies for Season of Tea Party Bashing

The larger picture here is 2012. Hollywood knows Obama can’t win on his failed record and therefore you can expect Hollywood (and the MSM) to pull out all the vicious stops to make our side unelectable. The worse Obama’s poll numbers get, the uglier all of this will get. Count on it.

Again, this is only a rumor, but it sure as heck sounds like the Chicago way, no?

Global Warmening:

New peer reviewed paper: clouds have large negative cooling effect on Earth’s radiation budget

Where’s the Heat? It’s Hiding!

Global warming alarmists have long been embarrassed by the fact that the Earth isn’t heating up to the extent that their models predict (assuming that it is heating up at all). In the world of science, when empirical observation contradicts a theory, the theory is deemed to be refuted. But global warming alarmism exists in the world of religion, so when empirical observation contradicts the theory, its proponents merely tinker with the theory so as to make it harder to falsify. A case in point is this AP story, which suggests that the “missing” heat may be hiding–their word, not mine–where we can’t find it…

Serial Adulterer Bill Clinton: GOP Global Warming Skeptics “Make America Look Like a Joke”…

Hey, Bill, you know what else makes America look like a joke? A sitting president getting a blow job from a chubby intern while in the Oval Office then lying about it under oath.

More Green Confusion

So it is with some amusement this morning that I see the story in the Wall Street Journal today about how the latest violent protest in China was against a solar power manufacturing company.  (See the photos here: this looks like a serious, for-real protest.)  Wait—I thought solar power was clean and green?  You mean making solar panels involves pollution?  Who knew?  Nobody tell Al Gore or the Sierra Club.

Then, in this story in The Hill today about the Solyndra fallout, there is this wonderful little nugget:

“The biggest hurdle for U.S. [solar] manufacturers is that they have to compete with these giant Chinese companies that have access to huge amounts of capital, cheaper labor and more relaxed environmental policies,” Shiao said.

Wait—what was that last bit: “more relaxed environmental policies” in China?  But Tom Friedman keeps telling me that the Chinese are so much more enlightened than we are.  It’s enough to get a headache.  Oh, wait, it’s the whine from that huge wind turbine down the street that is giving me the headache.

Times Atlas ‘wrong’ on Greenland ice 

But the glossy publicity sheets begin with the contention that “for the first time, the new edition of the (atlas) has had to erase 15% of Greenland’s once permanent ice cover – turning an area the size of the United Kingdom and Ireland ‘green’ and ice-free.

“This is concrete evidence of how climate change is altering the face of the planet forever – and doing so at an alarming and accelerating rate.”

The Scott Polar group, which includes director Julian Dowdeswell, says the claim of a 15% loss in just 12 years is wrong.

“Recent satellite images of Greenland make it clear that there are in fact still numerous glaciers and permanent ice cover where the new Times Atlas shows ice-free conditions and the emergence of new lands,” they say in a letter that has been sent to the Times.

“We do not know why this error has occurred, but it is regrettable that the claimed drastic reduction in the extent of ice in Greenland has created headline news around the world.

“There is to our knowledge no support for this claim in the published scientific literature.”

Atlasgate: ‘A Killer Mistake That Cannot Be Winked Away’

Michael Hanlon is hot on the trail.

What seems to have happened – and I am happy to be corrected if wrong – is that a decision has been made to single out Greenland, as the poster-child of global warming, for special and unique cartographic treatment which has massively and deliberately exaggerated the extent of ice-cover loss.

This makes a good story which will, they hoped, give the Atlas some publicity.

But it has backfired, badly. Scientists who believe in climate change – and that means nearly all of them – are dismayed by what has happened.

They know that the skeptics will have a field day with this. And they are right.

The Easy Bake Oven is a victim of Global Warmening…R.I.P.  Hasbeen

it’s hard to believe that from now on, American youth won’t know what it’s like to learn about cooking (or burn units) by way of plastic ovens and light bulbs.

This Week’s ‘Albert Gore Jr. Award for Eco-Hypocrisy’ Goes To…

The Sock Drawer:

Top 10 Demotivational Posters of All-Time

Baby Panthers In Boxes

It was a JOINT effort: Arthritic cat is on top of the world after owners build him a spiral staircase to get over garden fence

Milking the pigeon: Birds can also lactate to feed their chicks (including the fathers)

Too bad Sharks are in danger of extinction due to the Chinese desire for Shark Fin Soup… Shark Molecule Kills Human Viruses, Too

18 Lessons from 5 Years Around the World

Mother tongue? It’s more likely to have come from your father – alongside fire and the sword

It’s Alive! ALIVE!: Around the World in 62 Seconds

Star Trek Vertical Comics: Wesley Crusher Gets What’s Coming To Him

I need to get a copy… Quantum cooking: Microsoft scientist claims to have written ‘the greatest work on food ever’ (with some cool pix)

Whataburger has been doing this for years… Dip and Squeeze: Heinz flogs redesigned ketchup packets in grocery stores after complaints about ‘too messy’ sachets

Genius: Researchers Turn HIV Modeling Problem Into a Competitive Game; Gamers Apparently Come Up With Ballpark-Accurate Answer

Here is a game for you… GalaxyZoo: The Hunt for Supernovae

‘I’m alone in the world. I don’t know who I am’: The first words of ‘forest boy’ who now wants to go back to live in the wild

How I built my hobbit house, for just $5,000 armed only with a chisel and hammer

Quote of the Day:

Now we all CLEARLY see that all of this, all of the “stimulus”, all of the “green” carney hack scams, the entire Obama regime and the Marxist cabal running this country is about looting as much cash as possible from the Treasury. That’s it. Dump half a billion into a fake Potemkin Plant, let the executives skim about 10% of that off the top, of which a certain percentage goes right back to the Obama regime through campaign contributions, bring in other cronies as “investors” and then subordinate the government loan BEHIND the crony “investors”, and finally BK the whole thing in 12 months and sell off the equipment and assets to even more cronies for 10 cents on the dollar. –Anne Barnhardt on Solyndra

 Must Reads of the Day:

• Rex Murphy: The media’s love affair with a disastrous president

As a result, the press gave the great American republic an untried, unknown and, it is becoming more and more frighteningly clear, incompetent figure as President. Under Obama, America’s foreign policies are a mixture of confusion and costly impotence. It is increasingly bypassed or derided; the great approach to the Muslim world, symbolized by the Cairo speech, is in tatters. Its debt and deficits are a weight on the entire global economy. And the office of presidency is less and less a symbol of strength.

To the degree the press neglected its function as watchdog and turned cupbearer to a styrofoam demigod, it is a partner in the flaws and failures of what is turning out to be one of the most miserable performances in the modern history of the American presidency.

• Dubya and Me
• Houston, We Have a Solution

Detroit’s fall can be traced to the race riots of 1943, though many decades of prosperity and achievement still lay ahead. The rise and fall of Detroit is history on an epic scale: Favored by fortune at first, then plowed under its wheel, the city has had a lot of bad luck. But as Oscar Wilde lamented as he languished in Reading Gaol near the end of his life: “I must say to myself that I ruined myself, and that nobody great or small can be ruined except by his own hand . . . Terrible as was what the world did to me, what I did to myself was far more terrible still.”

Houston had suffered race riots, too, during World War I, but fortune would smile on it for most of the 20th century. And when oil prices collapsed in the mid-1980s, sending the city into a depression, it bounced back as if suspended from a bungee cord — even though the oil bust lasted nearly two decades. What Houston did for itself is not merely a model for any city facing the danger of sudden economic decline: The policies that Houston and Texas have followed are proof of concept for the conservative vision of government, which is, essentially, to keep the government off the people’s backs and let a free society find its own way to prosperity.

Detroit, conversely, is proof of concept for the liberal vision of government, which seeks to solve every problem through government, to shape economic development through government, to redress grievances through government, to attain social justice through government, and, finally, to insinuate government into every aspect of our lives. The problems Detroit faced in the latter half of the 20th century would have been enormously challenging no matter what policies it embraced. But it embraced the worst ones and so plunged recklessly down the slope of decline.

Each city has offered a nearly pure exposition of a particular philosophy of government and a vivid demonstration of the results. In the degree of collusion between business and government, in the power of labor unions, in the method of economic development, in the burden of taxation and regulation, in the tolerance for diversity — in all these ways and more, the two cities stand as diametric opposites in the choices a society can make.

• 12 Tips for the New Normal

Few investment legends have weathered more than Richard Russell.  Born in the Great Depression, Russell knows what it’s like to live in hard times.  And in this new normal he has some survival tips.

• Behold, The Circle of Government Life

“So to recap: massive government subsidies created 1,100 “green jobs” that never would’ve existed but for those massive government subsidies.  And when those fake jobs disappeared because the subsidized employer company couldn’t compete in the market, the workers blamed China (instead of what’s easily one of the worst business plans ever drafted) in order to receive… wait for it… more government subsidies.

• Gee, I wonder why SAT scores keep dropping, federal education spending keeps increasing, and teachers’ union bosses keep buying bigger BMWs?

Despite the overwhelming evidence that charter schools level the educational playing field for both white and black students, Obama and the Democrat Party leadership have crushed and suppressed school choice programs like that in Washington, DC. Thanks to the all-powerful Democrat constituency — teachers’ unions like the AFT and the NEA — freeing kids from the slavery of failed public school systems is forbidden.

The Wall Street Journal points out the hypocrisy in stark terms: “President Obama and his Education Secretary have repeatedly promised to support “what works,” regardless of ideology. But the teachers’ unions adamantly oppose school vouchers, which provably work and work well. Ergo, Messrs. Obama and Duncan decided to kill a D.C. school voucher program that worked fabulously. Instead, they have forced poor kids back into the failed public schools that Messrs. Obama and Duncan would never deign to send their own children. What a disgrace.”

• George Will: Our floundering ‘federal family’

In societies governed by persuasion, politics is mostly talk, so liberals’ impoverishment of their vocabulary matters. Having damaged liberalism’s reputation, they call themselves progressives. Having made the federal government’s pretensions absurd, they have resurrected a supposed synonym for the government, the “federal family.” Having made federal spending suspect, they advocate “investments” — for “job creation,” a euphemism for stimulus, another word they have made toxic.

Barack Obama, a pitilessly rhetorical president, continues to grab the nation by its lapels, demanding its attention, and is paying the price: The nation is no longer listening. This matters because ominous portents are multiplying.

• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Pinch

as Pete Seeger once told the New York Times, “I like to say I’m more conservative than Goldwater. He just wanted to turn the clock back to when there was no income tax. I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other.”

Just as long as it’s the right village, somewhere far out of sight, where the low-income housing won’t clash with the namesake of the location where half a million high-income hippies had their ultimate moment of nostalgie de la boue.

Billboard of the Day!

Tweet of the Day!

Photo of the Day: Separated at Birth?

LOLOLOLOLOLOL! Report card of the day

Letter to the Editor of the Day- Readers’ Views: Objection from a former sailor

Video of the Day-Bill Whittle: What We Did Right

Classic Videos of the Day:

Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. -John Maynard Keynes

You have been hearing alot about the contrasting economic theories of Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes over the past few years though most do not know who these men were and what their theories are. I will be the first to admit that books about economic theory make for ‘dry as a popcorn fart’ reading. These two video are really good at encapsulating their theories in an entertaining and memorable fashion.

• “Fear the Boom and Bust” a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem
• Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two

Japan and the softly glowing world…

Conversion chart from Heath Canada 

   Chart via RealityCheck

Experts: Possibility of evacuating parts of Tokyo can no longer be ignored — Fukushima ‘worse’ than Chernobyl (VIDEO)

Regarding the Fukushima worker who recently died of acute leukemia…

Since the worker was an employee of a subcontractor, who, in turn, was operating under a different subcontractor at the plant, and understanding full well Tepco’s nature to understate bad news, it’s no surprise that the company has swept the incident under the rug without providing hardly any information to the public.  Here is what’s being disclosed:

• The worker was a male, in his 40′s
• He was engaged in “radiation control” work starting in “early August”
• Tepco was informed on August 16 from a subcontractor that a worker had died
• “Acute Leukemia” is the diagnosis provided

There are three basic types of acute leukemia, but Tepco did not get into specifics.  If what they are saying is true, then this guy came down with all the symptoms of either acute lymphocytic leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia or acute mylogenous leukemia during his very brief 3 week tenure at Daiichi and died during the early onset of the disease.  Reports have not indicated that he had a preexisting condition with the cancer.  Freak coincidence?

Radioactive manganese-54, silver-110m and cobalt-60 found in seaweed sample 30km south of Fukushima

Tsunami debris are nearing Midway island, Hawaii not far off

California Cows are Happy GLOWING Cows… Both cesium-134 and cesium-137 increase in latest San Francisco Bay Area milk sample (CHART)

Report: St. Louis rainwater shows radiation dose at 13.3 microsieverts per hour — 130+ times background (VIDEO)

World News:

Europe has its own SCOAMF and it’s called the Eurozone: Ex-PM Gordon Brown admits that “it’s an hour to midnight”

…The euro cannot survive in its present form, it’s going to have to be reformed dramatically. We are I think at an hour to midnight in the way that we look at this issue…

European banks as a whole are grossly under-capitalized… In 2008, governments could intervene to sort out the problems of banks. In 2011, banks have problems, but so too do governments… We’ve now got the interplay between banks that are not properly capitalized and sovereign debt problems that have arisen partly because we’ve socialized or accepted responsibility for the banks’ liabilities.

At some point in the very near future, the world will be forced to acknowledge the failed progressive-socialist policies of centrally-planned “fairness”, unlimited welfare, open immigration policies and heavy unionization.
It’s unfortunate that the lesson will be learned — once again — by the world’s poorest souls who were led down the same catastrophic, Statist path by liberals, who have never gotten a single policy right, ever.

Why Are Gold Prices So High?

The Dutch Ask Their Central Bank: “Where Is Our Gold?”

Think Ron Paul is the only person asking questions about the actual gold supposedly backing the currency in circulation. Think again: the “ask your central banker where his gold is” tour just went global after the Dutch the Dutch Socialists Party (SP)’s spokesman for financial affairs, Mr. Ewout Irrgang, asked the Dutch Secretary of the Treasury 10 detailed questions about the gold supposedly held by the Dutch Central Bank. Questions vary from: where is the gold? why are gold and gold receivables one line item? how much gold is loaned out? As Dutch website Vrijspreker.nl points out, “This is potentially a big breakthrough for global awareness on how central banks hide crucial info from the public and the disastrous effects central banks have on society.” Is Belgium next to ask the same question in a vain attempt to understand just how much of its gold is permanently “lent out“? And after Belgium, everyone else with a central bank perhaps?

From Arab Spring To Greek Autumn To European Winter

European Leaders Remain Divided, Geithner Brushed Off; German Banks Need $175 Billion Capital

Did Papandreou Just Get The Worst Possible News?

Did everyone’s favorite pathologically lying Prime Minister finally get the long overdue bad news? After yesterday Bloomberg released the following succinct statement… “Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will meet with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde in Washington on Sept. 20, according to an e-mailed statement from the premier’s office in Athens. On the same day, Papandreou will also meet with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, according to the statement. Papandreou will visit New York and Washington from Sept. 18 through to Sept. 23, and will speak at the United Nations General Assembly, the email said.” BBC News now follows it up with…. “Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has cancelled a visit to the US because of the seriousness of the country’s debt crisis, Greek media reported, quoting government sources. State TV said he decided to return home after consultations with Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos. Mr Papandreou planned to attend the UN General Assembly and IMF meetings. The decision comes a day after eurozone ministers delayed a decision over debt-ridden Greece’s next bailout loan.” Having acted like a petulant child most of his political career, did G-Pap just pull the final act and “retaliate” at the IMF and the US for snubbing him in the only way he knows – by refusing to grant Timmy G and Lagarde an audience? In the meantime, Europe believes it is ready to cut the cord with Greece…

Is September 20 Greek Default Day?

For the first time ever, a clear majority (60%) of Germans no longer sees any benefits to being part of the Eurozone

More Horrible News For Merkel As German Pirate Party Gets 40% Of CDU Vote In Berlin

This is just a guess, but when almost 10% of Germans want the pirates to be in charge, you may have a political problem on your hands.

American taxpayers could be forced to foot the bill if Fed’s bailout of faltering Eurozone turns sour

Obama and Geithner Advising the Europeans on Fiscal Crisis?!? This Is a Case of the Blind Leading the Blind…on Steroids

Your eyes are not deceiving you. Obama and Geithner want more bailouts, which will simply encourage more profligacy. And the President even endorsed more harmonization of economic policy, which will exacerbate the problems in Europe by leading to higher taxes, more spending, and additional regulation.

But you have to give Obama and Geithner credit. They support the same bad policies on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Obama, however, is not fully consistent in his beliefs. During a visit to Africa, he said, “No business wants to invest in a place where government skims 20 percent off the top.” But I guess bigger government is okay in Europe, where the burden of government is already 50 percent of economic output.

Geithner Gets Told To Blow It Out His Azz

But there’s plenty wrong with Geithner’s claims that we can keep playing this game on an indefinite forward basis and never have to pay the check engendered by doing so.  That has never worked over time because it mathematically cannot, and yet our government refuses to accept and acknowledge that fact.

It appears that Europe is starting to “get it.”  They’ve come to the conclusion that nations cannot run deficits on a perpetual basis that exceed economic growth.  The “3%” rule appears reasonable assuming that economic growth can reach 3%, and it probably can over material periods of time.  While a better rule is “0%”, simply because the natural evolution of all economies is a mild deflation (due to productivity improvements) this is certainly better than our situation today – or theirs.  Such a rule would limit the United States to a $450 billion deficit inclusive of financing costs, which means that functionally our operating deficit limit would be about $200 billion today, dwindling toward zero the longer we kept it up.

Greece, for its part, appears to know the gig is up too.  Papandreou has apparently decided not to meet with the IMF and Geithner this weekend, choosing instead to return to Greece.

The pyramid that has sustained the “rally” in risk-asset prices over the last two years appears to be about to have its legs cut out from under it.  A couple of weeks ago I said that I expected you’d have one more chance to get out of the market if you were stuck long risk assets.

That opportunity may in fact be about to expire.

Moody’s Continues Review Of Italy’s Aa2 Ratings For Possible Downgrade, To Conclude Review Within Next Month

Interactive Infographic Of The Doomed European Financial System

Navarra Region of Spain Bankrupt by End of Year “No Money to Pay Workers or Provide Services”; Electricity cut off to Spanish town over unpaid bills

Does anyone really think austerity measures are going to help Spain reach its deficit ceiling targets by 2013?

Is the plan then to suck Spain dry before it defaults?

More than likely “sucking Spain dry” will be the end result of delusional bailout attempts rather than the plan. From the point of view of Spain, it loses regardless.

The collapse of the eurozone, ctd

“On a wider level, there’s some irony in the fact that the UK and the EU are squabbling over euro-denominated transactions. Who even knows which countries will still be using the euro by the time the year is out? Exactly what kind of euro will be cleared in clearing houses come Christmas?”

Someone explain to me why we are in the EU. I am sure there is a reason, but bugger me if I can remember now. Old age creeping in

The War Against The Young: Warning From Italy and Japan

The war on the young is led “by cadres of elderly men, content to manage decline” and exacerbated by younger generations, who don’t seem to know what’s going on or understand the gravity of the financial situation that will hit them in the future.

As Ireland collapses, 25-44 year olds flee the nation

Monstrous lies unfolding at the U.N. this week

One lie is that there is a historically and ethnically distinct Palestinian people, but that lie is so well established that it is beyond argument now.  Even if Palestinian nationalism was a fiction created in the last few decades as a tool against Israel, that horse has left the gate.  Nonetheless, it is worth pointing out the historical truth as a defense to the war to delegitimize Israel and portray Jews as occupiers.

But it is not too late to deal with the second lie which is unfolding, that Palestinians  want a state as part of a solution to their war with Israel.  In fact they want a state as a stepping stone to the destruction of Israel.  It’s just a tactical move, because everything else has failed.

Britain has travelled steadily towards the edge of the cliff

The tenth anniversary of 9/11 has been marked by a fresh outbreak in Britain of the political equivalent of auto-immune disease: treating the mortal enemies of the west as the victims of the west, while treating the west’s defenders as its mortal enemies.

One thing al Qaeda got right about Britain and Europe (but not about the patriotic heartlands of the US) was that they no longer had the will to fight and die for their beliefs because they no longer knew what they were.
Surely, however, even al Qaeda could not have envisaged quite how stunningly incapable the western intelligentsia and political class would be of grasping the difference between civilisation and its would-be destroyers, and how comprehensively they would therefore play into the Islamists’ hands – even now, ten years on.

White House: We Took Lead In Recognizing New Libyan Government. Reality: France Did It Four Months Prior…

Not that it’s anything to brag about.

Malik Shabazz Goes to Bat for Muammar Gaddafi

Cheer up, Ka-daffy. Bleak as things look, you still have friends — which is more than we can say for the Moonbat Messiah if he’s losing even supporters like White House visitor Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panthers, on the behalf of which Obama’s “Justice” Department reduced itself to a farce.

Rebel Rupture

Can Libya’s fledgling government get along, or will internal rivalries and tensions tear it apart?

The Arab Disease

All that terrorism was a sign that some Arabs are very unhappy. For decades, the powers-that-be refused to acknowledge why the kids were pissed off. Thanks to all those suicide bombs and breathless news reports, the family secret was out there for the entire world to see. No, not the al Qaeda “the West is making war on Islam,” canard, but an earlier al Qaeda call to overthrow the corrupt leaders of the Arab countries. Al Qaeda has to come up with the “war on Islam” angle to justify September 11, 2001, and earlier attacks. But the root cause is bad leadership at home.

The Palestinians have used terrorism against each other, as well as the Israelis, and it has not worked. The Arab states that donate so much money to the Palestinians have noted that, as well as the fact that Palestinians supported Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and the threat to keep going (had not the American led coalition promptly shown up.) Palestinians continue to support al Qaeda, which is still at war with the Arab nations Palestinians depend on for payroll money.

So when the king of Saudi Arabia tells the assembled Arab leadership that they are the problem, you can take that as a sign of progress. But real progress it ain’t. Arab leaders are victims of their own success. Their rule is based on corruption and police state tactics. Think East Europe before 1989. Big difference is that, although the populations of East Europe then, and the Arab world now, were both fed up with their leaders and governments, the Arabs were not willing to make as painless a switch as the East Europeans did in the 1990s. That’s because the East Europeans had two choices; communism or democracy. The Arabs have three; despotism, democracy or Islamic dictatorship.

Syrian Anti-Regime Cleric: “Tear Christians Into Pieces And Feed Them To The Dogs

Syria’s another country destined to become an Islamist-ruled hellhole once Assad falls.

Tunisia: Salafi Islamists Seize Control Of Christian Basilica, Want It Converted To a Mosque…

The Islamic Winter is in full swing.

Nigerian Suicide Bomber a Message to “Obama And Other Infidels”…

Erdogan Has Good Reason To Be Crazy

It doesn’t occur to liberals that there are problems for which solutions might not exist; the notion that cultures and countries may suffer from tragic flaws does not enter into consideration, because if that were true, there would be no need for liberals. That is why Friedman, the bellwether of liberal opinion, sounds stupider than anyone else when he describes Israel as “alone and adrift at sea.” If only Netanyahu had offered his own peace plan, complains Friedman…to Hamas? A news analysis in the Times meanwhile reports the Obama administration’s consternation that every pillar of its foreign policy is crumbling at once.

If the Obama administration and the New York Times are pulling their hair out over the disintegration of Arab society, consider how Tayyip Erdogan must feel. His economic boom is about to come to a crashing end, and his country is doomed demographically to split up when Kurds outnumber Turks not long from now, as I argued here recently. And his ambitions for Turkish hegemony in the Muslim world have run directly into an existential crisis that is long past solution. That would make anyone crazy. Don’t think of the Turkish leader as an outpatient who lost his meds. In the spirit of political correctness, we might call him “existentially challenged. ”

It would be easy to overestimate just how dangerous Erdogan might become. The estimable David Warren calls him “the man who could trigger a world war.” That seems alarmist. Whom is Erdogan going to fight? Any military provocation would lead to a further collapse of the Turkish currency, and a deep setback for the Turkish economy

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan Tells Cairo Crowd: Gaza Flotilla Was “Cause For War”

Turkey To Obama: We Hate Da Joooos And Nothing You Can Say Will Change Our Minds

Don’t they know Obama has god-like healing powers?

Dangerous Turkey

Want to know the real reason behind Turkey catching a case of “I can’t believe it’s not Jihad” syndrome? Well, here it is! Gas find prospect increasing tension in eastern Med

At least 15 killed in anti-Saleh march in Yemen

At least 15 protesters were killed in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Sunday, when gunfire broke out at one of the biggest demonstrations against President Ali Abdullah Saleh in recent months, a Reuters witness said.

Allah Akbar!… Sudanese Islamists Visit Gaza – Promise to Wage Jihad Against Jews (Video)

Only idiots, the MSM and Kumbayah singing liberals (but I repeat myself) bought into this one… Hopes of early freedom for American hikers jailed in Iran dashed as release judge ‘on holiday’

Palestinian Officials: On Second Thought, We’ll Allow Jews To Live Here…

I wonder if they will be surprised when no Jews take them up on their offer?

Pakistani Taliban Vow To Attack Weddings And Funerals Of Their Enemies

Dengue adds to Pakistan’s woes

On top of a raging insurgency and devastating seasonal floods, Pakistan is reeling from a particularly acute outbreak of dengue fever that has left local authorities scrambling to contain the epidemic.

Walter Russell Mead: Is Pakistan At War With the United States?

Earthquake rocks Nepal, 5 killed, 44 injured

Australia’s Carbon tax’s poisonous pill

Yes, we will be the laughing stock of the world, seen jumping head first off a cliff into a shark infested sea, as we will have no way back, because we were sold a tax that has nothing to do with climate change, instead introduced purely for egotistic governance.

Message to Japan and United States – Mongolian President bans external talks on nuclear waste storage plans

Creepy Pictures From The Hidden 5th Floor Of A North Korean Hotel

‘Sex strike’ by women brings peace to Philippine village

Women in a strife-torn village who wanted to bring peace and prosperity threatened to withhold sex if their men kept fighting. And obviously, they won!

Stock up on incandescent light bulbs while you still have the chance… China Puts Squeeze on Rare Earth Metals Resulting in Compact Flourescent Bulb Prices to Skyrocket

By closing or nationalizing dozens of the producers of rare earth metals — which are used in energy-efficient bulbs and many other green-energy products — China has sent the price of compact fluorescent bulbs soaring in the United States.

US News:

HORRIFIC CRASH at National Airshow in Reno, 3 Dead— VIDEO

‘I closed my eyes and prepared to die’: witnesses relive horrific moment stunt plane hurtled into crowd

Is this missing piece of plane’s tail the reason nine people died in Reno air show horror crash?

Start looking to the skies: Six-tonne satellite plummeting back to Earth… faster than expected and there’s a one in 3,200 chance it could hit someone

The mission behind the Medal

Bing West’s Wall Street Journal column on the Medal of Honor awarded to then Marine Corporal (now Sergeant) Dakota Meyer provides context and detail lacking in most of the news accounts occasioned by yesterday’s White House ceremony. Sergeant Meyer was awarded the Medal for his day-long heroics during a September 2009 ambush in Afghanistan rescuing a group “abandoned by their chain of command,” according to West.

Double tragedy for Democrat families: Daughters of Ted Kennedy and Walter Mondale both die at 51 from brain cancer

Hundreds of Islamo-Leftists March Against Israel in New York City

Leading US Atheist Calls for “Eradication” of Christians

Obama’s allies and Holder’s DOJ protected race warriors… New Black Panther President Tells Harlem Audience: Gird Your Loins, This Is War Against Capitalist Bloodsucker America

Obama seen nodding in approval.

Malik Shabazz New Black Panthers: The Hour of War is at Hand: America’s Enemies are Not His Enemies: America Declared Guilty

I posted on this about a month ago as a ‘heads up’… “Day of Rage:” Alinskyites call for pointless mass sleepover on Wall Street

What do they want? They’re not really sure.

When do they want it? For a couple of months, or until the weather gets too cold, anyway.

A bunch of adrift Alinskyites and disorganized organizers from a group called “Adbusters” are converging in New York City for some reason or other. They’re bringing tents, sleeping bags, yoga instructors, face paint — and at some point, they’ll get around to deciding what their “one demand” is:

On Saturday thousands of us will occupy Wall Street. We will wave our signs, unfurl our banners, beat our drums, chant our slogans … and then we’ll get down to business and hold several people’s assemblies to decide what our “one demand” will be.

I find this particularly funny considering that some of the richest people in the world like George Soros, Teresa Heinz-Kerry, Ted Turner, Wendy Rockefeller, John R. MacArthur, Peter Lewis, et al use their “greedy, ill gotten billions” to fund every radical leftist, Islamofascist and enviroterrorist organization in America. Don’t believe me? Take a tour through the sewer over at Discover the Networks… ‘We won’t put up with their greed any more’: Demonstrators try to take over Wall Street in protest against corruption and budget cuts

They wanted to turn New York’s financial district into an ‘American Tahrir Square’ by protesting against what they claim is the financial greed and corruption of the richest people in the U.S. More than 1,000 gathered in New York for the protest, but they were thwarted by police who put Wall Street on lockdown after learning about the plans through social media.

Day of FAIL: Nationwide anti-capitalist revolution flops

I dutifully sent my operatives out to cover what were to be three of the largest Day of Rage protests — in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles — so humanity would have a full record of this pivotal moment in history.

Really, I should have learned my lesson by now: The bigger the build-up to a protest, and the more grandiose the promises, the louder the sound of the bellyflop onto the dustbin of irrelevancy.

In other words: “Day of Rage” was a massive FAIL.

This photo essay includes photos from all three protest sites (NY, SF and LA) integrated together, to give you the feel of the fizzled revolution as a whole.

Here Is What Else To Expect From Obama Tomorrow Besides The “Buffett Plan”

Obama Takes Class Warfare To The Next Level With The “Buffet Rule” And A New “Millionaire Tax”: Is A Market Selloff Imminent?

Obama: Americans Must “Pay Their Fair Share” To Cover My Stimulus Plans…

Of course he’s the one who determines what’s “fair.”

Thomas Sowell: You Can’t Tax the Rich

In other words, the genuinely rich are likely to be the least harmed by high tax rates in the top brackets. People who are looking for jobs are likely to be the most harmed, because they cannot equally easily transfer themselves overseas to take the jobs that are being created there by American investments that are fleeing high tax rates at home.

Small businesses — hardware stores, gas stations, restaurants — are likewise unable to transfer themselves overseas. So they are far more likely to be unable to escape the higher tax rates that are supposedly being imposed on “millionaires and billionaires,” as President Obama calls them. Moreover, small businesses are what create most of the new jobs.

Why then are so many politicians, journalists, and others so gung-ho to raise tax rates on the rich?

Aside from sheer ignorance of history and economics, class-warfare politics pays off in votes for politicians who can depict their opponents as defenders of the rich and themselves as champions of the working people. It is a great political game that has paid off repeatedly in local, state, and federal elections.

Video: Paul Ryan Schools Schakowsky (D-Chicago Commie) On How Much Americans Should Be “Allowed” To Keep

We’re handing out trillions in ‘stimulus’ to Obama’s union thugs, race warriors, wackademics to study Lesbianism in Birds, radical leftists, ‘community organizers’ and to prop up the bankrupt bleu states that they feed off of like leeches, billions to buy car companies to keep the union leeches fat and happy feeding on those corpses, billions in loans and tax credits to Obama’s biggest bundlers, Hollywood studios and his crony capitalist buddies but Obama and the Democrats want military retirees to ‘pay their fair share’ by losing their benefits… Retiree Benefits for the Military Could Face Cuts

But within military circles, and among many members of Congress, the benefits are considered untouchable. Veterans groups and military leaders argue that the system helps retain capable commissioned and noncommissioned officers.

And having volunteered to put their lives at risk, those people deserve higher-quality benefits, supporters argue. The typical beneficiary, they add, is not a general but a retired noncommissioned officer, with an average pension of about $26,000 a year.

“The whole reason military people are willing to pursue a career is because after 20, 30 years of extraordinary sacrifice, there is a package commensurate with that sacrifice upon leaving service,” said Steven P. Strobridge, a retired Air Force colonel who is the director of government relations for the Military Officers Association of America, which is lobbying against changes to the benefits.

Michael Barone: Obama acts as shop steward in chief

The Obama White House won’t comment on the Boeing case, just as Obama himself had no comment when Teamsters President Jim Hoffa, introducing him at a Labor Day rally in Detroit, said of Tea Party backers, “Let’s take these son of a bitches out.”

The president’s eloquent and apparently heartfelt pleas for civility voiced after the Tucson shootings apparently don’t apply to union leaders.

Obama’s partiality to unions is apparently rooted in a conviction that we would be better off if every employee were represented by a union.

The marketplace says otherwise. Private-sector unionism has produced the General Motors and Chrysler bankruptcies, while states with strong public-sector unions, according to a Harvard study, have to pay higher interest rates to borrow money.

Obama’s “Jobs” Plan “a Blue-State Bailout In Disguise”

In a new study at Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, we discovered why the Obama administration is so interested in helping out the states. States with a bluish hue—that is, states with legislatures that are heavily Democratic and have a highly unionized public-sector work force—must pay interest rates that are often an extra half a percentage point higher than states with a reddish coloring.

Specifically, a 20 percentage-point increment in either the Democratic share of the state legislature or a comparable increase in the share of the public work force that is unionized drives up interest rates by nearly a half a percentage point on a five-year security note. That amount is nontrivial. In Obama’s home state of Illinois, it is costing governments over $700 million annually.

And because this costs these states’ more than they can afford (at acceptable rates of taxation), they need a new revenue source, one that doesn’t vote in the state… and that source is you, of course.

Only one thing can correct these states’ bad prioritization of values: Having to face their own voters, confronting voters with the choice of ever-more-generous pay and benefits for public employee unions or massive tax hikes.

Obama’s ‘Jobs Bill’ Makes ACORN Eligible for $15 Billion in Taxpayer Money

ACORN and other radical left-wing groups would be eligible for up to $15 billion in federal funding if President Obama’s new economic stimulus package becomes law.

Now that public polling shows Americans are realizing that economic stimulus programs don’t work, the Obama administration is calling the latest round of futile stimulus a “jobs bill.” In a sense it really is a jobs bill: a jobs bill for Saul Alinsky-inspired community organizers.

The draft legislation, which had not yet been introduced in Congress at press time, makes ACORN, Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), and a phalanx of leftist groups that regularly feed at the public trough eligible for funding.

Comprehensive List of All 14 Tax Hikes in Obama’s “Stimulus 2.0″ Plan

What do you think?  Will any of these 14 tax hikes help create jobs?

White House Official: Obama Will Call Jobs Plan Tax Hike The “Buffett Rule”…

Obviously the fact that Buffett’s effective tax rate is low is because he lives mainly off of dividends which are taxed at only 15% makes no difference. Millions of middle-class retired Americans also live off of dividends, will all of them fall under Obama’s new “Buffett rule”?

5 Myths Behind Obama’s Infrastructure Spending Push

Shortly after the $830 billion stimulus bill was enacted in 2009, President Obama boasted that it included the “largest new investment since President Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System,” and said it would “help states create a 21st century infrastructure” and “fuel growth in an industry that’s been hard hit.”

Now, nearly 2 1/2 years later, Obama wants another $50 billion as part of his American Jobs Act to create jobs and fix “our crumbling infrastructure.” But he still seems to buy into several myths about the nation’s infrastructure.

Obama Uses His Weekly Address To Make Yet Another Plea To “Pass This Bill”…

But only if you love him.

It’s Circular Firing Squad Season on Capitol Hill

Republicans must be laughing their asses off right now. For a brief moment it looked as if maybe, just maybe, Obama had put them in a tough spot: either support a jobs bill their base hated or else look like mindless obstructionists on the single issue most important to the American public. But now? All they have to do is lay low and let Democrats do the dirty work of undermining the bill for them. It’s a pretty sweet deal. Sometimes politics is just too easy.

Implosion 101: It Begins!

There are also Democrats, some of them senators up for election in 2012, who oppose the bill simply for its mental connection to the stimulus bill, which laid at least part of the foundation for the Republican takeover of the House in 2010.“I have serious questions about the level of spending that President Obama proposed,” said Senator Joe Manchin III, a Democrat from West Virginia, in a statement issued right after Mr. Obama spoke to a joint session of Congress last week.

A campaign strategy of me against the evil obstructionist Republicans only works if you have the support of your own party. The message being given to President Obama right now is that the members of his party are not willing to sacrifice them selves for the greater glory of Dear Leader again.  Many of the Democrat Senators elected in 2006 ran as conservative Democrats.  They, to date, have governed as Socialists, and their constituency is hopping mad.  They ignored the voters during the tumultuous town hall meetings of 2009, and they saw the effect of that bit of genius played out during the elections of 2010.  This bunch of Senators did not have to face voters in 2010, but they watched 7 of 16 lose their seats,  What New York 9 told them, and told them loudly, is that Americans have had enough of the great experiment with Communism to start this decade.  The Senatorial Democrats have just removed the only strategy President Obama had with which to campaign on. His soaring rhetoric, as of now have become the death gasp rattlings of the bad guys in monster movies.  He has greatly damaged the Democrat Party for years to come.  It will be decades hopefully, before anyone falls for the fiscally conservative Democrat ploy again.

Video: House Speaker Boehner Likens Talking To Obama To Talking To Someone From Another Planet

Boehner: “Job creators are on strike”

“My worry is that even after all of this, much of the talk in Washington right now is basically about more of the same.  More initiatives that seem to have more to do with the next election than the next generation. . .initiatives that seem to be more about micromanaging economic decisions than liberating them. I think the American people are worried about this too. I can tell you the American people — private-sector job creators in particular — are rattled by what they’ve seen out of this town over the last few years.

“My worry is that for American job creators, all the uncertainty is turning to fear that this toxic environment for job creation is a permanent state. Job creators in America are essentially on strike. The problem is not confusion about the policies. . .the problem is the policies.”

That is a pretty powerful statement — “The problem is not confusion about the policies. . .the problem is the policies”  — from the man who is 2 heartbeats from the presidency, and also a very encouraging statement because it shows that someone is  Washington has the fortitude and willingness to do what needs to be done — NOTHING. And I have been saying since January 2008. I opposed the Bush stimulus, TARP and the automotive bailouts — all under Bush. We would have been done with this recession if not for those meddling economists.

Economists like to think of themselves as PhDs, doctors. The first thing a doctor is supposed to do is to do no harm. I trust Doctor Boehner will keep that in mind.

Fight on the Right: Conservatives battle massive omnibus spending bill

As you all know, massive omnibus spending packages are inevitable, hide-the-pork monstrosities. The conservative Republican Study Committee is gearing up to offer an alternative to hold the spending line. Via Roll Call:

House conservatives are gearing up for a fight with Democrats and their own leadership over the size of the upcoming continuing resolution, even as Republican leaders soften their rhetoric regarding President Barack Obama.

Conservatives, unhappy that last month’s debt limit deal included significantly higher budget levels than those included in Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget, are demanding the CR — and a subsequent omnibus spending measure — stick to Ryan’s numbers rather than those agreed to in the debt deal.

But Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and other leaders are in no mood for another budget battle, and the Appropriations Committee is expected to produce a CR that runs through November that meets the budget levels set in the debt deal.

I know people who have always bought GM vehicles who refuse to buy them now because of the bailouts and are putting their money where their mouths are. One of them is driving around a spiffy new Ford pickup truck that replaced his old Chevy one-he had always bought Chevy before but would not even consider buying another now that it is “Government Motors”. Sister Mary Penguin just bought a Honda to replace their old Chevy sedan, too…  Wow: New Ford ad blasts bailouts — and perhaps more

Sitting and looking sincere and serious, Chris says: “I wasn’t going to buy another car that was bailed out by our government. I was going to buy from a manufacturer that’s standing on their own: win, lose, or draw. That’s what America is about is taking the chance to succeed and understanding when you fail that you gotta’ pick yourself up and go back to work. Ford is that company for me.”

It’s brilliant in terms of distancing Ford from the anger taxpayers (and potential buyers) feel over the bailouts of Ford rivals GM and Chrysler.  After all, taxpayers will end up losing about $14 billion for their trouble, and a lot of investors got screwed in the politically-manipulated bankruptcy proceedings for both companies.  Any competitive edge helps, of course, and this is a natural argument — so much so that it’s curious that Ford hasn’t really pressed that point until now.

But it also feels like something more than just a sales pitch, too.  The statement that America is about taking risks and enduring failure rather than expecting government to bail everyone out sounds more like a big thumb in the eye of the Obama administration, whose latest jobs bill keeps extending unemployment benefits, and which continues to propose spending billions on subsidies for businesses that can’t succeed on their own — like Solyndra.

Your tax dollars at work…Gee, when was the last time anyone who isn’t a Wall Steet Bankster, government ‘worker’ or union thug (but I repeat myself) saw a bonus?  GM, UAW agree on profit-sharing in new contract

Chevy Volt is Automotive Version of Solyndra

A recent Reuters’ article points out that the auto industry is relying on fleets to support sales of plug-in vehicles like the Chevy Volt. In a nutshell, this means that government agencies (along with cronies at GE) will use taxpayer funds to purchase Chevy Volts that have been widely rejected by retail consumers. All to support a vehicle that was developed using billions of dollars of that same taxpayer money. Not even the most naïve, green energy supporting apologist for the Volt can legitimately debate that the car is not profitable for General Motors. Former car czar, Steven Rattner, admitted that the vehicle had “commercial clay feet” and would not be profitable for GM in the foreseeable future. Yet this is not stopping the continued wastefulness of our government’s taxpayer subsidized support for the vehicle as well as for a future Cadillac version of the car.

Olive Garden is another place I will not patronize because they are whores to the Obama regime. I can get better Italian food at real Italian restaurants or make it myself… A fun fact about Michelle Obama’s chummy fries police

In a normal, free-market environment, of course, business executives take their cue from customers — not from the East Wing.

But this is no normal, free-market environment.

And, I might add, Darden Restaurants is no normal restaurant chain.

At a time when most food service providers are struggling under the weight of increased taxes, health care mandates, and regulations, Darden Restaurants just happens to be one of the few and fortunate businesses to obtain one of those coveted Obamacare waivers.

Remember? I do. Flashback November 2010:

In early October, the Obama administration announced it had granted waivers not only to McDonald’s, but also to several other firms and labor unions.

Now comes word that Torquemada HHS Secretay Kathleen Sebelius has approved a whopping 111 waivers for businesses of all sizes, along with more unions and other providers of health insurance. The escapees include employers of many low-wage and part-time workers whose health insurance plans would otherwise be dropped, including Darden Restaurants — the parent company of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster and other chains, which employ some 34,000 people.

What possibly could go wrong with Obama’s LED light push?

Much like windmills, Obama’s energy plans for the country turn on “green” energy like LED lighting.

*snip*

What possibly could go wrong (other than the credits creating jobs in China)?

Israeli researchers have found that pervasive use of LED and other “white light” has serious negative health consequences:

Exposure to the light of white LED bulbs suppresses melatonin five times more than exposure to the light of high-pressure sodium bulbs that emit an orange-yellow light, according to a new international study – that includes University of Haifa Prof. Abraham Haim.

Melatonin is a compound that adjusts our biological clock and is known for its anti-oxidant and anti-cancerous properties.

Your ‘surprisingly unexpected’ economic news of the day:

Great, just great…. The American Taxpayer has bailed out the stupid banks who gave half million dollar home loans to welfare queens and illegal aliens, the idiots on Wall Street, ‘green is the new red’ energy companies with major shareholders who just so happen to be big donors to Obama’s campaigns, corrupt (and violent) public and private sector union leeches and the spendthrift socialistic bleu states and moribund companies that are their major employers in the US and now we get to do the whole thing over by BAILING OUT EUROPE?!?!?! Screw ‘em all… US taxpayers could be on hook for Europe bailout

“Our concern is that innocent American taxpayers will pay for yet another bailout — this time to one or several countries whose spending and debt choices led them to financial calamity,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and seven other Republican senators wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in June.

The source of the senators’ concern is an emergency provision, approved by the Group of 20 industrialized nations in 2009, granting the IMF broad powers to expand its lending authority. That could leave American taxpayers on the hook for any IMF loans that later go bad.

In July, Geithner sought to reassure the senators that won’t happen.

The 2013 Tax Cliff

For the White House, the policy calendar is dictated above all by the political necessities of the 2012 election. Mr. Obama will take his chances on 2013 if he can cajole the private economy to create enough new jobs over the next year to win re-election, even if those jobs and growth are temporary. Business owners and workers who would prefer to prosper beyond Election Day aren’t likely to share Mr. Obama’s enthusiasm once they see the great tax cliff approaching.

Look out below.

Where We Are Is Where Japan Has Been

Once upon a time, there were a bunch of banks that said “Hey, forget balance sheets.  If they have collateral give them a loan.”  For a while it was good money.  As long as they got payments, it was OK.  So there were more loans, which in turn bid up the value of the collateral. Then the worm turned, because what goes up must come down.  When collateral values collapsed, so did lending.  It got real hard to keep up with the loan payments. Banks started looking like they came straight out of Goodfellas.

This isn’t an American story at all.  All of these types of issues are about debt resolution.  It has happened for centuries, probably further back in history.  You know the story, but perhaps there are some details here that may open eyes.  Like why you heard about Japanese CEOs committing suicide.  Often it was because to keep their businesses running, they had to pledge all their personal possessions for a loan.  The insurance benefit was all that was left for their families when their businesses went bankrupt. This collateral value collapse implies banking crisis implies real problems for a lot of voters.  Anywhere this happens, it is a political crisis, and governments have to step in.  This is where the story goes from bad to worse.

What might have been without the 2009 stimulus

This is a long article but well worth reading. I always maintained that we would have been better off if President Obama had done nothing at all and let the natural genius of the capitalist system soar itself out. By now the unemployment rate would probably have been no more than 7% (still a bit too high for my blood), and we would have probably been out of the recession by the Spring of 2010.

The Coming Collapse: “We Can Buy Time, But We Can’t Change the Outcome”

“The fundamental problem,” Brook says, is with the philosophical belief our society has that governments can solve problems and more rules and regulations are the answer to our economic ailments.

Barring “real structural change” to our economic underpinnings toward self-reliance and true laissez-faire capitalism, “we can buy time, but we can’t change the outcome,” Brook says.

More on the Coming Wave of Foreclosures

One of the key rulings that will increase the rate of foreclosures comes from the 9th Circuit Court. Please see 9th Circuit Court Ruling Legitimizes MERS for details.

Addendum: Pulatie pinged me with this comment

Calvo v HSBC
This case in California just clarified that there is no need for any Assignment of the Deed of Trust to be recorded prior to foreclosure.

Statute CCC 2932.5 is put to rest.

It essentially nails the coffin lid closed on foreclosure defenses that attorneys have been using, when combined with the 9th Circuit ruling and Gomes v Countrywide.

Forget Operation Twist: Rosenberg Says Bernanke Will Shock Everyone With What Is About To Come

Some Empirical Results. I kid you not. This is someone who clearly sees the stock market as a transmission mechanism from Fed policy to the rest of the economy. In other words, if Bernanke wants to juice the stock market, then he must do something to surprise the market. ‘Operation Twist’ is already baked in, which means he has to do that and a lot more to generate the positive surprise he clearly desires (this is exactly what he did on August 9th with the mid-2013 on- hold commitment). It seems that Bernanke, if he wants the market to rally, is going to have to come out with a surprise next Wednesday.” In other words, stocks are now pricing in not just OT 2, and a reduction in the IOER, but also an LSAP of a few hundred billion. There is, however, naturally a flipside, to Bernanke’s priced in announcement: “If he doesn’t, then expect a big selloff.” In everything, mind you, stocks, bonds, and certainly precious metals. And, of course, vice versa.

How To Cut $1.4 Trillion Over 10 Years In 58 Easy Steps

It’s the kind of stuff we’re seeing across the country at the state level and it’s about time the wave hit the federal government. If Chris Christie can do this kind of thing in New Jersey there’s no reason, other than the fact that the current President is the pocket of the unions, not to do it at the federal level.

I’m also leery of quick fixes that don’t address the real big ticket items like Medicare and Social Security but Johnson makes it clear his proposals are just a start. This is simply a set of proposal that shouldn’t need a Super Committee to enact. It also shows you can get to the magic $1.4 trillion without gutting defense.

But hey, since we’re so deep in the Doom, we could use these ideas PLUS whatever the Gang of 12 comes up with AND real entitlement reform.

Is China Ready To Pull The Plug?

Only after the recent S&P downgrade of America’s AAA credit rating did the impossible become thinkable to some MSM analysts, though a considerable portion of the day-trading herd continue to roll onward, while the time bomb strapped to the ass end of their financial house is ticking away. China, being the second largest holder of U.S. debt next to the Fed, and the number one holder of dollars within their forex reserves, has always been the key to gauging the progression of the global economic collapse now in progress. If you want to know what’s going to happen tomorrow, watch what China does today.

Is rising unemployment even news anymore?

Joblessness rose last week to its highest level in two months. I suppose rising unemployment is news to some people. The diehards. The bitter clingers. The people who believe the government can buy prosperity. The rest of us know better. We expected bad economic news. We realized that any hope for a recovery over the next year or two died on August 1 when President Obama did not stop the downgrade of America’s credit rating from AAA. Childishly, he pushed the federal government’s borrowing to the limit. He now wants to blame Republicans for the disaster that followed.

What a fool. His partisanship alone is responsible for that downgrade.The people see this. His job approval numbers continue sinking. Very few people support his jobs plan. Only 33% of Americans like his handling of the economy. 61% do not according to a Bloomberg News Poll.

So what do we have? The same liberal economists continue to push this crappy jobs bill upon us. The $787 billion stimulus backfired and actually increased unemployment.

Now these bozos are surprised to see how bad the bad news is from this cataclysmic failure.

Consumer Confidence Beats Expectations As Consumer Expectations Tumble To Lowest Since 1980, Inflation Outlook Rises

The UMichigan read for consumer confidence came slightly better than uber-depressionary, printing at 57.8, on expectations of 57, and better than the apocalyptic 55.7 from August. To put the number in perspective, it is the second lowest since February 2009. To algorithms all that will matter, however, is that it is rising. What they will completely ignore is that consumer expectations, or the outlook for the future, just dropped yet again, from 47.4 to 47, the lowest print since May of 1980! More troubling to the Fed is the read on inflation expectations, which after declining for months, rose in both 1 year (from 3.5% to 3.7%) and 5 year (from 2.9% to 3.0%) expectations.

Living Miserably

What’s a six-letter word that describes what you get when you combine spiking jobless claims and rising inflation? Answer: M-I-S-E-R-Y. And as new reports show, Obama is dishing out heaping portions of it.

The foreclosed multi-million dollar homes that show there’s no escape from tough times… no matter how wealthy you are

States dole out billions in improper unemployment insurance payments

It’s also interesting information in light of the president’s repeated calls for an extension of unemployment insurance benefits. While these numbers analyze waste at the state level, the federal government made at least $125 billion in improper payments through a variety of duplicative programs and it seems reasonable to assume waste occurs at the federal level of the unemployment insurance program, as well. All question of incentive aside — and of at what point an increase or extension of unemployment benefits actually contributes to the unemployment problem, it seems the president could at least acknowledge it makes little sense to call for more taxpayer dollars to be dumped into the UI program until administrators manage to lower the percentage of improper payments

They are getting the Hope and Change™ they voted for…  More Young Adults Are Poor, Live With Their Parents

In addition to adult kids sticking around longer, in recent years there has also been a rise in multi-generational homes where extended families of kids, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and/or cousins live under the same roof. A 2010 survey had it that 16.1% of Americans lived in multi-generational households, compared to 12.1% of the population in 1980. (For that matter, last year also witnessed an increase (8% more) of children living with their grandparents.)

The phenomena of the boomeranger—an adult child who had been living on his own, but was forced to move back in with his parents—spread widely soon after the recession hit. In late 2009, 13% of parents with grown children said at least one adult son or daughter had moved back in with them over the prior year. This wasn’t particularly surprising: At the time, only 46% of Americans ages 16 to 24 had jobs, the lowest level since the government started tracking such data in the post-World War II era.

For the most part, parents have been willing to help their kids out financially throughout these tough times. In a survey conducted this past spring (cited by personal finance expert Liz Weston), 6 in 10 parents said they’ve provided financial assistance—helping with insurance, transportation, and living expenses, giving them spending money, covering credit card debt, etc.—to adult children who are no longer students.

Book: Geithner Ignored Obama Order To Consider Dissolving Citigroup During Financial Crisis…

The reports call calling into question the president’s leadership and financial savvy at a time where the president is most vulnerable on those topics, with poll numbers on his handling of the economy hitting record lows.

According to reports Friday, Geithner ignored a March 2009 order that asked the Treasury Department to consider dissolving Citigroup, one of the nation’s largest financial services companies. Citigroup was among the worst hit by the financial crisis in 2008, and needed billions in bailout money to stay afloat.

Many have criticized the Obama administration — and Geithner, the former president of the New York Federal Reserve, specifically — of being too focused on helping the banking industry after the recession. Critics on both the left and right argued that the government should not have bailed out banks that submarined the economy after issuing bad mortgages.

IRS Reaps Billions From Amnesty Program for Offshore Accounts

Jim Cramer: Business Leaders “The Disdain for this Guy, They Hate Obama Like Jimmy Carter” (Video)

  They’re being too kind. Obama is much worse than Carter.

As Student Loans Hit All Time Record, One High School Valedictorian “Gets It”

Lessons For American Health Care From Europe

The American health care debate needs to focus on one inescapable fact: unless we make major, deep changes in the way health care is delivered in this country, there is no way we can pay for the health care we want and need as the population goes up, gets older — and as new, expensive treatments continue to appear.

Ultimately we must either ration health care (death panels and all) or restructure it top to bottom so that it is able to deliver the same or, preferably, much higher levels of care much less expensively.  Proponents of a single payer health care system (basically, the kind many European countries and Canada have where the government collects premiums for everyone, sets prices, and pays bills) argue that it is cheaper than our current hybrid (and grossly inefficient and excessively) pricey system.

I agree with the single payer crowd there, but a single payer system only really makes sense under two conditions.  The first, as the Spanish are discovering in a very unpleasant way, is that single payer only works if the single payer has plenty of money. If you count on the government to cover your health care, and the cost of health care bankrupts your government so that the health care system goes down as well, it’s hard to call that a success.

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy (except for the UN, of course):

EPA to Give Itself Powers to Preemptively Deny Natural Resource Development?

If the EPA decides to try this new tact to quash American energy production and mining of natural resources, then it would from this point forward be able to wholly dispense with any need to rely on scientific facts to determine the viability of the culling of our own natural resources, those resources that made this country great. The EPA would have the precedent to shut down the use of any land merely because it deems it should be done.

Talk about the end of private property rights and the destruction of our energy and mining industries!

CBC’s Cleaver: We would be ‘marching on the White House’ if Obama weren’t president

In effect, Cleaver is saying that the CBC has dealt differently with this president precisely because he’s black. How is that OK? Either we envision a world in which we are judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin or we don’t. What do Cleaver and the other members of the CBC dream of?

It’s nice, at least, that Cleaver doesn’t want in any way to contribute to a climate of hate. But, then, what would you expect from the founder of another Congressional caucus — the nine-member “Civility Caucus”? Certainly, you wouldn’t expect him to sit idly by as members of the CBC told Tea Party members to go to hell or referred to Tea Partiers as “the real enemy.”

Oh, wait. Cleaver did do that. It took Andre Carson’s outrageous remarks and Allen West’s threat to leave the CBC to spark any hate-mitigating reaction from Cleaver at all — and, even then, he was in no hurry to disavow Carson’s vitriol. Eventually, though, Cleaver met privately with West and convinced him to stay. But with his comments today in “The Miami Herald,” Cleaver again implicitly endorses the identity politics that so inform CBC members’ approach to the issues, in effect arguing it’s OK and even encouraged for CBC members and others to hold Obama to a different standard just because of the president’s race. Seems to me like such a backward approach for the chairman of the CBC to take.

Disband The Black Caucus

Founded in 1971 by 13 civil-rights leaders as “the conscience of the Congress,” the caucus has strayed far from its original mission. Now boasting 42 politicians — including some of the most radical and unethical in Congress — it chiefly serves its own interests.

Its lavish annual gala is an unseemly shakedown of corporate donors unwittingly funding a war chest for Marxist causes. While the living conditions of average African-Americans worsen, this elite black power club has empowered and enriched its own.

The group has become an embarrassment not just to the black community and the civil-rights legacy it deigns to uphold, but the Democratic Party from which it draws almost all of its members. It should be disbanded. Here’s a bill of indictment..

Why Did Seven House Republicans Vote With the NLRB Today?

As noted earlier, the US House passed a bill that, if it became law, would prohibit the National Labor Relations Board’s actions against Boeing and keep that board from taking similar action against other companies. Eight Democrats crossed party lines to vote in favor of the bill. But seven Republicans went the other way, and voted against it. These Republicans voted with the Big Labor-dominated NLRB, against a company’s right to relocate without government interference.

It Begins… Obama EPA Starts Tracking “Greenhouse Gases” in Florida

This is just the next step by the left to force American families to pay for their junk science.

 What did Peter Orszag know and when did he know it?

The Cash-for-Visas Program

As part of his warmed-over jobs plan, President Obama is repackaging “Buy American” stimulus subsidies to help hard-hit homegrown businesses. At the same time, however, Congress is pushing to expand a fraud-riddled investor program that puts U.S. citizenship for sale to the highest foreign business bidders.

Call it the Buy America Cash-for-Visas plan.

Deep Corruption at the Obama Justice Department

Under Richard Nixon, John Mitchell was as corrupt as they come. But that was all for protecting political power. The Holder Justice Department is equally as corrupt, but in worse ways even than Mitchell. Holder’s team is out for raw political power unmoored from the law, of course — but also for hard-leftist ideological ends that undermine the entire tradition of American jurisprudence and legal practice. They are a menace, and they must be stopped.

Obama DOJ Takes Action… Moves in to Protect Teachers With Unacceptable English Skills

And you wonder why the national SAT scores are on the decline?

Obamascandal #1-Gunwalker/Fast & Furious/Castaway/Grenadewalker: The Scandal with a Body Count…

Gun Scandal Skipping the Big Fish

You think Fast and Furious was some rogue operation gone wrong? You think it was bungled somehow by local agents?

According to documents that have piled up on the investigating committee’s desk, Kenneth Melson, then acting director of the ATF (and now safely parachuted out of harm’s way), actually watched a live video feed as a straw buyer bought semiautomatic weapons at an Arizona gun store.

The evidence that knowledge and authority of Fast and Furious went all the way to the top may be unparalleled in the history of Washington, D.C., scandals. Barely more than a year ago, people at the top were crowing about how much they knew.

The Ultimate Motive of “Gunwalker”?

There is no logic behind it if the intent is law enforcement.  Remember what it amounted to – the United States government legally purchased firearms in the United States and then illegally transferred the weapons to criminal gangs.  My view has been it was an effort to re-start gun control:  send the guns down there, wait until hundreds of Mexicans are killed by them, then instruct the MSM to issue breathless, heart-rending reports about how American gun dealers are fueling violence south of the border (none of us were ever supposed to find out about “Gunwalker”…we only did because after a Border Patrol agent was murdered with one of the guns, some whistle blowers stepped forward).

If it isn’t rank stupidity, then it is a wicked plan to get something that should not be had – whether its gun control, more Democrat voters or an attempt to overload the welfare system in a Cloward-Piven strategy is unknown…what we need to do is unravel the scheme and see where the evidence leads.

GOP leadership to allow the Gunwalker Conspirators to ride their Omnibus? We need to demand that they “Defund the Gunwalkers!”

Gun seller who helped ATF had doubts about the sting

In the fall of 2009, ATF agents installed a secret phone line and hidden cameras in a ceiling panel and wall at Andre Howard’s Lone Wolf gun store.

They gave him one basic instruction: Sell guns to every illegal purchaser who walks through the door.

For 15 months, Howard did as he was told. To customers with phony IDs or wads of cash he normally would have turned away, he sold pistols, rifles and semi-automatics. He was assured by the ATF that they would follow the guns and that the surveillance would lead the agents to the violent Mexican drug cartels on the Southwest border.

When Howard heard nothing about any arrests, he questioned the agents. Keep selling, they told him. So hundreds of thousands of dollars more in weapons, including .50-caliber sniper rifles, walked out the front door of his store in a Glendale, Ariz., strip mall.

He was making a lot of money, but he also feared somebody was going to get hurt.

“Every passing week, I worried about something like that,” he said. “I felt horrible and sick.”

Operation Fast & Furious… Rocket Launchers?

That last bit references this local report (via Town Hall)- “U. S. Border Patrol agents seized six assault rifles, one rocket launcher, a grenade launcher, and three packages of what appeared to be C-4 explosives Tuesday near the Rio Grande.” – complete with helpful picture, just in case you were wondering whether they might have just seized an artist’s portable carrying case, or something. Mind you, this particular seized contraband may not have had anything to do with Operation Fast and Furious (certainly you can’t buy fully-loaded rocket launchers in gun stores. At least, I hope) – but is it safe to bet that way? After all, the ‘grenade components’ thing refers to this story about an American citizen smuggling grenade parts into Mexico; in case you were wondering, yeah, the ATF knew about him and let him go. Last year**. The .50 caliber sniper rifle story? Here you go.

The whole mess, in a nutshell? Here and here and here and here and here: bottom line is, the US government massively screwed up by deliberately letting guns get run into Mexico – and into the waiting, eager hands of Mexican narco-terrorists. The Mexican government is fuming: it’s their citizens getting shot, and the Ugly Americans didn’t clear any of this with them. Gun rights organizations are fuming, too: they have suspicions about the ultimate goal of the Obama administration here, and there’s admittedly evidence that can be reasonably seen as backing them up on that. And the center-right is fuming most of all: and that’s because in a just universe, starting Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder would be spending his working hours sitting at a House Government Oversight table hooked up to a polygraph machine and describing his activities, day by day.

To which I can only say what I have to say: these things take time, and Grassley/Issa aren’t going anywhere. And they know who has to answer to this, in the end.

“Fast and Furious” Corpses Pile Up

Reuters carried a report yesterday about the discovery of a black bag along the Rio Grande in Texas, which had some interesting contents:

Agents discovered the weapons on Tuesday on a quiet stretch of the Rio Grande near Fronton, a small community about 210 miles south of San Antonio. No arrests have been made.

“These deadly weapons could have had a devastating impact on communities on both sides of the border and to our agents and other law enforcement officers,” Rosendo Hinojosa, head of the Border Patrol in the Rio Grande valley, said in a statement.

Inside the black bag were a rocket launcher, grenade launcher, six assault rifles, 20 ammunition magazines for various weapons and three packages of what appeared to be C-4 plastic explosive, the statement said.

I wonder if any of this stuff is being checked against the list of Fast and Furious serial numbers. Hopefully that’s standard operating procedure at this point. There are still hundreds of Fast and Furious weapons unaccounted for, after all.

 Are Fast and Furious Guns Coming to a Town Near You?

How can a White House that knew such purchases were taking place likewise claim it knew nothing about the gun-walking aspect of the Fast and Furious operation?

For now there’s no answer, but answers need to be pursued, because this operation is rife with coverups and questions that could sink even the most popular President, much less Obama.

Someone in the administration lied, and people died: lots and lots of people, among them a U.S. Border Patrol agent whose family is being denied closure.  Therefore, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Issa has “formally asked the Obama administration to turn over copies of ‘all records’ dealing with exchanges between White House officials and the ATF on Fast and Furious.”

Let’s hope Issa gets to the bottom of this mess before a Fast and Furious weapon makes it to a town near you.

Obamascandal #2-Solyndra:

Did Solyndra Actually Get a Second Loan of $469 Million, Bringing the Full Loan Package To Over A Billion?

So $535 million on February 2, then this second request of $469 million on September 11 (both in 2009), this second request apparently always part of the plan.

Summing up, either:

1. Obama did extend this loan guarantee to Solyndra, in which case, whoa.

2. Obama did not extend this loan guarantee to Solyndra, even though apparently the plan was always to get a full billion plus in loan guarantees, in which case, it seems likely that a full analysis of the company’s riskiness caused the OMB or DoE (or whoever) to finally say “No,” in which case –not as big a whoa but still a whoa it’s an even bigger whoa, as it proves the administration caused this half-billion-plus loss due to their own pure-political-optics demand that the application be passed in time for a photo op.

If the second application was declined, due to the analysts having more time to properly vet the company, that proves that Obama’s political pressure caused the loss of over a half billion taxpayer dollars.

So.

Which is it?

No one’s saying.

I find that very interesting.

The Solyndra Fraud

On the Energy Policy Act, the administration’s malfeasance is significant, but secondary. That’s because the act is not a penal statute. It tells the cabinet officials how to structure these “innovative technology” loans, but it provides no remedy if Congress’s directives are ignored.

The criminal law, by contrast, is not content to assume the good faith of government officials. It targets anyone — from low-level swindlers to top elective officeholders — who attempts to influence the issuance of government loans by making false statements; who engages in schemes to defraud the United States; or who conspires “to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof, in any manner or for any purpose.” The penalties are steep: Fraud in connection with government loans, for example, can be punished by up to 30 years in the slammer.

Although Solyndra was a private company, moreover, it was using its government loans as a springboard to go public. When the sale of securities is involved, federal law criminalizes fraudulent schemes, false statements of material fact, and statements that omit any “material fact necessary in order to make the statements made . . . not misleading.” And we’re not just talking about statements made in required SEC filings. Any statement made to deceive the market can be actionable. In 2003, for example, the Justice Department famously charged Martha Stewart with securities fraud. Among other allegations, prosecutors cited public statements she had made in press releases and at a conference for securities analysts — statements in which she withheld damaging information in an effort to inflate the value of her corporation and its stock.

That’s exactly what President Obama did on May 26, 2010, with his Solyndra friends about to launch their initial public offering of stock. The solar-panel company’s California factory was selected as the fitting site for a presidential speech on the virtues of confiscating taxpayer billions to prop up pie-in-the-sky clean-energy businesses.

Drip Drip Drip: Another Obama Fundraiser Mired in Solyndra Scandal

This is not a new kind of politics. It’s the old kind. The Chicago kind.

And now the Tribune Washington Bureau has reported that the U.S. Department of Energy employee who helped monitor the Solyndra loan guarantee was one of Obama’s top fundraisers.

Fundraising? Contracts? Imagine that.

Steve Spinner was the Obama administration official in charge of handing out billions and billions of tax dollars to “green” energy deals. According to the Tribune story, Spinner the other day invited Obama’s national political finance committee to a meeting in Chicago.

The name of the Obama fundraising initiative?

“Technology for Obama.”

The idea of the Obama fundraisers getting together, talking “green,” and perhaps offering taxpayer loan guarantees to insider businesses in the interest of helping the environment — it all seems rather fresh.
Like a mountain meadow.

BLAME BOOOOOSH!!!111!! is the last refuge of the Democrat/Leftist/MSM scoundrels… Solyndra pressured Bush WH for approval in January 2009

Apparently, the Bush administration officials involved caught a whiff of desperation and decided to back away.  Too bad Obama administration officials didn’t make the same choice.

Rep. Paul Ryan on Solyndra: “There Are Billions of More of This Exact Kind of Spending” In the Stimulus (Video)

Solyndra: The Green Bay Of Pigs?

One clue that would have tipped anybody but a clueless green off to the problems with Solyndra early on: many of the “private” backers of the company weren’t in it for the money, either.  Philanthropically motivated green venture funds were backing a company that attracted little interest from hard nosed, bean counting for-profit types.

In any case, this is the story line the administration is left with, even if the allegations linking the administration’s interest in the project with a big campaign donor fade away: Overzealous and amateurish green bureaucrats wrecked a green start up in their haste to throw money at it, spending stimulus funds to kill what might otherwise have been viable jobs.

Solyndra: one of the most beautiful words in the English language — to the GOP.

Testify: In 2009, Solyndra CEO Said Obama and Steven Chu Were Personally “Instrumental” In Securing Half-Billion In Loans for SCOAMF Boondoggle

“The leadership and actions of President Barack Obama, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and the U.S. Congress were instrumental in concluding this offer for a loan guarantee,” said Solyndra CEO and founder, Dr. Chris Gronet. “The DOE Loan Guarantee Program funding will enable Solyndra to achieve the economies of scale needed to deliver solar electricity at prices that are competitive with utility rates. This expansion is really about creating new jobs while meaningfully impacting global warming.”

New theory of combating the deadly scourge of global warming: If we just destroy wealth, it will necessarily help reduce man-made global warming, because less economic activity means less carbon dioxide — less travel, less production, less manufacture, less food, less everything. Probably fewer people, too.

Win-win-win.

So… hooray, I guess?

White House Knew Solyndra Was a Dog Before They Loaned Failed Green Company $528 Million

It has now been confirmed that White House officials sat in on the Solyndra meetings this past year before the company went under. The White House monitored the huge loans. And before the loan guarantees were granted officials knew the company would fail.

AP on Solyndra: WH ignored at least three watchdog reports criticizing Energy Department’s loan controls

That’s not all they ignored, either. According to e-mails obtained by the AP, one White House official who helped plan Obama’s big photo op at the plant earlier this year dismissed a news story about Solyndra’s financial troubles with, “Seems B.S.” A few months earlier, the same chump ignored the alarm bells being rung by accounting firms and instead accepted at face value Solyndra’s assurances that they were doing well, writing, “Fantastic to hear that business is doing well — keep up the good work! We’re cheering for you.”

Everyone knew the company was toast. Except the people in charge of your money.

Solyndra Employee: You Wonder Where All the Money Went Commenter chaz706 in the comments section hits the nail on the head with the following:

What other people don’t realize was that the loan itself was rigged to become a wealth transfer. Normally, when a company goes bankrupt, bond holders and creditors get their money first… then investors…

The loan detail was made so that George Kaiser would get any money left over first [remember, he's an investor]… then tax payers [the primary creditors].

In short, Solyndra declares bankruptcy and Mr Kaiser gets his money while we get shafted.. Naked wealth transfer.

Anywhere the Obama regime goes you will find Goldman Sachs lurking around somewhere. Another Popular Name Emerges In The Solyndra Scandal

Goldman, Sachs & Co. acted as exclusive financial advisor to Solyndra in connection with this loan guarantee application.

Anywhere you look… Goldman has already been there.

Consider the source when reading this. It is not surprising that the Chicago Tribune tries (very lamely) to BLAME BOOOSH!!!11!! for this, after all that is The Official Obama Regime and Democratic Party Line™ for everything. What IS surprising is that they mention this story at all. Why? Because this whole Solyndra mess is a fine example of The Chicago Way™ of corrupt crony politics and ‘pay to play’ under decades of Democratic party rule. It is ‘business as usual’ for Chicago… The Solyndra saga

Why Solyndra Wasn’t Good Stimulus

The whole question is whether this project was “shovel ready” or indeed ready for anything but the circular file.  It’s true that we should be ready to accept projects with a lower multiplier if it moves the money quickly, but we should aim to avoid projects which simply incinerate hundreds of millions of dollars. 

I would far rather we’d simply put this cash in citizen hands and had them save it–in the process, cleaning up household balance sheets and letting us return to stable growth more quickly–than that we’d poured it into a solar cell process which apparently required permanently high prices of a mineral commodity in order to break even.  I know Keynes suggested that we could pay people to dig holes and fill them up again, but honestly, I think we can do better than that.

Obamascandal #3-LightSquared:

LightSquared = Solyndra squared. Obama politics and donor money to interfere with military GPS.

LightSquared: The next Obama pay-for-play morass?

When it rains, it pours. And there ain’t a big enough umbrella for all President Obama’s cronies and fixers to crowd under these days.

While the Solyndra BGB (big green boondoggle) continues to blow up on Capitol Hill, the White House faces another pay-for-play backlash — this time from his own left flank.

The liberal Daily Beast reports on a broadband project backed by a frequent Obama White House visitor and donor that has Pentagon officials concerned over potential military GPS interference. The Obama FCC took the lead in intervening on the donor, billionaire hedge fund manster Philip Falcone’s, behalf and granting his company called “LightSquared” one of those coveted Obama waivers from existing law. Then Obama officials reportedly pressured a general to alter his testimony about the company’s impact on military satellite transmissions.

LightSquared: Another Solyndra?

Both the Solyndra and LightSquared scandals are part of a larger, emerging narrative about the Obama administration’s decision to pick business winners and losers. Like the solar scandal, LightSquared is part of an Obama industrial policy to reshape America’s business landscape in the Democrats’ own political image. In this case, Obama’s dream was universal wireless broadband for all Americans.

In the Solyndra scandal, the White House pressured the U.S. Department of Energy to provide a half-billion dollar grant to a financially questionable solar energy company in pursuit of the president’s agenda for “green” technology.

In this LightSquared scandal, General William Shelton was asked by the Office of Management and Budget — an arm of the White House — to change his testimony. Even more damaging, OMB shared the general’s testimony with LightSquared.

Company At Center Of Potential Obama Scandal Tries To Do Damage Control

Last night the company, LightSquared, spammed a bunch of reporters and bloggers (including me) on Twitter with a statement from the company’s CEO that was “correcting the record“.

It is, as the kids say, FAIL.

Special interests are trying to distract attention from the facts.

For eight years, LightSquared has navigated the regulatory process to win approvals to build America’s first privately funded coast-to-coast wireless broadband service. LightSquared’s plan to invest billions of dollars to use its frequencies for an integrated ground-space network has been supported by both Republican and Democratic regulators — Michael Powell and Kevin Martin, FCC Chairmen appointed by President Bush, and Julius Genachowski, the FCC Chairman appointed by President Obama. In fact, the regulatory approvals that paved our way came in the mid-2000’s, during the Bush administration under Powell and Martin.

Ah yes, “special interests” and blame Bush. There’s more but it’s all along those lines. The statement address the telecom industry and their supposed objections to LightSquared’s product. All very interesting but….not actually related to the explosive charge made by General Shelton, head of Space Command that the administration shared his proposed testimony with the company and that he was asked to soft sell his concerns that LightSquared’s network would incapacitate the military’s GPS which they rely on for just about every aspect of their operations.

Obama in the Bunker

Obama: I Hope My “Next Inauguration Is Warmer” Than First One…

His arrogance is nauseating.

Obama: Odds Are, I’ll Get Re-Elected

It’s as if the Massachusetts senate election never happened.
It’s as if the 2010 midterm elections never happened.
It’s as if New York District 9 election never happened.

Barack Obama told supporters this week that “odds are” I’ll get re-elected.

Obama made the remarks in front of 50 supporters at a fundraiser just two days after democrats lost NY9 for the first time in a century.

Does Obama Really Believe He’s Still Popular?

The difference, however, is that one in four Americans who approved of him back in January 2009 no longer do. That is a staggering loss of popular support – to put it in real terms, we’re talking about 58 million people who were once with Obama but no longer are today – and it makes this jobs bill strategy a waste of time. It is not going to move the needle appreciably: the people who still support him might be calling/writing/Tweeting, but he needs to convert some of the skeptical back to the faith, and doing the same-old, same-old is just not going to cut it.

So why is he even bothering with this circus show?

I can think of a few reasons, none of them flattering. Either he and his team don’t realize that the bottom has dropped out, so they don’t know that they need to change strategies, or they do realize it but haven’t come up with any alternatives.

My money is on the former – he and his team haven’t figured it out yet. Truman went hyper-partisan against the Republicans in 1948 because he believed that, deep down, the country was still way more Democratic than Republican (and he was right about that). Obama is behaving this way because he believes that, deep down, there are still way more Obama supporters than opponents.

If You Love Me…

Mr. President, America’s just not that into you.  Really.  Your appeals to what remains of your cult of personality increasingly make you look like Sally Field’s character in Soapdish, running out to some mall in New Jersey for an ego boost from gullible fans while the ratings dwindle.  People will start to talk.

Obama Staff Share On-the-Record Stories of Chaos and Infighting

A glaring omission from these excerpts was any indication of the importance of Valerie Jarrett – the senior adviser to Barack Obama who has been described as “Obama’s brain”, and who apparently played a critical role in removing Rahm Emanuel from his position as White House Chief of Staff, as well as later doing the same to both David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs.

Normally former staff are hesitant to potentially politically harm a sitting president who is actively seeking a second term.  Such revelations are most often not revealed until after that president has left the White House.  The fact this book is coming out now, and apparently enjoyed significant on-the-record access from a number of former Obama administration members, points to a Democratic Party increasingly hostile to its own leader.

Barack Obama book casts grim view of president’s leadership

If you had read Hillbuzz’s accounts of Obama’ life in Chicago this would come as no surprise… Obama’s hostility not confined to women in the White House

Try to imagine Margaret Thatcher, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Condoleeza Rice, Liz Cheney, or even Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann complaining that the boys didn’t give them a turn to speak at a meeting.

But Romer, Dunn, and company were skipped over and talked over, and according to the rules of political correctness, that’s a foul. The women apparently couldn’t hold their own at meetings, or were perceived as having little of value to offer, and consequently felt “outgunned,” “outmaneuvered,” “sidelined,” “ignored,” and “left out.” Somehow, these good liberal men forgot to pay proper obeisance to the wimmen in the room, giving them the chopped-liver treatment instead. Oh, the humanity.

Moe Lane saw it coming: QotD, I TOLD YOU Obama Was A Male Chauvinist Pig edition.

I told people back in 2008 that then-Senator Obama didn’t like to hire women; didn’t like to promote women; and definitely didn’t like to pay women more than 82 cents to the male-equivalent dollar.

You mean these guys are hypocrites? Yeah, and condescending, too…

Michelle Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood

Consequently, towards the end of July 2011, IRUSA or Islamic Relief USA, “a faith-based disaster relief and development organization, celebrated the inauguration of its Summer Food Service Program … at the An Nur School in Lanham, Maryland.”  The White House announced that IRUSA “ha[d] a collaborative partnership with the USDA’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and that IRUSA ha[d] pledged to host 50 sites as part of a Michelle Obama initiative.”

So while an FBI “agent confirmed that at least three operatives of the Egypt-based Brotherhood — whose credo is ‘Jihad is our way and death in the cause of Allah is our dream’ — have penetrated the Obama administration,” the First Lady is now dealing with an organization that boasts of such people as Yaser Haddara who is a member of the IRUSA board since 2006 and its chairman until May 2011. 

According to the IRUSA’s own site, “Dr. Haddara was one of the developers and lead trainers for the Student Leadership Training Program that was jointly sponsored by the Muslim American Society and the Muslim Association of Canada. Dr. Haddara has been actively involved in several community organizations including the Islamic Society at Stanford University, the Muslim Community Association of the Bay Area, the Islamic Society of North America (Western Region), the Muslim American Society, and the Muslim Association of Canada.”

The Top 10 Funniest #AttackWatch Tweets

The page simultaneously gives off a fascistic vibe while simultaneously reinforcing the idea that Obama is hyper-sensitive about being criticized. So, all in all, it’s not very well executed and quite naturally, it has become a laughingstock. So, with that in mind, here are the 10 funniest tweets about the #AttackWatch website from Twitter.

Hitler Responds to AttackWatch Fail

Much like the Obama Regime in regime in general, AttackWatch.com has flopped spectacularly, quickly becoming a laughing stock. Progressive statists like Hitler aren’t taking it well

I put these stories here because apparently Bloomberg is living in the bunker with his Dou-che…

• Michael Bloomberg: You Have the Responsibility as an American to Make Obama Successful

If a president’s programs, dealings, morals and ethics — no matter what they are — are automatically in the best interest of America, why bother ever having elections?

• Bloomberg Warns of Riots Due to Obama’s Horrendous Jobs Record

Well, he doesn’t blame Obama, of course, because Mike Bloomberg is a No Labels kind of guy, so he can’t blame anyone specifically. But I’ll blame Obama since these potential rioters are out of work because of him. Bloomberg, of course, kisses Obama’s ass.

Obama Campaign Gets a New Leash on Life

Prediction: By the middle of next year you’ll see these attached to Obama’s remaining 2008 supporters to keep them from running away from his 2012 campaign.

2012: The Fork in the Road…

Poll: Buyer’s remorse

Let us put this in perspective. If one fifth of his supporters stay home next year, that would turn his 53%-47% victory in 2008 into a 47%-53% loss in 2012.

LOLOLOLOL! Now Obama is ‘too white’ for leftards! Saturday Night Card Game (“…what I got was the white guy…”)

Some prominent white liberals, in this case Bill Maher and Michael Moore, are pretty quick to portray conservatives and particularly Tea Partiers as racist.

But in fact, it is these white liberals who harbor negative stereotypes about blacks.  They just don’t see the stereotypes as negative, but rather, in some way “cool” and “hip.”

And when it comes to Obama, what they got apparently isn’t black enough for them (see video at link)

Maher and Moore apparently want Shaft, and anything less is just a white guy.

Heh — New York Times to Obama: What Would Lyndon Johnson Do?

ChiTrib editor: Say, maybe it’s time for Obama to withdraw from 2012

Victor David Hanson:

• Obama’s Quiver Is Empty

Perhaps strangest of all, there is now a collective “Been there, done that” any time Barack Obama walks up to the podium to give yet another teleprompted speech. The speeches still are well delivered; he still has a way with the mannerisms and cadences. But even his critics pray for his sake that he does not come out with yet another embarrassing “Let me be perfectly clear,” “Make no mistake about it,” or “Let’s be honest” — as he goes back to bashing either the tired Bush bogeyman or yet another strawman Satanic reactionary who, if not for Barack Obama, supposedly would expose children to mercury, neglect roads and bridges, and finally dissolve government altogether. We have all heard ad nauseam that an eight-month-old Republican-controlled Congress has stopped Obama’s legislative agenda for three years.

In truth, Obama is out of arrows. His quiver is bare, because he came into office as a rhetorical president without much experience or any ideas other than growing even bigger a tired big government. And now the public realizes that both the speeches and the big spending do not work. The result is that we collectively know what the president cannot any longer say — and it proves far greater than what he can say. He is well past the point of Jerry Ford’s WIN buttons or Jimmy Carter’s fist-pounding malaise speech.

• Obama Becomes the Fall Guy

A mostly moderate-to-conservative public has concluded that it does not like the new liberal agenda. After three years, it believes that the big government/big borrowing medicine made the inherited illness far worse. Voters may or may not like Obama, but they surely do not like what he is still trying to do.

In response, the Left needs a sacrificial lamb. So it has nonsensically turned with a fury on Obama as if he were culpable for pushing through the Left’s own agenda. If Democrats do not blame the public’s anger on their once-beloved messenger, then they are left only with their message itself. And that is something they simply cannot accept.

Brutal: Obama’s job approval — and favorable rating — hit new lows in NYT poll

Report: Obama’s Job-Approval Rating Below 50% in 9 States He Flipped From Red to Blue in ’08

Equaling 112 electoral votes in 2012.

Hispanics support Voter ID Laws

Progressive claim that requiring ID’s to vote is racist. The left claims it discriminates against minorities. Well one minority group doesn’t mind voter ID laws. A majority of Hispanics support voter ID laws. This comes as no surprise to any rational thinking person. Who would oppose showing an ID to vote?

Krauthammer: Playing ‘Medi-scare’ the ‘only hope’ for Democrats

In an appearance on this weekend’s syndicated “Inside Washington” program, Krauthammer offered that as a possible reason for the electoral loss. “There’s another dynamic here, which is interesting,” Krauthammer said. “When the Republicans lost a special election a few months ago in Buffalo – New York 26, the theme was – it was a strong one, it was right after the release of the Paul Ryan plan, the Democrats ran hard on ‘Medi-scare’ and succeeded. And Republicans who did not admit that were whistling in the wind. What’s interesting is here we are later in the game, and they tried it again in New York-9, and it did not work, in part, I think, it is because Obama at least gave indications in the debt debate that he might trim Medicare or Social Security.”

James Carville: Obama Not Going to Win Reelection on Course He’s On Right Now (Video)

Clinton Cargo Cult! Unfortunately for them she has spent too much time in the Obamakennel and she is infested with Obamafleas and Obamaticks. Those “3am phone calls’ she talked about in 2008 she slept right through those as Secretary of State. If she really wanted to run as President again she should have either not taken the Secretary of State position or she should have quit at least two years ago…

• Bloomberg poll sparks more useless pining for ‘President Hillary’
• Is James Carville Setting Up Hillary’s Run?

We may not want it to happen, but Hillary may run. The fact that she is saying she won’t make you wonder. Look at her new hairdo. She is trying to look young again, and I doubt it’s for some man.

And let’s hope that it’s not true. I don’t care what the polls or Dick Cheney say: Hillary “It Takes a Village” as President? Expect to lose your child to the state right after birth if that happens. That is what she wants. She said so in her book.

The Clinton gang is back. And they think we have forgotten: They are wrong.

Special Election Panic Attack

The Republican National Committee raised over $8 million in August, the highest amount the group has raised in an August of a non-election year and reportedly more than $2 million more than their Democratic counterparts.

But what is CNN not telling you? That August included the president’s big birthday fundraising efforts — and the DNC played it up for all it was worth. So much so, that Senate Democrats complained Obama was sucking all the air out of the room. Even so, Teh Won couldn’t beat the RNC during his own birth month. And to think the closest thing the RNC had to a big theme was, “Trying to suck slightly less than the DNC.” That’s not exactly setting the bar very high, especially with Debbie Wasserman-Schultz still in charge.

Makes you wonder if there’s a bus headed Debbie’s way.

Pelosi Says Losing Weiner’s Seat Was a Good Thing: “Because Democrats Will Buckle Down” No, Nancy, what it will do is start a civil war within the party which will do one of two things. (In fact the civil war has already begun)

1. The moderate/conservative ‘American’ wing of the party will take back control of the party and toss the radical leftists out.
2. The most likely of outcomes is that the radical leftists will prevail and any and all who aren’t flaming radical left Marxists and Maoists like yourself will finally give up on the Democratic Party and head for the door. When that happens the Democratic Party will go the way of the Dinosaurs and become a fossil in the ash heap of history.

Waxman: Jews Trending Republican Because They Want to Protect Their Wealth

I’m of Irish descent, so Henry Waxman probably thinks I started voting Republican because the GOP was offering free whiskey — just as he believes Jewish voters are trending right to keep their money

Waxman Doubles Down

Yeah, we get the picture: Waxman looks at your bank account and thinks, “My precious!”

Democrat Attacks Obama: ‘In My Entire Political Career, I’ve Never Seen Anything This Irresponsible’

“In my entire political career, I’ve never seen anything this irresponsible,” he added.

If they think this is irresponsible, who knows what they think about the burgeoning Solyndra scandal. Meanwhile, much like anyone else trying to investigate the most corrupt administration ever, they’re running into obstacles.

Cardoza said there’s a growing sense the administration is stone-walling.

“They’re giving us the same speech they’d given us months before,” he said. “We’ve seen this dog-and-pony show before. It’s nothing new. … That’s the frustration.

Most transparent presidency ever!

Compounding the Misery For Democrats: Bob Turner is Friends With Rush

“The Democrats did opposition research polling in the district and they found out to their shock that I’m very popular in this district. I have a very supportive audience in this district, which stunned them. It’s Orthodox, it’s Israel, blue-collar, it’s made up of Democrats that are your father and grandfather’s Democrats, not this current crop of leftist Marxist socialists or what have you,” Limbaugh said. “So that’s why they tried to tar Turner with Jerry Springer. But it wasn’t gonna work no matter what they tried because this was about Obama.”

Seemingly most of the desperate Democrat ads against Turner were calling his a “tea party extremist,” and that obviously didn’t help any. Oh well, back to the drawing board to think up more smears as we head into 2012.

Meanwhile, beaten and battered New York Democrats are pointing fingers every which direction. Here’s a hint: Point them at Obama. He’s why you lost the seat.

Weprin Throws Obama Under the Bus: ‘The Problem Was That He’s the President and People are Frustrated’

How bad are things for Obama? Now a hapless loser like David Weprin is taking potshots at him. We’re about to see a full-fledged insurrection in the Democratic Party. Sit back and watch them devour themselves.

 Too bad for her that her campaign treasurer stole all her campaign money… What? California’s Dianne Feinstein in poll trouble too?

Oh, no! Another Democratic senator in possible election trouble for 2012.

And from California already?

A new Field Poll just released this morning brings news that California’s Sen. Dianne Feinstein is — how can we put this in a liberal kind of way? — approved by 41% of voters who want to see her reelected next year.

Unfortunately for her, more voters (fully 44%) disapprove of her continued employment in the U.S. Senate after 2012.

In blue California that makes for about a magnitude 5.2 quake.

Michael Reagan May Challenge Feinstein

Granted, it’s nearly impossible to remove these entrenched Democrat senators in California, although Boxer did sweat it out a bit against Carly Fiorina last year. But keep in mind while Feinstein’s numbers are pretty weak, Obama is also under 50% in the state. If he’s facing trouble in the state come next November, a very strong possibility, Feinstein could be vulnerable.

Donald Trump reiterates possibility of running as an independent after dinner with ‘Jim’ Perry

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump dined with Texas Gov. Rick Perry Wednesday night in New York City. The following day, Trump praised presidential candidate “Jim” Perry and said he was “impressed with him.”

Trump, who toyed with running in the Republican primary earlier this year, also said that he would run as an independent candidate for president if Republicans chose “the wrong candidate” and if the country’s economic situation did not improve.

What happened to the “jobs and the economy” election?

Michele Bachmann served in the Minnesota Senate from 2001 to 2006, as Ben Howe notes.  She had five children growing up in Minnesota who would have had to been inoculated for Hep-B in order to attend school after the passage of the 1993 act that mandated the vaccination.  There is absolutely no record of Bachmann raising any kind of objection to innocent Minnesota children, including her own, being required to be inoculated for a disease that primarily gets transmitted through sex, IV drug use, or tattoo parlors.  Suddenly, though, she’s so horrified about mandated vaccination for sexually-transmitted diseases that she not only can’t stop talking about it, she feels compelled to pass along every anecdote she hears without bothering to check whether it has any factual basis at all.

Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure American voters don’t think Government Needle is the biggest issue in their lives at the moment.

Bachmann isn’t the only one guilty of derailing the debate.  Mitt Romney decided to attack Perry over his “Ponzi scheme” rhetoric on Social Security, not too long after saying that the operation of the Social Security fund was akin to a criminal enterprise.  Did this fight highlight some dramatic difference in approach to Social Security reform?  Not really; there’s more daylight in film noir than there is between the arguments for Social Security reform from the Republican field.  Like Bachmann, he’s continuing to frighten people by attacking the idea of entitlement reform, while promising to, er, reform entitlements.

Today In Rick Perry News: Bad Polling News, “The Big Hoss” And An Op-Ed On The US And Israel

It’s September ’11 not ’12 or even January of ’12 so this isn’t panic, it’s…noteworthy. The big thing is the decline in support coinciding with Mitt’s Social Security attacks. Look, I don’t like them either but like baseball, there’s no crying in politics. What Mitt’s doing is no different than what Obama will if he gets the chance.

As Ace talked about yesterday, I’m in the ‘deal not closed’ camp when it comes to Perry. I want to like him, want to support him full bore but he has to do better. Yes, he gives a good speech but we’ve seen that movie before. No, he’s not Obama but he’s got show it. I hear a lot of people tell me how great Perry is and I’m ready to believe it but…I have to see it for myself.

The so-called “debates” aren’t a great forum but it’s all we have. If he can’t put away Romney and Bachmann…then I have concerns. I’d really like to see him in some other settings like a town hall and something like the SC event Jim DeMint hosted. I want to see him pushed not to deliver a comeback but to explain his positions a level or two deep when challenged. I want to know he’s got enough wonk in him to get the job done and not just skate by on his larger than life persona.

Why Rick Perry is the likely GOP nominee

In sum, when measured by resume, regionalism and ideology, Rick Perry would seem to be the candidate most acceptable to the GOP primary electorate. The major caveat, as has been the case throughout this cycle, is a possible late entry by fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin (though that possibility dwindles by the day). Her weakness among Republicans would not make her a lock for the nomination, but she would be a factor and could split the conservative opposition to Romney. However, as the campaign stands today, regardless of the momentary odds at Intrade narrowly favoring Romney, the most likely GOP nominee is the Governor of Texas.

Perry To Hold Press Conference This Week With Israeli MK Danny Danon Ahead Of UN Statehood Vote, May Endorse His Plan To Annex West Bank…

Whatever one thinks of Perry, his pro-Israel credentials are rock solid.

Not Surprising… Romneycare Cost Massachusetts More Than 18,000 Jobs

Well this won’t help Mitt any but it really is not a surprise.

 Even Canadian Comedians Know Social Security Is A Ponzi Scheme

Listen, I have been pissed ever since the Democrats killed an attempt to reform Social Security under the Bush administration. They managed to scare all the blue hair AARP members into pressuring congress to drop the issue, much to the detriment of future generations. Because of AARP’s lobbying against Social Security reform and for the monstrosity called Obamacare I will never be a member. 10 years ago it was proposed to allow younger folks to invest in alternate investment options and to take that amount from the garnishment currently being taken by the federal government to pay for this Ponzi scheme. THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO CHANGE FOR CURRENT BENEFICIARIES. The Dems of course ran out their attack ads of senior citizens eating cat food and the reform effort died.

Debates, Demagoguery and Democracy.

We have a national problem with irresponsible people scaring the poorly informed about vaccines. The complaints about the Food and Drug Administration are usually about how long it takes to get a drug approved.  They may be slow, but they do take care.

Let’s deal with some plain ordinary facts. According to the Center for Disease Control, a study that covered 83% of the U.S. population estimated that about 24,900 HPV-associated cancers occur each year.  More than 17,300 HPV-associated cancers occur yearly in women and almost 7,600 occur yearly in men.  These numbers may under-represent the actual number of cancers diagnosed during this time period.  Not everyone who gets the virus gets cancer, but there is no way to get rid of the virus.

The vaccines are mostly effective (not perfect) but definitely don’t cause retardation, which is caused by a birth defect — not acquired suddenly at age 12. Whooping-cough is making a return because of scared parents refusing vaccinations for their children.  California reported the highest number of cases of whooping-cough in 55 years. Vaccinations don’t cause autism either. For those who have been alarmed, there is plenty of information  available at the Center for Disease Control website, or consult your doctor.

Michele Bachmann: Hey, There’s a Can of Worms. You Know What I’ll Do? I Think I’ll Open This Here Can of Worms Up.

You know when you’ve gone too far and too fringe?

When Ron Paul says you’ve gone too far and too fringe.

“We are pretty pissed off about it,” says one confidant. “She messed up, making it harder for other candidates to speak up. Taking on Perry on this front, with serious arguments, could have been a long and very successful line of attack. She went a step too far and embarrassed the field. She polluted the issue.”

Eh, she’s an idiot in the first place.

And so is Ron Paul, who cites Al Qaeda as a credible source as to why the kill us (because we’re attacking them; it’s our fault, you see), but ignores Al Qaeda saying the attacks are motivated by the ultimate goal of a World Caliphate and complete Submission to Islam the world over.

Funny how he only takes Al Qaeda at their word in some cases. Conveniently enough, like the left, he credits their statements when they support his peace-at-any-cost philosophy, but ignores their statements — won’t even acknowledge them — when those statements suggest that merely giving Israel to the terrorists will not buy them off.

“I Think She Can Get Away With That In Congress. I Don’t Think That You Can As President.” Bachmann has long had a problem with confusing statements that would be politically helpful to her as statements that are, in fact, actually accurate.

Bioethicist Offers $10,000 Reward For Proof of Bachmann Vaccine Claims

University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Art Caplan is so confident that Michele Bachmann’s claim that a young girl was made mentally retarded by injections of the Gardasil vaccine against human papilloma virus is false that he is offering to donate $10,000 to the charity of Bachmann’s choice if she can produce such a patient.

Caplan, who has made the offer via Twitter, to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, on the radio stations WTVN and WOR, also proposes that Bachmann should donate $10,000 to the charity of his choice if such a patient can be produced. He says her campaign hasn’t responded. He writes:

If she can produce a case in one week starting today verified by three medical experts that she and I pick of a woman who became ‘retarded’ (her words) due to HPV vaccine I will donate that to a charity of her choice.

Doctor Michele Bachmann: I Oppose “PerryCare”

Meanwhile, Bachman has taken somewhere north of $140,000 from pharmaceutical companies. Those donors include Abbott Labs, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Eli Lilly and Bayer. Yet, not a dollar of all that pharma money, from such a wide range of the world’s largest drugmakers, came from Merck. Might Bachmann be going after Merck on behalf of that company’s competitors who also happen to be Bachmann donors?

But really, if Bachmann is carrying water, it’s likely not for her pharmaceutical patrons, but her insurance ones. Over the years, Bachmann has taken in huge donations from the insurance industry, including big names such as Allstate, American Family, Aetna and AFLAC, as well as umbrella organizations like the National Association of Health Underwriters and the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. There are also several professional insurance association and agent PACs. In the 2009-10 cycle, “insurance” was the largest single industry donor to the Congresswoman. Of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, Bachmann ranked eighth in total fundraising receipts from insurers.

Now, if Bachmann likes a good follow-the-money insinuation, she might like the hypothetical that she is only going after Perry’s Gardasil decision because, as a covered treatment, such an order would cost insurers for every injection (a full vaccination requires three shots, and they cost about $120 each). Perry worked to secure about $40 million from the state to match about that same amount from the feds to cover the uninsured and those on state health assistance.

It should also be noted that while selflessly defending innocent little girls from the needle-rape of sex-predator-doctors wielding jabs of Liquid Whore, she also is now fundraising off of her brave stance.

She’s not backing off her previous claim that some woman “cried hysterically” to her and told her that her 10-12 year old daughter (that’s the age Gardasil is recommended for) got the shot and became “mentally retarded.” She deflects, now, saying she’s not a “doctor or scientist,” so she cannot evaluate this claim. (She can only fundraise off it, it seems.)

Video: The Story Behind Rick Perry’s Gardasil Mandate

Fox aired this interview earlier today, with two friends of Heather Burcham. She died at the age of 31 due to cervical cancer, but in her last months she became an advocate for Gardasil, the 100% effective HPV vaccine. Gov. Rick Perry and Heather Burcham became friends in her dying months. Though he was governor at the time, Perry made time to check in on Burcham and visited her away from the glare of the press.

Watch the interview with Burcham’s friends, and decide for yourself if anything that Michele Bachmann has said about Perry, crony capitalism and Gardasil makes any sense.

 Ron Paul’s Ignorance and Naivety Regarding Jihad

Look for the Union Label/Whackademia/The Badger Rebellion:

Attention AFL-CIO, IBEW, Teamsters and UMW Members: Your Christmas Gift From the White House is: 116,000 Layoffs

Poll: 48% Say Unions Are No Longer Needed, Only 30% Believe They Still Have a Role…

The New Face of Organized Labor

It’s fairly surprising that the approval of labor unions has dropped to its lowest point during the Obama presidency.  But why?  My suspicion is that Democrat control of the White House and both sides of Capitol Hill has given us an unprecedented view of the reality of organized labor.  It’s not that Obama and his party have necessarily strengthened the unions, although events such as the NLRB interference in Boeing’s business has given some hope to unions, but the Democrats seem to have given the unions license to show their colors.  Union thuggery has become an everyday event, and videos and stories of the disgusting behavior of union members are rampant.

So, let’s look at this new, true face of organized labor.

Far Left Wisconsin Thug Turns Himself In After Accosting 3 GOP Reps

Supermarket Union May Force Hundreds Of Stores To Close….Over $9 A Week

Apparently, all the unionized supermarket workers in California don’t want to pay their fair share

The “Big Three” Southern California grocery chains are bracing for a strike and possible shut down after the union representing grocery workers canceled their contract with the stores.

About 62,000 workers in the United Food and Commercial Workers union at Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons could walk off the job as soon as Sunday night.

The union’s qualms are health-care centric.

The union is asking for the companies to shoulder more of the costs.

You know what the companies are shouldering now? Pretty much all of it. The workers have no paycheck deductions at this time. None. Zip. Zero.

In the current offer from the companies, workers would have to pay $9 a week for solo coverage and $23 per week for a family, union and company officials told the Los Angeles Times.

“When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.”

The Badger Rebellion might be spreading into The Wolverine Rebellion… Mich. House Moves to Ban Union Dues Deducted from Teachers’ Paychecks

There is little doubt that this is a practice that should be eliminated everywhere. After all, it is not a very American practice! In fact, it goes against the sort of American principles that foster personal responsibility and fairness.

Not only should government union members be responsible for paying their own dues but taxpayers should not have to foot the bill to help union members pay their dues.

Let us hope that Michigan’s union controlled Democrats will not be able to stop the elimination of these auto deductions in the Wolverine State.

Those who can’t do teach, those who can’t teach administrate…  Where Universities Can Be Cut

Racial Discrimination at UW-Madison Gets Minority Students Admitted, But Almost 50% Don’t Graduate

Want Less Inequality? Stop Subsidizing Schools And Universities

Canada has spent fortunes on education, schools, and universities during the last few decades, as has the U.S. and other Western countries.   So how is it that 50% of its population are virtually “illiterate?” And how is it that 19-year-olds can get into some of the better universities and not know either how to study or be motivated?

It is not difficult to provide answers.  At one time attendance at high schools and universities was based on the idea of “selection.”  That selection was based on the enforcement of strict standards, rather than wishy-washy, feel-good, high-grades to satisfy the education bureaucrats’ statistical criteria of “competence.”  With little exception, such selection, be it at the school or university level, has gone with the wind.

No matter how good and dedicated teachers might be, if students are mediocre and below, they will remain so.  You can change class sizes, or waste billions on computers, but neither will change the distribution of talents.   Brilliant students will benefit from access to the subsidized technology, and they will do brilliantly even if their teachers are mediocre.  Above average students situated in class with brilliant student will perhaps raise their own performance.

In Other News…

Rare Straight Talk

In their campaign to impose their fascistic cult on the rest of the world, Muslims have committed 17,751 documented terror attacks since 9/11. How many more will it take before the moonbats in charge stop treating this menace as if it were somehow on a par with Christianity?

Overindulgent Parenting: How We Raise an Entitlement Generation

The Chainsaw Rebellion!

• Opening engagement of the Chainsaw Rebellion: Otero County Tree Party defies feds, cuts trees, and . . . nothing happens.

Otero County NM Sheriff Benny House told the Feds he’d arrest them if they interfered with the Chainsaw Rebellion.

• Another report on the Chainsaw Rebellion, with some history of the problem.

What took place this weekend in the rural New Mexico town of Cloudcroft could become the model for all who want to cut the red tape. Hundreds of people were at what is being called the “Otero County Tree Party” in support of realigning the federal government and putting them back where they belong. 

Ten years ago, the New Mexico State Legislature passed SB1, which was signed into law by then-governor Gary Johnson. The legislature overwhelmingly voted for it, believing that it was a necessity borne out of “Uncontrollable, but preventable wildfires, and unresponsive federal agencies.” The Forest Service’s (USFS) inaction to reduce or remove the fuel buildup put “the lives and property of the citizens of New Mexico” at risk

• Details of how the Feds blinked in Otero. “Monday morning it looked like they wanted to throw us in jail and file injunctions.”

Rardin said commissioners and Pearce were going to go ahead with the tree-cutting plan on Saturday regardless if the agreement was in place or not.

Violent Crimes Drop 12%, Reason Unknown; In Other News, Record Number of Americans Carrying Concealed Weapons

Obama-nomics: People Can’t Afford To Bury Loved Ones

The economic downturn has left many families across the nation unable to afford burials.

As funeral costs rise and the economy continues to founder, many communities are seeing a rise in unclaimed bodies and funerals for indigent people.

The trend has been seen “everywhere,” says Jacqueline Byers, director of research and outreach for the National Association of Counties.

“The reality is, it’s gotten worse,” she says.

Great. We’re leaving bodies hanging around unburied, which means they’ll easily be able to escape and spread the zombie virus, which is usually contained within the caskets. Of course, it makes it easier for them to show up to vote Democrat.

Unions and Democrats hardest hit… In Indiana: Pass Go and Collect Your Voucher

Will the arrival of school choice in the Hoosier State shatter the government’s education monopoly?

North Dakota Celebrates 60 Years of Oil; Future Looks Bright – ND Could Surpass CA and Alaska Soon

More than 1.85 billion barrels have been produced in North Dakota over the past 60 years, state records show. Officials estimate that at least twice that amount remains untapped in the Bakken shale and the Three Forks formation below it. North Dakota is the nation’s No.4 oil producer, on pace to surpass California and Alaska, where production has been declining.

North Dakota’s oil patch is pumping about 100,000 more barrels of crude daily than a year ago at this time and about double the production in 2008. State and industry officials estimate the state could hit 700,000 barrels daily by 2015.“

Flash Mob Denver… Black and Hispanic Gang Members Assault Shoppers at Mall

I like it! Ruidoso NM: Mayor bans firearms on public property. Citizens arm themselves, come to city council meeting and disobey the order.

one guy even slung an AR. Of course Larry Pratt and Bob Wright are in the middle of the resistance. Bob reports the cops were “VERY, VERY polite.” With at least 80 armed citizens in the room that was probably a good idea.

Quick! Someone notify Dr. Bachman!

• California schools to turn away children without whooping cough vaccine
• California’s “Suicide by Liberalism” Continues

It is just amazing, isn’t it?  Its sort of like they know they are dying out, but they just want to do as much damage as they can before they go.  California teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, but someone in the legislature found time to draft and pass a bill requiring something that no one other than a tiny minority of anti-family fanatics cares about.

The criminals and ganasta’s of L.A. love this bill and hope Gov. Moonbeam signs it soon because, after all, if guns are outlawed then only outlaws will have guns… Gun control bill in Gov. Brown’s hands

City of San Juan Capistrano, CA Fines Christians $300 For Holding Bible Study In Their Home

You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me. Uh – how is this constitutional in the slightest? The first Amendment Of The Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

What part of not prohibiting the free exercise thereof do these people not get? This is exactly the nanny-state absurdity that liberal ideology is attempting to foist on us all, through legislative fiat if possible, judicial fiat if necessary. Fortunately, the couple now has an attorney, Dean Broyles of the Western Center for Law & Policy,and is not taking this lying down:

Broyles confirmed the county official followed through on his threat. The pastor and his wife received a written warning ordering the couple to “cease/stop religious assembly on parcel or obtain a major use permit.”

Broyles also explained to WND that oppressive governments, such as communist China or Nazi Germany, worked to repress home fellowships, labeling them the “underground church” or “subversive groups,” legally compelling Christians to meet only in sanctioned, government-controlled “official” churches.

I’m trying to give the benefit of a doubt here and say that this official is just some fringe kook that will at some point be rebuffed by his or her superior and hopefully fired, never to work in the public sector again fro such blatant stupidity. Unfortunately, it is far more likely that more of this is coming down the pike, uprooting the very principles the founding fathers put in place for a good reason. WND is pretty good at following up on such stories. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for a quick resolution…

Appellate Court Rules Lawsuit Challenging Houston’s Illegal Alien Sanctuary Policy Will Continue

The Masters of Hispanic Destiny

‘Do we want to be the next victimized minority group, or do we want to be the next successful immigrant group?’

The problem is who would want to live in Detroit? Chart of the Day: You Can Buy 2 Detroit Homes for About the Same as One Average-Priced New Car

Dumpster Diving?

Have you ever thought about getting your food out of a trash can?  Don’t laugh.  Dumpster diving has become a hot new trend in America.  In fact, dumpster divers even have a trendy new name.  They call themselves “freegans”, and as the economy crumbles their numbers are multiplying.  Many freegans consider dumpster diving to be a great way to save money on groceries.  Others do it because they want to live more simply.  Freegans that are concerned about the environment view dumpster diving as a great way to “recycle” and other politically-minded freegans consider dumpster diving to be a form of political protest.  But whatever you want to call it, the reality is that thousands upon thousands of Americans will break out their boots, rubber gloves and flashlights and will be jumping into dumpsters looking for food once again tonight.

Popularity of Telemedicine Grows in Michigan, U.S.

‘Civility Pledge’ Shuts Down Debate At Tucson City Council Meeting

Seeds of Discontent

Shelby County Environmental Court judge Larry Potter upheld the citation, ordering Guerrero to get rid of the “debris and personal property” stored outside his home and trim overgrown vegetation — including cutting down his 7-foot-tall sunflower plants.

“He said it’s considered a neighborhood nuisance,” says Guerrero, who is a member of the GrowMemphis board. “I asked him to define nuisance for me, and he said basically if it generates a complaint, it’s a neighborhood nuisance.”

Guerrero’s home is certainly unique: eggplant, tomato, and pepper plants grow in the front yard; the backyard is lined with rows of wooden worm bins; barrels for collecting and storing rainwater are stationed next to his backdoor; his garage is stocked with equipment for making biodiesel and soap; and behind his garage are beehives quietly humming with industry. Elsewhere, passionflowers, butterflies, elderberry bushes, and sunflowers fill out the garden.

Stupid: FL Couple Gets $4.5M For “Wrongful Birth” Because Doctor Didn’t Suggest Abortion

..During the two week trial, Mejia and Santana both indicated they would have opted for an abortion had they known the severity of the physical disabilities of their son.

Well this is going to over great with the kid in a few years when he learns to use a search engine.  Most kids have issues with their parents not allowing them to sty up past a certain hour. This one will know that mom and dad wanted him dismembered and sued because they didn’t. Good grief.

“A woman has an abortion to be a better mom”

I kid you not that came out of of the mouth of a pro-abortion activist who attempted (and failed) to shut down a pro-life talk at Georgia State University. Watch the action and note what the one white woman (funny that the “trust black women” chant was carried out by mostly white women, and even funnier when they yell it at a black woman) say at the 2:14 mark (see video at link)

Paroled Killers for Obama: Bumper Sticker Led Cops to Shooting Suspect

“It struck me as odd,” state parole officer Kevin Devlin testified yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court about the campaign sticker plastered on the back of parolee Corliss’ white Plymouth Acclaim.

“He’s a guy from Somerville, so I was surprised he was supporting Obama,” Devlin said.
“I made a joke about it. He said it was on the car when they bought it.”

How far has Obama fallen that even his murderous supporters pretend to have nothing to do with him?

Stick Your Neck Out: The Visible Tattoo as Recession Status Symbol

Child’s Sexual Bill of Rights

When they feel they have sufficiently mainstreamed homosexual depravity, it will be time for progressives to focus attention on the next item on their cultural agenda. No child will be safe from it.

The New England Yankee Way: We don’t retire willingly

America contains lots of cultures and subcultures.

In Yankeeland, men never seem to want to retire. It’s a point of masculine pride in a part of the country where work and masculine pride and vigor have traditionally been equated.

Our tradition has always been a little suspicious of, and uncomfortable with, leisure. Perhaps “ambivalent” is the right word. People with Yankeeland roots tend to find some work to do when they find spare time on their hands. Idleness is a sin, and “relaxation” is not in the lexicon. I am not saying that this is right or wrong – it’s just a cultural thing hereabouts.

Furthermore, Yankee women tend not to like having an idle guy around her domain.

 Google has designs on your wallet

If Google has its way, you’ll soon be buying goods and fares with just your smartphone.

MSM Circus and Celebutard Side Show:

‘Something is Breaking Loose in Terms of the Liberal Lockstep’

George Will Breaks Down the Obama Hype on ‘This Week’: “There Is No Evidence The Man Has Rhetorical Powers He Is Relying On” (Video)

Wow, the libs on the panel are already talking about Hillary Clinton for president.

David Axelrod Blasts Oba-Media For Reporting Truth About Obama

Things are so bad for Team O that chief consultant David Axelrod has started blasting the media for reporting the truth on Obama’s failed policies and the corruption of the regime

MSNBC completely ignoring Solyndra scandal. Ron Reagan Jr: Unlike Fox, MSNBC’s Truth-Based (canned laughter)

What is next? “Artwork” from the taxpayer funded NEA portraying Obama and his Unicorn on the cross? Hallelujah!… NPR Compares Obama to the Christ

Your tax dollars at work…

NPR is now comparing President Downgrade to Jesus.

AP’s Sept. 16 Solyndra Story, Part 1: Passing Off Weeks-Old News As Its Own Work

The news of the company’s second-round attempt was carried at L.A Observed on September 15 (HT Flopping Aces). Daly and Gillum did the Obama administration a huge undeserved favor by failing to tell readers that Solyndra wanted another $469 million (that’s not a typo) in Round 2 — and yes, that is a mark against Team Obama, because the company wouldn’t have bothered to apply if it didn’t think it had a chance of getting approved.

Readers should also take issue with the AP pair’s characterization of the Solyndra saga as an administration “embarrassment.” Sorry folks; given the campaign contributions, White House visits, and lobbying involved, this has all the characteristics of a sc-, sc-, sc- … scandal.

Nowhere in the AP report does anyone who has done the digging during the past two weeks while the Essential Global News Network hoped the story would go away get any credit.

Here is what the AP’s “Statement of News Values and Principles” says about giving credit:

An AP staffer who reports and writes a story must use original content, language and phrasing. We do not plagiarize, meaning that we do not take the work of others and pass it off as our own.

Also, the AP often has the right to use material from its members and subscribers; we sometimes take the work of newspapers, broadcasters and other outlets, rewrite it and transmit it without credit.

They’ll argue that they’re in a gray area, but when you’re nine days to two weeks behind everybody else, I would suggest that going to the regulatory files others have already combed through and making it appear as if you’re the first to have discovered what you’re reporting — as indicated in the bolded phrases and statements in the excerpt above — deliberately misleads readers, listeners and viewers of AP content into believing that the wire service did the heavy lifting. Shame on Daly, Gillum, and AP for failing to give any credit where credit is due, thereby in my view perpetrating a clear deception.

Part 2 (found here) looks at the AP report’s deceiving description of campaign contributions by Solyndra’s private investors.

Jon Stewart Brings Solyndra Mainstream: “That Custom Tailored Obama Scandal You Ordered Is Finally Here”

The biggest scandal to rock the White House since Bill Clinton needed a refresher on the definition of the word “the” has gone fully mainstream after Jon Stewart dedicated his segment last night to “That Custom Tailored Obama Scandal You Ordered.” His summary: “Fox News call your doctor, because the erection you currently have is going to last longer than 4 hours.” Spot on. One thing is missing, however: someone should advise Jon that the missing link, Goldman Sachs, is also, and quite naturally, involved.

Schlock and not much awe anymore

Obama being mocked almost as much as Sarah Palin. The end is near

Tipping Point: Dennis Miller Decides “I Don’t Like Obama, Because He Doesn’t Like Me and 50% of the Country”

You might think, Big deal. Isn’t Dennis Miller already against Obama?

Sure, but on policy. He has always before said “He’s a good man, he means well in his heart,” or that sort of thing.

Now he’s decided he doesn’t like him on a personal level, because, as he says, “Obama doesn’t like me, and half the country.”

The Jimmy Hoffa remarks are what did it for him.

Liberals turn racist

Now readers are thinking, Donald, most of these are mild rebukes of the president. They just want to change his policies and style. But that is the same as what the Tea Party was doing two years ago when Janeane Garofalo labeled the party as white power activists. She had no proof. In fact — irony alert — her stereotyping was in itself racist and she did so to promote a political agenda. So now, 28 months later, she can eat her words. Raw.

Lefty Psychopath Bill Maher: Christians “Love Killing”…

Sorry, Bill, wrong religion.

NY Times review: Yeah, Joe McGinniss is a sleaze

Although most of “The Rogue” is dated, petty and easily available to anyone with Internet access, Mr. McGinniss used his time in Alaska to chase caustic, unsubstantiated gossip about the Palins, often from unnamed sources like “one resident” and “a friend.”

And these stories need not be consistent. “The Rogue” suggests that Todd Palin and the young Sarah Heath took drugs. It also says that she lacked boyfriends and was a racist. And it includes this: “A friend says, ‘Sarah and her sisters had a fetish for black guys for a while.’  ” Mr. McGinniss did in 2011 make a phone call to the former N.B.A. basketball player Glen Rice, who is black, and prompted him to acknowledge having fond memories of Sarah Heath. While Mr. Rice avoids specifics and uses the words “respectful” and “a sweetheart,” Mr. McGinniss eggs him on with the kind of flagrantly leading question he seems to have habitually asked. In Mr. Rice’s case: “So you never had the feeling she felt bad about having sex with a black guy?”

If even The NY Times is disgusted with Joe McGinniss, then Palin will emerge stronger from this book.

More to come, I’m sure.

 LOLOLOL! Suckers! Disappointed Hollywood Giving Obama Cold Shoulder

At this point in the previous presidential election cycle, Barack Obama was a Hollywood heartthrob. The entertainment industry’s ardent Democratic activists couldn’t dig deep enough into their wallets to finance his ambitious run for the Oval Office.

Today, the industry remains with the president, but the disenchantment is increasingly palpable, and even devoted Democrats are approaching his re-election campaign with all the enthusiasm of a studio contractually obligated to finance a dubious sequel.

Obama certainly is raising major money in Hollywood — $2.53 million during the first six months of 2011, with two more events scheduled for Sept. 26. As Andy Spahn, one of Obama’s chief showbiz fund-raisers, points out, “We’ve sold out every event.” Doing so, however, has required deft organization and more than a little arm-twisting. Another Obama fund-raiser described the process as “tough, tough, tough.” Four years ago, candidate Obama’s mere presence guaranteed a turn-away crowd

Personally I hope Hollyweird keeps this up. The last thing any of us need are anymore arrogant, ignorant and stupid Yankees, Californicators and other Bleu State refugees moving down south. Hollywood’s Mississippi remains a brutal backwater

Global Warmening:

Audio of Howard Dean: Obama Signed Exec Order Mandating US Comply With Kyoto

Wouldn’t this just be typical of Obama – once again unconstitutionally bypassing Congress. But then again, this is Howard Dean, a man who’s elevator doesn’t go up to the top:

Speaking during a panel put together by Cornel West and Tavis Smiley in New York City, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean talks about President Obama’s record:

“Most people don’t know that. But the fact is I actually for the first time in July of 2009 read an entire presidential executive order, which is over 50 pages of legally gobbledygook which requires the government of the United States to comply with Kyoto. Luckily the Republicans never – I guess most of them can’t read that far anyway. And it’s an extraordinary thing.”

The Gore-a-thon on WUWT

This is a collection of all of the posts related to Al Gore’s “24 hours of climate reality” aka the Gore-a-thon. My sincere thanks to cartoonist Josh for making it possible. Click each cartoon to go to the full story commentary.

In the beginning there was Gore, and a skeptical polar bear.

 Greens diss Al Gore’s latest Climate Rant

Global Warming alarmists don’t like AL Gore’s 24 hour special on Climate change. They view it as alarmist and to messianic.

The Sock Drawer:

Generic terms for streams mapped

May the paws be with you! Jedi kittens with light sabres take the internet by storm

Find out where your surname is from and what regions it is most prevalent. You may be surprised by what you find out: World Family Names

The Local’s guide to Oktoberfest

Welcome to Oktoberfest!

But be warned this isn’t just a bunch of party tents with lots of decent beer. No, by deciding to travel to this famous Volksfest, you’ve agreed to have the entire concept called Germany crunched into your skull by a sadomasochistic Bavarian mistress. She’s a pagan goddess with a lion at her heel, and in your hazy drunkenness she’ll indoctrinate you with all the wrong stereotypes about this country.

She’ll strap you down, peel back your eyelids and show you a heady mix of beer, breasts, leather, meat, and Bavarian bourgeois superiority. If you’re lucky, maybe she’ll even slap a dark green felt hat on you and take you on a whirlwind tour of the region’s prized “laptops and Lederhosen” economy as you belt down another Maß. And then she will release you to stagger home, hung-over, sweaty, full of misinformation, but most likely happy and content.

Trust the Germans to have tents in neat ranks at a BEER FESTIVAL! Oktoberfest kicks off

Brilliantly smart-ass responses to completely well-meaning signs.

The Most Important Story You Will See All Day?

The curious case of ‘Cure Salee’

Here’s a piece of Cold War history…

Off the road: Swiss play host to amphibious vehicles

This week, owners of more 50 amphibious vehicles brought their World War 2-era military transporters, jeeps and vintage-style cars to Switzerlands St Blaise for their annual European gathering.

Endangered species? Mystery as New England cottontail rabbits disappear from East Coast

The once prolific breeder has nearly vanished from Rhode Island and New Hampshire and exists in only negligible populations in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine and New York.

Who Made The Summer

In 1978, Mother clipped a shirt to the line and didn’t hear the conversation, because in 1978 the conversation didn’t happen. She just held open the patio door, and put the boy out there to find the summer in the business end of a garden hose.

Photos: That Moment Before the Pain Begins

Vacation planning

The Densest (Urban) Environment in the World

9 Things to Fix Around the House Before They Get Worse

2011 Frankfort Motor Show

The Oldest-Ever Homo Erectus Gadgets Revealed

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:

• Obama, the Veg-O-Matic President. Act Now!

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!

• Take Your Quisling “Attack Watch” Snitch Site and SHOVE IT!

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.

• Attaaaaack Waaaaaaatch; Update: The laughter continues

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.

• Did Michele Bachmann See This Before She Blew Up The Gardasil Controversy?

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.

• A decade of revelations

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

U. of Tokyo analysis: Mystery explosion at Reactor No. 4 caused by radiation dissolving water in boiling spent fuel pool — Contradicts TEPCO’s assumption

Americium-241 found in soil west of Tokyo at 74 becquerels/kg — “Much more dangerous” than Plutonium-241

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:

French Report: Radioactivity 10 times normal in Avignon — Cause of “anomalous increase” could be directly linked to explosion at Marcoule (CHART)

More on Accident at Marcoule Nuclear Waste Processing Site in France: Furnace Had Many Problems Before

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?

Dylan Grice Deconstructs The “Perpetual Ponzi Machine” Of Global Finance, Sees Gold At $10,000 In A World Of Dishonesty

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”.

Netherlands to ban the burka

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.

Saudi prince threatens U.S. in NYT editorial: Support Palestinian statehood or lose Saudis as allies and provoke “uproar among Muslims worldwide”

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

Kidnap victim held on island

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.

Post Birth Abortion

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…

CLASSy: Administration Ignored Warnings From Own Analysts In Effort To Get Expensive Boondoggle Passed Into Law

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.

3:

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.

• Report: Obama Administration Asked Air Force General To Alter Congressional Testimony To Help Firm Owned By Democratic Donor

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

Annenberg School: Obama Jobs Act Really Is Stimulus II, Designed to Funnel Billions to Teachers’ Unions and… the Obama Campaign

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.

• The Phony War on Unemployment

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:

Numbers.

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!™

• Income Slides to 1996 Levels

Median Household Earnings Fall for Third Year, Census Says

• Here Is This Morning’s Massive Econ Data Dump

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.

• US “Misery” At Fresh 28 Year High

• Philly Fed Misses, Market Soars As Inflation Roars Back With Prices Paid Doubling

DOOM: Another day older and deeper in debt

DOOM: The goggles do nothing

Producer Inflation Declines Just In Time For Op Twist; Retail Sales Dive As US Consumers Withdraw

More Great News From the Obama Depression: Nearly a Quarter of All Residential Mortgages Are Underwater

Mortgage Default Notices Surge 33% Nationwide, 55% in California, 200% by Bank of America; Corresponding Jump in Foreclosures Will Follow

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.

Bank Of America To Pay $930,000 Restitution To Whistleblower Who Was Fired For Reporting Fraud At Countrywide

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 Execs Delay Their Testimony (Shredder Sale at Office Depot!) While DOE Loan Chief Throws Everyone On His Staff Under the Bus

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.

Obama’s Big Green Boondoggles; Update: Solyndra circus! Dems’ Blame Bush/Big Oil mantras; OMB warned: Firm “not ready for prime time”

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

Soros, and AFSCME Funded Group Files Ethics Complaint Against Darrell Issa As He Probes Gunwalker Plot

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.

Has Obama Learned Anything?

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.

Attack Watch: The Video

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!

Oh No: Washington Post Headline, “Attack Watch, new Obama campaign site to ‘fight smears,’ becomes laughing stock of the Internet”

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…

Democratic Daily Newsletter (AKA Politico) Says Democrats Are Mad At Obama….For Not Being Liberal Enough

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.

Liberal Bloggers React To New York Defeat By Pushing Rumor That Sarah Palin Slept With A Guy And Did Coke

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.

‘He is a stalker who has a creepy obsession with my wife’: Palin’s husband hits back as author defends claims she snorted cocaine and had affairs

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.

Gardasil

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.

Giving Up on Bachmann

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.

The Devil’s Law Firm

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

TV weather girl admits lying about rape by ‘Hispanic man’ in Central Park – but avoids jail in plea deal

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

Nobel laureate resigns from American Physical Society to protest the organization’s stance on global warming

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.

Willow the cat finally found 2,000 MILES from home after travelling from Colorado to New York and being missing for FIVE years

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

Finally, an activity for me…

Flying the Police Aircraft of the Future

How dark chocolate ‘boosts fitness in the same way as jogging’

Do You Know the Astonishing Story of Gobekli Tepe?

Now there’s an Aga with a saga: Victorian kitchen that has remained untouched for 60 years discovered in stately home renovation

Obama without his teleprompter is like Helen Keller without her braille. We’d do well to remember that. –Joyanna Adams

Must Read of the Day:

• The American people can handle the truth about Obama’s phony jobs bill

There is a good reason Obama did not unveil his jobs bill prior to his jobs speech.

It’s because the jobs bill is not a jobs bill, it is the tax increase Obama has been hoping for since he was a candidate, taking $400 billion from people making $200,000 or more (couples making $250,000 or more).  Had Obama released the plan, all the talk surrounding the speech would have been about the tax increase, the opposite of what the Axelplouffe message machine wanted.

• Victor David Hanson: The California Corridor: Some Lessons on Government Largesse From the New Frontier

Civilization ends when the pampered beneficiaries of the hard work of the now dead have the luxury of ignoring how hard it was — and is — to build shelter from the elements, to erect public buildings from scrub, to grow food and sprout farms from sage. Our contemporary criminals are protected from the elemental struggle and so have the indulgence to gnaw away at civilization’s veneer — and we, in our conspiratorial silence about them, likewise forgot that to keep still about the destruction of the work of others is to be complicit in it.

• Gerard Vanderleun: Of a Fire in a Field and a Hole in the Sky

“United 93″ is a simply told, near-documentary look at how that fire in the field came to be. As I said above, the film has no message, but if you — as I finally did — choose to go, it will pose you a question: What would you do, an ordinary person in an extraordinary moment when life and death, good and evil, were as clear as the skies over America on September 11? Will you, as so many of our fellow citizens yearn to do these days, stay seated? Or will you stand up?

On one of our days to come, there will be another test. You’d best have an answer prepared.

• The 9/11 monument in New Jersey you never heard about

Politics or Poppycock has a series of photos depicting a monument to the victims of 9/11 in Bayonne, New Jersey. He writes, “I’m stunned. I have never heard, seen or read anything about this. Isn’t it wonderful to live in a country where the media controls what we should know?”

The monument is a gift to the people of America from the citizens of Russia signifying the importance of the war against global terrorism.

• How I Will Always Remember George W. Bush

I’m a libertarian, so I’ve always had plenty of policy differences with George W. Bush. But no matter his big-spending failings, I have never for a moment doubted that George W. Bush and his luminous wife Laura love the United States of America with their whole hearts and souls.

This news story encapsulates everything that was right about President George W. Bush, and everything that is wrong with the current Narcissist-In-Chief.

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words.

• The Interrupted Reading: The Kids with George W. Bush on 9/11

One thing the students would like to tell Bush’s critics — like liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, whose 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 911 disparaged Bush for lingering almost 10 minutes with the students after getting word that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center — is that they think the President did the right thing. “I think he was trying to keep everybody calm, starting with us,” says Guerrero. Dubrocq agrees: “I think he was trying to protect us.” Booker Principal Gwendolyn Tose-Rigell, who died in 2007, later insisted, “I don’t think anyone could have handled it better. What would it have served if [Bush] had jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room?”

• Iran and the EMP Threat

The radicals ruling Iran have openly talked about it as they have called for the destruction of America and a new world order that excludes America. While pursuing their nuclear bomb project, the Revolutionary Guards of Iran have successfully test-launched a ballistic missile from a ship in the Caspian Sea. Recently, they also announced that all their vessels now have been armed with long-range ballistic missiles, and that soon they will start a mission in the Atlantic Ocean that extends into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Guards have also progressed with their missile program under the guise of a space project. Soon they will launch another rocket into space, this time carrying a 330-kilogram payload, a sign that they can now deliver a nuclear warhead to any point on Earth. The Guards have openly stated that the rocket used to launch the satellite can be shot parallel to the Earth’s orbit, which would transform it into an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The Islamic leaders of Iran see it as their duty to create the environment called for in a centuries-old hadith for the reappearance of the last Islamic messiah for the glorification of Allah

• Obama: The Obsolete ‘Post Office President’

The preposterous irrelevance of President Obama’s jobs speech is summed up by the fact that he repeatedly urged Congress to “pass this jobs bill right away”–but there is no bill. By the admission of his own aides, Obama’s jobs bill is still being drafted. It won’t be submitted until next week, and his plan for how to pay for it won’t be submitted until the week after that. (Even then, the plan is mostly to pass the buck to the “super-committee” created by this summer’s debt ceiling compromise.) All of this gave his exhortations an air of “buy now!” hucksterism. For a moment there, I wasn’t sure whether he was selling us a jobs bill or the Slap Chop. Except that Vince Shlomi is a much better salesman.

Yet there is a much deeper and more profound irrelevance to the president’s proposals. They are all based on the premise that the government can come up with a few targeted initiatives and select some worthy projects to fund through a federal “infrastructure bank,” and this will somehow press the magic levers that produce economic growth. None of this has any relation to the actual dynamism of a free economy, because Obama does not grasp the source of that dynamism.

We’re about to get a really big reminder of how the constant change and progress or a free society overturns the static calculations of government bureaucrats. The US Postal Service is bankrupt. At its current rate, it will have to shut down this winter because it will run out of cash to pay its bills. This has been coming for a long time, and not just because of a bloated union payroll. First-class mail is the core business of the Postal Service, and the Internet has simply made it unnecessary. From everyday communications to bills and bank statements, practically everything can now be done by e-mail or online. Even our junk mail is digital now. So while President Obama is talking about a jobs bill, an obsolete government-run entity is about to lay off hundreds of thousands of superfluous workers.

• 9/11, Paul Krugman, and 15 Years Worth of Harsh Surprises

Perhaps what we’re seeing with Krugman is merely a high-profile manifestation of a widespread phenomenon in recent years, and perhaps much of our national recent history. Krugman has had his faith shaken, and he’s reacting by lashing out at familiar enemies. He looks out his window and sees the world is not as it should be, and he concludes it must be the fault of those who he has opposed and denounced all along.

In Time’s 2009 cover piece on Glenn Beck, David Von Drehle wrote, “The old American mind-set that Richard Hofstadter famously called “the paranoid style” — the sense that Masons or the railroads or the Pope or the guys in black helicopters are in league to destroy the country — is aflame again, fanned from both right and left.”

I observed after that piece that the outbursts of Joe Wilson, Kanye West, and Serena Williams spurred a thousand columns, blog posts, and web comments observing that  America seems angrier, ruder, more intemperate today. Before then, it was the town hall meetings and tea parties. Our media elites look at it all and lament the return of “paranoia.”

Perhaps. But our national mood isn’t quite so simple as anger or paranoia; it’s a low-flame that’s been burning for a while, spurred by disturbingly regular moments when millions of ordinary Americans feel like the ground has fallen out underneath their feet, and the unthinkable has occurred.

Think back to about fourteen or fifteen years ago, and everything you thought you knew at that moment.

Classic Commercial of the Day: 9/11 Bud Commercial

A New Classic Commercial: Empire State of Mind NY Commercial – StateFarm – 9 /11

This is not a classic video or even classy, but it is something you must see… Michelle Obama at 9/11/11 US Flag folding [rolls her eyes]

Billboard of the Day (Via Vanderleun):

Japan and the softly glowing world…

• BBC
• NHK in English (Live feed in upper right corner)
• Telegraph of London
• Kyodo Wire
• Japan Times
• Asahi Shimbun
• The Daily Yomuri
• Japan Today
• ImTranslator – Online Translator, Dictionary, TTS add on for Firefox (It comes in handy)
• Japanese government list of nationwide radioactivity concentration
• Japan Geigermap
• Ibaraki Prefecture Geiger Counter Readings
• US National Radiation Map (updated every minute)
• Via Soylent Green: Radiation Exposure in Daily Life
• Radiation Dose Chart
• Radiation Converter
• ZeroHedge commenter Max2205′s excellent post about radioactivity including a list of radioactive elements and their half lives.
• Donations to the American Red Cross that are being designated to Japanese Earthquake relief are already getting to the folks in Japan and are most helpful.

Japan gov’t prepares for further large-scale radiation release from Fukushima — Emergency drill on Monday presupposed further meltdown of No. 3 reactor core

TEPCO Begins Use of Robots to Assist Clearing 3500 Cubic Meters of Building Rubble from Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 3 and 4

“Large quantity” of Neptunium-239 flew at least 60km from Fukushima meltdowns — Decays into Plutonium-239

Japanese gov’s trying to stop citizen measuring radiation

A mom in Miyagi living Fukushima Hell

The following is a heart-rending personal account by a mother in Miyagi Japan about the terrible things that have happened in her family since March 11, 2011 when Fukushima Daiichi became a tremendous agent of death.

This is the source link.

We provide an English translation immediately below and the original Japanese below that.

Strange: Nuclear waste being processed during explosion in France had radioactivity of 17 becquerels/kg — 30 times less contaminated than what Japan considers safe to eat

World News:

Taliban’s “Operation Martyrdom” Underway in Afghan Capitol – US Embassy Targeted

Kabul under siege: Co-ordinated Taliban assault as rockets are fired at U.S. embassy and NATO HQ as suicide bombers strike

Taliban stage coordinated attacks in Kabul

Taleban fighters have fired rockets at the US Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul and attacked police in three other areas in the biggest assault the insurgent group has mounted on the Afghan capital.

At least 9 people were killed and 23 wounded in the four attacks, and a gun battle around a half-built high-rise building raged on into the evening as NATO and Afghan attack helicopters circled overhead.

US embassy in Kabul under attack – live updates

Pictured: Devastation at U.S. base in Afghanistan after Taliban suicide bomber injured 77 troops with huge truck bomb

More SmartDiplomacy™ from the Obama regime… Barack Obama Gives Taliban Blessing to Open Political Offices in Qatar

On Sunday the Taliban attacked a US outpost in Afghanistan injuring 77 US soldiers.

Today it was reported that Barack Obama gave the Taliban his blessing to open their first political offices in Qatar.

Explosion at French nuclear plant — At least one dead — Produces MOX fuel

Criticality? Nuclear chain reaction may have caused explosion at France MOX plant, says French nuke expert

Tim Geithner Tells Germany It Has To Sacrifice More Taxpayer Money To Protect The Status Quo

Translation: Germany has to immediately throw billions more of taxpayer money into the insolvent bank pit (just like America did), or else Tiny Tim will get angry. Well, if Germany’s ruling class was against pledging over 100% of its GDP to bailout Greece and the other insolvents, it will surely be persuaded to commit political suicide after the last man standing from Obama’s administration, who still inexplicably has not been fired for gross incompetence (and also prosecuted for tax evasion), has his say. And just as the short selling ban lasted all of one week before Europe’s banks tumbled, even a favorable uptake of the idiot’s proposals will at best lead to a 24 hour spike in prices followed by what will likely be the terminal tumble into the abyss of failed Keynesian-Bernankian experimentation.

Standard Chartered CEO Says Greek Default Inevitable

Dutch Finance Ministry Says Greek Default Is Unavoidable, Immediately Retracts

A CRISIS FOR THE WORLD: Citi’s Willem Buiter Warns What Happens If Greece Quits The Euro

Full Retard Rumormill Goes For The Trifecta As Brazil Joins China And Russia In Bailing Out The European Ponzi

And so in one day we have heard rumors of China, Russia and Brazil (in this case”citing a monetary official”… sure beats “unidentified Italian government sources” ahem FT) all bail out Europe, none of which will inevitably happen mind you because these countries aren’t governed by idiots, although “idiots” is precisely who trades this market

Morgan Stanley Slashes EURUSD Target To 1.30, Says EUR Attraction As An Alternative Reserve Currency Ending

So, let’s do the math: EUR: not a reserve currency? Check.  CHF: not a reserve currency? Check (and pegged to the former). USD: about to be gang banged by the windowless corner office at the Marriner Eccles building housing America’s central planners? Check. So…. what is left if one is looking for a reserve currency?

Europe Facts, Not Fiction: Usage Of ECB Deposit Facility Goes Parabolic, Sov CDS Wider Across The Board

Europe Imploding (Again) Following Another Ugly Italian Bond Auction, WSJ Article Discussing French Bank Nationalization

Rumsfeld on Bush Administration’s Biggest Mistake

Donald Rumsfeld explains to the odious Fareed Zakaria why our war with expansionist Islam has not been going as well as it might — it’s because we are too politically correct even to name the enemy:

“But [Obama] killed Osama,” bleats Zakaria. No, moonbat. The SEALs killed Osama. Not committing political suicide by refusing to let them does not make President Zero a war hero.

Sweden Arrests Four Terror Suspects With Ties To Somalia’s Al-Shabaab, Were Reportedly Targeting Mohammed Cartoonist…

The never-ending “blasphemous” Mohammed cartoons saga continues.

Migrant jobseekers who don’t bother to learn English will be stripped of benefits, pledges Cameron

Head of Libyan Rebel Government Tells Cheering Crowds in Tripoli Sharia Will Be “Main Source” of Legislation…

Pentagon admits U.S. military boots ARE on the ground in Libya

Israeli 9/11 Memorial

As it Might Have Been

Greed can be “soft”, like smoking dope; or harsh, like calling Bush ‘Hitler.’ But it’s the same mechanism: replacing principle with some form of self-indulgence. That’s the nature of its sin. And it’s that sin that’s been killing us since the Sixties; killing you Brits since Hitler crossed into the Sudetenland. Call it whatever you wish — call it idealism, or freedom, or pacifism or “hope” — but greed is wanting what you want without regard to what needs to happen. That is our situation. No other Bogeys need apply.

People who put self-indulgence ahead of principle get what we get, which is to say, flaccidity, cowardice, and dishonor.

No, friends, greed is no virtue, but a myth of a materialistic age. It is childishness, wanting every day to be Christmas. And, until the bill is paid in full, I’m afraid we’re in for more horrors.

Spengler: Endgame for Egypt

It does not compute. Western economists can concoct all the economic recovery plans in the world, but a country that can’t teach half its people to read, and can’t produce employable university graduates, and can’t feed itself, is going to go down the drain. Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak kept Egypt under control by keeping most of its people poor, ignorant, and on the farm, and by warehousing its youth in state-run diploma mills. After sixty years of such abuse, Egypt simply can’t get there from here.

The result, I predict, will be a humanitarian catastrophe that makes Somalia look like a picnic. It’s not surprising that the Egyptian mob might attack the Israeli embassy. The Egyptian street has nothing to do but rise up against perceived oppressors, because nothing good awaits them; and the desperation that will follow the collapse of the Arab “Spring” threatens every Middle Eastern regime, such that the rulers have to try to get out in front of the rage. But what will they actually do? The Egyptian military is hanging onto power by its fingernails. If it attacks Israel, it will lose, and generals will be hanged from lamp posts. The Syrian military is too busy killing protesters to attack Israel, or to assist Hezbollah in a confrontation with Israel.

What we are likely to witness during the next two years will be repellent, even horrifying–but not necessarily dangerous.

Egypt’s Botched Revolution

But what if they save each other by banding together? That’s what Hala Mustafa is afraid of. She’s frustrated that Western analysts don’t seem to get this, but Paul Berman said as much himself not long ago in The New Republic.

“The Egyptian army,” he wrote, “which must be dreaming of action, is also maneuvering to survive, and if the generals have not already cut a deal, surely they are working on one, which can only mean that, in the Arab world’s leading country, the army and the Brotherhood are arranging a do-over of their unfortunate falling-out in 1952, and this time the results will make room for both of them.”

No doubt Washington and Jerusalem prefer to do business with the military instead of the Brotherhood even if the regime was founded in a spirit of Arab Nationalism and Egyptian supremacy. But what if the U.S. and Israel will soon have to contend with both?

These useful fools will behave like a battered wife and defend the Islamofascists…CNN Journalists Attacked By Cairo Mob During Protests – Car Stoned

“I was thinking, how powerless I was because there was no police to save us,” said the producer, Mohammed Fadel Fahmy. “I was worried that they were going to rape her.”

Someone shouted to Fahmy that there was a nearby car, and he brought the “spy” into the vehicle, which belonged to a television crew.

“When Margaret Warner, a correspondent with the PBS program ‘Newshour’ managed to get the vehicle moving away from the crowd, men threw stones at the departing vehicle,” the journalist said.

“They were animals,” said Amer.

The Middle East Is On The Boil

With the end of the Cold War, history began to return to a “normal” velocity.  Countries got frisky; France has fallen in and out with both the United States and Germany several times since 1989.  The rise of China and India transforms the international scene in a way that was common before 1945 but rare during the Cold War.

2011 is the year when the thaw reached the Middle East — or at least North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.  Turkey has unveiled a new vision of itself and its place in the world; nobody knows what will happen in Egypt and Syria.  Israel has felt the ground move under its feet; it is too soon to tell but it is likely that new regional realities will force the deepest strategic rethink on Israel since the 1967 war.

Turkish PM Met By Cheering Crowd At Cairo Airport, Banners Proclaiming “Egypt And Turkey Will Together Become An Islamic Caliphate”

Turkey went from staunch secular republic to Islamist hellhole in the blink of an eye.

Bad Idea: Turkey Sending Three Warships To Eastern Mediterranean To Protect Gaza-Bound Ships From Israeli Navy…

And Israel will send them to the bottom of the Mediterranean if they get out of line.

Turkish PM Orders Radar System Of American-Made F-16s Overridden To Allow Attacks On Israeli Targets…

Floods strike Pakistan again

Al-Qaeda Releases New Tape of Bin Laden Doing His Best Barack Obama Impression, Warns of Evils of Capitalism And Major Corporations…

Odds Obama is having second thoughts about allowing the SEALs to kill him?

Obama and the SmartDiplomats™ of his regime must think that The Monroe Doctrine is the gynecologist for that big Marilyn Monroe statue in Chicago…

• Iran To Launch Spanish-Language News Channel To Target Latin America…

How do you say evil Joooos in Spanish?

• China Woos Caribbean With Offer of $1 Billion in Loans

 Bus-train crash kills 7, injures 162 in Argentina

Dreamland (or Nightmare) Real Estate Agents Dump Homeowners Asking Too Much; Housing Shills Still Cheerlead Others to Doom

The real estate bubble in Australia has taken its next step forward

Cities as hotels

Private cities are happening now for a reason. Africa, India, and China are urbanizing more rapidly than has ever occurred in human history. In Africa, the number of urban dwellers is projected to increase by nearly 400 million, in India at least 250 million will move to cities and in China more than 400 million will move to cities in just the next 20 years. Not all of these people will move to older cities, which are not always in the right places and which rarely possess anything like the right material let alone the right political infrastructure. The rising middle-class want to live in first-world cities and in many of these countries only the private sector can deliver those cities.

The rapid urbanization of the developing world is an opportunity to remake cities anew. Private cities as hotels on a grand scale.

US News:

‘It was a huge relief to see that it’s actually beautiful’: 9/11 Memorial opens to first members of the public

Mystery fire at Ft. Calhoun nuke plant: Disabled ability to cool spent fuel pool — Feds sending special team of inspectors to learn more — Reactor will not restart until cause determined

Smaller corn surplus could push food prices higher

Gov’t estimates smaller corn surplus, could drive food prices higher in 2012

Dictators, Emperors and Kings do not negotiate… Obama’s Top Adviser David Axelrod: ‘We’re Not In a Negotiation” On $447 Billion Stimulus Package

So much for the bipartisan shtick Obama likes to play up.

White House Aide Say Obama Might Move His Agenda Forward Using Executive Orders…

The wannabe Dictator-in-Chief.

Great News: Son of Stimulus To Be Paid for In Tax Hikes Over Ten Years

The so-called wealthy are now defined as making over $200,000. So much for millionaires and billionaires.

Obama proposes to pay for his jobs plan with $400B in spending cuts. Just kidding–it’s paid for with $400B in tax increases

Apparently, America’s job creators are under-taxed. At least that’s the word from Uncle Ben, who relays this note from his Beltway corporate tax guru.

The White House today is proposing to pay for its new jobs bill entirely with tax increases.

It proposes these tax increases:
–Limiting itemized deductions for incomes above $200,000 and family incomes above $250,000. Total: $400 billion over 10 years;
–Treat carried interest as ordinary income rather than as capital gains. Total: $18 billion;
–Raises taxes on oil and gas. Total: $40 billion
–Increase taxes on corporate jets. Total: $3 billion

Gee, those new taxes should really jump-start hiring!

The Cost Of Obama’s Stimulus Plan: $312,500 Per Job (Vote) Created Or Saved (And Guess Who Is Paying It)

For those eager to put some math to the rhetoric coming from the White House over the president’s jobs creation plan, and that should be everyone, here is a quick and dirty estimate based on the numbers being thrown around of a 2% GDP increase in year 1 and 1.9 million jobs created or saved… most saved, as in those you can’t really quantify.

Said otherwise, roughly a $300 billion increase in GDP yields 1.9 million jobs. So far so good.  Now since the president is proposing to pay for the program over 10 years, let’s assume the $475 billion in direct expenses is financed for 10 years at 2.5% which adds roughly $120 billion to the total cost of the program. In other words, as the calculations detailed and show below elaborate, the overall AJA plan will cost $250,000 per job created (excluding the interest expense) and $312,500 per union job, er job created (including interest). And that’s how much it costs for Obama to purchase one vote… created or saved. Keynesian efficiency strikes like a Swiss watch yet again

Obama’s Spending Plan: $250,000 Per Job

Barack Obama’s jobs plan may be one of the worst policy proposals I’ve ever seen.

As I pointed out last week, the plan to “pay for” the jobs proposal with tax hikes is just lunacy. It eliminates every bit of stimulus effect that could possibly come from additional government spending.

*snip*

Wouldn’t it be better just to have a free national lottery and mail $200,000 checks to a lucky 1.9 million people?

Defining ‘Fair’ in Obama’s ‘Paying a Fair Share’ Rhetoric

The president’s redistributionist notion of “fairness” is anything but fair.

Obama’s Jobs Plan is a Laughingstock

Obama speech didn’t boost approval

Obama Sends ‘American Jobs Act’ to Congress, and I Think He Wants Them to Pass It

To promote the bill at the Rose Garden speech today, Obama’s bringing along some people who probably won’t have jobs six months from now — at least that will be the case if the outcome is anything like his other jobs & stimulus bills.

Conceptually it’s not a bad Hail Mary attempt for a desperate administration: Propose a bill that looks pretty much like all the other stuff that didn’t work so you know that the opposition would never commit political suicide by passing, and then when it doesn’t pass, blame the opposition for the mess that already existed anyway. Sadly, many voters will actually believe that (the P.T. Barnum factor is a constant).

In other news, here’s the front page newspaper photo of the day.

Barack Obama tries the same failed tactic on ‘stimulus.’

We are very possibly approaching the second stage of a double-dip reception, if we are not in one now; and even if we are not it is still not a good idea to raise gas/oil prices, not to mention putting yet more tax burdens on our small businessmen (the Left really, really hates it when its pointed out that their vaunted $200K/$250K tax hikes will hit small businesses that file as S-Corporations right between the eyes).  This is known, by the way: after all, as Hot Air helpfully reminds us, the Democrats ran from similar proposals in 2009, back when they were pretending to be responsible legislators eager to do the country’s business.  The reality, of course, is that they were more interested in giving the country the business.

In other words: if your own party was uninterested in running up even more debt and taxes to pay for your enthusiasms, don’t expect my party to.

Obama Wants Congress to “Pass the Bill Right Now” That He Won’t Deliver Until Maybe Tomorrow

Obama VS SpongeBob SquarePants

He said that he would “take” away tax loopholes, to anyone making $200,000 a year, or a family making $250,000. That means, if you are thinking about giving to the mentally ill down the street,(or in the White House) or public broadcasting, just so that you can keep some money to take a vacation this year… FORGET IT!

Obama is also suggesting cutting the Social Security taxes in half. Did he forget what he has promised? He wants to SAVE the program. Yep, he forgot.

Poor SpongeBob. He has no clue that the very President he has been entertaining for all these years, is actually trying to pass a bill that will destroy his job. People will not have enough money left after paying for all the new taxes to continue their Nickelodium cable subscriptions. But, good news…the kids in Saudi Arabia will still get their SpongeBob fix. Which…could be a good thing when they forget just where they were suppose to detonate.

The test said that it was the fast paced actions of SpongeBob that caused the “brains” to stop functioning.

Jobs Plan Ruse? Teamsters’ Hoffa Predicts Jobs Plan Failure, Vows to Target Tea Party

Moreover, in a statement that makes one wonder if the President’s stimulus package (the so-called American Jobs Act) was not just a political ploy, Hoffa predicted it’s failure even before Congress received a bill, stating Friday that the Tea Party would doom Obama’s Stimulus package:

“I’m going to make a prediction. The program that he announced yesterday with regard to putting people back to work, a program to address our heavy unemployment in our country, they’re going to destroy that,” he said.

Then, Hoffa stated that the Tea Party is in his union’s sights:

Referencing actions taken in Wisconsin, Hoffa said the Teamsters will do whatever they can to try to stop the Tea Party.

“We’re going to target them because guess what? They’re targeting us.”

Taken in context, it appears the entire stimulus speech before Congress last Thursday may have been nothing more than a well-coordinated ruse between the White House and union bosses to pick a fight with the Tea Party and the GOP before 2012.

Wow… Even Obama’s Supporters Laugh When He Says His Latest Stimulus Plan Is “Fully Paid For”

Even Obama’s supporters laughed today when he said his latest $447 billion stimulus plan is fully paid for.

Michael Barone: Obama buys the drinks other guys pay for

Obama seemed like an unhappy warrior Thursday night, still unreconciled to the results of the 2010 elections, “seeming desperate and condescending at the same time,” in the words of maverick liberal blogger Mickey Kaus. That darn garage door just won’t open!

The Stimulus worked out very well for union thugs, radical leftists, race/ethnic warriors and Obama’s big bundlers… Wasserman Schultz: It’s Baloney to Say the Stimulus Didn’t Work

The stimulus worked so well that the economy was downgraded. And, the stimulus worked so well that the economy created no jobs last month.

So, yes. In a way, the stimulus worked.

DNC ad makes obvious presidential politicization of jobs crisis, violates House ethics rules

As Townhall.com’s Erika Johnsen put it:

The “the next election is fourteen months away” meme in these ads is a thinly veiled attempt to make our economic problems look like political fails, instead of policy fails. The President is accusing the GOP of spitefully standing in the way of economic progress in order to keep the President unpopular until November 2012. So, in a nutshell, he’s reproaching everyone else for playing politics, while unabashedly playing politics.

But if the members of the House Ethics Committee wanted to, they could call the DNC out for a technical rules violation. Amanda Carey reports:

Despite the ad’s simplicity, it appears to violate House ethics rules that prohibit members of Congress from using footage of floor or committee proceedings for political purposes.

C-SPAN Obama “Jobs” Plan Call In FAIL!

The way Obama’s destroying the economy, the unemployed will become the majority in the US by next year. Then they can start the “Unemployed Party,” and vote themselves other people’s money. Um-wait… that’s what Democrats are currently doing. Never mind…

Reason #583628596 to not use Facebook or any of its products… Facebook Executive Charging $35,800 To Eat Dinner With Obama

Federal Judge Rules Obamacare Individual Mandate Is Unconstitutional…

Romneycare hardest hit.

Your ‘surprisingly unexpected’ economic news of the day:

Today’s Drudge Ku:

46.2 million Americans are now poor...
22% of children in poverty...
Dramatic drop in median income...
Likely to worsen...

We’re All Greece – And On Fire

House Dems Introduce Legislation to Abolish Debt Ceiling

Well, it’s just three stooges for now, but who knows, maybe more Democrats are willing to reveal themselves as completely insane.

10 Year Auction Prices At Record Low Yield, As Direct Bidders Plunge

Duration In Pimco’s Total Return Fund Soars To Near Record, Highest Since 2007 In Anticipation Of QE3

So while it no longer makes sense to be short bonds (as Gross has figured out the hard way), what makes sense is to be very, very long duration, since this is what the Fed will be buying in Operation Twist/Torque. Enter Exhibit A – the chart of maturity/distribution of PIMCO holdings, of which most notable is the explosion in average holding duration, which from 4.56 in July, has soared to 6.27 in August, the highest since 6.23 in October, and possibly the highest on record (that said our records only go back to 2007). As part of this expansion, Gross has seen his Mortgage Securities soar to $78.5 billion, the highest since February, when Gross was actively reducing his MBS holding profile, and now is doing the opposite, and is accumulating Agency paper hand over fist in an attempt to extend duration. Bottom line: Pimco is now balls to the wall in the QE3 camp, first to be manifested by Operation Twist, and then, likely by outright Large Scale Asset Purchases. Look for numerous other copycat investors to expand the duration of their fixed income holdings from 4-5 to over 6.

This was posted back in August but it is still pertinent: True prices measured in Gold

Markets have reacted by a move to the safety of gold – the only true cash position – and away from the risks of most currencies, stocks and commodities. Major currencies are at all-time lows. Commodities, while down hard, are generally still higher than they were at the bottom of the 2008 credit crisis. Major stock indices, however, are lower than they were at the bottom of the last crisis.

Here is a quick scan of the markets, priced in gold, as of August 10th:

USD: 17.55 mg, a new all-time low
CAD: 17.68 mg, a new all-time low
EUR: 24.98 mg, a new all-time low
JPY: 0.227 mg, a new all-time low

Silver: 0.672 g/oz, has given up all it’s YTD gains, but is still 82% above its 2008 lows
Platinum: 30.79 g/oz, is now cheaper than gold for the first time since December 2008
Copper: 155.40 g/tonne, is still 57% above its 2009 low of 99 g/tonne.
Crude Oil: 1.46 g/bbl, is 30.3% higher than its 2009 low
Coffee: 41.22 mg/lb, is down 22.3% for the year so far
Cotton: 17.38 mg/lb, down 63% from its 2011 high, but still 30% higher than its 2009 low

Dow Jones 30 Industrials: 188.16 g, down 26.3% YTD, and 14.6% below its 2009 low
S&P 500: 19.67 g, down 29.1% YTD, and 13.4% below its 2009 low
NASDAQ Composite: 41.79 g, only 2.2% below its 2009 low
AMEX Gold Bugs: 9.69 g, down 23% YTD, but 50% higher than its 2008 low

Yet Another Sane Voice In The MSM

Is the truth gaining currency or is this the patient with lung cancer facing up to the fact that when coughing up half your lung in the morning into the sink you really are screwed?

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — You want to fix this economic crisis? You want to put people back to work? You want to light a fire under the economy?

There’s a way to do it. Fast. And relatively simple.

But you’re not going to like it. You’re not going to like it at all.

Default. A national Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The fastest way to fix this mess is to see tens of millions of homeowners default on their mortgages and other debts, and millions more file for bankruptcy.

Yep.

Brett continues….

It’s the debt, stupid.

We’re hocked up to the eyeballs, and then some. We’re at the bottom of a lake of debt, lashed to an anchor. American households today owe $13.3 trillion. That has quadrupled in a generation. It has doubled just in the last 11 years. We owe more than any other nation, ever. And for all the yakking about how people are “repairing their balance sheets,” they’re not. From the peak, four years ago, they’ve cut their debts by a grand total of 4%.

80% of rich have no confidence

I do not want to alarm anyone, but the rich guys are getting back in the lifeboats as they finally realize that with Captain Obama at the helm, the Titanic is still headed toward that iceberg. The consequence of having your credit rating downgraded to AA-plus is putting worry among the investors. President Obama was an irresponsible jerk in the debt-ceiling debate — a debate he easily could have avoided if he had not insisted on his stupid partisan parlor tricks. Perception is everything in finance and the perception now is that the United States has a fool for a president.

Sadly, that perception is highly accurate. His jobs bill proposal is so extraordinarily flaccid that Republicans are not even bothering wasting their breath to denounce it. The public reaction is, “That’s nice.”

His rally at the White House for his bill was predictably a cross section of what support the Democratic Party and its leader have: Unions, government workers and black people.

More Americans Living Below Poverty Line in 2010 Than Any Other Point in Recorded History, and Other Signs That the Stimulus Worked

For the Obama administration, this is nothing that can’t be solved by “raising taxes on the rich,” giving billions more to union bosses and extending unemployment beyond two years.

Median Male Worker Makes Less Now Than 43 Years Ago

While the fact that a record number of Americans are living in poverty should not surprise anyone at this point, what should surprise many is that according to Table P-5 of the Census report of (Lack of) Income, the median male is now worse on a gross, inflation adjusted basis, than he was in… 1968! While back then, the median income of male workers was $32,844, it has since risen declined to $32,137 as of 2010. And there is your lesson in inflation 101 (which we assume is driven by the CPI, which likely means that the actual inflation adjusted income decline is far worse than what is even reported). The only winner: women, whose median inflation adjusted income over the same period has increased by 188%. That said, it is still at 65% of what the median male makes. So injustice all around. And now, it is time to be patriotic again and buy a Pontiac Aztek.

Obama “Jobs” Bill To Hit Municipal Bonds

One of the ironies of this proposal in the so-called jobs bill is that the measure contains infrastructure spending, some $38 billion worth. It would also create an infrastructure bank to fund such projects.

But reducing demand for bonds issued by state and regional authorities that build highways, bridges, airports, water and sewer systems and transportation projections would hamper the very sort of projects the legislation seeks to encourage.

Wow, perfect! Now, eventually those evil rich people might start investing more of their money back into munis, years down the road, as they come to terms with the new rates. In the meantime, they’d bail, meaning less money for those same projects. Unless Obama plans on having the federal government take over the state and local governments and paying for it all at the federal level (?).

This is what happens when you have academics with no real world business experience crafting legislation: they can’t conceive of the likely real world outcomes. They feel that conditions will stay static, and, in this case, that means that investments in munis will remain the same, leading to higher revenues for the government. Which will not happen, of course.

There are many other taxes in this bill, such as limiting itemized deductions on only those making $200k individual/$250k joint filing, which could easily be challenged under the equal protection clause, something one would think our Constitutional teacher president would know. There would be a change to the way “carried interest” is taxed (there is bipartisan opposition to this idea). Oh, and taxing the oil and gas industry, which would supposedly raise $40 billion, meaning $40 billion in higher costs to the American people

DOOM: If heartaches were nickels, I’d be the richest fool alive

Kiss of Death: While Obama Speaks, Bank of America Cuts 30K Jobs

The hapless Barack Obama just finished with a regurgitated speech on his so-called jobs bill. He said “pass this bill” about a dozen times then stalked off without answering any questions. Meanwhile, as he was speaking, we learned another 30,000 American jobs won’t be saved or created.

Is this guy the kiss of death or what?

You’ll Realize Later I Wasn’t A “Bad Captain Of The Ship”

 What Awaits Young Americans

It stands to reason that at some point, out of sheer necessity, citizens will have to learn to make due with significantly less government than the last few generations of Americans have become accustomed to.

It is only a matter of time before the struggling permanent underclass which has long propped itself up on the backs of taxpayers will find that they must do more for themselves or suffer for it.  The horror of so many unnecessary deaths witnessed during Hurricane Katrina may serve as a precursor, a perfect microcosm of what the socio-economic future may hold.

Similarly, the latest lunatic ravings of Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), telling the Tea Party to “go straight to hell,” symbolize this struggle.  Unable to provide any real solutions to her suffering constituency, in an attempt to diffuse the painful truth that the jig is up, Waters could muster nothing more than lashing out at her political opponents.

On the heels of decades of unprecedented prosperity, many among older generations could not foresee the calamity ahead.  They merely presumed that what once was would always be.  In the process, they pampered the younger generation, largely insulating them from the cruel realities of human existence.

Ah, but reality beckons.  Soon, its uncomfortable consequences will be in full bloom.  If twenty-somethings ever figure out what government has set them up for, the counter-culture unrest of the 1960s may look a picnic.

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy (except for the UN, of course):

EPA declares hay a pollutant in effort to drive small, mid-sized family cattle ranchers out of business

The assault against American industry and individual livelihood continues — and no, it is not coming from Al-Qaeda or other foreign terrorists. A recent report from R-CALF USA, an advocacy group for American cattle producers, says the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has declared harmless cattle hay a “pollutant,” which is part of the agency’s agenda to squelch family-scale cattle ranches in favor of corporately-owned, mega-sized feedlot operations.

At the recent 12th Annual R-CALF USA Convention in Rapid City, SD, an audience member asked Mike Callicrate, a Kansas cattle feeder, if the EPA had, indeed, declared hay a pollutant. His affirmative answer was startling to many, but not necessarily surprising in light of the US government’s apparent agenda to destroy every single producing sector in the nation and to reduce the country to a poverty-stricken, corporately-dominated wasteland.

“Now that EPA has declared hay a pollutant, every farmer and rancher that stores hay, or that leaves a broken hay bale in the field, is potentially violating EPA rules and subject to an EPA enforcement action,” responded Callicrate. “How far are we going to let this agency go before we stand up and do something about it?”

House GOP Bill Will Block NLRB From Suing Boeing, AFL-CIO Top Goon (and Obama BFF) Trumka Calls It “Sleazy” And Pandering To a “Radical Ideology”…

Judging by Trumka’s response I’d say the GOP is on the right path.

Hatch Asks Obama’s Pro-Union NLRB Hack Craig Becker: Did You Write SEIU Intimidation Manual?…

Certainly a valid question but I wouldn’t hold my breath for an answer if I was Hatch.

Barack Obama-the man who thinks he is King…  Administration Willing to Go It Alone

Obama’s DOJ Protecting Teachers With Unacceptable English Skills, Says Singling Them Out Is a Form Of Discrimination…

It’s almost like the Obama administration is pandering to Hispanic voters at the expense of our children’s education.

TSA’s Creator: Scrap It

In a wide-ranging interview with HUMAN EVENTS just days before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Mica said screeners should be privatized and the agency dismantled.
Instead, the agency should number no more than 5,000, and carry out his original intent, which was to monitor terrorist threats and collect intelligence.

Ah, but you see the purpose was never to actually keep people safe.

The intent of the TSA was to:

1. Intimidate the public, turning them into sheep.
2. Most importantly, provide an absolute liability shield behind which airlines could hide.

Those two goals have been met admirably.  Oh yeah, they waste money and funnel it to friends too:

Other over-the-top expenditures included nearly $2,000 for 20 gallons of Starbucks Coffee, $8,000 for elevator operators at a Manhattan hotel, and $1,500 to rent more than a dozen extension cords for the Colorado recruiting fair.

Your tax dollars at work.

This is what they do when they are not busy strip searching grannies going home to die and groping six year olds… TSA officers arrested on drug charges in Conn.

Video: Clown from MN Al Franken Tries To Ask Gotcha Question On Voter ID Stats, Fails, Then Claims He Has To Leave Immediately

If you ever go to bed and can’t sleep, just come back here and play this video. Al Franken may go down as the most boring speaker of all time. Here he tries to ask a gotcha question on voter ID laws but apparently doesn’t understand math very well because he infers that a higher black voting rate is irrelevant because there are now more black people in Georgia (Earth to Al – voting rate is the percentage of that group that voted  irrespective of the groups proportion of the population). And right after the question, he tries to slide right out f the hearing before a response can be had…

Interior beefs up rig safety rules again

The Obama energy crisis as you’ve never before seen it

It’s been eclipsed somewhat in recent months by the continued stagnation of the economy and the increasingly loud Republican presidential nomination battle, but the energy crisis caused by President Obama’s Permatorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is just as serious as it ever was.

And it’s going to get worse if something isn’t done soon to lift the bureaucratic strangulation being applied to the oil and natural gas industries by Obama’s Secretary of the Interior  Ken Salazar.

But other than pointing to staggering unemployment figures and gas prices that remain nearly double what they were when the president took office in 2009, it’s difficult to convey the magnitude of the Obama energy crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. The consequences of this crisis far exceed in terms of human and economic losses those occasioned by the Deepwater Horizon disaster that was used to justify the Permatorium in the first place.

Roll-out of the Obama Jobs Plan Continues Apace: EPA Forces Texas Energy Company To Announce 500 Layoffs

Last month, an official of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce predicted that the EPA’s lawless, unscientific and arbitrary regulations would kill thousands of jobs. That prediction is coming true as we speak.

The unelected and unaccountable fourth branch of government is endangering national security and critically wounding America’s economy.

In related news….Judge dismisses case over pollution at DTE plant

A judge has dismissed a significant lawsuit by federal regulators who want to force DTE Energy to install more pollution controls at Michigan’s largest coal-fired power plant.

After more than a year of litigation, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman didn’t need a trial to convince him to rule in favor of the utility. He said the Environmental Protection Agency went to court too soon and needs to collect more data to determine whether improvements at Monroe Unit 2 have caused an increase in emissions.

DTE last year replaced key boiler parts at the plant about 40 miles south of Detroit. The EPA claims the project qualified as a “major modification,” which should have forced the utility to install state-of-the-art pollution controls.

Canada’s Oil Sands Are a Jobs Gusher

On the regulatory front the picture is even gloomier. Much of America’s vast untapped energy potential lies dormant because Mr. Obama’s regulatory watchdogs have spent the past three years throwing sand in the gears of the permitting process for exploration and exploitation on federal lands. Separately, TransCanada has been trying since September 2008 to get a permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf Coast. The Environmental Protection Agency has so far blocked it.

TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline could mean 118,000 American jobs, if the U.S. government ever issues the permit.

A glimpse of what all this has cost the U.S. economy can be seen by looking north to Canada, where animal spirits have been unleashed in the energy sector. Canada’s close economic ties to the U.S. have traditionally meant that when the U.S. gets the sniffles, Canada gets swine flu. This time it’s been different. Part of the reason is that Canada’s housing market was not poisoned by a federal government push to put unqualified borrowers into homes they could not afford. After the 2008 collapse of the housing bubble in the U.S., the Canadian financial sector remained strong.

That alone was not enough to protect Canada from the effects of the U.S. recession. The manufacturing sector was hit hard, and in the first quarter of 2009 the economy contracted by an annualized 7.9%.

Yet Canada has outperformed the U.S. since then. In 2010, according to the International Monetary Fund, Canada grew at 3.2% versus 2.9% in the U.S. In 2011, the IMF estimates Canada will grow at 2.9%; unemployment is now 7.3%. The IMF’s U.S. growth forecast is 2.5% this year, and U.S. unemployment is 9.1%.

One explanation for Canada’s more robust growth is its strong commitment to energy, which has become more valuable in U.S. dollar terms under Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s inflationary policies. Alberta is now producing two million barrels per day but expects that number will grow to four to five million within a decade.

RNC Chairman Calls On White House To Come Clean On Solyndra

Just imagine had it been a Republican who was involved with the Solyndra disaster. The media would be all over it, as well as covering the Congressional inquiries.

Democrats: The Solyndra Scandal Touches Republicans, Too, Because In 2006 They Applied to Loans From The Bush Administration, Which… Rejected The Application

1, even if Bush did cough up loans, how does that help Obama?

2, he didn’t cough up loans, so….

The Democrats’ main defense against accusations of administration cronyism is that Solyndra applied for the Energy Department loan as part of a program created by the Bush administration. Memos prepared by the Republican and Democratic staffs of the House Energy and Commerce committee said Solyndra first applied for an Energy Department loan in 2006. Its plan to build a factory to manufacture a new kind of solar technology was one of 16 projects chosen from about 140.

In January 2009, shortly before President Obama took office, Energy officials reviewed the application. They said that “the project appears to have merit” but did not approve the loan, requesting additional information, including an independent market analysis of the company’s long-term prospects, according to the Republican staff memo.

Um.

Okay.

“Green” Companies Hotbed For Graft and Insider-Dealing

The Department of Energy’s inspector general has repeatedly found that a loan program created by the 2005 energy bill and expanded by Obama’s stimulus falls short on transparency and accountability.

Does no one in the Democratic Party get this? If I create a government subsidy for ghost hunting technology, I will create dozens of ghost-hunting-tech firms within days, as everyone gets aboard the gravy train.

This is not a good thing. Ghosts do not exist, and this money will soon be lost.

The Unintended Consequences of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis’ Witch Hunt

It IS a Ponzi Scheme… There Are Only 1.75 Full-Time Private Sector Workers Per Social Security Recipient

Rick Perry was right…

According to the US Labor Department, there were only 1.75 full-time workers in the US last year to pay for each person receiving Social Security.

Liberals wake up to the Obama threat to social security as we know it

I’ve been spitting into the wind on this issue since days before the 2008 election.

Rather than strengthening social security as a pay-in retirement protection program, Obama consistently has sought to destroy social security as we know it by treating FICA payments as just another tax (the so-called “payroll tax”) to be played with as political circumstances dictate, and to create a disconnect between pay-ins and benefits, thereby making social security just a welfare program:

• October 30, 2008 – Obama’s Tax Plan Undermines Social Security
• January 6, 2009 – Obama Sticks Pin In Social Security Bubble
• December 8, 2010 – Obama Opens The Door To Raid Social Security
• July 20, 2011 – Obama ending social security as we know it
• August 15, 2011 – Warren Buffett’s rank demagoguery on FICA

Meanwhile, Democratic Party leaders supported by The NY Times have developed a strategy to demonize conservatives who refuse to go along with plans to extend again the “payroll tax” holiday, For Some in G.O.P., a Tax Cut Not Worth Embracing

GOP Rep. Steve King: “We Have To Bring Drunken ‘Uncle Omar’ In Front Of The House Judiciary Committee”…

Something tells me the Obama administration will make sure this doesn’t happen.

Jesse Jackson Asks Holder To Prosecute Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker For Blocking High Speed Rail Project…

Race pimp extraordinaire.

2012: The Fork in the Road…

Cartoon of the day

Consider the source when reading this… As the boomers turn

Since the ’80s, polls have found those who came of age in the ’60s and ’70s becoming more family oriented and conservative. If more boomers are led to embrace the GOP, it could affect the 2012 vote.

“Break Crazy Tea Party Bubble”: Obama Adviser Van Jones Reveals The Strategy Behind Villainizing The Tea Party

Van Jones, he is a self described communist. He is also the co-founder of the radical group Color of Change that spearheaded the boycott against Glenn Beck, which backfired, and epically at that. Van Jones and his STORMtroopers (STORM – Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement) blamed and denounced America for the 9/11 terrorist attacks – the day after the attack! Jones called Republicans @ssholes back in February just before the non-stimulus stimulus package was rammed through without anyone having read it

Poll: 59% Who Voted For Obama But Switched To GOP During Midterms Say He’s Too Liberal…

A simple Google search prior to voting for him would have sufficed.

Swing Voters Recoil From Unions, and Obama

Labor’s problems stem from our massive debt and dismal economy. They are exacerbated by thuggish behavior, and by the unwillingness of unions to tighten their belts as other Americans must.

President Obama is polling in Jimmy Carter territory. Unions are less popular now than in many decades. Mutual weakness will draw Democrats and unions closer, despite labor’s discontents. But the closer to each other they get, the more swing voters will recoil from both.

Obama’s Strategy of Silence

Bringing Obama around to this new course wasn’t easy for his advisors. The day after last November’s elections, the president belligerently refused to acknowledge that the results were a referendum on his unpopular policies or that Obamacare had hurt Democratic candidates. His health policy agenda was correct and possibly only needed a bit of “tweaking,” he insisted.

But his advisers pored over the election results and reached an inescapable conclusion. “The economy, as important as it was, was not the decisive factor this election. Health care was,” Democratic pollster Pat Caddell said just after the election. “It is…health care [that] killed them,” Caddell said of the 63 defeated House Democrats. “The American people found this a crime against democracy…they want it repealed, and this issue is gonna go on and on.” Now the White House’s strategy has the president talking as little as possible about Obamacare.

We haven’t intercepted their memo to the Oval Office, but we can extrapolate from recent White House tactics what his advisers have recommended Obama must do….

The 2012 Election Will Come Down to Seven States

Four years ago, even optimistic Democrats didn’t think they would pick up Indiana (11), North Carolina (15), or an electoral vote in Nebraska (which like Maine awards one vote per congressional district), yet all three went for Mr. Obama by small margins. In 2012, Indiana is likely to desert him, as is the one Cornhusker district. To keep North Carolina, the Democrats chose Charlotte for their national convention and will make a big play statewide. As of now, it looks tough for them. Thus Republicans are in the lead to win 26 more electors. Missouri was the sole squeaker that went for McCain; few believe it will be tight next year, so the GOP will likely have those 10 votes, too.

Republicans therefore are a lock or lead in 24 states for 206 electoral votes, and Democrats have or lead in 19 states for 247 electoral votes. That’s why seven super-swing states with 85 electors will determine which party gets to the magic number of 270 electoral votes: Colorado (9), Florida (29), Iowa (6), Nevada (6), New Hampshire (4), Ohio (18) and Virginia (13).

Prior to Obama’s 2008 victories in each of these states, several had generally or firmly leaned Republican since 1980. Virginia, which hadn’t voted Democratic since 1964, was the biggest surprise, and its Obama majority was larger than that of Ohio, which has frequently been friendly to Democrats in past decades. Massive Hispanic participation turned Colorado and Nevada to Mr. Obama, and it helped him in Florida.

Dems starting to think Obama could lose

Obama dragging down Dem candidates in House special elections

Dems Face Catastrophe in NY and Nevada Races as Unpopular Obama Becomes Drag on Party

Hope and change had turned to downgrade and despair

This reflects pretty much what was said during Frank Luntz’s focus group after Obama’s gimme more money for the Democratic party slush fund jobs speech… ‘Middle’ America indeed

“They don’t care what we think. They care about what they want us to think,” he said.

Over 20 days, this column visited 10 states — Colorado, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia — and Washington, D.C., mostly on back roads, often in town squares, listening to how people feel about themselves and their country.

Liberals, conservatives, Green Party members and political agnostics all voiced the same belief: Washington doesn’t work, and reporters who cover it don’t understand America.

That has led an unprecedented number to conclude that if they can simply replace all the bums (including their own members of Congress and the president), things will improve.

PPP: Republican Has Big Lead in Nevada-2, Too

Here’s one thing the numbers make very clear- Republicans dodged a bullet when Sharron Angle was kept out of the race. Only 24% of voters in the district have a favorable opinion of her to 63% with a negative one and in a hypothetical head to head with Marshall she would trail 47-40. The fact that Amodei polls 20 points better than Angle really makes you wonder what would have happened to Harry Reid with a serviceable opponent.

Sorry to rub that in. But I’m going to continue my crusade, insisting that Candidate Quality and Crossover Appeal matters quite a bit in elections, until it’s accepted, and not pooh-poohed in favor of “ideology and cultural affinity with the conservative base are the only things that matter” model.

CNN Poll: 42% Of GOP Voters See Perry As Most Electable, 26% For Romney…

GOP elitist Karl Rove hardest hit.

All one has to do is look at the demographics of the Tea Party to understand that Social Security is no longer the ‘third rail…Despite Social Security, older voters like Perry

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s description of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” is drawing lots of criticism from rival candidates Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, and Newt Gingrich.  But so far at least, it’s not drawing much criticism from the voters most affected by the issue.

In a new CNN poll that finds Perry at the front of the Republican pack, the Texas governor’s lead among GOP voters age 65 and older is actually bigger than his lead among younger voters. Fifty-two percent of respondents over 65 say Perry is their choice for president, versus just 21 percent who choose Romney.  In the overall numbers, Perry leads Romney 32 percent to 21 percent, with Ron Paul following at 13 percent, Bachmann and Gingrich at seven percent each, Herman Cain at six percent, and Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum at two percent each.

DNC Chief Wasserman Schultz: GOP Candidates “Trying To Out Extreme And Out Right Wing Each Other”…

Or something.

Here is one extremist that you should investigate, Ditzy Debbie… Dem Rep. Andre Carson: “We Need a Referendum On Those Members Of Congress Who Hold Extremist Views”…

Carson also said his comments about Tea Partiers wanting to see blacks “hanging on a tree” were meant to be taken “figuratively,” which is obviously a total load of BS.

5 Clues in Sarah Palin’s 9/12/11 Greta appearance that she’s running for president

After last night’s GOP presidential debate on CNN (sponsored by the Tea Party, live from Tampa, Florida), Governor Sarah Palin appeared on Greta van Sustern’s “On the Record” with her commentary on the declared candidates. Though the Governor’s supporters have known she’s running for president for some time (and, has in fact been running since 2008, the media will eventually see in retrospect), there were 5 clear clues in her FOX appearance last night that the Governor’s soon to announce her candidacy, though on her own timetable.

Massachusetts Republican=Democrat… Disgusting… Romney Lies – Sends Out Dishonest Mailer Claiming Rick Perry Wants to “Kill” Social Security (Video)

Team Romney Now Claiming He’s The Only “Adult In The Room”…

Hmmm, sounds vaguely familiar.

So Much For ‘Obamneycare’… Tim Pawlenty Endorses Mitt Romney (Video)

Report: Pawlenty Endorsed Romney In Exchange For Help Paying Off Campaign Debt…

Money talks.

Tea Party debate turns into Perry pile-on

I can’t decide which idea is more insane — letting the states take over Social Security, or allowing young people to make their own Social Security financial decisions.  I mean, over the long haul, states have an absolutely abysmal track record when it comes to handling their own finances (see appendix E, “California, Illinois and New Jersey, 2011″), whereas jumping to the wild conclusion that 30-year-olds will suddenly become financially responsible simply staggers the mind.

So it’s a real puzzler.

It’s hard to read between the lines, but it appears that Bachmann, Santorum and Paul are all in favor of children contracting measles, mumps and chicken pox.  Polio, too, if I’m reading this right.  That is, they seem to be decidedly against childhood vaccinations.  Or, maybe it’s just certain vaccinations they’re against.  Ones that, perhaps, present an opportunity where they can use the heart-wrenching phrase “killing little girls” over and over again.  A vaccine that, perhaps, a certain Texan governor endorsed.  It was a little hard to tell just which vaccines they were for or against, what with the foam and spittle flying.

Bachmann, however, “pulled a Perry” at one point by resorting to extremist rhetoric when she called the HPV vaccine “dangerous”.  She said this of an FDA-approved drug.

So, to sum things up so far, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke should be hanged for treason, Social Security is illegal, and the FDA is corrupt.

Not bad for a day’s work.

At the one-hour mark, they finally let economics and the Fed drop and moved on to the nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat topic of…

health care.

“Thank god for coffee,” was my first thought.

Round Two: Rick Perry and the Seven Dwarfs

The five, however, did their Perry dissing in different ways. The first three — Huntsman, Bachmann and Santorum — I would classify as the soreheads. They are all doing miserably in the polls. Huntsman and Santorum always were. They are both currently at 2%, tied with a generic “Someone else” and 2 points behind “None/No one.” (No surprise here with Santorum who, when last facing the electorate, lost reelection in his home state of Pennsylvania by 18 points.) Who, besides their wives, really knows why they are running?

Bachmann, too, once flying high, has herself sunk to a mere 4% (tied with “None/No one”) since Perry entered the race. No wonder she’s sore at the Texan. She took after him, as did Santorum, during the Monday debate because some years ago Perry evidently tried by fiat to have high school girls vaccinated against cancer of the cervix. Perry admitted this approach was a mistake and this whole thing had apparently been rehashed ad infinitum by Kay Bailey Hutchison in her recent, ill-fated run against Perry for the Texas gubernatorial nomination, but never mind. To Bachmann and Santorum this attempt to prevent cancer, whether ill-founded or not, was a form of child molestation or something. The more they went on about this, the more rabid, and frankly scary, they sounded.

But they never sounded quite so nutsy as Huntsman when he accused Perry of “treason” for not building a border fence. Either the Utah governor is suffering from a cognitive disorder or, more likely, he deliberately misunderstood Perry’s position on the border. But he certainly seemed over-heated. Of course, what Huntsman was really trying to do was define Perry as the dangerous one because he had used the word treason in association with Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. But the word flew back in his face.

Election 2012: 4th debate wrap-up

Best question of GOP debate: “How Much of My Money Should I Be Allowed to Keep?”

I would LOVE to see Democrats in general asked that question, and Obama in particular. They would vacillate around it of course, talk of ‘fairness,’ ‘balance,’ and a hodgepodge of focus group buzz words. If the moderators were fair, they would then badger the Dems until they actually answered it. Unfortunately, questions like this one end up at GOP debates, not Democratic ones…

Best answer of GOP debate: Newt Gingrich on Social Security Ponzi scheme: “why should young people have to live in a system where politicians have the power for the rest of their life to threaten to take away their social security”

WaPo: Perry Got More Than $5000 From Merck

But since the Divine Miss S began repeating these allegations (from that darned lamestream media), I see a lot of us have collectively dropped that attitude of “Prove it” and now take any government action made in the vicinity of a donation to be more or less proof positive of corruption.

That’s fine, but… Okay, bear in mind Sarah Palin will live by that same standard, too.

Since we’re flingin’ all sorts of personal-benefit allegations around with no evidence, I’ll note it occurs to me that Sarah Palin’s monetary stream dries up if there’s a conservative president.

On the other hand, if Obama stays in office, she continues to be a sought-after voice of the opposition.

And if a non-conservative (or presumed non-conservative) like Romney defeats Obama, then Palin still has her niche.

But with a conservative titular head of the party? Not as much money.

Since we’re casting these sort of evidence-free allegations about, you understand.

And speaking of pickin’ winners and losers like Mr. Obama over there and the crony capitalism like I’ve been talkin’ about, a small government conservatism that certainly doesn’t subsidize politically-popular failed businesses, that’s what I’ve been talkin’ about as an illustration of this crony capitalism.

Let’s Get Real On Constitutional Amendments – And Stop Promising Them

The Tea Party, the Religious Right,  and the base might demand these amendments, and politicians might gain short-term advantages from promising them, but eventually, the fact that it is virtually impossible to deliver on these promises will come back to bite them.  Furthermore, attempts to fulfill these promises might require trading tangible opportunities or policies for doomed votes.

Republican and Tea Party elites need to manage expectations.  The base will not like to hear that realistically, gay marriage and abortion aren’t going to be eliminated by constitutional amendment, and a balanced budget amendment (despite large amounts of support in theory) is not much more likely.

Keep this kind of crap up and it will go a long way to convince people that the Tea Party is right up their with “9/11 ‘truthers’”, and “Fluoride in the water is some ‘Bilderburger/Illuminati’ plot” conspiracy theory tin foil hat wearers. In plainer terms it will validate everything the Democrat/radical left/MSM troika says about the Tea Party. Long ago the conservatives lost the abortion battle because the actions of a few were picked up by the Democrat/radical left/MSM troika and publicized and spun into the perception that everyone who was against abortion on demand was some ‘Jesus freak/gun nut whacko who wants every woman to be a slave and turn the country into some Christian version of an Islamofascist state’-pulling stuff like this going a long way to assisting those same entities into spinning the Tea Party and its supporters into the same niche and once that is done it is Game Over. These people are playing right into the Democrat/radical left/MSM troika’s hands …

• I respect and admire Michelle Malkin but her rants against Rick Perry read just like something that was dredged up from the paranoid fever swamps of Daily Kos or Democratic Underground… The right and wrong way to talk about Gardasil

• Rush: Bachmann Might Have Jumped The Shark With Her Mentally Retarded Claims

What we really need to beat Obama is a candidate who peddles all sorts of fringe-y positions, and who either reports, without checking, or simply makes up stories about fringe-y paranoids’ daughters getting a dose of late-onset mental retardation.

Call me crazy, but shouldn’t “Doctor” Bachmann have a little bit of skepticism about a claim that a 12 year old girl became mentally retarded after a vaccination?

• Sarah Palin’s Alaska Took Federal Funds to Increase Access to Gardasil

This isn’t quite the same thing as mandating (and being overturned on, so it didn’t actually happen) a vaccination, but taking federal funds for Gardasil doesn’t quite square with Palin’s hot shots at Perry on Fox last night. I admire Sarah Palin quite a bit (and Bachmann too), but aligning herself with Bachmann’s precious bodily fluids gambit is a huge mistake on her part. Both of them are flaming their own credibility over an issue that, in the grand view of things, ought not to matter much. It hasn’t mattered much to some of the most conservative voters in America, over three gubernatorial elections running now. Both Palin and Bachmann are coming off as ill informed, unreasonable and desperate.

Here’s the thing. Barack Obama is an unmitigated disaster as president. His Save My Own Job Act is an expensive mess that will end up hurting the economy even more if it’s passed (which it won’t be, at least not in toto). The GOP primary should be about him and his failures. Credit to Newt Gingrich for consistently insisting that that be the focus of the GOP debate, not side chases down rabbit trails that have no impact on saving the nation from Obama. Discredit goes to those who risk turning the GOP primary into a freak show.

Newt rising?

Newt Gingrich has found his voice in the recent two debates.  He has been the most forceful and articulate voice lancing Obama and everything Obama stands for.

Sure, Newt has the “baggage” but he is rising.

Video: Ron Paul Explains Why Jihadists Have Lots Of Good Reasons To Kill Americans…

Al-Qaeda’s useful idiot.

Ron Paul Booed at CNN-Tea Party Debate After Blaming US for 9-11 Attacks (Video)

Good for Rick Santorum for confronting the representative… And, good for the crowd for booing him.

Weiner Flees District As GOP On Verge Of Jaw-Dropping Upset To Fill His Vacant House Seat…

Cut and run, a liberal specialty.

Ground Zero Mosque enters Weiner race

Remember all those lengthy lectures 13 months ago from our moral and intellectual superiors on the Ground Zero Mosque? Liberals insisted that we should be tolerant and support those all-American things like freedom of some religions, single moms, and the Prius. My how our liberal betters strutted and preened and clucked their tongues at us mouth-breathing, booger-eating, inbred, racist Tea Baggers for daring to suggest that maybe this was a bad idea. We must stand by basic American principles, they said.

Now, with a congressional seat in balance, liberals are saying How Dare You Quote Us!

Have you no decency, sir, and all that bunk.

*snip*

My, my, my. If supporting the building of the mosque is the right thing to do, why not stand by those words that were said 13 months ago? Oh wait, that high-moral-ground stand might cost Democrats a seat in Congress. So what liberals are saying is that they are willing to stand up for unpopular causes — unless doing what they say is right may cost them a few votes.

Gunwalker/Fast & Furious/Castaway/Grenadewalker

Predictable: Liberal ‘Advocacy Group’ Hits Issa With Ethics Complaint

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.

Issa’s obviously getting too close to the White House in the Gun Walker investigation. Just watch: This bogus complaint will get more news focus than Gun Walker.

Not mentioned in the story is this Mike Lux character was a member of the Obama transition team.

Update: It should comes as little surprise that Lux writes for the far-left cesspool Crooks and Liars. Here’s his byline in a piece attacking — wait for it — Darrell Issa! Just the other days he slobbered all over Obama at the Huffington Post. And he’s also a Kos Kid!

Fast and Furious update: More guns, more stonewall

In case you missed it — and believe me, the Department of Injustice is hoping you missed it on this 9/11 memorial weekend — yet another violent crime (perpetrated by a suspected illegal alien )has been linked to Obama Fast and Furious guns.

Remember: GOP investigators have been demanding full disclosure from the DOJ on crimes linked to F&F for months and months. There should be no doubt corruptocrat Eric Holder, master of the Friday document dump, is still in total stonewall mode.

Issa: Holder is Dangerously Inept

Just imagine if these gunrunning scandals were happening under a Republican administration. The wall-to-wall coverage would knock even the latest Obama “pass this bill” speech off the air.

Money quote around the two-minute mark:

“We have a paper trail of so many people knowing that the only way the Attorney General didn’t know is he made sure he didn’t want to know. But if you don’t want to know something of this sort then you shouldn’t have the job he has. And ultimately that’s one of the questions is, if he didn’t know, is he that inept that he is dangerous to have as the Attorney General, and that is for the president to decide.”

Look for the Union Label/Whackademia/The Badger Rebellion:

Turning Red – Shedding the White and Blue

The masks are all coming off and the unions are one with the Communists now. The comrades in arms are stirring the chaos and violence pot calling for all out war with the Tea Party and American Conservatives, with the blessings of the President. One might wonder how a radical minority could push for violent confrontation with the majority in America and get away with it – great planning and execution of the Cloward and Piven strategy is the answer. You can hear the cries of Za Rodinu! ringing on the American battlefield.

The unions and Communists have found brothers in arms in the Progressive Right as well. Witness the vicious attacks on Sarah Palin from Republican pundits such as Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter. They wasted no time in trying to denigrate Palin while pushing known Progressives on the Right such as Mitt Romney and Chris Christie. Don’t be fooled… same Progressive dance, different political tune. These are not the Conservatives you are looking for.

Using a panoply of derogatory terms such as Hobbits, terrorists, barbarians at the gates, Nazis etc. to label Constitutional Conservatives, the Left is in full ‘provoke’ mode since they must have violent confrontation to further the goals of the Communists. Violence must reign in the streets if the top is to come down on Americans with Martial law and a suspension of Constitutional rights. It is the only real way a dictatorship can take hold. It’s their hoped for checkmate.

Remember it is not racist when union thugs do it plus another giant inflatable rat sighting… Police confirm racial incidents at sugar plant

Police say union supporters have directed racial slurs and racist symbols at replacement workers and security personnel outside an American Crystal Sugar plant in North Dakota.

Traill County Sheriff Mike Crocker says there have been racial statements made to security people outside of the company’s Hillsboro facility. He says he recently saw a monkey-like figure hanging from a noose attached to a large inflatable rat outside the plant. He says it was removed the next day.

Columbia University Students to Dine With Ahmadinejad in New York

Wisconsin unions start feeding on each other

If you want a good measure of how deeply the collective bargaining bill in Wisconsin has disrupted public sector unions, there is no better example than the Wisconsins Education Association Council (WEAC).

Last month WEAC announced that it was laying off 40% of its staff.  With little over which to collectively bargain, and with dues no longer withheld from paychecks, the need for and sustainability of a union bureaucracy could not be justified.

Now WEAC is being boycotted by National Staff Organization (NSO), a union representing educational union employees.

Isn’t that great, education union employees have their own union?  Is there a union for employees of education union employee unions?

In Other News…

First Responder Hats Nixed for Mets

Major League Baseball suits put the kibosh on the Mets wearing first responder hats in honor of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 yesterday, just like they tried to do in 2001:

Once play resumed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks a decade ago, Mets players had violated a similar MLB edict mandating the standard uniform be worn. Over MLB objections, Mets players wore hats of the FDNY, NYPD and other agencies in 2001.

They were fined for that transgression, and yesterday decided not to buck the bosses again.

But their Los Mets jerseys are still a go

Flight 93 Memorial Blogburst #73: Muslim consultants LIED to Park Service

Rush Limbaugh: “You Have to Wonder, At Some Point Will George Bush Be on Mt. Rushmore?”

George Bush yesterday, the 9/11 memorials. You know, a friend of mine observed this. What did Obama do? Obama went to a soup kitchen, 9/11, a day of service, as though we’ve got something to apologize for, for what happened on 9/11. A friend of mine observes Obama and Bloomberg both acted like it was a natural disaster. Bush, George W. Bush, who, by the way, stands tall in retrospect. Ten years, not one attack… A little bit about 9/11 and the memorials that took place over the weekend. When you hear Americans reliving 9/11 — I mean real people that were citizens of the country; not media people or sports stars, but real people — You have to wonder: At some point will George W. Bush be on Mount Rushmore? Look at what this nation went through. The shock, the horror, the terror, the doubts, the confusion, the fears of what’s next, and out of that day — and out of that treachery and confusion we got the most implausible result: No more attacks. Quite a job, Mr. President Bush. Quite a job…

They did assassination movies and books about George W. Bush. There’s a picture. I don’t know if you’ve seen the picture: Bush and Obama standing side by side while a memorial service is going on, prayer taking place. Bush is appropriately bowing his head. Obama is looking up at his son: God — or, if you want, his father. But it’s not an accident. Now, some people have said Obama looks like he’s trying to figure out what he’s gonna wear on the golf course later. But, no. Obama has this habit of looking up and looking up above everyone and Bush is bowing his head. Obama’s eyes are closed looking up. That’s quite striking. I think it’s quite, quite telling.

Warning For Americans: Be Safe and Stay Alert. It’s Coming.

Greece provides us a microcosmic view of what an economic, financial, political and societal collapse looks like. In 13 Signs of a Societal Collapse, Tess Pennington details some of the events we’ll see happening during a systemic break down of nations. You’ll note that the US is well on its way, meeting some of the criteria, but Greece is now sitting at the precipice, with perhaps weeks or months left before the world Greeks have come to know over the last twenty years is completely destroyed. If Greece falls, the Euro may go with it, which means extremely serious (as in possible military confrontations in the future) consequences in the region.

Here’s the latest from Greece, and it should be a wake up call.

Lessons in OPSEC: Hurricane Irene Versus Hurricane Isabel

With the steps I outlined for you I could have held on in my home for at least a week comfortably. After a week I might have started to dip into my long term stores.  With my on hand emergency supplies I could have gone months more, but I like the fact that with a just a little operational security and forethought I built a buffer to keep me from consuming my emergency supplies. Rings of security are a great thing, if you keep quiet about them and don’t advertise them with a blatant display of consumption.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to hold out the welfare queens, whores, and drug dealers I used to rub elbows with as examples to be emulated. I do think though that when everyone is suddenly thrust to the edges of society, it is a good idea to steal a page or two from the people who have always been there.  Wherever you are today Miss Wanda I hope you are happy and doing fine because I am. Your Stickman learned his lessons well.

Protecting You and Yours During a Mass Casualty Incident

Unfortunately, mass casualty incidents have become more and more frequent both worldwide and here in the U.S.  A mass casualty incident takes on several names with suicide bombing, active shooter, and multi-prong attacks being the most common.  The primary goal of all of these incidents is the same: kill and maim as many people as possible while maximizing fear and chaos.

Before I go in to the details of this article, I need to provide a precursor.  I will be providing details on how you can respond as well as awareness to avoid and/or prevent being a victim of such an incident.  I learned these things through being involved in law enforcement for the past several years and being exposed to some top-notch training opportunities.  However, I am not revealing any kind secret or sensitive information.  Anything I am providing in this article is available through a variety of open sources, especially the Internet.  I am just putting it all in one convenient place.

Budget-Friendly Alternatives to Cable TV

The 1979 6-Year-Old: Less Reading, More Range

Is your child ready for first grade? Earlier this month, Chicago Now blogger Christine Whitley reprinted a checklist from a 1979 child-rearing series designed to help a parent figure that one out. Ten out of 12 meant readiness. Can your child “draw and color and stay within the lines of the design being colored?” Of course. Can she count “eight to ten pennies correctly?” Heck, yeah, I say for parents of kindergarteners everywhere. “Does your child try to write or copy letters or numbers?” Isn’t that what preschool is for?

“Can he travel alone in the neighborhood (four to eight blocks) to store, school, playground, or to a friend’s home?”

It’s amazing what a difference 30 years have made. Academically, that 1979 first grader (who also needed to be “six years, six months” old and “have two to five permanent or second teeth”) would have been considered right on target to start preschool. In terms of life skills, she’s heading for middle school, riding her two-wheeled bike and finding her own way home. It’s not surprising that I came to this link via Lenore Skenazy’s Free-Range Kids blog. What is surprising is just how shocking a jolt it is to realize how stark the difference is between then and now.

Elderly woman, 101, in tears as she’s evicted from her home and her possessions are thrown into dumpster

Risqué 26ft replica of Marilyn Monroe ranked WORST piece of public art in the world by tourist website

Appellate Court Rules Lawsuit Challenging Houston’s Illegal Alien Sanctuary Policy Will Continue

“This is a tremendous victory for Judicial Watch’s client Sgt. Joslyn Johnson, who will finally get her day in court,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The City of Houston demonstrates the horrible harm that is caused by illegal alien sanctuary policies. We look forward to the opportunity to try to end Houston’s lawless sanctuary policies that place law enforcement officers and the citizens of Houston at risk.”

On September 21, 2006, Sgt. Johnson’s husband, Officer Rodney Johnson, was making a routine traffic stop when he was shot and killed by Juan Leonardo Quintero-Perez, a previously deported Mexican national who had reentered and was living in the U.S. illegally. After reentering the U.S. illegally, Quintero-Perez had multiple interactions with the HPD before shooting and killing Officer Johnson, including at least one arrest for driving under the influence and citations for failing to stop and give information following an accident and driving with a suspended license.

Detroit is the welfare queen of cities… Detroit local MSM come out swinging for more Obama spending

The Detroit Free Press, of course, followed suit: Editorial: Congressional inaction not an option. It’s funny how the sentinels over at the freep jump right to action. They have spent all week hiding under their desks refusing to say a boo or peep regarding Jim Hoffa’s violent rhetoric right here in Detroit on Labor Day at an Obama taxpayer-funded campaign rally.

No reasonable person can claim the $447-billion American Jobs Act President Barack Obama proposed Thursday night represents an unwarranted federal intrusion in the nation’s economy, although many of Obama’s Republican critics undoubtedly will.

Vegan couple WILL serve life sentences for starving baby to death on a diet of soy milk and apple juice

A Peek Under the Planned Parenthood Rock

If their point of view can be mainstreamed, there is no reason the Holocaust couldn’t happen in America. The justification these fiends give for killing babies would apply just as readily to the elderly, the disabled, or any other group of people deemed to be inconvenient.

A sizeable percentage of the population either lacks the moral depth to distinguish between good and evil, or — in the case of the more avid abortion advocates — deliberately sides with the latter.

Pop Tots: TLC Working with the Left to Normalize Child Exploitation

I recently cancelled my cable (for the second time) due to escalating costs and a general disgust at the lack of quality programming. I won’t lie and say I’ve never indulged in reality smut for entertainment. I have caught myself watching Bachelor Pad and no part of me is proud of it. It is the “train-wreck” factor that keeps people paying attention to most of the stuff that passes for good TV.

The other day I caught Toddlers in Tiaras (a disgusting show where mothers, who have failed to make something of themselves, live out weird fantasies of wealth and beauty by forcing their little girls to traipse around in wigs and makeup applied with a trowel.) It was an episode that garnered a lot of controversy because a mother put her 4-year-old in a costume with padded breasts and butt. Frankly, it surprised me that anyone got upset considering the other outrageous things they do to these girls all the time like forcing them to wear false teeth and look like cheap streetwalkers.

Nonetheless, it was the padded butt/boob costume that got tongues wagging. Shortly after that episode, another featured a 3-year-old parading around in the prostitute costume Julia Roberts wore in Pretty Woman complete with hooker boots and cheap wig. While the general public finds such things repulsive, TLC continues to air what amounts to child abuse every week.

MSM Circus and Celebutard Side Show:

From these usual suspects spot the TV anchor set to lose his job for being short! Stephanopoulos faces the axe from GMA

White House Press Corp Laughs In Carney’s Face When He Says Obama’s “Campaigning For Growth And Jobs” Not Reelection…

Can’t blame them, the Propaganda Minister himself could be barely keep a straight face.

Profiles in Objectivity: NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent Gets His Own ‘Lean Forward’ Ad

NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd, who said “our pollsters are concerned” about Obama’s plummeting poll numbers, recently defended the mainstream media when he told Laura Ingraham that “there is not hidden bias all over the place.”

I actually agree with that — there’s nothing hidden about the bias in much of the MSM. But in case that wasn’t enough, there’s no better way to prove to the world that you’re an objective journalist than by taking part in MSNBC’s by-liberals-for-liberals branding campaign, the “Lean Forward” ads.

Obama’s BFF and Code Pink Founder Medea Benjamin Hails Krugman’s Vile 9/11 Rant As a “Courageous Statement”…

You know what Krugman said was horrible when the only person Fox could find to defend it is Medea Benjamin.

Krugman Doubles Down: Post-9/11 Was “Shameful” But We Should Be “Proud” Of Ourselves For Not “Lynching” Muslims And Dissenters…

He has a seemingly endless supply of douchiness.

The Real Hero of 9/11

Slate Lefty Dave Weigel Remembers The True Victims Of 9/11: The Dixie Chicks And Michael Moore…

Good grief, someone smack some sense into this knob.

Free speech for me but not for thee… Florida Sun Sentinel Writer: Lt. Col. Allen West Needs to Have His Mouth Duct Taped Shut

We don’t need to fear those who worship Islam, Congressman. We need to fear bomb-strapped radicals who use their religion as an excuse to inflict their hate, and more often than you’ll ever understand, there’s a big difference between the two. Just as there’s a difference between the Timothy McVeighs of the world who would twist the teachings of Christianity to suit their evil tendencies.

Did Brochu actually do any research before publishing her piece? What has she been doing these “20+ years in journalism?” A simple Google search yields the truth: McVeigh was not a Christian. “Science is my religion,” wrote McVeigh.

West doesn’t get that, and why should he? Too many close-minded apologists are celebrating him as a hero for feeding into their own fears …

Just as too many close-minded partisans perverting the practice of journalism celebrate their own uneducated, anti-Christian, bigoted missives as fact thereby reinforcing their perceived stereotypes.

West and his dangerous rhetoric are exactly what this country doesn’t need at this solemn moment in our nation’s history. If only duct tape would be enough to shut him up.

This coming from a woman who smeared an entire faith due to prejudice and a worship of zeal rather than knowledge. Guess who Tweeted it?

Andrew Sullivan Hyperventilates: If Obama Loses We Could Be Pushed Into a “Civil War” or Something…

Drama queen (with extra emphasis on queen).

Does Thomas Friedman Write All of President Obama’s Speeches?

Next time, the president’s speechwriters should be more careful or more honest. Or do they want their boss to be known as the plagiarist-in-chief?

I think Ron may be exaggerating things a bit with that last quip. But there’s no doubt that Obama has cribbed pretty heavily from Friedman’s playbook. The prominent Timesman has already been the source of Obama’s hackneyed “Sputnik Moment” reference in January, along with the line “nation building at home” in his post-OBL speech in June, making Thursday’s address to Congress at least the third presidential speech this year that Friedmanesque phrasing has found its way into. And the Times columnist has bragged about hitting the links with the president, when he’s not writing about the duffer in chief for Golf Digest. So I doubt he’s going to sue for plagiarism anytime soon. At least not until he can get the matter adjudicated by a court in Beijing.

The Poster Child for Paranoia. All of the people he thinks are ‘out to get him’ in actuality ignore and if they waste any time thinking about him they mock him-which is very upsetting to an attention whore paranoid like him… Super Sized Lefty Michael Moore Claims Fox News And AM Radio Encouraged People To “Commit Acts Of Violence Against Me”

This guy’s a walking heart attack and he’s worried about some imaginary threat with no basis in reality.

Global Warmening:

What We’ve All Been Waiting For: Al Gore in 24-Hour Broadcast to Convert ‘Climate Skeptics’

Is there a prize for anyone who stays awake for the entire screed? A lifetime supply of Sominex? This dude puts me to sleep in two minutes. How on earth in the balance can someone handle 24 hours of this colossal bore?

Warmist: Our Standard Of Living Must Drop

“The standard of living must level off,” said McGinnis, a lecturer with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. “This country consumes five Earths, while India consumes one-tenth of an Earth.” An “Earth,” he explained, is the level of human consumption that can be sustained by a population year-to-year.

Obviously, what he means is that Other People’s standard of living must level off. The alarmists do actually want to drag the world (well, everyone else in the world but themselves) back to the 1400′s.

The Sock Drawer:

From my limited knowledge of the area of the Southern Ocean he was last spotted in and of Penguins (and their predators) in general I am going to agree that it is more then likely the transmitter became detached. We will probably never know what happened… Has Happy Feet, the world’s unluckiest penguin, been eaten just two weeks after returning to wild?

Mr Kevin Lay, speaking for the company, said that the transmitter appeared to be in good working order up to the time it stopped sending data and the most likely explanation for the silence is that it had fallen off.

The transmitter, he said, had been only glued on so that it would fall off in time. ‘We hoped it would stay on for five or six months, but it appears in this case it’s only stayed on for two weeks.’

Mr Lay added that it was possible the penguin had been eaten, but he was doubtful.

‘There are some species that will forage on emperor penguins but it’s not likely that it has happened to Happy Feet because of the area he was in,’ he told New Zealand’s ONE News.

‘We firmly believe that the transmitter has become detached.’

Happy Feet’s fate not sealed

Happy Feet’s tracking device stopped transmitting several days ago, but Massey University Associate Professor John Cockrem says it’s highly likely the bird is still alive.

“Of the natural predators, leopard seals would be far further south, around the Antarctic continent, at this time,” he says.

“I also think the chances of meeting an orca are pretty small.”

In related news here is an article for The King Penguin. It turns out that size does matter-the size of your ear patches that is…8D Sexy penguins

What makes for an ideal king-sized love match?

Brain-eating amoeba claims fourth victim who picked up parasite after swimming in lake

Northern Lights captured

The starry night sky from underground: Incredible images of glowworms in a pitch-black cave

Sisters summit ‘untouched’ peak

Two NZ women are the first to reach the summit of an Afghanistan mountain in 48 years.

Amazing video: Bystanders lift car to save biker

VIDEO: Surfers ride east China tidal bore down Qiantang River

57 inches on center is “gallery height”

I did the research. For a plain wall or over a table, etc, your main picture should be hung so the center of the picture is 57″ from the floor. In other words, eyeball height for a slightly short person. 57″ is known as “gallery height.” It feels right and it looks right, but it can be lower in a seating area.

People tend to hang ‘em too high, and it feels awkwardly unbalanced and looks a little silly.

Antique Apples Getting a New Life

The apples provide a fresh source of income for apple growers, allowing them to distinguish themselves from the average orchard. For consumers, the apples are a chance to buy and taste a uniquely local product, something unlikely to be grown anywhere else in the country.

There’s been strong interest in antique apples in recent years, but the past year in particular has seen enormous growth, said Gary Paul Nabhan, a chair in sustainable food systems at the University of Arizona who has a 5-acre orchard of his own.

“Foods that are memorable, have an incredible history and incredible flavor and texture all of the sudden are back on our screen,” said Nabhan. “These apples are so absolutely delicious and have such remarkable stories with them that once you’re introduced to them you can’t go back to squishy Red Delicious.”

How times have changed in New York City! Extraordinary colour photographs reveal 1940s life in the Big Apple in all its glory

What’s a beluga whale’s favourite trick? Blowing bubbles that look like a halo

NOTE: I had planned on posting this yesterday but I did not for the reasons given below. I did not want to put that at the head of this post because it is a big part of ‘the ugly’ and ugly can wait until last.

Via Gateway Pundit: A plane flies through the “Tribute in Lights” in lower Manhattan in New York September 10, 2011. (REUTERS/Eric Thayer)

9/11: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I remember this flash presentation popping up on the internet shortly after 9/11. It is probably still the best tribute to the victims and the heroes of 9/11 that was ever made. It still brings tears to my eyes and every time I hear this song I think of it… America Attacked 911

The Wind in the Heights

Crystal Morning: September 11th, 2001

One aspect of the events in NYC on 9/11 that gets glossed over are the Jumpers. The US TV networks refused to show the video because it ‘might upset people’ or ‘kids might see it and have nightmares’-if that were the case they should have carried on with their vapid morning chat shows and shown nothing of the events at the WTC, Pentagon and Shankesville because everything was upsetting and nightmarish that day. It is video that should have been shown and should be seen. Why? Not for some macabre reason but for the simple fact that it, more then anything else, illustrates the true horror of that day.  The attempt to ‘sanitize for our protection’ the events on 9/11/01 does a grave disservice to those who died that day. War is not pretty and 9/11 was a declaration of war.

Ten Years On

George Will notes this morning that the 10^th anniversary of Pearl Harbor passed quietly in 1951, with little public or media notice.  It is quite true that the growth of insatiable mass media, and the sentimentalization of American life in the post-War era that is difficult to quantify but is nonetheless evident, would compel the excess of pathos we’re going to see played out today on TV.  If I have to sit through one more interview with Tom Brokaw furrowing every wrinkle on his hangdog face I’m likely to break my TV.

It is significant, by the way, that in the wall-to-wall coverage we’ll see today, we won’t see two things: the media have assiduously avoided showing the awful video of the people who jumped from the towers, and we won’t see any video of the throngs in the Arab world dancing wildly in the streets celebrating on 9/11.  Both might stir up politically incorrect sentiments.  Instead, as Mark Steyn points out, we’re going to be treated to a lot of self-loathing equivocation that will avoid recognizing pure evil for what it was and still is.

The Telegraph’s liveblog of yesterday’s events around the world. 9/11 anniversary: as it happened

‘We’ll never forget, we’ll never forget, we’ll never forget’: The heart-wrenching words of the broken father who has become the symbol of a nation’s grief

At 9-11 Ceremony Two Boys Blow a Kiss to Deceased Fathers (Video)

These two young men lost their fathers on 9-11. Today they were asked to read off names of the victims. When they finished they blew a kiss to their fathers who were killed on that day.

‘The cherished memory of the loved and lost’: Bush reads out Abraham Lincoln letter

We’ll Never Get Over It, Nor Should We

They tell us to get over it, they say to move on, and they mean it well: We can’t bring an air of tragedy into the future. But I will never get over it. To get over it is to get over the guy who stayed behind on a high floor with his friend who was in a wheelchair. To get over it is to get over the woman by herself with the sign in the darkness: “America You Are Not Alone.” To get over it is to get over the guys who ran into the fire and not away from the fire.

You’ve got to be loyal to pain sometimes to be loyal to the glory that came out of it.

9/11: Tribute in Light

They Were There: 9/11 Photographers

September 11: My life and the US changed forever

America is not perfect. It never was. Certain aspects of life in the US are undoubtedly less enjoyable after 9/11. Passing though airport security is an utterly miserable experience, made all the more galling because of the mindlessness of many of the procedures passengers have to endure.

We can all point to foreign policy mistakes, even actions which at times betrayed American ideals. But the essence of America not only remains but has been strengthened.

Al-Qaeda is still in existence but is far from the threat it posed to the West immediately after 9/11. Bin Laden is dead. The dictators Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi have been toppled. In the battle of ideas, the West has prevailed over Islamism. The Arab Spring unleashed democratic forces more powerful than al-Qaeda.

After living in the Middle East and again in London, I returned to Washington. Two years ago, I raised my right hand and swore to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic”. A decade ago, it was not a step I had ever envisaged.

Just after 9/11, I wrote that “amidst the sadness and anger, a new sense of national resilience, pride and determination was already breaking through”.

Without the experience I shared with Americans that day, I doubt I would have become one.

“We’re going to rush the hijackers.”

Two years ago I wrote this:

The only part of the American national security establishment that successfully defended America on 9/11 was the portion of the reserve militia on board Flight 93, acting without orders, without hierarchy, without uniforms or weapons, by spontaneous organization and action.

The lesson I derived:

Bottom-up, inductive, spontaneous self-organization is the essence of America.

After a decade I can say we have wasted a decade failing to learn from that lesson.

We had better do better over the next decade.

The Reckoning: 9/11 Ruminations Reprinted

I doubt, however, that we are militarily prepared for what is to come, and I worry that the budget cuts that the future will inevitably bring will leave us with a military that is little more than a hollow shell. We still live in a very dangerous world, and we tend to be complacent. 9/11 was by no means the last of the horrors that we are destined to face. The Iranians are seeking nuclear weapons, and the Chinese military is itching for a fight. If we do not wake up and prepare for the worst, we will before long face a reckoning far more devastating than the one we faced ten years ago.

Ten Years After September 11: Who’s Really Winning the War On Terrorism

A key factor is the failure of the U.S. government, which basically defines anything that isn’t al-Qaeda as not being a threat. Within the United States, a major terrorist attack has been averted, though luck seems to play a role here (underpants bomber; Times Square bomber). At the same time there have been many more small-scale attacks. One way the U.S. government achieves positive statistics is to redefine specific events — a shooting at the El Al counter in Los Angeles, an attack on a Jewish community center in the Pacific Northwest, the murder of a military recruiter in Arkansas, and even the Ft. Hood killer — as non-terrorist, non-Islamist criminal acts.

So are things much better a decade after the September 11 attacks? Aside from the very important aspect of avoiding a huge successful terror attack on the United States, the answer is “no.”

9/11 flashback: James Woods and the hijacker dry run; Update: What happened on AA Flight 34 today? Just “some unruly passengers?”; three men

9/11 and the Pastness of the Past

Watching those YouTube videos, I found it especially strange to read some of the comments by younger viewers — high-school and college students — that had been posted beneath them within the last year or two. On 9/11, they wrote, they’d been in second grade, fourth grade, third grade. For them that fateful day was a distant childhood memory; for some, it was the first truly vivid memory of their lives. I know how that feels. For me, it was November 22, 1963. And, yes, by the time I was in high school, writing a paper for English class about whether Nixon should resign or not, the assassination of JFK did indeed feel like ancient history. It is impossible to wrap my mind around the fact that college students — full-grown adults with whom I can have an intelligent conversation — were small children on that September day which still seems, in some ways, like the day before yesterday. What is especially sad, however, in the year 2011, is that all too many of these young people are all but completely in the dark as to the motive for this act that defined their childhood; they are all but totally ill-informed as to the nature of the enemy that attacked us on that day, and that is still out to destroy us; they have spent all these years in school, but no teacher has ever properly explained to them the larger context of those atrocities which destroyed the Twin Towers. The multicultural mentality has failed them — and in doing so, has failed America, too. The tragic fact of the matter is that ten years after 9/11, we are more ignorant, and more vulnerable, than ever.

Let’s Roll Over

9/11 was both Pearl Harbor and the Doolittle Raid rolled into one, and the fourth flight was the only good news of the day, when citizen volunteers formed themselves into an ad hoc militia and denied Osama bin Laden what might have been his most spectacular victory. A few brave individuals figured out what was going on and pushed back within half an hour. But we can’t memorialize their sacrifice within a decade. And when the architect gets the memorial brief, he naturally assumes that there’s been a typing error and that “Let’s roll!” should really be “Let’s roll over!”

And so we commemorate an act of war as a “tragic event,” and we retreat to equivocation, cultural self-loathing, and utterly fraudulent misrepresentation about the events of the day. In the weeks after 9/11, Americans were enjoined to ask, “Why do they hate us?” A better question is: “Why do they despise us?” And the quickest way to figure out the answer is to visit the Peace Quilt and the Wish Tree, the Crescent of Embrace and the Hole of Bureaucratic Inertia.

9/11: The dark day that brought out the worst in Britain

100 protesters burn American flag outside U.S. embassy in London during minute’s silence for 9/11

Classy… Truthers Chant “9-11 Was an Inside Job” Outside Ground Zero Memorial

The Ugly…

I had planned on doing a 9/11 post yesterday until I read what Krugman wrote. It made me so angry and upset that I had to walk away from the computer before I posted something that I knew I would really, really regret later. I will not quote from it-if you want to read what that scumbag wrote go to the following links. All I have to say to that miserable worm with a dead soul Paul Krugman and the rest of his ilk is that your Karma will catch up with you and you will find out that she is a bitch.

• Horrible: Paul Krugman Attacks Bush and Giuliani on 9/11
• Glenn Reynolds on Krugman’s screed

Don’t be angry. Understand it for what it is, an admission of impotence from a sad and irrelevant little man. Things haven’t gone the way he wanted lately, his messiah has feet of clay — hell, forget the “feet” part, the clay goes at least waist-high — and it seems likely he’ll have even less reason to like the coming decade than the last, and he’ll certainly have even less influence than he’s had. Thus, he tries to piss all over the people he’s always hated and envied. No surprise there. But no importance, either. You’ll see more and worse from Krugman and his ilk as the left nationally undergoes the kind of crackup it’s already experiencing in Wisconsin. They thought Barack Obama was going to bring back the glory days of liberal hegemony in politics, but it turned out he was their Ghost Dance, their Bear Shirt, a mystically believed-in totem that lacked the power to reverse their onrushing decline, no matter what the shamans claimed.

• Paul Krugman’s Shame

Isn’t it telling that Krugman is ashamed of the days since 9/11?  It demarcates world views, no?  Is it just me and is it odd that this seems more like Paul Krugman’s shame than America’s shame?  I don’t think it’s just me, and it really isn’t all that odd.

• A few more words about Koward Krugman

Koward Krugman’s problem is that he’s a lazy intellectual slob who hurriedly hits the “publish” button before the sand in his little kitchen egg timer empties. He hurls Molotov cocktails at his political enemies, while hiding behind his hallowed desk at the Fishwrap of Record.

Shame on him. Shame on the New York Times.

“Bill you must pass. Over you must bend.” –Commenter “Yoda” on Ace of Spades liveblog of Obama’s speech (timestamp of 7:21)

“The last stand of the massive state. That’s what we’re seeing here.” Commenter “Splunge” on Ace of Spades liveblog of Obama’s speech (timestamp of  7:36)

“If we’ve learned anything from our experience with Hopey Change, it’s that the more urgently Barack Hussein tries to ram something down our throats, the more crucial it is to keep our teeth clenched tight.”-Dave Blount

“A half-century experiment in draping steam­ship anchors around the necks of the productive class and expecting them to run a four-minute mile has ended in failure. The confiscation of rights and property, the moral impoverishment of generations caused by the state’s usurpation of parental obligations, the elevation of a credentialed elite that believes academia’s fashions are a worthy substitute for knowledge of history and human nature, and above all the faith in a weightless cipher whose oratorical panache now consists of looking from one teleprompter screen to the other with the enthusiasm of a man watching someone else’s kids play tennis–it’s over, whether you believe in it or not. It cannot be sustained without reducing everyone to penurious equality, crippling the power of the United States, and subsuming the economy to a no-growth future that rations energy.

To which some progressives respond: You say that like it’s a bad thing. -James Lileks

“We waited 30 months for this?” –Herman Cain on Obama’s speech

In light of the current news about a possible nuclear attack (dirty or otherwise) on a major American city I thought I would put up the links to Gerard Vanderleun’s series of essays on the subject. If you have never read them before they are well worth the time…

• The Sacrifice and the Reckoning: Sleepwalking

None of these things awaken us. In this deepening night we have made a dark bargain with ourselves to let a city die. All we are doing now is waiting on the Event.

• The Sacrifice and the Reckoning: The Event

Must Reads of the Day:

• Victor David Hanson: Those Post-9/11 -isms and -ologies: A Look Back at a Decade
• Devil at My Doorstep; Obama Buys Votes from Big Labor at Enormous Cost to Nation

Unless and until we fix structural issues, we can expect no job creation, no matter how much money Keynesian clowns want to throw around.

• Dissecting the Lies in Obama’s $447 Billion “Shock-and-Awe” Reelection Ploy; Dead-on-Arrival in Congress? Alternative Proposal Will Not Cost a Dime

President Obama’s rumored $300 stimulus program ballooned to $447 billion upon unveiling. For a full text of the speech, please see President Obama’s jobs address

Amusingly, the plan is overweight tax cuts in an attempt to get Republican buy-ins.

Let’s dissect portions of Obama’s speech, lie by lie.

• The Record-Setting, Trailblazing Obama Presidency
• Comprehensive List of Obama Tax Hikes
• The Moral High Ground

The Left’s “morally superior” policies kill millions and impoverish billions.

Charts of the Day: Obama’s Failed Stimulus Promises

Let’s not get fooled again.

Must See TeeVee! Swiss MP Oskar Freysinger – Have We Gone MAD?!

Japan and the softly glowing world…

• BBC
• NHK in English (Live feed in upper right corner)
• Telegraph of London
• Kyodo Wire
• Japan Times
• Asahi Shimbun
• The Daily Yomuri
• Japan Today
• ImTranslator – Online Translator, Dictionary, TTS add on for Firefox (It comes in handy)
• Japanese government list of nationwide radioactivity concentration
• Japan Geigermap
• Ibaraki Prefecture Geiger Counter Readings
• US National Radiation Map (updated every minute)
• Via Soylent Green: Radiation Exposure in Daily Life
• Radiation Dose Chart
• Radiation Converter
• ZeroHedge commenter Max2205′s excellent post about radioactivity including a list of radioactive elements and their half lives.
• Donations to the American Red Cross that are being designated to Japanese Earthquake relief are already getting to the folks in Japan and are most helpful.

“Fukushima in recriticality”? — Iodine-131 detected in 4 locations: Tokyo, Iwate, Nagano, Niigata (CHARTS)

U. of Texas researchers: Fukushima release “so great” that radioactive aerosols in Washington were up to 100,000 normal

Kyoto U. expert: Melted fuel may have sunk into ground — “We are now head to head with a situation that mankind has never faced before”

Ocean Contamination 3 Times As Much As TEPCO Announced

says the government corporation Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 5 months after the leak of highly contaminated water was first discovered (in April) at the water intake for Reactor 2 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.

So, instead of 4,700 terabecquerels of radioactive iodine and cesium as TEPCO announced back in May, JAEA says it was 15,000 terabecquerels that leaked into the Pacific Ocean, and that it could have been leaking since March 21, not from April 1.

The human guinea pig defying the Fukushima leak

Cesium levels spiked in child’s urine between May and July tests

Killer typhoon brings more misery to Japan

Japanese schoolchildren write about first hand tsunami experiences in new book