Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts

Monday, June 16, 2014

IPAB: Obamacare's Unconstitutional 15-Person Death Panel Faces Major Legal Challenge

By Eric Boehm

It might sound like the latest new product from Apple, but IPAB is actually the newest major legal challenge to Obamacare.

Last week, a three-judge panel in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard arguments about the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB, a 15-member panel created by the Affordable Care Act and empowered to make all kinds of decisions regarding health coverage for Americans. The board’s powers are significant, and some say completely unconstitutional, because language in the ACA frees the board from any kind of congressional or judicial oversight.

The board, which many in the right-wing have labeled the ACA’s “death panel” after Sarah Palin coined the term in 2009, would be able to set Medicare policy and health care payment rates for virtually all Americans starting in 2017. Language in the ACA even prevents Congress from being able to repeal the IPAB’s existence after that same year.

“It’s really and truly an unprecedented concentration of power,” said Christina Sandefur, an lawyer at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, Ariz., who argued the case June 10 before the 9th Circuit Court.

Those challenging the legitimacy of the IPAB in the Coons v. Law lawsuit argue that it is unconstitutional for a variety of reasons — in particular, they say it violates the Fourth, Fifth and Ninth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, while also running afoul of the separation of powers that are enshrined throughout the Constitution.

“It consolidates the powers of every single branch of government into one body, and yet it is unaccountable to any of those branches,” Sandefur told Watchdog.org on Friday.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

KIM JONG OBAMA: I Forbid Congress From Photographing Any Illegal Alien Refugee Centers

I don't think the word "transparency" means what President Obama thinks it does.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is welcoming members of Congress and their senior staff to tour a temporary shelter being used to house illegal immigrant children — but the invite comes with a list of rules, including a suggestion that members leave their cellphones in their vehicles.

...The tours are meant to give members and staffers an inside look at how temporary facilities are being used to house illegal immigrant children who came to the U.S. without their parents. The minors, who hail mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, are being called “Unaccompanied Children,” or UACs.

Sent to members of Congress and staff by Rose Hacking, of the office of the assistant secretary of legislation at HHS, the invitation comes with the following commands:

No recording devices will be allowed (We may ask you to leave your cellphone in our vehicle)
No questions will be allowed during the tour, but questions will be addressed later
• No interacting with staff and children at the shelter
• We will provide photos of the facility after the tour

...one congressional staffer invited to tour the facility called the planned tours “a dog and pony show... Don’t talk to anyone, don’t record anything you might happen to see, but come visit us and we’ll give you a sanitized story with only the photos and accounts we want you to have,” said the staffer, who requested anonymity.

This isn’t some totalitarian closed society trying this tactic, this is our own government! They clearly wouldn’t be offering up this kind of dog and pony show if they weren’t hiding a very ugly truth somewhere.”

The UACs are part of an unprecedented surge of young immigrants that has overwhelmed immigration agencies at the southern Texas border.

This humanitarian refugee crisis -- something you would normally see in Third World countries -- is the product of Barack Obama's purposeful evisceration of America's immigration laws. Bound by his oath of office to enforce them, Obama has instead chosen to open up America's borders to any and all. Cartel members, the infirm, the disease-ridden, pedophiles, MS-13 members, burglars, the poverty-stricken... no passports, no background checks, no customs inspection, no waiting line, nothing.

All are welcome in Obama's America, no matter the consequences.


Hat tip: Weasel Zippers

10 Things the Incompetent Buffoon Dave Camp Should Do Right Now to Handle the IRS's "Missing Emails"

Lois Lerner, the malevolent hack who used her position at the IRS to target conservative and pro-Israel groups, was recently held in Contempt of Congress. But the IRS cover-up of her activities continues unabated.

As you may know, the IRS claimed late yesterday that all of Lois Lerner's emails with parties outside the agency were destroyed in an unfortunate and untimely hard-drive crash.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) on Friday said it was “unacceptable” that he was just learning of this problem now, after a lengthy investigation into Lerner’s involvement in the IRS targeting scandal... “The fact that I am just learning about this, over a year into the investigation, is completely unacceptable and now calls into question the credibility of the IRS’s response to congressional inquiries,” he said. “There needs to be an immediate investigation and forensic audit by Department of Justice as well as the Inspector General.”

Gee, since the DOJ was implicated in the IRS scandal, I'm sure we can count on Eric Holder to spearhead a bold, independent "forensic audit" of the disks in question. What a bunch of nincompoops.

Oh, and the brilliant investigator Darrell "Inspector" Issa was equally peeved.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) indicated that he doesn’t believe the IRS is telling the truth... “Do they really expect the American people to believe that, after having withheld these emails for a year, they’re just now realizing the most critical time period is missing?”

This kind of rank incompetence is precisely why Johnny Boehner should have named a Select Committee on the IRS.

In lieu of that rational step, may I offer these clownish fools some instructions for dealing with this criminal behavior.

1. Terry V. Milholland served as the IRS Chief Technology Officer during the years in question and was responsible for all IT activities. Subpoena Milholland now.

2. David Stender served as Associate CIO for Cybersecurity and Chief Information Security Officer at the IRS during the years in question. Subpoena Stender now.

3. Robert N. Crawford served as the Associate Chief Information Officer for Enterprise Services at the IRS during the years in question. Subpoena Crawford now.

4. Lauren Buschor served as the Associate Chief Information Officer for Enterprise Operations at the IRS during the years in question. Subpoena Buschor now.

5. The IRS uses Microsoft Exchange as its email platform. Subpoena the administrator of that system now.

6. Immediately subpoena all backup tapes of the email system, probably held at an Iron Mountain facility, for the years 2010 through 2013

7. Prepare a list of questions for each of the IT executives to include, at a minimum, the following:
      a) Given the redundant infrastructure, disaster recovery and business continuity facilities, and other preparations designed to maintain the IRS's technical operations, describe how the agency could state that a small fraction of the email related to Lois Lerner could be reported as "destroyed".
      b) Describe the logical architecture of backups for the Exchange system including DR sites, offline storage of backup tapes, etc.
      c) Describe the interval of full and incremental backups for the Exchange system.
      d) Describe a scenario in which all backups from Lerner for the years in question could be destroyed.

8. Immediately subpoena all disk drives said to have "crashed".

9. Put each of these officials under oath immediately.

10. Begin forensic investigations of the drives and backup tapes.

How hard was that?

Apparently too hard for the establishment Republican buffoons, who probably want to see a weaponized IRS target conservatives.


Friday, June 13, 2014

PILOT WHO RESCUED DOZENS AT BENGHAZI: A Competent Administration Would Have Saved Those Who Died

By Helle Dale


The pilot who flew the plane carrying U.S. diplomatic and CIA personnel from Benghazi, Libya, to U.S. military base Ramstein in Germany on September 12, 2012, broke his silence this week.

His eyewitness account further undermines the Obama administration’s false narrative of the Benghazi terrorist attack.

In an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, Eric Stahl, who recently retired as a major in the U.S. Air Force and whoserved as commander and pilot of the C-17 aircraft, made three revelations critically important to the investigation of the Benghazi Select Committee:

1. The CIA staff revealed that they overheard in real time the Benghazi attackers communicating with each other on U.S. State Department cell phones, presumably picked up as they rampaged through the compound. Their communications suggested nothing but a well-coordinated attack. For that reason, the people who were actually on the ground were mystified by the suggestions coming from Washington that there had been an anti-video demonstration in progress.

2. Upon arriving at Ramstein, the survivors were not questioned by the FBI initially, but instead were led away by U.S. ambassador to Germany Philip D. Murphy to be debriefed that same evening. The Select Committee will want to know what, if any, instructions they were given.

3. Finally, Stahl believes that a rescue attempt could have been made out of Ramstein. Rescuers could potentially have arrived in time to fight back the attack on the CIA Benghazi annex that erupted in the early morning and led to the deaths of Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. He also logically questions the U.S. military posture in Europe and the Middle East on the anniversary of September 11.

BILL WHITTLE: Why Benghazi Matters

Here's a portion of Bill Whittle's latest epic Firewall:

Before we get into what Benghazi is, let’s address what it isn’t. It isn’t irrelevant, it isn’t trivial, and it isn’t a “witch hunt” as many prominent Democrats and their supporters desperately want you to believe.

For example, this graphic has been going viral: It shows the date and location of ten embassy or consular attacks during the Bush presidency, with a total of 60 people dead and the number of outraged Republicans set at zero; therefore these attacks happen frequently, therefore Benghazi is a hypocritical, witch hunt staged simply to get Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton.

Unfortunately for the millions of people who have seen this graphic and passed it on, one of them – at least one – knows how to read, think and research.

Kyle Becker, at the Independent Journal Review, took a look at each of these ten attacks. In eight of them, the total number of Americans killed was – zero. It is not the responsibility of the US State Department and the President of the United States to protect the lives of foreign nationals, no matter how tragic or common these attacks may be. Their job is to protect American citizens and especially Consular personnel living abroad.

In 2003, a truck bomb killed 36 people, including nine American defense contractors. President Bush immediately called it a terrorist attack, the Saudis investigated and killed two of the attackers in the raids that followed.

On March 2, 2006, in Karachi, Pakistan, a suicide bomber killed 4, including an American diplomat named David Foy. It was instantly denounced as a terror attack; there were no advance calls for additional security; Mr. Foy was killed instantly with no possibility of rescue; and there was no cover-up or attempt to spin it other than what it was.

Every day in America there are over 6,000 burglaries. But one break-in may be more important than the others, because one of those burglaries – Watergate -- may go directly to the lawfulness, integrity and candor of the President of the United States of America.

Benghazi matters, because it goes directly to the two most important qualities in our elected officials: Competence, and Character.

Let’s go to competence first:

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

After Releasing Terrorists and Arming Them With Stinger Missiles, Obama Rails Against Guns to Promote a "Safer Society"

My memory may not be the best, but didn't the biggest mass-murder in history occur on 9/11/2001 when 3,000 people perished at the hands of Islamofascists?

Coming then as it does on the heels of the release of five of the most vicious, bloodthirsty terrorist generals in history, Obama's latest anti-Constitutional screed strikes me as unintentionally idiotic.

President Barack Obama Tuesday suggested that the U.S. government should follow Australia’s example in dealing with shooting sprees, which involved strict gun bans on semiautomatic and automatic weapons.

Gee, doesn't the U.S. have a Second Amendment which protects the government from encroaching on the citizens' right to keep and bear arms? And isn't Australia missing such a citizen protection clause in their highest law?

“Australia had a mass shooting [in 1996] similar to Columbine and Newtown, and just said, ‘That’s it, we’re not seeing that again,’ and basically imposed very severe tough gun laws and they haven’t had a mass shooting since,” Obama said, after he was asked for his reaction to recent shooting episodes in California and Oregon. Those laws included the confiscation of nearly all handguns and rifles.

You mean gun control like that enacted by Chicago and Washington, DC which have both banned handguns for decades?

But the country needs “commonsense rules in place that make a dent in what’s happening,” he said, after an emotional appeal to the students and young people who were watching the Tumblr broadcast, which was advertised as a question-and-answer session about student debt... “My greatest frustration so far is that this society has not been willing to take some basic steps to keep guns out of the hands of people you know who can do just unbelievable damage,” he said.

You mean like keeping firearms away from the mentally ill, as the NRA has repeatedly suggested? Basic steps like that, which might require committing the truly insane as we did before the ACLU and the rest of the left wing radicals got their hands on the mental health system?

Does it seem odd to you...

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

SURPRISE: Networks Refuse to Disclose Obama's Role in Humanitarian Crisis on Our Unprotected Southern Border

When it comes to "fundamentally transforming America" -- candidate Obama's stated agenda -- I think we can officially hang the Mission Accomplished banner on the U.S.S. Refugee Crisis.

Late last week, detention centers along the U.S.-Mexican border were crushed with a new surge of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children, yet two of the Big Three networks have barely touched this new headache for the Obama administration. And not a single reporter or anchor on ABC, CBS or NBC have cited Barack Obama’s extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) as cause for a humanitarian crisis that has led to children as young as 9-years-old illegally crossing the border without their parents.

How many children have died, been subject to assault, and otherwise abused making the trek from Central America?

Curious how the progressives' old saw -- you know, "If we can only save one child!" -- is ignored completely when the deaths of countless kids helps advance their agenda.

NBC’s Ned Potter, in a June 8 Nightly News story, painted a stark picture of children leading other children across the border. However, he never mentioned Obama’s extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) as a cause of this “humanitarian crisis.”

...Over on CBS Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell invited Republican Senator Marco Rubio to discuss the topic on the June 10 edition of CBS This Morning, but neither one of the co-anchors asked the Florida senator if Obama’s extension of the (DACA) was even partly to blame. Rose, however, did find time to push Rubio on immigration reform, as he pressed: “You got into some political pushback on immigration reform. When will we see thorough immigration reform?”

Even the Sacramento Bee lays the blame for an "international crisis of unaccompanied migrant children at U.S. border" on President Oprompter.

...a sudden surge – from 13,625 in 2012 to 24,668 last year – in children traveling north on their own. Homeland Security officials expect 90,000 unaccompanied minors to be detained by border patrol this year, maybe more. And those are just the kids caught; it doesn’t include the many stranded alone in Mexico’s dangerous border towns.

More likely, the migration is a result of ambivalent immigration policy that is sending mixed signals abroad. While the Obama administration has deported a record 2 million people, the administration has also extended a compassionate arm to undocumented children. It’s no surprise, then, that there’s a widespread belief in Central America that if kids can survive the treacherous journey and get across that border somehow, they will be allowed to stay.

These deaths, these injuries, this abuse of children -- not to mention the utter disregard of the American citizenry -- is on Barack Obama and the rest of the Democrat Party.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

Sunday, June 08, 2014

ANOTHER SHOE DROPS IN THE BENGHAZI SCANDAL: Taliban Now Targeting U.S. Troops With Stinger Missiles

Kenneth Timmerman, writing in The New York Post, breaks open another shocking chapter in the Benghazi scandal.

The Obama administration isn’t only giving the Taliban back its commanders — it’s giving them weapons... Miliary records and sources reveal that on July 25, 2012, Taliban fighters in Kunar province successfully targeted a US Army CH-47 helicopter with a new generation Stinger missile.

The helicopter and all aboard survived the attack as it was able to crash land. But what had hit the Chinook?

The next day, an explosive ordnance disposal team arrived to pick through the wreckage and found unexploded pieces of a missile casing that could only belong to a Stinger missile.

Lodged in the right nacelle, they found one fragment that contained an entire serial number.

The investigation took time ... But when the results came back, they were stunning: The Stinger tracked back to a lot that had been signed out by the CIA recently, not during the anti-Soviet ­jihad.

Can you guess where the Taliban got Stinger missiles with which to target U.S. troops?

If you guessed the smartest President ever and the smartest Secretary of State in history, you're in luck!

...the US Special Operations community believe the Stinger fired against the Chinook was part of the same lot the CIA turned over to the ­Qataris in early 2011, weapons Hillary Rodham Clinton’s State Department intended for anti-Khadafy forces in Libya.

They believe the Qataris delivered between 50 and 60 of those same Stingers to the Taliban in early 2012, and an additional 200 SA-24 Igla-S surface-to-air missiles.

That's right: Hillary's State Department tried to turn over advanced anti-aircraft weapons to anti-Khadafy forces -- this is what appears to have been happening in Benghazi -- and they ended up with the Taliban.

Care to guess where the five bloodthirsty barbarians loosed in Qatar will turn up?

That's a rhetorical question, which means only drones, sycophants, progressives, liberals, and other miscreants will try to answer it (e.g., by yelling "Bush!" at the top of their lungs).

And when a passenger jet is downed thanks to this deranged, evil plot, what will they say then?


Hat tip: BadBlue News and Weasel Zippers

IBD: President Committed a Felony in Freeing Five Terrorist Leaders

By Investor's Business Daily

National Security: Federal law prohibits any person — repeat, any person — from providing material assistance to terrorists, including human assets. But that's what the president did in releasing five Taliban commanders.

When iconic interviewer David Frost asked former President Nixon about the legality of his actions in the Watergate affair, Nixon said "when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal."

That's an attitude seemingly shared by the current occupant of the Oval Office.

As former congressman and Afghanistan veteran Allen West points out, President Obama signed into law only months ago the National Defense Authorization Act, which makes it a crime to offer or provide any material support to terrorist groups. It makes no exception as to who and under which circumstances.

The Taliban is considered a non-state terrorist group to which Obama has returned five of the worst terrorists held at Guantanamo. They are not foot soldiers and this exchange was not at the end of a war, when prisoner swaps often happen. They are four-star general equivalents who will return to the battlefield to target and kill Americans again. If that's not material assistance, what is?

"Is there the possibility of some of them trying to return to activities that are detrimental to us? Absolutely," Obama said during a news conference in Poland.

But fear not, he said, because "we will be keeping eyes on them." Oh, good, we can always risk more American lives on top of those already lost capturing them the first time.

"This is aiding and abetting the enemy, which goes along with the collusion of this administration with Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations and supplying weapons and arms to Islamists," West wrote in the Washington Post.

Saturday, June 07, 2014

KLAVAN: Fake global warming is one of the most serious fake problems not actually facing our nation today

Great rant by Andrew Klavan at Truth Revolt:

It’s time to take an hysterical and panicky look at fake global warming. Fake global warming is one of the most serious fake problems not actually facing our nation today. According to smarmy billionaire Al Gore, we must take useless and expensive actions immediately or the polar ice caps will be completely melted by two thousand and thirteen... which will be catastrophic when last year arrives.

And the polar bears — oh, the polar bears! Studies reveal that over the last twenty years, as computer models of the climate have progressively damaged computer models of their habitat, the polar bear population has steadily increased. But that’s only in real life! In the computer models, the poor creatures are dropping like flies.

Let’s examine the distorted facts. Between the years 1950 and 2000, the earth’s temperature increased approximately nine tenths of a degree Centigrade. Over the exact same period, the price of butter in Morris County New Jersey rose from 77 cents a pound to nearly four dollars. According to climate change logic, this means that if we give government the power to lower the price of butter in Morris County, the temperature should once again sink back to the levels of the 1950’s. And weren’t the 50‘s a fine old time! Who wouldn’t want those temperatures back again?

I realize there are some superstitious troglodytes who don’t believe in science. They insist we have to go on powering our country with oil and gas instead of using sustainable energy from the holy Vitraya Ramunong tree from that great, great movie Avatar. We’ve explained to them that 97 percent of scientists believe in global warming, but it means nothing to them, even though the number 97 percent has been scientifically selected as the most panic-inducing random number available.

You can watch the entire rant here and subscribe to Klavan's updates. Highly recommended.


SOWELL: Obama is not a socialist

Thomas Sowell confirms the fact that we have our very own Eva Perón:

One of the reasons why both pro-Obama and anti-Obama observers may be reluctant to see him as fascist is that both tend to accept the prevailing notion that fascism is on the political right, while it is obvious that Obama is on the political left.

Back in the 1920s, however, when fascism was a new political development, it was widely — and correctly — regarded as being on the political left. Jonah Goldberg’s great book “Liberal Fascism” cites overwhelming evidence of the fascists’ consistent pursuit of the goals of the left, and of the left’s embrace of the fascists as one of their own during the 1920s.

Mussolini, the originator of fascism, was lionized by the left, both in Europe and in America, during the 1920s. Even Hitler, who adopted fascist ideas in the 1920s, was seen by some, including W.E.B. Du Bois, as a man of the left.

It was in the 1930s, when ugly internal and international actions by Hitler and Mussolini repelled the world, that the left distanced themselves from fascism and its Nazi offshoot — and verbally transferred these totalitarian dictatorships to the right, saddling their opponents with these pariahs.

What socialism, fascism and other ideologies of the left have in common is an assumption that some very wise people — like themselves — need to take decisions out of the hands of lesser people, like the rest of us, and impose those decisions by government fiat.

For some eerie parallels of our current situation with that of Argentina's collapse, please see the illustrated tale entitled "Don't Cry for Me, America."


Friday, June 06, 2014

REFUGEE CRISIS: Latin American Media Tell Poor Indigents to Rush to U.S. While Obama's in Office

There's a major refugee crisis unfolding on our southern border.

Let me repeat: a refugee crisis. A countless number of poor indigents from Central America are now flooding into America. They hope to gain amnesty and a path to citizenship under President Obama's unlawful edicts; he has enacted a de facto DREAM Act even though Congress refused to pass such a law.

KGRV in Texas reports:

Central Americans say news reports in their countries are encouraging them to make the journey north to the United States.

A mother and child told CHANNEL 5 NEWS that the message being disseminated in their country is, "go to America with your child, you won't be turned away."

The woman, Nora Griselda Bercian Diaz, from Guatemala, said she endured threats from the Zetas and extortion from corrupt Mexican police. She eventually crossed the Rio Grande with her 6-year-old Delmi Griselda Paul Bercian by her side...

...Agents eventually arrived and ushered the mother and daughter into a van. The agents didn't have time to turn around before another group came walking up the same road.

As if to encourage the flow of illegals into the U.S. -- without background checks, without health examinations, without any vetting whatsoever -- the Obama administration yesterday announced it will continue violating immigration law.

Thursday, June 05, 2014

JUST A COINCIDENCE: Red States to Bear Brunt of Dramatically Higher Electricity Prices Thanks to Obama EPA

Courtesy of the Institute for 21st Century Energy, the accompanying map offers an estimate of the costs the Obama EPA will extract from consumers.

Remember: the one campaign promise Mr. Obama kept was that "energy prices would necessarily skyrocket" under his Ozmandian efforts to control the climate de-industrialize America promote renewable energy.


As Dave Blount astutely observes:

Of course, increasing energy costs drives up the price of literally all goods and services, in addition to destroying jobs, so this only scratches the surface. What we are witnessing is the deliberate lowering of the American standard of living out of ideologically motivated malice by executive fiat.

The highest price of all won’t come in terms of dollars, but will be paid in something more precious still: liberty. Obama and other extremists in the government tried to impose this regulation through legislative means but failed. So Congress was shoved aside; the rules are to be imposed by unelected and unaccountable EPA bureaucrats. The division of powers established by the Constitution is collapsing because Congress evidently does not have the character to defend its domain from usurpation by the executive branch.

Please note the price hikes for Red States -- the heart of America -- versus the Blues. Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, China brings 200 dirty coal plants online every year.

And the EPA is curiously silent about that.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

GOOD NEWS: Feds Dumping Thousands of Illegals Caught in Texas at Bus Stations in Arizona

And if some of the illegals are carrying communicable diseases, or are violent offenders wanted in other countries, or are gang members, well, let the people of Arizona sort it out!

But they're doing it for love, right, Jeb Bush?

Oh, and once again lifting the heavy rocks the decrepit, useless and feckless House Republican leaders won't, Judicial Watch reports:

As if it weren’t bad enough that even convicts qualify for Obama amnesty, check out what’s going on in Arizona; the federal government is dumping an unknown number of illegal immigrants caught in Texas at bus stations in Phoenix and Tucson.

The feds didn’t even have the courtesy to give state officials a heads up that hundreds, possibly thousands, of illegal aliens would be dropped off for processing by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and subsequently released into the general population. A chunk of the migrants got apprehended in Texas over Memorial Day weekend after crossing into the state through the Rio Grande Valley, according to news reports.

Evidently Border Patrol agents in Texas are overwhelmed because there’s been a huge surge in illegal crossers in one concentrated area and the Obama administration hasn’t provided an increase in manpower. So someone at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) came up with the brilliant idea of simply shuffling the weekend influx of illegal aliens to another state. In all, more than 400 families were relocated to the Tucson area as part of the operation.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer learned that the feds were using her state as a dumping ground for illegal immigrants in the media. She was rightfully outraged and fired off a letter to the president calling the plot dangerous and unconscionable.

Brewer's letter is a doozy:

THE MARKETS GO SCHIZOPHRENIC: Treasurys Are Screaming Crisis While Stocks Yawn

By Pam Martens

One critical gauge of how fair and efficient a market is resides in the degree to which it reflects the composite wisdom of all participants. A rigged market, for example, reflects the composite wisdom of just those doing the rigging since they are privy to information that is not shared with all market players.

On March 30, bestselling author Michael Lewis appeared on 60 Minutes to summarize the findings in his newest book, Flash Boys, as follows: “stock market’s rigged.” Michael Lewis was talking about stock market manipulation by high frequency traders.

Increasingly, the U.S. bond market is delivering almost the same message as Michael Lewis. The U.S. Treasury market, which is experiencing a flight to safety (that suggests a slowing economy, lower corporate earnings and thus a lower stock market in the future) is essentially saying that the current composite wisdom of the stock market is either nuts or the market is, indeed, rigged.

Stocks have been setting new highs of late while the yields on the benchmark 10-year and 30-year Treasurys decline. The 10-year Treasury began the year at a yield of approximately 3 percent and closed on Friday at a yield of 2.49. The 30-year Treasury started the year at a yield of approximately 4 percent and closed last week with a yield of 3.33 percent.

Strong economies produce a higher demand for money and, thus, rising interest rates. For stocks, which are wedded to earnings, to be rising while Treasury yields are falling shows a serious decoupling of market logic.

The question is, does high frequency trading and stock market rigging have anything to do with this decoupling?

Tuesday, June 03, 2014

TED CRUZ ISSUES AN APB: Where Did the Liberals Go?

This is why conservatives rally around men like Ted Cruz. Because he speaks truth to power, whether that power is in the clutches of the Democrat Party or in the Chamber of Crony Republicans. He's a brilliant man, a Constitutionalist, and unafraid to take on the Beltway elites who have grown fat, soporific, and complacent as our form of government, our currency, and our culture are destroyed.

Cruz's statement to the Senate is a keeper:

America is an exceptional country.

When our country was founded, we crafted a constitution that Thomas Jefferson explained would serve as chains to bind the mischief of government. There has never been more mischief of government than there is right now.

And the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the constitution, are precious to every American. The Bill of Rights begins with the first amendment. For over two centuries Congress has not dared to mess with the Bill of Rights.

This amendment here today, if adopted, would repeal the free speech protections of the first amendment.

Mr. Chairman, when citizens hear that they gasp. As immune as we are to abuse of power of government, citizens are still astonished that members of Congress would dare support repealing the first amendment.

And let’s be clear, this amendment doesn’t just do it to for corporation or just do it to billionaires. Nothing in this amendment is limited to corporations or billionaires. This amendment would give Congress absolute authority to regulate the political speech of every single American with no limitations whatsoever.

This amendments is about power, and its about politicians, silencing the citizens.

Mr. Chairman, when did elected democrats abandon the Bill of Rights?

The 10 Most Stunning Revelations Surrounding the Bergdahl Fiasco


In my pathetic and desperate attempt to mimic popular websites, I'm now resorting to BuzzFeed-style Top 10 lists.

10. White House Overrode Internal Objections To Taliban Prisoner Release
"To pull off the prisoner swap of five Taliban leaders for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the White House overrode an existing interagency process charged with debating the transfer of Guantanamo Bay prisoners and dismissed long-standing Pentagon and intelligence community concerns based on Top Secret intelligence about the dangers of releasing the five men, sources familiar with the debate tell TIME."

9. Bergdahl Never Listed By Pentagon As Prisoner Of War
"In his five years of captivity, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was never listed by the Pentagon as a prisoner of war... After disappearing in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009, Bergdahl was listed by the Pentagon on July 1, 2009, as “duty status whereabouts unknown.” Two days later his status was changed to “missing/captured,” and it did not change again prior to his release."

8. Bergdahl Deserted, Leaving Note Saying He Was Disillusioned with the Army
"Sometime after midnight on June 30, 2009, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl left behind a note in his tent saying he had become disillusioned with the Army, did not support the American mission in Afghanistan and was leaving to start a new life. He slipped off the remote military outpost in Paktika Province on the border with Pakistan and took with him a soft backpack, water, knives, a notebook and writing materials, but left behind his body armor and weapons — startling, given the hostile environment around his outpost."

7. Pentagon knew Bergdahl’s whereabouts but didn’t risk rescue for ‘deserter’
"The Pentagon on several occasions had ground-level intelligence on where ArmySgt. Bowe Bergdahl was being held captive at various times — down to how many gunmen were guarding him — but special operations commanders repeatedly shelved rescue missions because they didn’t want to risk casualties for a man they believed to be a “deserter,” sources familiar with the mission plans said."

6. Susan Rice Claims Bergdahl served with “honor and distinction”
"Did the White House send Susan Rice out on another Sunday talk show fool’s errand? Just as with the Benghazi attack, Barack Obama’s national-security adviser went out on a Sunday to discuss a burgeoning controversy, and perhaps without a full set of the facts in front of her. When questioned by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, Rice tried to parry the question about Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s initial disappearance, which some of his fellow soldiers believed to be an act of desertion that cost more American lives. Rice insisted that Bergdahl had served with “honor and distinction,” a claim that will be tested in the coming days and weeks..."

5. Hours Later, White House Backpedals After Claiming Bergdahl ‘Served With Honor And Distinction’
"Deputy national security advisor Tony Blinken struggled to cover for his boss Susan Rice on Tuesday, backtracking from her contention that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl “served with honor and distinction” in the face of tough questions from NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell... Mitchell confronted Blinken over Rice’s Sunday claim that Bergdahl “served with honor and distinction” — an assertion almost immediately disproven by scores of Bergdahl’s comrades and official Pentagon reports, which show the soldier abandoned his post and may have been seeking to join the Taliban."

Monday, June 02, 2014

Harry Reid's Fanatical Jihad Against the Koch Brothers Threatens the Free Speech of All Americans

By Elizabeth Slattery

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has promised the Senate will take up a proposed constitutional amendment this year that would radically alter the First Amendment.

The Senate resolution would allow Congress to limit fundraising and spending on election campaigns and independent political speech. Reid and others insist restricting the amount of money that may be raised and spent on political speech is not the same as limiting speech. That’s like saying that limiting the amount of newsprint a newspaper can buy does not limit its speech.

Having lost the battle at the Supreme Court, Reid and his cohorts are now pushing this constitutional amendment to reverse decisions—including Citizens United v. FEC and McCutcheon v. FEC—that protect the rights of Americans to speak their minds about elected officials and candidates and to engage in the political process.

Shutting down conservative speech certainly appears to be a motivating factor behind this push to amend the First Amendment. Reid has given many interviews and speeches on the Senate floor demonizing the Charles and David Koch for “dumping unseemly amounts of money” into politics, “rigg[ing] the system” and “trying to buy the country.” Of course, he never mentions efforts by big Democratic contributors, such as George Soros and the SEIU. Imagine the audacity of those “un-American” and “shrewd businessmen” (Reid’s words) who would back candidates and causes they believe will make America better.

SIMPLY DELIGHTFUL: First words of Bergdahl’s father at White House were spoken in... Arabic

The indefatigable Allen West has the scoop:

Clare Lopez is a former CIA operations officer, a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on Middle East, national defense, WMD, and counterterrorism issues, and a friend of mine.

She emailed me this morning a very poignant analysis that only someone knowing language and Islam could ascertain. She wrote:

“What none of these media is reporting is that the father’s (SGT Bowe Bergdahl’s father Bob) first words at the WH were in Arabic – those words were “bism allah alrahman alraheem” – which means “in the name of Allah the most gracious and most merciful” – these are the opening words of every chapter of the Qur’an except one (the chapter of the sword – the 9th) – by uttering these words on the grounds of the WH, Bergdahl (the father) sanctified the WH and claimed it for Islam. There is no question but POTUS knows this.”


Folks, there is a lot to this whole episode — like Benghazi — that we may never know. And this is not conspiracy theory, it is truth based upon Arabic and Islamic dogma and tradition.

Let me guess: we released five hardened terrorists -- who are certain to kill American soldiers and citizens again, perhaps by the score or thousands -- in exchange for an alleged Muslim sympathizer, deserter, and whack-job. With all due respect, of course.

Only in Obama's America.

See the video at Col. West's site.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

Saturday, May 31, 2014

I’m Here to Chew Bubble Gum and Debunk the 97% Global Warming Myth… and I’m All Out of Bubble Gum

By Jim Lakeley

Climate blogger Tom Nelson alerted us to a study of Australian opinion about man’s role in making the planet boil (or not).

People are more likely to believe that humans cause global warming if they are told that 97 percent of publishing climate scientists agree that it does, a new study has found.

Well, yes. If I was told that, say, 97 percent of dentists agree that chewing Trident is better for your teeth than chewing bubble gum, that would make perfect sense. Trouble is, the idea that “97 percent of publishing climate scientists agree” human activity has created an out-of-control global warming crisis is a myth.

To cop the immortal words of Rowdy Roddy Piper in the B-movie classic “They Live”: I have come here to chew bubble gum and debunk this myth … and I’m all out of bubble gum.

One of the most commonly cited studies of the “97 percent” was conducted by a University of Illinois professor and a graduate student who asked the following questions to 10,257 Earth scientists working for universities and government research agencies: