Wealthy, Coddled, Marxist Cartoonist Calls for Violent Workers' Revolution (While Hawking His New Book)

Does anyone else find this hilarious?

The economically illiterate cartoonist known as Ted Rall appeared on (where else?) MSNBC to hawk his latest book, which preaches a socialist revolution of sorts. He says the system's broken and the only solution may be a violent overthrow of the government by the workers. Because they need jobs.

Yes, those would be the same jobs that the private sector could create, if it weren't being suffocated by the federal leviathan, that is.

No word on whether Rall is redistributing all of his book's proceeds to "the workers".

Rall says that firing government workers would damage the economy. Of course, the real economy -- the private sector -- is on life support while subsidizing all of the endless federal bureaucracies with workers who make double their private counterparts.

But that whole "private sector" concept was always too complex for the likes of Rall to understand.

Just don't miss any of his royalty payments, Mr. Publisher, or he'll get really, really pissed. Like, violent-overthrow-pissed!


Hat tip: Breitbart.

Are Ben Bernanke and Paul Krugman Running California, Too?

Ben Bernanke and Paul Krugman must love California's economy.

Like Bernanke's game-plan of monetizing the debt by printing money, California is stamping out IOU's to make its payments. As for adhering to Krugman's Utopian vision of unchecked deficit spending, well, California appears to have set the record.

But don't have either of them try to explain any of these fun facts from the world's largest Democrat-controlled nuthouse:

• One of every eight workers in California is jobless.

• The state is borrowing $40 million a day from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits, but won't change any of the formulas used to calculate and fund those benefits.

• Cali's debt on unemployment benefits alone is projected to hit $10.3 billion this year and $16 billion by 2012. Last year, the state paid out $11.3 billion while collecting only $4.2 billion.

• The interest on that debt alone will require a $362 million payment to DC in little more than nine months.

• Fixing the imbalance requires doing one of two things: paying out less benefits or raising employer contributions. California's Democrat legislators have resisted doing either despite massive increases in benefits paid.

Of course, the delightful voters of California decided to reelect the very same nincompoops who got them into this mess, so relief is unlikely to come anytime soon.

Next year's budget deficit has been estimated at $12 billion on the low side and $19 billion on the high side... [observers question] if he will be willing to make state employees work longer to earn their full pensions, especially since they spent $30 million to get him elected.

Brown has promised to make the "budget process transparent..." [but nothing] about this first two days has been transparent. Will he stand up to unions, restore cuts made to schools and universities and where will he find the money to invest in green jobs?

Maybe he'll conjure some unicorns out of thin air... and the unicorns will poop diamonds and green jobs and food stamps and windmills and fairy dust! I mean, this is Cali-freaking-fornia!

Oh, I forgot. Brown also has to deal with a $500 billion unfunded pension liability which has some calling California "America's Greece".

I think they're being far too kind. Greece is Europe's California.

Democrats: if they weren't in power, they'd be good only as comic relief.

Question: How can a self-identified Socialist take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution? Answer: Lie.

Bernie Sanders is a self-identified socialist Senator from Vermont. Here's Sanders describing one of his social Democrat utopias -- in this case, Finland.

I was honored last year to show Ambassador Pekka Lintu of Finland around my home state of Vermont. There was standing-room only at a town meeting where people came to hear more about one of the world's most successful economic and social models.

And what we learned impressed us. Finland is a country which provides high-quality health care to all of its people with virtually no out-of-pocket expense; where parents and their young children receive free excellent childcare and/or parental leave benefits which dwarf what our nation provides; where college and graduate education is free to students and where children in the public school system often record the highest results in international tests. In Finland, where 80 percent of workers belong to unions, all employees enjoy at least 30 days paid vacation and the gap between the rich and poor is far more equitable than in the United States.

In other words, Finland -- at least according to Sanders -- is a country that the U.S. should emulate. Finland? Gee, could you find a country with less in common with the United States? Population, demographics, economy, immigration, innovation, national security -- are you serious?

The Constitution is the antithesis of socialism. It restrains government, while socialism expands it. It commands the sanctity of private property, while socialism denies it. The Constitution's tenets are faith, family and self-reliance. Socialism's tenets are the primacy of the state and the need for a chosen few masterminds to redistribute wealth.

You can't be a self-identified socialist and honestly take an oath to uphold the Constitution.

You simply can't.

Sanders and any other self-identified socialists, Marxists and Statist-progressives should be systematically expelled from every office in the land. The Constitution is not a suicide pact.

Keith Olbermann suspended indefinitely, or until Tuesday, whichever comes first

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann -- the unhinged smear-merchant with no ratings (which is the description he prefers, I hear) -- was suspended indefinitely by his network for political donations last week.

That suspension lasted all of 48 hours.

...this morning we find out that Keith Olbermann will be back from his suspension without pay tomorrow. It’s interesting that conservatives are probably responsible for him coming back, given how many of them rose to defend Olbermann. I mean, if it was just liberals rising to his defense, would he be coming back at all? Hard to say. But conservative defenders give the outcry a distinctive whiff of bipartisanship.

You have to give Olbermann credit, however. He has established a broadcasting record of sorts.

He's the only news broadcaster in history so terrified of conservatives that he's never screwed up enough courage to interview one.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: Harry Reid is Not Above the Law

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Harry Reid is Not Above the Law: Tapscott
The Latino Vote and the GOP: Hewitt
Oh, What Delicious Crow: Wizbang

The Democrats' Unconscionable Racism Against Hispanics: PJM
Republicans won the midterm elections. Now can they survive?: Luntz
Tea Party time for Illinois redistricting: Marathon

Economy

Fixing Social Security: AT (Hoven)
California Still on Suicide Watch: Dyer
Federal Contractor to Workers: Vote for Murkowski: Malkin

Astonishing Statistic of the Day: Driscoll
How to reduce the debt by $1.2 trillion: NoisyRoom
Bernanke engaging in unconstitutional fiscal policy: Hussman

Obama’s NLRB Appointee: Unions Need to be Voted in Quicker: RWN
Time to Tackle Right to Work: AT
Texas Considers Seceding... from Medicaid: BlogProf

Climate & Energy

John Abraham panics, he and AGU to form 'Climate rapid response team': WUWT
Climate scientists plan campaign against global-warming skeptics: Trib
Oops: Biofuel worse for climate than fossil fuel: Reuters

Environmentalists Blocking Wind Farms? And Solar? And Geothermal?: PJM
Obama May Have to Cancel Indonesia Trip Due to Greenhouse Gas Emissions: BlogProf
Biofuel-Inspired Food Shortage Coming?: Classic Liberal

Media

Race Card Cockroach Survived Democrats' Nuclear Winter: LegalIns
Why Is This Still Acceptable?: R&R
Post 2010: Conservatives Must Reject Christie, Powerline And Other Short-Term Thinkers: Riehl

The 20 Most Notorious Campaign Ads Of The 2010 Cycle: RWN
News Flash: Harvard History Dominated by White Males: GrandRants
America’s Worst Politician: The short, ugly career of Alan Grayson: Will

WaPo: Results From 2010 Census Pretty Much Ensures a Republican-Dominated House Forever: WZ
NBC News' Phil Griffin Still Has a Lot to Answer For: AmSpec
Stay Worried: Hanson

Media Malpractice available through video-on-demand nationwide: Hot Air
If You Oppose ObamaCare You're RAAAAACIST and UNEDUCATED!!: AmPower
Tea for Tim Scott: Newsweek

World

Meanwhile at the UN, America prostrated herself before tyrants: RWN
Apocalypse Denial Now: A Week of Islam in the News: AT
Barack Obama Would Sneak Off to Koran Classes Says Former Teacher: GWP

The proxy war in the Middle East may escalate in the coming weeks: Ignatius
Look Who Tried To Stop Rescue Of An Arab Boy: LegalIns
Obama’s India Trip During Diwali Festival Forces Most Shops To Close – Business Owners Not Happy: SHN

SciTech

Just Great. Highly Enriched Uranium For Sale on Georgian Black Market: WZ
The Great Debate: iPad vs. Kindle: Hot Air
So Where’s My Cut Of The Soylent Greenbacks?: CBullitt

Cornucopia

Dancing with the Indian stars: MOTUS
Alleged Ponzier Allen Stanford Got The Crap Beaten Out Of Him In Prison: Insider (Graphic Photo)
Number of the Week: $10.2 Trillion in Global Borrowing: WSJ

Image: Weasel Zippers: Pics from the Front
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Help Out Soldier's Angels -- Project Valour IT

QOTD: "There is plenty to criticize in almost every prominent conservative campaign in 2010, because, as a movement, we are incredibly weak in that area. Yes, some candidates were flawed. They all are. But good campaigns make up for that. As long as there is an Al Franken sitting in the Senate, after beating a Norm Coleman, no establishment Republican has any right to cluck their tongue at a weak conservative candidate. It is, in a word, bulls***, that only serves to undermine the conservative agenda.

...Yes, we lost with O'Donnell, Buck and others, when I wish we didn't. But without the movement that fostered them, conservatives would have made no real gains at all. We'd be looking at a Senator Crist from Florida, for heaven's sake. And none of these establishment types want to say anything about the dismal failures they launched, with Carly and Meg in California, for starters." -- Dan Riehl

ACORN in India to Protest Obama and Wal-Mart for Ruining $0.67/Hr. "Green Collar" Jobs Sorting Plastic in Landfills

November hasn't been a great month for our beloved President. ACORN, which POTUS probably assumed was dead and buried, has a division in India.

On his trip to India's commercial capital, Mumbai (Bombay), President Obama addressed entrepreneurs, university students, and Asia's richest man, who just built himself a 27-story house... But he stayed far away from Dharavi, one of Asia's largest slums, which was made famous worldwide by the hit 2008 movie "Slumdog Millionaire."

The ACORN Foundation India works to organize the slum's trash collectors and sorters known as "ragpickers." The group was set up separately by the founder of the ACORN community organization that Obama once worked with in America... ACORN India issues the ragpickers identification cards that help cut down harassment by police and neighborhood watch groups.

...some of the 150,000 to 200,000 ragpickers in Mumbai live on top of the garbage they sort on the fringes of Dharavi.

...A man named Syed Sheikh sits under a canopy sorting through a sack of plastic junk he bought for 50 cents. He pulls an item out, taps it against a rock, then tosses it into one of the many bags and piles around him... Plastic that's sorted by color and by grade sells for $3.50 to $23 per sack. Even with his fast pace, the work nets less than 67 cents an hour for him. Still, after three hours of work a day he will earn more than 75 percent of Indians do...

...[ACORN's] Shetty says roughly 40 percent of all Mumbai's waste gets recycled, meaning ragpickers are part of the "green-collar" workforce that politicians and industrialists tout as a "win-win" between environmental and business concerns. ACORN India is resisting efforts to commercialize the sector unless the ragpickers are the ones chosen for the formalized jobs.

...[Wade] Rathke, who left the US ACORN group in 2008, focuses now on a separate organization he founded named ACORN International. The group has members in nine countries, including India, and focuses on the billion or so people who live in mega-slums.

Activists tied to ACORN International will protest outside Obama's speech to Parliament Monday to pressure Indian lawmakers not to allow foreign companies like Wal-Mart into retail...

Got that? Those "green collar" jobs the Democrats are always touting?

Apparently they involve sitting on top of landfills and sorting plastic for 67 cents an hour.

Busted! 12 Photos of the Global Warming Bunko Scam, Which You'll Never, Ever See in Legacy Media

David Evans points us to truly shocking collection of photographs he's assembled (PDF) depicting the fraudulent nature of the warming fraud perpetrated by many in the Western science establishment.

These photos highlight the locations of official climate thermometers, which -- if they're not missing altogether -- are intentionally placed near air conditioners or getting blasts from jet engines. You won't believe your eyes.

They say the world is getting warmer, but the satellites say warming stopped in 2002.

Global temperature is measured in tenths of a degree per century. So any little nudge is important. 89% of official thermometers in the USA fail official siting requirements by being too close to an artificial heating source.
They are cheating.

If they measure the “global temperature” like this, how else are they cheating?

If a financial organization or drug company tried to pull this kind of deception they would get busted.

[Is this] 'Global warming' or 'Airport Warming'? Over 50% of official thermometers worldwide are at airports.

The tarmac is easily the warmest surface around, so that’s where they put the official thermometer. And don’t ignore the warming nudges from jet exhaust and steam de-icers. Official guidelines say a thermometer should be in a level open clearing, with ground cover typical of the region. So how about in the snow?

They measure “global” warming like this? Gee, couldn’t they put the thermometer a little closer to the air conditioners? They are cheating.

Why did we only find out that this was how they measured "global" warming because volunteers went out and photographed the official thermometers? The climate establishment is cheating, and the media are letting them get away with it. Where are the regulators and auditors?

Why do they put the official thermometer near the warm waste water, and not out in a nearby field or clearing? And they call it “global” warming? NOAA gets over $4 billion of government funds each year, so money is not the problem.

“Global” warming in action, 1874 to 2010. They measure temperatures at the globe’s warmest localities, not global temperatures.

Global warming started before 1700, before trains, factories, cars, airplanes, etc. Human emissions of CO2 were negligible before 1850. So we cannot have started the global warming. How come they didn’t mention that?

Human emissions of carbon dioxide don’t effect the rate of warming. How come they never compare human emissions (the alleged cause) and temperature (the alleged effect)? Because there is hardly any relationship?

I've been saying it for years. Global warming is another in a long series of bunko scams orchestrated by the United Nations in collaboration with corrupt businessmen and officials (remember "Oil for Food"?).

This is simply more proof that we were right.


Hat tip: Anthony Watts. Linked by: American Thinker. Thanks!

New England Journal of Medicine Inadvertently Hands House GOP the Game Plan for Starving ObamaCare

On Wednesday talk show host and constitutional attorney Mark Levin pointed his Facebook followers to a curious article published in the October 28th edition of The New England Journal of Medicine (PDF).

In short, Dr. Henry J. Aaron -- an apparent fan of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- inadvertently handed the House Republicans a fiscal blueprint for crushing the wildly unpopular health care takeover.

The outcome of the 2010 congressional elections may well determine whether this landmark legislation succeeds or fails.

Put another way: the outcome of the 2010 elections reflects the electorate's desire to have the landmark legislation fail.

The evidence of party polarization is overwhelming (see table). A majority of both parties ended up voting for the original Social Security Act, although Republicans had campaigned actively against it. Many members of both parties voted for the legislation that created Medicare and Medicaid, that revamped welfare, and that created Medicare drug coverage (Part D). Not so in 2010.

Gee, you think that had anything to do with being completely shut out of the process? Or, as MSNBC put it, "House and Senate Democrats intend to bypass traditional procedures when they negotiate a final compromise on health care legislation, officials said Monday, a move that will exclude Republican lawmakers... in both houses."

The ACA is nothing if not ambitious. It proposes to enroll tens of millions of people in private health insurance plans through yet-to-be-created health insurance exchanges. It will provide millions of Americans with subsidies tied to income and health insurance costs. It will greatly expand Medicaid. It will set and enforce standards for private insurance... It will create a new commission to oversee Medicare... [and this] is but a partial listing of the provisions of the 906-page bill. If permitted to run its course, the ACA promises to transform the U.S. health care system...

But successful implementation poses remarkable challenges and will require adequate funding, enormous ingenuity, and goodwill from federal and state officials, as well as cooperation from private insurers, businesses and private citizens.

That would be the same private citizens that kicked record numbers of Democrats out of office for passing this Soviet-style plan.

A more serious possibility [than repeal] is that ACA opponents could deliver on another pledge: to cut off funding for implementation. Here is how such a process could work...

The ACA contains 64 specific authorizations to spend up to $105.6 billion and 51 general authorizations to spend “such sums as are necessary” over the period between 2010 and 2019. None of these funds will flow, however, unless Congress enacts specific appropriation bills. In addition, section 1005 of the ACA appropriated $1 billion to support the cost of implementation in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).... [and the] ACA appropriated nothing for the Internal Revenue Service, which must collect the information needed to compute subsidies and pay them. The ACA also provides unlimited funding for grants to states to support the creation of health insurance exchanges (section 1311). But states will also incur substantially increased administrative costs to enroll millions of newly eligible Medicaid beneficiaries...

Without large additional appropriations, implementation will be crippled.

Sweeter words I don't think I've ever heard.

Since most major provisions of the ACA do not take effect until January 1, 2014, [these] delaying tactics might eventually enable repeal...

Perhaps the more likely — and in some ways more troubling — possibility is that the effort to repeal the bill will not succeed, but the tactic of crippling implementation will. The nation would then be left with zombie legislation, a program that lives on but works badly, consisting of poorly funded and understaffed state health exchanges that cannot bring needed improvements to the individual and small-group insurance markets, clumsily administered subsidies that lead to needless resentment and confusion, and mandates that are capriciously enforced.

Zombie legislation. Perfect. After all, this bill was the result of a historic Democrat overreach. And everyone knows that the Democrat Party routinely employs zombies (along with felons and illegal aliens) in its election wins.

Thanks, Dr. Aaron. We appreciate your instructions for starving this vampire entitlement of the taxpayers' blood it requires.

Larwyn's Linx: What do we do now?

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

What do we do now?: RATK
The Dialectic of Obama: AT (Lifson)
Allen West: Leftist Smears of Tea Party Racism Failed: WZ

The Midterms: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward: Palin
See? I'm not the only one who noticed the idiocy of the NRSC: ProWis
This ought to be good: ProWis

Glib Pasha Gets His Just Desserts: AT
Another Victory For Liberals: Democrats Held On To Jewish Vote: Ace
Pelosi and Clyburn want to be #1 and #2; Dems move further left?: PJM

Economy

Unemployment and the Missing 3.5 Million Workers: RWN
I’m getting a little tired of hearing about 'healthcare repeal': RWN
The 'Entitlement Sustainability & Constitutionality Act': BlogProf

McComrade Meal: Moonbattery
Senator-Elect Marco Rubio Delivers GOP Weekly Address: GWP
Island state--Dems won big, now must confront red ink: Press-Dem

Climate & Energy

The EPA's 'Climate Change' Tyranny: AT
Another letter from Hal Lewis to the American Physical Society: WUWT
Don't Tread on American Growth, Energy Security: AT

UN Links Weath And Happiness To Man-caused Global Warming: RWN
The Biofuels Scam: AT
$700,000 To Study Cow Burps Awarded To University Of New Hampshire: SHN

Media

Free Keith: Watching MSNBC go off the rails: Z on TV
Inside the Cold Heart and Mind of a Political Strategist: Malkin
Dana Milbank: 'Would We Be Better Off Under a President Hillary Clinton?': NewsBusters

So wrong, so long: Pundette
Ego autem praeses: TigerHawk
Reason TV bids A Fond farewell To Keefums: Nice Deb

Fire the Media: AT (Lewis)
“Nancy Pelosi Should Remain As Leader of the House Democratic Caucus”: ProWis
Another Detroit Free Press scoop! Bristol Palin didn't mail her absentee ballot in time: BlogProf

The Obamorator: Riehl
Wednesday's Children: Hindenblog
Treasury Secretary Turns to Professional Clown for Advice: Moonbattery

World

In wake of Oklahoma anti-Sharia vote, Muslims having a hard time getting their story straight: JihadWatch
Islamic Terrorists Attempted to Use Dogs Implanted With Explosives to Bring Down Planes: Jawa
Lindsey Graham (R-Neocon) Says U.S. Should Consider “Neutering” Iranian Regime With Large Scale Military Attack: WZ

We Won -- Now What?: AT (Geller)
TX Congressman: Pentagon still hasn't admitted Islamic terrorism behind Ft. Hood Jihad massacre: JihadWatch
Tales from 57 States: His Obamaness Flees the Joust: AT (Cary)

SciTech

Calculate How Much Damage An Asteroid Will Cause: Gizmodo
Home Robots Guard Houses: FuturePundit
Carrom Balance Board On Sale: Amazon

Cornucopia

Michelle Obama Dances In Mumbai, India: SHN
The Best Angry 'Downfall' Parody Evah — Hitler Finds Out the GOP Has Retaken the House: AmPower
Matt Damon Does Matthew McConaughey: Damon

Image: Via PK.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Help Joe Miller in Alaska --- It's a Cliffhanger!

High School Yearbook, 1942 -- When Everyone Was a Teabagger

Happened to spot a 1942 high school yearbook on an acquaintance's bookshelf and was fascinated by what I discovered therein. In short, patriotism -- Tea Party style patriotism -- was highlighted throughout, due in no small part to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the full-throated, national effort to save civilization.



Self-reliance, America's founding, and our country's exceptionalism were top of mind. Of course, this was before the teachers' unions and the federal government took hold, with an iron-fisted grip, of the educational system.

Today's Tea Party members are indistinguishable from the mainstream Americans of 1942.

And our challenges -- the destruction of the dollar, the acolytes of Alinsky in control of the Democrat Party, and the rise of Red China -- are no less daunting, only this time they come from without and from within.