Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: "Quit calling me a socialist!"

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

American Leningrad: Anchoress
A fatal trajectory: Sowell
Cap-and-trade was never about climate: Heritage

MSM calls Obama a liar; blames him for economy: Patriot Room
'Going Galt' Phenomenon Spreads: Malkin
Ag group comes out strong against EFCA: Riehl

Climate Alarm: what we are up against and what to do: Heartland
Ten months to doom: Margo's Maid
Cold reality of climate change: Ottawa Sun

Cap, Trade & Tax -- The Poor Can't Eat Carbon: AT (Moran)
Ultimate Diplomacy: "There’s nothing special about Britain": Ace
Rooting for failure: Maguire

Five Ways Obama’s Economic Stimulus Is Already Working: NRO
Time for a nap: So it goes in Shreveport
Doctors caused the housing bubble: Moneyrunner

Waa-Bama: "Quit calling me a socialist!": Surber
Now where did we put that $50 trillion: AT (Anderson)
The cost of illegal alien health care: AT (Sevakis)

See-Through, Light-Transmitting … Concrete?!: Dornob
Auto-Assault 12: The World's Deadliest Shotgun: YouTube
Rangel: “Why Don’t You Mind Your G****mned Business?” : Gateway

Jason Mattera goes to Capitol Hill. You’ve seen Jason corner smear merchants Jack Murtha and John Kerry, ask William “Cold Cash” Jefferson for bribe-freezing tips. You've seen him take on Alan Colmes and roam the Democrat National Convention in an orange Gitmo suit exposing Far Left insanity.

This time Jason cornered Rep. Charlie "tax cheat" Rangel. Rangel's response to the citizen journalist: “Why don’t you mind your G****mned business?”

Stem-cell hero


Bob McCarty spotted this caption of a White House photo that depicts Barack Obama signing a directive which allows federal funding of stem-cell research.


The closeup:

As McCarty observes:

Though I find it less troubling than the president’s continuing assault on the unborn, the file name (hero_stemcell_main2.jpg) under which someone at the White House saved the photo of the signing ceremony this afternoon is disturbingly creepy.

Not as creepy as the song Bruce Springsteen will sing at one of the White House's Wednesday night bashes. The song will be called He's a stem-cell hero, sung to the tune of He's a rhinestone cowboy.



Monday, March 09, 2009

Behind the teleprompter, episode 408






The market hates uncertainty and the President is sowing it


The stock market despises uncertainty. The market is an enormous prediction engine and when government policy is inarticulate, nebulous or downright counterproductive, stock prices generally reflect the discomfort of investors.

Such a time is now.


Consider:

• Obama's Secretary of the Treasury -- once touted as a genius and the only man who could solve the crisis -- appears clueless and inept.

• Obama promises to raise taxes on Americans earning over $250K, half of which are small business owners. Small businesses, the engines of economic growth, are thereby pushed further into turmoil.

• Obama promises to implement a substantial, stealth tax increase on all Americans using a "Carbon Dioxide Cap-and-Trade program" (never mind that Carbon Dioxide represents only a tiny percentage of greenhouse gases and is necessary for plants and humans to survive. And never mind that the Earth has been cooling for the last ten years).

• Obama's stimulus package is an ill-conceived grab bag of "shovel-ready" pork projects that roll back welfare reform, reward trade unions, pay off trial lawyers and provide a first step towards socialized medicine. In other words, it does everything but stimulate. It doesn't put money in people's pockets through tax cuts and it fails to deliver any coherent relief to the credit markets.

• Obama has tripled the national debt in only six weeks time.

• Obama has repeatedly failed to live up to his campaign promises of government transparency, open debate on proposed legislation, killing earmarks and banning lobbyists from his administration.

• Obama has proposed to destroy as much as 25% of charitable giving by removing tax breaks for the despised wealthy (again, those earning over $250K).

As for the results?

• U.S. stocks have lost $1.6 trillion in market-cap since Barack Obama's inauguration, Bloomberg reports.

• The current decline appears to be worse than the 1929-1932 decline.

• Equity markets are in disarray, hemorrhaging value on a daily basis as the rudder of economic policy lies unattended.

And -- rather than calm the markets -- Obama's diminutive Al Capone and his various accomplices in the mainstream media have conspired to wage a public relations campaign against Rush Limbaugh.

Because, apparently, there's nothing better to do.

The phrase "out of his depth" comes to mind.


Update: More Bad News For Obama... Cavuto Points Out That Wall Street Was Right About Reagan & Carter Too. Put simply, the market has judged Obama's socialist policies and they have been found lacking.


Georgia Lotto winner!


Papa B sent this one in.

Can you believe it?


Man wins Georgia lottery on Wednesday, finds love of his life two days later.


Talk about luck!!!




Is America A Great Country Or What?

Fordson Snow-Motor


A vintage video captures a forgotten snow mobile called the Fordson Snow-Motor.

It used a clever spiral drive system to efficiently navigate through almost any type and depth of snow.




This machine may come in handy again, what with the current spate of global warming.


Hat tip: LGF Quick Links.


Why watching CNBC could destroy your life


It's August 2007. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sits at the 13,000 mark.

What did CNBC's talking heads recommend?

Ned Riley - says he's retired, living off of his portfolio and is 75% to 80% invested in stocks. Claims the U.S. market and even banks stocks are "attractively priced" and will generate 9 to 11% annually for the next ten or fifteen years. Grade: F-. Had you followed Riley's lead, you would have been completely wiped out.

Vern Haden - hard to pin down because he spews the usual platitudes, but basically posits that investors should stay the course. Grade D.

Peter Schiff - called the credit market meltdown perfectly, but whiffed on commodities, interest rates and the dollar. His call on gold was spot on ("spot on" -- get it?). Grade C+.

Lesson learned: the advice from CNBC's talking heads appears to be considerably worse than using darts to select stocks.


Hat tip: Market Oracle.


Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: "Why Obama must fail"

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

The Great Destabilization: Steyn
Is Obama Lazy?: AT (Moran)
From Bear in the Woods: Hewitt

The Britons are not amused: Surber
Wicked, childish or dim?: Crittenden
Enemies of the White House: Weekly Standard

What 9,286 earmarks look like: S&L
Keith Olbermann: A Moral Force: Riehl
Silence of the hypocrites: GSP

What if Bush had done it? #903: Maguire
Bailing from a sinking ship: Flopping Aces
A sea of solidarity is forming?: RBO

Emergency Comedy Stimulus Package

The Telecrapper: Parkway Rest Stop
Get Fuzzy: Denny
Things President Obama does instead of watching the stock market: Big Hollywood

Where's global warming?: Jacoby
15,000 at Fullerton, CA Tea Party Protest: Gateway
The Gift Gaffe Goes Unreported by the MSM: NewsBusters

Chas Freeman and 9/11: Sandbox
Climate Change Lobby Has Regrets: WSJ (Strassel)
Reaganomics vs. Keynesianism: Not an either-or choice: Optimist

It Seems To Me: Vanderleun
Maher bashes Cramer for calling Obama 'Lenin': NewsBusters
Great Depression: Crittenden

Even scarier in the transcript: Maguire
Here's a chance for redemption: Brutally Honest
Testing the Ruger SR9: LiveLeak

Why Obama must fail: Mac
Home Alone: Surber
What the lobbyists are saying: Flopping Aces

Why Obama’s left leaning is no tactical feint: Financial Times

Not everybody would regard two-earner households with an income of $250,000 a year as rich; and many of the taxpayers in question have seen their retirement savings, college funds and housing equity destroyed. The scandal of widening inequality that still animates the Democrats’ thinking is a story about the top fraction of one per cent of the income distribution, not the top end of the middle class. Also, it is out of date: as though the housing and stock market meltdowns had never happened, the budget raises taxes on the “rich” to where they were before the Bush administration – and then some.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

The MJK Universal Health Care Plan


He was a brash and affable young man. The good looking scion of a rich and powerful family. It was a mid-summer party, held in a startlingly beautiful mansion by the sea. And it was one of the hot tickets of the social season.

She was a former teacher, blonde and engaging. Not yet 30, she had held a series of administrative, clerical and communication jobs for his family.

They were attracted to one another immediately. Perhaps it was the setting, the sound of buoys gently clanking and the far-off lights of mysterious vessels bobbing far a-sea.

They had met before, but this time each had the other's undivided attention. They were drinking gin and tonics, the ocean breeze lifting their hair as they sat on the veranda, apart from the rest of the party, while laughing at each other's silly stories.

It was a beautiful evening and their conversation lifted her spirits. Soon they were both anxious to go. She climbed into his GM-made vehicle, a late-model sedan with a massive, growling engine.

He had poured two "go glasses" to accompany them on their short trip, each filled to the brim with more gin than tonic.

Soon they were wending their way to the other side of the island, a difficult journey because of narrow roads and poor lighting, now made more difficult by a failed headlight.

A small bridge, just wide enough for one car, lay ahead. She realized, with a horror that rose instantly like a buoy within her heart, that they were headed off the side of the bridge. She screamed as the tires squealed, but it was too late to stop.

Rushing through Universal Health Care


President Barack Obama suggests that the cure for our economic crisis is a universal health care program, which would provide free care to all individuals using models similar to those developed in the UK and Canada.

In January, a staffer for Rep. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) suggested that any universal health care bill could be named for Senator Ted Kennedy, who is suffering from a very serious form of brain cancer.

And while our thoughts and prayers go out to Sen. Kennedy in this difficult time for he and his family, it is worth contemplating some of the news from around the globe related to socialized medicine.

Kennedy did not visit the UK or Canada for treatment


Consider that Senator Kennedy utilized the private health care system here in the United State to receive the finest cancer care in the world. He did not visit the UK or Canada.

"British cancer patients are substantially more likely to die of the disease than those in other western European countries because of poor access to the latest drugs, according to an authoritative report to be published today." (Cancer survival rates worst in western Europe: Telegraph (UK) 2007)

Assuming he were a normal citizen, Kennedy's odds at successful treatment of his cancer would be much lower in the UK than in the US. And in Canada, rationing of health care has become the norm.

"Aside from the problems inherent in all monopolies, the fact that health services are free leads to familiar economic consequences. Basic economics tells us that if a commodity is offered at zero price, demand will increase, supply will drop, and a shortage will develop...

...As demand rises and expensive technology is introduced, health costs soar. But with taxes already at a breaking point, government has little recourse but to try to hold down costs. In Quebec, hospitals have been facing budget cuts both in operating expenses and in capital expenditures. Hospital equipment is often outdated, and the number of general hospital beds dropped by 21 per cent from 1972 to 1980.

[And s]ince labor is the main component of health costs, incomes of health workers and professionals have been brought under tight government controls..." (Socialized Medicine: The Canadian Experience: The Advocates (Canada))

The results are in: our current experiments with socialized medicine have failed


President Obama has neglected to advise us of the results of our most recent set of experiments with socialized medicine.

• There are a countless number of horror stories related to care provided by the Veterans Administration.

• There is a projected $36 trillion shortfall in funding for Medicare and Medicaid.

• California's Medi-Cal program is an unmitigated disaster, burning a $14 billion hole in a state with a nearly $50 billion overall budget shortfall.

How can anyone, in good conscience, possibly suggest this country is ready for socialized medicine? It has failed cancer patients and children in the UK. It has condemned patients to long and sometimes fatal waits for routine tests in Canada (e.g., "Excessive wait times for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies are a major problem in the Canadian healthcare system." Healthcare Policy, Canada, 2009).

And our own experiments have proven to be utter and complete catastrophes.

We should insist the bill is named for Mary Jo Kopechne


Rather than name the bill for Kennedy, I submit that it be named for Mary Jo Kopechne. Kopechne's life -- which many have forgotten -- was cut short well before her prime by a politician who paid no substantial price for the incident that ended her life.

And given the incredible damage politicans have already levied upon citizens through socialized medicine, it would, I think, be a fitting title.

We must fight socialized medicine. It lies on the path to tyranny.

* * *

"Medicine is the keystone in the arch of socialism." -- V. I. Lenin



Best of the Meltdown Comments


Three comments from Friday's Meltdown post, which described the catastrophic effects of Democratic interference in the banking system, are worth recapping here. First, the brilliance of "Shelly T":

Nope. It definitely was George Bushj's fault. It was 90% the Bush administration's fault -- as he removed regulations and pushed and pushed and pushed banks to loan to people who could not afford it. Look on Bush's whitehouse.gov for speeches from 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and up until last year he was PUSHING banks to loan to people who didn't have good credit. Thank you Mr. Bush. Before him it was Reagonimics. If you want to assign blame BE HONEST. It was so very clearly the Republicans who got us into this mess.

That's the kind of revisionism that's borderline dangerous.


T. Shaw responded to the insanity:

Outstanding.

Shelly T.: Put down that KoolAid!

Today's WSJ has an op-ed by Basil Paterson's kid which makes the only constructive statement re: the economy since the RTC resolved the S&L Crisis in 1990. "THE ECONOMY WON'T RECOVER UNTIL WE ADDRESS THE ROOT PROBLEM." He doesn't know the woot (as Barney F would say) cause and the three indispensable geniuses (Bair, Bernanke, and Geithner) haven't a clue.

Talk about nationalizing (POLITICIZING) banks! What the freaking hell were FNMA/FHLMC/HUD? What about the $2 trillion mortgage backed securities they now own and the $2 trillion in debt they owe on it; and, say, $9 trillion they processed and securitized with indirect implicit US guaranty?

I've been an US bank examiner for 32 years. When the CRA was signed (Obama will replace Carter as THE WORST US PREZ in history) I was a pup. The experienced examiners' reaction was: You can't make banks make bad loans. It snowballed under Clinton.

Every (about 50) merger application I worked on brought in a Community protest from, in NY, Matthew Lee and assorted community agitators. Every one had to be investigated and usually the bank was already making million dollar annual extortion payments to community agitator,er, development groups.

Clinton appointed Ricki Helfer as FDIC Chmn. One of her first acts was to railroad the people investigating White Water/Castle Grande. Another was to start treating insured banks under examination as our clients/stakeholders, and began reducing examiner numbers. Bush's people naturally did it, too. You expected that from small government Republicans.

Think about the $ amounts of subprime loans. How much? Barrons said $825 billion. The gov has already thrown more than that at the problem and the problem is worse. How?

If they'd listened to guys like me, none of this would have happened. But, the politicians had their agenda and the taxpayers and productive, self-supporting people will pay dearly!

Lastly, our pal at Rants & Refinements braved sanity and a new pair of wading boots to visit the fever swamp.

After a chuckle reading Shelly T. early in this thread, I got to wondering about the inner workings of the mind which created such genius thought as to blame both George W. Bush and Reaganomics for the current economic climate, I crossed my fingers and clicked the link to her site:

“Futurism Now: Climate and Energy News From civilianism.com”

Well, it put the mindless rambling of her comment into perspective.

Further down the thread, Dan demands the truth rather than a one-sided argument. Perhaps he is willing to elaborate on which piece of fact in this extensive list is not truthful? Since Dan did not provide a link, I was unable to drink of his Kool-Aid elsewhere in the world to see if his arguments against President Bush were two-sided as he demands of others. My money is on a big fat no.

Similarly to the above, much further down we are treated to another Rhodes Scholar demanding the Fairness Doctrine on this site. A note to this author: if you are going to call people knuckleheads, learn how to spell knucklehead.

More chuckles arise from the notion provided by djcnor that mortgages which failed during Bush’s tenure must be assigned blame to him. Again with fingers crossed, I ventured over to that link to see what sort of person could be simultaneously so naïve and blatantly ignorant. To no surprise, I found an out-of-work teacher. Please, for the sake of our young minds, find work in another field. Additionally, an extensive search of the site for the assignment of blame to President Clinton for the eight major terrorist attacks on our nation during his tenure proved fruitless.

Finally, I had one of those, “aww, isn’t that cute” moments reading this comment which suggests that the problem was created by both Republicans and democrats. In other words: a liberal is forced to concede that their party screwed the pooch, so rather than acknowledge the facts, just blame everyone. Nice try, dolt.

See, reading the comments can be fun!



Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: "Unsupervised!?!"

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Obama is in trouble: Tapscott
Disaster waiting to happen: PJM (Fernandez)
Obama selling sickness as a cure: Riehl

Unsupervised!?!: Reboot Congress
Will Atlas Shrug? A compilation: Liberty Papers
No one knows what the rules are any more: Scratching Post

Riot at a Davis Cup match in Sweden: Gateway
Is Obama clueless or are his actions intentional?: Anchor Rising
He's my President, but I don't have to like it: Prelutsky

Obama surge: Surber
America's new shrink: Fausta
Liberal idiots on parade: AJ Strata

It's good to be friends with your Gunsmith: Pitchpull
Obama Reassures Nation: I Didn't Deliberately Snub Brits, I'm Just "Overwhelmed": Ace
River Gauche: Steyn

Saturday, March 07, 2009

The President's Radicalism is killing the Dow


Al sent in the illustrations.


Any questions?

Linked by: Tim Blair and Not PC. Thanks!


Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: "Radicalism is killing the Dow"

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

The unfortunate relevance of Atlas Shrugged: Instapundit
Contradiction of Socialism (I have seen America's future): Cube
Newspaper stock wrapup: Hoystory

One vote short: Power Line
Obama's safety net: the teleprompter: Politico
Chavez calls on Obama to follow him to socialism: Gateway

Our economy: worse than Great Depression?: Gateway
The Beatles seem especially timely: Blackshards
File under "What if Bush had...?": Corner

As banks reel, Obama pushes -- health care?: Krauthammer
The Urkel-ization of the economy: Malkin
Administration consults with high-level adviser Brad Pitt: NZ Herald

Obama's radicalism is killing the Dow: WSJ
Barney Frank's Preemptive Prosecution: AT (Lifson)
Killing American capitalism: American Power

Major Victory Over Attempted Census Power Grab: AJ Strata
Are you feeling stimulated yet?: Sykes
What did you think was gonna happen, Whoopie?: Patriot Burr

Obama's Miers: Surber
Tomorrow's BBC headlines today: Anti-Strib
America's Lame Definition of "Poor": Mac

Brits offended by Michelle's treatment of Gordon Brown's children: PatRoom
Fleischer silences MSNBC's partisan hacks with one simple question: NewsBusters
Photo o' the day: Surber

Who is Barney Frank?: AT (Kohlmayer)
Ohio: 47% of Disqualified Provisional Ballots Due to Voter Not Being an Ohio Resident: Ace
The Cost of DC's School Vouchers: Cato:

According to the official study of the DC voucher program, the average voucher amount is less than $6,000. That is less than ONE QUARTER what DC is spending per pupil on education. And yet, academic achievement in the voucher program is at least as good as in the District schools, and voucher parents are much happier with the program than are public school parents.

In fact, since the average income of participating voucher families is about $23,000, DC is currently spending about as much per pupil on education as the vouchers plus the family income of the voucher recipients COMBINED.

Friday, March 06, 2009

Transcript of a dinner conversation with the In-Laws


Dad-in-law: You know, every morning she (points to Mom-in-law) does the Sa-da-ku on USA and never lets me do it.

Mom-in-law: Fine, all you need to do is to download it from USA dot com and print it out.

Dad-in-law: I don't want to!

Mom-in-law: Okay, I'll print it out for you then.

Dad-in-law: Don't bother.

Mom-in-law: Why don't you do the one in the local paper then?

Dad-in-law: No, that one's too hard!

Mom-in-law: Then why don't you do the Crypto-Kwik?

Dad-in-law: Oh my God, that's too hard!

Me: Why are you putting Sweet-N-Lo in your water?

Mom-in-law: He makes his own Lemonade.

Me: Why, how much is a lemonade?

Dad-in-law: They charge two dollars!

Dad-in-law: Waiter, could you get me a glass of water with five or six lemon slices?

(Sound of my forehead hitting table)

Meltdown


This is the private switching system, utilized by the Federal Reserve, that performs electronic financial transfers.

This is the vault that holds sixty billion of the taxpayers' dollars, which moved to an account owned by American International Group (AIG).

This is troubled insurance giant AIG, a company whose financial instruments undergird much of the world's financial system.

This is an eight-year stock chart of AIG, laid low by the collapse of housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and which requires tens of billions in taxpayer bailouts.

This is housing giant Fannie Mae, described by pundits as a "job shop for out-of-work Democrats."

This is Fannie Mae's stock price, the collapse of which devastated the capital-to-asset ratios of banks and insurance companies like AIG (which held five billion dollars in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac equities).

These are Democratic operatives Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick and Jim Johnson, the executive management team of Fannie Mae, all of whom were awarded positions after loyal service in the Clinton administration.

These are the pay packages the Democrats awarded themselves, through undeserved bonuses, immense salaries and incentive payments, all based upon pushing huge numbers of subprime loans through Fannie Mae.

These are the total campaign contributions ("investments") Fannie Mae executives made to Democratic Senators Chris Dodd, Barack Obama and John Kerry in order to "fix" federal regulation.

This is a list of the attempts made by the Bush administration starting in 2001 to rein in the out-of-control spending frenzy by Fannie and Freddie.

This is one such hearing in 2004 (YouTube video available), wherein Republicans demanded additional oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because of the GSEs' rampant accounting scandals, inadequate capital reserves, inappropriate bonuses and hundreds of billions in low-income, no documentation mortgages.

This is Maxine Waters (D-CA), complaining that there is no crisis at Fannie and Freddie; and that attempts to audit the GSEs simply disenfranchise the poor by preventing them from getting subprime mortgages.

This is Barney Frank (D-MA), claiming that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are fine and that oversight is not needed.

These are other Democratic members of Congress.

Each of whom resisted call after call after call to regulate the GSEs, falsely blaming racism, hatred of the poor and redlining -- all on a straight party line.

This is Chris Dodd (D-CT), the powerful member of the Senate Banking Committee, who threatened filibuster after filibuster over additional regulation of the mortgage market (while accepting funds and sweetheart mortgages from the very organizations he was supposed to be regulating).

These are the organizations that profited from subprime mortgages, sold to unqualified individuals -- even those without documentation of citizenship, income or assets -- knowing they could sell the loans to the GSEs. For example, Fannie even accepted a $700,000 mortgage application from a migrant with an annual income of $14,000.

This is President Clinton signing the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which forced banks to write low-income, zero documentation loans. These loans would then be purchased by Fannie and Freddie and securitized for sale to other financial institutions.

These are the community agitators -- primarily organized through ACORN -- who falsely accused banks of "redlining" (failing to offer mortgages to the urban poor). These groups would pack bank lobbies and harrass customers and employees in order to intimidate the institutions and force the government to strengthen the CRA.

This is the community agitator and ACORN attorney named Barack Obama, who sued Citibank in 1994; one of hundreds of nuisance lawsuits filed by ACORN and its affiliates to loosen mortgage underwriting standards.

These are the Democrats who profited at every step of the mortgage meltdown while blaming George W. Bush for the crisis, and whose continued oversight of the financial system is a disgrace and a mortal danger.


Update: Barney Frank's preemptive prosecution.

Update II: Unsupervised!?!


Hat tip: Cliff. Linked by: Instapundit, Gateway Pundit, Jules Crittenden, AJ Strata, Say Anything, Small Dead Animals, No Left Turns, Denny, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Gina Cobb and Drunken Elephant. Thanks!