Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Latest from Iran


If you're looking for the latest news, photos and videos from Iran, Ed Driscoll has an excellent summary of sources. One of the easiest methods: you can use Twitter search with the hashtag #iranelection to get fresh updates.

Photos are streaming in from around the country, these samples came from Flickr, LiveLeak, Time Magazine and YouTube.











While the plainclothes thugs known as the Basij brutalize and kill students in the streets, President Obama prefers not to choose sides. Now, the Basij is made up of Ansar Hezbollah members -- the very same Hezbollah that killed hundreds of U.S. Marines in Beirut -- so one would hope that picking a side would be easy.

Larwyn's Linx: On Iran, Obama Votes 'Present'

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email! You can also follow me on Twitter.

Nation

A Republican Platform for 2010 Emerges: Doc Zero
Democrats continue to protect crooks: King
"This is the moment": Hanson

Obama Proxy Tries To Squelch Another Whistleblower: Kesler
Democrat Congress puts agenda over the greater good: GRW
More on the ISG fiasco: POWIP

Dodd's Irish Luck: WSJ
Obama's Cereal Czar Warns Quaker Oats: Morrissey
Black Conservative Takes No Prisoners: Novus2

Our Inane and Insignificant Congress: Snooper

Economy

Joe Biden Explains It All: PJM (Blumer)
The next economic crash -- absolute disaster: Grand Rants

World

On Iran, Obama Votes 'Present': Steyn
What does Mousavi think?: Ledeen
Obama speech incites Burqa debate: Fausta

Roll Over Von Clausewitz, And Tell Clemenceau The News: Driscoll
Reid begins distancing himself from Obama: Matzav
Team Obama Iran Strategy in Tatters: MoneyRunner

Kim Jong-Il Dares Obama: PJM (Chang)
Land of Fear: Foreign Policy
Fierce clashes on the streets of Tehran: Atlas (Caution: graphic images)

Eco-Crackpots

Climate of hatred: Prominent scientist refused service due to skepticism: Green Hell

Media

Republicans still worried about Obama 'infomercial' despite ABC promise: Daily News
Obama draws guffaws at Correspondents Dinner: Daily News
'Senator' Boxer meets Dr. Evil: Snooper

Latest news: Real-time updates from Iran on Twitter (#iranelection)

Saturday, June 20, 2009

So you think you've seen everything?


Dave C. sent this one in.












JibJab's new video


JibJab's latest is quite entertaining.

Yes, he's come to save the day.


Why does Obama seek to crush free-market health care?


The Democrats' War on Poverty is nearly 50 years old, yet we're told there's too much poverty despite trillions in wealth transfers of every type.

The Democrats have run the education system for nearly 100 years -- with monopolies like the NEA and the AFT teacher's unions, yet we consistently hear that education is broken and that schools need more money.

Government was responsible for securing the southern border since the era of LBJ and it has intentionally failed in order to bolster the Democrat Party's voting base; this has led to the presence of as many as 20 million illegal aliens in the country thanks to Johnson's policies including "chain migration". It has helped result in bankrupted states like California as Democrat policies ensure a culture of dependency.

Democrats were responsible for implementing Medicare and Medicaid, which along with Social Security, are in ruins with approximately $55 trillion in debt. That's nearly a half million dollars for every household in America.

Democrats raped the Social Security Trust Fund -- there is no trust fund. They raped the Medicare Trust Fund -- there's nothing left. They raped the Highway Trust Fund -- it's empty. I could go down a long list of things the government said it would do, but hasn't done. Because the Statist Democrats are liars. They even moved these massive expenditures "off the books" to conceal the damage they've done.

And now the Statist Democrats are launching the most massive attack on the American people in the history of government.

They promise health care for everyone, but they will not -- and they can't possibly -- deliver it.

While our health care system is certainly imperfect -- because all humans are imperfect, including doctors, nurses, hospitals and insurance companies -- they are more perfect, more competent, more informed, more capable than all of the bureaucrats to whom they'll be forced to report: a bureaucracy that will make all decisions about your health care.

And it is easy to confirm the havoc that socialized medicine will wreak on American society. All you need to do is to look at how Democrats are trying to ram home socialized medicine: they're doing it as fast as possible with as little debate as possible. For the indigent and the poor, we already have programs like Medicaid and SCHIP and dozens of state programs. Yet we're told tens of millions of us must give up our private insurance and pay for a government-run program.

Democrats claim it will be more cost-effective and efficient. That's bulls***. The man who's had the least experience at running anything is going to unleash the most massive federal leviathan in history, nationalizing nearly 20% of the economy.

This has been the dream of the Statist Democrats since FDR: to force each and every one of you, whether you like it or not, into a strait-jacket form of health care. It controls you; the actual being, the person.

Nameless, faceless bureaucrats substituting their decisions for those of your doctor.

Deciding whether you will have an operation or not. Whether you will have an MRI or not. Whether you will receive a life-saving, life-extending drug or not.

And we know this, because this is what occurs in Canada and Britain and other centralized bureaucracies, where you simply can not have access to advanced health care, period.

Where will their new drugs come from, since we produce half of them? Who will invent the new medical technologies for them, since we invent roughly three-fourths of them?

Who will run the hospitals and what will they look like when the government unions run them?

Who will be responsive in a massive federal bureaucracy, where no one takes responsibility for anything, and yet they're all-powerful decision-makers for your family's well-being?

And for what? Why would anyone advocate dismantling our health care system for something that won't work and will further bankrupt our nation?

Because it's yet another payoff to the Union bosses and ACORN (but I repeat myself), who owe billions in health care benefits they don't want to pay.

Where will Barack Obama be in ten years, when the rest of us are struggling with a massive, out-of-control, federalized medical system that doesn't give a damn about individuals and is busy rationing?

He will be retired as a very young man; a very wealthy young man, who will have imposed his Marxist ideology upon this society and then walked away from it.

The politicians don't last. But their policies live forever.

And in every successive election cycle, the Statist Democrats will use the health care system to bludgeon their opponents. They will use health care as a weapon, rewarding you by offering more benefits for your votes and punishing you with less benefits if you dare to vote against them.

So much power for a faceless set of bureaucrats who can't possibly have the best interests of your family in mind. And yet they're going to take those decisions away from you and your doctor. And they've been lying every day to justify what they're doing.

They've been lying about the number of people without health care. They've been lying about whether the public is satisfied with health care. They've been lying about every aspect of health care.

They unleashed the slip-and-fall lawyers on the medical system, causing untold higher costs for medical practitioners. They've attacked the health care system relentlessly, driving up costs just like they've attacked the energy industry and the automakers.

And even when they have complete monopolistic control of a system, like the educational system in America, they want more control. It's never enough. They want more money, more regulations. More. They need to "invest". They need to raise taxes. They need to repress. They need to compel.

Because the Statist cannot make the imperfect perfect, even though he says he can. The Statist is more imperfect than anyone else.

I ask you to consider something: what kind of persons can Obama and the Democrat leadership be, to think they can do these things when history tells them they can not?

What kind of a mind refuses to look at the evidence? What kind of person would refuse to look at Britain and Canada? Or engage in arm-twisting secretly, behind the scenes? And use brownshirts like ACORN and the SEIU to intimidate organizations and legislators alike?

They're going to rush socialized medicine through the system, without any debate or transparency... and it's going to be a complete disaster on multiple levels.

Call the so-called conservative Blue Dog Democrats now. Make your voice heard. Help us stop this rush to disaster.


Based upon: Mark Levin 4/24/09.

Awkward Family Photos


Chrissie points us to Awkward Family Photos starting with these gems.












Larwyn's Linx: The Domino Theory in the IG Scandal

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email! You can also follow me on Twitter.

Nation

The ‘Domino Theory’ in the IG Scandal: PJM (McCain)
Third Inspector General Controversy Emerges: Tapper
ACORN whistleblower sued by... ACORN: S&L

Is David Plouffe Breaking The Law Promoting Health Care?: Riehl
Probing Conyers tie to $40K in pawn shop jewelry: S&L
Sotomayor resigns from all-women club: Times

Reminder: Saturday Appointment at Trader Joe's: Matzav
Obamaworld Apostasy and Malignant Narcissism: Sanity
What Obama said about the murder of Pvt. Long: MoneyRunner

Full Court Press on Health Care: AIP (Priestap)

Economy

Stimulus: unemployment his highest rate in 25 years: Times
Obama: we need more risky, low-income loans: Examiner
Overseas earning taxes will drive jobs overseas: Marathon

World

Andrew Sullivan, Khamanei Agree: Jewish Media Spreads Lies: Ace
Obama approval rating in Israel: from 31% to 6% in a month: Matzav
Obama still waiting for Mullahs to send signal: GWP

UK Muslim leader: 'We come here to civilise people... into the beauty of Islam.': Atlas
Support China's dissidents by using Bing: TAB

Media

Letterman loses another sponsor: JoshuaPundit
E.J. Dionne: Infomercials dressed as analysis: Driscoll
Announcing the Save Frank Rich Society: PJM (Kimball)

Neocon Derangement Syndrome... on Steroids: LegalIns

Cornucopia

Widow of murdered fly seeks White House apology: IowaHawk

Friday, June 19, 2009

$130 billion in a false-bottom briefcase


I'm not a screenwriter, but Market Ticker describes a tale worthy of a James Bond movie. Put simply, Italian authorities recently detained two Japanese nationals who were caught transporting bearer bonds in a false-bottom suitcase.

Did I mention the face value of the bearer bonds? Roughly $134 billion. Seriously.

Note that this has received very little coverage in the so-called "mainstream US media" - but it is everywhere in Europe and Asia... Japan, for its part, oddly said the following as soon as this story started to hit the press:

“We have complete trust in the fact that the U.S. views its strong-dollar policy as fundamental,” Yosano, 70, said in an interview in Tokyo on June 10 before attending a Group of Eight meeting of finance ministers starting today in Italy. “So our trust in U.S. Treasuries is absolutely unshakable.”

Uh huh. And the Japanese said in December of 1941 that all was well too. Anyone remember what happened on the morning of the 7th?

Let's apply a little "Occam's Razor" to this entire story.

You're not going to walk into a bank with $130 billion in bearer bonds and cash them. Nor are you going to sell a bond with a $500 million face value to someone without them authenticating it. They will be authenticated before you get one dime out of them - no matter who you think you're going to "give" them to.

So if they're fakes and you're "just screwing around", there is no reason to hide them. Nor is there any particular reason to have authentic and recent original bank documents in your luggage with them, as has been reported.

Next, unless someone knew you were smuggling them, why would you be subject to that sort of search? What made the people involved "interesting" to the authorities? This doesn't sound like a random stop to me; how many people are carrying $130 billion in bearer bonds at any given point in time? No, someone was tipped off that this was happening. Now why would you bother to stop them here, prior to their attempted delivery of such instruments, if they were fake?

...So let's assume that the certificates are real, as German media seems to believe and which, by the way, makes logical sense given what they were and the sheer impossibility of cashing a fake $500 million bond.

Ok, who has $130 billion in bearer bonds? Remember, bearer instruments haven't been issued by the Treasury since 1982, when they became illegal to issue, at least to US institutions and residents (there was an exception carved out for Treasury instruments issued to non-US residents in 1985 - a time of high deficits) The answer to that question: it is rather unlikely that there remains $130 billion of legitimate US Bearer issuance outstanding anywhere - to anyone.

...On the one hand we have the impossibility of the bonds being real, because there simply isn't $130 billion of issues remaining outstanding. On the other hand we have the impossibility of negotiating a fake $500 million bearer instrument, making the exercise of counterfeiting one expensive and futile.

...Are we willing to assume that all the "issue" of Treasury bonds has been done "above board" as required by law. If Treasury has been surreptitiously issuing bonds to, say, Japan, as a means of financing deficits that someone didn't want reported over the last, oh, say 10 or 20 years, then the [s*** is about to hit the fan].

Who could have possibly been complicit in such a scheme? I can come up with only two nations (and only nations could be involved due to size): The Japanese and Chinese. Since the two individuals who were arrested were reported to be Japanese nationals... There are tremendous implications in an event like this, again, assuming the bonds are real.

The owner is going to want them back, of course. But Italy is going to keep a third as their statutory penalty for non-declaration on the border. Oops. That's great for Italy, but it blows bananas for the actual owner.

Of course Italy (or the US!) could declare them "fake" and as a consequence simply burn them. If they are in fact real, that's an even bigger problem. See, Bearer Bonds are issued without registration - they are as anonymous as a $100 bill in terms of who owns them. That's one of their "features", and why they were often used for various clandestine money operations. So if they are real and are destroyed, the owner is out of luck - their money is gone just as it is if you burn a $100 bill in an ashtray.

How much is $130 billion in this context? About 1/5th or so of what Japan legitimately owns of US Treasury debt. How would you like to take an instantaneous (and permanent!) 20% haircut on your securities? That's what I thought.

To add some balance here, there have been stories about fake bearer bonds coming out of North Korea and other places for years. But the idiocy of attempting to pass a $500 million certificate belies this possibility - who in the name of God would take such a thing and give you anything for it without authenticating it first? While bearer instrument are "anonymous" in terms of who owns them, their authenticity is easily verified as they ARE serialized instruments.

I remain puzzled, and am not advancing the above theory as fact.

It is, however, one of the few explanations that actually fits the facts, and for that reason, I think we need some answers. If in fact previous administrations were issuing "off-book" Treasury debt in this fashion to sovereigns then implications are truly explosive as such issues are blatant and outrageous unlawful acts and would expose everyone involved to severe criminal penalties.

Let's hope we get those answers, and this isn't one of those "funny things" that just disappears into the night.

Based upon the publicity thus far, it already has disappeared.

But it's only $134 billion we're talking about. In a briefcase. When the dollar is already under significant stress.

Update: Reuters reports that the U.S. government believes the bonds are bogus. I don't know about you, but I'm relieved. In a non-relieved way, that is.