Friday, December 04, 2009

Advance Look at the New Wikio Blog Rankings for Politics


Clara from Wikio was kind enough to send the new Politics rankings along. We're in pretty august company, I must say.

1The Huffington Post
2Think Progress
3Hot Air
4The Corner
5Political Ticker - CNN
6Michelle Malkin
7Political Punch
8Gateway Pundit
9NewsBusters
10Firedoglake
11Instapundit.com
12Daily Kos
13Crooks and Liars
14Michael Goldfarb - The Blog - The Weekly Standard
15Power Line
16Fivethirtyeight
17Horserace
18The Plum Line
19The Caucus - New York Times blog
20Reason Magazine - Hit & Run
21White House.gov Blog Feed
22The Daily Dish
23The Volokh Conspiracy
24The Note
25Talking Points Memo
26Glenn Greenwald
27Marginal Revolution
28Atlas Shrugs
29AMERICAblog
30Balloon Juice
31George's Bottom Line
32Swampland
33Open Left
34Hullabaloo
35Redstate - Conservative News and Community
36The Plank
37Riehl World View
38Political Wire
39Doug Ross @ Journal
40Patterico's Pontifications

Ranking by Wikio



Larwyn's Linx: Just Die, Seniors - Half a Trillion Gone From Medicare

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

Nation

Cat's out of the bag. No, you can't keep your insurance!: Ace
The Lines Have Crossed: Aces
Cutting and Transitioning: AT (Tzu, Jr.)

Dems slash half a trillion from Medicare: GWP
Someone at Ft. Hood should walk the plank: Corner
Arne Duncan and Carol Spizzirri ties?: Schools Matter

Oh, the backroom deals we'll work!: Aces
Reprise of the 'Flying Imams' Terror Dry-Run?: Ace
On our own?: Baldilocks

Economy

The Scandal That Says It All: Hanson
Black unemployment reaches Great Depression levels: BVN
Dem’s New Jobs Plan will Only Cost America $300 Billion: GWP

How I got my job: HowIGotMyJob.com
The Walpin Pretext: Power Line
In panic over jobs, Dems detour from health care: York

Obama Job Summit: Another Manufacturer Opts Out of U.S.A.: STACLU
Pelosi: new taxes on investments should help spur investments: Reuters

Media

Three Big Stories, Three Media Disappearing Acts: PJM (Blumer)
Al Gore cancels $1,200-per-handshake event in Copenhagen: NewsBusters
Morano pwns Warmist on CNN: Eyeblast

Daily Scoreboard: Surber
Bill Whittle, Afterburner: InstaPundit
Executive Privilege for a Social Secretary? Where's the Outraged Left?: BigDog

How Far Will Ayers Turn Against Obama?: AT (Cashill)
The Politico vs. The New York Times: JOM
Anderson Cooper's Ratings Plunging Like a Teabag: BlogProf

We're Here, We're For Her, Get Used To It: Surber
Do Smoking Guns Cause Global Warming, Too?: Coulter

Climate & Energy

Junk Scientist Fraudsters Deleted Data That Proved Earth Was Cooling: GWP
Peer-Reviewed, Baby: Ace
Found: Pseudo-code for Mann's temperature charts: TransMus

ClimateGate: Mann throws Jones under the bus: GWP
Gore cancels lecture: Copenhagen crumbling: Depot
The Enviro-Totalitarians Are Plato's Successors: Langbert

World

Obama's Surrender Will End in Blood: AT
Inside the Taliban: STACLU
Jihad Piracy Index: a 'Stock Exchange' in Somalia: Atlas

Sci-Tech

Running the CRU Code: BorePatch
Flashback Video: In Search Of... The Coming Ice Age (Circa 1971): BlogProf

Cornucopia

Tiger's Stimulus Package: Elin Could Pocket $60M: AmPower
Pardoned Thanksgiving Turkey Goes on Nine-State Killing Spree!: Three Beers Later
Undocumented Party Guests?: BermanPost


Thursday, December 03, 2009

He's So Historic: Black Unemployment Hits Great Depression Levels


The proverbial 'grim milestone' that you won't see reported in your local paper is instead offered up by the Black Voice News.

In what is being portrayed as a direct rebuke of the White House's lack of response to the deepening unemployment meltdown, Rep. Maxine Waters D-California, chair of the powerful Financial Services sub committee killed a scheduled November 19 vote on President Barack Obama’s financial regulation reform bill.

...Waters led a bloc of African American House Democrats angry and frustrated that the Obama administration is mired in heated partisan battles over healthcare reform, war troop levels and fixing Wall Street and is not doing enough to address the plight of Blacks and Browns on Main Street. The groups have been hit much harder than any other by unemployment.

The Black unemployment rate is officially 15.7 percent nationwide compared to 9.5 percent for whites. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are troubled by what they believe is the lack of response to the economic situation that is confronting them on the part of the administration... Joblessness for 16-to-24-year old Black men has reached Great Depression proportions -- 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population according to the Center for Labor Market Studies.

Maybe the CBC can join with the rest of the Democrats who plan a march on Washington to protest their own failed policies.

Or, better yet, they could join the National Black Republican Association and start fixing the problems rather than perpetuating them.


Not Communism -- Rather, Dictatorship!


A must-read guest post by Victor the Contractor

A lot of people these days are talking about the changes that the Obama Administration is imposing upon the financial, automobile, manufacturing and the (very healthy) health care industries. The folks, both on Main street and Wall Street, are fearful that our left-leaning government is trying to nationalize as much of the economy as possible before the mid-term elections while passing difficult-to-reverse legislation before the housecleaning, so to speak, begins.

Every day I find some article warning of the coming Communism or the emergence of the 'Nanny State' as the consummate arbiter of spending and the loss of independence and choice those policies will inevitably foist upon us. Now that the Liberals own the guns will they be stuffing flower stems down the barrels or rather turn the weapons on their own populations? Will the symbols and almost incomprehensible power that the US Government wields now be an instrument of enslavement of ideas and liberties? Have the Marxist ideals that have miserably failed in Russia and China taken root in the Halls of Congress and will now be implemented to our chagrin and the decline of our way of life?

The answer is as elegant in its simplicity as it is brief: No. A thousand times no! The explanation, however, will take some 'Splainin,' as Ricky so eloquently put it when interrogating the lovable Lucy on television so many years ago. I won't go into a long dissertation on the forms of Communism but will just say that, in essence, a government of equals, meaning everybody who is sane, has a say in the policies and production of the society at large. The means of production are owned by the government, which is in turn controlled by every subject of that government. Simple, eh?

It's a very tempting lifestyle to advocate for; if you're seventeen and don't know a thing about business or human nature. And if it were true that the Obama administration was arguing for Communism, they could at most be guilty of being pie-eyed in the face of an economic reality almost as stark as the Great Depression. I would love to give them the benefit of the doubt, but the benefit would be all theirs and the gullibility would be all mine. So let's call it as we see it in order to prove a point.

The Obama Administration, both majorities in the House and Senate and about half of the Supreme Court are, in essence, Totalitarianists. What, pray tell, is a Totalitarianist? Well, aside from giving me writer's cramp from typing the word: a Totalitarianist is someone who believes in and advocates for the government regulation or outright control of every aspect of a private citizen's life.

In a Capitalist society this function would be performed by a tiny part of the personality called the conscience. I say tiny because, it seems, the ability to know right from wrong and act on it has been waning for some time in our society, especially in the over-educated class and anybody holding elected office. Washington is the nexus of the infestation, but it has now spread to local Governments country-wide. Academics have long been known to be sociopaths when it comes to common sense, but that subject is for another day.

At some point the effete intelligentsia and the Democrat Party decided that Humanism had in its capacity the answers for all manner of societal ills and encompassed the need to control others. It no longer was enough to let off child rapists and punish law abiding citizens for their prosperity: the time had come to even the score. We now have the paradigm where the poor will now dictate the terms of employment for the rest of us. No longer will we 'Eat if we work.' We will work and feel guilt for those who can't work, are unable to perform in this greedy society, or simply have decided that working is too 'taxing' on the human spirit for them. And we will support all who opt out of personal responsibility, mostly because we who work are the ones who can afford finance this 'Strawberry Fields' existence.

An aside: It always struck me as ironic that a generation of the hardest working musicians on the planet in the sixties produced a genre of music that a generation of the laziest people (in the universe) in the seventies and eighties listened to while consuming large quantities of alcohol and drugs. By the nineties everybody was hung over and depressed, henceforth the music was self absorbed and poorly executed not to mention infantile, but I digress.

What is the preferred instrument to force egalitarianism on those 'type A's' who work their tails to the bone earning while others sit and wait for welfare checks? The dictatorship. Whether it be a Central Planning Committee or a Strongman in the vein of Juan Peron, nothing says dictatorship like the suppression of all public criticism, writing and voting on legislation in secret and calling detractors unpatriotic. Next we'll have an unelected board deciding just what speech is free and what is treason. All we need is the resurrection of the Fairness Doctrine to make all opinion 'equal.' Some opinions will of course be more equal than others, but you will know your Animal Farm by who inhabits it.

A dictatorship is the form of Government being set up in this country. And that's Government with a huge G. Our 'Helpmeets' in Washington already own a couple of car companies, a slew of banks and more signing up for buyouts by the week, and are on the verge of owning the means of treating all sickness. Does anyone really think its a coincidence that the the recommendations for Breast Exams and other disease prevention tests are being scaled back to later ages? The Government knows it will not be able to administer or afford such large-scale procedures on half the population. It must now set reduced expectations.

And just wait until they decide that obesity is a lifestyle choice like smoking. Now there's a good chunk of the populace that they won't have to treat. Drink too much, overeat, and you could wind up denied treatment for your diabetes and, soon enough, out of a job for your largess. And if you're older than sixty-five and conract cancer, the cost of your procedures will be measured against your expected productivity. Brain surgeons are still in full stride at sixty-five: not so much for steel workers. Guess which one gets the Chemo?

What a wonderful world it will be. Just like that Disneyland, South America! We can have a Mexico City on each coast. Well, we already have that in California: Do you think we should finally give it back to Mexico, and throw in New Mexico and Arizona as a sort of apology for their troubles? If we wait long enough, perhaps California will secede and rejoin Mexico on its own, due to a majority being Mexican-born.

As it stands, we can have a strongman in the White House. One who runs around with his 'posse' and holds court, just like the leader of a third world country. Then Congress can rubber-stamp everything he requests and he can use the National Guard to implement any 'unpopular' policies. Only a fool argues with a bayonet. Wish I could remember who said that.

Yes, the Obama administration is courting Marxist ideology and forming a dictatorship to force his agenda upon us. And it's ironic that a national press, who decried President Nixon for the same type of cynical behavior (on a much smaller scale), would trumpet this man's agenda and praise every golden word that pours from his teleprompter, er, I mean, mouth. Yes, this is a different world we live in as opposed to the golden age of the fifties and the prosperity that comes from having the only unscathed manufacturing infrastructure after the war. But the problems are all the same.

We have to earn what we spend before we spend it, not raise the debt ceiling another trillion dollars and hope the Chinese can stomach another bond auction. Our economy would do well from a tax cut, not a Cap-and-Trade limit on prosperity. And that's what this White House is all about: Limiting Prosperity.

When I hear we have to, "Spread the wealth around," and "It's Time for people to pay their fair share," it makes me very angry to think that our representatives are going back to their million-dollar homes in Prince George County while most of us are scraping pennies together for heating oil. There is a growing disconnect between the working world and the Washington bubble. Those who would presume to dictate our lives have long lost sight of the fact that they serve at our sufferance and can be voted out of office periodically. They think that a Madison Avenue commercial will sway our minds and ensure their deferred retirement from 'protecting' us from ourselves.

Well, maybe most years a slick campaign, irregular vote counts and registering dead people will do the trick. But I caution those who think the dictatorship is fixed and Mother Congress will prevail. Unemployment and midterm elections may just be the perfect storm that boots out the Democrat majority and derails the Progressive agenda. This time. There will always be some who seek to control all others, whether out of a sense of omnipotence or out of a personal savior complex.

We all must be vigilant of them. For they are a danger not only to our liberties, but can destroy opportunities of all who enjoy the protections and freedoms we provide around the world. If we fail as a nation, the entire world could slip back into a medieval state; but infinitely more dangerous. A world of advanced technology where the punishment for defying a dress code could be death and a quarrel between heads of state end in a nuclear conflagration.

I say we vote out those who supported Cap-and-Trade, Health Care 'Reform', the Stimulus package and any tax, fee or levy increase. Period. If he's a Republican with no scruples, he's no Republican at all. At least I know where Barney Frank stands. A Republican who runs on a moderate platform and then supports a tax-and-spend ideology is a liar and should be voted out. Even if they are likable, speak well and are presentable on TV.

And if he's a Democrat and votes our way: we have a big tent and must welcome him.

I will sing the praises of this great nation, that bright and shining light on the hill. The beacon that always leads me home to Freedom, and protects the Liberties I hold true.

Let those who would have such 'audacity' pry the flag from my dead and calloused hands,

Victor The Contractor

###

BMW Police Interceptor


AutoBlog Green introduces a sweet, tricked-out Diesel BMW police vehicle:

It's nothing new to see high performance vehicles like Porsche 911s being used for autobahn pursuit in Germany. The gang at AC Schnitzer have just unwrapped (or perhaps wrapped is the better term given the side graphics) a new police car concept based on the 123d. As one of Autoblog's resident diesel fans, the 123d has long been one of this blogger's favorites. The compact package combined with the tasty twin turbo 2.0-liter four cylinder diesel putting out 204 hp scores mid-6 second 0-60 times with 40 mpg efficiency.

Schnitzer, since it is their job, couldn't leave well enough alone and has boosted the engine further to 241 hp and 354 pound-feet. They've also applied an array of their special visual bits including a front splitter, rear spoiler, bigger wheels and Hankook tires. The body has been dropped 30 mm which should help compensate a bit for the extra drag of the light bar on the roof. Inside, racing seats and carbon fiber trim are accompanied by a new cover for the iDrive knob that matches the design of the wheels...

Daddy like.

Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?


No.

Senate votes to keep Medicare cuts in health bill


Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Casting its first votes on revamping the nation's health care system, the Senate rejected a Republican bid Thursday to stave off Medicare cuts and approved safeguards for coverage of mammograms and other preventive tests for women. The first round of votes ended with a fragile Democratic coalition hanging together.

Senators voted 58-42 to reject an amendment by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that would have stripped more than $400 billion in Medicare cuts from the nearly $1 trillion measure. It would have sent the entire 2,074-page bill back to the Senate Finance Committee for a redo.

Republicans said the proposed cuts to health insurance plans and medical providers mean seniors in the popular Medicare Advantage program will lose benefits. And they predicted lawmakers will ultimately back away from the cuts, once seniors start feeling the brunt.

"Medicare is already in trouble. The program needs to be fixed, not raided to create another new government program," said Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Remember the good old days when the media went stark raving bonkers because George Bush had proposed cutting $36 billion from Medicare to begin the process of reining in unfunded entitlement spending?

The DNC press release of that era shrieked in horror and its cries were gleefully picked up by the legacy media.

Cuts to Medicare Threaten Indiana Seniors. In addition, the Bush budget cuts Medicare by $36 billion over the next five years, resulting in $530,913,830 in cuts to hospitals, nursing homes, and home health providers serving seniors and people with disabilities in Indiana.

Note how Democrats are b***hing about $530 million.

These crackpots have blown $1.7 trillion in one year! That's:

$      530,913,830.00
versus
$1,700,000,000,000.00
Don't worry, seniors. Just get in line behind the illegal immigrants, the homeless and the prison inmates -- who will all be served by the same super-efficient, DMV-style, government-run health care system. And it'll be less expensive! And there won't be rationing! Or death panels! And there will be singing, pink unicorns in all of the waiting rooms to entertain the grandkids!

Anyone -- anyone -- who believes that this Democrat clusterf*** will work as planned should be immediately committed. After all, that's why the Democrats in Congress have specifically excluded themselves from the program. Even they know it will be a complete disaster designed to bankrupt the country while killing off their political enemies.

Oh, but all of your personal medical data will be totally safe. What could possibly happen to it, Mr. and Mrs. Salahi? How 'bout you, Mr. and Mrs. Joe the Plumber?


Update: Cat's out of the bag as Dems admit: "No. You can't keep your health insurance!"


Hat tip: Dan from New York.

Copenhagen Crumbling: Laughingstock Gore Cancels UN Talk


The Associated Press reports that the Copenhagen Summit on global warming climate change is crumbling as we speak.

Laughingstock Al Gore canceled his planned speech, citing inherent stupidity. Or perhaps I heard that part wrong.

Climate campaigner Al Gore has canceled a lecture he was supposed to deliver in Copenhagen.

The former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize winner had been scheduled to speak to more than 3,000 people at a Dec. 16 event hosted by the Berlingske Tidende newspaper group.

The group says Gore canceled the lecture Thursday, citing unforeseen changes in his schedule.

That's right. Schedule. Like, 'I couldn't schedule a lecture when the entire IPCC global warming bunko scam just freaking imploded.'

Over at Penn State University, laughingstock Michael Mann threw his long-time pal, co-conspirator and fellow laughingstock Phil Jones under the bus.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight, Prof Mann said: “I can’t put myself in the mind of the person who wrote that email and sent it. I in no way endorse what was in that email.”

Prof Mann also said he could not “justify” a request from Prof Jones that he should delete some of his own emails to prevent them from being seen by outsiders.

Yes, I'm sure Mann is as pure as the driven snow. After the snow's been painted yellow by a cow that's freezing to death because of global warming.


Update: Gore is willing to forfeit plenty of dough to avoid the real scientists. Hat tip: Climate Depot.

The Female Genie


My lovely wife contributed this ominous anecdote.

The Female Genie...

While trying to escape through Pakistan , Osama Bin Laden found a bottle on the sand and picked it up. Suddenly, a female genie rose from the bottle and with a smile said, "Master, may I grant you one wish?" Osama responded," You ignorant, unworthy daughter-of-a-dog! Don't you know who I am? I don't need any common woman giving me anything."

The shocked genie said, "Please, I must grant you a wish or I will be returned to that bottle forever." Osama thought a moment, then grumbled about the impertinence of the woman and said, "Very well, I want to awaken with three American women in my bed in the morning. So just do it and be off with you.

The annoyed genie said, "So be it!" and disappeared.

The next morning Bin Laden woke up in bed with Lorena Bobbitt, Tonya Harding and Nancy Pelosi at his side.

His manhood was gone, his knees were broken, and he had no health insurance.

God is good.



What would Hitler do?


Dan from New York:

We now know what Hitler would have done if he had the Internet.

And at the rate we're going, we'll soon know what he would have done if he had the hydrogen bomb.



Larwyn's Linx: The Crime of the Century

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

Nation

Terror-tied ISNA taught at Fort Hood: Jawa
Tempers flare in Senate health care debate: Riehl
Told to applaud, slept instead: GWP

The Rhetoric of Failure: Doc Zero
Medal of Honor Recipient Ordered to Remove Flagpole: SIGIS
Terrorist asks for dismissal using 'Constitutional rights': Atlas

Making the Taliban-Al Qaeda counter-strategy easy: AT (Smith)
A badge of shame for Virginia: RSM
Most transparent W.H. ever blocks partycrasher testimony: STACLU

Economy

Cato: True Cost of ObamaCare is $6 TRILLION: Morrissey
What the Dubai Default Means to US: Wizbang
Quote of the day: Fair Share: Gina Cobb

Heck of a Job (Policy), Barry!: iOTW
Trickle-down poverty: PJM (Hawkins)
Dems to march on DC to protest their own failed policies: GWP

Baucus, yep, the GOP is right, it will cost $2.5 trillion: Ace
GOP Litmus Test: Reagan’s 10 Unity Principles: No Pasaran

Media

Radio Free America: R&R
Did Obama lie to McCain -- or CBS?: Riehl
'Biggest Loser' Outdraws Obama?: JWF

Climate & Energy

The Crime of the Century: Doc Zero
All the president's ClimateGate deniers: Malkin
ClimateGate: Best Headline So Far: Wizbang

EPA used ClimateGate Data, Work is Suspect: PJM
Ike's Response to ClimateGate: Eject Eject Eject
Phil Jones: Victim: Ace

Fraud discovered in ClimateGate computer code - part 2: BlogProf
Checking the Footnotes: JOM

World

December 7, the Trailer: TAB
Uh oh, he's losing his German base: Driscoll
U.K. Cancer Death Rate Is 38% Higher Than In U.S.: Morris

Why the Swiss Were Right to Prohibit Construction of Minarets: PJM (Storhaug)
The other aspect of Afghanistan: PJM (Belmont)
Whoops, there it is: bug-out date written in stone: Ace

Copenhagen hit by wave of skepticism: Shadowlands
Europe Reaction: Swiss Accord? .... oui: Atlas

Sci-Tech

Bing Maps Beta gains much richer images: CNet
Acer: We'll have the first Chrome OS Netbook: CNet

Cornucopia

Tiger's Christmas Card: Taxman
Invitations? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Invitations!: Michelle's Mirror
Daily Scoreboard: Surber

Those tempted to compare global warming to a religion should consider that religious faith does not require the willful suppression of knowledge. Calling the belief in global warming a “religion” is an insult to religion. It’s a mistake I have made in the past, and I owe the faithful of all religions an apology for doing so. -- Doc Zero



Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Bizarro-President Issue No. 1


Until January of 2009, I'd thought Bizarro-World was the fictional doppelgänger of the planet Earth.

"Me want to take $1.1 trillion from taxpayers and China to spend on highways, create jobs!"

"Me want to nationalize one-sixth of economy, have government do all health care, make more efficient!"

"Me want to stop global warming, very bad for planet! Me want to tax energy, stop all use of natural resources!"

"Me want to buy old cars from people so they buy new cars, take on more debt! Debt good!"

"Me want to try Al Qaeda terrorists in civilian court in New York City! Not tell Mayor or police! Surprise!!"




Hat tip for Presidential Approval Charts: Rasmussen Reports.

Graph o' the day: funny, you don't look warmish


Today's prestigious Graph o' the Day comes to us by way of Michelle Malkin.

As Ms. Malkin reminds us, the President claims "it's about putting science above politics."

Of course, like everything he says, that and three-seventy-five will get you a tall mochaccino at Starbucks. If you're lucky.


Related: The Global Warming Bunko Scam (2007).


Tombstone of the Republic


Worth a replay... The Bad sent this one in.






Barack O'Flanagan's Top Ten Stimulus Fables


"Hey, I've got an idea! Let's borrow $787 billion from the Chinese... and spend it on a Stimulus package! We'll claim it will 'save or create' millions of new jobs! Wait, what's that you say? We did that? Seriously? Oh. Well, let's organize a 'jobs summit' and figure out how to do it all over again without any retrospective examination of how the first one failed! It'll be awesome!"

Dear America, brace yourselves. Prepare for a new litany of lies to rival the ten biggest fabrications of the first Stimulus disaster.

1. UNEMPLOYMENT "AT EIGHT PERCENT OR BELOW"

CLAIM: “Obama's top economic advisers claimed unemployment would remain at eight percent or below through this year with passage of an economic stimulus package (Associated Press, 6/14/09).
FAIL: The nation’s unemployment rate now stands at over 10% with 17% underemployment.

2. IMPACT FELT "IMMEDIATELY"

CLAIM: “Q: If the president gets his way and gets this package approved, he signs it into law, how soon before -- the American public starts to feel results, the creation of jobs?  NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR LAWRENCE SUMMERS: You’ll see the effects begin almost immediately.” (CNN, 2/9/09)
FAIL: Oh, we felt it immediately, alright. Right in the kiester, so to speak. The U.S. economy has lost more than three million jobs since the trillion-dollar 'stimulus' was signed.

3. "90 PERCENT ... PRIVATE SECTOR"

CLAIM: "More than 90 percent of the jobs created by this plan will be in the private sector." – President Obama (News conference, 2/9/09)
FAIL: "...well over half of the jobs claimed so far have been in the public sector" (The New York Times, 11/4/09). But, after all, isn't that what Democrats do best? Grow government and diminish the individual?

4. "NO EARMARKS OR PET PROJECTS"

CLAIM: “There will be no earmarks or pet projects in this bill.” – Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Floor statement, 2/13/09)
FAIL: The trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ has produced countless examples of wasteful government spending, including repairs to a bridge that reportedly carries about 260 cars per day, many to a place called Rusty’s Backwater Saloon in Wisconsin, and in North Carolina, where ‘stimulus’ funds were reportedly used by one town to hire a new worker whose job is to apply for more ‘stimulus’ funds from Washington. Sounds efficient!

5. "A VERY FISCALLY SOUND PACKAGE"

CLAIM: “We must make sure the public understands this is a very fiscally sound package.” – Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Talk Radio News Service, 3/10/09)
FAIL: With the help of the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus,’ the Obama Administration spent more in its first 100 days than all previous presidents have combined.  The national debt has topped $12 trillion for the first time in U.S. history.  The federal government is now operating on a budget that doubles the national debt in five years and triples it in ten. Care to guess what happens to the economy when all of those debts come due -- and Social Security and Medicare collapse? Ah, but that's the genius of the Democrats: it's all intentional!

6. "A LOT MORE JOBS CREATED"

CLAIM: “The second hundred days you’re going to see a lot more jobs created.” – Vice President Joe Biden (ABC’s This Week, 7/5/09)
FAIL: The U.S. economy lost roughly 930,000 jobs in June, July, and August.  The good news: it was during this period that the President proclaimed he could “see a light at the end of the tunnel." The bad news: the light at the end of the tunnel is the express to Newark.

7. "A LOT MORE AMMUNITION LEFT"

CLAIM: “There is a lot more ammunition left in the stimulus package.” – Jared Bernstein, the Vice President's chief economist(CNNMoney.com, 10/30/09)
FAIL: “The government’s economic stimulus spending has already had its biggest impact and probably won’t contribute to significant growth next year, a top White House adviser said Thursday.” (Associated Press, 10/22/09). Not to worry, though, Joe Biden says "a lot" of jobs are on the way.

8. MORE WORK, NOT MORE JOBS

CLAIM: “I think we got the Recovery Act right. … It may be desirable to have a given amount of work shared among more people. But that’s not as desirable as expanding the total amount of work.” – National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers (The Washington Post, 11/8/09)
FAIL: The Obama Administration’s attempt to suddenly make job creation seem like a lesser goal of the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ flies in the face of numerous public statements made in the days before the bill was passed, including the President’s statement that creating jobs was his "bottom-line number one."

9. RAISES SAVE JOBS

CLAIM: “If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job.” – Department of Health and Human Services spokesman (Associated Press, 11/4/09)
FAIL: This is one of the problems of having economic illiterates run the country. None has ever held a significant private-sector job, ever. And this is one of several attempts by the Obama Administration to define a job “saved or created” by the ‘stimulus.’ In this particular case, the AP found “more than 9,300 existing employees... who received pay raises and benefits and whose jobs weren’t saved.”  In a newly released report, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office states that “it is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package." I know! Let's stick with 'Slow' Joe Biden's estimate of 'lots'.

10. "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN WASTEFUL SPENDING"

CLAIM: “You haven’t seen wasteful spending. No one has said we spent $2 million on things that didn’t exist.” – Vice President Joe Biden (The Daily Show, 11/17/09)
FAIL: Good thing he said that on The Daily Show, so everyone knew he was cracking wise. “Stimulus jobs reported in non-existent congressional districts. … Of all the problems found in the latest round of stimulus reporting, add another one: congressional districts that don’t exist.  ABC News reported yesterday that White House officials have found 700 mistakenly credited congressional districts out of more than 130,000 stimulus grants.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 11/18/09)  “The reports on jobs created or saved by the $787 billion economic stimulus package are ‘riddled with inaccuracies and contradictions,’ the federal watchdog overseeing the spending acknowledged Thursday.” (USA TODAY, 11/19/09)

Everyone knows what works. You start by slashing the size of government and decreasing taxes across the board -- on companies, capital gains and private sector workers. You spur the real economy.

Now, everyone knows what works, except for the blinkered, hard Left Democrats who now control the levers of power. They are driven by a Marxist ideology and the vision of a Utopian world government.

But perhaps Socialism will work this time! After all, Obama's Presidency is historic!

Larwyn's Linx: What I Heard Last Night

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

Nation

Dean Obama: Hanson
What I heard tonight: Power Line
A War Plan Designed By Committee: LegalIns

In 18 months, the Islamic world celebrates: JWF
Obama's War: Crittenden
Memo to Obama: a war is not 'ended': it's won or lost: STACLU

Radical Islam Finds Voice In New York College: Red State
Six facts as Navy SEALs face charges for doing their jobs: BMW
Obama Afghanistan Speech Word Cloud: CFB

NYC lets ACORN, other radicals, rule the schools: Post
A very strange speech: Dr. Sanity
In it to win it (for 18 months or less): Wolf

Economy

You Best Buy Your Holiday Crap Elsewhere: SondraK
Gold, B**ches: Zero Hedge
Granholm Gives SEIU $3 Million To Expand In MI: BlogProf

Media

MSNBC's Matthews calls West Point 'The Enemy Camp': NewBusters
Was Matthews Drunk Again?: Surber
Most Worthy Commentary on the Obama Speech: Maggie's Farm

Is a newspaper bailout in the works?: Riehl
Climategate’s ‘Josh Steiner’ Moment, Featuring John Tierney and Michael Mann: PJM

Climate & Energy

Pervasive Fraud: SUNY Albany, Queens U. Belfast Join Climategate: PJM (Keenan)
The First Lie is the Deepest: American Digest
The Mystery of the Missing Data: McArdle

Why is Obama still going to Copenhagen?: Anchoress
Australia's Parliament Rejects Cap-n-Trade: NewsBusters
Climategate: Imminent Demise of Glaciers Due to … a Typo!: PJM

World

Grim Milestone: More US soldiers killed by Islamic terrorists in US than in Iraq: Jawa
Obama's Speech: To Keep Afghanistan from Becoming Vietnam, We Will Immediately Begin Vietnamization: Ace
Obama to Troops: I Promise You I Will Furnish You With Every Resource You Need, So Long As What You Need Is Reasonably-Priced and Available as a Factory-Irregular from Marshall's: Ace

What I saw at the Honduran election: PJM
National Hell-thcare: 'Thank heavens my sick mum wasn't at the mercy of the NHS': London Daily Mail
Spies at Guantanamo: SIGIS

Thanks to Bush Surge, We Actually Won in Iraq: GWP

Sci-Tech

The iPhone on T-Mobile -- Why Not?: MacWorld
IE8 can't stop decline in Microsoft's browser market share: Infoworld

Cornucopia

50 Ugliest Cars of the Past 50 Years: BizWeek
Caption Contest: Unfortunate Twitter Gaffe Edition: NewsBusters


Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Last one to leave California, please turn out the lights


Calculated Risk points us to the archetype of a liar's loan:

[A]ll of this began in the heady days of the mortgage boom ... [Ms. White] only knew that there seemed to be possibilities, even to those with little means such as herself, which is how a woman who had never paid more than $700 a month in rent and who had relied in recent years on Section 8 housing vouchers suddenly owned a house.

A four-bedroom house.

With 3 1/2 bathrooms. And walk-in closets, black granite countertops and a fireplace.

...On settlement day, reality bore down.

...Papers were read and presented, most of which White did not try to decipher. ...White's papers cited income of $163,320 a year, even though she says her 2005 income-tax earnings were less than $15,000 and she relied at times on food stamps.

...White signed papers while waiting for the one she cared most about: her monthly payment. ... "Please let this be something I can afford," she said to herself. She was pretty sure she could afford $2,000. She told herself that if her day-care business did well, perhaps she could afford $2,500. If it was $2,800, she would struggle. Here, now, came reality: $5,635 a month.

To entice Ms. White to take the loan, the sellers -- both real estate agents -- promised to make the first two mortgage payments for her. White reportedly received $40,000 in cash at the closing, while the seller made over $200,000.

As expected, the house went into foreclosure. Ms. While is back renting an apartment.

A General Electric company called WMC Mortgage, which specialized in questionable subprime lending and would soon implode, had provided the financing. The taxpayers are subsidizing this and millions of other crooked financial instruments.

Most importantly, the mortgage catastrophe hasn't even really begun.

How can I say that? In the heyday of subprime loans, mortgage lenders invented the "Option Adjustable Rate Mortgage" or "Option ARM". These were the most toxic loans imaginable, allowing the debtor to "pick a payment." If they paid less than the minimum, that was okay: the loan would negatively amortize.

This means the amount owed (the principal) would increase. The assumption, of course, was that real estate prices would rise forever. So Option ARMs became the product of choice for all sorts of skulduggery. They were termed "liar's loans" because they often required no documentation, no proof of income and were reportedly abused by illegal aliens.

Furthermore, a huge swath of Option ARM resets are on the way. The loans were sold with low, teaser rates and have yet to hit their first "adjustment period." Doctor Housing Bubble explains that "78 percent of all outstanding option ARMs have yet to hit major recast points. Given that 58 percent of option ARMs are here in California, this is a one state wrecking ball."

The accompanying illustration depicts when the tidal wave of Option ARMs will hit. Put simply, we're at low tide today.

What happens to a monthly payment when an option ARM recasts? How about a monthly payment that goes from $1,250 a month to $2,600?

The Los Angeles area has approximately 1.5 million mortgages in force -- and 400,000 of those are already underwater!

Want to bet what's going to happen when the option ARMs start recasting in 2010?

Schwarzenegger may need that Hummer H1.

Your Second Amendment Motivational Posters Are Here
















Hat tips: John W., via Ben.

Does Tort Reform Really Work?


Judge for yourself. The following chart highlights the states with highest and lowest malpractice insurance premiums.


Highest premiums20082009Change
Internists
Florida (Miami-Dade)$53,723$57,8598%
Illinois (Cook, Madison, St. Clair)$41,066$41,0660%
Michigan (Oakland, Wayne)$36,988$36,9880%
Ohio (Cuyahoga, Lorain)$40,020$34,017-15%
New York (Nassau, Suffolk)$33,360$33,3600%
General surgeons
Florida (Miami-Dade)$214,893$191,422-11%
Michigan (Wayne)$143,445$143,4450%
Illinois (Cook, Madison, St. Clair)$127,083$127,0830%
Ohio (Cuyahoga, Lorain)$141,336$120,135-15%
New York (Nassau, Suffolk)$106,583$106,5830%
Ob-gyns
Florida (Miami-Dade)$238,728$201,808-15%
New York (Nassau, Suffolk)$194,935$194,9350%
Illinois (Cook, Madison, St. Clair)$178,291$178,2910%
Nevada (Clark)$168,750$168,7500%
New Jersey$171,199$159,214-7%
Lowest premiums20082009Change
Internists
Minnesota$3,375$3,3750%
South Dakota$3,697$3,6970%
Wisconsin$3,946$3,9460%
Idaho$5,552$5,276-5%
Oregon$5,479$5,4790%
General surgeons
Minnesota$11,306$11,3060%
South Dakota$12,569$12,5690%
Wisconsin$13,813$13,8130%
Iowa$17,860$17,8600%
North Dakota$18,063$18,0630%
Ob-gyns
Wisconsin$18,154$18,1540%
South Dakota$20,042$20,0420%
Minnesota$20,626$20,6260%
Iowa$27,285$27,2850%
North Dakota$27,596$27,5960%

So, does tort reform really help reduce health care costs? Compare the list of states with the lowest premiums to the master list of states that have enacted tort reform. Gee, what a coincidence.

No, it's not very complicated. But that doesn't mean the Statists in the pay of the trial lawyers will ever change their minds. Come hell or high water, they want to control your physical well-being using government-run health care, NHS-style.

The "Brought to you by the Democrat Party" T-Shirt


Michelle Malkin spotted these promotional T-shirts, which are provided by the Democrat Party to highlight their 'accomplishments' for the American people.

A closeup reveals what they've 'contributed' to the civil society.

They ran out of space, because I have a lot more.

ClimateGate Laughingstock Scientist Fired Steps Down


Climate Depot points us to a news report that Dr. Phil Jones, head laughingstock at the East Anglia Climate Research Unit, has "stepped down."

In other words, he was asked to leave, not letting the door hit him on the bum on the way out.

...The university said in a statement that Phil Jones, whose e-mails were among the thousands of pieces of correspondence leaked to the Internet late last month, would relinquish his position as director of Climatic Research Unit until the completion of an independent review...

The university's Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research Trevor Davies said the investigation would cover data security, whether the university responded properly to Freedom of Information requests, "and any other relevant issues." The statement said the specific terms of the review will be announced later in the week...

A House committee has scheduled a hearing Wednesday on the status of climate science. Two prominent Obama administration scientists — White House science adviser John Holdren and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administrator Jane Lubchenco — are expected to be questioned about the e-mails...

As for "the status of climate change"? Simple: it's a UN-organized bunko scam, pure and simple.

That's why Jones and the CRU deleted their data files; evaded FOIA requests; and conspired to shut dissenting views out of peer-reviewed journals.

Jones isn't a scientist -- he's a hack. It would appear that between 2000 and 2006 Jones was the recipient (or co-recipient) of nearly $20 million worth of grants. But, remember, he was deleting all that data for the children.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!