Thursday, April 08, 2010

Still Life with Bookshelf

Working my way through the bookshelves to recommend some great reads.

Starting from top left and working clockwise (skipping a few that I haven't read):

The 1929 World Almanac Reprint: amazing glimpse of a bygone era. I have no idea if this is still reprinted, but every page is a revelation.
American Caesar: the ultimate biography of Douglas MacArthur. Fantastic.
Crisis and Command: an outstanding history of the power of the Executive.
Unhinged: how Democrats politicized 9/11 starting about seven minutes after the catastrophic terrorist attack.
Culture of Corruption: if you want to truly understand the Obama administration, you must read this book.
John Adams: the classic biography of perhaps the country's most important founder and our second president.
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: fascinating biography of the first Westerner to visit Mecca.
The Fair Tax Book: a look at our future (I hope). The most compelling book about taxes you will ever read. I guarantee it.
A Distant Mirror: Europe in the 14th century, complete with Great Plague, knights on the rampage and corruption.
A Confederacy of Dunces: the quintessential outsider's novel (fiction).
Soul on Ice: A rebel comes of age.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: native Americans and the expansion of the continental U.S.
O, Jerusalem: in the shadow of the Holocaust, the maelstrom that led to the founding of Israel.
The Gulag Archipelago: life in Stalin's Democrat Utopia.
Moscow, 1812: Napoleon, denied.
Flags of our Fathers: Iwo Jima and the heroes who saved our country.
Six Frigates: the founding of the U.S. Navy under Jefferson -- told in as exciting a fashion as you could imagein.
1776: one year that changed the world -- a phenomenal book.
Admiral of the Ocean Sea: the Pulitzer Prize-winning story of Columbus and his discovery of the New World.
The Way Things Ought to Be: Rush Limbaugh's timeless classic.
If it's not close they can't cheat: Hugh Hewitt's compelling advice for conservatives.

I only have about 4,800 more books to cover. Just let me know if this is a waste of time.

Confedocrat Party Objects to Virginia or Anyone Else Reminding Folks That It Supported Slavery, Segregation and Jim Crow

Liberals have their thongs in an uproar over Virginia's plan to pay tribute to a momentous chapter in American history. ABC reports that Governor Bob McDonnell recently declared April as Confederate History Month in the Commonwealth. McOnnell's proclamation reads, in part:

...this defining chapter in Virginia’s history should not be forgotten, but instead should be studied, understood and remembered by all Virginians, both in the context of the time in which it took place, but also in the context of the time in which we live, and this study and remembrance takes on particular importance as the Commonwealth prepares to welcome the nation and the world to visit Virginia for the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the Civil War, a four-year period in which the exploration of our history can benefit all...

What the rocket scientists on the left want to toss down the memory hole is the proud history of the Confedocrat Party:

• Six Democrat Party platforms from 1840 to 1860 supported slavery.

• Seven Democrat presidents owned slaves from 1800 to 1861.

• From 1868 through 1948, twenty (20) Democrat Party platforms supported outright segregation or purposefully omitted equal rights for the races.

• For 52 years in a row, Democrats supported "Jim Crow laws", that segregated public schools, public transportation, restaurants, rest rooms and public places such as water coolers and beaches. Rosa Parks became famous because she dared to set in the "whites only" section of a bus, which was the creation of Democrats.

• The Ku Klux Klan, according to Columbia University historian Eric Foner, was the military wing of the Democrat Party. UNC historian Allen Trelease called the KKK the "terrorist arm of the Democratic Party."

• Democrats opposed the 13th Amendment (which banned slavery), the 14th Amendment (which overturned the infamous Dred Scott decision, authored by pro-slavery Democrat Supreme Court justices, that guaranteed due process and equal protection to former slaves) and the 15th Amendment (which guaranteed blacks the right to vote).

• Democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which guaranteed blacks the right to own private property, sign contracts and serve as witnesses in legal proceedings.

• Democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that outlawed racial discrimination in public places.

• Democrat platforms from 1908-1920 omitted any mention of black lynchings, voting rights and segregation, all of which were expressly addressed by the GOP platforms of the era.

• The Democrat convention of 1924 included hundreds of KKK members and an event across the river hosted 10,000 hooded Klansmen pledging violence against blacks and Catholics.

• Nearly 80% of the opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act came from Democrats, led by former KKK member Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Albert Gore Sr. (D-TN).

• Birmingham, AL "Public Safety Commissioner" Bull Connor was a member of both the Democrat National Committee and the KKK.

Yes, the Confedocrats have a proud history of racial divisiveness.

No wonder they don't want anyone bringing it up.

Least of all, the party of Lincoln, liberty and Martin Luther King, Jr.: the Republican Party.


Related: Who are the real racists? and Copperheads.

Top 3 Charts to Whip Out When Democrats Start Running Their Mouths

Number 3: Borrowed a trillion dollars on the backs of our kids and grandkids, without permission, and utterly failed to deliver on their promises? Check.


Number 2: Continue to deliver a consistent track record of economic fail? Checkety-check.

Number 1: With reckless spending and a complete failure to address a looming entitlement disaster, have bankrupted the country and put the U.S. at the precipice of disaster? Check and mate, bizznitch.

You gonna put some ice on that, Democrats?


Larwyn's Linx: New Obama policy - Deny Visas to Israeli Nuclear Engineers

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

Obama’s politicized, profligate U.S. census: Malkin
Race and Politics: Sowell
Specter: It's Tough Being a Turncoat: RWN

Can't. Breathe. Laughing. Too. Hard.: Malkin
Liu 'Forgets' To Include Controversial Work for Senate: Ace
Texas School Indoctrination Alert: Deceitful Definitions: RWN

Economy

Victory Lip?: Blackwell
The Tax Formerly Known as the Medicare Tax: Commentary
Golden Geese Demand Admittance To Slaughterhouse: Ace

In a bid to reform GSE's, Obama can't shake Clintonistas: PJM
'Why, there's no requirement to buy health insurance': Hot Air
Consumer Credit: OUCH!: Denninger

Climate & Energy

More GE Corporate Cronyism: Propaganda at -34° F: WUWT
What to say to a global warming alarmist: OCR
A New And Effective Climate Model: WUWT

Media

Who's Been Fibbing? Evidence That Obama Was Deeply Involved in Socialist New Party Organization: New Zeal
Obama's jihad on 'jihad': Times
Support Your Local Tea Party: PJTV (Whittle)

MSM Continues False Reporting of Reuters "Murder" in Iraq: Jawa
Tea Party Protesters Burn American Flag: Jawa
Rush Limbaugh caller's awesome call to action, "They're coming after my way of life": BlogProf

The Media's Strange New Respect for the Tea Party: Ace
Twilight Of The Gods: CNN’s Current, Pitiful State: Driscoll
NPR’s New Abortion Terms Skews Toward Pro-Abortionists: RWN

World

Obama's New Policy: All Israeli Nuclear Workers Now Refused US Visas‏: JoshuaPundit
The Palestinians: Why Negotiate? The US Will Extract Concessions For You: Hudson
America's Wounded Ally: India is Annoyed by Obama: Newsweak

Hairy Munchkin Taunts Obama: JWF
Iran’s Support for the Taliban Is No Surprise: PJM
12-year old Yemeni bride dies three days after wedding: Maktoob

Ruh Roh: Greece Going Supercritical: Denninger
Qatari diplomat held over U.S. jet bomb scare: Maktoob

SciTech

More Details on Microsoft's Free Office 2010: CNet
North Korean Red Star operating system details emerge: BBC

Cornucopia

Put MO-power In Your Life With The moPad©: MOTUS
'I Hate the Rug': AmDigest
On Fast-balls And Swinging For The Bleachers: Hindenblog

Image credit: iOwnTheWorld

QOTD (hat tip: InstaPundit):

"So one wonders—as Putin embraces Chavez and Karzai plays host to Ahmadinejad; as Russia asserts the right to repudiate any nuclear-arms reduction treaty and China gives us the bird on the yuan; as the alliance with India languishes and the one with Britain experiences unprecedented atrophy; as Israel expresses acrid disagreement with us and Japan seeks to rip pages out of its postwar rulebook—what all the pragmatism has really, truly accomplished… …other than give our delighted adversaries a free pass and our friends a very rude wakeup call." -- Tunku Varadarajan, "How Obama is Weakening America"


Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Democrat Utopia of Los Angeles Goes Broke on May 5th

The rating agency Moody's just downgraded the city of Los Angeles to a notch below "WTF?" as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa continued his economic jihad (I love using that word) against private enterprise.

The downgrade primarily reflects the continued erosion of the city's historically better-than-average willingness and ability to quickly rebalance its budget mid-year. This is a particularly important rating factor for Los Angeles since its balance sheet has typically been relatively weak for the rating level. The downgrade also partly reflects the likelihood that the city's general fund reserves at the end of the current fiscal year could be materially weaker than we had previously expected...

The city's Democrat leadership appears to be a model both for the state government in Sacramento and President Obama. Their game plan: spend like drunken liberals; empower public sector unions to rape taxpayers; tax the hell out of everyone; and create vast new bureaucracies to hamstring the private sector.

In fact, the L.A. City Controller says the city could run out of cash by May 5th.

As the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power seeks a hefty taxpayer rate hike, a Daily News review of salary data shows the average utility worker makes $76,949 a year - or nearly 20 percent more than the average civilian city worker.

More than 1,140 of the utility's employees - or about 13 percent - take home more than $100,000 a year. And General Manager Ron Deaton, who is on medical leave, rakes in $344,624 a year - making him the city's highest-paid worker.

...the total cost per full-time employee in fiscal 2007 was $142,400 a year including health care, death benefits and disability, workers' compensation, medical services, employee health benefits and training...

In the middle of the worst budget crisis in Los Angeles history, one department is thriving without mandatory job cuts, furlough days or loss of the perks they've come to enjoy. In fact, thanks to a new contract approved by the L.A. City Council in December, most of its already well-paid workers will get salary increases over the next five years. Which department is it? It's the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP)...

If there's one thing history should teach us, it's that public sector unions need to be outlawed. Unlike unions in the private sector, which are organized to share in the legitimate profits of free enterprise, the public unions exist only to suck the blood of the taxpayer.

Put simply, the public sector unions and their Democrat sycophants have declared war against taxpayers. And it's time for taxpayers to fight back.


'This is impeachment-level criminal negligence'

In a series of posts, the Strata-Sphere provides compelling evidence that the White House implemented policies that led directly to a Jihadist terror attack and a very near miss.

I have noted many times that the events leading up to the Ft Hood Massacre and near fatal Christmas Day airline bomb attack were suspicious and incoherent with what this nation knew about three people: Major Nidal Hasan (Ft Hood Massacre), Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab (Christmas Day Bomber) and Anwar al Aulaqi (Yemen Cleric).

There are very important details about these three people which resulted in team Obama dismissing them as threats, even with the knowledge and evidence they were enemies of America and reaching out to, or supporting, bloody Jihad against this country. It was these details which were made a priority by team Obama, obliterating the mounting evidence that would have stopped the efforts of these people – if America had kept the national security posture of President Bush.

First off, none of these people were located in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Iraq. Team Obama decided early on to arbitrarily limit the geographic boundaries of terrorism, despite nearly two decades of evidence, going back to the Clinton years at least, indicating global Jihad had truly become ‘global’.

A timeline helps illustrate the disastrous policy changes that led to the Jihadist attacks.

In March of 2009, Obama's legal team adopted new rules regarding detainment in the war on terror. It redefined the rules for fighting conventional, uniformed armies to apply -- nonsensically, of course -- to terrorists: "...the president could detain without trial only people who were part of Al Qaeda or its affiliates, or their 'substantial' supporters."

In other words, unless you carried a laminated Al Qaeda membership card and decoder ring, you were off the hook. Members of Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Ansar al Islam, Abu Sayyaf, Jemaah Islamiyah, Fatah, Darul Islam, etc. were free to launch attacks, it would seem.

The new policies ensured that the Ft. Hood shooter (Hasan) and the underwear bomber (Abdulmutallab) could not be considered material threats because they were not confirmed al Qaeda associates.

What followed were the Fort Hood massacre in November and the related Underwear Bombing attempt on Christmas Day.

As the timeline shows, once the administration took its eyes off the threats it struggled, without any hope, to catch back up. It had tied its hands and blinded itself, and Americans died at Ft Hood. Ten times as many nearly died on Christmas Day. This is not coincidence, but evidence of a pattern of criminal negligence based on naive liberal dogma.

Read Parts One and Two to get a more complete picture of the outrageous malfeasance.

If the GOP can take one or both Houses of Congress in November, I hope and expect a wave of subpoenas will follow shortly thereafter.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Victory! President Obama Eliminates Islamic Extremism and Jihad!

Pity it's just the words and not the Sharia-inspired terrorism.

Obama Bans Islam, Jihad From National Security Strategy Document


WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's advisers will remove religious terms such as "Islamic extremism" from the central document outlining the U.S. national security strategy and will use the rewritten document to emphasize that the United States does not view Muslim nations through the lens of terror, counterterrorism officials said.

The change is a significant shift in the National Security Strategy, a document that previously outlined the Bush Doctrine of preventative war and currently states: "The struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century."

The officials described the changes on condition of anonymity because the document still was being written, and the White House would not discuss it. But rewriting the strategy document will be the latest example of Obama putting his stamp on U.S. foreign policy, like his promises to dismantle nuclear weapons and limit the situations in which they can be used.

In related news, all references to Militant Quakers and Terrorist Christians will also be redacted from national security documents, though no such documents are actually known to exist.

In addition, the President's team is reportedly examining alternative names for the terror groups Ansar al-Islam, Islamic Jihad, Darul Islam and Jemaah Islamiyah.


Hat tip: Dan from New York.

Galt-meter hits the red zone as half of U.S. households escape all federal income taxes

It's another Obama record!

About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009... In recent years, credits for low- and middle-income families have grown so much that a family of four making as much as $50,000 will owe no federal income tax for 2009...

The result [of recent changes] is a tax system that exempts almost half the country from paying for programs that benefit everyone, including national defense, public safety, infrastructure and education. It is a system in which the top 10 percent of earners — households making an average of $366,400 in 2006 — paid about 73 percent of the income taxes collected by the federal government.

The bottom 40 percent, on average, make a profit from the federal income tax, meaning they get more money in tax credits than they would otherwise owe in taxes... "We have 50 percent of people who are getting something for nothing," said Curtis Dubay, senior tax policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

...Obama's Making Work Pay credit provides as much as $800 to couples and $400 to individuals. The expanded child tax credit provides $1,000 for each child under 17. The Earned Income Tax Credit provides up to $5,657 to low-income families with at least three children.

There are also tax credits for college expenses, buying a new home and upgrading an existing home with energy-efficient doors, windows, furnaces and other appliances. Many of the credits are refundable, meaning if the credits exceed the amount of income taxes owed, the taxpayer gets a payment from the government for the difference.

Interesting: I didn't know a "tax credit" was the new name for welfare.

An Army of Galts is growing.


Hat tip: Ben. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

I want my robust, free health care without preconditions

Expect, oh, every doctor, nurse, hospital, insurer and pharmacist in the country to field millions of questions like these.

It was the most memorable time of my life, I...

...it was a touching moment because I never thought this day would ever happen. I won't have to work out how to put gas in my car, I won't have work out how to pay my mortgage. If I help him, he's gonna help me.

Sorry, wrong quote. These are the kind of questions to expect, multiplied by fifty or sixty million:

Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors' offices, human resources departments and business groups.

"They're saying, 'Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?' " said Carrie McLean, a licensed agent for eHealthInsurance.com. The California-based company sells coverage from 185 health insurance carriers in 50 states.

McLean said the call center had been inundated by uninsured consumers who were hoping that the overhaul would translate into instant, affordable coverage....

"We tell them it's not free, that there are going to be things in place that help people who are low-income, but that ultimately most of that is not going to be taking place until 2014," McLean said...

The Obama administration is embarking on a years-long public education campaign about the overhaul, including a Web component. However, much of the guidance will depend on Department of Health and Human Services regulations that are still being developed.

Add all of those video and web production jobs to the swelling ranks of IRS employees and Labor Department snitch-handlers, and we're looking at boom times, baby!

If you're still not convinced this yet-to-be developed scheme to overhaul the entire health care system will actually work, I'd like to remind you that President Obama supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with health insurers without preconditions.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin.

Larwyn's Linx: What 1946 can tell us about 2010

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

What 1946 can tell us about 2010: Barone
Racial slurs hurled by AT Tea Party members: Nice Deb
The Wasserman-Schultz Town Hall Thug-Fest: GWP

Do Anti-Steele Plotters Have An Endgame In Mind?: Ace
Separate the Individual Mandate from ObamaCare?: PJM
Sweet 16: Nevada, Arizona Join ObamaCare Suit: Riehl

Economy

Tax Lovers and the Laffer Curve: AT (Hoven)
For the Love of Capitalism: Doc Zero
Playing Chicken in the Bay State: Wizbang

Unions are Killing Us: Cali Pension Edition: Verum Serum
Greece Sets 10-Year Bund Spread Level: 450 bps Nears: ZH

Climate & Energy

Armageddon: Global Densification: Dewey
Detroit starts to raze 3K homes. Stops after just 1...: BlogProf
For First Time, Energy Trumps Hippies: BigGovt

Media

AP discovers that black tea party members exist: Hot Air
What if Sarah Palin called it 'Kaminsky Park' and flubbed softball White Sox question?: Malkin
Hanoi Jane blames her treasonous activities on evil right-wingers: GWP

CNN, NYT boost WikiLeaks' anti-Military Infomercial: RWN
A real 'outing' of a CIA Operative by Obama administration: AT
NYT: Pssst. Palin was right about those death panels: TAB

UK Media: Obama’s Mentor 'Frank' Engaged in Pedophilia: RWN
Middle East's Biggest Con-Game: Claiming Israel is the Cause of the Region's Problems: BRubin
Lessons of 2,065 Years: Denny

World

Obama Nuclear Policy: What, Me Worry?: VodkaPundit
Russia Moving Fast Before 'Arms Control' with U.S.: AT
Obama's No-Nukes Policy: Hungry for "Accomplishments: Ace

Tariq Ramadan: A Viper in Our Midst (Thanks to Hillary Clinton): PJM
Venezuela's Electricity Crisis Goes From Bad to Worse: Fausta
Former UN mission head: Karzai 'off balance' -- could be a heroin addict: Politico

SciTech

Is permission needed to retweet hot news?: ArsTechnica
Researcher Details New Class Of Cross-Site Scripting Attack: DarkReading

Cornucopia

Exclusive! Hank Johnson's Guam Diagram: RPB
Dear Geezers: Denny
Abbreviations gone bad: iOTW

Keith Olbermann and Lawrence O'Donnell on Countdown, MSNBC (video):
Image Credit: iOwnTheWorld.


Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Welcome to Caracas: White House Blasts Edmunds.com for Criticizing Cash-for-Clunkers Program... Again

Last October, the White House "went to war" with famed auto website Edmunds.com, claiming that it had unfairly tarred its "Cash-for-Clunkers" program. Now that the controversy over its bizarre spending program has faded, the White House has decided to take another potshot at the respected service provider.

With seven months of post-Clunkers sales data in hand (September 2009 through March 2010; see dark blue line in figure), now seems a good time for a reckoning.

The 'short-term pull-forward' view was perhaps most vigorously articulated by automotive industry website Edmunds.com. In late October, Edmunds.com made a widely-reported forecast for the pace of sales in the last quarter of the year: According to Edmunds, light motor vehicle sales in November and December would be only about 10.5 million at an annual rate (the dashed blue line in the figure). Edmunds furthermore argued that, had the CARS program not existed, the pace of sales would have been higher, about 10.8 million, during those two months (the dashed red line in the figure).

This afternoon, Edmunds fired back.

"One has to wonder why the White House continues to feel the need to defend a program that is no longer being debated," observed Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl. "Trying to add a spin to old news seems pointless when there are more pressing issues for the government to address." [Ed: ouch.]

1. The White House seems to have missed the simple point that car sales were beginning to recover before the Cash for Clunkers program was introduced. Even the program’s proponents would have to agree that it was too little, too late.

2. A properly designed Keynesian stimulus is structured to stimulate the market for 12 to 18 months, providing support while the economy recovers. Cash for Clunkers created an unhealthy spike, distorting the marketplace by suddenly generating about 125,000 incremental new car sales and pulling ahead hundreds of thousands more.

3. Independent economists generally agree with Edmunds.com’s analysis of the program. For example, on November 2, Freakonomics author Steven Levitt blogged about the topic for nytimes.com “Cash for Clunkers mostly just turned out to be a gift from the government to people who happened to be in the market for a new car at the right time... It is relatively easy to move around the timing of when someone purchases a durable good, but much harder to affect whether they buy a durable good or not."

4. Relatively strong March car sales, which the government specifically celebrates in its report, were artificially stimulated by remarkable incentives programs initiated by Toyota in attempt to deal with its well-publicized woes. March sales were an aberration.

5. The government reports that in the months since Cash for Clunkers, the average Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) has been 10.7 million car sales. However, if you eliminate data from December and March – two months when consumers believed they could get unusually good deals on new cars – the average SAAR drops to only 10.3 million. Today’s car sales are still abysmally low by historical standards.

Yesterday, Columbia, Missouri's KOMU-TV offered a real world, feet-on-the-street view that confirms Edmunds' assessment.

Used car dealers want to sell cheap cars to drivers who need them. The only problem is there aren't any around... The Cash for Clunkers program took over 700,000 gas guzzlers off the streets. Many of those cars would have ended up at on used car lots.

"What it does is that it drives up the value of the used vehicles that are left out there," Tambke Autos' Sales Manager Joe Merkle said. "It drives them up so high that they're almost not afforable anymore..."

...Lucas Wren says it is disappointing that they can't cater to drivers looking for affordable transportation... And with it being tax refund season, he said he sees more drivers desperate for cheap transportation.

"(They) have just gotten their income tax check and have about a thousand bucks left over and really need a car to get from point a to point b to continue to make money and they dont have anything," Wren said. "We feel defenseless almost because it was something that we used to be able to offer to everybody."

Edmunds' chief executive also added an astute observation.

"This White House report conveniently avoids an accounting of the program's costs. For example, new and used car prices were wildly inflated during the program, which especially hurt the car-shoppers who didn’t have a qualifying ‘clunker,’” noted Anwyl. “And what about the costs to the beleaguered taxpayer?”

What, indeed?

Why in the world does the White House -- which possesses the biggest bully pulpit in the world -- feel compelled to attack Edmunds.com, Fox News, Jake Tapper, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and anyone else who dares to oppose its extreme policy positions?

That's a rhetorical question, Señor Chavez. Welcome to Venezuela.


Hat tip: W.

Cleverly-edited video becomes anti-Military infomercial for world's dumbest blogger and his traditional posse of useful idiots

In their most recent attempt to undermine the American military, the fulminating confluence of legacy media and leftist bloggers have seized upon a new report from USCENTCOM.

The report details an investigation into a 2007 incident that led to the deaths of two Reuters journalists and injuries to two Iraqi children.

A gun-camera video documenting the incident was edited before it was posted on WikiLeaks to incite progressive outrage.

The editors provide plenty of fact-free editorializing and helpfully title the piece "Collateral Murder". A more accurate name would be "How Not to Use Journalists and Children as Human Shields."

In the video, a group of military-aged males carrying (at minimum) two RPG launchers, multiple RPG rounds, and an AK-47 are, if not directly involved in a firefight with an approaching Bradley armored vehicle, in the very midst of the fight.

At the direction of ground forces, a nearby Apache takes out the group using a 30mm. Minutes later, as the Bradely pulls up, the two dead Reuters reporters and two injured children are discovered. They evacuate the kids for medical treatment and, all the while, they are under small arms fire.

The usual crowd of leftist scum-sucking weasels are pointing to this incident as evidence of the depravity of the American soldier. The world's dumbest blogger, Matthew Yglesias, calls it a "massacre" and a "cover-up".

Yes, there was a huge cover-up, which is why CENTCOM released the results of the entire freaking investigation, only to have it cleverly edited into an infomercial and fundraising vehicle for the enemies of America.

MEMORANDUM FOR Commander, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division (MND-B), Baghdad, Iraq

SUBJECT: 15-6 Investigation of Civilian Casualties Resulting from an Engagement on 12 July 2007 in the New Baghdad District of Baghdad, Iraq

"From the witness statements and the Apache gun-camera film, I determined that the engagement in which the Iraqi children were injured and the two Reuters News employees were killed began at 1020 hours... Bravo Company 2-16 soldiers were within 100 meters of the location of a group of armed insurgents and two individuals carrying cameras when Apache helicopters engaged the insurgents with 30mm gunfire. The engagement concluded with the evacuation of casualties at 1041 hours."

Exhibit J:
"While at this objective, I enusred that security on the roof top were maintained of 360 degrees. We ddi a brief SSE at the site due to the fact that one AIF member was lying on a RPG round and all individuals were on their stomachs. The risk of being booby-trapped was the reason for not touching the bodies... while on site we were under constant small arms fire from the east. Medical treatment was rendered to injured AIF. EOD blew up RPG launchers, RPG rockets and AK-47s."

Exhibit K:
"3-4 truck engaged on AIF carrying an RPG south of the [objective]. It is undetermined whether we hit the target. We also heard small arms to the east where Crazy Horse also engaged targets."

Exhibit L:
"While on scene, Crazy Horse (the Apaches) engaged a house to the east where people with weapons were observed going in. There was also an RPG round down in place by EOD... I personally did not see any dead or wounded who were not military-aged males."

Exhibit M:
"I did not see any evidence that any of the dead or injured were non-combatants. All were in the vicinity of weapons (AK-47's/RPGs) and there no visible press passes, or othe rindicators that they were non-combatants."

Exhibit N:
"No, I believe all were involved [were combatants]. There were two RPG launchers, multiple rounds for them and an AK-47 on scene. Some of the males were described by Hotel 2-6 as the ones having pop shots at his PLT all day. All males were found within 20 meter radius to the weapons on the ground. Between the radio traffic from Crazy Horse before and during the engagement as well as what I took note of on scene, I believe that all males involved were not in any way non-combatants."

Here's a memo for the pointy-headed bosses at Reuters: how about you whackjobs stop paying people to embed themselves with barbarians, who then use them and children as human shields?

Then you and your idiot employees might not get their asses shot off on a regular basis.


Hat tip: Memeorandum. Linked by: Michelle Malkin and Gateway Pundit. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: The Perfect Constitutional Storm

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

The Perfect Constitutional Storm: AT
Tea Party Express announces "Shame on Stupak": Marathon
Maverick? Moi? Surely you jest: Ace

An Open Letter To Rep. John Lewis: RWN
1,000 welcome Tea Party to STL in soaking rain: GWP
Progressives and the knowledge problem: Tripp

Dems dread Supreme Court fight after elections: York
Obama's List: AT
Radicals to Rule Us All: Times

Economy

'What if the CBO got it wrong?': Hot Air
'Stop me before I steal again': PJM
Death by Senator: Recalling Schumer and IndyMac: BigGovt

Unions Cutting off Noses To Spite Their Faces: RWN
S.F.’s housing mob and the death of property rights: Malkin
Watching Summers Spin: Denninger

Climate & Energy

Greenpeace Advocates Terrorism To Fight Global Warming: RWN
CAFE Curtains for Detroit: Dewey
O's Offshore Drilling Policy Farce: DMF

Was the Arctic Ice Cap 'Adjusted'?: AT
Dems consider global warming gamble: WashExam
EPA and DOE are caught fudging efficiency ratings: Times

Media

WikiLeaks 'Collateral Murder' is Left's Latest Attempt to Criminalize U.S. Wars: AmPower
Does Anybody Really Understand ObamaCare?: AT
Then & Now: LB1901

Chris Matthews Beclownment Spectacular: BlogProf
The President's Popularity Plunge: Hewitt
Can CNN Be Saved From Itself?: Driscoll

World

It's Official - We Will Not Bring Nukes To A Chem or Bio Weapons Fight: LegalIns
Greece is NOT under control: Denninger
Evangelical Left Targets Israel: Frontpage

Video Shows Reuters Cameraman Embedded With Insurgents Being Killed: Jawa
Why was Michael Yon arrested in SeaTac?: Yon
America's aims in Afghanistan endure a pair of setbacks: WashExam

SciTech

Apple's Plan to Conquer the World: PJM
Aggregators help media professionals keep on top of digital content trends: Guardian

Cornucopia

Dust in the Wind and the Summer of 77: AmDigest
Nancy Pelosi meets the Easter Bunny: Parkway Rest Stop
World's Biggest Rabbit Shows Up on Easter: Ace

Graphs Credit: DShort: Debt to GDP and Taxation.

QOTD (hat tip: Ben):

"If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, then racism is the first charge of the intellectually lazy. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly liberal columnists scream "racism" at those challenging their beliefs. It is an easy way to avoid the merits of arguments they oppose and inadvertently dilutes legitimate charges of racism. We as a nation will never reach a point of civil discourse if this highly charged accusation continues to be recklessly thrown about." -- Sean McHugh, Alexandria, Washington Post Letter to the Editor

Bonus QOTD (hat tip: Papa B):

"Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with Muslims building a nuclear bomb in Iran ." -- Columnist Burt Prelutsky


Monday, April 05, 2010

World's tallest tower opens with a bang

The world’s tallest tower -- the Burj Khalifa -- opened tonight with a spectacular fireworks display. The tower tops out at 828 meters (2,717 feet, or a bit more than half a mile high).




Presidential Stand-Up Comedy: Okay, My New Plan to Create Jobs is to Throw Sand into the Private Sector's Transmission! Can I Get a Rimshot?

The President continued his war against the private sector today, announcing Phase 72 of his purposefully ineffective plan to "create jobs". Best I can tell, this phase involves carefully listening to small business owners' suggestions, discarding their ideas, and creating bizarre central planning tenets straight out of Nikita Khrushchev's Little Black Book.

• ...we’ll forgive payroll taxes for businesses that hire someone who’s been out of work for at least two months – a tax benefit that will apply to unemployed workers hired between last month and the end of this year... (what??)

• ...provide tax credits to over 4 million small businesses so they don’t have to choose between hiring workers and offering coverage... (eh, what????)

• ...we’ll reform municipal bonds to encourage job-creation by expanding investment in schools and clean energy projects... [Oomph, more government debt?]

• ...Finally,this jobs bill will maintain crucial investments in our roads and bridges as we head into the spring and summer months, when construction jobs are picking up... [because $840 billion in borrowed money isn't quite enough?]

Say, I've got an idea, Mr. President!

Stop throwing sand in the economy's transmission. Business owners are scared senseless, unable to act because of the many forthcoming fees, taxes, regulations, dictates, bureaucracies and mini-Politburos they'll be forced to deal with:

• 2,700 pages of new health care regulations, most of it mandated on businesses large and small

• New (and illegal) EPA regulations that control the deadly toxin CO2, despite the fact that global warming is a proven scam

• The expiration of the Bush tax cuts, which means if you earn over $30K a year, you'll be getting a nice, healthy cut in take-home pay

• And, thanks to the oil drilling shell game that the White House, the EPA and the Department of the Interior are playing, we'll get no new oil supplies for the next ten years -- but plenty of lawsuits by the flat Earth, no growth, enviro-Marxists -- as oil prices skyrocket

By the time businesses figure out how to cope with the avalanche of government intrusion, the economy will be in full Cloward-Piven meltdown mode.

Despite the media's incessant marketing that a recovery is imminent, there's no masking the fact that the real economy continues to bleed.

[In March] were over 158,000 bankruptcy filings in the personal sector in the U.S. (that’s 6,900 per day!) which was a 35% surge over February’s result and up 19% from last year’s elevated levels. This also shows the extent to which fewer people are attempting to save their homes. They realized that their mortgage payments are not affordable and their attitudes towards residential real estate as a viable retirement asset have been altered permanently as many now see their house as nothing more than a debt-laden ball and chain.

Not only did the headline unemployment rate not budge, at 9.7%, but the broader U6 measure actually rose for the second month in a row, to 16.9% (the highest it ever reached in the prior recession/jobless recovery in 2003 was 10.4%, just to show what we are up against this time around). So long as we have this much spare capacity in the labour market — with nearly one in every six unemployed Americans vying for every job opening — deflation pressures can be expected to build...

...the ranks of the unemployed who have been looking for work for at least six months soared 414k in March, or nearly 7%, to 6.5 million. This is double from 3.2 million this time last year when equity investors believed the world was coming to an end. Of course, the world did not end for the equity investor who was bailed out by massive government incursion, but the world for the long-term unemployed has tragically become even darker... Long-term unemployment as a share of the total jobless pool now stands at a record 44% versus 26% and the last time the official unemployment rate was as high as is today was back in the early 1980s. There are three main reasons for this:

* The first has to do with the lack of mobility in a distressed national real estate market.
* The second reflects the permanent job loss that permeated this recession because the jobs in bubble sectors like construction and finance are simply not going to be coming back any time soon.
* Thirdly, large states such as California, Florida, Illinois and New York could always be relied upon in the past to be significant drivers of employment opportunities but they are just too cash-strapped today to play any role at all.

Finally, there are many factors related to the tragedy of rising long-term unemployment that lead us to the conclusion that deflation will prove inevitable, because the longer it takes to find a job — the average duration of unemployment just hit a fresh all-time high of 31.2 weeks from 29.7 in February — the more likely it is that these people will be rehired at a lower wage than they were receiving before they were let go from their previous job.

Welcome to the Obamaconomy! Welcome to the Democrat recovery!

Thanks to the Democrats, the country is heading for a deficit disaster with absolutely no cushion whatsoever.

Consider: we have no spending buffer whatsoever for a military emergency. And that's by design.

But don't worry, peasants. It's not like the suicidal terrorists running Iran are building nukes or anything.


New York's Unions Organize Circular Firing Squad

New York has a $9 billion budget deficit and its spending is so injudicious that it makes California look thrifty:

• $15,987 per pupil on K-12 education, more than any other state.

• $7,927 per Medicaid enrollee, second highest in the nation, 73 percent above the national average.

• $36,835 per prison inmate, fifth among the states.

• And $989,892 per member of the Legislature on the budgets for the state Assembly and Senate.

... Census numbers (for 2007, the most recent complete data set) reveal that New York spends far more per capita on state and local government ($12,920) than any other state but two. And those exceptions are Alaska and Wyoming -- two atypical states with low populations and vast energy industry-derived revenues.

Indeed, if the Empire State simply cut its per-capita spending to the level of the next highest state, California (No. 4 on the list at $10,940 per capita), [it would] save some $38 billion a year.

Democrats, including the Lieutenant Governor, have proposed a clever solution: raising taxes and taking on more debt.

And are the public sector union bosses doing their best to help? Uhm, no. They appear to be scooping as much money out of the system as possible before the entire Ponzi scheme collapses altogether.

230 hardhats working to repair the city's crumbling Alexander Hamilton Bridge will likely lose their jobs soon, thanks to Gov. Paterson's emergency freezing of state construction funds...

The hardhats, though, can be forgiven some bitterness, given their own circumstances -- though the anger should be directed at their labor "brothers" in the state's public-employee unions.

Those fat cats last week came into 4 percent raises -- which Paterson has pleaded with them to forgo, citing the state's budget crisis...

Freezing wages for this year alone would save more than $400 million -- a sizable chunk of Albany's $9.2 billion deficit.

The unions' response: scorn.

While the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) and its sister, the Public Employee Federation (PEF), continue to suckle at the teat of the taxpayer, other union members haven't been so lucky.

You'll find this hard to believe, but despite the Politburo's Democrats' immense "stimulus" program, New York has shed 33,000 construction jobs in the past year with more cuts in the forecast.

And I thought that $840 billion we borrowed from China was supposed to create construction jobs, not kill them?

Meanwhile, the PEF and CSEA have dropped only 3,000 jobs in the last year -- entirely through natural attrition, according to the Post. And the remaining workers continue to collect large raises.

I'm reminded of the following dialogue.

Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.

Mayor: What do you mean, "biblical"?

Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.

Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.

Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!

Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...

Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!

Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

But, even with an apocalyptic meltdown underway, I feel confident that the public sector unions will continue to collect their outsized paychecks, along with raises, courtesy of Jane and Joe Taxpayer.


Larwyn's Linx: DNC Suicide Watch: 40% of Tea Party is Independent or Democrat

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

DNC Suicide Watch: 40% of Tea Party Independent, Dem: JWF
CBO: ObamaCare Within 5% Of Nationalizing Insurance: Kesler
Redefining the term 'Racist' so it suits me: RWN

Sestak and the Silence of the White House: Malkin
MassCare Gamed By Short Term Customers: RWN
Panel: DOJ stonewalling on Panthers: Times

Economy

The Parable of the Referee: Doc Zero
GIGO: Why Real Revenue Will Lag CBO Forecasts: Blumer
America's Sinking Middle Class: AT

New taxes crushing small businesses: JWF
3 Reasons Public Sector Is Killing The Economy: Gillespie

Climate & Energy

Obama pumped up for fight with energy industry: WashExam
Prêt à La Guillotine–The French AGW Revolution?: CBullitt
EPA: New Pollution Rules for Cars Only the Beginning: CNS

Why can't we find a Climategate summary like this in US Media?: AT

Media

Community Within Our Nation, Chaos In Theirs: LegalIns
Steyn: Reps Carson, Lewis, Cleaver Have Turned Into the Congressional Equivalent of the Duke Stripper: GWP
"You were right about Obama": LegalIns

Violence? What Violence?: MoneyRunner
Breaking News! MO and BO go to Church!: MOTUS
Obama's secular humanist Easter: Surber

Is the VAT coming?: Wizbang
Zo Gets Viewer Love Mail: Jawa

World

Severed Mexican Heads: Jawa
Burqa Bans, No. Free Speech Bans, Yes.: Chesler
The American Revolution…REBOOTED!: BigGovt

Obama's Russian Disaster: AT
How It Works: Crittenden

SciTech

They Got iPad Fever for More Cowbell!: AmDigest
Sneak peek: Pixar's 'Toy Story 3' a very big winner: CNet

Cornucopia

A Good Friday to Remember: Fumento
I totally meant to do that: Ace
Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones Review: YouTube