Friday, April 16, 2010

DemCare's Secret $1.62 Trillion Immigration Time-Bomb

Nancy Pelosi wasn't kidding when she said, "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."

Buried deep within the the Democrat health care bill is a secret payoff to immigrants that defies American traditions and was heretofore undisclosed.

Hidden within the 2,400-page DemCare legislation is a bullet to the head of the longstanding "public charge" doctrine. The doctrine states that "no alien can be allowed into the United States if he is going to become a burden on the US taxpayer upon entry -- a public charge."

Congress and Bill Clinton strengthened the doctrine in 1996. They levied a five-year threshold on public benefits for aliens: put simply, new immigrants were unable to take advantage of the public dole until they'd supported themselves for at least five years. Reasonable enough?

Using every surreptitious means possible -- and discovered only recently -- the DemCare bill eradicates the "public charge" requirement. Why?

Simple: to build a permanent Democrat constituency dependent upon "free" health care. It means 10.8 million new immigrants on the public dole.

The "public charge" time-bomb was intentionally buried in the new legislation -- so deeply that it took weeks to discover it. As they unveil "immigration reform", President Obama and his drones in Congress will claim it costs Americans nothing. That immigrants will do "the jobs Americans won't". And other lies.

What will the bill cost taxpayers? The ObamaCare bill assumes a toll of $15,000 a year for middle class families.

By granting amnesty for at least 10.8 million illegal immigrants, the Democrat health care bill will cost $162 billion a year -- or $1.62 trillion, which the CBO never took into account.

Unless we fire the Democrat Party in November, I fear the magnificent American experiment may be at an end.

 

Another Soviet-style performance: Obama's NASA speech was completely staged -- not a single NASA worker was permitted to attend

Interviewed on MSNBC, a visibly shaken Jay Barbree -- the longtime NBC science correspondent -- described the duplicity of President Obama. Put simply, Obama's campaign rhetoric -- that he would preserve NASA's cutting-edge science and engineering expertise -- was, like so many of his promises, a fabrication. And he couldn't even tell them to their faces.

BARBREE: ...I'm a little disturbed right now, Alex. I just found out some very disturbing news. The President came down here in his campaign and told these 15,000 workers here at the Space Center that if they would vote for him, that he would protect their jobs. 9,000 of them are about to lose their job. He is speaking before 200, extra hundred people here today only. It's invitation only. He has not invited a single space worker from this space port to attend. It's only academics and other high officials from outside of the country. Not one of them is invited to hear the President of the United States, on their own space port, speak today. Back to you Alex.

WITT: Alright Jay I can understand why that would certainly get you a bit upset. I will say, on behalf of the Obama administration, they contend that 2500 new jobs will be created, even more, they say, than the 2012 Constellation would have created, that program. So I know all this remains to be seen, but understandably we get why you're upset, right now. Along with many others down there. Let's see if the President clears that up later today. Jay thanks so much.

Gee, if MSNBC speaks "on behalf of the Obama administration", I wonder if they get franking privileges for their mail as well?

I think I need a new blogging category called "Broken Promises", because the old Clinton record was just shattered.


Sign spotted outside Hutchinson, Kansas, 35 miles northwest of Wichita

Sent in by Stretch.



The Incurious Sophistry of The New York Times

New York Times, 5 January 1995, Iran May Be Able to Build an Atomic Bomb in 5 Years: "Iran is much closer to producing nuclear weapons than previously thought, and could be less than five years away from having an atomic bomb..."

New York Times, 13 March 2003, Iran Plays the Waiting Game: "It's a remarkable study in Middle Eastern contrasts: as Saddam Hussein scrambles to deceive the West about his illegal weapons, Iran, like the proud father of a precocious child, decides to show the world that it has a new underground uranium-enrichment lab... and the country's program is likely within two years of building [nuclear weapons]."

New York Times, 11 August 2005, Iran's nuclear program: A crisis of choice, not necessity: "The growing crisis over Iran's nuclear program can be averted if the precious lessons from Iraq, above all the need to avoid unsubstantiated accusations of proliferation, are avoided - particularly given that U.S. intelligence agencies admitted recently that Iran is at least 10 years away from making the bomb."

New York Times, 7 September 2005, Nuclear Weapon Is Years Off For Iran, Research Panel Says, "A leading British research institute said Tuesday that Iran was at least five years away from producing sufficient material for ''a single nuclear weapon,'' and that it could make one only if it chose to ignore international reaction..."

New York Times, 3 May 2006, Very Bad and Worse — the Options With Iran : "Here are two final thoughts, one comforting, one not. First, there is time: Iran appears to be several years from making nuclear weapons..."

New York Times, 15 May 2007, Inspectors cite big gain by Iran on nuclear fuel: "...at this pace, Iran could have 3,000 centrifuges operating by June -- enough, if the uranium were enriched further, to make one bomb's worth of nuclear material every year."

New York Times, 28 September 2008, An Arms Race We’re Sure to Lose: "...Iran will have produced at least 1,500 pounds by mid-January [2009]. Re-circulated, this could produce 35 pounds of weapon-grade uranium, enough for a bomb. (In fact, this was about the amount called for in the implosion device that Saddam Hussein’s scientists were trying to perfect in the 1980s; according to intelligence sources..."

New York Times, 28 September 2009, Defense Chief Says Iran Faces 'Severe' Sanctions: "Mr. Gates estimated that Iran is still one to three years from a nuclear weapons capability..."

New York Times, 14 April 2010, Officials Say Iran Could Make Bomb Fuel in a Year, "...military officials said Wednesday that Iran could produce bomb-grade fuel for at least one nuclear weapon within a year, but would most likely need two to five years to manufacture a workable atomic bomb."

Only a few grains of sand remain at the top of the hourglass.

And, thanks to Pinch Sulzberger and his posse of useful idiots, Iran's Mullahs will have succeeded in possessing a weapon the likes of which other terrorists have only dreamed.

Not a whit of serious analysis. Not a column-inch on the decades of obfuscation by the U.N. and the I.A.E.A. Not a single sentence devoted to Iran's declaration of war on the West.

This is what passes for a newspaper in the age of nuclear terrorism. The periodical that ignored the Holocaust is doing its best to expedite another act of genocide.


Larwyn's Linx: The Tax Day Tea Party Super-Post

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

Tax Day Tea Parties

Thousands turn out in Irvine and Oceanside: AmPower
Tampa's Party Begins: Carol
Cincinnati's Fifth Third Arena: InstaPundit

Sterling Heights, Michigan: BlogProf
Colorado Springs: WheatChaff
Pontiac, Michigan: BlogProf

St. Louis: GWP
Shreveport, LA: SIGIS
Missouri's Lt. Gov. handle's Tea Party crashers: BMW

The Crashers: They Came, They Saw, They Failed: Malkin
Tea Party Crashers: Not Quite Understanding the Assignment: PJM
Obama mocks teapartiers: Hot Air

Nation

The New Currency Is Obedience: Doc Zero
Is the Public School System a Repository for Reprobates?: LB1901
Lambs to the slaughter: Grand Rants

Did Tea Party Smear Spark KC Riot?: Cashill
Time to infiltrate the liberal protesters: SmashMouth (NSFW)

Economy

Senate Democrats Try to Sneak Through Cap-and-Tax: RWN
'Experts' flummoxed by 'unexpected' job losses: RWN
The Welfare State of America: Times

First State-by-State Costs Of Medicaid Expansion: Save 70%?: Kesler
Obama's Quiet War on Red States: AT
Gangster government returns: Nice little bank ya got there . . .: Barone

Climate & Energy

UK Expect: Global warming 'hockey stick' graph is a fraud: FT
Surface Temperature Records: Policy Driven Deception?: ClimateRealists
Whitewashing is quick work: Daily Caller

Media

The New Aristocracy: AT
Stevens: 'I Never Left Sanity. Sanity Left Me': Coulter
Americans: "Yeah, Obama's a Socialist": Hindenblog

World

What Drives Islam to be the Religion of War?: Sultan Knish
The Times Makes It Official: Obama Has Shifted U.S. Policy Against Israel: Commentary
Was Marco Polo an ‘Islamophobe’?: PJM

Genocide in South Africa: Geller
Obama: 'Like Me', Aussie Prime Minister Is 'Smart But Humble': GWP
Britain bans Israeli tourism ad because it depicts Western Wall: TAB

SciTech

FollowFinder - a New Service for Twitter: Google
Google launches Twitter timeline search: CNet

Cornucopia

The office sure looks safe with Wheezy and Dozy on the door: Times of London
In mass shootings, the usual rules do not apply: Emergency Film Group

Today's Larwyn's Linx Sponsored By: You Have the Health Care, Now Get the Hat


Thursday, April 15, 2010

Welcome to the Obama recovery!

Don't you feel like celebrating?

'09 Profits Soar to Historic Highs, While Sales Plummet...

New jobless claims 'unexpectedly' soar...

Rise for second straight week...

Soros warns on market crash...

Foreclosure rates surge, biggest jump in 5 years...

Homeless 'Tent City' Settlers In Get Reprieve...

All of these headlines are from today. After the $840 billion "Stimulus" program, the $410 billion Omnibus spending deal, the $60 billion auto bailout, "Cash-for-Clunkers", HAMP, and trillions in unfunded liabilities, the economy is still flat on its back.

The CBO is warning that budget deficits are going to be far worse than earlier predicted. And this is before the economy is further strangled by DemCare, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, and the ominous, economy-killing VAT tax.

Democrats have the Midas Touch: everything they touch turns into a rusty muffler*.


* Hat tip: Henny Youngman

Gee, that policy change is quite a shock. In May of 2008, Candidate Obama stated: Israel a "constant sore" that "infects... foreign policy"

The "dramatic deterioration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Israel" should have come as no surprise to those who bothered to research candidate Obama.

Interviewed in The Atlantic in May of 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama informed the electorate that Israel is a "constant wound... a constant sore..." and an infection. Jim Hoft caught Obama's inflammatory remarks.

Jeff Goldberg:--- Do you think that Israel is a drag on America’s reputation overseas?

Barack Obama:--- No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable. I am absolutely convinced of that, and some of the tensions that might arise between me and some of the more hawkish elements in the Jewish community in the United States might stem from the fact that I’m not going to blindly adhere to whatever the most hawkish position is just because that’s the safest ground politically.

Obama's remarks seem to parallel those of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In yet another verbal attack against Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Jewish state a "filthy bacteria" whose sole purpose was to oppress the other nations of the region.

"The world powers established this filthy bacteria, the Zionist regime, which is lashing out at the nations in the region like a wild beast," the Iranian president told supporters at a rally in southern Iran.

Come to think of it, a Mr. A. Hitler had some remarks along these lines.

Against the infection of materialism, against the Jewish pestilence we must hold aloft a flaming ideal. And if others speak of the World and Humanity we say the Fatherland - and only the Fatherland!

In the centuries-long war between the forces of radical Islam and the West, President Obama appears to back the barbarians.

 

Double Your Vote

Herein I present six (count 'em: six) blog widgets using my patented "Double Your Vote" theme. Each points to the respective GOP challenger in a key House race. If you don't have a blog yourself, please pass the link on to friends who do. Needless to say, if you have a blog -- get to steppin'.

And, either way, if you can spare a couple of bucks, click on the links and donate.

MD-01

DOUBLE YOUR VOTE: ELECT HARRIS
FIRE KRATOVIL & PELOSI


MS-01

DOUBLE YOUR VOTE: ELECT ALAN NUNNELEE
FIRE TRAVIS CHILDERS AND NANCY PELOSI


NM-02

DOUBLE YOUR VOTE: ELECT PEARCE
FIRE TEAGUE & PELOSI


NH-01

DOUBLE YOUR VOTE: ELECT GUINTA
FIRE PELOSI & SHEA-PORTER


OH-01

DOUBLE YOUR VOTE: ELECT CHABOT
FIRE NANCY PELOSI AND STEVE DRIEHAUS


OH-15

DOUBLE YOUR VOTE: ELECT STIVERS
FIRE PELOSI & KILROY


Glenfiddich 50

Mr. Chopper Dude:

Glenfiddich 50 Year Old


Time to add another bottle to your list of "stuff I'd love to drink if I had the money."

Glenfiddich 50 Year Old ($16,000) is an incredibly expensive, incredibly rare, and, presumably, an incredibly tasty whisky. Part of only the second-ever vatting of the half-century Glenfiddich — the first was done for founder William Grant's children — this unique spirit has spent the last 50 years in two oak casks, which were then combined and aged for another six months in an American oak barrel to create the well-balanced, pleasantly sweet flavor.

Daddy like.


 

Larwyn's Linx: ObamaCare's $3.9B Tax Hike on the Middle Class

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

ObamaCare's $3.9B Tax Hike on the Middle Class: RWN
Tea Party gets valuable advice from... Axelrod: PJM
Mitt Romney-Sarah Palin in 2012? You betcha!: Herald

Alinsky's Avenging Angels: Tea Party Saboteurs: Malkin
Party like it's 1773: Crittenden
Will Democrats Get Trounced in the Midterms?: Greenroom

White-only Racist Rednecks gather in Boston: GrandRants
Lindsey 'Goober' Graham: Hey, let’s hike gas taxes!: Hot Air
Ye Shall Know Me by the Friends I Keep: Dewey

Economy

Could Amnesty Solve our Entitlement Woes? Eh, Hell No.: RWN
Bernanke: I Tricked You -- and Now You're Screwed: Denninger
Obama's Back-Alley Health Care: RWN

Another Obama Favor for Union Bosses: WashExam
Greenlining: The Little Bank That Fought Back: WashExam
Unemployment for Blacks in Michigan: 26% and Rising: BlogProf

Climate & Energy

More green genocide? Short-sighted ban endangers food supply: WashExam
Comcast Decision May Thwart EPA CO2 Finding?: PJM
Climategate: the official whitewash continues: PJM

Media

RED ALERT – New York Times About to Put American Troops in Deadly Peril: BigJournalism
Photo released of GOP officials beaten after SRLC event: GWP
Citizen-Journalist Engages WaPo Ombudsman Over ‘N-Word’ Story, Ombudsman Loses: BigJournalism

Yes, Huffington Post Hates the Troops: Jawa
Jason Levin’s Political Manifesto Uncovered: Legalized Heroin, Polygamy, and Torture Among Other Things: Verum Serum
Obama Lied, More Jobs Died Today: Riehl

Video: Union Thugs Crash Tea Party: Moonbattery
Pruning the Garden State: AmCon

World

Let Them Meet Steel: Totten
The Iranian Bomb: Within a Month?: Ledeen
The Obama Grovel Index: DocBulldog

The Systematic Dismantling of a Secure America: AT
Greece Circles the Bowl: Denninger

What if the Palestinians don't want a state?: Volokh
Oh, Geez: Nice Logo: GWP
New Israel Fund: Supporting Israel’s Destruction, One NGO at a Time?: PJM

SciTech

Life Inside The Googleplex Is Kinda Creepy: Insider
Obamunist Mediocrity Imposed on Space Program: RWN

Cornucopia

The Big Chill Hil: MOTUS
Harden the F*** Up: Ronnie Johns (Language Warning)
Leave Her Airbrush Alone!: iOTW

Images: iOwnTheWorld.
Today's Larwyn's Linx Sponsored By: Nice Deb.


Wednesday, April 14, 2010

One Chart to Rule Them All

Before you click to enbiggen the chart (below), please consider this Los Angeles Times article by Ronald Brownstein, which appeared in print on page A-5 of the May 31st, 1999 morning edition.

"It’s one of the hidden success stories of the Clinton era. In the great housing boom of the 1990s, black and Latino homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded. The number of African Americans owning their own home is now increasing nearly three times as fast as the number of whites; the number of Latino homeowners is growing nearly five times as fast as that of whites.

These numbers are dramatic enough to deserve more detail. When President Clinton took office in 1993, 42% of African Americans and 39% of Latinos owned their own home. By this spring, those figures had jumped to 46.9% of blacks and 46.2% of Latinos.

That’s a lot of new picket fences. Since 1994, when the numbers really took off, the number of black and Latino homeowners has increased by 2 million. In all, the minority homeownership rate is on track to increase more in the 1990s than in any decade this century except the 1940s, when minorities joined in the wartime surge out of the Depression.

This trend is good news on many fronts. Homeownership stabilizes neighborhoods and even families. Housing scholar William C. Apgar, now an assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development, says that research shows homeowners are more likely than renters to participate in their community. The children of homeowners even tend to perform better in school. Most significantly, increased homeownership allows minority families, who have accumulated far less wealth than whites, to amass assets and transmit them to future generations.

What explains the surge? The answer starts with the economy. Historically low rates of minority unemployment have created a larger pool of qualified buyers. And the lowest interest rates in years have made homes more affordable for white and minority buyers alike.

But the economy isn’t the whole story. As HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo says: “There have been points in the past when the economy has done well but minority homeownership has not increased proportionally.” Case in point: Despite generally good times in the 1980s, homeownership among blacks and Latinos actually declined slightly, while rising slightly among whites.

All of this suggests that Clinton’s efforts to increase minority access to loans and capital also have spurred this decade’s gains. Under Clinton, bank regulators have breathed the first real life into enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act, a 20-year-old statute meant to combat “redlining” by requiring banks to serve their low-income communities. The administration also has sent a clear message by stiffening enforcement of the fair housing and fair lending laws. The bottom line: Between 1993 and 1997, home loans grew by 72% to blacks and by 45% to Latinos, far faster than the total growth rate.

Lenders also have opened the door wider to minorities because of new initiatives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–the giant federally chartered corporations that play critical, if obscure, roles in the home finance system. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages from lenders and bundle them into securities; that provides lenders the funds to lend more.

In 1992, Congress mandated that Fannie and Freddie increase their purchases of mortgages for low-income and medium-income borrowers. Operating under that requirement, Fannie Mae, in particular, has been aggressive and creative in stimulating minority gains. It has aimed extensive advertising campaigns at minorities that explain how to buy a home and opened three dozen local offices to encourage lenders to serve these markets. Most importantly, Fannie Mae has agreed to buy more loans with very low down payments–or with mortgage payments that represent an unusually high percentage of a buyer’s income. That’s made banks willing to lend to lower-income families they once might have rejected.

But for all that progress, the black and Latino homeownership rates, at about 46%, still significantly trail the white rate, which is nearing 73%. Much of that difference represents structural social disparities–in education levels, wealth and the percentage of single-parent families–that will only change slowly. Still, Apgar says, HUD’s analysis suggests there are enough qualified buyers to move the minority homeownership rate into the mid-50% range. [Ed: brilliant.]

...But with discrimination in the banking system not yet eradicated, maintaining the momentum of the 1990s will also require a continuing nudge from Washington. One key is to defend the Community Reinvestment Act, which the Senate shortsightedly voted to retrench recently. Clinton has threatened a veto if the House concurs.

The top priority may be to ask more of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two companies are now required to devote 42% of their portfolios to loans for low- and moderate-income borrowers; HUD, which has the authority to set the targets, is poised to propose an increase this summer... Barry Zigas, who heads Fannie Mae’s low-income efforts, is undoubtedly correct when he argues, “There is obviously a limit beyond which [we] can’t push [the banks] to produce.” But with the housing market still sizzling, minority unemployment down and Fannie Mae enjoying record profits (over $3.4 billion last year), it doesn’t appear that the limit has been reached.

The breathless mainstream media and the race-obsessed Democrat Party hyped the kind of no-documentation, loosely underwritten loan that formed the core of the housing crisis.

In July of 2009, according to The New York Times, Andrew Cuomo's Department of Housing and Urban Development mandated that half of all loans purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were to have originated with low- and moderate-income borrowers. In 1998, 44% of all Fannie loans had already met those criteria.

Consider the chart in that context.

On the way: more central planning, more social engineering, more Democrat-inspired disasters, but this time with your health care, not just your home.


Another Hockey Stick Heard From: Now It's Oil Prices

FMX Connect, via Zero Hedge (PDF), publishes the critical digest of prices for energy traders. Today's edition spotlights the wonderful stewardship of the economy by the Democrats. Plus their willingness to explore new energy sources, so long as they're not oil, natural gas, coal or nuclear.

Prices had been rising for months on a combination of higher equities, a periodically weaker dollar and the vague assumption that an economic recovery was both coming and would be capable of lifting oil demand. Up until now, though, we have seen very little reason to believe that that demand had arrived or would arrive soon. That seems to have been the basis for selling over the previous five days. Inventories are high and demand had not yet reached high enough levels to eat into them.

But the selling we had for five days, based on high inventories and insufficient demand, did not build up enough momentum to generate a serious thrust lower. This week’s report – while it still fails on all the really major, long-term tests for supply and demand – has given prices just enough fundamental support to kick the seasonal tendency for higher prices back into gear. As a result, it now looks like the seasonal may have found just enough fundamental buying to replace the flagging interest coming from equities and currencies to carry prices higher over the next few weeks.

Oh, goodie. Higher oil prices.

All part of the Dems' masterful Cloward-Piven implementation plan.


Study: Federal regulations cost Americans $1.2 trillion annually

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) will release a study tomorrow -- on Tax Day, fittingly -- that calculates just how out of control our authoritarian, centralized federal government has become. CEI calls the "10,000 Commandments of Federal Regulation" a crushing, hidden tax.

Worse still, under the current Democrat leadership, the federal government is poised to become even bigger, more unionized, less accountable and tougher to fire when it fails to deliver. Which is often.

Federal regulations cost a whopping $1.187 trillion last year in compliance burdens on Americans. That’s the finding of a new report, Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State, from the Competitive Enterprise Institute that examines the costs imposed by federal regulations.

...The costs of federal regulations often exceed the benefits, yet receive little official scrutiny from Congress. The report urges Congress to step up and take responsibility as lawmakers to review and roll back economically harmful regulations. “Rolling back regulations would constitute the deregulatory stimulus that the U.S. economy needs,” said Crews... Among the report’s findings:

3,503 new regulations took effect last year. The burden of government is heavier than ever.
• How much does government cost? Government is spending $3.518 trillion of our money and imposing another $1.187 trillion dollars in the form of regulatory compliance costs.
• How much of our economic output should be eaten by regulatory costs? Regulatory costs now absorb 8.3 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.
• What's the federal government's total share of the economy? Regulations + spending combined puts the federal government's share of the economy at over 30 percent.
• Which do you think costs us more: individual income tax or regulations? Regulations cost more than the income tax!
• New rules that cost at least $100 million increased by 13 percent between 2007 and 2008.

The report urges reforms to make the regulatory costs more transparent and accountable to the people, including annual “report cards” on regulatory costs and benefits, and congressional votes on significant agency rules before they become binding.

Not to mention implementation of The Fair Tax, a pro-growth national sales tax that would supercharge the economy and liberate private enterprise.

Which is why Democrats oppose it.

Consider: regulations cost the real economy -- the private sector -- $1.2 trillion that would otherwise be spent on hiring, innovation, research, investment, capital equipment, and the like.

But please don't tell Paul "Nikita" Krugman. He's not aware that there's an entire country west of Battery Park.


Hat tip: W

Unhinged reporter for McClatchy (but I repeat myself) claims GOP is 'unified by hatred of Obama'

Shockingly, one of McClatchy's professional dimwits keeps banging the race card drum, given his complete inability to rationally debate policy positions. Like whether one political party is ignoring the Constitution, for example.

Thought experiment: imagine the headline, circa 2002, that reads Unified by hatred of Bush, Moonbats seek challenger.

I'll leave you with this. The stock chart of McClatchy (MNI).

Nice work, pro journalists!

Memo to the Sharpton League of Hatemongers: we hate your policies. Not because of your race. Because of your stupidity. We hate Marxism. And Marxism is the doctrine of the stupid.


Hat tip: @McClatchyWatch.

Holy Patch Tuesday, Batman!

Chopper Man writes:

Okay – so usually there’s a heads up of some kind if a Microsoft security patch cycle is particularly worrisome... but this one takes the cake. Over the top. Here’s the official MS-approved release explanation:

Today, as part of its routine monthly security update cycle, Microsoft is releasing 11 security bulletins to address 25 vulnerabilities: five rated Critical, five rated Important and one rated Moderate. This month's release affects Windows, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Exchange. Additionally, the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) was updated to include Win32/Magania.

Microsoft recommends that customers deploy all security updates as soon as possible. However, Microsoft's guidance on deployment priority is that customers should consider MS10-019, MS10-026, and MS10-027 as the top priority bulletins for April.

This month’s patch cycle is so complex, Microsoft actually released a graphic to help explain this month’s patch cycle:


Comforting.

 

Larwyn's Linx: AZ acts to restore border sanity, amnesty lobby freaks

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

AZ acts to restore border sanity, amnesty lobby freaks: Malkin
Good Riddance to Justice Stevens: Sowell
Dem Dirty Tricks: Crashing the Tea Party: Times

Gee, that was fast: DemCare-induced Doc Shortage: Powers
Phantom Racists Magically Heard by New Witness: GWP
Ilya at Notre Dame: RSM

FBI Had File on Obama’s Radical Grandfather: RWN
That's So Maverick: Wizbang
Sharks in the water for Hawaii's special election: LogMon

Economy

Small Business Optimism: Low and Headed South: Mish
Governor Undeterred By Right Wingers' Threats: Ace
Obama ‘Scaring Dickens Out of Small Businesses’: BMW

Obama's Assault on Non-Union Businesses: RWN
When reading about 'good news' on the deficit...: Hewitt

Climate & Energy

ClimateGate Whitewash: AT
Holdren: U.S. can't be #1 in science and technology forever: BlogProf

Media

Calling all radicals: Podesta is hiring: Mattera
Surprise! Remnick Plays the Race Card: PJM
Obama's disregard for media reaches new heights: WaPo (Milbank)

MSNBC Declines Broadly Among Adults 25-54 vs. 2009 Q1: TVBTN
Frank Rich's Reckless Slander: AT
Al Sharpton Show - 'There Is Not A Black Person On The US Supreme Court': BlogProf

Washington Post begins to dismantle "Tea Party is racism" meme: Wizbang
Hannity and Rubio at The Villages: Tackett

World

Why Israel's Struggle Is Our Struggle, Too: EuropeNews
The Muslim Brotherhood in Germany: GoV
Tariq Ramadan and the Three Public Faces of Islam: PJM

A Tale of Two Cities: WklyStd (Bayefsky)
How Has President Obama Been Weak and Lost Credibility Over Iran: Answering a Reader's Question: BRubin
Obama Loses Another Contact Lens While Meeting World Leader: Powers

Fade to Red: Demoralized, Crisis-ridden Amerika: Moonbattery
He Who Controls The Health System, Controls "Information": LegalIns
Somali Radio Stations Comply With Islamists’ Music Ban: iOTW

SciTech

Neil Armstrong on Obama's NASA Plans: "A Long Downhill Slide to Mediocrity": Ace
Google ready to get down to business: CNet
Nanny State becomes Wet Nurse State: RWN

Cornucopia

Moonbattery applied to the automobile: Moonbattery
The Short List of Candidates to Replace Justice Stevens: Feed Yer ADHD
Ain't It Just Terrible When Powerful Organizations Cover Up Sex Abuse Scandals?: Moonbattery

Images: Maktoob News

Today's Larwyn's Linx Sponsored By: So it goes in Shreveport


Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Engagement with Syria working out well for Obama, Kerry and Clinton: Assad is arming Hezbollah with long-range Scud missiles

I wonder how all of those wonderful speeches, the flowery rhetoric and the humiliating, bended-knee outreach to the Arab Street is working out?

Syria Gave Scuds to Hezbollah, U.S. Says


Syria has transferred long-range Scud missiles to the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, Israeli and U.S. officials alleged, in a move that threatens to alter the Middle East's military balance and sets back a major diplomatic outreach effort to Damascus by the Obama administration.

...Republicans pressed on Capitol Hill to block the appointment of a new American ambassador to Damascus, according to congressional officials. The White House said it was pressing ahead.

The Scuds are believed to have a range of more than 435 miles—placing Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Israel's nuclear installations all within range of Hezbollah's military forces. During a monthlong war with Israel in 2006, Hezbollah used rockets with ranges of 20 to 60 miles.

Israeli officials called Scud missiles "game-changing" armaments that mark a new escalation in the Mideast conflict. They alleged that Mr. Assad is increasingly linking Syria's military command with those of Hezbollah and Iran.

...President Barack Obama has made engaging Mr. Assad's government a cornerstone of his Mideast policy, hoping to woo Damascus into a regional peace process and lure it from a strategic alliance with Iran.

...A spokesman for Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, who went as an emissary to Damascus on April 1, said that he couldn't comment... Detractors of the White House's policy of engagement with Damascus seized on the news Tuesday as evidence Mr. Assad has no intention of breaking Syria's strategic ties to Tehran and Hezbollah.

... "It's increasingly hard to argue that the engagement track has worked," said Andrew Tabler, a Syria analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a regional think tank with no party affiliation that some view as pro-Israel.

Little wonder the Democrats are known far and wide as "The Party of Weakness".

This isn't going to end well.


Hat tip: Dan from New York. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

For all of his talk about reducing the spread of nuclear weapons, the President's doing a bang-up job of neutron-bombing the economy

The new health care bill has already resulted in the cancellation of the construction of at least 60 new hospitals and thousands of beds. That's because doctor-owned facilities are effectively banned by DemCare. And the President's awesome stewardship of the economy continues to pay dividends, as the thousands of private sector jobs that would have resulted from these hospitals have been vaporized, kinda like they were hit with a neutron-bomb.

The jobs are gone -- and only the people remain.

Evidence for the non-stop eradication of the private economy continues to roll in, most recently in terms of our bankrupt Treasury Department, which is experiencing -- uhm -- unusual outflows this tax season.

Through the 14th week of the calendar year (not fiscal), cumulative tax withholdings in 2010 are $477.9 billion, $13.5 billion less than the $491.4 billion in 2009. Yet regardless of what the only organic source of revenue for the Treasury looks like, the Treasury (and IRS) are issuing ever increasing tax refunds with the abandon of a drunken sailor. The chart below compares how many more refunds on a cumulative basis have been issued in 2010 compared to 2009. Oddly, it is also $13 billion, however in the wrong direction.

Net out refunds from gross withholdings, shows just how blatant the lies is that the Treasury is collecting more money than previously. On a cumulative basis 2010 compared to 2009 has seen a net $26.5 billion less withheld by the Treasury. We fail to see how this number is in any way an indication of efficient money management. Coupled with record unemployment benefit outlays, surging discretionary spending, and record net bond issuance, and the US Treasury is rapidly realizing that should it be unable to fund itself using its Bernanke-Jiabao Tungsten credit card, it is all over.

The following graph illustrates just how bad this Democrat Congress and administration have mismanaged the economy. Despite trillions in 'Stimulus', Omnibus spending bills, limitless unemployment checks, and every other manner of Orwellian central planning program, the government continues to hemorrhage cash this year compared to last.

Things aren't getting better. Net tax withholdings are $26.5 billion worse this year than last.

But I blame Bush. Or Cheney. Or Halliburton. Or anyone but Obama, Pelosi and Reid.

Because that would be racist. Or so the Democrats tell me.


Why BlackBerry Should "Go All Borg" on the Android

RIM is on a roll, both in financial terms and in its swath of compelling new offerings. But it faces challenges, as all successful tech companies do, from competitors new and old. This "position paper" -- such as it is -- describes a completely personal take on how RIM can learn from the lessons of the past and perhaps avoid the tidal wave of obsolesence that so often seems to swamp powerful incumbents.

Given the dramatic rise of the mobile Internet, compressed deadlines for strategic actions are certain. I therefore propose a simple course of action that could help mitigate risk while offering the potential for top-line growth, differentiation and market share for the maker of the BlackBerry. Too radical? Too tame? Just plain silly? Please let me know in the comments.

Time Grows Short

Why now? Mary Meeker has eloquently described the ramp-up time for mobile Internet adoption as "exponentially faster" than the "explosive" growth of the desktop web.

Is it therefore unreasonable to anticipate analogous corporate interplay among hardware, software and service providers? It is all but certain that events will play out more rapidly and with more market brutality than we saw with the desktop web.

The Networked Desktop and Corporate Endgame Analogies

In the desktop world, Microsoft ignored, ridiculed, fought and -- finally -- succumbed to open source. In fact, MSFT's coupon deal with Novell was a tacit admission that Unices (Linux included) represented a significant IP challenge to the legal and competitive hegemony it had once wielded.

If I can be so bold as to map the world of networked desktops to the mobile Internet landscape, I propose the following analogies:

1. RIM plays the role of Novell: an early, dominant leader in advanced solutions for corporations;
2. Apple plays the role of Microsoft: utilizing dominance among consumers and early corporate adopters to begin capturing mindshare and positioning itself to supercede the incumbent (RIM);
3. Android plays the role of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), a stack designed for ease of development, rapid augmentation and improvement, and unparalleled cost-effectiveness -- i.e., completely free to use;

These analogies are, of course, just that. They are imperfect and imprecise, but they do provide one historical prism through which we can view the forthcoming revolution in mobile.

RIM appears, for example, to be anything but a staid Novell, which suffered from severe strategic and product management gaffes during the course of its war with Microsoft. That said, the loyalty that Apple iPhone users have to the platform appears unprecedented. A recent study indicates that 90%+ of users would resist switching platforms short of a threat at gunpoint.

Microsoft, to this day, has resisted embracing its chief competitor in the networked server stack (LAMP) with the exception of the PHP programming language. PHP's popularity -- and the fact that, early on, it established a beachhead on Windows Servers -- forced Microsoft to act lest it lose significant market share among ISPs and other players of scale.

Could Microsoft sell its proprietary packages on Linux variants? Would there be a market for a closed-source SQL Server for Red Hat Linux? Could MSFT sell its own File-and-Print platform for Novell's SUSE? Given the market-share achieved by Linux,I strongly suspect that the Redmondians could capture significant swaths of "blue ocean" among corporate users who require major-league maintenance and support. Yet, these products are unavailable and -- presumably -- will never be brought to market, even as Linux continues to gain momentum.

Of primary concern for RIM: First Mover Advantage is Highly Compressed

Given these rough analogies, what sort of moves could RIM execute to mitigate erosion in market share? As the iPhone and Android spread to various carriers and as their support for corporate integration improves, so too does the possibility of one or more dramatic, breathrough applications arising on those platforms, leaving RIM a step behind.

The scale and diversity of developers on the iPhone and Android platforms represents a formidable foe that RIM has no choice but to confront head-on. The BlackBerry must choose one of two paths:

1) The Microsoft approach: assume that every platform is the enemy; resist it at all costs even as differentiation, margins and market share diminish;
2) The Borg approach: embrace and extend strategic platforms.

The Borg approach does not need to be executed immediately. Certain decision-points (e.g., a minimum market share threshhold) could be formulated that would dictate when a rollout is warranted. That said, R&D in these areas would seem to be critical in order to prepare for what I think may be inevitable.

The Borg approach could be used to damage another competitor. For example, imagine that RIM created a full-fledged, BES-compatible security solution for Android, but ignored iPhone. Improved corporate Android acceptance, at the expense of iPhone, would be likely.

What about cannbalization?

I can hear the question now: why would RIM cannibalize itself? I have a simple philosophy: if you can't cannibalize yourself, someone else will throw you in the cauldron. That said, I do suggest some thresholds, at which point RIM management could choose to engage in these areas. So long as market share for its targeted organizations stays above that marker, RIM could choose to leave these products in R&D or in a limited beta test.

But preparing for a likely onslaught, whether in the form of a dramatic new application or a new "killer device" seems like a sound approach.

Security as the be-all and end-all

RIM achieved dominance as a corporate handset not simply because of its excellent usability, but also due to its attention to detail in the realms of security, policy and manageability. Microsoft, despite countless revisions and upgrades of Windows Mobile, has yet to match RIM in any of these areas.

As state regulations become more onerous -- added to the daunting requirements of PCI, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, GLBA, FINRA, the SEC, etc. -- it's clear that bullet-proof security will be the first and overarching requirement of corporate IT decision-makers.

The current solutions for securing mobile devices -- from vendors like Good Technologies, MobileIron, Sybase, etc. -- are relatively immature. The vendors are, in comparison to RIM, tiny. And managing "yet another technology" requires IT groups to add soft-dollar (FTE) costs at a time when they can least afford it.

The BlackBerry solution addresses all of the above:

- Its solutions are provably secure, robust and mature
- As a vendor, it is already a trusted powerhouse for corporate IT decision-makers
- The BES management solution is present in nearly every major shop, which alleviates the FTE issue

Mobile Commerce, Built Upon a Foundation of Security

Let's assume for a moment that RIM has followed this advice to a tee and rolled out a secure, BES-compliant platform for Android. What interesting applications could then be deployed using this foundation?

I contend that a true mobile wallet, enabling one-click (oops, did I violate an Amazon patent?) payment using PayPal, PAC (pre-authorized checking), e-coupons presented on-screen, etc. would be a logical and compelling offering. Furthermore, with BES already present within the shops of major merchants, value-added extensions to popular accounting and transactional systems (A/P, A/R, EFT and so forth) would seem to be natural differentiators.

Seeing as it installed in so many important shops, BES represents a significant asset. Commerce enablement and back-office integration for merchants would appear to be powerful methods to solidify its place in the IT infrastructure and to create new revenue streams through commerce integration and enablement.

Summary

BlackBerry should be prepared to "drop the hammer" on the mobile market by displacing the third-party security solutions that are beginning to gain traction in corporate environments. By doing so, it could not only capture "blue ocean" market share, but could potentially open profitable new fronts through which it can interoperate with, and monetize, existing and unanticipated applications.

One day, perhaps BES could stand for "Borg Enterprise Server"!


Mary Meeker presentation: GigaOM.

Larwyn's Linx: Advice for John Boehner

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Nation

Advice for John Boehner: RWN
Oops: DemCare strips Congress of health coverage?: Hot Air
MN teacher organizes anti-Tea Party protest?: GWP

Expose the Party Crashers: PJM
Pics, video from Clinton, MI Tea Party Express stop: BlogProf
Get involved now!: Adrienne

Economy

What's behind SEIU head's resignation?: Malkin
No such thing as a free sanctuary city: WExam
Obama to create Post Office of health care: York

Radical group perfects legal bank heists: WExam
Uncle Sam opens the bank vault to activists: WExam
The Fiscal Nightmare of the Welfare State: PJM

Climate & Energy

I Went to Duke University: Bubba
Death by CAFE standards: AT
Dreams from my pipe: CBullitt

Ecomoonbattery Threatens Los Angeles With Insolvency: RWN
Jesse Watters confronts Al Gore at Duke: GWP

Media

What 'Radical' Really Looks Like: RWN
Newsweek Covering Tea Parties With Unusual Restraint: Driscoll
Breitbart: taking the fight to the MSM: MoneyRunner

ObamaCare and the Supreme Court: Barone
Obama attends non-existent soccer game?: AT
Macomb Daily smears conservatives as being 'anti-government': BlogProf

World

The Welfare State: British Style: RWN
How did Iran go so wrong?: NRO
Diplomatic Jihad against Israel: Geller

Obama's Kyrgyzstan Disaster: AT
Hillary Finally Spots the 800-pound Radioactive Gorilla: PJM
Plot to Bomb Times Square and Grand Central Subway Stations Revealed: Potluck

“Outliers”, not “rogue states”: Fausta
Here we bow again: CFB
Change! Iranian Regime Wants Obama Tried By International Tribunal: GWP

SciTech

KFC Double Down Sandwich: Destroyer of Touchscreens: Gizmodo
Google CEO: 'We're now paranoid' about security: CNet
Breastfeeding rooms hidden in health care law: CNN

Cornucopia

Inside the Actor's Studio with the Simpsons: Ace
How Complex is the IRS?: BigGovt

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