Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Headlines I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to read tomorrow morning

U.S. Department of Competence Rates Administration Performance on Oil Spill an 'A+'

DOJ Officials Resign to Defend Times Square Bomber

U.S. Department of Competence Rates Border Security an 'A+'

Greek Unions Deliver Their Final Answer: Buy Me More Gyros, Euro-b***hes

Bloomberg: Suspect was Tea Party Activist, Suffering from Salt Overdose, Who Wandered into Pakistan Looking for Private Doctor

U.S. Department of Competence Rates DHS Head Janet Napolitano's Handling of Counterterrorism an 'A+'



Image Idea: American Digest.

Tomorrow's IBD Confirms: By a 2-to-1 Margin Americans Favor Arizona's Enforcement of Federal Immigration Law

Tomorrow's Investors Business Daily will confirm what other polls had found: Americans overwhelmingly support Arizona's enforcement of existing federal immigration law. By a 2-to-1 margin (60% to 30%, with 10% undecided), Americans believe that states have every right to defend citizens from an unchecked invasion of illegal immigrants.

Last time I checked, protecting the border was a constitutional duty of the federal government, which it appears to have abdicated.

The law, signed by GOP Gov. Jan Brewer on April 23, lets state and local law enforcement scrutinize a person's citizenship after a "lawful contact" (arrest or other action).

Similar laws are being proposed for Pennsylvania, Missouri, Texas, Maryland and Oklahoma, though they are in preliminary stages.

The poll also found hardened attitudes toward illegal immigrants. Now 49% agree that illegals do jobs that Americans will not do vs. 54% in 2006. Just 33% believe illegals contribute significantly to the economy vs. 44% in 2006.

Eighty percent believe employers who knowingly hire illegals should be held accountable, 66% say securing the borders trumps expanding any guest-worker program and 71% think that the borders must be secure before discussing any amnesty for existing illegal immigrants.

"If the public actually did believe the borders were secure ... the public might actually go for an amnesty," [Center for Immigration Studies head Mark] Krikorian said. But the public doesn't buy border enforcement claims, he adds.

Janet Incompetano could not be reached for comment.


Efficiency: Prior to the BP disaster, at least 16 different federal agencies claimed to have responsibility for handling oil spills

Before the tragic explosion and spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20th, at least 16 different government bureaucracies claimed to have responsibility for responding to -- and cleaning up -- an oil spill. Consider the EPA's website, for instance.

According to the "National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan Overview", the EPA has responsibility for reacting to and cleaning up spills.

The first National Contingency Plan was developed and published in 1968 in response to a massive oil spill from the oil tanker Torrey Canyon off the coast of England the year before. More than 37 million gallons of crude oil spilled into the water, causing massive environmental damage. To avoid the problems faced by response officials involved in this incident, U.S. officials developed a coordinated approach to cope with potential spills in U.S. waters. The 1968 plan provided the first comprehensive system of accident reporting, spill containment, and cleanup, and established a response headquarters, a national reaction team, and regional reaction teams (precursors to the current National Response Team and Regional Response Teams...

...Congress has broadened the scope of the National Contingency Plan over the years. As required by the Clean Water Act of 1972, the NCP was revised the following year to include a framework for responding to hazardous substance spills as well as oil discharges. Following the passage of Superfund legislation in 1980, the NCP was broadened to cover releases at hazardous waste sites... The latest revisions to the NCP were finalized in 1994 to reflect the oil spill provisions of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

Gee, that sounds simple.

The Department of the Interior describes the makeup of the "National Response Team" and how it reacted to the latest spill.

The National Response Team (NRT), an organization of 16 federal departments and agencies responsible for coordinating emergency preparedness and response to oil and hazardous substance pollution incidents was quickly activated and a coordinated group of federal partners-including the United States Coast Guard, Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency-immediately began directing and overseeing BP's response...

In truth, none of these entities -- other than the Coast Guard -- appeared to execute anything that even resembled a contingency plan.

Ron Gouget, who once managed Gulf spill response teams, publicly pilloried the administration's response to the tragic oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Gouget is an expert when it comes to these matters: he helped create the 1994 plan that allowed expedited burning of oil as soon as a major spill had occurred -- without having to wait for permission or approvals.

Isn't a massive federal bureaucracy awesome?

In fact, the useless buffoon Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, was preparing to award BP a certificate of safety excellence just days before the tragic blowout.

This is precisely why -- as part of balancing the out-of-control federal budget -- all unconstitutional and unelected pseudo-branches of government need to be eradicated. That means you, Departments of the Interior, Education and Labor. That means you, EPA. That means every other cluster of hacks that exist solely to torment us with regulations and dictates. These clueless hacks couldn't execute a 16-year old plan for handling an oil spill -- while they claim they can run 16% of the economy -- the entire U.S. health care system.


Larwyn's Linx: Update from Cochise County, Arizona

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

Update from Cochise County, Arizona: AT
The May Day angry mob you won’t see: Malkin
Man arrested for Times Square bomb on NYC-Dubai flight: GWP

Economy

ObamaCare's poison pill for Doctor-owned hospitals: Exam
Prepare for the new bureaucracy: RWN
The Dollar's Inevitable Demise: AT

Orwell has nothing on the PA Dept. of Revenue: RWN
Congress: ripping you off for travel money: Times
The Small Business Administration: Useless: Times

Climate & Energy

Despite Federal Plan, Officials Failed to Stock Fire Booms to Contain Oil Slick: GWP
Taking advantage of an oil crisis: AT
Gulf oil spill is not Obama's Katrina, it's worse: BlogProf

Media

How Long Will Our Luck Hold Out?: Hewitt
Krauthammer: So, that KSM trial in New York probably isn’t happening now, huh?: Hot Air
Times Square: It's the Jihad, Stupid: Simon

Congressional Hypocrites Were Betting Against Stocks As Country Collapsed: Insider
Obama doesn't do self-deprecation: JOM
Israel Lobby co-author reveals his true colors: PJM

World

Puerto Rico and the Recurring Plebiscite: Fausta
NY Governor to Help Immigrants With Criminal Convictions Avoid Deportation: WZ
Why The Arab/Israeli Conflict Remains Intractable: Grobman

From Terrorists to Role Models: The Palestinian Authority's Institutionalization of Incitement: PMW
Obama policies secure Iran's regional supremacy: HNN
Photo of Saudi king with women could lead to reform: Telegraph

SciTech

Apple sells 1 million iPads in 28 days: joystiq
Microsoft's browser share dips below 60%: CNet
As Convergys Goes on the Block, Will Teleperformance be the Top Bidder?: NearShores

Cornucopia

More Evidence the Obama Affair Story is Bunk: FeedYourADHD
The obligatory 'Florida state senator caught looking at porn on senate floor' clip: Hot Air
Children's Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, Zyrtec recalled: CR

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Adrienne's Catholic Corner.


Monday, May 03, 2010

In this episode, U.S. taxpayers get shafted again: you and your kids are now funding Greek public sector unions in a futile effort to save the Euro

It's really quite simple: if you can figure out a way to rip off the American taxpayer, odds are this administration already came up with it. It's not enough that we wasted trillions of dollars on cash-for-clunkers, weather-stripping programs, massive welfare programs disguised as "tax credits", and the already-bankrupt Social Security and Medicare programs.

Now we get to fund the Greeks, who are engaging in riots as we speak, protesting the fact that they have to work more than 30 hours a week in their government jobs.

The doomed bailout of Greece is costing 110-billion Euro, of which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ponies up $40 billion. U.S. taxpayers are funding about $8 billion of that amount.

The worst part, as Henry Blodget points out, is that our debt is junior to Greece's existing debt. Which means that the nimrods who funded Greece years ago will likely get their money back -- from us -- and we'll get nada. Bupkis. Zip.

To illustrate just how fraudulent a deal this is, consider this graph of Greek debt, courtesy Tyler Durden.

If you thought a Fed bailout is ugly, you ain't seen nothing yet: this is what a European bailout looks like... With Europe and the IMF explicitly funding the delta from the smooth inverted curve (it's inverted because the market knows too well the country will default) and with a bulk of Greek debt in the short-dated side of the curve, the implicit immediate loss borne by European and US taxpayers is about 6% on $145 billion of debt or about $10 billion, which investors in the short end are underwater by currently. We are not even accounting what the implicit cost for the broader parallel curve shift as a result of this intervention is, but something tells us it is in the tens of billions too. Yet somehow, we are certain that the ECB and the IMF will spin this as a massive victory for the bulls. We are confident the appropriate talents of CNBC in this regard have already been retained.

In short, Greece is headed right into the tarmac and everyone knows it.

But ten billion or more of our dollars are being spent, without our permission, to fund another episode of "extend and pretend". The world has kicked the can down the road as it pertains to Greece -- similar to how the Obama White House dealt with GM and Chrysler -- in the hope that the entire system won't implode until after the elections.


At what point, exactly, did Bill Gates make 'enough money' on his road to earning billions, much of which is devoted to medicine and charity?

How much money is "enough"? That's the question a reporter with cojones -- if such an animal still exists -- should ask the President after his infamous and revealing remark Saturday. And yes, if you were wondering, he went off-script and ignored the counsel of TOTUS.

We’re not, we’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned.

I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.

But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or providing good service. We don’t want people to stop, ah, fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow our economy.

The President and his wife made $5.5 million last year. Is that enough money?


How about Al Gore, who is said to have earned up to $150 million promoting the 'global warming' scam (or is it called 'climate change' now, I forget?). A man who, at last count, had at least four luxury homes scattered throughout the world including his latest acquisition, an Italian-style mansion with ocean views and nine bathrooms, in Montecita, California. Is that enough money?

What should we make of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google? Little more than ten years ago, they were college students struggling in their dorm room to create a new way to search the web.

A decade later, Page and Brin were worth a combined $36 billion as the founders of Google.

What economic illiterates like Obama can't or won't understand is that wealth disparity is wonderful. It allowed Page and Brin to create and grow a company from whole cloth, employ thousands and produce hundreds of other millionaires. Those millionaires, in turn, often invest, fund their own startups, employ others and create new avenues for wealth creation.

A question for President Obama: at what point during their journey to create and build Google had Brin and Page made 'enough money'? Should they have stopped at, say, $10 million apiece?

The current crop of Democrat leaders are among the dumbest folks ever to serve in positions of power. Think about it: Pelosi, Biden, Reid and Obama. They're all economic illiterates. Have any of them held a real job, ever?


Democrats believe in their hearts that economics is a zero-sum game: if Page and Brin made more money, it's because they stole the food out of others' mouths. A more idiotic fallacy you'd be hard-pressed to invent.

That's why you always need to remember this truism, which my Dad taught me many years ago and which has never failed me. "Son," he said, "liberalism is the philosophy of the stupid. Whatever they tell you, you can be sure they're either ignorant of the facts or lying. And usually it's both."


Image enhancement of Times Square scene could lead to identification of bomber

There was a close call in Times Square this weekend -- as a car-bomb nearly detonated near a packed theater -- and it's led to massive hunt for this man, caught on surveillance tape.

Unfortunately, the grainy photograph hasn't led to an arrest yet. However, the Post reported earlier today that authorities are following up on a 'foreign connection'.

Thankfully, our staff here at DR@J is not without tools of our own. That explains how, using his proprietary SpackleMatic 3000™ Image Enhancement Software, enterprising cub reporter Biff Spackle produced this stunning enhanced photograph of the scene:

Why, I think I might recognize that guy.


If I didn't know better, I'd think that ol' Bill Ayers is acting out again.


Larwyn's Linx: Times Square Car Bomb Targeted Children

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

Times Square Car Bomb Targeted Children: Shrink-Wrapped
Video of suspected Times Square bomber released: IBA
Constitution Offers No Haven to ObamaCare’s Mandate: Cato

Economy

America's Growing Vulnerability to Catastrophe: AT
Michigan Firemen Setting Fires Over Union Anger: RWN
How Obama Himself Made More Than 'Enough Money': Cashill

Climate & Energy

Devastating video shows NOAA knew spill impact on 4/22: GWP
Thoughts on Gorism: Hanson
It's how they think: 'a boot on the neck': BrutHon

Media

May Day protest turns violent, media spins coverage: Riehl
CNN Anchor: 'We're Not Supposed To Call You Dumb, But…': RWN
Obama's Race-Baiting: Times

At Correspondents Dinner, Obama Gets In Plenty of Shots: RWN
Casting his 'enemies' in ridiculous extremes: Hindenblog
Coulter goes after Rove, Rubio for their initial opposition to Arizona law: Mediate

Listing Dangerously: RWN
Government ain't me, man: AT
Raising Arizona: The New Immigration Law : Langbert

World

The Greek Tragedy Unfolds: AI
British ObamaCare update: Bureaucrats getting in the way of saving lives: Marathon
Chinese accused of vast trade in organs harvested from religious dissidents: Times

SciTech

Flooding in Nashville: Instapundit
Nissan Leaf Close to Profitability: Told You So! : Seeking Alpha
Spirit iPhone 3.1.3 and iPad Jailbreak Out: BigBoss

Cornucopia

Remembering the Fall of Saigon: BrutHon
The Hive and the Town: AmDigest
2 million without clean water in Boston: Times

Image: NYPD
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: May Day Contest.

QOTD: 'To the coastal commentariat, "undocumented immigrants" are the people who mow your lawn while you're at work and clean your office while you're at home. (That, for the benefit of The New York Times' Linda Greenhouse, is the real apartheid: the acceptance of a permanent "undocumented" servant class by far too many "documented" Americans who assuage their guilt by pathetic sentimentalization of immigration.) But in border states, illegal immigration is life and death. I spoke to a lady this week who has a camp of illegals on the edge of her land. She lies awake at night, fearful for her children and alert to strange noises in the yard.

President Obama, shooting from his lip, attacked the new law as an offense against "fairness." Where's the fairness for this woman's family? Because her home is in Arizona rather than Hyde Park, Chicago, she's just supposed to get used to living under siege?' -- Mark Steyn


Sunday, May 02, 2010

Exclusive Photo Gallery: Check out the Carbon Footprint of Al Gore's New Ocean-View Mediterranean Villa

The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Al and Tipper Gore greatly expanded their carbon footprint with the purchase of their fourth luxury home. The 'global warming' business has been very, very good to the Gores.

Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, have added a Montecito-area property to their real estate holdings, reports the Montecito Journal... The couple spent $8,875,000 on an ocean-view villa on 1.5 acres with a swimming pool, spa and fountains, a real estate source familiar with the deal confirms. The Italian-style house has six fireplaces, five bedrooms and nine bathrooms.

Given the ocean-view, Gore really can't be too concerned with rising sea levels. A little sleuthing led me to this delightful listing, which I believe is the new Gore residence as: (a) it recently dropped off the listing agent's "for sale" site; and (b) it meets the fairly unique criteria specified by the Montecito Journal.












Don't you love these hypocritical Climatards? (That's the term they prefer, I hear).

They want to control your lives: how big your car can be, how much water your toilet can hold, the kind of light bulbs you can use. They even think there are limits on how much money you should be able to make.

But they put no limits on what they can have. Kind of like the old Soviet Politburo. Which is the kind of society they intend for us.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin, NewsBusters, Linkiest, Moonbattery, Small Dead Animals and Climate Change Fraud. Thanks!

NYC Police Commissioner describes makeup of Times Square car-bomb: but what were the eight bags of 'unknown substance'?

In a press conference this afternoon, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly offered a detailed description of the car-bomb found inside a Nissan Pathfinder parked in Times Square last night.

At about 2 p.m. Sunday, NYPD breached a 55 by 32 inch gun locker inside the car and found it contained eight bags of an unknown, fertilizer-like substance and an inverted pot with a "bird's nest" of wires. There were three propane tanks next to the gun locker, two five-gallon jerry cans of gasoline, and a timing device, police officials said.

There was no high-grade explosive, and the timing device was clocks attached to wires. Attached to the propane tanks were M88 fireworks, some of which went off.

One alarm clock appeared to be wired into the gun locker. Another alarm clock was wired to a can with up to 30 M88 firecrackers resting between the cans of gasoline.

Surveillance cameras observed the vehicle entering Times Square at 6:28pm Saturday evening.

The noted salt and bomb expert Michael Bloomberg (the idiot mayor, not the news service) offered his keen insights into the bomb's construction.

"The wiring ... looked amateurish, I think, is a nice way to phrase it," Bloomberg added later. "It was made up of consumer-grade fireworks that you can buy in Pennsylvania and drive into New York.

"It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire, and a decent amount of explosive impact," Bloomberg said.

A caller to 9-1-1 was reported to have stated that the car-bomb was "nothing more than a diversion and that a massive explosion would soon be coming to Times Square."


OilGate: Former Federal Spill Response Coordinator Blasts White House Reaction as 'Unconscionable' -- Was It Incompetence or Malice?

On April 29th, Ron Gouget, who once managed Gulf spill response teams, publicly pilloried the administration's response to the tragic oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Gouget is an expert when it comes to these matters: he helped create the 1994 plan that allowed expedited burning of oil as soon as a major spill had occurred -- without having to wait for permission or approvals.

Federal officials should have started burning oil off the surface of the Gulf last week, almost as soon as the spill happened, said the former oil spill response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Ron Gouget, who also managed Louisiana's oil response team for a time, said federal officials missed a narrow window of opportunity to gain control of the spill by burning last week, before the spill spread hundreds of miles across the Gulf, and before winds began blowing toward shore.

He also said the heavy use of dispersants instead of burning the oil has likely knocked so much oil into the water column that portions of the Gulf may be on the threshold of becoming toxic to marine life. Add in the oil spreading into the water as it rises from the seafloor, and Gouget said he expected officials would have to begin limiting the use of the dispersants.

..."They had pre-approval. The whole reason the plan was created was so we could pull the trigger right away instead of waiting ten days to get permission," Gouget said. "If you read the pre-approval plan, it speaks about Grand Isle, where the spill is. When the wind is blowing offshore out of the north, you have preapproval to burn in that region. If the wind is coming onshore, like it is now, you can't burn at Grand Isle. They waited to do the test burn until the wind started coming onshore."

Asked why officials waited for a week before conducting even a test burn, Gouget said, "Good question. Maybe complacency was the biggest issue. They probably didn't have the materials on hand to conduct the burn, which is unconscionable."

He said the NOAA officials involved at the Unified Command Center in Louisiana know how to respond to spills, and know burning should have started as soon as possible after the initial release was detected. Gouget said they may have been overruled... "This whole thing has been a daily strip tease. At first they thought it was just the diesel, then they said the well wasn't leaking. It's unfortunate they didn't get the burning going right away. They could have gotten 90 percent of the oil before it spread."

News flash: this is a scandal. Why didn't NOAA execute the pre-approved plan to contain the leak? An incurious mainstream media could easily have picked up Gouget's locally reported comments and started digging into this issue.

But the White House response has consisted of dispatching lawyers to New Orleans and shutting down other rigs that have nothing to do with the BP disaster. On April 30th -- ten days after the catastrophic explosion -- the oil and gas news site RigZone reported that the White House had forbidden new drilling.

Yesterday, the administration escalated its response to the oil spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico following the rig's collapse in approximately 5,000 ft. of water on April 22... On Friday, top advisor David Axelrod said, "No additional drilling has been authorized and none will until we find out what has happened here." He also defended the White House's response to the April 20 blowout incident, saying "we had the Coast Guard in almost immediately..."

I'll say it again: this is a scandal. Why did NOAA not execute its pre-approved plan to contain the spill?

Furthermore, a lazy, incompetent legacy media-complex thoroughly ignored this issue, apparently hypnotized by the President's teleprompter as he campaigned endlessly as the disaster unfolded.

What explains the failure to execute a pre-planned incident response process? Is there anyone in legacy media who still cares? Hello? Is this thing on?


Hat tips: I Bleed Crimson Red and Linda in California. Linked by: American Thinker and The Washington Examiner. Thanks!

Shhh... no one tell the media: Pro-illegal immigration rallies feature Aztlan revolutionaries, death threats, and zero respect for America

Looking at the Left offers the perspective from Denver: "The International Workers’ Day march in Denver brought some colorful characters to Colorado’s Capital Building Saturday. A diverse group of Anarchists, Marxists, and Revolutionary Zapatistas joined forces to protest Arizona’s new immigration law."



Isn't it interesting that none of these pro-anarchy, open borders Leftists display even a hint of respect for America, its laws, its traditions, its language or its borders?