Friday, May 21, 2010

BP to construct massive mosque over Gulf oil spill site in hopes of plugging leak, plus to 'stay on the President's good side'

NEW ORLEANS (ASSOCIATED DEPRESSED) - BP intends to build one of the world's most massive mosques in order to "kill two birds with one stone", according to Vice President of Lubrication Services Harvey Von Frostie. The mission of the construction project includes stopping the leak, which was caused by a tragic accident on April 20th, as well as "ensuring we stay on the administration's good side."

At a press conference late Thursday afternoon, Von Frostie assured reporters that the project would be relatively "uncontroversial compared to the Mosque currently being constructed at Ground Zero."

Continued on Page B17

Image: PhotoFurl. Linked by: Michelle Malkin and Doug Powers. Thanks!


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Larwyn's Linx: ICE Chief: We May Not Process AZ Illegals!

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

ICE Chief: We May Not Process AZ Illegals!: HotAir
Dems Stand and Cheer as Calderon Bashes Arizona Law: Malkin
71% of AZ Voters Support Border Enforcement Law: GWP

Huge Mob of SEIU Goons Attacks Banker’s Home: RWN
Sestak's Little Bribe Problem: AT
Sestak may face ethics probe over job offer: WashExam

Economy

Detroit's Public Schools' Worst-Ever Report Card: BlogProf
Time to Rein In Government Pay: Tapscott
Transit Equity: AT

With Deficit Exploding, Dems Pretend to Worry: RWN
Surprise! Mass. Insurers Hemorrhaging Cash: NRO
Legal Challenges to ObamaCare Multiply: PJM

Media

Dhimmitude and Draw Mohammed Day: Malkin
The Left’s 'Blueprint' for perpetual power: Vadum
Michael Kinsely: It's Only Bad When You Do It: Ace

The Predictable Treatment Of Rand Paul: RWN
Slick Rick Blumenthal caught in more lies: 3BeersLater
This is what we're up against: Rumble Report

Tony Rezko, Barack Obama, the FBI Mole, and the Somnolent Chicago MSM: BigJournalism
I Feel Like I Owe It To Someone: Belmont
Did Sestak Get WH Job Offer? Media Seem Not to Care: NewsBusters

World

Because No One Group Gets to Decide What's Offensive: Zombie
The 93,000: Fausta
Neighbors and Friends: Grand Rants

Arizona Democratic Rep: Yes To Boycotting Arizona, No To Boycotting Gaza: MereRhet
European Social Welfare State Model Running Out of Time and Money: PJM
Obama advisor: Sharia Law misunderstood -- it's about 'gender justice': BlogProf

Not just their Big Fat Greek Funeral: Steyn
France makes way for new mega-mosque: Maktoob

SciTech

More Apple Censorship: Removes iPhone App that Criticizes Islam, Mohammed, Koran: GWP
Woman's Work: MindingTheCampus

Cornucopia

What's In a Name?: JWF
The Porn Parody of the Batman Show: Ace
Mojave Cross replica is removed after mysteriously appearing overnight: PE

Image: Maktoob Business.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Noisy Room

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Change: The Post-Partisan President Ignores All Pleas for Fiscal Sanity

Excerpt of a letter from 154 House Republicans to the President's 'Debt Commission':

In a depressed economy, the number one priority of government should be to stimulate job growth. With unemployment at nearly 10 percent, Americans cannot afford the burden of a new job killing tax. But this is exactly what a VAT will do. A VAT will increase the cost of goods and services for all Americans, including the lower and middle classes. It will tax our manufacturers, sending even more jobs overseas. And, it will decrease consumption, which will deepen the recession and suppress entrepreneurship. This is exactly what has happened in Europe where increased government spending and taxation has led to consistently high unemployment and suppressed economic activity.

Not that the Obama Democrats care, but Americans have had enough big government in the last 18 months to last a lifetime. A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll illustrates the frustration and anger.

Four months ago, House Republicans sent President Obama a letter urging a bipartisan effort to slash government spending. Cutting the dangerous levels of debt is an urgent necessity and it's not just Republicans saying it: 222 economists have strongly urged the President to embrace fiscal sanity before the entire system unwinds.

President Axelrod never responded. And so the economy continues to hemorrhage, bleeding jobs, wealth and opportunity while the deficit grows to heights never seen before in human history.


Hat tips: GOP Leader and Cahuna.

Remembering John McCain's 2008 Campaign Adviser -- Open Borders Pal Juan Hernandez, Erstwhile Revolutionary and Virulent Anti-Semite

Support J.D. HayworthJohn McCain was a terrible -- terrible -- candidate for president in 2008. He advocated cap-and-trade to deal with the non-existent warmal colding scam; he tried to shove amnesty for illegal immigrants down our throats; he tried to destroy freedom of speech with McCain-Feingold; he was one of the "Gang of 14" that let Democrats illegally filibuster conservative judicial nominees; and he couldn't articulate a coherent sentence during the campaign ("Heh, heh... my friends"). And he certainly doesn't understand the Constitution and the principles of our founding.

McCain acts tough on the border now that people are dying in Arizona and public outrage is building. He wants you to forget his past: like the fact that Juan Hernandez joined the McCain for President campaign late in 2007. Who is Juan Hernandez?

He is a former head of Mexico's Ministry for Mexicans Living in the United States. According to Michelle Malkin, who debated Hernandez on multiple occasions, Hernandez' mission is to tie repatriated Mexicans "emotionally, linguistically, politically to Mexico, because then they‘ll continue to send money home.”

In fact, Hernandez publicly stated that the area is "not two countries; it's just a region.”

Hernandez refers to the so-called region of "Aztlan", the mythical southwestern portion of the United States that Chicano revolutionaries claim as their own.

Aztlan: an attempt to overthrow the United States government

Universities in the Southwest facilitate student participation in groups like MEChA. MEChA is one of several groups that intend to "reclaim Aztlán" (the outlined portion of the United States):

...we are a Chicana and Chicano student movement directly linked to Aztlán. As Chicanas and Chicanos of Aztlán, we are a nationalist movement of Indigenous Gente that lay claim to the land that is ours by birthright. As a nationalist movement we seek to free our people from the exploitation of an oppressive society that occupies our land...

MEChA's mission is straightforward: overthrow the United States Government and establish a new form of government.

Hernandez: backed by Antisemites

An article from the Aztlan Communications Network (2002) blames Hernandez' prior problems on the "Zionists" ("Fox extends Mexican Government into Aztlan"):

The new cabinet level agency replaces the "Office for Mexicans Living Abroad" that was headed by Juan Hernandez of Dallas, Texas. Mr. Hernandez was born in Texas but he obtained dual citizenship in Mexico under a recent law passed by the Mexican Congress. Mr. Juan Hernandez was ousted by Zionist Foreign Minister Jorge Gutman after he stepped on the mercurial secretary's toes...

The "Revolutionary Council and Provisional Government of Aztlan" sent a copy of a communique to La Voz de Aztlan stating that it welcomes the Mexican government's initiative to help Mexican nationals here in Aztlan but that it vehemently rejects the Mexican government's new connections to Zionists and Zionism...

Juan Hernandez is a standard-issue, open-borders revolutionary who is intent on overthrowing the U.S. Government. Furthermore, by dint of his Aztlan connections, he is linked with virulent antisemitic forces.

Support J.D. HayworthHe, for a time, was intimately involved with McCain's operatives during McCain's doomed presidential campaign. These are the same operatives working for the same candidate who wouldn't even mention Barack Obama's Marxist, anti-American preacher of 20 years during the campaign. Who wouldn't raise Obama's dozens of other radical connections, any one of which would have disqualified him from the office of the presidency in the eyes of most Americans.

To put it bluntly: McCain played patty-cake with Obama while acting like Donald Segretti against fellow Republicans. Let's not forget the bizarre positions of RINOs like McCain and fellow nutcase Lindsey 'Goober' Graham.

If you've had enough of mush-mouthed Republicans who can't read or, worse, simply don't understand the Constitution, I urge you to support J. D. Hayworth for the United States Senate.


Separated at Birth, Connecticut Edition

Which is the real George McFly?

 

Crispin Glover or Dick Blumenthal?


President of Mexico and Barack Obama Jointly Announce a Formal Declaration of War on Arizona

Has a sitting President ever allowed another head of state to visit the people's house and insult Americans, then -- worse -- join in an attack on one of the United States? But, let's not forget -- he's a uniter, not a divider.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has used the start of a state visit to the US to renew his attack on Arizona's controversial new immigration law... Mr Calderon said migrant workers were forced to "still live in the shadows and, occasionally, as in Arizona, they even face discrimination"...

Would this be the same Mexico that routinely imprisons immigrants for six or more years if they don't have their papers? That performs racial profiling as a matter of national law? That is so corrupt and rife with violence that police are routinely found beheaded by drug gangs?

Who the f*** is does this clown think he is? Coming into our country and telling us what to do when Mexico is about to fall into complete chaos?

Why don't you go camp out on the border, Calderon, and see how you like it, you disgusting twit? You can't even run your own damn country and you want to tell us how to run ours?

But it gets better, as President Axelrod echoed the Mexican President's message, claiming Arizona's border isn't worth protecting.

...President Barack Obama emphasised a message of solidarity, saying the US and Mexico would "stand together"... Mr Obama has also already been critical of the law, although it had not been expected that he would raise it in discussions with Mr Calderon.

Mr Obama said in a news conference that he had discussed the "misdirected" law with Mr Calderon, and that his administration was "taking a very close look at it", including the civil rights implications... "No law-abiding person... should ever be subject to suspicion simply because of what they look like," Mr Obama said... "The Arizona law has the potential of being applied in a discriminatory fashion."

Apparently, like party hack Eric Holder and the incompetent Janet Napolitano, he hasn't read Arizona's bill either.

He just heard about it on MBSNC.

It's as simple as this: Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress are actively working with foreign entities to encourage the violation of federal laws. These violations not only endanger the security of American citizens... not only are massive economic drains on health care, prison, law enforcement and welfare budgets... not only reduce employment opportunities for legal citizens... but are actively encouraged by Democrats in order to override the votes of American citizens.

That's the modern Democrat Party in action.

It's November or never. The clock is ticking.


Best. Product. Idea. Ever.

Magically transform anything you pick up into a glorious, tasty sandwich!

New BreadGloves™ from the makers of HungryDude Edible Pizza Boxes.


Hat tips: Blame it on the voices and LinBre.

Larwyn's Linx: Dems' November Hopes Hang on PA-12

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Election 2010

Dems' November Hopes Hang on PA-12: RWN
PA-12: The Final Wisdom: RSM
Top 5 lessons from Tuesday: Barone

Democrats counting 2010 chickens: Moran
Sandy Berger’s Boy Spanks Specter: Cashill
The Obama Touch Continues: Moonbattery

Nation

Senate Storm Warning: Blankley
America's Death by Professor: AT
Kagan: Shill for Shariah?: BigGovt

Congress about to limit political speech of bloggers?: Hot Air
Immigration and liberty: Williams
Black Panther Thug on Philadelphia Ballot: RWN

Economy

GOP: Investigate Bailed-Out Chicago Bank: Corner
Fight Illegal Immigration: Buy From Arizona: PJM
Obamaitis: Spend more, raise taxes: Tapscott

Climate & Energy

Oil "Seeps": Nature's Biggest Oil Spills: RedCounty
Global Warming Cooling Is Here! Protect The Children!: RWN
US top scientists urge coal, oil use penalties: Breitbart

Media

Michelle Obama: Using schoolkids as plants?: S&L
Obama is kicking the dog: AT
We'd Better Get Better -- In a Hurry: IBD

Cartoons to Die For: LATL
Call Me a Racist? I'll Call You a Serial Killer: Langbert
Ratigan: Beck a 'Scumbag': NewsBusters

World

Top Obama Officials Now Calling Jerusalem 'Al-Quds': GWP
Mexican President Bashes AZ ID Law from White House Lawn: GWP
Obama Administration’s Iranian Sanctions Plan: Law Enforcement, Not Strategic Power: BRubin

Israel and Gaza: How True Anti-Semitism is embraced: Shayne
Obama Advisor John Brennan Says Team Obama Will Reach Out to 'Moderate' Elelments of Hezbollah: GWP
My head might just explode tonight: Daley

SciTech

Google Wave: Now Open to the Public: CNet
Earliest known U.S. Census tally found at Kean University: WyBlog
Hey Facebook! Here's your privacy redesign: Fortune

Cornucopia

Potty Break Posting: MOTUS
Hosted by Twittoo: Dlisted
Softball-sized hail goes to town on swimming pool: Viral Footage

Image: Maktoob.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The U.S. Report

QOTD: "I hope that nobody forgets to Mirandize Eric Holder when he's apprehended." -- Bad Idea Guy


Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Welcome to Weimar, District of Columbia

Economist David Rosenberg of Gluskin-Sheff passes along an email from an old business associate.

I don’t know if you remember but we worked together at Merrill. I ran emerging markets from 1985 to 1996. I’ve always been a loyal fan and kept up with your writings.

As you know, I used to specialize in what we called then toxic waste countries. Reality has obviously taken a turn and what was toxic now is golden and the prime is now toxic. Our best countries are being run like banana republics and the famed moral hazard issues are now at the individual level with the strategic mortgage defaults. Keep in mind that in Mexico, it moved to wholesale credit card defaults at the last stage of the correction.

It is interesting to note that back then (the 80s) without currency zones but a fixed dollar, the order was devaluation, default, restructuring and budget balance with exports beginning the process of recovery. It was not until Summers’ bailout of Mexico that we entered this ridiculous world of constant bailouts, raising the size of them at every turn and lowering the bar to what constitutes risk.

Now, it’s worst than ever. The developed economies have huge fiscal deficits with no state assets to sell. The balance sheets of the developed nations are over leveraged. The deficits have taken a permanence to them. In the case of Europe with no individual devaluation alternative and their new massive debt load, the EU must now make huge fiscal cuts to get credibility. This is very reminiscent of the pre-depression year. If the EU follows through it will push a weak world into a severe double dip and bring the question of capacity to repay to the forefront anyways.

Monetization or printing may end up being the only end alternative. I know, and agree with you, that to have inflation you need demand. Where I disagree is that you can’t have inflation with such a significant slack in the economy. For those of us that lived or worked in the hyperinflationary South American zone of the seventies and eighties, inflation comes when people lose faith in the currency and see material goods as a store of value. Because commodities rise and the goods can no longer be expected to be made at the same cost structure, people assume that they will be worth more in the future creating a self fulfilling upward spiraling effect. You can anticipate that these state governments will introduce price controls as well as potentially fixing exchange rates worsening the situation.

My biggest fear is that these politicians and advisors have little experience in this area and are more concerned about controlling the political short term without regard to the longer term implications. I see this like an attempt at covering holes in a cracking dam with your fingers while the cracks are spreading. Bonds in the thirties were not a safe haven because they were restructured into 30 to 40 year bonds at 1.0-2.0% interest. Ultimately spending habits must decline, debt must be restructured, and growth must be promoted through the private sector.

Political interests must be aligned with long term economic objectives and I don’t see that any time soon. Obviously, I’m very negative right now. What am I missing?


Related: Don't Cry For Me, America.

Exclusive Photo: Dick Blumenthal Receives Coveted John Kerry Endorsement and Gets to Wear His Magic Cambodian Special Ops Hat


I tried to stop myself, but I. Just. Couldn't. Resist.


Unbelievable: Houston TV uncovers federal indictment that indicates 'hundreds of terrorists' may have recently infiltrated the U.S. from Mexico

Austin's KVUE-TV recently received word that the Department of Homeland Security had issued a bulletin to local police and sheriff's deputies concerning a terrorist who could be entering the U.S. through Mexico.

In the process of investigating the story, KVUE discovered 'a smuggling corridor' that specializes in the transportation of terrorists and other dangerous individuals into the U.S. A federal indictment filed two weeks ago indicates that hundreds of individuals affiliated with terror groups have likely infiltrated the U.S. from points south.

The alert focuses on Mohamed Ali, a suspected member of the terrorist group Al Shabaab. It indicates he may be traveling to the U.S. through Mexico. Al Shabaab is a terrorist group based in Somalia with links to the Somali attacks dramatized in the movie “Blackhawk Down.” A few months ago, the group announced its allegiance to Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

"[Al Shabaab operatives] are certainly a real threat to U.S. security and an increasing threat to U.S. security," said Rice University Baker Institute Fellow Joan Neuhaus Schaan. Schaan is an expert on Homeland Security and terrorism, and her research is reviewed by the U.S. government, military and civil authorities... She said Al-Shabaab trains extremists and wants to turn Somalia into the next Afghanistan.

"Similar to the set up in Afghanistan in 2001 when Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden had a strong relationship with the Taliban that allowed them free reign in Afghanistan,” Neuhas Schaan said.

The route from Somalia to Texas is shorter than Americans would like to think. It goes through Mexico. Two weeks ago, a federal indictment was filed in San Antonio against a Somali citizen. It alleges Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane led a "large-scale smuggling enterprise," moving east Africans into the U.S., including members of a terrorist group called AIAI.

"It was hundreds of individuals," Neuhaus Schaan said, in reference to the indictment...

So let's not do anything hasty like sealing the border.

But, remember folks, even in the event that you get shot or blown up in a terrorist attack, you can take comfort in the fact that we didn't profile or ask anyone for their papers.


Hat tip: M7P

Hillary's 'Sanctions With Bite' Already Having the Desired Effect...

...if you're a Mullah.

Iran rejects UN sanctions threat


AP

Official: Draft resolution "has no legitimacy at all".

The more foreign policy we get to see from this administration, the more I believe that their term "Smart Power Diplomacy"™ was intended to be sarcastic. And always would be followed closely by a rim-shot.


Hat tip: Dan from New York..

The Economy In a Microcosm

Papa B sent this photo in with the following caption:

"Isn't this an apt metaphor for the economy? The car in front of me is a $200,000 vehicle capable of 200 miles-per-hour.

It's stuck in a massive traffic jam while signaling to turn into the strip mall with the "We Buy Gold" and "Cash for Your Auto Title" retail establishments."


Larwyn's Linx: PA-12: Democrat Wins -- Tim Burns Concedes

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

Election 2010

PA-12: Democrat Wins -- Tim Burns Concedes: RSM
Rand Paul the winner of KY primary: LCR
Specter Defeated: Weasel Zippers

Lincoln faces a runoff: AnBlackCon
Democrats and Vote Fraud: On the Road to Rigged Elections: AT
No Politician is Safe: Podhoretz

Nation

Rising Star Stutzman to Replace Souder?: RWN
Dems Can Kiss Connecticut Senate Seat Goodbye: Strata-Sphere
Major speech on shrinking U.S. seapower gets ignored: PJM

DOJ Attorney Resigns Over Black Panther Debacle: WashExam
Van Helsing Government-Applied Medical Informatics: RWN
Ohio Dem Senate nominee avoiding Obama?: Marathon

Economy

The Dog ate Obama's Plan for GSE Reform: WashExam
AZ Utilities Rep to L.A.: Enjoy Your Boycott in the Dark: GWP
Obama Madoff with Our Tax Dollars: AT

Climate & Energy

Leak Proves Spain's 'Green' Policies — a model for Obama — are Disastrous: PJM
The EPA's Creative New Ways to Spend Your Money: BlogProf
And The Front-Runner For AGW Counter ICCC Hysteria Is…: CBullitt

Media

The U.S. Department of Blame America First: Malkin
WTF? Obama says beheading of Daniel Pearl by Jihadists 'captured the world's imagination': BlogProf
Waking Up to Urbane Anti-Semitism: AT

Strap-On and Strap-On Junior Go After Beck and Goldline: Mediaite
The Left, bogus war stories, and the NYTimes: Malkin
BBC Middle East Editor: Watching Obama Slap Around Israel Is 'Enjoyable New Experience': MereRhet

World

'Kill these all KAFIR': Malkin
Women Come to Blows Over the Burqa in France: Chesler
Pope Benedict in Portugal: Christians, Answer to Secularism is to Re-Evangelise World: LifeSiteNews

All Hell Breaking Loose in Thailand: Stock Exchange Set Afire: Insider
That's Right, China, America Does Have a Discrimination Problem: Feed Your ADHD
State Dept. Kook Defends Kook Who Apologized to China for AZ Immigration Law : GWP

SciTech

Suppress Free Speech? There's an App For That!: GWP
Apple Denies GOP Candidate's Bid for iPhone App -- 'Defamatory' of Powerful Dem Henry Waxman: PJM

Cornucopia

Rima Fakih is Gorgeous; That is All :Anchoress
Miss USA courts controversy with Muslim faith: Maktoob
Who Burned the Second Temple?: TAB

Original Image: AP.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Astute Bloggers.


Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Did Dick Blumenthal 'Apologize' While Accompanied by Another Phony?

Senate candidate Dick Blumenthal (D-CT) apologized today for 'misstatements' concerning his (non-existent) Vietnam military service. The staged press conference featured a handful of Marine vets ostensibly lending their support.

An eagle-eyed observer just sent us this photo with the caption:

"Look carefully at the face of the man on the right. Now compare that face to this man."

This is William Joseph Trumpower (AKA Eliot Storm), a man listed on POW Network's Phony Vets Database.

Trumpower, like Blumenthal, is a Connecticut resident and has made quite a name for himself hawking books on the Vietnam experience. The 'POW Networks Phony' database lists Trumpower's bogus credentials as follows:

CLAIMING BRONZE STAR w/VALOR device... Claims 2nd Lt, Claims... Wears 3 Purple Hearts, 2 Bronze Stars w/V. The jacket in EARLIER pictures boasted 8 ribbons. This NEW pic has more and includes V device on Bronze Star and 2nd Lt bars...

It's entirely fitting if the staged Blumenthal apology was, as our anonymous contributor asserts, accompanied by another puffed-up bloviator.


Update: William Jacobson writes, "Well, the Storm guy was there, confirmed, so if he is a poser, then you have it."

The unparalleled brilliance of Eric Holder: Al Qaeda bomber who killed 166 and planned World Cup attack had been released from U.S. custody in 2009

Next month's soccer World Cup in South Africa was the target of an Al Qaeda attack according to Iraqi security personnel. The mastermind was reportedly a man who had already killed 166 Iraqis in various bombings -- after his release by the Obama administration last year.

The 30-year-old Saudi national [Qahtani], who was arrested two weeks ago, had been in contact with Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri... Qahtani, who adopted the nom de guerre "Sinan al-Saudi," held a degree in business administration and also graduated from King Fahd Security College with the rank of lieutenant.

He entered Iraq in 2004, shortly after the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, and was involved in operations in the towns of Al-Qaim and Husayba near Iraq's border with Syria.

According to Atta, Qahtani was apprehended by the US military in 2007 under the false name Muzawar al-Shammari, and was released last year.

More recently, he participated in the planning of a series of co-ordinated attacks against Baghdad hotels in January which killed 36 people, and in the organisation of five vehicle-borne bombs that killed 127 people in the capital in December.

...[Also captured was] Algerian national Tareq Hassel Abdul Qader was the network's military chief for Karkh, Baghdad's western district... Qader also helped plan several attacks in Iraq, but did not say whether he was involved in the organisation of the potential World Cup attack.

The World Cup is anticipated to draw nearly 400,000 foreign fans, so it makes an Olympic-sized target for terrorists.

Curiously, the few American sources reporting this story, including AOL News, the Associated Press and MSNBC, somehow failed to note that the terrorist had been released from U.S. custody in 2009.

Thanks to the outstanding leadership of President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, the line distinguishing warfare from law enforcement has been thoroughly eradicated.   The inevitable outcome -- demonstrated by this, the latest in a series of close calls -- is guaranteed to be toxic to the civil society.


Image: AOL News.

Perfect timing for Democrats' health care cramdown as 'Medicare begins to implode'

The Houston Chronicle reports that the Medicare system in the state of Texas has flatlined. That's the same system Democrats ignored, presumably because they were too busy ramming an unconstitutional socialized medicine bill down the throats of taxpayers.

What do you call a Midas Touch with a slight twist -- anything that the person touches turns to diarrhea? Yes, it's an unpleasant image, but perfectly apt for the modern, Obama-Pelosi Democrats.

Texas doctors are opting out of Medicare at alarming rates, frustrated by reimbursement cuts they say make participation in government-funded care of seniors unaffordable.

Two years after a survey found nearly half of Texas doctors weren't taking some new Medicare patients, new data shows 100 to 200 a year are now ending all involvement with the program.

This new data shows the Medicare system is beginning to implode,” said Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the Texas Medical Association. “If Congress doesn't fix Medicare soon, there'll be more and more doctors dropping out and Congress' promise to provide medical care to seniors will be broken.”

...The largest number of doctors opting out comes from primary care, a field already short of practitioners nationally and especially in Texas. Psychiatrists also make up a large share of the pie, causing one Texas leader to say, “God forbid that a senior has dementia.”

The opt-outs follow years of declining Medicare reimbursement that culminated in a looming 21 percent cut in 2010.

These deadly changes represent only the tip of the administration's central planning iceberg, the real goal of which is to implement a single-payer system.

The health-reform law caps how much insurers can spend on expenses and take for profits. Starting next year, health plans will have a regulated "floor" on their medical-loss ratios, which is the amount of revenue they spend on medical claims. Insurers can only spend 20% of their premiums on running their plans if they offer policies directly to consumers or to small employers. The spending cap is 15% for policies sold to large employers...

...Restrictions on how insurers can spend money are compounded by simultaneous constraints on how they can manage their costs. Beginning in 2014, a new federal agency will standardize insurance benefits, placing minimum actuarial values on medical policies. There are also mandates forcing insurers to cover a lot of expensive primary-care services in full. At the same time, insurers are being blocked from raising premiums...

...The Obama health plan puts expensive new mandates on doctors, such as a requirement to purchase IT systems and keep more records. Overhead costs already consume more than 60% of the revenue generated by an average medical practice, according to a 2007 survey by the Medical Group Management Association. At the same time, reimbursement under Medicare is falling. Some specialists, such as radiologists and cardiologists, will see their Medicare payments fall by more than 10% next year. Then there's the fact that medical malpractice premiums have risen by 10%-20% annually for specialists like surgeons, particularly in states that haven't passed liability reform.

Unintended consequences like these are the inevitable result of central planning. Which masterminds among us could possibly predict the impact of these dictates upon hundreds of millions of affected individuals? Nancy Pelosi? Bart Frickin' Stupak? Harry Flipping Reid? Barack Milhaus Obama?

Not only is the free market the only system that has ever worked to improve the human condition, it is also the only system codified in our Constitution and Declaration. Indeed, it is the only system consistent with American values.

Everyone knows that ObamaCare is doomed to failure. The only open question is how much damage it does before patriots can put the brakes on.


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

Larwyn's Linx: Anti-establishment Tuesday? Races to watch today

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

Anti-establishment Tuesday? Races to watch today: DC
The end of American Exceptionalism?: Protein Wisdom
Bombshell: Dem Senate Candidate's bogus resume: Hot Air

Arizona Ends Divisive Chicano Studies in Schools: NAS
Attacking Arizona blows up in San Diego's face: RWN
Kagan's Speech Rationing: Times

Economy

Huge Victory in Texas for Liberty Against Unions: RWN
America's Public Debt Explained: AT
Ohio's income projections nowhere near reality: Virtuous

Fannie Mae's involvement in warming caper: RWN
Citizens or Subjects: Keynesian Economics: AT
Genius: GM wants more subprime buyers: BlogProf

Climate & Energy

Climategate 2010: Inconvenient Facts About Global Warming: PJM
‘Son of Alar’: The New Pesticide Scare Campaign: BigGovt
Less Than One-Third of US Meteorologists Believe In AGW: GWP

Media

Must-Read of the Day: The New Yorker Profiles Andrew Breitbart: BigGovt
Dear Krugman, Yes, We Are Greece. P.S., You Suck.: Insider
Laura Bush: Obama & Wife Benefit From Double-Standard: Ace

Broadway Babies Sucker Punch Their Fellow Bobos: Driscoll
Krugman resorts to platitudes when the truth hurts: Ranger's Arrows
Spitting in the Face of Everyone Murdered on 9/11: Blitz

World

Hot Tips on UN Waste, Fraud and Abuse: Rosett
The shape of things to come with Iran: NowLebanon
Everyone Loses In Britain’s Election. Could be A Good Thing.: VDARE

SciTech

What a difference a day makes: American Digest
Neat: Israeli Company Makes Tanks Invisible to Night Vision: SnappedShot
30 Years Ago Today: Grand Rants

Cornucopia

Hmmm...: Muslim Woman Wins Miss USA Crown: Ace
CPUSA to Sue Dems?: Moonbattery
Stop the Mosque: iOTW

Image: iOwnTheWorld.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: American Digest


Monday, May 17, 2010

No Questions Allowed at the Signing of the 'Freedom of the Press Act'

Earlier today President Obama signed the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, which grants the federal government (wait for it) more power (how'd you guess?) to track which countries adhere to international press freedom standards.

The White House press pool was present in the Oval Office and...

...Obama was asked if he would entertain some questions -- specifically about BP.

"Speaking of press freedoms," ventured Chip Reid of CBS News.

"You're certainly free to ask the question," Obama said. "I won't be answering, I'm not doing a press conference today, but we'll be seeing you in the course of the week."

Outstanding! President Obama celebrates press freedom by refusing to hear questions from the press! Somehow, with this administration, that offhanded act of disdain just seems, well, fitting.

Unrelated aside: here's a closeup of the President's watch. Anyone know what make and model this is?


Images: Getty Images.

Illegals by the truckload: BIP documents the flow of illegal aliens that somehow escapes the watchful gaze of Janet 'The Falcon' Napolitano

The invaluable BorderInvasionPics website just posted new pictures and videos that help illustrate the unchecked flow of illegal aliens into the U.S.

Are these trucks transporting drugs? Weapons? Criminals? The poor who need medical care and know they won't be refused at hospitals in the U.S. no matter how expensive the procedure?

Who knows -- the utterly clueless Janet Napolitano and the willfully inept Democrats in Washington are ignoring the border. In doing so, they hope they can convert some of the swarms of welfare recipients into Democrat voters.

And everyone knows that's the Democrat agenda. Everyone. The Democrats aren't even trying to hide the approach. And not only is it anti-American, it's flat out dangerous. Literally anything could be transported over the border and, one day, some serious weapons -- RPG's, dynamite, bio-weapons, even radiological material -- will make the journey from the south into our cities.

To illustrate just how despicable the Social Democrat approach has become, consider the brochure circulated a few years ago in Texas (left). At various rallies for illegal immigration, Democrat "community organizers" handed out these brochures which were written in Spanish (on the reverse side) and English.

They provide directions for non-citizens to game the system and vote the Democrat ticket. Consider the hubris: Democrats offering clear instructions to illegal aliens so that they could corrupt the process and override the votes of American taxpayers.

That's how despicable and power-hungry the Democrats have become.

And every day, some hidden cameras set up by a few brave patriots at BIP and other sites capture the flow of hundreds of illegals making the trek into Arizona as easily as you or I would drive to Palm Springs from Los Angeles.

This outrageous administration and its pathetic sycophants in Congress spent trillions on "shovel-ready" projects that only harmed the economic health of the country. They borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars from China, which our children must repay with interest when they grow up.

And the border remains open, even though the one construction project that makes sense -- a freaking border fence -- is supported by upwards of 80% of Americans. American citizens, that is.

No country with generous welfare benefits and guaranteed medical benefits can survive unlimited illegal immigration. And that's why Democrats that support this mess can truly be said to be anti-American: they seek the collapse of the system.

And despite the capabilities of our brilliant men and women who serve in the military, in the intelligence community, in law enforcement and as first responders, they are utterly hamstrung by disastrous leaders like Janet Napolitano, Eric Holder and Barack Obama.

It's November or never.


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