Saturday, June 05, 2010

The new bumper stickers are here! The new bumper stickers are here!

The staff members here at the Journal have gone retro -- and they're waxing nostalgic for the heady days of Bush Lied, Children Died bumper-stickers.




Hat tip: Jem.

Larwyn's Linx: Vindication -- Obama's Culture of Corruption

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Nation

Vindication: Obama's Culture of Corruption: Malkin
The danger of a government with unlimited power: Will
The Dems' Secret Plan to Hold Congress: Newsweak

Documenting the real Elena Kagan: IBD
Hare (D-IL) goes after his constituents: BigGovt
Hare Fails with Vets and Threats: BMW

Economy

Hawkins vs. Reich, Right vs. Wrong, Now vs. Then: RWN
Markets slammed: here's what you need to know: Insider
3 Days Into The Month: $169B of Debt Redeemed: ZH

Politicians' Gameplan: Fiscal Suicide: RWN
Slaves of the Ethereal Machine: Doc Zero
Play the Long Game: TigerHawk

Climate & Energy

At last, the climate extremists debate us: Monckton
Big Government's Katrina: AT
Advice to BP: Shrug: AT

Media

Figures: ABC's Davis moves seamlessly to the SEIU: Politico
DADT: A Question of Priorities: AT
Losing is the new winning: Zombie

A Real Nowhere Man: Pundette
The University Guild vs. Glenn Beck: Shlaes
How's Your Math? Are the Oil Plumes as Big as Reported? : Adrienne

FTC floats Drudge tax: Times
Homo Politicus: AT
Barack Obama didn’t part the waters - he just made them dirtier: Carr

World

Shock: Obama pals Ayers, Dohrn, Evans behind Terror Flotilla: RWN
Israelis board Rachel Corrie boat, arrests Leftists and Islamists: GWP
Thank You and God Bless You, Naval Commandoes of Israel!: JOdysseus

SciTech

Scientists find a 'hint of life' on Saturn's moon Titan: Daily Mail (UK)
Harnessing a star's power for clean energy: CNet
Malware found lurking in apps for Windows Mobile: CNet

Cornucopia

Because When You Get Hired As a Hooters Waitress, You Don’t Expect It To Be All About Looks: Powers
Calling All Graphologists: The BO Signature is Up for Analysis: AmerDigest
Diminished Recall: Ace

Image: iOwnTheWorld.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Chuck DeVore for U.S. Senate.

Friday, June 04, 2010

They came to destroy civilization

In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Although his totalitarian, Nazi ideology commanded but a minority of the German people, his dogma of of race supremacy appealed to many in society.

The destiny of the Aryan race, Hitler claimed, was to dominate Europe by cleansing the gene pool. The cleansing process was straightforward: exterminate Catholics, Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, the handicapped, and other 'undesirables'. Only then would the thousand-year Reich reign.

The Nazis quickly violated every international treaty agreement related to armed forces and military equipment. They created new, deadly organizations like the SA and SS for internal and external security. And they began undermining the governments of neighboring countries through clandestine military and intelligence activities.

The German people were, at first, hesitant to embrace the tenets of Nazism. Church leaders and many members of the original Prussian officer corps resisted the Nazis. Students, academics and unions also served as opposition to Hitler in the early years of the Reich.

By 1938, however, the Nazis had seized sufficient power to launch the Holocaust and the attendant military takeover of Europe. Their rationale:

A massive arms buildup defied every international convention and represented forward-thinking military technology. The Nazis' Panzer tanks and Stuka dive-bombers quickly proved, at least regionally, that the German war machine was without peer.

Furthermore, their demonstrations of dominance quickly convinced the Soviets that an alliance was preferable to conflict. And no one else in Europe was willing to challenge the buzz-saw represented by Hitler's war machine.

Historians now claim that Hitler's buildup could have been preempted much earlier. But opposition from the allied powers -- England and France -- came only after an untenable series of affronts by the Nazis. And the U.S. tried to avoid direct intervention until it suffered a catastrophic sneak attack at Pearl Harbor.

But the most effective check against Nazism -- a sanity check, if you will -- never came, because most Germans could not believe that Hitler was serious about exterminating the Jews. In fact, German Jews felt relatively secure seeing as how they operated in Europe's most culturally and economically advanced country.

Compounding the issue, leaders in England and France believed that their political fortunes rested on diplomacy with Hitler. While history now reviles Neville Chamberlain, he had returned from negotiations with Hitler in 1938 as an acclaimed peacemaker.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The religious extremists that rule Iran today enjoyed significant popular support in 1979. Khomeini, Ahmadinejad, Khameini and other Iranian leaders enunciated two clear goals: (a) to bring about the return of the Twelfth Imam and (b) to wipe "Israel from the face of the earth."

Many years ago, Iran began a massive military buildup. Its most secretive program related to the production of nuclear weapons -- and attendant guided missile technologies. At the same time, Iran helped support terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and Ansar al-Islam.

Today, members of Iranian society believe that they are ruled by the Middle East's equivalents of rednecks and hill-jacks. This year's deadly student protests in Iran prove that most citizens are simply not aligned with the Mullahs.

But the greatest check on serious measures against Iran are -- just as in the case of Nazi Germany -- eradicating the sober suspicion that the Mullahs "can't be serious."

Now, as in the case of the thirties, little time remains. Will the President have the wherewithal to truly isolate Iran if it defies basic international convention? That appears unlikely, based upon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent actions and remarks. Somewhere, Neville Chamberlain is shaking his head.


Based upon: R. James Woolsey's Parallels Between Present-Day Iran and Nazi Germany

Ubersturmbannführer Helen T. Himmler: Would President Obama Send Those Pesky Jews Back to the Ovens Already?

Helen Thomas serves as Godmother of the legacy media and is, by all appearances, the most distinguished member of the White House Press Corpse. An unabashed liberal, Thomas was frequently guilty of racist comments over her twelve decades of service. Her comments last week, however, were truly beyond the pale.

Interviewer: Any comments about Israel?

Thomas: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.

Interviewer: Any other comments?

Thomas: Hahahahahahahaha. Remember. These people are occupied. And it's their land. It's not German. It's not Poland.

Interviewer: So where should they go? What should they do?

Thomas: Go home.

Interviewer: Where's home?

Thomas: Poland. Germany.

Interviewer: So the Jews should go back to Poland? And Germany?

Thomas: And America. And everywhere else.

Ubersturmbannführer Thomas went on to praise Holocaust: the Musical as a magical romp through history and a "must-see classic for the ages".

I'll give Helen Thomas the benefit of the doubt: she probably isn't a rabid anti-semitic racist, because that would be an insult to real rabid anti-semites. She's a stone-crazy nutbag that -- it appears -- serves as an éminence grise for much of the modern liberal media.

Had a conservative said something along these lines, The New York Times would have immediately begun running a 6-day, above-the-fold exposé culminating in a full Sunday section on racist Republicans.

As it is, Thomas' comments will be secretly high-fived in the high-falutin' Democrat fundraising circles populated with the likes of George Soros and Code Pink. You know, real Americans.


Update: Pat Buchanan’s Peaceful Gaza Flotilla Activists Tell Jewish Soldiers to 'Go Back to Auschwitz'

Update II: Crazy Ron Paul: Gaza Blockade Is 'Act of War' – US Shouldn’t Support Gaza Blockade (Video)

Obama's deft handling of the economy continues apace: after adjustments, real jobs shrunk by 226,000 last month

The headline on CNN's front page reads: "Jobs in May jump."

Other legacy media outlets are plugging an "improved" unemployment rate, celebrating the the drop to 9.7%!

CNBC is touting the jump in jobs as the largest increase since March 2000 (gee, when was the last U.S. Census?).

The hundreds of administration-approved press releases can't hide the true scale of the unfolding economic disaster. More Americans are unemployed than ever, they are unemployed longer, and if you don't count temporary Census jobs and the BLS' mathematical skulduggery, the gravity of the situation becomes obvious.

Consider the makeup of the official "431,000 jobs added" number (and never mind the fact that some were touting an expectation of 700,000 new jobs):

• 411,000 were census jobs
• 31,000 were temporary help services (BP clean-up hires?)
• 215,000 jobs were "created" using the BLS "birth-death" mathematical model

If you remove the 657,000 temporary and formula jobs from the reported 431,000 jobs added, you're left with a stunning stat:

The economy actually lost 226,000 jobs last month.

And 322,000 folks stopped looking for jobs, which seems to have helped drop the unemployment number as well.

Now here's a question for the advocates of big government: why do we need a Bureau of Labor Statistics when the IRS already houses the vast majority of this information? Why can't we have a real jobs number based upon the IRS' real data?

That's a rhetorical question. Accuracy was never President Axelrod's goal here.


Larwyn's Linx: Politics as Usual

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Nation

Politics as Usual: RWN
Dem Sanchez: Racists behind AZ immigration law: GWP
Ohio, Washington to Start Homeland Response Forces: DOD

CBC tries to squash ethics investigations: RWN
White House may withhold Kagan documents: KaganWatch
Documents show Kagan's ultra-leftist leanings: CBS

Economy

Christie slams public teacher unions: AT
NEA using children as human shields for union bailout: BlogProf
Newt to Michigan: Change or decay: Marathon

ObamaCare's three bad outcomes: Pundette
Congress to expand war on Toyota to Ford: FlopAces
Worse than a depression: AT

Climate & Energy

Oops! Katrina Global Warming Lawsuit Backfires: RWN
Astronaut on Obama's Botched Spill Response: Moonbattery
Top 10 suggestions James Cameron gave BP: BlogProf

Casey mindlessly obeys Eco-nuts' orders to deprive PA of money, jobs, energy: CBullitt
UVA defense of Mann: Back off, he's a scientist!: PJM

Media

If you haven't had a job offer from Obama, please raise your hand: LAT
Parallels Between Present-Day Iran and Nazi Germany: Woolsey
Andrew Sullivan's blog now officially a cry for help: Ace

Our 1979: Hanson
Rove: Joe Klein's 'Man Love' For Obama Makes Chris Matthews' Tingles Pale By Comparison: NewsBusters
20 questions for the Blagojevich jury selection: Kass

World

Iran One, Obama Nothing: PJM
That’s the thanks Israel gets for acceding to Washington: Kesler
It's Not About the Flotilla: Turkey Changed Sides Years Ago: BRubin

Hamas Thanks International Community By Looting NGOs: LegalIns
Ties that no longer bind: GoV
U.S. Interferes With Israel's Gaza Blockade: Forbes

Beating Swords into Welfare Cheques: Steyn

SciTech

What to expect from the new iPhone: CNet
Fantastic Overview Of China And Its Death Grip On Rare Earth Metals: Insider
Microsoft to fix 34 holes in Windows, Office, IE: CNet

Cornucopia

Cash Still Gushing Uncontrollably from White House Money Spill: Doswell
"We Con the World": Little Miss Attila
Bay City Rollers, Ann Margaret & the best audience you will ever see in your life: Dangerous Minds

Image: Nate Beeler, Washington Examiner.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: iOwnTheWorld
Hat tip: W.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

The Illustrated Valerie Jarrett Primer

Senior White House Adviser Valerie Jarrett is in the news this week with word that she, along with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, were subpoenaed in the corruption trial of ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Blago, as he's fondly known in the world of D-list celebrities, is alleged to have put the vacant Obama Senate seat up for sale. But who is Ms. Jarrett? The few legacy media profiles that exist are short on details and long on bluster.

Certainly she is a long-time friend of and fundraiser for Barack Obama. But her ties to failed and fraudulent real estate deals in Chicago are of the most concern, especially given the recent allegations of illegal deal-making surrounding Senate candidates Sestak and Romanoff.


In 2008 The Boston Globe reported on the stunning failures of Jarrett's companies. "Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this [past] winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems."


Problems including the fact that many of the approximately one thousand housing units were "uninhabitable" and were condemned by federal authorities. Grove Parc Plaza, one of the largest residential housing complexes in Barack Obama's state senatorial district, has been at the center of a variety of scandals.


A few months after the Globe's report, a non-partisan watchdog group -- Judicial Watch -- announced that it had secured documents linking Jarrett to a variety of real estate scandals including failed housing developments operated by Obama fundraiser Tony Rezko.


"Valerie Jarrett served as a board member for several organizations that provided funding and support for Chicago housing projects operated by real estate developers and Obama financial backers Rezko and Allison Davis. (Davis is also Obama's former boss.)...


... Jarrett was a member of the Board of Directors for the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation along with several Davis and Rezko associates, as well as the Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization, an organization that worked with Rezko and Davis.


...(According to press reports, housing projects operated by Davis and Rezko have been substandard and beset with code violations. The Chicago Sun Times reported that one Rezko-managed housing project was "riddled with problems -- including squalid living conditions...lack of heat, squatters and drug dealers.")


...As Chief Executive Officer of the Habitat Company Jarrett also managed a controversial housing project located in Obama's former state senate district called Grove Parc Plaza. According to the Boston Globe the housing complex was considered "uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage...
"


All were subsidized by the taxpayers, mind you, and aided and abetted by the likes of Jarrett and Obama. The Boston Globe explained the troubling quid pro quo between Jarrett, Rezko and Obama:


"Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama’s presidential campaign and a member of his finance committee. Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this [past] winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems...


Allison Davis, a major fund-raiser for Obama’s US Senate campaign and a former lead partner at Obama’s former law firm. Davis, a developer, was involved in the creation of Grove Parc and has used government subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,500 units in Chicago, including a North Side building cited by city inspectors last year after chronic plumbing failures resulted in raw sewage spilling into several apartments...



Antoin “Tony” Rezko, perhaps the most important fund-raiser for Obama’s early political campaigns and a friend who helped the Obamas buy a home in 2005. Rezko’s company used subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,000 apartments, mostly in and around Obama’s district, then refused to manage the units, leaving the buildings to decay to the point where many no longer were habitable...

Campaign finance records show that six prominent developers - including Jarrett, Davis, and Rezko - collectively contributed more than $175,000 to Obama’s campaigns over the last decade and raised hundreds of thousands more from other donors. Rezko alone raised at least $200,000, by Obama’s own accounting. (This number now exceeds $500,000)...



One of those contributors, Cecil Butler, controlled Lawndale Restoration, the largest subsidized complex in Chicago, which was seized by the government in 2006 after city inspectors found more than 1,800 code violations...


...Obama [rewarded his backers with] legislative action as a state senator. In 2001, Obama sponsored a successful bill that increased state subsidies for private developers. The law let developers designated by the state raise up to $26 million a year by selling tax credits to Illinois residents. For each $1 in credits purchased, the buyer was allowed to decrease his taxable income by 50 cents...


The developers gave Obama their financial support. Jarrett, Davis, and Rezko all served on Obama’s campaign finance committee when he won a seat in the US Senate in 2004...



These are the kinds of heartwarming success stories that Obama and Jarrrett left in their wake in Chicago. Just after the election of 2008, I wrote of the pair, "I shudder to think what they could do to the entire country. And I sincerely hope I'm wrong."

Well, it appears I was right -- and it's only been 18 months. Are you scared and angry enough yet to vote in November?


Sources: Boston Globe: Grim proving ground for Obama's housing policy and Ten degrees below zero.
Hat tips: Gateway Pundit and Larwyn.

David Axelrod gains the upper hand in his war with Rahm Emanuel: the 'creepy ballerina' under fire for Sestak and Blago job offer allegations

The worst-kept secret in the White House is the ongoing power struggle between Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Senior Adviser David Axelrod.

With the onset of the Sestak affair, the war appears to have escalated. The illegal job offer relayed by Bill Clinton to Joe Sestak -- to convince him to drop out of the Pennsylvania Senate Primary against Arlen Specter -- was reportedly conveyed through Emanuel.

But that's not all.

The White House also appears to have created or saved many jobs for its cronies, according to "anonymous sources" within the White House.

The Obama administration dangled the possibility of a government job for former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff last year in hopes he would forgo a challenge to Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, officials said Wednesday, just days after the White House admitted orchestrating a job offer in the Pennsylvania Senate race.

These officials declined to specify the job that was floated or the name of the administration official who approached Romanoff, and said no formal offer was ever made. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not cleared to discuss private conversations.

Coincidentally the longrunning Rod Blagojevich saga began its trial phase this week with word that Emanuel and Obama's long-time pal Valerie Jarrett had been subpoenaed to testify about their roles in helping to select Obama's Senate replacement.

It appears likely that Emanuel, Jarrett and SEIU president Andy Stern helped orchestrate the selection process, which also could have crossed the line into illegalities at the federal level.

But, wait -- there's more!

What hasn't yet come to light are the machinations behind the administration's months-long push to take over the health care sector. The White House succeeded in jamming DemCare down the throats of an unwilling public only by the narrowest of partisan margins. With so many Democrat seats at risk this November, one wonders what favors, jobs and payoffs were offered up in exchange for suicidal votes.

What is far more clear is that David Axelrod is on the ascendancy in the White House -- and the Creepy Ballerina will do well to simply avoid prison time.


Related: The Illustrated Valerie Jarrett Primer

Photos: The Horrifying Toll of the Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza

Oh, the humanity.



Egypt's sealed border with Gaza
could not be reached for comment at press time.


Images: Bivouac-Id and Now Public. Hat tip: Roger L. Simon.