Thursday, June 10, 2010

Have Sympathy for the Vestigal Brain Stem of Al Franken

It's common knowledge that liberals and Democrats are intellectually inferior to conservatives (studies prove it). Scientifically speaking, this means the more liberal you are, the less capable you are of rational thought and basic analytical skills.

"Senator" Al Franken (D-ACORN) is the poster-boy for this well-known medical condition. Even without an MRI scan (we don't have the requisite 11 months that DemCare requires you to wait), we can safely say that Franken does not possess a fully developed human brain. It is likely that his cranium consists of little more than a vestigal brain-stem and some sawdust filler. Just enough neurons to keep the basics operating. Like breathing and crapping.

We know this because Franken's ideas are bottom of the barrel. Weapons-grade stupid. Exhibit "A": Stuart Smalley's plan for regulating the rating agencies.

The rating agencies are paid by the Wall Street banks, the very same people who are asking them to rate securities. One of the main causes of the financial crisis was too many investors around the world were relying on poor-quality research from the ratings agencies...

...Senator Al Franken, a Democrat representing Minnesota, has proposed a new board of “wisemen” to oversee the ratings agencies and select which agency a Wall Street firm can use.

Gee, that sounds incorruptible. Kinda like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: you know, the "wisemen" that governed the housing market.

Yes, this is just what we need: another set of masterminds that will perform central planning with far more efficiency than the free market.

It's an amazing world we live in. The fact that Franken remembers to breathe is really quite wondrous.


Kim Jong-Obama and the Success of the Command-and-Control Economy

The essential summary of the Statist form of government comes to us courtesy of George Will:

Progressives generally, and Obama especially, encourage expectations as large as the 1,428-page (cap-and-trade), 1,566-page (financial reform) and 2,409-page (health care) bills they churn out as "comprehensive" solutions to this and that. For a proper progressive, anything short of a "comprehensive" solution to, say, the problem of illegal immigration is unworthy of consideration.

In aggregate, these bills represent nothing less than a Stalinist brand of authoritarian, industrial policy.

It is the Democrats' ideal form of government, in which a few masterminds create an endless series of bureaucracies, agencies and offices that are staffed with supporters and hacks. They -- not individuals -- make the decisions. They -- not individuals -- command and control. They -- not the people -- create a system that is the antithesis of the American experiment.

The benefits of the command-and-control economy are aptly demonstrated in countries like Cuba, Zimbabwe and North Korea, where the masterminds have total control.

And yet, once in a blue moon, even the Statist's newspaper of record -- The New York Times -- is forced to come to grips with the economic destruction that is inevitably wrought by the Statist's insane policies.

Like many North Koreans, the construction worker lived in penury. His state employer had not paid him for so long that he had forgotten his salary. Indeed, he paid his boss to be listed as a dummy worker so that he could leave his work site. Then he and his wife could scrape out a living selling small bags of detergent on the black market.

It hardly seemed that life could get worse. And then, one Saturday afternoon last November, his sister burst into his apartment in Chongjin with shocking news: the North Korean government had decided to drastically devalue the nation’s currency. The family’s life savings, about $1,560, had been reduced to about $30...

Last month the construction worker sat in a safe house in this bustling northern Chinese city, lamenting years of useless sacrifice. Vegetables for his parents, his wife’s asthma medicine, the navy track suit his 15-year-old daughter craved — all were forsworn on the theory that, even in North Korea, the future was worth saving for.

“Ai!” he exclaimed, cursing between sobs. “How we worked to save that money! Thinking about it makes me go crazy.”

North Koreans are used to struggle and heartbreak. But the Nov. 30 currency devaluation, apparently an attempt to prop up a foundering state-run economy, was for some the worst disaster since a famine that killed hundreds of thousands in the mid-1990s...

“If you don’t trade, you die,” said [a] former teacher, a round-faced 51-year-old woman with a ponytail. She went from obedient state employee to lawbreaking trader, but could not escape her plight...

...The government periodically tries to rein in the markets, regulating prices, hours, types of goods sold, the sellers’ age and sex and even whether they haul their wares on bicycles or their backs...

...For the construction worker, his sister’s news of the coming devaluation unleashed a furious scramble to salvage the family nest egg. He emptied the living-room cabinet drawer that held their savings and split it with his wife and daughter, telling them, “Buy whatever you can, as fast as you can.”

The three bicycled furiously to Chongjin’s market. “It was like a battlefield,” he said.

Thousands of people frantically tried to outbid one another to convert soon-to-be worthless money into something tangible. Some prices rose 10,000 percent, he said, before traders shut down, realizing that their profits soon would be worthless, too.

The three said they returned home with 66 pounds of rice, a pig’s head and 220 pounds of bean curd. The construction worker’s daughter had managed to purchase a small cutting board and a used pair of khaki pants. Together, he said, they spent the equivalent of $860 for items that would have cost less than $20 the day before...

This is Obama's Utopia.

This is the inevitable result of masterminds trying to defy thousands of years of human experience; trying to defy the limits on government codified by our highest law: the Constitution.

This is tyranny. And it is the road on which we travel.


Related: Whom Despots Fear.

While Egypt and Hamas Starve the Gaza Strip, President Obama Finally Found an Ass to Kick: Israel's

Three data points for your consideration:

Cairo refuses to allow aid into Gaza
Egypt has refused a request by Arab doctors to bring food and supplies into the Gaza strip. Last weekend, the Arab Physicians Union submitted a request to Cairo to allow 400 tons of food and construction material into Gaza; the request was refused by the government.

Hamas refuses to allow food from Israel into Gaza
Hamas terrorists have decided to block Israel-approved food supplies from arriving in Gaza. Hamas "Economy Minister" Ziad al-Zaza (Yabba Dabba Doo for short) said it needs factory supplies, not "soda and soft drinks."

Obama announces Terrorist Stimulus Plan
The United States will pay Hamas and Fatah nearly half a billion dollars, according to CNN. Barack Obama announced that the U.S. will send $400 million in development aid to the Palestinian territories and called the current situation "unsustainable".

Let me get this straight. Our economy has cratered. Unemployment is nearly 10 percent. The national debt is expected to exceed our gross national product by next year. And we're giving $400,000,000 to our mortal enemies in Gaza?

$400,000,000 to the Hamas-led death cult allied with Iran and Syria? $400,000,000 to the people who celebrated the destruction of the twin towers? $400,000,000 to rain thousands more rockets upon Israeli women and children?

Yep. That's pretty much it.

Obama finally found an ass to kick: Israel's.


Larwyn's Linx: Kagan Could Be Much Worse

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Nation

Kagan Could Be Much Worse: Pileus
Takeaways from Tuesday: Baehr
Dinosaurs vs. Zillionaires in Cali: Zombie

Orange County CA Supports AZ: RWN
The More We Learn, the Worse it Gets: ObamaCare Watch
Blumenthal Story Has Legs: LegalIns

Looking at the AR Dem Senate Primary: Patterico
Sharron Angle: Big Win for Tea Party: RWN
Rumors of a Coup: AT

Economy

Anti-Shore Bank Tea Party: Marathon
EFCA may be dead, but the NLRB ain't: LUR
Why aren't banks lending?: Times

Affirmative Action Keeping Some Students Out: PopeCenter
The Growing Power of Government Unions: WashExam
A Future With Fewer New Miracle Drugs: McArdle

Climate & Energy

Climate change showdown: 'A stinging slap to Obama': Hill
Violent Left Fights for a BP Bailout: BigGovt
The Blue Seals Have a Plan for the Gulf Coast: SIGIS

Media

McGinnis-virus spreads: Media starting to run with Palin implant story: Malkin
CNN: Racism to Blame for Obama's Incompetence: Moonbattery
News Graphic o' the Day: Malkin

Does Obama Actually Agree with Helen Thomas on Palestine?: RWN
Facebook Removes Everybody Draw Mohammed Day Group, Leaves Virulent Anti-Semitic Groups: JIP
What Took So Long? Publishing Company Puts Warning Label on Constitution, Declaration: Powers

400 rally in Metro Detroit in support of Israel, Detroit Free Press claims "dozens": BlogProf
Press dragged kicking and screaming into Sestak and Romanoff affairs: Blumer
Rabbi Who Exposed Helen Thomas Receiving Numerous Death Threats: YeshivaWorld

World

Well, That Just Bought Iran Another 2 Hours and 54 Minutes… and Counting: Rosett
The Plain Truth About Israel: Glick
Broke NHS cutting routine surgeries: Pundette

An Open Letter to the Turkish Embassy: AmSpec
What About Hamas's Siege of Gaza?: Hudson
Fact Sheet #75: The Gaza Flotilla: JVL

John Hawkins Morons At A Ground Zero Mosque Protest: RWN
Foxconn's Suicides Are A Prelude To Massively Higher Chinese Wages: Insider
Somali Soccer Fans Go Underground: WSJ

SciTech

Why Nuking the Blowout is a Very Bad Idea: Red Ink Texas
AdMob lashes out at new iPhone ad policies: CNet
Baby Bubbler could help ailing infants breathe: CNet

Cornucopia

In Memoriam: Hugh Slatery: Wizbang
Apologies to Our More Visually Sensitive Readers: Moonbattery
Wag the Dog: MOTUS

Image: Moonbattery.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: ObamaCare Watch.


Wednesday, June 09, 2010

SC Dems urge mystery candidate to withdraw from Senate race citing pending felony charges and pro-life stance, but mostly pro-life stance

The winner of the Democrat Senate primary in South Carolina is an unknown, unemployed individual currently facing a felony obscenity charge. The man never even campaigned for the seat. The Democrat Party apparatus is now urging Alvin Greene to withdraw from the race in which he would face Jim DeMint (R-SC).

The criminal and/or suspect behavior can't possibly be the problem -- considering that Democrats Barney Frank, Charlie Rangel, Dianne Feinstein, Maxine Waters, Chris Dodd, Alan Mollohan, and a host of other folks are so crooked they could easily substitute as corkscrews.

No, the criminality can't be the issue. I'm guessing Greene is pro-life.


Some people never learn. Unfortunately for us, it's the Democrats, who think more marketing will help people swallow ObamaCare

Top 10 Rejected DemCare Slogans

10. Why choose an expensive treatment when pain-pills will do?
9. Assisted Suicide: Do it for the Children
8. We Put the Rash in Rationing
7. Ask Us About Our Discount Placebo Program!
6. Only Selfish People Beg for CAT Scans.
5. Take a Number! The Bureau of Health Waiting Rooms reports the average wait time is now down to 123 minutes (in some locations)
4. Quack isn't just the sound a duck makes: we're importing medical experts from Mexico as part of our new Health Amnesty Program!
3. Shut up, take a seat and wait for your number to be called, Mr. GB21708-4.
2. Rahm Emanuel perusing your medical records: what could go wrong?
1. Sound mind, sound body -- take your pick.
Public disapproval of Congress is at record levels and the President has chosen to sell DemCare for the umpteenth time -- thinking, perhaps, that the umpteenth time is a charm. It's too late. Everyone knows that DemCare is a deficit-exploding disaster. As The Los Angeles Times reiterated last week, "Democrats in Congress fail[ed] the sales pitch."

Consider the ramifications of DemCare:

26% of companies surveyed in May said they may cut hours for employees who currently work 30 or more so they can afford to stay in business after the ObamaCare forces them to pay for coverage.

• The President’s own Medicare actuary states that DemCare slashes Medicare by $575 billion to help pay for the massive new and unaffordable entitlement program.

• The medical device manufacturer Medtronic is contemplating laying off 1,000 workers to pay for DemCare's new medical device tax.

• Large employers like AT&T -- which would save $4.1 billion a year -- are strongly considering dropping health coverage for employees and dumping them into DemCare.

• Senior enrollment in popular Medicare Advantage programs will be slashed in half.

• To top it all off, $250 Medicare checks -- money we don't have -- will be sent to seniors to help get them addicted to the new normal. Unfortunately, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be paying off those $250 checks -- with interest -- to foreigners. Unless the whole system collapses before then.

America's leading organization of small businesses -- the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) -- has joined with the Attorneys General of 20 states to sue the Obama Administration over its unconstitutional DemCare program.

Here's a news flash for Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the rest of the National Socialist Democrat Party: no amount of speeches, no amount of SEIU-funded television ads, no amount of threats, no amount of bribes earmarks, no amount of payoffs to slip-and-fall lawyers, no amount of your s*** will convince us to burn the Constitution.

We've got your pinko slips ready for November. And don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.


States of Confusion: Democrat Leadership Imitates MacGruber

California, New York and Illinois are three of the most populous states in the country. Each has suffered from decades of Democrat spending sprees using money borrowed from taxpayers and investors. Each is ruled by a nefarious, incestuous partnership of public sector union bosses and Democrat hacks.

The result: all three are on the ropes and TKOs are imminent.

Budget is stalled thanks to Sacramento's 'do-nothing' gang


It's a week before the June 15 constitutional deadline for enacting a California state budget, an appropriate moment to consider the status of this year's version of the annual fiscal drama.

And that is? Up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle. ...there's been absolutely no progress on closing the deficit that approaches $20 billion. In fact, the situation may have grown worse because the extra federal funds that the governor and the Legislature have counted on are evaporating.

Adding to the rudderless turmoil is a conflict between the Democratic leaders of the Senate and Assembly, even though they jointly reject Schwarzenegger's big health and welfare cuts... Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg wants about $5 billion in new tax revenues, mostly by extending temporary taxes due to expire or by postponing scheduled tax cuts. Assembly Speaker John A. Perez, while proposing some additional revenues, is touting a very gimmicky borrowing scheme.

Dem Majority Leader threatens to shutdown state over Gov. Paterson's cuts


The rabble-rousing senator who paralyzed state government last year is threatening a blockbuster sequel - by shutting down all state business... [it] would rob the Democratic majority of the 32nd vote needed to approve Paterson's emergency spending plans - and plunge the state into an unprecedented, chaotic lockdown.

...He has company: Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) said he is through voting for any type of extender, saying it's time for Paterson and legislative leaders to finalize a budget that is 70 days late.

Without a short-gap budget, state workers would stop getting paid, construction projects would grind to a halt and agencies around the state would be shuttered... Not even [Governor] Paterson's office knows the full, painful scope of a widespread state shutdown.

Moody's cuts Illinois' bond rating


Moody's Investors Service has cut Illinois' bond rating, citing the state's shrinking revenues and growing debt... The lower credit rating usually means it'll cost the state more when it tries to borrow money.

...Moody's sliced the state's rating on general obligation bonds from Aa3 to A1. In lowering the rating, Moody's blamed Illinois officials for not coming up with a lasting solution to the state's financial problems.

Quinn has announced plans to borrow $1 billion this month for capital projects...

Scratch a Leftist, find a failed government with zillions in unpaid bills.


Related:
MacGruber Saves the Obama Presidential Campaign
MacGruber! (Episode 408: MacGruber saves the economy)
MacGruber Saves ObamaCare!

Why Nashville Had No Looters During the Flood

Papa B sent this one in:



Larwyn's Linx: Blanche Lincoln Beats the Left

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Nation

Blanche Lincoln Beats the Left: RedState
Cali: Whitman, Boxer, Fiorina, Bono Mack win: RedState
Haley to face runoff against Barrett in SC: AnBlkCon

What's Missing From the Press Conference?: C&S
'Organized labor just flushed $10M down toilet': Politico
Core values: Crist erases pro-life web pages: Malkin

Economy

Blue State Bonanza for Americorpse Funding: AT
Andy Stern, calling the shots, pillories free market: CNS
Regulation Fever! Now It's Trucks: NRO

The Save-a-Life Foundation and the Chicago Way: AT
IG: Census hired too many workers as 'cost-savings': CNS
The Bad News - Bad News on Jobs: MarketWatch

Climate & Energy

Wind Power: a Photographic Essay: RWN
I'm just a spill, Yes I'm only a spill...: BOOS
Obama can't explain why he hasn't spoken to BP CEO: Hot Air

NAS: New CAFE standards add $9K per car: BlogProf
Manmade global warming science doesn’t withstand scrutiny: WUWT

Media

The Consequences of Media Failure: Demopaths Setting the Global Agenda: PJM
WaPo's Kurtz: In 2002, Helen Thomas Exclaimed 'Thank God for Hezbollah': NewsBusters
WaPo's blind eye to Gaza armed divers: AT

Meet the Sheik Who's Rockin' Your World: AT
Leftists Cheerfully Defend Helen Thomas’ Anti-Semitism: RWN
What the First Amendment is Not: Hindenblog

World

The Obama Doctrine, Syria, the UNHRC and the Blood-Drinkers: Mere Rhetoric
NJ Jihadist Carlos Almonte hated Jews too, was "Death to all Juice" guy: Jawa
How IHH Prepared to Kill IDF Soldiers Aboard Mavi Marmara: Terrorism.Info

Gaza Flotilla Organizer at Hamas Rally: '[Infidels] Will Be Toppled… World Is Progressing to Islam': GWP
An Irrational, Obscene Hatred: JPost
That didn't take long: Muslim praise for Obama dries up a year after Cairo speech: McClatchy

If Israel Is Not Evil, the World Is in Big Trouble : Prager
Muslim Youth Attack Danish Singer Medina: TAB
Iran, Turkey meet to strenthen ties: GWP

SciTech

Microsoft's Crumbling Empire: Insider
What AT&T's tiered pricing means for you (FAQ): CNet
Joke of the Day: B&R

Cornucopia

Tea Party member sings lesser-known verse of the Star Spangled Banner: AnBlkCon
Express Your Bad Self: MOTUS
The Wit and Wisdom of Peter Singer: First Thoughts

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Black & Right

QOTD:

"Never let a serious crisis go to waste." -- Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff to Barack Obama

"Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant" -- James Madison, 4th President of The United States, Father of the United States Constitution


Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Gee, this doesn't seem like a bullish indicator. Bank of Montreal issues its third and final warning: go to cash. Now.

Via Zero Hedge, there's definitely no hedging in this strongly worded missive from the advisers at Bank of Montreal (BMO).

• Our call is to go to cash, or cash-like instruments to the maximum of your mandate. Consider this our third and final warning/escalation

• Our view is based on the past and present state of the market (facts), and on what we see as the near-future condition of the market, which until it is fact, will be regarded by the naysayers as fiction.

• The risk for an asset manager is that he/she considers the current state (facts) of the market as fictitious, or irrelevant...

• Our message of escalated concern may be summed up by one simple statement: If Asian credit moves with European credit, and the European credit story is not over, then the whole notion of Asian-led global growth goes out the window, as we will see capital flight away from Asia and out of risk assets in general...

...China needs to grow for the sake of social stability... China needs to grow for the sake of social stability (a standard PBOC fact line)... Asian growth needs to be funded, and yet escalating sovereign default risk has resulted in the closure of funding markets.

...The default risk of financial institutions is as great now as was the case during the Bear Stearns takeover and Lehman Brothers failure. In the months ahead, more banks will have deposited toxic assets into bad banks and/or government guarantee programs, effectively de-risking the corporations at the expense of the state and current shareholders who will see their stakes diluted.

...Sleep at Night Test: Can You Tell The Difference Between SocGen and BofA?

• ...we have banks that are too interconnected to fail, and yet in Europe, the policy makers are too disconnected to yield comfort.

• Banks, evil as they are portrayed, are conduits for funding.

• Funding markets are shut.

• Shut means no bid.

• No bid markets ≠ happy markets.

Fortunately, our well-managed federal government has socked away plenty of money in the national "rainy day" fund and not wasted it on "make-work" Stimulus packages, union payoffs, new entitlement scams and earmarks.