Thursday, June 17, 2010

Comrades: We must actively struggle to hasten inevitable progress of Obama recovery and overcome racist teabagging naysayers!

And the hits just keep on coming:

Initial jobless claims in at 472,000, up 12,000 and far higher than the expectation of 450,000.

Last month's jobless numbers were revised upwards from 456,000 to 460,000.

The Consumer Price Index came in at -0.2%, which translates to out-and-out deflation;

Gold hit another all-time high as investors fled the deficit-stricken dollar and Euro;

While the U.S. deficit grows like the Gulf oil gusher, the economy stumbles under oppressive regulatory and taxation regimes, and global investors come to grips with the self-destructive policies of the Obama Democrats, gold has only way way to move. And that one way is not down. It's not sideways.

For you liberals: that means gold is headed still higher. At least until November.


Image: Big Bureaucracy (translation: "Workers of public health and physical education! Improve the medical service to the people, more actively introduce physical education into the daily life of the people!")

What could go wrong? 17 Afghan pilots AWOL from Texas Air Force base

Fox News has an exclusive report that should send some shivers down your spine:

A nationwide alert has been issued for 17 members of the Afghan military who have gone AWOL from a Texas Air Force base where foreign military officers who are training to become pilots are taught English... The Afghan officers and enlisted men have security badges that give them access to secure U.S. defense installations, according to the lookout bulletin, "Afghan Military Deserters in CONUS [Continental U.S.]," issued by Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Dallas...

The Afghans were attending the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The DLI program teaches English to military pilot candidates and other air force prospects from foreign countries allied with the U.S.

...Each Afghan was issued a Department of Defense Common Access Card, an identification card used to gain access to secure military installations, with which they "could attempt to enter DOD installations," according to the bulletin. Base security officers were encouraged to disseminate the bulletin to their personnel.

....The bulletin requests, "If any Afghan pictured herein is encountered, detain the subject and contact your local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office, the FBI or NCIS."

I'm not sure what the big deal is.

Thousands of heavily armed drug- and human-smugglers from Mexico are streaming into Arizona every month, to the point where local sheriffs say the areas are no longer under the control of the U.S. government.

In reaction, Attorney Generic Eric Holder is preparing to sue... Arizona.

As for a measly 17 Afghan pilots? Has anyone looked in Janet Napolitano's basement?


Hat tip: MP.

Community-Organizer-In-Chief announces comprehensive plan to plug Gulf spill -- involves complex sequence of shakedowns, taxation and union payoffs

Using the vast engineering, logistics and oil spill remediation knowledge assembled by the White House in only 57 days, the President has announced a comprehensive plan to address the massive oil spill in the Gulf. Three projects are operating in parallel:

The President performed a seemingly extra-legal shakedown of BP involving redistributing $20 billion from shareholders and pensioners to a fund managed by an Obama crony: "There is no legal basis for the Obama administration to induce BP to pay $20 billion into a kitty to be controlled by one of its political appointees."

The President will try to ram through a massive new tax on energy in the form of Cap-and-Trade, to be passed even if Americans vote out incumbent Democrats in November;

Finally, the President will stipulate an implicit payoff to unions from the BP slush fund. It will come in the form of "$100 million [to be set aside] in a separate fund to help oil workers". Presumably the funds will be dispatched to only those workers protected by collective bargaining agreements, as virtually all Obama dictates command.

What is the legal authority for these measures?

There is none.

The ecological disaster continues in the Gulf, 57 days in. Just as the President, once upon a time, promised a "laser focus" on "jobs, jobs, jobs"; and just as he once promised to repair the housing market; and just as he once promised to revamp the economy with new, clean energy technologies; and just as he promised to "fix" the health care system -- his effort here also demonstrates a profound lack of managerial experience. And, worse, his complete unwillingness to learn from experts.

Having spent trillions of dollars on Obama's initiatives, we have nothing to show for any of them except an enormous pool of oil washing up on the Gulf Coast, a broken fiscal system, and an utterly failed President.


Larwyn's Linx: Tea Party 2.0 -- the Block Captain Revolution

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

Tea Party 2.0: the Block Captain Revolution: GWP
Footnotes from Obama's BP Meeting: Patterico
Great: ACORN sought, received probe report changes: BigGovt

ObamaCare treats Unions better than you and me: RWN
"Day of Reckoning": TigerHawk
Vitter leads Malancon in LA Senate Race: SIGIS

Economy

To Be Concerned… or Not To Be?: Sargen
Wake up, fellow law professors, to the casualties...: Instapundit
The Moocher Index: Rating all 50 States: IntlLiberty

Obama and Oil: Greasing America's Decline: AT
Our Caudillo President: AmSpec
Five more ways Obama’s health-care law boosts unions: DC

Climate & Energy

Report: Whale S*** Helps Fight Global Warming: RWN
Engineering analysis shows Packgen boom “superior”: Hot Air
Dept. of Energy’s Cathy Zoi: Still Flouting the Law, Still Stonewalling the Investigation: PJM

Obama's Gulf War III: Hanson
The EPA vs. the Dutch: Malkin
55 days later, White House decides to accept Dutch offer: GWP

Media

Doing the Job Media Won't: Fact-checking Obama's Gulf Spill Address: NewsBusters
Obama's Disaster of a Disaster Speech: Morrissey
Pass the Popcorn: Driscoll

The Right Side Of The Blogosphere’s Reaction To Obama’s Speech: RWN
WAAH! Nobody Likes Me! - An Evening with Cindy Sheehan and Bill Ayers: AT
Obama vs. Press Freedom: Morris

World

Ruh Roh: Iranian, Hezbollah Flotillas are Sailing: HNN
Obama Boss George Soros Ready To Profit From Oil Disaster: Bruce
Radical Muslims scream at returning UK troops; Brits hurl pork sausages in return: GWP

In Mexico, Hundreds Killed In Drug Violence. Guess Who Gets Blamed?: RWN
Turkish Jihad Flotilla: Anti-Israel Protesters Infiltrated By Pro-Israel Protesters: Jawa
Some Semi-Sanity from Europe: EU Foreign Ministers Make Partial Sense on Gaza, Iran: BRubin

SciTech

EMP Defeats the Hardened Data Center: NoJitter
T-Mobile USA expands fast 3G network: CNet
Here Comes the Food Czar: Riehl

Cornucopia

On the Beach: Moonbattery
Rubber Stamp: Brumfield
Crist looks for signs of oil on Florida beaches: BrutHon

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please Support Michele Bachmann

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Just when you thought Democrats had hit bottom: they plan on passing Cap-and-Trade Energy Tax during... wait for it... the Lame-Duck Session

Runner-up headline: Democrats show their respect for the people.

Even after the bribes, threats and skulduggery they used to jam socialized medicine down the American people's throats, it's hard to believe the latest news relayed by Jim Geraghty from Politico's Mike Allen:

EXCLUSIVE: Phil Schiliro, the White House congressional liaison, has told the Senate to aim to take up an energy bill the week of July 12, after the July 4 break (and after the scheduled final passage of Wall Street reform). Kagan confirmation will follow, ahead of the summer break, scheduled to begin Aug. 9...

The plan is to conference the new Senate bill with the already-passed House bill IN A LAME-DUCK SESSION AFTER THE ELECTION, so House members don’t have to take another tough vote ahead of midterms.

Geraghty offers advice everyone should read and memorize:

Every GOP candidate should demand their Democrat incumbent opponent pledge in writing they will not pass a massive energy tax in a lame-duck session if they are defeated.

Any Democrat who uses a lame-duck session to advance Obama's radical agenda is the lowest of the low. Anyone who does so is metaphorically urinating on the concept of representative government.

If I had a mean streak, I'd suggest that such an individual be roasted on an open spit. But Eric Holder informs me that such an action is against the law, except if performed by the New Black Panther Party. In that case, I recommend you shun them, boo them and scream "you suck" when ever you spot them in public.

It's the very least they deserve.


Hat tip: Ace of Spades.

The 10 signs the Obama Depression has only just begun

In two sobering paragraphs, Michael Snyder puts the U.S. economy in historical perspective:

...We have squandered the great wealth left to us by our forefathers, we have almost totally dismantled the world's greatest manufacturing base, we have shipped millions of good jobs overseas and we have piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of mankind.

We have taken the greatest free enterprise economy that was ever created and have turned it into a gigantic house of cards delicately balanced on a never-ending spiral of paper money and debt. For decades, all of this paper money and debt has enabled us to enjoy the greatest party in the history of the world, but now the bills are coming due and the party is nearly over.

As for the visual proof?

10: Gallup's measure of underemployment hit 20.0% on March 15th. That was up from 19.7% two weeks earlier and 19.5% at the start of the year.


9: According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in the month of March. This was an increase of almost 19 percent from February, and it was the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report back in January 2005.


8: The FDIC's list of problem banks recently hit a 17-year high.


7: During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.


6: The U.S. Congress recently approved an increase in the debt cap of the U.S. government to over 14 trillion dollars.


5:The FDIC is backing 8,000 banks that have a total of $13 trillion in assets with a deposit insurance fund that is basically flat broke. In fact, the FDIC's deposit insurance fund now has negative 20.7 billion dollars in it, which actually represents a slight improvement from the end of 2009.


4: The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that more than 10 percent of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment during the January-March time period. That was a record high and up from 9.1 percent a year ago.


3: The biggest banks in the U.S. cut their collective small business lending balance by another $1 billion in November. That drop was the seventh monthly decline in a row.


2: A massive "second wave" of adjustable rate mortgages is scheduled to reset over the next two to three years. If this second wave is anything like the first wave, the U.S. housing market is about to be absolutely crushed.


1: 'Nuff said.



Stick a Fork in BP: Jamie Gorelick Hired as Chief Litigator

As if you needed another reason to short BP:

BP executives, armed with legal advisors, arrived Wednesday for talks with President Barack Obama and top White House lawyers on the fallout from the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill. [BP's legal advisers include] general counsel Rupert Bondy, and litigator Jamie Gorelick from top US law firm WilmerHale.

A senior Obama aide said early Wednesday the White House intended to use every "legal device" to make BP meet the costs of cleaning up the Gulf states and restoring the region...

...In a late night Oval Office primetime address Obama vowed to make BP pay for its "recklessness" in triggering the nation's worst ever environmental disaster which has left millions of gallons of oil sloshing around in the Gulf.

In his speech laced with battle tones, he warned America could be left fighting the "epidemic" of the massive oil spill on its southern shores for years to come.

Yes, you read that right: BP's top outside counsel appears to be none other than Jamie Gorelick, the world-renowned Mistress of Disaster.

You know, the former Clinton crony responsible for building the wall between the intelligence community and law enforcement that helped lead to 9/11. Oh, and after that success, Gorelick landed at Fannie Mae. There, she helped orchestrate all sorts of interesting accounting practices while pulling down $26 million, leaving just before the entire place imploded.

Now that I think about it, hiring Gorelick may have been a good move by BP. Usually when The Mistress of Disaster's involved, it's the American people who have to absorb the trillion-dollar hit.


Caption o' the Day: Team Obama Lightning Response Action Squad

Operative Amalaur forwards this award-winner and, when queried, can't recall whether she spotted it in the Times or the Journal. No matter.


Related: Team Obama Lightning Response Action Squad.

Larwyn's Linx: Stuck on Stupid -- Obama's Bizarre Czar Fetish

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

Stuck on Stupid -- Obama's Bizarre Czar Fetish: Malkin
Importing a Criminal Underclass: RWN
Barack Obama, Esq.: AT

Connecting the Obama, Soros, Petrobras Dots: TAB
Katrina and BP, Two Sides of the Same Coin: AT
Obama's Political Oil Fund: WSJ

Economy

The Golden Age of Government Unions is Over: Boortz
Rochester Schools abolish academic rankings: BlogProf
Monopolies + Public Schools = Failing Students: Sun-Times

Obama Jobs: the Permanent Census: AmSpec
Jerry Brown: 'We Need More Welfare and Fewer Jobs': Driscoll
Self-Destruction in Illinois: WklyStd

Climate & Energy

Devastating: Feds knew immediately of spill impact: GWP
No energy in Obama energy speech: Simon
Gore: stop censoring Gulf coverage!: Toldjah

Media

Eric Boehlert: No, Seriously! Kick Me!: Patterico
Americans Stand Up Against Radical Islam in New York – We Will Not Submit!: LATL
Judenhaas in the Med: Steyn

Drunkblogging Obama’s Oval Office Address: VodkaPundit
Taking Down Eric Boehlert: RWN
One man, six votes?: WyBlog

World

Obama Administration Adds US to List of Nations That Traffic in Slavery: GWP
Should These Jews Also Go Back to Poland and Germany?: LegalIns
Going on Vacation to Venezuela? What Could Go Wrong?: PJM

Who Owns the Land, Anyway?: AT
The trillion-dollar Afghan battlefield: Peters
'Jordan seeks to be nuclear power': JPost

SciTech

Apple iPhone 4 Pre-Ordering Is a Total Disaster: Gizmodo
Voyage to the Journey of the Center to the Middle of the Mediocre Marxist: Cold Fury
PayPal Relents and Apologizes to Pamela Geller: PJM

Cornucopia

Email o' the Day: Denny
Prince Hamlet in the Oval: MOTUS
Palin to meet with Thatcher: AnBlkCon


Image: Sister Toldjah.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: J.D. Hayworth for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children." -- Albert Shanker, then-President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)


Tuesday, June 15, 2010

You've Lost That Tingling Feeling: MSNBC Obliterates Obama's Oval Office Address: "I'll Barf If He" Mentions Chu's Nobel Prize One More Time

When you've lost Tingle-Boy and Strap-On, you've lost the Marxist Left. Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Howard Fineman trashed the President's address, and basically pined for the successful days of Jimmy Carter.

Olbermann: "It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days."

Matthews compared Obama to Carter.

Olbermann: "Nothing specific at all was said."

Matthews: "No direction."

Howard Fineman: "He wasn't specific enough."

Olbermann: "I don't think he aimed low, I don't think he aimed at all. It's startling."

Howard Fineman: Obama should be acting like a "commander-in-chief."

Matthews: Ludicrous that he keeps saying [Secretary of Energy] Chu has a Nobel prize. "I'll barf if he does it one more time."

Matthews: "A lot of meritocracy, a lot of blue ribbon talk."

Matthews: "I don't sense executive command."

Gee, and here I thought he had all of this executive experience to fall back on.

What ever bones you have to pick with either, Sarah Palin and George W. Bush are both looking pretty damn good right now.