Sunday, July 11, 2010

Shock, Dismay as Dana Milbank Proves His Cranium Somehow Detached Itself from the Rest of His Body

I feel sympathy for the Washington Post's Dana Milbank. He has a truly difficult job. On the one hand, he has to pretend to be a real journalist. On the other, he has to recycle David Axelrod's press releases and position them as factual.

In his most recent public relations project for the DNC, Milbank pilloried Arizona Governor Jan Brewer for her references to drug gang beheadings on the border with Mexico.

Jan Brewer has lost her head.

The Arizona governor, seemingly determined to repel every last tourist dollar from her pariah state, has sounded a new alarm about border violence. 'Our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert either buried or just lying out there that have been beheaded,' she announced on local television.

Ay, caramba! Those dark-skinned foreigners are now severing the heads of fair-haired Americans? Maybe they're also scalping them or shrinking them or putting them on a spike...

But those in fear of losing parts north of the neckline can relax. There's not a follicle of evidence to support Brewer's claim.

Of course, in the tiny land of reality -- which we like to call "outside the Beltway" -- the Mexican crime gangs running wild in Arizona are well-known for beheading and hanging victims just to make their point.

A friend on the Hill read Milbank's piece and pronounced it "utter BS," then produced a copy of a July 8, 2010, letter to Brewer from Arizona rancher J. David Lowell describing a recent incident involving one of his ranch hands:

"In January 2010, Congressman Rob Bishop visited our ranch here in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. During that visit, I related to him an incident that occurred on June 27, 2008, in one of our pastures west of the ranch house... On that day, one of our ranch hands was working horseback and discovered a human head near a trail believed to be used by drug and alien smugglers.

"Although the head was missing the lower jaw, it was immediately apparent that much of the mass and flesh of the head was still present. The cowboy searched the area in hopes of finding the remainder of the body to no avail.

"The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office was notified and they took possession of the head on that same date. We suspect that the head may have been placed along side the trail as a warning to other drug and alien traffickers using the trail."

Famed blogger Fausta Wertz regularly reads the Spanish-language news sites published in central America and adds:

If you, dear readers, can read Spanish, read the Narcotráfico section of Mexican newspaper El Universal. The reports of beheadings are not tall tales at all. Beheadings are a form of execution by the drug cartels operating across Mexico and in the US-Mexico border area. It behooves the governor of a state bordering with a drug war zone to ensure the safety of her state’s citizens by enforcing the law.

How many decapitated heads found would Milbank consider acceptable in order for the Arizona governor to justify enforcing the law? One? Fifty? Ten thousand?

In fact, photographs of beheaded drug gang members were published by The Westerner [Caution: extremely graphic!] to help Milbank come to grips with his cranial detachment syndrome.

It's really a shame that Dana Milbank -- who, at one time was a respected journalist -- has transformed himself into an out-and-out laughingstock. All of this embarrassment could have been avoided had he only bothered to use the complex research tool called "Google". Perhaps in the future David Axelrod will require the use of this revolutionary new application in his instruction-sheet for Mr. Milbank.


Related Reading Just to Tick You Off Even More:
The Shameless Duplicity of the Obama Administration: Napolitano Directly Contradicts Solis on Immigration Enforcement; Media Strangely Silent.
Four Border Stories Guaranteed to Make Your Blood Boil
Obama Administration Unveils Dramatic New Plan to Seal Massive Gulf Leak: Suing Arizona for Arresting Drug- and Human-Smugglers
Anyone know what you call it when heavily armed intruders cross the border into the U.S. unmolested by authorities? Oh, that's right: Arizona.


My Jersey Shore Summer Vacation

The party that precipitated the great hair gel shortage of 2010.

Kids: be warned that excessive tanning will damage your retinas.

The post-production party from the new show Project Oompa Loompa.

The hedgehog coiff was popular for a couple of days this month.

Close call: these guys were just two tanning-bed settings from death.

Hair: check. Pink jacket: checkety-check. Date: check and mate, biznatch!

Happy hour at the bodybuilding hairdressers convention.

Supah Wiseguy!

Tan-in-a-can meets fake-and-bake.

Calm down ladies - none of these dudes are taken.

Hat tip: Sean E.

Larwyn's Linx: Sharron Angle cannot win -- Just like Scott Brown

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

Sharron Angle cannot win -- Just like Scott Brown: LegalIns
A Tax on the First Amendment: BackCon
Investigation reveals who funded SC Dem Alvin Greene: RWN

Elena Kagan’s 'Don’t Ask Don’t Tell' Sharia Policy: McCarthy
Ike Brown: Will DOJ Fail Another Race-Based Test?: Adams
Black GOP candidate slams Obama for exploiting race: Hill

Economy

Magical Education and the Slide into Third-Worldism: AT
Struggling states want more aid from Washington: Caller
Raising Your Indirect Taxes: AT

See? The president is cutting the deficit!: RWN
Charts of the Day: Employment: Hot Air
Why Florida Was the “Smart” Choice for LeBron: Foundry

Climate & Energy

It Begins: First Oil Rig Relocates From Gulf: GWP
Scientists Cleared of Rigging Climate Research? Hardly: AmPower
Oil Exec's Wife Injured by Bomb Left on Doorstep: GWP

Media

Crimes of the New York Times: AT
The Destructive Power of "Hate Speech" Censorship: AmPower
Pitts: White Panther Mel Gibson is Hateful: BlogProf

Strap-On Beclowns Himself (More Than Usual): Ace
Alinsky, Stalinsky, It's Still the Same Old Agitprop: AT
Blogger face-off: Like Sen. Graham said, will the Tea Party movement die out?: Hill

World

Obama plays the race card against the Israelis: Six Meat
4 Arrested in South Africa Trying to Sell Nuclear Device: VOA
Iraq, Afghan, Pakistan insurgents join Somali militants: Kenya foreign minister: Terror Free Somalia

Ivy Cred: Boris and Natasha Edition: Crittenden
Iran: 18 provinces ordered shut down; national strike and demonstrations called for: Antimullah
The World Cup Abuse Myth: NRO

Ooops: Mosque Scrubs Its Website of Hamas Fundraiser: Jawa
Yes, It's Another False-Moderation-of-Palestinian-Leadership Hoax: BRubin
Iran reviewing woman's stoning death sentence: Maktoob

SciTech

Obama touts $400M loan to solar company linked to corrupt Democrat's family: Hot Air
Are your hormones damaging your portfolio?: Maktoob
Want more followers? Twitter may help you buy some: CNet

Cornucopia

WWE star Eddie Guerrero found dead in hotel room: Wizbang
Live Blogging Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant: Kesler
Something Wonderful: Coming This August: AmDigest

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support J.D. Hayworth for U.S. Senate in Arizona


Saturday, July 10, 2010

Blue State Recipes of 'Higher Taxes, Less Fiscal Responsibility' Pay Dividends as Cali, New York and Illinois Near Collapse

Detect a theme in the following local news stories?

California tax revenue slides again


California’s cash balance is “stable today, but could be short-lived,” after dipping $54.6 million — or 0.5 percent — in June, compared to the governor’s May revision... Larger-than-anticipated declines in corporate taxes and sales-tax revenue offset the $333 million, or 6.1 percent, increase in person income tax revenue, State Controller John Chiang said in a news release Friday. Corporate taxes declined $156 million, while sales-tax revenue fell $153 million, or down 7.5 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively.

“The governor and Legislature’s lack of urgency in adopting an honest budget could pave the way to a completely avoidable cash crisis later this year,” Chiang said... The state’s $9.9 billion budget deficit cash deficit is being covered by internal borrowing.

Illinois wrestles with $13 billion deficit


[Gov.] Quinn’s announce[d] late last week that he was cutting state spending by $1 billion as he wrestles with one of the worst state budget deficits in the country. State legislators wrapped up their session earlier this year, leaving Quinn with a $13 billion deficit to resolve... [A recent Rasmussen Reports survey found that, among Illinois residents,]:

-- 71 percent say the country is in a recession, and 46 percent say the economy is getting worse.
-- 55 percent want to repeal President Obama’s health care plan.
-- 51 percent disagree with the Justice Department’s decision to challenge Arizona’s new immigration law.
-- 27 percent view Gov. Quinn “very unfavorably.” (Is that all?)

New York Budget Late, Stuck in Neutral


The state's budget is now 101 days late, New York's leaders have ceased negotiating with each other and fresh revenue problems could be on the horizon in two months...

The state could face new cash problems in September and Gov. David Paterson may withhold $2 billion in school aid in order to cover costs, his office said...

...A controversial plan to allow the state and local governments to essentially borrow from the pension fund also remains an issue, as does creating a contingency fund in case up to $1 billion in federal Medicaid money isn't sent to the state...

The theme, my friends, is these states -- despite uniform Democrat control for decade upon decade -- can't even come up with budgets.

Yet their answer to every situation is more government: more taxes, more borrowing, more fiscal irresponsibility, more kicking the can down the road.

IF YOU DON'T VOTE IN 2010 -- and vote out every Democrat you possibly can -- we'll soon see similar catastrophes at the federal level. It's either 2010 for fiscal responsibility or -- it's over.



The Towering Financial Acumen of the Left -- Spittled-laced Balloon Juice insists Rich Must Get Poorer to Make Things Gooder

Like clockwork, the Obama sycophants in legacy media publish the same, tired story they run every year about this time.

The gap between the wealthiest Americans and middle- and working-class Americans has more than tripled in the past three decades, according to a June 25 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

New data show that the gaps in after-tax income between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the middle and poorest parts of the population in 2007 was the highest it’s been in 80 years, while the share of income going to the middle one-fifth of Americans shrank to its lowest level ever.

The CBPP report attributes the widening of this gap partly to Bush Administration tax cuts, which primarily benefited the wealthy...

[Ed: Gee, that's a unique theme]

Of the $1.7 trillion in tax cuts taxpayers received through 2008, high-income households received by far the largest — not only in amount but also as a percentage of income — which shifted the concentration of after-tax income toward the top of the spectrum.

And the economic illiterates running the socialist blogs -- like John Cole at Balloon Juice -- insist that the rich get poorer. Because that way, they'll hire fewer people, quit plowing money into startups and capital investments, and otherwise stimulate the economy.

In all seriousness, what I do not understand is why don’t people realize this is unsustainable? How do people expect the economy to grow when 3/4 ofthe [sic] nation is too broke to buy anything?

Considering 20% of the country is either unemployed or under-employed, perhaps jobs might help.

Gee, I wonder who creates jobs? Would that be the entrepreneurs, wealthy investors, risk-taking business owners -- all of whom, by definition, must have capital to spare in order to freaking hire people? You know, these leftists are so damn dumb I'm astounded they're able to survive driving to the grocery store.

Consider the following two gentlemen, two of the detestable wealthy contributing to this awful disparity -- since they possess tens of billions of dollars between them.

The Incredible Wealth of Page and Brin


Eleven years ago, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were students at Stanford. They were then members of Obama's oppressed "poor".

Just nine years later, Page and Brin were worth a combined $36 billion as the founders of Google.

What the Left's economic illiterates can't or won't understand is that wealth disparity is wonderful. It allowed Page and Brin to create, achieve, construct a company from whole cloth, employ thousands and produce hundreds of other millionaires.

Now, of course, they're among the vile rich.

Take more money from the business owners, you get less venture capital, less investment, less business growth and -- ultimately -- more malaise.

Gee, Johnny, that's not too hard to understand, is it?

You see, what's important is not wealth disparity, it's the ability to move between economic classes that makes America unique. Of the top ten wealthiest members of the Forbes 400, six are self-made billionaires.

But, gee, they made too much money, hired far too many people, and contributed way too much to the advancement of society.

Perhaps one day Johnny Cole can take an econ class, so he can figure out all of this incredibly difficult stuff. In the mean time, weep for the poor drones and lemmings who read -- and believe -- this brand of runny excrement.


Update: 'The Government Needs Money'


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Andrew Cuomo: Architect of Ruin

One of the "masterminds" who served a critical -- yet largely unpublicized -- role in the recent economic meltdown is a man named Andrew Cuomo.

Curiously, not only is this man not a laughingstock (or, better yet, serving in federal lockup), he's a mainstream Democrat politician running for the governorship of New York.

Flashback to 1997, when President Bill Clinton named Andrew Cuomo, a man without any significant real estate or financial experience, the youngest head of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in history.

Photo Caption o' the Day

MOTUS:

Someone needs to spend a little less time at the golf course and a little more time on the bench.


Larwyn's Linx: Riots Without Cause; Beating Barbara Boxer

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

Riots Without Cause: City Journal
Beating Barbara Boxer: Hewitt
Obama Attacks Angle: She's 'Too Extreme': GWP

The racist rules of O's Justice Dept.: Malkin
New Black Panther Party President Admits Voter Intimidation: Driscoll
Rep. Etheridge: You Better Ask “Who Is Dr. Berwick?”: RFC

Economy

America: Empire 'On the Edge of Chaos' and Collapse: AT
'MEChA Boy' Raúl Grijalva Tries to Save Face: RWN
Squandering the Stimulus: AT

Unions Violating Disclosure Rules: RWN
Obama and Keynes, Hayek and Laffer: Wolf Howling
Snap! O's agents asking illegals for their papers!: RWN

Climate & Energy

Raising Arizona: WUWT
China's New 'Carbon Offsets': Red Ink
Aliens Cause Global Warming: Crichton's Caltech Lecture: WUWT

Media

Whitewashing black racism; Shabazz: “Prepare for war”: Malkin
Bill Kristol Must Resign: Coulter
Immigration, racism and the left: Kimball

The NAACP's Second-Class Citizens: Jackson
NBC Reporter Discovers New Immigration Law Causing Illegals to Leave Arizona : NewsBusters
CNN's Cafferty on the Largest Tax Hike in U.S. History: January 2011: BlogProf

World

Russia Moves into Obama’s Foreign Policy Vacuum: FirstThoughts
Measuring Risk of Recidivism Among Detainees - Or Not: AT
The Hidden Costs of Jew-Baiting in England: PJM

Column One: Fit for 'The New York Times': JPost
Doing the Jobs Americans Won’t Do… Illegal Alien Muslim Torches Marietta Mosque: GWP
Saved so he can grow up to kill: TAB

SciTech

ComScore: Android grows US smartphone market share as all others decline: Engadget
Apple Needs an Attitude Adjustment: MarketWatch
Muslim Science Fiction: Post

Cornucopia

Wankers: Then and Now: AT
Let them call @CleanHouse: Fausta
Website posts recording of racist Gibson rant: Yahoo!

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Sharron Angle for U.S. Senate: Help Defeat Harry Reid!


Friday, July 09, 2010

Beware the Democrat who claims he has discovered the free market

By Victor the Contractor

Much has been written about the Obama Presidency -- and the impact it has on politics in the United States and abroad. Nine or ten figures of capital was spent winning his election, from selling the idea of a return to ethics or his plain promise that his would be the most open governance in history.

President Obama was going to throw open the doors to the legislative process and even bring cameras into the negotiations for health care reform. A huge gamble was taken by the Democrat Party, in that setting such open and lofty goals would be enough to win the election and that there would be enough momentum to govern and reshape the political landscape in their desired image.

Well, I have some bad news.

The White House has failed in its bid to keep the hearts and minds it so enthusiastically courted during the last election. Pledging to govern with an open mind and a televised process is all well and good until the swearing in ceremony, and then the rubber meets the road. Or in GM and Chrysler's case, the (unwanted) rubber sits in the showroom while the American people pay for a hundred thousand union members to pretend to manufacture automobiles of questionable quality.

In fact, this Presidency has been the antithesis of open. Nobody knows what is going on in the White House, least of all its principal occupant and his cabinet. From day one there has been an 'invisibility cloak' thrown over the Congress and the White House, both in terms of access to the process of governance and the legislation.

President Obama has established a Kremlin-like leadership style. He dictates from on high and has a complete disdain for criticism -- or even questions concerning his rationale. His is the affectation of the royal, who decrees and answers to no one.

His Executive Orders are now being challenged in court. And with each loss in court, he is inexorably losing fungible political power. No matter what political bent to which you aspire, a loss in court over an Executive Order is a loss in the public court of opinion.

And the first loss is the most shocking because most expected the courts to side with his vision of the world. A rebuke by the courts shows him to be human, fallible and perhaps even an outsider. Perhaps he is a man who won election but as of yet is untested in the role of leader. And the courts will be no pushover when the President chooses to enact extra-constitutional authority.

This man-child has used his 'Audacity of Hope' spiel to set up a Kangaroo Kingdom of sorts, where he decrees -- and the press trumpets -- his success. No matter that his policies are dooming the economy or that his lack of savvy exposes a Marxist agenda at every turn.

As a President he looks like a monumental failure already, allusions to the inglorious Carter presidency not withstanding. Mr. Obama has no plan to govern; he possesses only an agenda of nationalization and socialization, the likes of which America has never before seen. What a pity for those who actually believed in his flowery prose and evocative dream weaving! So desperate were the Democrats to have a modern JFK that they settled for a well spoken but incompetent SOB.

Leadership guffaws:

• President Obama said that the police "acted stupidly" in arresting Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was obviously picking a fight with a police officer. No matter that the officer was investigating a possible home invasion 911 call. Ignorance of the details did not stop the President from offering illumination into his skewed worldview. As CINC, he should have known better.

• "The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort." Was that an effort to improve his golf game? He later claimed to have convened a special group to oversee the disaster. Why no one had heard of this group for 60 days... and why they waited to months act was anyone's guess. And are we talking about oil or the economy here? Does it really matter?

• The White House's tax-and-spend programs are bankrupting the country even as their economists decry capitalism and proclaim the failure of a market-based economy. Curiously, they ignore a 14 trillion dollar debt and a two trillion dollar budget deficit for fiscal 2010. But we have to spend our way out of the recession with China's money, don't we? The Democrats' strategy? Buying the unions and hapless Progressives: $50 million. Buying the unemployed and the illegal vote: $2 billion. A four trillion dollar budget while taking $2.3 trillion: priceless.

• The agonizingly moronic lawsuit against Arizona for trying to help ICE do its job is a blatant effort to legalize illegal aliens. Or, as a caller to Rush Limbaugh's program called them: "Undocumented Democrats". Their transparent project to add to Democratic voter rolls adds a particularly distasteful aspect to this proceeding. That the President's 'Justice' Department is suing to sideline a law they are charged with enforcing is beyond hypocritical. It leads one to believe that his ends justify any means. This is a new low for even Obama.

• The now-forgotten Health Care Reform Act saps a trifling $650 an employee in its first year from businesses with more than 50 workers. That "fine" balloons as the years pass to $2000-per-worker. I've been reading the numbers -- and there are too many new taxes to mention here. Suffice it to say that this bill is a candy store for the Government... and the spending will be legendary! That 85% of our citizens don't want this pig-in-a-poke is of no consequence to the rabidly socialist White House and compliant Congress. This bill alone could cause an economic depression!

• The Cap and Tax bill reminds many of the tortuous Carter Presidency, where a man in over his head tried to govern with the advice of fools and the enthusiasm of a funeral procession. Nobody could depress consumption like President Carter. And his speeches were greeted with immediate stock market losses (look it up!). Much like our present 'Pretender-in-Chief', Carter tried to cap our production, our consumption and every other aspect of our commerce. These steps will stunt any recovery and lock in our effective double-digit unemployment rate.

• The Spendthrift ethos of the White House may cause a Depression. In 1933 our Government defaulted on our bonds. We hit a reset button for debt. I understand that action caused a worldwide debt default and a deeper depression. I read that only the Netherlands repaid its notes -- and only as a point of honor. With a $14 trillion dollar debt, and a deficit that is swelling monthly, we can not afford to authorize unlimited stimulus bills that just put off the inevitable collapse of the economy. Do not be fooled, the residential and commercial real estate markets are still in critical condition. With a third of new mortgages taken out as refinancing and something like a third of housing sales being sold by the banks we are not out of the woods yet. And commercial real estate has not felt the brunt of the foreclosures yet as banks are putting off those proceedings indefinitely to forestall a collapse in that industry as well. Add to that a 9.7% level of (official) unemployment and you have the makings for stagflation and a repeat of the backing and filling of the economy like we experienced in the 1970's. Economies grow through consumption, not Government spending, welfare checks or unemployment extensions. Spending programs, especially on 'shovel ready programs' which are in reality just addendums to existing bloated budgets just drive up our debt. What you sew, you reap. And we are sewing a deep Depression in this country. We shall reap the whirlwind.

I truly hope that this article is instructive. We can't keep legislating our rights away and expect to prosper. If we allow this growth of government to continue unchecked we will have a welfare state -- and all of the blight and rationing that accompany it. Even the planners of the Health Care Reform Act admit that rationing will be the order of the day. They rationalize their plans: they say it will be more fair than an insurance company. But when has any government run any business efficiently? Name me one, if you can! Even the Post Office is going for another two-cent increase per letter. So much for streamlining.

Beware the Democrat who claims he has found the religion of the free market!

We must sweep Congress clean of the spendthrifts this November! Anyone who voted for Health Care Reform or "Stimulus" should be afraid. Very afraid.

--Victor The Contractor

 
 

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Tea Party activist -- and would reject the divisive rhetoric of Barack Obama and Eric Holder

I can say with conviction that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Tea Party activist.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination...

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned... So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

...Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

...But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back... ...I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

...I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

...This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He believed in a color-blind society.

And one other thing: Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican.

As all color-blind citizens of these United States are -- and must be.


The Timeless Wisdom of Bob "Sour Grapes" Inglis: Teabaggers Dividing America, Could Result in Car-Bombs and Beheadings

Congressman Bob Inglis lost his GOP primary bid in South Carolina a couple of weeks ago, guaranteeing he would not serve a seventh term. And instead of dealing with the loss in a magnanimous way, the sore loser started spewing the typical RINO crap.

NewsBusters transcribed several of his most outrageous statements, including this classic:

It's a real concern, because I think what we're doing is dividing the country into partisan camps that really look a lot like Shia and Sunni... It's very difficult to come together to find solutions.

A quick check of the records led me to the following statistics that confirm Inglis' metaphor:

  Deaths caused by Sunni-Shia sectarian violence since 2001: 11,328
  Deaths caused by conservatives defending the Constitution since 2001: 0

Good riddance, nimrod.

And should Lindsey Graham not get a six-week refresher course in the Constitution, this could be a preview of 2014's coming attractions.


Larwyn's Linx: 10 Steps to Winning the War Against Socialism

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

10 Steps to Winning the War Against Socialism: GWP
Lawlessness at the DOJ: Adams
Reid Campaign Evading Campaign Finance Laws?: LegalIns

Tea-Bagging Leftists Plan a Riot in Oakland: Zombie
Did Robin Carnahan Defy Federal Law?: Dana Show
Your NAACP at work: Gladney 'not black enough' to protect: GWP

Economy

President Pitching Wedge: 'Absolutely Clear' Economy Looking Up!: Ace
Obama on Jobs: Barry bashes Bush, Strawmen: NiceDeb
Pelosi places Dem reelection hopes on... ObamaCare: RWN

Another sign: Unions losing their old allies: RWN
Dems seek help for their piggy-bank: Hill
Mapping the Economy's 'Man-cession': Blumer

Climate & Energy

The Greenhouse Protection Racket: PJM
Michael Mann Speaks: Nelson
Climategate Whitewash is Good News: CRU brand still toxic: Telegraph

Administration takes a beating on drilling moratorium: BMW
Green Economics and the Void of Desire: Doc Zero
KY miners strike back at Ashley Judd: Malkin

Media

Minister King Samir Shabazz Revisited: GoV
Arizona's Constitutional War Powers: AT
Gibbs mocks conservative reporter, White House reporters amused: Hot Air

Was the Pro-Terrorist CNN Journalist a Victim of ‘a Social Media Drive-By Shooting?’: Driscoll
Morris: Make Obama Own the Double Dip: Ace
Sam Besserman vs. the Universe: Ace

Fish Wrap Of Record Goes All Constitutiony Over Arizona Lawsuit: RWN
Comment o' the Day: Surber
When Social Chaos Breaks Out: Crittenden

World

More Cracks in the Mullahs' Regime: Ledeen
Gitmo Transfers: Not Risk Free: WklyStd
Spies Like Putin: Glazov

Women and children die first: AT
China to count abortions as carbon offsets to sell back to US; EU, UN erupt in applause: BlogProf
British ObamaCare update: Wife succeeds in getting proper care for husband--after going on hunger strike: Marathon

Obama: Israelis suspicious of me because of my middle name: IBA
Al Qaeda bodyguard and accountant pleads guilty before military commission: LWJ
Insurgency: Mexican Schools Teach Bullet-Dodging: Dollard

SciTech

Vast Canyon of Gas and Dust — Progressive Progress Report: GoV
Why would you still wear a watch?: Hyperquake
And the outreach begins: BrutHon

Cornucopia

"Today was a nuclear bomb..." said Paul Goydos, who shot a 59 today at the John Deere Classic: Althouse
One American's Poem: R&R
Only Israel: Denny

Images: AdClassix
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Ohio Project

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Hey, Kids Living in the Gulf: Now You Can Have Some Summer Fun, Too!

The February 1940 issue of Modern Mechanix offers some great advice for kids living in the Gulf. Why let a bumbling, inexperienced President ruin your summer?

The Table-top Oil Refinery™ lets anyone, even those of modest intelligence (i.e., Democrats), enjoy the chemicals washing up onto the Gulf shoreline courtesy of the Obama administration.

Remember: you can get all of the raw material free from your local beach!


Idea: Bob D.

Good News for Seniors: the Most Powerful Man in the Medical Industry Has a Love Affair with Urine- and Feces-Soaked Beds

For the first time in memory, a President has bypassed the Senate confirmation process without so much as a hearing. Obama used a recess appointment to name Donald Berwick, an extremely controversial pick, to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He thus becomes the single most important man in the health care industry, wielding incredible power to set prices and regulate every aspect of health care delivery.

Berwick would never have survived Senatorial confirmation because of his infamous, bizarre and blatantly socialist statements.

"I am romantic about the NHS; I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country... [it is] such a seductress... a global treasure."

"[Among] the primary functions [of health regulation is] to constrain decentralized, individual decision making [and] to weigh public welfare against the choices of private consumers."

"Please don’t put your faith in market forces... In the United States... competition is a major reason for our duplicative, supply-driven, fragmented care system."

Berwick has routinely mocked the very free market and private enterprise systems that produce 75% of all medical and pharmaceutical innovations on the planet. The breakthrough devices and drugs aren't coming from the U.K., a simple fact Berwick appears to have conveniently ignored.

Furthermore, the NHS is crumbling as we speak.

The families of 1,200 patients who died prematurely in recent years while in the care of NHS doctors and nurses might beg to differ.A shocking 2010 report by Queen's Counsel Robert Francis found that NHS patients were left unattended "for unacceptable amounts of time" in urine- and feces-soaked beds. At one NHS hospital, four members of the same family -- including a newborn girl -- died within 18 months of each other because of medical blunders.

And the numbers for UK health delivery are dismal compared to those of the U.S.

British cancer outcomes don't just trail U.S. results; "they rival those of Eastern European nations." A 2008 study showed that cancer survival rates in the U.K. trail far behind those of the United States. American men, for example, "have an 80 percent better chance of surviving prostate cancer than do their English counterparts... [and there are] similar disparities in comparative survival rates for victims of breast, colon and rectal cancers."

• Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom.

• Some "56 percent of Americans who could benefit from statin drugs, which reduce cholesterol and protect against heart disease, are taking them. By comparison, of those patients who could benefit from these drugs, only 36 percent of the Dutch, 29 percent of the Swiss, 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Britons, and 17 percent of Italians receive them."

• "British cancer patients are substantially more likely to die of the disease than those in other western European countries because of poor access to the latest drugs, according to an authoritative report to be published today." (Cancer survival rates worst in western Europe: Telegraph (UK) 2007)

England's health care is primitive compared to that of the U.S. And they don't pay as high a price for their care because they freeload on American innovation. If we utilized their systems, Americans might worry less about paying for health care, but we'd get 1996-level care and long lines. Those are the immutable laws of supply and demand. Government monopolies don't innovate. Only the free market innovates.

In an interview last year in the journal Biotechnology Healthcare, [Berwick] said, "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open."

Even the New York Times has taken notice of Berwick’s controversial nomination. Robert Pear reported last month: “Long before the uproar over ‘death panels’ last year, Dr. Berwick was urging health care providers to ‘reduce the use of unwanted and ineffective medical procedures at the end of life.’"

Why would Berwick -- against all evidence -- prefer Britain's NHS over America's system?

Because for Berwick, care is secondary to wealth redistribution. His well-publicized statement, "Any healthcare funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate."

Berwick prefers the misery, desperation and death endemic to the bankrupt NHS. The Marxist underpinnings, for him, are all that count. Wealth redistribution is paramount and health care is a distant second in importance.

Berwick is a menace to seniors and an utter disgrace as a bureaucrat.

So it's another first for Barack Obama. They were right when they said his Presidency was "historic". Just not in the way they anticipated.


Related:
Democrat Health Care By the Numbers
Gee, I can't wait for ObamaCare, NHS-style

Larwyn's Linx: Democrats 2010 Roadmap to Victory

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

Democrats 2010 Roadmap to Victory: Pundette
Obama faces backlash on his immigration plan: WashExam
Lazio seeks probe of ground-zero mosque: AP

Open-borders DOJ vs. America: Malkin
The Dumbest President Ever: AT
Obama attacks GOP for nominee delay: is he right?: Tapper

Economy

How Evil is ObamaCare? This Evil.: RWN
NYU's Perilous Adventure in Abu Dhabi: MTC
Poll Tailor-Made for GOP Ads: CFB

MI school district effectively bans white teachers: BlogProf
I see air-conditioned dead people: CNS
Keynes vs. Hayek: The Great Debate Continues: WSJ

Climate & Energy

Climate, Consensus and Healthy Skepticism: WashExam
The Butterfly Defect: WashExam

Media

The NASA Non-Feeding Frenzy: Instapundit
The Constitution Trumps Arizona?: AmPower
The New Black Panthers, and Eric Holder…: Am&Proud

CNN's Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs Implodes Via Twitter: Driscoll
You’ve got hate mail: Liberal racism gone wild!: Malkin
Never-ending Racial Hostility: AT

The Last Great Coverup: Cashill
Red-state Dems should save themselves, oppose Kagan: WashExam
Chicago Machine Kicks Black Female Off Ballot: BigGovt

World

The Time to Act Against Iran Is Fast Approaching: PJM
The Meaning of the Russia-U.S. Spy Swap: PJM
Translation From Chinese: You’re As Free As We Say You Are: Kesler

China's Victory at Sea: AT
Pure, Unadulterated Evil: Babalu Blog
The Danger of Islam Taking Over the World: RWN

SciTech

And Now Companies Are Buying Boatloads Of Apple's iPhones And iPads, Too (Sorry, Microsoft): Insider
Apple Battles Frauds in iTunes: WSJ
The Badger State: Carry ‘em if you got ‘em.: RWN

Cornucopia

iOTW Glossary: iOTW
Awe Gone: AmDig
I didn't know Gene Simmons hosted the Miss Moscow 2010 contest: EnglishRussia

Image: iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: J.D. Hayworth for U.S. Senate: Give RINO McCain a Pink Slip


Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Caption Contest: Iran Unveils Terrifying Super Battle Robot

Pundette says this photo is crying out for a caption.



Okay, I seeded it. Submit your own in the comments. But, please, please don't insult Ahmedinejack. President Obama still insists he'll negotiate with this esteemed world leader "without preconditions".


Inside a Moscow McDonald's

Ever wondered what the inside of a Moscow McDonald's restaurant looks like? Neither did I, but the full gallery of the Mickey D's near Baumanskaya station is interesting.

What's a McDonald's without those small cartons of milk?

In Moscow, every customer is actively encouraged to give blood. Uhm, or this could be strawberry topping, I forget which.

Mouth-watering.

Sizzling on the grill.

If you run into problems building a burger, the patented bun troubleshooting tool can help.

I don't recognize the two brands on the right. Flavored vodka?

Hey! I think I can read Russian: Have a Coke and a Smile!

* * * * * * * * *

You know, it's kinda sad when I have to visit Russian photo albums to remind myself how the free market used to operate.