Saturday, September 04, 2010

Keith Olbermann and Nate Silver at 538.com get faced by former Car Czar Steve Rattner -- Chrysler closings were politically motivated

With word that former White House 'car czar' Steve Rattner's tell-all book is on the way, it's worth revisiting the 'Dealergate' controversy that broke in May of 2009.

Late that month, after receiving an anonymous tip, I began researching the list of nearly 800 Chrysler dealerships targeted for closure by the Obama administration. What I found, and what another excellent researcher named Joey Smith also discovered, was stunning: the closings benefited certain Democrat donors and minorities and had little correlation to sales, service or regional need.

We found anomalies like four Democrat-friendly dealer groups, representing 40 (forty) Chrysler dealerships, that actually gained dealerships while their in-market competition got wiped out across the board.

We found dealers that, despite having numerous judgments, defaults and fines levied against them, kept their dealerships -- no doubt completely unrelated to the fact that they had maxed out donations to Democrat candidates.

We found that minority-owned dealerships, in urban areas and with diminishing sales, should have been closed if any reasonable, business-centric metrics had been applied. Instead, only a small fraction of these dealerships actually were shuttered.

In short, it was obvious, even after a cursory examination, that the process was more political than economic in nature. It smacked of favoritism, revenge and skulduggery -- to the point that even legacy media had to pick up the story.

The Media Jumps In


Leading conservative pundits like Michelle Malkin and Jim Hoft ran the legacy media gauntlet with the Dealergate story. I was startled to find out from my college roommate that Ms. Malkin had mentioned me on a morning talk show one day.

Mark Tapscott at the invaluable Washington Examiner also ran with the ball, adding a Reuters report that the White House itself was apparently deciding which dealerships were to be closed.

Progressives were none-too-happy to see their infallible, messianic president assailed. MediaMatters and Nate Silver's 538.com came rushing to the defense of Obama. Their argument, such as it was, boiled down to this: Of course more dealerships with GOP donors were shuttered -- Republican donors are more likely to own dealerships, therefore that should be expected!

Apparently awakened from a bathtub slumber by his RSS feed from Media Matters, Keith Olbermann leaped into the fray. He cribbed Silver's story, with its completely half-assed 'methodology' and reported that, yes, more GOP-contributing dealers were closed because there were simply more GOP-contributing dealers.

Silver reported that self-described "car dealers" donated to the GOP by a 3-to-1 margin. But he omitted the most telling stat -- intentionally. Dealers that were forced to close by the White House 'Car Czar' had donated to the GOP by a 42-to-1 margin.

Weird how they forgot to report that statistic.

Enter 'Car Czar' Steven Rattner's Tell-All Book


Steve Rattner's newly published Overhaul is a brutal examination of the Obama administration's handling of the auto companies during the takeover.

-When Obama was told of the plan to pay GM CEO Rick Wagoner a $7.1 million severance package after Obama ordered that he be sacked, Rattner writes: "Suddenly I felt that I was indeed in the presence of a community organizer..."

- Rattner describes presidential political adviser David Axelrod coming to car meetings armed with poll data to support the takeover and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel identify Congressmen in whose districts large Chrysler facilities were located.

-"[Obama's economic team] veered dangerously close to having the government take control of the two most troubled banks, Bank of America and Citigroup."

-"If his team had linked arms with the outgoing administration, as President Bush's advisers had proposed, billions of dollars could well have been saved."

In fact, a recent Inspector General report confirmed that the premature and bizarrely orchestrated closures needlessly cost the American economy tens of thousands of jobs. And this was Obama's own I.G.!

With its takeover of the American auto industry, putting taxpayers on the hook for more than $80 billion, the Obama White House "pushed the car companies to eliminate thousands of jobs - with unjustified haste using dubious economic models." The Inspector General's report concluded:

"(A)t a time when the country was experiencing the worst economic downturn in generations and the government was asking its taxpayers to support a $787 billion stimulus package designed primarily to preserve jobs, Treasury made a series of decisions that may have substantially contributed to the accelerated shuttering of thousands of small businesses and thereby potentially adding tens of thousands of workers to the already lengthy unemployment rolls - all based on a theory and without sufficient consideration of the decisions' broader economic impact."

Stated simply, the Obama administration's central planners failed in this situation, just as they failed on the Stimulus, the jobs bill, and the 'financial reform' effort. But don't worry: I'm sure they can run the entire health care system, which only represents one-sixth of the entire U.S. economy.

Where's my apology, Olbermann and Silver?


While additional details aren't yet available -- Rattner's book is slated to be published in the next few weeks -- it's clear that every aspect of the takeover was politically motivated.

David Axelrod brought polling data to car meetings?

Rahm Emanuel identified Congressional districts with Chrysler facilities?

Oh, yes, it would appear that this administration acted lawlessly, as it has in so many matters.

That is why it is critical to take over the House in November. So we can begin investigating this perverse behavior.

And speaking of perverse, Keith, ...oh, never mind. I'll withhold descriptions of the emails we receive every so often from your former girlfriends. I have a family audience, after all.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers, Verum Serum and Memeorandum. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: Big Labor's Legacy of Violence

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

Big Labor's Legacy of Violence: Malkin
Smells Like Teen Dispirit: Ace
The Delaware Senate Primary Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test: RSM

More Incursions by Mexican Military: Moonbattery
Dems up in 2012 can stop lame-duck agenda: PJM
Obama spends Labor Day with real thugs: Malkin

Economy

By the people, for the people… oh, never mind: AutoExtremist
Obamacare: Congress surrenders to the Executive branch: AT
Oregon state union workers get 5% raises as taxpayers lose jobs: GWP

Tax Increases We Cannot Afford: RWN
Proof that Obama is engaged on the economy: Pundette
The Obama-Pelosi Toll: 7.5 Million Jobs Lost: GWP

Climate & Energy

Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass extinction!: RWN
Heh: Jesse Jackson's Escalade Stolen At 'Green Jobs' Rally: GWP

Media

AP Calls Obama A Liar: LegalIns
Media Bias Gets Dangerous: Minimizing the Ecoterror Threat: PJM
'He had it in for the automakers from the beginning': BlogProf

Fear of Palin Exposes Feminists as Useful Idiots: iOTW
Confirmed: Pretty much everyone offended by Vanity Fair hit piece on Palin: Hot Air
The Media's Bigotry is Showing: AT

Reforming our Universities: an Academic Bill of Rights: RWN
Proposals for an Educational Renaissance: Zombie

World

Harry Reid Campaign: Saying ‘War is Lost’ Helped Win the War!: Malkin
Gun Dealer Gets 6 Months For Selling To Illegal With Valid ID: RWN
U.S. Muslims Ask Army to Deny Soldier’s Request for Conscientious Objector Status: He’s a 'Traitor' and a 'Coward': WZ

Tony Blair: Radical Islam is World’s Greatest Threat…: WZ
Suspended for Teaching the Holocaust: Moonbattery
Direct Israeli-Palestinian Talks Will Lead Directly to Failure: PJM

Iranian Protesters Carry US Coffin & Torch US Flags at Quds Day Protests: GWP
Our distracted commander in chief: WaPo (Krauthammer)

SciTech

20,000 Genes Under the Brain: Al Fin
The Ultimate Answer to the Question that Absolutely No One is Asking: AutoExtremist
Android gains on Apple in U.S. mobile Web use: CNet

Cornucopia

"Hobo With A Shotgun" -- The scariest horror movie premise in history.: Ace
Grand slam wham bam! Moment spectator brawl interrupted play at U.S. Open: London Daily Mail
Pak Minister wants Obama to be ”leader of all Muslims”: iOTW

Image: Maktoob: English Defence League Protest.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Help Out Christine O'Donnell in Maryland!

Friday, September 03, 2010

Consumer Metrics Institute: Economy Is Like Michael Moore Bungee-Jumping Off the Golden Gate Bridge Without the Bungee Cord Part

So, the ConsumerIndexes people emailed me earlier today asking for help. They were like: "Dude, what do we do? The economy is melting down!"

So I was like, "Dudes. I'm just a blogger. Show me the charts."

So after checking out this disastrous chart, I said, like, dudes: This is crazy.

The economy is in freefall.

And they were like, yeah, we know. So I was like, maybe we should elect some people who know what they're doing in November.

And they were like, yo, that's some righteous G-2 you're layin' down.

So I closed the chat window. And posted this. To lay down some G-2 to my peeps.


Hussman: Fed setting the stage for a dollar collapse

He's no 'doom-and-gloomer', but Dr. John P. Hussman -- founder of Hussman Funds -- is decidedly pessimistic about the American economy. The elevator summary: uhm, shpoink!

A week ago, the Federal Reserve initiated a new program of "quantitative easing" (QE), with the Fed purchasing U.S. Treasury securities and paying for those securities by creating billions of dollars in new monetary base. Treasury bond prices surged on the action. With the U.S. economy predictably weakening, this second round of quantitative easing appears likely to continue. Unfortunately, the unintended side effect of this policy shift is likely to be an abrupt collapse in the foreign exchange value of the U.S. dollar.

...the Federal Reserve has begun to play with fire, the effects of which I doubt Bernanke fully appreciates... My impression is that Ben Bernanke has little sense of the damage he is about to provoke. A central banker who talks about throwing money from helicopters is not only arrogant but foolish. Nearly a century ago, the great economist Ludwig von Mises observed that massive central bank easing is invariably a form of cowardice that attempts to avoid the need to restructure debt or correct fiscal deficits, avoiding wiser but more difficult choices by instead destroying the value of the currency...

...Good policy is not rocket science. It begins with the refusal to make people pay for mistakes that are not their own. This economy continues to struggle with a fundamental problem, which is that debt obligations exceed the ability to service them. While policy makers have done everything to preserve the patterns of spending and consumption that created the problem in the first place, we have done nothing to restructure those obligations.

To the extent that we observe fresh credit problems, we should not pursue the same policies. Instead, we should focus on restructuring debt. Let the bank bondholders fail, and defend depositors and customers through the standard procedures that the FDIC has followed for decades. Deal with the debt of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by asserting that there is no explicit government guarantee, and let the holders of the mortgage pools receive precisely what they are entitled to receive without public funds. At the same time, expand the role of the FHA to provide explicit government guarantees for future mortgages in return for actuarily fair risk-based premiums, and require mortgage originators to retain a piece of the mortgage loan, along with appropriate capital requirements, and the stipulation that this retained portion bears the first loss if the mortgage goes bad. Finally, refuse to trot self-interested bank and Wall Street executives in front of the public to extort the nation through fear of the word "failure." Banks fail all the time and customers don't lose a cent. The only implication of failure is that stock and bondholders of reckless institutions aren't rewarded for their malinvestment at public expense.

Shhh... quiet, please! Don't tell the 'progressives' that Goldman Sachs and other 'too big to fail' bankers gave the majority of their campaign donations to Obama and the Democrats.


Breaking: Newsweek's Howard Fineman Is a Birther!

Newsweak's numbskull-in-chief, Howard Fineman, appeared on PMSNBC the other day. If it hadn't been for Mark Levin's producer, no one would have even known, since the network's ratings are slightly behind airport radar and the test pattern on channel 4000.

Fineman's incoherent rant, transcribed here for your amusement, accused Rush Limbaugh and Levin of being... birthers. That's right. Let's listen in.

And then you have the health care law, which -- because Obama set it up in such a way that many of its important features don't come into play 'til 2013 or 2014 -- it's hard for voters to see immediate benefit from it. Ironically, one of the first immediate benefits is, uh, uhm, eh, is a category of things that Mitch Daniels and others are signing up for right now.

That's, that's what they're going to campaign on.

Meanwhile, the cooks of the world, Rush Limbaugh and, you know, Mark Levin, and these people are going to talking about birth certificates and Kenya and Christianity and that stuff, so.. .in the House, and in the Senate will try to keep the high ground (sic), while the others do the dirty work...

Now, Howard, let me tap you with the metaphorical clue hammer.

Levin is the head of Landmark Legal Foundation. He's a former Justice Department official. He's a Constitutional attorney who is helping to defend the states of Arizona and Virginia against the illegal machinations of the hard left administration apparatchiks. In other words, he's a patriot.

I've listened to every broadcast for years and he's never mentioned Obama's birth certificate. Never.

As for you Fineman, well, we know what you are. You're a writer with no readers, appearing on a network with no viewers, who has failed at pretty much everything he's done, with a huuuge chip on his shoulder and a brain-pan full of ignorant.

Because Levin and Limbaugh have never -- ever -- talked about birth certificates or Kenya. So something must be bugging you. Really eating away at your psyche. Messing with your thimble-sized brain.

So, Howard: why are you a birther?


Incredible: after weeks of careful analysis, using stuff like charts and graphs, I just spotted evidence of the Summer o' Recovery™!

Calculated Risk always has some of the best graphs around. Its latest charts, focused on unemployment trends, offered ample opportunity for study by yours truly. First, the raw graphs:

The red line represents the percent of the civilian workforce that has been unemployed for half-a-year or more.

This chart represents the percent of jobs lost since peak employment was reached. The dashed line is supposed to compensate for Bureau of Census "make-work" jobs.

Now, let's examine these charts using an electron microscope.

Check it out: I tagged the Summer o' Recovery! They're celebrating in the tent cities!

Now, let's review the change in employment from peak employment. This should be rising and... oh. Hmmm. Oops.

My bad.


Larwyn's Linx: Democrats Approach the Tipping Point

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 Approach the Tipping Point: LegalIns
'October Surprises, Maybe Every Day and All Day': Driscoll
On McConnell's Leadership Assurance: RWN

Feds Sue Sheriff Arpaio, Investigate Chuck E. Cheese!: Malkin
Black conservatives blast Sharpton protesters on 8/28: BlogProf
Vets for the Constitution take on IL Leftist Phil Hare: GM

Economy

Obama Administration Considers Real Stimulus: Tax Cuts: NRO
Z-Street's Complaint Against the IRS: LogMon
Is your state college a five star resort?: WyBlog

Cali Unions Already Spent $14M on Elections: RWN
In Pursuit of Cultural Hegemony: Zombie
Injustice Department Backs Slacker Muslims: RWN

Mush for Brains in California: Mish
Docs4PatientCare: Carpe Diem
Are Housing Numbers Being Cooked?: Denninger

Climate & Energy

James Lee Is The Environmentalist Movement’s Scott Roeder: RWN
Legacy Media Somehow Forgets to Report Upon Discovery Gunman's Motivations: Greenroom
Al Gore's poison: Lee wasn't the first: AT

Media

Al Sharpton Gets Destroyed on C-Span: WZ
Dems Divided Over Vanity Fair Hit Piece: Con4Palin
NYT Reports (Sorta) On Brooklyn College’s Indoctrination: Kesler

Hugh Hewitt Interviews NYT's Nicholas Kristof: Hewitt
Why the Vast Majority of Americans Miss Bush: Hanson
The Legacy Will Not Be Betrayed: RWN

World

The Confidence Game: Wizbang
"...what happens when this narrative isn't true?": Wizbang
Paris Authorities Look Other Way as Muslims Illegally Block Streets for Weekly Prayers: BlogProf

Human Rights Through the Looking Glass: Cashill
Another White House lie about Islam: RWN
The Siren Song of Arab Rejectionism: RWN

SciTech

IETF: AT&T's Net neutrality claim is 'misleading': CNet
What it takes to shut down a Botnet: Infoworld
Samsung: Galaxy Tab has leg up on Apple iPad: CNet

Cornucopia

My Morning Run: Deadly
Tim Blair’s Right, This T-Shirt Is Palin-Riffic!: RWN
What it looks like to fall from space: Ace

Images: Maktoob, Apple's new-look Nano.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Help Christine O'Donnell Win in Maryland!


Thursday, September 02, 2010

Gulf rig owner Mariner Energy: It's not paranoia if they really are trying to kill you

Someone must have sobered up at ThinkProgress when they allowed Ben Armbruster to post "One Day Before Its Gulf Oil Rig Exploded, Mariner Energy Said Obama ‘Is Trying To Break Us’ With Moratorium".

Now, I'm no conspiracy theorist, but the entire scenario is bizarre. It it were the plot of a Tom Clancy novel, it would be considered too far-fetched.

The U.S. Coast Guard said this morning that a natural gas and oil drilling platform exploded 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana. A Coast Guard spokesperson said the platform, Vermilion Oil Rig 360, is an oil and gas platform in 2,500 feet of water and is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy. It is not currently producing oil or gas...

Just yesterday, however, the Financial Times reported that employees from Apache and Mariner, along with thousands of oil industry workers, rallied in Houston to protest the Obama administration’s offshore drilling moratorium that was designed as a safety precaution after BP’s disastrous Gulf oil spill. A Mariner Energy employee chastised the Obama administration for its drilling moratorium, which would not have affected the rig that exploded today:

Companies ranging from Chevron to Apache bussed in up to 5,000 employees to the Houston convention centre to underline to Washington the industry’s contribution to the country. [...]

“I have been in the oil and gas industry for 40 years, and this administration is trying to break us,” said Barbara Dianne Hagood, senior landman for Mariner Energy, a small company. “The moratorium they imposed is going to be a financial disaster for the gulf coast, gulf coast employees and gulf coast residents.”

...Thirteen workers were on the rig when it exploded; the Coast Guard has said that “all 13 workers involved in the production platform explosion are accounted for, but one person is injured.”

As expected, Armbruster conveniently forgets to report that "Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the Obama job-killing machine [just got] kicked in the ass one more time... They wanted federal judge Martin Feldman to dismiss the drillers’ lawsuit challenging their original moratorium. No dice."


Only $19.1B in the Red, Cali's Democrat Legislators Concentrate on the Important Stuff, Like Passing Laws That Protect Celebs From Paparazzi

As California's Democrat legislature dithers, its borrowing costs keep rising. The decreased market for its debt reflects worries about its ability to enact a real budget, which is months behind schedule and already $19.1 billion in the hole.

The extra yield investors demand on 10-year California bonds rose to 124 basis points above AAA rated municipal securities yesterday, up 14 percent in a week, Bloomberg Fair Value Index data show. The increase comes as the state will need to borrow as much as $10 billion in short-term notes within four weeks of any budget agreement and more than $6 billion in longer-dated bonds by December for public-works projects.

California hasn’t had a budget since the fiscal year began on July 1... The state may need to issue IOUs to pay bills by next month and Standard & Poor’s has said it may cut California’s A- rating, already the lowest among states.

What is the Democrat-dominated legislature actually doing instead of passing a budget? The Mercury News reports upon the eclectic genius of the left coast Democrats. Among the amendments they've proposed:

• Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, SB 722, which would have required utilities to generate 33 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

• A bill to end an injustice to low-income and minority children in public schools also failed, and the reason here is even more embarrassing: Assembly leaders refused to stand up to teachers unions.

• Similarly, massive lobbying by the banking industry killed SB 1275, which offered a small but important bit of protection to homeowners: forcing banks to finish determining whether borrowers qualify for a loan modification before foreclosing.

• But wait. Perhaps we're wrong. One critical protection was indeed given the red-carpet treatment in this session: a law penalizing paparazzi for hassling celebrities.

There has got to be something in the water in California. Like some left-over acid from Timothy Leary's hidden stash.


The Genius of Mark Levin: The Time Is Now

On 6 January 2009, I transcribed -- pretty much as I heard it -- the first half hour or so of Mark Levin's radio broadcast. I didn't realize it at the time, but it represented one of the finest chapters of his soon-to-be bestselling book, Liberty and Tyranny.

The Left is using this economic crisis to destroy the firewalls in the Constitution, to further crush the free market.

These are the plans that they devised decades ago.

The free market is the most transformative of economic systems. It fosters innovation and invention.

It produces new industries, products and services and improves upon existing ones.

Millions of individuals freely engaged in an infinite variety of actions each day, it is impossible to even conceive all of the benefits that occur in our economy at any given time.

The free market creates more wealth and more opportunites for more people than any other economic model. This is exactly why the Left -- be they socialists, or Marxists, or left-leaning Democrats -- attack it relentlessly.

That's why they lie, describing the free market as the cause of the current financial crisis. But it was in fact they, through onerous and arbitrary regulation and out-of-control governmental appendages like Fannie Mae, who twisted and distorted the free market.

The free market promotes self worth, self-sufficiency, shared values, and honest dealings. That doesn't mean to say there aren't crooks: they exist in every endeavor (especially government). But when you consider the trillions of transactions that make up the free market, the number of crooks is relatively tiny.

The free market enhances the individual, the family and the community. And it discriminates against no race, religion or gender.

The truck driver does not know the skin color of the individual who helped create the diesel fuel that powers his vehicle.

The cook does not know the religion of the dairy farmers who delivers milk to his restaurant.

The airline passenger does not know the gender of the factory workers who manufactured a critical component of the aircraft.

Nor do they care. The free market is an intricate system of voluntary economic, social and cultural interaction that are motivated by the desires and needs of the individual and the community.

Private property and the Left's attempts to co-opt it


The key to understanding the free market is private property, which is why the Left does not believe in it.

Private property is the material manifestation of the individual's labor: the material value created from a person's physical and intellectual efforts.

Oppressive taxation and regulation of your private property can become a form of servitude, particularly if such confiscation occurs because of arbitrary and illegitimate decisions on the part of a government bureaucracy. That is: decisions that are not Constitutional.

That is why the Conservative believes the federal government should only raise revenue that the Constitution authorizes and no other.

Otherwise, what are the limits on government power? What are the limits on taxation and regulation of the individual's labor? How do we contain and limit government? How do we draw the lines -- and on what basis?

The Marxist class struggle formulation pits the working class against the wealthy (sound familiar?). It serves as the Left's principal rhetorical argument for the confiscation of private property.

But it is anathema to the free market, for the individual has the power to make for himself anything he or she wants! There is no static class structure layered atop the free market! The free market is mutable, dynamic and vibrant.

And for this reason, we Conservatives believe the free market is a vital bulwark against totalitarianism. And it would appear the Left agrees for it is relentless in its assault on the free market.

The Left's rejection of Constitutional limits on government power is always justified on material grounds. In the name of "economic justice", "equality" and "fairness."

The Left creates an illusion of class struggle through a variety of inventions like the "Progressive" Income Tax. But the bottom 40% of wage earners pay no income tax!

"Economic equality" is unachievable, even in the most brutal and oppressive socialist states.

The mirage of "class struggle"


But it serves the Left's purpose to create a class system: artificially created economic categories. In this way, the Left stirs up class envy. The free market, therefore, is said to be incapable of serving the public interest because it produces "unjust results." This requires further government intervention.

The Left tries to intensify class struggle by routinely redefining categories and levels of wealth: who qualifies as the detested rich? The righteous middle class? The disenfranchised poor?

Thus community organizer and Obama mentor Saul Alinsky explained, "Organization for action will now and in the decade ahead center upon America's white middle class. That is where the power is."

Tax cuts for people who don't pay taxes aren't tax cuts. That's welfare. Tax cuts for businesses that can't make money: that's socialism; redistribution of wealth.

This isn't about creating jobs in the private sector. The left hates the private sector. They hate profits. They hate anything that doesn't require government subsidies, that can operate without government involvement. Those entities have to be destroyed.

The modern left is an explicit enemy of the Constitution. The modern left dominates the Democrat Party. And that is why the Democrat Party must be wiped from the political landscape in November. And in every election henceforth.

It is time for action. And you must be an evangelist for the destruction of American socialism in our time.


Dummies

The Bad writes, "On the left is Walter, Jeff Dunham's dummy. On the right is Obama's."



Let Them Eat Sole

Last December, the Obama family went on one of their many vacations since the 2008 presidential election. At that time, an observant author at the Republic noted the egalitarian nature of the first family, since highlighted by, oh, 60-room vacations at 5-star hotels. Anyhow, 'kristinn' wrote:

The Obamas are staying at an $8.9 million estate for an estimated $4000 per night. To cover the Obama's ten night stay, the minimum wage worker would have to work two-and-a-half years (before taxes) to come up with the $40,000 Obama is reportedly laying out.

And the First Lady was photographed last night in Hawaii wearing designer shoes by Maison Martin Margiela.

The shoe style is called "Leather open toe flat pumps." It features a "thin nude leather strap across the top of the toe."

Thee shoes are $635 per pair.

A woman lucky enough to have a job in this economy and working for the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour would have to work 88 hours (without taxes taken out) to make enough to pay for Michelle Obama's shoes. If she can get them on sale, they would only set her back $445 for 62 hours work.

Obama has lectured Americans about how they can not expect to live their lives as indulgently as they have in the past. He has lectured businesses about their travel and pay. Yet Obama and his wife live like royalty.

The news media has yet to call him out on his extravagance when there is 10% unemployment with no sign of the employment picture improving this coming year.

Kristin N. was prescient, as evidenced by the latest employment numbers. Hint: it's Jobless Thursday. Again.

A little splash of less-bad-than-expected news today, as initial unemployment claims came in at 472,000, slightly better than the 475,000 forecast. That was a drop of 6,000 from last week's upwardly revised number.

Two consecutive weeks of declines is a welcome departure from recent trends (the less volatile 4-week average had moved higher for each of the prior four weeks), but not enough to reverse much of the carnage wrought by Recovery Summer.

Joblessness remains stubbornly worse than at the beginning of the year.

'Let them eat sole!'

As in shoe leather.


Only in Texas -- T-Shirt Edition

Bernie writes:

Like they say: 'Only in Texas'. I must tell you this Texan Redneck made my day.

Only in Texas -- T-Shirt EditionThis guy basically got thumbs up and chuckles from everyone.


Spy Photo: DOJ Mobile Unit -- Lawsuit Delivery Vehicle

DOJ Mobile Unit -- Lawsuit Delivery Vehicle
Via: Sad Hill News.

Larwyn's Linx: Arizona vs. the U.N. human rights police

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

Arizona vs. the U.N. human rights police: Malkin
Feingold blames conspiracy to destroy Obama: GWP
Gunman at Discovery: Ace

UCLA Cans Professor for Thought Crimes: RWN
Black Civil Rights Mafia Betrays Black America: AT
White House Flirts with Mayor Bloomberg: Post

Economy

Chicago SEIU Protest Report: Marathon
Paul Ryan: Obamanomics Has Failed!: RWN
Indoctrination Nation: Zombie

Don’t ever complain to me about the money spent on Iraq, again: Toldjah
$300 Cash Offer For Elementary Students: SHN
Tulsa area home sales plunge: TulsaWorld

Wyden (D-OR) Never Heard of Health Care Mandate: Malkin
An Obama September Surprise?: Instapundit
Wheels continue to come off economy: GWP

Climate & Energy

Progressives Against Progress Redux: Driscoll
Another ass-kicking: Judge rejects Obama drilling ban again: Malkin
An Inconvenient Hostage-Taker: JOM

Media

The Beck/Sharpton Rallies: A Telling Dichotomy: GrandRants
Something I Will Not Do: LegalIns
Joe Miller on Obama: 'He’s One of the Major Forces Moving This Country Towards Socialism': GWP

The Right Side Of The Blogosphere’s Reaction To Obama’s Speech Last Night: RWN
Copycats: Liberals to hold their own Beck-like rally on Oct 2: AnBlkCon
Beck's 'Obsession' with Black Liberation Theology Thoroughly Justified: AT

Detroit Free Press: Sure, Obama lied last night, but it was all Bush's fault--so that's OK or something: BlogProf

World

The Cordoba House and the Myth of Cordoban ‘Ecumenism’ Debunked: PJM
Thanks to Obama, in Le Monde's Eyes, America Has Turned the Page on Bush's 'Disastrous Experience': GWP
I Like Bush MORE Having Read This: iOTW

Muslim Groups Ask DOJ To Hold 'Haters' Accountable: RWN
Iraq: The Good War: AT
The Drug Culture In Mexico Spawns Its Own Language Called Narco-Speak: GWP

SciTech

Apple TV: Still a hobby after all these years: CNet
Oil Should Be $10 a Barrel: Jalopnik
Security Questions To Ask Your Cloud Provider: InfoWeek

Cornucopia

Ersatz: C&S
We redecorate: the Oval and beyond: MOTUS
Blowin' in the Wind: SondraK

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Christine O'Donnell for U.S. Senate; Spike Democrats' Lame-Duck Agenda

QOTD: "Does the makeover of the Oval Office include new prayer rugs?" -- 'Harry Reid's Body Odor'


Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Really crappy branding decisions

Chicken of the Creek-brand Tuna Fish

* Raid! Ant & Roach Jihad

I Can't Believe It's Not Sausage!

Food Slug Supermarkets

Cream of Weasel Breakfast Cereal

Buckeye Fish Brittle

Zygotes 'R' Us Fertility Clinics

Somalia's Finest Anchovies

Hebrew National Pork Loin

"National Security" Democrats


Harry Reid Throughout History

After Harry Reid's egregious 2007 statement concerning the Surge in Iraq ("This war is lost!"), I decided to do a little genealogical research. My question: how had some of Reid's more obscure ancestors behaved during previous military engagements?

Revolutionary War: Jebediah Reid, commenting on Valley Forge: "But, General Washington, this war is lost, I can most assuredly promise you. General Cornwallis will treat us with dignity if we only raise the white flag now. And it's awfully cold out here."

The War of 1812: Jethro Reid, speaking to William Henry Harrison: "Tippecanoe and surrender, too, my dear Governor Harrison!"

Civil War: Benedict Reid at Gettysburg: "Four score and seven years, my a**! This war was lost three frickin' years ago!"

Spanish-American War: Desdemona Reid: "Remember the Maine... after we surrender! ¿Se Habla Español?"

World War I: Nebuchadnezzar Reid comments upon military actions in the Argonne Forest: "Over there! Over there! We are losing badly over there!"

Pearl Harbor: 'Stubby' Reid: "Do you see? Do you see?? How can we possibly fight the Imperial Japanese war machine? This war is over!"

War of the Worlds: Harry Reid, expressing concern over resistance to an alien invasion: "It's pointless to fight these beasts! We must surrender immediately to survive! And I, for one, welcome my new alien overlords!"


When Leftist Drones Attack!

Apparently, asking a question about an unusual display of military medals and ribbons on civilian attire has raised the hackles of the hard left Democrats. In this case, a thread on Free Republic mentioned the magically expanding ribbon rack of one Connie Pillich, an Ohio Democrat legislator and hard-core tax-and-spend liberal in the mold of Nancy Pelosi.

Many veterans pointed out the display of medals and ribbons on civilian attire appeared, well, a bit tacky. But one extremely brave commenter named Anonymous ripped this august journal for even discussing the topic.

The last time someone made fun of a veteran was when Mean Jean Schmidt made her infamous comment that became a Saturday Night Live legend.

Be careful who you piss-off. Veterans don't like to see criticism of one of their own, especially when neither you nor Wilson have done anything to serve your county.

Representative Pillich has served her country.

Questioning her medals was one area you never should have touched, especially as a front for Wilson.

You have discredited yourself and your blog.

I think you can call her Representative Schmidt, nut-rack. As for myself and Wilson, you have no idea who we are or what we've done, crap-clown.

Oh. Yes. I'm sure our proud vets and their families really appreciate the Democrat Party's support:

• John 'Our Soldiers are terrorizing women and children' Kerry: "I am confident it will not work... I am confident it will. Not. Work."

• Nancy 'Stretch' Pelosi: "The surge has failed."

• Little Dick Durbin: "The administration's policy in Iraq has failed."

• Diane 'Franken' Feinstein: "Today a majority of the Senate sees that the Surge is not working!"

• Patrick 'Traitor' Leahy: "We know that the President's Surge policy has not worked."

• Harry 'The Body Odor' Reid: "The war is lost. The surge is not working."

• Barack Obama: "20,000 troops is [sic] not going to make a difference."

Yes, I'm sure all of our veterans, the families of our veterans, our heroes, appreciate this despicable behavior by a political party that openly roots for our troops' failure -- for partisan gain -- while they are on the field of battle!

But don't question their patriotism!

Now get the hell off my blog, you Marxist loser. Never sully the pages of my blog again! And don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out.


Nicknames: Mark Levin's Top 50 Nicknames

Democrats' Recovery Motel: Small Business Goes In and Never Comes Out

Lest you still have doubts that Democrats aren't trying to destroy the economy in a flaming hari kari attack, please consider the following three news stories from earlier today.

• President Obama and the Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, will appear at
the AFL-CIO's Labor Day rally:

It's been announced that President Obama will be attending the AFL-CIO's Labor Day rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin next month. Along for the ride will be Sec. of Labor Hilda Solis... Naturally Obama is still sounding his horn for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) as well as pushing his healthcare ideas.

Now for a question: How seemly is it for a U.S. Secretary of Labor to attend a political rally for Big Labor? After all, the Sec. of Labor is ostensibly supposed to be the middle man between labor and business, the arbiter that decides the big fights between the two antagonists. If the Sec. of Labor is seen glad handing Big Labor, what message does that send the business community?

Of course, it sends the message that government is a friend to Big Labor and [an] enemy to [the] business community. But that message isn't any different than the message that Obama has been sending since the day he became president.

Business groups fighting for their lives:

Business groups plan to go on offense against vulnerable Senate Democrats in their backyards to mark Monday's Labor Day holiday... Local groups will target Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Rep. Paul Hodes, the Democrat running for Senate in New Hampshire, and Kentucky Senate Democratic candidate Jack Conway in their states over their records on labor-related issues.

Local chapters of groups like the National Federation of Independent Business, state Associated Builders and Contractors and other commerce and retail groups will hold events on Monday targeting the incumbents and candidates, particularly on their stance on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, or "card-check").

Top Economist Warns Congress: Passing Pair of Union-Backed Bills Would Create a ‘Ponzi Scheme as Bad as Bernie Madoff’:
An economist at the nonpartisan Hudson Institute says that if House and Senate Democrats pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) -- known as the “card check bill” -- in this Congress, it would create a “ponzi scheme” environment.

Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, told CNSNews.com on Tuesday that implementing card check would allow unions to swell their ranks with new members who would have to be signed up and pay money into failing union pension plans...

“It shouldn’t be allowed,” she said. “It’s a ponzi scheme as bad as Bernie Madoff.”

Sounds like Social Security, only tinier.

Small business is being squashed under the oppressive heels of the Democrats. It's gotten so bad that even members of the Federal Reserve board are arguing about the cause of the recession.

...Federal Reserve officials wrestled with a slew of questions about the disappointing recovery before deciding at a fractious Aug. 10 meeting to prevent their securities portfolio from shrinking...

High unemployment was one issue. Several Fed officials argued that business was frozen by uncertainty about taxes, regulations and health- care costs. Others said the job market was paralyzed by structural changes, "such as mismatches between unemployed workers' skills and the needs of employers with job openings." Several agreed that the economy lacked sufficient demand from consumer spending and business investment to get firms to hire.

Gee, ya think?

It's a summer of recovery, alright. For unions.


Oh My: Budding Comedy Writer Steve Driehaus (D-OH) Says He's a 'Fiscal Conservative'

Can't... Breathe... Laughing... Hold... Hold... On... Must... Catch... Breath...

Wow. I think I just wrenched my clavicle. Okay.

Sorry about that. Just watched... this commercial:

In which Nancy Pelosi's cabana boy and erstwhile 'Blue Dog' Democrat Steve Driehaus (OH-1) claims to be a fiscal conservative. Seriously. After he voted for the:

• Cap-and-Trade Energy Tax
• The $787 $860 billion 'Stimulus' Bill
• The half-a-trillion dollar Omnibus Spending Bill
• ObamaCare Socialized Medicine
• The 'Financial Reform' Boondoggle That Didn't Touch Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac

And who certainly didn't read any of these massive, oppressive bills. Driehaus barely won his Congressional seat in 2008 in a very conservative district. He was also one of the so-called pro-life Stupak Democrats who caved for an empty promise by the most radical pro-abortion President in American history.

Now Driehaus won't even mention his party. And I don't blame him.

But everyone knows Driehaus is a Democrat. And calling Driehaus a fiscal conservative is somewhat akin to President Axelrod running this kind of campaign in 2012:

Expect it. But everyone knows now that there are no moderate Democrats. At least not since the hard left Soros Marxists took over the party.

So please send a few bucks over to Conservative Republican Steve Chabot. He's a former Congressman, running against Steve "Pelosi's Cabana Boy" Driehaus, and who actually is who he says he is. Which would be a refreshing change from the modern National Social Democrat Party.