Sunday, September 05, 2010

USA vs. Iran basketball: American cheerleaders forced to wear long pants in a 'nod to Muslim law'

It would appear that the terrorists won.

USA defeated Iran in basketball today, which comes as a surprise to no one. What may raise a few eyebrows: team dancers were forced to wear long pants in a “nod to Muslim law"...

One interesting tidbit that arose from the game: the cheerleaders were forced to cover up.

[In} a nod to the Iranian supporters in Istanbul — which included minister of sports Ali Saeedlou earlier in the tournament — dancers were ordered to cover up for their performances during the game. Islam prohibits women from exposing their skin in public, and Iranian officials had turned their backs when the dancers performed in earlier games.

The dancers wore long pants Wednesday.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was seen in the front row gleefully clapping for the cheerleaders, who wore niqabs that covered all body parts except for the eyes.

Okay. I made that part up.


Hat tip: NewsBusters.

Pr·i·us In·sur·rec·tion

American Digest relays the following photo, which was apparently snapped by a Legal Insurrection reader at the Grand Canyon.

The closeups are even better.




Don't bother looking for the 'peace' or 'coexist' signs.





Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Top Ten Signs We're Still in the Summer o' Recovery

Click to enbiggen.

Perhaps President Obama could start the Middle East Peace Process by halting the slaughter of Shiite Muslims by Sunni Muslims

Please consider the following headlines from the last three days.

Tension abounds in Pakistani city as Shiites bury bombing victims: Islamabad - Pakistan's south-western city of Quetta was tense Saturday as minority Shiite Muslims buried victims of a suicide bombing that killed over 70 innocent people...

Afghanistan: Taliban Behead Man Because He Was a Shia Muslim…: A Shia man [was] beheaded by Taliban in Sai Ganj area of Ghazni... [Also about] a month ago, 10 Hazara Shia from Jaghori district of Ghazni were beheaded by Taliban. They were mostly students on their way to homes for summer vocations from Kabul. Taliban kidnapped them in Muqur area and found student ID cards from them. They were all slaughtered...

Bahraini Radical Authorities Ban Shia Muslims Peaceful Quds Rally: Shia Muslim annual march in support of the Palestinian Intifada was yesterday cancelled by Bahraini bigot authorities...

Taliban threaten attacks in America, Europe and [on] Shia Muslims: The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) threatened on Friday to launch attacks in the US and Europe “very soon”...

Saudi Arabia: Gunmen attack Masjid in Riyadh: Three men, including an imam, have been injured in a shooting which occurred at a mosque following late night Ramadan prayers in the Saudi city of Riyadh...

HRW urges Bahrain to investigate torture against Shia activists: Human Rights Watch has urged Bahraini authorities to immediately look into allegations of torture made by four Shiite activists in detention since mid-August...

Before we worry about peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis, perhaps President Obama should extend his outreach to the Muslim world community by brokering some kind of peace deal between the Shiite and Sunni sects.



Larwyn's Linx: "The Palin-haters' guilt-by-association smear"

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

"The Palin-haters' guilt-by-association smear": sisu
Palin Derangement Syndrome: There are Five A’s in Raaaaacism: RSM
Perspective, boys... perspective: Levin

Smartest Prez in History Botches Rug Quotes: Lifson
Zounds: Harry Reid's son trails by 25 points: HAP
Six Ways to Lose Your Election: WashExam

Economy

How Unions Prevent Kids from Learning in L.A.: GWP
Summer of Recovery Ends; Epic Fail Fall Begins: AT
'Organized' Crime: New Criterion (McCarthy)

Angry White Man Screeches About $13T Deficit!: Ace
Dissolving Cities: Is It the Way Out?: Mish
California snubs 'Columbia' free trade: Hot Air

First Lady's Aides Warned Her About Image on Spain Trip: WashExam
And... She's Back!: JOM
Higher Education Bubble Poised to Burst: Barone

Media

NRO sells out Delaware conservatives: Riehl
L.A. Times Profile on Breitbart: Shocking: Patterico
The Two-Word Reason Most Americans Want Term Limits: Hindenblog

NYT: Congrats, USA No Longer a Superpower!: RWN
He Is What We Said He Was: RWN
Obama Rug Quotes: Protein Wisdom

Interesting Gambit: C&S
‘If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Attack Freedom of Speech’: Driscoll
'Machete' Review: Dull, Racist, Un-American Garbage: Big Hollywood

World

GZ Mosque Backer Linked To Hamas, As Islam Goes To The Fair: Riehl
Open Letter to Hillary Clinton: Fire the Imam
British ObamaCare update: Hospital produces instructional handwashing video for doctors and nurses: Marathon

Afghanistan: Taliban Behead Man Because He Was a Shia Muslim…: WZ
Geller: Why There Shouldn't Be a Mosque at Ground Zero: JihadWatch
Speaker Pelosi: Stand Up for Muslim Women, Not Islamists Like Rauf!: Alliance of Iranian Women

SciTech

Venus Balloon Probe to Visit Chemically Violent World: PJM
Oh Look. Another 419 Scam.: Sophos
Children of the Weaker God: Belmont Club

Cornucopia

Obama Responds to Critics with New White House Tapestry: Cube
Class: Don’t Leave Home Without it : MOTUS
Loading and Unloading Your Semi-Auto Pistol; Courtesy of Ruger Firearms: True Blue Sam

70-Year Old of the Day: Surber
Drunken Kitteh: Ace
Brawl Breaks Out at Bodybuilding Competition: BlogProf

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Christine O'Donnell for U.S. Senate: Boot Mike Castle!

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Cook County's Democrook Party: $7M in mystery checks issued, CFO gets herself a $54K raise and county budget deficit set to top $500M

At some point, Chicago's beleaguered taxpayers are going to be pushed too far. It's amazing that they haven't already violently rebelled against the Democrat Party. Democrats have raped and pillaged the public coffers in Illinois for decades.

The Daily Herald's Ted Cox describes the latest Cook County debacle in "Stroger again skirts board OK in payments."

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's administration acknowledged Wednesday that 25 checks worth more than $6.7 million were paid out before receiving the required board approval... Democratic Chicago Commissioner John Daley, head of the finance committee, said, "I'm very concerned that this is a true violation of the board's intent."

Chief Financial Officer Jaye Williams said she could not release the names of the persons who authorized the checks, as an investigation is ongoing, but she said some employees had been "removed" from their positions and disciplinary measures were being "contemplated."

...after a summer of tussling with Stroger over [new] contracts and hirings, promotions and raises he granted as a lame duck, it raised more suspicion among the commissioners, who went on to pass an ordinance smoothing the transition from Stroger to the next president... Stroger will be required to ... guarantee access to records.

A commenter at the Chicago Sun-Times website claims the mystery check writer was none other than Stroger appointee and Cook County comptroller Constance Kravitz.

The county's finance committee also includes (you guessed it) a Daley family member and the wife of a public school apparatchik. Her name is Jaye Williams, who is the aforementioned CFO, and she hit the headlines a few months ago for somehow getting Stroger to give her a $54,000-a-year raise despite a deficit that could top half a billion dollars.

The raise for Williams, which boosted her salary to $230,000, was one of several Stroger has handed out since his primary election loss in February... Others who received raises were Communications Director Eugene Mullins, who is Stroger’s boyhood friend, and Carla Oglesby, a publicist who managed the failed campaign.

Stroger said earlier in the week he had suspended Oglesby without pay until the conclusion of an inspector general’s investigation... That probe was launched after it was revealed that the company owned by Oglesby, whose salary was boosted from $116,000 to $120,000, had been awarded a $24,775 contract by Stroger’s administration just days after she was hired.

That contract fell just under the $25,000 threshold required for County Board approval. Stroger’s administration also gave a $24,995 contract to a Maryland campaign consultant who was brought in before the election to straighten out Stroger’s campaign fund.

The County Board Finance Committee had asked to receive a report on the raises by today, but agreed to a delay as the administration double-checked its list, said Commissioner John Daley, D-Chicago, the committee’s chairman.

You read that right. After he lost the election, Stroger appears to have spent his lame-duck tenure doling out favors at taxpayer expense.

Oh. And losing control of millions of dollars, which I'm sure is all perfectly explainable. Along with leading a budgeting process that leaves the taxpayers $500 million in the hole.

Aren't Democrats fun?


Zero Hedge: Pelosi, Obama and Reid have helped erase or destroy... 11.2 million jobs since the recession began

Tyler Durden does the number-crunching the legacy media won't do and describes the true economic toll of the Pelosi-Obama-Reid triumvirate.

One of the most peculiar observations of this depression started in December 2007 is that while the total US population has increased by 6.8 million from 303.3 million to just over 310 million in July 2010, over the same 32 month period, the civilian labor force has declined from 153.9 million to 153.6 million...

This makes zero sense, as all those aging into working age, or immigrating into the US need to find some job or some other paid activity (either legally or illegally). But let's assume that due to discouragement with economic conditions people simply refuse to look for jobs... [based upon our calculations] the cumulative differential between the labor force as reported, and as calculated has hit an all time record of 3.7 million: this is a number that has to be added to the 7.6 million directly tabulated unemployed to get a sense of just how many jobs have been lost assuming a reversion to the mean for the US economy...

Chart 1: we demonstrate the cumulative change in the population of the US, the cumulative change in the as reported and the as calculated labor force, and the difference between the two (thick black line).

In other words, after eliminating the statistical voodoo of the BEA and the Census Bureau, the US has lost just over 11.2 million jobs since the start of the recession.

Chart 2: Cumulative job losses since December 2007, based on Establishment Survey estimates and adjusted for Labor Force "Catch Up"

'Saved or created' my left cheek.


Somewhere, John McCain just high-fived Russ Feingold: Democrats Move One Step Closer to Banning Certain Political Books

The Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee just filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, arguing that marketing a book violates election law.

The "Young Guns" have a book. They also have a promotion tour and a video. Now, the Democrats could engage in a battle of ideas. But that’s not what they do. (are you surprised?)

...What is the mechanism? The publisher posts a  video by the authors about their book that contains a link to a website that takes political contributions. It is after all, a political manifesto.

...Democrats use the power of the federal government to attempt to prohibit the political speech and promotion of speech by their political enemies. That’s the kind of thing that lead to the American Revolution. Tea Parties make perfect sense in this context.

This sort of thing shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, new Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan (thanks, Goober Graham!) believes banning books and movies is a perfectly acceptable practice.

Elena Kagan argued on behalf of Citizens United essentially stating it would not be a violation of the First Amendment to have movies or even books banned. Of course, she only meant certain movies/books for specific times, but even so, I believe the point remains... all tyrants find a pretext for their tyranny.

The ill-named DISCLOSE Act was a similar effort. Its goal was to suppress free speech by conservatives, while leaving unions and other Democrat supporters unscathed.

The Disclose Act that House Democrats passed Thursday would "shred" the U.S. Constitution and represents a "blatant partisan maneuver to protect their incumbency," according to U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President R. Bruce Josten... Only two Republicans voted for the act: Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana and Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware...

...Groups opposing the measure span the political continuum, including the ACLU, the Sierra Club, PIRG (the federation of state public interest research groups), the chamber and many others... The chamber recently called the bill a "desperate attempt" by Democrats to grab a political advantage in the midterm elections.

The act requires companies and associations to submit a mountain of paperwork to the Federal Election Commission if they want to run an ad.

Of course, the progenitor of these unconstitutional efforts was John McCain. Partnering with a far left Social Democrat, Russ Feingold, McCain led the effort to pass The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

The bill is better known as McCain-Feingold or, as I like to call it, "The Incumbent Protection Act". It banned, among other things, political ads funded by corporations in the 30 days before a presidential primary and in the 60 days before the general election. In January of this year, the Supreme Court -- by a narrow 5-4 margin -- ruled large swaths of the law unconstitutional.

The ruling was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace will corrupt democracy.

“If the First Amendment has any force,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, which included the four members of its conservative wing, “it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.”

But let's not forget that John McCain and the National Social Democrat Party helped open Pandora's Box to egregious violations of the First Amendment by Congress.

When the federal government can ban movies, when it can ban books, when it can tell you what you can and can't say, then we are no longer living in the Constitutional Republic our founders created.

Oh, and thanks, "Maverick".


Photo Essay: When It's Okay to Drop the F-Bomb, Part II

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.