Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Larwyn's Linx: O'Donnell Wins; NRSC Rages; Rove Freaks Out

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Nation

O'Donnell wins; NRSC rages against the machine people: RWN
Unacceptable Behavior from the NRSC: Con4Palin
Rove bashes O'Donnell, NRSC cuts and runs: Malkin

Did Rove Try to Cut Deal for Castle With Tea Party?: Freedomist
Fox Should Suspend Rove And Investigate, Cornyn Must Resign: Riehl
DNC To Make 'Major Announcement' Wedneday: Nice Deb

Impeach Breyer?: Zombie
Sharron Angle Who Cannot Win Slightly Ahead Of Harry Reid: LegalIns
Illegal alien makes 'living' filing lawsuits: BlogProf

Economy

WSJ on 'The 1099 Insurrection': BizzyBlog
When Socialism Creeps In: Hanson
Preventing Your Government From Stealing Your Gold: Street

How Obamacare uses school lunch enrollees to expand its empire: Malkin
Why is L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa Trying to Kill Jobs?: RWN
The Polarizer In Chief: IBD

Climate & Energy

Harry Reid arrives at clean energy summit in fleet of gas-guzzling SUVs: BlogProf
Nuclear Energy...Duh!: Pop Atomic
Warmist Slander of Scientific Skeptics: AT

Media

Oliverio vs. the 1st Amendment: Surber
‘Now is the Time For the Idiots Who Supported My Opponent to Unite Behind Me…’: Geraghty
Poll: Marco Rubio leads by 16, Alex Sink leads by 8: Buzz

Anybody But: Belmont Club
What D'Souza Doesn't Get Quite Right: AT
The Obama Limbo Party: SHN

Tingles Says O’Donnell Won Because of Frustrated Hillary Voters…: WZ
About That Rift: RWN
WaPo's Ruth Marcus ‘Despondent’ Over Castle’s Defeat and O’Donnell’s ‘Scary’ Win: NewsBusters

World

Geert Wilders Warns America at 9/11 Remembrance Rally: LATL
Administration hails 'back door Islamist coup' in Turkey: AT
Iran Sinks Into the Much: Ledeen

Stimulus Loot Spent on Teaching Africans to Wash Their Privates: RWN
Cleric Praised by Ground Zero Imam Offers Tolerance Lecture: Islam Permits Killing Israeli Women and Children: WZ
Mystery bomber from Chechnya?: IIE

SciTech

Consumer Rights: Court Rules Against Used Software Sales: ECN
Former Top IBM exec Moffat gets six months in jail: CNN
Car Porn of the Day: Surber

Cornucopia

To Life: Vanessa's Wedding Surprise: YouTube
Nutrition and Economics: We Know More Than You Do: MOTUS
The Top 20 #ObamaChildrensBook Suggestions: RWN

Image: Jammie Wearing Fool
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Alan West for Congress

QOTD: "Conservatives should not tolerate the likes of Mike Castle because of the simple fact that a 51 member Senate with Mike Castle is a Senate where Mike Castle is the most important vote in the room. As Specter and others before him, that Senator will set the terms of policy debates, determining in advance what can succeed and fail. Those who advance the argument that a majority with Castle is better than being in the minority tend to place priorities on Senate committee chairmanships and staff ratios and lobbyist cash… a list which pales in comparison to the power they would wield as the broker for both sides. Again and again I saw this play out during my time as a Senate staffer, and anyone who tells you contrary is incredibly naive about the way legislative decisions are made.

As a friend of mine in the business of campaigns and elections has said, electing moderates simply to secure a majority for Republicans is a self-defeating proposition. We’ve seen this play out time and again. Career politicians abhor principle, and adore power and fecklessness. Their presence in Washington provides constant aid and comfort to the Left. They dilute the brand, confuse voters and sell out conservatives just at the moment they are needed most." -- Ben Domenech, RedState


Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Delightful: Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), on taxpayer-funded junket in Germany, agrees that most taxpayers are radicalized racists

That unspoken rule about never speaking ill of America while on foreign soil was eradicated long ago by the MoveOn Democrats. Interviewed by Der Spiegel, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) pulled out the frayed, oft-used race card to explain America's opposition to the Marxist policies of Barack Obama.

SPIEGEL: But that's what we've had for the last two years, and it hasn't worked out well. If anything, the political tone in Washington has gotten worse.

Lewis: It's unfortunate. We have very little control over the fact that the Republican Party is being hijacked by the extreme right. That the Tea Party is gaining influence. We cannot tell the Republican Party who should be their leaders.

SPIEGEL: Of course not. But the question is whether Washington would function better if the Republicans had a majority in either the Senate or the House. Would that not make them less inclined to be obstructionist?

Lewis: No. I think the Republican Party is going to the extreme. If it continues on the path it's on, it will continue to be a minority party for many years to come.

SPIEGEL: There has been a lot of talk about how the black community felt about Barack Obama's election. Now, though, everyone is talking primarily about white anger. How does the black community feel about his presidency thus far?

Lewis: The black masses in America love Barack Obama. Black candidates and black Members of Congress would love to have Barack Obama come and campaign for them. I wish I could get him to come down to Georgia to campaign for me, but he thinks my seat is safe. He is very popular. You cannot say anything negative about Barack Obama in the African-American community and get away with it.

...SPIEGEL: The radicalization of the right, in other words, isn't necessarily due to the US having a black president for the first time ever?

Lewis: In some quarters, it's true, people cannot get used to the idea that a person of color is president of the United States. People cannot get comfortable with the idea that so many people are coming from different parts of the world to America. In just a short time, America will be a minority majority, and that feeds some of the frustration.

You see, John, you may be a touch senile, but we opposed HillaryCare. Not because Hillary's a woman -- though I'm sure you'd like to play the gender card -- but because it sucked.

We support Alan West for Congress. Not because he's black, but because he's teh awesome.

We believe in history, facts, logic and reason -- the distillation of which is the Constitution. Perhaps you've heard of it.

Oh, and that race card? It appears to have seen better days.


Related: Timeline: Anatomy of a Tea Party Smear by the Democrat-Media Complex.

Hat tip: PJ.

Cheat Sheet for November



President Obama: 'the economy was in really bad shape--I feel pretty confident when we get the autopsy back it'll say it died of natural causes'

The invaluable Doctor Housing Bubble offers a lengthy and detailed analysis of the true state of housing in the U.S. In a word: it's Obama-ified.

Remember when good old Hank Paulson gave us a three page memo requesting $700 billion for “troubled assets” which was a nice euphuism for toxic mortgage crap? Some have forgotten the days of September 2008 when the word bailout seemed to be a daily utterance. By the way, the vast majority of those toxic mortgages still sit on the balance sheet of banks even after the money is now out the door...

...At the peak of the housing bubble in 2006 Americans had $13 trillion in equity in their residential real estate. At the peak, total residential mortgage debt stood at $9.8 trillion. Today, American households have $6.2 trillion in equity while mortgage debt has grown to $10.3 trillion. In other words American households have faced a real financial loss of $6.8 trillion. At the same time you’ll notice that the amount of mortgage debt has remained steady. The toxic mortgage waste just sits idly by while banks use the taxpayer wallet as an ATM...

...Again, without fixing the core of the banking system we are doomed for another crisis. Those that believe the narrative that “we had to do what banks wanted us to do” forget that it was the banks that spearheaded this housing bubble in the first place. They were the industry that created collateralized debt obligations and option ARMs. The anger in this upcoming election is justified but might miss the real financial problems. The fix has been in for decades. Until we reform how banks and corporations lobby politicians we can simply expect more crony capitalism for years to come. In fact, the amount of lobbying dollars went up at the height of the crisis... [at right]

...Home values need to reflect a healthy job market meaning wages can support local home prices without taking on some exotic loan. Instead of focusing on that key part of the equation, banks with the support of the government have been obsessed with lowering lending standards, 3.5% FHA insured loans, HAMP, wacky refinance programs, ignoring non-payments, pushing option-ARMs into 40-year interest only balloon mortgages, but in the end it hasn’t worked because jobs can’t justify bubble home prices even today after a severe correction.

Central planning never works. If it did, North Korea, Cuba and the Soviet Union would be thriving economic powers.

Yet our current Democrat leadership is moving us closer and closer to their failed models; they want to set fees for medical care, dictate what kind of cars to build, determine where oil companies can drill, and prevent electricity from being generated by nuclear energy or coal. Centralized industrial policy.

Central planning never works.

You have to help educate your friends, your neighbors, and your family members to deconstruct the Marxist class warfare of the left. By Obama's formulation, the guy who spent his whole life saving to buy a gas station and now grosses $260,000 and employs six people is 'rich'. So is the police officer who works some overtime and is married to a NICU nurse on the 11p-to-7a shift.

Those are the Democrats' hated 'rich folks' because they both gross (not net) over $250K.

And everyone is suffering with the after-effects of the real estate meltdown.

It is indisputable that the housing crisis was precipitated by the social engineering tomfoolery of the Clinton Democrats. Andrew Cuomo (then-secretary of HUD) and Janet Reno were the enforcement arms of Bubba's administration and they used threats and legal arm-twisting to force banks into underwriting unqualified borrowers.

The actual testimony of the Democrats during that era is available to anyone curious enough to view it -- but you won't see it on ABC, CBS or PMSNBC.

And a word of warning: the housing crisis won't damage as many lives as ObamaCare will.

It's November or never.


Good News: Democrats Declare a Regulatory Jihad on Small Businesses, Which Will Only Erase or Destroy 340,000 Jobs Annually

You know it's bad when even CNN doesn't mince words.

Senate takes up 'job killing' IRS rule


The Senate will also decide whether to repeal a law enacted as part of health care reform that will require small businesses to file millions of new tax forms -- a provision a top Republican calls "job killing..."

A small section of the massive health care law mandates that beginning in 2012, all companies will have to issue a 1099 tax form not only to contracted workers, as they must already do, but also to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a year.

The IRS Form 1099 is used to document income for individual workers other than wages and salaries: Freelancers get them and businesses send them out. Under the new law, the 1099 form would be used to track payments for services and tangible goods. Also, it requires that 1099s be issued not just to individuals, but to corporations as well.

The result would be millions of additional tax forms...

Chris Wysocki reports that the Democrat-controlled Senate failed twice this afternoon to repeal the disastrous 1099 requirements.

The Barack Obama Death to Small Business Tax Reporting Act of 2010 will stand... Senate Democrats successfully defeated an amendment offered by Senator Mike Johanns (R-Neb) that would have repealed an Obamacare provision which requires all businesses to file Form 1099 with the IRS for every vendor that sells them more than $600 in goods.

President Obama insists the reporting provision is necessary to ensure compliance with our tax laws. Business groups, and anyone with even an ounce of common sense, have pointed out that it is a regulatory nightmare.

Think about a midsized trucking company. The back office would have to collect hundreds of thousands of receipts from every gas station where its drivers filled up and figure out where it spent more than $600 that year. Then it would also need to match those payments to the stations' corporate parents.

See, this is what happens when you hire a bunch of academics who've never worked a real job in their lives and put them in charge of our economy.

Of course, the economic illiterates in the Democrat Party haven't done the complex calculations to arrive at the number of jobs this provision will cost.

The real costs, in dollars and misery, will be shockingly high.

Earlier today on Fox Business, Gerri Willis stated that the rule "...is a mountain of paperwork and will cost businesses about $17 billion [annually]."

My magic calculator puts the number of jobs erased or destroyed by this madness at 340,000 $50,000-a-year jobs. And that will be but one toll of this monstrous 'health care' bill that no one even bothered to read.

Remember to thank a Democrat on the first Tuesday in November.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Sen. Jim DeMint obliterates Mike Castle: 'I was there when we had the numbers, but didn’t have the principles'

In an interview yesterday on The Mark Levin Show, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) vaporized the arguments made by Mike Castle's supporters with a single sentence:

"I was there when we had the numbers, but didn’t have the principles"

There should be no confusion about Constitutional conservatives' support of Castle's nemesis, Christine O'Donnell.

• Mike Castle is a staunch supporter of unions -- especially the SEIU -- and said support only began after copious amounts of union money began flowing into his campaign coffers.

• Mike Castle supported one of the most outrageous violations of the First Amendment -- the DISCLOSE Act -- ever seen in Washington. Its intent -- to baldly suppress conservative speech -- was so obvious that Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) stated that without the DISCLOSE Act, "we'll see more Republicans getting elected -- both local, state and federal [sic]."

• Mike Castle does not agree with the Second Amendment, having earned an 'F' from the NRA for his 'lifetime achievements'.

• Mike Castle doesn't believe in free enterprise, having earned a pathetic 43% from the Club for Growth.

• Just like Charlie Crist, Arlen Specter, and other unprincipled candidates, Castle won't rule out a third-party run if he loses the primary. And, like Crist, you can be certain he will shape-shift faster than a character from a Star Wars' cantina.

The times are too perilous to tolerate this kind of behavior when there are alternatives who will support that archaic document called "the Constitution". The squeamish Beltway Republicans may have heard of it.

BootMikeCastle.com's Frank puts a bow on the matter when he states, "Mike Castle is so far left, that if he were to win the GOP primary, his Democrat opponent in the general election would be able to run to the right of Mike Castle."

And that, my friends, is why we support the Constitutional alternative: Christine O'Donnell. And, yes. My prediction is that she can and will win the general election. And it won't be close.


Larwyn's Linx: In Delaware -- Castle, Soros and a Health Advisory

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

DE Senate GOP Primary: Castle, Soros & a Health Advisory: Malkin
Nuts and Sluts In Delaware: LegalIns
DOJ I.G. will investigate Obama voting rights record: Malkin

Obama Parties While Democrats Run From Their Party: RWN
Anger Is Now Hardened into Resolve: PJM
Is November Just the Beginning?: AT

Economy

Get Ready for Your Health Care 'Re-Education': PJM
Comedy Czar: Recovery Summer Not About Jobs, Stupid: Malkin
Party Time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: RWN

Geithner the Stooge: Denninger
Reflections on Mark Hurd: Brenner
Lather, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat: SondraK

Record Increase in Poverty Under Obama: RWN
Economic Doomsday? Dr. Doom Thinks So...: Ace
CabbageGate: Taking a Leaf out of the Forgotten Man: Driscoll

Climate & Energy

Obama jobs death toll watch: 150,000 more energy jobs in danger: Malkin
Obama Hails Opening of Michigan Plant That Makes $33,000 Car Battery: GWP
Good news: Feds spent $18,000 to monitor negative media coverage of BP oil spill: Hot Air

Media

Responding to Paul Mirengoff at Power Line: Mark Levin
We Are The Ones Who'll Show You The Door: AT (Cary)
Pax Americana (1949-2010): AT

Did Castle Vote to Impeach Bush?: Power Line
Why Christine is Surging: 3 Ads from Tea Party Express: RWN
He Said/She Said: SondraK

Why Blog Con Mattered So Much: RWN
The First Inaugural BlogCon 2010 (27 Pics): RWN
Evan Sayet's Right2Laugh: Series Premiere: RightNetwork

World

'I Heart The Mosque' Shirts Printed by Moondhimmis to 'Challenge Islamophobia': WZ
Islam, Islamism, and Moderation: PJM
IPT: Ground Zero mosque official is 9/11 Truther, sits on board for 9/11 Truth org: Jawa

Reaping the Whirlwind: AT
Mexico Arrests El Grande: Fausta
Muslims Attack Hindus in India: A Warning For the West?: Chesler

Somalia: Islamists Execute Christian Leader, Kidnap His Children to Convert Them to Islam: WZ
Copenhagen Bombing Suspect Still a Mystery: Jawa
Pics from the Front: WZ

SciTech

US scientists learn how to levitate tiny objects: Reuters
Microsoft’s Response to Russian Scandal: Volokh
What are telecom, tech firms spending on lobbying?: InternetNews

Cornucopia

Video: Meet the man who won the Medal of Honor: Hot Air
Memory Hole: Munich Massacre Week: LegalIns
Epic Beatdown of Megan McCain: Ace

Images: Mike Lynaugh.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Right2Laugh: Series Premiere


Monday, September 13, 2010

10 Amazing Photographs From the Civil War

Dennis points us to a large collection of amazing photographs at Mike Lynaugh's site. He writes, "Most probably a million wet plate photos were made during the Civil War... These are pretty amazing considering they were taken up to 150 years ago."











See the rest here.


What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Barack Obama To Send $60B in Advanced Weaponry to Saudi Arabia, the Largest Single Arms Deal in History

Well, this certainly seems like a foolproof plan.

In the largest US arms deal ever, the administration of US President Barack Obama is ready to notify Congress of plans to offer advanced aircraft to Saudi Arabia worth up to 60 billion dollars...

...the administration was also in talks with the kingdom about potential naval and missile-defense upgrades that could be worth tens of billions of dollars more.

...The 60 billion dollars in fighter jets and helicopters is the top-line amount requested by the Saudis...

...the administration will authorize the Saudis to buy as many as 84 new F-15 fighters, upgrade 70 more, and purchase three types of helicopters -- 70 Apaches, 72 Black Hawks and 36 Little Birds, The Journal noted, citing unnamed officials.

Earlier media reports said that to assuage Israel's concerns, the Obama administration has decided not to offer Saudi Arabia so-called standoff systems, which are advanced long-range weapons that can be attached to F-15s for use in offensive operations against land- and sea-based targets.

It's fortunate that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is such a tolerant society; much more accepting of different religions and cultures than, say, those Militant Quakers.

I suppose, though, that after the Clintons equipped Red China with guided missile technology in exchange for a measly $50,000 or so in campaign donations, President Obama couldn't stand being one-upped again by Bubba. This deal makes the PRC's technology acquisitions look like child's play.


Helpful Progressive Pundits Nate Silver and HuffMo's Bill Scher Quite Concerned About 'Insurgents' Who Could Cost the GOP a Senate Majority

Gee, they've been right about so very much. They backed TARP. Barack Obama for President. The Stimulus Package (or, as I like to call it, "Lotto for Unions"). The Omnibus Spending Bill. Deficit spending from here to eternity. Oh, and lookie here: Gitmo's still open; troops are still in Iraq; and MINC actually approved a Bush-style surge in Afghanistan.

Yes, these are real genius prognosticators at work.

2 Insurgents Could Hurt G.O.P. Chances for Senate Takeover


Mike Castle: Give Him a Pink SlipThe first race in Delaware, where Christine O’Donnell, a political activist and commentator, is running against Michael N. Castle, who has held elected office in Delaware for 30 years as its governor, lieutenant governor and lone United States representative. The contest originally appeared to be a mismatch...

...Mr. Castle – a moderate who is unambiguously a member of the establishment – was next on their target list. And so Ms. O’Donnell, who already had the support of the Tea Party, last week received endorsements from Republican thought-leaders like Ms. Palin, the National Rifle Association and Senator James DeMint of South Carolina.

In contrast to Alaska, however, where Mr. Miller is the favorite to be elected unless Ms. Murkowski finds her way onto the ballot as a Libertarian or write-in candidate, Delaware is a blue state, and the electoral prospects of Mr. Castle and Ms. O’Donnell there are wildly divergent. Whereas Mr. Castle is nearly a 95 percent favorite against the Democratic nominee, Chris Coons, according to last week’s FiveThirtyEight forecasting model, Ms. O’Donnell would have just a 17 percent chance of winning a race against Mr. Coons.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If we have a GOP with more Mike Castles in it -- that can't agree on unimportant principles like the DISCLOSE Act (it's only the First Freaking Amendment) -- I'd just as soon have one less Senator.

But Silver and Scher are wrong about pretty much everything, so I strongly suspect that should Christine O'Donnell pull the upset, she'll have an excellent chance of edging her Democrat challenger.

By the way, Nate -- I'm still waiting for my apology from you and Keefus ("Sunday NFL Games Are Watchable Now") Olbermann over Dealergate. After all, Obama's "Car Czar" has admitted that politics played directly into decisions over which facilities were closed.

But I understand your dilemma: you're wrong about so very much -- where would you begin your apology tour?


Tim Geithner Shocked as Cuba's 50-Year Stimulus Program Comes to an Abrupt End: 500,000 Public Sector Workers About To Say Adios

The final chapter for Communism in the Caribbean is about to be written. The Miami New Times reports that Fidel Castro wasn't joking when he renounced his life's work of communism, poverty and misery.

Fidel Castro now claims that his statement claiming that the Cuban model of communism no longer works was misinterpreted and taken out of context by an American journalist, but actions speak louder and words as the island nation has announced a major layoff of state workers. At least 500,000 workers will lose their state jobs in the next six months. That means just under five percent of Cuba's total population and 10 percent of the work force will be out a of a job, but the government plans to grow the private sector to replace the jobs.

Raul Castro promised to cut 1 million jobs over the next five years in August, but surprisingly sped up the process by announcing that more than half of those jobs will be axed in the next six months.

"Our state cannot and should not continue maintaining companies, productive entities and services with inflated payrolls and losses that damage our economy and result counterproductive, create bad habits and distort workers' conduct," the CTC, Cuba's official labor union, said to the government press.

Cuba has labor unions? Who are they protecting the workers against?

...The news is the latest in small but significant developments signaling that Cuba is now more than ever willing to experiment with some characteristics of capitalism.

Would that the White House embrace the same experiment.

Of course, history, facts, logic, reason and human experience mean nothing to the current administration, which is wedded to an ideology that has failed in every time and every place it's been tried.


Image adapted from: Reuters.

Paul Krugman graduates to writing campaign slogans for the GOP

James Taranto observes that Paul Krugman has finally walked towards the light, albeit inadvertently.

Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, writing from Tokyo, reflects on the upcoming elections and comes to this cheery conclusion: “Americans, understandably, are disappointed over, frustrated with and angry about the state of the economy; but disappointment is better than disaster.”

"Disappointment is better than disaster." It's a bit long for a bumper sticker, but otherwise not a bad election slogan: honest, pointed, yet not promising too much.

Just one question: Why is Krugman writing slogans for the Republicans?

Doh!


Hat tip: Ben.

Larwyn's Linx: The Coming Wave; Flunking the Leadership Test

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 Coming Wave: Ace
In Search Of: People Of Color: NewsBusters (Parks)
Why No Interest In Mike Castle's Corrupt Lobbyist Problems?: Riehl

9/12: America's Monumental Shame: Malkin
ObamaCare's Fatal Flaw?: AT
"A rabat in the heart of Manhattan": Wizbang

Obama Flunks the Leadership Test: AT
Rule of Law Suffers Another Blow from DOJ: Adams
Nut-case Senator: Men better legislators than women: BlogProf

Economy

Senate Could Vote on Partial ObamaCare Repeal This Week: Ace
How Obama Thinks: Forbes (D'Souza)
Curious: No Interest In ObamaCare's High-Risk Insurance Pools: Ace

Reagan’s recession was worse, Barry: Surber
Shedding Light on Incestuous Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying: RWN
Cramer Wrong on Death Tax: RWN

Climate & Energy

Wasting Clean, Cheap Power: AT

Media

Let the Pre-Postmortems Begin: Driscoll
Fish Wrap Whines About John Boehner’s Ties To Lobbyists: RWN
White House pitching the heck out of NYT hit piece: Malkin

The Great Media Blackout: ModCon
ABC's Amanpour Continues Crusade to Smear America as Islamophobic and Tout Rauf’s Cause: NewsBusters
Bonus Automotivators this week: the Krugmotivator!: Troglopundit

Nicholas Kristoff Wouldn't Know The Truth If It Hit Him In The Face And Then Sat On His Head: LegalIns
'America’s Chickens Have Come Home to Roost': MOTUS
Tea Partiers Say, ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It!’: BMW

World

If only mosques would settle for burning books: ModCon
Ground Zero Mosque Financier Hisham Elzanaty Also Big Donor to Hamas: Moonbattery
Imam Rauf More Extreme Than Reverend Jones: HNN

Wilders' Month in the Dock: GoV
An Alternate History Nightmare: Rhymes With Right
Sharia Degradation of Women: AT

Report: Taliban Using Children As Human Shields…: WZ
Mystery Man Celebrates 9/11 By Self-Detonating in Copenhagen Hotel: JWF
On Dhimmitude And Incitement: Hindenblog

SciTech

Following the Money in the Social Media Advertising Boom: Mashable
Robotics breakthrough: Scientists make artificial skin: Breitbart
SugarCRM Wins Bossie Award for Best Open Source Application: TMCnet

Cornucopia

What would happen if you turned 100 cats loose in an Ikea?: Ace of Spades
How to look like Joan Jett: Like Totally 80's (h/t: Instapundit)
Monday Motivation: CBullitt

Images: Maktoob
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Send Mike Castle Packing in Delaware--Support Christine O'Donnell

QOTD: "So the United States is required to protect the lives of its troops serving in Afghanistan by:

1. Making sure that no Americans burn Korans, and
2. Burning Bibles.

Hmm… What’s wrong with this picture?" -- Baron Bodissey


Sunday, September 12, 2010

Photos of Afflicted--11 Abandoned American Hospitals and Asylums

A few creepy photos from a large collection of abandoned insane asylums and sanitoriums at Nile Guide.


Somehow gargoyles don't strike me as soothing the mood-swings of the insane.


When Public Sector Unions Attack: 'Left-Wing Terrorism Surges In Europe, As Governments Dismantle Social Safety Net'

If Europe is any indicator, the demise of the left's unsustainable, Utopian welfare state won't come without significant pain.

Spain, Greece and Italy reported a total of 40 attacks by left-wing and anarchist groups for 2009... This constitutes an increase of 43% compared to 2008; the number of attacks more than doubled since 2007.

As in previous years, most attacks were carried out successfully and mainly targeted government and business interests. The majority of these attacks were arsons, reported by Spain, and caused only property damage.

The percentage of IED attacks decreased from 43 % in 2008 to 20 % in 2009; the majority of these bombings occurred in Greece. In Greece, six left-wing terrorist organisations carried out a total of 15 attacks in 2009.

In Greece -- and much of Europe -- unsustainable public sector union wages and benefits will have to be cut. These vaunted "austerity measures" come decades late; but that hasn't stopped public sector union bosses from fighting the laws of economic physics.

Hundreds rioted in Athens yesterday, throwing Molotov cocktails and stones at police, who responded with tear gas at a May Day rally against austerity measures being enacted by the cash-strapped government to secure foreign loans to stave off bankruptcy...

Responding to calls from the country’s two main labor unions, several thousand people marched in major Greek cities against the anticipated spending cuts and consumer tax hikes.

In Athens, groups of black-clad anarchists in hoods and motorcycle helmets smashed three shop and hotel windows and set up barricades of burning trash bins. Around 17,000 people took part in the march, according to police estimates.

The social safety nets here in the United States will have to be cut as well. The federal government's own actuaries and planners have warned us for decades that the massive entitlement programs are melting down.

And what does the modern Democrat leadership do? They ladle on new entitlements, new 'Stimulus' programs and new deficit spending -- all of which can legitimately be called child abuse.

Rather than leaving our children and grandchildren federal inheritances, Democrats have instead left them immense mortgage payments.

As Europe melts down, alarm klaxons in Washington are going off, unheeded by the Obama Democrats. If we don't start turning this around in November, the results could be very ugly indeed.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

'Secure as it's ever been': Gun Battles--in Arizona--Now Breaking Out Between Mexican Drug Smugglers and Federal Agents

Gee, this Democrat border security strategy is really working out well. Nogales International confirms the impeccable law enforcement credentials of the Obama Democrats.

Border Patrol agents returned fire after being shot at by unidentified assailants west of Nogales last Sunday, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office reported.

The Border Patrol notified the Sheriff’s Office of the exchange of fire shortly before 6 p.m. on Sept. 5 and deputies responded to Bellota Canyon, northeast of Peña Blanca Lake and 5 1/4 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Raoul Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said agents were patrolling the canyon on foot when three or four armed individuals began shooting at them.

“Luckily the agents were not injured and were able to return fire,” Rodriguez said.

Border Patrol saturated the area with aerial recon and also deployed its special response team, while sheriff’s deputies also searched for the shooters.

Janet "The Border's As Secure Now As It Has Ever Been" NapoliReno could not be reached for comment.


Hat tip: Gateway Pundit.

Awesome: Jerry Brown admits he's been a complete screw-up for the last 40 years; promises taxpayers he'll turn over a new leaf

In the latest chapter in its coverage of the California gubernatorial race, The Sacramento Bee reports that Jerry Brown has repented. He knows what mistakes he's made in the past and "vows not to repeat them if elected again".

[Brown] acknowledges several miscalculations of enduring impact during his two terms in the Governor's Office, from 1975 to 1983... Now he has the benefit of hindsight and a chance to try again. What Brown says he learned offers a glimpse into how, at age 72, he would govern differently from his younger self.

...The mistake with perhaps the greatest political impact on Brown's career was his controversial 1981 decision to forgo aerial spraying against the Mediterranean fruit fly, which was threatening California's important agriculture industry... The 43-year-old governor ignored the warnings of federal regulators and instead followed the advice of a UC Berkeley entomologist who assured him that the flies would die off once winter set in... That prognosis proved wrong, and Brown finally OK'd spraying after several states and nations threatened quarantines on certain California produce...

...Brown suffered another setback on the environmental front when voters in 1982 repealed legislation he had signed that would have built a peripheral canal delivering water from the Sacramento River straight to the start of the California Aqueduct in Tracy... Nearly 30 years later, the state has yet to build such a canal, and fish stocks, water quality and other environmental factors in the Delta have only worsened.

Blind adherence to the eco-Statists' agenda? Check.

[Another controversial area was] the state's "determinate sentencing" law, which scaled back judicial discretion in prison sentences. Brown now says he didn't foresee its dramatic impact on the growth of California's prison population and has called for revising the law...

"The prisons started building up about the time I was leaving," Brown said in the recent interview. "But they didn't stop. They just kept on going. We see now that the determinate sentence, which I signed, needs substantial revision..."

...Brown said he's seen other laws – such as the California Environmental Quality Act and the launch of the state Fair Political Practices Commission – take similarly unpredictable paths.

Blind adherence to central planning? Check.

"As governor, Jerry Brown increased state government spending by 120 percent," [Meg] Whitman told the state GOP convention last month. "And he left the state with a budget deficit. He took a $6 billion surplus and turned it into a $1 billion deficit."

..."I am very frugal, very efficient, lean, and I am going to run this campaign in a way that every dollar counts," he said in June, "and that's the same way I'm going to run the state of California."

Yes, Brown -- a far Left Democrat Statist -- promises California voters he'll be "frugal" this time around. And that he won't offer blind adherence to the cult of central planners.

Anyone in California who believes that and votes for Brown despite his abysmal record deserves what they get.


Weekly-Beltway-Cocktail-Circuit-Standard Publishes Al Qaqaa-style Hit-Piece on Christine O'Donnell That Alleges She... Once Sued Someone

The most incompetent state Republican apparatus in the nation is Delaware's GOP, which reportedly conspired with Democrat insiders to let Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Beau Biden, run unopposed for Attorney General.

Further, the Delaware GOP has gone so far as to partner with Mike Castle's campaign, filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that alleges Tea Party conservatives illegally colluded with Christine O'Donnell in the Senate Primary.

Well, that should engender lots of grass-roots support.

Now Mike Castle's Beltway cocktail buddies at The Weekly Standard have pulled The New York Times' old Al-Qaqaa trick: publishing a lengthy, seemingly "scathing" assault on Christine O'Donnell that contains two allegations:

• O'Donnell once sued an ex-employer for gender discrimination.

• O'Donnell is said to have claimed she took classes at Princeton.

Shocking.

Now, I'll tell you what Christine O'Donnell didn't do:

She didn't vote for the DISCLOSE Act, the goal of which is to suppress free speech by conservatives, while leaving unions and other Democrat support groups unscathed.

She didn't vote with the most liberal Democrats over the issue of guns and earn an F from the NRA.

She didn't vote with Barack Obama 60% of the time including for Cap-and-Trade.

No, Christine O'Donnell didn't do any of those things. Rep. Mike Castle (R-INO) -- who The Weekly Standard calls a "moderate" -- did.

If by "moderate", they mean that Castle doesn't believe in the Bill of Rights' First, Second or Tenth Amendments then, yes, Castle is a moderate.

The Weekly Standard really hurts its credibility and reputation with tripe like this. As Erick Erickson tweeted earlier, "Sorry folks, but if we need Mike Castle for a Senate majority, we do not need a Senate majority."


Update: Dan Riehl: "Why No Interest In Mike Castle's Corrupt Lobbyist Problems?"

Related: Mike Castle is a staunch supporter of 'the right to choose'; should help him cope with having his political career aborted by Christine O'Donnell.

The Press Secretary Who Re-Tweeted the New York Times' Hit Pieces

Total politicization of the Executive Branch is officially complete.

• Another* anonymously-sourced hit piece on a Republican (who is poised to damage Democrats in November) by the fish-wrap of record? Check.

• Key snippets of the Times' hit-piece instantly re-tweeted by Robert Gibbs, using the official White House Twitter account? Check.

• Further confirmation of the Media-Democrat Complex? Check and mate.

Downright embarrassing.

But it's not unexpected, seeing as how this White House possesses all the class of a bunch of Chicago aldermen on a 20-month power bender.

It's amazing: the White House doesn't even realize that its open collaboration with the Times' anonymously-sourced hit pieces -- disguised as 'news stories' -- is downright embarrassing.

The unholy alliance of legacy media and the Democrat Party is now obvious to even the most obtuse observer.

Which hopefully will hasten the demise of both entities in November.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin and NewsBusters. Thanks!
* See New York Times' Anonymously-sourced John McCain Lobbyist Affair Hit Piece

Larwyn's Linx: America Speaks -- 9/11 Rally Draws 40,000

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Nation

America Speaks: 9/11 Rally Draws 40,000: Atlas
9/11 Memorial, Ground Zero Mosque Protest, NYC: Urban Infidel
Geert Wilders' Speech at the 911 Rally of Remembrance: Atlas

Oh Really, Mr. President?: Gormogons
Sharia vs. Freedom: AT
'Anti-Extremist' Dearborn Muslims Burn Pastor in Effigy: BlogProf

Report From Ground Zero, September 11, 2010: AmPower
The Dying Liberal Revolution: CMR
An Apologetic 9/11?: Hanson

Economy

Bribing the public with the public's money: Tapscott
Obama's Favors to Unions: GWP
Obama, the Economic Illiterate: WashExam

Why only repeal the Bush tax cuts?: RWN
Gee, Our Old LaSalle Ran Great: Driscoll
Shredding the First Amendment: TigerHawk

Climate & Energy

Figures: Commie-Truther Green Czar Van Jones Behind 9/11 as Community Service Day: GWP
Oh, that’s gotta hurt – Obama denies solar panels: WUWT

Media

NYT runs anonymously sourced hit piece on John Boehner: WashExam
Daily Scoreboard: Don Surber
At Last: A Use For the New York Times in Print: NewsBusters

Angle vs. Reid: John Ralston Thinks It's All About Him: LegalIns
Remember 9/11: GM's Place
Saturday Night Card Game (What Brings Us Together): LegalIns

World

They Still Blame America First: JRubin
When is the "Muslim world" not ready to "explode"?: Malkin
Bomb Blast in Copenhagen: Jyllands-Posten Offices Targeted: GWP

Muslim Religious Tolerance: Surber
Another tipping point?: Dinocrat
Saudi diplomat seeking asylum: ‘My life is in danger’: iOTW

Exclusive Interview: Lauren Walker Works With North Korean Refugees in South Korea: RWN
What Islamophobia Really Is: Gormogons
Imagining Islam: NRO

SciTech

An Open Letter to Mr. Bill Gates: WUWT
Apple relents on Flash-derived iPhone, iPad apps: CNet
Mad Mechanical Men: edgelings

Cornucopia

Bumped as a Contest: USDA Giveaways: iOTW
Obamas #99: If At First You Don't Succeed: iOTW
Dam Sheep!: SondraK

Images: Atlas Shrugs.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Join a Christine O'Donnell Dialing Campaign Online!