Sunday, January 02, 2011

The Tea Party Conservatives Came to Washington to Chew Bubblegum and Kick Ass. And They're All Out of Bubble Gum.

I really like the sound of our guys on the Sunday talk shows.

Let's start with Rep. Allen West (R-FL) on Fox News Sunday.

Q: Then, in November, you said -- and here's the quote -- "that this liberal, progressive, socialist agenda... this left-wing, vile, vicious, despicable machine that’s out there is soundly brought to its knees..." Tyrannical? Socialist? Despicable? Is it really as bad as that?

A: "I think it is... when you look at the nationalization of so much of our production: the automobile industry, the health care industry, the fact that we had an amendment in the health care law that allowed the federal government to take over education, when you look at the fact that we are creating more victims and making more people dependent upon the government... when you look at the incredible debt and deficits that has occurred over the last two fiscal years, we're going in the wrong direction...

...This liberal-progressive agenda is the antithesis of who we are as a Constitutional republic."

I really, really, really like Allen West.

As for some of the other highlights, Darrell Issa probably kerploded a few progressives' heads today by calling the Obama administration corrupt.

Issa ... clarified that when he previously said during a radio interview that Obama "has been one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times," he was referring to the Obama administration and not the president himself.

"In saying that this is one of the most corrupt administrations, which is what I meant to say there," Issa said, "when you hand out $1 trillion in TARP just before this president came in, most of it unspent, $1 trillion nearly in stimulus that this president asked for, plus this huge expansion in healthcare and government, it has a corrupting effect..."

...He also took aim at the national health care overhaul, which he said is "expanding Medicaid mandates that have been at least tentatively ruled unconstitutional," and at the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which he called "$800-billion worth of walking-around money."

Oh, and Michelle Bachmann laid a rhetorical beatdown on the loathsome White House adviser Austan Goolsbee who had earlier warned Republicans against 'playing chicken' with the national debt ceiling as it could raise questions about America's ability to repay its debts. Uh, schmuck: S&P and other rating agencies have already raised questions, thanks to your insane spending policies.

In an entertaining but ultimately not very informative roundtable, guest host Harry Smith brought Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), Debbie Wasserman Schulz (D-Fla.) and Rep.-elect Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) together for a chat that frequently degenerated into the guests talking over each other. Bachmann said the Republicans would introduce a "clean" bill to repeal the new health-care law. Kelly said he hopes that incoming GOP freshmen, many of whom are backed by the tea party, can force the government to live within its means like people in the "real world..."

Both Bachmann and Kelly said they opposed raising the debt ceiling.

Anthony Weiner went on to shriek like a little girl -- or maybe that's his real voice, I wouldn't know -- that failing to raise the debt ceiling would "shut the government down."

Say, Anthony, let's try it for a month and see if anyone notices. We've got a Department of Education that doesn't educate anyone; a Department of Energy that tries to restrict our access to energy; a Department of Labor that helps promote unemployment; etc.

So let's give it a shot for a month or two. I think we'll all be amazed how little we miss the enormous federal bureaucracies that seem to exist only to torment us.


Hat tip: Rowdy Roddy Piper in 'They Live'.

Is this the worst name for a road race ever?

Given the precarious state of the economy, does having a financial institution sponsor a road race called a "bank run" give anyone else the willies?

Marketing dudes: how about the "Fifth Third Bank Race to Defeat Hunger"? Or -- whatever?

But "Bank Run"? Seriously?


Nike, Best Buy, Target and Other Crony Capitalists back the EPA's Soviet-Style Control of Industrial Policy

I'm not a big fan of boycotts, but if you can avoid buying Nike, Best Buy, Levi Strauss and Target stuff, you might help stop their support of the global warming scam.

Crony capitalism is a stepping-stone to socialism. The term is used to describe the unholy, anti-citizen alliances between corporations and big government. These kinds of companies generally engage in massive lobbying efforts (read: backscratching) to coerce government into various taxpayer-funded schemes:

• by paying them directly through government purchases...
• by carving out market segments for them through regulation...
• and otherwise increasing profit margins by suppressing the free market.

With this as our context, let's examine The American Spectator's article entitled "What Do Nike, Best Buy, Levi Strauss and Target Have in Common?".

They all support EPA efforts to regulate greenhouse gases, even though that circumvents the citizens' right to have their elected representatives make U.S. laws. More on the Obama Administration overreach and his crony corporatists support at the National Legal and Policy Center blog today.

Heading over to the NLPC, we can discover the sordid details.

Earlier this month corporate climateers including Nike and 3M were given awards -- supposedly "the equivalent of an Oscar for the climate change mitigation world" -- for their efforts to reduce their carbon emissions... Nike also co-signed a letter to President Obama that called for U.S. leadership in an initiative to create and finance the Global Climate Fund, which was established at the UN climate talks in Cancun in early December.

Other members of [this group include] Levi Strauss & Co., Starbucks, Timberland, Best Buy, Ben & Jerry's, eBay, Gap Inc., The North Face, and Target Corporation. Mark them down as corporations who favor the circumvention of the peoples' right to have their elected representatives make U.S. laws.

Carbon dioxide is plant food. It can no more be a pollutant than water vapor or oxygen. The Marxist Left progressives believe, or want us to think they believe, that capping CO2 emissions can act as a thermostat on the climate.

The reality is quite different. Trying to control carbon dioxide is a money-making scam and it has been since the original IPCC reports that were issued by folks poised to make millions through inherent conflicts-of-interest.

Companies that feed this government-run monstrosity should be treated as the anti-free market pariahs they are.


Image: Fox News.

Larwyn's Linx: Top 10 Reasons We Won't Miss the 111th Congress

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Top 10 Reasons America Won't Miss the 111th Congress: Foundry
Filibuster is needed to protect minority rights: Tapscott
Obama says to hold him accountable in 2011: RWN

SIGA profiting since the SEIU's Andy Stern was hired: RedState
What could justify voting for Rahm Emanual as mayor? This.: RWN
Hate Crimes Against Jews in U.S. on the Rise: AmSpec

Economy

Governor Paterson's Most Disturbing Epiphany: JWF
GAO can’t render opinion on government financials: Mises
States of Pain: Bankruptcy Bandage?: Lapin

Obama Strengthens Labor Unions; Communists Approve: NoisyRoom
2010 Marred By Debt, Waste, Costly Hawaiian Vacation: JudicialWatch
Ban Public Sector Unions Now: Voice of Reason

Cooking the Books: Real Deficit Was $2.1T, not $1.29T: GWP
Get Serious About Immigration, Education and Tax Reform: BigGovt
Will There Be QE3, QE4, QE5...?: Mises

Climate & Energy

A New Year’s Prediction Challenge For Climate Alarmist: RWN
The EPA's End-Run Around Democracy: PJM
'Renewable' Energy Crisis Sinking Spain: AmSpec

When Gas Hits Four Dollars a Gallon, Will It Be Slow Enough for Obama This Time?: PJM
Settling Accounts on Peak Oil: RedState
As Japan Abandons Emissions Caps, Obama Rushes Headlong Toward It: RWN

Media

The Five Worst Human Beings in America: JPAttitude
'A big f------ deal' and more: The top 10 political quotes of 2010: Hill
Top 10 Silliest Christiane Amanpour Moments of 2010: Driscoll

When Illusion Meets Reality: Right Truth
2010 a Banner Year for MSM’s Ministries of Mistruth: PJM (Blumer)
Quote (and Thought) of the Day, WSJ edition: Lane

Reagan and Palin: the MSM views are amazingly similar: MoneyRunner
Modest proposals to help the new Congress survive and America to thrive: Reynolds
Anheuser-Busch Beer Heir Avoids Girlfriend’s Funeral: Suspicious Circumstances of Death: RWN

World

Israel game changer: Natural gas find off Haifa largest worldwide in 10 years: Ace
Pakistani Islamists Clash With Government Over Ending Death Penalty For Blasphemy: WZ
WikiLeaks Show WMD Hunt Continued in Iraq – With Surprising Results: Danger Room

Canadian conservatives to cut corporate tax rate and rein in consumer debt: Knight
Communism literally stinks: Cuba drops hygiene products from monthly ration: Cubachi
Uhm, Barry: a Genocide Bomber Is Not a Victim: Zilla

SciTech

NASA 2010 Deep Space Photographs – Happy New Year: SHN
Plane to catch tomorrow? Beware iPhone's alarm: CNet
New TSA Security Scanner You Can Work From Home: Planck (NSFW!)

Cornucopia

BCS National Championship Prediction: Auburn will Crush Oregon: I Bleed Crimson Red
Talent We Can Believe In: MOTUS
Take a Trip to Natchitoches to See the Christmas Lights: SIGIS

Dave Barry's look at 2010: Worst year ever?: PittLive (Barry)
RIP: Lansing's 'Rosie the Riveter' - symbol of women's empowerment - dies at age 86: BlogProf
Self Promotion: R&R

Image: RedPlanet Cartoons
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The New York Times 2010 Worst Quotes of the Year

QOTD: Describing the highlights of March 2010: "Democratic congressional leaders, responding to polls showing that the health-care bill is increasingly unpopular with the public, manage, with a frantic, last-minute effort, to pass the health-care bill, or at least a giant mass of paper that is assumed to be the health-care bill. This leads to a triumphant White House signing ceremony, the highlight of which is Vice President Joe Biden dropping the f-bomb moments before being hustled off by aides to have an important meeting with somebody important.

...In international news: Greece asks the International Monetary Fund if it can borrow 17 billion euro for "cigarettes." And Somali pirates, becoming increasingly brazen, seize the Staten Island Ferry.

On a more hopeful note, on March 27 people in more than 4,000 cities around the world turn off their lights in observance of Earth Hour, saving an estimated 45 million megawatts of electricity -- enough to power one of Al Gore's houses for nearly three days." -- Dave Barry

Saturday, January 01, 2011

Newsweek Magaxelrod: marketing the "centrist" GOP candidates that no one's heard of to grease the skids for Obama in 2012

Newsweek Magazine, with its total market capitalization of one dollar, is doing its level best to clear the runway for the 2012 Obama reelection campaign.

To do so, it's following the traditional legacy media game-plan: positioning some obscure GOP "centrist" as a legitimate candidate. Spoiler: he's not.

The moderate Republican [ex-Utah governor Jon Huntsman] had once been considered a rising star in the GOP and a likely 2012 contender, with David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s campaign mastermind, even identifying Huntsman as the only Republican who made him “a wee bit queasy” about the next race...

...But speculation ended abruptly in 2009 when Obama tapped Huntsman for the ambassadorship. National pundits called the appointment a shrewd move by the White House to sideline a potential rival, and then promptly forgot about him...

...sources close to Huntsman (who requested anonymity to speak freely without his permission) say that during his December trip to the U.S., he met with several former political advisers in Washington and Salt Lake City to discuss a potential campaign. “I’m not saying he’s running,” says one supporter who has worked with him in the past. “But we’re a fire squad; if he says the word, we can get things going fast.” What’s more, Huntsman tells NEWSWEEK that when he accepted the ambassadorial appointment, he promised his family they would “come up for air” sometime in 2010 to decide how much longer they would stay in Beijing.

Cubachi accurately observes that the background of Huntsman (Gesundheit!) is distinctly problematic for conservatives.

There’s a reason why the Utah Tea Party booed Huntsman.

I couldn’t care less if he can speak Chinese or was governor of Utah... Huntsman is a progressive republican, and held liberal positions while in office. He is a liberal on social issues, an amnesty shill, and publicly endorsed cap and trade. After Obama’s election to the presidency, Huntsman even called for the republican party to move to the center to attract voters...

A wishy-washy Republican who is indistinguishable on core issues from Democrats can't win in a general election. November's thrashing of Democrats proves that Constitutional conservatism is on the ascendancy. And Huntsman is anything but a true conservative.

No offense to Mike Huckabee fans, but the media engaged in precisely this same form of information warfare in 2008. Huckabee was unelectable in the general election, as many of his prior positions were largely indistinguishable from those of Barack Obama, who was a far stronger campaigner.

Constitutional conservatives could and did take issue with many of Huckabee's prior positions including illegal immigration, global warming, higher taxes, crime and parole. In short, a weak, centrist GOP candidate had no chance against a Democrat without any track record and a distinct proclivity for lying.

If the Republican Party wants to win the presidential election, it had better nominate an articulate conservative who believes, first and foremost, in the United States Constitution. Huntsabee ain't it.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin and Memeorandum. Thanks!

The Gold Bullion Challenge to @KeithOlbermann -- Document a Single @FoxNews Lie and Win a $1,400 Krugerrand

Update 1/8/11 8:31AM PST: All Four Media Matters Attempts Completely Blown Apart.

The self-proclaimed "Queen of All Media" -- Perez Hilton -- points us to a blistering attack on Fox News by media superstar Keith Olbermann™.

Keith Olbermann has once again taken on Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, after Twitter users lashed out at him for supporting a liberal-slanted website... He responded by writing:

FYI: in reply to "highly ironic that you support Daily Kos yet think Fox News is slanted" I said: Fox News is 100% bulls**t. And it is.

@mtovet you're right: I don't have as much hate or as many lies in me as O'Reilly

@tonyperry1 I did it because his network is full of bulls**t & O'Reilly is full of bulls**t. & if you believe them you're full of bulls**t.

@DailyRushbo let's clarify this. Fox News is 100% Bulls**t. Rush Limbaugh is 100% Pigeons**t.

Wow! He is certainly not holding back, is he?!

Isn't Perez' use of punctuation intoxicating? But I digress.

"Faux News." "Liars." "Not really a news organization." "A right-wing propaganda machine."

The progressive left and its ilk -- like the man with the golden strap-on -- have a lot of descriptions for the country's dominant cable news channel. They claim that Fox fabricates news stories.

I want them to prove it. And I've got a 1-ounce Krugerrand from my Y2K bunker* (today's spot price: $1,400) waiting for Keith Olbermann or any 'progressive' who can provide me with a documented lie repeated by Fox News reporters.

There are just four simple rules:

• Typos don't qualify ("ooh, the news ticker used a 'D' after his name, not an 'R'!").

• The lie must have been reported by at least two Fox News reporters (not analysts, reporters).

• The transcripts and/or video clips must be available on a suitably trustworthy site for verification.

• The real news story, refuting the Fox News lie, must have been correctly reported at around the same time by at least one news reporter from CNN or MSNBC (with similar links and/or transcripts from their sites).

Just one lie! That's all I'm asking for. This should be the easiest $1,400 you've ever made, Keith. You've got to have a whole database of Fox lies, right? Just post your correctly documented answer in the comments section before January 15, 2011. That's two freaking weeks!

And given the devaluation of our currency by President Training Wheels, the Krugerrand could easily be worth $1,500 by then.

Ready? Get set... go!


* Since converted to a super-secret 2038 Bunker.

Update: Media Matters submits its response. This ought to be good.

Hat tip: Ame.

Some edumucation for young progressives

Whom Despots Fear

What really happened

To the Congress:

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) doing the work Democrats won't do: sounding the public pension crisis alarm and protecting taxpayers

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) is focusing much-needed attention on the public sector pension programs that Democrats have driven off a cliff.

The country's public pension system is grossly underfunded and needs an overhaul, Rep. Devin Nunes said this week... [He] s promoting legislation designed to gauge the extent of the problem, while also establishing a ban on federal bailouts of public pension programs.

How bad is the underfunding problem?

Nationwide, the country's pension programs for public employees had roughly $1.9 trillion set aside in 2008 to pay promised retirement benefits, according to Nunes...

...Yet those same programs have liabilities totaling $5.2 trillion — a gap of more than $3.2 trillion.

Introduced earlier this month, Nunes' Public Pension Transparency Act would force state and local pension programs to report their liabilities to the federal government using a uniform accounting standard. It would also create a federal ban on any future public pension bailouts by Washington.

The bill has picked up the support of several leading Republicans, including Reps. Paul Ryan (Wis.) and Darrell Issa (Calif.).

Last week The Washington Examiner's Mark Hemingway also hit the alarm, describing the fatal default of Pritchard, Alabama on its pension obligations. Hemingway's question is a troubling one: "If the busted public pensions in small-town Alabama make for a particularly tragic tale, what kind of misery is going to unfold when some of the largest towns and states in the country run out of money?"

The public sector pension crisis is here. The nefarious alliance of corrupt Democrat politicians and their public sector union bosses have left pensioners and taxpayers high and dry. Rep. Nunes' efforts are a brave and utterly necessary start at addressing this impending catastrophe.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin and Memeorandum. Thanks!

Open Thread: Obama's Talent, iPhone Defections and the Warmists' Ice Core Dilemma

The Hill reports that the President will convene a talent show to celebrate the new year.

President Obama is ringing in 2011 by hosting a talent show on his Hawaii vacation, according to the White House... Burton said that the president had also spent time reading "President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime" by Lou Cannon, "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" by David Mitchell, and "Our Kind of Traitor" by John le Carre... The president spent Friday morning working out and then went to play golf.

Any guesses as to the President's talent? And the First Lady's?

CNet relays a prediction that AT&T could lose up to 6 million subscribers with the introduction of the Verizon iPhone.

...Apple will "probably" introduce of a Verizon iPhone after next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas [and] analysts are already predicting the number of AT&T customers who will defect to Verizon for its new iPhone... The estimates range from 1 to 6 million moving from AT&T to Verizon, although the bulk of sales of a potential Verizon iPhone would still come from current Verizon customers updating their existing phones...

...The Bloomberg article quotes John Hodulik, an analyst at UBS AG in New York, who comes in "somewhere in the middle" with his projections, saying 2.3 million would switch from AT&T to pick up a Verizon iPhone. Hodulik expects AT&T would sell 8.8 million iPhones in 2011 (down from 15.6 million in 2010) and that Verizon would sell 13.3 million iPhones in 2011. Of those 13.3 million, 10 million would already be Verizon subscribers and the rest would come from other carriers.

CNet lists a humorous mitigating factor: the performance of AT&T's network may improve with a large bloc of defections, so some subscribers may end up staying.

The Lid notes new evidence that the global warming bunko scam is even more fictional than we had thought.

By examining ice core samples for the past 10,500 years we learn that approximately 9,100 of the past 10,500 years were warmer than 2010... Thus, regardless of which year ( 1934, 1998, or 2010) turns out to be the warmest of the past century, that year will rank number 9,099 in the long-term list.

Which is why the Warming Grifters will have to go back to basics in 2011.


Larwyn's Linx: Hello 2011; The Five Best Human Beings in America

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

The Five Best Human Beings in America: JPA
2010: The Year They Came for the Constitution: PJM (Shiver)
The 2011 Congressional Agenda: AT

Holder: New Black Panther Case a 'Made-up Controversy' : JWF
Eric Holder’s ‘Made-Up’ Defense: Adams
So much for bipartisanship -- a slew of recess appointments: JRubin

Economy

Slow the Plow: Big Labor's Death Grip: Malkin
ObamaCare disaster is the legacy of Democrats' moment of power: York
Obama sneaks another big-time lobbyist into DOJ: WashExam

ObamaCare: Definitely Imposing Higher Costs on ‘The Poor’: RWN
Councilman Dan Halloran Speaks: Patterico
Snowplow Slowdown Update: Targeting Specific Neighborhoods: Patterico

Catching on to the Entitlement Disaster: Power Line
Census: States with Low Taxes Have Higher Growth Rates: WashExam
Bigger government encourages more poverty MNR

Climate & Energy

Court Temporarily Blocks EPA's Texas Power Grab: Ace
Holy Shnikeys -- Great Britain Experiences Coldest Winter in 1,000 Years: GWP
Only 9,099 Of Last 10,500 Years Warmer Than 2010: NRO

Perfect: Scottish Wind Turbines Freeze Up, Requiring Importation of Power: BlogProf
EPA Rules Will Trump Your Rights: IBD
Time Magazine and Global Warming: WUWT

Media

The Stealthy Spread of Socialism in the U.S.: AT
Planned Parenthood: Corrupting the Kids It Doesn’t Kill: RWN
Book Excerpt: The Last Mission in Iraq: BMW

It’s getting harder to tell the good guys from the bad guys: RedState
A 2010 Retrospective: Sargen
Peace Through Religious Freedom: Zilla

Thirty (or so) End of Year Quotes of 2010: Pundette
Ezra Klein In The Cross-hairs Of Right Wing Outrage: Double Dutch
Top Bloggers Appreciation: AmPower

World

New Year slaughter of Christians in Egypt shows we’re all in it together against Islamism: Shepherd
Israel game changer: Natural gas find off Hiafa largest worldwide in 10 years: Ace
France Steels Itself for Annual Muslim Car Burnings: Atlas

Happy New Year, Ahmadinejad…from Bristol Farms, Amazon and The Chef’s Warehouse!: Simon
2010: The Atlas Year in Review: Atlas
One of World's Largest Bullion Banks Has Sold Out of Silver Bullion: ZH

SciTech

Home Internet with Tor Anonymity Built In: TechReview
Drop-dead sexy audio gear from here and abroad: CNet
Predictable: Despite green car hype, SUV sales led auto industry rebound in 2010: BlogProf

Cornucopia

Are You Feeling Lucky, Punk? Well, Are Ya?: iOTW
Naval Air Museum, Pensacola 2008: CDSG
Triangulation, Trifecta and a Trio of Appetizers: MOTUS

Happy New Year, Fellow Fabulous Losers: CBullitt
Nice Rug, Eh?: iOTW
Wizbang Weekend Caption Contest™: Wizbang

Image: Why is it called a 'Klein Bottle'? (IowaHawk)
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Top 10 D.C. Buzzwords of 2010

Friday, December 31, 2010

Top 10 Most Popular Posts of 2010

As 2010 draws to a close, a recap is in order. The following stories were the top ten in terms of viewership.

10. Morongate: Matthew Yglesias Proves, Once Again, He's the Dumbest Blogger Alive (Unless Joe Biden Started a Blog When I Wasn't Looking)


[18,301 page views, 9 tweets] Over at Thin Progress, the intellectually stunted Matthew Yglesias contends that "If The Founders Had Wanted a Supermajority Requirement for the Senate, They Could Have Put One in the Constitution".

9. Don't Cry for Me, America


[20,739 page views, 50 tweets] In the early 20th century, Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world. While Great Britain's maritime power and its far-flung empire had propelled it to a dominant position among the world's industrialized nations, only the United States challenged Argentina for the position of the world's second-most powerful economy.

8. Candid photo captures the haunting beauty of the federal postal service, which is only losing $1 billion a month


[25,078 page views, 10 tweets] A recent photo captured the efficiency of the federal bureaucracy as it relates to its "management" of the postal service.

7. 15 Most Bizarre Photos From Jon Stewart's Rally You'll Never See in Legacy Media


[25,210 page views, 95 tweets] "Fear of Sanity" was an apt description of this progressive celebration.

6. Don Rickles Roasts Congress


[26,848 page views, 30 tweets] A satirical roast of Democrats that actually got me into trouble with Don Rickles' public relations team. Oh -- and it was my first post that made Snopes.

5. To be (a lawyer) or not to be...


[42,556 page views, 81 tweets] Larwyn relayed an interesting message that begins: "Is the President's resume accurate when it comes to his career and qualifications? I can corroborate that Obama's "teaching career" at Chicago was, to put it kindly, a sham."

4. Pelosi's Children and Grandchildren Used Military Jets As Cross-Country Shuttle Service So They Could Avoid Dealing With the Rabble


[46,802 page views, 88 tweets] Since Nancy Pelosi took over as Speaker in 2006, she's rung up millions in military travel expenses to commute between San Francisco and Washington. And her children and grandchildren hitched rides on numerous occasions.

3. Animated GIF -- Compare and Contrast Rally Sizes: #OneNation vs. #828


[72,305 page views, 178 tweets] Check out the crowds at the mall for the 8/28 patriots' rally versus the progressives' "One Nation" protest.

2. Photo Gallery: Check out the Carbon Footprint of Al Gore's New Ocean-View Mediterranean Villa


[83,584 page views, 112 tweets] It's not every day that one of the prime instigators of the global warming scam buys a 9-bedroom home with ocean views.

1. 15 Photos From the #OneNation Rally You'll Never See In Legacy Media


[121,717 page views, 815 tweets] Some of the attendees of the Democrat Party's preeminent rally are revealing indeed.

And a special shout out to this year's top ten referers:

10. Pundit & Pundette: 16,726.
9. Curmudgeonly & Skeptical: 17,977.
8. Legal Insurrection: 25,651.
7. NewsBusters: 28,887.
6. Gateway Pundit: 38,145.
5. Ace of Spades: 47,114.
4. Hot Air: 104,686.
3. Pajamas Media: 108,390.
2. Linkiest: 125,606.
1. Michelle Malkin: 247,606.

A Happy New Year and a Ginormous Thank You to Every Reader and Every Fellow Blogger. Except for you anti-American types. You know who you are.

Dems Rip Rule Change That Could Constrain Their Reckless Spending

There's no outrage like the outrage of a liberal who's been told the taxpayer's wallet is closed.

Dems rip proposed rule giving new power to GOP Budget chairman


A proposed House rule granting new powers to the GOP chairman of the Budget Committee has sparked outrage from Democrats... The proposed rule would allow the Budget Committee chairman to set spending ceilings for 2011 without a vote by the full House.

...In practice, this would give power to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the incoming chairman of the panel, to impose deep spending cuts since spending bills cannot exceed the budget ceiling for the 2011 fiscal year...

Sounds good. What's not to like?

Democrats argue the provision would give unilateral power to Ryan and flies in the face of GOP promises of transparency.

Coming from the party that promised -- and failed to deliver in spectacular fashion -- "the most transparent administration ever", that guilt trip rings a tad hollow, no?

...Republicans argue allowing the Budget chairman to set spending ceilings is necessary because of the failure of the last Congress to approve a budget last year.

“This provision is only necessary because of Democrats’ historic failure to pass a budget last year. They have nothing but their own ineptitude to blame for this temporary authority,” Brendan Buck, a spokesman for the House Republican transition... Another House aide argued the powers are not unprecedented. The GOP gave the chairman of the House similar powers in the opening days of the 1999 Congress, when the GOP also controlled the chamber.

Gee, you mean this rule change not only has precedent but could also help prevent the radical Left Democrat Party from further destroying America's balance sheet?

Faster, please!


Hat tip: Memeorandum. Linked by: Michelle Malkin and Weasel Zippers. Thanks!

A true story of customer service in the age of social media

We were at the In-Laws' place in Florida this past week. For the trek home, we were scheduled to fly back Tuesday on a flight connecting through Detroit. You may remember that day because several feet of warmal colding blanketed the East.

We had booked our tickets through Orbitz, which has a handy notification service. What wasn’t so handy was that on Monday, we received a robo-call from Orbitz simply stating, "Delta has canceled your flight to Detroit." The massive blizzard had resulted in thousands of canceled flights, mostly in the East, but some in the upper Midwest as well. Unfortunately, Orbitz does not try to reschedule for you nor provide any easy options for doing so.

When I tried to reschedule the flight, I found that Delta’s customer service operations had completely melted down.

On Monday, calling any of the reservations numbers (general or frequent flier) offered the caller the following helpful message: "Thank you for calling Delta Airlines. Due to extreme weather conditions, we are unable to answer your call at this time." It then hung up on the caller.

In other words, no queue, no help.

The website was even less helpful. Here are three examples of what website visitors saw on Monday:



I was pretty shocked that a snowstorm, albeit a blizzard, had seemingly taken out Delta’s entire customer service operation.

Because I am a complete loser, however, my first reaction was not to freak out. It was, "I wonder what folks on Twitter are saying about Delta?" To my surprise, Delta customer service reps were actually answering questions:

I was able to message @Delta and @DeltaAir, who confirmed that our flight had been rescheduled through Atlanta and subsequently booked all of our seats together for both legs of the trip.

This may be a useful example for businesses of all kinds: whether you like it or not, customers use social media to talk about you — and many times it won’t be positive. Like my experience with Delta on Twitter, good customer service on active social networks can help take a negative customer experience and transform it into something far more positive.


Larwyn's Linx: House Rules Package--A Nice First Step

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

House Rules Package is a Nice First Step to Control Spending: RedState
Domestic Sitrep: Glittering Eye
Alabama Republicans Come to Power, Pass Ethics Law: WklyStd

Frances Fox Piven Calls for a new Cloward-Piven Strategy: PJM
Another Reckless Recess Appointment: Malkin
No post-racial Chicago for Jesse Jackson: Marathon

Economy

Van Jones, New Black Panthers Took Millions in Stimulus?: NiceDeb
Credit card crackdown delivers the poor to loan sharks: Stossel
Real Homes of Genius – Beverly Hills tipping point?: DHB

“Happy F—–’ New Year” (from New York City’s Big Labor): RWN
We're not getting what we pay for: The Mercury
Goldman Sachs Prospers at Taxpayers' Expense: AT

Who's blaming Obama for higher gas prices?: Elder
Shock: Government Health Care Rife With Fraud, Waste: SAB
Jesus In Art: Doswell

Climate & Energy

A Metaphor for What's Wrong With America--Mandated Fluorescent Bulbs: TAB
Cult Of Globull Warming Plans To Go Back To Basics In 2011: RWN
Annals of climate activism: Predictions that have not come true : TigerHawk

Media

Journalistic History Lessons (Or Not): Discriminations
WaPo Writer Who Opposes ROTC On Campuses Would Have Supported The Appeasement Of Hitler In WWII: AmGlob
MTV’s Teen Abortion Sales Pitch: It’s Just “A Ball of Cells”: Greenroom

More BS on the Health Care Front: Denninger
Teh Constitution Is Very Important, by Ezra Klein: IowaHawk
The Constitution is Just Too Confusing: Toldjah

Time Magazine Confirms: Liberal Media Has Jumped the Shark on Global Warming Hoax: RWN
A Fisking: VodkaPundit
Week's worth of stories censored by NY Times, Wash. Post: AT

World

Reporting Islam: Fair, Balanced – and Accurate: Gaffney
WikiTerror in Zimbabwe: LegalIns
Muslim Family Claims Bias At Swimming Pool…CAIR To The Rescue: WZ

The American Government Enables Worldwide Sharia by Censoring Critics of Radical Islam: Big Peace
Pakistani government bows to Islamist threats, backs out of review of blasphemy laws: JihadWatch
Syria: Obama Never Passes Up an Opportunity to Look Weak: Big Peace

Standing Upright: JoshuaPundit
The Southern Poverty Law Center's Unintelligence Report: AT (Geller)
Surprise! UK Islamic Leader Is Also a Swindler and Good-for-Nothing Bum: WZ

SciTech

Apple's iPad: Disruptive product of the year: CNet
Pew study hints at what Web users will pay for: AP
Almost a Darwin Award winner: Man playing real-life 'Frogger' hit by SUV: BlogProf

Cornucopia

The 50 Funniest Headlines of 2010: BuzzFeed (SFW?)
Nice Deb's Top 5 Posts of 2010: NiceDeb
Chicago Mayoral Race Flush With Excitement: Malkin

Image: Wolf Files
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Rename the RINO Contest -- $125 Cash Prize!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

No one's buying your pathetic excuses, Ezra Klein: progressives are the enemies of the Constitution as surely as night follows day

Washington Post journolist Ezra Klein laid several eggs during a gaffe-filled interview on MSNBC earlier today.

Because the cable channel's ratings now trail reruns of Gilligan's Island and hospital sonograms, no one would have known except for the heroes over at NewsBusters.

They took the bullet for the rest of us and transcribed his statements regarding the new House requirement to read the Constitution at the start of the session. Among his remarks were these timeless gems:

[The Constitution] has no binding power on anything. And two, the issue of the Constitution is not that people don’t read the text and think they’re following. The issue of the Constitution is that the text is confusing because it was written more than 100 years ago and what people believe it says differs from person to person and differs depending on what they want to get done.

Well, gee Ira -- I mean Ezra, my mortgage note is nearly 30 years old. I don't really understand it very well, and my interpretation is probably different than the bank's, so our opinions as to what I should pay are amorphous -- confusing, even.

After realizing he'd become even more of a laughingstock than usual, Klein used his WaPo bully pulpit to claim he'd been misinterpreted and brutalized by conservatives.

This morning, I gave a quick interview to MSNBC where I made, I thought, some fairly banal points on the GOP's plan to honor the Constitution by having it read aloud on the House floor...

...The rather toxic implication of [my comments] is that one side respects the Constitution and the other doesn't. That's bunk, of course: It’s arguments over how the Constitution should be understood, not arguments over whether it should be followed, that cleave American politics. The Constitution was written more than 223 years ago, and despite the confidence various people have in their interpretation of the text, smart scholars of good faith continue to disagree about it. And they tend to disagree about it in ways that support their political ideology. I rarely meet a gun-lover who laments the Second Amendment's clear limits on bearing firearms, or someone who believes in universal health care but thinks the proper interpretation of the Commerce Clause doesn't leave room for such a policy.

Bzzzt! Wrong, schmuck!

Everyone with an iota of intellectual curiosity knows the history of the New Deal and how great swaths of it were ruled clearly unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. It was only after FDR's threats to stack the Supreme Court -- to bring four new Elena Kagan members to bear -- that the Democrat president was able to bully the High Court into egregious rulings like Wickard vs. Filburn.

Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), was a U.S. Supreme Court decision that dramatically increased the power of the federal government to regulate economic activity. A farmer, Roscoe Filburn, was growing wheat to feed his chickens. The U.S. government had imposed limits on wheat production based on acreage owned by a farmer, in order to drive up wheat prices during the Great Depression, and Filburn was growing more than the limits permitted. Filburn was ordered to destroy his crops and pay a fine, even though he was producing the excess wheat for his own use and had no intention of selling it.

The Supreme Court, interpreting the United States Constitution's Commerce Clause under Article 1 Section 8 (which permits the United States Congress "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;") decided that, because Filburn's wheat growing activities reduced the amount of wheat he would buy for chicken feed on the open market, and because wheat was traded nationally, Filburn's production of more wheat than he was allotted was affecting interstate commerce, and so could be regulated by the federal government.

You read that right: a cowed Supreme Court, which had been blatantly threatened by FDR, ruled that a farmer growing wheat for use on his own farm was engaging in interstate commerce.

A more outrageous court decision you'd be hard-pressed to find.

Wickard, in particular, opened the floodgates to expansive interpretations of the Commerce Clause, never before contemplated in American history and certainly foreign to the principles enunciated by the Framers in all of their writings.

So, yes, Klein is a lying schmuck who either knows little of the Constitution's history or simply doesn't care.

The very welfare state he supports is collapsing around us: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, "Great Society" and every other disastrous Democrat brainchild hatched since the Wickard decision has America literally teetering at the brink of economic collapse.

Question: how many years has the Congressional Budget Office warned that America's entitlement spending is "unsustainable"? More years than Klein's been alive, to be sure. Yet the progressives express an insatiable desire to confiscate private property, to centralize government and to ignore the Constitution while doing so, and see no limits to the scope of government.

This country's Framers studied Cicero, John Locke, the Baron de Montesquieu, Adam Smith and others whose timeless wisdom were used to help construct a society of vast wealth, infinite freedom and limited government.

In little more than two hundred years, Americans defeated slavery, Nazism, military Shintoism and Communism; refined mass production; invented human flight; created 75% of all medical innovations on the planet; put a man on the moon; invented the telephone, the Internet and the search engine; and advanced humankind in millions of other ways, in every field and endeavor. Those achievements weren't created because of the Democrats' welfare state -- they were created in spite of them.

Yet Klein ignores history, logic and reason and claims that progressives have some sort of equal claim to the Constitution. He is a bald-faced liar. This country's founders studied thousands of years of human history -- despotic regimes, authoritarian lunatics, totalitarian zealots -- and attempted to constrain government, not the individual.

Klein clearly refutes the notions of the God-given rights of man, of private property and of carefully constructed limits on an all-powerful, centralized, authoritarian government. For progressives can articulate no limits on government, no checks on their insatiable appetite for control over the individual.

The Founders of this country would despise you, Ezra Klein. You and your progressive ilk who reject the Constitution and the Declaration. You're a buffoon and a laughingstock -- and everyone knows it.


Hat tip: Memeorandum. Linked by: Michelle Malkin, Pundit & Pundette, and Adrienne. Thanks!

In our Continuing Saga of the Democrats' Collapsing Welfare Society, Bankrupt States About to 'Sentence People to Death'

In a morbid sort of way, it's almost humorous that Democrats rammed through socialized medicine when the very welfare state they created is in the process of collapsing. Oh, and that's not me saying it -- that's coming from the Democrats in charge of these fiascoes.

Medicaid Pushes U.S. States Off ‘Cliff’ as Governors Seek Cuts


Governors nationwide are taking a scalpel to Medicaid, the jointly run state and federal health-care program for 48 million poor Americans, half of whom are children. The single biggest expense for states, Medicaid consumes about 22 percent of their total $1.6 trillion in expenditures, more than what is allocated to elementary and secondary education...

I don’t think most states want to sentence people to death,” said Judy Solomon, co-director of health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy. “But what we see is a pretty bleak picture of tough cuts made this year, and next year’s numbers look worse.”

... Every state has a unique formula for calculating the federal contribution for Medicaid. The 12 with the highest personal income, including California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Colorado, typically depend on the U.S. government for about half their expenditures.

Under the stimulus, the federal share rose to about 62 percent. In July it will return to the old formula, forcing the states to pick up 50 percent of the total cost of the program instead of 38 percent.

You read that right. A large chunk of the Obama Stimulus program was directed to states in order to make up for Medicaid shortfalls and to keep their biggest backers -- union bosses -- in clover.

Not much of a job creator, it turns out.

I'm still waiting for Democrats to take credit for all of their wonderful programs. All of them: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Welfare State, and everything in between. Programs that ultimately crush the human spirit, bankrupt governments, and destroy democracy.

Like Obamacare.


Sneak Preview: 10 Photos of the Reagan Rose Bowl Float #awesome

In honor of President Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday, the Rose Bowl Parade will celebrate the life of the greatest president of the last century with a monumental float. Courtesy of Hope for America, here's a sneak preview.










If you're as big a Reagan fan as I am, it's also worth visiting the Reagan Library on the web or -- better still -- in person.

Hat tip: CB.

Global Warming Wrecked My Car

With the wisdom of Al Gore guiding my mouse, I offhandedly watch the results of a massive snowstorm on traffic cams. Vehicles spin out of control, sliding into one another, wreaking havoc and further snarling traffic.

Guiding these robotic cameras, I feel like a lord of global warming climate change, watching as man's catastrophic effects on the atmosphere are felt through extreme heat record-setting cold.

Thankfully, no matter how hot or cold it gets, I know that any minute now -- as Al Gore predicted -- the ocean levels will rise and wipe out this virus-like race called "humans."


Larwyn's Linx: Obama's EPA and the 2012 Elections

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Obama's EPA and the 2012 Elections: Hewitt
Big Nannies of the Year: Malkin
TSA Missed Luggage That Explodes After Flight : Judicial Watch

Is It Time To Use The 'T' Word To Describe Obama?: NiceDeb
2012: DeMint compliments Pence, Palin: Cubachi
Obama Announces Six Recess Appointments: Corner

Obama Blocks Probe Of Fired IG: Judicial Watch
Has O'Donnell Been Smeared?: AmSpec
A Nanny State Snow Job: Malkin (Powers)

Economy

Free Lawyers for Mentally Defective Criminal Aliens: RWN
Administration Wants You to Pay More at the Pump: Foundry
Michele Bachmann, Tax Geek: TaxProf

90-Year-Old Post Office Workers Still Getting Workers Comp?: RWN
Obama's Inaugural Address: Two Years of Broken Promises: AT
Obama's Economic Policies Fizzled: Miller

Climate & Energy

Manatees protest Gulf Cooling: flee frigid Gulf waters to shelter themselves at... warm power plants: LCR
Meteorologist Piers Corbyn - mocked by global warming alarmists for predicting cold winter - gets last laugh: BlogProf
The ‘We’re Gonna Freeze to Death Because of Global Warming’ Headline of the Day: Malkin (Powers)

Europe’s winter set to be the “coldest in 300 years”: Cubachi
Snowmageddons Do Not Mean The End Of Globull Warming: Pirate's Cove
Alarmists Work Hard To Annoy Penguins For Climate Hysteria: Pirate's Cove

Media

The First Annual G.T. Awards : Diogenes
Why on Earth is Chris Matthews talking about President Obama's birth certificate?: HillBuzz
David Shuster, the Man Who Slammed 'Nutty,' 'Far-Right' Conservatives, Returns from Media Suspension: NewsBusters

CNSNews.com's 10 Most Popular Stories Of 2010: CNS
Sarah for President?: PJM (Solway)
Fox Utterly Destroys Cable News Ratings Competition in 2010: Wrap

World

Obama Dims the Light on Missile Defense: AT
If Muslims were treated like Christians in America...: JihadWatch
GOP intel chairman Mike Rogers to battle Barack Obama: Politico

Technology Transfer from GE to China will Directly Compete Against the Boeing/Airbus Duopoly :Mish
Dopes of the Day: Fooled by Syria... Twice: Lid (BRubin)
Israel was seen 'ready to use' atomic weapon in war: Maktoob

European Anarchists Become More Coordinated. Wait, What?: RWN
‘Most Beautiful Goat’ Competition Underway in Saudi Arabia: Powers
Noble CEO: Leviathan is largest gas find in our history: JPost

SciTech

Facebook, Twitter And The Shadow Stock Market: Forbes
AIG Didn't Report $18.7 Billion of Company Guarantees: Bloomberg
How Colors Affect Purchases: BusinessPundit

Cornucopia

Toughguy Actor R. Lee Ermey Unloads On Obama the Socialist During Holiday Broadcast: GWP
Happy 100th Birthday Ronald Coase!!: P&F
Prince William and Kate Middleton to Do Without Butlers, Household Staff: AmPower

I'm Calling Jihad on Joseph Guzman: C&S
Did You Get Some Snow This Weekend?: Wizbang
Caption This!: SondraK

Image: Barking Crayon.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: GM's Place

QOTD: "It's amusing to me how simple America's problems were when Democrats were out of power, looking to take over. We would just fix the economy. Snap! Fixed. Just cancel Bush's tax cuts for the rich and it would all be right as rain. We could just bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and convince the Iranians and North Koreans it was in their interest to give up the bomb; all we needed was a smart guy to speak the right words to these countries that Bush was too stupid to know... We could just get the oceans to stop rising, and just reduce our dependency on foreign oil, and just do this and just do that.

It was all so very easy for the 2006-2008 Democrats to explain how they'd work these wonders. All they needed, they told the public, was to get the idiot Republicans out of office..." -- Ace, "Obama Destined For Scrapheap of History?"


Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Heh: Dennis Kucinich, the Only Representative to the Left of Michael Moore, May Lose His Seat in Redistricting Awesomeness

That applause you hear in the distance is the state of Ohio celebrating, albeit prematurely.

The state of Ohio will lose two congressional seats thanks to the latest U.S. Census figures, and liberal stalwart Dennis Kucinich is worried his seat is on the chopping block.

In an e-mail to supporters Wednesday, the seven-term Democratic congressman and two-time presidential candidate says the Republican-controlled Ohio legislature is likely to eliminate his heavily Democratic Cleveland-area district... [He's] calling on supporters for ideas on how to proceed:

“We are going to have to prepare for a different kind of election, possibly in a different place because my district may be eliminated...

...We are going to have to organize in a different way, now. The question will remain: Where?

...This discussion is consequential. Please participate by providing your insight and advice.”

Over on the left side of the blogosphere, Zandar versus Himself agrees that Kucinich is at risk.

If Ohio was going to lose only one district, I figured Kucinich would actually be okay. (First target would actually be Tim Ryan in OH-17), but with two going, Kucinich's digs will be folded into Marcia Fudge's heavily urban Cleveland district, OH-11 and you have to figure Betty Sutton and Tim Ryan will see theirs folded together too.

No doubt in my mind that Ohio will get rid of two Democrats, and phasing out Kucinich would be a big symbolic head to collect.

And a pair of big ears to boot!

Where's my rimshot?

I wonder what Cynthia McKinney does for a living? Perhaps she could serve as a template for Kucinich's new role in the private sector. I'm sure she's extremely successful... (trying to control belly laugh).


In the Marketplace of Ideas, CNN and MSNBC Found Woefully Lacking

It would appear that CNN's ratings now trail airport radar and the big round sudsing window at the laundromat.

Fox Utterly Destroys Cable News Ratings Competition in 2010


The Nielsen numbers are in for 2010, and in the battle for cable news ratings supremacy, Fox News took the title for the ninth year in a row -- bludgeoning the competition for another year.

The blowout comes on the heels on Fox News’ surging 2009, when the News Corp.-owned channel posted its highest-rated year in the network’s 13-year history...

...Not only did Fox News wallop MSNBC and CNN, it ranked fourth among all cable networks in primetime, behind USA, ESPN and TNT. (MSNBC was 28th, CNN 32nd and HLN 37th.)

Fox owned the top 12 cable news shows in average total viewers and swept the top 10 among 25-54-year-olds (MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" came in 13th and 11th, respectively). Even the nightly repeat of the “O’Reilly Factor” averaged more viewers than MSNBC and CNN shows.

Seriously -- who watches The Mr. Ed Show or Keith Olbermann -- except for comic relief?


Hat tip: Memeorandum.