Saturday, April 16, 2011

Obama: Yeah, I know Democrats Agreed to the 2011 Spending Deal, But the Speaker's an Idiot for Believing We'd Abide By It

The GOP Old Guard can't seem to understand that it -- and we -- are engaged in an all-out war with the radical left. Today's Democrats are true believers. They're former members of Students for a Democrat Society. Sympathizers with the Weather Underground. And inspired by other counter-revolutionaries dedicated to burning the United States Constitution.

Of that there is more than enough proof: their support of ACORN and other organizations whose sole purpose is vote fraud; their cynical advocacy for illegal immigration; and their willingness to violate the nation's highest law whenever possible.

So not only did the feckless Speaker of the House, John Boehner, get screwed on the 2011 budget deal... Not only did he pull his most powerful weapon -- shutting down the non-essential portions of the government temporarily -- off the table... But, worse, it turns out that parts of the budget deal, including riders agreed upon to by Democrats and Republicans, will be ignored by President Obama.

One rider [to the bill] – Section 2262 — de-funds certain White House adviser positions – or “czars.” The president in his signing statement declares that he will not abide by it.

This raises an extremely serious constitutional question: if Congress has refused to fund the “czars,” where exactly does President Obama get the authority and funding to pay them?

...Remember Iran-Contra? The problem for the Reagan Administration there was that Congress banned the president from allocating money to the Contras. The Administration, quite illegally in my view, tried to get around that ban by using funds from arm sales to Iran to subvert the Congressional ban.

At least the Reagan Administration had the decency to do this secretly, knowing that it was acting unconstitutionally. Moreover, the Reagan folks at least were able to claim that they technically weren’t violating the Congressional ban, because they weren’t using Congressionally allocated funds, but the proceeds from arms sales.

The Obama Administration, by contrast, seems to be brazenly violating the Constitution. As I tell my constitutional law students, Congress’s ultimate power is the power of the purse. If Congress objects, for example, to military action engaged in by the president, it can simply refuse to allocate funds.

But the Obama Administration’s position seems to be that so long as it issues a signing statement refusing to abide by restrictions on funding that it deems to interfere with executive prerogatives, it can simply create the funding out of thin air...

...This is a very dangerous position for the Executive branch to take, and I hope even Obama partisans will recoil at this ... If Obama had such serious constitutional objections to Section 2262, he had only one constitutionally proper move to make, and that was to veto the bill.

...the principle that Obama seems to be asserting, that the president can allocate money from budgetary funds even when the law says he can’t, goes beyond the constitutional sins of the Reagan Administration.

Will the GOP leadership ever comprehend what it's up against?

And summing it up for the drones out there: if you objected to Iran-Contra -- and if you have an ounce of integrity -- you would speak up against this outrage.

Who among you Democrats is brave enough to denounce the behavior of this president?


Update: "Boehner last week: the budget deal “eliminates the salaries and expenses of the “czars”’ — Boehner this week: “It’s not surprising that the White House...is objecting to eliminating them”"


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Another Leftist Meme Obliterated: 'Evil' Health Insurers Reject Far Less Health Care Claims Than... Medicare

You know, back in the day, Democrats and Donald Trump got lots of mileage out of the "Bush Lied" meme. But even a partial list of the current president's lies boggles the mind of an independent observer.

And when it comes to health care, among his favorite talking points are that health insurers are out to deny claims ("More and more Americans pay their premiums, only to discover that their insurance company has dropped their coverage when they get sick, or won’t pay the full cost of care. It happens every day.") and that Medicare is the most awesome health plan evah. Turns out, like so many of his fabrications, those assertions are pure, unmitigated horse manure.

According to the American Medical Association’s National Health Insurer Report Card for 2008, the government’s health plan, Medicare, denied medical claims at nearly double the average for private insurers: Medicare denied 6.85% of claims. The highest private insurance denier was Aetna @ 6.8%, followed by Anthem Blue Cross @ 3.44, with an average denial rate of medical claims by private insurers of 3.88%

In its 2009 National Health Insurer Report Card, the AMA reports that Medicare denied only 4% of claims—a big improvement, but outpaced better still by the private insurers. The prior year’s high private denier, Aetna, reduced denials to 1.81%—an astounding 75% improvement—with similar declines by all other private insurers, to average only 2.79%.

Maybe there’s something to be said for the need to keep your customers satisfied in order to make that profit after all.

Paul Ryan's budget plan is as good a start as any. It protects those in or near retirement and starts privatizing the rest. It offers means-tested subsidies for those truly in need and lets the free market (you know, drones -- competition) work its magic.

Ask any physician how they like Medicare and you're likely to get cursed at -- or worse. The data shows that Medicare and, by extension, Obamacare, are far worse for patients than private health insurance.

It's an immutable fact. Government-run health care combines the convenience of the Department of Motor Vehicles with the efficiency of a Poliburo-style central planning committee. The result will be a lawful Ponzi scheme that necessarily entails misery, rationing and premature deaths. Period.

History, logic, facts and reason are all on the side of conservatives. Conversely, hope, unicorns and mythology appear to be the only philosophical tenets of the modern, Soros-controlled Democrat Party.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Larwyn's Linx: What Progressives Don't Understand

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

What Progressives Don't Understand: iOTW
Over: Kloppenburg Loses to Prosser (& Truman)(& Palin): LegalIns
Picking the wrong Batman villain: Lane

All in: House passes Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget, 235-193: Hot Air
Obama signs budget, says he will disregarding czar rider: RWN
RINO Huntsman's presidential campaign ends abruptly: GWP

Major Democrat signs up to repeal ‘Real Death Panel’: DC
As Prosser Wins, the Dems Get the Blame for Wisconsin: PJM
Trump: We Need A Health Care System Like What Canada Has: OTB

Economy

Goodbye, AmeriCorps. Hello, FoodStampCorps.: Malkin
GM: the wheels are (literally) coming off: RWN
Unreal: Obama to tour country lecturing on deficit reduction: GWP

In Texas 70% of Illegal Aliens Receive Welfare: GWP
Shared Prosperity: Noisy Room
Automatic Tax Increase?: Power Line

The Toxic Influence of Progressives on K-12 Curricula: AT
BRICS Meet in China to Plan a New World Currency: WZ
Expert: U.S. should 'give up on the dollar': Fortune

Climate & Energy

The UN 'disappears' 50 million climate refugees, then botches the disappearing attempt: WUWT
EPA Admits It Doesn’t Care About Jobs: Foundry
Your Automatic Ice Maker Is Bad For Globull Warming: RWN

Media

Howler of the Day: Obama Accuses Republicans of Turning U.S. into Thirld World Nation: VR
Obama’s Approval Rating Hits All Time Low; Search for Cool Phone Intensifies: Malkin
Democrat New Tone: Penn. Pol. Asks if She Can Kill a Colleague, ‘Blow His Brains Out’: RWN

Obama Predicts: “American People Will Feel That I Deserve a Second Term”: WZ
Obama Announces Intent To Commit (Another) Impeachable Offense: RWR
White House: When Obama said Paul Ryan is 'not on the level,' he meant Ryan is 'absolutely sincere': York

Disturbing: The Ninth Circuit Arizona Immigration Law Decision: PJM
Tim Scott (R-SC) is right: even taxing those who make $100K+ at 100% wouldn't address this year’s deficit: BlogProf
Jail For Toys: GM's Place

World

Dreams from our President: Mudville
Bomber Murders 25 Muslims at Prayer Today in Malaysia’s First Mosque Suicide Attack: GWP
Trust Fund Moonbats Lobby for Those Who Earned Their Wealth to Be Looted: RWN

Whitewashing the U.N.: Bayefsky
Report: Hundreds of Christian, Hindu Girls Victims of Forced Conversions to Islam in Pakistan: WZ
Egypt: Muslims protest appointment of Christian governor, threaten to bar him from entering province: JihadWatch

Missouri: ACLU promotes Islam, sharia at Muslim Capitol Day: Creeping
Immigrants Are Subject Of Tough Bill in Georgia: Dollard
Arizona Muslim Who Honor Killed Daughter Gets 34½ Years: WZ

SciTech

Moonbat Tech: Tandem Urinal–Sink: MB
Top-rated reviews of the week (photos): CNet
3 online poker houses face fraud charges in NYC: Yahoo!

Study: 25% Of Meat Sold In Groceries Contains Drug-Resistant Bacteria: Consumerist
J.D. Power: Porsche Best Car In The Industry But Not a Winner: Forbes
What Was Larry Page Thinking on Yesterday’s Earnings Call?: Forbes

Cornucopia

New Not-So-Federal Holiday: Zilla
Rainbow Tush: iOTW (NSFW)
Arguing With a Liberal: MNB

Image: Sad Hill News
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Heritage Foundation Tax Day Infographic

Friday, April 15, 2011

Quick! Read This Before Reuters "Corrects" It! [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York:

This story is notable only because Reuters and most other Western media set such a low standard for honesty in their reporting of news about Israel and the Middle East. One sentence in particular stands out:

Hamas, whose diehard hostility to Israel has deepened the isolation and poverty of Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.

Strange, but that is where they normally slug in the boilerplate:

Israeli hostility has deepened the isolation and poverty of Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.

The story also hints at the disquieting possibility of an even more radical group than Hamas gaining strength in Gaza. Left to our imagination, though, is how that development means yet another nail in the coffin of the "peace process."

Anyhow, I suggest you read this story now, before Reuter’s London editors realize their mistakes and get back on message.

Al Qaeda Sympathizers Kill Abducted Italian Activist


GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas found the body on Friday of a pro-Palestinian Italian activist who was killed by al Qaeda sympathizers in the Gaza Strip, raising questions about the Islamist group's control over the beleaguered enclave.

...A Jihadist Salafi group in Gaza aligned with al Qaeda had threatened on Thursday to execute Arrigoni unless their leader, detained by Hamas last month, was freed... It was an unprecedented challenge for Hamas, whose diehard hostility to Israel has deepened the isolation and poverty of Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.

..."Gaza is safe and I want to assure all visitors to Gaza that they are safe and secure," Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, told a French journalist... But the Salafi group has already threatened more violence.

...[Some] fear that radicals who want Gaza to be an Islamic theocracy are bold enough to challenge Hamas over what they consider its lack of religious fervour.

... "The forces moved quickly and wisely to the place but found that the abducted man was killed hours earlier in an ugly manner," Ghssain said. [Ed: “ugly manner” = they cut his head off in the usual way.]

I presume the Al Qaeda-slash-Hamas-slash-Fatah-slash-Islamic Jihad terrorists were only angry because of the Italian occupation of Palestine.

You say that it's not an Italian occupation of Palestine?

Never mind.


Leftist Numb-Skull Polling Outfit: Donald Trump Wins GOP Nomination! Mike Huckabee a Close Second!

They wish.

Trump's broken the perpetual gridlock we've found at the top of the Republican field, getting 26% to 17% for Mike Huckabee, 15% for Romney, 11% for Newt Gingrich, 8% for Sarah Palin, 5% for Ron Paul, and 4% for Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty.

Trump may be a master showman, but a conservative candidate he ain't.

The man had high praise for Barack Obama in 2008.

"Bush has been so bad, maybe the worst president in the history of this country. He has been so incompetent, so bad, so evil that I don't think any Republican could have won," Trump told NY1.com in an exclusive Nov. 11, 2008, interview... "You know, you can be enemies with people, whether it's Iran, Iraq, or anyplace else and you can still have dialogue. These people wouldn't even talk with him. It's terrible," he said.

Regarding Obama, Trump said, "I think [he's] going to lead through consensus. It's not going to be just a bull run like Bush did. He just did whatever the hell he wanted.

Yeah, Trump's a frickin' genius.

As recently as last year, Trump contributed to the campaigns of the vicious Leftist hacks Charles "Schmucky" Schumer (which is the nickname he prefers, I hear) and Anthony "Horschack" Weiner.

As for the budget deficit, arguably our most pressing crisis, Trump is all but incoherent.

Folks, this election is too important to throw the dice on a modern-day P.T. Barnum. We need a serious, Constitutional conservative. Of the current set of possibilities, I see only Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Mike Pence, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, and Allen West as nominees I could support. Now, some aren't running this year. But some will. And I will support any of them over the hucksters and phonies the Beltway insiders and legacy media are supporting.

The stakes are too damn high in this election.


Hat tips: Memeorandum and Mark Levin.

Indonesia: One Dead, 29 Wounded in Suicide Bombing to Protest Zionist Occupation of Java

Those clever Zionists must have confused the poor suicide bomber -- Gaza and Java are spelled so similarly!

I mean, how else can the Left blame the vicious attack inside an Indonesian mosque on Israel -- and not its real cause? Xinhua reports the gory details.

The suicide bombing in a mosque at a police station in West Java province killed the alleged bomber and injured 29 people, police said Friday.

Six of the wounded were in serious conditions, including the Cirebon district police chief, provincial police chief Suparni Parto told reporters here... National Police chief Timor Pradopo said security at other police stations and crowded areas in the province would be strengthened so as to prevent similar attacks.

...While standing in the second line of prayers in the mosque, the alleged bomber blew himself up with a bomb that was packed with nails and other metal objects.

"When I tried to move to the second line of the prayers, someone moved there before me, and then the bomb exploded," said 50-year-old Singgih who survived the attack.

He suffered from multiple wounds in the front of his body because the bomber was standing right before him... "Many people at the first line were hurt at their back," said Singgih at a local hospital.

I, for one, blame Militant Quakers. They've been known to launch bloody Quihad attacks.


Larwyn's Linx: A reminder: this is who “our” leadership is

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

A reminder: this is who “our” leadership is: PW
The Mendacity of Barack Obama: McCann
A reminder: This is who he is. This is who they all are.: PW

Rand Paul Absolutely Lays It Down On The Budget Compromise!: RWN
House Passes Boehner Deal; 59 Republicans Against: Malkin
How Your Representative Voted on the CR Scam: House

'Full of hate': Blogmocracy
Gov. Walker Goes to Washington: Foundry
Why Did Obama DOJ Prosecute Anti-Communist CIA Agent? : JW

Economy

On this aborted fetus, Democrats plant their flag: Coulter
Dems & Trial Lawyers: At It Again.: LibertyP
Going Galt: '69 more firms move out of California': AmPower

Merit Pay for Teachers Works and the Evidence Now Proves It: AT
Irony In Government: The GAO Can’t Audit Itself: RWN
I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday $25B in 2021 for a hamburger $18B in new spending today: Eggs

Climate & Energy

Gulf Coast Looting Spree: RWN
Obama Boom: High Oil Prices Will Not Affect Consumers: Blogmocracy
Pathetic: Warmists Now Trying To Connect With “JoeSixpack”: RWN

Media

'Obama’s Tax Increase Trigger: Punishing Taxpayers with Automatic Tax Hikes When Politicians Overspend': PW
Spiral of Stupid: The Trig-Truther Paper by Dr. Brad Scharlott: VS
Olbermann: S.E. Cupp Should Have Never Been Born, Proves ‘Necessity’ of Planned Parenthood: Blaze

Time’s Joe Klein gets out the Lewinsky kneepads: PW
Appalling Cartoon at Newspaper Guild Site Is Evidence That Its Members Are Incapable of Objective Coverage: Bizzy
Settling the Birther Controversy: PJM

We've Been PWNED!: Blogmocracy
Have You Seen These Controversial Billboards? If Not, Now Is Your Chance!: RWN
Elizabeth Hasselbeck Finds a Most Effective Way to Shut Up Joy Behar: Powers

The debt ceiling will be raised, of course: Cold Fury
Hate To Say This, But Pitchfork Pat’s Proclamation Of Peril Looks Genuinely Perilous: RWN
CNN Report: Taxing the rich just won't do it: BlogProf

World

Goldstone’s Fellow Commissioners Say They Have Nothing to Retract: Bayefsky
Back to the Future: “Organized Lawlessness” in Athens: Greenroom
Afghan mullahs push peaceful protest in wake of Quran-burning violence: Yahoo!

The Next Gaza War Will Be a Coordinated Attack: AT
Obama Bans Weapons Sales To Israel, Sells Billions In Arms To Arab States: Dollard
Anti-Semitic chants ‘rife among soccer fans’: Blogmocracy

SciTech

South Korean "super gun" packs hi-tech killing power: Reuters
Magellan's eXplorist Pro 10 does GIS data collection for $700, makes Google maps green with envy: Engadget
Examining the 'State of Search Marketing': CNet

Cornucopia

North of S.F., stunning architecture dwells (photos): CNet
R-Words? Just R-Words?: MOTUS
ToDaZeD Weird: Sondrakistan

Image: Amazon
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Deal of the Day: Save $80 on Kindle DX

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Grove Parc America

For more than five weeks during the brutally cold winter of 1997, tenants suffered without any heat in a government-subsidized apartment building. The 31-unit building in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood had been "rehabbed" just four years prior at taxpayer expense, no less.

How cold was it? Temperatures routinely dipped around ten below zero. With wind-chills factored in, the effective temperatures approached 30 below.

And the residents of the building had no heat for more than a month.

The building's owner -- Rezmar Corporation -- didn't bother to turn on the heat for weeks. In fact, it didn't do so until it was sued.

And the Englewood building wasn't the only one of Rezmar's properties that had scores of code violations. At least a dozen times, Rezmar had to be sued in order to simply turn on the heat in its properties.

Rezmar's properties turned out to be catastrophic failures: 17 buildings ended up in foreclosure, 6 are boarded up, hundreds of apartments are vacant and require repair... and taxpayers were stuck with millions in unpaid loans.

All of these buildings were in -- or just blocks away from -- a single state senator's district. A district belonging to a young, up-and-coming politician named Barack Obama.

In fact, during the brutal winter of 1997, even while Rezmar refused to heat its Englewood apartments, it was donating $1,000 to state senator Obama's campaign fund.

During the winter or the scores of subsequent code violations, did state senator Obama ever lift a finger to protect his constituents from "predatory slumlords" like Rezmar?

The answer appears to be a resounding "No". In 2007, Obama's own campaign staff stated, "Senator Obama does not remember having conversations... about properties that [Rezmar] owned.."

The shivering tenants in in and around the district were left defenseless for weeks at a time. Assailed on one side by predatory slumlords like Rezmar, they were -- for all intents and purposes -- left out in the cold by their state senator, Barack Obama.

There's a simple reason Obama didn't lift a finger to protest these horrific violations. His political patron, Tony Rezko, was the driving force behind Rezmar. And Rezko helped raise a quarter of a million dollars for Obama's various campaigns.

And after stating he'd "never done any favors for" Rezko, the Chicago Sun-Times discovered letters Obama wrote to city and state officials supporting Rezko's bid for $14 million in taxpayers' money for an elder-care facility.

While Obama didn't expend an ounce of energy to protest Rezko's outrageous violations, he did take time to write letters on behalf of Rezko in his efforts to secure an additional $14 million in taxpayer funds.

State senator Obama couldn't effectively represent his abused constituents... perhaps because he was otherwise occupied helping his slumlord patrons advance their own agendas.

And as a so-called "community organizer" and then a state senator, Obama -- and close friend and confidante Valerie Jarrett, who was responsible for property management -- couldn't even keep huge, federally subsidized housing complexes like Grove Parc habitable. And 'habitable' is kind of a low bar, I would think.

State Senator Barack Obama did a really lousy job representing his constituents in a tiny district in Chicago's south side, appearing to side more often with corporate interests than his own, downtrodden citizens.

And his cronies -- like Valerie Jarrett -- were linked to dozens of failed projects that burned through millions in taxpayer funds.

And, thanks to legacy media, which failed to vet Obama and his malevolent claque of sycophants, we watch in horror as all of America turns into Grove Parc.


Obama vs. Perón: In Their Own Words

Juan Perón was the fascist dictator of Argentina who demonized the rich, asserted that the goal of a classless society could be achieved, and praised the construction of an all-powerful central government.

Sound familiar?

Using the transcript of yesterday's speech by President Obama regarding the budget deficit, let's compare and contrast various highlights with the famous speech of Juan Perón in 1950, in which he described the tenets of his philosophy of centralized government.


Obama: ...More than citizens of any other country, we are rugged individualists, a self-reliant people...

Perón: The best of this land of ours is its people.


Obama: But there has always been another thread running throughout our history – a belief that we are all connected; and that there are some things we can only do together, as a nation. We believe ... that through government, we should do together what we cannot do as well for ourselves.

Perón: We are an organized State and a free people ruled by a centralized government.


Obama: ...each one of us deserves some basic measure of security. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, hard times or bad luck, a crippling illness or a layoff, may strike any one of us ... and so we contribute to programs like Medicare and Social Security... and Medicai... We are a better country because of these commitments. I’ll go further – we would not be a great country without those commitments.

Perón: The two main branches of Perónism are the Social Justice and the Social Welfare. With these we envelop the people in an embrace of justice and love.


Obama: ...we [do not] begrudge those who’ve done well [, but] those who have benefited most from our way of life can afford to give a bit more back. Moreover, this belief has not hindered the success of those at the top of the income scale, who continue to do better and better with each passing year.

Perón: There is only one class of men for the Perónist cause: the workers.


Obama: ...[We must] reform our individual tax code so that it is fair and simple – so that the amount of taxes you pay isn’t determined by what kind of accountant you can afford. I believe reform should protect the middle class...

Perón: ...In the New Argentina, work is a right which dignifies man and a duty, because it is only fair that each one should produce at least what he consumes...


Obama: So this is our vision for America – a vision where we live within our means while still investing in our future; where everyone makes sacrifices but no one bears all the burden; where we provide a basic measure of security for our citizens and rising opportunity for our children.

Perón: As a social doctrine, Justicialism presides over an adequate distribution of Social Justice giving to each person the social rights he is entitled to.


Obama: But no matter what we argue or where we stand, we’ve always held certain beliefs as Americans. We believe that in order to preserve our own freedoms and pursue our own happiness, we can’t just think about ourselves. We have to think about the country that made those liberties possible. We have to think about our fellow citizens with whom we share a community.

Perón: With reference to political action the scale of values for all Perónists is as follows: First, the Homeland; afterwards the cause, and then, the men themselves.


Obama: This sense of responsibility – to each other and to our country – this isn’t a partisan feeling... It’s patriotism.

Perón: As a political doctrine, Justicialism establishes a fair balance between the rights of the individual and those of the community.


Obama ...I know that if we can come together ... we will keep the dream of our founding alive in our time, and pass on to our children the country we believe in...

Perón: In the New Argentina the only privileged ones are the children.


Want to know how Perón's story ended? Hint: it includes the two words economic and collapse. You can review the illustrated "comic book" of the sad tale here: Don't Cry For Me, America.


Linked by: Protein Wisdom. Thanks!

Rep. Allen West on the Continuing Resolution Budget Scam: We're kicking the can down the road on the way to economic catastrophe

GOP superstar Rep. Allen West (FL-22) entered the following statement into the Congressional Record earlier today to express his extreme displeasure with the Continuing Resolution. He voted against it, joining

...When my daughter was born in 1993 the Federal Government debt was $4.3 trillion. Just 18 years later, I will shortly be faced with a vote on whether to raise the debt limit to over $15 trillion dollars. When I held my daughter as a baby, I never thought that our nation would be in such financial distress and on its way to a major economic catastrophe.

Over the weekend... I thought even harder about what the United States will be like when she will be my age and what would her son or daughter, my grandchildren, think when they look back in the history books at this critical time in our Republic’s history.

Last November, the citizens of the 22nd Congressional District, and millions of Americans, voted for a new direction for our country. They sent a message to our elected representatives that we needed to end out-of-control government spending, reduce our national debt, and get our fiscal house in order.

The Democrat Majority and President Obama over the last two years have produced deficits of $1.4 and $1.25 trillion, and the President has produced a Budget for Fiscal Year 2012 which would add another $1.6 trillion. The American people know that the federal government is collecting $2.2 trillion and spending $3.7 trillion this year.

The American people know that forty cents of every dollar the federal government spends is borrowed, much of it from China. The American people also know our nation is piling up new debt at the rate of $4 billion a day.

As we are all aware, the 111th Congress was controlled by overwhelming Democrat majorities in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. Yet even with these enormous majorities, Congress failed to pass a budget or any of the Appropriations bills.

Members of the former Majority Party in the House of Representatives have now resorted to the political rhetoric that the Republican Party is trying to kill women, starve seniors, and the budget deal is the functional equivalent of bombing innocent civilians. They make these statements even after Majority Leader Reid and President Obama recognize that we need to cut federal spending,

This type of political rhetoric is beneath us. We can disagree on the direction we are taking our nation, but let us have a debate on the facts and policies. The American people demand an adult conversation instead of childish name calling.

Mr. Speaker, I want to take a moment to briefly summarize my thoughts and votes during the negotiations for the Budget for Fiscal Year 2011. I voted for the first short term Continuing Resolution in the 112th Congress in order to provide Speaker Boehner the necessary time to negotiate with an intransigent United States Senate and White House.

I voted against the second Continuing Resolution because I believed that we were continuing to kick a can down the road, and that the Obama Administration and Members of the Democrat Party wanted to force the Federal Government into a shutdown in order to win political points. It seems their goal is the hope that by shutting down the Federal Government, the American people will perceive an inflexible Republican Party and return the Democrats to power in the next election.

...At the Army Airborne school in 1984 I had a black hat instructor say, “If you set the bar low, you will jump low!” Today, I will be voting against the negotiated agreement because I believe that we set the bar too low and it does not fulfill the promise I made to the constituents of the 22nd Congressional District of Florida. While this bill is a step in the right direction, I am voting against the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2011, H.R. 1473 because it is important for elected leaders to stand by the pledges we make to the American People.

It takes five miles to turn an aircraft carrier, I am pleased, that finally, the Republican Leadership has finally taken control of the helm and begun to turn the wheel. However, I believe we need to turn the wheel a little harder. At this moment in our nation’s history, when the facts are so clear and the political hyperbole is so hollow, my vote reflects that we need more to get our ship of state on the right course.

John Boehner may be a very patriotic citizen, but as a House Speaker he appears slow-witted and fearful of confrontations. When our country is headed right for the fiscal abyss, confrontations are precisely what we need. And the American people will support these fights. Hell, Mr. Speaker, why do you think we're calling you Mr. Speaker? And this ain't 1995, Karl Rove.

I salute Allen West, Michele Bachmann, Steve King, and the other House Republicans who opposed this historic scam. The time to fight is now. Door-to-door. Every block, every manhole cover. We must fight!

And, unlike the radical Marxist Left, we really are doing it for the children.


Larwyn's Linx: Ryan: Obama 'a pyromaniac in a field of straw men'

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

Ryan: Obama 'a pyromaniac in a field of straw men': Hot Air
Obama Is Temperamentally Unfit For Office: LegalIns
Drawing a Cartoon of His Critics: Wehner

Source: DOJ let off CAIR co-founders off for political reasons: PJM
Obama's Budget, Again: AT
Pence: 'We can't tax our way to a balanced budget': Cubachi

Make 70 the new 65: Malkin
'Spending reductions in the tax code'?: Tatler
Father of Muslim convert: Ellison a fool and a liar: WZ

Economy

5 Things That Will Happen To You When America Goes Bust: RWN
Apocalypse: Deal Only Cuts $352M In Actual Spending: Ace
Why the GOP should vote the budget deal down: RWN

Change: America Reaches A Historic New Employment Low: RWN
CA teachers' unions to members: civil disobedience needed: WZ
McCain Backs Crony Capitalist Coyote Boondoggle: MB

Climate & Energy

50 Million Missing: Blair
Second BEST: WUWT

Media

Hilarious: Obama Calls Tax Increases Spending Reductions: Con4Palin
Oops… NY Times Admits That Obama’s Economic Policies Have Failed – Then Quickly Scrubs the Line: GWP
Gallup: Obama’s Approval Drops Below 50 Percent Among Poorest Americans: Blogmocracy

CNN: Tax the Rich, But Then What, Mr. President?: Ace
Obama's Budget Speech In One Sentence, I Think: LegalIns
Detroit Free Press Staff Want To Show Obama Their O-Face: BlogProf

The Mask Slips, Falls to Ground, Explodes: Power Line
Barack Obama leaves GOP in no mood to deal: Politico
Report: Tingles Seen Leaving Harry Reid’s Office, Obama Reported To Be Overcome With Jealousy: WZ

World

Goldstone Retracts — and the Arab World Reacts: PJM
Christians Begin Fleeing Egypt as Islamists Grow in Strength, “They’re Afraid of the Fanatics in the Mosques”: WZ
Is Proxy War About to Erupt in Bahrain?: PJM

Iran’s Supreme Leader Declared the Mythical Figure in End of Times: Kahlili
IMF: World Banks Face $3.6 Trillion “Wall” of Maturing Debt: WZ
TEPCO Confirms Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool Is Now An Uncontrolled, Open Air Fission Process: ZH

SciTech

Could Bing Overtake Google in 2012? [CHART]: Mashable
Does anyone in Silicon Valley care about Windows anymore?: Scobleizer
IBM says it knows how bad your commute will be: CNet

Cornucopia

Power of Words: C&S
Which Airports Are Ripping You Off?: Ace
In Our Defense...: C&S

Image: Curmudgeonly & Skeptical
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Search for Marizela Update

QOTD: "I thought it was a disgrace. I rarely heard a speech by a president so shallow, so hyper-partisan and so intellectually dishonest, outside the last couple of weeks of a presidential election where you are allowed to call your opponent anything short of a traitor. But, we’re a year-and-a-half away from Election Day and it was supposed to be a speech about policy. He didn’t even get to his own alternative until more than halfway through the speech. And when he did, he threw out numbers suspended in mid-air with nothing under them with all kinds of goals and guidelines and triggers that mean nothing. The speech was really about and entirely an attack on the [Rep. Paul] Ryan plan.” --Charles Krauthammer on Obama's Budget Speech

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Democrats -- Winning! 25,000 out of 70,000 Illinois State Employees are on Workers' Comp

When it comes to waste, fraud and outright abuse of the taxpayer, no one does it better than the Democrats of Illinois.

The cost of doing business in Illinois is staggering. Such is the nature of a bottom-feeding government and union-driven model that adds inefficiencies everywhere you look and also in places you don't.

For example, over 35% of Illinois state employees are on workers' comp. That statistic would be bad enough in isolation, but Illinois also has the highest costs in the nation, by far...

Chicago workers' comp claims averaged nearly $33,000 each versus an average of about $6,000 in Arizona.

Caterpillar has an even more horrific tale: its Illinois plant has seven times the cost of injuries versus its Indiana factory.

Governor Quinn's office admits that "even if the medical fee schedule were reduced by 30 percent, Illinois would still have the second highest rates in the nation, but our employers could save up to $500 million."

There are 70,000 state workers in Illinois. Of those, there are now 25,000 open workers' comp claims outstanding. As for the costs of the claims?

• Hernia: $18,700 in Illinois, the next closest state comes in $6,300 less.
• Shoulder or Elbow Injury: $24,000 in Illinois, compared to about $14,300 for the runner-up
• Arthroscopic Procedure: Illinois is double its nearest competitor, more than triple the median

I am seldom surprised by graft in Illinois where public union handouts, inefficiencies, bribery, coercion, and corruption are second to none, but 35% of state employees on workers' comp, including 25% of arbitrators who do nothing but decide injury claims has to take the cake for workers comp insanity.

Worst-in-the-Nation "bragging rights" are at stake. I challenge California, New York, and New Jersey to top that.

Oh, believe me, Mish. They're Democrats. They'll try.


Hat tip: LVN.

Democrat Math: Even the Kooks Running San Francisco Understand that Tax Breaks Help Businesses Hire More Employees

Gee, doesn't this directly refute President Obama's assertion that taxing "the rich" (whoever that is) will somehow help the budget deficit?

Doesn't Twitter count as the evil rich, to be vilified and shunned?

As expected, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors today approved a payroll tax cap for some businesses willing to move to the city's Mid-Market neighborhood.

The legislation and subsequent amendments passed by a vote of 8 to 3... Mayor Ed Lee has said he will sign the measure.

The legislation's passing should come as good news to growing businesses in the city, but the poster child for this effort has been Twitter. The company currently resides in a building in the South of Market neighborhood and has been considering a move out of the city due to San Francisco's high payroll taxes and rents. Other tech firms like social-gaming company Zynga and Yelp, all born in San Francisco, have also threatened to leave the city for similar reasons.

The legislation that officially passed today will cap payroll taxes for companies with a payroll of at least $1 million for the next seven years. That cap would remain even if the companies add to their ranks. Additionally, employee income from exercising stock options will not be taxed.

So even the far let nuts in San Francisco understand that "taxing the rich" simply drives them away.

It punishes hard work.

It rewards the slothful.

Letting the government have more money now is akin to giving a heroin addict clean needles and cash.

Oh.

Wait. The liberals did that too. My bad.


Greatest Spendthrift in World History Tells Americans to Make Do With Less

Oh, it's disguised under the same pablum it always is: Marxist class-warfare rhetoric. And it's just as convincing as his promises that Obamacare would reduce premiums an average of $2,500 a year. How's that working out for ya', Sparky?

Obama gave a four-step plan to confront the massive and crippling deficits ahead of us that entirely relies on the kind of proposals he’s already aired in the past.  He gave little in the way of specifics, and made no mention at all of his deficit commission again.  Instead of offering specifics on cuts, Obama instead offered specifics on … more spending:...

...For a budget-cutting speech, it certainly seemed that Obama was a lot more interested in defending spending than defunding government. Of course, that depends on what part of government we’re cutting. Obama spent most of his time looking at the Pentagon instead of anywhere else...

...Obama wants tax deductions curtailed. But which tax deductions? He never put any specific recommendation on the table. He just says that he’s going to tell Congress to figure it out. Couldn’t he have committed to even one specific proposal, rather than just list a few possibilities? How hard would it have been to say, for example, “The home mortgage interest deduction should be limited to no more than $20,000 in a year”? Apparently, too hard for this President.

As for the public sector unions whose compensation, benefits and pension plans are infinitely better than most Americans? Are they going to have to sacrifice?

Uhm, no.

And the president -- who will not rest until he has addressed unemployment, affordable housing, skyrocketing energy prices and righting the economy -- well, he has a plan.

He's taking off for Chicago tomorrow to collect campaign contributions at three separate fundraising events.

A study by the Tax Foundation finds that Americans will pay more in taxes in 2011 than the amount they spend on food, clothing and housing combined.

But that's still not enough for the radical Marxist Democrats. They want more. No amount of your money can satisfy their insatiable greed for money and power.

No amount can satisfy them.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

Larwyn's Linx: Budget Deal Includes Killing $226M Border Fence

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

Budget Deal Includes Killing $226M Border Fence: Expose
The Charlie Sheen Republicans: Lord
Seems like Palin was right about the spending-cut deal: Cubachi

The 'Fairness' Meme: Kimball
The liberals' plan: Gut defense and tax, tax, tax: York
Pelosi: Elections Shouldn’t Matter as Much as They Do: Malkin

Economy

Tax the Rich? Good Luck With That: Williams
CA Teachers' Union Endorses Cop Killer at Annual Convention: GWP
Donald Trump's Casino Company Files for Third Bankruptcy : LZ

IMF: US has no credible plan to tackle debt crisis: WZ
Students Flood Harrisburg To Say: 'My School, My Choice': FW
Economic Optimism Plummets Across Demographic Groups: Mish

US Deficit Percent Now Largest of Any Developed Economy: GWP
The President and 'Taxing the Rich': AT
White House Spent $200M on Obamacare Propaganda: WZ

Climate & Energy

Climate Alarmist Comes Up With 3 Point Plan To Restart The Alarmism: RWN
The Gas Revolution: WklyStd
Dirty Communist Hippies: Let’s Give Mother Earth The Same Rights As Humans: RWN

Media

Ezra Klein’s “Let It Ride” Plan is A Quick Trip to Cloud Cuckoo Land: Bise
Coffee, Tea, Or Separate Drinking Fountains?: iOTW
Paul Ryan’s desperate critics: JRubin

Our Elected Officials Need Remedial Freedom Courses: IMAO
Laughing At Arianna Huffington’s Hypocritical Misfortune: RWN
How JournOlism Works: Politico’s Ben Smith Drops Race Card on Donald Trump, NBC Runs With It: Nolte

The Pledge: Maybe if Somebody Replaced ‘God’ with ‘Cowboy Poets’ Harry Reid Would Want to Say It: Powers
Liberals and Progressives: It's not too late to save yourselves.: BSF
Having Solved All The Country’s Problems, Obama to Give Oprah Farewell Interview: WZ

World

Ambitious Turkey: Pipes
Leaderless in Libya: AmSpec
Japan Lifts Atomic Alert to Highest Level, Matching Chernobyl: Bloomberg

French Police Arrest Veiled Women at Muslim Burqa Protest: GWP
Socialized Medicine Director Dies After Waiting Nine Months for Operation: NewAm
Syrian soldiers shot for refusing to fire on protesters: Guardian

The Keystone of the Islamic Milieu: Inbreeding: Barnhardt
Virginia Muslim gets 23 years for D.C. subway plot: Creeping
Hamas Convicts Itself: JOdysseus

SciTech

Democrat senator wants Internet sales taxes: CNet
Amazon to sell cheaper Kindle with on-screen ads: AP
Facebook suit cites alleged Zuckerberg e-mails: CNet

Security firm Barracuda hit by cyberattack: CNet
The memo that 'proves aliens landed at Roswell'... released online by the FBI: Daily Mail (UK)
Houston deserved a damn space shuttle: Jalopnik

Cornucopia

No Blood, No Brain, No Heart: SHN
10 New Obama Campaign Posters: RWN
Trump: The Least Charitable Billionaire: TSG

Image: Sad Hill News
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: MichelePAC!

QOTD: "Critics might not like the idea that we will have to spend less on entitlements, but Obama has bought into the argument by cutting Medicare and empowering the Independent Payment Advisory Board to ”control costs,” which means to limit the amount spent on Medicare.

If critics want to insist that any cut in Medicare is unacceptable, they shouldn’t have cheered for Obamacare, and if they think we can keep spending as much as we have on Medicaid, they are living in a dream world. No wonder they were frantic at the notion that Obama might endorse the Simpson-Bowles plan. The commission, of course, recognized that both these programs and Social Security as well need to be curbed in order to be saved." --Jennifer Rubin

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Self-Promoter, Oui. Economic genius, not so much: Trump's casino company files for bankruptcy for the third time

Self-promotion he knows. Politics? I'm not so sure.

In an apparent fit of premature sour grapes, Trump says that if doesn't win the GOP primary that he "could possibly win as an independent."

I think he means, when he doesn't win the GOP primary.

As for his vaunted economic credentials? As LegalZoom describes it, "You may have heard that business mogul Donald Trump has filed for bankruptcy. Again... While this isn't a personal filing, Trump is no stranger to bankruptcy. In February 2009, Trump's casino company, Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc., filed for bankruptcy for the third time."

To make matters worse, Donald Trump supported the campaigns of the malevolent Charles Schumer and Anthony Weiner, Democrat-Socialists of New York.

Trump has a lot more in common with Carmen Electra than, say, Michele Bachmann. We don't need a world-class self-promoter in office. We need a principled, Constitutional conservative. Trump ain't it.


Hat tip: @JimPethokoukis.

After today's budget revelations, I'd be too embarrassed to tweet this

RINOs lied, their credibility died.

Mark Levin was prescient on Saturday, asking: "What if $10 billion of the $38.5 billion actually is from the prior two CRs? And what if another $12 billion of the remaining $28.5 billion actually comes from a change in the budget baseline that would have occurred anyway?"

And that's precisely what happened.

So the RINOs in the House lied to us. They misplayed their hand and they lied. They cut virtually nothing from the budget that wasn't already getting cut.

It's time for new leadership in the House. New, conservative leadership who have as their goal the rescue of this country from the fiscal abyss. If that's extreme, then I want two hundred more extremists in Congress.


The Obama Legacy: 8 Charts That Will Blow Your Mind

It's one thing to review the raw data, but it's another thing altogether to see the numbers represented in graphical form.








For those of you still trying to grasp the impact -- I mean you liberals -- I'll try to put it in small words and say it slllloooowwwwly for you:

The economy sucks.

And the country is bankrupt.

Mission Accomplished!


Update: CNBC -- "Inflation Actually Near 10% Using Older Measure"


Hat tip: Moe Lane.

Epic Fail: John Boehner's $14.7B capitulation

Question: When is $100B in budget cuts actually less than $15B?

Answer: When a feckless House leadership gets played like a cheap accordion.


Remember that $100 billion in 2011 spending cuts the Republican minority promised to enact last October if they were able to regain control of the House?

During the recent midterm elections campaign, Republican leaders pledged to reduce non-entitlement spending by a whopping $100 billion.

“The Republican leadership has committed to this $100 billion cut,” says Brian Riedl, lead budget analyst for the Heritage Foundation. “I expect them to do everything in their power to enact it. They’re on the record, they ran on this, and if it’s brushed aside there would be harsh political consequences.”

There should be. Because, as it turns out, the "harsh, draconian" cuts that Speaker John Boehner negotiated last Friday weren't $100 billion or even the $38 billion figure that the Beltway insiders gleefully advertised.

The full extent of the budget deal reached late Friday did not become clear until today "after congressional aides worked all weekend and all day Monday to shape a detailed spending plan based on the framework that Obama and congressional leaders agreed to Friday," the Washington Post reports... "In several cases, what look like large reductions are actually accounting gimmicks."

National Journal: "The specifics show that finding nearly $40 billion in cuts during the 2011 fiscal year required clever accounting and, for the White House, a willingness to concede on rhetoric to find gains on substance. For example, the final cuts in the deal are advertised as $38.5 billion less than was appropriated in 2010, but after removing rescissions, cuts to reserve funds and reductions in mandatory spending programs, discretionary spending will be reduced only by $14.7 billion."

Let's recap.

Over the last two years, the Republicans -- Boehner and Cantor especially -- were treated like dirt by the Democrats. They were locked out of important policy debates, they were refused the opportunity to introduce amendments, and they had brutal bills like Cap-and-Trade and Obamacare slammed down their throats.

Furthermore, President Obama and the Democrats have set this country on a course for fiscal ruin.

The time for negotiation is long since past, yet the cowardly RINO leaders insist on "working with President Obama".

In the most recent case, Boehner held a nuclear weapon: a partial government shutdown. It was a weapon that has been used at least a dozen times in the recent past. Yet, right up front, Boehner told anyone who would listen that he would never shut down the government. Which meant he had no power in his "negotiations" with the radical Leftists who now control the Democrat Party.

And he got played.

$15 billion in cuts when $100 billion was promised? When the country is headed for a complete economic catastrophe?

We need a new Speaker of the House. Someone who will live up to their word. Someone like Michele Bachmann or Allen West.


Update: Budget deal includes cut of $226 million border fence at suggestion of Obama administration

Update II: A Scam of a Budget Deal.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!