Sunday, May 08, 2011

Greece: Between a Rock and Hard Place

European economists are issuing dire warnings of what will transpire should Greece exit the Euro.

Commerzbank AG (CBK) Chief Economist Joerg Kraemer said it would be “economic suicide” for Greece to return to the drachma, which would prompt a run on local banks to withdraw euros, Welt reported, citing an interview.

Thomas Mayer, chief economist at Deutsche Bank AG, said a Greek exit from the euro region would lead to a crisis in Europe’s political and currency union and could cause a bank run in some EU countries, the newspaper said.

Thomas Straubhaar, head of the Hamburg-based HWWI economic institute, told the newspaper a euro exit could force Greece into bankruptcy and cause a “domino effect” like the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

So why is Greece threatening to leave the Euro? Because it took a $157 billion bailout loan last year from the European Union and the IMF. And the payments to the troubled Mediterranean country are contingent upon successfully passing a series of audits.

Greece heads for another audit of its battered finances this week after European officials closed ranks to quash fears of an inglorious Greek exit from the euro cited in a German online report.

A high-level team of experts from the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank will pore over plans by the Greek government to economise some 26 billion euros over three years to help bring down the country's enormous debt.

..The delivery of a 12-billion-euro instalment from that loan hinges on the audit but Greece so far has struggled to meet its deficit-reduction targets because of a deeper-than-expected recession at home.

Problem is, the market thinks that the Grecian-formula bailout has little likelihood of ever being paid off.

The cost of insuring Greek sovereign debt for five years using derivatives rose 5.6% Friday from the previous close, reaching 1,370 basis points [Ed: 13.7%] on unconfirmed reports that Greece is considering exiting the euro currency, according to data provider Markit.

...Now quoted at 1,370 basis points, the cost is equivalent to $1.37 million a year to cover the same amount of sovereign debt for five years. This is not yet an official closing price, but if it were it would be a record high, Casey said.

Prices on the five-year protection now imply a 70% chance of default, up from 66% in mid April, according to Markit.

Greece will never be able to pay off its massive deficits. It just hasn't admitted it yet.

Yet, here in the U.S., the Democrat-Media complex continually lobbies for more deficit spending and more insane redistribution schemes, which can't work and -- in fact -- have never worked throughout human history.

Which is all the proof you need that liberalism is, as Ann Coulter once said, a mental disorder.


US Releases Photo of Bin Laden's Funeral


Hat tip: Dennis.

Good News: Radical Muslim Separatist Groups Now Actively Trying to Undermine Border Security Between Canada and Michigan

What do you get when you cross CAIR with Eric Holder's Justice Department and Janet Napolitano's DHS?

Long-term, I'd wager on needlessly dead Americans.

The U.S. government has launched an investigation into allegations that federal agents at several U.S.-Canada border crossings in Michigan repeatedly harassed, jailed and body searched Muslims because of their background or appearance... The investigation comes in response to complaints filed in March by the Council on American-Islamic Relations with the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.

...every time Wissam Charafeddine of Dearborn has crossed the border into the U.S. from Canada in the last three years, he says he has been detained, fingerprinted and body searched... One time, he said, he was separated from his family and jailed in a cold cell for five hours as his 1-year-old daughter cried for milk.

...One of the 10 complaints by local Muslims involves Imam Ali Suleiman Ali, head of the Canton Mosque, one of the larger Islamic centers in metro Detroit... He described a recent border crossing in which he says agents handcuffed and detained him while asking him, "Where's your mosque?" and "What Islamic organizations do you belong to?" Ali described several other similar situations at borders or airports in the past five years.

... "Why do I have to be treated like a terrorist?"

The theme of undermining border security measures is a consistent one for this particular Imam.

Saying that body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslim-American groups are supporting a fatwa — a religious ruling — that forbids Muslims from going through the scanners at airports. The Fiqh Council of North America ... issued a fatwa last week that says going through the airport scanners would violate Islamic rules on modesty...

...Two members of the Fiqh Council are from Michigan, Imam Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, and Imam Ali Suleiman Ali of the Canton Mosque. “Fiqh” means Islamic jurisprudence...

...The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has a chapter in Michigan, says it endorses the fatwa. “We support the Fiqh Council’s statement on full-body scanners and believe that the religious and privacy rights of passengers can be respected while maintaining safety and security,” said Nihad Awad, national executive director of CAIR.

Their actions make it clear that CAIR and "the Fiqh Council" are dedicated to weakening America's security posture.

And it doesn't have a bit to do with religion. It has to do with promoting a political system -- Sharia law -- that just happens to be conveniently wrapped in the protective coating of a religion.

It seems perfectly obvious that Sharia is what CAIR and the other radical Muslim separatist groups are after. And with terror defenders and apologists like Eric Holder in charge of the DOJ, they're likely to get much of what they want.


Larwyn's Linx: The Alinsky-ite Strategy Of The Left In Three Easy Letters

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Nation

The Alinsky-ite Strategy Of The Left In Three Easy Letters: Glob
The president's pronouns: Pundette
Rand Paul: We need the balanced budget amendment: Cubachi

Is Obama A Gunrunner?: IBD
Bush Led, Bin Laden Dead, but Where's the Credit?: Elder
TN has police, teachers in Muslim sensitivity training: Creeping

Rutgers student pleads guilty to Thought-Crime: RWN
Kloppenburg Undermining Inevitable Prosser Win: LegalIns
Thoughts on a Surreal Depression: Hanson

Economy

Fannie and Freddie: Still Mortgaging America’s Future: NewAm
Why Not a Negative Income Tax?: City Journal
Shocker: Obama-Appointee to NLRB A Pro-Union Fanatic: WZ

Amtrak Turns 40 - Called ‘Massive Failure’ by its Founder: Blaze
The Most Exciting Two Minutes in School Choice: Foundry
CA: $200K/yr. lifeguards with million-dollar pensions: BlogProf

Climate & Energy

Obama: Expensive Impractical Green Energy Jobs Are the “Jobs of the Future”: GWP
House GOP (and 33 Dems) to Obama: Drill, baby, drill: Malkin
Y2Kyoto: No S***, Sherlock: SDA

Media

Collateral Damage To Anti-Bush Mythology About The Hunt For Bin Laden: LegalIns
The President’s “current relationship with cocaine”??: Tatler
Pamela Geller, American Thinker: Wintour's Whitewash: Vogue on my Mind: Atlas

Altogether now, 'gutsy', Obama was gutsy to say OK to the bin Laden raid: Q&O
Disgusting: Obama Turns His Back on 9/11 Victim : JWF
Andrew Breitbart on mainstream media's "contempt" for Americans: CBS

Time to Celebrate?: Power Line
Traffic Nosedives for Soros’ Media Matters: BigJourn
So: if Obama made up the whole 'we got bin Laden' story to boost his poll numbers…: RWN

Yoo: Obama “Too Afraid” to Take Bin Laden Alive: RWN
Rumsfeld: Obama Admin. Should Not Be Talking About Seized Intel : Aces
The Decline and Fall of the American Empire: SDA

World

Evidence at bin Laden’s home raises nuclear concerns: Times
Did Zawahiri betray bin Laden?: Tatler
Osama Bin Laden's Anti-U.S. Strategy: Exploit Minority Converts: Atlas

Terrorist Home Videos: Malkin
Will Obama’s gutting of defense prevent a future Operation Geronimo?: DC
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Demands Sharia Slavery: NewsReal

China’s Cranks Up Effort to Spy on U.S. Secrets: Blaze
Muslim Mob Attacks Christian Church in Cairo – 6 Dead: GWP
Wait, The Army Has An Environmentally Friendly Projectile?: RWN

SciTech

Europeanizing American Space Activities by Stealth: PJM
When Steve Jobs isn't happy, he really isn't happy: CNet
Boy targeted in probe of online attack of Gene Simmons sites: TSG

Cornucopia

Saturday Movie Matinee: NiceDeb
What's an Outlaw to Do?: Backwoods
Woman stranded 7 weeks in Nev. wilderness found: CBS

Image: CNN
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: TrendingRight.com

QOTD: "Bush laid the foundation for Obama's success, a success which would not have taken place had Bush followed Obama's demands to stop harsh interrogations (even those short of waterboarding), to close so-called "black sites," to lawyer-up detainees early on, to close Gitmo, and to treat the al-Qaeda problem as a law enforcement problem.

Obama made the right decision in killing bin Laden, but it was a decision made possible by hard work that took place during the Bush years.

One of the collateral benefits of the killing of bin Laden is that more facts are coming out, and those facts debunk the malicious mythology which has been spread by the mainstream media and Democratic Party politicians and pundits about George W. Bush and the hunt for Osama bin Laden." --William A. Jacobson.

Saturday, May 07, 2011

Paging Mister Boehner... Mister Boehner... You Have a Telephone Call at the Front Desk

I'm not an expert at interpreting poll results, but this appears to be compelling evidence that Americans want action on the debt. Right. Now.

As the federal government rapidly approaches the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, 96 percent of Americans say it is important to reduce the national debt, according to a new Reason Foundation-Rupe poll. Of those surveyed, 69 percent believe reducing the national debt is “very important.”

With the debt piling up, it is also clear that taxpayers do not trust the federal government to live within its means. In fact, the Reason-Rupe survey finds 74 percent of Americans support implementing a spending cap that would prohibit the government from spending more money than it takes in during a fiscal year. Only 19 percent oppose a government spending cap.

The most popular policy prescription for reducing the national debt is spending cuts: 45 percent of people say Congress should bring down the debt by reducing spending without raising taxes. Another 16 percent favor reducing the debt primarily through spending cuts, but are open to some tax increases; 14 percent prefer an equal emphasis on spending cuts and tax increases; 8 percent want to reduce the debt primarily through higher taxes with some spending cuts; 4 percent say current spending levels should be maintained and taxes should be raised as needed; and 1 percent of Americans say we shouldn’t do anything about the debt.

I created a graph to illustrate the dichotomy between the realists and, for lack of a better term, the kooks.

The progressives on the right-side of the graph are the outliers. The extremists. The cultists.

We, the Tea Party conservatives, are the mainstream. The majority.

Get it, Mr. Boehner? Not too hard to understand? Now get to steppin'.



Hat tip: Dennis.

Flashback: 'Obama White House ordered coverup of religious symbols for Georgetown speech'

The Democrat blogosphere and media complex spent much of the day yesterday blistering conservatives -- me included -- for misconstruing a Jake Tapper tweet. Tapper's breathless message from Ground Zero -- and the site of President Obama's first-ever visit to the World Trade Center memorial -- read "One minute to air and they decided to take the flag down from the live shot!"

I made the mistaken assumption that the President, often concerned with symbolism over substance, had decided to remove the flag from the background to avoid "spiking the football" (as Michelle Malkin put it). But that wasn't the case: apparently Tapper's hysteria was precipitated by a scheduled removal of the flag an hour after Obama had left the scene.

So the conclusion to which I jumped was provably wrong -- but, given Barack Obama's history, not out of character.

In April of 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported that the "Obama White House ordered [the] coverup of religious symbols for [the president's] Georgetown speech":

Surprising word today that President Barack Obama's White House asked Georgetown University to cover all religious symbols at the scene of the president's economic speech at the Roman Catholic institution Wednesday.

And the prestigious Jesuit university agreed... The Democratic White House explained the move as a desire to keep the backdrop for presidential speeches consistent and not distracting to the audience. The president, who has yet to select a local parish for his family in Washington, has described his religion as "Christian."

That's not all.

Obama's controversial decision to remove his U.S. flag pin during the 2008 campaign must have proven decidedly unpopular in David Axelrod's polls. He soon restored the American flag pin to his lapel.

Furthermore, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and other Democrats have conspicuously redacted the word "God" from the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge Of Allegiance.

It's happened several times. It's not a coincidence.

Our founding document -- the Declaration -- enunciates immutable, God-given rights. But Democrats believe that only government can grant rights (e.g., the "right" to free health care).

In order to successfully prosecute their agenda, Obama and his sycophants have no choice but to supplant God with government. Sound crazy? I welcome other explanations for these uncanny "coincidences".

Given these incidents as background, it's no wonder many of us miscontrued Tapper's tweet. The conclusion we jumped to was entirely plausible.


Rick Moran: Keystone Word-Cop

Rick Moran, proprietor of Right Wing Nuthouse, seems to have designated himself the righteous Ayatollah of diction for the conservative blogosphere. How else to explain this screed, which devotes numerous paragraphs to demonizing moi, your lovable, centrist narrator? Moran writes:

I have given up my one man quest to protect the English language from right wing Visigoths who insist in raping, pillaging, and burning their way through the dictionary - corrupting definitions and creating havoc with meaning while doing their utmost to make intelligent discourse impossible... ...Case in point: Today’s blow up over the flag at Ground Zero being pulled up before President Obama spoke. Or something. Doug Ross, among others, rushed into the fray after a tweet from ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper that read; “One minute to air and they decided to take the flag down from the live shot!” ...[A]n excitable and indignant Ross wrote:


'This administration and, by extension, the Democrat Party are now so thoroughly divorced from the history, traditions and morals of America that we might as well admit the Marxist left has executed a successful coup d’état on this Republic.'

The mindlessness, the out of control idiocy represented in that one comment says volumes about many on the right, who toss around words like “Marxist” and concepts like “coup d’etat” as casually as if they were discussing the weather...

...It is doubtful that Ross, or any of the bloggers who linked and aped his manifestly absurd blog post would know a true Marxist if they came up and bit him... Democrats are Democrats. Marxists are Marxists ... What concerns me and should concern anyone with any reverence for the English language, is that jamokes like Ross - and there are thousands of them on the right who use these ill-chosen descriptives every day - are either too ignorant to know what the real definitions of “socialist,” “communist,” and “Marxist” are.

For a man who prides himself on verbal precision, Moran slings invective with the best of any "right wing Visigoth". But that said, Moran seems to have been in suspended animation since the thirties, when the Democrats launched their first major attack on the Constitution with Wickard v. Filburn.

The path the modern, MoveOn-controlled Democrat Party is on today was presciently described by Stuart Chase in 1942. He wrote that the agenda of the Fabian Socialists -- who had launched a counter-revolution against America's founding -- was to create an authoritarian and completely centralized government apparatus. The tenets of the Fabian Socialists were codified as follows:

• Strong, centralized government
• Government-controlled banking, credit and securities exchange (like Dodd-Frank, etc.)
• Government control over employment (like the "Employee Free Choice Act" and NLRB efforts to increase unionization of the workplace)
• Unemployment insurance, old age pensions (like 99-week unemployment benefits, Social Security, easy access to welfare)
• Universal medical care, food and housing programs (like Obamacare, food stamps, HUD)
• Access to unlimited government borrowing (like massive deficits)
• A managed monetary system (like an opaque Federal Reserve)
• Government control over foreign trade (like China tariffs)
• Government control over natural energy sources, transportation and agricultural production (like drilling moratoriums, the EPA's regime of "Cap-and-Trade")
• Government regulation of labor (like the Wagner Act, monopolistic power of trade unions, et. al.)
• and Heavy progressive taxation (like our current tax code, the most "progressive" of all Western countries).

Rick, the policies of the modern Democrat Party are absolutely synonymous with Marxism. And that's not just my opinion, that's the take of historians and Constitutional attorneys like David Limbaugh and Mark Levin.

In his review of the seminal work Liberty & Tyranny, David Solway describes the road on which the modern Democrat Party is traveling in words even Moran can understand.

The Statist ... is preoccupied not with liberty but with equality. “In his war against the individual, the free market and ultimately the civil society,” Levin writes, the “Statist must claim the power to make that which is unequal equal and that which is imperfect perfect.” The problem is that the Statist is interested not only in equality of opportunity, to which no reasonable person could object (assuming that opportunity is not manipulated to favor one class of persons over another, as, for example, affirmative action), but in equality of outcome, which sanctions the massive interventions of the state into the private domain.

Every legitimate forecaster -- from Moody's to Peter Orszag -- describes America's fiscal condition as critical. And why is that?

Could it be that the Democrat Fabian Socialist principles of wealth redistribution, limitless welfare, open borders, "Great Society", universal health care, and dozens of other failed entitlement programs are bankrupting this Republic?

So, Rick, next time you opine on wordsmithing, take the 30 seconds to compare the agenda of the Fabian Socialists with that of the modern Democrat Party. Because you couldn't separate the two with a freaking crowbar.

The Democrat's failed, Marxist policies have cost American taxpayers untold trillions of dollars and simultaneously breached the firewalls of the Constitution.

So, Rick, please: read Federalist 45 and tell me you can come to any other conclusion that today's Democrats are the avowed, open enemies of the Constitution. This ain't your pappy's Democrat Party any more.

So man up, and quit acting like a Keystone Word-Cop. These Democrats are freaking Marxists as certain as Michael Moore is a morbidly obese Communist sympathizer.


Linked by: Protein Wisdom and The Other McCain. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: The Fog of Fog

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Nation

The Fog of Fog: Malkin
Just Another O-Blunder: Cold Fury
UBL Planned to Attack Trains on 9/11 Anniversary: Fox

Gunwalker Scandal: Watergate with Murder?: BigPeace
Issa Calls Holder to Account: PJM
Was Gun Control the Ultimate Aim of 'Gunrunner'?: RWN

Allowing photos of dead U.S. soldiers, but not Bin Laden: GWP
‘Smart’ Pundits Sneer at Herman Cain: RSM
Police Find IED Near Amtrak rail in PA: Atlas

Economy

SEIU drops mask, goes full commie: Zombie
Hurray for 9.0!: Malkin
Unemployment Rate Up To 9%: LegalIns

Today's a Perfect Day to Fire TurboTax Tim Geithner: Reason
Libraries Buy Business Cards for Janitors in Illiterate Detroit: RWN
Herman Cain defends the Fair Tax: Cubachi

Climate & Energy

Governor Palin: “[Obama] Is Doing All That He Can to Manipulate the US Supply of Energy”: C4P
Mission Accomplished: Gas Average Now at $4 a Gallon: JWF
Top Green Admits: “We Are Lost!”: AmInt

Media

Giuliani: Release the photo: Cubachi
A Cartoon Worth a Thousand Words And Then Some: Bruce
Liberal journalists working overtime to create image of Obama the Warrior: IHTM

Leaders with Ginni Thomas: Mark Levin: DC
We Don't Need NPR: P&F
MSM refuses to report that GM's profits were built on the backs of taxpayers: BlogProf

World

Amateur Hours: Wizbang
SEALS in bin Laden raid drawn from Red Squadron: ArmyTimes
Al Qaeda confirms bin Laden's death, vows more bloodshed: Post

Londonistan erupts with tributes, funerals for bin Laden: Tatler
The PLO’s desperate defenders: CGlick
Argentina state tv to air Islamic dawah to convert non-Muslims: Creeping

Obama May Prosecute CIA Agents Who Got bin Laden Intel: Jawa
Syria kills dozens, US warns of more action (VIDEO): GlobPost
The Muslim Brotherhood Mobilizes: PJM

SciTech

Google Maps Will Soon Let You See Inside Buildings: Atlantic
How Much Would an Apple iPad Cost if it Weren’t Made by Suicidal Slaves in China?: RWN
Is your iPhone obsolete? Meet PaperPhone: CNet

Cornucopia

Exclusive video of Operation Neptune's Spear!: VikingPundit
New York man makes $120K selling 'bin Laden is dead' T-shirts: Post
Dennis Miller on Islam: Creeping

Image: Zombie
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: TrendingRight.com - what conservatives are talking about


Friday, May 06, 2011

Photo o' the Day: Fish Food


Hat tip: Papa B.

Obama asks 10-year old son of deceased 9/11 first responder how he feels about Bin Laden being dead

Perhaps the president was looking for another 'attaboy!'

The 6-foot-1 leader of the free world stared the pint-size kid in the eyes and solicited his opinion about a subject that has captured the attention of the world.

"He asked how I felt about Osama Bin Laden being dead," the boy said.

"I said he could have done something a little less harsh to him, but it was nice to just know that after what happened to my dad, this guy was killed, too."

This guy is all class. All class.


WTF at WTC? Obama Has American Flag Removed From Ground Zero Site Moments Before Photo Shoot! [Updated: or Perhaps Tapper Just Confused All of Us]

ABC's Jake Tapper was on the scene. He disbelievingly tweeted:

Here's his photo of the take-down.

This administration and, by extension, the Democrat Party are now so thoroughly divorced from the history, traditions and morals of America that we might as well admit the Marxist left has executed a successful coup d'état on this Republic.


Update: The timing of Tapper's tweet is the subject of some discussion now on Twitter. @AllahPundit offers this photo of the wreath-laying, which depicts the flag in the background. So exactly what Tapper was talking about is a mystery to me.

Update II: Michelle Malkin gets to the bottom of it (hat tip: Tabitha Hale):

Earlier this morning, I tweeted a link to Doug Ross’s post highlighting a seemingly outrageous photo from ABC News White House reporter Jake Tapper showing the American flag being removed from Ground Zero.

Tapper wrote: “One minute to air and they decided to take the flag down from the live shot!”

Many, including me, jumped to the conclusion that the stage managers at the White House had the flag removed.

It’s not true... As Allahpundit points out, Tapper tweeted the photo at the end of the day yesterday after the Ground Zero event and the flag was visible during the ceremony.

As do I. But I'm sticking by my "Marxist coup d'état" comment.

Update III: Why the Leftists commenting here are idiots: (a) the next retraction one of the Left-leaning media sources makes will be their first (e.g., "Terror Wiretaps plus Invasion of Iraq plus Rendition plus Waterboarding Led to Bin Laden"); (b) Obama's on-again/off-again flag-pin patriotism; (c) and his well-documented failures to show respect to the flag -- all make it clear that Tapper's tweet would be utterly believable in the original context.

Don't let the blog's door hit you on the ass on the way out, drones.

Update IV: Flashback: 'Obama White House ordered coverup of religious symbols for Georgetown speech'


Hat tips: FireAndreaMitchell, via TrendingRight.

Larwyn's Linx: Was Obama Forced Into Action On Osama Bin Laden?

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Nation

Was Obama Forced Into Action On Osama Bin Laden?: AJS
McCain, Graham Vote For Another Obama Judicial Leftist: Ace
Dirty Pictures of Osama Bin Laden: AmSpec

S.C. GOP 2012 Presidential Debate -- Cain Wins: RSM
Drunkblogging the First Republican Primary Debate: VodkaPundit
Sebelius: Under Ryan Plan, Seniors Would Die Sooner: WZ

Issa Strafes Holder on Gunrunner: Sipsey
U.S. Weapons Reaching Cartel Hands a Huge Scandal: PJM
The GOP's Minority Trap: RWN

Economy

U of Missouri Epic Fail: Context Can't Rescue Judy Ancel: BigJourn
House Committee Chair: Repeal Of Obamacare Is Dead: OTB
Obama, Sebelius target 83-year-old drug executive: WashExam

Nearly Half of Detroiters Illiterate. Cause Apparently a Mystery.: Cato
Because No Job is the Greenest Job of All: Malkin
Tipping Point? U.T. Takes Delivery Of $1B In Physical Gold: ZH

Climate & Energy

Obama Floats Plan To Tax Cars By The Mile: Instapundit
What Can Onions Teach Us About Oil Prices?: Carpe Diem
General Electric's Jeff Immelt Surrenders: FreeWork

Obama's Scandalous War Against Domestic Oil: DLim
Hey, Democrats: Punishing Big Oil Won't Cut Prices: IBD
Oil Drops - I Blame the Speculators!: CFB

Media

Why Are All These Less-Well-Off Rural Folks and More-Well-Off Suburban Folks Voting Against Their Interest? : Ace
What The Osama-Kill Story is Cloaking for The MSM and The Administration: Babalu
Rush Limbaugh: Maybe Donald Trump Can Get Obama To Release The Bin Laden Photos: SAB

Politico: Obama Makes “Triumphant Return To Ground Zero”: RWN
Huffington Post Readers Respond to Osama bin Laden’s Demise: RWN
Ugh: GOP Minn. Gov. Pawlenty studying mileage tax, satellite-based tracking: Malkin (2009)

Left-Wing Media Kook: When Will Navy SEALs Take Out George W. Bush? : MRC
Bollywood vs. Bin Laden: Why Radical Islam Fears Pop Culture: BigGovt
Legendary founder of Seal Team Six speaks: Reuters

Jay Carney is floundering under pressure, say Washington insiders: Telegraph
For Obama team, transparency means sneaking off to a coffee shop: WashExam
DREAM Act to Invade Our Nightmares Again: PACNW Righty

World

Report: Bin Laden Died A Coward: Ace
Fatah-Hamas Unity Will End the Peace Process: PJM
Terror Expert Marc Thiessen: Barack Obama Eliminated Interrogation Tool His Second Day In Office: GWP

Regarding The Delicate Sensibilities of War: NoisyRoom
Michigan Muslim Stalks Daughter Over 4 States Before Shooting Her in the Head: GWP
Iran: Ayatollah Khamenei Has Ahmadinejad’s Allies Arrested, Charged With Sorcery: WZ

SciTech

Amazon's Bezos, VCs back nuclear fusion start-up: CNet
Security Expert: Sony Knew Its Software Was Obsolete Months Before PSN Breach: Consumerist
LastPass forcing members to change passwords: CNet

Cornucopia

Obama hesitated! Panetta issued order!: AxiomRed
Osama bin Laden, the Onion, and some guy’s rear window: Troglo
A Veteran of SEAL Team Six Describes His Training: VanityFair

Image: A Veteran of SEAL Team Six Describes His Training
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: TrendingRight.com

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Chart o' the Day: Progressive Income Taxes are Regressive

Vice President Joe Biden once said that we all "have to have skin in the game". Apparently he wasn't talking about Democrats.

Consider the following chart from JP Morgan Funds, which illustrates the disastrous policies of "progressive" income taxes.

The top 10% of taxpayers are paying increasingly larger shares of the federal tax burden. Conversely, the bottom 10% are paying less than ever.

And the amount of revenues collected by the feds continues to decrease.

How's that 'tax the rich' strategy working out, Sparky?


Source: JP Morgan Funds.

First Reax: GOP Debate

I'll be blunt.

Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty and Rick Santorum are the only real contenders on stage tonight. The waterboarding question sealed the deal ("Would you approve of enhanced interrogation techniques under certain circumstances you could imagine?").

Only Gov. Johnson and Ru Paul failed to answer in the affirmative.

We need Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin on stage.

We need Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin kicking ass and taking names.

Jon Huntsman? Ron Paul? Newt Gingrich? Sorry, guys, but give me a freaking break.


The price of border insecurity: Hezbollah operating across the border from San Diego, infiltrating U.S. communities

ABC-10 in San Diego offers another ominous report from the border.

[Hezbollah] has established another home base across the border in Mexico [and] is far more advanced [than Al Qaeda].

"Their operators are far more skilled … they are the equals of Russians, Chinese or Cubans," he said. "I consider Hezbollah much more dangerous in that sense because of strategic thinking; they think more long-term... "They have had clandestine training in how to live in foreign hostile territories," the agent said... [and] Hezbollah is partnering with drug organizations... He told 10News the group receives cartel cash and protection in exchange for Hezbollah expertise.

"From money laundering to firearms training and explosives training," the agent said.

For example, he tracked, along with Mexican intelligence, two Hezbollah operatives in safe houses in Tijuana and Durango... Why have Americans not heard more about Hezbollah's activities happening so close to the border?

...According to the agent, the organization sees the U.S. as their "cash cow," with illegal drug and immigration operations. Many senior Hezbollah leaders are wealthy businessmen, the agent said.

"The money they are sending back to Lebanon is too important right now to jeopardize those operations," he said... The agent said the real concern is the group's long-term goal of radicalizing Muslim communities.

"They're focusing on developing … infiltrating communities within North America," the agent told 10News.

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) reinforces the necessity for a U.S.-Mexico border fence.

We have evidence that Hezbollah is active in Mexico... Recently, there was an explosion that killed several people in Mexico. The bomb used was an improvised explosive device like those seen in the Middle East. Hezbollah and the Mexican drug cartels are working in tandem. This is not good news for Americans.

Given Eric Holder's tacit support of terrorism -- from his pathetic law firm to his insistence that terrorists be tried in civilian courts -- perhaps we know why Operation Gunrunner was funneling weapons to points south.

Because he wanted them there.

It's time to build a damn fence already. It's downright criminal that the one thing the federal government is supposed to do -- protect American sovereignty -- it won't do.


Hat tip: TrendingRight.com.

Larwyn's Linx: The Obama Administration’s cloud of confusion explained

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Nation

The Obama Administration’s cloud of confusion explained: RWN
Why Bush Didn't Get Bin Laden: Dr. John
Navy SEALs Deserve The Credit: IBD

Project Gunrunner update: The fit hits the shan: Malkin
Texas Representative Gains Majority Support for TSA Bills: NewAm
Bachmann on defending defense spending: Foundry

The Stunning Ignorance of the House GOP Intel Chair: Sundries
The Intellectual Dishonesty of Nancy Pelosi: Commentary
Texas gets the cold shoulder from the President: IBD

Economy

Bin Laden Is History — Debt Is the Real Threat: PJM
States rising up to fight Obama land grab: Malkin
Editorials: When unions flex, taxpayers feel it: OCR

Hey, McConnell: DeMint Better Get That Finance Post: Cubachi
Weekly Featured Profile: John Lumpkin: Loudon
Some Thoughts on Federal Rental Housing Assistance: Cato

Climate & Energy

The EPA’s War on Energy Producer Range Resources: RWN
Why The F*** Is Anyone Selling Marcellus Shale Property To Hugo F***ing Chavez?: CBullitt
Obama To Global Warming Moonbats "Just Wait Till My Second Term": Lid

Media

How Obama Bungled the Aftermath of the OBL Mission: AT
Euro Kooks React to the Death of Bin Laden: PJM
The Cost of Feeding TOTUS: Hot Air

Color of Change Claims It Runs MSNBC’s Programming Decisions: BigJourn
War Dog Helped in Mission To Kill Osama: RWN
Obama won't release bin Laden dead photo (until just before 2012 election): BlogProf

Alan Colmes lies about Donald Rumsfeld claiming that waterboarding didn’t help get Osama Usama bin Laden: FAM
President Obama and the Masked Face of Justice: AT (Cary)
Obama Won’t Release UBL Death Photos; Palin Urges Release of Photos ‘As a Warning to Others’: RSM

World

Squandering Our Victory: BlackFive
Blue Falcon Alert: BlackFive
Inside bin Laden’s lair with SEAL Team Six: ArmyTimes

Federal Judge Allows Suspected Hezbollah Imam Back Into US Despite DHS Objections: Lid
Repeat 1990s?: The Fate of Afghanistan and US Foreign Policy: Kesler
Michigan: Honor Killing, Step-Daughter Murdered for not following Islam: Creeping

SciTech

Assange: Facebook is an 'appalling spy machine': CNet
College Football Bowl System Apparently Warrants DOJ's Attention: Consumerist
FCC chief to Congress: Leave Net neutrality alone: CNet

Cornucopia

Bin Laden Is Dead & We're Mad As Hell: YouTube
Risky/Not Risky; Attending/Not attending; Dougie/not Dougie: MOTUS
Man Tells Cops Drug Dealer Gave Wrong Change: TSG

Image: Photos from the Bin Laden Compound
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Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Obama Won't Show You These Pix, But I Will [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York:

Photos taken by a Pakistani security official who entered the compound after the early morning raid on Monday, show two men dressed in traditional Pakistani garb and one in a t-shirt, with blood streaming from their ears, noses and mouths.

Enjoy.

More dead terrorists, please.


Democrat Incompetence Not So Funny In Illinois Where Vendors Are Begging the State to Borrow More So It Can Pay 9-Month Old Invoices

If Democrats weren't in power, they'd be useful only as comic relief. Their failed entitlement programs, their locust-like destruction of economies big and small, their misery-inducing wealth redistribution schemes... everything they touch turns to fecal matter. Which makes Illinois an especially interesting laboratory.

Resource One Office Furnishings and Design was Illinois’ largest metal office furniture supplier in 2000, and the company attracted the state itself, which wanted the company to design and make custom-made office furniture for state agencies.

But when the economy tanked in 2009, so did [the] furniture business. And that same year, the state started falling behind on its payments to its vendors... In 2010, the state owed Resource One about $500,000 and payments were at least nine months past due. To keep the business afloat, Mannschreck and his business partner, Cindy Davis, took out loans from banks.

...How much does Illinois owe? Well, for example, it owes:

* $50 million to St. John’s Hospital
* $25 million to Memorial Medical Center
* $2.1 million to Springfield ARC, an advocacy organization that deals with intellectual and development disabilities

Illinois’ Comptroller Office has more than 200,000 unpaid vouchers dating back to November 2010 totaling $4.2 billion. The unpaid bills are expected to double at $8.3 billion by the end of June...

“That number includes payments due to our small businesses, schools, hospitals, not-for-profit and social service agencies,” Hahn said. “It is unacceptable and needs to change, which is why (the comptroller) continues to push for spending reforms as the only way to regain our fiscal footing.”

...“We think immediate action is needed — small business, health care providers, units of local governments, school districts, universities and others who are owed money by the state should not be expected to be the de facto bank for the state of Illinois,” the chamber's Plummer said. “We support short-term bonding to pay off past-due bills.”

...Service providers, hospitals and businesses are hanging on a financially thread... “We appreciate (the state’s) business, but we don’t have deep pockets and we just have to be paid,” said Mannschreck, the business owner. “If the state doesn’t pay on time, it affects the ability to buy and get products manufactured. Manufacturers also need money. It’s kind of a house of dominos.”

My advice: keep voting Democrat, drones.

Those out-of-control public sector union bosses can really use the extra money. The private sector lives to support government; that's what Democrats believe and that's why you, the citizen, should support higher taxes to make things right for the union bosses.


Is There Really a 'Gold Bubble'? Maybe Not.

Brett Arends, writing at MarketWatch, refutes the notion that gold is in a speculative "bubble". He does so by comparing the current spike in gold prices with other speculative run-ups in recent history.

Gold is in a bubble. Anyone will tell you that. They've been saying it since gold was about, oh, $500 an ounce.

But it's a funny kind of a bubble. It's the only one I've encountered where so few people seem to own the asset in question... During the dot-com bubble, you met lots of people with tech stocks. Taxi drivers told you what dot-coms they owned.

During the housing bubble you met normal, ordinary people who were trading up to expensive homes using adjustable-rate mortgages, buying new condos off plan to flip, and cashing out their fictional "equity" through a refinance mortgage.

But who actually owns gold? I keep hearing about the gold bubble, but every time I ask people if they own any themselves, they say, "no, no, of course not, it's a bubble."

Some bubble...

[The accompanying chart] compares the bull market in gold with the last two undisputed "bubbles," namely tech stocks and housing. It shows the gold price since 2001, the Nasdaq Composite COMP from 1989 to 2001, and Standard & Poor's index of Homebuilding stocks from 1995 to 2007.

The picture is pretty remarkable.

If gold is a "bubble," it doesn't look like it's peaked yet. Indeed it looks like it might be just about to enter its big, blow-off phase.

Gold is a quirky investment, to be sure, and I'm about the last person to advise anyone on anything when it comes to financial matters.

But one thing is certain: the administration's policy of "Quantitative Easing" (or, as I like to call it, "Quantitative Bankrupting of America's Future") has unleashed the Treasury's printing press like nothing ever seen in world history.

Trillions in cash has materialized from thin air as the Treasury Department issues IOUs and the Federal Reserve purchases them on the open market. Which, by the way, enriches Goldman Sachs (and other so-called "primary dealers") with tens of millions of dollars in needless commissions each month.

Until the money-printing stops, until the deficit spending is brought under control, and until the dollar is rescued from the most radical administration in American history, I would hold some precious metals like gold.

It's a hedge against governmental stupidity -- and heaven knows we need it now more than ever.


President Obama: We Can't Release Photos of Bin Laden Lest We Be Perceived as Doing the Icky Shuffle on Bin Laden's Body

Stunningly, the Obama administration has reversed course and decided not to release photographs of Osama Bin Laden's corpse. And the President used a handsome gridiron analogy to get his point across.

Via White House press secretary Jay Carney, Obama lectures that we “don’t need to spike footballs” and echoed GOP Rep. Rogers’ line that OBL is not a “trophy.”

RennaW hits the nail on the head in her rejoinder to Obama’s admonishment about spiking footballs: “Said the guy who said ‘I won’…and spent $150 million on [his] inauguration.”

Oh, and stupidity isn't limited to just one side of the aisle.

Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says the picture could inflame anti-U.S. sentiments around the world and hamper intelligence cooperation with the United States. He says conspiracy theorists won’t be persuaded no matter what the U.S. does.

Let me get this straight, Mr. Rogers -- if that is your real name -- releasing the Bin Laden death photos could inflame anti-U.S. sentiment to the point where extremists could fly planes into buildings, killing thousands of innocent civilians?

Really?

Release the damn photos already. Appeasement of extremism breeds extremism. Killing terrorists dissuades terrorists.

Release the damn photos. The gorier, the better.