Saturday, May 14, 2011

President Obama Pretends to Channel Sarah Palin

Using far too many words, the president has -- at least verbally -- capitulated to the "Drill, Baby, Drill!" exhortations of Sarah Palin.

President Obama will open Alaska's national petroleum reserve to new drilling, as part of a broad plan aimed at blunting criticism that he is not doing enough to address rising energy prices.

The plan, unveiled in Obama's weekly radio address Saturday, also would fast-track environmental assessment of petroleum exploration in some portions of the Atlantic and extend the leases of oil companies whose work in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic Ocean was interrupted by the drilling moratorium after last year's BP oil spill.

The measures come as high gasoline prices and the resulting popular anger threaten the fragile economic recovery and, possibly, the president's reelection chances in 2012. Congressional Republicans and some Democrats have been clamoring for increased domestic production in response to the rising prices, which economists say vary with global demand...

..."The president is finally admitting what Republicans have known all along — that increasing the supply of American energy will help lower prices and create jobs," Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a written statement. "One weekend address announcing minor policy tinkering, while positive, does not erase the administration's long job-destroying record of locking up America's energy resources."

Of course, as Jim Hoft notes, the proof is in the pudding. Or, rather, the drilling.

Knowing what I do of this president, the only way America will get to unlock its vast energy treasure trove is to replace him in 2012.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

TurboTax Tim Geithner's Apocalyptic Debt Ceiling Rhetoric: 100% Pure Lies

Just moments ago, our beloved, tax-challenged Treasury Secretary issued his latest salvo in the debt ceiling propaganda campaign.

With the government about to hit its $14.3 trillion debt limit, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned of "catastrophic" consequences and a new recession if Washington is not able to borrow more.

A divided Congress has run out of time to raise the debt limit before Monday's deadline, forcing Geithner into an emergency reallocation of funds so the government can meet its obligations, including payments to Treasury bondholders.

Those measures are only expected to give the government until August 2 before it will start defaulting on payments including those on Treasury debt, an event that could trigger chaos in world financial markets.

"A default would inflict catastrophic, far-reaching damage on our nation's economy, significantly reducing growth and increasing unemployment," Geithner said...

Real 'wrath of God'-type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! 40 years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes. The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

Legendary investor Stanley Druckenmiller says Geithner is a fool and a liar. Or at least, that's how I interpreted his debunking of Timmay's apocalyptic rhetoric.

Mr. Druckenmiller had already recognized that the government had embarked on a long-term march to financial ruin. So he publicly opposed the hysterical warnings from financial eminences, similar to those we hear today...

...He recalls that then-Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin warned that if the political stand-off forced the government to delay a debt payment, the Treasury bond market would be impaired for 20 years. "Excuse me? Russia had a real default and two or three years later they had all-time low interest rates," says Mr. Druckenmiller.

...In the future, he says, "People aren't going to wonder whether 20 years ago we delayed an interest payment for six days. They're going to wonder whether we got our house in order." Which begs the question: if interest rates are so low today, is the market not appreciating the current path of "financial ruin"?

...Asked if the future is not so bad judging by today's low bond rates he says, "Complete nonsense. It's not a free market. It's not a clean market." The Federal Reserve is doing much of the buying of Treasury bonds lately through its "quantitative easing" (QE) program, he points out. "The market isn't saying anything about the future. It's saying there's a phony buyer of $19 billion of Treasurys a week."

...Of course, there is another name for this type of arrangement and so far only Bill Gross has used it: Ponzi Scheme.

Got that, Boehner and McConnell?

The whole house of cards is set to collapse if we don't start cutting the size of the swollen behemoth known as the federal government.

The market wants huge spending cuts. So let Obama choose where to cut. Don't raise the debt ceiling.

Don't. You. Dare. Raise. It.


More Good News for California: Card Check About to Be Signed Into Law By Governor Union Toady

Is there a more exciting, relevant news journal than Dairy Herd Magazine? When it comes to the Democrats' latest attempts to implement socialism, probably not.

ThIf SB104 passes, it could have major ramifications for California agriculture... The card-check bill, sponsored by the United Farm Workers Union, effectively eliminates secret ballot elections for union certification. A labor organization would be certified as the workers’ bargaining representative by submitting cards bearing the signatures of a majority of the employees...

Opponents of the bill believe eliminating secret ballot elections will give a green light to worker intimidation, coercion and bullying from union leaders...

...Eliminating secret ballot also takes a fundamental right away from employees. “In this country, we believe when people have to make decisions they do so in the form of secret ballot from electing officials at the local level to federal election and even in business,” says Anthony Raimondo, agriculture labor law attorney with McCormick Barstow in Fresno, Calif. “Think about who we are. We teach our children these same values, that the best way to vote is in a secret ballot election. The union wants to take this away from workers – it’s just not right.”...

At the end of the day the card-check bill is the worst thing that could happen to dairy farms in terms of labor problems.“Right now, if the union shows up a dairyman still has a chance. Without secret ballot election, in most cases it will be over before it starts,” he says.

No word has come from Gov. Jerry Brown’s office if he will sign SB104; opponents of the bill believe that he will. SB104 was approved by the senate and is currently sitting in the state assembly.

Of course he will: how else can he satisfy his most powerful group of backers, other than perhaps the foreign-controlled, pro-illegal immigration, separatist front groups?


Top 20 #OsamaPorn Movie Titles

Yes, it's true that Osama was a porn aficionado (not that there's anything wrong with that, but it does seem a trifle hypocritical, no?). Which led to the inevitable Twitter hashtag meme (#osamaporn) of which my top 20 Osama Bin Laden porn movie titles were as follows:

20. @Saisi_ Al-Jazeera Anchorgirls Gone Wild
19. @sarahcolonna: The Camel's Toe
18. @ProducerMatthew: Two-and-a-half goats
17. @_struct: Kandawhore
16. @galeonscallion: Seal Team Sex
15. @kobyb: Debbie Does Dubai
14. @NBNP: Talibangher
13. @woolfe: Goatback Mountain
12. @coyotered9: Sleeping with the Yemeni
11. @WMDOwl: Betty Bangs Baghdad
10. @Fais_VoML: Amateur Infidels XV
9. @mrsammac: The Fatwa In My Pants
8. @RorschachNEOCON: "Ewe-Turn"
7. @MichaelHeister: You Jihad Me at Halal
6. @RorschachNEOCON: Goats Gone Wild
5. @Steven_Savona: Bearded Beauties: Volume IX
4. @mattyirish: Facial Profiling
3. @BettyFckinWhite: The Taliboners
2. @kobyb: Deep Goat
1. @sdvitelli: Sinfidels


Larwyn's Linx: Fantasies, Present and Future

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Nation

Fantasies, Present and Future: Hanson
Obama secures the vote of undocumented Democrats: HE
Americans Have Hit The Ceiling Over Debt: IBD

What Happened on AA Flight 1561: CNS (Malkin)
Should the White House be Used for DNC Meetings?: BigGovt
Ryan Mulling 2012 Senate Run: WklyStd

Indiana Supremes: All Your Home Are Belong To Us: Ace
Gov. Quinn to Release Hardcore Criminals Amongst Us: RWN
Ryan: Yep, I'm thinking about running for Kohl's seat: HotAir

Economy

Trustees Show Permanent Deficits for Social Security: Foundry
Rand Paul Is Right!: RWN
GM Will Spend $109MM To Preserve 96 Michigan Jobs: ZH

Making Health Insurance More Accessible: Foundry
Social Security 'Trust Fund' To Add $5T To Debt: IBD
The One Trillion Dollar Misunderstanding: AEI

Climate & Energy

NASA Gets Caught Faking Climate Change Data-AGAIN!: BigGovt
The Administration's Big Oil Lie: IBD
Much Ado About Gas Prices: PJM

Media

Walter Russell Mead: Our Elites Are Fixated On How Disappointed They Are With The Tawdry Public: Ace
Jedediah Bila: Why Palin Scares Them: C4P
Gingrich Campaign Spin on Global Warming PSA with Nancy Pelosi: It Wasn’t a Love-Fest, it Was a Debate: Malkin

World

Hamas Riding a ‘New Wind’ from Egypt: PJM
Exclusive: Pornography found in bin Laden hideout: officials: Reuters
The real housewives of Abbottabad: Tatler

Muslim Brotherhood Leader to Run for President of Egypt: Atlas
Lone Wolf Muslim Jihadi Who Rushed Cockpit on SF Flight Now Claims….He’s Crazy: RWN
The Peace Corps at 50: What’s a Little Rape, Murder, and Brutalization of Women Between Friends?: RS

SciTech

The Ballmer Days Are Over: Brooks Review
Dropbox Lied to Users About Data Security, Complaint to FTC Alleges: Wired
Google Introduces New Computer-Like Object, Where Everything Happens On the Web: Ace

Cornucopia

Gallery of Gadgets Which Inspired Modern Day Tech: Wired
But Glenn Beck Is The Crazy One: SDA
Settlement In Donald Duck Groping Lawsuit: Woman alleged Donald fondled her at Epcot: TSG

Image: a11news (Senator John Ensign and staffer Cynthia 'Cindy' Hampton).
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: TrendingRight: news in real-time

QOTD: "If only al-Murisi had been screaming phrases from the Constitution. The Selective Motive Determination Machine -- the same one that rushed to pin the Tucson massacre on the Tea Party, the GOP and Fox News without a shred of evidence -- would have kicked in to full gear...

So how, despite a massive transportation and homeland security apparatus, did al-Murisi get into this country and get on a plane? He had no keys, no luggage, $47 cash, two curious posted checks totaling $13,000, and a trove of expired and current state IDs from New York and California..." --Michelle Malkin

Friday, May 13, 2011

President Obama invites rap-poet to White House party -- at taxpayer expense -- to hear rap-poet sing praises of President Obama

Yes, it's true that President Obama and the First Lady invited a rap-poet to the White House despite his long history of supporting cop-killers and assassinations of white presidents.

But there's another aspect of this story to consider. President Obama invited "Common" (real name: Lesley Weisenheimer, I believe) to sing praises of... Barack Obama. Didn't royal families engage in this sort of behavior in the Middle Ages?

Consider the lyrics that "Common" rapped at the posh White House party:

Even the unseen know that God watches.

For one King’s dream he was able to Barack us.

One King’s dream he was able to Barack us.

One King’s dream he was able to Barack us.”

Yeah, we got "Barack'ed" all right.


What Democrats Believe

Democrats believe that you are legally permitted to break into an empty home if you need a place to stay.

Democrats believe that stealing furniture from someone's home -- if it's in the best interest of your family -- is a legally acceptable practice.

Democrats believe that you are within your rights to crash a rich man's party if you're hungry, because he's got plenty of extra food.

Democrats believe that any person, should they require access to clean facilities like showers, toilets, and towels, must be legally permitted to break into a health club.

And because Internet access is a human right, Democrats believe that those without it are legally allowed to break into office buildings to obtain web access.

I know all this to be true.

Because Democrat politicians believe that millions of foreigners have every right to enter our home -- our sovereign republic -- to use our schools, our health care system, our roads, and our infrastructure. Democrats believe that immigration laws aren't laws at all; for, in fact, they are suing states for enforcing the very immigration laws that Congress passed!

These temporary politicians -- these useless Democrats hacks -- no longer represent the people. They represent illegal aliens, who are trespassing in our country; who are entering our land without any background checks or vetting procedures; who are driving up unemployment among citizens; who often come for free health care services or schooling or more nefarious reasons; who do not understand the history or traditions of this country; and whose presence here will ultimately Balkanize this country in ways no one can possibly foresee.

For Democrats, clinging to political power trumps the Constitution; it trumps the laws they have passed; it trumps the concerns of the citizenry; it trumps every moral and ethical tenet of this country. But their appetite for raw power is so insatiable, and it is so naked and malevolent, that they are willing to sacrifice future generations so they can climax on their unchecked power.

Therefore I urge you, America's citizens, to remember the permanent damage these temporary politicians are doing to this country. I urge you to remember in 2012 and to obliterate the Democrat Party politically -- at every level of government.


Larwyn's Linx: Totalitarianism is here

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Nation

Totalitarianism is here: ProWis
Hoyer Breaks with Obama on Political Speech: Foundry
Illinois to Release Illegal Aliens Convicted of Violent Crimes: BigGovt

Debt Limit Vote: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet: RollCall
Yes Mr. President, I Do Want Alligators in My Moat: AT
Joe Walsh’s Smackdown of Obama on Immigration: RS

Economy

President Explains His Big Government Philosophy: Toldjah
Boeing vs. the NLRB's Radical Pro-Unionists: PJM
The Millionaire Retirees Next Door : WSJ

Dems bring illegals to testify at education hearing: Tatler
Obama's Reason for High Unemployment Rate: GWP
Yet More Gangster Government: Cold Fury

Do SEIU members know what the bosses are up to?: RWN
Mayo Clinic: 90% of members won't participate in Obamacare: AllAm
Robert Welch: An Americanist Entrepreneur: NewAm

Climate & Energy

Dems’ Dream Come True -- Gas Prices Force Farmers to Ditch Tractors For Oxen: GWP
"Democrat: Non-Energy-Producing States Shouldn’t Complain About High Gas Prices": ProWis
Why, No, Globull Warming Didn’t Cause The Tornado Outbreak: RWN

Media

Photos you won’t see on the evening news: Border residents protest Obama, open borders chaos: Tatler
"Newt Gingrich Was More Supportive Of Individual Mandates Than Mitt Romney": ProWis
The Ten Thousand: Belmont Club

CBS Gives Obama Over 26 Minutes to Lecture on the Economy: NB
Romney makes passionate case for violating personal freedom at state level: WashExam
The City Of Dallas Steals $2000 From A 15-Year-Old Who Did The Right Thing: RWN

World

Connect the Dots: Hayward
SEAL Team Worried Identities Will Leak: Military
As Obama Stands Silent, Putin Crushes Freedom Online: PJM

WaPo: Family Visitations For Gitmo Detainees Under Consideration: Malkin
Fukushima 'Full Meltdown' Made Official: Atlantic
Does Judicial Watch have the bin Laden death photo?: WashExam

Obama Administration Sent Aid to Mexico to Fight Wildfires But Not Texas: GWP
Two Terrorists Of Unknown Religion Busted In NYC Plot: RWN
At Last: The Barack Obama SEAL Team Six Action Figure: Malkin

SciTech

A new kind of computer: Chromebook: Google
New FBI Documents Provide Details on Government’s Surveillance Spyware: EFF
Emergency-testing a Boeing's brakes == awesome: Autoblog

Cornucopia

Contest of the Year!: iOTW
Heckler and Koch: when negotiations fail: Cold Fury
Batman Beatdown on the Vegas Strip (Original): YouTube

Image: The People vs. Goldman Sachs (Rolling Stone)
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: TrendingRight: news in real-time

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Larwyn's Linx: The Amnesty Bandwagon Rides Again

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Nation

The Amnesty Bandwagon Rides Again: Malkin
This is Your Pawlenty Wake-Up Call: Kurtz
Mitch Daniels: He'd Call Dick Lugar!: JRubin

Does the White House endorse view that GOP is racist?: Toldjah
Why Not Herman Cain?: PJM
Boehner: Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels should run: Politico

Massachusetts: The Canary in the Coal Mine for ObamaCare: PJM
Walker on why WI jumped 17 spots in business-friendly list: Cubachi
LSU Students Chase Off Would-Be Flag Burner: Malkin

Economy

Hope: Health Care Compacts and Federalism: ProWis
Forbes Predicts U.S. Gold Standard Within 5 Years: HE
Federal regulators sue Arizona over union law: LV Sun

Union boss pay could have funded 265,000 workers: LUR
US Treasury: Winning The Future, One Math Failure At A Time: ZH
Is Your B.A. Really B.S.?: LegalIns

My Cousin Barack and our Obamacare Family Feud: Fox
High-End Real Estate = "Dead Money": ZH
General Electric’s Jeff Immelt–A Uniter, Not a Divider: RS

Climate & Energy

Newt's Support of Global Warming Goes Way Beyond the Pelosi Commercial : Lid
Green Fading to Brown: Power Line
Newt Gingrich: 'Al Gore hiding under a Phil Donahue wig': Depot

Media

Tangled in Red Tape, Government Workers Look on as Boy Drowns: RWN
Not to denigrate our President’s speaking style...: Bookworm
Romneycare: Wait Times to see Docs Growing in Massachusetts: RWN

Why Newt Must Run: WklyStd (Huffington)
Wash Post’s Cohen: GOP Should Compromise… Like They Did With Slavery?: RWN
President Obama: “I’ll text you”: BC8

Walter E. Williams explains how unions scheme to keep blacks out of high-paying jobs: DC
Schakowsky: Young people felt like America was ‘kind of a loser’ until after OBL ‘murder’: DC
Every day, another poke in the eye: PRS

World

The Real Jihad: Dry Runs and Probes: GoV
So How Much Does an F-35 Actually Cost: BlackFive
Preview of Democrat Plans: Ireland plans pension fund grab: AT

Was Seal Team Six “Diverse”?: Discriminations
Homeland Insecurity Provides Triggers For IED's : JWF
Court Ruling: U.S. Terror Victims Beat DOJ in Claiming $5M of Hamas Funds: PJM

Sen. Inhofe Spills His Guts About Bin Laden's Spilled Guts : Lid
Federal Judge Orders FBI to Answer Questions About Missing Oklahoma City Bombing Videotapes: BMW
Will SlutWalk now target the Peace Corps?: Wizbang

House Panel Votes to Limit Obama’s Authority to Reduce Nuclear Weapons Arsenal: WZ
Calls for nationwide ‘unity’ protests in Egypt amid fears of sectarian conflict: Al Arabiya
3-year-old girl kidnapped at gunpoint found unharmed in Mexico: LVSun

SciTech

How MSFT Caused the DotCom Bubble and why their Skype ‘Hail Mary’ is irrelevant: Ritholtz
Why Google Does Not Own Skype: Wired
Ralph Langner on Stuxnet, copycat threats (Q&A): CNet

Cornucopia

In a galaxy not so far fetched: Sondrakistan
Comprehensive Immigration Reform: WTF Now!?: MOTUS
Just 42 years ago: Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance: C&S

Image: NPR: New York Man Posts 'Bomb Making' Lawn Sign To Protest New Mosque
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Marizela, still missing

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Super: Speaker Boehner Wants to Nominate Another Maverick

As if you needed more proof that we need a new House Speaker, the barely coherent John Boehner has endorsed the John McCain-like RINOs Mitch Daniels and Chris Christie.

House Speaker John Boehner didn’t watch last week’s Republican presidential debate, but he knows whom he wants to see in the next one: Govs. Chris Christie and Mitch Daniels...

...without prompting, Boehner brought up the Indiana governor, who has been slightly warmer to a candidacy than Christie. “I think Mitch Daniels is looking at this seriously … [a] person with a track record of reform in his state, the kind of reforms we need in Washington, D.C.”

I can't stress this enough: we don't need a proxy for the pathetic Dick Lugar (Mitch Daniels), nor a pro-global warming, pro-amnesty "maverick" (Chris Christie).

We need high fidelity to our highest law. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty are the only candidates I see that qualify as constitutional conservatives (Marco Rubio and Allen West would definitely make the list if they ever throw their hats in the ring).

We have the right playbook. It's called the Constitution. Now we need a leader who embraces it -- 100% of the time. Mavericks need not apply.

Oh, and before I forget: we need a new Speaker of the House. Perhaps Allen West would consider that job.


Hat tip: TrendingRight.

NLRB sues Arizona again, this time over its constitutional amendment requiring secret ballots for union elections

First they sued Arizona for following federal immigration law. Now, the Obama administration has sued the border state again, this time because its citizens passed a constitutional amendment that requires the use of the secret ballot in union elections. Yes, the secret ballot is considered -- at least by the Obama administration -- "controversial".

Federal labor regulators have sued the state of Arizona over a state constitutional amendment that limits how workers can choose whether they want union representation.

The amendment passed by voters last year requires workers to hold secret ballot elections before a company can be unionized.

The National Labor Relations Board says the amendment interferes with federal law. Current law gives employers the choice of recognizing a union if a majority of workers sign cards, a process known as card check.

Arizona's attorney general has vowed to fight the lawsuit. Business groups that pushed the ballot measure say they fear Congress will require all businesses to recognize card check... The NLRB says it plans to sue South Dakota in the coming weeks over a similar constitutional amendment.

At a time where real unemployment is estimated at 22%, the Obama administration is bound and determined to attack the private sector.

The president, chairman and CEO of Boeing penned an excellent op-ed in yesterday's Wall Street Journal in response to the NLRB preventing it from opening a plant in South Carolina, a right-to-work state. It reads, in part:

Washington's actions have assaulted the capitalist principles that have sustained America's competitiveness since it became the world's largest economy nearly 140 years ago.

...The NLRB is wrong and has far overreached its authority. Its action is a fundamental assault on the capitalist principles that have sustained America's competitiveness since it became the world's largest economy nearly 140 years ago. We've made a rational, legal business decision about the allocation of our capital and the placement of new work within the U.S. We're confident the federal courts will reject the claim, but only after a significant and unnecessary expense to taxpayers...

...The world the NLRB wants to create with its complaint would effectively prevent all companies from placing new plants in right-to-work states if they have existing plants in unionized states. But as an unintended consequence, forward-thinking CEOs also would be reluctant to place new plants in unionized states—lest they be forever restricted from placing future plants elsewhere across the country.

These Democrats are ideologues. They could care less what happens to business and, by extension, "the middle class". They are out to destroy capitalism. And they've said as much, over and over again.


How Sci-Fi Influences Real World Design

BusinessInsider offers an excellent visual history of the cell phone. I was particularly struck by the following description of the Motorola StarTAC, vintage 1996:

Still shrinking the line of TACs, Motorola unveiled the first clamshell mobile phone with StarTAC. It improved the folding feature by collapsing in half, which is why it's called "clamshell"—because it resembles a clam opening and closing shut... It's said to be inspired by the communicator from the original Star Trek series.


I never knew that, but there's certainly a resemblance.

It truly is amazing how science fiction -- from Arthur C. Clarke's idea of geosynchronous orbit to modern design principles -- has influenced the world in which we live.


Will Obama Upstage Netanyahu? [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York:

Obama may preempt PM's Congress speech with his own plan (Reuters)


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to speak to Congress at the invitation of (Republican) Speaker Boehner. He will make his address on May 24. Netanyahu was expected to present new Israeli proposals to get the “peace process” back on track, but that was before the terrorist organization Hamas remarried the “moderate” group Fatah. Now the pressure is off and Israeli political sources say Netanyahu sees no need “to outline any far-reaching peace proposals.”

Where does that leave Obama? The White House signaled that Obama would deliver a major address on Middle East policy "fairly soon." According to a senior administration official, Obama will meet the Israeli Prime Minister at (the front door of?...) the White House on May 22 and is considering giving his speech before he leaves on a trip to Europe early in the week of May 22.

You do the scheduling. Is Obama so obsessed with backing Israel into a corner that he’ll buck both protocol and political prudence to publicly contradict a head of state, an ally and a guest of Congress just two days before Netanyahu’s remarks? This should be interesting, and we’ll soon find out.


California's new Obamacare health exchange has only two problems: there's no money and it's guaranteed to be an abysmal failure

What do you call easy access to welfare, unchecked illegal immigration and failing government-run health care? Decades of unchecked Democrat rule, or California, for short.

California, which has had a long, sometimes-tortured history of trying to overhaul its health care markets, beat every other state last year when it passed a law creating a health insurance exchange – an online marketplace where millions of uninsured residents will be able to get insurance...

Now the board overseeing the exchange must ensure that coverage on the exchange, which must be up and running in 2014, is affordable and easy to buy...

One problem:

“The state has no money,” Kimberly Belshe, a member of the board and secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency under former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,

Gee. How will they operate the exchange?

The antidote is “to get millions of people enrolled and start drawing down federal dollars on Day One,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a statewide health care consumer advocacy coalition.

Brilliant. Democrats in action: a bankrupt state will suck money from a bankrupt federal government. Why didn't I think of that?

...Steven Lindsay, lobbyist for the California Association of Health Underwriters, which represents 2,500 insurance agents and brokers... is pessimistic. More exchanges have failed than succeeded, said Lindsay.

“We do not believe that the exchange website will get significant numbers of users,” he said. “The vast majority of people who will be in the exchange don’t have a college education. Health insurance is not in their cultures. They pay for care when needed. Now we go out and say to these folks, ‘You have to give us between 3 and 9 percent of your income for insurance.’ They might not even use computers.”

He also said that the board must figure out how to get as many people as possible enrolled in the exchange, and should provide financial incentives to agents and community groups to help with the enrollment. “If you don’t get enough people to sign up,” he said, “it will fail.”

Of course it will. Central planning always fails.

Just like the old Soviet Union.

Which explains Democrats -- you know, that old definition of insanity.


Photo: Justice League Gets Its Man

Gutsy.

Any questions?.


Illustration: Rants & Other Refinements.

Larwyn's Linx: Are There ANY Sane Liberals Left?

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Nation

Are There ANY Sane Liberals Left?: Patterico
Speeches and Summits Won’t Secure the Border: DeMint
Yes, Says Virginia, There Are Limits on Federal Power: Cato

Fact-Check On Obama's Speech Determines... : Ace
Nothing to see here, move along: Malkin
Two More Imams Removed From AA Flight: WZ

Audrey Tomason: Situation Room Mystery Woman: a12iggymom
Obama Regime Stonewalls Gunrunner Investigation: RWN
Lawyering Up Bin Laden: NRO

Economy

Obama: With 9% Unemployment, Let's Work On Amnesty!: Ace
GOP gets loud over NLRB's treatment of Boeing: Toldjah
The Sunset Limited: Your Tax Dollars At Work: HayRide

Obama Back On Amnesty Bandwagon: RWN
Obama Mocks Border Concerns: 'A Moat With Alligators': GWP
California DoT Nixes Public Display of American Flag: PunPre

IL Loses Another Business; One More (Sears) on the Way Out: Publius
Obama’s Nixonian Enemies List On Steroids: Forbes
Remembering German Hyperinflation: Bruce

Climate & Energy

Duke Study: Fracking Fluid Doesn't Contaminate Fresh Water Aquifers: PunPre
British Climate Alarmists Admit: Nuclear Power is Better Than Wind Power: BlogProf
UN Appoints Proud Wealth Redistributor to Lead “Green Jobs” Efforts: WZ

Media

Faux News vs. 60 Minutes—Stop the fight!: Driscoll
Freedom of Information for Me, But Not for Three: Instapundit
The Campus-Carry Movement: Instapundit

Why The New York Times Gets Everything Wrong: It’s the Left-Wing Bias: PJM
Stimulus! Crack pipes being sold in Detroit dollar stores, gas stations, and liquor shops: BlogProf
The first five Presidential Emergency Text Messages: Zombie

Obama at fundraiser: Killing Bin Laden should inspire us to finish what we started — by reelecting me: HotAir
Liberals support, conservatives slam rapper’s White House invite: DC
Hillary Photoshopped Out of ‘Situation Room’ Pic for Being Too Sexy: Malkin

World

Saudi student arrested in bomb threat at Rhode Island university: Creeping
Iran Turns Up the Heat in the Gulf: Mullahs seize on the uprising in Bahrain: Kahlili
When Family Isn't Good Enough: Zilla

Egypt: If A Country of 80 Million People Falls And The Media Is Deaf, Does Anyone Hear?: BRubin
Kuwait, Not Syria, to Sit on U.N. Human Rights Council: Bayefsky
'Maybe he was looking for the bathroom': Family defends cockpit assault: JihadWatch

SciTech

Microsoft looks for an edge with Skype: CNet
Copyright FAIL: Belgian appeals court says 'Non' to Google Linking News Sites: Register
Google branches into music, movie streaming: CNN

Cornucopia

National Alert System Set To Hack Mobile Phones: SHN
The Birth Pangs of the M16: Ace
Man commits suicide off Burj Khalifa, world's tallest skyscraper : GlobPost

Image: THE INFIDEL #1, featuring PIGMAN, by Bosch Fawstin
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: MichelePAC

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Cavalcade of Failure

"...the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan." --Ronald Reagan

When it comes to Barack Obama and the 111th Congress, where is the media summary of the Democrats' vast central-planning schemes and the results thereof? Where is the retrospective analysis?

That's a rhetorical question, drones. With that as context, please consider:

HOUSING Home Market Takes a Tumble, Wall Street Journal, 9 May 2011
Turnaround More Distant After 3% Drop, Steepest Quarterly Decline Since 2008

Home values posted the largest decline in the first quarter since late 2008, prompting many economists to push back their estimates of when the housing market will hit a bottom.

Home values fell 3% in the first quarter from the previous quarter and 1.1% in March from the previous month, pushed down by an abundance of foreclosed homes on the market, according to data to be released Monday by real-estate website Zillow.com. Prices have now fallen for 57 consecutive months, according to Zillow...

Last year, the housing market showed signs of improving as price depreciation slowed in some markets and stabilized in others. In response, a number of economists began forecasting that housing would hit a bottom in late 2011, then begin to recover. But the improvements, spurred by federal programs that gave buyers up to $8,000 in tax credits, proved fleeting. Sales collapsed when the credits expired last summer, and prices in many markets have been falling ever since.

While most economists expected sales to decline after tax credits expired, the drag on the market has been greater than many anticipated... Zillow estimates that more than 28% of borrowers owe more than their homes are worth nationally. Those numbers are much higher in hard-hit markets such as Phoenix, where more than two-thirds of borrowers owe more than their homes are worth.

AUTOS Used-car demand jumps, but the supply is down, Scripps News, 9 May 2011
Economic pressures of the last few years have pushed many consumers out of the new-car market in search of a cheaper alternative, good news for used-car dealers, if only they could find enough cars to sell.

But reduced production of new cars, federal incentive programs, exorbitant gasoline prices, natural disasters and other factors have conspired to reduce the supply of used cars on the market to a trickle and, as a result, drive prices through the roof...

"It's pretty crazy right now," said Tom Hughes, of San Bernardino, Calif., a used-car dealer for 27 years. "I've never seen anything like it." ... Hughes said prices and availability have never been this bad -- not by a long way. A car that would have cost $5,000 wholesale six months ago might cost $6,500 today, he said. And if it's a Toyota or a Honda, "it's insane"...

Joe Wiesenfelder, senior editor of Cars.com, said price increases have been the norm since the economy turned in 2008. It's all a matter of supply and demand, he said, but there are many factors at work... the federal Cash for Clunkers program that offered drivers incentives to trade in their old cars, removed nearly 700,000 used cars from the market...

ENERGY Washington vs. Energy Security, Wall Street Journal, 11 May 2011
Even former President Clinton calls the Obama administration's deep water drilling policy 'ridiculous.'

...In the year since the Deepwater Horizon spill, the Obama administration has put in place what is effectively a permanent moratorium on deep water drilling. It stretched out the approval process for some Gulf-region drilling permits to more than nine months, lengths that former President Bill Clinton has called "ridiculous."

...Then there's tax policy. Why, when gas prices are climbing, would any elected official call for new taxes on energy?...

...We won't achieve energy security by restricting our own companies from drilling or singling them out for punitive taxes. We're talking about an industry that provides millions of jobs and, for the foreseeable future, the power for our economic growth... [And] let's stop demonizing Big Oil to score political points. It does nothing to encourage the new talent, new ideas, and new entrepreneurs who are most likely to make breakthroughs in new sources of energy.

UNEMPLOYMENT Real Unemployment Hits 22%, ShadowStats.com, May 2011
The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.

The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment...

Of course, we've borrowed trillions of dollars to spend on a "Stimulus" program (trillions because it was built into subsequent baseline budgets), which Democrats promised would keep unemployment under 8%.

Housing. Automobiles. Energy. Unemployment.

President Obama and Congressional Democrats are utter and complete failures.

They are like King Midas in reverse. Everything they touch turns to crap.

They are ideologues, not economists. They are, by definition, economic illiterates. Nothing they've done has worked. Actually, everything they've tried has made things provably, measurably worse.

They are walking, talking clusters. Remember in 2012, before it's too late.


What's Old is New Again: A Time For Choosing

How brilliant, how timeless, how relevant was this 1964 speech by Ronald Reagan?

...Today, 37 cents out of every dollar earned in this country is the tax collector's share, and yet our government continues to spend 17 million dollars a day more than the government takes in. We haven't balanced our budget 28 out of the last 34 years. We've raised our debt limit three times in the last twelve months, and now our national debt is one and a half times bigger than all the combined debts of all the nations of the world. We have 15 billion dollars in gold in our treasury; we don't own an ounce. Foreign dollar claims are 27.3 billion dollars. And we've just had announced that the dollar of 1939 will now purchase 45 cents in its total value.

...Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, "We don't know how lucky we are." And the Cuban stopped and said, "How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to." And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.

And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man.

This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There's only an up or down—[up] man's old—old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.

In this vote-harvesting time, they use terms like the "Great Society," or as we were told a few days ago by the President, we must accept a greater government activity in the affairs of the people. But they've been a little more explicit in the past and among themselves; and all of the things I now will quote have appeared in print. These are not Republican accusations. For example, they have voices that say, "The cold war will end through our acceptance of a not undemocratic socialism." Another voice says, "The profit motive has become outmoded. It must be replaced by the incentives of the welfare state." Or, "Our traditional system of individual freedom is incapable of solving the complex problems of the 20th century." Senator Fullbright has said at Stanford University that the Constitution is outmoded. He referred to the President as "our moral teacher and our leader," and he says he is "hobbled in his task by the restrictions of power imposed on him by this antiquated document." He must "be freed," so that he "can do for us" what he knows "is best." And Senator Clark of Pennsylvania, another articulate spokesman, defines liberalism as "meeting the material needs of the masses through the full power of centralized government."

Well, I, for one, resent it when a representative of the people refers to you and me, the free men and women of this country, as "the masses." This is a term we haven't applied to ourselves in America. But beyond that, "the full power of centralized government"—this was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize. They knew that governments don't control things. A government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. They also knew, those Founding Fathers, that outside of its legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy.

...The President tells us he's now going to start building public housing units in the thousands, where heretofore we've only built them in the hundreds. But FHA [Federal Housing Authority] and the Veterans Administration tell us they have 120,000 housing units they've taken back through mortgage foreclosure. For three decades, we've sought to solve the problems of unemployment through government planning, and the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.

...We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So they're going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning. Well, now, if government planning and welfare had the answer—and they've had almost 30 years of it—shouldn't we expect government to read the score to us once in a while? Shouldn't they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of people needing help? The reduction in the need for public housing?

But the reverse is true. Each year the need grows greater; the program grows greater. We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well that was probably true. They were all on a diet. But now we're told that 9.3 million families in this country are poverty-stricken on the basis of earning less than 3,000 dollars a year. Welfare spending [is] 10 times greater than in the dark depths of the Depression. We're spending 45 billion dollars on welfare. Now do a little arithmetic, and you'll find that if we divided the 45 billion dollars up equally among those 9 million poor families, we'd be able to give each family 4,600 dollars a year. And this added to their present income should eliminate poverty. Direct aid to the poor, however, is only running only about 600 dollars per family. It would seem that someplace there must be some overhead.

Now—so now we declare "war on poverty"... do they honestly expect us to believe that if we add 1 billion dollars to the 45 billion we're spending, one more program to the 30-odd we have—and remember, this new program doesn't replace any, it just duplicates existing programs—do they believe that poverty is suddenly going to disappear by magic?

...Yet anytime you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. They say we're always "against" things—we're never "for" anything.

Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.

Now—we're for a provision that destitution should not follow unemployment by reason of old age, and to that end we've accepted Social Security as a step toward meeting the problem.

But we're against those entrusted with this program when they practice deception regarding its fiscal shortcomings, when they charge that any criticism of the program means that we want to end payments to those people who depend on them for a livelihood. They've called it "insurance" to us in a hundred million pieces of literature. But then they appeared before the Supreme Court and they testified it was a welfare program. They only use the term "insurance" to sell it to the people. And they said Social Security dues are a tax for the general use of the government, and the government has used that tax. There is no fund, because Robert Byers, the actuarial head, appeared before a congressional committee and admitted that Social Security as of this moment is 298 billion dollars in the hole. But he said there should be no cause for worry because as long as they have the power to tax, they could always take away from the people whatever they needed to bail them out of trouble. And they're doing just that.

A young man, 21 years of age, working at an average salary—his Social Security contribution would, in the open market, buy him an insurance policy that would guarantee 220 dollars a month at age 65. The government promises 127. He could live it up until he's 31 and then take out a policy that would pay more than Social Security. Now are we so lacking in business sense that we can't put this program on a sound basis, so that people who do require those payments will find they can get them when they're due—that the cupboard isn't bare?

...can't we introduce voluntary features that would permit a citizen who can do better on his own to be excused upon presentation of evidence that he had made provision for the non-earning years? Should we not allow a widow with children to work, and not lose the benefits supposedly paid for by her deceased husband? Shouldn't you and I be allowed to declare who our beneficiaries will be under this program, which we cannot do? I think we're for telling our senior citizens that no one in this country should be denied medical care because of a lack of funds. But I think we're against forcing all citizens, regardless of need, into a compulsory government program, especially when we have such examples, as was announced last week, when France admitted that their Medicare program is now bankrupt. They've come to the end of the road.

...I think we're for an international organization, where the nations of the world can seek peace. But I think we're against subordinating American interests to an organization that has become so structurally unsound that today you can muster a two-thirds vote on the floor of the General Assembly among nations that represent less than 10 percent of the world's population. I think we're against the hypocrisy of assailing our allies because here and there they cling to a colony, while we engage in a conspiracy of silence and never open our mouths about the millions of people enslaved in the Soviet colonies in the satellite nations.

I think we're for aiding our allies by sharing of our material blessings with those nations which share in our fundamental beliefs, but we're against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism, all over the world. We set out to help 19 countries. We're helping 107. We've spent 146 billion dollars. With that money, we bought a 2 million dollar yacht for Haile Selassie. We bought dress suits for Greek undertakers, extra wives for Kenya[n] government officials. We bought a thousand TV sets for a place where they have no electricity. In the last six years, 52 nations have bought 7 billion dollars worth of our gold, and all 52 are receiving foreign aid from this country.

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So governments' programs, once launched, never disappear.

Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth.

Federal employees—federal employees number two and a half million; and federal, state, and local, one out of six of the nation's work force employed by government. These proliferating bureaus with their thousands of regulations have cost us many of our constitutional safeguards. How many of us realize that today federal agents can invade a man's property without a warrant? They can impose a fine without a formal hearing, let alone a trial by jury? And they can seize and sell his property at auction to enforce the payment of that fine. In Chico County, Arkansas, James Wier over-planted his rice allotment. The government obtained a 17,000 dollar judgment. And a U.S. marshal sold his 960-acre farm at auction. The government said it was necessary as a warning to others to make the system work.

...But as a former Democrat, I can tell you Norman Thomas isn't the only man who has drawn this parallel to socialism with the present administration, because back in 1936, Mr. Democrat himself, Al Smith, the great American, came before the American people and charged that the leadership of his Party was taking the Party of Jefferson, Jackson, and Cleveland down the road under the banners of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. And he walked away from his Party, and he never returned til the day he died—because to this day, the leadership of that Party has been taking that Party, that honorable Party, down the road in the image of the labor Socialist Party of England.

Now it doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed to the—or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? And such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.

Our Democratic opponents seem unwilling to debate these issues. They want to make you and I believe that this is a contest between two men—that we're to choose just between two personalities.

...Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy "accommodation." And they say if we'll only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he'll forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer—not an easy answer—but simple: If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right.

We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion human beings now enslaved behind the Iron Curtain, "Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skins, we're willing to make a deal with your slave masters." Alexander Hamilton said, "A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." Now let's set the record straight. There's no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there's only one guaranteed way you can have peace—and you can have it in the next second—surrender.

Admittedly, there's a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face—that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand—the ultimatum. And what then—when Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we're retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he's heard voices pleading for "peace at any price" or "better Red than dead," or as one commentator put it, he'd rather "live on his knees than die on his feet." And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don't speak for the rest of us.

You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin—just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it's a simple answer after all.

You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." "There is a point beyond which they must not advance." And this—this is the meaning in the phrase ... "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said, "The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we're spirits—not animals." And he said, "There's something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

Absolutely brilliant.

Absolutely timeless.

And proof positive that the Democrats really haven't changed much in the last half-century.


The Big Unsustainable Apple: With 16,000 fewer employees than in 2001, salaries are up 300%, pension costs up 700%

Marc Cenedella dissects New York City's 2012 budget summary and discovers some, eh, anomalies:

This graph is the most distressing in the entire budget deck -with declining headcount, pensions are now almost equal to what we pay current employees:

...New York City has 16,000 fewer employees than 2001...

...but spending on salaries and wages has increased from $3.8 bn to $10.8 bn; and spending on pensions has increased from $1.3 bn to $8.3 bn over that same period.

...Education expense has increase[d] at three times the rate of inflation despite the same number of teachers (113K teachers in ‘02 vs. 109k now)...

...New York City’s Pension Costs have grown 5x since 2002...

...It[']s expenses that are killing us: over the past decade, New York City hasn’t really grown its population but has increased expenses from $28.8 bn t $49.7 bn.

...”New York City needs a new pension plan for new employees.” [Ed: Gee, ya think?]

Perhaps someone can alert Bloomberg. I mean the idiot mayor, not the news service.


Hat tip: JTT.

Larwyn's Linx: Kiss of Death--Jimmy Carter Endorses RINO Jon Huntsman

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Nation

Kiss of death: Jimmy Carter endorses RINO Jon Huntsman: IHTM
Schumer: Not Serious About Rail Security: Malkin
Herman Cain Now the Hot Ticket: RSM

Indictment in Border Agent Murder Turns up Heat on Holder: PJM
Boehner, Kyl Want Trillions for Debt Ceiling Hike: HotAir
Bachmann to Tea Party: Thank you for not giving up: Cubachi

Gingrich Jumps In: Malkin
What Niche Does Gingrich Fill?: Commentary
Boehner Defends Taxpayers From Government's Mistakes: ATR

Economy

Announcing the Power Line Prize: Power Line
How Boeing's SC Employees Can Fight Back: LUR
Another Nail In the Keynesian Coffin: RCM

SF Landlords Go Galt: RWN
‘Introduction to Labor Studies’ – My First-Hand Account: BigGovt
2 + 2 = We Must Raise Taxes Because White People Are Bad: RWN

Climate & Energy

Some Democrats Think You Are Stupid: Patterico
South Carolina Taking Light Bulb Ban into Its Own Hands: Foundry
The Circle is Complete: Access to Al Gore’s Invention Threatened by Global Warming: Malkin

Media

Krugman Lies and Distorts History to Blame Recession and Budget Deficits on Bush: NB
Obama’s ATF: Too Busy Gun Smuggling to Arrest Criminals?: PJM
Obama Street Art: The Frankenstein Monster Edition : Urban Infidel

President Obama’s 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft: Bookworm
‘Burn a Bush’? Michelle Obama invites rapper Common to a poetry reading: DC
Sarah Palin talks energy, jabs MSM with David Asman: TRS

U.S. University Giving Award to Anti-American, Terror Supporting Al-Jazeera TV: RWN
Grouchy old white man pet peeves: JPA
Napolitano: President Is Taking ‘Osama Victory Lap’ To Distract America From High Gas Prices: Mediate

World

Egypt: Situation Deteriorating Badly and Rapidly: BRubin
The Victory Lap is Over: Now What?: Diogenes
Here's How Much German Banks Are on the Hook To The Periphery For: CWD

I Dream Of Ahmadinejad!: RWN
Senate Democrats Support Aid Cutoff to Palestinian “Unity” Regime: Commentary
China Could Reach Wage Parity With US In 5 Years: Is a New Manufacturing Golden Age On the Way?: ZH

SciTech

YouTube Hints At Major Studio Deals, Adding 3,000 New Movies For Rent: TechCrunch
Visualizing how Twitter spread news of bin Laden's death: CNet
With New App, Ustream Aims To Take Live Streaming On Facebook To a New Level': TechCrunch

Cornucopia

My Mother at Ninety (Now 96): AmDigest
Cyclist Dies in High-Speed Crash at Giro d’Italia: Wired
10 Things You Never Knew You Could Do On LinkedIn: Insider

Image: Diogenes Sarcastica
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