Friday, May 20, 2011

Plump, pony-tailed blogger beclowns himself for umpteenth time, fails to remove embarrassing tweets

Well, this must be a tad embarrassing:


This is odd: headlines around the world plainly refute Chaz' contention because, yes, President Obama did tell Israel to revert to its pre-1967 borders.

You know, back in the day, I never thought my blog would be more popular than LGF. I failed to anticipate the epic meltdown of Johnson, which was as tragic as it was needless.

He's on the wrong side of history and everyone but him knows it.


Allen West Reads Obama the Riot Act on Israel

Since he apparently won't run for president in 2012, I say we make Allen West the Speaker of the House. After all, he's not a crybaby, nor is he a really lousy negotiator like our current version.

Today’s endorsement by President Barack Obama of the creation of a Hamas-led Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, signals the most egregious foreign policy decision his administration has made to date, and could be the beginning of the end as we know it for the Jewish state.

From the moment the modern day state of Israel declared statehood in 1948, to the end of the 1967 Six Day War, Jews were forbidden access to their holiest site, the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, controlled by Jordan’s Arab army.

The pre-1967 borders endorsed by President Obama would deny millions of the world’s Jews access to their holiest site and force Israel to return the strategically important Golan Heights to Syria, a known state-sponsor of terrorism.

Resorting to the pre-1967 borders would mean a full withdrawal by the Israelis from the West Bank and the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Make no mistake, there has always been a Nation of Israel and Jerusalem has been and must always be recognized as its rightful capital.

In short, the Hamas-run Palestinian state envisioned by President Obama would be devastating to Israel and the world’s 13.3 million Jews. It would be a Pavlovian style reward to a declared Islamic terrorist organization, and an unacceptable policy initiative.

America should never negotiate with the Palestinian Authority- which has aligned itself with Hamas. Palestine is a region, not a people or a modern state. Based upon Roman Emperor Hadrian's declaration in 73 AD, the original Palestinian people are the Jewish people.

It's time for the American people to stand by our strongest ally, the Jewish State of Israel, and reject this foreign policy blunder of epic proportions.

While the winds of democracy may blow strong in the Middle East, history has demonstrated that gaps in leadership can lead to despotic regimes. I have questions for President Obama: 'Who will now lead in Egypt?' and 'Why should American taxpayers provide foreign aid to a nation where the next chapter in their history may be the emergence of another radical Islamic state?'

President Obama has not stood for Israel or the Jewish people and has made it clear where the United States will stand when Palestine attempts to gain recognition of statehood by the United Nations. The President should focus on the real obstacle to security- the Palestinian leadership and its ultimate goal to eliminate Israel and the Jewish people.”

It sounds like Rep. Allen West (R-FL) knows what really happened in the Middle East.


Obama orders Jews to Ghetto in preparation for final final solution

By calling for Israel to return to its pre-1967 War borders -- according to The New York Times -- President Barack Obama has thrown the tiny Jewish state under the bus.

For in doing so, he has broken decades of precedent with U.S. history; he has encouraged radical Muslims the world over to rally for indefensible borders; he has demanded a divided Jerusalem; and he has all but embraced Hamas and the genocidal Muslim Brotherhood.

Hamas has already responded: it says that Obama is delusional and that it will never recognize Israel's right to exist.

Why is it that only conservative Republicans are defending Israel? Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Orrin Hatch, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity among them?

Where are Jewish liberals in Congress like Barney Frank, Schmuck Schumer, Anthony's Weiner, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, et. al.? AWOL. The camera hogs suddenly can't be found.

The nearest analogy I can come up with is this: President Obama has ordered Jews to the ghettos in preparation for a final, final solution.

Earlier today, reacting to Obama's speech, Benjamin Netanyahu told Obama to go pound sand.

The only peace that will endure is one that is based on reality, on unshakable facts. I think for there to be peace, the Palestinians will have to accept some basic realities. The first is that while Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines. Because these lines are indefensible. Because they don’t take into account certain changes that have taken place on the ground, demographic changes that have taken place over the last 44 years.

Remember that before 1967, Israel was all of 9 miles wide. It was half the width of the Washington beltway. These were not the boundaries of peace. They were the boundaries of repeated wars because the attack on Israel was so attractive for them. We can’t go back to those indefensible lines and we’re going to have to have a long-term military presence along the Jordan. . . .

We’ve been around for almost four thousand years. We’ve experienced struggle and suffering like no other people. We’ve gone through expulsions, pogroms and massacres and the murder of millions.

But I can say that even at the dearth, even at the nadir of the valley of death, we never lost hope and we never lost our dream of reestablishing a sovereign state in our ancient homeland, the land of Israel.

And now it falls on my shoulders as the Prime Minister of Israel, at a time of extraordinary instability and uncertainty in the middle east to work with you and fashion a peace that will ensure Israel’s security and will not jeopardize it’s survival.

Obama needs to do a little reading; to study some history; to find what really happened in the Middle East before he bloviates on topics he knows absolutely nothing about.


Larwyn's Linx: Yup, Obama Hates Israel

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

Nation

Yup, Obama Hates Israel: Ace
Obama's borders Caused 60 Years of War: AT (Lewis)
Obama Parties Like It's 1967: AmSpec

Texas border security situation is not a joking matter: Abbott
Teleconference with Jeff Sessions: RWN
Mitch Daniels Does Not Support Individual Mandate... Anymore: Ace

Obama to Israel: Turn over tomb of Jesus to Hamas: GWP
'The President of the United States is Asking for Ethnic Cleansing': CNS
Palin on 2012: ‘I do have the fire in my belly’: DC

Economy

The union label stifles growth and jobs: WashExam
Million Dollars in Bonuses Headed to AWOL WI Teachers?: BigGovt
Housing expert: home prices could drop a further 30%: Yahoo

Obama's Plan for Medicare Will Destroy It Within 10 Years: Ace
Mania is Back: LinkedIn IPO Soars as Much as 173% in One Day: Mish
Family Facing $4 Million in Fines for Selling Bunnies: BMW

Obama Voters Struggle To Find Jobs: PoliPundit
Government Employees Overpaid by $468 Billion Each Year: ATR
Bernanke's Economic Time Bomb: AT

Climate & Energy

EPA Sends Your Tax Dollars to Anti-Freedom Enviro-Kooks: Foundry
Children’s Book Publisher Collapses to Radical Environmentalist Pressure: RWN
Truly surprising science discovery – free floating planets: WUWT

Media

Is Colbert Smart Enough to Know He Just Proved That Citizens United Was Correctly Decided?: Patterico
The Credibility Canard: PJM
Read The Urban Dictionary’s Anti-Semitic Definition Of Anti-Semite: Glob

Progressive Blue Texan's Instaputz Slurs Israel 'Über Alles': AmPower
Next on Liberal Agenda: Taking Voting Rights From Seniors: MB
The Right Way to Get Raped (A Guest Post for the Ladies by Ben Stein): RWN

Democrat Rep. Jan Schakowsky Calls Andrew Breitbart A ‘Sleaze Bag’-Wants To Ban Critical Media: BigGovt
George Soros Is Spending Fortune to Drive News Media Further Left: RWN
Media Whitewashes Islamic Attacks on Egyptian Christians: NewAm

World

Hold That Tiger: Belmont Club
Limbaugh reaction to president’s speech: Obama urging Israel to destroy itself: DC
What Should Netanyahu Say?: AT

Disturbing Questions about President Obama's Vision for Israel: AT
President Obama’s Speech to the State Department Means New Dangers for Israel: PJM
Conquering America: NoisyRoom

The Great Woo Of China: IBD
In Case Anyone Cares, Obama Is Fighting What Is Actually, Demonstrably an "Illegal War": Ace
One can only conclude that Obama is genuinely, as a matter of philosophical conviction, anti-Israel: Power Line

SciTech

Amazon now sells more Kindle e-books than print books: LAT
Amazon wants to buy your used gadgets: CNet
How Apple's stores turned into a retail juggernaut: CNet

Cornucopia

Finding Marizela: The maddening quest for a missing young person’s online/text info: Malkin
"Justice"? I Spit on Your "Justice": IowaHawk
Facebook Pic Of The Day: Why’d Arnold Trade Steak For Hot Dogs?: RWN

Image: Weasel Zippers
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: TrendingRight.com - real-time conservative news

QOTD: "What country in its right mind make a deal with such an enemy? Would we go back to our 1848 borders? Would we give the French areas of the Louisiana Purchase? Would we do this? What kind of president urges a country to destroy itself and submit its people to potential genocide? And that’s what Obama has just done." --Rush Limbaugh on President Obama's call for Israel to return to the 1967 borders

Thursday, May 19, 2011

I hate it when...

...someone with a cool car takes up two spots in the garage.


Hat tip: Bernie.

Santorum didn't go far enough. I, for one, support waterboarding Democrats to see which ones are really Marxists

I've come to expect blatant lies from left-wing propaganda rags like Salon, which misrepresented Rick Santorum's remarks concerning enhanced interrogation techniques ("Santorum: What does McCain know about torture?"). The spin was false: Santorum simply stated that McCain doesn't understand (or perhaps doesn't want to understand) Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, which have been used for decades by American forces -- including on each other during training exercises.

Do EITs work? Of course, they do as Obama CIA head Leon Panetta admitted and as have others in the know.

Shortly after Osama bin Laden met his demise at the hands of U.S. special forces, Michael Mukasey opined in the pages of the Wall Street Journal that harsh interrogation tactics had been key to identifying a courier, which, in turn, led to locating bin Laden’s compound. Such an assessment, from a highly respected former attorney general, was bound to be influential...

...Mukasey’s conclusion that the intelligence trail to bin Laden traced directly back to harsh interrogation, particularly (though by no means exclusively) the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is on the mark. McCain is the one twisting the facts — all the worse when one considers that the senator has been perfectly willing to rely on intelligence gleaned from “torture” when it suits his purposes.

Furthermore, McCain's fellow POWs support EITs.

[McCain's] claim [that waterboarding is torture] has indeed been disputed — by several of McCain’s fellow prisoners of war, [many of whom] vehemently disagree with his assertion that waterboarding, as practiced by the CIA, even remotely constitutes torture.

When I was researching my book, “Courting Disaster,” I interviewed many of them, including Col. Bud Day, who received our nation’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, for his heroic escape from a North Vietnamese prison camp. When Day was returned to the prison, his right arm was broken in three places and he had been shot in the hand and thigh during his capture. But he continued to resist interrogation and provide false information — suffering such excruciating torture that he became totally physically debilitated and unable to perform even the simplest task for himself. In short, Day is an expert on the subject of torture. Here is what he says about CIA waterboarding:

I am a supporter of waterboarding. It is not torture. Torture is really hurting someone. Waterboarding is just scaring someone, with no long-term injurious effects. It is a scare tactic that works.”

...Like Day, Col. Leo Thorsness was awarded the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism during the Vietnam War. He experienced excruciating torture during his captivity — his back broken, his body wrenched apart. He says what the CIA did to al-Qaeda terrorists in its custody was not torture... "I would not hesitate a second to use ‘enhanced interrogation,’ including waterboarding, if it would save the lives of innocent people.”

Another torture victim who supports waterboarding is Adm. Jeremiah Denton — the POW who famously winked the word “T-O-R-T-U-R-E” in Morse code during a North Vietnamese propaganda interview. It was the first message to the outside world that American prisoners were being tortured. Denton later received the Navy Cross for this courageous and costly act of defiance, for which he paid dearly when his captors figured out what he had done. I asked Denton if he thought waterboarding was torture. He told me: “No, I think it’s persuasive..."

In fact, the once-classified memos released by President Obama in April of 2009 proved that waterboarding worked.

And I, centrist that I am, will only support a GOP candidate who believes Democrats in Congress should be waterboarded to find out which ones are Marxists.


Nice: Mexican drug cartels now manning hilltop observation posts in Arizona to track movement of cops in "safe as it's ever been" border region

It would appear that, despite the civil war boiling over in Mexico, this administration is bent on maintaining open borders with the failed narco-terror state in order to ensure a pre-election influx of undocumented Democrats.

Because that's the only explanation that makes sense to me.

Authorities say most of the mountain tops in the Tohono O'odham Native American reservation in Arizona are being used by Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel to hide surveillance teams who operate as spotters while cargo is trafficked across the U.S. border. NBC's Mark Potter reports..

...Making our way slowly to the rugged hilltops about a mile away, we came across several caves carved out of the rock by wind and rain. On the floor of one of them, we saw clear evidence that a surveillance team had been camping out. Two blankets were spread out next to a pair of shoes. Nearby were boxes of food, tarps, water jugs, toothpaste and a portable stove, on top of which was a pan with fresh cooking oil still in it.

Agents also found radio chargers and car batteries used to power communications gear. They told NBC producer-photographer Al Henkel and me that Mexican surveillance teams will work in these mountains for 30 to 60 days at a time...

...They locate themselves up on these ridgelines, up in caves, hidey holes, ‘spider holes’ we call them,” said DEA agent Todd Scott. He and the agents wondered if this particular “spider hole” was home to the two men just seen running away...

...smugglers often use heavily-camouflaged vehicles with all the inside lights taped over to avoid being seen at night. When spotters in the mountains give the all-clear signal to move north, the traffickers will sometimes drive right across the desert, or will set out on foot carrying drugs... “A vehicle may have anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 pounds in it and then you may have a human train of smugglers, 10 or 15 people each with a 40-to-60 pound pack on their back,” said Scott, the DEA agent...

Oh, and I forgot: the border is, according to our beloved baritone DHS secretary, "as safe as it's ever been."


Liu-ser -- Radical Leftist Kook Goodwin Liu Gets Pwnt by Senate GOP

As Morgen of Verum Serum notes, "It's time to spike the football!"

Defeat, finally, for Goodwin Liu’s nomination to a seat on the Ninth Circuit. The vote to end debate on Liu’s nomination just failed, 52-43. In somewhat of a surprise, and in what can only be called a resounding rebuke to the White House, Murkowski seems to be the only Republican who voted against the filibuster. And Ben Nelson even crossed over to vote against Liu!

To the pathetic members of the liberal media spinning this as “petty revenge” for Liu’s opposition to Roberts and Alito, or arguing inanely that Liu was a threat only because he was “too qualified”…suck it. Liu’s views of the law and the Constitution are radical by any reasonable measure, and just because a few token, quasi- “conservatives” backed Liu, this did not make him the reasonable, mainstream candidate you purported him to be. The days of liberal activists inside and outside the White House installing stealth radicals in key positions throughout the government are thankfully winding down, at least under this Administration.

While it’s gratifying having played some part in the opposition to Liu’s nomination, the real winners are the American people – at least those among us who value freedom and personal responsibility - saved from the consequences of having yet another liberal activist judge installed in our courts. In case the message still hasn’t been received, we’re not going to sit back and take it any more...

Congratulations are due to Michelle Malkin, LifeNews and certainly Verum Serum for their crucial efforts in helping stop this radical Leftist nut from reaching the federal bench.


The End of the World Comes Early This Year: May 21st

If you can believe the apocalyptic visions of radio broadcaster Harold Camping, you may want to splurge on ice cream Friday evening or, at the very least, kiss a complete stranger.

His latest prediction names Saturday, May 21, 2011 as Judgement Day — marking the beginning five-month period of death and destruction before the world finally ends on October 21, 2011.

On his website, Camping asserts that a massive earthquake, powerful enough to throw open all graves will come first, followed by a slow death for all non-believers over the next five months. His prediction is based on taking direct quotes and stories from the Bible and applying them to numerological formulas.

...I know that Camping has been well-intentioned. I myself have thoroughly enjoyed his theological teachings throughout his life as a Christian broadcaster. And at 89 years old, I can understand his excitement to get to heaven. So I want to offer my own interpretation of his prediction, and hope that it ends up serving as more of a call for awareness to take a look at our moral compass and live life in a way that will bring us closer to God.

When May 21st comes and goes and nothing happens, perhaps for a brief moment, we will all be reminded that life is precious, and we should do everything we can while we’re here to make it wonderful for ourselves and those around us...

Of course, it doesn't help that Camping is also holding his twelfth annual "End of the World Sale" on all website merchandise.


Larwyn's Linx: Call Your Senator Now -- Stop the Despicable Goodwin Liu

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

Nation

Call Your Senator Now -- Stop the Despicable Goodwin Liu: LifeNews
Goodwin Liu’s Reparations Views Disqualify Him From Judiciary: VS
McCain to seek to filibuster Liu: CNS

Who's Right on Medicare Reform?: Mish
ICE Waited Months To Warn Agents Of Gang Hit Plots: JW
Rick Perry Presidential Push Quietly Gains Steam: RCP

Justice Kagan’s Bizarre Standard for Recusal: VS
Nice going, Newt: Schumer compliments Gingrich: NRO
Bob McDonnell Puts David Axelrod in His Place: HE

Evil Precedent: Indiana Invalidates Fourth Amendment: NoisyRoom
Liberal Genius: Let's Take Away Senior Voting Rights: GWP
Iowa Loves Herman Cain: RSM

Economy

The NLRB’s attack on the secret ballot: DC
Obama’s government & union stimulus: GayPatriot
Gallup Pegs Underemployment at 19.1%: Mish

Waive Me: Malkin
Future NJEA union hacks graduate college without any class: WyBlog
NY School Official Pulls down $540K/yr.: Bloomberg

Climate & Energy

Leftwing Science: JPA
Drill Baby Drill ~ And Do It Right Damn Now!: GM's Place
Clownish Nobel Laureates Put Human Race on Trial: RWN

Media

Obama to local/metro papers: How ya like me now, chumps?: Malkin
The New Civility Just Keeps Getting More Civilized: Driscoll
Katie Couric’s Most Objective Moments at CBS: Malkin

Icarus-In-Chief: Camp of the Saints
Oops! Secret Service Tweets Anti-Fox News Message: Blaze
Bill Keller, Luddite-slash-Idiot: TechCrunch

The New MSM Meme: John Huntsman, The Man Who Scares Democrats: Sundries
Far-Left Cartoonist Can't Get Anyone To Publish His Anti-Obama Pieces: NB
Air Force One Misses Approach with President Aboard: Tapper

MSNBC’s Nostalgia Is Dam Inconvenient for President Obama: Driscoll
Handicapping the Race: Wolf Howling
Corruption: 'Pastor' Uses Jesus' Parable To Defend Abortion: BlogProf

World

AZ Citizens Speak Out Against Obama’s Immigration Remarks: Bruce
Mexican cops pull over two trucks carrying 513 illegal aliens headed for the United States: IHTM
Protests Mount in Spain; Sovereign Debt Crisis to Follow: Mish

Are We Facing an Iranian Missile Crisis? The Dereliction of our Media: PJM
WaPo's Grim Review of Netanyahu's Visit: AT
Penn: Using the hijab to promote Islam to middle school kids: Creeping

Iranian FM Says Bushehr Nuke Plant Is Now Operational: WZ
Over 50 U.S. churches to hold Qur'an readings: JihadWatch
Leftists Support Gay-Bashing Palestinians in Effort to Eradicate Gay-Friendly Israel: Commentary

SciTech

Death by GPS: AutoBlog
The Chilling Story of Genius in a Land of Chronic Unemployment: TechCrunch
Yes, tablets are hurting PC sales...kind of: CNet

Cornucopia

Battle of the URL Redirects Continues: WZ
10 Celebrities Who Got Burned By Identity Thieves: BusinessPundit
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Love Children (Yep. I Said ‘Children,’ Which Is Plural): RSM

Corsi To Release Evidence Obama Certificate Is A Fraudulent Composite: SHN
Obama: Our First Black Jewish President : MOTUS
Huck Finn and the Constitution: Ashbrook

Image: Michael Ramirez
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: TrendingRight.com - real-time conservative news


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Nomura Equity Research: Batten Down the Hatches -- Obama Is Making the Same Mistakes Roosevelt Made During the Great Depression

Richard Koo of Nomura Equity Research has some bad news for investors. The end of the Obama administration's "QE2" program of money-printing, in Koo's opinion, will likely have devastating effects on the stock market.

When a central bank provides liquidity to the market, it buys government debt or other securities in exchange for cash. The previous owners of those securities, typically financial institutions, take that money and attempt to turn a profit by loaning it out...

...What actually happened, however, is quite different. Market liquidity in the US and the UK almost tripled. But the money supply, which represents funds actually available for use by the private sector, has increased little if at all since the financial crisis in 2008... ...Despite this reality, many investors in both the US and the UK appear to labor under the misconception that an increase in the liquidity supply due to quantitative easing will inevitably boost the money supply...

...The decline in private-sector credit in the US and the UK is attributable to both the unwillingness of banks to lend and the unwillingness of the private sector to borrow. The two factors are rooted in balance sheet problems and are indications that both countries remain in balance sheet recessions...

...In effect, the money supplies of both the US and the UK are being supported by government borrowing. If the two governments chose to embark on fiscal consolidation, their money supplies would contract...

...When the situation is viewed in this light, we come to the realization that Mr. Bernanke’s QE2 was in fact a major gamble. It was a gamble in the sense that the Fed tried to raise share prices with QE2. If the wealth effect resulting from those higher prices led to improvements in the economy, the higher asset prices would ultimately be supported by higher real demand, thereby demonstrating that prices were not in a bubble...

...Recent growth in the US economy also presents a danger in that it is making people complacent. Relatively strong economic indicators—data showing the economy created more than 200,000 jobs in the latest month for which data are available—have encouraged talk of fiscal consolidation. But the economy is far from achieving a self-sustaining recovery.

As indicated in the discussion of the money supply above, private-sector credit is not only not expanding but continues to shrink... That the money supply and GDP are still posting modest growth is only because the government continues to borrow and spend.

...This is identical to the phenomenon observed in the US in 1933–36 and in Japan after the collapse of the Heisei bubble... In other words, the US economy is being supported solely by massive fiscal stimulus amounting to 9% of GDP. It is not growing [in the] private sector.

...This pattern of expansion in the money supply and the economy despite an absence of private-sector credit growth was also observed in 1933–36 as the US economy emerged from the Great Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was unaware of the importance of this relationship and, believing that the economy was already on a self-sustaining growth path, embarked on a path of fiscal consolidation in 1937...

...The US economy consequently fell into a severe recession characterized by sharply lower production and drastically higher unemployment. It took the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor for the US economy to recover from the resulting damage...

Furthermore, Koo asserts that the US economy may be left "in far worse shape than if QE2 had never been implemented".

I've said it before and I'll say it again: these Democrat politicians are destroyers, not creators. Everything they touch -- whether in states like California, Illinois and New York or at the federal level with Fannie Mae, TARP, HAMP, Cash-for-Clunkers, Stimulus, and so on -- turns to fecal matter.

They are ideologues, not intellectuals. And we are all paying the price for their ignorance.


Newly released complaint: How Countrywide Financial, conspiring with Democrat hacks, helped to destroy the housing market

Countrywide Financial was arguably the lynch-pin of the entire financial crisis.

And to keep government officials at bay, it offered a program called "Friends of Angelo" (referring to Angelo Mozilo, chairman of Coountrywide) that offered special deals to powerful Democrats in government and in government-sponsored entities like Fannie Mae.

Recipients of these unique mortgage deals included Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND), former HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, former ambassador Richard Holbrooke and former Fannie Mae executives James Johnson, Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick.

Just how sleazy was the Countrywide operation? There are some great details in a newly released legal complaint (PDF) that dissects the alleged activities and asserts that Auric Orangefinger -- my nickname for the pumpkin-skinned Angelo Mozilo -- was well aware of the skulduggery.

...Mozilo was further driven by his belief that Countrywide’s riskier loans faced imminent default. In a June 1, 2006 email regarding pay-option adjustable rate mortgages (“ARMs”) Mozilo warned Sambol and other executives that borrowers “are going to experience a payment shock which is going to be difficult if not impossible for them to manage.” Mozilo warned that “[w]e know or can reliably predict what’s going to happen in the next couple of years.” Mozilo acknowledged internally (but never disclosed to MBS investors) that the majority of pay-option ARMs were originated using stated income, and that evidence suggested that borrowers were misstating their incomes...

...Countrywide’s Chief Risk Officer John McMurray testified that his credit risk department “would reject proposals for new products but the people in sales nevertheless used the exceptions procedure to achieve the same result.” He was “surprised, angry, and disappointed,” for instance, when he found out Countrywide had advertising fliers promoting loans that had low FICO requirements, only required a stated (non-documented) income, and provided 100% financing even though the credit risk department had previously rejected those flyers...

...[an] internal review conducted around the same time concluded “approximately 40% of the Bank’s reduced documentation loans . . . could potentially have income overstated by more than 10% and a significant percent of those loans would have income overstated by 50% or more.”

...despite the fact that almost all of [the purchased] Certificates started out with AAA or Aaa ratings -the same rating given to treasury bills backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government - 94% of them are now not even considered to be investment grade...

...Countrywide had a policy of matching individual terms of any mortgage product that a competitor was offering. A former finance executive at Countrywide explained that: “To the extent more than 5 percent of the [mortgage] market was originating a particular product, any 29 new alternative mortgage product, then Countrywide would originate it…. [I]t’s the proverbial race to the bottom.”

...To conceal its greatly increased volume of subprime loans, Countrywide employed an internal, undisclosed definition of prime versus subprime, and thus, in its public reports, Countrywide Financial classified loans as “prime” that clearly were subprime under well-established industry standards. A former senior underwriter at Countrywide reported that Countrywide regularly classified loans as “prime” even if they were issued to non-prime borrowers, including people who recently went through bankruptcy. According to the SEC, Countrywide included in the prime category risky loans with FICO scores below 620, which did not meet industry standards for “prime” loans, and further included loans with increasing amounts of credit risk such as reduced or no-documentation loans and pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages (“ARMs”)...

...According to the SEC, Countrywide’s culture of “exceptions” started at the top, with Mozilo personally approving loans by way of guideline exceptions pursuant to a “Friends of Angelo” program...

The "Friends of Angelo" program was, in truth, a sleazy operation designed to reward Democrat politicians in oversight roles and former Clinton administration officials who carried significant sway.

In turn, these useless Democrat hacks allowed federal policy and the GSEs -- Fannie and Freddie -- to get away with murder. The end result was the collapse of the GSEs and the resulting mortgage meltdown.

I urge you to remember in 2012 what these Democrats have done to you, your family and this country.


A Far Cry From 2008: Obama Campaign Resorts to Selling Birth Certificate Merchandise

I guess fundraising ain't what it was a few years ago, when Barack Obama was an up-and-coming superstar -- as opposed to a known (failed) quantity.

Straight from the Obama campaign to my inbox:


That said, this is a hell of a lot better than 2008, when the Obama campaign blatantly accepted foreign contributions in direct violation of federal election law


WTF? Your tax dollars helping Government Motors sponsor movie celebrating birth of Chinese Communist Party

Well, this certainly appears to be a wise use of your tax dollars, Sparky.

Cadillac is a beloved American brand. So why is it starring in a propaganda film about the birth of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)? The U.S. government-backed General Motors (GM) has offered the car up for use in a new film celebrating the CCP’s 90th birthday, “The Birth of a Party.”

GM’s sponsorship of this celebration is appalling, considering the bloody history of the Chinese Communist Party and the role it has played in China’s dismal human rights record. The film covers events leading up to the CCP’s creation in the early 1900s. Cadillac announced itself as a “chief business partner” of the communist propaganda film the same year China refused to release democracy and human rights advocate Liu Xiaobo from prison to receive the Nobel Prize. Xiaobo was represented at the ceremony by an empty chair.

...There are certainly nobler causes to sponsor. For example, Heritage’s Dr. Lee Edwards chairs the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. The Memorial commemorates the more than 100 million victims of communism and is represented by a replica of a statue erected by Chinese students in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China in the spring of 1989. An estimated 65 million died as a result of communist brutality just under Mao Zedong. Surely this slaughter will not be part of the film GM is sponsoring...

I hear Iran and Syria are also big growth markets.

Perhaps GM can sponsor a movie about the glory of Jihad, too.


Hat tip: TrendingRight.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Ten million times worse than Valerie Plame: additional UBL mission leaks that we (and they) should not know

Where's Valerie Plame when you need her to screech about real national security leaks?

...The U.S. deliberately hid the operation from Pakistan, and predicted that national outrage over the breach of Pakistani sovereignty would make it impossible to try again if the raid on bin Laden’s suspected redoubt came up dry.

Once the raiders reached their target, things started to go awry almost immediately, officials briefed on the operation said.

...Adding exclusive new details to the account of the assault on bin Laden’s hideout, officials described just how the SEAL raiders loudly ditched a foundering helicopter right outside bin Laden’s door, ruining the plan for a surprise assault. That forced them to abandon plans to run a squeeze play on bin Laden — simultaneously entering the house stealthily from the roof and the ground floor.

...The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a classified operation. [Ed: which, I believe, is still a crime.]

U.S. officials believe Pakistani intelligence continues to support militants who attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and actively undermine U.S. intelligence operations to go after al-Qaida inside Pakistan. The level of distrust is such that keeping Pakistan in the dark was a major factor in planning the raid, and led to using the high-tech but sometimes unpredictable helicopter technology that nearly unhinged the mission.

...Five aircraft flew from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, with three school-bus-size Chinook helicopters landing in a deserted area roughly two-thirds of the way to bin Laden’s compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, two of the officials explained.

Aboard two Black Hawk helicopters were 23 SEALs, an interpreter and a tracking dog named Cairo. Nineteen SEALs would enter the compound, and three of them would find bin Laden, one official said, providing the exact numbers for the first time... Aboard the Chinooks were two dozen more SEALs, as backup. [Ed: release of these numbers is not good.]

...As three of the SEALs reached the top of the steps on the third floor, they saw bin Laden standing at the end of the hall. The Americans recognized him instantly, the officials said... Bin Laden also saw them, dimly outlined in the dark house, and ducked into his room... The three SEALs assumed he was going for a weapon, and one by one they rushed after him through the door...

...Two women were in front of bin Laden, yelling and trying to protect him, two officials said. The first SEAL grabbed the two women and shoved them away, fearing they might be wearing suicide bomb vests, they said... The SEAL behind him opened fire at bin Laden, putting one bullet in his chest, and one in his head.

...Back at the White House Situation Room, word was relayed that bin Laden had been found, signaled by the code word “Geronimo.” That was not bin Laden’s code name, but rather a representation of the letter “G.” Each step of the mission was labeled alphabetically, and “Geronimo” meant that the raiders had reached step “G,” the killing or capture of bin Laden, two officials said.

...As the SEALs began photographing the body for identification, the raiders found an AK-47 rifle and a Russian-made Makarov pistol on a shelf by the door they’d just run through. Bin Laden hadn’t touched them...

And sorry about the "UBL death photo". I think this august journal was the first to post this particular image, and -- based upon the description of the firefight -- it's the only one I've seen that looks like an accurate representation.


Hat tip: JTT.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Love Child? [Photos - Updated]

The impeccably sourced Gawker (heh!) has an intriguing back-story to the Sperminator's shocking admission that he secretly fathered a love child and hid it from his family for more than a decade.

News of Arnold Schwarzenegger having fathered a child with a member of his household staff more than a decade ago shouldn't come as a surprise. The alleged existence of an out-of-wedlock son, including his name and his mother's name, was reported by the London Daily Mail in 2003. That's him playing high school football...

...I just heard from Wendy Leigh, the Schwarzenegger biographer and Daily Mail reporter who broke the love-child story in 2003, and she believes that today's revelations might be about a second love-child. "I'm hearing that this is a different child," she says. "Which means there are two." Leigh stands by her 2003 account Schwarzenegger being the father of Tanner Tousignant, but if what she's hearing today pans out, then Schwarzenegger's statement today wasn't about Tanner. So while he's still a Schwarzenegger love-child, he's not the latest Schwarzenegger love-child.

The boy, Tanner Tousignant, graduated from Brea Olinda High School in Brea, Calif., last year, according to his Facebook profile. His mother, Tammy Tousignant, served as a stewardess on Schwarzenegger's private jet for 20 years. In a story that's no longer online, the Daily Mail's Wendy Leigh outed her as the mother of Schwarzenegger's child just days before the special election that swept him into the governor's office...

Tammy was in her late 20s when Schwarzenegger first strode on to the chartered private plane on which she was flight attendant. He was instantly beguiled by her, and soon, according to several sources, they became romantically involved.

'Everyone knew that she was Arnold's lover - everyone,' said a source who is employed in the tightly-knit circle of the California charter-jet business.

Tammy would fly all over America with Arnold - to Colorado, to Sun Valley - and as soon as the plane landed anywhere, she would disembark with him, climb into his limousine and drive off with him, leaving the crew watching... According to one of Tammy's colleagues, Kristin Campbell, she routinely boasted that 'her baby was Arnold's'. The same claim has been made by two other women who knew Tammy well...


...The Times story originally reported that the anonymous child bore the same distinctive name as one of Schwarzenegger's film characters (that detail has apparently been scrubbed from the current version online); "Tanner" was the name of Schwarzenegger's character in Total Recall. (Even more odd, his brother is named Connor, which is the name of the name of the hero in the Terminator series.)

All that said, the impeccably-sourced Huffington Post (heh!) says that Gawker's story is bunk.

Tousignant's attorney Thomas E. Anthony told RadarOnline.com Tuesday that a paternity test had been conducted and Schwarzenegger was not the father of her child.

“I will confirm the following: the Tousignant child was no ‘love child’ involving anyone other than the parents of the child, Tammy and her husband, Tom Tousignant. Arnold Schwarzenegger was not the biological father of the Tousignant child. All scientific tests confirmed that Mr. Tousignant was the biological father of the child," said Anthony, who represented Tousignant in 2003.

Update 05/18/2011 05:58:

The woman behind the latest Arnold Schwarzenegger-Maria Shriver marriage drama has been identified as Mildred Patricia Baena, 50, by celebrity news website TMZ.com...

Baena, a housekeeper, is reported to have given birth to a boy fathered by the former Californian governor about a decade ago, according to the website. She worked at her $1,200-a-week job, which included cooking, cleaning and laundry, for 20 years until her retirement in January.

Schwarzenegger, who completed his second term as governor earlier this year, is believed to have been supporting the unidentified boy financially since his birth... TMZ.com has also claimed that Schwarzenegger used his Santa Monica office for meetings with a series of women, around five to seven years ago.

Update: Current News has several interesting photos alleged to be the "love child" and Mom.


Update 05/19/2011 20:19: Betty offers this unique snapshot of one of Ahnold's other love children, who she names the "Hasta la vista baby".



Other Photo Essays You Might Enjoy


The Fork in the Road


What really happened


Genocide in Green



Sometimes, try as you might, you simply can't add any snark to a story

He still believes in me.

What kind of political leader tells his supporters this?

My belief in you has not lessened.

President Obama does. That’s what he said toward the end a speech at a campaign fundraiser last night in Washington to a relatively youthful crowd of supporters he was trying spur back toward the energy level of 2008.

He still believes in what he believes, which is also what they believe, he said.

The vision that brought us together in 2008, that’s undiminished in me.

And best of all, our Leader let it be known, thankfully, that he continues to have faith in you and me as well.

The confidence I have in the American people, in their decency, that’s undiminished.  My faith that we can make tough choices on behalf of future generations, that’s undiminished.

I just, I’m just, I’m really just crying right now.

Excuse me.

Okay, I’m better.

Last night I was talking to one of my plants, telling him – or her, who knows?? – that I thought Obama might have lost faith in me.

I told him – or her . . . oh for goodness sakes I’ll just call it “Plant,” – I told Plant that Obama seemed not to be paying attention to people like me. You know, going golfing and skipping disasters and so on.

I was going to write him a letter, saying, “What have I done wrong? What can I do to pleaseth thou and regain thy favor.”

Oh I hate when I slip into King Jamesspeak. Always happens with Obama.

But it turns out he still thinks I’m decent. And he believes I can make choices on behalf of future generations, which I can. I mean, I pick out my kids’ clothes every day.

I will try from now on to do things right, Mr. President. I’ll work for change you can believe in. I won’t give up hope, unless gas hits $5 a gallon. And as a sign of my nearly religious commitment, I will even obey Michelle’s dietary laws.

Because thou hast commanded . . .

Sorry.


There's a word for this kind of behavior.

It starts with 'd'. And ends with 'elusional'.


Hat tip and image credit: Sad Hill News.

Rife for abuse: Nancy Pelosi using Obamacare to reward her friends in S.F.

Not only is Obamacare clearly unconstitutional, it is certain to be abused by political hacks bent on enriching themselves.

It happens everywhere government runs health care: it's used to reward friends and punish enemies. And the opportunist hack known in some circles as "Nancy Pelosi" is among the first to abuse the power.

Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama’s administration approved in April, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district.

That’s in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services approved.

Pelosi’s district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers.

...Other common waiver recipients were labor union chapters, large corporations, financial firms and local governments. But Pelosi’s district’s waivers are the first major examples of luxurious, gourmet restaurants and hotels getting a year-long pass from Obamacare...

Congress and government bureaucrats now have the power to reward and punish; to enrich their political allies and bankrupt their enemies; to deny health care services or permit them; to literally play God.

And that is why Democrats jammed through a monstrous bill that purports to be "health care reform". No one read the bill. No one knows exactly what it will do. But they knew enough, namely that it will grant unlimited, God-like power to a select few political hacks.

That's the real 'change' the drones voted for in 2008.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

Larwyn's Linx: Bachmann likely to run, say senior insiders

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

Nation

Bachmann likely to run, say senior insiders: Cubachi
Arizona Hit Squads Targeting Hispanics: JWF
Newt Gingrich apologizes to Paul Ryan: Politico

Radical judicial nominee alert: Goodwin Liu headed for vote: Malkin
Palin on Pelosi's Obamacare Waivers: "This Is Corrupt": DC
Rand Paul: Smackdown!: WretchedNet

Democrats Use Foreign Money to Influence American Elections: RS
Paul Ryan For President?: Pundette
Kloppenburg Digs In Deeper: LegalIns

Economy

Study: Obama's Stimulus Cost 595,000 Jobs: IBD
Reform Health Care Administration and Save Billions: PJM
OH Teacher's Union React to SB5 with... Dues Hike: BigGovt

Illegal aliens get in-state tuition: RWN
The Unraveling of a Ponzi Scheme: BigGovt
Expensive Gas: It's the Weak Dollar, Stupid: WashExam

If Only Wal-Mart Would Start Supplying K-12 Schooling!: Hayek
NLRB wants unions to control business: WashExam
White House to Honor Schools Promoting ‘Environmental Literacy’: Malkin

Climate & Energy

Eco-Tard Math is Fun: CBullitt (Language Warning)
Who’s Up for $50 Light Bulbs?: Malkin
Perfect: Alleged GOP Candidate Huntsman Believes in Global Warming: Hill

Media

Fisking a fact check: Surber
No Newt Is Good Newt: Shiver
How About Santorum?: Zilla

Gingrich and Romney run against their own party: Barone
Glenn Beck Announces “Rally In Jerusalem” In August: NoisyRoom
Pic' of the Day: Gas Facts: RWN

And the Role of John McCain will be Played By…: Driscoll
Newt’s Tuesday Blogger Conference Call: RWN
Obama’s fundraising quarter worse than expected thus far?: HotAir

World

Bordering on War: Power Line
Abbas' Lies Contradicted From His Own Mouth: JoshuaPundit
Coptic Christians slaughtered in Egypt as the world looks away: Australian

U.S. Weapons in Cartel Hands? Blame Uncle Sam: PJM
Sources: Raiders knew mission a one-shot deal: NavyTimes
French News Sites Describe Breast Size of Strauss-Kahn’s Rape Accuser: RWN

Visegrad: A New European Military Force: Stratfor
Nakbacide: Greenfield
A Brief Guide to Why 1948 Was a Palestinian Arab and Arab Disaster: BRubin

SciTech

Sweeping bill would update privacy law: CNet
Groupon launching biggest deal yet, with Quiznos: ChiBiz
Sony needs to do more for PSN customers: CNet

Cornucopia

Arnold Schwarzenegger is...: iOTW
Only Israel: Yedida Freilich
I Love the Smell of Rich in the Morning : MOTUS

Image: 'Young Nancy Pelosi', provided by JM
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: TrendingRight.com - real-time conservative news

QOTD: "Sperminator: Now it makes sense... ...on a related note, there are unconfirmed reports of a strong-looking, naked 10-year old Hispanic boy (with sharp Austrian features and little caveman eyes) running around LA neighborhoods demanding other little boy's "clothes, sneakers and bike" --JTT

Larwyn's Linx: Gingrich vs. Ryan: No contest

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

Nation

Gingrich vs. Ryan: No contest: Pundette
America's Most (Un)Wanted Judges: PJM
Surprise! Obama's ACORN Thugs Preparing for 2012: AmSpec

Now Nursing Homes Wants Obamacare Waivers: Malkin
Tea Party activists expose gift cards for votes scam!: BigGovt
Trump exit signals end to silly season: Politico

Gingrich to House GOP: Drop Dead: WSJ
Soros-funded MoveOn.org plans to astroturf West's town hall: WZ
Dems Target Allen West Because They're Terrified of Him: HotAir

Economy

Shared Scarcity versus Renewed Prosperity: Ryan
Myth-busting the Debt Limit: Foundry
Obamacare Tax Hikes: One Down, Twenty to Go: ATR

Goal of NLRB attack on Boeing: Back-door Card Check?: ShopFloor
CA State Workers Paid $100K+ For Unused Time Off: BlueCol
Union whistleblowers: beaten and harrassed for reporting fraud: NYDN

HUD’s “affordable housing” wasteland: Malkin
The Agency That Would Not Die: PJM
Obama Tells Companies to 'Step Up' and Hire Workers: CNBC

Climate & Energy

Former global warming alarmist scientist admits it is false science: BlogProf
Democrats try to disguise real reasons for high gas prices: RWN
The Global Warming Gravy Train: RWN

Media

The End of an Idea — Why Affirmative Action Should Stop: Hanson
Guess what, federal workers? Obama just stole your retirement money!: WyBlog
What's with The Joker picture of Ryan?: BackCon

Iowan to Gingrich: Get out now before you make a bigger fool of yourself: WashExam
Obama Too Busy To Attend Annual Memorial Service For Fallen Police Officers: NiceDeb

Local Liberals Reluctantly Replace their Sarah Palin Obsession with Koch Brothers: Doswell
Someone tell David Gregory that this food stamp chart is racist!: Glob
(1857) Frederick Douglass, “If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress”: BlackPast

World

'Die Welt': Iran building rocket bases in Venezuela: TAB
Hamas and Muslim Students Association Plan To Finish The Job Hitler Started: NiceDeb
Many in EU want to end “borderless” Europe: HillBuzz

Jan Schakowsky (D, IL): SEALs are criminals!: RedState
U.S. Imams Plot to Murder & Maim: Ransom
Money Troubles Take Personal Toll in Greece: NYT

Terrorist Admits to Sneaking 7 Al-Qaeda Members Across Texas-Mexico Border: GWP
Appropriate activity for Genocide Day: Phillips
Australia Largest Muslim Group Asks Government to Introduce Sharia Law; Gov’t Tells Them to Go Pound Sand: WZ

SciTech

How Google Is Secretly Building Its Facebook Killer: Insider
Are mobile phones causing the decline in bee numbers?: Crave (UK)
Apple, Google leagues ahead in mobile developer survey: CNet

Cornucopia

How close to a train track can you set up a vegetable market?: Wimp
Sneakers, Obots and Hucksters : MOTUS
Southwest Tells Mother & Daughter They're Too Fat To Fly, Apologizes: Consumerist

Image: Wired Magazine
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: "Trapped Under the Pack-Ice", an Adventure Story

QOTD: "...the sooner Greece defaults, the better off it will be. The sooner the IMF, ECB, and EU accept the fact that Greece is insolvent and cannot possibly return to growth via forced austerity, the better off the Euro-Zone will be.

Greece needs structural reforms but is not savable. Nor is Ireland, Portugal, or Spain. What can't be paid back, won't be paid back. Bond-holders are going to learn a much needed lesson." --Mike Shedlock