Saturday, May 21, 2011

Substitute Teacher in Phoenix, Arizona: This is an Invasion

In late March of this year, Phoenix substitute teacher Tony Hill wrote a letter to his state senator, Russell Pearce. The missive was so shocking that the local television station -- My Fox 10 -- featured the letter on a broadcast.

Dear Senator Russell Pearce,

I am compelled to write to you about a recent event that occurred to me. I currently work as a substitute teacher in the west valley areas of Phoenix, Glendale, and Peoria. I was called upon to teach history and language arts for 8th grade at a Glendale public school. The number of students I had in each class ranged from 28 to 38 children, which were almost all Hispanic and a couple of Black children. The day started out as usual turning on the television listening and watching the announcements and saying the Pledge of Allegiance. During the Pledge of Allegiance I notice the vast majority of students refusing to stand and say the pledge. I asked the students why they refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance and they responded by saying, "we are Mexicans and Americans stole our land."

The teacher's instructions were for the students to read a few pages and answer the questions regarding Mark Twain in their history textbook and to finish their final drafts to Senator Steve Gallardo thanking him for his position on Illegal Immigration rights. Their teacher apparently had showed them a video with Senator Steve Gallardo and Lou Dobbs. Most of the students came unprepared for class not possessing paper and pencil. I provided the students with paper and pencils only to have them wad-up the paper and throw it at each other along with their pencils.

The students' final drafts that I read were basically the same. Most of them stated they were in the country illegally, white Americans are racist, and that they came here for a better life. I asked the class if America adopted Mexico's immigration laws would Americans still be consider racist?

That question they could not answer and [they] called me a racist for asking it. I mentioned that my wife and children are Hispanic so how could I be racist? I asked the students to stop speaking Spanish in class because it was impolite to speak a language in front of people who may not speak that language. Their response was that Americans better learn Spanish and their customs because they are taking their land back from us.

When it came to completing the Mark Twain assignment only 10 students completed it out of all my classes. Most of the students refused to open the book, tore the pages out of the book, or threw the textbooks at each other. I thought: are these the students we are trying to educate with taxpayers money? I have found substitute teaching in these areas that most of the Hispanic students do not want to be educated but rather be gang members and gangsters. They hate America and are determined to reclaim this area for Mexico. If we are able to remove the illegals out of our schools, the class sizes would be reduced and the students who wanted to learn would have a better chance to do so and become productive citizens.

I applaud and support your efforts to stop this invasion into our state and country. When the citizens of a country are forced to speak the invaders language, adopt their customs, and forced to support them, are we not a conquered nation? I do not want to see our state and nation turned into a third-world country. Thank you for standing up to this invasion. You may contact me by phone, e-mail, or mail. Thank you, again.

Sincerely,

Tony Hill

I can't blame Mexicans for attempting to escape their failed narco-terror state: nearly 25,000 people have died there as a result of its ongoing civil war.

But that doesn't excuse American politicians from failing to build a serious security fence to prevent -- literally -- an invasion.


Good news: former speech-writer for Walter Mondale says Herman Cain's candidacy is "just entertainment"

Herman Cain announced his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination earlier today.

And Charles Krauthammer, a former speechwriter for Walter Mondale, says that Cain's campaign is "just entertainment."

I like the guy, but his candidacy is just entertainment. He might drain some "new guy on the block" votes from, say, Michele Bachmann...

...I don't think the guy's going to have a big impact on the race.

It's worth remembering that in 1980, George Will and Charles Krauthammer supported Howard Baker and Walter Mondale, respectively.

Obviously that year Ronald Reagan won a landslide election against the hapless James Earl Carter.

This pair of professional analysts -- while certainly quite bright -- has a tin ear when it comes to understanding what America, not the Beltway, wants.

Which is probably very good news for Herman Cain.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

More news that legacy media forgot to tell us: Congressional Research Service says America's energy resources are the largest on Earth

Peter Glover, writing at Energy Tribune, relays a stunning report that describes America's natural energy reserves as an embarrassment of riches.

Which begs the question: with its economy running on fumes, skyrocketing energy prices, and a staggering deficit, why is America the only country on Earth that restricts access to its own vast energy resources?

Because Democrats want it that way.

...America’s combined energy resources are, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service (CSR), the largest on earth. They eclipse Saudi Arabia (3rd), China (4th) and Canada (6th) combined – and that’s without including America’s shale oil deposits and, in the future, the potentially astronomic impact of methane hydrates.

...it perhaps falls to a friend of the US (i.e., me) to state that if the White House is in any way serious about impacting the economic Black Hole that is the burgeoning national debt, reinvigorating business big-time, creating real jobs and restoring ebbing national wealth, the best shot by a distance if you’re American ... well, you’re standing on it, or rather above it.

...While the US is often depicted as having only a tiny minority of the world’s oil reserves at around 28 billion barrels (based on the somewhat misleading figure of ‘proven reserves’) according to the CRS in reality it has around 163 billion barrels. As Inhofe’s EPW press release comments, “That’s enough oil to maintain America’s current rates of production and replace imports from the Persian Gulf for more than 50 years”. Next up, there’s coal. The CRS report reveals America’s reserves of coal are unsurpassed, accounting for over 28 percent of the world’s coal... that’s a couple of centuries of coal use, at least.

...In 2009 the CRS upped its 2006 estimate of America’s enormous natural gas deposits by 25 percent to around 2,047 trillion cubic feet, a conservative figure given the expanding shale gas revolution. At current rates of use that’s enough for around 100 years... [and] methane hydrates [could] be enough to provide America’s natural gas for more than 400 years.”

...With hundreds of thousands depending on oil and gas drilling for work, it is as yet unknown just how many of Obama’s policies are putting people out of jobs – and preventing the creation of new ones. What we do know however, is that ‘green’ jobs in the alternative energies industries just aren’t cutting the employment ice. In mid-March, a new study by Verso Consultancy estimates that for every new green job created by diverting public money into renewable energy projects in the UK, 3.7 British jobs were destroyed.

Meanwhile US energy policy persists in pursuing the myth that renewables are the economically viable future, with fossil fuels already, as the president said in January, “yesterday’s energy”. With 85 percent of global energy set to come from fossil fuels till at least 2035 no matter what wishful thinkers may prefer, current US energy policy – much like European – is pure political pantomime.

In 2012 we must elect leaders who understand the real world. The leaders we have today exist in some sort of a fantasy dream-scape. Because in the real world, there are no unicorns, no mermaids, no dancing ponies and no "green jobs".


Hat tip: D&S

Newly released emails reveal Elena Kagan coordinated cover up of her involvement in Obamacare's legal defense

That's certainly the implication of emails unearthed by JudicialWatch (hat tip: The Daily Caller).

Emails between Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and members of the Obama Administration reveal she was more involved with President Obama’s health-care law than was disclosed previously...

...the documents show that Kagan was involved with crafting the legal defense of the Affordable Care Act in her role as solicitor general, before her appointment to the bench...

In an email dated Jan. 8, 2010, then-Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal sent an email to Senior Counsel Brian Hauck and Deputy Attorney General Thomas Perrelli that indicates Kagan played a key role in coming up with a legal defense... In an email on March 21, 2010, Katyal urged Kagan to attend a health-care litigation meeting on defending the law...

The documents also show that once Kagan was nominated to the Supreme Court, she and Katyal immediately switched course to distance her from discussions about the legislation.

On May 17, 2010, for example, Tracy Schmaler, a Department of Justice spokesperson wrote to Katyal, “Has Elena been involved in any of that to the extent SG office was consulted … ?”

“No, she has never been involved in any of it. I’ve run it for the office, and have never discussed the issues with her one bit,” was Katyal’s response. He then forwarded the correspondence to Kagan, saying “This is what I told Tracy about Health Care.”

Kagan’s response: “This needs to be coordinated. Tracy you should not say anything about this before talking to me.”

Other email chains between Kagan, White House lawyers and Vice President Joe Biden’s then-Chief of Staff Ronald Klain show a coordinated effort on how to respond to questions about the health-care law that may have arisen in the confirmation hearings...

If Kagan truly had not been involved with the defense of Obamacare, there would be no need for her to manage the message with a "coordinated effort".

Her efforts therefore make it apparent she was directly involved with the legislative process and, further, that she later attempted to cover it up.

Recusal is the only option for Justice Elena Kagan.


Civil Society Frays in California as Teachers Are Arrested During 'Occupation' of Capitol Building, Demanding Even Higher Taxes

California is one of the highest-taxed states in the land. Its gasoline taxes are second highest of all 50 states. The state's business tax climate is the second worst in the U.S., ranked 49th by the Tax Foundation. Its state and local tax burden of 11.8% of income is the sixth-highest in the country. And California's progressive income tax pegs the top individual rate as third-highest in the land.

With all that said, California is still running a $10 billion deficit. Standard and Poor's is warning that the state's credit rating -- already worst in the nation -- is "at a crossroads".

But that hasn't stopped California's teachers unions from demanding even higher taxes.

The California Teachers Association declared a state of emergency and launched statewide actions May 9-13 to dramatize the threat to schools and public services posed by the state’s deep budget crisis.

...On our first day, dozens of Cal State University students launched an occupation of the Capitol building at closing time, and 65 were arrested, with several teachers who joined them in solidarity. CTA would carry out its own no-business-as-usual action later in the week...

...This year, with federal stimulus money no longer filling the budget gap, things were going to be worse.

...While teachers from CTA’s 1,100 local associations led the state-of-emergency week, we were not alone. Our sister union, the California Federation of Teachers, joined us... “Unity Day” in Sacramento brought members of the Service Employees, AFSCME, UNITE HERE, and Firefighters.

Here's a news flash for the union bosses: spending is too high, businesses are fleeing and taxpayers are struggling with a horrible economic environment compounded by a huge tax burden and insanely complex regulations.

If California wants to survive, it must break the backs of the public sector unions once and for all.


Larwyn's Linx: Obama's abandonment of America

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

Nation

Obama's abandonment of America: Glick
The Left’s Hypocrisy on Judicial Filibusters: NRO
Durbin caused 'Gang of Six' talks to fall apart: RWN

Mitch Daniels Is Unelectable: Riehl
Reid: Court of Appeals is where laws are made: IHTM
Dem Ed Koch will abandon party thanks to Obama: Uncov

DOJ, DHS video instructs law enforcement to obey sharia: Creeping
RINO presidential contenders getting deep-sixed: AmPower
The Cain Train Picks Up Steam: AmSpec

Economy

DeMint on NLRB: ‘Smacks of Dictatorship’: NRO
Barack Obama: Shop steward in chief: WashExam
McDonalds CEO: The Clown Stays, Food Nazis!: Malkin

Could Lost NFL Season Cost Obama His Job?: RCP
AARP gets its Obamacare waiver: As predicted: Malkin
Spain’s Socialist Utopia Mugged by Reality: PJM

Climate & Energy

Happer on The Truth About Greenhouse Gases: WUWT
Your Tax $$$ Hard At Work: NASA Educates Scares Kids About Man Destroying Earth: BlogProf
Climate cleansing: Google to censor skeptics?: JunkScience

Media

The Khalidi Tape, Just One Of Too Many Obama Unknowns: Riehl
Media Matters Honcho Attacks Israel, AIPAC: Calls Netanyahu ‘Terrorist’: BigJourn
Muslim-Convert Who Threatened “South Park” Creators Was a 2008 Obama Campaign Volunteer: WZ

Press ‘constantly’ pushing for more access to Barack Obama: Herald
Beware the Peacemaker: NoisyRoom
Free Press Hampering Lindsey Graham’s Efforts: Malkin

How’d Obama’s Speech Do In Arab World?: RWN
Who is the lawyer that let an Al-Qaeda terrorist into the Pentagon?: Tatler
Obama Kicks Israel In The Teeth, Ambushes Netanyahu: SilentMajority09

World

Netanyahu tells Obama: "Go pound sand.": WZ
Israel in Peril: Santorum
NYT: Netanyahu Was “Furious” on Phone Call With Hillary Clinton Hours Before Obama’s Speech: WZ

Israel Punts Obama: Surber
Days of Violence, Days of Mourning, Days of War: Wehner
Germany Blasts Greece: Surber

Obama to Israel: “Drop Dead”: GoV
Obama Middle East Speech: A Big and Revealing Mistake That Nobody Has Noticed: PJM
Geert Wilders Presents: 5 Steps Americans Must Take to Avoid the Fate of Islamized Europe: NewsReal

SciTech

Paralyzed Man Stands Thanks to Experimental Spine Implant: Atlantic
What Happens When Anonymous Gets a Bank?: BigThink
Can Obama Win, One Tweet at a Time?: Time

Google Scraps Newspaper Archive to Focus on Making Money: Atlantic
Report: Google warned repeatedly about online drug ads: CNet
ABC News Takes All The Fun Out Of The CDC’s Zombie Apocalypse: RWN

Cornucopia

Compare-and-Contrast Friday: WZ
Netanyahu Urges U.S. Return To 1845 Borders: BigPeace
Happy 60th Day Of Kinetic Military Action In Libya! R.I.P. War Powers Act: SHN

Images: Dear Israel, Noisy Room and iOwnTheWorld (below).
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Tell Obama: You've Betrayed Israel



Friday, May 20, 2011

Stop-Action Photos: Watch President Obama's Facial Expressions as He Meets With Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu

Courtesy PBS, I captured the "highlights" of the 15-minute public meeting between Israeli PM Netanyahu and President Obama. Does the term "poor body language" ring a bell?

In related news, Dan from New York reports that Netanyahu has urged Obama to return the U.S. to its 1845 borders.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

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