Thursday, September 15, 2011

Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) reveals her inner Marxist: Taxpayers "don't deserve" to keep their money because it rightfully belongs to the government

It's long past time that Americans began demanding that Congressional representatives honor their oaths of office. So when lawless, progressive kooks like Jan Schakowsky inadvertently reveal their true agenda, we can no longer sit idly by hoping for the best.

During an interview on Chicago's WLS AM radio with Don Wade and Roma, Schakowsky positioned the massive, bloated, federal government as the rightful owner of your property.

Schakowsky said that Americans don't deserve to keep all of their money because we need taxes to support our society.

"I’ll put it this way. You don’t deserve to keep all of it and it’s not a question of deserving because what government is, is those things that we decide to do together. And there are many things that we decide to do together like have our national security. Like have police and fire. What about the people that work at the National Institute of Health who are looking for a cure for cancer,” Schakowsky said.

Schakowsky also says one reason the 2009 stimulus bill did not succeed was because it was not large enough.

Schakowsky also admitted there are questions about the Obama administration's connection to the now bankrupt Solyndra solar panel company... The administration approved nearly $528 million in federal loans to the company, before Solyndra filed for bankruptcy... "You know, it certainly doesn't sound good. The Democrats are not going to shrink from actually, you know, from any kind of full investigation of that. If there is a problem we're certainly going to support the efforts to get to the bottom of this," Schakowsky said...

I won't hold my breath.

I call on the House of Representatives to censure Schakowsky for her gross violation of her oath of office.

Progressivism is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution. I sincerely hope that, in the not too distant future, any self-admitted "progressive" will be ineligible to hold public office. Because you can't be a progressive and honestly take an oath to uphold the Constitution.


Hat tip: D&S.

Larwyn's Linx: New report cites 'regulatory tsunami' under Obama

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Nation

New report cites 'regulatory tsunami' under Obama: York
Obama to Tout Jobs Act at Company that Outsources: Dossier
Using Twitter Can Get You Murdered In Mexico: RWN

Obama's in Trouble: FreedomWorks
Free Kinde Durkee!: Hayride
Ron Paul and the Neoliberal Reeducation Campaign: Lord

Economy

Food Stamps: A Microcosm of Out-of-Control Government: Blumer
Social Security Ponzi Scheme Nearing Point of Collapse: RWN
Obama's Jobs Bill Should Get The Pink Slip: IBD

Card Check: It's Baaack!: Daifallah
Another Obama Record!… Poverty Rate Soars to 18 Year High: GWP
Obama's Brain Jarrett: Pass Jobs Plan 'Right This Minute': AT

‘A Labor Secretary As Clueless as the President’: Driscoll
‘Fear Is Coursing through the Corridors of Brussels’: Belmont Club
U.S. Postal Service could shut down by winter: UPI

Solargate and Gunrunner

Solargate Unraveled: IBD
Fast and Furious update: 3 more murders tied to Gunwalker: Malkin
Obama says he "did not learn about Fast and Furious until the operation went badly wrong": Sipsey

Climate & Energy

Mann Acts: AmSpec
Nobel Laureate Resigns From American Physical Society, Citing Global Warming Nonsense As Reason: Ace
EPA Regulations Still Killing Jobs: IBD

Media

Freedom of Speech? No Thanks, We Prefer to Censor Ourselves.: Dewey
Fight the Truth!: Cold Fury
Obama on the Ropes? Two GOP Polls Say He's At His Lowest Point (So Far...): Ace

Actual Surprise: ABC News Covers Solyndra, Top of the Show: Ace
GOP upset win in NY portends challenge for Obama: C&S
The Objectivity of Paul Krugman: Economic Noise

Barack's Fear Factor: Driscoll
Did Michele Bachmann See This Before She Blew Up The Gardasil Controversy?: Hayride
Liberal Radio Talks of Killing Rumsfeld, 'Prehistoric Reptiles' of Tea Party: NB

Goon Squad TV: Hilarious ‘Attack Watch’ Commercial Goes Viral: GWP
What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?: RWN
Take Your Quisling "Attack Watch" Snitch Site and Shove It: Zilla

World

The Original September 11: President Franklin Roosevelt Announces the Pearl Harbor Unpleasantness :BRubin
Our Canine Heroes and Islamic Dogophobia: Knish
Grifters of 'Al Saud, Inc.': How Saudi royals get their wealth: Wikileaks

Islamic Spring… Netanyahu Orders Evacuation of Israeli Embassy in Jordan Ahead of Protests: GWP
Exposed: Ron Paul’s Foreign Policy Ignorance and Naivete: Ibrahim
Jewish Civil Rights Group Warns Columbia About Entertaining Ahmadinejad… Again!: Simon

Canadian Judges Expand Abortion Rights Into 4th Trimester: BlogProf
SIGINT: Drug cartels using encrypted commo network: Kit Up!
Slaves found living in filth: SMH

Sci-Tech

Facebook IPO Likely Delayed Until Late 2012: CNBC
The best lesson from Disrupt: Simplify: CNet
Over 1 Billion People Use Social Networks Today, And Other Stats: Crunch

Cornucopia

Five Bucks a Pop: iOTW
What Designing Women Want: a Mop to Clean up this Mess?: MOTUS
Drive Recklessly: Feral Irishman

When the Amish go rogue, the mug shots are epic: We don't need your stinking orange safety triangles: TSG
One Million Hits: JPA
Machine Gun Preacher: C&S

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Karen Harrington Money Bomb: Fire Debbie Wasserman-Schultz!

QOTD: "The brilliant Rara Avis with the All-Ivy education seems to have never heard the first lesson of politics: Vox Populi, Vox Dei. For three miserable, arrogant years he has governed directly against the wishes of the public, gambling that he knew everything, and we knew nothing, and so, at the end of his three year Rogue Regime, the fruits of his wisdom would fatten on the tree, and we would see how wrong we were, and drink the nectar of his successes.

But that's not what happened. He repeatedly ignored the wishes of the public and the loyal opposition in the GOP.

Therefore, he owns this situation. Him and the Democrats, entirely. They did not share decision-making, so they cannot now demand we all share in the blame.

He bet on himself, and more importantly, he bet against the American people, and the longstanding traditions of America.

He lost. He lost big. He lost it all.

And he has no one to blame but his ego. And maybe his early mentors who filled his head with radical socialist twaddle." --Ace

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

More Great News From the Obama Depression: Nearly a Quarter of All Residential Mortgages Are Underwater

Despite HAMP, HEMP, HARP and every other exercise in central planning, the housing market is horrific.

CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX), a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, today released Q2 negative equity data showing that 10.9 million, or 22.5 percent, of all residential properties with a mortgage were in negative equity at the end of the second quarter of 2011...

• Nevada had the highest negative equity percentage with 60 percent of all of its mortgaged properties underwater, followed by Arizona (49 percent), Florida (45 percent), Michigan (36 percent) and California (30 percent)...

• Negative equity significantly limits the ability of borrowers to capture the benefit of the low-rate environment... More than 40 percent of borrowers with 125 percent or higher loan-to-value (LTV) ratios have mortgages with rates at 6 percent or above, compared to only 17 percent for borrowers with positive equity.

I blame racist Tea Party extremists.


Related: Compulsive Intervention Disorder

Solyndra Execs Delay Their Testimony (Shredder Sale at Office Depot!) While DOE Loan Chief Throws Everyone On His Staff Under the Bus

Solargate, also known as the Solyndra Scandal, involves a bizarre $535 million loan by the Obama administration to a doomed "green energy" company. Oh, and did I mention that said "green energy" company was headed by major Obama campaign contributors?

And did I mention that Solyndra received said loan even though everyone knew that said company was doomed from the start?

Jonathan Silver is "Executive Director of the Loans Programs Office for the Energy Department". He was called to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today and, under intense questioning, he threw his staff under the bus.

Silver said private investors who loaned $1.1 billion for the Fremont facility were also taken by surprise. He pinned blame for the bankruptcy on more than $20 billion in direct investment by the Chinese government in solar manufacturers who now dominate the industry...

...Republicans also charged that the administration broke the law under the Energy Policy Act, which prohibits the government from subordinating a taxpayer-backed loan to loans by private investors. The administration agreed last fall to restructure the loan and to put taxpayers in line behind an additional $75 million ponied up by private investors...

It turns out that Solyndra's corporate executives have, eh, delayed their testimony before Congress.

Solyndra LLC Chief Executive Officer Brian Harrison and Chief Financial Officer Bill Stover have postponed their previously scheduled congressional testimony until sometime next week. Harrison and Stover were scheduled to testify tomorrow after the company filed for bankruptcy protection following a $535 million U.S. loan guarantee.

Emails obtained by ABC News prove that the White House knew Solyndra was a failed business before it rammed the loan through the approval process. But I'm sure that had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Solyndra's backers were huge Obama campaign contributors.

Jimmy Carter wasted billions on solar programs. Apparently Washington hasn't gotten the message: Stop spending our children's money on bulls*** green energy programs. Schmucks.


Image: GigaOm.

Collector's Edition Newspaper Front Pages From the Historic NY-9 Race

I don't know what the esteemed publishers at iOwnTheWorld charge for their original newspaper cover, but these are keepers:

Chuck Schumer -- whose held this seat long before Weiner -- hardest hit.


These are the wistful moments when even the most addled drones realize that Obama's shark has been, like, totally jumped

What do you call it when someone has, like, jumped the shark so thoroughly that the shark actually died and the President Fonz grilled it on the beach? I mean, besides woefully pathetic?

• Obama: "If you love me, ask Congress to pass my jobs bill!"

• Obama campaign sends creeper email with subject "Sometime soon, can we meet for dinner?"

• Bloomberg: Americans Overwhelmingly Reject Obama's So-Called 'Jobs' Plan

• Obama campaign reinstates its snitch squad with AttackWatch.com and instantly becomes the laughingstock of the Internet

• Conservative Congressman nabs 'American Jobs Act' with his own legislation after Dems forget to file it

Say, drones, don't you wistfully look back and wonder what might have been?

Like, if the hope and change and changey-hope and hopey-change had actually come true? I mean, ignoring the fact that progressivism, or whatever you call your brand of Statism, has never worked, in all of world history. You know, if -- despite that -- that Obama's bizarre, job-killing agenda could have actually made America a better country?

Which is kinda like believing in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, but still?

Oh, and a word of advice for you Democrat politicians:

RUN AWAY!!!


Larwyn's Linx: NY-09 Goes Republican For the First Time Since 1922

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NY-9

NY-09 Goes Republican For the First Time Since 1922: RS
Democrats’ Civil War Against Obama Begins: Breitbart
Turner Upsets Democrat Weprin in New York Special: Roll Call

A bad day for the Democrat Party and Elizabeth Warren: DTG
NY-9 flips Republican: Surber
Republican Victory in New York City: AmSpec

Nation

Every Single One: Politicized Hiring of DOJ Criminal Section: Adams
Obama launches another snitch police squad: Malkin
White House Backs Off From Jobs Ultimatum : WklyStd

Soros and AFSCME-funded group goes after Issa: Nice Deb
ObamaCare: Yet Another Federal Judge Says, 'Unconstitutional': FW
Feinstein, Other Dems, ‘Wiped Out’ by Theft: Malkin

Obama, the Veg-O-Matic President. Act Now!: RCM
Bachmann: Gardasil causes “mental retardation”: Hot Air
Pennsylvania considering Electoral College split: RS

Economy

Two measly arrests in WA longshoremen union mob’s attack: Malkin
Editorial: Gutting Defense Won't Solve Debt Crisis: IBD
Surprising Facts about America’s Poor: Foundry

Obama Now Trying to Intimidate Consultants and PR Firms: RWN
CoreLogic: 11M U.S. Properties with Negative Equity in Q2: CalcRisk
Federal Housing Administration: The Next Bailout Request?: PJM

Germany Is Stonewalling The Eurozone's Rescue: Seeking Alpha
Tiger's Robertson "Europe In State Of Financial Collapse": ZH
Budget Deficit in U.S. Grew to $134.2 Billion in August: Bloomberg

Solyndra

The Solyndra Presidency: Flopping Aces
White House Pressured OMB, Ignored Energy Dept. Concerns to Approve Solyndra Loan: WklyStd
Solyndra, Barack Obama, and Crony Capitalism: Picking a Loser to be a Winner: RS

Climate & Energy

Unchastened, Steven "Gardasil Victim" Chu Hands Out Another $1.2B in Loans To Another Solar Company: Ace
Democrats: Solyndra Touches GOP, Too, Because In '06 They Applied For Loans, Which Got... Rejected: Ace
My Contribution To 24 Hours Of Captain Carbon: Soylent Green

Media

While Unions Storm Businesses and Take Hostages, CNN Calls Tea Party “Angry”: BigJourn
DNC ad makes obvious presidential politicization of jobs crisis, violates House ethics rules: Hot Air
CNN Shows MSNBC How a Debate is Done: Loesch

Dem Strategist: Obama such a liability that candidates may not run next year: Hewitt
New Presidential Watch Site Collects “Smears and Spin”: Loesch
Krugman on Social Security Circa 1996: 'The Ponzi Game Will Soon Be Over': NB

World

Bin Laden’s Final Video Warns of the Dangers of Capitalism: Powers
Saudi prince threatens U.S. in NYT editorial: Support Palestinian statehood or lose Saudis as allies: JihadWatch
British Postal Service Refuses to Deliver “Offensive” Christian CDs: RWN

The Crisis of Europe and European Nationalism: Stratfor
Endgame for Egypt: PJM
International alarm over euro zone crisis grows: Reuters

Sci-Tech

Flying the Police Aircraft of the Future: Wired
New Worry: RFID Tracking Chips in Firearms?: RWN
T-Mobile’s Galaxy S II Processor Revealed: It’s A Qualcomm!: Crunch

Cornucopia

Vice Presidents Gone Wild: Ace
What Does Michelle Mouth to Barack Before She Smirks and Shakes Her Head?: iOTW
Video: Iranian F-5 Crash: DefTech

Image: Investors Business Daily
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "If you want a good measure of how deeply the collective bargaining bill in Wisconsin has disrupted public sector unions, there is no better example than the Wisconsins Education Association Council (WEAC).

Last month WEAC announced that it was laying off 40% of its staff. With little over which to collectively bargain, and with dues no longer withheld from paychecks, the need for and sustainability of a union bureaucracy could not be justified.

Now WEAC is being boycotted by National Staff Organization (NSO), a union representing educational union employees... Isn’t that great, education union employees have their own union?" --William Jacobson

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Open Thread: Name Barack Obama's Next Biography

How a man with minimal accomplishments got to write two biographies is anyone's guess. My question for this (very rare) open thread is: What should the title of Barack Obama's next epic biography be?

Some suggestions to seed some ideas:

• Organizing For Tyranny

• Leading From Behind: the Barack Obama Story

• Putting on Ayers

Best title wins a box of Papa B's finest reloaded ammo, provided his bunker doesn't kerplode before then.


Annenberg School: Obama Jobs Act Really Is Stimulus II, Designed to Funnel Billions to Teachers' Unions and... the Obama Campaign

USC's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism confirms what we all suspected: President Obama's Jobs Act is yet another money-laundering scheme.

President Barack Obama's new jobs act may be the remedy for California's ailing education system.

California could receive more than $3 billion from the president's American Jobs Act, preventing the layoffs of roughly 30,000 people employed in education across the state, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said Monday.

...Obama announced his plan to send the new jobs proposal to Congress late Monday. His $447 billion jobs proposal allocates $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers nationwide.

For Obama, it's all about the unions. Remember: the public sector unions are funded by you, the American taxpayer. The unions take their members' dues and funnel them back into Democrat politicians' campaigns.

To complete the nefarious circle, the Democrats then use class warfare rhetoric and giveaways to convince enough weak-minded drones that more wealth redistribution -- stealing from the makers to give to the takers -- is both moral and warranted.

It is neither.

We must defeat the Democrat leeches in 2012, before the number of takers overwhelm the makers.


Photo: Productivity, Trumka-Style

Papa B:

This financial crisis is forcing State and local agencies to make some tough decisions. If things continue for much longer, there's a real risk that we may have to lay off Jose.



Oh, my: Emails show White House knew Solyndra was a disaster before it issued $535M crony loan

Can we call it "Solargate" yet?

We already knew that Solyndra investor George Kaiser personally gave more than $50,000 to the Obama Presidential campaign in 2008. And that Solyndra executives visited the White House 20 times since Obama took office.

Now ABC News has evidence that the White House knew what everyone else did: that Solyndra's products were ummarketable from day one.

Newly uncovered emails show the White House closely monitored the Energy Department's deliberations over a $535 million government loan to Solyndra, the politically-connected solar energy firm that recently went bankrupt and is now the subject of a criminal investigation.

The company's solar panel factory was heralded as a centerpiece of the president's green energy plan -- billed as a way to jump start a promising new industry. And internal emails uncovered by investigators for the House Energy and Commerce Committee that were shared exclusively with ABC News show the Obama administration was keenly monitoring the progress of the loan, even as analysts were voicing serious concerns about the risk involved. "This deal is NOT ready for prime time," one White House budget analyst wrote in a March 10, 2009 email, nine days before the administration formally announced the loan.

"If you guys think this is a bad idea, I need to unwind the W[est] W[ing] QUICKLY," wrote Ronald A. Klain, who was chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, in another email sent March 7, 2009. The "West Wing" is the portion of the White House complex that holds the offices of the president and his top staffers. Klain declined comment to ABC News.

Worse still, Solargate hasn't slowed the Department of Energy's efforts to redistribute taxpayer funds to other "green" companies (which just happen to be backed by Obama's top contributors).

On September 7, the DOE announced its plan to guarantee 80 percent — or $275 million — of a $344 million private loan taken out by the firm SolarCity. The company installs rooftop solar systems that harvests electricity SolarCity then sells... The guarantee means that if SolarCity’s project [fails, taxpayers must] pay back 80 percent of the company’s private loans...

...The Chairman of SolarCity, Elon Musk, is a major financial supporter of the president. On April 15 of this year, Musk donated $35,800 to the Obama Victory Fund. He also gave an additional $5,000 to the Obama campaign... Like Solyndra officials White House visitor logs show Musk has visited the Administration at least four times since 2009.

The second company is Solexel. On September 2, the solar energy company announced a $13 million award from the DOE as part of a program to make solar energy systems more affordable for homeowners... Solexel is financially backed by venture capitalist Steve Westly. In 2008, Westly bundled for Obama’s presidential campaign, bringing in more than $500,000. Westly also served as a California co-chair and was a member of the National Finance Committee for the Obama for American campaign.

He’s at it again for the president’s 2012 re-election campaign. So far, Westly has bundled between $100,000 and $200,000... [and] Westly’s companies have received millions in stimulus dollars from the Obama administration. The Westly Group’s portfolio includes Tesla Motors, which received a $465 million loan in 2009; Amyris Biotechnologies, which got more than $24 million; and Logos Technologies, which received $20 million in DOE loans.

This is an immense scandal. The Obama administration appears to have laundered billions of taxpayer dollars through green companies using its political backers as front-men.

As Mark Levin said last night, "We need a special prosecutor."


Related: Solyndra employee: from day one, everyone knew that our solar panels were uncompetitive... including President Obama.

Larwyn's Linx: Watch Out for Voter Fraud in the New York Ninth

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Nation

Watch Out for Voter Fraud in the New York Ninth: NRO
Flight 93 Memorial: Muslim consultants LIED: NiceDeb
TSA Creator Says Dismantle, Privatize the Agency: HE

Look who makes RomneyCare/MassCare’s waiver decisions: Malkin
How Sustainable Do You Think This Is?: RWN
Pawlenty Shows Why He’s Out Of The 2012 GOP Race: HayRide

GOP Debate

Flash mob: GOP candidates gang up on Perry: York
Round Two: Rick Perry and the Seven Dwarfs: Simon
Disgraceful Republican Debate: Kesler

Some observations on the Tea Party/CNN debate: Barone
Tea Party Debate Analysis: Who Won? Who Lost?: RWN
Notes on the CNN/Tea Party Express GOP debate: Malkin

Economy

Lessons on Government Largesse From the New Frontier: Hanson
Obama's Stimulus: $312,500 Per Job (Vote) Created Or Saved: ZH
Jobs plan paid for exclusively by tax increases: Times

Obama's Jobs Plan is a Laughingstock: Nice Deb
Paul Samuelson on Social Security: Mankiw
The Great Obama Welfare State: AT

Europe Slips As Greece Falls: Mead
Germany Plans for Possible Greek Default: Spiegel
Massive Default Is Best Way to Fix the Economy: Arends

Climate & Energy

Greenmail: "Green" Companies Hotbed For Graft and Insider-Dealing: Ace
Gore’s 24 Hours of Fantasy About To Begin: PJM
Al Gore And The Lakes Of Molten Lava: RWN

Media

Obama Selects a Curious Psalm at Ground Zero :CFP
Headline of the Decade: Snapped Shot
Anatomy of an Instalanche (What It Looks Like, How I Got One and How You Can Too!): AllAm

Greg Gutfeld: 'Go To Hell, Paul Krugman, You Bearded, Bitter Buffoon': NB
9/11 and My Generation: LFAYA
Florida: Liberal Rag Outraged Allen West Used Phrase “Radical Islamic Enemy” Instead Of Al-Qaeda: WZ

Crickets Chirp As White House Spams & Sends Out Union Press Releases: LUR
Union Members Take Hostages, Destroy Property: But Remember, Tea Party is ‘Dangerous’: RWN
The Separation of Blackness and State: AT

World

Rare glimpse into Israel's doomsday weapon -- the submarine fleet: ynet
Connecting Nuclear 9/11 Dots That Aren’t in the Headlines . . . or Ever Have Been.: ConAlley
F-16 pilot was ready to ram hijacked plane on 9/11: AFP

Bad Idea: Turkey Sending Three Warships To To Protect Gaza-Bound Ships From Israeli Navy: WZ
The ‘War on Terror’ Is All About God: Klavan
CBS Outdoor/NYC Transit to Run Antisemitic Ads: Atlas

Cuba to drill six oil wells off Florida coast: Tapscott
Obama Has Aggravated Muslim Extremism: Lewis
Ten Years of War: Sultan Knish

Sci-Tech

What's the deal with daily deals?: CNet
'Super-Earth,' 1 of 50 Newfound Alien Planets, Could Potentially Support Life: Yahoo!
Comodohacker: I can issue fake Windows updates: CNet

Cornucopia

Buttons and Bows: MOTUS
Operation Feeding Freedom: Flopping Aces
Pic of the Day: John Conyers (D-Detroit) takes nap at 911 10th anniversary vigil: BlogProf

Image: iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Allen West for Congress

QOTD: "What is worrying investors worldwide is the evident intellectual and political bankruptcy of Europe. The Europeans are not stupider than other people, but they face deep structural economic and political problems that their institutions are hopelessly inadequate to solve. Creating a monetary union without a true federal government is looking more and more like the biggest European policy mistake since Britain and France let Hitler have the Sudetenland." --Walter Russell Mead

Monday, September 12, 2011

'Headline o' the Century'

That's what Brian at SnappedShot calls this gem:

Corpse Found in Tub with TV Weatherman


Police are trying to figure out what happened to an Arkansas man who was discovered dead in a bathtub with a sleeping television meteorologist.

Homeowner Christopher Barbour, who says he is a friend of 33-year-old KARK weatherman Brett Cummins, told police that he woke up Monday morning and found his friend asleep in his bathtub with a dead man wearing a dog collar lying next to him.

Barbour told investigators Cummins had brought a friend that Barbour knew only as "Dexter" over the night before and the three were drinking and snorting drugs.

Barbour said he later went to sleep on his couch, and woke up around 8 a.m. the next morning.

He heard snoring from the bathroom and saw the two men in the tub, which had no water in it. He shook Cummins awake, and the two tried to wake "Dexter."

Barbour told police that Cummins screamed when he saw the discolored face of the man later identified as 24-year-old Dexter Paul Williams, then bolted from the bathroom and vomited in the living room.

Cummins then left the house and promised to return later, Barbour told police. Officers are investigating the death and the medical examiner is awaiting toxicology results to see how Williams died... In a brief story reporting the death on Monday, KARK reported, "[Cummins] will not be on the air, as he is mourning the loss of his friend."

I can think of only a few less probable headlines:

• Homeless man discovers gold mine in New York subway

• John Madden fitness video is #1 rental on Netflix

• Arabs embrace concept of Israel's right to exist


Anthony Weiner's District Can Make History Tomorrow

Dan from New York on how you can help right now:

There’s a special election tomorrow to fill Anthony Weiner’s vacant seat. Please forward this to anyone you know who lives in the district (NY-9) and urge them to turn out and vote for the Republican, Bob Turner. The latest polls show it’s a tight race with Turner maintaining a slight lead...

If nothing else, a Turner victory will shine the national spotlight on this dependable Democratic stronghold and send shivers up the spines (if they have any) in the Obama-occupied White House.

I'll edit Dan's suggestion: forward this info to anyone you know in New York, irrespective of district, and ask them to pass it on to their lists.


Roll-out of the Obama Jobs Plan Continues Apace: EPA Forces Texas Energy Company To Announce 500 Layoffs

While President Obama reads from his twin teleprompters, trying to convince Americans that he cares about jobs, his out-of-control EPA continues to lay waste to the private sector.

It was sadly ironic that Texas energy company Luminant announced it would lay off 500 employees on the same morning that President Obama unveiled legislation designed to promote job growth. The company said that a new rule from the Environmental Protection Agency will force it to cease operations at two electricity generating plants, and close three coal mines...

...The company cited the EPA’s new cross-state pollution rule as the impetus for the decision, and noted that it had worked to identify other means of reducing emissions, but that “meeting this unrealistic deadline also forces us to take steps that will idle facilities and result in the loss of jobs,” Campbell said.

Campbell also announced that the company has filed a lawsuit against the EPA in an effort “to achieve [EPA emissions] goals without harming critically important Texas jobs and electric reliability.” The suit seeks to block the cross-state pollution rule for Texas companies, and to grant a stay to Texas companies to prevent them from having to comply with sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions standards by the existing January 1, 2012 deadline.

...Even groups generally on the political left have spoken out against those regulations while still noting the importance of environmental concerns. The president of the St. Louis chapter of the AFL-CIO, a member of the Missouri clean coal group, called on the EPA to “consider a balanced approach that gives us cleaner air without sacrificing jobs and increasing energy prices.”

Last month, an official of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce predicted that the EPA's lawless, unscientific and arbitrary regulations would kill thousands of jobs. That prediction is coming true as we speak.

The unelected and unaccountable fourth branch of government is endangering national security and critically wounding America's economy.


Hat tip: TrendingRight.

Obama proposes to pay for his jobs plan with $400B in spending cuts. Just kidding--it's paid for with $400B in tax increases

Apparently, America's job creators are under-taxed. At least that's the word from Uncle Ben, who relays this note from his Beltway corporate tax guru.

The White House today is proposing to pay for its new jobs bill entirely with tax increases.

It proposes these tax increases:

--Limiting itemized deductions for incomes above $200,000 and family incomes above $250,000. Total: $400 billion over 10 years;

--Treat carried interest as ordinary income rather than as capital gains. Total: $18 billion;

--Raises taxes on oil and gas. Total: $40 billion

--Increase taxes on corporate jets. Total: $3 billion

Gee, those new taxes should really jump-start hiring!

The Tatler adds several crucial details:

White House Office of Management and BudgetDirector Jack Lew outlined President Barack Obama’s plan to pay for his $447 billion jobs plan... The new tax rules would not take effect until January 2013, Lew said. Obama is not offering any spending cuts to pay for the jobs plan.

Last week, James Lileks wrote the quintessential retort to this sort of insane logic.

A half-century experiment in draping steam­ship anchors around the necks of the productive class and expecting them to run a four-minute mile has ended in failure. The confiscation of rights and property, the moral impoverishment of generations caused by the state’s usurpation of parental obligations, the elevation of a credentialed elite that believes academia’s fashions are a worthy substitute for knowledge of history and human nature, and above all the faith in a weightless cipher whose oratorical panache now consists of looking from one teleprompter screen to the other with the enthusiasm of a man watching someone else’s kids play tennis–it’s over, whether you believe in it or not. It cannot be sustained without reducing everyone to penurious equality, crippling the power of the United States, and subsuming the economy to a no-growth future that rations energy.

The modern Democrat Party is simply a shell, a lifeless husk that was subsumed by the radical Left thanks to tens of millions of dollars from George Soros and other one-world Marxists.

If we don't vote the entire Democrat Party apparatus out of office -- at every level of government -- in 2012, America deserves its fate.


Update: The Cost Of Obama's Stimulus Plan: $312,500 Per Job (Vote) Created Or Saved (And Guess Who Is Paying It)

Related: Mission Accomplished! Did Obama intentionally nuke the economy? (March, 2009)

Larwyn's Linx: Let's Roll Over

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Nation

Let's Roll Over: Steyn
Too Much Lamb, Not Enough Lion: JPA
Ground Ego: Primordial Slack

Turning Red – Shedding the White and Blue: NoisyRm
Final PPP Poll for NY-9: Turner (R) 47% Weprin (D) 41%: Ace
Obama buys the drinks other guys pay for: Barone

US colleges to receive warning letters on anti-Semitism: JPost
The 2012 Election Will Come Down to Seven States: Sabato
C-SPAN Obama “Jobs” Plan Call In FAIL!: RWN

Economy

Jobs Plan Ruse? Teamsters’ Hoffa Predicts Jobs Plan Failure: LUR
Unintended Consequences of Labor Sec. Solis' Witch Hunt: LUR
The president's notion of "fairness" is anything but fair: PJM

Climate & Energy

The Obama energy crisis as you've never before seen it: Tapscott
Judge dismisses EPA suit over pollution at Michigan DTE plant: BizWk
G.M. Aims the Volt at China, but Chinese Want Its Secrets: NYT

Media

Paul Krugman's Shame: Captain's Journal
As It Might Have Been: Theo Spark
Progressives Shame the Country on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11: AmPower

A few more words about Koward Krugman: Malkin
Another Thing We Can Thank The First Amendment For: NiceDeb
Detroit local MSM come out swinging for more Obama spending: RWN

Does Thomas Friedman Write All of President Obama’s Speeches?: Driscoll
NY Times: Governor Palin “Pointed Toward a Way of Transcending the Presently Unbridgeable Political Divide”: C4P
The Interrupted Reading: The Kids with George W. Bush on 9/11: Time

Ten Years On: Mullings
“Saved by the Militia”: My NRO Column After 9/11: Barnett
'Middle' America indeed: Salena Zito

World

Iran and the EMP Threat: Kahlili
Egypt's Botched Revolution: Totten
The War America Fights: Caroline Glick

Photos: Israel's 9/11 Memorial: BermanPost
Cameron's dismissal of Israel: Melanie Phillips
Ten Years On: Wizbang

Netanyahu on 9/11: “It will be indescribably disastrous if the radical Islami[sts] acquire the ultimate weapon": WZ
Ahmadinejad : 9-11 Was Planned As a Pretext For US Wars in Iraq & Afghanistan: GWP
Saudi Grand mufti cautions public against dream interpreters on TV: MENAFN

Sci-Tech

Galaxy S II graphics fastest among Android phones--report: CNet
Cisco Starts Totally Ragging on Juniper: LightReading
Amazon eyes Netflix-style service for e-books: CNet

Cornucopia

“No Substitute for Victory” -- The Defeat of Islamic Totalitarianism: Lewis (2006)
Unmitigated Evil -- a Photo Essay Commemorating 9/11: GM's Place
The Falling Man: Ace

This Week in Automotivators, September 5-11: RWN
Pop, Soda or Coke?: Ace
White Castle sued for violating civil rights of man too fat to fit into booth: Greenroom

Image: Weasel Zippers
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "History is clear: All-out force against fanatical killers is both practical and moral. It led us to our two most important foreign policy successes—the defeats of Germany and Japan in 1945—and to the permanent peace with those nations that we take for granted today. Such a course was practical and moral then, and it is practical and moral now—an affirmation, and a defense, of life and civilization." --John David Lewis, "No Substitute for Victory"

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Connect the Dots: F-16s Scrambled for Two Separate Flights Today; Three Detroit Passengers Detained

If these similarly themed incidents don't smack of dry runs, I'm not sure what might qualify.

F-16 fighter jets were scrambled in two separate incidents Sunday, trailing a New York-bound American Airlines jetliner and a Frontier Airlines flight to Detroit after reports of passengers acting suspiciously...

...The incident aboard American Airlines Flight 34 to New York from Los Angeles began at 3 p.m. EDT when the plane's crew notified homeland-security officials of passengers allegedly behaving suspiciously. Two military jets shadowed the plane until it landed safely at John F. Kennedy International Airport at 4:10 p.m. EDT... Police greeted the plane at the gate and interviewed some of the passengers after they landed. It wasn't clear whether any charges would be filed...

...A similar incident played out aboard Frontier Flight 623, which originated in San Diego with a stop in Denver before arriving at Detroit Metro Airport... Two passengers were observed "spending an extraordinarily long time in the lavatory," Frontier spokesman Peter Kowalchuk said... the plane was swept for explosives, and was cleared. Three passengers were removed from the plane and taken into custody, authorities said.

In both cases, multiple passengers locked themselves in lavatories for an extended period of time, alarming crew-members.

Police detained three passengers at Detroit's Metropolitan Airport on Sunday after the crew of the Frontier Airlines flight from Denver reported suspicious activity on board and NORAD officials sent F-16 jets to shadow the flight until it landed safely... Flight 623, with 116 passengers on board, landed without incident in Detroit after the crew reported that two people were spending an unusual amount of time in a bathroom...

The Airbus 318 taxied to a pad away from the terminal and police took three passengers into custody... Authorities cleared the aircraft after it was search [sic], the Transportation Security Administration said... Luggage had been removed from the aircraft to be inspected by K-9 police sniffer dogs.

The crew had reported that at least two individuals were spending "an extraordinarily long time" in the bathrooms. The three removed from the plane in handcuffs included two men and a woman.

In the case of American Airlines Flight 34, odd behavior in the area of the plane's lavatories was also observed.

Sources told CBS News, the three passengers on Flight 34 were disruptive, moving in and out of lavatories, even at one point locking themselves inside.

American Airlines spokesman confirmed that the incident began with "suspicious behavior" observed in the area of the jetliner's lavatory... three passengers refused to come out of a bathroom on a flight originating in Los Angeles.

I, for one, suspect Militant Quakers.


The 9/11 monument in New Jersey you never heard about

Gee, our crack mainstream media must have accidentally dropped this story behind the vending machine.

Politics or Poppycock has a series of photos depicting a monument to the victims of 9/11 in Bayonne, New Jersey. He writes, "I'm stunned. I have never heard, seen or read anything about this. Isn't it wonderful to live in a country where the media controls what we should know?"

The monument is a gift to the people of America from the citizens of Russia signifying the importance of the war against global terrorism.

Oops. That face may be one of the reasons our beloved mainstream media "forgot" to report the story.

The impressive teardrop monument is truly striking.

The names of the victims of 9/11 are inscribed on a memorial wall.

Perhaps some enterprising reporter could let us know exactly what year this monument was installed.

They'll just have to remember not to call the hijackers "Islamists" or "terrorists", because I don't think President Obama approves of those terms.


Hat tip: Contrairimairi.

I got mad babysitting skillz

So I was taking care of my eight- and five-year old nephews last night.

I find a Sharpie permanent marker works best.

Yes, those are barbed-wire tats on their arms; P-A-I-N and F-I-R-E emblems on their fists; and the obligatory tear-drops.

I haven't heard from my sister since then, though. Maybe her cell phone is broken.