Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Sarah Palin's Statement: No, I Won't Run for President

It's a shame:

October 5, 2011

Wasilla, Alaska

After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.

My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation's governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the "fundamental transformation" of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.

From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I've always said, one doesn't need a title to help do it.

I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.

Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.

In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.

Thank you again for all your support. Let's unite to restore this country!

God bless America.

- Sarah Palin

In the former Alaska governor's exclusive interview with Mark Levin, Palin cited -- among other reasons -- the Left's vicious attacks on her family.


Larwyn's Linx: Indict Eric Holder

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

Indict Eric Holder: IBD
Lord SCOAMF and Screaming Friends: Driscoll
Obama travels to St. Louis, Tea Party breaks out: GWP

Frontrunner: Cain now tied with Romney in new CBS poll: Hot Air
Michelle listed daughters as 'staffers' for trip: GWP
Dems Want Law To Keep Obama Records Secret : JW

‘Anti-Union’ Dem Gov Retains Office in WV Special Election: RS
Chicago's violent crime rates plummets thanks to...: Lott
Chris Christie Not Running for President: Dossier

Economy

Fanniegate Just Got Worse: Mead
#OccupyWallStreet: Pining for the Fjords: LeaPen
US Starts New Fiscal Year $14.8T In Debt: ZH

Obama's Socialist Instincts: Dossier
'Durbin Fees' are coming, thanks to 'progressives': Exam
W.H. Says GOP Blocking Jobs Bill--After Reid Blocks Jobs Bill: WS

Social Security Disaster: Williams
Government Makes Us Poor: Stossel
Video: The Obama Presidency, by the Numbers: WZ

Gunrunner & Solyndra

Gunwalker: House Wants Special Counsel To Investigate Eric Holder: Owens
CBS reporter: White House, DOJ reps ‘yelled’, screamed’ at her over ‘Fast and Furious’ scandal: ProWis
Obama defends loan to Solyndra, calling it a 'good bet': LAT

Media

Justice Department Betrays MLK’s Dream: PJM
Interview: J. Christian Adams, author of 'Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of Obama's DOJ': FSM
Mediaite Reports In English Real Good: Glob

Grover Norquist's Relationships Should Give People Pause: Rep. Frank Wolf
Obama Supporters Cuss At Tea Partiers, Their Kids, Call Black Congressional Candidate “Uncle Tom”: Loesch
Rick's Rock vs. Rev. Wright: RWN

Obama HHS Secretary Sebelius to Host Pro-Abortion Fundraiser: LifeNews
Progressives of Pallor on pointless parade: Malkin
Great new idea from the Hollywood Left: Behead the bankers: Hot Air

Why the left’s concept of government is dangerous and immoral: Q&O
But Who Will Defend David Brooks?: Riehl
How Conservative Candidates Can Give Us a RINO Nominee: AT

World

An EMP Attack on America?: FPM
Here Come the Arab Elections!: BRubin
Mexico Will Not Accept US Troops to Fight Drug Cartels: Fox News Latino

Is Turkey Going Rogue?: Pipes
October 3rd, 1993: BlackFive
Ohio removes all pork from prison menus for Muslim criminals: Creeping

Obama's Terrorist Dilemma: RWN
Can Obama Legally Kill You?: RWN
Europe: Restructuring Plans Underway for Another 21 Banks?: Mish

Sci-Tech

Good news: New iPhone appears to be self-aware: Hot Air
Samsung's next Android phone looks a lot swoopier: CNet
Sprint: 4G wireless can be an alternative to a T-1 line: NetWorld

Cornucopia

“If I don’t have this done in 3 years…”– don’t finish that thought: MOTUS
Obama Schedule || Wednesday, October 5, 2011: Dossier
Shakeweight Now Officially The Second Most Pornographic Exercise Tool You Can Buy: Ace

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Reminder: We Stand With Gibson Guitars Rally This Saturday

QOTD: "[The energy] debate must be... between the rationers and the open energy consensus. The rationers have nothing to offer except global warming scare tactics, misery for us and pork for them. Their vision of 8 dollar a gallon gas, local produce that no one but them can afford and one child families would mean the end of the middle class and the end of the United States. And that is exactly what they want.

The environmental movement, like the rest of socialism, is aimed at killing the economic and political independence created by a rising middle-class through free enterprise. And its net result has made the world a more polluted and more violent place." --Daniel Greenfield

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Another day, another "Smart Car" tragedy

It's actually sickening to me that motorized golf carts like this one are allowed to traverse major thoroughfares:

A multi-vehicle accident involving a prison work detail crew resulted in two people being airlifted in critical condition to an Atlanta hospital and two others being transported to a local hospital, authorities said...

A guard with the Coweta County Public Works Department was airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center, as was a driver in one of the vehicles involved, according to Todd Moore, deputy fire chief with the Coweta Fire Department.

CAFE (fuel efficiency) standards are the product of our fourth branch of government -- an unaccountable, unelected bureaucracy that exists only to create new regulations. And these standards kill people. Oh, and news flash: with the Obama administration dictating 54 MPG requirements by 2025, more will die.

It is inescapable that more weight means lower fuel economy, so heavier vehicles will have to go. So prepare to say goodbye to sport utility vehicles, pickups and minivans, the very vehicles millions of American families and businesses must rely upon every day... By far the worst result, however, will be the fact that thousands will die because Obama, fanatical Big Green environmentalists, and their allies in the federal bureaucracy care more about removing micro-amounts of emissions than they do about the safety and convenience of people on the roads. We know this because the fanatics persist despite the fact that for years government and private sector researchers alike have documented the terrible correlation between CAFE, lighter cars and highway deaths.


In 2003, for example, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study estimated that for every 100 pounds of weight taken out of a car weighing under 3,000 pounds, the death rate goes up more than 5 percent; the increase is slightly less than 5 percent for those weighing more than 3,000 pounds. Two years before that, a National Academy of Sciences study estimated that the lighter vehicles required to satisfy CAFE were responsible for as many as 2,600 highway deaths in one year alone. And in 1999, a comprehensive multiple regression analysis by USA Today of the government's Fatality Analysis Reporting System data concluded that 7,700 people died for every one additional mpg attributable to CAFE regulation.

54 MPG?

Remember in 2012.


The Top 150 Conservative Websites -- 4Q11

Using Alexa's traffic rankings, the following represents a tabular view of the top 150 conservatively focused news and blog sites. Each column can be sorted by clicking the column header. And just click on the site-name to open a new window and visit the website. And, yes, I know that some of these sites are truly left-leaning (e.g., Politico). That said, conservatives often cite and reference them, so I've included them for purposes of completeness.


Rank Website Alexa Rank
1wsj.com204
2politico.com1066
3realclearpolitics.com1373
4zerohedge.com1965
5theblaze.com1989
6hotair.com3642
7thehill.com3680
8freerepublic.com4138
9dailycaller.com4362
10townhall.com4959
11mediaite.com4992
12nationaljournal.com5049
13nationalreview.com5084
14foreignpolicy.com5119
15pajamasmedia.com,instapundit,driscoll,etc.5803
16washingtonexaminer.com6180
17investors.com6302
18rushlimbaugh.com6734
19military.com6877
20thesmokinggun.com6966
21theatlanticwire.com7315
22weeklystandard.com8168
23reason.com9166
24americanthinker.com9313
25newsbusters.org9767
26mises.org10190
27globalpost.com10744
28ace.mu.nu,mypetjawa,confederateyankee,...11210
29redstate.com11306
30biggovernment.com12205
31cnsnews.com12288
32humanevents.com12490
33cbn.com14137
34michellemalkin.com14967
35blog.heritage.org16713
36wattsupwiththat.com17045
37globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com19015
38powerlineblog.com22406
39thegatewaypundit.com23807
40spectator.org25045
41stratfor.com27013
42thenewamerican.com29113
43realclearmarkets.com30434
44bigjournalism.com31413
45jihadwatch.org32590
46commentarymagazine.com32977
47whitehousedossier.com33710
48therightscoop.com36923
49atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com37754
50freedomworks.org38703
51blogs.dailymail.com,Surber39682
52marklevinshow.com42415
53althouse.blogspot.com43198
54anncoulter.com46085
55rollcall.com47328
56lifenews.com48746
57memeorandum.com49755
58weaselzippers.us51879
59boortz.com54990
60volokh.com58995
61rightpundits.com60699
62hannity.com64381
63legalinsurrection.com65959
64danielpipes.org69137
65bigpeace.com69138
66outsidethebeltway.com72724
67armytimes.com78369
68radicalislam.org78730
69rightwingnews.com79624
70theothermccain.com81513
71wizbangblog.com84353
72the-american-interest.com84471
73conservatives4palin.com85699
74firstthings.com86299
75numbersusa.com87321
76city-journal.org87967
77patdollard.com88291
78defensetech.org90187
79sayanythingblog.com92226
80cato-at-liberty.org93047
81climateaudit.org93773
82redcounty.com97815
83iowntheworld.com97889
84borderlandbeat.com102914
85gatesofvienna.blogspot.com107541
86linkiest.com108206
87directorblue.blogspot.com119874
88viralfootage.com119889
89mrc.org121326
90moonbattery.com121469
91lonelyconservative.com123555
92steynonline.com125306
93hughhewitt.com128849
94ihatethemedia.com129365
95judicialwatch.org131741
96uncoverage.net133475
97hillbuzz.org137338
98jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com137421
99ricochet.com140533
100aei.org142137
101cafehayek.com148513
102memri.org149480
103thepeoplescube.com158211
104allamericanblogger.com168069
105bostonreview.net175407
106yidwithlid.blogspot.com182862
107patterico.com184584
108floppingaces.net188683
109atr.org193087
110sultanknish.blogspot.com201135
111noquarterusa.net203079
112americanpowerblog.blogspot.com205971
113varight.com207501
114smalldeadanimals.com210309
115bobmccarty.com210568
116creepingsharia.wordpress.com212844
117iowahawk.typepad.com220727
118riehlworldview.com221592
119dennisprager.com226277
120blackfive.net229373
121polipundit.com238978
122verumserum.com251802
123zombietime.com252161
124proteinwisdom.com252166
125newsrealblog.com257162
126scaredmonkeys.com259263
127imao.us271958
128tammybruce.com273616
129politicsandfinance.blogspot.com294721
130americandigest.org299518
131allgov.com312513
132dailypundit.com318905
133sweetness-light.com335805
134hyscience.com355049
135babalublog.com383344
136moelane.com399694
137sundriesshack.com408479
138pointsandfigures.com427038
139deceiver.com441974
140justoneminute.typepad.com453056
141shark-tank.net458590
142investigativeproject.org463028
143strata-sphere.com466075
144theblogprof.blogspot.com466751
145islamineurope.blogspot.com469264
146fireandreamitchell.com471989
147theblogmocracy.com474851
148punditandpundette.com480244
149winteryknight.wordpress.com484407
150wyblog.us501128



Related:
Top 150 Conservative Websites - 3Q11
Top 150 Conservative Websites - 2Q11


Awesome: Obama proposal would allow debt collectors to robo-call cellphones

It seems that Americans just can't get enough of the Obama Democrats' policies.

Seriously, consumers are reveling in new regulations that force banks to dramatically hike fees and ban credit cards for stay-at-home parents.

No, Americans want more regulations. So President Obama is happily obliging by suggesting that debt collectors be allowed to robo-call consumers' cellphones:

To the dismay of consumer groups and the discomfort of Democrats, President Barack Obama wants Congress to make it easier for private debt collectors to call the cellphones of consumers delinquent on student loans and other billions owed the federal government...

...The little-noticed recommendation would apply only to cases in which money is owed the government, and is tucked into the mammoth $3 trillion deficit-reduction plan the president submitted to Congress.

Despite the claim, the administration has not yet developed an estimate of how much the government would collect, and critics reject the logic behind the recommendation.

"Enabling robo-calls (to cellphones) is just going to lead to more harassment and abuse, and it's not going to help the government collect more money," said Lauren Saunders of the Boston-based National Consumer Law Center. "People aren't paying their student loans because they can't find a job."

President Subprime McDowngrade is really doing a bang-up job: not only is he killing jobs with out-of-control bureaucracies like the NLRB and the EPA, he's letting new swarms of debt collectors run wild on the little people.

Now I know this comes as quite a shock for liberals, but here's the real headline: Inexperienced, un-vetted community organizer makes surprisingly lousy president.


Arab Spring: Open Season on Christians [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York:

Did I hear someone say “ethnic cleansing?” First the Middle East Muslims threw out the Jews. Now that the Muslim lands are Judenrein (rid of Jews), the Muslims are coming for the Christians.

###

Middle East Forum, September 28, 2011

Running for Their Lives


by Raymond Ibrahim

Historically, non-Muslims whose lands were seized by the jihad had three choices: conversion, dhimmitude, or death. Today, however, they have a fourth option largely unavailable to their forbears: quit their lands of origin—emigrate—the latest testimony to the nature of Islam.

A recent report indicates that unprecedented numbers of Copts, Egypt's indigenous Christian population, are emigrating from their homeland in response to the so-called "Arab spring":

The Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations (EUHRO) published a report today on emigration of Christians from Egypt, saying that nearly 100,000 Christians have emigrated since March 2011. The report, which was sent to the Egyptian cabinet and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), warned that this emigration has been prompted by the escalating intimidation and attacks on Christians by Islamists. "Copts are not emigrating abroad voluntarily," said Naguib Gabriell, the director EUHRO, "they are coerced into that by threats and intimidation by hard line Salafists, and the lack of protection they are getting from the Egyptian regime."


The report goes on to list a number of attacks on Copts and churches—including the killing of Coptic youth in Moqattam, the Imbaba and other church attacks—adding "Salafist clerics, who gained political influence after the January 25 Revolution, have become emboldened, calling Copts Dhimmis who have to pay the jizya (tax paid by non-Muslims to the state) because they are not first class citizens and can never enjoy full citizenship rights, or obtain sensitive posts."

Indeed, this boldness is a harbinger of things to come—and Copts know it, hence the emigration...

Beyond the authoritative primary sources which unequivocally demonstrate the violent nature of Islam—including history and theology texts—which many prefer to dismiss as "dead books," here, then, is yet another live example. And yet the West's leaders, from academics to politicians, will continue insisting that Islam is the "religion of peace"—testimony to the endemic blindness inflicting this age.

Ibrahim notes that Egyptian clerics have called the Christians "Crusaders", demanding they convert to Islam or pay jizya (a religious tax on infidels) or... die.

Nor is this strictly an Egyptian problem: Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories have seen attacks and emigration by Christians since the onset of President Obama's vaunted "Arab Spring".


Super Happy Fun Quiz: Do You Have What It Takes to Become a Washington Post News Editor?

Question: which is the bigger story?


A painted rock at a ranch once rented by Rick Perry's father?

Or an Attorney-General who approved an illegal gun-smuggling operation that left 200 dead including two U.S. law enforcement officials and later lied about it under oath to Congress?

Correct Answer: Now, which Republican candidate saw that painted rock?


RED ALERT: Smoking Gun -- Holder Lied, People Died

"Operation Fast and Furious" was a massive firearm smuggling program orchestrated by the Department of Justice. It was ostensibly designed to monitor the flow of weapons to Mexican drug cartels. More than 2000 weapons, including military-style assault- and sniper rifles, were intentionally sold to the cartels over the protests of gun-shop owners and ATF field agents. And virtually none of the weapons were actually tracked by U.S. officials.

The murders of at least two American law enforcement officials and roughly 200 Mexican nationals have since been tied to these weapons.

In sworn testimony, Attorney General Eric Holder denied knowledge of "Fast and Furious" on May 3, 2011.

Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says he does not believe Attorney General Eric Holder gave accurate testimony under oath to Congress during the House Judiciary Committee on May 3.

Asked in May when he learned of Operation “Fast and Furious” and “Project Gunrunner,” Holder claimed he ‘probably’ learned of it ‘over the last few weeks.’ In the testy exchange that followed, Issa pointed out that two Americans were killed by weapons associated with the botched operation, and that in the end, no major criminals were brought to justice. Issa also implies that the Department of Justice was deliberately slow-rolling the request for documentation about the program. You can watch the exchange between Holder and Issa here.

Unfortunately for Holder, CBS News' Sharyl Atkkisson has been doggedly pursuing the case and has unearthed documents that prove Holder lied under oath:

...internal Justice Department documents show that at least ten months before that hearing, Holder began receiving frequent memos discussing Fast and Furious...

The documents came from the head of the National Drug Intelligence Center and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer... the new documents leave no doubt that high level Justice officials knew guns were being "walked."

Two Justice Department officials mulled it over in an email exchange Oct. 18, 2010. "It's a tricky case given the number of guns that have walked but is a significant set of prosecutions," says Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division. Deputy Chief of the National Gang Unit James Trusty replies "I'm not sure how much grief we get for 'guns walking.' It may be more like, "Finally they're going after people who sent guns down there."

The Justice Department told CBS News that the officials in those emails were talking about a different case started before Eric Holder became Attorney General. And tonight they tell CBS News, Holder misunderstood that question from the committee - he did know about Fast and Furious - just not the details.

Holder -- during an April 2, 2009 speech in Cuernavaca, Mexico -- also boasted about the overarching operation ("Gunrunner") to Mexican authorities.

Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels.  My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion.

In addition, the book Mexico-U.S. Relations: Issues for Congress alludes to Holder's vociferous support of these types of operations.

Holder praised Mexico-U.S. cooperation in the investigations that led to [the] indictments [of 43 Mexican drug dealers]... ...ATF has begun a new intelligence-driven effort known as Gunrunner Impact Teams (GRITs)... and beefed up its Project Gunrunner program as a part of its efforts to stop the flow of guns into Mexico... ...on August 13, 2009, DHS and DOJ, along with Mexico, signed a letter of intent to develop a coordinated, bilateral arms trafficking strategy...

Not only did Holder lie to Congress, but President Obama likewise has feigned ignorance. Yet Gunrunner was part of the "Stimulus package" signed by the President in 2009.

The original Southwest Border Violence Reduction Act of 2009 was sponsored by Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas. Rodriguez's co-sponsors were two other Texans, Henry Cuellar and Silvestre Reyes, plus Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Harry Teague, D-N.M.

...Holder is clearly not telling the truth about his role in Gunrunner. He knew about it, boasted of it and took credit for it. Now he's orchestrating a cover-up of it. President Obama needs to man up about Gunrunner and either take responsibility for this tragedy or admit, under oath if need be, that even he didn't know what was in the stimulus bill.

During an interview with a Univision reporter that aired in March, Obama said he was "absolutely not" informed about the ATF program that deliberately funneled guns into Mexico. "I did not authorize it," he said. "Eric Holder, the attorney general, did not authorize it..."

Eric Holder must resign immediately.

Sharyl Atkkisson deserves a Pulitzer Prize.

And the American people deserve a a special prosecutor.


Update: The Hill weighs in with "Documents show Holder was informed of Fast and Furious operation in 2010"


Related: Emails show Operation Fast and Furious was shared with Obama counterterrorism adviser John Brennan -- and perhaps beyond

Larwyn's Linx: Coming Soon -- Kagan-gate

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

Coming Soon: Kagan-gate: IBD
'Stop Whining?': Sowell
No, Rick Perry’s not a racist say … Texas Democrats: Hot Air

Obama Marched With New Black Panthers in '07: BigG
Malik Shabazz on Obama: VS
Obama Appeared With Virulent Anti-Semite in '07: Commentary

Alabama Shows the Best Way to Limit Illegal Immigration: RWN
Rick Perry and the Macaca Media: Malkin
Fundraising Falsehoods Should End Obama's Reelection: AT

Economy

Citibank is next with a new banking fee ($20/mo. for checking): LAT
Credit Shock for Dual-Income Families: LaughingCon
Some Fun With Analogies And Repeating Futures: ZH

Michele Bachmann's Efforts to Defund ACORN: AmSpec
Healthcare Revisionism: What the President Promised: VS
‘Green jobs’ farm laying off workers received $200M in stimulus: DC

Gunrunner & Solyndra

New documents show Attorney General Eric Holder was briefed in July 2010: Atkkisson
Are You Ready For The Next Solyndra?: Ace
Obama crony company got special help on loan: Exam

Gunwalker: Holder Appears To Be Fast, Furious, and Finished: Owens
Obama touts Solyndra as having been a “good bet” as new e-mails reveal it, er, wasn’t a good bet: Hot Air
Yet Another Taxpayer Subsidized “Green” Energy Company In Trouble: RWN

Media

Excerpt From J. Christian Adams’ Injustice, Released Today: PJM
Bugger Off: Spying Online Is Perilous and Unnecessary: BosRev
Solar Energy School Propaganda 101 : Malkin

Did Media Matters Collude With DOJ On Black Panther Story?: BigJ
The New Black Panther Party: What Media Matters and the Obama DOJ Don’t Want You to Know: Stranahan
On CNN 'It's Difficult to Criticize a Black President' But It's Easy to Attack Herman Cain: NB

Prediction: Herman Cain’s real conservative support about to take a significant hit: ProWis
[/Cain]: Sondrakistan
Inside Obama's Populist Makeover: Beast

Bloomberg Whiffs, Part I: Power Line
Hank Williams Jr. Gets Axed From Monday Night Football: MB
ABC News/WaPo Poll: Overwhelming Majority Expect Obama To Be One-Term President: WZ

World

China Fires Back At US Senate Which May Have Just Started The Sino-US Currency Wars: ZH
Oct 4: CAIR-NY meeting to dismantle NYPD counterterrorism unit: Creeping
The Mother of All Conspiracies: Robot

Sci-Tech

Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards honor innovation: CNet
Can LinkedIn (LNKD) Ever Link its Market Cap to its Earnings?: InvGuide
Deal Alert: Samsung Galaxy S II Now Available For $99.99 From AT&T: AndroidPolice

Cornucopia

todaze celebrity wtf: Sondrakistan
‘Holy Smoke’ Allows You to Load Your Relatives’ Ashes Into Shotgun Shells & Cartridges: Blaze
Bob Hope Christmases With the Troops: YouTube

Image: Sad Hill News - Solyndra’s Agent, ‘Show Me The Money’
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Herman Cain for President

QOTD: ""You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things. I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. The one good thing about Raleigh is that for so many years we worked across party lines. It's a little bit more contentious now but it's not impossible to try to do what's right in this state. You want people who don't worry about the next election." -- Gov. Bev Perdue (D-NC).

Monday, October 03, 2011

Another success story for central planning: Fed rule will ban credit cards for many stay-at-home parents

Isn't it amazing how everything the Obama administration touches -- aside from our military and intelligence communities -- turns to crap?

A federal rule kicked in Saturday that will prevent many applicants from qualifying for new credit card accounts.

The Federal Reserve's rule told credit card companies that they no longer can consider household income when assessing the creditworthiness of an individual who applies for his or her own card. Under the rule, only an individual's own salary or other income -- rather than combined household income -- can be considered.

One major effect of the new regulation: Stay-at-home moms (or dads) without significant outside income no longer will be able to open their own credit card accounts -- and establish their own credit histories to build their credit scores. Compliance with the rule became mandatory Oct. 1, 2011.

"From an economic standpoint, this is a whopper," said Manisha Thakor, founder of the Women's Financial Literacy Initiative, a financial fellow at Wellesley College and a Houston-based financial analyst. "Not only will be harder to build a credit score, but this ruling is tantamount to assigning a zero dollar value to the work stay-at-home parents do day in and day out to keep households running."

...Previously, an individual member of a household could qualify for a credit card account by pointing to the combined income of several members of that household. For instance, in the case of a married couple, a stay-at-home wife without any independent income could qualify for and obtain a credit card under only her own name -- and establish her own credit history -- by pointing to the salary of her husband.

That no longer will be the case. Now, she must prove that she can make the payments with only her own resources, a nearly impossible hurdle for many homemakers to overcome.

"They're going to be stuck, really stuck," said Barbara Shapiro, a Boston-area registered investment adviser, vice president of the HMS Financial Group and a certified divorce financial analyst. "It makes these people completely unable to buy an airline ticket, rent a car or do anything that requires a credit card.

"We're becoming a cashless society," Shapiro said. "What are these people supposed to do?"

What indeed?

Maybe they can survive on hope, change, pink ponies and unicorn dreams.


Hat tip: Laughing Conservative.

Curious: somehow the media missed the fact that candidate Obama appeared and marched with the New Black Panthers in 2007

New media superstar Andrew Breitbart released another blockbuster exclusive this morning: photographic proof that candidate Barack Obama appeared and marched with the radical 'New Black Panther Party' in 2007.

New photographs obtained exclusively by BigGovernment.com reveal that Barack Obama appeared and marched with members of the New Black Panther Party as he campaigned for president in Selma, Alabama in March 2007... The photographs, captured from a Flickr photo-sharing account before it was scrubbed, are the latest evidence of the mainstream media’s failure to examine Obama’s extremist ties and radical roots.

In addition, the new images raise questions about the possible motives of the Obama administration in its infamous decision to drop the prosecution of the Panthers for voter intimidation...

Tomorrow, J. Christian Adams, the Department of Justice whistleblower in the New Black Panther Party case, will release his new book, Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department (Regnery).

The book exposes Obama administration corruption far beyond the Panther dismissal, and reveals how the institutional Left has turned the power of the DOJ into an ideological weapon... Adams’s book also describes, in detail, the Selma march at which then-Senator Obama was joined by a group of Panthers who had come to support his candidacy...

Among those appearing with Obama was Shabazz, the Panther leader who was one of the defendants in the voter intimidation case that Attorney General Eric Holder dismissed. Also present was the Panthers’ “Minister of War,” Najee Muhammed, who had called for murdering Dekalb County, Georgia, police officers with AK-47’s and then mocking their widows in this video (7:20 – 8:29).

...I have been calling for the White House to disclose which Malik Shabazz visited the private White House residence on July 25, 2009, two months after the DOJ voter intimidation case was dismissed. So far, the White House has refused to do so, leaving open the question of which “Malik Shabazz” appears in visitor logs released to the public.

Only one phrase comes to mind: Most Transparent Administration Evah™!

Which reminds me of the time when the Obama campaign website had its New Black Panther affiliates scrubbed from view once they received attention from the conservative media.

How funny is that? While trying to present himself as a "uniter" and kind of but not really to distance himself from some of viciously racist and anti-American remarks of his pastor and mentor (but not the pastor and mentor himself)... Obama picks up one racist endorsement after another.


Before

In the latest endorsement, Malik Zulu Shabazz, New Black Panther Party's national chairman, who last year was barred from entering Canada for his racism and anti-Semitism, refers to the "uniter" Obama as a man with a "Muslim background, a man of color."

Just as Sen. Barack Obama sought to distance himself from controversial racial remarks made by his pastor, an anti-American government, anti-white and virulently anti-Semitic black supremacist party has endorsed the presidential candidate on Obama's own website.

"Obama will stir the 'Melting Pot' into a better 'Molten America,'" states an endorsement from the New Black Panther Party, or NBPP, which is a registered team member and blogger on Obama's "MyObama" campaign website. [Ed: Not any longer]

The NBPP is a controversial black extremist party whose leaders are notorious for their racist statements and for leading anti-white activism... Malik Zulu Shabazz, NBPP national chairman, who has given scores of speeches condemning "white men" and Jews, confirmed his organization's endorsement of Obama in an interview with WND today.

...Speaking to WND, Shabazz referred to Obama as a man with a "Muslim background, a man of color."


After

Shabazz's NBPP's official platform states "white man has kept us deaf, dumb and blind," refers to the "white racist government of America," demands black people be exempt from military service and uses the word "Jew" repeatedly in quotation marks...

Remember: this is the same candidate that legacy media portrayed as our first post-racial, post-partisan nominee.

Which tells you just how much of a joke legacy media really is.


Update: Did Media Matters Collude With DOJ On Black Panther Story?

Larwyn's Linx: The American Revolution Was Not About Wealth Redistribution

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

The American Revolution Was Not About Wealth Redistribution: AmPower
The Coming Post-Obama Renaissance: Hanson
Super Peaceful Wall Street Protest Sees 700 Arrested: RWN

Finally, The Cognoscenti Ask: What Could We Be Thinking? : Steyn
Optimism: RS
The Obama's Swank Night Out: Dossier

Herman Cain at TeaCon 2011: Marathon
Florida Republicans for Obama: WSJ
The Factious Left Dogs Obama: Hill

Economy

Class Warfare - Yuck!: Leonsis
AFL-CIO’s Orwellian Boss To #OccupyWallSt Protesters: Daddy loves you: LUR
Post Office Releases New Ad Attacking E-Mails: Mediate

The Obama Disaster – By The Numbers: GWP
Bill Clinton Whines About More Credit: BizzyBlog
Who's Reponsible for New Credit Card Fees?: Blumer

Gunrunner & Solyndra

Gunwalker: Under White House Control?: Owens
Solyndra and the scandal of Tomorrowland: Hot Air
Solyndra, the welfare state, and the centrality of trust: League of Ordinary Gentlemen

Climate & Energy

How North Dakota Became Saudi Arabia: WSJ
Obama's government lacks clarity on climate: Alex Mills
Fed Plan to Consolidate Power Over Nation's Power Highway Has States Nervous: Fox

Thanks to Michael Mann’s response, a newspaper censors a letter to the editor ex post facto: WUWT
Liberals' case of unrequited energy love: King
Supply Pinch in Texas Tests Electricity Rules: WSJ

Media

Reverend Wright is off limits, but a painted-over rock is page 1 at WaPo: LI
Media Hilariously Promotes Obama As A “Uniter”: BigJ
Rush Limbaugh Wonders Why the First Lady Would Buy Lysol at Target: LoneCon

Hollyweirdo Roseanne Barr Calls for Beheading the Rich: Moonbattery
Test Drive for Tyranny: NoisyRm
The 3 Most Destructive Members of the ‘Greatest Generation’: PJM

Maybe Stephanie McCrummen Just Likes Using the N Word: RS
Time to raise Cain to contender status: Barone
Why did Obama feel compelled to attack GOP at HRC Fundraiser?: GayPatriot

World

Russia’s Arctic Embrace: Cold War Reloaded: RWN
Greek Cabinet to Fire 20% of Public Workers: Mish
The difference between Planning 101 and Planning 102 is...: Lamb

U.S. officials have met with Muslim Brotherhood: Atlas
Syria to U.S. ambassador: Shut up: Politico
Panetta: Israel Becoming Increasingly Isolated: VOA

Sci-Tech

U.S. Abandons Space: IBD
Thunderbolt, other HTC phones have big security hole, report claims: CNet
Mozilla is creating a 3D game engine for web browser called Gladius: LinuxToday

Cornucopia

This Week in Automotivators, September 26-October 2: RWN
Marine's widow eternally grateful for ring's return: Chron
Last Blagojevich-linked trial set to begin today: Trib

Image: iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Herman Cain for President

QOTD: "'The way I think about it," Barack Obama told a TV station in Orlando, "is, you know, this is a great, great country that had gotten a little soft."

He has a point. This is a great, great country that got so soft that 53% of electors voted for a ludicrously unqualified chief executive who would be regarded as a joke candidate in any serious nation." --Mark Steyn

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Michelle Obama Implicated in Fast-and-Furious?

Dave Blount at the peerless Moonbattery relays this exclusive photgraph from The Hostages:

This looks highly incriminating:

However, the photo does not seem to be authentic. The jewel-bedecked Bitter Half pushing around a Target cart? Please.

Dave, Dave, Dave:

Michelle wasn't so much shopping as she was helping out a friend.


Ominous Tweet o' the Day

The invaluable James Pethokoukis:

It's a theme echoed by Jim Gallagher in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch entitled "Horror show: the European debt crisis":

Right now, the European financial system is giving off signs of the apocalypse.

There's an under-the-table run on European banks. American money-market mutual funds, long a main source of dollar funding for the Europeans, are fleeing the Continent. Other sources of bank funding are getting clunky or drying up.

There's a run on the bonds of Spain and Italy, too, even though those two countries are quite solvent.

Worldwide, money is running for safety, mainly to the U.S. dollar. All that money is driving yield on the 10-year Treasury bond to the lowest levels since the 1940s. The euro is down 8 percent against the dollar since August. The Chinese yuan is weakening.

The American stock market is bouncing up and down, lately in synch with news from Europe. The memory Lehman Brothers haunts Wall Street...

Two economists quoted in the article thinks things will work out: after all, Europe simply has to come to its senses and resolve the crisis.

Problem is, no one has explained how the crisis can be resolved. Greece owes creditors hundreds of billions of Euros and can never, ever pay those debts off. The idiotic lenders who underwrote and levered up these loans include some of the most august banking institutions in all of Europe.

So short of Germany and the United States flooding the international banks with cash -- which would be a handy form of political suicide back at home -- there don't appear to be many credible options for salvaging the Euro.

Prepare accordingly.


Caption Contest and Open Thread: Dogizzle Edition

Image via Teddy Hilton, hat tip Ame.

Contribute captions, news tips, sweet links, and random effluvia in the comments.


Larwyn's Linx: Primer for the 3Q Obama for America (OfA) numbers

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

Primer for the 3Q Obama for America (OfA) numbers: RS
Buffett’s NYC Fundraiser For Obama a Flop, "Disappointing": WZ
How’s That Constitutional Rule Working Out?: RWN

The Left: A Century of Fostering Racial Tension: PJM
Cain's TeaCon 2011 Straw Poll Win, Director Loss: Publius
Dimwit Protesters Tie Up Traffic on Brooklyn Bridge: JWF

Economy

Parents Getting Arrested for 'Education Theft': LoneCon
Portfolio: Preparing for Greece's Failure: Stratfor
The AMD Event: ZH

More Finger-Pointing From The Blame-Shifting President: Ace
Green jobs? At $23 million a pop?: Q&O
FICO Survey: “Sharp and Deep Turn to Pessimism”: Mish

Gunrunner & Solyndra

Top Dem bundler lobbied for $737m loan guarantee: Exam
Energy Dept's Billions in Last-minute Loans: NewAm
Solyndra Expands into Energygate: Dossier

Climate & Energy

Politicizing Energy Independence: Knish
Wikileaks: UN Green Energy Policy Is Basically a Fiasco: GWP
Icy skepticism hits Slashdot: WUWT

Media

Soros-Funded "Journalism" Course Urges Journalists to Keep Silent on Death Toll of Islamic Terorrism: Cobb
Figures. White House Tipped Off AP Ahead of Michelle’s Target Photo-Op: GWP
Notre Dame president "bewildered" by Obama's contraception, sterilization, morning-after pill mandate: Pundette

New York Times Freelancer Arrested In Occupy Wall Street Protest: NB
Bill Clinton: How Giving Me a Little Credit for a Couple of Things?: Malkin
That Ain't Right: Jawa

The Left's Civility: Calling for the Death of Herman Cain: PunditPress
The cellphone temperance movement: JPA
Even Ralph Nader is Calling for an Obama Impeachment: HuffPo

World

Anwar al-Awlaki, an American Citizen, Pure B*!!@#$%: Virtuous Republic
Exclusive: The Inside Story Behind the Awlaki Assassination: IPT
Fatah Central Committee Member Calls Netanyahu, Obama "Scumbags"; Talks of "The Greater Goal": MEMRI

Showing some spine, Congress blocks $200 million in aid to Palestinians: Moran
Islamic Jew hatred comes to Euro soccer league: Creeping
'The Only Option'?: Matzav

The ‘Mosqueteria’ and Canada’s Fuzzy Church-State Line: PJM
Political Scientist Barbara Walter Beclowns Herself with Theory of Palestinian Bargaining: American Power
England's Obamacare: Breast Cancer Doctors' Blunders Leave 11 Dead: Daily Mail

Sci-Tech

AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II review: Engadget
A beginner's guide to telecom jargon, part 8: CNet
Microsoft “Accidentally” Tags Chrome As Malware: Crunch

Cornucopia

Everybody’s pulling their weight around here: Lady M’s in the lead: MOTUS
6 Work Place Shoe Faux Pas To Avoid: BusinessPundit
Daily Scoreboard: Surber

Image: Legal Insurrection
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Adam Hasner for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "[The] public pension crisis is not going away. It actually is getting worse every year, because politicians, financiers and union bosses lie to taxpayers, public workers and themselves about how much retirement benefits truly cost.

Right now, based on U.S. Census Bureau calculation of a 17.6 percent gain year over year ending June 30, somebody still has to kick in more than $30 trillion for what we already owe, or pension checks bounce...

Guess who has to pay up or have our property confiscated? Taxpayers. This is at least $30 trillion taken from a generation already burdened with the biggest government legacy debt in history. It is locked in; no reforms going forward have any significant impact." --Frank Keegan

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Socialized Medicine Success Story of the Day

When it comes to selling the clusterf--- known as Obamacare, this is certainly... unhelpful.

Two doctors were found guilty yesterday of Britain's biggest-ever breast cancer screening scandal... Blunders by John Brennan and Graham Urquhart led to 82 cancer victims being wrongly given the all-clear. Eleven of them died.

One expert witness told the General Medical Council there had been 'a unique catalogue of screening assessment failures the like of which I have never come across before or since.' Brennan was said to have let patients down through 'sheer laziness'.

Well, that would certainly be a firing offense and punishable by serious sanction, right?

The pair face being struck off next week if the GMC finds their errors amount to serious professional misconduct.

Oh. They can't be fired, even if they kill, say, eleven people through sheer laziness. Under England's delightful single-payer system, the civil servant doctors are virtually untouchable no matter how badly they mistreat patients.

...A massive programme of checks led to some women discovering as much as three years later that they had been wrongly given the all-clear... Most were in their late 50s or early 60s, but one who died was a 46-year-old mother. In many cases the doctors diagnosed lumps in the breast as benign tumours or cysts without adequately ruling out cancer.

In the ten most serious cases Brennan failed to recognise features of malignant cancer. He was also responsible for failing to take further action when tissue samples provided an 'equivocal result'.

Several witnesses described how he was regularly seen reading a newspaper with his feet on the desk during clinics.

This kind of breakdown comes as quite a shock since the DMV and the Post Office seem to be exemplars of government efficiency.


Emails show Operation Fast and Furious was shared with Obama counterterrorism adviser John Brennan -- and perhaps beyond

It's no longer a question of whether Eric Holder knew; it's whether President Obama knew and approved of Operation Fast and Furious. The rogue ATF operation sent thousands of military-grade weapons to Mexican drug cartels. And at least two of the weapons were discovered at the scene of last December's killing of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Sharyl Attkisson's quest for the Pulitzer continues apace with new revelations that trace knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious to the White House and the pinnacle of the nation's security apparatus. New revelations in the case include:

• ATF's Phoenix office led an operation out of Tucson called "Wide Receiver"; during which, according to sources, guns were allowed to "walk" to the cartels (just like "Fast and Furious")

• The ATF was communicating Gunwalker status to then-White House National Security Staffer Kevin O'Reilly, who was assembling information for Obama counterterrorism adviser John Brennan. O'Reilly can't be interviewed by investigators because he "is on assignment for the State Department in Iraq and unavailable"

• The White House is still withholding some records of Gunwalker communications because of "significant confidentiality interests"

Can you say "cover up", boys and girls?

Notice the photos of .50-cal Barrett sniper rifles found at the scenes of killings in Mexico and shared with Brennan. These are the same types of military-grade weapons that the ATF allowed to "walk" into Mexico.

A reasonably intelligent counterterrorism adviser would have asked the ATF: "How are the cartels getting these weapons?"

But after all, Brennan is the same man who didn't know about a massive terror plot in London that was headline news around the world; who said that a 20 percent terrorist recidivism rate was 'not bad'; and who made a series of bizarre misstatements regarding the killing of Bin Laden.

House Republicans should hold press conferences on the Capitol steps day after day demanding a special prosecutor for this case, to say nothing of Solargate.