Monday, November 14, 2011

What do you get when you put a former ACORN community agitator, who never held a job, in charge of the world's largest economy?

Pretend it's a hypothetical question, so you won't grow even more depressed.

Here's the latest Case-Shiller data, adjusted for October 2011.

Say, is that a green shoot?


Compulsive Intervention Disorder

President Obama and other Democrats have routinely pinned the blame for the 2008 housing crisis on the mistakes of the prior administration. In fact, two years ago the New York Times published a 5,100-word article alleging that the Bush administration’s housing policies had “stoked” the foreclosure crisis and, therefore, the financial meltdown. Using a variety of governmental mechanisms, the Times alleged, Bush seduced millions of people into mortgages that they ultimately couldn’t afford.

The Times has forgotten -- or, more likely, chosen to ignore -- a long and sordid history of government involvement with housing.

In 1922, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, overreacting to a tiny dip in home ownership rates reflected by the 1920 census (from 45.9% in 1910 to 45.6%), warned that three-quarters of all Americans would be renters within a few decades (experts believe that the small drop was actually related to the after-effects of World War I).

The New York Times echoed Hoover's urgency, "The nation’s stability [is] being undermined... The masses [are] losing their struggle for a better life.”

Without waiting to see if postwar prosperity might change the trend, Hoover launched a program of aggressive government intervention into the housing market. Hoover's Own Your Own Home program prompted GM, U.S. Steel and -- most significantly -- federally chartered banks to dive into the housing business.

From 1927 to 1929, national banks’ mortgage lending increased 45 percent. Despite an obviously overheated market, The New York Times applauded the “wave of home-building” turning America into "a nation of home owners."

The 1930 census revealed 47.8% of U.S. households were living in their own homes.

But all was not well. Foreclosures rose from 2% in 1922 to 11% in 1927.

The October 1929 stock market crash touched off bank runs and cash-starved institutions stopped lending altogether.

By 1933, 1,000 homes were foreclosing each day.

Hoover's Own Your Own Home program had created a housing bubble. Mortgage loans more than doubled in less than ten years, a primary reason that 750 financial institutions failed in 1930 alone.

Construction jobs also fell 70% from 1929 to 1933.

You might thank that Hoover's housing debacle would have taught politicians the dangers inherent in engineering housing policy.

Instead, the feds reacted to the crisis by forming the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC). HOLC was a New Deal bailout organization that turned government into an even bigger player in the housing market. HOLC would buy up troubled mortgages from banks and allow homeowners to refinance.

HOLC turned into a massive federal agency, reaching 20,000 employees at its height. Despite the new loans it negotiated, 20% of these reformulated mortgages defaulted.

HOLC loan officers characterized two thirds of the defaults as borrowers refusing to renoegotiate, as homeowners rightly figured that the government wouldn't kick them out of their homes.

And despite all of its purchases of bad loans, mortgage lending never revived during the thirties.

The feds' attempts at central planning continued with the Federal Home Loan Bank system to provide funds to banks; the Federal Housing Administration to insure loans; the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) to purchase insured mortgages; and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation to prevent future bank runs.

Put simply, the U.S. government had federalized much of the mortgage market.

1944's GI Bill included government-subsidized mortgages for returning veterans. By 1949, more than half of U.S. households owned homes and 40% were government-subsidized.

As homeownership grew, political pressure to allow riskier loans increased. As a result, the government eased its lending requirements, approving riskier loans and extending terms.

Predictably, the failure rate on FHA-insured loans spiked by 500% from 1950 to 1960.

By contrast, the foreclosure rate of conventional mortgages barely changed at all; many traditional lenders had maintained strict underwriting standards.

Ignoring all of these issues, the FHA embarked on a massive urban-loan program in the sixties and seventies. It turned out to be a catastrophic failure.

After the riots of 1968, the government passed a law giving poor families FHA-insured loans with nearly no down payments.

The result: massive real-estate flipping as speculators took advantage of the easy loan terms and uneducated home buyers. Foreclosures ran wild in more than 20 cities. The FHA became Detroit's biggest homeowner after it took about $200 million in losses. In New York, the tab ran more than $300 million. The final bill to taxpayers was estimated at $1.4 billion in losses.

Aside from the monetary losses, the program caused many neighborhoods to fall into ruins. Bushwick, a once-stable blue-collar Brooklyn community, became a burned-out husk of its former self as many buyers walked away from their properties and arsonists torched vacant homes. Entire blocks remained burned-out for years.

Once again, Washington's attempts at social engineering had failed as rampant speculation and corruption ran unchecked because the taxpayers were on the hook.

Again ignoring the problems endemic in any central planning of the housing market, the government next stepped into the breach in 1975.

Community agitators claimed studies were demonstrating that blacks were not receiving the same number of loans as whites; and the media jumped on the bandwagon. Experts pointed out, however, that creditworthiness of borrowers had not been taken into account.

Despite these obvious failings, Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) in 1977. It gave regulators the power to deny banks the right to expand if they didn’t lend at "acceptable rates" in poor neighborhoods. In 1979, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) rocked the banking industry when it used the CRA to deny the Greater New York Savings Bank to open a bank branch in Manhattan, claiming it hadn't met its lending obligations in Brooklyn.

The theme was repeated over and over again. In 1980, the FDIC told a Maryland bank that its expansion plans would be denied unless it started lending in the District of Columbia, though the bank had no branches there. Then the government began instructing wholesale banks—institutions without retail branches and that don’t lend to consumers —that they, too, had to implement urban lending programs.

Another milestone to the current meltdown was caused directly by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), which threatened to stop bank acquisitions in 1986 until it accepted "flexible credit and underwriting standards" for minority borrowers.

Acorn also successfully applied political pressure to Congress, which passed legislation in 1992 that required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to devote 30% of their loan portfolios to low- and moderate-income borrowers.

The campaign gathered inertia with the election of Bill Clinton, whose secretary of HUD, Henry Cisneros, began lobbying for zero-down loans, expanding federal insurance and using the CRA and other laws to force private money into low-income programs. Fannie and Freddie (also known as government-sponsored entities -- or GSEs) followed Cisneros' guidelines and further loosened underwriting standards, despite the FHA disaster of the sixties.

To meet the stated goals, the GSEs began enlisting large lenders to meet the new, flexible underwriting standards. In 1994, after accusions in Congress of "egregious redlin[ing]" by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) shocked the banking world by signing an agreement with HUD to increase minority lending. The first MBA member to enlist: Countrywide Financial, the firm at the center of the subprime meltdown.

As the volume of low-income loans increased, Wall Street began to take note.

In early 2000 the FDIC proposed increasing capital requirements for lenders making subprime loans, Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and John J. LaFalce (D-NY) battled the attempts, urging the regulators “not to be premature” with stricter underwriting.

In 1999, despite new lenders in the market, the Clinton administration kept pushing aggressive mortgage products.

In July, HUD increased desired levels for the GSEs low-income lending. In September, the GSEs began purchasing loans made to “borrowers with slightly impaired credit”, lowering the bar still further. In the following years, Congress set higher goals for the GSEs.

By 2007, some $1 trillion in loans had been made to lower- and moderate-income buyers. And Countrywide was the biggest supplier of mortgages to low-income buyers for Fannie Mae.

There was no shortage of evidence that this approach was doomed to fail.

In October 1994, Fannie Mae head James Johnson reminded a banking convention that mortgages with small down payments had a much higher risk of defaulting (actually, three times more likely to default). Yet the very next month, Fannie expanded its program to include products with a 97 percent loan-to-value ratio (a 3% down payment), the result of more political pressure from Maxine Waters and others in Congress.

No matter how high ownership rates climbed, however, a new group below the bar needed help. Massive immigration during the nineties, for example, created huge new pools of prospective borrowers. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus created Hogar, an initiative that eased lending standards for immigrants, and mortgage lending to Hispanics soared. Today, in areas where Hispanics make up 25 percent or more of the population, foreclosure rates are now nearly 50 percent higher than the national average.

Last year, lenders began foreclosing on roughly 2.3 million homes; some experts believe that before the crisis is over, 8 million homes will have been foreclosed upon.

Despite all of these lessons, Washington is preparing for the next housing debacle.

Barney Frank (D-MA) has aggressively resisted attempts to privatize the GSEs, which would eliminate both the risk to taxpayers and the political influence endemic in the series of failures. And the Obama administration’s various mortgage bailout plans have not only failed, they also eerily resemble the New Deal’s HOLC.

Behind all of these efforts are fundamental misconceptions about central planning; that masterminds in Washington can somehow perform better than the free market, where conventional underwriting programs have succeeded admirably in the past without government regulation.

If nothing else, the last ninety years have proven that political tampering in the housing market results in nothing less than disaster. And we're on course for more, if we keep electing big government Statists to office.

The pinnacle of this senseless treadmill is having the likes of Chris Dodd and Barney Frank -- arguably as responsible as any two living individuals for the most recent crisis -- writing the "fixes" for the financial system; or President Obama's pursuit of reduced underwriting standards that "repeats [the] mistakes of the past".

What's that definition of insanity, again?

It's time to get government out of the housing business, once and for all.


Based upon: Steven Malanga's outstanding Obsessive Housing Disorder in City Journal.

Larwyn's Linx: How Nancy Pelosi Made Millions Blocking Credit Card Legislation

Have a news tip or great story? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

How Nancy Pelosi Made Millions Blocking Credit Card Legislation: BG
Those sick of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz have reason to cheer: Hot Air
GOP Rep. Bachus Profited from ‘Inside Trades’ on TARP: BG

Obamacare Arrives at the Supreme Court: Malkin
Tea Partiers, Like Peaceniks, Upset Political Order: Barone
The GOP Dilemma on a Balanced Budget Amendment: PJM

Economy

The Euro Is Dead: ZH
Biden: First Guy We Called for Economic Advice Was Jon Corzine: JWF
Europe shows how a fat public sector consumes an economy: smh

Men from Occupy Portland Arrested with Homemade Grenades: VS
Bring the supercommittee out from behind closed doors: Exam
Confirmed: EFSF Is A Fraud: Denninger

The Obama Psalm: Spartacus
Big banks binge on Bush-Obama 'venture socialism': Exam
A Conspiracy of Hogs: The McRib as Arbitrage: Awl

Gunrunner & Energygate

Good advice to the GOP candidates from a Brit: SSI
Who Holder sent guns to: Hyperviolent drug cartel decapitates members of internet chat rooms: Daily News
I increasingly hear a legal term being mentioned: Misprision of a Felony: SSI

Climate & Energy

Obscene Green Gold Rush Embarasses the New York Times: Mead
Pacific Gas and Electric: not so climate smart after all: Watts
Bummer: Drying Your Hands Like A Rational Human Now Bad For Globull Warming: RWN

Media

Throw Them All Out -- Including Politico: BigJ
Tom Friedman: 'I’d Give Obama High Marks for Fulfilling Bush's Foreign Policy': NB
Pelosi drives even Jon Stewart crazy: JWF

The Cowards of Penn State: Pundette
Photoshopping the Past: Belmont Club
Grand Jury Report on Jerry Sandusky: Public Intelligence

AP, NYT Not Yet Reporting $433M Perelman-Smallpox Cronyism Story: NB
Bummer: Little People Who Can’t Vote Lose Obsession With Barack Obama: RWN
Did CBS intentionally squelch Bachmann in the debate?: Hot Air

World

The Devil's Smile: Sultan Knish
Acropolis now: Greece may be just the start: MacLeans
Pigs’ heads found at planned Swiss mosque site: iOTW

A 2012 World View: What is the End Game?: NMJ
Clinton, Albright Smile: Hundreds of North Korean Nuclear Experts Are Working in Iran: GWP
300 lashes for practicing black magic: Arab News

Sci-Tech

Six Lessons I Learned From Bombing Iran: Wired
So You Want To Be A Zero Day Exploit Millionaire?: InfoWeek
Israel May Have Developed Cancer Vaccine: Atlas

Cornucopia

Heartless: iOTW
Report: Mother Of Murdered Gay Lover Speaks Up: Dollard
Seven Reasons Life is Hard for Everyone: Hawkins

Image: iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: National Right-to-Carry Act Slated for House Floor on Tuesday

QOTD: "How did Nancy Pelosi snag one of the most coveted initial public offerings in history? ...Pelosi received her Visa IPO almost two weeks after a potentially damaging piece of legislation for Visa, the Credit Card Fair Fee Act, had been introduced in the House. If passed, the bill would have cut into Visa’s profits substantially by lowering so-called “interchange fees,” the 1% to 3% charge retailers pay Visa when customers use Visa cards for purchases. Interchange fees are a critical source of revenue for the four credit card companies–$48 billion in 2008, to be exact.

...[But] with at least ten percent of the Pelosi family’s entire stock portfolio invested in a single stock, Nancy Pelosi clearly had a vested interest in ensuring that Visa’s profits were protected. And that is exactly what she accomplished. Despite broad public support for the bill—77% in one study—Pelosi saw to it that the bill never made it to the House floor." --Wynton Hall

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Madoff's SEC regulators get off scot-free; liberals who bleat endlessly for more regulation hardest hit

I just love it when progressives and big government Republicans prattle endlessly about the need for more regulation. Every industry in America is regulated to an unprecedented degree, with thousands upon thousands of federal bureaucrats micromanaging light-bulbs, shower heads, the size of toilet tanks, gas mileage, energy exploration, dishwasher design, and everything else you can think of.

And no industry is more regulated than financial services.

After the housing market melted down thanks to eight decades of government tinkering, none other than Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank -- prime culprits in the debacle -- put themselves in charge of "fixing" the financial system.

And the fixes consisted of thousands of pages of new regulations.

Dodd and Frank curiously ignored their financial benefactors -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which contributed mightily to the disaster. Barney Frank used his pull to get his lover a job at Fannie (no pun intended) and Chris Dodd received sweetheart loan deals under the table.

In other words, the regulators were themselves in need of regulation.

A prime example of this kind of cronyism and corruption involves the aftermath of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi Scheme. Madoff's multi-billion dollar fraud represented the biggest and most obvious failure of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an agency designed to protect investors against precisely this type of crime.

Despite seventeen (17) years of warnings about Madoff, the SEC declined to seriously investigate until it was too late.

And what happened to the all-too-cozy regulators who should have heeded the warnings and protected investors from Madoff? You guessed it: virtually nothing. Not one was fired.

The Washington Post reported on its Web site Friday that seven SEC employees had been disciplined, based on details provided by a person familiar with the actions. A second source, an official involved in the process, told The Post that Schapiro had received recommendations to fire an employee over the mishandling of the Madoff case.

Later Friday, Nester confirmed details and added that an eighth employee also received disciplinary action. A ninth employee, who was facing a potential seven-day suspension, resigned before disciplinary action was taken, Nester said.

The punishments given the SEC employees varied and included suspensions, pay cuts and demotions.

The employee recommended for termination received one of the more severe penalties, a 30-day suspension along with a reduction in pay and grade. Another was given a pay cut of 5.7 percent. At the low end, one employee was suspended for seven days, another for three days and two others were issued counseling memos, a step below a reprimand.

What needs to be regulated is government itself. Crony capitalism is rampant in Washington, with politicians like Dodd and Frank out to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense.

We don't need more regulations or regulators. What we need are more controls on government, to protect the people from predators like these corrupt slime-balls.


Related: Compulsive Intervention Disorder

Schweizer's New Book: 80% of Energy Department's "Green Loan" Program Went to Obama's Backers

Peter Schweizer's new book has received attention from across the political spectrum, including law enforcement. Even 60 Minutes reportedly leveraged the book to shine a spotlight on Nancy Pelosi's insider trades.

When President-elect Obama came to Washington in late 2008, he was outspoken about the need for an economic stimulus to revive a struggling economy... After he was sworn in as president, he proclaimed that taxpayer money would assuredly not be doled out to political friends...

...But an examination of grants and guaranteed loans offered by just one stimulus program run by the Department of Energy, for alternative-energy projects, is stunning. The so-called 1705 Loan Guarantee Program and the 1603 Grant Program channeled billions of dollars to all sorts of energy companies...

...In the 1705 government-backed-loan program [alone], for example, $16.4 billion of the $20.5 billion in loans granted as of Sept. 15 went to companies either run by or primarily owned by Obama financial backers—individuals who were bundlers, members of Obama’s National Finance Committee, or large donors to the Democratic Party. The grant and guaranteed-loan recipients were early backers of Obama before he ran for president, people who continued to give to his campaigns and exclusively to the Democratic Party in the years leading up to 2008. Their political largesse is probably the best investment they ever made in alternative energy. It brought them returns many times over.

...The Government Accountability Office has been highly critical of the way guaranteed loans and grants were doled out by the Department of Energy, complaining that the process appears “arbitrary” and lacks transparency. In March 2011, for example, the GAO examined the first 18 loans that were approved and found that none were properly documented. It also noted that officials “did not always record the results of analysis” of these applications. A loan program for electric cars, for example, “lacks performance measures.” No notes were kept during the review process, so it is difficult to determine how loan decisions were made. The GAO further declared that the Department of Energy “had treated applicants inconsistently in the application review process, favoring some applicants and disadvantaging others.” The Department of Energy’s inspector general, Gregory Friedman, ... has testified that contracts have been steered to “friends and family.”

...These programs might be the greatest—and most expensive—example of crony capitalism in American history. Tens of billions of dollars went to firms controlled or owned by fundraisers, bundlers, and political allies, many of whom—surprise!—are now raising money for Obama again...

The ludicrous Jonathan Alter hardest hit.


Outrage: Family of Brian Terry Receives Eric Holder's Apology For Fast and Furious AFTER Politico Publishes It

One of the most stunning revelations to arise during Eric Holder's testimony last week regarding Operation Fast and Furious was the fact that the DOJ had never issued an apology to the family of Brian Terry. The Border Patrol agent met his demise courtesy of Holder's Orwellian plan to demonize American gun-owners, and was but one victim among hundreds.

In fact, during his testimony, the embattled Attorney General refused to apologize to the family.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn asked Holder if he has apologized to Terry’s family for what happened to him because of the DOJ’s controversial program. Holder replied that he hasn’t.

“I have not apologized to them, but I certainly regret what happened,” Holder said.

Cornyn followed up, asking if Holder has “even talked to them.”

“I have not,” Holder replied.

Cornyn offered Holder the opportunity to apologize to Terry’s family, during the hearing, for his murder. “Would you like to apologize today for this program that went so wrong and that took the life of a United States law enforcement agent?”

Holder expressed his sadness without apologizing.

Fearing a public relations debacle after his testimony, Holder issued an apology shortly thereafter.

But a family friend of the Terry's told The Daily Caller that Holder's belated apology appeared in Politico before the family had seen it.

Politico reported Thursday that Attorney General Eric Holder sent a “private letter” to the family of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, apologizing for his death. But friends of the Terry family question the Department of Justice’s apparent decision to leak that letter to media before both his parents had read it.

...friends of the Terry family told The Daily Caller on Thursday that they haven’t received it...

...If what [they] said is true, either Holder never sent his “private letter” to Terry’s parents or someone at the Justice Department leaked it to Politico before its recipients received it.

A follow-up story indicated that Terry's sister had received an email apology prior to Politico's publication. That said, other family members -- including the parents -- had not seen the email prior to its online publication.

Consider: Holder had never apologized to the family of Brian Terry until he was forced to do so -- through sheer embarrassment -- by the House Judiciary Committee. Holder then sent an email apology, not even a written letter, to one of the family members. And without even waiting for it to get to Terry's parents, Holder then released the letter to the DNC's online public relations arm -- Politico -- in the hopes that it would absolve him of the stain of his outrageous conduct.

Terry's parents still blame Holder for their son's death.

Given the A.G.'s record of fabrications, deflections, misdirections, and outright lies regarding Fast and Furious, it's clear that only a Special Prosecutor will be able to discover the truth regarding Eric Holder's lawless operation.


Larwyn's Linx: Deficit Reduction Fever and Pork Chop Patty Murray

Have a news tip or great story? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Deficit Reduction Fever: Steyn
Super Committee Party time for Pork Chop Patty Murray: Malkin
The Supercommittee's Emerging Secret Deal: Hewitt

Occupy Protesters Force Me to Work Overtime in Photoshop: Jawa
Scoring the #CBSNJDebate: Tatler
Obama's Virginia Defeat: Strassel

Bachmann Dominates CBS News/Nat'l Journal Debate: AmPower
Once written off, Gingrich surges: Times
Photos: Cops clear out Occupy Denver tent city: Marathon

Economy

Fannie, Freddie led mortgage market to the collapse: Exam
Romney: Send Out the Aides!: Kaus
Congress Members Took Part in Insider Trading: Abramoff: CNBC

4.5M have lost coverage since Obamamcare passed: LoneCon
CBS poll: Obama approval on economy still falling: Hot Air
The high price of political payback at McCormick Place: Crain's

Gunrunner & Energygate

Obama Supporter’s Company Wins $433 Million No-Bid Contract for Experimental Smallpox Drug: Malkin
White House Email: 'Coming Storm' Over Solyndra 'And Other Inside DOE Deals': ABC
Losing the Mandate of Heaven. Joe Paterno, the Gunwalker Scandal and the crisis of legitimacy.: SSI

Climate & Energy

Renewable Energy: Bubble, Scam, or Both?: Power Line
The End of the Light Bulb as We Know It: PJM
Obama Caves to Insatiable Wing of Party, Delays Keystone Pipeline: ATR

Media

Bloomberg Ignores Multiple Scandals of the Obama Administration: BigJ
The Big Loser of the Night: CBS: NRO
Univ of Maryland student govt unanimously votes for…silencing truth about Islam: Creeping

Bachmann accuses CBS of planning biased debate, shows emails as proof: Hill
Occupy Denver Tries To Storm BlogCon, Hippy Body Slam Ensues: WZ
Rusty Endorses Newt Gingrich for President: Jawa Report

Gingrich schools Pelley on “rule of law” on terrorists: Hot Air
Amerika, Oh, Amerika: Garden Serf
Herman Cain unwittingly takes lie detector test and... passes: Daily Mail

Penn State-Just The Beginning Of A Major Bombshell: Pagan Temple
Penn State and the Failure of Masculinity: First Things
If you were still not convinced about Politico's leanings....: Politico

World

Islamists Take Over Egypt: Library of Alexandria to Be Burned Again; Food for Half-Price: Hudson
Why Did Sarkozy and Obama ‘Dis’ Bibi?: BRubin
Statistics!: Jawa Report

Iran on Nuclear Threshold: AmSpec
Obama Orders U.S. to Spy More on Israel: Founding Bloggers
Google releases satellite images of possible Iranian nuclear facilities: Daily Mail (UK)

Sci-Tech

U.S. wins Twitter battle against foreign WikiLeaks collaborator: ZDNet
Anonymous and LulzSec trawl Google Code search for security holes: Sophos
Primal Experiment: Intentional Power Outage: Mark's Daily Apple

Cornucopia

A Veteran I was Fortunate to Know: Ace
A Day of Do-Overs: MOTUS
The Veteran I Knew Best: Ace

Nationals’ Wilson Ramos tells of kidnapping ordeal: Times
Saturday Night Live Ends Show With A Lot of Electronic Sex: Mediate
Every Generation: FreedomWorks

Image: People's Cube
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: A Letter Written by a Dear Friend

QOTD: "I think the arrogance, and frankly, the sometimes latent anti-Semitism that the Europeans have, that has been tragic over and over again…I mean, you know, here’s a man…Bibi Netanyahu is worried about the very survival of his country. He has in the Palestinian Authority somebody who is a clear public liar, who has said that ultimately, they don’t want a peace agreement, they want to get rid of Israel. He has in Hamas a mortal enemy. He has in Hezbollah a mortal enemy. He has in Iran Ahmadinejad, a dictator who says he wants to eliminate Israel from the face of the Earth. And yet their nasty comments are aimed at Netanyahu? I mean, it tells you just what’s wrong with the elites in Europe, and frankly, the elites in the United States." --Newt Gingrich

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Obama Making The World Safe For Political Islam [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York:

Hillary Clinton gave a major foreign policy address on Monday articulating the Obama Administration’s updated policy toward the Arab uprisings, and it didn’t get the news coverage it deserved. That was probably to be expected, since her speech revealed a pronounced tilt toward the Islamists vying for political power after the “Arab Spring”, a tilt that will discomfit many Americans. Luckily, some people were paying attention. Here are two reactions from solid Middle East analysts with disparate viewpoints and approaches who both reacted to Hillary’s remarks with similar raised eyebrows.

This is actually very important, especially if you are concerned about where Obama is leading our country.

More Questions Than Answers in Secretary Clinton’s Remarks on the Arab Uprisings


One of the consequences of Secretary of State Clinton’s speech will be for people in the Middle East to conclude that the United States now endorses Islamist parties.

-- Robert M. Danin, Council on Foreign Relations, November 8, 2011

It’s Official: Obama Administration Promotes Islamist Regimes; Insists They are Moderate


But now there can be no doubt that Obama’s Middle East policy is engaged in what might be the biggest blunder in the history of U.S. foreign policy.

-- Barry Rubin, PJ Media, November 8, 2011

I urge you click on the links and read both items. Then pass them on.


Good news: central planning experts at EPA attempting to shut down "95 percent of North Dakota['s oil] drilling"

Because, heaven knows, you wouldn't want to use any oil when you drill for... oil. The Minot Daily News reports on the EPA's latest job-destroying initiative:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is developing Underground Injection Control Class II permitting guidance for hydraulic fracturing activities that use diesel fuels in fracturing fluids.

"In our opinion, this is an underhanded attempt to pick the lock on the back door and get regulatory oversight over fracturing. As I have said earlier, this could easily stop 95 percent of North Dakota drilling for 18 to 24 months and slow it to half or less of current levels after that," said Lynn Helms, Bismarck, director of the N.D. Department of Mineral Resources.

The EPA is studying any potential impact of fracking on groundwater and drinking water and Helms has said also would impact drilling in the state. That study was announced earlier this year.

Hydraulic fracturing, also called fracturing or fracking, is a process used to break open oil-bearing rock with pressurized fluid and sand. The process is used in about 95 percent of the wells drilled in North Dakota.

..."They have conducted three public meetings and the environmental community is pressing for a broad definition of diesel fuel that would define it as any petroleum distillate that is found in diesel fuel," Helms said... He said this would be a different definition than the other 163 references to diesel fuel in the Energy Policy Act 2005.

Helms said the Independent Petroleum Association of America has filed a lawsuit to stop the process, with oral arguments to be heard in federal court shortly... A brief filed by IPAA legal counsel in March said, in summary, "there is no reason to believe that EPA's new interpretation of the SDWA and its implementing regulations reflects a carefully reasoned change in policy."

It goes on to say, "An agency cannot do so formally or informally without engaging in a proper rulemaking when the consequence for the regulated community is complying at the cost of many thousands of dollars or potentially being subject to an enforcement action. EPA's decision should be vacated and EPA should be barred from enforcing its position until such time as EPA engages in a rulemaking that satisfies the APA and the SDWA."

Should the EPA successfully shut down North Dakota's oil drilling operations, it will have contributed to President Obama's record-setting figure of nearly 3,000,000 U.S. jobs -- many of them union jobs -- destroyed by his environmental, flat-earth, no-growth Marxist bureaucrats.


"If you like your health care plan, you can keep it (except for 4.5 million of you gullible schmucks)"

I wonder how many of these folks were among the saps who voted for Obama?

Throughout the Obamacare debate, President Obama repeatedly promised, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” Now, Gallup reports that from the first quarter of 2010 (when Obama signed Obamacare into law) to the third quarter of this year, 2 percent of American adults lost their employer sponsored health insurance. In other words, about 4.5 million Americans lost their employer-sponsored insurance over a span of just 18 months...

what’s clear is that, more than 25 months before Obamacare would really go into effect — if it’s not repealed first — employers are already dropping employees from their insurance rolls.

Take Walmart, for example — a prominent Obamacare supporter. Gallup writes,

“The nation's largest private employer, Wal-Mart, announced in October that new part-time employees who work less than an average of 24 hours a week would no longer be able to get their health insurance from the company. Wal-Mart laid out several other cuts to its health insurance offerings, including some workers’ ability get coverage for their spouses. Other companies have already made and will likely continue to make similar changes to their health insurance benefits….

“If Wal-Mart's decision is a precursor of how employers intend to manage their healthcare costs, the downward trend in employer-based healthcare will likely continue.”

So in addition to costing about $2.5 trillion over its real first decade (2014 to 2023), looting nearly $1 trillion from Medicare over that time (according to the CBO), forcing Americans to buy government-approved health insurance under penalty of law, and amassing unprecedented power and money in Washington at the expense of Americans’ liberty — if Obamacare stays on the books, you may like your health care plan, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can keep your health care plan...

Jeffrey Anderson concludes: "It's time to repeal Obamacare."

And he's right. But we had better nominate a Constitutional Conservative to battle Obama, for the RINOs and big-government, establishment types like Mitt Romney haven't demonstrated they have the stones for this fight.


Photo: Michael Moore's Lakeside Mansion Perfectly Illustrates His Empathy With the 99%

No wonder Michael Moore reacted so strongly to a reporter's question about his purported wealth, estimated recently at $50 million.

Because Andrew Breitbart did the heavy lifting old media refuses to do, illustrating the hypocrisy of the morbidly obese faux-Communist:

Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore has been touring Occupy Wall Street demonstrations across the country–including some of the most violent, such as Occupy Oakland–urging activists to continue their fight against the wealthy “one percent” of Americans... Through an independent source, Big Hollywood has obtained exclusive photographs of the house matching the address of Moore’s waterfront mansion. It is the kind of luxurious summer home that 99 percent of Americans can only dream of owning.

...Moore’s Torch Lake vacation home is likely worth close to $2 million...

...In addition, according to statistics from 2009, Forest Home Township has no black residents. The township is roughly 98 percent white. Call that 99 percent, and Moore’s claim to be among “the 99 percent” begins to have some basis in reality.

No one begrudges Moore his wealth, but it is deceitful for him to claim poverty while encouraging class warfare among other Americans. It is also purely narcissistic and selfish for Moore to back radical and destructive socialist policies that would deny other Americans the opportunity to become as rich as he is.

If I were a member of the #OWS crowd, I would occupy Moore's house.

Heaven knows he's got enough room for even twenty Moore-sized people in it.


Hat tip: Drudge Report.

Caller to Mark Levin Show Describes How Nancy Pelosi and her Husband Abuse Their Power to Stiff Small Business

According to The New York Daily News, Nancy Pelosi's net worth skyrocketed by a jaw-dropping 62% over the last year of her tenure as Speaker of the House. Her net worth was $22 million in 2009 and is currently reported at $35.2 million.

Which makes her failure to pay her bills all the more outrageous. A caller to the Mark Levin Show (11/9/2011 about 1:32) named "Sharon" (a cover name) described tactics that are probably all too common among the Democrat elite who claim to be for the "little people".

Hi, Mark, I just wanted to call in and let you know a year ago, October 2010, my plumbing company did some work for Ms. Pelosi and her husband in D.C., took care of her problem and billed her accordingly... She chose to ignore payment of that bill and we kept sending her an invoice, pretty much on a routine basis and never heard back from her.

We sent her a nice letter saying, 'Please, this invoice is past due', and she chose not to pay it. She says she's for the common person, but it's ironic.

...I work for the plumbing business... this has been over a year now... [There's no dispute] ...the problem was solved and the thing that bothers me is that we provided materials for the job, the labor was performed, my employer paid the plumber and had to buy the materials, and it just seems very unfair that everything was done in good faith... and nothing reimbursed... [The owner] is a small-business owner and he knows this is going to be the case on an occasional basis, but it seems so unbelievable that somebody in that position -- who can afford to pay her bill for a service that was rendered -- chose not to.

...It was October of 2010 and Mr. Pelosi called the office and I happened to be the one who answered the call. He, it was interesting, we chuckled after we hung up, because he was dropping his name, his wife's name, interjecting it into the conversation... to make clear that I understood who this was...

We showed up, took care of the problem, everything was solved. Just a routine service call... it wasn't a major thing, it had to do with the bathtub in the bathroom, it wasn't draining properly. And she want to be able to use that as a form of relaxation at night; he informed me of that in the call. So we took care of that for her. It was nothing serious or overly complicated.

[The bill wasn't a large amount] ...not at all, absolutely blowing us off.

Levin observes that "this is the sort of thing that happens all the time. The little people are kicked around by the big people who claim to love them. All the time. I've heard stories -- the Kennedy family, other families -- you'd be amazed."

Folks, this is what an oligarchy looks like. And this is why we must flush all Democrats and RINO pretenders from office in 2012. Business as usual needs to come to an end in Washington, and we need to send a message. Let's call it "flush twice to remove the clingers". It's time to re-establish Constitutional government in Washington.


By the numbers: Obama jobs destruction plan to accelerate in 2012

If you do a Google search on President Obama's oft-repeated statement -- "I will not rest until every American has a good job" -- you'll get 6.6 million results.

Yet three years after the mortgage meltdown and the vaunted Obama stimulus program, the real unemployment rate (U-6) actually worsened even if we look at the year of 2011 alone. The U-6 unemployment rate remains over 16% and could actually be far worse because of some of the tricks used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In fact, ShadowStats.com puts unemployment in excess of 22 percent.

Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The job losses we'll see in the coming years will make what we've seen thus far look like a jaunt in the park. A quick review of recent articles describing the impact of the massive regulatory state (the EPA alone has grown 120 percent under Obama) offers some ominous projections for future job losses.

DescriptionJobs DestroyedSource
Delaying the Keystone XL Pipeline until after the 2012 election20,000LA Times
Forcing lignite coal plants in Texas to close (EPA)14,000Heritage
Gulf Drilling Moratorium (Interior)72,000LA Times
EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule1,440,000Daily Caller
EPA's determination that coal ash is a "hazardous waste"250,000Western Caucus
EPA's shutdown of AEP plants5,000CAPPS Online
EPA's commercial and industrial boiler regulations800,000Clatskanie Chief
Interior Department's protection of lizards and smelt fish75,000Human Events
Jobs killed by the Obama environmental machine2,676,000

That's nearly 3,000,000 jobs that President Obama's policies will have un-saved and un-created. Middle-class jobs. Blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Trucking jobs, manufacturing jobs, union jobs.

Liberals, drones, progressives and other anti-American malcontents would be hard-pressed to prove that this President isn't intentionally trying to establish a permanent underclass, whose subsistence is dependent upon the largesse of the federal government.

Because every action this president seems to tack seems to prove that the destruction of the middle class is among his chief goals.

And, further: President Obama is 'historic' only in the sense that he is the most effective job destroyer ever.


Larwyn's Linx: CBS Report to Expose Insider Trading on Capitol Hill

Have a news tip or great story? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

CBS Report to Expose Insider Trading on Capitol Hill: C4P
Occupiers part of grand alliance against the productive: Steyn
Reggie Love, longtime Obama aide, to leave White House: LAT

A Thank You and a Reminder: Green Mountains
Seven Dead at Occupy Protests So Far: AmPower
Univision Poll: GOP candidates and the Hispanic vote: Karl

Economy

Better education through lower taxes: DC
Too Big To Fail Can't Be Fixed With Dodd-Frank in Place: AmSpec
Islam's War on Free Speech: Atlas

Obama’s Pipeline Punt: Cmmntry
Elena Kagan: Excited When Obamacare Passed: LoneCon
Greece Turns to Iran for Oil as Credit Shut Down: Mish

Gunrunner & Energygate

Family of Murdered Border Agent Lashes Out at Holder: Fox
Spiritual Warfare. "Drink water, pray, drive on.": SSI
Video: Cornyn blows up “Bush did it too” on Fast and Furious: Hot Air

Climate & Energy

Ah–Chu: Guess Who Funded Spain’s Green Energy Disaster: Soylent Green
Republicans test Senate's will to stand up for EPA: BizWk
Energy Department failed to sound alarm as Solyndra solar company sank: WaPo

Media

NBC, ABC Skip Obama Administration's Delay of Pipeline That Could Create 20,000 Jobs: NB
Penn State: the Death Penalty Awaits: Shayne
NBC and CBS Give Scant Coverage to Deadly Shootings at Occupy Wall Street Protests; ABC Ignores: NB

Michelle to Serve as NASCAR Grand Marshal: Dossier
Media Attempt to Cover up Obama Comments on Israel: BigJ
POLITICO: Occupy Wall Street Is Winning: Glob

World

China's economy showing signs of trouble: AT
Connecting the Nuclear Dots on Iran: FPM
Invisible Run on Banks Becoming Conversation With Italian Yields Above 7%: Bloomberg

Newt on Israel, Sarkozy and Obama: Hewitt
The Unreported Tragedy of Cuba’s Repressive Communist Regime: Foundry
Sharia mortgage racket fails, leaves 200 Canadian Muslim families in limbo: Creeping

Eurozone Debt Crisis Reveals China's Economic Weakness: Stratfor
"I Want You All Fired" Yet Another Fantastic Video from Nigel Farage, Speaking to European Parliament: Mish
$400,000 prize offered to break up the euro: CNN

Sci-Tech

Everything should be open source, says WordPress founder: ZDNet
Reader Gets AT&T To Admit It's Their Towers That Suck, Not The iPhone: Consumerist
iOS 5 battery fix here--and more fuel for Apple rumor mill: CNet

Cornucopia

Plan to Save the Country: Soldiers optional. Ditto, tools, books, magazines and property reviews (?): MOTUS
Hashtag Of The Entitlement Generation: SDA
God Bless Mexifornia – American Flag T-Shirts Banned On Cinco de Mayo: SHN

Image: @Kenny4Field
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "Sarkozy then said of Netanyahu, “I cannot bear him, he’s a liar,” to which President Obama reportedly said, “You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day.”A number of journalists heard this but did not report on it after staffers from Sarkozy’s office went to the journalists and told them the comments were meant to be private. According to reports, French media tradition requires journalists to honor that privacy, and in keeping with that tradition, they were asked to sign agreements to that effect. Apparently many of them complied “due to the sensitivity of the issue.” But it was a French website, Arret sur images, that first reported the conversation. Reporters from Reuters and the Associated Press confirmed the account of the conversation. Sarkozy’s and Obama’s offices have refused to comment." --AIM

Friday, November 11, 2011

An Illustrated Thank You Note to the Marines

And to all of our armed forces, police officers, firefighters and emergency personnel:







Thank you for your service.


Hat tip: MGySgt Kirk.

Yo, Dems: how many years we gotta wait before Obamacare is a 'living and breathing' law so we can start ignoring it?

Liberals have a fundamentally different perspective on Constitutional interpretation than conservatives. Conservatives believe that there is only one legitimate way to interpret the Constitution: as it was written. This school of thought is called originalism and no less an intellect than the mighty James Madison said the following regarding this approach.

Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government. In effect, the Obama administration.

Eh, okay -- I added that last sentence.

Liberals have invented all sorts of clever schemes for avoiding originalism, even though the Framers studied thousands of years of human history to create a resilient, flexible framework upon which the body politic could grow. They have discovered numerous methods to reject the nation's highest law, upon which they take an oath to uphold when they enter office!

• They reject originalism through the lens of technology: Gee, the framers didn't talk about the Internet, so we've got to create brand new rights from whole cloth!...

• They reject originalism through a fabricated principle called 'Judicial Precedent': Hey, I don't care what unconstitutional decision the Warren Court came up with, it's 'Judicial Precedent'!

• They reject originalism through another fairy tale called 'Judicial Review': Hey, we don't like that legislation, so we'll just dismantle it.

• They reject originalism through social engineering: former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once said, "You guys [i.e., white people] have been practicing discrimination for years. Now it's our [i.e., black people's] turn."

In short, liberals view the Constitution as amorphous and flexible -- "living and breathing", if you will -- in order to advance their agenda.

But I ask you: many laws and contracts are very old (even 99-year leases in Hawaii appear to be commonplace) -- so how many years do we have to wait to call the laws we don't like 'living and breathing'?

Is 50 years enough? 100? 150 years?

Because these laws, contracts and other agreements can't possibly be binding once they hit that limit. They've got to be living and breathing, because the terms could never anticipate all of the changes in technology, transportation and communications... right?

So how many years must we wait before we reject all of the liberals' failed social engineering programs by reinterpreting them under this 'living and breathing' escape hatch?

Not that the country will survive on the spending glide-path we're on right now. But I'm just wondering. Any liberals care to venture an answer?


Meet Bill and Joan, your next door neighbors who are "millionaires and billionaires'

Did I say "millionaires and billionaires"? I meant members of the middle class, who will be paying considerably more in taxes after the 2012 elections.

Meet the Smiths: 26-year-olds Bill and Joan have been married for five years and have two young children. Bill earns about $65,000 a year in sales and Joan has gone back to work and earns about $35,000 annually. Bill owes quite a bit on his college student loans and will pay about $3,000 in interest on them in 2013. With Joan working again, they are paying $3,000 for year-round child care. Joan inherited some AT&T stock from her grandmother, which pays her $1,000 in dividends every year. Finally, counting home mortgage interest, they have about $20,000 in itemized deductions.

The first big change affecting the Smiths will be a combined increase in income tax rates, and a tightening of tax brackets as a result of the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. We estimate this will cost them $960 in 2013.

Bill will lose the complete deduction of his student loan interest in 2013, costing about $840. The pair's allowable deduction for child care will drop to $2,400 from $3,000, and they will also see their credit for children drop in half, costing another $1,000.

The marriage tax penalty will come roaring back to hit the Smiths in 2013, costing an estimated $500. The tax on their dividend income will go increase to $280 from $150, adding another $130. Finally, although we did not calculate the effect, without Congressional action to once again "fix" the alternative minimum tax, the Smiths could owe this ugly tax as well!

Luckily for the Smiths — but not for many Americans — other major changes for 2013, which do not personally affect them, include a phase out of itemized deductions and personal exemptions if their income starts to climb.

In summary, because of tax laws expiring this year and next, we estimate that the Smiths will owe $3,598 more in income tax in 2013 than in 2011 with no change in their income.

Joan and Bill will be paying an additional $300 a month thanks to the policies of the Obama Democrats.

They're really looking out for the little guy, eh? So the next time Barack Obama demonizes the wealthy and claims to be protecting the middle class, just remember the bite he's going to be taking out of our paychecks. Cuts which were timed, fortuitously for him, to kick in after the 2012 elections.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Larwyn's Linx: Not safe to display the flag in a U.S. high school

Have a news tip or great story? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Not safe to display the flag in a U.S. high school: Volokh
The Left's Many Double Standards: David Limbaugh
The Problem With American Culture: Ramirez

K Street’s Super Committee Splurge: Malkin
Obama Demonstrates Why ‘Government Efficiency’ Is a Joke: Cato
Lesson from Ohio: Kill, replace Obamacare: Murdock

Economy

'Mini-Ponzi Scheme' takes down Obama crony Corzine: MRC
We Must Crush the Army of Krugmanites into Submission: Mish
Punt: White House to “reassess” Keystone pipeline: Hot Air

Rand Paul: Dems walk away from table: Hannity
Robbery and Opportunity: Arctic Patriot
Calif. Revenue Off by $1.5B: Controller: Bloomberg

World has Major Funding Gap; Run on Greek Banks?: Mish
Why Italy’s Days in the Eurozone May Be Numbered: Roubini
Uh oh: China's real estate bubble has burst?: TAB

Occupy

Murder at #OccupyOakland: Zombie
Elite Berkeley Students Upset They’re in the 1%, Throw Occupy Tantrum: Zombie
Karl Marx Puppet Visits Occupy Wall Street: Forward

Occupy Wall Street: Zucotti Square Day 53 & Counting - The Crazy Has Set In : Urban Infidel
The Five Most Infantile Beliefs on Display at the ‘Occupy’ Tantrums: PJM
Second Shooting Death in 24 Hours at #OccupyOakland: GWP

Gunrunner & Energygate

Solyndra Subpoena Deadline Comes and Goes; Update: W.H. Will Turn Over ‘Some’ Documents: Malkin
Emails: White House, Biden’s office ‘orgasmic’ over Solyndra deal: Times
White House Misses Solyndra Deadline: ABC

Grassley: Holder refusing to provide 11 witnesses for Fast and Furious interviews: SSI
Fire Eric Holder: Palin
Holder Plays Dumb, Dems Push Gun Control: Owens

Media

Anti-Cain Hoax Exposed: LegalIns
The News Behind the News: Hanson
Newt Mocks Bartiromo's 'Funny' Defense of the Liberal Media: NB

NESN: Penn State Scandal May Get a WHOLE LOT Worse: Tatler
Paging the NAACP, Al Sharpton, the Congressional Black Caucus, and FCC: Malkin
Hard-hitting WaPo coverage: Occupy D.C. mob has created a “vibrant brand of urbanism”: Hot Air

World

Religion of Slavery: Sultan Knish
Israel vs. Iran: To Strike or Not to Strike?: Glick
The Rising Threat from Nigeria's Boko Haram Militant Group: Stratfor

It’s Official: Obama Administration Promotes Islamist Regimes; Insists They are Moderate: Lid
Former Top CIA Lawyer Under Investigation: NatlJrnl
Honduras: President opens session with Koran reading, Islamic prayer: Creeping

Sci-Tech

Blogging Common Releases Overview of English Blogosphere: BloggingCommon
Six Deadly Security Blunders Businesses Make: Dark Reading
$19 for unlimited cell phone service? Am I dreaming?: Wired

Cornucopia

CNBC: “They’re nuts. They’re Nuts! They know nothing!!!” Updated: Breaking News on Love's Loss!: MOTUS
Quentin Tarantino's Next Flick Has An Unbelievable Cast And An Insane Premise: Insider
Moonfail: Video of Astronauts Falling on the Moon: DefTech

Man Arrested After Calling 911 Five Times To Complain About His Broken iPhone: TSG
Missouri woman found fused to recliner in home: MyWay
‘It felt like someone put lighter fluid on me and caught me on fire’: 3 Days in August

Image: People's Cube
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "Italy desperately needs structural reforms especially the ability for corporations to fire people much easier than they can now. Long-term, reforms will make Italy more competitive. Short-term, reforms coupled with austerity measures will add so much pain (not that it takes that much) that the vast army of Krugmanites will howl at the moon.

Also bear in mind there have been no reforms that have started yet, only promises to make reforms. Things in Italy are about to get much worse, and Italy is already in recession." --Mike Shedlock