Sunday, November 20, 2011

Another Day, Another Massacre in Syria

Caution: extremely graphic footage.

Just to keep everything straight in my mind... as I understand it, the Obama Doctrine consists of the president staying completely silent on:

...murders of peaceful protesters by Iran's vicious dictators
...murders of peaceful protesters by Syria's vicious dictator
...the Occupy kooks who riot, rape, pillage and otherwise erode the civil society
...Iran's continual threats to wipe America and Israel "off the face of the Earth"
...murders of Christian Copts by "freedom-loving" Egyptians
...incessant rocket attacks by Hamas into Israel
...the continued build-out of Iran's nuclear weapons program
...murders of Libyan civilians by the late, unlamented dictator Gaddafi
...the transit of the Suez Canal by Iranian warships in an outright provocation of Israel
...Iranian military personnel operating with impunity in Venezuela on missile technology
...a failed narco-terror state descending into civil war on our unprotected southern border
...being found in Contempt of Court by a federal judge over the Gulf drilling moratorium
...defying a de facto injunction by a federal judge who threw out all of Obamacare
...the union thugs who have issued countless threats against Governor Walker

However, the president is willing to courageously speak out on:
...How our Egyptian ally should step down
...Israel's construction of apartments in its capital city
...How awesome unions are for Wisconsin
...How awesome the economic recovery is
...How awesome all of the new green jobs he's saved or created are

Crystal clear.


Larwyn's Linx: Secrets of the American Nomenklatura

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

Nation

Secrets of the American Nomenklatura: AT
Golden Oldies: Newt and the “cancer bed divorce” myth: Hot Air
Congress Can Make You Buy Broccoli, But Not to Eat It: Reason

Obama Hoop Classic to Benefit Inner-City Youth Obama: Nice Deb
Top 10 Most Needed Government Reforms: HE
Herman Cain Heckled by Ron Paul Supporters: Shark Tank

If you want more of a particular behavior: ProWis
Dear Lazy American, Obama Says You Owe $160K of Fed Debt: RWN
Is there no limit to Congress’s power?: Will

Economy

Five Lessons for America from the European Fiscal Crisis: Cato
Warren Buffett's Company Sues IRS Over 'Illegal' Taxation: Ace
Rep. Barney Frank (D-iscredited Gasbag) wants to overhaul Fed: Scoop

A Collection of School Stories: Pundette
Elite Firms Fishing in a Very Small Hiring Pool: McArdle
Barnhardt Closes Hedge Fund; implicates WH, Corzine: Ace

OWS: If a Cop Tries to Arrest You, Kill Him: PunPress
Newt H8tes teh childrens … or janitors … or something: ProWis
Education Dept. investigating elementary school closing: Lansing

Gunrunner & Energygate

Email Shows ATF and DOJ KNEW That Fast and Furious had Walked over 2000 Guns To Mexico: Nice Deb
President sends letter of condolence to rapper's funeral, but not to Brian Terry's family: AT
Dem lobbyist for LightSquared sought meeting at White House: Hill

Climate & Energy

President Obama Blocked or Destroyed 200,000 Jobs in Ohio this Week: Virtuous Republic
UK Climate Change Minister Buys Cozy Weekend Retreat: JWF
14,000 abandoned wind turbines: Surber

Media

Between the rattlesnake's tail and its fangs: SSI
Slandering the Red States: Laura Sullivan Responds: Power Line
The Democrats Were Not for Me: AT

Is Obama an Affirmative Action President? Yeah, Probably: RWN
Numbskull: the word that best describes Kathleen Parker: York
What About Me?: JPA

Black Republican’s Campaign Sign Defaced With ‘KKK,’ Media Yawns: RWN
Penn State's institutional wickedness: Steyn
Brian Leiter is upset about blog traffic: LI

Chris Matthews Begs Obama: “Just Give Us Our Orders… Give Us the Mission”: GWP
Associated Press fooled by Christopher Walken impersonator on ESPN 980: TBD
Audio of Christopher Walken Impersonator Speaking about Natalie Wood Case: PunditPress

World

Islam Was Not for Me: Imani
Nanny State Gets Senile Dementia: Instapundit
Come The Revolution? The Lisbon Treaty Versus The U.S. Constitution: ZH

Finally… There Is an Occupy Group We Can All Support: GWP
Billion Men To March Against Islamization of Mecca: Zilla
Stealth Jihad in America: Creeping

Sci-Tech

Top 10 Tech This Week - in Photos: Mashable
Foreign hackers targeted U.S. water plant in apparent malicious cyber attack, expert says: WaPo
FDA cracks down on McDonald’s egg supplier: ChiBiz

Cornucopia

Change Delivered! That and $4.50 will buy you a cup of coffee: MOTUS
Occupy the Farmer's Market: Instapundit
Are You Smarter Than an Occutard?: Denny

Image: Via Weasel Zippers
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Democracy Denied: How Obama is Bypassing Congress

QOTD: "Buying gold is just buying a put on the idiocy of the political cycle. ... Capitalism without failure is like Christianity without Hell. You have to have atonement for ridiculous levels of spending both the US and Europe have gone through. The spending idiocy of the world is going to catch up to itself. And that's where we are today." --Kyle Bass

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Yacht Barnacle: the John Kerry Story

When it comes to hypocrisy, criminality, duplicity and elitism, is there anyone in America that tops John Kerry? For you drones: that's a rhetorical question.

BigGovernment.com has obtained records of Massachusetts Democrat Senator John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz’s stock portfolios that show almost perfectly timed pharmaceutical stock trades during the Obamacare debate, which fattened their already enormous personal fortune.

...Sen. John Kerry’s position on the powerful Senate Finance Committee’s Health Subcommittee gives him direct access to critical information regarding health care policy. In July 2009, pharmaceutical industry representatives met with key members of Congress to flesh out the Obamacare bill. Then, in November 2009, with the bill’s passage was looking more likely, the Kerrys’ portfolios reflect a drug stock buying spree...

...Even as their portfolios reflected aggressive purchasing of drug company stocks, Sen. Kerry was dumping investments in health insurance companies.

...[Peter Schweizer's new book] Throw Them All Out contends that Sen. Kerry is no stranger to making huge profits off of health care-related trading based on his rare access to information. “Some of [Kerry’s] biggest scores,” writes Schweizer, “were tied to his knowledge of obscure matters that had huge ramifications for certain companies.”

One such instance occurred in 2007, when the government was deciding whether an anemia drug made by Amgen would receive Medicare reimbursement. Before news of the congressional negotiations went public, however, the Kerrys’ investment fund executed two perfectly timed stock sales. On May 4th and 7th, between $500,000 and $1 million worth of Amgen were sold off. The move helped him avoid between $50,000 and $100,000 in losses.

Another example of Kerry’s deft congressional trading happened in 2003 during the negotiations over the prescription drug benefit plan. Kerry’s Senate committee was in charge of the plan’s oversight. In 2003, writes Schweizer, “a stunning 111 transactions of pharmaceutical companies and health insurance companies” were made to the Kerrys’ portfolios.

Peter Schweizer's book is a must-read.


Hat tip: Instapundit.

Occupy Cairo Movement Off To Slow Start [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York:

Yo occupiers! Take a look at this.

Your compatriots in Cairo are having a rough time. Makes you long for the days of Mubarak, and an end to the tenure of President Obama on 1/20/13, don’t it?

Oh, almost forgot, comrades. Things aren’t much better for Occupy Syria, as you’ll see here.

So stop whining about a little mace in the face. You never had it so good.

"At least one person has been killed and more than 600 wounded in fierce clashes between protesters and security forces in central Cairo... The clashes came as police moved to prevent a long-term sit-in..."

The ludicrous Bill Kristol hardest hit.


Climate Crook James Hansen: on the Government Dole While Accepting $1.6 Million in Additional Income... and Counting

Like the rest of the climate crooks, Hansen appears to be on the warmal colding bandwagon for one reason and one reason alone: the Benjamins:

It seems esteemed NASA astronomer turned climatologist turned paid activist Dr. James Hansen of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) has not been reporting some income that he is required by law to do. How long will NASA continue to look the other way? Chris Horner explains.

A Summary of James E. Hansen’s NASA Ethics File


NASA records released to resolve litigation filed by the American Tradition Institute reveal that Dr. James E. Hansen, an astronomer, received approximately $1.6 million in outside, direct cash income in the past five years for work related to — and, according to his benefactors, often expressly for — his public service as a global warming activist within NASA.

...Hansen [also] failed to report tens of thousands of dollars in global travel provided to him by outside parties ... to receive honoraria to speak about the topic of his taxpayer-funded employment, or get cash awards for his activism and even for his past testimony and other work for NASA.

Ethics laws require that such payments or gifts be reported on an SF278 public financial disclosure form. As detailed, below, Hansen nonetheless regularly refused to report this income.

Also, he seems to have inappropriately taken between $10,000 and $26,000 for speeches unlawfully promoting him as a NASA employee. This is despite NASA ordering him to return at least some of the money, with the rest apparently unnoticed by NASA. This raises troubling issues about Hansen’s, and NASA’s, compliance with ethics rules, the general prohibition on not privately benefitting from public service, and even the criminal code prohibition on not having one’s public employment income supplemented. All of this lucrative activity followed Hansen ratcheting up his global warming alarmism and activism to be more political... [but] he cannot receive outside income for doing his job, he has placed himself in peril, assuming the Department of Justice can find a way to be interested in these revelations.

...Hansen suddenly became the recipient of many, often lucrative offers of outside employment and awards after he escalated his political activism — using his NASA position as a platform, and springboard. This began with a strident “60 Minutes” interview in early 2006, alleging political interference by the Bush administration in climate science...

...consider these failures to report often elegant air and hotel/resort accommodations received on his SF278 as required by law (the amount of direct cash income received from the party providing him travel, as well, is in parentheses):

• Blue Planet Prize ($500,000), travel for Hansen and his wife to Tokyo, Japan, 2010
• Dan David Prize ($500,000), travel to Paris, 2007
• Sophie Prize ($100,000), Oslo Norway, travel for Hansen and his wife, 2010
• WWF Duke of Edinburgh Award, Travel for Hansen and his wife, London, 2006
• Alpbach, Austria (alpine resort)(“business class”, with wife), 2007
• Shell Oil UK ($10,000), London, 2009
• FORO Cluster de Energia, travel for Hansen and wife (“business class”), Bilbao, Spain, 2008
• ACT Coalition, travel for Hansen and wife to London, 2007
• Progressive Forum ($10,000)(“first class”), to Houston, 2006
• Progressive Forum ($10,000), to Houston, 2009
• UCSB ($10,000), to Santa Barbara, CA
• Nierenberg Prize ($25,000), to San Diego, 2008
• Nevada Medal ($20,000), to Las Vegas, Reno, 2008
• EarthWorks Expos, to Denver, 2006
• California Academy of Science ($1,500), to San Francisco, 2009
• CalTech ($2,000), travel to Pasadena, CA for Hansen and his wife, 2007

The following is an incomplete list of other travel apparently accepted to make paid speeches and/or receive cash awards but not reported on SF278 financial disclosures:

Boston, Washington, DC (twice); Columbus, OH; Omaha, NE; Wilmington, DE; Ithaca, NY (business class); Chapel Hill, NC; Deerfield, IL (Sierra Club “No Coal” campaign); Dartmouth, NH; Alberta, Canada (as consultant to a law firm helping run an anti-oil sands campaign), Stanford; Minneapolis; Missoula, MT

...World Wildlife Fund [also] gave Hansen an engraved Montres Rolex watch, which typically run $8,000 and up (2006), but which was not reported by Hansen on his SF 278 under “gifts”, which must be reported if valued at more than $260...

These activities appear to violate the criminal code, 18 U.S.C. 209.

And Hansen's not the only one enriching himself. Members of the United Nations Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have profited greatly from their various reports advocating man-made global warming, carbon offsets and other money-making schemes.


Newly Released Emails Prove Elena Kagan Was Not Walled Off From Obamacare's Legal Strategy and Must Recuse Herself

During her confirmation hearings, Elena Kagan -- then solicitor-general for the United States -- stated that she had virtually no role in crafting the PPACA (Obamacare) Act nor in advising the Democrat Party on a legal strategy for it.

COBURN: Thank you. And my — I have two final questions. One, was there at any time — and I’m not asking what you expressed or anything else — was there at any time you were asked in your present position to express an opinion on the merits of the health care bill?

KAGAN: There was not.

Newly released emails prove that this was untrue. From cheerleading the passage of the bill, to helping to coordinate the response, to shushing those who had begun to leave a paper trail of her involvement, Kagan was intimately involved in every aspect of the legal strategy.

Thanks to Judicial Watch, we now have more evidence that Kagan fibbed during her sworn testimony.

• An October 13, 2009, exchange between Kagan and former Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal. Katyal informs Kagan, “We just got Snowe on health care,” referring to Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME). (The bulk of the email exchange reflects a discussion about Kagan, and also provides instructions regarding a hiring decision within the agency, although the nature of the position is unclear. When Katyal asks if Kagan wants to handle the hire via email or in person meeting, Kagan responds, “In person. I’ll call a meeting when I return.”)

• A March 21, 2010, email from Kagan to then-Senior Counselor for Access to Justice Laurence Tribe: “I hear they have the votes Larry!! Simply amazing...” Tribe responds, “So healthcare is basically done! Remarkable.”

• A March 16, 2010, email from Kagan to David Barron, then-acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, asked if he had seen an article by Michael McConnell published in the Wall Street Journal that discussed a strategy by Democrats to “‘deem’ ObamaCare into Law without voting.” “Did you seee [sic] Michael McConnell’s piece in the wsj?” Kagan writes in an email with the subject line “Health care q.” “YES, HE IS GETTING THIS GOING,” replied Barron.

Furthermore, these recently released documents had been stonewalled by the Holder Justice Department prior to the Kagan confirmation hearings. Upon receiving the documents, just days after the Obamacare case was accepted for review by the Supreme Court, Sen. Jeff Sessions -- who was the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Kagan confirmation -- said the following:

I am deeply disturbed by these developments and believe that the Justice Department should have provided these documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee during Justice Kagan's confirmation hearing. The Department’s failure to provide this information to Congress and to comply with FOIA requests, as well as your apparent inattention to these matters, is unacceptable.”

There is only one reason that Justice withheld the Kagan documents.

What's been revealed thus far is proof positive that Kagan was not walled off from the legal strategy behind Obamacare and was therefore not truthful during her sworn testimony in front of Congress.

Justice Kagan must recuse herself from the Obamacare case immediately -- or she should be impeached.


Horrifying Chart of the Day (and Reason #4,323 that John Boehner Must Be Replaced As Speaker of the House)

Via the Washington Examiner comes this doozy of a reality check:

Consider the negotiating "skills" of House Speaker John Boehner:

• Episode 1: The Continuing Resolution Charade, in which Boehner gives up his trump card -- a government shutdown -- without a whimper

• Episode 2: The Debt Ceiling Debacle, in which Boehner gives up his trump card -- forcing the government to cut spending -- without a fight

• Episode 3: The Case of the Balanced Budget Amendment That Wasn't, in which Boehner hollows out the Cut-Cap-and-Balance pledge and tries to pass a BBA that neither cuts or caps spending

• Episode 4: Super-Committee Cowardice, in which Boehner names RINOs who have no desire to battle the Left nor seriously cut spending

In 2012, we conservatives must rise up and demand that either Michele Bachmann, Paul Ryan or Allen West replace the cowardly, weak-willed, big-government, cocktail-circuit Republican named John Boehner as House Speaker.

We don't have any time left for pathetic losers like Boehner and Eric Cantor who refuse to fight for this country as the Marxist Left drags it into an economic abyss.

I'm sick of these weaklings. And they need to go.


Photo: Occupy Movement Travels 12,000 Miles East

The Urban Infidel forwards this pic from the front:

God bless our troops.


Larwyn's Linx: The Tea Party Budget

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

Nation

The Tea Party Budget: AmSpec
The Occupation Should Be On White House Grounds: IBD
Joe Biden addresses secretive donor conference: Politico

Romney's record is to the left of John McCain's: Exam
Balanced Budget Amendment Fails in House: AmSpec
Is Paul Ryan willing to raise taxes?: Pethokoukis

Economy

Obama USDA delays shale drilling, up to 200k jobs: Exam
MF Global: A Bet for Bullard: Krasting
Thank You, Ann Barnhardt; We Need More With Your Courage: Bizzy

Apocalypse Soon: Hot Air
Treasury: Taxpayer Losses On GM Will Be Massive: Reason
Occupy Chicago March pics: More SEIU!: Marathon

Obama-NLRB Rushes to Issue Ambush-Elections Rules: LUR
Is it possible for Congress to cut spending?: Exam
Taxpayers Get the Bill for Occupations: $12.1M and Counting: VS

Gunrunner & Energygate

We All Suffer Thanks to Obama's Green Ideology: Boortz
Explosive Email in Fast and Furious: AT
DOE's Chu Can't Manage Apology, Much Less Department: NLPC

Climate & Energy

A Brief Summary of James E. Hansen’s NASA Ethics File: PJM
Hide the Moral Decline: Driscoll
Secretary Chu’s ‘Clean Energy Race’ Lies: PJM

Media

Newt Gingrich: MSNBC "Essentially The Obama Re-Election Team": RCP
War: Larry Elder versus Chris Matthews over JFK book: Hot Air
OWS Cult Attempts to Silence and Intimidate Me: Urban Infidel

Panicked AP Attempts to Memory-Hole Democrats’ #Occupy Endorsements: BigJourn
Big Three Networks Devote a Scant 36 Seconds to Obama's 'Lazy' Gaffe: NB
Rick Perry: Absolutely I think Barack Obama is a socialist: Scoop

World

Israel's Iran attack plan includes high tech wizardry: AT
Syria's Not a Revolution-It is A Civil War, A Guide to the Battle : BRubin
Saudi women with attractive eyes may be forced to cover even them up: Daily Mail

Once Again, Islamists Bully Europe on Free Speech: PJM
Obama Gives Poor Free Internet After U.N. Says It’s A Basic Human Right: JW
Hugo Chavez on Israeli "Fascism": Loudon

Sci-Tech

Pentagon successfully tests hypersonic flying bomb: AFP
2nd test affirms faster-than-light particles: CBS
10 cool holiday tech gifts for under $100: MarketWatch

Cornucopia

#OWS: The Empire Strikes Back: AllAm
Mama, Don’t Take My Photoshop Away: Driscoll
Special Ops Wants Commandos to Have Invisible Faces: Wired

Image: The Tatler
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "By Wednesday, Nov. 23, the Deficit Reduction Panel has to report on ways to cut the federal deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Democrats refuse to support spending cuts unless Republicans agree to tax increases. And there is an increasing chance that the Republican members of the commission — or at least some of them — will cave in to Democratic demands.

Some have floated the figure of $600 billion in “revenue enhancements,” and others have ventured the notion that they may not say what taxes they will increase but that they will simply specify an amount to be raised. Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander recently criticized Republicans for rigidly opposing any tax hikes.

The issue is not whether millionaires can or can’t afford to pay higher taxes. It is not even whether taxing them more will hurt consumer spending and postpone the recovery. (The top 2 percent spends 33 percent of the money in the country.) The question is whether the outrageous and unsupportable increases in federal spending under Obama are locked in place by tax increases or whether the spending is cut back down to the level of current taxes." --Dick Morris

Friday, November 18, 2011

Teaching Occupy Wall Street to Kids: the #OWS Maze Game!

It's fun for the whole family!



The Definition of Hubris [Papa B]

Papa B:

President George W. Bush after the capture of Saddam Hussein:
The success of yesterday's mission is a tribute to
our men and women now serving in Iraq. The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the Dictator’s footprints in a vast country.  The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force.  Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime, and in their effort to bring hope and freedom to the Iraqi people.  Their work continues, and so do the risks.  Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate them.

President Barack H. Obama after the killing of Osama Bin Laden:
And so shortly after taking office,
I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as I continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network. Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by my intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden.  It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground.  I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan .  And finally, last week, I determined that I had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad , Pakistan .
 
Hubris (hu·bris), also hybris, means extreme haughtiness, pride or arrogance.  Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power.


A bargain at any price: the Obama family retinue only costs the taxpayers a couple of million per week

The man who has borrowed and spent more money than anyone in world history has a well-kept secret. It's called "The SAVE Program" and is President Obama's idea of "budget-cutting". Problem is, it asks federal bureaucracies to "shave 20% from certain categories of spending [so they] will be free to [spend] the savings elsewhere."

Got it? Let's pretend an agency saves a million dollars annually on its travel budget. It's then free to spend that million dollars on, I don't know, hiring six more bureaucrats. Brilliant, eh?

The fact is, most of these "savings" will total up to a million bucks or so.

And that million dollars is what Obama and his family cost the American taxpayer... per week:

Discretionary Use Of Private Aircraft:

(One of 2 Boeing 747-200Bs "Air Force One"):

Annual Costs: 700 hours @ $65,000/hr: $45,500,000

...Annual Expenses Total: $59,077,000

Four Years of Same: $236,308,000

Pension And Related Benefits:

Present value of Pension Benefits ($200,000 per year): $2,251,556

Total Expenses: $238,559,556

Average Annual Expenses: $59,639,889

So the President touts a program that he says is going to save billions over "the next several years" when a realistic estimate is more like a couple of million and he spends that in a week?

And that doesn't even count all of the wasteful spending on the First Lady's 22-person staff (the largest ever) and a coterie of personal attendants to the President (beyond the Secret Service). Nor does that count their numerous vacations to all parts of the world on the taxpayer's dime.

Let's be kind and say it only adds up to two million a week.

I call this a "Cloward-Piven savings program".


Hat tip: TrendingRight.

Larwyn's Linx: Paul Ryan Crushes the Left on Income Inequality

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

Nation

Paul Ryan Crushes the Left on Income Inequality: Pethokoukis
Cronies: Buffett To Profit From Pipeline Demise: HayRide
Newt Gingrich is for real: Morrissey

How Congress Occupied Wall Street: Palin
Who are these Republicans?: Ace
Romney: “I am not going to walk away from [Romneycare]“: Hot Air

Economy

Obama's corporate crony GE paid no taxes on $14B in profits: WS
'The Entire System Has Been Utterly Destroyed...': ZH
OWS honors White House shooter with moment of silence: Bruce

Teachers Unions Personified: MB
OWS goons assault police officers: OWZ
The Meaning of the OWS Day of Protest: PJM

Price Tag of Obama’s 2025 Fuel Efficiency Standards: $157B: WZ
A Personal Account of the MF Global Fallout: P&F
California catches up to can kicked down road: OCR

Gunrunner & Energygate

The Accountability Charade: Malkin
DOE’s Chu Takes Responsiblity for Solyndra Amid Charges of Unlawful Conduct: Tatler
Pelosi Leads List Of Conflict Of Interest Dems: IBD

Climate & Energy

Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, Nov. 17th 2011: Daily Bayonet
A New Hope for Beating Back the Regressive Green Movement: PJM
Junk Science War: Fracking Quakes and ‘Dirty Faces’: PJM

Media

So-Called Electability and MSM Bias: DLimbaugh
Newt Gingrich, Bill Daley, and the Dirtiest Word in Politics: ChicagoMag
Obama Scores a Hat Trick: Granny Jan & Jihad Kitty

Allen West to Media: “Stop Being Afraid of this President… [He] Is Destroying This Country": GWP
Gingrich to media: Let me explain the difference between the tea party and OWS: Hot Air
Feel Good Story of The Day: Lefty Nitwit Joy Behar’s Show Cancelled: WZ

Dem Rep thanks MSNBC host for Ohio union advocacy: Exam
Rasmussen: Gingrich Ahead In Iowa: Ace
Texas FBI official meets with Muslims, who ask for help enforcing sharia blasphemy laws: Creeping

World

Obama Has a Knack for Ticking off America’s Friends: NRO (Barone)
Israel watches as world rejects strict sanctions on Iran: JPost
Iranian official: Islam is against nukes: Exam

JPMorgan Joins Goldman Keeping Italy Derivatives Risk in Dark: Bloomberg
Germany's secret plans to derail a British referendum on the EU: Telegraph
The Rise of a Euro Doomsayer: Gray Lady

Sci-Tech

Why Is China Building These Gigantic Structures In the Middle of the Desert?: Gizmodo
Is Amazon Working on a Cheap Smartphone?: Consumerist
Zero-Day BIND Flaw Crashes DNS Servers: DarkReading

Cornucopia

“Sins committed in the name of a higher good can smell and look like lilies. But they flank a coffin” : Doswell
There's No Fuzzy Math in NASCAR: MOTUS
33 Years Ago Tonight: It Happened: Ace

Image: Investors Business Daily
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Herman Cain's 404 Page

QOTD: "California’s regulations often utterly defeat entrepreneurs. John Bowen, the owner of an 82-year-old family-run business, King Kelly Marmalade, sold his firm to an out-of-state operator in 2007 after tiring of the ceaseless regulatory battle. At one point, Bowen started counting the government agencies that he had to deal with to run his business; he gave up when he reached 44. Bowen’s biggest woe was complying with the state’s aggressive air-pollution laws, wastewater regulations, and workplace rules. “I loved the work,” he says. “This decision [to sell] was largely as a result of excessive and oppressive government rules.”" --Steven Malanga

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Photo: a Young Mark Levin

Via The Right Scoop:

As an aside, Levin's new book -- the followup to the bestselling Liberty and Tyranny -- promises to be a doozy.

My guess is that The New York Times will repeat its cowardly performance -- refusing to review the book no matter how many million of copies it sells. Because conservatism's logic, its principles, its philosophical foundations and its historical bases are no more assailable by progressives than Everest can be scaled by a gerbil.


World War IV? Secret German Report Details a Super-EU Able to 'Take Over Economies of Eurozone Countries'

The Telegraph reports that Germany's leaders have laid down a secret contingency plan for hostile economic takeovers of sovereign members of the EU.

And what could possibly go wrong with that? Besides, of course, a failed Viennese artist with a tiny mustache, a world war, and tens of millions dead?

[A] leaked memo, written by the German foreign office, discloses radical plans for an intrusive new European body that will be able to take over the economies of beleaguered eurozone countries.

It discloses that the EU’s largest economy is also preparing for other European countries, which are too large to be bailed out, to default on their debts — effectively going bankrupt. It will prompt fears that German plans to deal with the eurozone crisis involve an erosion of national sovereignty that could pave the way for a European “super state” with its own tax and spending plans set in Brussels...

...The eurozone contagion is threatening to spread to Spain and France... The six-page German foreign ministry paper sets out plans for the creation of a European Monetary Fund with a transfer of sovereignty away from member states.

The fund will have the power to take ailing countries into receivership and run their economies. Even more controversially, the document, entitled The future of the EU: required integration policy improvements for the creation of a Stability Union, declares that the treaty changes are a first stage “in which the EU will develop into a political union”. “The debate on the way towards a political union must begin as soon as the course toward stability union is charted,” it concludes.

The EU is dead: its leaders just refuse to acknowledge what everyone else in the world knows. It allowed countries to violate their terms of membership, it facilitated outrageous amounts of debt, and it helped promote the contamination of the entire world financial system.

The fuse was lit long ago. The only question is how many weeks (not months) it will all take to implode.


Oopsie! IRS reports Obamacare will force millions to go without health insurance

Gee, it's so surprising how a 2,200-page bill that no one read could lead to all of these... complications:

President Obama's healthcare law will leave millions of families without affordable coverage unless tax officials rewrite the rules on who gets subsidies, advocates warned Thursday.

...The issue risks blowing up in Democrats' face in 2014, when the subsidies for coverage in state-based insurance exchanges become available. House Republicans have already used the glitch, which The Hill first reported in July, as ammunition to hammer the law for allegedly discriminating against marriage.

Advocates shared their concerns in person with the IRS during a hearing on the tax credits after deluging the agency with comments about its proposed regulation last month. The proposed rule would not penalize families that can't afford insurance, but advocates say that's not enough.

IRS officials listened silently for two and a half hours and asked no questions. The Treasury Department has said its hands are tied because of the way the law was written.

In related news, Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber just threw a temper tantrum.


Ann Barnhardt pulls the plug on her brokerage business: the 'entire system has been utterly destroyed' by MF Global

You may know the gutsy, anti-Jihad crusader Ann Barnhardt from her use of bacon bookmarks or her shocking exposé of Islamist misogyny. But Barnhardt was also, until a day ago, a principal of Barnhardt Capital Management, a commodity brokerage that specialized in cattle and grain.

This is an abridged version of the letter Barnhardt just sent to clients to announce that her firm has ceased operations:

Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management,

It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.

The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy.

The futures markets are very highly-leveraged and thus require an exceptionally firm base upon which to function. That base was the sacrosanct segregation of customer funds from clearing firm capital, with additional emergency financial backing provided by the exchanges themselves. Up until a few weeks ago, that base existed, and had worked flawlessly. Firms came and went, with some imploding in spectacular fashion. Whenever a firm failure happened, the customer funds were intact and the exchanges would step in to backstop everything and keep customers 100% liquid – even as their clearing firm collapsed and was quickly replaced by another firm within the system.

Everything changed just a few short weeks ago. A firm, led by a crony of the Obama regime, stole all of the non-margined cash held by customers of his firm. Let’s not sugar-coat this or make this crime seem “complex” and “abstract” by drowning ourselves in six-dollar words and uber-technical jargon. Jon Corzine STOLE the customer cash at MF Global. Knowing Jon Corzine, and knowing the abject lawlessness and contempt for humanity of the Marxist Obama regime and its cronies, this is not really a surprise. What was a surprise was the reaction of the exchanges and regulators. Their reaction has been to take a bad situation and make it orders of magnitude worse. Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate. This is unfathomable. The risk exposure precedent that has been set is completely intolerable and has destroyed the entire industry paradigm. No informed person can continue to engage these markets, and no moral person can continue to broker or facilitate customer engagement in what is now a massive game of Russian Roulette.

I have learned over the last week that MF Global is almost certainly the mere tip of the iceberg. There is massive industry-wide exposure to European sovereign junk debt. While other firms may not be as heavily leveraged as Corzine had MFG leveraged, and it is now thought that MFG’s leverage may have been in excess of 100:1, they are still suicidally leveraged and will likely stand massive, unmeetable collateral calls in the coming days and weeks as Europe inevitably collapses. I now suspect that the reason the Chicago Mercantile Exchange did not immediately step in to backstop the MFG implosion was because they knew and know that if they backstopped MFG, they would then be expected to backstop all of the other firms in the system when the failures began to cascade – and there simply isn’t that much money in the entire system. In short, the problem is a SYSTEMIC problem, not merely isolated to one firm...

...And so, to the very unpleasant crux of the matter. The futures and options markets are no longer viable. It is my recommendation that ALL customers withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity. The system is no longer functioning with integrity and is suicidally risk-laden. The rule of law is non-existent, instead replaced with godless, criminal political cronyism...

With Best Regards-
Ann Barnhardt

Barnhardt will continue blogging at Barnhardt.biz

Excellent News: Self-Described 'Militant Marxist-Leninist Skinhead' Heads Obama's Political Action Wing

Barack Obama's personal political action wing -- don't call them modern day brown-shirts! -- is "Organizing For America", or OFA. Among OFA's leaders is a self-described "Marxist-Leninist Skinhead" who is also behind the Young Communist League.

Yesterday we released a video of John Bachtell, a national board member from the Communist Party U.S.A., addressing the bongo-banging, spoiled, suburban run-aways at the #OccupyChicago tent city and an interview with a few of his “fellow travelers” in the march... In the photo [at right] starting on the left is James Raines, a University of Memphis teacher (from reader tip), next to his right is Jordan Farrar (Young Communist League & Organizing for America), and next to him is Gabe Niechcial, another young communist.

...Farrar, seen in the white C.P. USA shirt, is not only a Young Communist League leader, but he is also a member of Barack Obama’s Organizing for America and he organized a rally in 2009 for OFA to support President Obama’s health care bill. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) was featured guest at Farrar’s event as well.

...Jordan is a self-described “militant anti-racist anti-fascist Marxist-Leninist skinhead... fight[ing] along with my comrades for a better world through peace, equality, democracy and by creating a socialist America to put an end to the imperialist and capitalist aggression that has been carried out in the name of the American people.”

Another world is possible, another United States is necessary!

In other words, a prominent Obama supporter is also an advocate for the overthrow of the United States government.

As an aside, can anyone tell me when it become acceptable for a member of the Democrat Party to be an avowed, militant Communist? I'm just looking for the year this happened so I can figure out when and how a mainstream political party became infected with a virulent strain of anti-Americanism.


Hat tip: TrendingRight.

Larwyn's Linx: Observations From a Fringe Extremist Hobbit

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

Nation

Observations From a Fringe Extremist Hobbit: ProWis
A Brutally Honest Evaluation of the GOP Field: RWN
Gun rights or states' right: Hot Air

Why I Support Newt Gingrich: LI
Another Look at Newt: Times
Budget Chicanery Has Already Doomed the Super Committee: PJM

Economy

Obama pal Buffett helped shape bailout rules; then profited: BigGov
Cali to Business: Get Out!: Malanga
City Braces for March on Financial District: Post

Oops! "Another ObamaCare Glitch": ProWis
Detroit May Run Out of Cash Next Month: Mish
Good News: We Won't Lose $14.3B on Auto Bailout...: LessGov

What #OWS Really Proved: TAB
Rape and the Occupation: Sultan Knish
Just Like the Tea Party: A List of Occupy Mayhem: VS

Gunrunner & Energygate

Chu on Solyndra hot seat today in Congress: Exam
Another Obama Scandal In the Making: Power Line
Chu, the DOE and new Solyndra skulduggery emerge: Hot Air

Climate & Energy

Captain Communist Helps Out the Little Guy Once Again: VirtRep

Media

Right journos must test conservative candidates: Freddoso
Penn State: the Banality of Collaborative Evil: RWN
Some speech is more equal than others: ProWis

Former SEAL stands by account of bin Laden raid, says administration out to get him: DC
Occupy has lost Jon Stewart: Exam
Stunning Silence From the White House on GSE Bonuses: Hot Air

World

Why does America defend the weak and small?: Hanson
On waterboarding: Let’s stick to the facts: Thiessen
Probe: Obama Admin Broke Law to Push Abortion in Kenya: LifeNews

To Save the Euro We Must Destroy Germany: Mish
The Christians of Egypt, Part I: PJM
Spanish 10-Year Bond Yield Hits Euro-Era Record 6.61%, Italian 10-Year Yield at 7.04%: Mish

Sci-Tech

Massive lakes could lie beneath Jupiter moon: smh
Facebook Slammed by Porn Attack: WSJ
Android 4.0 arrives as Galaxy Nexus goes on sale: CNet

Cornucopia

Insider Trading for Insiders: That’s Not You: MOTUS
While Visiting Australia, Obama Bows to Nobody in Particular: JWF
A crushing loss for Woods, a lead for Americans: MyWay

Image: The People's Cube, via American Digest
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "Too sad for commentary, but here is some math: total US debt has increased by 41.5%, or $4.4 trillion, from $10,626,877,048,913 on January 20, to $15,033,607,255,920, under Obama as president." --Tyler Durden

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Obamacare Architect Jonathan Gruber Fears Supremes Could Rely Upon Constitution, Other Old Documents In Voiding Health Care Law

I've dispensed with my usual blockquote style to interject responses more rapidly because... the stupid, it burns:

Jonathan Gruber, a key intellectual architect of President Obama's overhaul of the American health care system, is a little frustrated... "I'm frustrated that the future of the American health care system rests in the hands of one or two of these unelected people who might make the decision based on political grounds..." a few hours after the Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari to hear challenges to the Affordable Care Act. "It's very disturbing."


Gruber wasn't disturbed by other rulings, however, that upheld left-wing positions like the Constitutional right to an abortion and the Constitutional right to collect welfare.

The court consolidated several different challenges and will hear a host of issues related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which became law in March 2010, granting a full five-and-a-half hours for oral argument. But the central question is whether Congress can require people to buy health insurance, and, if not, whether that mandate can be severed from the rest of the bill.


Yes, because the Constitution can be interpreted to allow a massive, authoritarian, centralized government to force people to buy health care insurance, to buy certain kinds of clothing, to buy certain kinds of housing, and to buy only approved food items. After all, food, housing and clothing are as essential to human beings as heath care (if not more crucial), which means the government can compel you to buy those products.

Those sections are right next to the Abortion Clause of the Constitution.

Gruber, whose ideas also made up the landmark overhaul of health care in Massachusetts that was overseen by then-governor Mitt Romney, thinks that the Obama health care package would still be better than nothing if the mandate were removed, but said that it wouldn't be nearly as effective... Without the mandate, Gruber said, the bill would only cover a third to half as many people, and that premiums go up 20 to 30 percent.


What a schmuck. The European social welfare states -- with cradle-to-grave "free" health care and outrageous pension programs -- are collapsing as we speak. And Gruber thinks that the individual mandate will help drive down costs.

"Look, if this succeeds, then Obama becomes F.D.R. This is the most important social policy accomplishment since the 1960s. And if this succeeds, this could be the kind of benefit to the Democratic Party that Social Security was..."


Would that be the same program of which its trustees -- including Timmy Geither, Hilda Solis, and Kathleen Sebelius -- wrote, "Projected long-run program costs for both Medicare and Social Security are not sustainable under currently scheduled financing, and will require legislative corrections if disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers are to be avoided"?

And yet Gruber evangelizes for still more deficits as the economy teeters on the brink of utter and complete collapse. He screeches for more debt as Democrats fight the reform of Social Security and Medicare, which -- according to their own experts -- are poised to implode in just a few years' time. He cries to borrow more money as Democrats have already saddled our children and grandchildren with debts that simply can't be repaid.

There's a special place in Hell for the likes of Gruber, who represents nothing less than an enemy of civilization. For he is helping to shred the most magnificent society ever created on the face of the Earth; and he does so in order to construct some sort of sick monument to Soviet-style central planning, which can't succeed and has never succeeded in all of human history.