Monday, December 12, 2011

Needle on Hypocrisy-Meter Breaks Off: Unions require photo IDs to vote in their elections

Gee, I guess the unions are raaacist.

[Via] John Romano at "Yes, But, However!" at the link. He asks the perplexing question of why do Democrats so fear voter ID? Apparently even unions don't see the requirement of a photo ID as too burdensome.

"A picture is worth a thousand words. According to OpenSecrets.org unions belonging to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) have donated over $26 million to Democratic candidates and causes since 1990. During that same period, the union gave a paltry $272,311 to the Republican Party.

As you’ll note in the photo below the union requires its own members to produce a photo ID in order to vote. The photo shows a union worker voting earlier today on whether to sanction a new four-year contract with Boeing, clearly the union understands the need for a picture ID in order to help guarantee a clean election:

In America, one needs an ID to vote in a union election, buy liquor, drive a car, board an airplane, use a credit card and a slew of other things in our society. Yet, the Democratic party refuses to back the idea of requiring an ID to vote in state and federal elections under any circumstances. A sensible voter ID law that respects the rights of the poor, elderly, and minorities is a great idea. What are Democrats afraid of? You connect the dots.

The most lawless attorney general in American history -- and I'm including the pathetic John Mitchell in the mix -- is visiting Austin, Texas tomorrow.

And guess what? He will be lobbying for vote fraud, supporting a United Nations resolution that is designed to erode the integrity of the ballot box and, ultimately, destroy the United States Constitution.

If you're in the area (Houston included), I'd strongly encourage you to join the counter-rally.

Like former DOJ official J. Christian Adams says, it's high time this national disgrace was impeached.


Hat tip: @EyeOnPolitics

Larwyn's Linx: Obama, Romney Change Tacks in Week of Political Risks

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

Nation

Obama, Romney Change Tacks in Week of Political Risks: Barone
ACORN Returns as ‘Occupy’: RSM
“We Win; They Lose”: Reagan’s Grand Strategy: Foundry

Jihadist Behind Killing of Troops in Iraq To Be Charged As Civilian: NRO
A Note About Romney's "Superior Electabilty": Ace
U.S. Proposes Unmanned Border Entry With Mexico: Fox

Must Be an Election Season: Obama’s Walk to Church: VS
Congress Isn’t Supposed to Be Above the Law: Carter
Governor Perry's Ambitious Plans: Ace

Economy

Obama Blocks The Biggest Shovel-Ready Project Ever: IBD
D12 Guide: Occupiers return to ports for West Coast shutdown: Malkin
Mother and Kids Terrorized By Recall Scott Walker Mob: MBT

Implementing An International IRS In The Name Of Robin Hood: LUR
Eurocrash Update #1: Power Line
Higher Education Bubble Update: Instapundit

Gunrunner & Energygate

Holder may be holding on to private emails about Fast and Furious: DC
Patriots to Rally Tuesday as Holder Plans Major Announcement on Voting Laws: Adams
Criticism of Islam Could Soon be a Crime in America: SRI

Climate & Energy

Volt hysteria: Why image and perception are everything.: AutoExtremist
Where is evidence for EPA’s claims?: Kansas
The Top 3 Google Execs Have How Many Jets?: Insider

Media

Lies, Damned Lies, and ‘Fact Checking’: WS
Andrew Breitbart Resigns From GOProud Advisory Board Over Outing of Perry Pollster: Ace
MSNBC Star Host Al Sharpton Owes IRS $2.6 Million: GWP

CBS Poll: 75% Wrong Direction, 66% No Idea What Obama Wants To Do If Reelected: GWP
I'm Sensing a Trend Here: Ace
Obama Campaign Wants To Know: What Question Do You Have For Barack And Michelle?: WZ

A You Suck List: 10 People, Places, And Things That Suck: Hawkins
Obama Tells 60 Minutes 'Damaging Behavior on Wall Street' Was Legal, Wasn't Asked Who Enacted Laws: NB
The Spread The Wealth Around Game: Soylent Green

World

Sharia Law Already Devouring UK: PJM
Jordan TV: Sheikh Calls "To Annihilate Israel”; Also Jizya Tax for Christians: WZ
GOP debate: Gingrich doubles down on Palestinian comments: Hill

Report: Hamas Sets Up Rocket Production Lines, Forward Operating Bases In Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula: WZ
Back-Door Bank Runs in Europe Have Started: NewAm
United States of Europe One Step Closer to Reality?: PJM

Hollywood Shooter Shouted 'Allahu Akbar'; Media Silent: LoneCon
Newt’s Palestinian comment was more than about history: LI
DhiMITTude: Zilla

Sci-Tech

Bolton: Iranian Jamming Technology Could Be Worse News Than Downed Drone: Fox
What Really Happened Aboard Air France 447: PopMech
Building the bikes of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: AutoBlog

Cornucopia

Where did that horse’s “A” come from?: MOTUS
Shaking that moneymaker for 10 grand a night: Post
The Red Cross and Video Games - Or Why You Might Already Be a War Criminal: Ace

Image: Rob Goebel, Indianapolis Star
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Eric Holder is Coming to Texas on Tuesday: Join the Counter-Rally

QOTD: "On Tuesday, Americans will have a rare chance to voice their disdain of the corruption and lies flowing from this Justice Department.  They will have a chance to speak out against the radical and racialist law enforcement priorities of this Justice Department.  Eric Holder comes to Austin, Texas to make a major announcement about voting laws, probably to acquiesce to some loud demand of the NAACP to block state efforts to ensure voter integrity. But a counter-rally organized by Catherine Engelbrecht and True the Vote will greet Eric Holder’s appearance in Austin, Texas at the LBJ Library at 4 p.m.  America is invited, and here is a flier with details." --J. Christian Adams

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Faux Journalist Steve Kroft Interviews Obama, Forgets to Ask About Calls to Impeach Holder, Kagan Recusal, Corzine, Solyndra, etc.

President Obama received another in-kind donation from CBS News tonight in the form of a fawning 60 Minutes interview by "journalist" Steve Kroft. If that is his real name.

Kroft apparently had a brief case of amnesia and forgot about a few mildly important issues:

• The increasing calls for Eric Holder's resignation and/or impeachment for Operation Fast and Furious, etc.

• The newly revealed Obamacare emails that appear to show Elena Kagan lied under oath

• The catastrophic failure of MF Global, headed by none other than one of Obama's leading fundraisers, John Corzine

• The billions in "green energy" funds that went to Obama's fundraisers and political cronies, Solyndra being only the most visible example

• The "historic" $4.2+ trillion budget deficits thanks to Obama's disastrous stimulus debacle and the Democrats' failure to pass a budget for 1,000+ days

Obama has blamed the weather, earthquakes, ATMs, and the Internet -- among other things -- for the bad economy. In the Kroft interview, he said, "I'm being judged against the ideal. And, you know, Joe Biden has a good expression. He says, 'Don't judge me against the Almighty, judge me against the alternative.' "

There he goes again, comparing himself with God.

No, Mr. President. Our ideal is Ronald Reagan who, having inherited a far worse recession than you, had the economy rockin' and rollin' at the exact same point in his presidency.


Hat tip: BP.

Good News: DHS proposes unmanned border entry with Mexico...

...though I think we already have an "unmanned border entry" -- it's called the entire Southwest.

The bloody drug war in Mexico shows no sign of relenting. Neither do calls for tighter border security amid rising fears of spillover violence.

This hardly seems a time the U.S. would be willing to allow people to cross the border legally from Mexico without a customs officer in sight. But in this rugged, remote West Texas terrain where wading across the shallow Rio Grande undetected is all too easy, federal authorities are touting a proposal to open an unmanned port of entry as a security upgrade.

By the spring, kiosks could open up in Big Bend National Park allowing people from the tiny Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen to scan their identity documents and talk to a customs officer in another location, at least 100 miles away.... The crossing, which would be the nation's first such port of entry with Mexico, has sparked opposition from some who see it as counterintuitive in these days of heightened border security. Supporters say the crossing would give the isolated Mexican town long-awaited access to U.S. commerce, improve conservation efforts and be an unlikely target for criminal operations.

...A public comment period runs through Dec. 27 on the estimated $2.3 million project, which has support at the highest levels of government from both countries... But U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican member of the House Homeland Security committee, questioned the wisdom of using resources to make it easier to cross the border...

...A small military presence protects the [Mexican] town from the drug-related violence that has engulfed other Mexican border towns. Now with news of the port of entry, residents are already making plans for restaurants and shops, he said... "When it closed nobody crossed and everything went downhill. People began to leave," he said. "Now people are going to return."

Yes, people are going to return. Especially the narco-terrorists who have killed tens of thousands of Mexicans over the past several years.


The Toughest Place on the Planet to Shoot Free Throws Is...

Bloomington, Indiana. Exhibit A: last night's stands, right behind the opposing team's goal, during Indiana's upset of #1 Kentucky.

I especially like the depiction of mega-stoner Gobi, who most college kids would recognize but not know why.


In Houston or Austin on Tuesday? So is Eric Holder, who is pushing for vote fraud. Here's how to join the anti-Holder counter-rally.

If you'll be in the Houston or Austin area on Tuesday, check this out:

This coming Tuesday, Eric Holder is coming to Austin, Texas, to make a major announcement about voting rights.  Most likely, it will involve opposing election integrity efforts like voter identification requirements in Texas and South Carolina.  It will have a direct impact on the 2012 election. 

[Holder's] appearance at the LBJ Library will be met by True the Vote, which will hold a counter-rally to which all of America is invited.  It is at 4 p.m. on the grounds of the LBJ Library.  Here is the flyer with more information.

Holder is a disgrace and, in the words of former Justice official J. Christian Adams, should face impeachment.

People wonder what to do about this lawless administration. Well, here's something you can do. Help out TrueTheVote and show up to the anti-Holder counter-rally on Tuesday.

It's time.


Was Newt Gingrich right? An Illustrated History of the Middle East

Newt Gingrich touched off a firestorm of controversy by stating that the Palestinian people are an "invented" group, that its leaders are unreconstructed terrorists and that it's high time America's leaders started speaking the truth about the situation.

Which begs the question: what really happened in the Middle East? Why is it so dysfunctional? What prevents people of all religions from living in peace? The highlights of The Terrorism Awareness Project's presentation helps explain the real backstory.














Continue on to the rest of the story...


I Am The One-Hundred Percent [Casey]

Casey:

There has been much talk about class warfare, and about who holds the majority opinion of how to manage the business of the day. This talk is nothing new to me – I’ve been hearing the discussion my entire life. Now, approaching the age of forty, I have witnessed the rise of the very ideology that I saw defeated in my youth. Socialism both at home under Carter and abroad under the Iron Fist of the Soviets suffered defeat in a globally public forum. I remember adults at the time saying that they would remember and never allow such transgressions occur again.

So, here we all are today feeling a sick sense of déjà vu and we are listening to the left in their greatest voice: that of the civil protest. The Occupy movement has generated much conversation, and that is a good thing. However, it seems to me that very little focus finds itself on the rebuttal to this movement. I recall the media ramping up into overdrive to dilute and minimize the message of the Tea Party movement; yet see the same media operate in equal diligence to legitimize the primary theme of the Occupy movement: a percentage.

Ninety-nine percent is what the far left claim themselves to be. The one percent are the ones they aim to … uhm … what do they aim for? Never mind. As such, since I think the ideology of the left is bad policy, I must be the one percent. True, I make money. True, I make enough to pay taxes. I guess those protesters were right – I AM THE ONE PERCENT!

Should I repent?

The truth is that I really can see myself as the one percent. Those jerks out causing trouble under the banner of their media-approved, Twitter-hash-tagged movement may be right that I am the one percent, but they are wrong about why. If I am the one percent, I am because I contend with a situation most of these people know little about.

I am a man of communication. From a very early age, I began to write. I wrote stories, poems, limericks (one that got me in some trouble), and songs. As years grew on, I began to hone my communication skills verbally. Before too long, I found myself successful in sales specifically due to my ability to communicate with people from all walks in life. I also found success in writing and producing songs – communicating complex emotional states in a way that large cross-sections of people equally comprehend. Suffice it to say that the written, spoken, and harmonized words are the mainstay of my being.

In my mid-thirties, I found new inspiration for my words in a new life with a new wife and newborn son. My wife, like me, is a person of words and song. Our kinship of communication contributed to the forces which brought us together. Our son would become the nexus of our affinity for communication of all things which make us human. Then, we felt as if we became the one percent.

Our son, diagnosed with Autism, is a joy and a true miracle to our lives. Neither of us thought we would be able to conceive based on our prior life experience. Nonetheless, we have a beautiful and healthy boy – a boy who has a funny personality, sense of humor, and loving disposition … and Autism. We are fortunate that he does actually have the personality and emotional response that so many with this affliction lack. However, he has a severe impairment with communication.

Put simply, our son’s condition inhibits the one thing my wife and I understand. His disability is centered on communication. While we hold hope that we can overcome these obstacles in his ability to communicate and to assimilate into society, I cannot help but fret at the unfairness of it all. I have always been a man of passionate communication and I can barely connect with my own son.

One thing is for certain: I have heard enough from the “ninety-nine percent”. They complain incessantly about fairness. Perhaps they are right that ninety-nine percent of people get the unfair side of life. Regardless, they seem to be asking for someone else to make it fair. That’s where my situation illustrates it all best. There is no government agency, program, mandate, edict, law, or otherwise generated program that can make my situation fair. I am a man of communication and am facing the possibility that I might never be able to communicate with my own son – ever. Do I or should I ask the government to make this fair? What would the government solution to my unfair situation look like?

When viewing my situation locally, I considered myself the one percent. It hurts so much to know that I may never be able to communicate with my son that I can barely finish a day without tears of sorrow. As a songwriter, it is hard to think that your son might not like your music. It is crushing to think he might not ever understand it. Then, I hear and read about others who endure so much worse than my situation. Epilepsy, Down’s syndrome, etcetera; mine is a situation that could be so much more severe that I pause to even lament it.

When viewing my situation nationally, I am really more along the lines of the middle thirty-three percent. If I were to “zoom out” to a global view, I would estimate myself to be in the top eighty-five percent. So, what does this whole rant mean?

Anyone claiming to be ninety-nine percent of anything is completely disingenuous. Anyone identifying anyone else as one percent of anything is equally deceitful. Regardless of color or creed, wealth inherited or earned, poverty inherited or earned, or defect of body or spirit, we all have our paths to walk. Rarely is this path devoid of pitfall or pain. How we traverse this path defines us, and I will not have others so easily dismiss my path with an arbitrary percentage used to punctuate a point which otherwise makes little sense.

No matter the pain, my wife and I raise our son with pride. We do so without looking to blame anyone else or looking for others to pay us their fair share for having a better situation than ours. We don’t begrudge those with children free of disability – we celebrate them. We don’t for a moment think that these people owe us anything because their kids don’t have Autism and our does. How is this different from income levels?

We are all the one-hundred percent. The only intellectually honest percentage that can be applied is that we are all human. We all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.


Liberal Legal Expert: Kagan must recuse herself or "the integrity of the Supreme Court is at stake"

Professor Eric Segal is a widely published constitutional attorney who is a self-professed liberal. Therefore, when the subject of Elena Kagan's recusal is seen by most Democrats as a partisan issue -- rather than simply an issue of obvious, judicial integrity -- his Slate opinion piece ("A Liberal’s Lament on Kagan and Health Care") represents a breath of fresh air.

...Elena Kagan is a loyal Democrat who owes her Supreme Court appointment to President Barack Obama.* She is poised to review the constitutionality of Obama’s health care statute, which, if invalidated, might do serious damage to his re-election campaign as well as the Democratic Party. Even though it would be a hard decision to make, Elena Kagan should recuse herself from hearing challenges to the act.

So far it appears that only Republicans and conservatives want Kagan to recuse herself from hearing the case, while liberals and Democrats take the opposing view. I have been a liberal constitutional law professor for more than 20 years, and a loyal Democrat. I believe the Affordable Care Act is constitutional... That said, I believe that as a matter of both principle and law, Kagan should not hear the case.

...As many have pointed out, there are legitimate arguments that these rules point to recusal. Was Kagan a “counsel” or “adviser” on this issue? We know that she was on an e-mail exchange between her top deputy, Neal Katyal, and Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, about a meeting to discuss the litigation strategy for the ACA litigation, and lawyers in her office would be present. We also know she attended at least one meeting where the litigation was discussed... We don’t know how fully Kagan was involved because the White House (perhaps for legitimate reasons unrelated to this controversy) has not released all of the relevant emails about the matter...

We also know that Kagan wrote an e-mail to Laurence Tribe, a famous Harvard constitutional law professor who was also working for the administration at the time the law passed, in which she said, “I hear they have the votes, Larry!! Simply amazing.” The email's subject line was "fingers and toes crossed today!"

...She served as the solicitor general of the United States during the time that the ACA was furiously debated in Congress, discussed in town halls across the country, and enacted... [and] We know she celebrated the passage of the law.

...The Supreme Court is increasingly seen as a partisan political institution making political decisions instead of a true court deciding cases under the law. Justice Kagan has a golden moment to display that at least one Supreme Court justice has integrity and character that exceed her party loyalty and political past. If she sees herself as a political official who, because of the office she occupies, gets to cast an important vote on an issue that may decide an election, she should stay on the case. But, if she views herself as a judge of law who is obligated to approach legal issues objectively and open-mindedly without regard to partisan political outcomes, she ought to step aside. Nothing less than the integrity of the Supreme Court is at stake.

Thank you, professor, for demonstrating that at least one Democrat is capable of publicly advocating an ethical and intellectually honest course of action for Justice Kagan.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Larwyn's Linx: It's Time to Impeach Holder for DOJ Lies

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

Nation

It's Time to Impeach Holder for DOJ Lies: Adams
let's be clear about my political persuasions...: Winter Soldier
The Left's Cult of Murder Groupies: PJM

The Osawatomie Speech: A Defining Moment In History: DailyCap
Ron Paul Is Despicable: Surber
Drunkblogging Tonight’s Debate in Iowa: VodkaPundit

Statist Delusions: Steyn
“Electable” Romney’s Actual Record in Elections: 5-17: C4P
CBS poll: 54% say Obama doesn’t deserve re-election: Hot Air

Economy

Bobblehead Blames Bush: MB
Obama: “I don’t control the weather.”: ProWis
The Bomb Buried In Obamacare Explodes Today-Hallelujah!: Forbes

Corporate Greed versus Government Greed: AT
John Taylor: ECB Taking On Massive Risks: Insider
Allen West Apologizes For Congressional Failure: Hayward

Gunrunner & Energygate

Attorney General George Costanza: Sunshine State Sarah
Fast and Furious Stonewallings Call For Eric Holder's Impeachment: Forbes
Navy buys biofuel for $16 a gallon from company with... Obama fundraising ties: Greenroom

Climate & Energy

Tilting at Windmills: JPA
GM working on a fix for Chevy Volt battery: Bend Bulletin
America Has A 250 Year Supply Of Oil: SAB

Durban Wrapup: Landmark Deal To Do Something Later And Party Now: RWN
Science Boxes in Barbara Boxer: AT
$5B later, Obama's green car revolution finds little traction: Chron

Media

Kathleen Parker - If You Don't Support Mitt, You Are An Idiot: Wolf Howling
Hopey Change Hits the Fan: MB
Barry Does Hanukkah His Way…: Driscoll

Advertisers pull spots from “All American Muslim”: Hot Air
Obama's Trail of Broken Promises: AT
College Mate: Obama Was an “Ardent” “Marxist-Leninist”: NewAm

The Top 50 Examples of Liberal Media Bias: Western
MTV, Both Sleazy and Sour: RWN
ABC and CBS Eat Up Obama’s ‘Sharp’ and ‘Pointed’ Retorts: NB

World

Swiss, Germans Set To Unleash Capital Controls As European Companies Prepare For End of Euro: ZH
Gingrich Describes Palestinian People as 'Invented': Fox
Worries grow over IMF loans to Europe: Yahoo!

Juarez copkiller may be a U.S. Army soldier: Borderland
Saudi Textbook: The Enmity between the Muslims and the Jews Is Everlasting: MEMRI
Raymond Ibrahim testifies about the plight of Egypt's Christians: JihadWatch

John Kerry Meeting With Muslim Brotherhood Officials In Egypt: WZ
Time for Jews to wake up and smell the stench of bigotry and hatred: PJM
Jail and Impeach Overspending European Leaders: RWN

Finally the Truth: Gingrich calls Palestinians an ‘invented’ people: Bruce
Newt Defends Israel: YouTube
Codrea: Georgia Gun Owners Going For Constitutional Carry – HB 679: Western Rifle

Sci-Tech

Renault Opens Up the ‘Car as Platform’: WSJ
Windows Phone 7.5: What will make it a winner?: CNet
Snowe rips Amazon for 'incentivizing consumers to spy on local shops': Hill

Cornucopia

Keep Safe in the Woods: Exurban
Death by, uhm, Male Enhancement: RSM
Hulk Hogan sues ex-wife Linda over abuse accusations: LAT

Image: @GayPatriot
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Rick Santorum for President

QOTD: "I am concerned that Wall Street is becoming little more than a glorified crack house. Day after day, the sole focus of Wall Street is on more sugar, stronger sugar, Big Bazookas of sugar, unlimited sugar, and anything that will get somebody to deliver the sugar faster. This is like offering a lollipop to quiet down a 2-year old throwing a tantrum, and expecting that the result will be fewer tantrums.

What we have increasingly observed over the past decade is nothing but the gradual destruction of the ability of the financial markets to allocate capital for the benefit of future growth. By preventing the natural discipline of the markets to impose losses on poor stewards of capital, and to impose interest rates high enough to force debtors to allocate the capital usefully, the world's policy makers are increasingly wrecking the prospects for long-term economic growth. The world's standard of living (what we can consume for the work we do) is intimately tied to its productivity (what we can produce for the work we do). That productivity requires our scarce savings to be allocated to productive physical capital, and to productive human capital (primarily education)." --John Hussman

Saturday, December 10, 2011

More Bad News For the Climate Crooks™: U.S. Has Only 575 Years of Gas and 500 Years of Coal Left in Ground

But, gee, let's not drill. It could contribute to warmal colding. The Institute for Energy Research (PDF) has the bad news for the climate crime gang.

In 1980, official estimates of proved oil reserves in the United States stood at roughly 30 billion barrels.

Yet over the past 30 years, more than 77 billion barrels of oil have been produced here.

In other words, the green energy kooks underestimated supplies by about 150%... just the last time they tried to panic the public.

North Dakota, for example, was barely among the top ten oil producing states less than ten years ago. Today it is the fourth largest producer due to rapid growth in developing the massive oil resources in the Bakken formation in the western portion of the state. North Dakota’s unemployment rate is 3.5 percent, compared to a 9.1 percent unemployment rate for the United States.

But President Obama -- who is opposed to job creation -- continues to refuse to allow massive projects like Keystone XL to proceed.

...the Congressional Research Service... released a report showing that the United States’ combined recoverable oil, natural gas, and coal endowment is the largest on Earth. ...When combined with resources from Canada and Mexico, total recoverable oil in North America exceeds 1.7 trillion barrels... [which] is more than the world has used since the first oil well was drilled over 150 years ago in Titusville, Pennsylvania. To put this in context, Saudi Arabia has about 260 billion barrels of oil in proved reserves.

For comparative purposes, the technically recoverable oil in North America could fuel the present needs in the United States of seven billion barrels per year for around 250 years.

...Moreover, it is important to note that that “reserves” estimates are constantly in #ux. For example, in 1980, the U.S. had oil reserves of roughly 30 billion barrels. Yet from 1980 through 2010, we produced over 77 billion barrels of oil. In other words, over the last 30 years, we produced over 150 percent of our proved reserves.

...Restrictions in the form of federal bans and leasing combined with declining offerings of lease acreage mean only about 2.2 percent of America’s offshore acreage is currently leased for production...

...there is enough natural gas in North America to last the United States for over 175 years at current rates of consumption... [and its] coal supplies are even more staggering. The United States, Canada, and Mexico have over 497 billion short tons of recoverable coal, or nearly three times as much as Russia, which has the world’s second largest reserves... North American recoverable coal could provide enough electricity for the United States for about 500 years at current levels of consumption.

...While the United States and North America contain enormous energy wealth, U.S. policies have increasingly made exploration, development, production and consumption of that energy more difficult. Therefore, a scarcity of good policies, not a scarcity of energy, is responsible for U.S. energy insecurity.

Anyone who opposes the exploitation of America's massive energy treasures should be forced to live for a year without electricity and gasoline.

Of course, if they're like most limousine liberals (***cough*** Al Gore ***cough*** Barack Obama), it's only folks like us who are supposed to go without.


Hat tip: Say Anything Blog.

Citizen Obama Makes a Health Care Decision


What if Barack Obama were just a normal citizen? A normal, taxpaying schmoe like you and me. These are his stories. These are the travails of Citizen Obama.

Mr. Obama, I'm sorry to say that your wife's mother is suffering from some serious ailments.

We'll need to do an extensive battery of tests. Her white blood cell count is elevated, which could mean a variety of things.

Also, it appears she needs a hip replacement.

Doctor, thank you. Even though this is family, I don't want you to go to extraordinary lengths.

You know what? We should cut costs.

It pains me to say this, but don't do any tests.

Don't give her that expensive drug. It treats a rare disease and is very expensive. The last thing I'd want to do is run up costs for other Americans.

No, she's getting up there in years, and according to Ezekiel Emanuel's "Complete Lives System", she's consumed enough of our precious community health care resources.

No, we're not going to go to the Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins or some other top-notch facility.

Who am I to demand cutting-edge treatment? Those extra tests? Cutting-edge drugs? No, we don't want any of those.

And look. She's 79, for heaven's sake. Forget about the hip replacement.

She can handle it, she's tougher than nails.

Look, bottom line: just give her some painkillers.

It's just the progressive thing to do.

Enviro-scams, Episode LXXXIV: The next person to die from Radon will be the first

Responding to "The Radon Business is a Scam", an anonymous commenter observes:

...As an expert on radiation effects, and a research career that spans over 35 years, I can assert that Radon detectors (and the level set as "safe" by the EPA) are pseudo-science.

The human body contains enough potassium-40 (a radioactive isotope) to register more than 4 pCi! So far as I know, the K-40 in our bodies has never been linked to an increased rate of cancer. One only need sit or sleep beside one of the detectors for most of the "collection" period to register positive for Radon.

Meanwhile, how can a gas which is much, much heavier than air "rise" up through a home? Heck, Radon is even heavier than ALL commonly occurring metals, including Gold! It can only FALL out of the cracks in basement walls (if those walls contain or are near a high concentration of Uranium), where any Radon will turn to Lead within a few weeks. It must constantly be "replenished" by some source (that source is Uranium).

If you had a true Radon problem in your basement, you'd also have a problem with Lead on your basement floor, and Uranium in-or-behind your basement walls. There's no need for a Radon detector at all, and ventilation systems will do almost NOTHING to mitigate any problem with Radon -- it is too heavy to ventilate.

The entire Radon mitigation industry is a scam perpetrated by environmental activists pushing an agenda to grow the power of the federal government to control our environment, and who are ignorant about physical science.

Cancer is "linked" to a great number of factors using statistics. When I studied advanced probability & statistics, I was taught that figures don't lie, but that liars do it with figures. This is the case for "Radon"-induced cancer.

The EPA justifies the Radon scam by claiming that up to 21,000 people die annually from Radon-related lung cancer.

The problem is, the EPA's study failed to separate... wait for it... smokers from non-smokers.

Of course, anyone with an ounce of sense would ask: why do I have to spend $1,000 to "fix" a problem that no one can see, that no one can smell, has never hurt a single person, and apparently didn't exist until 1984?

Oh, right. It's for the children.


Telegraph: 'Eurozone banking system on the edge of collapse'

But no amount of facts, history, logic and reason can convince the Democrat Party that their Utopia, the European social welfare state, is dead.

The eurozone banking system is on the edge of collapse as major lenders begin to run out of the assets they need to keep vital funding lines open.

10:01PM GMT 09 Dec 2011

Senior analysts and traders warned of impending bank failures as a summit intended to solve the European crisis failed to deliver a solution that eased concerns over bank funding.

The European Central Bank admitted it had held meetings about providing emergency funding to the region's struggling banks, however City figures said a "collateral crunch" was looming.

"If anyone thinks things are getting better then they simply don't understand how severe the problems are. I think a major bank could fail within weeks," said one London-based executive at a major global bank.

Many banks, including some French, Italian and Spanish lenders, have already run out of many of the acceptable forms of collateral such as US Treasuries and other liquid securities used to finance short-term loans and have been forced to resort to lending out their gold reserves to maintain access to dollar funding. [And] lenders are increasingly distrustful about funding one another.

... [Some] think the eurozone banks are heading for a catastrophe and the worry is growing that a major bank could collapse within weeks... Moody's on Friday downgraded France's three largest banks, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale in light of what the US rating agency said were "liquidity and funding constraints"... Two weeks ago, rumours abounded that it was the near failure of a major French lender that had been the trigger for a massive co-ordinated intervention by the world's largest central banks to shore up the banking system.

The delusional politiconomist Paul Krugman hardest hit.


"Follow me, into the futu --" ***Ka-Thwack-Bumpity-Bumpity-Splash-Ka-Shunk!!!!!!!!!***


Hat tips: Papa B and The Bad.

Why Barack Obama Chose Osawatomie For His Speech Attacking Capitalism

The reactions to Barack Obama's speech in Osawatomie, Kansas this week were, if nothing else, consistent:

• It "sounded like what you'd expect to hear in Caracas or Buenos Aires."
• "Those who pride themselves on belonging to the party of smart people should be embarrassed."
• The speech "was deceitful, inaccurate, revisionist, and demagogic... a recreation, a fabrication if you will, of history, economics, and philosophy into a Pandoran construct of collectivist statism whereby society can demand the individual’s obedience and obeisance."
• The speech was "a thick coat of whitewash layered all over it, and the failure of the last three years lies underneath."
• The "elected president of the United States said in Osawatomie, Kansas, trying to be Teddy Roosevelt, that the United States of America has never worked. That is a quote, 'has never worked.'"
• A "Marxist attack on America."

Why did Obama choose, of all places, Osawatomie? One of the new media's living legends, Trevor Loudon, explains:

Why would Barack Obama choose to give a controversial speech attacking American capitalism in Osawatomie, Kansas? Hang on? Where have I heard that name before? Osawatomie? ...back in the ’70s? Weather Underground terrorists… Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn. Didn’t Obama used to hang out with those guys?

I remember! Osawatomie was the publication of the Weather Underground!

No, surely it's a coincidence...

I'm certain Mr. Loudon wrote that sentence with a wink at the end. The choice of Osawatomie was a signal, a coded message, a symbolic flag-raising for the progressive Left.

The Marxist class-warfare rhetoric, which divides one American against the other and which is utterly foreign to this nation, is going full-bore for the Obama reelection campaign. 2012 is our last chance to save this Republic from the Fabian counter revolution.


Update: Osawatomie: the Weather Underground newspaper

Larwyn's Linx: Paging Rick Moran: unwashed VISIGOTH ALERT!

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

Nation

Paging Rick Moran: unwashed VISIGOTH ALERT!: ProWis
Whitewashing History, Obama Style: Foundry
Internal DOJ Email: Kagan Consulted on Obamacare Complaint: CNS

Despicable, Fringe Kook Ron Paul Echoes More Truther Crap: WZ
Obama, Romney Change Tacks in Week of Political Risks: RWN
Whoa: Army slashes 8,700 jobs as budget cuts kick in: Hot Air

Economy

The National Discussion We Must Have: Denninger
Bailout Total: $29.616 Trillion Dollars: Ritholtz
Inadvertent irony from #Occupy Newark: WyBlog

What Scholastic is teaching your kids about the Occupiers: Malkin
OWS vs. Unions: Longshoremen Reject Port Blockade: Tatler
House GOP releases payroll-tax package under Obama veto threat: Hill

Food Stamp Fraud Costing Taxpayers Billions: Foundry
McKinsey: If You Like Your Health Care Plan, You Can't Keep It: DC
Obama's thin gruel at Osawatomie: Barone

Gunrunner & Energygate

Rep. Sandy Adams Tears Into Eric Holder: Shark Tank
Holder Testimony: Issa Attacks, Dems Push Gun-Control: PJM
Top 10 Inconvenient Truths about Global Warming: HE

Climate & Energy

Buy A Prius, Kill A Mexican: SHN
Climate changers game plan revealed: Surber
The Final Days of the Incandescent Light Bulb: EIB

Just In Time For Christmas, We Again Get The Debate On Which Tree Is More Globull Warming Compliant: RWN
Polar Bear Kills And Eats One Cub, Thereby Proving Globull Warming: RWN
Aptera Employees Destroy Futuristic Vehicles: ABC

Media

JournOlism 101: A Day In The Life Of Politico’s Ben Smith: BigJourn
Hobbit purist extremist fringe wingnut talk radio kook challenges “conservatives” in legacy media: ProWis
How Blago got whacked (and Obama got away): Times

Rush: Quit taking Ron Paul seriously: Scoop
Does it matter if Herman Cain was completely innocent?: LegalIns
Texas Gov. Rick Perry Is The Only Right Choice For The 2012 GOP Nomination: Riehl

Is Obama's Intellect Stunted by Epistemic Closure?: Ace
Santorum on Hannity: RSM
Santorum Says Campaign 'Hitting Our Stride' in Iowa: RSM

World

Mexican Senator Demands Answers from Government on DEA Money Laundering: Borderland
House Report: Islamists Targeting U.S. Military (On U.S. Soil): HyScience
The Economic Crisis in the Palestinian Authority: MEMRI

How the U.S. Can Help Europe: Just Say No: WSJ
Britain Rejects New Treaty to ‘Save’ Euro: BigPeace
Egypt: “They Called Us Christian Sons of Dogs”: BigPeace

Sci-Tech

NASA's latest stunning images of sun (photos): CNet
Mythbusters’ Cannonball Map: PerceptionBuilder
HP tosses WebOS out of frying pan into the open-source fire: CNet

Cornucopia

Photo Essay: Amazing Camouflage In Nature: TAB
Dreidle-Dee and Dreidle-Dumb: MOTUS
Fees Turn Teenager's $4.85 Savings Account Into A $229.10 Debt: Consumerist

Image: CNet
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Rick Santorum for President Campaign

QOTD: "There are no class distinctions in America. That’s why Steve Jobs could start an adopted child in a broken home, start Apple in a garage and become a billionaire eight times over. The real distinction here is caused by the rise of a new governing class of experts, bureaucrats and political elites who insist on ruling us to enforce “fairness” rather than letting us govern ourselves under the rule of law." --Matthew Spalding

Friday, December 09, 2011

Outrage: Planned South Korean Towers Will Resemble Planes Smashing Into World Trade Center

In what civilized country could this be considered acceptable?

The unveiling of pictures of planned luxury residential towers scheduled to be built in Seoul, South Korea, has sparked instant controversy. The reason is obvious. The towers, which include a so-called “cloud” feature connecting them around the 27th floors, clearly resemble the World Trade Towers in the process of collapsing following the 9/11 attacks.

The designers of the towers, Dutch architectural firm MVRDV, have responded to the controversy by quickly publishing an apology in English. “It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks,” the designers insist, “nor did we see the resemblance during the design process.”

They did not see the resemblance during the design process? The problem with this assertion – apart from its inherent implausibility – is that they have admitted the contrary in Dutch. Thus Jan Knikker of MVRDV told the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, “I have to admit that we also thought of the 9/11 attacks.”

Eh, Jan - may I suggest you try roasting yourself in a hot stove for, say, an hour -- so you can better empathize with the victims of the WTC attacks?


Kagan Busted: Must Recuse Herself or Face Impeachment

With each batch of documents exposed by new Freedom of Information requests, the case for Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's recusal -- or perhaps even impeachment -- becomes more clear.

Internal Justice Department email communications made just days before the House of Representatives passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act show that then-Solicitor General Elena Kagan was brought into the loop as DOJ began preparing to respond to an anticipated legal complaint that Mark Levin and the Landmark Legal Foundation were planning to file against the act if the House used a procedural rule to “deem” the bill passed even if members never directly voted on it.

In another internal DOJ email communication that same week, Kagan alerted the chief of DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel to the constitutional argument that a former U.S. Appeals Court judge was making against the use of this rule.

During her confirmation process four months later, Kagan asserted in writing that she had neither been asked her opinion nor offered any view or comments regarding "the underlying legal or constitutional issues related to any proposed health care legislation, including but not limited to [PPACA], or the underlying legal or constitutional issues related to potential litigation resulting from such legislation".

Kagan answered both questions: "No."

And the emails appear to prove that she lied under oath.

A federal law—28 U.S.C 455—says that a Supreme Court justice must recuse from “any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned” or if he “expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy” while he “served in governmental employment.”

Even more troubling is the fact that the Holder Justice Department is redacting documents and even withholding critical evidence of Kagan's relationship with the defense of Obamacare.

Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s email to acting Office of Legal Counsel Chief David Barron carried this subject line: “Health care q” ... The text said: “Did you seee [sic] michael mcConnell piece in the wsj?”

Barron emailed back to Kagan: ‘YES—HE IS GETTING IT GOING.”

...[On] March 18, 2010, Katyal extended [another Obamacare] email chain by responding to Perrelli and carbon copying the messages to his own boss, Elena Kagan. This new email was all about the Levin-Landmark Legal Foundation draft complaint against the prospective health-care law. It noted some of Katyal’s initial analysis of the anticipated constitutional challenge.

The subject line was now: “RE: Health Care." ... “Tom, I was just looking at the draft complaint by Landmark Legal Foundation,” Katyal wrote to Perrelli and Kagan. “It is clearly written to be filed when the House approves the reconciliation bill and before the President signs it. See paras 15-17.”

...What was in the redacted text of this DOJ email?

In a document that the Justice Department provided to the federal court in response to the MRC-Judicial Watch FOIA suit, DOJ gave this general description of the material that had been redacted here: “The redacted information contains a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney’s thoughts, before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed, on what categories of legal arguments may arise and should be prepared in the anticipated lawsuit referenced in the email exchange.”

Another email chain that DOJ has released to CNSNews.com as a result of the FOIA lawsuit was sent by Katyal to Kagan on June 15, 2010. That was thirteen day before Kagan appeared in the Senate Judiciary Committee for her Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Approximately an entire page—apparently the text of another person's email that Katyal was forwarding to Kagan--has been redacted from this email chain.

The subject line on Katyal's email to Kagan is: “Fw: connecting you two” Here, Katyal describes for Kagan a conversation he had about her with Attorney General Eric Holder... “Fyi,” Katyal writes Kagan. ““Also AG just told me that he expects a big story out shortly about whether you are recused in health care litigation. I went over the timing and that you have been walled off from Day One.”

But was Kagan “walled off” from health-care litigation on March 16, 2010, the day she sent an email to acting OLC chief David Barron, alerting him to Michael McConnell’s op-ed challenging the Slaughter Rule?

Was she “walled off” on March 18, 2010, when Katyal carbon-copied her on an email outlining his preliminary analysis of the draft Levin-Landmark Legal Foundation complaint against Obamacare?

...Barron responded to CNSNews.com’s questions via email. “I do not have a comment,” he said... [and] Katyal did not respond to any of the emails or the voice mail message [sent by CNS].

...The Justice Deparment has thus far refused to comply with the Judiciary Committee’s request.

...In a statement to CNSNews.com, Mark Levin asked “where is the evidence” that Kagan was in fact “walled off” from health-care matters when she was solicitor general... “I served in the Justice Department, including as chief of staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese,” Levin told CNSNews.com. “It simply is not credible to argue that Kagan, as the top litigator at Justice and for the nation, would not have been informed about and commented on the legal strategies involving the most important constitutional and policy issue not only in the Obama administration, but in several decades of American history.

“If she had been ‘walled off’ from the matter, where is the evidence for that?” said Levin. “Who was the gatekeeper? In fact, the emails demonstrate that her subordinates were ensuring that she was kept informed about events and potential legal issues, including Landmark's draft complaint, which was prepared to challenge the Slaughter rule and then-Speaker Pelosi's attempt (albeit abandoned) to bypass the Constitution's law-making requirements. At a minimum, it does not appear that Kagan was forthright during her confirmation testimony about the extent to which she was kept apprised of Obamacare.”

It is clear that Kagan was directly involved with Obamacare.

Should she not recuse herself, she should face an impeachment trial.

As should Eric Holder.

There has never been an administration as lawless as this one, and I'm including the Nixon and Harding presidencies in my analysis.


Totalitarian Wing of Democrat Party Proposes Constitutional Amendment to Censor Newspapers

Somewhere north of Pjongyang, Kim Jong-Il is chortling.

UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh runs down the free speech-crushing consequences of HJR 90, a proposed constitutional amendment backed by House Democrats including Reps. Theodore Deutch (Fla.), Peter DeFazio (Ore.), and Alcee Hastings (Fla.), which would forbid “for-profit corporations, limited liability companies, or other private entities established for business purposes” from “making contributions or expenditures in any election of any candidate for public office or the vote upon any ballot measure submitted to the people.” As Volokh explains, this would be bad news indeed at places like the New York Times Company:

Nearly all newspapers, TV stations, cable networks, and rations (except of course for nonprofits such as NPR) are organized as corporations or other entities established for business purposes.
Under section 3, they “shall be prohibited” from making expenditures “in any election of any candidate ... or the vote upon any ballot measure.” Since to write or print or broadcast anything, newspapers, networks, and broadcasters must spend money, this would ban — not just authorize Congress to ban, but itself ban —
editorials supporting or opposing a candidate or a ballot measure.

This proposed amendment is obviously just the latest feverish response to the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. F.E.C. (2010). That's sort of funny, because despite all the doom-and-gloom commentary about
Citizens United, it's the decision's critics who are now basically calling for the repeal of the First Amendment.

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise. These are the same radical Leftists who re-proposed the ill-named "Fairness Doctrine" and, that having received a royal flushing, are now marketing "local community standards" for broadcasters.

It's just new branding for a very old idea: silence those who oppose an all-powerful, centralized, authoritarian government of the sort our nation's founders despised.


Hat tip: Reason.