Monday, December 19, 2011

Larwyn's Linx: Gingrich's Attempt To Redress Judicial Activism

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

Nation

Gingrich's Attempt To Redress Judicial Activism: Wolf Howling
The EPA vs. Private Property: Townhall
Will the SCOTUS stop the EPA?: Hot Air

Obama officials say we don’t trust the government enough: Post
Who is Ron Paul, Really?: Ace
Obama more likely to lose than win again, say voters: Hill

Court: Iran, Hizballah Aided in 9/11 Attacks: BigPeace
Why the Proposed Car Cellphone Ban Is Wrong: MoneyRunner
Insanity?: Erickson

Economy

Labor Unions, and the Problem With "More": Woodhill
Most Americans don't buy Obama's class warfare rhetoric: Exam
Extending Unemployment Insurance a Bad Deal: AmSpec

If Obama 'can't wait' for new jobs, why's he halted Keystone XL?: IBD
3 new NLRB decisions keep recent pro-union streak alive: BizMgmt
'Old GM' buried with bad assets of '09 bankruptcy: DetNews

Gunrunner & Energygate

Dallas Morning News: Is anyone really buying Holder’s excuses on Fast & Furious?: Hot Air
Want Answers About Fast and Furious? You're a Racist: Pavlich
Holder Plays The Race Card On His Critics: They’re Attacking Me And Obama Because We’re Both Black: WZ

Climate & Energy

The Politics and Policy of Cap and Trade, 2008-2010: Ace
A Word on Incandescent Light Bulbs: Bruce
EPA rules threaten older power plants: TheCabin

Media

How to make Quote of the Year: Surber
More Turmoil At The New York Times As CEO Retires Unexpectedly: BigJourn
Ending race-based admissions: Jacoby

Here's the perfect Occupy poster child: Exam
Why Not Rick Santorum?: C4P
Pamela Geller responds to the cast members of All-American Muslim: Atlas

World

North Korea's Kim Jong Il dies; South goes on high alert: CNN
Syria – The Tipping Point Into Hell: NoisyRm
'I'm gonna send that kaffir (non-Muslim) b**** straight to hell': Atlas

Reform Judaism Shows Its Support For Obama's Anti-Israel Policy: Lid
Obama to approve 'indefinite detention' bill of US citizens and aliens: AsianTribune
China Local Debts Dwarf Official Data Prompting Alarms: BizWk

Reform Judaism Convention Passes a Progressive "Manifesto": Lid
Homosexuality is not an excuse for betraying your country: GayPat
Shocking 'Arab Spring' video: Unconscious girl brutally beaten by Egypt military: CazyBlood

Sci-Tech

Good News! T-Mobile Just Switched On 3G For Some iPhone Owners: Insider
Microsoft-Novell antitrust case ends in hung jury: NetworkWorld
Verizon devours more spectrum with Cox deal: NetworkWorld

Cornucopia

We should all be thanking our troops: Star Parker
The Top 10 Snipers of World War II: Ace
Love on the Rocks: the Decline of Marriage: Ace

Image: CNN
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Rick Santorum Money Bomb

QOTD: "It is not surprising that unionized companies like GM, Chrysler, and Bethlehem Steel went bankrupt, and that heavily unionized States like California, New York, and Illinois are in deep financial trouble. By their very nature, unions must seek to drive their employers into bankruptcy. If they don't, then they aren't doing their job...

...People won't work for nothing. Even without unions, companies must offer an overall package (wages, benefits, working conditions) sufficient to attract and retain the workers that they need. The interaction between the company's needs and the workers' alternatives sets the "market wage"...

...The purpose of a union is to extract from its employer more than the market wage. If it doesn't do this, then there is no reason for workers to support it or to pay dues to it. Because companies must sell their output at market prices and pay market returns for the capital that they employ, they cannot afford to pay more than "market" for any major input. Accordingly, any unionized company for which labor is a significant part of its cost structure will eventually be destroyed." --Louis Woodhill

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Good Riddance: Kim Jong-Il Roasting in Hellfire

May he bake on a spit for all eternity.

Kim Jong Il, the second-generation North Korean dictator who defied global condemnation to build nuclear weapons while his people starved, has died, Yonhap News reported. He was 70.

The news came in a radio broadcast at noon local time, Yonhap reported, citing North Korea’s official media. Kim probably had a stroke in August 2008 and may have also contracted pancreatic cancer, according to South Korean news reports.

The son of Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founder, Kim was a chain-smoking recluse who ruled for 17 years after coming to power in July 1994 and resisted opening up to the outside world in order to protect his regime. The potential succession of his little-known third son, Kim Jong Un, threatens to trigger a dangerous period for the Korean peninsula, where 1.7 million troops from the two Koreas and the U.S. square off every day.

Kim Jong-Il's rule -- with millions dead from starvation, torture and genocide -- represents just another failed experiment in progressivism, Statism, or whatever brand of Marxism you want to call it.

To wit: "Tell the world we are starving."


Union Bosses Welcome Their New Chinese Overlords

The Communist-linked labor movement has been responsible for more job losses in the U.S. than any other cause you could name. GM, Chrysler, Bethlehem Steel, California, New York and Illinois all serve as evidence of the destructive nature of unions.


And nowhere is this phenomenon more visible than in Michigan.

The largest private employer in Saginaw, Michigan will soon be the city government of Beijing, as a 104-year-old unit of General Motors will be sold to new owners from China. The $450M purchase received little attention this summer, but it is a landmark deal - the first time Chinese investors have bought a U.S. industrial operation of such scale and history.

Louis Woodhill, writing in Real Clear Markets, describes the fallacy of a labor union movement within a capitalist system.

People won't work for nothing. Even without unions, companies must offer an overall package (wages, benefits, working conditions) sufficient to attract and retain the workers that they need. The interaction between the company's needs and the workers' alternatives sets the "market wage".

Unless workers are held at gunpoint, it is not possible to "exploit" them for any length of time... The logic of the free market is for companies to pay market wages, earn high profits, and reinvest their earnings in more factories.

...The purpose of a union is to extract from its employer more than the market wage. If it doesn't do this, then there is no reason for workers to support it or to pay dues to it. Because companies must sell their output at market prices and pay market returns for the capital that they employ, they cannot afford to pay more than "market" for any major input. Accordingly, any unionized company for which labor is a significant part of its cost structure will eventually be destroyed.

In a free market system, unions prevent employers from adapting to competition. Unions force employers to compensate workers based upon tenure, not ability. Employment rules are codified in massive agreements that are outdated the instant they are written.

And union bosses laugh all the way to the bank, even while their members are suffering, over and over again.


Thrifty: Obama's 17-Day Hawaiian Vacation Will Only Cost U.S. Taxpayers About $4 Million

But it's truly a bargain at any price. At least he's not in Washington cooking up even more destructive policies.

...Figures obtained by Hawaii Reporter reveal the trip is expected to run taxpayers about $4 million. It has already cost taxpayers about $100,000 extra just so first lady Michelle Obama and the president’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, could leave Friday before the president, according to White House Dossier...


...Hawaii Reporter’s comprehensive breakdown uses government data to calculate travel, housing, hotel and local costs...

...White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked about the vacation’s cost at a briefing last week. He dodged questions about Michelle Obama’s desire to travel separately from the president.

With all of the vacations and golf, it's a wonder he's been able to eviscerate so much of America's economy!


Illinois: Worst-funded retirement system in U.S. to make up shortfall by investing in Euro debt swaps, other super-safe assets

Say, how are the last eight decades of unchecked Democrat rule in Illinois working out? Eh, for you drones -- that's a rhetorical question.

The Illinois Teachers' Retirement System — the worst-funded major pension plan in the U.S. — is pumping more of its assets into higher-risk investments while using accounting methods that some pension experts say understate its funding shortfall.
 
Springfield-based TRS, the state's largest pension provider, plans to allocate about a third of its $37.8-billion portfolio to alternative investments such as private-equity and hedge funds, a four-month Crain's investigation of TRS holdings and practices finds. These unconventional assets typically dangle the potential for higher returns, but only because they also carry greater risks and fees. TRS is shifting its portfolio while it's still developing an in-house risk-management system.

Gunning for bigger returns exposes the plan to the possibility of bigger losses, further jeopardizing the pensions of 362,121 former and current teachers. The system, which has just 46.5% of the assets it needs to cover promised payments to retirees, is counting on an 8.5% annual return, which many portfolio managers and investors, including Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s Warren Buffett, say is unrealistically high. If TRS banked on a 7.75% return — the rate that two other Illinois public pensions lowered their forecasts to this year — its assets would equal only 43% of obligations. That would swell its shortfall to $50.1 billion from $43.5 billion.' Their solution seems to be going to Vegas with our money.'— Neil Mott, chemistry teacher,
Rolling Meadows High School...

...The plan also is dabbling in volatile derivatives, including wagers on Brazilian interest rates, and credit default swaps on sovereign debt from Italy and Spain... Illinois taxpayers are already on the hook for most of the $81.3 billion in TRS' long-term obligations because the state is required to fund the lion's share of TRS benefits. That liability will keep expanding, likely at a faster rate than assets, unless fund administrators and lawmakers can make up the $43.5-billion shortfall. If the plan defaults, the state will be lobbied hard to come to the rescue.

...The state's pension system in general is teetering. Moody's Investors Service in September 2010 revised Illinois A1-rated debt to add a negative outlook, its worst credit rating among states, partly because of the state's inability to address pension liabilities. Illinois had the largest unfunded pension liabilities of any state, with $85 billion owed for its five state-funded plans, as of June 30, 2010, Moody's says. Those plans' assets come to less than half that amount, according to the state's annual report.

...Illinois' public pension plans owe their troubles to broken promises by the Legislature. To preserve labor peace, the state routinely offered generous pension benefits. But to avoid hiking taxes and upsetting even more people, it didn't pay its share to cover these payments. Lawmakers could get away with this because the pension bills didn't come due for years or even decades...

What could go wrong?

Seriously -- citizens of Illinois: I have a suggestion. Please continue electing Democrat hacks who are beholden to union bosses. The sooner your state collapses, the better example you'll be for the rest of America.


Larwyn's Linx: New reason to doubt Romney would repeal Obamacare

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

Nation

New reason to doubt Romney would repeal Obamacare: Exam
House Republicans may save Social Security: Surber
Obama Campaign Says it Won’t Keep GOP Emails: Dossier

The Ron Paul Newsletters: Lord
The Company Ron Paul Keeps: WS
Ron Paul Goes Nuts on Leno: WZ

Romney on Obamacare: "Repeal the Bad and Keep the Good": Rico
Des Moines Register Backs Mitt: RWN
Merry Christmas from Satan Claus: Steyn

Economy

One Year to Go Until Largest Tax Hikes in History: ATR
Did The Fed Quietly Bail Out A European Bank On Tuesday?: ZH
Class Warfare Blowback: Majority Wants Obama Out: ZH

SEIU Job Description: Occupy State Buildings, Takeover Banks: RS
Would Cars Be Allowed If They Were Just Invented?: PJM
Income Inequality In Baseball: TAB

Gunrunner & Energygate

It's not fast and furious for Eric Holder: Carlson
Holder Ignores Voter Intimidation But Will Go After Voter ID Requirements: Aces
ABC World News Reports On Illegal Gun Sales … In NYC: BigJourn

Climate & Energy

Virginia residents oppose preparations for climate-related sea-level rise: WaPo
EPA finalizes tough new rules on emissions by power plants: WaPo
PG&E Tells City Board: ‘Customers Will Go Without Power Until A Smart Meter Is Reinstalled’: GWP

Media

Netanyahu Refuses to Write Op-Ed for New York Times Due to Paper's Anti-Israel Bias: NB
Carney Dodges Questions on Michelle’s Hawaii Flight: Dossier
Sean Hannity Flummoxed By Michelle Malkin: RSM

One brave soul at National Review stands up for Newt: LI
Radio Host Nails Chris Matthews: 'You're Clearly Working for the Re-Election of Barack Obama': NB
The Top 50 Examples of Liberal Media Bias: Huston

World

U.S. drone captured by hacking into GPS, says Iranian engineer: DigitalJournal
Hezbollah Laundered Millions Through U.S. Used Car Lots: Creeping
Should You Worry About Europe's Back Door Bank Run?: MoneyMorning

CAIR Offers Powerful Newt Endorsement: Atlas
5,000 Syrians have been massacred by Bashar Assad since March, including 300 children.: Atlas
Bibi, You Rock: RSM

Copenhagen Muslims Attack Hare Krishna Temple: GoV
Saudi Security Forces Arrest 42 Ethiopian Christians For Praying: WZ
Saudi Woman Tortured And Murdered — Cops Suspect Genie: WZ

Sci-Tech

Find My Car Smart app makes finding your car fast, hassle-free: Autoblog
NASA finds new planet Kepler 22b outside solar system with temperature right for life: WaPo
Kindle Fire Triggers Anxiety in Corporate IT Departments: ChiBiz

Cornucopia

T4T Hits & Mrs.: MOTUS
The Legend Grows: "Tebow" Sniffs Out Kilo Of Cocaine, Helps Feds Bust Florida Airport Smuggler: TSG
Brooklyn junior high school racks up most suspensions in city for sexting: Post

Images: Atlas Shrugs (top) and Guardian
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "...just last year, in reaction to President Obama's health care law. Romney [said]: "I hope we're ultimately able to eliminate some of the differences, and repeal the bad and keep the good." --Ben Domenech

Saturday, December 17, 2011

What is seen cannot be unseen: mannequin maker creates Obama dummy

POTUS cuts quite a fine figure, to be sure, but I'd be much happier with the dummy as president. It would do significantly less damage.

...According to Las Vegas Mannequins there was so much demand for him that they went ahead and created a fiberglass version of Barack Obama, ready to model khakis, polos, or whatever, with a surprisingly buff and sculpted body.

...If you don't need—or can't afford—the full body mannequin, you also have the option of ordering just his disembodied head.

I wonder what kind of ab workout the POTUS mannequin's doing. He's ripped.


Hat tip: Brian.

Google Easter Egg Frosts Your Screen

Just in time for the holidays, Google's added an Easter Egg -- an old software colloquialism that means a hidden feature for 'insiders' -- to its search portal.

Google has hidden a special holiday "Easter Egg" that turns your screen into a winter wonderland.

Simply search for "let it snow" on Google and prepare yourself for an HTML5 blizzard--actually, it's more like a few flurries. The cool part comes after a few seconds, when your screen "frosts over" and your cursor can be used to trace messages or doodles like a finger against a window on a chilly day.

Press the Defrost button to remove the snow.


Hat tip: TrendingRight.

Good News: Unions Days Away From Getting Ambush Elections Thanks to Radical Obama Labor Board

Business Management Daily reports:

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently moved one step closer to changes that would give employers much less time to react to union organizing efforts... and make it easier for organizers to gain a toehold in your workplace.

The NLRB is racing to finalize those new election rules—which opponents call “quickie” or “ambush” elections—before an end-of-December deadline. Why the rush? The currently three-member NLRB will likely lose its quorum status with the Jan. 1 term expiration of Craig Becker, a pro-union member of the board.

...the board [forward with its man revision to] shorten the time from the filing of the election petition until the actual election is held.

It’s estimated that the time between an organizing petition and a full union election—currently averaging about 38 days—could be cut in half if this NLRB proposal is finalized.

Advice: If these NLRB rules become final this month, unions will feel emboldened to start organizing drives in previously union-free workplaces

Should this rule go through, the effects on businesses will be -- mark my words -- catastrophic.

These Democrat hacks need to be flushed from office in 2012, at every level of government, if we are to save this country.


Shocking: Gov. Perry Receives Pension Along With Salary (Shhh: No One Discuss Michelle's $200K Raise After Hubby Was Elected to Senate)

Well, this is a stunning revelation (if you're a left-wing hack with a hate on for the U.S. Constitution):

Gov. Rick Perry is double-dipping, drawing retirement income from the state in addition to his salary as governor since late January, newly released records show.

Perry's move to begin drawing from his pension early this year while remaining governor, which his staff says is legal and consistent with state retirement rules, was unknown to the public until federal financial disclosures were made public on Friday.

...The governor's gross annual salary is $150,000; his net salary is $133,000. The net monthly annuity check Perry started receiving Jan. 31 is $7,698. Combined, his net pay from the state is now more than $225,000 annually.

To put this into perspective, the media was curiously silent regarding the timing of a raise of nearly $200,000 that Michelle Obama received after her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Below you'll find a helpful chart and timeline explaining Michelle Obama's ultra-critical position at the University of Chicago Hospital (UCH), a position coincidentally created just after her husband's election to the Senate... and dissolved just minutes after she resigned to move into the White House.

Sandwiched, of course, by Sen. Obama's $1M earmark to UCH.

In 2002, Michelle Obama was hired by the University of Chicago Hospital as its "Executive Director for Community Affairs" at a salary of approximately $120,000.

In January of 2005, Barack Obama was sworn in as a United States Senator. "Coincidentally", in March of 2005, Michelle Obama was promoted to "Vice President for Community and External Affairs" and her salary bumped nearly $200,000 (from $121,910 to $316,962). This position was "newly created" for Mrs. Obama.

In February of 2006, Barack Obama requested a $1 million earmark for a new hospital pavilion at the University of Chicago.

Effective 9 January 2009, Michelle Obama resigned her position at UCH. And just five days later, effective 14 January 2009, Michelle Obama's VP position was eliminated, its functions absorbed into another executive's position. This prompted business writer Don Rose to ask "[If] that work can be folded into another guy’s, why was it separate in the first place?"

Operating with this kind of blatant double standard, you simply have to wonder how legacy media stays in business.

Although given their declining subscriber base, that question may be strictly rhetorical.


New EPA rule will cost each taxpaying American $280

By the EPA's own admission, power plants will have to spend $10.6 billion over the next four years to meet new, more stringent standards for anti-pollution controls. The EPA says that these measures will "save $59 billion to $140 billion in annual health costs, preventing 17,000 premature deaths a year along with illnesses and lost workdays."

Of course, just how those ridiculous figures were arrived at is anyone's guess, because the EPA doesn't make that research readily available. Think about it: those statistics are, at face value, patently false. We have 17,000 premature deaths a year thanks to dirty air? Sure we do. And a secret town in Kansas is the source of all baby unicorns.

No, this is another step to de-industrialize America and to "fundamentally transform" our nation into some sort of backwater country. Maybe it's payback, our chickens coming home to roost, in the words of one Jeremiah Wright, Jr.

All that said, what's the impact of these outrageous rules on Americans?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 153,683,000 civilians in the workforce (as of Nov. 2011).

Let's assume that each of these private sector employees are responsible for an equal amount of the EPA's egregious tolls. But Doug, you might say, don't public sector employees also have to pay these bills? Sure, but since the public sector is funded entirely by the private sector, they don't count in this calculation.

Furthermore, only half of workers pay net taxes to the government.

Here's what the EPA's disgusting new rules will cost each of us: $140. Every American will have to pay an additional $140 (really, figure double that because of markup and government inefficiency in these estimates) for the privilege of attaining some arbitrary new air-cleanliness standard that has no merit and no scientific basis.

Kind of like the billions we piss away on the global warming scam.

This administration simply must be turned out of office in 2012 if we are to save this country.


Larwyn's Linx: Inside Ron Paul's Racist Newsletters

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

Nation

Inside Ron Paul's Racist Newsletters: Atlas
Wisconsin, the Slave State: Wizbang
World War II and the Genesis of ObamaCare: AT

Dems Cave on Keystone XL: Ace
Obama: Honor Returning Troops By Passing My Jobs Bill: RWN
The Gospel According To Wright: AmSpec

Crips infiltrate, threaten U.S. Army post: C&S
Let's Not Hang Ourselves Quite Yet: Ace
Ron Paul: Not Ready for Prime Time: SAB

Economy

Ryan’s Medicare reform: antidote to financial Armageddon: Peth
A Democrat Reaches Across the Aisle on Medicare: Barone
Keystone cops president: JOM

Obama’s Policies Are Gutting the Middle Class: Blumer
The Supply-Siders Are Right: McArdle
Fed Foreign Bank Lifelines May Hit $1T, Congress Told: BizWk

Gunrunner & Energygate

Happy Birthday Chevy Volt...: Tatler
Eric Holder's continued obfuscation on Fast and Furious: DMN
GOP candidates: Eric Holder must go: CBS

Climate & Energy

Chevy Volt Fleet Sales: More Evidence of GM Deception?: NLPC
33-Year Temp Update: Well Below Computer Predictions: Reason
Canada Withdraws From The Kyoto Convention: ZH

Media

The Results Are In: The Best of the Worst Media Bias Quotes of 2011: NB
I Don’t Want to Hear Another Bleepin’ Word About ‘Reckless Policies of the Past’: BizzyBlog
AP Poll: Obamacare support hits record low of 29%: Exam

Conservative Bloggers - the Chopped Liver of the Right: Zilla
Media Matters: Desperate to Deflect From Charges of Antisemitism: Loesch
Shall We Ask Jennifer Rubin Who Won The Debate? Oh, Why Bother: Riehl

Regardless of what they told you in school, FDR sucked: NoisyRm
Dem congressman: We ‘didn’t know what the hell was going on’ when we passed Obama stimulus: DC
Double Standard: Patriot Allen West vs. Barack Milhaus Obama: Marooned

World

Russia’s North Korean slaves: Toldjah
Federal judge: Iran shares responsibility for 9/11 attacks: Timmerman
What's Up in China: Hint, It's Not War With the U.S.: Fallows

Another tack: The poison in the well: Honig
Pictures from the Arab Spring: Cairo is a war-zone again: Insider
Islamic scholar: "Saying Merry Christmas is worse then fornication or killing someone": JihadWatch

Eurozone: Failing Statists Prescribe…More Statism: PJM
European banks stuck with major losses not marked to market; expect conditions to worsen: Mish
French attack on British economy is 'unacceptable', says Nick Clegg: Telegraph

Sci-Tech

Chrome scores a victory in the browser wars: CNet
Microsoft Makes Keyboard for iPad: Wired
Is Working Good for Mom's Health?: WSJ

Cornucopia

Is This Hell? No, It's Iowa: Iowahawk
Looking for a book, but can't find it?: LaughingCon
Ron Paul Presidential Limousine Proposals?: iOTW

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

QOTD: "...millions of Europeans, particularly in the southern states, are being condemned to decades of high taxes and high unemployment, while having to work longer than they’d expected for reduced pensions and enduring swinging cuts to public services. But all the while the elites will keep pressing for ever-closer union — assuring their citizens that however bad things seem now, they’d be worse off outside the eurozone. British Foreign Secretary William Hague’s warning, made when he opposition leader back in 1998, that a European single currency area would become “a burning building with no exits,” has been thoroughly vindicated.

In the U.S., meanwhile, there’s growing concern both over the level of banks’ exposure to European debt, and the prospect of a default or another credit rating downgrade on the continent causing a new credit crunch and plunging the country back into recession. But whatever the immediate consequences, the crisis engulfing Europe might at least help to persuade Americans that they need to step back from the edge of the statist abyss to which President Obama has led them." --Mike McNally

Friday, December 16, 2011

Photo: Stress Taking Its Toll on Former Democrat Presidential Candidate John Edwards

Former Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards faces charges of using illegal campaign funds to hide an extramarital affair. His trial is ready to begin within the next several weeks and -- as you can see -- the stress has taken quite a toll on Silky Pony:


Edwards is alleged to have taken a million dollars from two wealthy campaign contributors to help cover up his affair with Rielle Hunter, which resulted in a love child.


* Our lawyers tell us that the accompanying photograph may not be real.

Once again discrimination rears its ugly head [Papa B]

Papa B:



Will it never end?


Obama: I'm only the 4th most awesome president in history (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Truman, JFK, Reagan hardest hit)

Humility:

60 Minutes Broadcast Edits Out Laughable Obama Claim as 4th Best President


George Washington was the father of our country.

Eh! No big deal. Barack Obama is better...at least in his own mind. Such was the laughably absurd claim of President Obama on 60 Minutes last Sunday. What? You didn't see it? That was because 60 Minutes conveniently left it out of its broadcast...

KROFT: Tell me, what do you consider your major accomplishments? If this is your last speech. What have you accomplished?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, we're not done yet. I've got five more years of stuff to do. But not only saving this country from a great depression. Not only saving the auto industry. But putting in place a system in which we're gonna start lowering health care costs and you're never gonna go bankrupt because you get sick or somebody in your family gets sick. Making sure that we have reformed the financial system, so we never again have taxpayer-funded bailouts, and the system is more stable and secure. Making sure that we've got millions of kids out here who are able to go to college because we've expanded student loans and made college more affordable. Ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Decimating al Qaeda, including Bin Laden being taken off the field. Restoring America's respect around the world.

The issue here is not gonna be a list of accomplishments. As you said yourself, Steve, you know, I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president -- with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln -- just in terms of what we've gotten done in modern history. But, you know, but when it comes to the economy, we've got a lot more work to do. And we're gonna keep on at it.


...One can only guess just how extensive the trademark Kroft look of bemused skepticism would have covered his face if, say, George W. Bush had made the same claim of presidential greatness. When Obama makes it, the laughable claim just gets edited out of the broadcast even though it was by far the highlight of the interview.

I think this nicely summarizes the bizarre worldview of the radical Left and legacy media. But I repeat myself.


Statement from Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Eric Holder's Lawless Behavior

Attorney General Eric Holder has gone all in. Not only is he neck-deep in Murdergate and Kagangate, but he is also trying to make an example of Sheriff Joe Arpaio for the lawman's willingness to enforce federal immigration law.

Arpaio's statement (PDF) is one for the history books.

On the surface, it may appear that today’s findings and actions by our federal government are directed towards this Sheriff and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. The truth of the matter is that this is a sad day for America as a whole.

Today, the federal government moved to do everything it can to put this agency out of the illegal immigration enforcement business.

We are proud of the work we have done to fight illegal immigration. We have been responsible for finding and identifying 25% of the nation’s illegal alien criminal offenders through the 287G program. Sadly, much of that work will no longer be permitted by the Obama administration.

Today the federal government cancelled our 287 G agreement. What that means is that we are no longer able to verify the immigration status of any criminal offender brought into our jails. This was a program responsible for detecting over 44,000 illegal alien criminal offenders since 2007, many of whom we can assume were deported by ICE officials back to their country of origin. [Ed: Knowing this administration, I'd say that's wishful thinking.]

Now with the cancellation of this agreement, illegal criminal offenders arrested and brought into my jails will go undetected and ultimately dumped back onto a street near you. For that, you can thank your federal government. By their actions today, President Obama and his band of merry men might as well erect their very own pink neon sign at the Arizona-Mexico border saying "Welcome All Illegals to your United States." Our home is your home.

On Sept 28, 2011, President Obama was questioned at the White House, by Hispanic journalist and asked why there was no resolution in the civil rights investigation against me for allegedly racially profiling Hispanics. He stated that he had to be careful to comment on individual cases handled by the DOJ. The president stated he challenged the AZ Law (1070) that was supported by me, because he thought there was a great danger of naturalized citizens with Latino surnames could potentially be vulnerable to questioning. It is interesting that after 100 days in Office by President Obama, that the Democrat Chairmen of the judiciary Committee in Congress initiated this investigation.

After all this time, the head of the DOJ Civil Rights Division, who reports to Attorney General Holder, held a press conference December 15, 2011, which is 2 days after the Supreme Court agreed to accept the 1070 lawsuit. It’s also interesting that Perez came to Phoenix for the press conference on the anniversary of the brave border patrol agent Brian Terry’s death, who was killed because of the failed Justice department’s “Fast and Furious” case, which is presently holding hearings this week on Attorney General Eric Holder. Just this week, 2 Democrat Latino US Congress men from Arizona, joined by several other Latino Legislatures want me to resign my office. All of these same Democratic elected officials, throughout the years, have been criticizing my enforcement of State and Federal Illegal immigration laws...

...We have a civil rights racial profiling case brought by the ACLU, which will be before a federal judge with oral argument on summary judgment next week. Is the DOJ press conference, among other reasons, geared to poison the court against our position in this civil rights case?

Question for John Boehner: how many more offenses against the American citizenry must Eric Holder commit before the Republican leadership begins impeachment proceedings?


Times are tough, but you shouldn't skimp on a fire alarm [Papa B]

Papa B:



Good News: EPA Funding Modern Dance Troupe

But there's nothing to cut.

A small troupe of highly trained dancers will soon appear before Salt Lake City schoolchildren gliding, leaping and twisting into shapes that intend to teach them about air pollution and the environment.

The program is funded by a federal grant... [namely] $25,000 that the Environmental Protection Agency awarded Monday to the Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) as part of its environmental-justice grants.

All told, the EPA handed out more than $1 million to 46 nonprofit and tribal programs.

This country is headed for fiscal calamity -- and that's not me saying it, it's President Obama's former chief economic adviser, Peter Orszag! -- and I can come to no other conclusion that it's intentional.


Image: Earth Beat Radio.

Outrage over West's Goebbels remark (Obama likening the U.S. to Nazi Germany on NPR remains in memory hole, however)

Please consider this report from The Hill:

Dems call on Rep. West to apologize for Joseph Goebbels comparison


Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) landed in hot water on Friday for his remarks the previous day comparing the Democrats’ proficiency in getting out their message to the notorious head of the Nazi Party’s propaganda department under Hitler.

“If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat Party, because they have an incredible propaganda machine,” West said Thursday... “Shame on him,” tweeted Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.). “Rep. West needs to apologize now for insulting the memories of the millions who lost their lives during the Holocaust.”

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) also called on West to apologize.

Curiously, these Democrat hacks were utterly silent when then-candidate Barack Obama was revealed to have compared the United States to Nazi Germany during an NPR interview.

None other than Charles (or the "Chuckster", as he prefers to be known) Johnson of LGF -- then in the patriotic phase of his career -- discovered Obama tarring America as a fascist regime.

The audio recording of Barack Obama espousing his socialist philosophy of “redistribution of wealth” is all over the internet and Fox News today (although the other media outlets are ignoring it), but there’s another disturbing section on that tape that has so far escaped notice.

The link to the audio is here: Chicago Public Radio - Audio Library: Odyssey.

At about 15:30, Obama compares what was going on in the United States during the time of Brown vs. the Board of Education to ... Nazi Germany. Yes, really. Here’s the quote:

“...just to take a, sort of a realist perspective...there’s a lot of change going on outside of the Court, um, that, that judges essentially have to take judicial notice of. I mean you’ve got World War II, you’ve got uh, uh, uh, the doctrines of Nazism, that, that we are fighting against, that start looking uncomfortably similar to what we have going on, back here at home.”

There you have it. America is close to electing a President that compares his own country to Nazi Germany.

Countdown to media analysis of Obama's egregious statements in: 3... 2... never.


Larwyn's Linx: Pity Poor Jon Corzine

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

Nation

Pity Poor Jon Corzine: FSM
Nancy Pelosi: Down and Dirty: Malkin
Bachmann smashes Paul over suicidal foreign policy: Scoop

DOJ: Arizona Sheriff Arpaio violated federal law: Times
Obama NDAA Bill allows indefinite detention without trial: CBS
Gingrich, GOP Rivals Split On Foreign Policy: IBD

Ron Paul's Earmark Problem: Ace
Second Look, Santorum?: Riehl
Mayor Says Occupy Seattle Have Become Too Violent: VS

Economy

Q&A with Paul Ryan on his new Medicare reform plan: Peth
Obama’s economic historical ignorance: Q&O
Report: MF's Corzine Made Lots of Calls to the Fed: Ace

Pelosi: Extending Unemployment Creates ‘600,000 Jobs’: CNS
Michelle’s Solo Hawaii Trip Likely to Exceed $100,000: Dossier
Tell Roubini that the case for gold hasn't changed: Shedlock

Gunrunner & Energygate

Obama’s Watergate: Officials cover up culpability for gun smuggling and murder: Times
Jet-Fuel Gate: The next Solyndra takes wing.: Hayward
Perry on Fast & Furious: If I were president I’d have Holder resign immediately: Scoop

Climate & Energy

Obama's Justice Department joins Britain's 'Climategate' leaker manhunt: Exam
Climategate: Obama's boot boys strike back: Delingpole
Spending bill blocks light bulb standards: Politico

Media

Townhall/Hot Air primary results: Gingrich 36.5, Romney 18.8, Paul 17.7, Bachmann 17.4: Hot Air
Media Matters sucks: JPA
Barbara Boxer, once again, demonstrates that she is an idiot, a shill, or both: Fox

In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011: Hot Air
OccuMom Tries To Stop Train With 4 Year Old Daughter: Spew
A Voter's Guide to Republicans: Whittle

About Those Self-Evident Truths: DLim
I think that you should watch this Rick Perry video: Lane
Giuliani Brings His Knife to Morning Shows to Carve Up Romney: ABC

World

Islamists Ready To Pounce As U.S. Lowers Flag In Iraq: IBD
Thoughts on the End of The Iraq War: AmSpec
Idiot Lib Rabbi: A Tim Tebow Win Will Cause Christians to Burn Mosques, Bash Gays: Publius

Chinese neighborhood tries to ban veils and Arab clothing: Blaze
China Skids Towards Hard Landing; Hot Money Outflows Increase; Risk of Devastating Trade Wars Increases: Mish
Inside Wukan: the Chinese village that fought back: Telegraph

The U.S. could be out $1 trillion if the euro zone collapses: Peth
Who’s REALLY Blowing Up Iran?: Ledeen
Come home, little drone: Iran bags a big one: GWP

Sci-Tech

U.S. Teens Triple Data Usage: TechCrunch
Congress Authorizes Pentagon to Wage Internet War: Wired
An iPhone Lover’s Take On The Galaxy Nexus: TechCrunch

Zeitgeist 2011: How the world searched: Google Blog
We're watching: malls track shopper's cell phone signals to gather marketing data: ArsTech
Hubble Captures Violent Birth Pangs of Enormous Star: Wired

Cornucopia

Rider On the Storm: Ace
Britons 'drunk in three quarters of Facebook photos': Telegraph
Schools bans Christmas cookies, cakes, candy bars, and soda: CBS Boston

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "To review: The UK police and the US DOJ, Criminal Division, are pursuing a leaker of public records subject to one or more FOIA, records that were unlawfully withheld under those laws, which leaks indicate apparent civil violations (tortious interference by seeking dismissal of certain “skeptics”), and raising reasonable questions of fraud against taxpayers.

And they are pursuing the leaker." --Christopher C. Horner