Thursday, December 29, 2011

Larwyn's Linx: The Year in Obama Scandals — and Scandal Deniers

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

Nation

The Year in Obama Scandals — and Scandal Deniers: Malkin
Santorum Surge: RSM
With His Experience, Gingrich Could Get The Job Done: Sowell

Undocumented Immigrants, Real Crimes: Virtuous
The Justice Department's Identity Problem: Cal Thomas
Obama: taxpayer funds can be used to promote gun control: BreitTV

Economy

The Democratic Party's War on the Poor: AT
In Obama He Trusts: Why our president fails: Wolf
Pension Perks are Crushing Taxpayers: USA Today

Top 10 Worst Federal Rules of 2011: Foundry
Michelle sports $2,000 sun-dress: Naked DC
A Run On The Global Banking System - How Close Are We?: Lira

Repo Men: NRO
‘Your Tax Dollars at Work’ Update: Shrimp on a Treadmill: Malkin
Leo Gerard: The Most Powerful Man In America?: Ulsterman

Climate & Energy

MF Global chief missing $1.2B is financial adviser to EPA: Times
Aztecs Versus Our Warmies: Wolf Howling
EPA Rule May Cause Blackouts: Intelligencer

Media

Virginia Must Change Its Election System: Jeffrey
Gross: Former Dem Rep. Weiner Wanted Threesome . . . With Another Man…: WZ
AP Bemoans Retirement of 'Centrist' Ben Nelson, Who Voted for ObamaCare and Stimulus: NB

Voter ID: Holder Looks Through Race-Colored Glasses: IBD
After Only 2 Qualify for Presidential Primary, Virginia GOP Chair Says State Should Change Election Law: CNS
Breitbart: ‘Occupy The Caucus’ Is Part Of Organized Left’s Efforts To Re-Elect Obama: Breitbart

Conservatives Shouldn't Abandon Rick Santorum: Riehl
Ted Kennedy Prepared Barack Obama’s Attack Ads: RedState
99 Percent? Elizabeth Warren Was Third Highest Paid At Harvard In 1997: Glob

World

Texas Christmas Honor Killings: Mass Murderer Didn’t Want Daughter Dating Non-Muslim: GWP
Merry Christmas From Saudi Arabia: WSJ
Clerics clash in Bethlehem brawl at Jesus' birthplace: USA Today

The Paul Pot and the Paulestinians: Sultan Knish
The New Old Europe: Hanson
Bolton: If you’re thinking about Ron Paul, think again!: Scoop

Sci-Tech

Fallout from the Christmas Hack of Stratfor: Forbes
Detailed Analysis of Personal Information ‘Anonymous’ Attack on Stratfor: IdentityFinder
Avastin can stabilize tumors in ovarian cancer, studies find: LAT

The Next iPad Battery Will Be Awesome: Insider
Wi-Fi 'protected set-up' not so protected after all: CNet
Is China's New GPS System Better Than Ours?: Blaze

Cornucopia

Bumper Sticker of the Year Awards: LI
Doubling Down on Debt: It’s a Snow Job: MOTUS
No Car Will Escape This "Future Now" Speed Cam: Consumerist

Cheetah of 1930s Tarzan Movies Dies: WSJ
A fish that bites men's testicles? Yep, it's real: GlobalPost
White Castle considers alcohol sales: Cleveland

Image: "Iran Says U.S. Aircraft Carrier Has Entered Zone Near Key Oil Route"
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "I'm running a marathon of sorts on stories of crimes committed by illegal aliens.

We criminalize texting, but allow, if not encourage, a mass migration of people who we know exactly nothing about.

It is like, as a nation, we are suicidal." --The Machiavellian

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Chart o' the Week: The Obama Economic Record

I think this says it all:

Three years into Ronald Reagan's first term, I wonder how things were going?

For you drones: that's a rhetorical question.


Hat tip: @AACons.

Harbinger of Future Events: New York Times Emails Millions of Subscribers to Tell Them Their Subscriptions Are Cancelled

Paul Krugman hardest hit:

The New York Times mistakenly sent an e-mail on Wednesday to more than eight million people who had shared their information with the company, erroneously informing them that they had canceled home delivery of the newspaper.

The Times Company, which initially mischaracterized the mishap as spam, apologized for sending the e-mail. The people who received the message represented a cross section of readers who had given their e-mail addresses to the newspaper, said Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Times Company.

...The e-mail urged recipients to consider continuing their subscriptions to The Times at 50 percent off for 16 weeks. The message sent off a flood of Twitter reactions and calls to The Times...

...She said the e-mail had been sent by a Times employee and not Epsilon Interactive, a third-party service the company uses to communicate with subscribers.

I'm thinking this is just the first step in a self-fulfilling prophecy.


The 10 Funniest Passwords Exposed by the Stratfor Breach


10 ABC News: jonathan.d.greenberger@abc.com:stephanopoulos
 9 Goldman Sachs: joseph.aiken@gs.com:derivative
 8 MSNBC: gary.nease@msnbc.com:Seaweed1
 7 Goldman Sachs: amy.lee@gs.com:password
 6 New York Times: kewald@nytimes.com:9295
 5 Soros? david.steinberg@soros.com:secret
 4 Fred Burton, VP of Stratfor: burton@stratfor.com:stratfor
 3 Standard Bank: ravi.bhatia@standardbank.com:ravi
 2 Control Risks: jennifer.harbison@control-risks.com:research
 1 Goldman Sachs: muneer.satter@gs.com:bulls***

Bonus Banking Password UBS: paul.brewer@ubs.com:1234



Top 10 Gifts to Give a Liberal [Looking Spoon]

Via The Looking Spoon: yes, it may be a little late for Christmas, but it always feels good to give gifts like these to the progressives in your life.

Basic math skills and/or common sense would be some other good gift ideas.


Coming This Weekend: The 2011 Fabulous 50 Blog Awards...

Forget the Pulitzers! Flush those stinking Nobel Prizes! There's only one award worth winning and we all know what it is.

Every year at this time we are pleased to announce the winners of the Fabulous 50 Blog Awards™, recognizing the year's 50 most important blogs and websites in the conservative world. No debates. No voting. No nominations. Just facts. Immutable truths, chiseled in stone and then forged on Zeus' anvil for all of human history. No prize carries more panache, more prestige, and more sex appeal than a Fab 50 Award, save something you might find in a Crackerjacks box.

The talented illustrators at the peerless iOwnTheWorld have created a stunning set of award icons, suitable for framing, a pattern for your next tattoo, or even including on the templates of the award winners.

If you are a winner, click the award icon that you would like to use, then copy the text in the HTML block below to paste into your template:

300 x 400 Deluxe200 x 267 Midsize
180 x 241 Intermediate160 x 185 Mini160 x 185 LOSER


HTML to use in your template:

Related:
2010 Fabulous 50 Blog Award Winners
2009 Fabulous 50 Blog Award Winners.

And be sure to press your browser's Reload button continuously from now until New Year's Eve to make sure you don't miss this immense event, suitable for an ESPN 8 ("The Ocho") reality show.


Larwyn's Linx: The Justice Department Condones Perjury … Again

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

Nation

The Justice Department Condones Perjury … Again: Foundry
So long, farewell, DLTDWYOTWO: Ben Nelson retires: Malkin
The Case for a Conservative: Lord

2012: a Year of Media Savagery: Bozell
Santorum Surge: Legacy Media Begins to See the Omens: RSM
Judge: For blacks, 'voting rights' means identifying Dems on ballots: DC

Economy

Is White House Politically Manipulating Poverty Data?: Blumer
Why do we need governors, legislators or voters?: ProWis
Gullible Americans: Williams

Is Romney stirring up a VAT of trouble on taxes?: Peth
US House of Representatives: Internet pirates: Boing Boing
House GOP: IRS must investigate AARP tax-exempt status: Blaze

Democrats Use Fiscal Crisis As Weapon To Bash GOP: IBD
There's One for You, 19 For Me: Driscoll
580 MS Employees Learn of Layoffs Via Govt. Site, Not H.R.: ZH

Gunrunner & Energygate

The Year in Obama Scandals — and Scandal Deniers: Malkin
Is it complete incompetence or outright lying?: Mtn Valley News
Holder’s OIG ’Gunwalker’ investigation passes historic milestone today: Codrea

Climate & Energy

'Worst Piece' of NYT Climate Reporting Ever? Justin Gillis's Christmas Day Snow Job: MRC
NRDC’s ridiculous weather IS climate “sound the general alarm” map: Watts
Sen. Boxer defends embattled EPA: Californian

Media

ABC's Misleading Headline: "Gingrich ’06 Memo: 'Agree Entirely With Gov. Romney' on Health Care": NB
The NYT's Bad Gun Statistics: NRO
How Did We Get Here? Or, Why Do 20 Year Old Newsletters Matter So Damn Much?: BHL

Boston Globe Calls for Ban on Congressional Insider Trading: BigGovt
Jen Rubin: It Will Soon Be Time for Anti-Romney Forces To Get In Line: Ace
Paterno Put Money Above Child Abuse Disclosure: Bloomberg

Breaking news on Newt and Romneycare is not breaking and not news: LI
Horrifying New Reality Show: “The Real Congresswomen of D.C.”: JWF
SOPA is the end of us, say bloggers: Politico

World

Iraq in Political Crisis Following U.S. Withdrawal: PJM
Infographic: Our Military’s Dangerous Course: Foundry
Hamas top dog Haniyeh: Goal is destruction of Israel in stages: JihadWatch

Obama’s Surrender: FBI removes Mullah Omar’s name from list of most wanted terrorists: Bruce
The World's Worst Human Rights Observer: ForPol
Is Army Islamizing The Military By Allowing Hijab?: IBD

Beijing’s ‘New Frontier’ is ground zero for the organ harvesting of political prisoners: WklyStd
Europe Is Still Hip Deep In The Bad Stuff: Mead
Banks Bunker Hundreds of Billions in Deposits at ECB: Spiegel

Secrets of ‘Kim Jong-Il’: Everything About Him, Including His Name, Was a Lie :BigPeace
MSNBC: Kim Jong Un is So Totally Cool and Dreamy!: Driscoll
Kim Jong-Il's Floozies: LAT

Sci-Tech

Ex-Employee Sued $340,000 Over Twitter Account And What It Means To You: Chris Voss Show
Enigmatic fossils are neither animals nor bacteria: Nature
Google under fire for travel search placement: CNet

Cornucopia

Time Off Around the World: Ace
Shot three times in robbery, Marine plugs bullet holes with his fingers: DC
Rapper Heavy D died of blood clot in lung after long flight: LAT

Image: "Saudi textbooks instruct children in how to carry out amputations for Sharia punishments"
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "Herein lies a fundamental contradiction in our present system: The desire for constant inflation and constant credit expansion requires that the banks be shielded from the effects of their own business errors. Allowing capitalism’s most efficient regulators, profit and loss, to do the regulating, would mean that banks could face the risk of bankruptcy – this is, of course, the ultimate disciplinary force in capitalism. This could then lead to balance sheet correction and thus periods of deflation. Ergo, banks cannot be capitalist enterprises at full risk of bankruptcy as long as constant credit growth and inflation are the overriding policy goals. The constant growth of the banking sector must be guaranteed by the state through the unlimited provision of bank reserves from a lender-of-last resort central bank.

That banks get ever bigger, that they routinely hand out multi-million dollar bonuses, and that they frequently get bailed out, is not a result of the greed of the bankers – a stupid explanation anyway, only satisfactory to the intellectually challenged and perennially envious – but is integral to the fiat money system.

Banking under state protection ultimately means banking under state control. In the end it means state banking. And this is where we are going." --Detlev Schlichter

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Report: China's new GPS system more accurate than U.S. military's

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is engaged in a stealth form of warfare with the United States. It has launched numerous cyber-warfare campaigns against American interests. It is engaged in a massive buildup of its military capabilities including "cruise missiles, fighter jets and [a] growing, modernizing army."

And now, it has created a new GPS system that reportedly trumps America's capabilities.

China is now one step closer to becoming the top economic and military superpower in the world: its Beidou geo-positioning system is now fully armed and operational...

...Beidou cuts China’s dependency of the American GPS system completely. It means that they would be able to launch any attack and move their forces around the world without any US interference. Right now, the United States can deactivate their Global Positioning System so nobody can use it in certain areas. That includes enemy armies. After Beidou, however, this will be impossible.

...China will be able to move their civilian transport ships and airplanes all over the world without being dependent on any other country. Their military would also use this system to direct their ships, combat airplanes, drones and land forces in battle... They would also be able to use Beidou to target any kind of weapons with great accuracy, including cruise missiles.

Those questioning the PRC's goals would do well to read "Discerning China’s Intentions a Challenge for U.S.".


Hilarious: Hundreds of New York Times Staffers Rip Management Over Their Own Petty, Capitalist Concerns

As an aside, I read the Stuffington Roast so you don't have to.

New York Times staffers unhappy with management are letting publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. know it...

...In recent days, more than 270 current and former Times employees have signed an open letter expressing their "profound dismay" with recent company decisions...

...Bill O'Meara, president of the New York Newspaper Guild, said some staffers had considered even "more dramatic" actions.

"There were people who wanted to storm Arthur Sulzberger's office," O'Meara told The Huffington Post...

"There were people who wanted to stage a walkout."

And what are the staffers' major grievances? Curiously, for the world champions of wealth redistribution, the whining revolves around money.

The letter calls attention to several grievances. Last week, Times brass notified foreign citizens employed in the paper's overseas bureaus that their pensions would be frozen. In the letter, Times staffers dismayed by this decision point out to Sulzberger that some of these foreign employees, working alongside Times reporters in war zones, have "risked their lives so that we can do our jobs."

The open letter may have been prompted by this and other recent decisions, but it brought to the surface long-simmering tensions. In the past several years, staffers have faced temporary pay cuts, layoffs, and buyouts. They have worked since March without a new contract. Regarding ongoing negotiations, the letter notes that Sulzberger's "negotiators have demanded a freeze of our pension plan and an end to our independent health insurance." O'Meara said staffers did not receive a raise this year...

I find it uniquely hilarious that the world's foremost advocates for Statism -- people like Paul Krugman, who continuously lobby for endless confiscation and redistribution of money by a centralized, authoritarian government -- are concerned with petty concerns like money. With private property. With their own financial well-being.

Whatever happened to the collective?

Unhinged Statist jackasses hardest hit.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

10 Fun Facts You May Not Have Known About Ron Paul

10. "Of the 620 measures that Paul has sponsored [since 1976], just four have made it to a vote on the House floor. Only one has been signed into law."

9. Ron Paul is 76 years old and would be 80 at the end of a hypothetical first term.

8. In 2007, Ron Paul criticized Abraham Lincoln for using military force to end slavery during the Civil War: "He shouldn’t have gone to war… Slavery was phased out in every other country in the world and the way I’m advising that it should have been done is do like the British Empire did; you buy the slaves and release them."

7. In 2009, Ron Paul said even the Nazi Holocaust was not sufficient cause for interventionism. He said, among other things, "No, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t risk American lives to [end the Holocaust]."

6. The Washington Post's Charles Lane -- hardly a "neocon" -- says that "Paul actually comes closest to the foreign policy views of Obama’s longtime religious leader, Jeremiah Wright."

5. Just days after the horrific 9/11 attacks that killed 3,000 Americans, Ron Paul blamed America for the attacks: "It is clear that protecting certain oil interests and our presence in the Persian Gulf help drive the holy war. Muslims see this as an invasion and domination by a foreign enemy, which inspires radicalism."

4. In a television interview he gave in 1995, Ron Paul explicitly and personally endorsed the views of his newsletter: "I also do an investment letter. It’s called the Ron Paul Survival Report, and I put that out on a monthly basis ... which is a gold-oriented newsletter, but it’s also, uh, convening — expressing concern about surviving in this age of big government, where there’s a lot of taxes and regulations, and attacks on our personal liberties."

3. Ron Paul refuses to disavow support from "the racists, anti-Semites and neo-Nazis in his coalition (sorry, but whatever you think of Lew Rockwell, Stormfront and David Duke certainly deserve such labels)."

2. In an interview he gave just last month, Ron Paul also refuses to disclaim the despicable 9/11 Truther movement and, in fact, actively encourages it. When asked "why won’t you come out about the truth about 9/11?", he responded: "Because I can’t handle the controversy, I have the IMF the Federal Reserve to deal with, the IRS to deal with because no because I just have more-too many things on my plate. Because I just have too much to do."

1. Ron Paul believes in pretty much every discredited, crackpot conspiracy theory you've ever heard of. To wit:

He knows how crazy his conspiracy theories about The Illuminatis are, so he initially deflects the question ("What do you think the Bildersbergers are doing?") with an empty demurral. Then the questioner asks it a second and third time, and he can no longer counterfeit his beliefs; he offers up the Illuminatis conspiracy.

Remember, we're fighting a "phony war" against Al Qaeda, and it's all ginned-up neocon nonsense that Iran is cooking up a nuclear bomb, and Hamas was created by Israel.

But the thing we've got to really keep our eyes on is the Bildersbergers and Trilateral Commissioners.

Presidential!


Image credit: iOwnTheWorld.

Larwyn's Linx: 'Mischief' voters push Paul to front of GOP race

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

Nation

'Mischief' voters push Paul to front of GOP race: York
Obama and the F-Word: Power Line
The Trouble with Ron Paul’s Defense: NRO

Did the VA GOP change primary rules last month?: RS
Sunlight needed from Virginia GOP: BauerBlog
VA A.G. Cuccinelli On GOP Primary Ballot: RSM

Ron Paul Campaigning In 1995: Hey, Read My Report!: Ace
The Virginia Primary Mess: Pundette
Paul Goldman helps Newt Gingrich with Virginia ballot: Politico

Economy

Obama gives back some of the Corzine cash: Hot Air
Crony Holidays: Schumer kin gets judgeship for Xmas: Malkin
Chart of the Day: Medicare Spending: Foundry

Certain prediction for 2012: Thomas
Pelosi Spends Holidays Sacrificing For Her Beloved 99%: Malkin
LTRO Bazooka an Epic Disaster: ZH

Gunrunner & Energygate

Folding Holder: PunditLeague
Obama’s Green Jobs Program “Infused with Politics at Every Level”: Foundry
List of Congressmen Calling for Holder’s Resignation Continues to Grow: Ammoland

Climate & Energy

Shutting down power plants: Imaginary benefits, extensive harm: Watts
The Volt is a jolt to taxpayers shelling out subsidies: Kelly
New Expansive EPA Power Grab: FPM

Media

Libertarians, Republicans would have benefited from giving Paul the attention he deserves: Betsy's Page
Ron Paul in 2009–‘I Wouldn’t Risk American Lives’ to End the Holocaust: BigGovt
What, If Anything, Could Convince a Ronulan Not to Vote for Ron Paul?: RS

Feds' War on Religion: Norris
Kathleen Sebelius Destroyed Evidence to Protect Planned Parenthood in a Child Rape Case: NewAm
Random Thoughts: Sowell

New Gingrich video: Victory or death: Hot Air
White Supremacist Founder of Stormfront Says His Followers Are Volunteering For Ron Paul’s Campaign: WZ
Just days after 9/11, Ron Paul blames America: Scoop

World

A Month of Christian Persecution: Power Line
Tennessee mom finds Islam in kid’s textbook, revised and sanitized: Creeping
Over 1,000 Christians Targeted & Murdered Worldwide by Islamists in 2011: GWP

Ron Paul is the Real Warmonger: RedState
Iranian Lawmaker: 'These War Games Are a Warning to the Western Countries': CNS
Twitter Continues To Evade Explaining Its Breaking of U.S. Law and Its Indirect Support For Online Jihad: MEMRI

Black Muslim Who Harrassed Many Shot Dead by Atlanta Police: GWP
Japan Seeks to Market Record 145 Trillion Yen Bonds in 2012: Mish
Italian Yields Spike To The Highest Level Since November: Insider

Sci-Tech

Highly critical zero day vulnerability in Windows discovered: Gladiator AV
Stratfor Hacking Victims Targeted After Comments: ABC
Who owns your Twitter account? Check out this lawsuit: CNet

Cornucopia

Kids say the darndest things: MOTUS
A perfect example of self-defense, and sound good sense: Bookworm
Obama Golfs for the 90th Time as President: Dossier

Image: Ron Paul and the racist newsletters (Fact Checker biography)
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Action Alert: Contact Virginia's GOP Regarding Ballot Access

QOTD: "Shortly after he gave General Motors a $53 billion bailout in 2009, President Barack Obama said the plug-in Chevrolet Volt would be salvation of the beleaguered automaker. Consumers will buy 120,000 Volts each year from 2012 onwards, the Energy Department predicted then. But through November, only 6,142 Volts have been sold. And that pitiful figure is inflated by purchases for government fleets.

Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America, isn’t surprised.

“No one is going to pay a $15,000 premium for a car that competes with a (Toyota) Corolla,” he told Lawrence Ulrich of MSN Autos in 2009. “So there are not enough idiots who will buy it.”" --Jack Kelly

Monday, December 26, 2011

Breaking: Statement on the 2.7 million emails obtained from Stratfor

More than 48 hours after it was rooted, the website of intelligence firm Stratfor Research remains down. In fact, as of this moment, even its temporary server (showing an "Under Maintenance" page) is inaccessible, perhaps due to an ongoing denial-of-service attack.

Via Wikileaks, the following statement describes some of the motives for the compromise.

In the wake of the recent operation by which Stratfor's servers were compromised, much of the media has focused on the fact that some participants in the attack chose to use obtained customer credit card numbers to make donations to charitable causes. Although this aspect of the operation is indeed newsworthy, and, like all things, should be scrutinized and criticized as necessary, the original purpose and ultimate consequence of the operation has been largely ignored.

Stratfor was not breached in order to obtain customer credit card numbers, which the hackers in question could not have expected to be as easily obtainable as they were. Rather, the operation was pursued in order to obtain the 2.7 million e-mails that exist on the firm's servers. This wealth of data includes correspondence with untold thousands of contacts who have spoken to Stratfor's employees off the record over more than a decade. Many of those contacts work for major corporations within the intelligence and military contracting sectors, government agencies, and other institutions for which Anonymous and associated parties have developed an interest since February of 2011, when another hack against the intelligence contractor/security firm HBGary revealed, among many other things, a widespread conspiracy by the Justice Department, Bank of America, and other parties to attack and discredit Wikileaks and other activist groups. Since that time, many of us in the movement have dedicated our lives to investigating this state-corporate alliance against the free information movement. For this and other reasons, operations have been conducted against Booz Allen Hamilton, Unveillance, NATO, and other relevant institutions. The bulk of what we've uncovered thus far may be reviewed at a wiki maintained by my group Project PM, echelon2.org.

Although Stratfor is not necessarily among the parties at fault in the larger movement against transparency and individual liberty, it has long been a "subject of interest" in our necessary investigation. The e-mails obtained before Christmas Day will vastly improve our ability to continue that investigation and thereby bring to light other instances of corruption, crime, and deception on the part of certain powerful actors based in the U.S. and elsewhere. Unlike the various agents of the U.S. Government, the hacking team that obtained this information did not break down the doors of the target, point guns at children, and shoot down any dogs that might have been present; Anonymous does not resort to SWAT tactics, and this is simply one of many attributes that separate the movement from the governments that have sought to end our campaign and imprison our participants. Of course, such points as these will not prevent our movement from being subjected to harsher scrutiny than is given to those governments which are largely forgiven their more intrusive tactics by virtue of their status as de facto holders of power in a world that has long been governed in accordance with the dictate that might makes right.

Incidentally, many of us are more than happy to proceed according to that amoral dictate if we find it to be necessary. And, increasingly, we have found it to be so.

Barrett Brown
Project PM
irc.project-pm.org


Winner of our Prestigious Tweet o' the Day Award: @JamesTaranto

The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto wins our prestigious Tweet o' the Day Award.*

How very true.


* At last check, the award consists of a handsome email and a $5 off coupon to Applebee's (if I can find it and it hasn't expired).

ACTION ALERT: Virginia GOP Changed Ballot Access Rules Last Month; Here's How to Contact Them and Demand Changes

Based upon several reliable reports at RedState, it would appear that Virginia's GOP establishment changed the rules of ballot access just last month. Front-runner Newt Gingrich, for one, saw his campaign hurt badly by reports that it bungled the Virginia ballot process. He and Rick Perry were excluded despite each turning in over 10,000 signatures. But if the new reports are true, the state GOP has a hell of a lot to account for.

Moe Lane provides the introduction:

...the very short version is that the VA GOP only certified Mitt Romney and Ron Paul for its primary ballot. Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich both had too many signatures tossed; Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann didn’t even try. Of the seven candidates, one (Romney) had more than enough signatures (15K) to bypass the verification process entirely. All of this has caused a lot of agitation among Republicans following the primary process, of course; and not just from people who disapprove of what the VA GOP has done...

...There has been a good deal of defending of the outcome; and one argument heavily used in this defense has been that the campaigns all knew the rules and that previous Republican campaigns were able to get on the ballot, so clearly a competent current Republican campaign should have done so.

One small problem with that: as Winger argues, the rules were allegedly drastically changed. In November of this year.

So what changed?

...prior to the 2012 elections it was Republican party policy in Virginia to simply deem any candidate that brought in ten thousand raw signatures as having met the primary ballot requirements under Virginian state election law.

Under these rules, of course, both Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry would have qualified easily.

And why did the rules change?

...On October 24th independent state delegate candidate Michael Osborne filed suit against the Republican party of Virginia [challenging the signature review process and who performs it] ... according to Winger the VA GOP decided in response to bump up from 10K to 15K the threshold for simply deeming the requirements as being met.

...I think that John Fund’s general comment is correct: this is going to go to the courts. John was not discussing this specific wrinkle, but his larger point that Virginia’s ballot access policies have systemic problems gets a big boost when it turns out that the state party can effectively increase by fifty percent the practical threshold for ballot access – in a day, and in the middle of an existing campaign.

...If it is true that the Republican party of Virginia decided in November of 2011 to increase the threshold for automatic certification from 10K to 15K, then it is reasonable to suggest that this was a change that unfairly rewarded candidates who had previously run for President in Virginia.

Lane asserts that the state GOP has ultimate control of the ballot and could, if pressed, decide to certify Gingrich and Perry.

Either way, the issue is going to the courts.

And, either way, the Virginia GOP looks incompetent... or ill-intentioned against conservative candidates.

Action Alert: I urge you to contact the Virginia GOP and demand that they include Gingrich and Perry on the ballot. Be polite, but firm. There's no excuse for issuing new rules at the last minute that just happen to exclude the leading candidates. In fact, it's an outrage.

Email: Contact Form
Phone: 804-780-0111
Fax: 804-343-1060
Facebook: www.facebook.com/VirginiaGOP
Twitter: @va_gop

Make contact now. Time is growing short.


Is Oslo Dead Yet? [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

'PLO might revoke recognition of Israel'


Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi says Palestinian leadership may renege on its recognition of Israel if peace process continues to falter...

PM: Israel to refuse talks if Hamas joins PA


PM declares Israel will not renew peace negations if terror group joins Palestinian government. 'I will not allow a Palestinian state to turn into Gaza, Lebanon,' he states...

###

All of which brings to mind the great Monty Python dead parrot sketch.


Tell us how you really feel

As seen from Highway 60-70-84, 5 miles east of Clovis, New Mexico:




Hat tip: Moonbattery.

Larwyn's Linx: Eric Holder Blocks Voter ID For Racial Reasons

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

Nation

Eric Holder Blocks Voter ID For Racial Reasons: Adams
The Obama administration discovers the Constitution: Instapundit
DoJ rejects South Carolina Voter ID law: Greenroom

Exclusive: Statement from Former Ron Paul Staffer: RWN
Virginia’s GOP Isn’t For Lovers of Newt or Perry: BigGovt
California atheists block out nativity scenes: Hot Air

Why Ohio Is the Most Muddled Swing State Ever: RCP
Elisabeth’s Barrenness and Ours: Steyn
Is Twitter Breaking U.S. Law?: Pollak

Economy

A Country in Denial About Its Fiscal Future: Samuelson
Businesses Flee California and Illinois: Mish
House Dems prepping for fight over cuts to jobless benefits: Hill

The 7 Most Illuminating Economic Charts of 2011: Peth
The new Winter White House: Politico
Pelosi Slips Quietly into Big Island Resort: HawaiiRep

Gunrunner & Energygate

Solyndra: Politics infused Obama energy programs: WaPo
Heavily Dem downstate IL county: 7,100 voting age residents, 7,800 registered to vote: Marathon
Eric Holder's Lawlessness: Frontpage

Climate & Energy

Everything you ever needed to know about man-made global warming in one sentence and a graph: Bayonet
Warmists Trot Out Old Santa Painting To Prop Up Globull Warming: RWN
Modern-day climate change witch hunt: ABC Au

Media

Strike Three for Politifact: Cato
The Awful Unfairness of Iowa: Polipundit
How will the Obama administration’s misleading “New Poverty” line be abused?: Kaus

Progressives Attempt To Hijack Story Of Christmas: Loesch
"All-American Muslim" TV Show Plummets in Ratings Dive: Atlas
RINO Dick Lugar Spouts More Idiocy on CNN: Hill

10 Most Hated Movies of 2011: Wired
Remember: If You Want Ron Paul to POOF! Away, You Must Say His Name Backwards Every 90 Days: HillBuzz
Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton battle over 1990s legacy: Politico

World

The Region: Obama preaches, dictators sneer: BRubin
U.N. Passes leaner 2012-2013 budget amid economic turmoil: NewsDaily
Anti-Putin Protest Draws Tens of Thousands: Blaze

No Worse Friend, No Better Enemy: Belmont Club
A terrible truth written in blood: AT
Religion of peace kills 39 Christians in Nigeria: Scoop

Sci-Tech

Anonymous Says It’s Hacked U.S. Security Think Tank, Promises Weeklong Assault: Blaze
The 30 Best iPad Games: CNet
The joys of real-time data analysis for online retailers: CNet

Cornucopia

A Christmas Blessing 2011: Dewey
Dogs Like Christmas, Too: Ace
Pelosi Tramp Stamp: iOTW

TSA: Keeping us safe from cupcakes: RWN
Bengals beg fans to show up for decisive game: Trib
Ronald Reagan's 1981 Christmas Address: ZH

Image: National Journal
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please support the Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "The Obama administration won't be bound by a gun control ban in the $1 trillion spending bill for 2012, the president said Friday.

The funding provision for the federal health agency says that "none of the funds made available in this title may be used, in whole or in part, to advocate or promote gun control." The language aims to ban taxpayer dollars from supporting gun safety research.

"I have advised the Congress that I will not construe these provisions as preventing me from fulfilling my constitutional responsibility to recommend to the Congress's consideration such measures as I shall judge necessary and expedient," Obama said in a statement as he signed the bill into law." --Julian Pecquet, The Hill

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Rep. Joe Walsh: Prepare for the Race Card to Be Played As Never Before

Because of President Obama's litany of failed domestic and foreign policy initiatives, we already knew that the 2012 presidential campaign was destined to be the dirtiest in history.

Mr. Obama simply can't run on his record, given his failed Stimulus, an incredibly unpopular takeover of the health care industry, dozens of crackpot "housing recovery" programs, Cash-for-Clunkers, green jobs scams, the takeovers of GM and Chrysler that abrogated bankruptcy law, and the rise of an Islamist Middle East, to name but a few.

So the billion dollars he and David Axelrod plan on raising for 2012 will be spent -- literally -- tearing down his opponent in every way imaginable. It's the Chicago way.

And Rep. Joe Walsh, a Republican from Obama's home state, has some additional predictions for the campaign.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) says the Obama administration has shown a pattern of accusing its detractors of being racists, and said he’s afraid the president will use such accusations in the 2012 election to stymie criticism.

“We’ve seen this behavior with this president where he’s gently and sometimes not-so-subtly thrown out the race card,” Walsh said.

Speaking on Thursday to the National Rifle Association, Walsh was discussing Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent comment that the “more extreme segment” of his critics were going after him as a way to get at the president, because “we’re both African-American.”

“The minute you say, 'They’re criticizing me because I’m African American,' or whatever, that is voter intimidation... You are trying to stifle honest debate, and my fear is this is going to happen again in the next election. We saw it in ’08; thankfully, the president now has a record — he didn’t have a record in ’08 — so now we can criticize the fact that he destroyed the economy, and hopefully we can do that without being accused of being racist.”

Walsh also reiterated his claim that when Holder played the race card, it was part of an “orchestrated” effort by the administration to silence its critics by branding them racists.

“I can say something like, ‘This president in many ways had no business getting elected; he’s in over his head,’ and when I say something like that, often I’m accused of racism,” Walsh said. “When his attorney general sort of sings along the same tunes, you have to wonder if this is some, you know, orchestrated strategy of theirs, because they know they’ve got a media that will protect them every single day.”

Walsh called the behavior “shameful,” and said the media was complicit with the administration in pushing the storyline.

“This isn’t unusual,” he said. “When the left runs out of arguments and can no longer defend a position, they will often throw out the race card. This administration has done it, this president has done it, and Eric Holder is no different.”

Personally, I feel Rep. Walsh isn't giving the Democrat Party enough credit. It generally strives to maintain the most ethical debate positions, always arguing on principle, and never resorting to underhanded tactics like name-calling and slurring critics as racists.

HAHHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAH!

Just kidding.


Post-attack: Stratfor Research website still down after 24 hours

The website of intelligence firm Stratfor Research remains down more than 24 hours after it was rooted and defaced.

A comment on ZeroHedge by "Osgo" seems to summarize some of the key issues.

I find it astounding how people who just have no f'ing idea about INFOSEC, Anonymous, 4Chan, or Lulzsec... who still think AOL is the Internetz... are suddenly Armchair Warrior Commando Supremo, ready to wreak havoc upon enemies of capitalism... actually thinking that WikiLeaks, etc..is some sort of black-ops, Soros-scheming, FEMA camp-making endeavor ready to enslave their family, firmly ensconced in their gated community where most of the cars are shiny and their kids a little too clean... get some f'ing perspective, people, this is the Internetz equivalent of you driving around in your old '73 Camaro with a few too many Oly's in you as you took out your neighbors mailboxes, laughing with glee, later discovering your erstwhile girlfriend's angora sweater along with the twin treasures within.

Stratfor's site wasn't updated, patched well or maintained in a way commensurate with their public image. Indeed, it was a public secret that anyone could read ALL the articles in Google's cache... what they just went through is typical... Podunk site from a few years ago grows exponentially without proportionate security measures that EXCEEDED growth. While they hired and promulgated new authors, contributors and analysts with a pantload of letters after their names, they 'prolly didn't hire enough IT/web developers/security folks 'cause let's face it...they're usually considered a cost center, not a name that would bring in new subscribers/biz/accolades. I seem to remember they had open positions for interns... not pro's... go figure....

Every org. has growing pains... but the pain point here? The manageable risk that was unfortunately overlooked by "America's Private CIA" endeavor? By promoting and evangelizing themselves as an alternate intelligence organization, they failed to take into account good OPSEC. Here we have hundreds of records soon to be available, dead-drop names, sovereign ID's, aliases and a Who's-Who of people and corps. who just don't wanna be found....easily cross-referenced with other public disclosures... that any counter-intel org. could use to their great advantage. At this point it may even be an issue of maskirovka, but certainly the intrusion in no way approaches a sovereign level of expertise, IMHO...

This has got to be a flat-out awful Christmas for everyone involved with Stratfor. The company's website is a crucial element of its marketing and service delivery arms; yet, as Osgo implies, the organization's I.T. function may have received short shrift.


Report: Virginia GOP May Have Improperly Excluded Signatures From Perry, Gingrich

Tom White has an exclusive that could be an important development in Virginia's ongoing GOP soap opera:

I know that it is highly improbable that I am the only person in the country that has actually read the Code of Virginia on Presidential Primaries, but the requirement that signatures also include an address IS correct for a statewide election, but not for a Presidential Primary, though the number of signatures are identical.

Anyone know an election attorney available on Christmas?

###

Various reports have stated that the signatures turned in by Newt Gingrich included at least 2,000 that were invalidated because there was no address given with the signature.

If this were a Virginia Statewide office, that would be correct. But this is a Presidential Primary. And while the rules are similar, they are actually addressed in two separate sections of the Virginia Code.

There is a requirement in a Statewide General Election that the address be included, but there is no such requirement for a presidential primary. The number of signatures are the same, 10,000 and 400 per Congressional District. But the address requirements are different.

Tom suggests that Gingrich and Perry request that the signatures excluded for lack of address be reinstated and a recount be initiated.

If this report pans out, it could be another huge story attributed not to legacy media, but to what I like to call the new mainstream media.