Monday, January 23, 2012

Dual Disasters Boil Over in Egypt: "Millions of Egyptians will die"

Advocates of Egypt's "Democracy" movement -- Barack Obama included -- failed to note that there were no organized secular, liberal political parties that could offer a counterweight to Islamists in a popular election. The result, therefore, was utterly predictable. Predictable, at least, by anyone with a modicum of sense.

The United States and other Western governments must accept the new reality that Islamists have emerged to fill the power vacuum in the Arab world after a wave of popular uprisings, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report Sunday.

The New York-based group also urged Islamist parties, which have emerged as the biggest winners in recent elections in Tunisia and Egypt and are expected to fare well in Libya, to respect the rights of women and religious minorities, saying they cannot "pick and choose" when it comes to human rights. [Ed: delusional? You make the call.]

...Since the collapse of the regimes in Egypt and Tunisia a year ago, Islamist groups once largely confined to the political sidelines, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, have formed parties and contested parliamentary polls, winning the greatest share of seats.

As background, about half of all Egyptians are "functionally illiterate"; 90% of adult women have undergone ritual, genital mutilation; and nearly a third of Egyptians marry their first or second cousins. And nearly half of Egypt's citizens live on subsistence rations, earning less than $2 a day, much of which must be spent on food.

With that as context, Spengler's "Failed treasury auction portends Egyptian disaster" in Asia Times is unsettling, to say the least.

Investors bought less an a third of the 3.5 billion Egyptian pounds (US$580 million) worth of Treasury bills offered to the market on January 22, a red flag warning that Egypt's foreign exchange position is close to the brink.

Yields on Egyptian government debt maturing in nine months jumped to nearly 16%, but the government could not place its local-currency debt to Egyptian investors, even at that exorbitant rate.

This is a new and ominous decline in the financial position of the most populous Arab country. I have been warning since last May that "Egypt is running out of food, and, more gradually, running out of the money with which to buy it." How fast this may occur is hard to specify, but the government's inability to borrow on money markets suggests that the crunch is not far off.

Why are investors fleeing?

After Islamist parties won more three-quarters of the seats in recent parliamentary elections - 47% for the Muslim Brotherhood and 25% for the even more extreme al-Nour Party - the business elite that prospered under military rule is counting the days before exile...

...Egypt's middle class will leave and tourism, down by a third over the past year, will virtually disappear in response to Salafist restrictions. The Barack Obama administration in Washington will try to appease the new Islamist government whenever it takes power, but will succeed no better than the Jimmy Carter administration did when the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took power in Iran in 1979.

Spengler concludes with an ominous prediction: "Millions of Egyptians will die before this is through."

Should such a disaster come to pass, much of the blame will rightly fall on Barack Obama, who sold out a long-time U.S. ally in pursuit of heaven knows what.


Hat tip: Winterspirit.

The State of the Union? Profoundly Unhappy

My guess is he won't be mentioning the fact that Tuesday represents the 1,000th day that the country has gone without a budget, thanks to Democrats in the Senate. Let's just call that another Obama record. To accompany record levels of unhappiness with the state of the union:

As Obama takes the stage for tomorrow's State of the Union address, in which, among other things, he probably will not announce that the US debt limit is effectively $16.4 trillion, or 107% of GDP and rising, he faces a very unhappy audience: one which according to Gallup has seen its dissatisfaction with economic and political issues hit record levels...


...Among the Gallup observations: "As President Barack Obama prepares his annual address to Congress, Americans are broadly dissatisfied with the state of the nation in several specific issue areas, with satisfaction down sharply in some cases since January 2008. However, three issues -- the nation's economy, the size and power of the federal government, and the moral and ethical climate in the country -- fit both of these unwelcome criteria." And with the only response the administration has in the past three years consisting of either printing more money which sends all assets, especially energy, higher in price, or fiscal stimulus of which 90% and more is lost due to inefficiencies and corruption, we don't see satisfaction rising any time soon.

Let me be clear. While I prefer Rick Santorum, then Newt Gingrich, and then Mitt Romney for President, I would vote for a lint filter over Barack Obama. Because a lint filter would do considerably less damage to this country.


Quite Possibly the Best Cartoon of This Century [Papa B]

Papa B:

Considering a career in crime?

I personally would suggest government: they never go to jail.


Larwyn's Linx: Florida: "All your primary are belong to us"

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

GOP Primaries

Florida: "All your primary are belong to us": Sunshine
SC: Newt’s The Big Winner, Romney And Paul Losers: Cove
Newt Wins South Carolina: Bruce

Newt Notes: Crayfisher
Romney Flunks Critical Competency Test: Riehl
Ron Paul Supporters ‘No-Shows’ at Ron Paul Speech: Shark Tank

Gingrich win shows collapse of GOP establishment: Exam
RuPaul will skip Florida primary to focus on Nevada and Minnesota: FAM
Gingrich steals Romney's cloak of electability as president: Reuters

Nation

Time to Town it Down: Open Letter to the GOP Candidates: Hawkins
Obama’s 3rd-year approval lowest of anyone except Jimmy Carter: FAM
Gabrielle Giffords to resign from Congress: Politico

Newt Is Vindicated, But Nobody Knows It: Bozell (1999)
Romney: Alright, I’ll Release My 2010 Returns on Tuesday: Malkin
Romney's Ugly Politics Now Surfacing In Surrogates: Riehl

A Few Words in Defense of Negative Campaigning: Barone
Christie: Gingrich 'embarrassed' the GOP: Politico
Arrested guy’s the real SEAL: Post

Economy

Why Do Obama Officials Get So Rich?: Lowry
Despite Below Freezing Temps, Thousands Rally for Scott Walker: BG
Dripping with red ink: Will anyone fix Illinois' budget mess?: BND

Sundays with Sherrod: Occupier Solidarity: BG
Classy: “Occupiers” Steal From Church, Urinate on a Cross: JWF
Man of the People Hits NYC for Four Lavish Fundraisers in One Night: JWF

Gunrunner & Energygate

Breaking on Fast and Furious: Arizona Moves to Prosecute Those the Feds Won’t: BG
Boehner, Cantor press secretaries balk at calls for Holder’s resignation: DC
Attorney General Holder Continues To Defend The Rights Of The Dead To Vote: JWF

Climate & Energy

Obama Okays Gulf Oil Storage For Brazil: S&L
Update On The Environmental Scientist Caught On Video Faking Data; Now With A Kennedy Connection: Wizbang
Tom Brady’s Environmentally-Friendly 22,000 Square Foot Mansion Finally Ready: JWF

Media

The Disgrace Of The Fourth Estate - The Obama Media Group: JoshuaPundit
The Cry-Baby In Chief: FPM
Dennis Miller’s Rant on Obama’s Disneyworld Visit: VS

South Carolina Ended the Myth of Romney’s ‘Inevitability’ And Other Lessons: BG
Newt's Victory in South Carolina a Defeat for the Liberal Media: Bozell
Yes, Liberalism IS a Mental Disorder: MenRec

Willard Mitt Romney becoming unhinged, calls Newt Gingrich a failed leader who had to resign in disgrace: FAM
Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window: NoisyRm
Hugh Hewitt Channeling Liberals For Romney: Riehl

World

Pro-Sharia Textbooks Creeping Into Curricula Nationwide: BigPeace
Muslim Pilot -- with terror links and deemed a security risk -- accuses airline of racism after losing his job: Atlas
Cuba: The Truth in Black and White: babalu

Obama Official Confirms U.S. Meeting With Al-Qaeda Allied Haqqani Network: WZ
Obama Campaign Uses Old, Unrelated Footage in Attempt to Convince Voters He Is Pro-Israel: BigPeace
Syria rejects new Arab League plan to end violence: Fox

Amazing Look at Communism and the Secret Rise of Capitalism in Rural China: AllAm
Argentine Paper Apologizes for Hitler Themed Comic Strip Mocking Jews in Concentration Camps: Blaze
Egyptian Islamists Torch Homes and Businesses in Coptic Village: GWP

Sci-Tech

The Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips: Farnam Street
New App Helps Users Find Parking In NYC: NY CBS
Steve Jobs Freaked Out A Month Before First iPhone Was Released And Demanded A New Screen: Insider

Cornucopia

Get out of here! And take your little dog with you.: MOTUS
Winter, Snow, Ice and Oy!: PRS
Ga. judge orders president to appear at hearing: CBS Atlanta

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

QOTD: "...it’s [Judi Kantor's] portrayal of our Commander-In-Chief that is truly shocking. Barack Obama comes off as a man with deep personal issues, manifested in a supreme self-centeredness and tremendous insecurity. He is emotionally fragile, unable to stand criticism, and bewildered by dissent...

...Obama comes across in the book as profoundly power-hungry – he couldn’t get anything done as a State Senator, so he moved on to the Senate; he couldn’t get anything done in the Senate, so he moved on to the presidency.

He’s frustrated with the presidency, too. “When Obama reflected privately on the presidency that fall, he often spoke about the limitations of the office,” Kantor reports about Obama’s first autumn in the White House. He was suffering from a “dawning sense of political powerlessness.” This is the highest form of egotism known to man. The president of the United States is the most powerful individual on earth. He does not get to complain about his lack of power. No wonder Obama has publicly mused about the beauties of the Chinese system – the only step up from the presidency is monarchy or dictatorship." --Ben Shapiro

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Egotistical, bombastic embarrassment claims Newt Gingrich is... an embarrassment

For a guy who has never done anything at the national level; who has a personal cameraman following him around to capture those special "YouTube moments" where he confronts public sector union members; and who has taken troubling positions on gun control, illegal immigration, judges, global warming, and Obamacare (to name but a few), it takes real hubris to pillory Newt Gingrich.

I speak, of course, of Chris "Krispy Kreme" Christie, one of the darlings of the RINO establishment, who is doing his level best to sandbag conservatives.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday dubbed Mitt Romney’s showing in South Carolina “clearly disappointing,” but quickly turned his focus to Newt Gingrich, saying he has been “an embarrassment to the party.”

Christie, a key Romney surrogate in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, blasted Gingrich on NBC's "Meet the Press" for his ethics violation fine and losing the speakership in the House, saying that “sometimes past is prologue... Newt Gingrich has embarrassed the party over time. Whether he'll do it again in the future I don't know, but Gov. Romney never has,” Christie said on NBC's “Meet the Press.”

"I mean he was run out of the speakership by his own party, he was fined $300,000 for ethics violations. This is a guy that has had a very difficult political career at times, and has been an embarrassment to the party," Christie added.

...While Christie has pointed to Romney’s difficulties in connecting with people before, he said Sunday it’s due to Romney being a “reserved guy.” He then turned to what he deemed Gingrich’s liabilities... “Strategic adviser? That is the oldest Washington dodge in the book. That's because he didn't want to register as a lobbyist,” Christie said.

...Christie also addressed the vice presidency question once again, saying, “If I'm approached I will listen, but my inclination, I want to make it very clear, is that I want to stay governor of New Jersey."

News flash, Krispy: you ain't gonna be the VP. And, by the way, Newt Gingrich has accomplished 20 times more for the conservative movement and the Republican Party than you have.

The results of Gingrich's ethics probe are publicly available; they involve a course that Gingrich taught at Kennesaw State College while serving in Congress. The trouble revolved around the fact that the course was backed by a tax-exempt group. Gingrich taught Constitutional, conservative values, which the IRS found were “consistent with its stated exempt purposes.”

The whole thing was a political setup. And doesn't Newt's "ethics violations" seem quaint given the likes of Maxine Waters, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein, and the rest of the modern miscreants of Congress who have mysteriously made millions in office?

So, Krispy, I'd advise you to keep your pie-hole shut. You're the embarrassment -- and we're not going to let you try to tear down conservatives in pursuit of a VP slot that you'll never get.


Debunking the Beltway Hacks' Latest Spin: Gingrich Will Harm Down-Ticket Republicans

The latest folderol emanating from the utterly embarrassed Beltway elites -- many of whom were surreptitiously on the Romney payroll -- is that Newt Gingrich's poor "likability" scores will harm down-ticket Republicans.

If history is any indicator, this is about as accurate as their mantra-like predictions, repeated ad infinitum, that Mitt Romney would run away with the nomination because of his "electability".

Rasmussen Reports explains what Obama's failed presidency really means to down-ticket Democrats:

Going into the final weekend of [Jimmy Carter's 1980] campaign..., Gallup had Carter’s Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, up three points. Harris had him up five points, while Newsweek and The Washington Post had Carter up one.

But at the end, the bottom fell out for Carter. “I’ve never seen anything like it in polling,” said Pat Caddell, Carter’s pollster. What was a close race turned into a big Reagan lead in the last hours of the campaign; he ended up winning 489 electoral votes and a 51%-41% victory over Carter. Likely aiding Reagan at the end was the one and only debate between the two, held just a week before the election, when Reagan memorably asked voters “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” ...With Carter captaining the Democratic ship, election night in 1980 was Titanic-esque. Democrats lost 12 Senate seats and 33 House seats.

...Given the divided control of the government, some commentators we respect have noted the possibility of a total switcheroo in Washington next year: President Obama loses the presidency, the Republicans take the Senate and the Democrats re-take the House.

That, of course, is possible. But it would be a first in the modern history of the republic: Since 1860, an incumbent president has never lost the White House in the same election that his party won control of either house of Congress from the other party. Similarly, the House and the Senate flipping in opposite directions has never happened in the same election in the same timeframe. In other words, regardless of what happens in the presidential race, a scenario in which Democrats captured the House next year and Republicans captured the Senate would be, in a word, historic.

So history tells us that Democrats need Obama to roar back and win a second term in order to flip the House. And even that might not be enough.

So when Karl Rove, who has yet to reveal any financial interests he may have vested in one or more of the GOP candidates, next opines about Newt's "likability", you can take his "analysis" with a giant grain of salt.

Say, a 31 percentage point-sized grain of salt.


Larwyn's Linx: Lessons From South Carolina

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

South Carolina

Lessons From South Carolina: Wolf Howling
Why Newt?: Domenech
Gingrich Looking Churchillian In Political Comeback: IBD

Hill: Romney Exposed As Very Weak Candidate That He Is: Riehl
Romney's Recipe for Disaster: Erickson
Money for Santorum: Erickson

After SC: What the Beltway Crowd Misses: Hawkins
Why Gingrich won -- Why Romney lost: York
Sarah Palin: Santorum should stay in the race: Scoop

Nation

S.C.: 900 dead voted in recent election: GWP
Fomer Obama staffer arrested in IA identity theft investigation.: RS
Identity Theft, Then and Now: Driscoll

Chris Dodd intimidating lawmakers on SOPA, PIPA: Patterico
Secretary of State Project: MoneyRunner
Republicans In Denial: Flopping Aces

Occupy protesters use Bibles as weapons — literally: Zombie
Occupy SF Turns Violent, 2 Police Officers Injured: VS
Obama’s continued assault on the First Amendment: ProWis

Economy

Chalk up 4,300 more layoffs to Dodd-Frank: OpenMarket
Good News: ObamaWorld Is Now Open For Business!: Pirate's Cove
Warren Buffet and Mitt Romney: Ricochet

Barack Obama Led #OccupyChicago – Circa 1988: Pollak
Forbes: Best Buy will be out of business soon: HillBuzz
In traditional Democratic Stronghold Harlem, Barrage of Protesters Greets Obama: PatUpdate

Gunrunner & Energygate

Not so fast: The simmering controversy over Operation Fast and Furious: Economist
Chevy Volt Fires: Feds Stop Investigating Volts, Announce $1,500 Incentive For California Volt Buyers: SHN
Fast and Furious: Arizona official to plead Fifth: Tucson

Climate & Energy

Environmentalism and the Leisure Class: AmSpec
Obama plays energy politics while China and Cuba drill wells: Exam
Here We Go Again: Globull Warming To Create More Snow: Teach

Media

#ChangeIs…Incredibly Easy to Mock. Come On, Everybody – Join in the Fun on Twitter: Marfdrat
Ingraham Challenges Romney on Message: NRO
Bubba Takes The Cake: At last, the Clinton Legacy: Publius

When ‘Unaccountably’ = ABC’s SOP: Driscoll
Newt Gingrich's Ethics Charges and Mitt Romney's Anniversary Cake: MagNote
Washington Post Ombudsman Tells Paper To Start Actually Scrutinizing Obama’s Record: Dollard

13 Photos Of Barack Obama At Disney That Will Probably Turn Up In Attack Ads: Buzzfeed
Some interesting details ABC left out about Newt’s 2nd marriage: Polipundit
Gingrich's College Records Show a Professor Hatching Big Plans: WSJ

Palin Factor Starts To Emerge in GOP Race: Sun
SC Primary Tweets of Night: LI
A Review Of Mark Levin’s Ameritopia From A Regular American: Kuznicki

World

The Sinking of the West : Steyn
More Racist Ethnic Cleansing By Illegal Alien Gangbangers: Federale
Greek Debt Talks Appear to Stall Amid Clash on Rate for New Bonds: WSJ

Death Comes to Nigeria (Again): GoV
Update on the Norwegian Niqab School Tour: GoV
Afghan Pedophilia: A way of life, say U.S. soldiers and journalists: Exam

Sci-Tech

Anonymous splinter group now targeting Democrats for SOPA support: DC
Inside the Lavish Life Of Web's Mr. Dotcom: WSJ
The Backbone of the Flavor Network: Nature

Cornucopia

The Finnish Fire Stove: C&S
Skull shirts out, sparkly pink swimsuits in …: ProWis
16-Year Old Laura Dekker Completes Solo Sail Around the World: AmSpec

Image: Karenza Paperie
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Rick Santorum for President

QOTD: "Newt Gingrich’s rise has a lot to do with Newt Gingrich’s debate performance. But it has just as much to do with a party base in revolt against its thought and party leaders in Washington, DC. The base is revolting because they swept the GOP back into relevance in Washington just under two years ago and they have been thanked with contempt ever since...

...Newt has taken the worst the media, Romney and the left can dish out, and he’s still standing and fighting with passion and eloquence. Sure, he’d probably be an erratic President, but right now Republican voters don’t care about his Presidency. They care about the fight with the left both Mitt Romney, and the Washington Republican leaders like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell don’t seem inclined to engage in." --Erick Erickson

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Romney loses South Carolina by 31 points, Karl Rove hardest hit

Yes, Mitt Romney lost by 31 points.
       40% Gingrich
27% Romney
18% Santorum
The anti-establishment candidates -- Gingrich and Santorum -- literally crushed Mitt Romney 58 percent to 27 percent, a margin of 31 points.

Erick Erickson describes these results as evidence that the GOP conservative base far outnumbers establishment RINOs -- and that the conservatives are pissed.

Newt Gingrich’s rise has a lot to do with Newt Gingrich’s debate performance. But it has just as much to do with a party base in revolt against its thought and party leaders in Washington, DC. The base is revolting because they swept the GOP back into relevance in Washington just under two years ago and they have been thanked with contempt ever since...

...Newt has taken the worst the media, Romney and the left can dish out, and he’s still standing and fighting with passion and eloquence. Sure, he’d probably be an erratic President, but right now Republican voters don’t care about his Presidency. They care about the fight with the left both Mitt Romney, and the Washington Republican leaders like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell don’t seem inclined to engage in.

I support Rick Santorum over Newt and Mitt. I support Newt over Mitt. And I support anyone over Barack Obama.

But Doug, you might ask, what about Ron Paul? What about him? Ron Paul is a kook, an anachronism, a Kucinich Libertarian wearing GOP clothes, whose views on foreign policy are so outside the mainstream that they can and must be dismissed.

Congratulations to Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Oh, and here's a private word for Karl Rove: pfffffffffffffffffffffffffttttt.


Photo of Mitt Romney Tomorrow Morning [Wanda]

Wanda:

"But...... But....... But. I'M Electable. No...... I AM. REALLY!!!


Exclusive Photo: Prepping Your Garage For a Chevy Volt

If asbestos is still legal, I recommend plenty of it.

Electric cars might save you money at the pump, but they sure don’t save you time filling up. A typical electric car... takes upwards of 20 hours to recharge a fully drained battery when using an standard 120-volt outlet. While this might not be a problem for those looking to buy a second car for occasional outings, it certainly won’t cut it if an electric car is meant to be your primary vehicle.

In order to achieve a quicker charge, you’ll need to hire an electrician to install a 240-volt, 40-amp line that connects directly to the circuit breaker, a hookup similar to the one you might have for an electric oven or clothes dryer. With the increase in voltage, you can cut your charging time down to seven hours for a Nissan LEAF and four hours for the Chevy Volt, which means an overnight charge makes it a more practical purchase for daily use.

Super-fast charging stations capable of pumping out 480 volts are already on the market, and can recharge a car in 30 minutes or less. But these souped-up charging stations are currently for commercial use only because most homes can’t handle the kind of voltage and amperage required, at least not without some major rewiring of the power grid.

In related news, the federal government has decided to close its investigation of Volt fires.

The U.S. government on Friday closed its investigation of Chevy Volt battery fires, concluding that there is no apparent defect trend and that electric vehicles generally do not pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles.

Of course not. All of those modifications GM had to make were just for show.

There's nothing to be concerned about. Just go about your business.


Great news: Children with DNA from three parents only a few years away

For a society with fewer moral boundaries by the day, this report seems apropos:

Researchers from Newcastle University have been funded more than $9.3 million by the Wellcome Trust to begin experimenting with a method that could lead to children having DNA from three people to eliminate some genetic disorders.

According to The Telegraph, the technique involves removing the nucleus from a donor cell and inserting a fertilized nucleus from the hopeful couple or the unfertilized nucleus of the mother for fertilization later. This effort, researchers believe, could help couples where the mother has known genetic disorders carried on her mitochondrial DNA — DNA found in the mitochondria of a cell.

Mitochondrial DNA, which composes 0.2 percent of a human‘s DNA and doesn’t influence traits like physical appearance, is passed down from mother to offspring. But, there are several genetic disorders, such as muscular dystrophy and ataxia, which are associated with this type DNA.

...Sir Mark Walport, head of the Wellcome Trust, said the genetic impact of inheriting a third person’s mitochondrial DNA would be as minimal as changing the batteries in a camera...

...But, the research is not without its opposition. The Telegraph reports the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children as calling it “macabre and unethical” and cited fears of other “developmental abnormalities”.

While I'm all in favor of the unfettered pursuit of science, the idea of tampering with the creation of human beings seems not only amoral, but potentially dangerous. The phrase "unintended consequences" was invented for situations like this one.


Hat tip: BadBlue.

Which GOP candidate has the courage to begin stripping away the Democrat welfare state that is bankrupting this country?

When the media questions a GOP candidate -- from Eric Cantor to Paul Ryan -- their perspective is always the same. Why are Republicans unwilling to compromise with their altruisitic Democrat partners? Why won't they work with President Obama?

The framing of these questions is, of course, patently bogus. When Democrats had control of Congress from 2006 to 2010, and after Obama's election in 2008, where were the great compromises that the media loves to harp about?

• Did they compromise on Obamacare? Or did they ram it through on midnight of Christmas Eve with bribes, backroom deals, and thousands of hidden pages of legislation?

• Did they compromise on Global Warming? Or did the president command the EPA to issue CO2 regulations when even a Democrat-controlled Congress couldn't pass cap-and-trade legislation?

• Did they compromise on the Stimulus package, ramming through trillions in deficit spending that has utterly failed to rescue anything except for the public sector unions' campaign coffers?

• Did they compromise on their outrageous financial reform legislation ("Dodd-Frank") that is spreading misery and layoffs throughout the country?

Actually, I don't recall a single Democrat compromise on any of these outrageous measures. Not a one.

So when we choose a candidate, are we going to have another RINO mush who will "go along to get along"? Who will permit the Democrats' social welfare state to continue expanding, albeit at a slightly slower pace? Who will not try to move the rudder on this country before it sails over the fiscal abyss?

Or will we have a man with courage? Who will shoot straight with the American people? Who would issue a true declaration of political war with the Marxist Utopians that have overthrown the real Democrat Party?

A man who would give a speech like this, paraphrasing Truman?

Two years ago an American juggernaut dropped a bomb on Democrats in Congress and destroyed their usefulness to the Marxist Left. That bomb had the power to swing 63 House seats and 680 state legislative seats and left in its wake what the National Journal called "devastation".

The Democrats began this war in 2007 when they promised to run the "most ethical Congress ever" with "no new deficit spending." Instead they permitted and encouraged rampant criminality and an all-time record of nearly $6 trillion in new deficit spending.

But the end of their reign of fiscal terror is near. The electorate dropped the political equivalent of an atomic bomb on the Democrats again last month. The force which gave birth to this country -- an insatiable desire for freedom -- has been loosed against those who brought fiscal ruin to the nation.

The greatest marvel is not the size of the Democrats' defeat, nor its cost, but the achievement of the people -- a true, grass-roots effort to repudiate Marxism, Statism, Utopianism, whatever their un-American strategies are called -- into a workable plan. People of all races, religions, economic backgrounds and interests worked to advance freedom. It is doubtful if another such combination could have been assembled anywhere in the world. What has been done is among the greatest achievements of a people fighting incipient tyranny in history. It was done under pressure and without failure.

We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every destructive endeavor the Democrat Statists have created. We shall destroy their agencies, their bureaucracies, their unconstitutional czars, their ideologues who have burrowed into regulatory bodies unknown to most Americans. Let there be no mistake: we shall completely destroy the Democrats' political power-base: the bloated federal bureaucracy that has grown, unchecked, for one reason and one reason alone, which is to fund Democrat campaigns.

It was to spare the Democrats from utter destruction that I issue this ultimatum.

If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of political ruin, the likes of which has never been seen on this earth. Behind this 2012 offensive will follow subsequent forces in such number that and power as they have not yet seen and with the political skills of which they are already well aware.

The power of the people will continue to grow as more citizens educate themselves regarding the unholy alliance of Democrats and the fourth branch of government -- the public sector unions. Both align themselves against the citizen, against the taxpayer, and threaten the destruction of our country, our currency and our way of life.

We pledge to politically eradicate the Marxist left that inhabits the body of the Democrat Party like some sort of horror film zombie.

And in 2014, 2016, 2018 and in every subsequent election, we will return this great Republic to the Constitutional basis that our Framers intended. Our contract with America is this: it is the Constitution.

No political quarter asked, and none given.

This is a war for the country's future. We can have a failed Marxist welfare state of the sort melting down in Europe. Or we can begin to right the ship by returning to the principles of Constitutional government, the wisdom of which becomes more and more obvious by the day.

I believe Rick Santorum is the only candidate who would issue this kind of ultimatum to the Democrat-media complex. Time grows short to save this republic. I urge you to offer him your support.


Good News for News Junkies

I'm a news junkie.

Checking my favorite blogs and periodicals is manually intensive and, frequently, a lost cause... because I end up in the web equivalent of Boston's Combat Zone after getting distracted ("Look, a squirrel!). RSS readers don't work for me: they produce too much clutter, none of it organized in a way that will tell me what's most important.

Which is where BadBlue.com was designed to help.

BadBlue is accessible via two domain names -- http://badblue.com or http://larwyn.com. There are many recent enhancements that should make it much easier to find the hottest news stories of the hour.

A new algorithm levels the playing field for news sources of all sizes - a story at a tiny blog, for instance, that gets re-tweeted 10 times, could be equivalent to 60 re-tweets of a story at a major newspaper. You'll notice that the current front page has links from blogs of all sizes.

New Drudge-style layout - rather than a single column of stories, there is a cleaner-looking, Drudge-style layout that should make it easier to read.

Pictures! - the new layout thumbnails images from stories to make it easier to figure out what a story is about.

Fresher news - links are refreshed more frequently, with the name of the site and its popularity index ("buzz") listed next to each headline.

Twitter and RSS support - unlike the prior version, you can follow BadBlue on Twitter (@BadBlueNews) or RSS.

Comment support - each story now has a permalink page (that's the small symbol) that includes a comments section (with easy social network sign-on supported), so it's simple to make fun of vicious left-wing hacks without actually having to visit one of their sites.

Filter stories by site - click on the name of the news source and you'll get a list of that website's most popular stories.

In short, Biff Spackle is standing by in the comments section, waiting to hear your feedback: positive, negative or just, eh, it's okay. If you like it, remember to bookmark the website -- it should provide some of the freshest news stories you'll find anywhere.

So please check it out and let Biff know what you think. Don't hold back -- he's used to harsh criticism from management here at this august journal, where he remains Cub Reporter Level III after more than four years of erratic work history.


Larwyn's Linx: The Che Guevara Democrat Party

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

Nation

The Che Guevara Democrat Party: AmSpec
SC Attorney General Investigating Gingrich Smear: Fits
Draft Allen West for U.S. Senate: Shark-Tank

DOJ coordinates suits with ACORN's Project Vote: Exam
Holder Connected To Illegal Foreclosures of Service Members: JWF
Gingrich as Nominee Just to Watch Him Debate Obama?: Powers

Santorum soars, Romney falters in SC debate: Exam
Why I'm Backing Newt Gingrich: Riehl
Ron Paul's spokesman emphatically rules out third-party run: DC

Economy

Democrats: Only Thing Standing Between Unions and Irrelevance: BG
Ryan confirms House GOP will present 2013 budget: Hill
TSA officer charged with stealing from luggage: Fox

Gunrunner & Energygate

Pleading the Fifth: Gunwalker Witness Refuses to Testify: Owens
Solyndra Caught Destroying Millions of Dollars in Assets: Townhall
Fast and Furious Stinks: Nugent

Climate & Energy

Students rebel against Gorepaganda: Surber
Strait of Hormuz: U.S. Should Be Ready for the Next Oil Crisis: Foundry
As Obama delays controversial Keystone oil pipeline, vast network of pipelines already in place: Fox

Media

Gingrich's Bitter Ex Gets More Coverage Than a Video of Obama Dining with Terror-Supporters: Regan
Obama-linked Center for American Progress Accused of Anti-Semitism: Blaze
Jennifer Rubin On South Carolina: Then An: Riehl

Obama: the media is hurting my rep: ProWis
Rush Limbaugh: Time to ‘focus on’ personal lives of journalists: DC
NYT’s Laughable ‘Fact Check’ Of GOP Debate: S&L

Newt Leaves Media Sputtering: Surber
Odd: the Media Didn’t Care About Infidelity in 1992 and 2008: JWF
Does Michelle Obama secretly hope her husband will be kicked out of the White House?: DailyMail

Mark Levin's Liberty Vs. Thomas Friedman's Tyranny: NB
Huckabee on O’Reilly: Obama Needs to Prove He Didn’t Get “Foreign Student Loans” in College: GWP
What We Really Learned from ABC News and Marianne Gingrich: PJM

World

The Pope Speaks To Obama's War On Christianity: Wolf Howling
One Mexican State Bordering The US Was Deadlier Than All of Afghanistan Last Year: CNS
Substantial legal challenge to Secure Communities coming, says "immigrants rights" group: GSN

Sci-Tech

Nike’s High-Tech Wristband Fuels Your Workout: Wired
Anonymous tricked people into joining Web site attacks: CNet
What are the odds of Zynga getting into online gambling?: LAT

Cornucopia

From “We Can’t Wait” to WTF: who needs Jobs anyway?: MOTUS
And If You Re-Elect Me, You’ll All Get a Castle…: Marfdrat
Exposed: The real Keystone strategy: LaughingCon

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

QOTD: "Anyone who made the decision last night, as I did, to watch Nightline’s appallingly tawdry interview with the second Mrs. Newt Gingrich learned nothing new about the target, whose marital infidelities are well known, but did, however, witness two of the most dangerous pathologies of the mainstream media (MSM) on vivid display.

ABC and its MSM colleagues claim to purvey news and opinion that are both serious and impartial. This interview was neither, indeed was the opposite of serious and impartial.

Last night’s performance couldn’t have provided a more vivid illustration of the double standards applied to the coverage of Republicans and Democrats. It was a classic case of an abject lack of the fairness and objectivity they claim to epitomize — even as they attack Fox News as unfair and unbalanced." --Belladonna Rogers

Friday, January 20, 2012

Success story #4,035 for Obama open border policies: beheadings in U.S. "look like work of drug cartels"

But remember, folks: the border "is as safe as it's ever been" (in the words of DHS Chief Janet Napolitano). Except for those pesky beheadings here in the U.S.:

Who: Carina Saunders, 19, born in Oklahoma City and grew up in Mustang, Oklahoma.

What: Torture, beheading and dismemberment.

When: Went missing (per friends) Wednesday, 28 September 2011; Killed, late Sunday, 9 October 2011/early Monday, 10 October 2011; Body found Thursday, 13 October 2011; Identified via tattoos and dental records, Monday, 17 October 2011.

Where: Found in a duffle bag behind a Homeland grocery store at 7101 NW. 23rd and Rockwell in Bethany, Oklahoma.

Why: Used as an example to terrify a group of women who were victims of a human trafficking (prostitution) ring and an associated drug trafficking ring. Note— some of the individuals involved were members of both rings.

Tactical Analysis: A 20 year old woman (name withheld by the police to protect her identity) was kidnapped, blindfolded and transported to an unknown location (some type of room) by Jimmy Lee Massey, age 33, late Sunday 9 October/early Monday 10 October 2011. She was then forced to watch the torture killing of Carina Saunders by a small group of individuals.

Three beheadings in two different states and they happened here in the United States, not Mexico. Former DEA supervisor Phil Jordan says all three beheadings have cartel written all over them. They happened in Arizona and Oklahoma in the past year.

A murder mystery is now unraveling on a stretch of North Reservation Road in Tucson, Ariz. County workers found a headless man lying on the side of the road Jan. 6. The man's hands and feet were reportedly missing, too.

"It would lead me to believe the message wanted to be sent. This is one of the ways they do it in Mexico, Colombia and other places," says Jordan... Jordan says the cartels are getting bolder in carrying out their beheadings across the border. He says we only used to see these crimes in Mexico.

...More than 600 miles from the border, a 19-year-old human trafficking victim was found beheaded in Oklahoma. Carina Saunders was stuffed into a bag and left in a grocery store parking lot.

...Investigators in Chandler, Ariz., say cartel operatives came from Mexico to kill 38-year-old Martin Alejandro Cota Monroy. His beheaded body was found in his apartment.

"One is too many; two is too many. Three should send an alarm," says Jordan.

You know what I would do if I were Attorney General Eric Holder?

That's right -- I'd sue states for enforcing federal immigration law. No matter how many murders, kidnappings, rapes, drug- and human smuggling operations, and related violence that American citizens must suffer.

Because Democrats need the votes, man. They need the votes!


Hat tip: Borderland Beat (caution: graphic material).

Illinois suffers yet another downgrade thanks to mysterious unicorn deaths and Democrat stupidity, but mostly Democrat stupidity

You say that raising taxes makes fiscal problems worse? Gee, that's only happened -- oh -- about 57,000 consecutive times in American history, but we wouldn't expect Democrats to learn anything from facts, logic and reason, would we?

I don’t blame Democrats for wanting to seduce Republicans into a tax-increase trap. Indeed, I completely understand why some Democrats said their top political goal was getting the GOP to surrender the no-tax-hike position.

I’m mystified, though, why some Republicans are willing to walk into such a trap. If you were playing chess against someone, and that person kept pleading with you to make a certain move, wouldn’t you be a tad bit suspicious that your opponent really wasn’t trying to help you win?

...European nations, for instance, have been raising taxes for decades, almost always saying the higher taxes were necessary to balance budgets and control red ink. Yet that obviously hasn’t worked. Europe’s now in the middle of a fiscal crisis... So why do some people think we should mimic the French and the Greeks?

But we don’t need to look overseas for examples. Look at what’s happened in Illinois, where politicians recently imposed a giant tax hike:

Run up spending and debt, raise taxes in the naming of balancing the budget, but then watch as deficits rise and your credit-rating falls anyway. That’s been the sad pattern in Europe, and now it’s hitting that mecca of tax-and-spend government known as Illinois.

…Moody’s downgraded Illinois state debt to A2 from A1, the lowest among the 50 states. That’s worse even than California.

…This wasn’t supposed to happen. Only a year ago, Governor Pat Quinn and his fellow Democrats raised individual income taxes by 67% and the corporate tax rate by 46%. They did it to raise $7 billion in revenue, as the Governor put it, to “get Illinois back on fiscal sound footing” and improve the state’s credit rating. So much for that.

…And—no surprise—in part because the tax increases have caused companies to leave Illinois, the state budget office confesses that as of this month the state still has $6.8 billion in unpaid bills and unaddressed obligations.

In other words, higher taxes led to fiscal deterioration in Illinois, just as tax increases in Europe have been followed by bad outcomes.

Whenever any politician argues in favor of a higher tax burden, just keep these two points in mind:

1. Higher taxes encourage more government spending.

2. Higher taxes don’t raise as much money as politicians claim.


And higher taxes simply indicate tacit acceptance of government irresponsibility.

Which is why the dial must be turned back on all levels of income. Preferably that's accomplished through the Fair Tax or a flat tax.

Pity the poor taxpayers of Illinois. They have been enslaved by the unholy alliance of Democrats and union bosses. And it's probably too late to save them, unless the citizens are willing to organize and rise up to salvage their freedom.

Thank goodness we don't have Democrat hacks from Illinois running the whole damn country.


Update: Tax Hike Doesn't Prevent Moody's From Downgrading Connecticut

Mark Levin's Ameritopia -- the Complete Epilogue in Plain Text Format

Ameritopia, Mark Levin's latest bestseller, had sold 50,000 copies in two days time as of last night. The book's epilogue -- a brief synopsis of its key themes -- is available in PDF format (hat tip: Dan Riehl). I converted it into text format (actually HTML) because I detest the delays and clunkiness associated with PDFs.

My premise, in the first sentence of the first chapter of this book, is this: “Tyranny, broadly defined, is the use of power to dehumanize the individual and delegitimize his nature. Political utopianism is tyranny disguised as a desirable, workable, and even paradisiacal governing ideology.”

Plato’s Republic, More’s Utopia, Hobbes’s Leviathan, and Marx’s workers’ paradise are utopias that are anti-individual and anti-individualism. For the utopians, modern and olden, the individual is one-dimensional—selfish. On his own, he has little moral value. Contrarily, authoritarianism is defended as altruistic and masterminds as socially conscious. Thus endless interventions in the individual’s life and manipulation of his conditions are justified as not only necessary and desirable but noble governmental pursuits. This false dialectic is at the heart of the problem we face today.

In truth, man is naturally independent and self-reliant, which are attributes that contribute to his own well-being and survival, and the well-being and survival of a civil society. He is also a social being who is charitable and compassionate. History abounds with examples, as do the daily lives of individuals. To condemn individualism as the utopians do is to condemn the very foundation of the civil society and the American founding and endorse, wittingly or unwittingly, oppression. Karl Popper saw it as an attack on Western civilization. “The emancipation of the individual was indeed the great spiritual revolution which had led to the breakdown of tribalism and to the rise of democracy.” Moreover, Judaism and Christianity, among other religions, teach the altruism of the individual.

Of course, this is not to defend anarchy. Quite the opposite. It is to endorse the magnificence of the American founding. The American founding was an exceptional exercise in collective human virtue and wisdom—a culmination of thousands of years of experience, knowledge, reason, and faith. The Declaration of Independence is a remarkable societal proclamation of human rights, brilliant in its insight, clarity, and conciseness. The Constitution of the United States is an extraordinary matrix of governmental limits, checks, balances, and divisions, intended to secure for posterity the individual’s sovereignty as proclaimed in the Declaration.

This is the grand heritage to which every American citizen is born. It has been characterized as “the American Dream,” “the American experiment,” and “American exceptionalism.” The country has been called “the Land of Opportunity,” “the Land of Milk and Honey,” and “a Shining City on a Hill.” It seems unimaginable that a people so endowed by Providence, and the beneficiaries of such unparalleled human excellence, would choose or tolerate a course that ensures their own decline and enslavement, for a government unleashed on the civil society is a government that destroys the nature of man.

On September 17, 1787, at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Delegate James Wilson, on behalf of his ailing colleague from Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin, read aloud Franklin’s speech to the convention in favor of adopting the Constitution. Among other things, Franklin said that the Constitution “is likely to be well administered for a Course of Years, and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become corrupt as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other. . . .”

Have we “become corrupt”? Are we in need of “despotic government”? It appears that some modern-day “leading lights” think so, as they press their fanatical utopianism. For example, Richard Stengel, managing editor of Time magazine, considers the Constitution a utopian expedient. He wrote, “If the Constitution was intended to limit the federal government, it sure doesn’t say so. . . . The framers weren’t afraid of a little messiness. Which is another reason we shouldn’t be so delicate about changing the Constitution or reinterpreting it.” It is beyond dispute that the Framers sought to limit the scope of federal power and that the Constitution does so. Moreover, constitutional change was not left to the masterminds but deliberately made difficult to ensure the broad participation and consent of the body politic.

Richard Cohen, a columnist for the Washington Post, explained that the Constitution is an amazing document, as long as it is mostly ignored, particularly the limits it imposes on the federal government. He wrote, “This fatuous infatuation with the Constitution, particularly the 10th Amendment, is clearly the work of witches, wiccans, and wackos. It has nothing to do with America’s real problems and, if taken too seriously, would cause an economic and political calamity. The Constitution is a wonderful document, quite miraculous actually, but only because it has been wisely adapted to changing times. To adhere to the very word of its every clause hardly is respectful to the Founding Fathers. They were revolutionaries who embraced change. That’s how we got here.” Of course, without the promise of the Tenth Amendment, the Constitution would not have been ratified, since the states insisted on retaining most of their sovereignty. Furthermore, the Framers clearly did not embrace the utopian change demanded by its modern adherents.

Lest we ignore history, the no-less-eminent American revolutionary and founder Thomas Jefferson explained, “On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”

Thomas L. Friedman, a columnist for the New York Times and three-time Pulitzer Prize recipient, is even more forthright in his dismissal of constitutional republicanism and advocacy for utopian tyranny. Complaining of the slowness of American society in adopting sweeping utopian policies, he wrote, “There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today. One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.”

Of course, China remains a police state, where civil liberties are nonexistent, despite its experiment with government-managed pseudo-capitalism. Friedman’s declaration underscores not only the necessary intolerance utopians have for constitutionalism, but their infatuation with totalitarianism.

It is neither prudential nor virtuous to downplay or dismiss the obvious—that America has already transformed into Ameritopia. The centralization and consolidation of power in a political class that insulates its agenda in entrenched experts and administrators, whose authority is also self-perpetuating, is apparent all around us and growing more formidable. The issue is whether the ongoing transformation can be restrained and then reversed, or whether it will continue with increasing zeal, passing from a soft tyranny to something more oppressive. Hayek observed that “priding itself on having built its world as if it had designed it, and blaming itself for not having designed it better, humankind is now to set out to do just that. The aim . . . is no less than to effect a complete redesigning of our traditional morals, law, and language, and on this basis to stamp out the older order and supposedly inexorable, unjustifiable conditions that prevent the institution of reason, fulfillment, true freedom, and justice.” But the outcome of this adventurism, if not effectively stunted, is not in doubt.

In the end, can mankind stave off the powerful and dark forces of utopian tyranny? While John Locke was surely right about man’s nature and the civil society, he was also right about that which threatens them. Locke, Montesquieu, many of the philosophers of the European Enlightenment, and the Founders, among others, knew that the history of organized government is mostly a history of a relative few and perfidious men co-opting, coercing, and eventually repressing the many through the centralization and consolidation of authority.

Ironically and tragically, it seems that liberty and the constitution established to preserve it are not only essential to the individual’s well-being and happiness, but also an opportunity for the devious to exploit them and connive against them. Man has yet to devise a lasting institutional answer to this puzzle. The best that can be said is that all that really stands between the individual and tyranny is a resolute and sober people. It is the people, after all, around whom the civil society has grown and governmental institutions have been established. At last, the people are responsible for upholding the civil society and republican government, to which their fate is moored.

The essential question is whether, in America, the people’s psychology has been so successfully warped, the individual’s spirit so thoroughly trounced, and the civil society’s institutions so effectively overwhelmed that revival is possible. Have too many among us already surrendered or been conquered? Can the people overcome the constant and relentless influences of ideological indoctrination, economic manipulation, and administrative coerciveness, or have they become hopelessly entangled in and dependent on a ubiquitous federal government? Have the Pavlovian appeals to radical egalitarianism, and the fomenting of jealousy and faction through class warfare and collectivism, conditioned the people to accept or even demand compulsory uniformity as just and righteous? Is it accepted as legitimate and routine that the government has sufficient license to act whenever it claims to do so for the good of the people and against the selfishness of the individual?

No society is guaranteed perpetual existence. But I have to believe that the American people are not ready for servitude, for if this is our destiny, and the destiny of our children, I cannot conceive that any people, now or in the future, will successfully resist it for long. I have to believe that this generation of Americans will not condemn future generations to centuries of misery and darkness.

The Tea Party movement is a hopeful sign. Its members come from all walks of life and every corner of the country. These citizens have the spirit and enthusiasm of the Founding Fathers, proclaim the principles of individual liberty and rights in the Declaration, and insist on the federal government’s compliance with the Constitution’s limits. This explains the utopian fury against them. They are astutely aware of the peril of the moment. But there are also the Pollyannas and blissfully indifferent citizens who must be roused and enlisted lest the civil society continue to unravel and eventually dissolve, and the despotism long feared take firm hold.

Upon taking the oath of office on January 20, 1981, in his first inaugural address President Ronald Reagan told the American people:

If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price. It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. It is time for us to realize that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We’re not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.

So, my fellow countrymen, which do we choose—Ameritopia or America?

Buy a copy and pass it on. Drop some knowledge on your family, friends and colleagues. These are perilous times. And November is coming.


Obama-supported Occupy Movement's Official Advertising Material Threatens Violence, Rioting, and Destruction of Private Property

Marathon Pundit alerts us to the Occupy movement's universal symbols of tolerance: an anarchist wielding a pipe-wrench and a crowbar:

Those peaceful chaps with Occupy Eugene in Oregon are distributing a protest flyer portraying a ninja--masked of course--carrying a heavy wrench and a crowbar. Presumably these objects are weapons. And they can be deadly weapons.

Names of prominent banks are listed on the flyer. Occupy Eugene is calling for Monday to be a "Day of Direct Action."

But they're just like the Tea Party.

Except, that is, for the arson, murders, drug-dealing, rapes, suicides, overdoses, vandalism, burglaries, and assaults.


Larwyn's Linx: So You Want a Revolution...

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

Nation

So You Want a Revolution...: Sultan Knish
Rick Santorum Won Iowa: RS
Good News: Obama to hold four fundraisers in a single day: Dossier

2012: Anyone but … Harry!: PJM
What Sank Rick Perry's Campaign: Malcolm
PPP: Newt on top in South Carolina, 35-29: Politico

State Of The GOP Primary Race: Pre-SC Analysis: Hawkins
Democrats Are the Ones Pushing Web Censorship: ZH
Legislators run for the exits on SOPA/PIPA after protests: Hot Air

Economy

The Land of Obama Make-Believe: Malkin
Democrat economics: The “Reasonable Profits Board”: Hot Air
Marxist Kook Jan Schakowsky Goes Off the Rails: BG

SOPA, Guns and Freedom: PJM
Obama's Administration's Definition of 'Full Employment': AmEleph
Cracks in the Socialist Reality Bubble Begin: SDA

Climate & Energy

Heretics in the classroom: SDA
New Chevy Volt Scam: Junk Science
Keystone Aftermath Arrives: Canada Pledges To Sell Oil To Asia, As US Becomes Source Of "Uncertainty": ZH

Media

Babbling, Weak Man Blames Press For His Image As Being Cold and Aloof: Ace
Are You Ready for Ameritopia?: RSM
Mark Levin’s Ameritopia: Progressivism, the Oldest Evil: PJM

Black Farmer Who Helped Expose Pigford Fraud Has Positive Words For Newt Gingrich: Stranahan
Obama To Hold a Closed, Invitation-Only "Town Hall" In A Magical Fantasyland Where All Dreams Are True: Ace
Problem Solved: the Urinating Marines: TAB

The Left Really, Really Wants Dana Loesch Kicked Off of CNN: Ace
Mitt defends Mitt while Newt upholds conservatism: Wolf
Newtered – The List Grows: Spew

The Worst People In Politics Aren’t Racists: Hawkins
Hypocrisy Alert: Redford praises Obama in Huffington Post for stopping Keystone XL: Marathon
The Republican Bulwark Against Tyranny: SHN

World

Slap In the Face: Belmont Club
Exclusive: New U.S. Commando Team Operating Near Iran: Wired
Want Peace? Democratize Jordan: Belman

George Soros About To Leap Back Into U.S. Politics?: IBD
Ron Paul: Dangerously Delusional on the Taliban: McCarthy
The last Haditha Marine: Trial update, prosecution collapse, plea deal in the works?: Malkin

Nadin Al-Badir Condemns Saudi Religious Police on Dream 2 TV Egypt: Blaze
Egyptian Cleric: “Jews Are a Cancer In The Body of Planet Earth, Getting Rid of These Jews Is a Must”: WZ
Netanyahu denies calling Haaretz and New York Times Israel's 'main enemies': Haaretz

Sci-Tech

Feds Shutter Megaupload, Arrest Executives: Wired
'Anonymous' hackers claim to take down DOJ site in retaliation for Megaupload shutdown: Fox
Former Facebook Employee Wants To Create A Network As Big As Google AdSense, But For Apps: Insider

Cornucopia

Fear and Loathing at Arrowhead Stadium: Claims That KC Chiefs Tap Phones, Spy on Employees: Ace
Obama’s 2012 Campaign Poster Revealed: HayRide
Obama At Disneyworld–The Perfect Metaphor: Soylent

Image: Via iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Rick Santorum for President

QOTD: "What, after all, was the real origin of these two programs [Social Security and Medicare] aimed at the elderly and health care for the elderly? Who thought them up? If you are under the impression these programs were the work of assorted 20th century liberal intellectuals and politicians you would be wrong. Yes, Levin names the names of those involved in creating these programs. Columbia University professor Henry Rogers Seager came up with the modern idea of Social Security in his 1910 study Social Insurance: A Program of Social Reform. There is the later bread-crumb trail of American liberal politicians like Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and 1960s-era House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Wilbur Mills.

But, in the end, of course, the real origin of these twin modern problems was that each of these people (and more) were busily trying to create utopia in America.

And, oh by the way, there was that political side benefit of thinking this would elect fellow liberals through eternity." --Jeffrey Lord