Monday, February 13, 2012

Larwyn's Linx: A Historical Perspective On Religion and HHS Mandates

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

Nation

A Historical Perspective On Religion and HHS Mandates: Howing
Why Democrats Fear Ultrasound and Photo ID: CDN
Bungling Bundlers: NRO

Kathleen Sebelius Praises Abortion Accounting Trick: MB
DHS Gives Muslim Brotherhood Top Secret Clearance: NoisyRm
Obama Reelection Campaign Trying To Make Him “Cool” Again: WZ

GOP Primary

CPAC's winners and losers: Politico
Romney Wins Maine Caucus: Ace
Three Cheers against Romney Care: RWN

Economy

School Choice Lowers Crime: Cato
Do you enjoy paying other people's cell phone bills?: Althouse
'Ordering Private Companies to Offer a Product for Free’: WS

White House Lies to Dodge Responsibility for Budget: Power Line
Obama Budget: Stimulus, Tax Hikes And Accounting Gimmicks: WZ
Do U.S. Corporations Pay Their ‘Fair Share?’: BigG

Why Car Insurers Don’t Cover Oil Changes: SAB
We Cannot Have A Fair, Merit Based Process: DailyPundit
Lew misleads on Senate budget reality: Events

Total Chaos; Riots Rage; Athens Resembles War Zone: Mish
Athens Burning: Tens of Banks in Flames: Mish
China Banks to Roll Over $1.7T in Debt to Avoid Mass Default: Mish

Scandal Central

Issa Blinks, No Contempt Charges for Holder: BigGovt
Will DOE’s Fisker Doubts Take Down Its Battery Supplier Too?: NLPC
Many Unanswered Questions Surround Fisker Layoffs: NLPC

Media

The Truman Gambit: All About the Headlines: Elephant
Whitney Houston's Tragic Death Takes CNN to New Lows: Ricochet
CBS Highlights Catholic Democrat Alienated by Obama Contraception Mandate: NB

Pew: Record High 67% See Political Bias in News Media: NB
CNN Journalist Employee Asks George Soros to Create Super PAC to Help Obama: Ace
Ted Nugent against Piers Morgan is hardly a fair fight : MB

Inside Media Matters: Erratic behavior, close coordination with White House and news organizations: DC
CNN Tilts East, Fires 4 Jewish Journalists in Jerusalem: AT
Barack’s Smug Assault on Freedom of Religion Isn’t Just Anti-American—It’s Unforgivable: CFP

World

Obama: Soldiers in Afghanistan Must Be Fired Upon to Receive Combat Pay: BigPeace
Saudis used Interpol's "red notice" system to track down columnist who insulted Muhammad: JihadWatch
Alabama: Muslim pleads guilty in plot to kill Obama…for Islam: Creeping

Bin Laden Gave Up on Jihad: Mead
It begins: Muslims in Maldives smash Buddhist statues in National Museum: JihadWatch
Greek parliament approves crucial austerity bill after riots rage in Athens: WaPo

‘Insulting’ Mo on Twitter Now Punishable by Death: JWF
Hamas PM Vows To Crowd of 30,000 Iranians: “We Will Never Recognize Israel”: WZ
I think You Forgot About That Internal Popup Window, Delta Interwebs Guy: JTZS

Sci-Tech

New study finds hovering airplanes could become a reality; Military use possible: StateCol
The Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde: It’s Evolution, Stupid: Wired
Apple Sues Samsung For 'Slide-To-Unlock' And Other Ludicrous iPhone Patent Violations: Insider

Cornucopia

"Find a Need and Fill It": AmDigest
CPAC 2012 Blog Awards: Capitalist Preservation
Investigation finds cops among Florida's worst speeders: SunSent

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

QOTD: "We need a condom on this administration." --Mark Levin (MP3).

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Highlights: the Cato Institute Eviscerates Obamacare's Individual Mandate

Among many Amici Curiae ("Friend of the Court") briefs filed during the Obamacare fight, the Cato Institute's (PDF) is among the most interesting and powerful. Its highlights are well worth reading.

Question Presented


Can a limited government to whom a free people have delegated only certain enumerated powers commandeer that people into purchasing a product from a private business pursuant to its power to pass laws “necessary and proper for carrying into execution” the authority to “regulate Commerce . . . among the several States”?

Summary of Argument


The individual mandate exceeds Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce under existing doctrine. The outermost bounds of this Court’s Commerce Clause jurisprudence—the “substantial effects” doctrine—stop Congress from reaching intrastate non-economic activity regardless of its effect on the economy. Nor can Congress compel someone to engage in commerce, even if it purports to do so as part of a broader regulatory scheme.

The Constitution does not permit Congress to conscript citizens into economic transactions to remedy the admitted shortcomings—which the government usually terms “necessities”—of a hastily assembled piece of legislation...

...Although the Necessary and Proper Clause allows Congress to execute its regulatory authority over interstate commerce, it is not a blank check permitting Congress to ignore constitutional limits by manufacturing necessities and commandeering citizens to do its bidding... The individual health insurance mandate is not constitutionally warranted simply because it is “necessary” to make other legislation function properly. Indeed, any law “necessary” or otherwise—that purports to compel otherwise inactive citizens to engage in economic activity is unconstitutional.

While the government emphasizes the “uniqueness” of the healthcare market and the wisdom of the legislation, “this case is not about whether the Act is wise or unwise…in fact, it is not really about our healthcare system at all. It is principally about our federalist system, and it raises very important issues regarding the Constitutional role of the federal government.

...Moreover, what Congress is trying to do here is literally unprecedented, as recognized even by the lower courts that ruled for the government. “Congress has never exercised its commerce power in this way, and nothing suggests that this tradition reflects 200 years of self-restraint.” ... “The Government concedes the novelty of the mandate and the lack of any doctrinal limiting principles.”

The Congressional Budget Office agrees: “The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States." Nor has Congress ever before imposed on everyone a civil penalty for declining to participate in the market. And never before have courts had to consider such a breathtaking assertion of power under the Commerce Clause. Even in Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), the federal government claimed “merely” the power to regulate what farmers grew, not to mandate that people become farmers, much less to force people to purchase farm products. Even if not purchasing health insurance is considered an “economic activity”—which of course would mean that every aspect of human life is economic activity—there is no constitutional warrant for Congress to force Americans to enter the marketplace to buy a particular good or service...

...The explicit purpose of Article I is to grant Congress certain enumerated powers and then strictly limit them. James Madison, the architect of our system of government, famously observed that “[i]n framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

...Thus, Article I gives Congress only certain legislative powers “herein granted,” Articles II and III check those powers, and the Tenth Amendment emphasizes that all other powers remain with those who breathed life into the new government in the first place: the sovereign “people of the United States.” The Framers believed that limiting federal power, and reserving the “residual” power in the hands of the states and the people would help “ensure protection of our fundamental liberties” and “reduce the risk of tyranny and abuse.”

...Given the Framers’ clear intent to establish a limited government of enumerated powers, it is unsurprising that this Court has consistently reaffirmed that the federal government does not enjoy a general police power. ... The Court should not now break with this well established and foundational American principle.

It is both telling and tragic that our hopes for individual sovereignty in this country now rest in the hands of one or two individuals on the Supreme Court.

And if Obama is reelected, he will likely have the chance to further stuff the court with doctrinaire radicals like Elena Kagan. And this Republic would be doomed.


Under what authority does the EPA now regulate family farms?

If you have a farm and store fuel for your equipment on the premises, well, you've got a new partner for your business. It's called the EPA. Please consider this delightful warning from The Billings Gazette:

EPA moves to prevent fuel spills on farms


At Nedens farms, the price of fuel is no small matter. The family business north of Hardin burns through more than 60,000 gallons of diesel a year.

So, when the opportunity arises to save a few pennies a gallon, the Nedens pounce, usually by buying an entire fuel truck's worth of diesel at a time.

"Obviously, if you buy a whole tanker load of fuel, it's going to be substantially lower," Brett Nedens said of the price. "I think I can save about 20 cents a gallon. Obviously if you can load it at the refinery, it costs a lot less."

The savings add up for Nedens and other farmers, who save about $20,000 a year buying bulk. But now they'll have to weigh that savings against the costs of complying with federal regulations...

The Natural Resources and Conservation Service also has begun offering Montana farmers help both with the costs of designing the plan and also construction costs, said Tim Ouellette of NRCS in Bozeman. NRCS is getting involved because it would like plans that not only address risks to rivers and streams, but also groundwater.

Is there anything that this federal monstrosity doesn't have their claws in? Light bulbs, toilet tanks, shower heads, fuel tanks, fuel mileage, health care, soft drinks, alcohol, water... anything and everything you could possibly imagine.

This nation's founders would be sickened by how thoroughly disconnected this Beltway Leviathan is from our nation's highest law, the Constitution. And just about every government failure you can think of -- from the deficit to Obamacare -- has its roots in the Democrats' 100-year war on the Constitution.


Good news: 1 in 5 Americans now dependent on government assistance (not including public sector employees)

Hey, check it out, kids: it's another Obama record!

The number of Americans dependent on the federal government has exploded over the past five years, reaching a record 67.3 million people, according to Heritage’s annual Index of Dependence on Government. That means 1 in 5 Americans (21.8 percent) today receive some level of assistance from the federal government.

This week’s chart — one of 15 featured in this year’s report — depicts the percentage of the U.S. population who receive government assistance and the total number of individuals who are dependent on the federal government.

Fifty years ago, before President Lyndon Johnson created the Great Society programs, some 21.7 million people (or 11.7 percent of the population) received assistance through government programs that existed at the time. The number increased sharply in the 1960s and 1970s before falling in the 1990s. Recently, however, it has skyrocketed.

I think this chart must be racist or something.

Or it could just be that this country is headed for fiscal collapse unless we reverse course ASAP.


If Obama gets reelected, "the Second Amendment is finished"

Facts, history and logic never get in the way of a liberal:

While 49 other states have ratified Concealed Carry laws, Illinois is diligently working to track and punish their own citizens for exercising their Constitutional rights. If Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has his way, gun owners will not only be tracked in the same manner as sex offenders, but will be slapped with a repeating $65 fee…for each gun.

According to the Chicago Sun Times,

Emanuel’s proposal would require all handgun owners to obtain a certificate of registration from the State Police for every handgun they own — at a cost of $65-per-weapon — and to renew that registration every five years.

They would be required to provide: their name, address and telephone number; the manufacturer of the gun, its model type and serial number; and the date and source of the purchase.

Whenever a handgun is sold, the seller would be required to report the sale to the State Police “no less than 48 hours prior to delivery.” Handgun buyers would have 20 days to file for a new certificate of registration. Anyone caught carrying or possessing an unregistered handgun would face a Class 2 felony.

If gun owners cannot afford to pay the $65 fee for each gun they must turn their guns in to local law enforcement for destruction. Punishment for not complying is a Class 2 Felony. How unfortunate for the rest of the good people of Illinois to have the scourge of Chicago in their state. And this fresh on the heels of signing a check for $399,950 to the Second Amendment Foundation after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chicago’s ban on handguns…because it was unconstitutional.

How does this apply to the rest of the country? As the NRA's Wayne LaPierre warned last week, Obama's former chief of staff Emanuel is simply setting a template for the president should he be reelected.

A top official with the National Rifle Association said Friday that President Obama will move to "destroy" gun rights and "erase" the Second Amendment if he is re-elected in November...

..."We see the president's strategy crystal clear: Get re-elected and, with no more elections to worry about, get busy dismantling and destroying our firearms' freedom, erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights and excise it from the U.S. Constitution."

Mr. LaPierre said the president's two Supreme Court appointees — Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan— are "two of the most rabid anti-gun justices in history." He also accused Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of being a foe of gun rights.

And with the possibility of two or more Supreme Court justice positions opening during the next four years, the NRA official warned that gun ownership would be in jeopardy if Mr. Obama stays in office... "If we get one more like those three, the Second Amendment is finished..."

As Jim Hoft reminds us, gun control has failed: "During the years in which the D.C. handgun ban and trigger lock law was in effect, the Washington, D.C. murder rate averaged 73% higher than it was at the outset of the law, while the U.S. murder rate averaged 11% lower."

It's not about gun control, it's about government control over you, the individual.


Shhh. No one tell legacy media that a huge battle is raging in Britain to privatize the National Health Service

The failures of England's National Health Service (NHS) are well known throughout Europe. Of course, as Congressional Democrats and President Obama rammed through their own takeover of the health care industry here in the U.S., legacy media was careful to ignore all of the headlines from abroad.

The often-horrific levels of health care delivered by the NHS became so controversial that the current debate is over how much should be privatized. That's right: the DMV-like NHS will inevitably be dismantled in favor of private health care.

Because government-run health care can't work, won't work and hasn't ever worked in all of human history.

Almost two years in the making, the once eye-catching plan to take the axe to the NHS's bloated bureaucracy and hand power to family doctors has become a metaphor for Mr Cameron's worst failings as Prime Minister – lack of attention to detail, a hands-off management style, misplaced loyalty to old friends and a deep-rooted belief that shouting at the Despatch Box will silence one's critics.

...There has also been the lack of consistency; where once ministers boasted of having the professional bodies signed up and on board, they now claim angry and almost universal opposition is an inevitable outcome of radical reform. What was once hailed as the biggest change in the NHS for 60 years is now being represented as a logical, small-scale continuation of Blairite reforms. In July 2010, Mr Lansley boldly declared that "people voted for change" – which doesn't sit well with his pre-election promise of no more top-down reorganisations.

...In a sign of the fiasco at the heart of the Government, it is now the Liberal Democrats who speak most warmly about the legislation, having rewritten large passages in a coup led by Baroness Williams. The Lib Dems are furious after working hard behind the scenes to be constructive. "The Tories are flip-flopping all over the place," says one. "Cameron is panicking about local elections in May," says another, adding pointedly: "It is very much their Bill."

This, my friends, is the future of health care here in the U.S.

No lack of coverage, but deadly lack of health care. Rationing. Horror stories. Begging your representatives for treatment for yourself or your family members.

Until it all finally collapses. Just like the NHS.


Related: State-run Health Care, By the Numbers.

Larwyn's Linx: Rick Santorum Takes National Lead In PPP Poll By 15

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

GOP Primary

Rick Santorum Takes National Lead In PPP Poll By 15: Ace
Romney Wins CPAC Straw Poll: WZ
Santorum takes national lead over Romney: Politico

Consultant in Chief: Reason
Marco Rubio wins CPAC 2012 Vice President straw poll: FAM
Romney beats Paul to win the Maine Caucuses: Scoop

Nation

Gutting the Bill of Rights, one Amendment at a time: AT
Good. And. Hard: Cold Fury
New Yorkers paid to commit vote fraud: Publius

Barack Obama, Money Machine: Power Line
Muslims Exempt From ObamaCare?: MB
Allen West Responds to Being Called a ‘Coward’: Shark

The Church Rejects Obama’s Birth Control Deal: Dossier
Washington Still Flunks Education After So Many Years: IBD
Rahm Exposes Obama's Intentions: Radical Gun Control: GWP

Economy

Democrats Failure To Pass Budget Is Illegal: IBD
Do These Numbers Make My Deficit Look Fat?: Mead
Obama economic plan making more people move back in with their parents: NakedDC

Walker's courageous conservatism: Exam
Poll: Minnesota voters support right to work… 55/24: Hot Air
Obama To Pitch Lower Corporate Tax Rate Sometime In The Future: Cove

Scandal Central

Friday Night "Fast & Furious" Document Dump, and Obama's Great Compromise: Ace
Sheriff Paul Babeau: Fast and Furious scandal is far from over: Hot Air
Half of illegal-immigrant arrests in Frederick for traffic offenses: Exam

Climate & Energy

Keystone XL oil going to China: IBD
Why is GM Spending Millions to Re-Hype the Chevy Volt?: NLPC
UN Bosses Secretly Plot Global Govt Through “Green Economy" for Rio+20: NewAm

Thanks Barack… Three West Virginia Coal Plants to Close: GWP
Obama-Volt 2012!
Pseudo-Science Laid Bare: Cold Fury

Media

Hating Breitbart: ConTreehouse
Picture of Obama and his Ex: Blogmocracy
Top Leftist Blog: Obama Must Quash Religious Freedom to Save Earth From Global Warming: GWP

Krauthammer: Israel ‘will strike’ Iran to ‘prevent a second holocaust’: DC
Pew: Record High 67% See Political Bias in News Media: NB
Santorum Nomination ‘Completely Terrifies’ Economist Magazine’s Economics Editor: NB

Drip, drip, drip…the sound of our liberty leaking away: Dewey
Great Minds Must Think Alike?: HyScience
The Hot Air Santorum interview: Hot Air

World

Report: Interpol Helps Saudis Arrest Journalist in Malaysia for Insulting Mohammed: McCarthy
The firm that hijacked the NHS: DailyMail
Schaeuble warns Greek promises no longer suffice: Reuters

Sci-Tech

Instead of Marketing, Businesses Should Use Social Media for Customer Support: Insider
Using iPad as...: The Cleverest
Apple seeks U.S. ban on Galaxy Nexus: CNet

Cornucopia

Historic Facepalm: The Tacky O’s Tour of the White House: MB
Earliest manuscript of the New Testament discovered?: Wintery Knight
What Fresh Hell is This?: MOTUS

Whitney Houston Dead at 48... Last Known Photos of Whitney... Bobby Brown Sobs on Stage: GWP
Wasted Youth: BS Footprint
"Facebook Parenting:" 3 Days, 15 Million Views, 100,000 Comments: AmDigest

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

QOTD: "From running up trillions in debt and deficit, to the vast expansion of the size and scope of federal bureaucracy, Mr. Obama has done more in three years to supplant our 236 year-old Constitutional Republic with a Euro-style socialist autocracy – than a lesser Marxist could have accomplished in a lifetime.

But controlling the purse strings is not nearly enough. A central element of full-blown secular-socialism is the suppression of religious liberty – principally, freedom of conscience.

Karl Marx once said: “The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.”

When Karl Marx speaks, Barack Obama listens." --J. Matt Barber

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Chinese Plutocrats Hire Migrant Workers to Wait in Line for New iPhone 4; Thomas Friedman Hardest Hit

Thomas Friedman (pronounced: fried - man) is a Marxist New York Times hack who simply loves China's form of government.

"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." --Thomas Friedman

Yep, that's right: Friedman's pining for a totalitarian form of fascism.

To put it in the kindest terms.

So I'm sure this despicable human being will be ecstatic to hear how China's plutocrats are spending their money:

On January 13th, Apple’s new iPhone 4S was finally made available for purchase in China。By 7PM, over one thousands eager customers were lined up outside Beijing’s two official Apple Inc. retail stores, in Sanlitun and Xidan. The crowd was made up of a large number of migrant workers from Hebei province and Beijing’s Daxing...

...By 7pm, the crowd outside of the Xidan location had surpassed 1,000 people. This number includes the Apple store’s staff as well as police officers that were dispatched by the city government to maintain order at the scene.

...As the day went on, the crowd grew. Tensions rose when the clock struck 8pm and the promised dinner was still nowhere to be seen. Around the same time, it became evident that the number of Apple employees was insufficient to provide for the needs of the hundreds waiting in line. Some began to worry that after already waiting in line for a full day, they would still be unable to get their hands on the new cell phone.

The situation further intensified when those hired to wait in line began to worry that they would not be compensated for their hours of waiting, knowing that their pay was conditional upon whether or not they produced the iPhone 4s. Some began to abort the plan and headed home, still leaving several hundreds committed to waiting in line...

Someday I hope that Friedman, Sean Penn, Samuel L. Jackson -- and the rest of the clueless, incredibly wealthy freaks who take America for granted -- will get to experience life as a migrant in China.

Just for a couple of years. Or ten.

Such a lesson might help them better appreciate America, because they obviously don't have a semblance of a clue right now. They take their stunning wealth for granted, when the default condition for man is poverty, misery and an all-powerful government that suppresses individual liberty and expression. Kind of like being a migrant in the PRC.

Friedman and his ilk are disgraceful schmucks.


Related: Thomas Friedman Has a Plan for Managing the Climate, the Economy and More!.

Must-Read Transcript -- Breitbart at CPAC: This Is Not Your Mother's Democratic Party

Transcript by Biff Spackle, Junior Cub Reporter:

Right now, my Twitter feed is already calling me a big fat homosexual. Hello, children at home. No, your Dad's not gay. That's how the Left rolls.

Everybody asks me: why do you retweet? Why do you do that? ...In fact, there's probably no one in the world I respect more than Professor Hugh Hewitt and the other day he took me aside. He said, "I don't think you should do that, Andrew." Well, Professor Hewitt, on this issue I disagree.

Because they've held over our heads -- with contempt -- the false narrative of their innate tolerance. The least tolerant people you'll ever meet in your entire lives -- I know it, I live it every day. And I retweet it to remind them that I know exactly who they are.

...This is my war cry for 2012. You need to join me in my war against the institutional left.

This is not your mother's Democratic Party... duh! John Podesta and George Soros? This is not your mother's Democratic Party You know whose party it is? ...I have a thesis about who we're fighting against on the hard left... [In college] I had no idea these [left-wing academics] people were actually serious about the malarkey they were teaching. The post-structuralist, politically correct garbage.

Unfortunately in 2004, the radical Left [executed] a coup d'etat of the Democratic Party. And basically kicked a person -- that four years was called 'the standard-bearer of decency in the Democratic Party'. And that person was Joe Lieberman.

That was the end of the Democratic Party. And in 2010, the DLC went under.

There's no such thing as a moderate Democrat. And so what do we get now, in Barack Obama?

In this election we're going to vet him


I've got videos, by the way, and in this election we're going to vet him. I've got videos. This election we're going to vet him. From his college days, to show you why racial division and class warfare are central to what 'hope and change' was sold in 2008.

The videos are going to come out. The narrative is going to come out: that Barack Obama met a bunch of silver pony-tails [left wing academics] back in the 1980s, like Bill [Ayers] and Bernadine Dohrn who said "one day, we're going to have the presidency.'

And the rest of us slept while they plotted and they plotted and they plotted. And they oversaw hundreds of millions of dollars in the Annenberg Challenge, from real capitalists, who gave it to their children and their children's children [who] then became communists. We've got to work on that...

Barack Obama is a radical and we should not be afraid to say it. And Barack Obama was launched from Bill and Bernadine's salon... it became self-evident to me that [Obama enjoyed] many a meal there... And don't tell me, ABC, CBS and NBC that I can't posit that theory, because it is a self-evident truth. Just like it was a self-evident truth that he was with Jeremiah Wright. And just as it was a self-evident truth that when he was at Harvard, he was advocating for the worst of the worst to join the faculty. Radicals. Radicals at "Beirut on the Charles".

And that who's in the White House. And that's who's outside right now [the Occupy movement] telling you that you don't have a right to be here. They would squelch your free speech just as easily as they do at Harvard, Vassar, Yale, Wesleyan - they're a bunch of totalitarian freaks.

The media can no longer be called objective journalists


And they pal around with our friends in the mainstream media. I always thought the media leaned to the left... but when they act like a Provost at a politically correct university and tell people to shut up, [then] no longer can they be called objective journalists. They're playing for the other side.

They've been part of demonizing good and decent people. They tried to defeat the Tea Party and when they failed, just like when they tried to create a [leftist] Rush Limbaugh and they failed with Air America, they want what they can't have. They wanted what they could not have and what did they create?

They created the "Occupy Movement". What is the Occupy Movement, you may ask? It's a natural, organic group of people -- you've never seen before in your life. Wait a sec-- these exact people protested against you at the GOP Welcoming Committee in 2008-- and two of them were arrested for planting Molotov cocktails. [These] are radicals against the police, radicals against you, exactly like Occupy, the same exact people, the same people who organized "Camp Casey" in Crawford, these are the same exact people who went down the highway at the end of the summer when Katrina happened, created Occupy New Orleans.

It's the same radicals, they've been in your life since 'Senator Obama' became part of your vocabulary. They are at war with you. They attack you. They throw eggs at you. And -- guess what? -- the media looks the other way. You're domestic terrorists, you know. Janet Napolitano warned me about that.

Yet when this group emerged, what happened? ...This is my thesis: the anti-war movement was never about anti-war. It was a Saul Alinsky community-organizing tool to get Barack Obama and the Left elected. It went away immediately.

The Occupy Movement is the Definition of Un-American


And the mainstream media created a narrative... Time Magazine's "Person of the Year... this is the anti-war movement! How do I know this? Because if I told this to ABC, CBS and NBC, they'd tell me it's a conspiracy theory -- that it's just a bunch of organic people. There's no organization going on, even though we have the emails to prove it. Or the undercover videos of Natasha Leonard of The New York Times organizing with the radicals. No, that didn't mean anything!

Bernadine Dohrn pointed out to me when I was snarkily asking 'What ever happened to the anti-war movement?', she let loose an affirmation of everything I know to be true. She said, "Well, that's not true... it's more or less what Occupy Wall Street is." And the mainstream media refuses to tell you that these are the same shock troops that have been ... instigating [against] us, instigating riots against the police, these people are the definition of un-American.

I don't care who our candidate is


You want a unity speech? I'll give you a unity speech. I don't care who our candidate is.

I haven't since the beginning of this... ask not what the candidate can do for you, ask what you can do for the candidate!

And that's what the Tea Party is.

We are there to confront [the radical left] on behalf of our candidate!

I will march behind who ever our candidate is. Because if we don't, we lose.

There are two paths! There are two paths! One is America, the other is Occupy! One is America, the other is Occupy! And I don't care, and along the way... I've realized over the last three years that the Republican Party and the conservative movement is not what ABC, CBS and NBC put on the screen.

They try to portray you in the worst possible light... and when I travel around the United States meeting people in the Tea Party who care -- black, white, gay, straight -- anyone that's willing to stand next to me to fight the progressive left, I will be in that bunker, and if you're not in that bunker 'cause you're not satisfied with this candidate, more than shame on you. You're on the other side.

Erick Erickson -- you listening?


So soon? State Department warns travelers that the entire country of Mexico is, basically, a freaking war-zone

Although you wouldn't know it by the Obama administration's open-borders policy:

It’s amazing that only now do we get this serious travel warning when more people have been murdered every year in Mexico than in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s absolutely shameful that we’ve been propping up that government (remember that $2 billion we sent over last year?) and sending guns in while tens of thousands get murdered. Horrible.

Yep, no reason to build that wall. None at all.

Travel warning: Violence spreading in Mexico

Americans should avoid all but essential travel to all or parts of 14 Mexican states, the U.S. State Department warns as violence has spread. Shootouts, kidnappings and carjackings have climbed, as have cartels, also known as transnational criminal organizations (TCO), the State Department said this week in a broadened travel warning.

While millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico every year, the country’s ongoing violence and security concerns pose risks for U.S. citizens, and travelers should take precautions, the State Department advises... More than 47,500 people were killed in drug-related violence in Mexico between December 2006 and September 2011, according to the State Department. While most of those murdered were involved in criminal activity, innocent people were also caught in the crossfire, the State Department said. Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared a crackdown on cartels in late 2006.

Say, I've got an idea! Let's have the ATF deliver thousands of weapons to the Mexican drug cartels. Maybe that will help!


Hat tip: BadBlue.

Pictures: Your 3rd-Grader's Social Studies Text Book, a Cornucopia of Left-Wing Crackpottery

Wondering whether elementary school students are truly indoctrinated in the left wing agenda? Well, wonder no more. They are; and it's worse -- far worse -- than you can possibly imagine.

Consider, if you will, McGraw-Hill's Our Democratic Heritage, a textbook designed for third-graders and published in 2010. If you'd assume that it was intended to teach kids about America's founding and its institutions of government, you'd assume wrong.

The book is a veritable cornucopia of left wing spin.

There is but one sentence devoted to the Bill of Rights. It reads, "These rights [of citizens] are listed in the part of the U.S. Constitution called the Bill of Rights".

• Two pages cover the Declaration of Independence
• Two pages describe the Constitution, all of which are devoted to the three branches of government and separation of powers
• No pages are devoted to James Madison and the authors of the Constitution; there is no mention of federalism
• Six pages are spent describing the background of Paul Revere
• Ten pages are devoted to the history of democracy in ancient Greece.
• George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are mentioned only in passing, almost as if they are immaterial scenery on the road to diversity and social Utopia.

In the section entitled "America's Freedom Fighters":

• Eight pages are spent covering the life of Frederick Douglass
• Five pages on Susan B. Anthony
• Six pages on Mary McLeod Bethune,
• Zero pages are devoted to the life of Abraham Lincoln

In fact, the entire Civil War is described only as a backdrop to the lives of Frederick Douglas and Mary McLeod Bethune.

In the section entitled "The Fight for Freedom Continues":

• Seven pages are spent on praise for FDR (including 2 pages on Pearl Harbor)
• Six pages on Eleanor Roosevelt
• Six pages are devoted to Thurgood Marshall
• Six pages are spent on LBJ's life and the wondrous effects of "Great Society"
• Six pages are spent on Cesar Chavez and the lionization of the labor movement

There is no list of American Presidents.

There is no mention of the two-party system, nor the fact that there exists a group called "The Republican Party".

And there is no mention of a Republican President other than Abraham Lincoln, who merits but a picture and a single sentence. In fact, you would not know from reading this book that there ever was a Republican President.

A total of four paragraphs are spent describing World War II. There is no mention of President Harry S. Truman or of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan to mercifully end World War II.

There is, of course, no mention of Ronald Reagan.

One of the goals we Constitutional conservatives must have is to regain control of our public school systems, which appear to be -- if this book is any indication -- completely out of control.


Larwyn's Linx: Breitbart: We're going to vet Obama this time around

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

Nation

Breitbart: We're going to vet Obama this time around: Hot Air
The US is Morphing Into East Berlin: Pelerin
Obama Keeps Fundraiser Totals Secret: Dossier

Obama’s fraudulent abortion mandate “accommodation”: Malkin
Obama's contraception "compromise" worse than the original: WyBlog
Of course: Obama's wimmin pushed him toward HHS mandate: Pundette

Were the President’s Recess Appointments Constitutional?: AEI
'Obama wants to outlaw guns in 2nd term': Times
How Obama Betrayed His Constituents, and Why They Won't Care: AT

Economy

Budget? Why follow a budget?: Foundry
Obamacare architect: Expect steep increase in health care premiums: DC
Rubio called it: Obama offers another ‘blank piece of paper’: Peth

Global Financial Crisis: A World In Debt: Demonocracy
Obama mandate will cost insurance companies $2.8B: ProWis
Friday News Dump: MF Corzine Actually Lost $1.6B: JWF

The Economy Grows—and with it Obama's Approval Rating: WS
Price Tag Of The Entitlement Generation: SDA
Italy doesn't need firewalls, Europe does: Monti: Reuters

GOP Primary

Santorum surges nationally after three-state sweep: Fox
Rick Santorum was 'the rock star of CPAC': JW
CPAC Video: The crowd during Santorum’s speech: ConCom

Scandal Central

Issa Wusses Out on Holder Deadline, giving me another chance to explain why I'm doing what I'm doing.: SSI
Former DEA Chief says 3 Other Federal Agencies Tried to Stop Fast and Furious: TexasInsider
John Boehner To Halt Fast And Furious Investigation?: Western

Climate & Energy

Inhofe Oversight of EPA’s $2.26 Billion in Uncommitted Funds Ongoing: CFP
11 states sue EPA over soot rules: Boston
House, Senate Lawmakers Highlight Concerns with EPA 'Sue & Settle' Tactic for Backdoor Regulation: WaterWorld

Media

Ameritopia's Mark Levin: Alarming New Issues Injected Into Presidential Race: Fox
CBS Reporter Sharyl Attkisson Suddenly Skips Accepting Award at CPAC: NB
Dog Whistle Progressives Fabricate Racial Incident at CPAC: BigJ

SC Justice, NY Times: US Constitution Outdated and Uncool?: Mead
No MSM, Santorum Is Not A Racist: BigJourn
Talking with conservative bloggers at CPAC: Q&O

World

Obama’s Catastrophic Dithering on Iran: Dossier
Kim Jong Un: Dead or alive: GlobalPost
The difference between a Sharia state and a Christian state: Bookworm

It’s About Time–US Issues Travel Warning As Violence in Mexico Spreads: Bruce
Meanwhile, Michelle Obama tells the military how to feed the troops … : ProWis
Syrian army general assassinated by gunmen in Damascus: Haaretz

Sci-Tech

Prepare for Liftoff With Automotive Cheat Codes: Wired
Microsoft Set To Release Windows 8 Preview Feb. 29: Consumerist
Malware devs embrace open-source: Register

Cornucopia

Is it just me, or is Hillary channeling her inner Elvira Gulch?: SSI
Dead bottlenose dolphins have washed up in their hundreds on Peru's beaches: GlobPost
Police Stop Left-Wing Protesters’ Second Attempt At CPAC Invasion: Breitbart

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

QOTD: "Conservative firebrand Andrew Breitbart says he has video of Barack Obama from the president's "college days," and he plans on using it in the coming election cycle to show "why racial division and class warfare are central to what hope and change was sold in 2008," reports Mediaite. In a speech at CPAC, Breitbart said the videos will show how Obama met "a bunch of silver ponytails" such as Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohm, "and the rest of us slept as they plotted and plotted" a takeover of the presidency.

"Barack Obama is a radical, we should not be afraid to say that," he said. "Barack Obama was launched from Bill and Bernadine's salon." --Mark Russell

Friday, February 10, 2012

Question Time For Professor Dershowitz [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

“...it is Chamberlain who has come to symbolize the failure to prevent Hitler's ascendancy. So too will Mr. Obama come to symbolize the failure of the West if Iran acquires nuclear weapons on his watch.”

-Alan M. Dershowitz, WSJ, 3/23/10

Professor Dershowitz, if Obama hasn’t struck Iran by election day, will you recommend that we extend his “watch” thru January 20, 2017 and delay judgment until then?


Rubio obliterates Obama's budget proposals: POTUS offers another 'blank piece of paper' on entitlement reform

A fitting description for President Mails-It-In's latest prescription for destroying the country's finances. And we're at, what, day 1019 without a Democrat budget? Any comment on that, President McDowngrade?

From the WSJ:

President Barack Obama’s budget proposal Monday will offer several measures to trim the federal deficit in the next 10 years. But it would leave largely unchanged the biggest drivers of future government spending: the Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs that are expanding rapidly as the baby boom turns into a senior boom.

Senator Marco Rubio saw this coming.

As he said yesterday in his CPAC speech:

So, where is the President’s plan to save Medicare? Let me show it to you. Here it is. [Holds up blank sheet of paper.] He doesn’t have one. It is a blank piece of paper. This is his plan when it comes to Medicare. His plan is wait for a Republican like Paul Ryan to offer a plan and then attack him. He hasn’t been in office three or four weeks. He’s been in office a little bit over three years. Two of those years, his party controlled both houses of Congress. And he’s dealt with none of these issues I’ve just outlined.

And it now looks like President Obama will end his term with a whole stack of blank sheets of paper... And why hasn’t Obama outlined some long-term plan since a coming debt deluge will make a “built to last” economy impossible to achieve otherwise?

Pethokoukis is more forgiving than I am. He concludes that President Obama will simply propose more tax increases on the middle class (because the rich simply can't be taxed enough to make up for this monstrous shortfall).

Obama won’t tell you that he wants to raise taxes on all Americans. I just did.

I disagree.

President Obama, in my estimation, is trying to "fundamentally transform" this country (his words) into some Statist Utopia. And to do so, it will require a complete economic collapse. Which is precisely where we're headed if we don't remove this disaster from office in November.


Muslim Brotherhood: "Let's Skip The Foreplay" [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

Law of history #2: Whenever and wherever Islam reaches a certain critical mass, Islam tries to dominate the surrounding community.

Law of history #3: In the Islamic world, nature fills a power vacuum with – wait for it – Islam.

If you live in a dream world (or the White House), this will reinforce your fantasies about democracy blooming in Arabia and North Africa. But down here on earth, it’s proof positive that Egypt has already fallen into Islamofascist hands. How can we ever thank you, Barack Hussein Obama? They couldn’t have done it without you.

twincities.com, 2/9/12

Muslim Brotherhood Demands Egypt’s Military Rulers Cede Control


CAIRO - The Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday demanded that Egypt's military rulers cede control of the government, stepping closer to a long-anticipated confrontation between the ruling generals and the Islamist-dominated Parliament.

In a statement on its website and a television interview with one of its senior leaders, the Brotherhood called for the military to allow the replacement of the current prime minister and cabinet with a new coalition government formed by Parliament, which would amount to an immediate handover of power.

The Brotherhood, the formerly outlawed Islamist group that now dominates Parliament, had previously said it was content to wait for the June deadline by which the generals had pledged to turn over power, which they seized with the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

###

The entire story is here. And you might like this: Islam on the March in Europe.


Time to short Amazon: Mistress of Disaster Jamie Gorelick Joins $AMZN Board of Directors

Oh, my: what could possibly go wrong with this?

Amazon board adds Jamie Gorelick, former Fannie Mae and DOJ official


Amazon.com just added a new board member: Jamie S. Gorelick, a veteran of the U.S. government and no stranger to controversy. The company announced the appointment in an SEC filing a short time ago. Gorelick, a litigator at the law firm WilmerHale, was a long-running U.S. Deputy Attorney General who... blah, blah, blah...

Gorelick is best-known for her leading roles in two epic, trillion-dollar catastrophes, which earned her the nomme de guerre "The Mistress of Disaster".

• In 2004, observers were "astonished" to discover that a key member of the 9/11 Commission had a fatal conflict-of-interest. Jamie Gorelick had served as a Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton from 1994 to 1997. It was later revealed that Gorelick had established a pre-Patriot Act "wall" that prevented the foreign intelligence and criminal investigative communities from collaborating. Gorelick's wall "specifically impeded the investigation into Zacarias Moussaoui", the so-called "20th hijacker."

• Where did she turn up after that delightful stint in Justice? Though she had no training or experience in finance, Gorelick was appointed the Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae and served in the role from 1997 to 2003. During that six-year period, she earned over $26 million. During Gorelick's tenure, FNMA suffered a $10 billion accounting scandal, an ominous harbinger of the firm's looming troubles. FNMA's 2008 collapse, of course, helped touch off the mortgage meltdown.

It's not often that one person plays key roles in two -- count 'em, two -- trillion-dollar disasters. Welcome, my friends, to the world of well-connected Democrat Jamie Gorelick.

You've been warned.


Larwyn's Linx: PA: Santorum blows past Gingrich, edges Romney

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

GOP Primary

PA: Santorum blows past Gingrich, edges Romney: Hot Air
Rasmussen: Santorum Even With Obama in Ohio: WS
Brokered Convention?: Ace

Santorum: Obama Wants Iran to Have a Nuke: JWF
The GOP Race Gets Messy: DLim
Insulting our intelligence: the Romney strategy: LI

Nation

“To Stop the Multiplication of the Unfit”: Malkin
Archbishop Dolan "Betrayed" by Obama: NRO
Reid Whines on Mandate: GOP Talking of Constitution: LifeNews

Obama Brags About Role In ACORN Election-Stealing: Dollard
Senate Dems bailing out over contraception mandate: Hot Air
Senate Dems Use Obama's Mandate for Fundraising: WZ

Economy

Obama declares himself dictator of education: Exam
Letter: Wisconsin, Illinois: A study in contrasts: FDLRep
Inside the White House as America circles the drain: MB

DOJ/States Shake Down Lenders For $25B: S&L
The Economic Sabotage of the West: Knish
In Mortgage Settlement, Obama Blames Everybody But The Government: IBD

"Wisconsin on Steroids:" Arizona Moves To Regulate Unions: Ace
Want To Eat Breakfast With Obama? Then Cut a Check For $35,800: WZ
Obama Gives Ten State Waivers for NCLB On His Own Authority; The Law Does Not Include a Waiver Provision: Ace

Scandal Central

Obama Wants to Ban Guns in U.S. to Reduce Crime in Mexico: GWP
Fast and Furious, and what 2010 meant: LI
Fast and Furious: Targets of gun sting were FBI informers: AZ Central

Climate & Energy

The IPCC that cried 'Wolf!': Strata-Sphere
And the house of cards starts to come down: Power Line
‘I Feel Duped on Climate Change’: NRO

Media

Why I Support Rick Santorum: Lid
Obama and how he got that way: TAB
Liberals SHOCKED to reap what they've sown: Glob

Paul Ryan and Mark Steyn on the Left's Hatred of Rick Santorum: Hewitt
Report: CNN Israel fires all its Jewish journalists?: Matzav
CNN Host Grills Tony Perkins Over Beating of Homosexual Man: NB

World

Anonymous Message To The State of Israel: Anonymous
Israel's Mossad trained assassins of Iran nuclear scientists, report says: Haaretz
Minneapolis adopts Sharia law to help Muslim businesses: Creeping

“Sharia Free Zone” – New British Freedom Poster: Creeping
Egypt: Salafi Islamists Attempt To Purge Village Near Alexandria of Its Christian Population: WZ
GOP Rep. Peter King Says He Plans To Hold More Congressional Hearings On Muslim Radicalization In 2012: WZ

Sci-Tech

Alleged Foxconn hack allowed bogus orders to be placed for vendors: AppleInsider
Paper Robots: Wired
Jury strikes down Eolas' 'Interactive Web' patent: CNet

Cornucopia

Fly Me To Ramallah On Delta Airlines: Rusty Mike
The President's Persistently Peculiar Habit: MB
Have You Noticed That Barack Obama Never Gets Glitter Bombed?: Glob

Requiring IDs to Vote is Oppressive: Looking Spoon
Modern treasure hunters claim they've found billions in sunken ship off Boston: Fox
Watch Will Ferrell's witty NBA player introductions: Post

Image: The Looking Spoon
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Rick Santorum for President

QOTD: "...leftism has never been based on idealism. It has always been based, for the most part, on hate and envy. So when Communism was conclusively proved to be a failure, leftists (including not only leftists in politics, but more important, leftists in the media and in academia) didn’t change their minds or admit their mistake. For in their eyes, while there may have been disappointment, there was no mistake. Their resentments and hatreds remained. They merely sought other vehicles, other terminologies, other tactics to bring down the West and the free enterprise system and democratic institutions that define it. Yesterday’s socialists are today’s progressives. They barely missed a beat." --John Hinderaker

Thursday, February 09, 2012

Gaia hammers more nails in the coffin of global warming: global sea level... drops during 2010

Brought to you by the right-wing, racist, Tea Party extremists at... NASA:

NASA Satellites Detect Pothole on Road to Higher Seas


The red line in this image shows the long-term increase in global sea level since satellite altimeters began measuring it in the early 1990s. Since then, sea level has risen by a little more than an inch each decade, or about 3 millimeters per year.


While most years have recorded a rise in global sea level, the recent drop of nearly a quarter of an inch, or half a centimeter, is attributable to the switch from El Niño to La Niña conditions in the Pacific. The insets show sea level changes in the Pacific Ocean caused by the recent El Niño and La Niña (see NASA for more information on these images). Image credit: S. Nerem, University of Colorado.

Faux scientists and United Nations eco-Marxists hardest hit


Hat tip: Free Republic.

So much for the Democrats' vaunted "separation of church and state" [Cagle Cartoons]

I heard that the vaunted 'hands-off President' -- Obama himself -- came off the links long enough to make a decision. No more leading from behind for Barack, not when it comes to mandating that Catholics, Orthodox Jews and other religious groups provide abortion pills for free... whether they like it or not!

According to The New York Times (no link, Google it if you need to):

In the end, it was Mr. Obama himself who made the decision, aides say, calculating that at the end of the day, the issue of public health access outweighed the concerns of the religious institutions.

If, as some contend, that Obama truly is a narcissist, it may be difficult for the president to reverse course.

Narcissistic personality disorder symptoms may include:

• Believing that you're better than others
• Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness
• Exaggerating your achievements or talents
• Expecting constant praise and admiration
• Believing that you're special and acting accordingly
• Failing to recognize other people's emotions and feelings
• Expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans
• Taking advantage of others
• Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior
• Being jealous of others
• Believing that others are jealous of you
• Trouble keeping healthy relationships
• Setting unrealistic goals
• Being easily hurt and rejected
• Having a fragile self-esteem
• Appearing as tough-minded or unemotional

When you have narcissistic personality disorder, you may come across as conceited, boastful or pretentious. You often monopolize conversations. You may belittle or look down on people you perceive as inferior. You may have a sense of entitlement. And when you don't receive the special treatment to which you feel entitled, you may become very impatient or angry. (Source: Narcissistic Personality Disorder - The Mayo Clinic)


Please note: any relationships you may see between these symptoms and Mr. Obama are solely the responsibility of the reader.


Best Illustration Ever: Democrat Color Wheel!

Spotted (and shamelessly ripped off) from the peerless Moonbattery (update: the original came from The Looking Spoon):

And I couldn't resist creating the equivalent version for the real Republican Party (not big government Statists, but Constitutional conservatives and the Tea Partiers):

Bold differences, sharp contrasts.

Which is why I support Rick Santorum for President. The nattering nabobs and paid lackeys can decry Santorum as a big government hack all they want. I'll let the various conservative groups we care about rank him: judge for yourself.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com.