Saturday, February 18, 2012

Excellent news: EPA takes over regulatory authority for wildlife contraception; approves new horse contraceptive vaccine

These Democrats are obsessed with sex. Oh, and remember: there's nothing to cut from the bloated federal government.

EPA approves new horse contraceptive vaccine


Dr. Jay F. Kirkpatrick believes the key to wildlife population control isn't in culling out the existing population but in addressing its reproduction.

"If you remove them — if that's your major management approach — you're not addressing the problem, you're addressing the symptom," he said. "If you attack reproduction, you get to the source of the problem."

That's the approach the Science and Conservation Center has taken in its production of porcine zona pellucida (PZP), the active ingredient in a contraceptive vaccine approved on Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency for use in horses. Kirkpatrick is one of three people who own and operate the local, nonprofit research laboratory.

Registered under the name ZonaStat-H, it is the first such vaccine approved and registered by the EPA, which recently took over regulatory authority for wildlife contraception, with the exception of zoos, from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

If I were the president for a day, I would cut the budgets of all of these useless bureaucracies by 95%. Why 95%? Because the remaining 5% is for the children.


Dreams From My Single-Parent Family

In September of 2009, a cell-phone video that depicted Chicago public school students beating a fellow teen to death circulated throughout the Internet and the mainstream media.

Curiously, none of the media outlets that covered the story bothered to recollect that President Barack Obama had once served as a community organizer and then a state senator in these very same South Side neighborhoods.

Throughout his years working for "change", Obama paid scant heed to the primary cause of violence and dependency in the area: the eradication of the black two-parent family by decades of Democrat policies.

Community organizing had gotten its start in Chicago under the direction of an activist named Saul Alinsky. Alinsky believed that poverty was the result of political inequities. He envisioned a power-grab by the "have-nots" of society, who would form massive, grassroots coalitions that would defeat the rich and redistribute their possessions.

But the Alinsky movement suffered two calamitous setbacks in the years leading up to the Obama era. First, the "War on Poverty" had established a governmental community organizing bureaucracy called the Community Action Agency. Rife with corruption, the agency's money was misappropriated and used to fund gang warfare, rape and murder.

In addition, the Alinsky playbook was doubly irrelevant because blacks occupied most of the positions of power in Chicago. The city had elected its first black mayor, Harold Washington; it had power-brokers like Emil Jones, Jr. in the State Senate; and Jesse Jackson would launch his 1984 presidential campaign in the south side.

Despite the sea-change in political influence, Chicago had exploded in a maelstrom of black-on-black violence. In 1984, the year Obama came to Chicago, one of the top high school basketball players in the country -- an immensely talented and likable center named Ben Wilson -- was murdered by gang members.

The outcry was as predictable as it was ineffectual. None of the power-brokers pointed out that all of Wilson's killers came from single-parent families. None concerned themselves with the mind-blowing statistic: 75% of all black Chicago kids were born out of wedlock. In fact, it became a cultural norm for young black men to father children and flee responsibility. The result was rampant crime. In fact, statistical studies show that, whether you are white, black or brown, you have the exact same chance of going to prison if you come from a single-parent family.

In Obama's book Dreams from My Father, his narrative "is almost devoid of men. With the exception of the local ministers and the occasional semi-crazed black nationalist, Obama inhabits a female world. His organizing targets are almost all single mothers. He never wonders where and who the fathers of their children are. When Obama sees a group of boys vandalizing a building, he asks rhetorically: 'Who will take care of them: the alderman, the social workers? The gangs?' The most appropriate candidate—'their fathers'—never occurs to him."

Rather than confront the central issue, Obama as community organizer initially struggled to find his role. He was relieved to find that a Mayor's Education and Training (MET) office had no branch in Roseland, and he promptly filed an application to open one. The office had as much of an effect on the area as his asbestos removal efforts, which is to say: none. In fact, youth violence continued to increase and by his third year, 57 children had been killed in the city.

In 1994, a series of brutal child murders galvanized public attention: an 11-year old gang member was executed to keep him from implicating others in an accidental shooting death. A month later, a five-year old boy who had refused to steal candy for two under-12 gang members was dropped from a 14-story building. Not one of the participants came from a two-parent family.

A year after these notorious murders, the would-be candidate for state senator granted an interview to The Chicago Reader. Rather than point out the lack of family structure endemic to the rampant violence, Obama instead attacked "the Christian Right and the Republican Congress for 'hijack[ing] the higher moral ground with this language of family values and moral responsibility.' Yeah, sure, family values are fine, he says, but what about 'collective action . . . collective institutions and organizations'? Let’s take 'these same values that are encouraged within our families,' he urges, 'and apply them to a larger society.'"

The ignorance or naivete inherent in these statements expose a bizarre worldview. Never in the history of western civilization has some collectivist framework served as a realistic substitute for the traditional family structure. In Obama's Chicago, fathers are AWOL; and some nebulous obligation for "collective action" has no chance of succeeding without a sense of personal responsibility. In fact, Obama downplays the notion of a familial duty and points to an overall societal failure, saying "...we have a society that talks about the irresponsibility of teens getting pregnant... [but] not the irresponsibility of a society that fails to educate them to aspire for more."

The ideology of Alinsky then -- as now -- appears to have polluted Obama's sense of right and wrong. Where history, facts, logic and reason point to the need to encourage, nurture and reward the traditional family unit, Obama instead vilifies family values and those who promote them.

For decades, Obama and the Democrats have embraced an utterly defective and destructive strategy: Crushing school choice. Incentivizing single-parent families. Encouraging a lifelong culture of dependency.

The children of Obama's South Side deserve better. They deserve more than a dream of a father.


Based upon: Heather Mac Donald, Chicago’s Real Crime Story, City Journal.

Who needs the Keystone XL pipeline? Gas prices hit record for this time of year, poised to hit $4.25+ in April

But remember: he's historic:

Gasoline prices have never been higher this time of the year. At $3.53 a gallon, prices are already up 25 cents since Jan. 1. And experts say they could reach a record $4.25 a gallon by late April.

"You're going to see a lot more staycations this year," says Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. "When the price gets anywhere near $4, you really see people react."

Already, W. Howard Coudle, a retired machinist from Crestwood, Mo., has seen his monthly gasoline bill rise to $80 from about $60 in December. The closest service station is selling regular for $3.39 per gallon, the highest he's ever seen.

No, it's not an April Fool's joke.

Meanwhile, the citizens of the People's Republik of Kalifornia are paying the price for legislators' energy idiocy:

Just in time for Presidents Day: get ready for the long holiday weekend's highest prices ever in Southern California as $4 gasoline is expected to arrive in Los Angeles, Long Beach, and probably Orange County, too.

That's what energy analysts are predicting as the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area reached $3.996 a gallon overnight, up nearly 2 cents since Thursday. That was also a jump of 15.9 cents a gallon since last week.

Which is why even The Washington Post called Obama's decision to shutter the massive Keystone XL pipeline "an act of insanity."


The .0000000001 percent

Keith Koffler of White House Dossier is the Sherlock Holmes of the press corps (pronounced /kôrps/):

Michelle Obama has embarked on a skiing vacation with her daughters in Aspen, Colorado, according to the Aspen Daily News.

The first lady, who just returned last month from 17 days of relaxation in Hawaii, is skiing in Colorado on Presidents’ Day Weekend for the second year in a row... Last year she went to Vail....

Michelle’s decision to ski out West again instead of hitting slopes closer to Washington would seem an inopportune choice for a first lady who is helping her husband campaign on issues of “fairness.”

The Obama campaign has set itself up as the defender of the poor and the middle class against the “One Percent,” a theme which clashes with the image a first lady who is taking frequent and exclusive vacations.

Just last August, she sojourned on Martha’s Vineyard, and the month before she travelled to southern Africa for a trip that mixed official business with tourist outings like an African safari. In July 2010, she took an exorbitant excursion to the southern coast of Spain, flying out with friends and family on a large jet that often serves as Air Force 2 and then staying at a ritzy hotel...


The official Doug Ross Hypocrisy-Meter broke long ago after this administration pegged the needle a record 804 times in 2011 alone.


Image: HillBuzz.

Discovered: Bill Ayers' First Book for Children

Noted educator (and "just another guy from the neighborhood") Bill Ayers appears to have authored a little-known children's book, discovered by Biff Spackle in his spare time as a dumpster-diver.

It's simply heartwarming to read these inspirational tales to your kids.


Agenda for Democratic National Convention

Cub Reporter Biff Spackle scoops the world with the tippity-top secret agenda for the DNC.

2012 Democrat National Convention
Schedule of Events

 7:00 pm OPENING FLAG BURNING
 7:15 pm PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE UNITED NATIONS
 7:20 pm Max Baucus PROPOSES A TOAST TO Barack Obama
 7:25 pm OPENING PRAYER - Reverend Jeremiah Wright
 7:45 pm CEREMONIAL TREE HUGGING - Darryl Hannah
 7:55 pm Max Baucus PROPOSES A TOAST TO Joe Biden
 8:00 pm GLOBAL WARMING OMFG!!!!!!!!! - Al Gore
 8:30 pm GAY WEDDING PLANNING - Rosie O'Donnell
 8:55 pm Max Baucus PROPOSES A TOAST TO Hillary Clinton
 9:00 pm CHARGING OUR TROOPS WITH WAR CRIMES - John Kerry
 9:30 pm MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR GADDAFI - Cindy Sheehan and Susan Sarandon
 9:55 pm INCOHERENT RAMBLING ABOUT COWBOY POETRY, ETC. - Harry Reid
10:00 pm Max Baucus PROPOSES A TOAST TO Sen. Ben Nelson
10:05 pm COLLECTION DRIVE FOR THE OSAMA BIN LADEN MEMORIAL FUND - Babs Streisand
10:30 pm FREE THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS FROM GUANTANAMO BAY - Sean Penn
11:00 pm OVAL OFFICE AFFAIRS - William Jefferson Clinton
11:45 pm Max Baucus PROPOSES A TOAST TO Nancy Pelosi's Rack
11:50 pm A PLEA FOR MASS PARDONS OF THE OCCUPY WALL STREET RAPISTS - Howard Dean
12:15 am FREE THE MINUTEMEN IN AFGHANISTAN'S PRISONS - Michael Moore
12:25 am Max Baucus PROPOSES A TOAST TO Beyonce
12:30 am SATELLITE ADDRESS - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
12:45 am NOMINATION OF BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA - Nancy Pelosi
1:00 am Max Baucus SINGS NATIONAL ANTHEM
1:05 am CORONATION OF BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
1:30 am Max Baucus PROPOSES A TOAST TO Ritt Santgingridge
1:35 am Bill Clinton asks Max Baucus to drive Hillary home.


Larwyn's Linx: Is the Current Santorum Criticism Substantive, Or Political?

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

GOP Primary

Is the Current Santorum Criticism Substantive, Or Political?: Riehl
Gingrich bus is now just a metaphor: NakedDC
Rick Santorum thinks gambling is bad for you: ProWis

Do voters know Romney’s views on Global Warming?: RWN
2012 Ad War: Santorum Fights Mud With Humor: PolWire
Questions surface on Gingrich campaign travel payments: Times

Nation

Obama holds fundraiser, massive Tea Party breaks out: GWP
F-16s intercept plane flying near Marine One: ArmyTimes
FBI Arrests Man in Fake Suicide Vest on Way to Capitol: Wire

House GOP using new tactic to block Obama regulations: Hot Air
Dick Lugar: A so-called ‘statesman’ without a state: Hoosier
A Most Dangerous Website Still Up and Running: CFP

Economy

How Entitlement America is strangling the rest of America: Scoop
CBO gives the stimulus package a good, solid F-: Hot Air
NLRB Staff: NLRB Bosses Have Declared War on Us: LUR

Happy Third Anniversary, Stimulus!: Powers
UAW Gives Union Workers At GM $7K Bonus: S&L
Long-term unemployed topped 40% in December 2009... for the first time since 1948: IBD

Obama does support tax relief!: Looking Spoon
Justice says Supreme Court should revisit campaign finance: Times
Happy Belated Third Birthday, Stimulus!: RWN

Pro-Walker signature verification effort needs your help this weekend: LI
The Key to Markets Performance Until November, 2012: Oracle
The Federal Reserve’s Explicit Goal: Devalue The Dollar 33%: Insider

Scandal Central

Dem Convention co-chair's company received $230M in green energy loans: Beacon
‘Fast and Furious’ probe shows Burke called DOJ officials ‘chuckleheads’: WaPo
Project Gunrunner Wasn't Fast and Furious by Any Means: AT

Climate & Energy

The DeSmoggers are crashing and burning: Watts
Keystone Pipeline Finds New Opponents: Roll Call
Emails Show Chu's Loan-Deal Role: WSJ

Media

Hey PolitiFact, here’s your death panel: Surber
AP: Santorum Is Out Of Step With The Nation: S&L
Resist Car Insurance We Much: Al Sharpton’s SUV Impounded at La Guardia: Powers

Tucker Carlson: “The Press Are More Corrupt Even than I Think People Think”: VS
Controlling the Birth Control Debate: Alexa
I get it now, the Democrats are trying to distract us: WyBlog

America or Ameritopia: Levin
Occupy Protester Charged With Battery on Police Officer at “Peaceful March Protesting Police Brutality”: JWF
Maher Distinguishes Between His Bush Insults And Conservative ‘Disrespect’ Towards Obama: Mediaite

World

Liberal Rats Flee the Mideast Ship: BRubin
Iranian naval ships enter Mediterranean via Suez: Reuters
Hacked: How China is stealing America's business secrets: Week

Holder & DOJ Fail to Prosecute Palestinian Terrorists who Kill Americans Overseas: BigPeace
Reid attacks Rubio for insufficient racial loyalty: Hayward
Fake US bonds worth trillions seized: BBC

Media and Obama Administration Reserve Harsher Treatment for U.S. Soldiers than Taliban: BigPeace
Turkey will not allow NATO to share intelligence with Israel: Breitbart
Gov. Christie's Strange Relationship with Radical Islam: IPT

Sci-Tech

Must-Complete Projects for Every Hardcore Tech Geek: Wired
Nevada Approves Road Rules For Google's Driverless Cars: Insider
Google, Three Months In: Joe Marini

Cornucopia

DC Driver's "NO TAGS" Vanity Plate Leads To $20,000 In Tickets: Consumerist
Superhuman pull-ups: YouTube
Queen of Sheba's lost gold mine discovered, archaeologist claims: Fox

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

QOTD: "The centerpiece [of German's resurgence] were labor-market reforms designed by a former human-resources executive at Volkswagen AG. The power of unions and craft guilds was curtailed, making it easier for unskilled youth to enter the job market and easier for employers to hire and fire at will. Germany's lavish unemployment benefits were sharply cut back. An unemployed person in social-democratic Germany today can draw benefits for only about half as long as his counterpart in capitalist America.

The immediate reaction was a brief rise in unemployment, as German business was allowed for the first time to optimize its labor force. And there was a backlash by powerful union and guild interests, costing Mr. Schroeder his bid for re-election. But Germany was transformed.

Today's chancellor, Angela Merkel, who replaced Mr. Schroeder, has praised him for his "courage and determination." She is now spearheading the effort to repeat his Agenda 2010 template throughout Europe. Surely if Germany could start with the wreckage of a communist slave-state and make itself into the most dynamic developed economy in the world, its template could transform sluggish and over-indebted economies like Italy and Spain." --Donald Luskin

Friday, February 17, 2012

Conservative News Made Simple

Need an easier and faster way to read the most important stories from all of your favorite blogs and news sites?

BadBlue.com monitors Twitter to determine which news stories are most important, based upon retweets and discussion. It runs 24-by-7 monitoring hundreds of blogs and new sites.

While it may look a bit like the Drudge Report, there are many differences. For instance, you can find the top stories that are trending now, over the last 24 hours, the last week, or even the last month.

You can also track the popularity of each story over time. Here's an example:

Need a list of stories from each news source? Here are the top stories from Ricochet.com:

Check it out. And if you like it, bookmark BadBlue and follow its updates on Twitter at @BadBlueNews.

Now conservatives have a real news portal.


Chart: We Are The Forgotten 33%

Look up the word unsustainable in the dictionary and you might see a chart that looks like this.

Much has been made of the 1% vs. the 99%; the “super-rich” vs. the rest of us, who are presumably the hard working, loyal Americans who’ve been left behind. But who are the rest of us, and how does who we are affect how much we pay in taxes, and how we may vote?

The chart ... depicts the American electorate divided not into two groups – the 1% vs. the 99%, but four groups – the 1% super-rich, then 20% representing government workers, 46% representing citizens who either pay zero taxes or negative taxes (ala the “earned income credit”), and the remaining 33% who are neither super-rich, government employees, or not paying taxes. One might term this group the forgotten 33%, because no special interest will speak for them. They have neither the numbers nor the financial wherewithal to decisively influence elections...

...This identity of interests between the political class and the entitled class has created a supermajority of voters in America who have a self-interest in supporting big-government.

Perhaps the most appalling – and unchallenged – fallacy promoted by the big-government supermajority, primarily through their spokespersons in the public sector unions, is that the super-rich are “trying to destroy the middle-class by pitting the private sector workers against the public sector workers.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

With the dramatic extensions to unemployment insurance implemented by the Obama Democrats, the private sector is now paying people not to work:

President Obama is crowing that the unemployment rate is falling—to 8.3% in January—but he and his party are still insisting as part of the payroll tax deal that payments to the jobless must increase again. So add on another $30 billion or so to the $200 billion that this extra "unemployment insurance" has already cost since the recession...

...But for the last three and a half years those payments—about 35% to 40% of the worker's last pay check—have been extended eight times to an all-time high 99 weeks in many states. So now taxpayers pick up the check for as much as two years of not working, even as jobs become easier to find...

...[But t]wo of President Obama's most senior economists—former White House aide Larry Summers and current Council of Economic Advisers chairman Alan Krueger—have published studies documenting this antiwork incentive. According to a study co-authored by Mr. Krueger in 2002: "Higher and longer duration UI benefits will cause unemployed workers who receive UI to take longer to find a new job."

The sooner the Democrat Party is wiped out at the ballot box, the sooner this insanity can end. Before it's too late.


Democrat Civility, Exhibit #4,305

I wonder what Gabbi Giffords and her family think of this display:

Earlier this month, Arizona State Senator Rick Murphy introduced four bills designed to curb union’s collective bargaining rights in the state. Union members/occupiers held a protest rally against the measures on February 3rd. One of the signs carried at the rally shows the kind of civility we can expect from progressives:

You can see the video this came from here. Keep in mind, this protest took place in Tucson where, just last January, Jared Loughner shot 19 people, leading to a nationwide call for more civility and a “new tone” in politics. The President himself weighed in on this during a nationally televised memorial service.

So the unions want to kill state representatives for proposing bills let workers opt out of paying dues. Delightful.

Collective bargaining, which requires workers to pay dues whether they want to join a union or not, is legalized thievery. If you are compelled to pay dues against your will -- to a group of fat-cat union bosses with none of your interests in mind -- you are an indentured servant.

Collective bargaining needs to go.


The White House: laser-focused on making condoms easier to get than jobs

Two figures spotted at The Right Scoop illustrate how close we are to the precipice:

This is stunning. Zero Hedge has an article today showcasing research from Wyatt Emerich of The Cleveland Current. He shows how a single parent making minimum wage, with a family of 3 children, has more disposable income that someone making $60k/year...

And this is in Mississippi, not California. Who knows how much more they are getting there...

For another reality check, we look at a chart that PowerLine picked up from the Republican Study Committee on the decline in jobs. Here is how they describe it...:

It depicts the percentage of Americans in the labor force from January 2005 (commonly known as the “good old days” through January 2012. The decline in the number of working Americans is staggering. And note that Barack Obama became president in January 2009, about 3/4 of the way through the gray “recession,” and just before the “stimulus” that is marked with a red dot. What has happened since Obama took office is that the jobs situation has steadily deteriorated:


This is why we are headed for a debt crisis. No jobs and we’re subsidizing everything under the sun.

If only Obama would expend as much energy on private sector job creation as he does on mandating abortion pills.


Hat tips: BadBlue. Headline idea: Mark Levin.

Larwyn's Linx: Keeping Your Eye on the Ball

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

Nation

Keeping Your Eye on the Ball: Ricochet
Every Argument In Support Of The HHS Mandate: Howling
The real motivation for the contraception mandate: Nice Deb

Please, a little honesty about illegal immigration: Hanson
Obama's Army: Fake Breasts and 'Empathy' Bellies: FoxNation
DWS Decries Those Who Impose Their Values on Others: Malkin

GOP Primary

Santorum's Manufacturing Policy Finds Few Fans: IBD
Santorum Holds Big Lead in Ohio: PolWire
Maine Republicans to Recount Votes: PolWire

Economy

Obama’s Farcical Budget Betrays Crisis-Driven Strategy: Blumer
Inflation? Not Just Yet, but It’s Coming: P&F
Homeland Security: Keeping Us Safe from Illegal Hair Dryers: Ricochet

CBO: 'longest stretch of high unemployment since Depression': Peth
Geithner Again Says Presidents Budget ‘Unsustainable’: NoisyRm
Geithner: "We have no solution": Pundette

Obama Budgets Show Weak Recovery Behind Big Deficits: IBD
$20 Mil To Help States Spend Federal Money: JW
Obama EPA Mandate Will Eliminate Half of U.S. New Car Buyers: NoisyRm

Scandal Central

Millions of Dead Voters, Brought to You By Eric Holder: Adams
Wind power plug pulled in Illinois: Watts
The Obama Budget and Wind Power: CFP

Climate & Energy

The Anatomy of a Global Warming Smear: Watts
Obama Likes High Gasoline Prices, But Won't Admit It: IBD
Think of All the Jobs We’re Creating in Regulatory Compliance!: Cato

Media

Allen West commemorates Black History Month by telling the truth about Republicans and Black history: Scoop
Why Santorum Is Stronger Against Obama Than Romney: Ricochet
WaPo's Rubin Smears Santorum Over His Religious Beliefs: Riehl

CNN’s Jack Cafferty Now Dissing Obama On The Economy And Debt: Cove
Alan Dershowitz slams Media Matters as fascists, anti-Semitic bigots: Scoop
First Amendment protects bloggers, too: Exam

CNN Hits Santorum for His Religious Beliefs: NB
Young Voters Desert Obama: Glob
#Occupy Protester Goes On Iranian TV To Complain About Oppressive American Police: Jawa

Levin: Rome burns and the left is talking about contraception: Scoop
Bill O'Reilly: If Obama Wins in November "You're Not Going to Recognize This Country in 4 Years": HyScience
Sean Penn should return his Malibu estate to the Mexican: Telegraph

World

Obama Administration Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament Disaster: BlackFive
The laughter is dying down in Egypt: Daily Star
Why do we worry more about Israel attacking Iran than about Iran attacking Israel with a nuke?: IBD

Obama wants US taxpayers to pay to help build an Islamic World Caliphate: Flopping Aces
Michigan Shuts Down Talk on Sharia – The Rest of the Story: Creeping
Germany’s president quits, Merkel seeks agreement with opposition on successor: WaPo

Sci-Tech

Food Project Proposes Matrix-Style Vertical Chicken Farms: Wired
Security slackers risk Internet blackout on March 8: InfoWorld
WSJ: Google tricked Apple's Safari in order to track users: CNet

Cornucopia

Let Us Begin: TL in Exile
Advanced English Lessons with Lady M Now Available: MOTUS
Retro Pic of the Day: F-15s Intercepting MiG-29s: DefTech

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

QOTD: "Over a year ago, I first warned that the Obama administration adopted a policy of refusing to enforce federal laws which require states to purge dead and ineligible voters from the rolls... Eric Holder and his Leftist political appointees at the Justice Department have gotten exactly what they wanted... The Pew Center on the States estimates nearly 2,000,000 dead voters are on the rolls, and 2,800,000 people are registered in more than one state. This is precisely the mess that the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) was designed to prevent.

...The Justice Department refuses to enforce Section 8 of the NVRA because, as political appointee Julie Fernandes revealed in a Voting Section meeting in 2009 that I attended, removing dead people from the rolls “doesn’t increase turnout. It stops people from voting.” Seriously." --J. Christian Adams

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Meet the masterminds who will decide what kind of health care you and your family will receive

The Wall Street Journal (via AEI) has the uncomfortable low-down on what Obamacare means:

Meet the Obamacare mandate committee


Think the contraception decision was bad? Wait until bureaucrats start telling your insurer which cancer screenings to cover


Offended by President Obama's decision to force health insurers to pay for contraception and surgical sterilization? It gets worse: In the future, thanks to ObamaCare, the government will issue such health edicts on a routine basis—and largely insulated from public view. This goes beyond contraception to cancer screenings, the use of common drugs like aspirin, and much more.

Under ObamaCare, a single committee—the United States Preventative Services Task Force—is empowered to evaluate preventive health services and decide which will be covered by health-insurance plans.

The task force already rates services with letter grades of "A" through "D" (or "I," if it has "insufficient evidence" to make a rating). But under ObamaCare, services rated "A" or "B"—such as colon cancer screening for adults aged 50-75—must be covered by health plans in full, without any co-pays. Many services that get "Cs" and "Ds"—such as screening for ovarian or testicular cancer—could get nixed from coverage entirely...

...Americans first became familiar with the task force in November 2009, when it made the controversial decision to recommend that women ages 40-49 shouldn't get routine mammograms. More recently, it rebuffed routine prostate-cancer screening and the use of tests that detect the viruses that can cause cervical cancer.

...The task force is a part-time board of volunteer advisers that works slowly and is often late to incorporate new science into its recommendations. Only in 2009 did it finally recommend aspirin for the prevention of stroke and heart attack among those at risk—decades after this practice was demonstrated to save lives and had become part of standard medical practice.

The article's author recommends several common-sense measures:

• Congress should make the task force "subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which would at least require it to hold its deliberations in public."

• And Congress should likewise "let private health plans—and their members—decide on their own how preventive tests and treatments should be covered."

All of this is a brutal wake-up call for Americans: Obama's contraception mandate isn't an anomaly. It's the sign of things to come.


Hat tip: BadBlue.

Remember that scene in Animal House when they flashed the slide of Flounder on the screen?

Drudge does it again:

Getty captions this photo as follows: "US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers remarks at an event in recognition of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation February 16, 2012 in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the Department of State in Washington, DC."

Drudge really needs to have some sort of interstitial warning when running a lede photo like that.


It was Bush's fault...

...not.

Here's the only chart you need to combat the absurd lies of the Left.

Bush was certainly a big-government Republican. But no human being in history has spent as recklessly as Barack Obama (with the help of Democrat miscreants like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid). No one's even come close. Together this troika of idiocy has lawlessly permitted the country to run for more than 1,000 days without a budget.

The budget deficit in 2007 – the last budget approved by the Republican Congress before Nancy Pelosi became speaker – was $160 billion. When the Democrats took over, the deficit exploded. So, yes, Barack Obama inherited a huge deficit from the Democrats in Congress.

...You can also see above that it is irresponsible spending, not revenue, that is driving the debt.

Barack Obama, with the help of a Democratic Congress, has put us on an unsustainable path. This country cannot afford four more years of this man’s destructive policies. He must be defeated.

But November is coming.


A Chart From the Obama Budget That Is So Horrifying It Must Have Been Left In Accidentally

There are many historic "firsts" associated with the Obama administration, but none more curious than the appointment of the first known tax cheat as Treasury Secretary. Tim "TurboTax" Geithner is a partisan hack of the first order and his recent testimony before the House Budget Committee should be required reading for all Americans.

Testifying before the House Budget Committee today, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told Chairman Paul Ryan the following: “We’re not coming before you to say we have a definitive solution to that long-term problem. What we do know is we don’t like yours.”

Actually, President Obama sort of did have a definitive solution. He created a debt commission, which devised a long-term debt reduction plan. Which the president rejected. And instead, we get this new budget proposal, which makes no effort to deal with Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security — the long-term drivers of U.S. federal debt. The debt curve never gets bent, as [this] White House (!) chart shows.


Yes, this chart came right out of the Obama administration's budget.

It says: follow us! We're headed for collapse!

At one point during the hearing, Ryan brought out this chart illustrating the impact of the Ryan debt plan, the one Geithner said “we don’t like”:

And here was the exchange between Geithner and Ryan, after Ryan pointed the terrifying baseline (in red):

GEITHNER: You could have taken [the chart] out [to the year] 3000 or to 4000. [Laughs]

RYAN: Yeah, right. We cut it off at the end of the century because the economy, according to the CBO, shuts down in 2027 on this path.


And that’s no joke, Mr. Geithner.

Actually, the topmost chart is a joke. A sick, tragic joke, the butt of which is us.

Our country cannot survive another four years of Barack Obama.


Larwyn's Linx: Obama's X-Files

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

GOP Primary

Obama's X-Files: JPA
Ohio Poll: Santorum 36, Romney 29, Gingrich 20, Paul 9: WS
Santorum’s hat trick spurs Facebook friend surge: Politico

Election 2012: Republican Presidential Primary: Rasmussen
Why did Santorum lose in 2006? :York
Santorum on the elite snobs that want to control you: Scoop

Nation

For Liljenquist, Mourdock, and Cruz: A Tea Party Senate takeover: Malkin
How Republicans can win even if the economy keeps improving: Peth
Meese: Obama Administration 'as Close to a Monarchy as George III': CNS

Levin: A Functioning House Would Impeach Sebelius: CNS
Dwarf Senator: Right to Insurance Trumps Religious Freedom: LifeNews
Possible Democrat Plant to Face Allen West in GOP Primary?: Shark

Is IRS Targeting Obama's Enemies?: NewAm
The Truth Behind Obama’s Truth Team: CDN
Maxine Waters: Boehner and Cantor ‘Demons’: NRO

Economy

How Taxing the Rich Harms the Middle Class: AEI
OMB Director Challenged to Resign After Refusing to Answer Budget Question: FreeB
Santelli: IL budget makes Greece look like Utopia: FreeB

Cost of Four Years of Obama: $5,170,000,000,000.00: MB
The DOJ is wrong when it claims the ObamaCare mandate is a tax, says … Obama’s OMB chief: Hot Air
Obama Valentine’s Day Splurge Priced at Up To $300: Dossier

Timmy Geithner Just Took a Tax Spanking!: RedCty
Guess Who Has the Only Earmark in the Senate Highway Bill?: RS
Federal School Lunch Agents: What Country Is This?: Powers

Scandal Central

WaPo finds nearly $4 billion in green-tech stimulus funds went to WH-connected firms: Hot Air
Napolitano acknowledges ‘lots of mistakes’ in Fast and Furious gun sting: Chron
Hippies hate Heartland: Bayonet

Climate & Energy

Oh, Those Green Supremacists: Driscoll
Officials: Eastern Europe's cold snap kills more than 600: USA Today
Level-pegging?: EUReferendum

Media

Media Matters tax-exempt status may face new scrutiny from Congress: DC
Media Matters took $600K for gun control while carrying?: Hot Air
Jack Kennedy, 'Elusive Hero,' Has No Clothes: IBD

Obama Media begin the Blatant Faking of Obama Poll Numbers: CDN
New York Times/CBS Gin Up Polls For Obama: S&L
Condoms, Two-Bit Whores, And Sluts At CPAC: Hawkins

Rachel Maddow and my lesson in civility: RWN
Whitney Houston Critics Called Her ‘Too White’ — Black Republicans Can Relate: RWN
Beckel: We Must Subsidize Women's Contraceptives Because of Crackheads, or Something: Tatler

The Scrubbing To Benefit Obama Has Begun: iOTW
A Point By Point Commentary On Keith Olbermann’s “Debunking” Of The Occupy Rape: Stranahan
Levin: Obama would agree with Hobbes' "Leviathan" and Wilson's "Constitutional Government": MRC TV

World

Obama's Unilateral Disarmament Of The U.S.: Howling
Joint chiefs chair: Chinese hacking not necessarily a hostile act : CNN
Farage On Greek Chaos: "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet": ZH

Ruh Roh: Moody’s places almost all EU banks on alert: TAB
Bangkok bombers planned to attack Israeli diplomats, say Thai police: Guardian
Brit teen severely beaten by “Asian” gang: Creeping

Anatomy of a Smear: 'The Third Jihad' Fights Back: Clarion
Tampa parents rip school for letting controversial Muslim group speak to students: Fox
Top Foreign Policy Reps Urge Obama not to cut Israeli Missile Defense Funding: Beacon

Sci-Tech

Anti-Gravity Yoga: Daily Mail
'App-gate' serves reminder: You're on your own: CNet
Site Hack, Continued: ProWis

Cornucopia

Join the MOTUS Truth Team: Expose the Lies: MOTUS
President Eisenhower Met With Aliens (with actual photo): Spew
Mass. parents sue to remove 'under God' from pledge: Times

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

QOTD: "Obama is a master divider, and I believe that once he has convinced a majority of American women that contraception is a “right” that should be free, he can then divide people of faith against one other and against their own church leaders. He also believes that persuading a few liberal Catholic groups to support his “compromise” ends the discussion. Someone compared this to forcing all Jews to eat pork chops just because some of them don’t keep kosher.

It is long past time that Christian leaders stood up in their pulpits and declared that a vote for Barack Obama is a vote against God. Just imagine if every Bible believing minister in America made that announcement to their congregations the Sunday before the election. Then, try to imagine what a second Obama term might look like." --Doug Patton

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Entertaining Saudi Crime Report o' the Day

You can't make this crap up:

JIZAN – A Hai’a security inspector has been fined SR3,000, six weeks in prison and 120 lashes for marrying more than four women and breaking residency laws. The Hai’a is the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

He married three Saudi women, who are on his identity card, two non-Saudi women who don’t have Iqamas and a non-Saudi who has an Iqama...

It is against Islamic law for a Muslim man to have more than four wives at one time.

...The Administrative Court at the Jizan Board of Grievances in Uhud Al-Masariha gave him 120 lashes for marrying more than four wives... He was also ordered to memorize certain chapters of the Holy Qur’an and study their interpretation. He was also banned from traveling abroad for five years, delivering a speech in the mosque and leading prayers in the mosque.

System Error: No Snark Available At This Time.


Brief Separated-at-birth Interlude

Former Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams and the late, great Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet.

Whatcha think? Any other unconventional SABs?


Top Congressional Foreign Policy Experts Beg Obama Not to Cut Israeli Missile Defense Funding

Well, this doesn't appear to be good news for the tiny country of Israel.

Two of the House’s top foreign policy voices have petitioned President Obama to reconsider his proposal to reduce U.S. missile defense funding to Israel.

Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Howard McKeon, respectively the chairs of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, jointly write that they are “deeply concerned” over Obama’s “record low support for this vital defense cooperation program,” which was first reported on by the Washington Free Beacon...

For the second straight year, the Obama administration has proposed to reduce the level of funding for Israel’s critical Arrow and David’s Sling defense systems. This despite the president’s repeated declarations that the U.S. has an “iron-clad commitment” to Israel’s security.

In conjunction with Obama's "lead from behind" strategy related to Iran -- which has simply emboldened the Mullahs as they pursue nuclear weapons -- this development is beyond ominous. It's apocalyptic.