Monday, February 20, 2012

Let's Go Back to the Replay: How Bob Casey Beat Rick Santorum in 2006

What happened in Washington? Millions of jobs lost. The largest deficit ever. An arrogant government out of touch. "Pennsylvania deserves a senator in touch with Pennsylvania... we need someone fighting for fair-trade laws, that don't give away our jobs... someone who will stand up against the partisan politics in Washington... someone who's fiscally responsible... who balances a budget, just like you do, every day of your lives. We can do better in Washington, and we will. I'm Bob Casey, and I approve this message." --Transcript of Bob Casey, Democrat for Senate Ad, 2006

The midterm elections held on November 7, 2006 resulted in a massive victory for Democrats, allowing them to capture the House, the Senate, and a majority of state legislatures and governorships from the GOP.

Senator Rick Santorum was one of the victims of the sweeping Republican loss, falling to Bob Casey by a double-digit margin.

Wikipedia describes some of the major reasons for the national power shift, which included "the decline of the public image of George W. Bush, the dissatisfaction of the handling of both Hurricane Katrina and the War in Iraq, Bush's legislative defeat regarding Social Security Reform, and the culture of corruption, which were the series of scandals in 2006 involving Republican politicians."

As for Santorum himself, The Washington Examiner notes that:

The biggest policy reason for Santorum's loss was his outspoken support for the war in Iraq. By November 2006, the war was going badly and threatened to turn into a full-scale catastrophe. President Bush resisted calls to change course and had not yet settled on the troop surge that would ultimately rescue the situation from disaster. While Santorum's Democratic opponent, Bob Casey, called for a different course, Santorum stuck with the president, and with the war.

"As other Republicans attempt to steer away from Iraq and terrorism, Sen. Rick Santorum argued yesterday that America must stop 'sleepwalking' while 'evil enemies' plot the nation's destruction, making foreign policy a focal point in the final days of his campaign," the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on October 27, 2006. Santorum made the finale of his campaign into a so-called "Gathering Storm" tour, in which he mixed support of the war with calls for continuing vigilance in the war on terror. In making the war such a central part of his campaign, Santorum stubbornly kept the focus on the weakest part of his candidacy.

The voters clobbered him for it. In Pennsylvania exit polls, 61 percent of voters said they disapproved of the war. Santorum lost among them, 15 percent to Casey's 85 percent. Among the largest sub-group of war opponents, the 42 percent of voters who said they strongly disapproved of the war, Santorum lost seven percent to 93 percent. That by itself was enough to doom any hopes for a third term.

That Mitt Romney criticizes Santorum for losing an election -- primarily for his support of the Iraq 'Surge' that the Massachusetts Governor also backed -- is disingeuous at best. Romney didn't run for reelection in 2006.

In this morning’s debate on NBC, Rick Santorum questioned Mitt Romney’s decision not to run for reelection when he was governor of Massachusetts... “Well, if his record was so great as governor of Massachusetts why didn't he run for reelection?” Santorum asked. “I mean if you didn't want to even stand before the people of Massachusetts and run on your record--if it was that great, why did you bail out?”

...Had Romney accomplished the majority of the “100 things [he] wanted to do” in office, or enough of them to be satisfied? Had he decided, at that point, to run for president in 2008 and that the best way to do that would be outside the governor’s mansion in Boston? Or had Romney looked at the poll numbers, which were declining throughout the second half of his term (he was spending a lot of time in Iowa and New Hampshire around then), and concluded that he couldn’t win reelection against a popular Democrat?

A review of Bob Casey's television ads paint a clear picture of his approach to defeating Santorum. In short, he ran to the right of Rick Santorum, promising:

• Fiscal responsibility

• A balanced federal budget

• Stronger border security

• Less centralized government in Washington

Bob Casey beat Rick Santorum in 2006 the way all Democrats win in the rational 46 states (California, Hawaii, Illinois and New York not included): He lied. He lied early, often and about everyone and everything.

Fiscal responsibility? While endorsing Barack Obama, voting for out-of-control federal spending, Obamacare, and supporting amnesty for illegal immigration?

How's that working out for you, Pennsylvania?

The Casey game-plan for victory over Santorum has about as much relevance for the Obama campaign as salads have for Michael Moore. Which is to say: none at all.


Larwyn's Linx: The Building Backlash Against Rick Santorum

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

GOP Primary

The Building Backlash Against Rick Santorum: AmPower
The Left Fuels Santorum Surge: Star Parker
Birth control is NOT how we beat Obama. It’s the economy, stupid!: RS

Santorum Expands Lead Over Romney: PolWire
Adelson and Santorum Agree on Gambling: Commentary
Newt: If Mitt Loses Michigan, He's Done: Breitbart

Obama Behind Every Republican Except Gingrich In Iowa: OTB
Obama struggling in Iowa, poll says: USAT
For Santorum voters, he's a candidate like them: Reuters

Nation

Health insurance costs to rise 31% -- Obamacare architect: AT
The 2012 Elections: The Constitution Must Win!: Moral Liberal
Ruth Bader Ginsburg stepping down in 2015: UPI

Reid: Recess Appointments for Everybody!: Tatler
Memo to Jews: After the Catholics, You're Next: Spengler
Gay Arizona Sheriff Caught Lovin on an Illegal?: CDN

Economy

Taxing Medical Progress to Death: Malkin
Michelle's Aspen Vacation: Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous: Nice Deb
Democrats, Inc.: WS

Disability Claims Up As Unemployment Benefits Run Out: Malkin
Bill Nelson's (D-FL) Farms Avoid $43,000 in Taxes: BigG
Greek CDS to Trigger in March: Mish

Climate & Energy

‘None of the Above’ is not an Energy Strategy: RS
Obama's Gas Pains: Power Line
Obama: $5 gas is a good thing; means economy is “recovering”: Blogmocracy

Obama Tiptoes Around Congress on Greenhouse Gas Issues: LoneCon
Will Obama “Keystone” Alaska’s Pebble Mine? You Betcha!: Wizbang
Jettisoning Juliatard..?: Soylent Green

Media

Paul Krugman's Playboy Interview: Supports Occupy Movement, Defends Revolting 9-11 Comments: NB
Hunting Moonbats: Frankenstein Government
Professor Jacobson, Maybe We Should Both Start Blogging About Sports: RSM

Media Myth Debunked: Income Inequality Is Actually Plummeting: NB
Occupy Women’s Pants: Debunking Keith Olbermann’s Pathetic Defense of Rape: BigJ
Sean Penn's SF Home for Sale: a Minimalist $15 Million: SF Sentinel

Conservatives, Sharpen Your Shank and Shove It In: AmDigest
Andrew Breitbart Alec Baldwin: Breitbart Reply to Alec Baldwin Tweet Classic: MagNote
Why we are all Catholics now: Beck

World

Even the Los Angeles Times notices that President Obama has gone soft on Iran: WS
‘We’ve Got to Do the Job’: Former IDF Chief of Staff Bennett Says Israeli Strike on Iran ‘Imminent’: Blaze
Muslim students across Northeast monitored by NYPD: WSJ

Muslim Store Owners Pressured To Stop Selling Alcohol And Tobacco In . . . Pennsylvania…: WZ
Muslim stone Christians on Temple Mount: JihadWatch
Muslims Call for Shariah Law in India and Islamic Destruction of Hindu Idols: Creeping

Hostage Crisis in Egypt: Will Obama Fare Better than Carter?: Big Peace
Bad Idea: McRINO And Lindsey Graham Call For Arming Syrian Rebel Forces: WZ
Nothing Is Over Until We Decide It Is: babalu

Sci-Tech

Transistor Made Using a Single Atom May Help Surpass Moore’s Law: Bloomberg
A sweet dessert for breakfast may facilitate weight loss, Israeli researchers find: Haaretz
Hackers Said to be Planning to Launch Own Satellites to Combat Censorship: PC World

Cornucopia

100 Great Quotes About Life And Living: Hawkins
John Fairfax: Pirate in a Rowboat: AmDigest
Three dead, up to 8 missing in Washington state avalanche: Reuters

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

QOTD: "At a tea party rally in Columbus this morning, Santorum said the “president’s agenda” is “not about you. It’s not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your job... It’s about some phony ideal, some phony theology,” Santorum said. “Oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology, but no less a theology.”

Obama deputy press secretary Ben LaBolt called the comments the “latest low in a Republican primary campaign that has been fueled by distortions, ugliness, searing pessimism and negativity — a stark contrast with the president, who is focused every day on creating jobs and restoring economic security for the middle class.”

Santorum was asked about LaBolt calling it the “latest low” and he became increasingly angry as he answered, saying the “president has reached a new low in this country’s history of oppressing religious freedom that we have never seen before.”" --Shushannah Walshe

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Legacy Media: Hostage Crisis? What Hostage Crisis?

19 American hostages are being held by the new Islamist government in Egypt and to read the funny papers, you'd never know it.

Nineteen American citizens working for well-known and well-established nonprofit groups are being held on trumped-up charges that they tried to destabilize Egypt. Their offices were raided in late December, some are holed up in the U.S. embassy and all of them have been barred from flying out of Egypt... December is when Congress passed a number of conditions for aid to the Egyptian military, including proving a “commitment to Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, progress toward democratic reforms, and the protection of free expression, association and religion.” Not only are the last two of those conditions not being met by Egypt, but Time adds that Cairo’s case against the Americans is “propagated by the military-led regime.”

That’s also an important part of the story. To its credit, the Egyptian military played a key role in persuading Mubarak to cede power, and in preventing Egypt from careening into chaos. The Egyptian military is now trying to serve as something of a referee/power broker/king-maker. Up until this crisis, Washington recognized that while having the Egyptian military in charge is not ideal, it may be necessary to hold the political pieces together in Egypt. But if this is how the “responsible” parties in post-Mubarak Egypt are going to treat Americans, then it’s time to reevaluate everything about this interests-based relationship. Hopefully, Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey is conveying that very message in his talks in Cairo...

Performing a Google News search on this topic will provide you with stories from Commentary, FrontPage, AllAfrica, The Foundry (the Heritage Foundation's blog), Tablet (a Jewish news magazine), IOL News (South Africa), and even the New Republic.

There are no recent stories from The New York Times. Nothing from The Washington Post. Nothing from ABC News. Or NBC. Or MSNBC. Or CBS.

And what does David Gregory on Meet the Press want to discuss with House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan?

Not the "Jimmy Carter, Part Deux" hostage crisis.

Not the disastrous spike in gas prices thanks to Obama's policies of shutting off access to America's vast natural treasure trove of energy.

Not the deficit disaster awaiting America.

No, the pencil-necked liberal hack wants to talk about... contraception.

This pathetic legacy media can't vanish into bankruptcy fast enough.


Top Obama 2012 Slogans as Suggested by Readers of Ace o' Spades

The president's campaign needs a new slogan. The genteel posse of altruistic volunteers at Ace o' Spades decided crowd-sourcing would answer the challenge.

Obama 2012: Change Is Expensive
Obama 2012: Because Queen Elizabeth Really Wants A Skateboard
Obama in 2012 - Because somebody, somewhere, still works in the private sector
Obama: when an empire absolutely, positively has to be destroyed overnight
Obama 2012: Who's the cat who won't cop out / When there's danger all about?

Obama 2012: All These Vacations Aren't Going To Take Themselves
Obama 2012: Abortion, Dependency and The Thrill of Misery
Barack Obama: Smell The Embarrassment
Obama: oppression has a new face
Obama 2012: Change Is Expensive

Obama 2012: You still can't use my middle name
O'12: Because you're racist, that's why.
Obama 2012: At some point you've voted enough
O'12: Admit it, you want to find out what comes after a Trillion
Obama 2012: Because we still don't look like North Korea from space

Obama: What I Did for the Middle East, I Can Do for America
Obama 2012: Divided We Fall
Just the Tip 2012
Obama 2012: If You Were Running For President He'd Vote For You.
Once You Go Barack, Theres No Going Back

Obama 2012: An Abortion In Every Pot
Obama 2012: Because The Mayans Said So
Obama 2012: It's Still Bush's Fault!
Obama 2012: How Much Worse Could It Get?
Obama 2012: The Last Vote You'll Ever Cast

Obama 2012: Ask us about our free contraceptives!
O in '12: Because America didn't eat its peas
Obama 2012: Mulligan!
SCOAMF II: Electric Boogaloo
Obama 2012: Who's promising you more free s*** than ME?

Obama/Biden 2012: America was dressed like a whore


The Islamist Lobby Silently Infiltrates the Beltway [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

A sobering thought: The legacy media’s decision to protect Obama at all costs means they are willfully keeping the American public in the dark, suppressing vital information and debate about the steady growth of the Islamists’ influence over Obama’s foreign policy and his administration in general. We should thank Heaven for the work-around made possible by the Internet. If we can keep the regulators’ hands off, it may eventually save us. But if Barack Hussein Obama gets another four years to tinker with our nation, gornischt helfen, nothing will save us.

A note from Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson:

Please take the time to read this very important story written by a courageous Egyptian liberal intellectual about the Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood lobbies in Washington and the Obama Administration's secret collaboration with these pro-terrorist, anti-Western, anti-women, anti-American and anti-Semitic organizations. This is one of the most important articles I have read in years.

It was just revealed two days ago that FBI Director Mueller secretly met on February 8 at FBI headquarters with a coalition of groups including various Islamist and militant Arabic groups who in the past have defended Hamas and Hizballah and have also issued blatantly anti-Semitic statements. At this meeting, the FBI revealed that it had removed more than 1000 presentations and curricula on Islam from FBI offices around the country that was deemed "offensive." The FBI did not reveal what criteria was used to determine why material was considered "offensive" but knowledgeable law enforcement sources have told the IPT that it was these radical groups who made that determination. Moreover, numerous FBI agents have confirmed that from now on, FBI headquarters has banned all FBI offices from inviting any counter-terrorist specialists who are considered "anti-Islam" by Muslim Brotherhood front groups.

The February 8 FBI meeting was the culmination of a series of unpublicized directives issued in the last three months by top FBI officials to all its field offices to immediately recall and withdraw any presentation or curricula on Islam throughout the entire FBI. In fact, according to informed sources and undisclosed documents, the FBI directive was instigated by radical Muslim groups in the US who had repeatedly met with top officials of the Obama Administration to complain, among other things, that the mere usage of the term of "radical Islam" in FBI curricula was "offensive" and 'racist." And thus, directives went out by Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Mueller to censor all such material. Included in the material destroyed or removed by the FBI and the DOJ were powerpoints and articles that defined jihad as "holy war" or presentations that portrayed the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization bent on taking over the world—a major tenant that the Muslim Brotherhood has publicly stated for decades.

The Arab American Institute confirms the story:

In a continuing effort to address concerns related to inflammatory training material, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently met with community and interfaith organizations to provide an update on steps taken by the agency to rectify the matter. On Wednesday, February 8, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Arab American Institute (AAI), Interfaith Alliance, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Muflehun, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), and the Shoulder-to-Shoulder campaign had an opportunity to discuss the matter with the Public Affairs Office of the FBI. Director Robert Mueller joined the meeting to discuss these matters with the representatives from the organizations...

...[Mueller] informed participants that to date, nearly all related FBI training materials ... were reviewed by subject matter experts multiple times. Consequently, more than 700 documents and 300 presentations of material have been deemed unusable by the Bureau and pulled from the training curriculum. Material was pulled from the curriculum if even one component was deemed to 1) include factual errors, 2) be in poor taste, 3) be stereotypical, or 4) lack precision.

According to Essam Abdallah at the Investigative Project on Terrorism, not only is the Islamist lobby stealthily undermining American law enforcement, it is waging war on Arab and Muslim liberals."

Months into the Arab Spring, we realized that the Western powers, and the Obama Administration have put their support behind the new authoritarians, those who are claiming they will be brought to power via the votes of the people. Well, it is not quite so.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Nahda of Tunisia, the Justice Party of Morocco and the Islamist militias in Libya's Transitional National Council have been systematically supported by Washington at the expense of real liberal and secular forces. We saw day by day how the White House guided carefully the statements and the actions of the US and the State Department followed through to give all the chances to the Islamists and almost no chances to the secular and revolutionary youth. We will come back to detail these diplomatic and financial maneuvers which are giving victory to the fundamentalists while the seculars and progressives are going to be smashed by the forthcoming regimes.

Ted Belman offers the executive summary:

What this means is that the Obama administration has made a strategic decision to join forces with the Islamists rather than fight them. This policy has serious implications for America at home and abroad. It also has serious implications for Israel. It means that America will restrain Israel from besting the Islamists and will favour the Islamists over Israel. It is no accident that the Islamists are now in power in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt or that the The US has fully embraced Islamist Erdogan of Turkey and is supporting the advent of the MB in Syria. Nothing could be more ominous.

Chairman Issa: I think it's time for your committee to subpoena Director Mueller and Attorney General Holder on this topic.


Ratio of Americans paying NO taxes explodes to 49% thanks to Obama fairness initiative and suicidal lib policies, but mostly suicidal lib policies

No society can long survive this form of madness:

This year’s Index of Dependence on Government presented startling findings about the sharp increase of Americans who rely on the federal government for housing, food, income, student aid or other assistance. (See last week’s chart.)

Another eye-popping number was the percentage of Americans who don’t pay income taxes, which now accounts for nearly half of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, most of that population receives generous federal benefits.

“One of the most worrying trends in the Index is the coinciding growth in the non-taxpaying public,” wrote Heritage authors Bill Beach and Patrick Tyrrell. “The percentage of people who do not pay federal income taxes, and who are not claimed as dependents by someone who does pay them, jumped from 14.8 percent in 1984 to 49.5 percent in 2009.”

That means 151.7 million Americans paid nothing in 2009. By comparison, 34.8 million tax filers paid no taxes in 1984.

The rapid growth of Americans who don’t pay income taxes is particularly alarming...


Alarming, yes, since on the Obama path, "the economy, according to the CBO, shuts down in 2027."

Democrats like to claim that they're the party of science and intelligence. You'd never know it by their inability to grasp the laws of mathematics.


Related: Chart: We are the forgotten 33%.

Top 10 Demotivational Posters

From Despair.com:






Yes, I know there are really eleven. Consider the extra a bonus.


Hat tip: Ace o' Spades.

Larwyn's Linx: Contraception Misdirection

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

Nation

Contraception Misdirection: Steyn
The Seven Varieties of Gun Control Advocate: JPFO
Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?: Cold Fury

Obama To Women: “Look, Little Ladies! A Shiny Object!”: Hot Air
Yes, Walker Balanced Budget Without Raising Taxes: NB
New details released in shooting of Calif. ICE agent: USAT

Catholic Priest Arrested For Praying Outside White House: Dollard
Obama: re-elect me as I have no idea what I'm talking about: Aces
Let Him That Hath Understanding…: Camp

GOP Primary

Romney: From Electable To Not Credible In Sixty Seconds: Riehl
ABC: “Top” GOP Senator says if Mitt can’t win Michigan…: Hot Air
Will women vote for Rick Santorum?: STACLU

Guns, Butter, Jobs and Birth Control: Knish
Here’s how the GOP presidential race blows up: AEI
Aspirin, et cetera: Pundette

Blue state survey: Obama weakness in general election: Hot Air
Romney Campaign Arizona Co-Chair Resigns in Gay Sex Scandal: AmSpec
Dear Spineless Cowards: STFU About Santorum's Religion-based Comments: Riehl

Economy

From the Folks Who Brought You Cloward-Piven: Driscoll
Chicago Teachers Want a 30% Pay Increase: GWP
Federal Union Flips Out Over 0.8% Increase in Pension Contribution: BigG

Wrong Again… Obama Said His Stimulus Would Bring Caterpillar Jobs Back to Illinois – Not Even Close: GWP
Are Credit Derivatives Dead Because Greece Can’t (Won’t?) Default: Sargen
Obama buries NLRB hatchet in tour of Boeing plant: Hill

Scandal Central

It Wouldn’t Be Saturday Morning Without Another Friday Night Solyndra Document Dump to Sift Through: Malkin
Babeu Is Out of Closet, Still in Congressional Race: Tucson Weekly
Republicans Ask Chu to Explain Links Between Prologis, Solyndra: Bloomberg

Climate & Energy

Good news: Wind Production Tax Credit expiring: Marathon
$4.50/gallon gas by Memorial Day?: RS
Gas prices are highest ever for this time of year: Breitbart

The World won’t stop having climate cycles just because they are inconvenient: Watts
New Study Shows No Evidence “Fracking” Contaminates Ground Water: VS
Windmills: Some of us have to sacrifice to be green...even the eagles!: EBL

Media

Record 19 reporters, media execs join Team Obama: C&S
Is Dr. Melissa Going Just A Little Easy On The GOP?: RSM
Karl Rove Uncorks on Obama: VS

News’ From the Liberal Media Meme Factory: Women Hate Rick Santorum: RSM
The New Media Proletariat: RSM
Krauthammer: Obama Vs. The Constitution: Ace

“Bold colors, not pale pastels”: Cold Fury
Bag Lady Wanders In From the Street and Delivers Three Minute Long Tirade at Issa's Panel: Ace
Chuck Todd: Occupy Disruptions Of GOP Events Will Make Evening News Every Night; Hint Hint: Ace

ABC News Goes All Out to Spin Economy for Obama: Powers
Does The Economist really think Obama is a debt cutter like Clinton?: Peth
Limbaugh: We’re Supposed To Ignore Obama and Rev. Wright, Yet Santorum's Responsible For Friess?: Mediaite

World

Mexico Posts Huge 3 Ton Sign on Border Reading, “NO MORE WEAPONS!”: AllAm
Sharia’s Global Reach: A Liberal Muslim Extradited to Possible Beheading: PJM
Muslim arrested in Capitol Building suicide bomb plot is long-time illegal alien: Creeping

Family of DUI homicide victim: Feds failed to deport illegal-immigrant killer: Volpe
Australia Provides Cornucopia of Expensive Goodies to Hordes of Third-World Colonists: MB
Run on safe deposit boxes: Varones

Sci-Tech

Report: Apple Blacklists The New York Times After iEconomy Report: DailyTech
"The most important historical gun in the history of the United States": Network54
Foxconn Plans to Lift Pay Sharply at Factories in China: NYT

Cornucopia

Report: Adolf Hitler had a son with a French teenager during World War I: Blogmocracy
What Do You Think About This Ad?: Ace
Swedish man survives for months in snowed-in car: Reuters

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

QOTD: "As for us doom-mongers, at the House Budget Committee on Thursday, Chairman Paul Ryan produced another chart, this time from the Congressional Budget Office, with an even steeper straight line showing debt rising to 900 percent of GDP and rocketing off the graph circa 2075. America’s treasury secretary, Timmy Geithner the TurboTax Kid, thought the chart would have been even more hilarious if they’d run the numbers into the next millennium: “You could have taken it out to 3000 or to 4000” he chortled, to supportive titters from his aides. Has total societal collapse ever been such a non-stop laugh riot?

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

The U.S. economy shuts down in 2027? Had you heard about that? It’s like the ultimate Presidents’ Day sale: Everything must go — literally! At such a moment, it may seem odd to find the political class embroiled in a bitter argument about the Obama administration’s determination to force Catholic institutions (and, indeed, my company and your company, if you’re foolish enough still to be in business in the United States) to provide free prophylactics to their employees." --Mark Steyn

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