Thursday, March 29, 2012

Israel Smells a Rat [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

All day I was toying with the idea of sending around one or more of the stories about Israel’s supposed deal with Azerbaijan to use their airfields as a staging area for an attack on Iran. But I kept asking myself who really benefits from the story – and never pressed “send.” Now I have an answer to my question, and as I suspected the beneficiary (and source) of the story was Israel’s “best friend,” Barack Obama.

Israelis Suspect Obama Media Leaks to Prevent Strike on Iran


ABC News – 3/29/2012

JERUSALEM - Two reports today about Iran's nuclear program and the possibility of an Israeli military strike have analysts in Israel accusing the Obama administration of leaking information to pressure Israel not to bomb Iran and for Iran to reach a compromise in upcoming nuclear talks.

The first report in Foreign Policy quotes anonymous American officials saying that Israel has been given access to airbases by Iran's northern neighbor Azerbaijan from which Israel could launch air strikes or at least drones and search and rescue aircraft.

The second report from Bloomberg, based on a leaked congressional report, said that Iran's nuclear facilities are so dispersed that it is "unclear what the ultimate effect of a strike would be…" A strike could delay Iran as little as six months, a former official told the researchers.

"It seems like a big campaign to prevent Israel from attacking," analyst Yoel Guzansky at the Institute for National Security Studies told ABC News. "I think the [Obama] administration is really worried Jerusalem will attack and attack soon. They're trying hard to prevent it in so many ways."

...Thursday's reports come a week after the results of a classified war game was leaked to the New York Times which predicted that an Israeli strike could lead to a wider regional war and result in hundreds of American deaths. In a column this afternoon titled "Obama Betraying Israel?" longtime defense commentator Ron Ben-Yishai at Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper angrily denounced the leaks as a "targeted assassination campaign ... of potential Israeli operations in Iran," Ben-Yishai writes. "The campaign's aims are fully operational: To make it more difficult for Israeli decision-makers to order the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] to carry out a strike, and what's even graver, to erode the IDF's capacity to launch such strike with minimal casualties."

And the question remains: why do the Russians know more about Obama's agenda than America's citizens?


This is six-year old Aliyah Shell, one of 10 killed and 50 wounded last weekend in Chicago. So where are the professional race-baiters?

At 3:00pm on Saturday afternoon, 6-year old Aliyah Shell was sitting with her mother and sister on the front porch of her home in the 3100 block of South Springfield Avenue. A pickup truck drove by, slowed to a near stop and the passenger side window rolled down. Shots rang out.

Aliyah Shell was killed by the gunfire as the truck drove off.

At least 10 people were killed, including a 6-year-old girl, in shootings over the weekend in Chicago... The slain were among at least 49 people wounded in shootings from 5 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday...

So where are the professional race-baiters like Al "Not So" Sharpton and Jesse Jerkson?

Where is MSNBS, ABS, CBS and NBS Nightly News?

Where are the New Black Panthers and the other thugs seeking to profit from Trayvon Martin's death?

They don't give a crap about Aliyah Shell, or the hundreds of others killed and wounded every year in Obama's hometown of Chicago.

No, they care only about fomenting hatred, division and dissent. They studiously avoid the ramifications of their failed policies, from the "Great Society" to the "War on Poverty".

All Americans -- citizens of every race, creed, religion and color -- should reject the Democrat Party and its vicious marketing of racial hatred.


Six Views of the Mainstream Media [Looking Spoon]

The Looking Spoon:



Larwyn's Linx: Four Thoughts on the Individual Mandate Argument

Send us news tips. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Obamacare

Four Thoughts on the Individual Mandate Argument: Kerr
The Folly Of The Government's Argument Today: Denninger
Thoughts on the Individual Mandate Oral Argument: Somin

Has the Pro-ACA Side Come up with a “Limiting Principle?”: Volokh
More Than Just Broccoli: American
Scalia likens Obamacare to cruel and unusual punishment: Beacon

RNC Releases Embarrassing Audio Of Obama Lawyer: NiceDeb
“Justices poised to strike down entire healthcare law”: ProWis
Government Case for Obamacare Is In Shambles: IBD

Nation

MO Governor Nixon: For Sale or Rent: Mommentary
The identity politics industry; unraveling the civil society: ProWis
Couple who fled home after Spike Lee tweet hires law firm: Driscoll

Wisconsin's Beseiged Leaders Need Tea Party's Help: Malkin
Guide to “White Hispanic” Skin Color for Gringo Media!: SooperMex
Trayvon Martin: The pictures are worth a thousand words: JPA

The Bankrupt Race Card: Sultan Knish
A Post-Racial Lynch Mob: Coulter
I blame Palin: 'Kill Zimmerman' Twitter Account Launched: Breitbart

Economy

Bernanke on Obama's Job Numbers: 'He's Makin' S*** Up To Get Reelected': HyScience
Democrat Budget Resolution Raises Taxes by $2 TRILLION: ATR
Seven of Obamacare’s Biggest Failures from the Last Two Years: Foundry

Media

Newsweek: Cheney Should Have Left His New Heart to Someone Not Seen as a 'War Criminal and Evildoer': NB
Could Obamacare have unintended consequences? Don’t ask the Associated Press: DC
CNN Says: Not Everyone Hates Obama-Care: S&L

Great News: Black Rapper Calls For Race Riots Over Trayvon Martin Killing: GWP
NY Man Convicted of Hizballah Support: IPT
Media Matters writer 'sorry' after blasting Drudge for Martin photo: Fox

The Left’s War On Women: A Day In The Life Of Michelle Malkin On Twitter (Explicit Language): Hawkins
@Soledad_OBrien’s Unpopularity Destroys Morning Ratings for CNN: RSM
MSNBC Boss Phil Griffin Defends Sharpton Protesting in Trayvon Martin Case While Also Covering It: NB

World

The real Obama Doctrine revealed: Gimme space: Pletka
Cuba: The Pope’s shameful trip: Fausta
Rove: Obama's Open-Mic Russia Comment Could Sink Re-election: Max

Obama Groveling Before Russians Fulfills 2008 Promise: IBD
More Attacks on Jews in France: Mead
State Department hits bottom, digs deeper: Matzav

Questioning Obama's 'Secret Plans': Beacon
All the Pravda: Sultan Knish
Socialism claims another victim: Portugal's meltdown leaves families destitute: WaPo

Sci-Tech

Is This The Perfect Sexting App?: Insider
U.S. Outgunned in Hacker War: WSJ
Google Scared This 27-Year-Old Entrepreneur Into Changing His Idea... Now Worth More Than $500 Million: Insider

Cornucopia

Saturday Blonde Joke: Denny
Why Is Bill Maher an Atheist?: Looking Spoon
MSNBC: The Government Lawyer for ObamaCare Is Like a Fifth Grader: Glob

Image: Curmudgeonly & Skeptical
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Rick Santorum for President

QOTD: "...companies need to make major changes in the way they use computer networks to avoid further damage to national security and the economy. Too many companies, from major multinationals to small start-ups, fail to recognize the financial and legal risks they are taking—or the costs they may have already suffered unknowingly—by operating vulnerable networks...

...FBI agents are increasingly coming across data stolen from companies whose executives had no idea their systems had been accessed... "We have found their data in the middle of other investigations ... They are shocked and, in many cases, they've been breached for many months, in some cases years, which means that an adversary had full visibility into everything occurring on that network, potentially.'" --Devlin Barret, "U.S. Outgunned in Hacker War"

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The Complete Epilogue: Ameritopia

The epilogue of Ameritopia, Mark Levin's latest bestseller -- a brief synopsis of its key themes -- is available in PDF format... and now plain HTML, for easier reading.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


And now, a word from our sponsor, Government Motors

Good news, comrades!

Government Motors is now bailing out French auto companies. What could possibly go wrong?


Breaking: Eric Holder Levels Racism Charges at SAT and ACT Tests for Requiring Photo IDs

Attorney General Eric Holder used the announcement that the SAT and ACT tests would require photo ID to pillory the collegiate testing process as "racist and discriminatory."

Holder asserted that requiring a valid ID to take an entrance exam is racist, stating, "...today, a growing number of students are worried about the same disparities, divisions, and problems that Dr. King fought throughout his life to address and overcome."

Holder also pointed to union elections as bastions of Jim Crow-style racism, because they require IDs in order to vote.

As for the TSA, which requires IDs for air travelers, Holder termed it a "cauldron of racial injustice."

Holder also pilloried the liquor store industry for its discriminatory policies of requiring identification in order to buy alcohol.

And the attorney general saved some of his harshest vitriol for the military, observing that recruiting offices' outrageous requirements for IDs had set a terrible precedent, one which would have outraged Dr. King.

The Social Security Administration didn't escape Holder's attention; he described it as a "factory for racial discrimination."

Actually, Eric Holder didn't say any of those things, but for some reason he hates photo ID requirements for voters. Eric Holder despises the sanctity of the ballot box, because he would never go after the military, the TSA, liquor stores, et. al. for their practices of requiring identification. Eric Holder, in short, wants to taint the vote.

No, Eric Holder is the most malevolent and lawless attorney general in American history. He makes John Mitchell look like an Eagle Scout. And I can't wait for Congress to get to the bottom of his involvement with Operation Fast and Furious.


Best Ranch Sign Ever

Via Reaganite Republican:

Because, when it comes to home defense, sometimes only a belt-fed will do.

Daddy like.


Exclusive Photo: Bobby Rush Unveils Fashion Statement on House Floor

Biff Spackle faxed us another exclusive photograph, snapped just before former Black Panther Bobby Rush was escorted off the House floor.

The only man to ever defeat Barack Obama in an election was escorted off the House floor Wednesday morning.

Bobby Rush (D., Ill.) was booted from the floor for a dress code violation. Rush, co-founder of the Illinois Black Panther Party, removed his suit jacket to reveal a hooded sweatshirt and later donned sunglasses, while delivering a Bible-laced rant on Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen killed by a neighborhood watchman in February...

“Just because you wear a hoodie doesn’t make you a hoodlum,” he said.

The speaker pro tempore banged his gavel several times throughout the exchange, but Rush refused to yield the floor. After 90 seconds, he ordered Rush removed.

House rules do not permit hats or sunglasses.

Bobby Rush may be a "statesman" as far as Democrats are concerned, but he's no Hank Johnson.


The Complete Gallery of Trayvon-Zimmerman Photos (Before and After Media "Touch-Ups")

Tammy Bruce asks, "[H]ow much longer will we allow the media and political establishment to inflame racial tensions with deliberate lies? It’s not going to be any of the Lamestream Media anchor lives that are ruined–it’s all of us who apparently they see as collateral damage. You simply have to ask, why is all the media pushing the after set of pictures of Zimmerman and Martin? Hmm?"

Dave Blount at Moonbattery offered his own version of fauxtography, something that could have come from Reuters' Middle Eastern Bureau:

Not to be outdone, Sad Hill News created a gratis version for the Associated Press:

Proving, once again, that legacy media is both a disgrace and a joke.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com News Service.

Larwyn's Linx: Administration's Free Rider Admission to the High Court

Send us news tips. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Obamacare

Administration's Free Rider Admission to the High Court: CNS
Scalia quickly punctures the entire premise of Obamacare: Peth
Justice Scalia to Obama’s solicitor general: ‘We’re not stupid': DC

Constitution Law Epic Fail: NoisyRm
Day 2: ‘Train wreck for the Obama administration’: Malkin
Obamacare In Anthony Kennedy's Hands: AmSpec

Nation

Romney's advisor thinks Obama's Iran policy is terrific: Glick
Is Obama Killing His Senators?: Morris
Video: Florida Dems Paying People To Protest Allen West: MBT

Economy

The war on Wisconsin: Malkin
Obama's 2nd term: 40% tax hike, including on middle class: Peth
It's Official! Fed Now Buying Rock Solid Euro Bonds: ZH

Job Killers: Stossel
Chart Demonstrates Clear Financial Benefits of Obamacare: TLS
OWS Occupied Union Square: The Smoking Weed Edition: Urban Infidel

Trayvon

#FAIL: Democrat/MSM narratives fall apart in tragic #TrayvonMartin case: Toldjah
Spike Lee Tweets Zimmerman’s Address, Only It’s Wrong; Elderly Couple Now Lives in Fear: AllAm
Report: Trayvon Was the Aggressor, According to the Evidence: Patterico

Bounty-hunting Panther arrested for illegal firearm possession: WZ
Registered Democrat Killed Trayvon: Beacon
Trayvon protest turns ugly: High schoolers loot Fla. Walgreen’s: Twitchy

Scandal Central

Former Navy SEAL: Obama Using 'Classic Soviet Tactics' To Put U.S. In “Throes Of a Cold Civil War”: Nice Deb
Bolton: Obama’s Open-Mic Comments to Medvedev a ‘Fire Bell in the Night’: Bruce
DOJ 'Deeply Disturbed' by Leaked Fast and Furious Information: MainJustice

Climate & Energy

Coal Slotted to Die in America Tomorrow: RIP: Reason
As Promised… Obama Moves in to Kill Coal Industry With Onerous New EPA Regs: GWP
EPA Emission Rules To Effectively Ban New Coal Plants; Is Fracking Next?: IBD

Why, under the EPA’s new regulation, electricity prices will "necessarily skyrocket": Q&O
Study: Entire Planet Heated Up During Medieval Times Without Any Human CO2 Emissions: WZ
EPA CO2 Regulation Effectively Bans New Coal Facilities: Foundry

Media

CNN on ObamaCare at SCOTUS: “This was a train wreck for the Obama administration,”: Bruce
Former NAACP leader CL Bryant calls out Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for exploiting Trayvon Martin: Scoop
Wanda Sykes: GOP Field's So Weak It Should Surrender, South Is Toothless: NB

Race, exploitation, and the press in America: Fortnightly Review
Black Men Who Could Look Like Obama’s Son Arrested For Murder of White Mississippi State Student: JWF
Human Events Faces Shakeup, Layoffs: MediaBistro

Sinners In the Hands of Anthony Kennedy: Erickson
Compare The Left’s Reaction To Gabrielle Giffords And Trayvon Martin: Glob
Beastmode: Ragin' Cajun Blasts Individual Mandate: Beacon

World

Islamist Fellow Travelers: An IPT Series: IPT
Iran's plan for a second Holocaust must be stopped: AEI
Is This Thing On?: ForPol

Dennis Kucinich, Democrat Leftist for Radical Islam: Pipes
Forex: Silent run on euro periphery banks?: NASDAQ
Blaring sirens warn students of more rockets from Gaza: JWeekly

BBC reveals huge scale of honour attacks in Britain, fails to mention word “Islam”: Creeping
British Student Jailed over a Tweet: Cato
In Gaza, a PR power struggle: JPost

Report: Hamas, Iran coordinate response to Israel strike: ynet
A Warning Voice From Across the Water: Elephant
Does Obama have Israel's back or just the UN's?: Bayefsky

Sci-Tech

Popcorn Packs Antioxidants, Study Finds: ABC
Using Facebook At Work Makes Employees Happy: Insider
iPhone passcode cracking is easier than you think: CNet

Cornucopia

Crouching Tigers, Hidden Dragons: MOTUS
New Zimmerman/Martin Pics for Liberal Media Use: MB
Breaking: Liberal ‘Mainstream’ Media Releases New Photos Of Trayvon Martin And George Zimmerman: SHN

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

QOTD: "Every time the left wins an argument expanding the meaning of the constitution, the Court somehow got it right. Every time the left loses an argument over the constitution, the Court somehow became politicized. And while the right says the same on the opposite cases there is a fundamental difference.

The right’s position on constitutional jurisprudence boiled down to its essence is that every man and woman in America should be able to read the constitution and have a fair understanding of it and how government is supposed to work. One cannot read the constitution and legitimately understand exactly how an abortion right is extrapolated out of the Bill of Rights. Likewise, one cannot read the constitution and understand how a Congress of limited powers can compel any person to purchase a product he does not want.

...We have complicated our tax code, our regulations, and our legal system. In each we must now pay self-appointed experts trained in the art of gobbledegook to parse words, divine intent, and lobby for exceptions that prove rules... Our nation is no longer a nation of laws, but a nation of elites who interpret those laws for us. It has all led to a very logical place." --Erick Erickson

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Obama administration unveils 'Cash for Codgers' program; aims to save billions on health care for seniors

In light of new reports that health care premiums are rising three times faster than they did prior to the passage of Obamacare and that overall costs will tally hundreds of billions higher than predicted, Cub Reporter Biff Spackle files this exclusive report:

As part of the federal government's efforts to rein in health care spending, the Department of Health and Human Services has instituted a generous offer available to all U.S. residents.

The Senior Euthanasia Reimbursement Program (euphemistically known as "Cash for Codgers") will offer each family a cash honorarium for any senior residing in their household aged 65 and over. Said seniors will be dispensed with humanely, in accordance with the recommendations of Ezekiel "Doctor Death" Emanuel.

In these tough economic times, what's better than solving the entitlement crisis and addressing senior health care issues -- simultaneously? It very well could be the final solution to the fiscal challenges of government-run health care.


The race-baiters get what they wanted from Trayvon's death: civil unrest

The professional race-baiters -- including, but not limited to, Al "Not So" Sharpton and Jesse Jerkson -- raced to Florida even before all of the facts related to Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting were known.

The results? All too predictable.

Police: Trayvon protesters ransack store


North Miami Beach police said surveillance video shows dozens of high school students demonstrating in the Trayvon Martin case Friday ransacking a Walgreens store...

The incident occurred during a walkout from North Miami Beach Senior High School in support of Martin, 17, who was fatally shot in Sanford... Surveillance video shows dozens of teenagers running through the store. Police said about 80 to 100 students stormed in, ransacking the shelves, before the school's vice principal ordered everyone outside.

That legacy media still gives any credence whatsoever to the loathsome Sharpton is proof that they are an anachronism, as relevant as a fossilized pigeon in a tarpit.


Top 10 Reasons Obamacare IS Constitutional...

I can assure you, despite all of the hullabaloo from the hoi polloi, that Obama is entirely, 100% Constitutional, no if's and's or but's:

• Because Congress can compel Americans to engage in commerce in order to then regulate their activities under the Commerce Clause.

• Because the fee that every American must pay -- by dint of their mere existence -- for failing to comply with "the Individual Mandate" is either a "tax" or a "penalty", depending on which day of the week it is.

• Because health care is a unique market, one in which every American must participate at some point in their lives. Unlike the markets of, say, clothing, shelter, food, transportation, ...

• Because Congress has the right -- the obligation -- to trump God and the First Amendment in order to ensure that all Americans get free contraceptives and abortifacients.

• Because the "Consent of the Governed" is outdated and antiquated. Congress can do anything it wants, even if 63% of all Americans are opposed to their actions.

• Because a 2,200-page bill that not one member of Congress read -- much less understands -- is inherently Constitutional, as the noted legal scholar Nancy Pelosi insists.

• Because what could be more American than nationalizing one-sixth of the entire economy?

• Because a few masterminds in Washington will be able to manage that one-sixth of the economy more effectively than the entire private sector.

• Because government-run health care has turned out to be cost-effective, innovative, and efficient in delivering health care, except in countries like England, Canada and Sweden.

• Because every founder of this country -- every single Framer of the Constitution from James Madison to George Mason -- would agree with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid and Barack Obama. That is, all Americans have the right to free health care, which must be delivered by a 15-member panel of elite masterminds overseeing an authoritarian, centralized, massive federal bureaucracy.


Larwyn's Linx: How to Talk to an Undecided Voter

Send us news tips. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

How to Talk to an Undecided Voter: ConCom
The Constitution vs. Obamacare: NRO
Supreme Court and Obamacare: Day One of the Hearings: LifeNews

The Left No Longer Finds Dissent Patriotic: RS
DCCC employs 9/11 Truther as spokesman: Beacon
Allen West Attacked by AstroTurf Leftist Organization: Shark Tank

Why the health care reform law is unconstitutional: Somin
Was Trayvon Martin a drug dealer?: Owens
Police: Trayvon Slammed Zimmerman’s Head Into Sidewalk: JWF

Economy

Why Obamacare is Illegal (and Why it Matters): Bruce
Side Effects: Doctors Fear Obamacare: Foundry
White House considered $170B soda tax to pay for Obamacare: Peth

Obamacare: Will the Court Vindicate Itself?: DLim
Harry Reid: We Need High-Speed Rail From the Desert to Vegas: Marfdrat
E-Mail to Corzine Said Transfer Was Not Customer Money: Yahoo!

Climate & Energy

If at first you don't succeed, re-brand!: Power Line
U.S. Oil Production Increases In Spite of Team Obama’s Best Efforts: PJM
East Coast poised to lose 50 percent of its oil refining capacity: Reuters

Media

No, Seriously, Zimmerman Said "Punks": Ace
Geraldo's Point: Sowell
An Unfortunate T-Shirt Hits Florida Streets In Wake Of Trayvon Martin Killing: TSG (NSFW)

Why Was NY Times Reporter Jeff Zeleny Doing Romney Campaign’s Bidding?: RSM
Santorum Chews Out NYT’s Jeff Zeleny: ‘Quit Distorting My Words… It’s Bullsh*t!’: Mediaite
Obama unwittingly cuts a campaign ad for the GOP: Beacon

World

Does Vladimir Putin know more about Obama’s second-term agenda than U.S. voters?: Peth
Obama To Putin: ‘More Flexibility’ After Nov: S&L
Obama’s Revealing Comments to Medvedev: Commentary

Congressman to Obama: You’d better not be trading away our missile defense, champ: Hot Air
Germany In the Grip of Muslim Terror: Creeping
Attention shoppers! Saudi man divorces wife over mall loudspeaker: JihadWatch

North Korean satellite launch a cover for Iranian long-range missile test: Matzav
‘Islamists’ To Write New Egypt Constitution: S&L
Elderly dying due to 'despicable age discrimination in NHS': Telegraph

Turner to Obama: What Flexibility?: Beacon
America’s caste system when it comes to mass murder: Bookworm
China unveils new legislation on police powers of detention: Guardian

Sci-Tech

Cameron: Earth's deepest spot desolate, foreboding: AP
Morphlabs Rolls Out All-SSD Private Cloud in a Box: Wired
Gravity-defying workouts lift fitness routines: Trib

Cornucopia

20 Of Trayvon Martin’s Tweets That Stand Out (Language Warning): Hawkins
To Hell With All Those Diet Trackers! Track Your Bacon Instead.: Mardrat
Batman Stopped by Police: CBS DC

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

QOTD: "If the "necessary and proper" clause allows Congress to adopt the individual mandate, the same logic would justify almost any other mandate. Virtually every mandate has some economic effect and could be portrayed as a "useful or convenient" way to regulate some market. A broccoli mandate could be defended as an effort to regulate the market in food.

The threat to liberty raised by this case isn't just theoretical. Many industries would be happy to lobby for laws requiring people to buy their products, and Congress has a long history of enacting special-interest legislation." --Ilya Somin

Monday, March 26, 2012

Why do the Russians know more about Obama's agenda than America's citizens?

The administration can't be too fond of ABC News' Jake Tapper. Tapper reported early today that President Obama was caught on an open microphone telling Russian President Medvedev that once he's reelected, he won't have to bother with those pesky Americans who are worried about sharing missile defense secrets.

President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.

President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…

President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.

President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.

Senior GOP officials are rightfully concerned, given that missile defense is a critical element of U.S. national security.

“If there was any doubt how dangerous Barack Obama would be for America’s security in a second term, the president put all uncertainty to rest today,” said the source, who closely tracks foreign policy matters. “The president just told us that he is itching to hand over America’s most secret missile defense data to a country that is arming Syria and fueling Iran’s Bushehr reactor—and he would do it today but for his re-election concerns. With no political constraints in a second term, who knows what Obama will do.”

The adviser also said Obama’s remarks should cause concern among pro-Israel forces in America.

If this is what the president’s promising the Russians on missile defense, God only knows what he’s promising Arab leaders about Israel,” noted the souce. “If you think Barack Obama was bad for Israel in term one, put your seatbelt on and get ready for term two.”

Rep. Michael Turner, Chairman of a House Armed Services Subcommittee, is seriously ticked off and he said as much in a letter to the president that has undertones of a threat laced within it.

As you know, in the FY12 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress enacted, and you signed into law, a provision constraining your ability to share classified U.S. missile defense information with the Russian Federation. Congress took this step because it was clear based on official testimony and Administration comments in the press that classified information about U.S. missile defenses, including hit-to-kill technology and velocity at burnout information, may be on the table as negotiating leverage for your reset with Russia. Despite signing the FY12 defense authorization legislation into law, you then issued a signing statement signaling that you may treat that provision protecting U.S. missile defense information as non-binding. This morning’s comments, on top of that action, suggests that you and your administration have plans for U.S. missile defenses that you believe will not stand up to electoral scrutiny.

Congress has made exquisitely clear to your Administration and to other nations that it will block all attempts to weaken U.S. missile defenses. As the Chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, which authorizes U.S. missile defense and nuclear weapons policy, I want to make perfectly clear that my colleagues and I will not allow any attempts to trade missile defense of the United States to Russia or any other country.

Once again, I've been forced to update President Barack Obama's Complete List of Historic Firsts to include this missive:

"First President to Openly Defy a Congressional Order Not To Share Sensitive Nuclear Defense Secrets With the Russian Government.."


Of course they do: GM blames owners for Chevy Volt's melting cord problems

Aside from the occasional fires, explosions, and melting power cords, the Volt seems like an outstanding choice of vehicle.

...About eight months ago some owners of Chevy Volts complained that charging cords were overheating, sometimes to the point of melting. At the time, GM blamed owners, saying the wall outlets were the culprits. We now finally have GM addressing the safety concerns and agreeing to replace charging cords for all 9,500 Volts that have been sold since production began. But in what is becoming a new public relations precedent, the move is not being called a "recall."

The non-recall recall is instead referred to as a customer satisfaction action which is designed to "offer a more consistent charging experience." The political strategy is becoming more and more evident at GM as Chevy Volt sales continue to struggle...

...We now have the second non-recall at GM for the Volt. The first non-recall was for reinforcements to the battery pack after test vehicles at NHTSA ignited days after crash tests. In both cases, GM was adamant that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Volt; it is either the fault of owners with faulty wiring or right-wing media sources. Just in case the denials are not enough to convince the voting...I mean the car buying public, GM has stepped up ad spending for the Volt on those TV networks that are accused of criticizing the car. The spending seems to be quieting the criticism.

And the Volt is truly a car for every American, what with a sticker price around the low, low price of $41K.

Considering that each Volt cost taxpayers a mere $250,000 apiece, that MSRP seems like quite the bargain.


I've got good news and bad news regarding the unelected, unaccountable fourth branch of government

I refer, of course, to Barack Obama's massive administrative state.

First, the good news: a federal judge, appointed by Barack Obama, just eviscerated the EPA for trying to shut down a massive coal-mining operation.

In yet another court case to limit what has been termed an Obama administration EPA power grab, a ruling has resulted in yet another court saying that the EPA is arrogating too much power.

The March 23 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in the case of Mingo Logan Coal v. EPA came two days after the Supreme Court against the EPA in Sackett v. EPA.

This case -- like Sackett -- involved the EPA's enforcement of the Clean Water Act. Here, the EPA tried to withdraw permission to use two streams as discharge sites. The permission was granted three years earlier by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Just as the Supreme Court ruled in Sackett, the District Court ruled that the EPA's interpretation of its authority to enforce the CWA was erroneous.

Mingo Logan filed the lawsuit because the company believed that the EPA did not have the authority to modify or revoke the permit. They also thought the revocation was unlawful and the permit was still valid.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, wrote that the "EPA exceeded its authority." She also made the observation that the EPA's action was extraordinary.

"This attempt to withdraw the specification of discharge sites after a permit has been issued is unprecedented in the history of the Clean Water Act," she wrote.

The court ruling has received praise from several quarters -- most notably a Democrat governor and a Democrat senator.

And, now:

The bad news: "HHS Strong Arms Insurers in Nine States".

Top 10 Rejected Obamacare Slogans

10. Why choose an expensive treatment when pain-pills will do?
9. Assisted Suicide: Do it for the Children
8. We Put the Rash in Rationing
7. Ask Us About Our Discount Placebo Program!
6. Only Selfish People Beg for CAT Scans.
5. Take a Number! The Bureau of Health Waiting Rooms reports the average wait time is now down to 123 minutes (in some locations)
4. Quack isn't just the sound a duck makes: we're importing medical experts from Mexico as part of our new Health Amnesty Program!
3. Shut up, take a seat and wait for your number to be called, Mr. GB21708-4.
2. David Axelrod reviewing your medical records: what could go wrong?
1. Sound mind, sound body -- take your pick.
As health reform heads to the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal government is going full bore on insurers who hike premiums to cover health care’s soaring costs, increases that ironically continue to rise in part due to health reform.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) late last week denied rate increases from two health insurers covering more than 42,000 Americans in nine states because they were too high, deeming them “unreasonable” premium hikes...

...The clampdown by HHS raises anew the debate over the role of the federal government in setting the costs of health insurance premiums, and why health reform has not stopped the rise in health-care costs, which continue to rise even after parts of the new law have already kicked in...

...The increases now in coverage costs are due to what insurers must now provide under the new law, despite President Barack Obama’s vow that the new law “could save families $2,500 in the coming years.”

Uhm, those are called lies marketing on the president's part.

Say, I wonder if mandating "free" contraceptives, covering "children" up to age 26, coverage for any and all pre-existing condition, and other draconian requirements are impacting insurance premiums?

You know, making them "unreasonable"?

And I wonder how price controls, like those HHS is trying to impose, have worked out in other countries? Say Venezuela, Cuba, the Soviet Union, Italy and Greece?

Not too well, you say?

Oh, gee. But maybe our masterminds are just way smarter than their masterminds.


Sick: Obama Campaign Uses Trayvon's Death to Hawk Hoodies

Just when you think the record for cynicism has been set by this administration, they bust through to a brand new sub-basement of immorality.

The official Obama team is now pushing the Obama hoodie.

[There are significant exmaples] of the sentiment Barack Obama is stirring up by promoting hoodies. Along with that, an Internet search for George Zimmer's home phone number and street address documents that they are now being widely distributed by a large number of the same individuals seizing the "hoodie" sweatshirt as a symbol representing their anger. Many of those tweets are calling for Zimmerman's death.

Is there anything David Axelrod won't say or do to raise money?

For you drones and miscreants reading along: that's a rhetorical question.

As a reminder, the initial television reports of the incident included interviews with a witness who stated that Trayvon was on top of Zimmerman pummeling him.

The witness also said that as Zimmerman was being attacked by Trayvon Martin, he was screaming for help.

The neighborhood where Zimmerman was helping to patrol as part of a local watch program had suffered eleven (11) break-ins in recent weeks.

But when it comes to dividing Americans along racial, ethnic, income, religious or other arbitrary lines, no administration in history has created as much angst as this one. One can only come to the conclusion that President Obama and his supporters are rooting for civil unrest.


Two Charts That Illustrate How Obama, Pelosi and Reid Crushed the Economy

Two charts that depict the tragedy of lawless, temporary politicians whose poor decisions will take a terrible toll on countless, future generations*:

...The employment-to-population ratio displays a classic V-shape recession and recovery pattern in the 1970s and 1980s. In the recession and recovery of the early 1990s, however, the employment-to-population ratio instead displays a U shape, only returning to its pre-recession level three years after the peak in the unemployment rate. In the recession and recovery of the early 2000s, neither the participation rate nor the employment-to-population ratio returns to its previous level, so we see an incomplete U-shape pattern.

In the most recent cycle, the employment-to-population ratio traces out an L shape, but the unemployment rate falls because the participation rate declines substantially (a much more gradual decline was expected by many given the aging of the baby boomers); in other words, a larger share of the population is out of the labor force rather than participating and being unemployed.

I took the liberty of annotating the chart to illustrate a couple of salient details:


I added two vertical lines. The first line indicates the election of Barack Obama in November of 2008, when he and Bush 43 began collaborating on economic policies.

For instance, the initial bailout of GM and Chrysler (with TARP money for housing, mind you) was justified by both men in the name of preventing a complete collapse of the auto supply chain.

The second line, slightly to the right, represents the passage of the "Stimulus package".

It would appear that the policies of Obama and the 111th Congress made things worse, at least as compared to other major recessions.

And, based upon the labor-force participation rate, things haven't gotten any better, no matter how many times legacy media tries to shriek WE'RE IN A RECOVERY.


* The ludicrous hack Joe Weisenthal hardest hit.