Thursday, May 10, 2012

Larwyn's Linx: Congress Should Reject Obama’s “To Do List” and Remind the President of his Proper Role

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

Nation

Congress Should Remind the President of his Proper Role: ObjStd
Obama tries to sell Brooklyn Bridge to his gay supporters: GayPat
The Real Obama: Appeasement: Atlas

Rick Santelli's warning to 27-and-unders: Blaze
Gay Marriage a State's Right Issue But Abortion Federal?: iOTW
Libs Petition to Move DNCC out of NC: Beacon

Economy

The List Could Be Longer: AmSpec
Chronicle of Servile Education: City Journal
Cali passes bill to ask vendors about their sexuality: AT

Indefensible!: ProWis
Historic: 324,000 women dropped out of workforce since Feb: CNS
Man who escaped Soviet Union schools Occupier: Glob

2012 Elections

Gay for Pay: Beacon
Chicagoland Dem Arrested for Beating Daughter : S&L
Hey WV, you’ll get yours my pretty, and your little federal inmate too: LI

Climate & Energy

Obama Stalls U.S. Energy Independence, Enemies Smile: IBD
Time to terminate Big Wind subsidies: Watts
Interior Looks to Expand Permits for Killing Bald Eagles to Accommodate Wind Energy: Foundry

Media

Mark Levin: The Tea Party is strong and the Reagan Democrats are back!: Scoop
Obama Evolves to New Fake Position on Gay Marriage: Power Line
Liberals fall for fake ‘Women for Obama’ campaign poster: Twitchy

Mourdock to CNN: Bipartisanship should be Democrats joining Republicans to roll back size of govt: Scoop
Elizabeth Warren Dances With Lies: Coulter
Laura Ingraham Rips NBC's Lauer and Media For Wanting to 'Avoid' Obama's Record: NB

Obama Campaign Quotes Man Who Posted Racist Tweet, Talked about 'F****** B****es', Socialism: PunditPress
Great Moments In #FORWARD: Lady Liberty
Only eyewitness to Andrew Breitbart’s death Christopher Lasseter mysteriously disappears: FAM

World

Will Congress Defend the Military?: Foundry
Major archaeological finds in Israel confirm Biblical accounts: Elder
Looking at ‘Austerity’ in Britain: Cato

Sci-Tech

Two weeks of smartphone charging in your pocket: CNet
Killer Commute? Could Be, Says Wash U Researcher: CBS St. Louis
Google's Project Glass: Action photos from your eyewear: CNet

Cornucopia

Keeping Your Kids Safe on Facebook: Interview with Founder of SmartParents.com: YouTube
Hot Sauce and Weight Loss; Artificial Leaf May Come in Handy: AtlWire
Resister Updates: Systemic: Zilla

Image: Shorpy, Statue of James Garfield, Cincinnati, 1910
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: American Glob's Get Rent Fundraiser!

QOTD: "Do America's enemies wish us well? It's an important question because they've made a big push to halt U.S. energy production. So why does the Obama administration's policies support their aims?

Energy is the lifeblood of the mighty U.S. economy, and it ought to surprise no one that America's enemies know this. One way to neutralize the U.S. is to hurt its ability to produce its own energy.

Don't think it's not happening — it is, in a shockingly large variety of ways, by a number of enemies, ranging from China to self-described "stateless statesman" George Soros, whose loyalty is to global socialism, not the U.S." --Investors Business Daily

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

EU Tax Hike Model Should -- But Won't -- Teach Democrats Econ 101

Pity that history, logic and reason are anathema to Democrats. Consider Europe, where the tax hike policies that the likes of Obama, Pelosi and Reid adore are imploding as we speak.

James Pethokoukis explains the resulting -- and utterly predicable -- failure:

The anti-austerity crowd on the left just can’t seem to accept “yes” for an answer. Yes, austerity isn’t working in Europe. But for some reason, austerity critics decline to acknowledge that such a high-tax region probably shouldn’t have started cranking up taxes. Here’ s just a taste of the EU’s tax-hike mania:


Greece. In 2010 and 2011, Greece passed a bunch of tax hikes — including a 10 point, 77% increase in its value-added tax — meant to raise revenue equal to 3.4% of GDP. How did that work out? Not so good... tax receipts actually fell.

Spain. Heading into 2012, Spain had already increased its value-added tax, excise duties, and top income tax rates. Then last December, its new government, Reuters reported, “announced a slew of surprise tax hikes”... Thanks to those tax hikes, Spaniards will now be paying one of the highest personal income tax rates in Europe...

Italy. ...for the most part, the new austerity package is based on tax increases. It would reinstate a property tax on first homes... It would also impose a 1.5 percent tax on revenues brought into Italy... add taxes on cigarettes and gas, which is close to 1.70 euros per liter, or more than $8 a gallon... the measures would increase Italy’s tax burden to 45 percent, a level that businesses say is unsustainable.

...the fiscal reforms Europe needs are clear: Smaller welfare states, less intrusive regulation, and pro-growth tax cuts. Of course, just raising taxes is a lot simpler. Sure is a lot quicker. But it’s not working. I hope the Obama White House notices the tax-hike fiasco going in Europe since it is pretty much the exact path he wants the U.S. to follow.

Oh, that James! What a card. He works for the American Enterprise Institute, so he has to exhibit a modicum of tact. Let me put it this way: the odds of Obama noticing what's going on in Europe and course-correcting are roughly the same odds that Michael Moore will win a Mr. Olympia contest.


Picture Story: Party of Weakness

This is one of Iran's medium-range missiles, which it is placing on Venezuelan soil according to a November 25, 2010 report in Die Welt.

The same report asserts that Venezuela will permit Iran to open a military facility staffed with Iranian missile officers and soldiers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Medium-range missiles launched from this base could reach cities in the United States; a likely first-strike scenario involves the detonation of EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) weapons over the continental U.S.

Where did Iran get such sensitive missile guidance and avionics technologies? Western intelligence services pin the blame on China, which reportedly sold the Mullahs the Nasr-1, -2 and other missile technologies.

These missiles are now mass-produced by Iran, but were "originally developed and built in China, and have been advertised as being in service with the Chinese armed forces."

Missile technologies are only part of the problem. This is an Iranian defector, the former diplomat Mohammad Reza Heydari. He and others report that North Korea has collaborated with Iran on the design of nuclear weapons, including warhead design techniques.

This is a Pyongyang military parade that took place in October. The military dictatorship has become increasingly belligerent since it detonated a small fission weapon and demonstrated increasing expertise with missile guidance systems.

And where did North Korea get its nuclear- and missile-guidance technologies? Experts point to China, with scientists stating that, "[t]here is no possibility of North Korea achieving what nuclear capability it has without Chinese help."

It is worth asking: how did Red China move so quickly to acquire sophisticated missile guidance and other avionic technologies?

In 1998, in an unprecedented repudiation of the wishes of numerous defense and intelligence officials, President William J. Clinton signed a waiver allowing a sophisticated Loral satellite to be launched into orbit by a Chinese rocket.

Why would Clinton sign such a waiver when it risked allowing sophisticated weapons guidance technology to fall into Chinese hands? In fact, Loral would later plead "no contest to a long list of U.S. national security violations, including the unauthorized transfer of missile guidance technology to the Chinese army."

This is Clinton with the chairman of Loral, Bernard L. Schwartz, who coincidentally was the largest single donor to the entire Democrat Party in 1997.

Clinton repeatedly met with and entertained other Democrat contributors -- several of whom turned out to be operatives of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Exactly what they got for their money remains unknown to the general public.

That is because full investigative report of the Clinton administration's actions is embodied in The Cox Report, the complete version of which is still classified "Top Secret". Its summary, however, is enough to send chills down the reader's spine: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has stolen design information on the United States’ most advanced thermonuclear weapons.

In short, Clinton and the Democrats allowed sensitive technologies to escape to China. Later they rippled from China to rogue terror states like Iran and North Korea.

Thus, thanks in large part to the wanton greed and criminality of the Democrat National Committee and Bill Clinton, subsequent generations of Americans will be needlessly exposed to the risk of rogue regimes gaining access to America's most sensitive nuclear and missile guidance secrets.

"The missile technology passed by Loral and Hughes to the Chinese army has matured into a nuclear-tipped monster called the DF-31, which can waste whole American cities in a blinding flash of nuclear hell... ...the results of years of abuse during the 1990s remain with us well into the 21st century." -- (source)

Evil is on the march--evil aided and abetted by the Clinton administration, just one in a series of disastrous Democrat presidencies.


Related: Operation Starfish.


SOS from Occupied France [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

Passing this on from a reader’s friend. Since I haven’t read about this in the NYT, or seen it on TV, I can’t say how credible it is. But it does seem to dovetail with reports that an unusually large number of French Jews have been considering emigrating to Israel.

# # #

Hello to my American friends,

As you know, the Socialist François Hollande won the presidential elections in France, last Sunday.

It is a catastrophe for France.

Hollande was elected by the Muslims: a survey (of 10,000 Muslims) shows that 93% of the Muslims voted for him. As 2 million Muslims participated in this election, Hollande got 1,720,000 Muslim votes more than Sarkozy did: (0.93-0.07) x 2,000,000 = 1,720,000.

But at the end, in the whole population, he got only 1,139,316 votes more than Sarkozy.

So, without the Muslims' votes, Sarkozy would have been re-elected. ... Criminality is already on the rise (1,700 cars were burnt in France for the first night). Muslims are screaming anti-French and anti-Jews watchwords in our streets. Veiled women, wearing the illegal burqa, are strolling in our streets.

And, as if this wasn't enough, Hollande wants to give to all the foreigners the right to vote in our elections! France will face a very hard situation. We are heading for civil war in a few years.

That's the last news from occupied France.

Maxime

I think Dan's comments regarding the NYT were intended to be read as biting sarcasm.

And hasn't Mark Steyn been writing about these issues for years and years?


President now backs gay marriage thanks to amazing epiphany plus mega-donors' threats to cut off funds, but mostly mega-donors' threats to cut off funds

Gee, this ain't cynical or anything.

President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage less than 48 hours after the Washington Post reported that prominent political donors were threatening to withhold donations over the president’s position on gay rights.

...Left-wing blogger Greg Sargent reported on Monday that “leading gay and progressive donors” were angry with Obama over his increasingly convoluted position on gay rights and same-sex marriage, and were refusing to donate any more money to Priorities USA, the pro-Obama Super PAC. Sargent cited Paul Yandura, a political adviser to prominent Democratic donor Jonathan Lewis, who emailed that:

A number of gay and progressive donors, unsolicited, have indicated to us that they aren’t considering requests to donate to the Obama SuperPac because of the president’s refusal to the sign the order. And those are high-dollar asks, some in the seven digits. We have heard from at least half a dozen major gay and progressive donors that they stand united with us.

The Washington Post noted on Tuesday that roughly 20 percent of Obama top campaign bundlers—who are responsible for arranging $500,000 and up—“publicly identified themselves as gay.”

Obama’s announcement fits a pattern of changing positions on major issues for what appear to be financially motivated reasons.

...The liberal Talking Points Memo reports that one Obama bundler, Jon Cooper, said the president’s announcement will make fundraising for the re-election campaign “immeasurably easier.”


Yes, it's true: Hope and Change are officially out of the closet.


Larwyn's Linx: The Left’s National Vote Fraud Strategy Exposed

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

Nation

The Left’s National Vote Fraud Strategy Exposed: AIM
Justice for Sale at Obama's DOJ: Breitbart
Hey, Big Spender!: Beacon

'Forward!' with Obama, Axelrod, Jarret and Frank Marshall Davis: AT
Scytl: Voter Fraud Facts and Fiction: Malkin
The Constitution is the Real Way “Forward”: CDN

Obama’s Ridiculous To-Do List: Harsanyi
Progressive Vote Fraud and Intimidation Exposed: NoisyRm
Experts push for Orwellian control over our health: Bookworm

Economy

Gen44: Educated and Unemployed: Beacon
And the Winners of the Ray Nagin Award are...: Instapundit
Occupy offshoot to bus protesters to Chicago: ABC-7 WLS

March of the Idiots at OccupyLA May Day: Zombie
Great News! The SEIU Now Hiring Occupiers For Telemarketing!: Glob
Leftist Race Baiters: Williams

2012 Elections

An Awful Night for Barack Obama: Erickson
Democrat Rep. refuses to endorse Obama: Moe Lane
Koch Responds to Misleading Intimidation Tactics by the Obama Campaign: KochFacts

Obama Now Raffling Off “Shout-Outs” For Campaign Donations: WZ
In this Election, the IndyStar Fell with Dick Lugar: Hoosier
1 in 3 West Virginia Democratic primary voters choose felon over Obama: Hill

Scandal Central

Democrat breaks ranks, supports Issa’s push to enforce Fast and Furious subpoena: DC
Fraud found in Obama’s online donations: DC
Elizabeth Warren Ancestor Rounded Up Cherokees For Trail of Tears: Breitbart

Climate & Energy

Ever Notice That Warmists Are Really Fond Of Their “Land Yachts”?: STACLU
An Example of Pointless Greenieness: Publius
1,300 radioactive tubes at California nuclear plant damaged beyond repair: Fox

Media

Hey, WaPo - Sucks to be you!: Instapundit
AP Plays Up Romney On Obama and Treason, Plays Down Axelrod Calling Rove, Kochs 'Contract Killers': NB
Obama-Defender Laugh-Line of the Day: Powers

Still Waiting for the New Civility, Part XVCIMLVIII: Instapundit
WWII Vet Beaten by Man Who Could Look Like Obama’s Son Passes Away: JWF
Chronicle of Higher Ed gives in to social media mob: LI

Fox News, ‘America’s Poison’?: Bozell
50 #OWS supporters show up at courthouse in support of bomb suspects who in no way represent #OWS: Malkin
The Best Quotes From “Today Matters: 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrow’s Success”: Hawkins

World

Obama Knew Where Osama Was for Almost a Year: Retired four-star general Jack Keane confirms: MB
Wow: Bomber in Yemen Al Qaeda airplane plot was CIA double agent: Hot Air
New Underwear Bomb, New Threat Information: Cato

What took so long? Sharia compliant girls-only prom for Muslims at Michigan high school: Creeping
USAF Drones May Conduct “Incidental” Domestic Surveillance: FAS
German Cartoon Riots: Clubs, Bottles and Stones: Gatestone

Obama Seeks Sovereignty Surrender Via LOST Treaty: IBD
Occupy Wall Street Pamphlet: NoisyRm
Congress Keeps Adding Billions to Pentagon Budget: DefTech

Muslim Population Doubles in USA since 9/11: Creeping
Terrorist Leadership Decapitation and the Organizational Death of al Qaeda: AmPower
Officials: More Al Qaeda Bombs Unaccounted For: ABC

Sci-Tech

Nevada issues Google first US license to test driverless cars: Fox
Cybersecurity: We Are Losing, and It Is a Failure of Leadership: Foundry
Seized Hip-Hop Site Lashes Out At Feds, RIAA: Wired

Cornucopia

GenVeg: WTF?: MOTUS
AT&T CEO Regrets He Ever Offered Unlimited Data To You Ungrateful Punks In The First Place: Consumerist
Houston man busted with 33 lbs of cocaine in Louisiana traffic stop on I-10: KRTK-TV

Image: Buzzfeed: Obama Loses West Virginia Delegates To Prison Inmate — Unexpectedly!
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Richard Mourdock Money Bomb!

QOTD: "An obscure federal prison inmate gave President Obama an unexpected run for his money in the West Virginia Democratic Primary Tuesday, highlighting the deep dislike for the president in the Appalachian heartland.

With 96% of the precincts reporting Tuesday night, Keith Judd was holding steady at 41% of the vote and had won ten counties.

Judd is also known as federal prison inmate Number 11593-051 at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Beaumont, Texas, where Judd is serving a 210-month sentence for extortion and making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999.

According to both state and national Democratic Party rules, Keith Russell Judd is entitled to receive at least one delegate from West Virginia for the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. because he received 15% of the vote.

Judd ran particularly strong in West Virginia's coal country, carrying the labor stronghold of Mingo County, among others.

The votes appear to be votes against President Obama rather than for Judd." --Andrew Kaczynski

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Associated Press Resorts to Blatant Lies In Last-Ditch Effort to Save Dick Lugar. And, Being the AP, They Fail. Miserably.

Indiana's Tea Party-backed Senate candidate Richard Mourdock has just crushed RINO hack Dick Lugar in the GOP Primary.

With that as breaking news, please consider last night's effort by the AP to prop up a big government, career politician like Lugar: Democrats may benefit in tea party backfire:

A challenge to a Republican stalwart in the Senate in Tuesday's Indiana primary election could, once again, backfire and play into the hands of Democrats who are struggling to retain control of the upper chamber in Congress.

The insurgent tea party wants to eject moderate Republican Sen. Richard Lugar in favor of a hardline conservative. Lugar and Utah Sen. Orin Hatch, who also faces a tea party opponent in that state's primary in late June, are the two longest serving Republicans in the Senate. The tea party movement, which advocates small government, deep spending cuts and no tax increases, has labeled both senators as Washington insiders and castigates them for compromising with Democrats over their long careers.

Polls in Indiana show, however, that tea party backing for state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, a deeply conservative Republican, could produce a replay of Senate elections in 2010. Then, tea party-backed Senate candidates ousted the party establishment's choice in several state primaries. But the more extreme candidates cost the Republicans possible Senate pickups in the general election in Colorado, Delaware and Nevada, leaving the Senate narrowly in Democrats' hands...

...in 2010 ... the tea party forced extreme conservative Senate candidates onto the ballot only to see them defeated in the general election.

...While tea party-backed Senate candidates stumbled in 2010, the organization was wildly successful in producing a Republican sweep that returned the party to control in the House of Representatives. But there are increasing signs that voters may have buyers' remorse, given that the uncompromising tea-party dominated freshman class in the House produced utter legislative gridlock in Congress...

Do you like the adjectives?

When was the last time an AP article labeled a Leftist like Chuck "Schmucky" Schumer a hardline liberal? Or a dunce like "Little" Dick Durbin a deeply progressive Democrat?

That would be never.

Oh, and did I mention the fact that Tea Party-backed conservative Senate candidates who won included Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey?

I'm not sure why any newspaper would pay for a failing "news" service like the Associated Press, when its agenda becomes more transparent by the day -- and when higher quality content is available all over the web. But perhaps that explains the continued, catastrophic meltdown of newspapers like The Washington Post, whose ad revenue dropped a shocking 17 percent year-over-year.


White House: Please register your fetus at the door (partial birth abortions still okay, however)

These Democrats are so confusing:

The White House Visitors Office requires that an unborn child—still residing in utero—must be counted as a full human being when its parents register for a White House tour, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon... White House Visitors Office director Ellie Schafer sent an email to a Capitol Hill staffer Tuesday morning explaining the process for registering an unborn fetus for a White House tour:

I thought Democrats assert that fetuses aren't people?

And that the President and his wife believe that laws banning partial birth abortions are "clearly unconstitutional" and "flawed"?


I'm so freaking confused.


Survey of Insurance Agents: Obamacare "Devastating" to Businesses, Kills Jobs, Harms Consumers

Aside from those downsides, it's awesome.

A new survey by the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors shows that the federal health care law’s medical loss ratio (MLR) provision has had a devastating effect on agents’ ability to maintain a high level of customer service to their clients.


...According to the national survey of 861 NAIFA members who sell health insurance, 15 percent said the MLR has decreased their commissions, causing them to lay off or reduce the hours of support staff in their offices (affecting an average of two employees per agency). Additionally, 14 percent of the respondents said they have considered reducing staff and 21 percent said they will do so if commissions remain depressed.


...The MLR provision requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of individual and small group health insurance premiums and 85 percent of large group policies on medical or quality improvement expenses. Since it went into effect in January 2011, the MLR has prompted most insurance companies to slash the commissions of insurance agents and brokers...

-- 11 percent of respondents say they have gotten out of the market for individual health policies.

-- 5 percent have stopped selling and servicing health coverage altogether.

-- 30 percent say that if commissions remain depressed they will stop selling and servicing individual health policies; 22 percent say they will stop selling all health insurance.


When it comes to premiums, the majority of respondents (90 percent) said their clients’ premiums have increased or will increase in 2012, in spite of the MLR... “Removing agent commissions from the MLR won’t have any impact on premiums, but leaving them in seriously dilutes customer service,” Miller said.

In short, the MLR dictate is poisonous to the market system. It represents a crude form of price control. Any student of history knows how price controls distort markets, from Jimmy Carter's disastrous attempts to constrain oil prices to Hugo Chavez' nightmarish destruction of private companies in Venezuela.

Obamacare is only a slight detour on the road to single-payer, i.e., a completely nationalized health care system. This perversion of the Constitution is antithetical to America's founding, its traditions and its morals. And it would be completely unrecognizable to this nation's founders.

Obamacare must be obliterated, starting in November.


Outrage: Koch Brothers Promise to Spend Millions Supporting GOP

Hold up. Did I say the Koch Brothers and the GOP?

Because I meant to say George Soros and the Democrats.

Curious how the media outrage fades if it's Democrats being funded, even when a foreign national is injecting himself into U.S. politics.

Liberal billionaire George Soros has vowed to donate $1 million apiece this year to the pro-Democrat organizations American Bridge 21st Century and America Votes...

American Bridge is a research group that will focus on Republican candidates, and America Votes is a coalition that includes unions, environmentalists and women’s groups. Both organizations are based in Washington.

“As he has in the past, George is focusing his political giving in 2012 on grassroots organizing and holding conservatives accountable for the flawed policies they promote,” Vachon wrote.

Soros contributed $23.7 million in 2004 to pro-Democratic political organizations, more than any other donor, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group.

As an aside, the Koch brothers have issued a formal response to President Obama's intimidation efforts. Unlike Nixon, President Obama wears his enemies list on his sleeve.


Dude, you can now follow this blog on Facebook

Because that's the way we roll.


The Doug Ross @ Journal News Page should automatically update whenever new articles are posted (thanks to RSS Graffiti).

Let me know if you have any problems in the comments, because I'm much more of a Twitter aficionado. So I'm guessing this was set up incorrectly...


Larwyn's Linx: The professional malpractice of the 2008 McCain campaign team, redux

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

Nation

Professional malpractice of the McCain 2008 team, redux: Lane
Obama Adviser Cites Marx to Defend Class Warfare: Beacon
National Offend a Feminist Week 2012: RSM

Levin: MSM has always protected the worst of Democrats: Scoop
Truth Is Major Obstacle to Obama’s Re-election: DLim
The Occupy Movement and the Communism of Everyday Life: AEI

The Moral Infrastructure: Sowell
High Crimes and Contract Killers: Beacon
In new biography, Obama asks: Am I an American?: York

Economy

One of these is just like the others...: Katz
Cloward-Piven Strategy Working Perfectly — in Europe: Tatler
Robert Reich’s attempt to redefine Capitalism: Q&O

President Obama Hopes This Man Is Wrong: Mead
DWS Claims She Has “Earned” Her Healthcare: Shark
State Bans Bake Sales: Herald

2012 Elections

Tomorrow, Retire Dick Lugar: RS
Sherrod Brown's War on Women: Beacon
Dismal Beginning To Obama's Never-Ending Campaign: IBD

Wisconsin Republicans Need to Vote for Walker Tomorrow and Avoid a Nasty Surprise: LI
Romney opens 10-point lead among Independents: RS
Richard Lugar deliberately flouts Indiana law: Hoosier Access

Scandal Central

Amazing. Eric Holder’s DOJ funds a Bernadine Dohrn-connected organization: NRO
Missing: $400 purse holding $800 cash, plus food stamp cards: Events
White House Same-Sex Marriage Games: Mataconis

Climate & Energy

Next! Sierra Club Declares War on Natural Gas: FreeEnt
It’s Come to This: Farting Dinosaurs May Have Caused So-Called ‘Climate Change’: JWF
Three questions for Andrew Revkin and Michael Mann: Watts

Media

Democrats against journalism?: RSM
Robert Reich: Redefining Capitalism: ConCom
Debbie Schultz “Pictorial View” of GOP Enthusiasm Destroyed: Sooper

NYT Editor Keller: Gee, Fox Sure Is Creating a Climate of 'Corrosive Cynicism' Claiming To Be Non-Partisan : Ace
One of These Things Is Not Like the Other: Driscoll
Dozens just laid off at The New York Times - lawyers, minorities hardest hit: WyBlog

Is Stupidity A Firing Offense At Mediaite?: Glob
Message To Stupid People – DO NOT LISTEN TO WHAT OBAMA SAYS, WATCH WHAT HE IS DOING: iOTW
Block and Report!: Blogmocracy

World

That was fast: Giddy Obama invites new French Socialist BFF to the White House: Twitchy
An Uncommitted Socialist: François Hollande, the new French president: City Journal
Kansas City: Woman converts to Islam, shakes down AT&T for $5 million: Creeping

American POW left to languish while Obama gives away Taliban prisoners: Commentary
Ten burning questions for Obama’s secret terrorist release program: Thiessen
Bonn, Germany: Club-wielding army of 600 Muslims attack as Muhammad cartoons are shown: JihadWatch

O's Israel-Bashing Bundler: Beacon
Did the White House Lie About Terror Plots for Obama Celebration?: Sooper
Which Religion Endorses Lone-Wolf Suicide Attacks plus Chemical and Biological Weapons?: Atlas

Admin drafted memo to shield Obama if OBL raid failed: Beacon
Chutzpah: WH tells France, 'Don't end austerity measures': HyScience
France: 93% of Muslims voted for Hollande: IIE

Sci-Tech

Would You Buy a Dome Home?: Wired
In Oracle v Google, Judge Holds Fate of Java APIs: Wired
Japanese Government Mulls Social Game Crackdown: Wired

Cornucopia

The planned re-election of Obama, revolutionary style: CFP
John Travolta Being Sued For Sexual Battery – By Male Masseur: iOTW
Ross, BadBlue visit the Andrea Shea King Show: Andrea Shea King

Image: OMG for America
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "If there was a dummies guide to Europe's problems, this is it - plain and simple - and as this weekend's elections perhaps reflect "when you borrow too much money as a nation - you become ungovernable - as there is no painless way out."" --Tyler Durden

Monday, May 07, 2012

Un-freaking-believable: American POW left to languish while Obama gives away Taliban prisoners

An American POW has has been held by a Taliban-affiliated terror group for almost three years. And he is never mentioned while Barack Obama releases high-level Taliban detainees from Gitmo in exchange for... their promises not to commit more acts of terrorism.

...The United States has for several years been secretly releasing high-level detainees from a military prison in Afghanistan as part of negotiations with insurgent groups, a bold effort to quell violence but one that U.S. officials acknowledge poses substantial risks...

...As the United States has unsuccessfully pursued a peace deal with the Taliban, the “strategic release” program has quietly served as a live diplomatic channel, allowing American officials to use prisoners as bargaining chips in restive provinces where military power has reached its limits.

...On June 30, 2009, almost three years ago, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl of Idaho was kidnapped by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network. He is the only prisoner of war currently held by the Taliban and recent video releases seem to indicate that he is being kept alive for ransom by the group.

...In December, The Daily Beast was the only outlet to report on a heroic escape attempt by the sergeant. After working for over two years to gain the trust of his captors, Bergdahl jumped out of a first-story window, running into the wilderness [and evading capture for] three days without food or water—hiding in a shallow trench he had dug with his own hands and covered with leaves.

...Even [after he was discovered], he put up a ferocious fight. The two gunmen who found him first were unable to subdue him. “He fought like a boxer,” Hanif was told. It took five more militants to overpower him. Now back in custody, he is kept shackled at night, and his jailers are taking no chances.

This is the caliber of soldier that the United States and its military produces, the American that the president seems to have forgotten about for almost three years.

...In 2008 it was Barack Obama’s policy not to engage with terrorists under any circumstances. In 2009, his administration was comfortable exchanging American prisoners for British hostages. In 2012, it has become clear it was the long-standing policy of the administration to release American-held terrorist prisoners while asking for nothing in exchange, not even an American POW.

Keep Sergeant Bergdahl in your prayers.

And contact the House Foreign Affairs Committee at (202) 225-5021 to express your outrage.


Hat tip: Bethany. Also see: Ten burning questions for Obama’s secret terrorist release program

Surprise! Key Obama Administration Official Quotes Marx, Speaks of Efficacy of Collectivism

I'm sure he just forgot about the part where 95 million people had to pay the ultimate price for Marx's insane, unworkable and despotic policies.

A senior Obama administration official defended the efficacy of “class warfare” on his personal blog Monday by quoting the political philosopher and communist theorist Karl Marx.

Rick Bookstaber, who currently serves on the Financial Stability Oversight Council, the federal body established under the Dodd-Frank Act to “ensure the stability of our nation’s financial system,” took issue with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s accusations that liberals were engaging in “class warfare” by seeking to blame the nation’s fiscal problems on a small number of wealthy individuals.

"There is little that matches the artfulness of the rich in waving off criticism of the widening income gap as ‘class warfare,’” Bookstaber wrote. “...I believe such a war is justifiable, and indeed ultimately inevitable.”

Bookstaber explained further, citing Marx:

During the industrial revolution class warfare centered on the length of the working day. A tightly defined working day only appeared with the advent of the industrial revolution... regimentation and a dependable workforce became necessary once there was machinery to run and capital invested, and so with industrialization came the an enforced workday. So it is not surprising that Marx stated the central battle of class warfare at the time in terms of the working day:

The capitalist maintains his rights as a purchaser when he tries to make the working-day as long as possible, and to make, whenever possible, two working-days out of one. On the other hand, the peculiar nature of the commodity sold implies a limit to its consumption by the purchaser, and the laborer maintains his right as seller when he wishes to reduce the working-day to one of definite normal duration. There is here, therefore, an antinomy, right against right, both equally bearing the seal of the law of exchanges. Between equal rights force decides. Hence is it that in the history of capitalist production, the determination of what is a working-day, presents itself as the result of a struggle, a struggle between collective capital, i.e., the class of capitalists, and collective labour, i.e., the working-class. – Marx, Das Kapital

Marx’s work was widely appropriated throughout the 20th century by countries such as China and the former Soviet Union. Tens of millions of people were slaughtered under those regimes.

But they just didn't implement Marx's policies correctly, right Bookstaber?

And I'm sure all of the following incidents -- demonstrating Obama's seeming affinity for socialism -- are, eh, simply coincidences:

• "That was fast: Giddy Obama invites new French Socialist BFF to the White House"

Would-be Obama Czar Van Jones turns out to be a Communist Truther

Ex-White House Communications Czar Anita Dunn is a devotee of the mass-murderer Mao

How many more radical leftists like Bookstaber are lurking in this administration, burrowed deeply to influence policy in spite of election results, in spite of the will of the people, and operating counter to American history, traditions and values?

But there is one balm: November is coming. And we are going to turn these bums out and flick the lights on in the halls of power. And then we will watch these cockroaches head for the hills.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com.

Good News: First Responders Are Now Receiving Training to Deal With Exploding Chevy Volts

I wonder how much CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere when a Chevy Volt explodes?

The list of required knowledge for first responders gets longer all the time. Now firefighters are being alerted to potential danger during rescue procedures involving hybrid or electric vehicles...

At a conference of in Las Vegas this weekend, the National Fire Protection Association provided a day of training for trainers — firefighters who will return home to share with their ranks practical knowledge about the cars.

Safely disabling the the batteries tops the list. High-voltage batteries that operate the vehicle systems carry enough juice to kill or severely injure a rescuer who incorrectly cuts a cable. Students also spent time sorting out the varying features on hybrid and electric models, including airbag trigger mechanisms.

Silent movement is another hazard for a rescuer who might believe a motionless car is off. The cars are silent when they’re in battery mode, and can begin to move forward when obstacles blocking their paths are removed. The engine in a hybrid model might unexpectedly kick on when the battery has drained...

Although you certainly won't read any of this in legacy media, the Volt has been involved with a total of six separate fires, three while in the hands of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and three with owners who had not been involved in accidents.

Of course, I'm sure all of the modifications GM made to the Volt were strictly coincidental.


Two Charts Illustrating How the Obama Democrats Created a Massive Shadow Welfare State

I'm guessing we won't be seeing either of these two charts in legacy media for, oh, the rest of our lives.

There was a little mentioned tangent to last Friday's very disappointing NFP print of +115,000 (driven by a surge in temp jobs offsetting a collapse in full time positions): as David Rosenberg notes, the jobs number was about half of another far more important number - that of Americans applying for disability, which in April was +225,000...


He continues: "this is the new stealth stimulus program - so far in 2011, nearly one million Americans have applied for disability and year-to-date, 333k have actually enrolled (covering 539k family members). In total, more than five million people have been added to disability coverage since President Obama took over three years ago."

"...either safety standards at work have eroded dramatically or the '99%' have found a creative way to milk the system and turn the economy into a quasi welfare state..."

...Because remember: the BLS assumes that any amount up to the total 53 million people, is not in the labor force as they have other "wefare" based forms of government handouts and see no need at all to look for a job. Is there any wonder why US unemployment is realistically 20% if not much higher? As for the other chart, food stamps, we know that story all too well.

Call it legalized plunder, as Bastiat did, or call it Cloward-Piven Government.

Either way, the end result will be the same: economic ruin.


Hat tip: Gluskin Sheff.

Change: "For Most Graduates, Grueling Job Hunt Awaits"

I'm assuming that any college graduate who complains about the job market must be a racist.

...the class of 2012 faces tougher competition thanks to what Carl Van Horn, director of the Heldrich Center, calls "the recession hangover." Young adults who graduated into the dire labor market of 2008 and 2009 and have been out of work or underemployed since are applying for the same jobs as new grads are. The same goes for earlier grads who were laid off during the recession. Those job candidates, who likely have more experience than new grads, may have an edge, Mr. Van Horn says.

In a better position might be those seniors who took advantage of on-campus recruitment programs. Lauren Martinez, 22 years old, will graduate from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., on Saturday with an entry-level consulting job in hand. Competition during recruiting season felt "hard but not terrible," says Ms. Martinez, who received two job offers. Her friends who are graduating without full-time jobs, she adds, have mostly lined up volunteer work, internships and temporary research positions while they continue to search for permanent work.

...a debt burden looms. Two-thirds of students from the class of 2010, the latest figures available, graduated with student loans, with an average tab of $25,250—up 5% from the previous year—according to The Institute for College Access & Success, an independent group that promotes higher education affordability.

Tuition isn't getting any cheaper, so loan figures are expected to be even higher for the current crop of graduates. That means a greater share of those starting salaries will go to repaying lenders, rather than to rent, furnishings or a down-payment fund for a house, delaying financial independence for many young adults.

...even when new graduates do find jobs, their starting salaries tend to be lower than those for their counterparts who graduated a decade earlier, adjusted for inflation. With a lower base pay, research shows they may never catch up.

I have the distinct feeling that the youth vote is going to abandon the Democrat Party in November. For what else can they do but punish the Democrats' intellectual vanguard of Debbie Wasserman-Schlitz, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and the rest of the big government miscreants who are enslaving that generation to economic misery?


Larwyn's Linx: The ideologue’s fairy tale

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

Nation

The ideologue’s fairy tale: Patterico
Obama: cradle to grave government control: NoisyRm
Racial Preferences: Unfair and Ridiculous: Barone

Credit Where It's Due: Former Spook
The Final Insult of the Qaeda Clowns: Post
Rubio: Obama "Typical Washington Politician": RCP

Allen West gives fiery speech at Lincoln Day Dinner: Scoop
'Positive Bias' May Be Hurting Minority Students: LiveScience
What Does This Sign Mean?: Ace

Economy

Oops: Bomber Signed ‘Occupy’ Group’s Warehouse Lease: Bizzy
“Should student loans be priced according to major?”: Lane
United States: A Budget That Can’t Be Balanced: CDN

Pimco Echoes Heritage on Taxmageddon: Foundry
Europe Opens Down 2% As Sovereign Risk Surges: ZH
Cuts? What Cuts?: NoisyRm

2012 Elections

No longer feeling sorry for Dick Lugar: LI
ObamaCare Repeal Pledge: Mourdock signs, Lugar refuses: FreedomWorks
Muslim Brotherhood invades Tampa to re-elect President Obama!: NoisyRm

Scandal Central

MSM on 'Fast and Furious': Slow and Spurious: Breitbart
Anti-gun group downplays ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ death toll: DC
Tired of 'Fast and Furious' stonewalling: Inside Congress' case for contempt against Attorney General Holder: Greta

Climate & Energy

East Anglia Climatic Research Unit shown to be liars: Watts
Global Warming Hysteria: We Need Another Great Depression: First Things
Renewable Fuel Mandates Drive Up Cost of Electricity: LoneCon

Media

NY Times Goes Hunting for Racist 'Ultraconservatives' in Ohio Who Won't Support Obama: NB
I guess Julia was too busy to attend the Obama Rally: DTG
Mainstream Media Digs Up ANOTHER ‘Angelic’ Trayvon Martin Photo: SHN

James O’Keefe subpoenaed by NH Attorney General: LI
SNL cuts sketch critical of Obama, replaces it with Fox News parody: DC
Bomber Who Has Nothing to do With Occupy Signed Lease for Occupy Warehouse: JWF

Who Is the Real Sarah Palin?: Breitbart
CNN not exactly buying the War on Wimmenses meme: Hot Air
You’ve got fail! Report: Arianna "Zsa Zsa" Huffington has her editoral duties scaled way back by AOL: FAM

World

Navy SEAL hands Obama his arse: ASK
Muslim Anti-semitism and Jew hatred is growing in Malmo: Atlas
Russian opposition leaders arrested as Moscow protest slips into violence: WaPo

The French think they've voted to give themselves more of Germany's money: WyBlog
French Voters Choose the Road to Greece: SDA
Sarkozy Becomes First French President in 30 Years to Be Ousted: Bloomberg

Report: Secret U.S. Program Releasing High-Level Taliban If They Promise Not To Return To Battlefield: WZ
Israel warns Hizbollah over Iran: Telegraph
Many Jews Prepare to Leave France for Israel: Breitbart

Egypt blocks fuel truck from reaching Gaza tunnels: Matzav
USS Cole Bomber Dies of Loneliness and U.S. Drone Strike, But Mostly Drone Strike: BlackFive
Obama Rings New Socialist French President, ‘Looks Forward to Working Closely’ with Hollande: Tatler

Sci-Tech

Promotional Video: Making a Blockbuster on a Budget: WSJ
Twitter plays outsize role in 2012 campaign: WSJ
The Secret Life of Your Cellphone: LAT

Cornucopia

The American Heart: New Andrew Breitbart Tribute Video: CDN
Angry White Dude's 'Blog of Peace' to Behead Libtard Trolls for Blasphemy: AWD
Kentuck Derby Mystery: Body Found, Cops Say There Is Evidence of Foul Play: ABC

A Hoarse of a Different Color: MOTUS
Figures – National Christmas Tree Dies Under Obama: LoneCon
'The Avengers' are box office superheroes, with $200.3 million: LAT

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "Historically speaking, we live in very interesting times. We are probably very close to a civilizational shift of a similar magnitude to the Fall Of Rome. The Western World is going to print money and run up debt until they have no choice other than default. Greece was first, soon it will be Portugal and Spain; eventually Japan, the EU and the USA will default. It isn’t clear what will happen after the great powers default on their debt, but it’s not likely to be pretty.

It took more than 1000 years for civilization to get back to where Rome was. How long will it take this time? Is it possible that everyone could agree to write off all debt and just start over? China would be left with a lot of worthless paper, but we bought a lot of worthless products. Unfortunately, I don’t think this has a fairy-tale ending. The politicians will never agree to going back to the way things used to be; when they worked for the people instead of us working for them…" --'Pavan'

Sunday, May 06, 2012

Uproarious: former Carter national security adviser Brzezinski grades Obama's foreign policy between a 'B+ and A-'

Giving The Onion a run for its money, the so-called National Journal -- if that is its real name -- offers up the following laugh-out-loud headline:


Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Adviser to President Jimmy Carter, graded Obama’s foreign policy performance “somewhere between B-plus and A-minus,” lauding his achievements with Chinese and Russian relations but criticizing his failure to move forward on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

“It would be higher if he had moved more decisively on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, because he had a chance to do so. But admittedly, he was overwhelmed by domestic problems,” he said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Yep, that was what I was thinking. A good, solid B-plus.

• Obama scorched Egypt's Mubarak after an uprising was squelched, helping hasten the U.S. ally's fall and allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to ascend to power.

• Though tens of thousands were killed, he failed to act during Iran's green revolution, helping the Mullahs continue on the road to nuclear terrorism.

• He remained virtually silent as Syria's Iranian-allied dictator Bashar Assad slaughtered tens of thousands.

• He continues to defy Congress, sending hundreds of millions of dollars to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian authority that has promised to wipe Israel from the face of the Earth.

• He leaked a key military relationship between Azerbaijan and Israel, leading a former Marine strike planner to state that allies should start "viewing this administration as an existential threat to Israel."

As Mark Langfan observes, "Obama’s true foreign policy objective seems to be nothing less than the full nuclear weaponization of Iran."

And the rise of a new Caliphate.

Brzezinski and his ex-boss are both disgraceful, anti-American kooks, but everyone already knew that. Except for the hacks at National Journal.


Hat tip: Weasel Zippers. Related: Crazy conspiracy theory? Or is it so sane that you just blew your mind?

Critical visual aid depicts difference between #OWS and Tea Party

An illustration simple enough for even a progressive to understand.

It’s being reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer that one of the five anarchists suspected of plotting to bomb a bridge in Cleveland was a signatory on the lease of a warehouse associated with Occupy Cleveland. The Plain Dealer writes: One of the five self-described anarchists arrested last week for attempting to blow up a local bridge signed the lease for a West Side warehouse where about a dozen members of the Occupy Cleveland group live... In a one-hour recording of a Friday evening general assembly meeting of the group posted on its website http://occupycleveland.com/live-stream/, occupy leaders expressed concern about Anthony Hayne’s name being on the lease, which strengthens his link to the group.

There you have it. The first definitive piece of evidence of the Occupy movement’s involvement in a terrorist plot. Do you care to revise your statement of praise Minority Leader Pelosi?


I wonder if President Obama has retracted his support for the Occupy movement?

Oh, how I wish we had journalists in this country to ask.