Monday, May 14, 2012

Genius: HHS spending billions to create non-profit insurers, which I like to call the Obamacare version of Fannie Mae

Even though they've bankrupted Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac -- and failed miserably with "Great Society" and trillions in welfare -- Democrats now want you to fund new non-profit health insurers.

What could go wrong?

Republicans in the Senate and House questioned whether a Health and Human Services’ (HHS) $3.4 billion loan program to create non-profit health insurers would result in the greater competition and lower costs. In a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the members noted that the Department’s own actuarial estimates suggest at least $1 billion in taxpayer dollars may inevitably be wasted.

...“HHS may be seriously underestimating the financial risk that these new entities pose to the Federal Treasury,” the members wrote. “Recent reports have highlighted the challenges facing CO-OPs, which strongly suggests that the program will fail to provide consumers with promised viable alternatives or reduced costs. The new health care law is unfortunately already exacerbating this problem. As a result, many individuals and small businesses are confronting the reality of fewer choices and higher costs when purchasing health insurance.”

Given prior failures in government lending, including huge loans to now bankrupt Solyndra, the members requested responses to a number of questions, including that the Department correctly assess both the measures it has established to protect taxpayer funds and the process by which HHS has awarded the CO-OP loans. Earlier this year, Senator Coburn highlighted the problems with CO-Ops in a report, Warning: Side Effects, warning that they could be the Solyndra of the President’s health care law and waste millions of taxpayer dollars.

One day, when rational human beings gain control of the branches of government, I'd like to cap-and-trade Congress. By that I mean limit Congress and the bureaucracies to a total of no more than 100 double-spaced pages of laws and regulations. If they want to enact new ones, they've got to get rid of old ones.

I call it cap-and-trade of government emissions. Who's with me?


Perfect: 49 headless bodies found near U.S. border may have been U.S.-bound illegals attracted by lawless Obama administration policies

The inviting open-borders policies of the Obama Democrats may have contributed to the gruesome slaughter of nearly 50 people, whose decapitated bodies were found close to the U.S border.

Police found 49 mutilated bodies scattered in a pool of blood near the border with the U.S., a region where Mexico's two dominant drug cartels are trying to outdo each other in bloodshed while warring over smuggling routes... The bodies of 43 men and six women with their heads, hands and feet chopped off were dumped at the entrance to the town of San Juan, on a highway that connects the industrial city of Monterrey with Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.

At the spot where authorities discovered the bodies before dawn Sunday, a white stone arch that normally welcomes visitors to the town was spray-painted with "100% Zeta" in black letters — an apparent reference to the fearsome Zetas drug cartel that was founded by deserters from the Mexican army's special forces.

...Domene said the dead would be hard to identify because of the lack of heads, hands and feet...

De la Garza said he did not rule out the possibility that the victims were U.S.-bound migrants.

...In less than a month, the mutilated bodies of 14 men were left in a van in downtown Nuevo Laredo, 23 people were found hanged or decapitated in the same border city and 18 dismembered bodied were left near Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara. Nuevo Laredo, like Monterrey, is considered Zeta territory, while Guadalajara has long been controlled by gangs loyal to Sinaloa...

...A drug gang allied with Sinaloa left 35 bodies on a main boulevard in the city of Veracruz in September, and police found 32 other bodies, apparently killed by the same gang, a few days after that. The goal apparently was to take over territory that had been dominated by the Zetas... Twenty-six bodies were found in November in Guadalajara, another territory being disputed by the Zetas and Sinaloa... Drug violence has killed more than 47,500 people since Calderon launched a stepped-up offensive when he took office in December 2006.

Let us recall that the Obama administration has sued state after state after state for enforcing immigration laws while systematically endorsing sanctuary cities.

Let us also recall that the Obama administration halted all construction of the border fence, which is supported by a stunning 81 percent of Americans, according to USA Today.

In other words, nearly 50 human beings -- likely lured to the border by the lawless policies of the Obama administration -- lost their lives as part of a turf war spurred in part by -- yes -- the open borders policies of the Obama administration that tacitly permits drug- and human-smuggling.

I guess we can just add 'em to the total of Operation Fast and Furious (300 dead and counting).


Image: Borderland Beat.

Larwyn's Linx: The Dots Get Connected -- Soros Ally Teaches Democrats Cloward-Piven?

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

Nation

Connecting dots: Soros Ally Teaches Democrats Cloward-Piven?: RSM
Troops as Political Props: BlackFive
War on the Catholic Church: AT

The Fiction and Non-Fiction of Obama: Blaze
Jeremiah Wright: Obama Pal Offered Him $150K to Shut Up in '08: Hot Air
Obama Tried to Bribe Rev. Wright: Riehl

The Fall Of The Roman, I mean American Empire: CDN
Senator Bill Nelson Co-Opted By Obama’s Extreme Agenda: Shark
Warren's Indian Tales Help Turn MA Race Into Town vs. Gown: Cmtry

Economy

Update on the Higher Education Bubble: Power Line
JPM: Immediate Losses From Greek Exit Could Reach 400 Billion: ZH
Ally Financial's mortgage unit nears bankruptcy: sources: Reuters

You Know It's Public Money...: SDA
Report: 230,000 unemployed losing benefits over weekend: Hill
Monster deal heats up, LinkedIn to pass: sources: Reuters

Scandal Central

Issa to Holder: Waiting for "Fast and Furious" docs like waiting for Godot: CBS
Government study: flaws in government study of cost of government studies: Malkin
Communists in Congress? (1) Hansen Clarke (D) Michigan: Loudon

Climate & Energy

The Belief That CO2 Can Regulate Climate Is “Sheer Absurdity”: Power Line
The Idea Man: SDA
Biden in 2007: Coal more likely to kill an American than terrorism: Beacon

Media

Tea Party’s effective use of Twitter aiding its makeover of GOP: LI
Colussus: Primordial Slack
Newsweek: Obama Is The First Gay President: Cube

Why Doesn’t Obama Ban Iranian Press TV?: AIM
The Left is Getting Clobbered on Twitter: Power Line
Why Obama Can Accurately Be Described as a Dictator: WesternJourn

Why Obama Turned Gay for Pay–He Knows He’s Being Fired: Bruce
Krugman Just Figured It Out Now: You need a Nobel Prize to be this slow, apparently: Ticker
Family Guy Does Entire Episode Trashing Tea Party as Racist Anarchists Destined to Destroy America: NB

World

Bowing to Islamic Supremacy: AT
As the Eurozone Implodes, a New Nazi Movement Rises: NoisyRm
Obama’s lies about Islam are deadly: Creeping

The war on Israel, Irish-style: ynet
Geert Wilders: Marked For Death: FPM
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!": SDA

Sci-Tech

Thanks to a Bionic Suit, Paralyzed Mom Finishes Marathon: ObjStd
Court: NSA's Activity with Google Exempted from FOIA: Breitbart
Muscle Cars Are Not Fast: DailyPundit

Cornucopia

The Mathemagics Behind the Unemployment Rate: MOTUS
Operation Hot Mic: American Crossroads
Teen scores NFL star as prom date on Twitter: Fox

A Mother’s Work is Never Done. Apparently: MOTUS
Repeal, But Don't Replace: Shane Wright
The New Communism is Just Like the Old Communism: Western Rifle

Image: Communists in Congress? (1) Hansen Clarke (D) Michigan: NoisyRm
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "Recent observations by law enforcement officials throughout the state have revealed that gang members have increasingly engaged in formal martial arts and firearms training. Whether a gang member is incarcerated or on the streets, he is encouraged, if not required, to acquire an assortment of training to benefit the gang. A well-trained cadre of gang members may embolden the group and create a more dangerous environment for law enforcement officials when encountering gang membership involved in criminal activity." --California State Threat Assessment Center

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Awesome: Two Illegal Aliens Protected by Democrat "Sanctuary City" Policies Murdered Family and High-School Football Star

Strange: I wonder why I never read any of this in my local newspaper?

In unrelated cases that illustrate the high price communities pay for sanctuary policies, two illegal immigrants—both with extensive criminal records—were convicted of first-degree murder this week in different parts of a border state that has longed protected the undocumented.

In San Francisco a jury found Edwin Ramos, a renowned gang banger, guilty of three first-degree murder counts for the 2008 killings of a 48-year-old man and his two sons. Ramos had a lengthy criminal record when he murdered the family, but San Francisco sanctuary laws shielded him from deportation.

Judicial Watch obtained public records that show police knew Ramos was an active member of the notoriously violent MS-13 street gang and that he had numerous run ins with the law, including arrests for weapons and gang-related charges. Furthermore, police knew Ramos was in the U.S. illegally yet released him after every encounter. In short, the records obtained by JW prove that don’t-ask-don’t tell sanctuary policies protect illegal alien gang bangers and put American citizens at risk.

Regardless, the famously liberal northern California city has long protected illegal immigrants and offered them costly public services that should be reserved for legal residents and citizens. In fact, illegal aliens are assured through costly, Spanish-language advertisement campaigns that they will never be reported to federal officials. In 2007 San Francisco became the nation’s first large municipality to offer illegal aliens official government identification cards.

A few hundred miles south in Los Angeles, another illegal immigrant gang banger (Pedro Espinoza) was also convicted of first-degree murder this week for gunning down a standout high school football player in 2008. Jurors deliberated for about four hours before reaching a verdict, according to a local news report, that says Espinoza proudly sports a tattoo with the initials “B.K,” which police says stands for “Blood Killer.”

Espinoza had just completed a jail sentence for a previous felony when he murdered the 17-year-old star running back, Jamiel Shaw, as he walked home. Like San Francisco Los Angeles has strict policies banning law enforcement officers from inquiring about suspects’ immigration status. In this case it allowed a violent gang banger to gun down a talented young athlete who was being recruited by top colleges.

How much more lawlessness by this administration will the American people take?

The Obama-Holder Justice Department has sued state after state after state for enforcing federal immigration law. Curiously, however, the Democrats don't have a problem with "Sanctuary Cities".

My sense is that patience is wearing thin. And November is coming.


Oh my: actual pictures from the Obama campaign websites

Diogenes has the entire collection: un-retouched, 100 percent real and spectacular: "The following photos are taken directly from the official, authorized Obama for America reelection campaign website and Facebook pages. These are some of the pictures that team Obama hand-picked."


You can see the rest -- with entertaining captions -- here.


Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn and Van Jones: Suck on This Picture

"East Germany - Before and After":


Obama's Communist pals -- Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and Van Jones among them -- can suck it.


Hat tip: Small Dead Animals.

Newsweek labels Obama America's 'first gay president' [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

Here’s this week’s Newsweek cover just released by Newsweek via Twitter.

The story itself is written by Andrew Sullivan, a prominent gay blogger who swoons whenever he hears the name Obama, and breaks out in a cold sweat whenever he hears the word Israel.

It’s a testament to the cloistered nature and ideological inbreeding of New York’s media elite. Talking amongst themselves, leftish clones can’t possibly imagine that multitudes – many of them Democrats living beyond Manhattan - will see this as another good reason to oppose the reelection of Barack H. Obama.

For more on Sullivan, and his cover story, click here.

Given Obama's rumored dalliances with the, eh, other team, this may not have represented the brightest idea Andi Sullivan ever had.


Congratulations to President Obama For Another Historic Record: 97 Rounds of Golf In Less Than Three-and-a-Half Years

Let's assume, optimistically, that each round of golf takes a total of only four hours including transportation to and from the course. This means the president has spent more than 48 work days on the links. That's nearly seven weeks of 8-hour days!

Best of all, his latest round was with a lobbyist.

...Well, a lobbyist by trade, anyway.

Hunter Biden, who is golfing today with President Obama and his dad, Vice President Biden, stopped lobbying in 2008 once it became clear this would become a problem for the Democratic ticket, which had a zero-lobbyist policy.

The young Biden, according to Politico, had ”an office near K Street, a blue-ribbon roster of clients, and his firm, Oldaker Biden & Belair, made $1.76 million in lobbying revenue in the first half of 2006.”

And then he “got clean,” as they say of Democrats who stopped lobbying for the sake of The One. I’m sure Hunter will never touch the stuff again.

Also on hand today is White House trip director Marvin Nicholson, a regular Obama golf companion...

The Official Obama Golf Counter helps all Americans keep track of the President's tireless work on the links. Remember: he's doing it for the children.


Larwyn's Linx: Brilliant -- Corporate America Now Paying Democrats to Call Americans Racist

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

Nation

Corporate America Now Paying Democrats to Call Americans Racist: RSM
Wasserman, Obama Use Their Kids to Make Gay Marriage Case: Shark
Dem Idea On Mother’s Day: Donate To Pro-Abortion Groups: RWN

Obama, Biden working hard on golf games: Twitchy
Presidential photo op of the week: Malkin
Bad news for Obama, Michigan in play: LI

Economy

News You Won’t Find At The New York Times: Mead
472 Ann Romney Blouses = 1 Michelle Obama Spanish Vacation: LI
California facing higher $16 billion shortfall: AP

Common Education Standards: Wortwhile or a Power Grab?: SIGIS
Jay Rockefeller on rocky ground with coal: Hot Air
Is This Something? Obama Stump Speech in Reno Draws Dozens: Ace

Scandal Central

Obama's enemies list is working: WS
Florida investigation reveals 180,000 non-citizens may be registered to vote: RS
Romney Donor on Obama’s ‘Enemies List’: They’re Stalking My Kids: GWP

Climate & Energy

Rocky Mountain Formation Has More Oil Than All Proven Reserves Worldwide: SAB
New EPA Creation: 'Cap-and-trade Simulator': HyScience
Seriously?! Obama offers Brazil our technology (and money) for their oil?: Q&O

Media

Obama Gets $2 Million in Donations Within 24 Hours After Expressing Support for Same Sex Marriage: Powers
Obama: Being LGBT is all about me!: Twitchy
Oh my: Audience member yells “traitor” at mention of Romney’s name during Obama rally: Hot Air

Obama Targets, Smears Private Citizen for Donating to Romney: Lady Liberty
Falling Moonbat Messiah: MB
On NPR, David Brooks Says WashPost Romney Story Played Into 'Stupidity' And Is 'Illegitimate': NB

World

The Middle East's Problem From Hell: Instapundit
U.S. Remains Vulnerable to an EMP: Foundry
Intending underpant bomber was British agent: IANS Live

MN: Iraqi Muslim’s food stamp fraud costs taxpayers $3.1M: Creeping
Who’s Right about Agenda 21?: NoisyRm
Hollande faces challenges as int'l concern rises: JPost

Cornucopia

Did You Read That Article I Bookmarked For You: Day By Day
Racist Republican breaks arm of blind black guy, just for fun: AmDig
Ukrainian Living Doll, Valeria Lukyanova, Becomes Barbie: IB Times

Image: Day By Day, By Chris Muir
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund
QOTD: "A few things [about the Wisconsin recall election] Times readers ought to know but likely don’t:

• An unprecedented turnout in the essentially uncontested GOP primary shows Walker with extremely high and energized support; Walker got more votes than the two leading Democratic contenders
• Public weariness with the incessant political wars in Wisconsin is working against Democrats more than the GOP at this point, with many voters blaming the unions for endlessly prolonging the struggle
• Walker’s labor reforms are generally seen as successful.

In the Times cocoon, a grass roots mobilization of feisty, democracy-loving Wisconsinites is rising in rebellion against the hated Walker business and big donor lobby. In the actual Wisconsin, there are two grass roots movements opposing each other. The anti-union populists may end up with more energy, more unity and more votes than the pro-union organizers. The labor mobilization against the Walker reforms has been lovingly and carefully covered by the Times and its brethren since Day One: nothing like that level of analysis has been deployed on Walker’s grass roots support..." --Walter Russell Mead

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Bumper Sticker o' the Day: Transmit THIS To Vladimir



"The Most Ludicrous Graph of the Month"

That's what Steve Maley calls this steaming pile of Axelrodian propaganda:

Obama’s energy policies are a key vulnerability in the November elections, which has his staff scrambling to make it look like he’s actually done something to support domestic energy production. Since neither he nor anyone in his Administration knows the first thing about oil and gas, that can lead to some pretty ridiculous claims.

Like, for example, the [accompanying] graph, found at Obama For America‘s website (The small arrow reads “Obama Takes Office”...)

...At the end of this post you will find a FIFY (“Fixed It For You”) graph which identifies several other events of significance equal to or greater than that of Obama’s inauguration...

...the main suggestion of this graph that I find so offensive is that Obama had anything at all to do with today’s record levels of production. As his own graph clearly shows, OBAMA TOOK OFFICE DURING A GAS BOOM! There had already been four consecutive years of production growth under Bush.

Much of the ramp-up in production is in the shale gas plays: the Barnett of Texas, the Haynesville of Louisiana, the Woodford of Oklahoma, the Fayetteville of Arkansas, the Marcellus of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the Eagleford of Texas. All of them are on private, not Federal lands, and under the jurisdiction of state, not Federal, regulatory bodies.

Consequently, Federal permitting/regulation is not a dominant issue in any of these plays.

After scratching my head and studying the graph for a while, I did conclude that President Obama’s election had one discernible impact on natural gas: it turned the color of the bars on the graph from very light blue to a darker hue. Well done, Mr. President!


Based on the three-and-a-half years of de-industrialization policies enacted by Obama's EPA, it's a wonder things aren't significantly worse than they are.

Of course, it could just be that President Obama is waiting for the election, after which he will have considerably more, uhm, "flexibility".


Exclusive: Barack Obama's High School Drug Dealer Claims Young Barry Stole His Bong, Still Owes Him for a Dime Bag

President Obama's high school years were, by his own admission, a hazy, drug-induced blur.

Obama, by all accounts, was a habitual drug user in high school. He tried cocaine, he admits in Dreams From My Father; he “tried drugs enthusiastically.” The Chicago Tribune reported back in 2007 that Obama thanked the “Choom Gang” in his high school yearbook; “chooming” was Hawaiian slang for smoking pot. The Honolulu Advertiser reported that Obama’s senior portrait “prominently displayed … A package of ‘Zig-Zag’ rolling papers and a matchbook.” One of Obama’s close friends was arrested for drug possession during high school...

In his memoir, Obama talked about routinely getting high. “Junkie. Pothead,” he wrote. “That’s where I’d been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man.” But, according to Obama, he only got high because he was contemplating deep matters: drugs could “push questions of who I was out of my mind.”

Because old media failed to explore Obama's high school drug use, Cub Reporter Biff Spackle was dispatched to Hawaii three weeks ago. His job: to find and interview the president's 11th and 12th grade classmates who weren't in prison, dead or drones.

Fortunately, just hours before his flight out of Honolulu was scheduled to depart, Spackle happened upon Ernie "Spliff" Pipebladder. Pipebladder made several extraordinary claims about young "Barry Obama":

Dude, that m***erf***ing Barry stole so much s*** from me before he left for college it's not funny. I always kept my favorite bong near my bedroom window at Kaliihi Heights [apartment complex], which Barry knew about. Just before he leaves for Occidental, like days before, the damn bong dis-a-frickin-pears.

What are the odds of that happening?

Not only that, but I had some crazy good Maui Wowie that summer. Dude tells me he'll pay for a dime bag, which I give him on good faith, and he disappears to California a m***erf***ing week later.

Never saw him again until the 2004 Democrat Convention. I'm hanging with the buds in 8 Fat Fat [an area bar] and what do I see? The SOB who still owes me a Tokemaster 8000 and a dime bag! I start yellin' at the screen.

A few years later, he gets elected president. So I sends him a real nice letter asking for my bong back.

Next thing I know, like a day later, I got two Secret Service guys at my doorstep telling me it'd be best if I kept my m***erf***ing mouth shut.

I did for a while, but fact is, I want my damn bong back. That was a classic and it's worth big bucks now. They don't even make Tokemaster bongs anymore! So tell Barry he better make good on it, plus that dime bag, or I'm going to The Washington Post!

All of these statements are completely, 100 percent true, as far as you know.


Larwyn's Linx: Gov. Scott Walker (R, WI) brings in a budget surplus!

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

Nation

Gov. Scott Walker (R, WI) brings in a budget surplus!: Moe Lane
How obama’s Gay Marriage Views Have ‘Evolved’: RWN
Around world, Obama's presidency a disappointment: AP

Anything But the Issues: Elephant
Obama's former doctor: president lacks feeling, humanity: Events
Why is a senator’s campaign threatening a reporter?: Watchdog

Bill Clinton: Obama an 'amateur' and 'incompetent': GWP
The long, slow retreat of Obama for America.: RS
Administration Renews Push to Ratify Law of Sea Treaty: CDN

Economy

Americans Sour On Economic Prospects: Mead
The Human Wreckage of Obamanomics: CDN
Report: high taxes, not spending cuts, killing Europe: Peth

Facebook Billionaire Gives Up Citizenship to Escape U.S. Taxes: Cato
When you want to avoid talking Obama's record or economy: DTG
JPMorgan Chase Loss Shows Flaws Of Volcker Rule: IBD

Climate & Energy

White House Lied, Jobs Died: Malkin
Obama Adds 'Clean Coal' to Website Only After Disappointing W.V. Primary: WklyStd
Obama pretends to totally heart coal; Update: Rut roh! Biden said coal deadlier than terrorism: Twitchy

Media

‘BullyGate’: What Did Jason Horowitz Know, and When Did He Know It?: McCain
WaPo is full of it, says family of Romney’s alleged bullying victim: Twitchy
The Decline and Fall of the Washington Post: AIM

All the President's Men...: Six Meat Buffet
WaPo’s Lord of the Lies: LI
Watch Tamron Hall Go Nuts: Beacon

Family Of Romney Prank Target Not Real Happy With Washington Post: RWN
Peter Schweizer Politely KOs Condescending MSNBCers Touré and Krystal Ball: NB
Warmist Bill Nye: AGW More Important Than Economy And Jobs: Cove

World

Mexican Jihad: Gatestone
Child rape: part of their “culture”: Cold Fury
Echoes of ‘67: Israel unites: Krauthammer

South China Standoff: Beacon
War With Egypt Approaches: Glick
France’s New Wealthy-Bashing Socialist President Has Three Homes on Riviera: JWF

Freeing Taliban Like Freeing Al-Qaida Terrorists: IBD
Sweatshop Workers Making Obama Sweatshirts Subjected to Brutal Conditions, Racial Harassment: JWF
Sessions: IRS Checks To Illegal Immigrants Part of Larger Border Problem: NoisyRm

Sci-Tech

On Software: Rhizome (2001)
#freeshanewright22 and more: Conservative users still trapped in #twittergulag: Twitchy
Facebook said responsible for killing text messaging: CNet

Cornucopia

Outrageous. Woman Gets 20 Years for Firing Warning Shot To Stop Abusive Husband: Bruce
Travolta Massage Lawsuit A Work Of Pulp Friction: TSG
New Stadium: Denny

Image: Report: Obama Refused To Take Pictures With American Troops During Trip To Baghdad
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Senate Conservatives Fund Needs Your Support

QOTD: “My main objection to Barack Obama is that he is a great speaker and a lousy communicator. He isn’t getting his message across to people. He isn’t showing that he really cares. To this day he hasn’t communicated with members of Congress.”

[Obama's doctor David] Scheiner and other interviewees in The Amateur believe that President Obama has been a failure as a president, that he has failed to live up to the hype and has left a trail of betrayals in his wake.

Although Obama and Scheiner did not have a close relationship, Scheiner was clearly upset by how he was cut off when Obama became president.

“Obama invited his barber to his inauguration—his barber! But I wasn’t invited. Believe me, that hurt.” --Jarrett Stepman

Friday, May 11, 2012

Motivational Poster o' the Day



Critical Recall Notice for All BMW Drivers

Biff Spackle alerts us to this critical recall notice for all BMW drivers:




Hat tip: Denny.

Americans curiously unconcerned with Mitt Romney's high school days as Obamanomics mercilessly bullies tens of millions

The laughable crackpots at The Washington Post and The New York Times can invent all the faux bullying stories from Mitt Romney's youth they want, but one immutable fact remains clear. It is the American people being bullied by the Obama Democrats' fiscal policies.

As our state-orchestrated media struggle to drag voters into a contrived discussion on everything but the economy, including an imaginary war on women, the urgent need for free condoms, the danger of blacks wearing hoodies, proper dog-rearing habits, and the importance of Mitt Romney’s juvenile pranks, real lives are being wasted, held back by an economy that is criss-crossed in red tape, and stifled by progressive taxation.

While the Democrats are babbling about a composite woman named “Julia,” appropriately faceless and helpless — just the way the party likes ‘em, real flesh-and-blood human beings who are born into this world with a hope of doing something positive and constructive with their lives are suffering. But you’re not going to get anecdotal sob stories here to carry the water for a weak argument, like one constantly sees with the mainstream media, but a little history and some hard statistics.


Half of all college graduates today will not be able to find employment under this president, according to current trends. The young people who are supposed to be the critical component to the Obama re-election campaign, and who voted for him over McCain at a rate of 2-1 in 2008, are being asked to turn out for the glory and edification of a man whose policies do not allow them to succeed in kind.

Long-term unemployment is an unmitigated disaster. The hallucinated Obama recovery has seen a tripling of the long-term unemployment rate, meaning that so many able adults have been out of work for so long that their life prospects are dwindling. Should an Internet version of the Fairness Doctrine ever be passed, this would be the part of the editorial where a Democrat comes in and tell us how his party has a monopoly on compassion.

In spite of all of the spin -- like the "fact" that unemployment is "dropping" (even though hundreds of thousands of people disappear from the numbers every month) -- the American people know the real situation is miserable. At the risk of appearing on President Obama's "Enemies List", Walter Russell Mead speaks truth to power.

The White House is all about social issues these days, and a new AP-GfK poll explains why: Americans think the economy is getting worse. As recently as February, 20 percent of Americans thought the economy was in “good” shape; currently only 10 percent share that opinion. Two thirds think the economy is in “poor” shape, and only one in three expects their family’s situation to improve in the coming year...

...Growing public pessimism about the country’s economic prospects in the spring of a presidential election year is extremely bad news for the White House. If the economic news were better, we’d be hearing a lot more about that and a lot less about gay marriage and contraception.

With both national tracking polls showing Romney ahead this morning, the social strategy doesn’t seem to be working. That’s hardly a surprise; voters say the economy matters more to them than any other issue this year.

Gee, and I thought Sandra Fluke and a phony conversion on gay marriage would rally the entire country to Obama's side.

One Man's Moderate is Another's Islamic Fanatic [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

Thanks to Caroline Glick for bringing this inspiring exercise in Egyptian Democracy to our attention. See if you can spot the the “moderates.” They’re the apoplectics in dark gray suits screaming about killing Jews and invading Jerusalem with a million “martyrs.” Can’t say for sure whether or not any of these guys were included in the Muslim Brotherhood contingent that swung thru D.C. last week as guests of the Obama administration. Cosi fan tutte. After you’ve seen one, you’ve probably seen them all.

You may also like: “Egyptian presidential candidates Amr Moussa and Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh split over whether Israel is an enemy or adversary.”

Oh, and remember: Glick reminds us that President Obama just released $1.5 billion to Egypt's "moderate" government, the stated goal of which is to build a new Caliphate.


Larwyn's Linx: Mr. Obama Supports Gay Marriage. Big Whoop.

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

Nation

Mr. Obama Supports Gay Marriage. Big Whoop.: Koch's Tour
Trayvon’s Story Made Famous for the Wrong Reasons: RWN
Obama Has Written Off the Evangelical Vote: AmSpec

Non-Union Retirees Shafted in Auto Bailouts Told to Get Jobs: NLPC
Obama's Sordid High School Past: Breitbart
Black voters in NC supported Amendment One by 2-1 margin: JWF

Economy

White House Lied, Jobs Died: Malkin
1%-ers Clooney and Obama jam L.A. traffic; 99%-ers revolt: Twitchy
Christie Vetoes Obamacare Exchange for NJ: WyBlog

Obama jokes with Clooney at star’s gala fundraiser: DC
Obama: Sometimes I forget about the recession...: WZ
House cuts $310 billion, but Senate passage is unlikely: Dallas

Scandal Central

Issa to Holder: ‘Fast and Furious will be your legacy’: DC
142 House Democrats Join Republicans Against Holder: Nice Deb
If You’re Too Incompetent or Lazy to Get ID, Don’t Vote: Hawkins

Climate & Energy

Sierra Club launches another war on civilization: Elephant

Media

Was John Lauber Really Gay?: AmPower
Glenn Beck on the lies that Barack Hussein Obama has told about his past: Scoop
Georgia Gov. Signs Bill Allowing 10 Commandments Posted at all Public Bldgs: RWN

Rape of the Lock: Ace
Time's Ridiculous Cover Ridiculed: Sooper
WV Mayor: I Wouldn't Vote for Obama if He Was the Last Man in the World: Beacon

Did The Wash Post Report a 5,000-Word Expose on Obama's Cocaine Use In the Last Cycle?: NB
WaPo Changes Romney Hit Piece, Doesn't Issue Correction: Breitbart
WaPo’s “Mitt the Bully” piece runs into problems: Patterico

World

Pathetic: Obama Says Military Fights “On His Behalf”: RWN
Would You Take an SUV into Combat?: Foundry
Muslim site tells children become Muslim in secret, tell parents later: Creeping

Mark Levin: We were fed propaganda, there was no CIA double agent!: Scoop
Jihad Comes to Egypt: Islamists Expose Their True Face Before Elections: Ibrahim
They Linger On and They Suffer Not...: Winter Soldier

Sci-Tech

Facebook's IPO said to have more demand than shares available: CNet
JP Morgan Announces $2 Billion In Losses, Chiefly Due To Account Used To Protect Against Risks: Ace
FBI Fears Bitcoin’s Popularity with Criminals: Wired

Cornucopia

Agents Find 2 Guns, No Art at Alleged Gangster's Connecticut Home: ABC
Where is the balance?: Erickson
'The Power to Tax is the Power to Destroy': C&S

Image: Rush Limbaugh
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "In sum, a mentor of the current president of the United States was a Communist —and not only a party member, but an actual propagandist for Stalin’s USSR, a man who unceasingly demonized Democratic presidents and their policies and cherished ideals. Even in World War II, Davis was on the wrong side: He was flatly pro-Soviet and anti-American.

If you feel like you’ve been duped, or at least deprived of some significant background information about the man who is now the elected leader of the free world, you can thank our shameless, woefully biased media for failing to do its job." --Paul Kengor

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Arthur Brooks: the Proper Role of Government in a Single Chart

The brilliant Arthur Brooks offers us the following flowchart that should be taught in every one of America's schools and colleges.

There are instances when markets fail and do not correct themselves. At that point, some government action might be warranted. But how do we make that call?

In The Road to Freedom, I provide the chart below to answer that very question


Simple. Elegant. Straightforward. Just like the United States Constitution, which embraces similar principles to constrain the rise of an authoritarian, centralized, all-powerful government.

Which is why Democrats will hate it.


Flame on! Another day, another electric car explosion

And, yes, it was another electric car built in a foreign country with your tax dollars. Or money borrowed from the Chinese, I'm not sure which.

Another stimulus-funded electric car is dealing with spontaneous combustion problems. A Texas driver’s brand new $100,000 luxury Fisker Karma burst into flames and nearly took his house down with it.

...The Karma is not the only electric car that has a habit of going up in smoke. GM suspended productions of the $40,000 Chevy Volt after low demand and several car fires caused a scandal for the automaker. A recent run of electric vehicle fires has put firefighters on alert and departments have had to provide special training to avoid electrocution.

...Fisker acquired a $529 million taxpayer-funded loan with the help of Democratic law firms to build the car, but has struggled in recent months, laying off employees and shuttering factories.

First responders have to be extra-cautious with electric vehicles because, and I quote, "High-voltage batteries that operate the vehicle systems carry enough juice to kill or severely injure a rescuer who incorrectly cuts a cable."

Good work, Democrats!


Hat tip: BadBlue News.