Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Cutting Through the Crap: Which President Was the Biggest Spender in Recent American History?

The Cato Institute helps refute the laughable administration claims that President Obama is some sort of deficit hawk. That could be true, but -- if so -- it's only in some sort of alternate universe, like the one where Mr. Spock wears a Fu Manchu mustache.

...the main debate is about which president was the biggest overall spender. So I’ve run through the numbers... and here’s a new table looking at the rankings based on average annual changes in inflation-adjusted primary spending, minus the distorting impact of deposit insurance and TARP.

Obama is still in the second-to-last position, but spending is increasing by “only” 5.5 percent per year rather than 7.0 percent annually. This is obviously because defense spending is not growing as fast as domestic spending.

Reagan remains in first place, though his score drops now that his defense buildup is part of the calculations. Clinton, conversely, stays in second place but his score jumps because he benefited from the peace dividend after Reagan’s policies led to the collapse of the Soviet Empire.

Let’s now look at these numbers from a policy perspective. Rahn Curve research shows that government is far too big today, so the goal of fiscal policy should be to restrain the burden of government spending relative to economic output.

This means that policy moves in the right direction when government grows more slowly than the private sector, as it did under Reagan and Clinton.

But if government spending is growing faster than the productive sector of the economy, as has been the case during the Bush-Obama years, then a nation eventually will become Greece.

Hey, Axelrod -- here's a helpful hint: when even the Associated Press shreds your propaganda, you may want to switch your line of attack. Cause it's definitely not working.

I blame Bush: Facebook loses $35 Billion In Value Since IPO

In emulating President Obama, I feel it imperative that we identify a scapegoat for this disaster. And who better than George W. Bush? Or, at the very least, Millard Fillmore? Or anyone but the Democrat National Committee's Wall Street backers, in fact.

Pain, pain, and more pain for Facebook’s stock. Facebook sunk into the $20s for the first time today, declining about 9 percent as options trading started. The decline also came a day after a third wave of reports came out about a Facebook phone, which would push the company into the risky and expensive world of building hardware.


Shares hit a new low of $28.65 and have closed nearly 10 percent lower at $28.84. After-hours trading has the company down another 0.5 percent to $28.69. That gives the company a market capitalization of $79.02 billion, down from $115 billion market cap Facebook opened at on the day of its IPO when it started trading at $42.05 a share.** (That said, if you’re a glass-is-half-full kind of person, Facebook is now cheap, cheap, cheap!)

The key factor affecting share prices might be options trading. Bloomberg said that puts are exceeding calls by 1.3-to-1.

This must be a good thing, right? Because we know that income inequality is evil. Certainly it's not fair that Facebook's founders are worth billions. We need everyone to be equal, kind of like in North Korea or Cuba or Zimbabwe.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com/tech.

Larwyn's Linx: How Many American Citizens Are Threatened By Mexican Cartels on the Border?

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

Nation

How Many U.S. Citizens Are Threatened By Cartels on Border?: RWN
Gallup: Vets overwhelmingly support Romney over Obama: Moran
The sound of Elizabeth Warren’s silence: LI

Gutsy call: President Obama honors himself in campaign speech: Twitchy
Senate Dems put Law Of Sea Treaty on hold: WyBlog
Libs Commemorate Memorial Day; Call Troops Murderers, Rapists: WZ

Should Black People Tolerate This?: Williams
One Metric on Impact: SWATting: Erickson
#BrettKimberlin D+3: Commence Firing, Fire At Will: Camp

Economy

High-Tax NY Loses 3.4 Million Residents in 10 Years: CNS
Obama 2012 dilemma: the DOOM that came from suburbia?: Lane
More perks for California's ruling class: Greenhut

E. German Bailout: $2T. How Much for All Europe, Germans Ask: Mead
AP's Cynical Dis of Scott Walker's Safety: Blumer
Social care funding gap in England 'can be plugged': BBC

Media

Trayvon and those innocent Skittles: SSI
What CBS Does Not Want to Hear: Gatestone
Obama's Sons: They Are Real for Him: AT

Brett Kimberlin and 'SWATting': Where Is the Establishment Press?: Blumer
Somebody Tell Nina Totenberg Her Buddy Brett Kimberlin Is Making News Again: RSM
Brett Kimberlin Follow Up – Updated With Advice for Bloggers: LoneCon

#TwitterGulag denier Charles Johnson advocates suspension of conservatives’ Twitter accounts: Twitchy
Blogs rip MSNBC's Chris Hayes on 'heroes': Politico
MSNBC host apologizes after saying he's 'uncomfortable' calling fallen soldiers heroes: Fox

World

Sinaloa cartel, Zetas push Mexico's drug violence to new depths: LAT
Saudis Demand Punishment for McDonald's Toy They Say "Insults Muhammed": Gatestone
Spain Asks EU to Help Calm Fears: WSJ

Ya'alon hints at Israeli role in 'Flame' virus: JPost
Bluefin tuna record Fukushima radioactivity: BBC
New earthquake shakes northern Italy - 'nine dead': BBC

Sci-Tech

Meet ‘Flame’, The Massive Spy Malware Infiltrating Iranian Computers: Wired
A rare look at the iPhone 4S assembly line at Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory: iMore
SoCalGas tests unusual solar air conditioner: LAT

Cornucopia

Memorial Day Picture of the Day: MB
Thanking God That Such Men Lived: Flynn
Fort Sheridan Cemetary: IowaHawk

Image: CNS News via iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "The cartel henchman nicknamed "El Loco" was reported behind the latest atrocity in Mexico's ever-more-depraved drug war: mutilating 49 people and piling their bodies — heads, hands and feet missing — by the side of a road leading to the U.S. border.

Authorities say he acted this month on orders from the top commanders of the brutal Zeta paramilitary force, who wanted to send a message to the long-dominant Sinaloa cartel and its allies, in a new phase of a conflict that has claimed more than 50,000 lives in less than six years...

...In the most brazen offensive of that war, the Zetas, smelling an opportunity, are moving steadily deeper into their enemy's ancestral homeland... Residents say the feud between the two cartels is starting to look like a civil war." --Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

Monday, May 28, 2012

Great Chart Shows How End-User Technologies Are Morphing

Great chart at ZDNet, which accompanies a friendly warning to corporate IT:

Tablets are likely to become the primary computing experience for workers over the next few years. What will it take to successfully shift IT delivery to these devices given the security worries, legacy IT landscape, BYOD, and other issues?

A few weeks ago the IT analyst firm Forrester made what is probably the first major declaration that tablets will soon become the primary computing device for most users, even going so far as to say that they will ‘rule’ personal computing in the near future. While I think the numbers speak for themselves on this, I also believe that many organizations are either unready or unwilling to hear this yet.

Part of the reason for this avoidance is because of the substantial overhaul it will require IT departments to undergo, and major change is invariably painful and difficult. This retooling includes the full gamut of IT responsibilities: Infrastructure, architecture, processes, tools, skills, and governance, right when so many companies are also dealing with many other generational IT disruptions.

Another reason for unpreparedness is that the tablet revolution has largely become a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) phenomenon...


...The real lesson is this: To get the primary advantages of tablets will require more than paving the old cowpath (i.e. merely conducting a literal translation of legacy IT to tablets.) Tablets are fundamentally different computing devices with entirely new capabilities. To get the real competitive advantage of the next-generation of end-user computing will require rethinking how tablets and their innate capabilities and strengths can be used to transform business processes. Location-awareness, always-connectedness, augmented reality, pervasive video/audio, and more can create highly situational and context-aware apps that hold the potential to provide hard business benefits. These benefits include boosting worker productivity, improving decision making, saving time, enabling more self-service, and reinventing business processes to operate in deeply integrated, highly immersive, and seamless new ways.

Suffice it to say that these changes -- BYOD and tablet computing -- are so disruptive that many companies' IT shops will have real difficulty making the shift.


Transmit THIS Information to Vladimir: Today, On Memorial Day, We Will Not Forget What's At Stake For America In November

This Memorial Day, when we remember those who paid the ultimate price protecting our precious country, I ask you to remember one recent incident that demonstrates what our president really thinks of us. It occurred in March, when ABC News' Jake Tapper reported 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.”

At that time, Rep. Michael Turner, Chairman of a House Armed Services Subcommittee, wrote to President Obama and warned him not to defy Congress by sharing sensitive information with the enemy.

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."

Which also helps explain why a recent Gallup survey showed Mitt Romney holding a whopping 28-point lead over Obama among male veterans.


Larwyn's Linx: A post-Brett Kimberlin blogburst to-do list

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

Nation

A post-Brett Kimberlin blogburst to-do list: Malkin
Let Us Count the Ways the MSM Has Failed in Recent Weeks: Nice Deb
The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ace

Democrats giving up on Wisconsin recall?: Hot Air
WI Democrats hold big recall rally... only a couple hundred show up: GWP
Candidate who nearly upset Obama in Arkansas to sue for delegates: Fox

Economy

The EU: Steady on Its Course from Tragedy to Farce: Kimball
Nuts to Nutting: Under Obama, Real Spending Has Exploded: Blumer
How Sweden, Switzerland handle debt, taxes and spending: McClatchy

Just 2 in 10 Latino Students Finish Comm. College in 6 Years: AmPow
Germans Begin To Suffer From Europe’s Woes: Mead
Europe's Maquina Infernal has crippled Spain: Telegraph

Administration Spending $5.5 Million Per Green Energy Job: GWP
Can't Wait Until They Run the Whole Health Care System: Instapundit
Market falling like a stone: Market Oracle

Climate & Energy

EPA jumped gun with its Pebble mining project report: Anchorage Daily

Media

20 years later, it turns out Dan Quayle was right about Murphy Brown and unmarried moms: WaPo
David Brooks: Obama’s decision to go negative is ‘self-destructive’: Beacon
Media hastily erase articles about Malia Obama’s appearance at One Direction concert: DC

Bogus Call Sends Police to Home of Kimberlin Critic Erick Erickson: Patterico
MSNBC Flack Can't Deal With the Concept of "Hero" on Memorial Day: Ace
Weinergate retrospective — the lying liars and their lies about Andrew Breitbart: LI

Friedman: “If Only Obama Would Talk About His Super Awesome Record”: Pirate's Cove
Another MSNBC Hack Is ‘Uncomfortable’ Calling Our Troops ‘Heroes’: Publius
Bob Schieffer Laughs Out Loud After Playing Video of Obama Bragging About His Accomplishments: NB

World

The Facebook Caliphate: Steyn
Pat Condell: Can I Say This?: Ace
France: Muslims stone Christians in church during Mass: JihadWatch

Iran Confirms Sending Troops to Syria: ynet
Bay Area crowds see battleship Iowa off on final voyage: LAT
Inmates, corruption rule Honduras' deadly prisons despite multiple calls for reform: Trib

Defense chief Panetta: Looming cuts would be ‘disastrous’: Times
Egypt: Leading Cleric Brags About Forcing U.S. Officials To Wear The Hijab: WZ
Iran nuclear chief says Tehran to build new nuclear plant by early 2014: Haaretz

Sci-Tech

German teen Shouryya Ray solves 300-year-old mathematical riddle posed by Sir Isaac Newton: News.com.au
Facebook Is Staffing Up With Apple Engineers To Build The Facebook Phone: Insider
The fifth annual Concorso Ferrari brings out more than $100m in cars (Slideshow): Times

Cornucopia

Five Best: Elliot Perlman -- On memoirs bearing witness to the Holocaust: WSJ
Hijack alert: Describe Obama in three words takes off: Twitchy
This is Indiana: Briceadipo & Daniel Weber

Image: Wimp.com's Rookie of the Year
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "If only he had the same philosophy about taxpayer money that he used to have about weed, we'd be in much better shape." --Lonely Conservative

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Progressive: EPA fines energy companies for failing to produce magical biofuel that has yet to be invented

As if we needed additional proof that the EPA is completely out of control.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today denied the American Petroleum Institute s (API s) request to eliminate mandates for biofuels that do not exist, and the agency continues to fine refiners for not using them.

[The] EPA's mandate is out of touch with reality and forces refiners to pay a penalty for not using imaginary biofuels, said API Director of Downstream and Industry Operations Bob Greco. EPA's unrealistic mandate is effectively an added tax on making gasoline.

The Clean Air Act requires EPA to determine the mandated volume of cellulosic biofuels each year at the projected volume available. However, in 2011 EPA required refineries to use 6.6 million gallons of cellulosic biofuels even though, according to EPA s own records, none were commercially available. EPA today denied API's 2011 petition for reconsideration of the mandate and continues to mandate these nonexistent biofuels this year.

The fact that EPA continues to mandate these biofuels that do not exist is regulatory absurdity and bad public policy, Greco said.

API represents more than 500 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America s energy, supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers more than $86 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested more than $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.

The EPA is a collection of unelected, Statist bureaucrats dead set on de-industrializing America. As such, the agency needs to be completely de-funded and then rebuilt from scratch.


Uh Oh, Syria's Assad Is In Real Trouble Now

Dan from New York:

Yesterday, Assad’s latest production slaughtered 90 innocent people including 32 children. Today, the reviews are in and the “international community” is hopping mad.

"flagrant violation of international law"

-Kofi Annan

"indiscriminate and unforgivable".

-UN mission head Maj-Gen Robert Mood

"appalling crime"

-UK Foreign Secretary William Hague

"the Government of Syria [must] immediately cease the use of heavy weapons in population centers".

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

"The United States will work with the international community to intensify our pressure on Assad and his cronies, whose rule by murder and fear must come to an end"

-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

###

What did I tell you? The heat is really on.

Trippy New Obama 2012 Poster Unveiled!

From the geniuses at The People's Cube:


The back-story, for those who missed it, is here.


The Two Charts President Obama Never Wanted You to See

When President Obama used a risible column by MarketWatch's Rex Nutting to claim to be a deficit hawk, even the Associated Press couldn't keep a straight face.

Of course, Obama, Nutting and the rest of the sycophants avoid the real comparison: actual deficits rung up by each president's policy choices (and those of Congress). In the case of President Obama's first two years in office, Democrat super-majorities in the House and the Senate helped him enact a virtual wish-list of Fabian socialism, from the Stimulus, to multiple attempts to fix the housing market, to "financial reform", to Obamacare.

The real comparison, then, is appropriately illustrated as follows.

Over the past 50 years, 10 U.S. presidents have made annual budget requests to Congress, projecting deficits both big and small. But no other president compares to Barack Obama when it comes to the size and scale of the current budget deficit facing the United States.


The country is facing an 8.3 percent estimated average national deficit of a two-term Obama administration — the biggest of the past 50 years.

As for the Left's claims that President George W. Bush "lied us into wasting an unfathomable amount of money on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan", let's ignore for the moment the so-called lies (we know that both military actions had overwhelming support from both parties). But let's ignore that duplicity for the moment.

In the last decade, how much federal spending actually went to national defense?

A striking chart showing that, over the last decade, 65 percent of federal expenditures went to pay for entitlement commitments, not wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense, or national security:


"About 65 percent of federal expenditures over the last ten years have gone towards entitlements," Paul Miller writes. "By comparison, about 15 percent has gone towards national defense, excluding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq has cost three percent, and only about one percent has gone towards the war in Afghanistan (including the cost of ongoing military operations and all reconstruction and stabilization assistance combined), according to my analysis of figures from OMB."

In other words, Miller says, "Afghanistan is the second-cheapest major war in U.S. history as a percentage of GDP, according to the Congressional Research Service."

Iraq and Afghanistan represent a pittance, a rounding error, for this federal leviathan.

And yet another Democrat myth gets obliterated like the propaganda it is. One day these clowns might actually get something right, though that would require kicking the Marxist-Progressive Fifth Column out of the party.


Larwyn's Linx: Dear Wisconsin Republicans: Take nothing for granted

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

Nation

Dear Wisconsin Republicans: Take nothing for granted: LI
Is the Constitution a Republican Plot?: NRO
Health Care and the Separation of Charity and State: ObjStd

The “Preference Cascade” and Obama’s personal popularity.: $Run
Obama Campaign Again Urges Supporters to Report Opponents: RWN
There's Diversity at Harvard?: sisu

Liberals Plan Propaganda Campaign After Obamacare Ruling: Foundry
The Ultimate Dark Horse: Driscoll
Obama’s reelection campaign fell down and can’t get up: NoisyRm

Economy

Obama’s permanently higher level of spending: Peth
Krugman Goes Nuts: Feds Should Predict Alien Invasion: NoisyRm
Harvard Throws Elizabeth Warren Under the Bus: Breitbart

You don't have to be stoned to vote for Obama, but it helps!: WyBlog
Illinois To Solve Medicaid Deficit By Hoping People Smoke More: OTB
The Radical Transformation of Barack Obama: Power Line

Memorial Day

This Memorial Day Remember Carl De Long: iOTW
In Flanders Fields: Cold Fury
Small Flags: American Digest

Media

Kimberlin v. Walker Hearing Scheduled: 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in Rockville, Maryland: RSM
Obama to Host the Bushes at the White House: Dossier
More Domestic Terrorist Brett Kimberlin Material Disgorged Yesterday: Conservatory

Barbra Streisand Supports Convicted Domestic Terrorist Brett Kimberlin: Sooper
Brent Bozell Letter to the Editor Published in The Washington Post: NB
Meet the Weiner Truthers: Ace

Obama Campaign Amasses Hecklers for Romney Visit to Black Area: Dossier
NYT Keeps Readers In The Dark: Mead
Reverend Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton: Republicans Ready To Kill African-Americans: Radio Equalizer

Brett Kimberlin Gets His Wikipedia Entry Removed: Patterico
Four Stories You Won’t Hear About Obama: WstJrn
Just How Smart Is Obama?: Cove

World

'Law of the Sea' Treaty: Sink It: Townhall
Rubio slams WH meeting with filmmakers on the bin Laden raid: Beacon
Iran: ‘Routine’ issue caused enriched uranium: ArmyTimes

Chris Christie Backs Hamas-linked Judge Pick -- Blasts ‘Crazies’ After Appointing Muslim Judge: Atlas (2011)
Never Call Socialism by Its Right Name: AT
Syria denies it was behind attack that killed 90: Fox

Sci-Tech

House to examine plan for United Nations to regulate the Internet: The Hill
How Google used tech to ‘pry into people’s lives’: Times of India
How Facebook's Timeline is like genital herpes: CNet

Cornucopia

Isaac proposes to Amy: BrutHon
Michelle Obama, Who Never Gardens or Wrote a Book, Has a New Gardening Book: Fine Report (NSFW)
Female Juror Flirts With John Edwards: ABC

Image: Free Republic
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "This site has always promoted free speech and the idea of merit-based intellectualism (recall, I used to invite leftwing bloggers to guest post here, and I invited debates between competing ideological positions); it has fought consistently — and with much vigor — against a progressive epistemological paradigm that hopes to decouple meaning from intent and replace the locus of meaning with motivated “interpretive communities” in a (political) linguistic coup that I’ve spent years pointing out is the anti-foundational justification for collectivism and, ultimately, intellectual (and eventually political) totalitarianism. From identity politics to political correctness to the idea that the receiver of a message gets to determine its meaning with respect to the intentions of the speaker, the left’s philosophical agenda has been to diminish the individual and raise the collective, to empower political blocs (which the left plays against each other, and also collects into its voting coalition by way of often competing panders) and to de-authenticate the individual, particularly if he refuses to adopt the identity narrative put forth by the given group to which he is ostensibly socially assigned." --Protein Wisdom

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Horrifying Stat: Nearly Half of U.S. Households Dependent on at Least One Government Program

Friends, if this statistic gets much over 50 percent, you can stick a fork in America. Because it will be done.

Half of U.S. Lives in Households Getting Benefits

49.1%: Percent of the population that lives in a household where at least one member received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2011...

Cutting government spending is no easy task, and it’s made more complicated by recent Census Bureau data showing that nearly half of the people in the U.S. live in a household that receives at least one government benefit, and many likely received more than one.

The 49.1% of the population in a household that gets benefits is up from 30% in the early 1980s and 44.4% as recently as the third quarter of 2008.

...The more people who receive benefits, the harder it’s going to be to make cuts, and it’s never popular to raise taxes. In some respects that argues for letting a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that is set to automatically hit in 2013 take effect. There’s just one problem: the Congressional Budget Office says it would sink the economy into recession.

Well, I've got a news flash for these clowns. We have to cut spending sometime soon, because otherwise the entire system will collapse.

Did you ever see the movie Road Warrior? I only ask because that's what a complete economic collapse will look like, except without the cool cars.


Imagine there's no country. It's easy if you try.

Imagine that FDR's New Deal had ended the Great Depression prior to World War II.

Imagine that all of the money contributed by Americans to FDR's Social Security system over the decades hadn't been stolen by Congress, leaving the system now underfunded by tens of trillions of dollars.

Imagine that LBJ's "Great Society" program -- consisting of endless housing projects and massive wealth transfers -- had propelled poor inner-city residents to prosperity.

Imagine that Democrats' efforts to legalize 'Chain Migration' had not dramatically increased illegal immigration and hadn't resulted in the the Balkanization of large swaths of the United States.

Imagine that LBJ's Medicare program had been designed for competition, efficiency and cost-effectiveness; and it had not resulted in $100 billion a year in fraudulent payments; and its trust fund had not been stolen by Congress and spent with no regard for future needs.

Imagine that the Democrats' multi-decade push for welfare benefits hadn't resulted in an endemic culture of dependency; hadn't increased urban blight and poverty; hadn't encouraged more single-parent families; and hadn't resulted in more inner-city violence, crime and imprisonment.

Imagine that the United States Post Office is a paragon of efficiency, generating profits for taxpayers year after year.

Imagine that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hadn't gone bankrupt, and hadn't touched off one of the most catastrophic financial crises in American history; that it hadn't been a "job shop for connected Democrats"; that it hadn't been protected from audits by Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, and other Democrat politicians; and that it hadn't been mercilessly abused by Clinton administration cronies including Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick and Jim Johnson.

Imagine that the SEC and other financial regulators had discovered Bernard Madoff's fraud before it imploded; that it hadn't somehow ignored the impending derivatives meltdown; and that it had adequately policed AIG, Goldman Sachs and other "too-big-to-fail" companies that were backstopped by the taxpayers.

* * * * * * * * *

Can you imagine a United States of America where all of these big government, social engineering programs were successful?

I can't. In fact, none of them have been successful. Not one. That's a .000 batting average.

Nor can they ever be successful. Central planning fails every time when you compare it to free markets, private property, individual liberty and the magnificent system of government our country's founders created.

We know central planning fails. We need only look at the "five-year plans" issued endlessly by the Soviet Union, by Cuba, by Venezuela, by North Korea, by Zimbabwe, and by Democrats in this country, that have failed, utterly and completely.

So how could anyone support the trillion-dollar "Stimulus" program, Cap-and-Trade, the EPA's out-of-control bureaucracy, Obamacare's socialized medicine, a 2,200-page "financial overhaul", and "comprehensive immigration reform" when Democrats rely upon big government to make things right?

We know with absolute certainty how all of these ill-fated programs will end up. They will be bankrupt, fraud-prone, maddeningly inefficient and reminiscent of the DMV at the end of the month. They will be used as political weapons, to reward and punish. To centralize ever more power in the hands of a few connected bureaucrats.

It's November or never to unwind them. Our children and grandchildren are depending upon us.


Inspired by: Mark Levin.

Exclusive photo unearthed: Barack Obama with his 'Choom Gang' in the high school parking lot!

Enterprising Cub Reporter Biff Spackle insists -- insists! -- this photograph is real.


The backstory, for those who missed it, is here.


Hat tip: WyBlog and BadBlue.

Most Awesomest Grill Ever

May the pork be with you, Luke.


Hat tip: Andrea.

Oh, my: even the Associated Press mocks Obama's deficit hawk claims

When you're running a Democrat campaign and you've lost the Associated Press in one of their so-called 'fact checks', you know you've got big, big troubles. Someone in the Axelrod household woke up extra-cranky this morning.

FACT CHECK: Obama off on thrifty spending claim

By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press


...The problem with [Obama's] rosy claim is that the Wall Street bailout is part of the calculation. The bailout ballooned the 2009 budget just before Obama took office, making Obama's 2010 results look smaller in comparison. And as almost $150 billion of the bailout was paid back during Obama's watch, the analysis counted them as government spending cuts.

It also assumes Obama had less of a role setting the budget for 2009 than he really did.

Obama rests his claim on an analysis by MarketWatch, a financial information and news service owned by Dow Jones & Co. The analysis simply looks at the year-to-year topline spending number for the government but doesn't account for distortions baked into the figures by the Wall Street bailout and government takeover of the mortgage lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

...Taken together, TARP and the takeover of Fannie and Freddie combine to give Obama an undeserved $317 billion swing in the 2010 figures and the resulting 1.8 percent cut from 2009. A fairer reading is an almost 8 percent increase.

...There's also the question of how to treat the 2009 fiscal year, which actually began Oct. 1, 2008, almost four months before Obama took office. Typically, the remaining eight months get counted as part of the prior president's spending since the incoming president usually doesn't change it much until the following October. The MarketWatch analysis assigned 2009 to former President George W. Bush, though it gave Obama responsibility that year for a $140 million chunk of the 2009 stimulus bill.

But Obama's role in 2009 spending was much bigger than that. For starters, he signed nine spending bills funding every Cabinet agency except Defense, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security. While the numbers don't jibe exactly, Obama bears the chief responsibility for an 11 percent, $59 billion increase in non-defense spending in 2009. Then there's a 9 percent, $109 billion increase in combined defense and non-defense appropriated outlays in 2010, a year for which Obama is wholly responsible.

...If one assumes that TARP and the takeover of Fannie and Freddie by the government as one-time budgetary anomalies and remove them from calculations - an approach taken by Holtz-Eakin - you get the following picture:

-A 9.7 percent increase in 2009, much of which is attributable to Obama.

-A 7.8 percent increase in 2010, followed by slower spending growth over 2011-13. Much of the slower growth reflects the influence of Republicans retaking control of the House and their budget and debt deal last summer with Obama. All told, government spending now appears to be growing at an annual rate of roughly 3 percent over the 2010-2013 period, rather than the 0.4 percent claimed by Obama and the MarketWatch analysis.

That's not even counting the catastrophic deficits Obama rang up.

The only people who believed Obama's claim to be a deficit hawk -- after signing the Stimulus bill and driving more deficit spending than all previous presidents combined -- are either morons or just not paying attention. In the former case, we're talking about the hard-core members of the Democrat base anyhow. There's nothing that can sway the stupid, except maybe Flowers for Algernon-style medication and electroshock therapy.

Kinda like the lady who had her mortgage and car loans paid off by President Obama after the 2008 election.


Related: The Five Charts You Must Show Every Undecided Voter You Know.

Ouch: Unions have blown $60 million on doomed effort to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

The public sector union hacks bosses could have found a lot more productive ways to blow $60 million, if this report is accurate.

Barrett’s internal polling suggests his campaign is dead

Independent polls show Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker leading opponent Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett by 6 to 7 points in the June 5 recall vote. So what’s the public to do with Barrett’s own data — polls ... that show the recall is a statistical dead heat?

Veteran campaign staffers on the left and right will tell you Barrett’s internal polling suggests his campaign is dead.

Sometimes, the release of such internal polling is meant to bolster the sagging spirits of campaign staffers and volunteers looking into the oblivion of total defeat... But don’t take my word for it. Kristen Soltis, director of policy research and pollster for the Washington, D.C.-based Winston Group and contributor to the Huffington Post’s Pollster.com, defended the Barrett campaign and We Are Wisconsin pollsters... "[They are] very good pollsters who have rock-solid reputations on the Democratic side of the aisle.”

Then she offered sage counsel to the average consumer of internal polling data. “You have to remind yourself that pollsters only crunch the numbers,” Soltis told me. “It’s the people who are pushing these numbers out who have an agenda they must be served.”

In short, Wisconsin voters are going to march to the polls on Tuesday and repudiate the public sector unions' efforts to return to fiscal irresponsibility and wasteful spending.

And how much money have the unions spent?

In April, Gary Larson reported the total at $60 million:

Led by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Wisconsin-based and other states' teachers unions, [the Democrats'] attack is aimed at sinking Gov. Walker and his Republican majority in the Wisconsin Assembly, thus to reclaim power over how taxpayer dollars are spent.

...To win, vituperative anti-Walker forces are putting up an estimated $60 million in ad dollars, all derived from union brethren from all parts of America. Call this solidarity. Last year union activists unleashed 3,000 recall petition carriers across Wisconsin, apparently not content to await the next election.

The good news? That's $60 million these Statist hacks won't be able to waste backing Barack Obama, the most destructive president in U.S. history.


Larwyn's Linx: Is a fraud better than a Republican?

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

Nation

Is a fraud better than a Republican?: Baehr
Why The Brett Kimberlin Story Is A Big Problem For Progressives: Riehl
Growing Up Obama: EBL

Barrett’s internal polling suggests his campaign is dead: Watchdog
Wasserman-Schlitz: Losing Wisconsin No Big Deal: Ace
Penn Law Had Precisely One Female Native American Prof, Too: Ace

Christie Is Not One of Us: McCarthy
Constitutional Countdown: Foundry
As Obama redefines everything .. the right whiffs at the plate: CDN

Economy

The Worst Union in America: City Journal
Oops: even AP shreds Obama's 'thrifty' claim: AP
Vulture Capitalism? Try Obama's Version: Strassel

Kimberlin Funders Stunned to Find They Fund Kimberlin: Breitbart
Obama tells 'the whopper of the year': NoisyRm
Number of high-school students with jobs hits 20-year low: Times

Scandal Central

GOP Freshmen Press for Contempt Vote on Holder: Texas Insider
Obama on May 26, 2010: "The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra": Marathon
Holder refuses Fast and Furious interview request, accuses TheDC of throwing ‘sticks and stones’: DC

Climate & Energy

Climategate Continues: NRO
Summary: The International Conference on Climate Change 7: Watts
Just A Reminder Of What The Combined Evil Of Eco-Zealots And Government Will Do: Soylent (NSFW)

Media

NYT Sobs: Walker Is Likely to Survive Recall: S&L
Obama’s HS Drug Dealer Killed With a Ball-peen Hammer by Scorned Gay Lover: JWF
Obama and His Pot-Smoking ‘Choom Gang’: ABC

Who Is Brett Kimberlin, Why You Need To Know and The Biggest Linkaround EVAH!: AllAm
Must Read Post of the Day. Possibly, the Year: Villainous
Brett Kimberlin Blog Burst: This Just Doesn't Happen: Riehl

I think I was meant to be intimidated: ProWis
Interviewing Robert Stacy McCain About Brett Kimberlin: RWN
Apathy or Courage? What you Choose Today Will Affect Our Nation: XCV

Boston Globe Takes a Tomahawk To Elizabeth Warren's Fauxcahontas Claims: Ace
Boston Globe Takes Credit for Breitbart Scoop: Breitbart
Glenn Beck Interviews Patterico and Aaron Worthing: AmPower

World

U.S. Manned Space Flight in The 21st Century: Babalu
A Year of Historic Elections: RWN
U.S. study: Iran has enough uranium for five nuclear bombs: Haaretz

Sci-Tech

Facebook's IPO Flop Is Decade's Worst: Bloomberg
Baby Saved by Smallest Artificial Heart: ABC
Quad-core Samsung Galaxy SIII Is Gorgeous: CNet

Cornucopia

Best Elizabeth Warren Parody Video Ever: Glob
He who makes the rules…takes the gold: MOTUS
What Can You Do?: Ace

Image: ItsBigFurHat.com
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate!

QOTD: "The CTA [California Teachers Association] began its transformation in September 1975, when Governor Jerry Brown signed the Rodda Act, which allowed California teachers to bargain collectively. Within 18 months, 600 of the 1,000 local CTA chapters moved to collective bargaining. As the union’s power grew, its ranks nearly doubled, from 170,000 in the late 1970s to approximately 325,000 today. By following the union’s directions and voting in blocs in low-turnout school-board elections, teachers were able to handpick their own supervisors—a system that private-sector unionized workers would envy. Further, the organization that had once forsworn the strike began taking to the picket lines. Today, the CTA boasts that it has launched more than 170 strikes in the years since Rodda’s passage.

The CTA’s most important resource, however, isn’t a pool of workers ready to strike; it’s a fat bank account fed by mandatory dues that can run more than $1,000 per member. In 2009, the union’s income was more than $186 million, all of it tax-exempt. The CTA doesn’t need its members’ consent to spend this money on politicking, whether that’s making campaign contributions or running advocacy campaigns to obstruct reform. According to figures from the California Fair Political Practices Commission (a public institution) in 2010, the CTA had spent more than $210 million over the previous decade on political campaigning—more than any other donor in the state. In fact, the CTA outspent the pharmaceutical industry, the oil industry, and the tobacco industry combined." --Troy Senik, "The Worst Union in America"

Friday, May 25, 2012

Sweet: Obama thanked his drug dealer in his high school yearbook

Curiously, I haven't heard a word about this on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, or PMSNBC.

It has been well known for years that President Obama was an avid user of cocaine and marijuana in both his high school and college years. However, the rabbit hole appears to be much deeper than previously thought.

Over the last few days, Mr. Obama's "rules" for taking drugs has been widely publicized. The fact that President Obama took so many drugs that he needed specific guidelines should speak for itself.

Additionally, and possibly most shocking, we have learned that in his high school year book, Mr. Obama thanked his drug dealer by name... The dealer's name was Ray. You can see a picture of the high school yearbook below:


So what happened to Ray, you might ask. Why has he not spoken up about this incident? Well, "Many years later they learned that he had been killed with a ball-peen hammer by a scorned gay lover."

Say, did you hear about the time Mitt Romney gave a kid a wedgie in junior high?


Georgia Powerball Winner!

Papa B sent this one in.

Can you believe it?


Man wins Georgia lottery on Wednesday, finds love of his life two days later.


Talk about luck!!!




Is America A Great Country Or What?