Thursday, June 14, 2012

President Obama Hits the Economic Trifecta!

Let me take a wild guess: it's still Bush's fault.

Foreclosures up for first time in 27 months

Foreclosure starts rose year-over-year in May for the first time in more than two years as banks resumed dealing with distressed properties after a mortgage abuse settlement earlier this year, data firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Overall foreclosure activity, which includes default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, affected 205,990 properties in May, a 9.1 percent increase from April.

...Foreclosure starts grew 12 percent from April and 16 percent on an annual basis after 27 straight months of year-over-year declines. Foreclosure starts were filed on 109,051 homes in May, the first month-to-month rise since March.

Bank repossessions increased 7 percent after sinking to a 49-month low in April, with 54,844 homes repossessed in May.

But, wait -- that's not all!

Unexpectedly: Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims Rise to 386,000

In the week ending June 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 386,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 380,000. The 4-week moving average was 382,000, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 378,500...

...The average has been between 363,000 and 384,000 all year, and this is near the high for the year.

And here is a long term graph of weekly claims:



This was above to the consensus forecast of 375,000.

All of this follows last week's news that the already dire unemployment situation continues to worsen.

Broader Jobless Rate Jumps to 14.8%

The U.S. unemployment rate ticked up to 8.2% in May and a broader measure rose even more to 14.8%...



Meanwhile, the broader unemployment rate, known as the “U-6″ for its data classification by the Labor Department, was up even higher in May. The U-6 figure includes everyone in the official rate plus “marginally attached workers” — those who are neither working nor looking for work, but say they want a job and have looked for work recently; and people who are employed part-time for economic reasons, meaning they want full-time work but took a part-time schedule instead because that’s all they could find.

In May, there were more marginally attached workers and the number of part-time employees who want full-time work also increased.

Despite this trifecta of failure, President Obama visited Cleveland to offer Ohio voters more Obamanomics.

We'll see how that goes over in November.


You're Welcome, America! Up to 600,000 College Students to Lose Health Care Coverage or Face Dramatically Higher Costs

Well, this might knock off a few points off the Hopey-Changey vote.

Thousands of college students face serious sticker shock this year if they want school-subsidized health insurance... The cost is expected to be sharply higher at some schools, while others have dropped coverage altogether.

They’ve discovered that the health care reform law sets dramatically higher coverage limits for student insurers [which] will require higher premiums that colleges and students, particularly at smaller schools, are worried they can’t afford.

...Some schools won’t even try [to offer insurance any more]... This year, for the first time in decades, Avila University will not offer health insurance plans for domestic students. Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., also opted out of health coverage — leaving more than 100 students potentially uncovered — after premiums were projected to rise from $450 a year to $2,500.

“It’s going to be scary given the number of students who were participating in those plans,” said Bob Schmoll, Bethany’s vice president for finance. “It’s going to be a lot of people who aren’t covered.” ...Federal studies suggest roughly 600,000 students — about 7 percent of those attending college — get their insurance at school...

...Diana Boyd McElroy, dean of student life at Park University, said she anticipates some concern when students see their health insurance premiums double this year from $600 to $1,200...

Not to worry, dear citizens. Maybe the Obamacare program really will be the first time in human history that a massive, centralized bureaucracy enforcing draconian rules and price controls works out as well as the free market.

But I wouldn't count on it.


Larwyn's Linx: Everything's Coming Up Jihad

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

Nation

Everything's Coming Up Jihad: Sultan Knish
Hamas-Linked Fundraisers in Florida on June 16-17: WorldThreats
Obama Has Not Been a Friend to Poor School Children: CDN

Who Are You Calling 'Extreme'?: Thomas
‘Holder... Does Not Have Judgment, Character or Values to Be [A.G.]’: RS
Dems panicking over Team Obama incompetence?: Hot Air

Economy

The SCOAMF on ObamaCare’s Effect on Small Businesses: MB
Proven: Auto Bailout Was Just a UAW Bailout: Foundry
Bailed-out GM to Receive Another Wasteful Handout: Foundry

Economy: Obama Brags About Treading Water: Elder
The Best Senate Banking Committee Money Can Buy: ZH
The 5 myths of the great financial meltdown: Fortune

Surprise: Government Created College Tuition Bubble!: CDN
Obama's Public Sector Full Employment Plan: Coulter
Will California Get In Touch With Its Inner Red State?: IBD

Scandal Central

New, DC-based Fast and Furious Whistleblowers Emerge: Sipsey
NBC Discovers Fast and Furious: NRO
Graham Grills Holder: C&S

Holder Refuses to Provide Testimony on Kagan’s Involvement in Obamacare: CNS
Solyndra low-balls job losses: Beacon
Even after favorable Supreme Court ruling family still fighting EPA over property: CDN

Climate & Energy

Taxpayers Bailed Out Bank of America So They Could Help Push Al Gore’s Sham?: Powers
Now There’s A Documentary Which Debunks That Ridiculous ‘Gasland’ Movie: HayRide

Media

The Left-Handed Tyrant: Crockett
Past the point of no return: Conservatory
George W. Bush Decapitated in ‘Game of Thrones’: Bruce

Epic: Michelle Malkin Destroys Juan Williams After He Snidely Calls Her ‘Just a Blogger’: JWF
Brett Kimberlin-Associated Site Breitbart Unmasked Claims to Take the “High Road”: Patterico
The Media’s Little Bubble of Ignorance: RS

Charles Krauthammer Ruins Obama’s Steak Dinner: Glob
School District Shows Zero Intelligence With Spanish-Language Valedictory Speech: IBD
Geithner Rebuffs Obama: No, The Private Sector Is Not Doing Fine: WZ

World

Feinstein Takes On Culture of Leaks: RWN
Let's Give Them a State: Gaza children taught to be martyrs in kindergarten: Hayom
Further Thoughts on Not Intervening in Syria: Pipes

The Macroeconomics of Chinese kleptocracy: Bronte
Farage: "The Euro Titanic Has Now Hit The Iceberg": ZH
Italy is Borrowing money at 4-5% to Lend to Spain at 3%: Mish

Sci-Tech

Microsoft scrambles as it patches 26 bugs, warns users of active attacks: ComputerWorld
High-Quality Fake IDs from China: Schneier
Did cable companies act improperly to harm competition Hulu, Netflix?: WSJ

Cornucopia

Welcome Home: C&S
Twitter Launches Expanded Tweets, Letting You Read News, View Images, And Watch Video Inline: TechCrunch
Alcatraz escape still surprises, 50 years on: BBC

Image: Sipsey Street Irregulars
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "“[Eric Holder has] shown himself incapable of separating himself as an arm of the Obama administration and an independent attorney general that’s supposed to be the chief law enforcement [official] for the country,” --Sen. John Cornyn

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Make it viral: the Fast and Furious ad you've been waiting for

To paraphrase our friends at The Right Scoop, make this one go viral. Here's the stop-action, story-board version:


December 2010.


U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry is gunned down along the Arizona-Mexico border.


Left at the murder scene, two assault rifles linked to Operation Fast and Furious.


Under Fast and Furious, President Obama's Justice Department puts thousands of weapons in the hands of dangerous drug cartels.


More than 1,700 guns are lost.


Many are linked to violent crimes and killings in the U.S.


And Mexico.


Including Agent Terry's murder.


Obama denies any knowledge or accountability.


And, under oath, Attorney General Eric Holder says, "I probably learned about Fast and Furious over the last few weeks."


But official memos to Holder prove that's not true.


Holder knew about Fast and Furious nearly a year before.


Under oath, Holder lied to Congress.


And whistleblowers were punished by Holder.


Obama's response? "I have complete confidence in Attorney General Holder."


But after cover-ups and denials, can Americans have confidence in Holder... or the President?


Call Congress Now: We want answers. And accountability.


Good Times: Chicago Teachers Union Demands 30 Percent Pay Raise

Because working Americans are doing so well under the Obamaconomy.

It takes a lot of nerve to ask for a 30 percent pay raise. You’d better be sure you had a banner year. Yet in Chicago, where just 15 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading (and just 56 percent of students graduate), the teachers union is set to strike if the district does not agree to a 30 percent increase in teachers’ salaries.



The average teacher in Chicago Public Schools—a district facing a $700 million deficit—makes $71,000 per year before benefits are included. If the district meets union demands and rewards teachers with the requested salary increase, education employees will receive compensation north of $92,000 per year.

According to the Illinois Policy Institute, the average annual income of a family in Chicago is $47,000 per year. If implemented, the 30 percent raise will mean that in nine months, a single teacher in the Chicago Public School system will take home nearly double what the average family in the city earns in a year.

According to the union, 91 percent of its members voted for the ability to strike. That vote gives the union the ability to walk out of public school classrooms as children return to school this fall... The union argues [that] the requested salary increase would compensate them for extending the school day from 5.5 hours—among the nation’s shortest school days—to 7.5 hours.

This is the liberal madness that Ace captions as follows: "The Public Sector Has, In Fact, Lost Jobs. But Does Obama Understand Why?

We're paying more than ever for public sector employees.

So why isn't employment in that sector going up?

Because each employee demands higher and higher raises (even in a recession) and greater and greater retirement benefits (even in a depression).


They will not permit the smallest adjustment in their steady march to become Bureaucrat Millionaires.

Ergo, states are finding that even with more money to pay them, they can't pay as many of them.

That's why, champ...

...Obama's prescription is not to reduce these ridiculous payments to Democratic Clients, of course. He simply wants to give state and local government more money, to pay for the same number of workers, to insure than public employees never have to modify their pigs-at-the-trough appetites for taxpayer dollars.

Not to mention the fact that most of these union members are compelled to pay dues, which are conveniently recycled into President Obama's campaign coffers.

As I said below, the level of wanton lawlessness of this administration -- borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars from future generations to pay off his favorite fundraisers and union bosses -- makes Bernard Madoff look like Mother Theresa.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com. Images: ABC-7 and Chicago Tribune.

Proven: GM's bailout was simply a $26 billion payoff to the UAW

Gee, you mean paying assembly line workers $70/hr. -- when your competition pays roughly half that rate -- isn't a good business model?

...The Treasury Department estimates that taxpayers will lose $23 billion on the auto bailout. Sherk and co-author Todd Zywicki find that none of these losses came from saving jobs, but instead went to prop up the compensation of some of the most highly paid workers in America. They write:


We estimate that the Administration redistributed $26.5 billion more to the UAW than it would have received had it been treated as it usually would in bankruptcy proceedings. Taxpayers lost between $20 billion and $23 billion on the auto programs. Thus, the entire loss to the taxpayers from the auto bailout comes from the funds diverted to the UAW.



The Obama campaign is touting the bailout in Michigan this week, crowing about saved-or-created jobs. What the bailout actually saved was the UAW’s heavily padded compensation packages; what it created was a massive taxpayer loss.

The UAW was a significant factor in the automakers’ decline: It had raised Detroit’s labor costs 50 percent to 80 percent above other automakers, such as Toyota and Nissan. In 2006, General Motors paid its unionized workers $70.51 an hour in wages and benefits. Chrysler paid $75.86 an hour. Added to mistakes by management, these labor costs were a major reason the automakers went bankrupt.

However, through the bailout, the Obama Administration insulated the UAW from most of the sacrifices unions usually make in a bankruptcy—at taxpayer expense. ...Had the government treated the UAW in the manner required by bankruptcy law, taxpayers would have broken even. The program would have amounted to bankruptcy financing instead of an outright bailout. The Administration could have kept the automakers running without losing a dime.


Instead, more than $26 billion went out the door and into the UAW’s pockets. Let’s put that in perspective: The amount of the subsidy given directly to the UAW was bigger than the budget of the entire State Department. It was bigger than all U.S. foreign aid spending. It was 50 percent more than NASA’s budget.

The Administration did not bail out GM and Chrysler. It bailed out the United Auto Workers.

When the real history of the Obama administration is written, its unprecedented and wanton lawlessness -- Solyndra, GM, Fast and Furious, and suing states for enforcing federal immigration and voter ID laws, to name but a few -- will make Richard Nixon look like an Eagle Scout.


Cartoon: Cagle Cartoons.

Maybe the Global Warming Cultists Have Been Eating Bath Salts

One of the reported symptoms of ingesting bath salts is that your body feels incredibly warm. Which perhaps explains the reluctance of the global warming cult to show you graphs like this.

Call it "The Climate Chart You're Not Allowed to See."

What’s wrong with this image? Well if you are part of The Team (RealClimate and friends), it goes against everything you’ve been publishing. You want the Medieval Warm Period to disappear, and you want a hockey stick at the end showing “unprcedented” warming. The shape below just doesn’t cut it when that’s what you are researching selling.

On the left is temperature in °C, on the X axis, years, with labels from 0AD to the year 2000.



Images like the above don’t sell. With a clear MWP and no hockey stick, there’s no alarm, and no $$ coming in for “further studies”. In the Wake of the Gergis et al retraction, Steve McIntyre notes that one of the “screened out” datasets just happens to be the one with the best resolution and the greatest duration – the Law Dome Oxygen 18 data set (from Antarctica). He writes:

An annual version for two millennia was provided to Gergis (who screened it out.) delD and O18 are closely related and presumably the unarchived del D series will look somewhat similar.

For those that don’t know what this data represents, here’s a quick primer...

In short, this (Law Dome) data series is one of the best historical models possible, as it represents a consistent temperature record over the timespan of thousands of years. And it highlights the United Nations' cover-up of the inconvenient truth, motivated by greed in the form of grant money, carbon-trading land grabs, and coverage by a subservient left-wing media.

A Climategate email shows that Phil Jones asked about the omission of the Law Dome series from the IPCC illustration in the AR4 First Draft. I asked the same question about the AR4 Second Draft. They realized that the Law Dome graphic had an elevated medieval period and thus, including it in the graphic would – to borrow a phrase from the preparation of AR3 – would “dilute the message” and perhaps provide “fodder to skeptics”.

But don't worry, folks: "President Obama plans to make climate change his top second term priority."

No, that's not from The Onion, a humor publication, but the left-leaning New Yorker. What planet does this president live on?

'Obama has an ambitious second-term agenda," wrote Ryan Lizza in this week's New Yorker. "The President has said that the most important policy he could address in his second term is climate change," supposedly to "improve the world."

So forget about the abysmal jobless numbers above 8% for over three years, or the $15 trillion deficit that threatens to turn the U.S. into Greece. No, amid those very real calamities, climate change is more important...

Already no president has ever spent money on "climate change" as he has. The Congressional Budget Office reports that since 1998, $99 billion has been spent among 14 agencies on "climate change." Of that, $35 billion was earmarked from the 2009 stimulus.

The top agency charged with enacting the Obama green agenda — the Department of Energy — has seen its budget soar from $24 billion in 2009 to $38 billion in 2012, the Office of Management and Budget estimates.

...The one thing that can be concluded from this policy priority is that on the environment, Obama is planning more of the same — and the voters be damned.

Enjoying these gas and electricity prices? Well, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

And for those unfamiliar with the genesis of the global warming scam, I created a comic book version of the entire, United Nations-sponsored grift entitled, "This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow."

Share it with the liberals you love.


Larwyn's Linx: Obama -- Excuses R Us

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

Nation

Obama: Excuses R Us: Q&O
Illegal Voters in FL May Make the Difference: S&L
Too busy for WI recall, not too busy for 160 fundraising events: Twitchy

His Nose Keeps Getting Longer: Power Line
Obam plans to make climate change his top second term priority: IBD
Duped by Congressional Lies: Williams

A Brief Look at the "Blue Wall" and the Cracks Therein: Ace
Obama's Jewish Support Drops 22 Points in New York: WS
Federal Court: Speech restrictions on students unconstitutional: Thurber

Economy

The Rich Don't Pay Their Fair Share: Perry
Unions out to divide and conquer workplaces: Foundry
Delphi retirees break through Obama stonewall on UAW bailout: Malkin

Public Sector Has Lost Jobs. But Does Obama Understand Why?: Ace
Fresh Hell From The Obama Administration: Micro-Unions: HayRide
Memo to Obama: It's Government That's Doing Fine: IBD

Obama: We Need More Teachers – Romney: Not So Fast: CDN
Study in crony capitalism: ObamaCare and Big Pharma: Hot Air
Improving Health Care: Stossel

Scandal Central

Are contempt charges a game of Capitol Hill chicken?: Hot Air
Cornyn to Holder: “It is my sincere hope President Obama replaces you”: Hot Air
Dangerous Incompetence: Twitchy

CMS Report:Obamacare to boost health care spending by $478 billion: Exam
Who’s lying? Axelrod / Holder offer conflicting tales on whether political advice was given to each other: FAM
Holder: ‘I Stuck by My Guns’: CNS

Climate & Energy

The longest, most high resolution, most inconvenient paleoclimate data that hasn’t been published: Watts
AFPM Sues EPA Over Agency's Mandate to Use Non-Existent Biofuels: SacBee
Humans have played 'dominant role' in the warming of the oceans over the past 50 years--study: Daily Mail

Media

7 Ways Conservative Activists Are Harassed By The Left: Hawkins
Neal Rauhauser’s About To Have a Very Bad Day: Conservatory
73% Think Photo ID Requirement Before Voting Does Not Discriminate: Rasmussen (4/16/12)

Who’s Lying? Obama or the Times?: Morris
How to be racist, according to the CBC: NakedDC
Joy Behar Wants to See Romney's House Burn Down: 'Who's He Going to Call, the Mormon Fire Patrol?': NB

Republican Surrenderists for Obamacare: Malkin
Ebony and Ivory: Black and White Voters Alike a Deserting Obama: Glob
Former Giffords Aide Beats Jesse Kelly, Headed for Rematch in November: WaPo

World

3 charts that show just how badly the ECB is doing right now: Peth
Opposition rally in Moscow draws tens of thousands: AP
Iran's oil exports plummet as sanctions bite, agency says: Reuters

Sci-Tech

Apple eyes open iPhone distribution: The fallout: ZDNet
Facebook Targets 16.6% Of The Web On WordPress With New Easy-Install Social Blog Widgets: TechCrunch
Why Smart People are Stupid: Slashdot

Cornucopia

Compared to Magical: Godin
Doing Fine: TAB
The Scary Medical Bad News That May Actually Be Good News: Zilla

Image: Ace o' Spades
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "...newly leaked information about the DOJ’s actions leaves no doubt that the committee has a duty now to aggressively pursue any and all information germane to its investigation. Six wiretap applications for the Fast and Furious program signed off by Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco provide clear evidence that this scandal reaches the top level of the DOJ. Dismissing the investigation as mere partisan politics simply is not credible given what we now know.

The undisputed fact is that there are two dead federal agents and potentially hundreds killed in Mexico because top DOJ officials approved the sale of thousands of weapons and never determined how such dangerous firearms would be tracked.

Furthermore, DOJ has been sitting on a request for specific information about Fast and Furious since October." --Mark J. Rozell and Mitchell Sollenberger

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Democrats: More Wedded to Their Ideology Than to the Rule of Law

Exhibit A: Eric Holder, whose acts of perjury and stonewalling -- in a true Constitutional system -- would be opposed by all members of Congress. After all, each branch of government was designed by the Framers to check the corrupting ambitions of the other branches.

But Democrats -- including their self-described Marxist leader, Senator Patrick Leahy -- are more wedded to a failed ideology of collectivism than to the rule of law. And if it means sacrificing the Senate's power to protect the worst attorney general in history, then they're up to the challenge.

Sen. John Cornyn called on Eric Holder to resign Tuesday as Republicans raised the pressure on the attorney general to avoid a contempt vote by providing documents about the Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation... [He] told Holder it’s time for new leadership at the Department of Justice (DOJ)...

...“It is more with sorrow than anger that I would say that you leave me no alternative but to join those who call upon you to resign your office,” Cornyn said at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee... “The American people deserve better; they deserve an attorney general who is accountable and independent; they deserve an attorney general who puts justice before politics,” he said. “And it’s my sincere hope that President Obama will replace you with someone who’s up to that challenge.”

Cornyn’s remarks came the day after House Republicans scheduled a vote for June 20 on whether to place Holder in contempt of Congress. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has battled Holder for months over a subpoena he issued last October as part of his 15-month investigation of Fast and Furious.

Issa and other top Republicans argue the attorney general is withholding documents and impeding a congressional investigation... Pressure on Holder has been building in the House, where Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) has garnered the support of 114 House Republicans for a resolution expressing no confidence in Holder’s ability to carry out his responsibilities as a result of the DOJ’s authorization of “gun walking” tactics in Fast and Furious.

Several quotes best summarize the outrage that is Eric Holder:

• Rep. Anne Marie Buerkle to Eric Holder (2/1/12):

"What more could have possibly gone wrong before you'd have been held accountable [for Operation Fast and Furious]? I would suggest that the President has been eerily quiet about coming to your defense. So let me ask it this way: How many more Border Patrol agents would have had to die as part of Operation Fast and Furious for you to take responsibility?"

• Rep. Patrick Henry to Eric Holder on the delays in the DOJ's "investigation", which, in Febuary, had already longer than the Warren Commission Report on the assassination of JFK:

"Thirteen months later, we have a possibility of somebody actually being punished for an agent getting killed. This is absolutely absurd."

Now, 17 months later, virtually none of the critical documents requested by Congress have been released by Holder. No one has been held accountable for the hundreds killed by Holder's operation. And the results of Holder's "investigation" have yet to be released to Congress.

Read the details of the case and judge for yourself.


"Represent or be gone"

Ripped from BS Footprint:

All my life I've heard about our leaders. About failures of leadership. About the need for electing leaders.

Bulls***.

This is a representative republic with democratically elected representatives.

Children need to be led. Cattle need to be led. Pack animals need to be led.

Free people don't need or want to be led.

So Represent. Or Be Gone.

I can't add anything to that.


Real-time financial news, pulled straight from the social networks

Biff Spackle relays a report that he's added the third channel to the BadBlue.com social news network: BadBlue.com/money.



This follows Spackle's outstanding work with your favorite news portal (BadBlue.com/news) and technology hub (BadBlue.com/tech).

Following in the footsteps of President Obama, any problems you may encounter are Bush's fault. Or the fact that ATMs have replaced bank tellers.


Marxist-controlled EPA shuts down another innovative energy source

The EPA's plans to de-industrialize America continue apace.

Plans to build a southern Illinois power plant that would convert coal to synthetic natural gas are cloudier now that state environmental officials have denied the developers' request for a construction permit.

The Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan reports the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has turned down the permit request by Power Holdings LLC for the proposed plant near Waltonville in Jefferson County.

Power Holdings didn't immediately respond to The Associated Press' interview requests Tuesday... The project's backers have said it would create 1,500 construction jobs and 700 permanent positions, although the gas produced may be more expensive for customers.

Critics worry the plant's emissions would harm the environment.

In other words, all energy sources are off the table as far as the anti-civilization Leftists are concerned.

I would have a lot more faith in the EPA if their thousands of highly paid bureaucrats lived as they would have us live. That is, they forego all of the wonders offered by fossil fuels -- food, clothing, and travel by air and car, for starters.

They should be the guinea pigs for their own policies. And we'll see how they like living in the third-world country they seek.


Larwyn's Linx: The Rule of Law; a Stable and Predictable Legal Order

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

Nation

The Rule of Law and a Stable and Predictable Legal Order: FW
The Liberal Super Nova: Hanson
Five Dead, 35 Wounded in Chicago Weekend Bloodbath: JWF

Socialist or Fascist?: Sowell
You mean 2008 Wasn’t Sarah Palin’s fault?: DTG
Some elections matter more than others: the reasons: Elephant

Pathetic: RINO leaders can't cut spending: Erickson
Texas Dad Catches Molester With 4 Year-Old, Beats Him To Death: Riehl
Obama's Latest Ad Targets Black Voters: WS

Economy

Doing fine: Private sector sales growth lowest since crisis: Peth
Obama Surprised to Learn Obamacare Is Hurting Small Businesses: WS
Obama's new economic adviser, Wile E. Coyote: Malcolm

The Private Sector is Sucking Wind: RWN
Then: Homeownership For All. Now? ‘Generation Rent’: Driscoll
Daniels: Abolish Government Unions: Cove

HUD Spends $70M to Teach Grant Recipients How to Spend Money: CNS
Feds Pay $6,600 for E-Readers That Retail for $189: Foundry
War on Poverty Revisited: Sowell (2004)

Scandal Central

Exclusive: Caddell Names National Security Advisor Tom Donilon As Source For Leaks: Breitbart
Billionaire Obama Donors Off the Hook for Bank Failure, Depositors ‘Stiffed’: LoneCon
House panel to take up contempt measure against Holder: CNN

Eric Holder Demonstrates His Contempt for Congress!: CDN
The Academic Scandal Elizabeth Warren and Harvard Don't Want You to Know About: Breitbart
Fast and Furious: Esenberg

Climate & Energy

EPA power grab to regulate ditches, gullies on private property: Events
Climate skeptic instructor fired from Oregon State University: Watts
Take Your UN Agenda 21 And GTFO Says…Alabama?: Soylent Green (NSFW)

Media

News Flash: Reporter Scrutinizes Obama’s Past: Dossier
An undergraduate takes-down Paul Krugman: AT
This guy's a good writer : Sundries

Is The NYT Threatening ‘Graymail’ On Leaks?: S&L
NYT Columnists Deserting Obama?: Mead
Five words which should strike terror into any Conservative not lining up behind Mitt Romney: WyBlog

Gray Lady Stricken With Severe Case of Amnesia: Driscoll
OUTRAGE: Dana And Chris Loesch Mistreated By The TSA: COTS
Zogby: Disillusioned young voters dropping out: Exam

World

Gangs, violence, crime plague Little Kurdistan, USA (south Nashville): Creeping
Israel's Heroism of Survival: Sultan Knish
N.Y. Democrats Poised to Nominate Former Black Panther, Anti-Israel Radical for Congress: WS

Sci-Tech

'Internet in a suitcase' to help avoid pesky spies: News.com.au
Researchers Connect Flame to U.S.-Israel Stuxnet Attack: Wired
Excessive Endurance Training Can Literally Break Your Heart: Wired

Cornucopia

The 50 Most Popular Conservative Websites: RWN
When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along: MOTUS
RWN’s 10 Favorite Sarah Palin Quotes: RWN

Image: Civil War photos: Help sought to solve old mystery
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Help Support Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "Two parties, left and right, are central to good consensual government — one the perennial check on the other, both within the general boundaries of constitutional free-market capitalism.

Yet the hard-Left takeover of the Democratic Party has meant that there is no longer a credible balance in our system, as almost all the tenets of contemporary left-wing ideology are blowing up, imploding super nova style — unsustainable ideas that are contrary to human nature and demand coercion for their implementation, given that they are increasingly anti-democratic and have to be implemented from high by an elite technocracy whether in Brussels, Sacramento, or Washington..."

...From Greece to Italy to California to Wisconsin to Obama’s Washington, the verdict is in: the democratic model of trying to provide cradle-to-grave benefits, administered by an elite technocratic class, using demonization to bully the opposition and redistribute income, not only does not work, but cannot ever work. Note that President Obama — $5 trillion in new debt, “stimulus,” millions added to food stamps, unemployment benefits vastly expanded, near-zero interest rates, enormous subsidies for wind and solar — never concedes his blue-state neo-socialism is not working (even though it is almost impossible to stymie the U.S. economy)." --Victor Davis Hanson, "The Liberal Super Nova"

Monday, June 11, 2012

Seriously, this time we promise you won't have to worry about putting gas in your car, or paying your mortgage!

Just when you thought the Obama campaign couldn't get any more cynical or divisive:

President Obama's campaign has released its latest radio ad, the first ad of the campaign specifically to target black voters. 

“Four years ago we made history,” the voiceover in the ad states. “Now it’s time to move forward and finish what we started together. We have to show the President we have his back.”

Snippets of the president's remarks are played throughout the ad, as well as a catchy R&B tune with the chorus "we've got your back."

Listen to the 60-second spot here [Ed: opens new tab].

The Grio reportsThe Barack Obama re-election campaign Tuesday will air its first radio ad targeting African-Americans, campaign officials confirmed... The 60-second ad, entitled “We’ve Got Your Back,” appeals to black voters’ nostalgia about the election of the nation’s first African-American president, calling for those voters to stand with the president again in November. ...

A simple question for you drones: how can you support a man who endlessly divides Americans -- whether by race, religion, creed, income level, industry, or any other arbitrary category -- simply to pit one group against another? How can you support such obvious, mendacious, and dangerous pandering?

Are we not all Americans? Do we not all believe in the sovereignty of the individual? In private property? In our ability to succeed and fail based upon our merits, no matter our race, religion, background or upbringing? Do we not have the same dreams for ourselves and our children?

Or has the President completely eroded all of that? All of that which made America great?

November is coming, and then we shall all find out.


Hat tip: Holly.

No, Mr. President: the Private Sector Ain't "Doing Fine"

Once again, The Foundry speaks truth to power.

In now-infamous comments on Friday, President Barack Obama informed America that “the private sector is doing fine.” This, of course, was news to the 12.7 million people who are out of work and the millions more who are struggling with the part-time jobs they can find, or have simply given up looking.

While the President’s comment is astoundingly out of touch with the public—and economic reality—perhaps even more distressing is that this wasn’t a passing verbal gaffe. This is actually a consistent talking point of the President and Democratic leadership that goes largely unchallenged by the media.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) made the same case last fall when he was pushing a $35 billion bailout for state and local governments. “It’s very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine,” Reid argued. “It’s the public-sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers, and that’s what this legislation is all about.”

This is the President’s and the Majority Leader’s solution to the jobs crisis: more so-called stimulus and more government employees.

...If anyone is “doing fine,” it’s government employees. This goes beyond the far more generous pension and health benefits they enjoy. While the private sector lost 4.6 million jobs (a 3.9 percent drop) since the recession began, government payrolls have only fallen by 240,000 jobs (a 1.1 percent drop). Federal employment has actually grown nearly 12 percent since the end of 2007, and while the country suffers from 8.2 percent unemployment, the unemployment rate for government employees is just 4.2 percent.

In any case, the federal government borrowing more money to transfer to state and local governments is not a job-creation policy, and it is outside the scope of the federal government. It’s merely a ploy to please union bosses, who are always eager to draw more federal dollars... This government-boosting strategy also ignores the fact that it has been tried before and found wanting. President Obama’s first trillion-dollar stimulus plan was a failure (and a waste). And Europe is in the shape it is because of years of government largesse. Ironically President Obama sought to focus the media’s attention on Europe on Friday in an attempt to divert it from his own economic mismanagement.

...Following a flurry of outrage over his Friday comment, the President backtracked, saying what he meant was that “we’ve actually seen some good momentum in the private sector. That has not been the biggest drag on the economy.” ... Moving from 8.1 percent unemployment to 8.2 percent can only be considered “good momentum” in this White House. However, he’s correct about one thing: The biggest drag on the economy isn’t the private sector, but Washington.

What Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) can't comprehend is that employment is not the same as productive employment. It is the private sector that produces wealth. It is the public sector that sucks wealth from a society, launders it through countless wasteful agencies and offices, and then redistributes it.

Every dollar spent funding the public sector is a dollar that an entrepreneur could have invested in his business, a dollar a venture capitalist could have used to fund a budding company, or a dollar a corporation could have used to buy new equipment. Every dollar spent funding the public sector is a dollar that could have grown GDP, not detracted from it.

Only those functions of government authorized by the Constitution are legitimate. All other functions must be dismantled, piece by piece, until we have returned to the legal framework our founders created.

And November is coming.


Gov. Rick Scott: Florida Sues DHS to Release Its List of Ineligible Voters

The way I read this story, either the Department of Homeland Security believes its database is wildly inaccurate or it's trying to encourage vote fraud. And I think we all know which is really the case.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) said he will sue the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to move forward with his controversial attempt to purge the voter rolls in his state of ineligible voters.

“I have a job to do to defend the right of legitimate voters,” Scott told Fox News on Monday. “We’ve been asking for the Department of Homeland Security’s database, SAVE, for months, and they haven’t given it to us. So this afternoon, we will be filing a lawsuit, the secretary of State of Florida, against the Department of Homeland Security to give us that database. We want to have fair, honest elections in our state and we have been put in a position that we have to sue the federal government to get this information.”



Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner produced the lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C. district court on Monday, shortly after, along with a statement.

“For nearly a year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has failed to meet its legal obligation to provide us the information necessary to identify and remove ineligible voters from Florida’s voter rolls,” Detzner said. “We can’t let the federal government delay our efforts to uphold the integrity of Florida elections any longer. We’ve filed a lawsuit to ensure the law is carried out and we are able to meet our obligation to keep the voter rolls accurate and current.”

Given the latest Zogby data -- which shows that disillusioned young voters are dropping out of the political process -- it's clear that President Axelrod will manufacture votes any which way he can.

And if that means counting the votes of illegal aliens, felons and the deceased, well, then so be it. Because that's the way the Chicago Machine rolls.


Great News: Mexican Drug Cartels Operating in Over 1,200 U.S. Cities, Up More Than Five Times Since 2008

Well, this CNN report certainly comes as a surprise, given the combination of: (a) a Homeland Security head who encourages open borders and illegal immigration; and (b) an Attorney General who ships thousands of military-grade weapons to the Mexican cartels.

Wilmington, North Carolina (CNN) -- Less than a mile off a county road in Ivanhoe near the Black River, federal drug agents and local authorities found exactly what their informant had promised... "We saw what looked like, as far as you could see, marijuana plants," said Drug Enforcement Administration agent Michael Franklin.

There were about 2,400 in all, surrounded by a makeshift camp where the growers had illegally squatted on private property, setting up a generator and pump to tap the river for irrigation. The camp, which had been recently inhabited, contained a tarp shelter, canned fuel, drinking water, toiletries and old clothing, some of it camouflage...

...[The growers], according to the DEA's source, were members of La Familia Michoacana, a Mexican drug cartel that the Justice Department says focuses primarily on moving heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine into the southeastern and southwestern United States.

...The Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center estimates Mexican cartels control distribution of most of the methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana coming into the country, and they're increasingly producing the drugs themselves.

In 2009 and 2010, the center reported, cartels operated in 1,286 U.S. cities, more than five times the number reported in 2008. The center named only 50 cities in 2006.

In the America I grew up in, citizens were free to go anywhere they chose to visit throughout the 57 states.

In the new, improved Obamerica, the federal government actively encourages illegal immigration and, to try and avoid bloodshed, simply posts signs along interstates that read, and I quote, "Danger Warning, Travel Not Recommended, Drug Smuggling, Active and Armed Gunmen."


Hat tips: Financial Armageddon and The Economist (graphic).

Larwyn's Linx: The Clintons' Covert War on Obama

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

Nation

The Clintons' Covert War on Obama: AT
Death is yours ... if you want it: Feed Your ADHD
A Bar Walks Into a Conservative: Conservatory

A Letter to Mitt Romney: Ricochet
Obama’s early Chicago rise brought Blacks foreclosures, bankruptcies: DC
Battle cry: Deliver reform and voters will follow: Rand Paul

White House Holds 'Hundreds' of Meetings With CAIR: MB
CAIR leader justifies slaughter, beheading of Jews: Creeping
Illinois venue rejects Hizb ut-Tahrir sharia conference: Creeping

Economy

CBO: We’ll Be Maxed Out in Nine Years: Blumer
The Second-Rate City? Chicago’s swift, surprising decline : CityJrnl
Health care in need of immediate medical attention: Nashua

The Private Sector's Doing Fine - The Video: iOTW
Hero of the ’99%’ Now Pimping $245 Sneakers: JWF
Allen West gives 2012 campaign kickoff speech: Scoop

The Death of Public Unions?: Conservatory
A Date With the TSA: Dana
TSA Breaks Diabetic Teen's $10,000 Insulin Pump: ABC4

Scandal Central

How much longer can Obama and Holder protect each other?: NoisyRm
No one has confidence in Attorney General Eric Holder’s investigation of leaks: Twitchy
McCain: Eric Holder Has ‘No Credibility’ to Oversee Leaks Investigation: Blaze

Climate & Energy

Blogger Busts EPA's Fake Fuel Figures: Breitbart
Congress calls out the EPA: Hot Air
Germany’s Green Energy Policy Hit Households Hard: CFP

Congressional hearing exposed EPA failures: Seacoast
Van Jones Said the EPA Saved More Lives than the US Military: LoneCon
Police probe crashes linked to commerce sec.: AP

Media

Stephanopoulos: Maybe Clinton Is Right About Extending Bush Tax Cuts: NB
On Friday, NPR Offers 14 Minutes to Paul Ryan-Bashing Nun and Vatican-Correcting Priest: NB
Report: Crist paid men to hide gay affair: WTSP

David Axelrod wins Triple Crown in question dodging: Malkin
Dylan Ratigan Out As A Host At MSNBC: Mediaite
Someone’s private sector is doing fine: Conservative pick-up lines: Twitchy

Hymns to the Violence: The NYT’s Love Letter to Obama's Murder Racket: Floyd
Washington Post Publishes 5,500 Word Front Page Sports Story on 'Obama's Basketball Love Affair': NB
Is There No Line Newsweek’s Covers Won’t Cross?: IMAO

World

Oh No You Didn't: Mossad Agents Claim Obama Lying About Stuxnet: Breitbart
Peter King: National Security Leaks Designed to Make Obama “Look Like George Patton or John Wayne”: Nice Deb
Why Isn’t Obama Visiting Israel?: BRubin

More Evidence That Obama Is Prepared to Bomb Iran: Mead
Are you ready for a 'global internet tax?': Moran
After Spain’s bailout request, crisis returns to Greece: WaPo

Murder by Proxy: NoisyRm
Iran executes 50 people in a week: Matzav
Suicides are surging among US troops: AP

Sci-Tech

Over 500 full-length movies you can stream for free: Verge
Evaluating the harm from closed source: iBiblio
$422,000 to stream a movie? The continued "success" of phone cramming: Ars

Cornucopia

Emergency In The South: WTPN
22 rules of storytelling according to Pixar: PixarTouch
6 cases of shamelessly false advertising: Alltop

Image: iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Jesse Kelly for Congress

QOTD: "I think what we're seeing, Wolf, is an Anschluss, an avalanche of leaks. And it's very, very disturbing. You know, it -- it's dismayed our allies. It puts American lives in jeopardy. It puts our nation's security in jeopardy.

And if you look at terrorism, intelligence is fundamental to knowing what's going to happen and prevent it from happening in the first place.

So I think the FBI should continue its investigation. We're going to do ours. I think Armed Services has announced an investigation.

...I can tell you where lives have been endangered.

...I've been on the Intelligence Committee for 11 years and I have never seen it worse, I can tell you that." --Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA)

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Cartoon o' the day: This day in history

On 10 June 1964, Democrats filibustered the Civil Rights Act.

I have repeatedly noted this fact -- Michael Zak wrote the book and reminds us that Democrats, the party of Slavery, Secession and Segregation -- fought against equality:



On this day in 1964, Everett Dirksen (R-IL), the Republican Leader in the U.S. Senate, condemned the Democrats' 57-day filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Leading the Democrats in their opposition to civil rights for African-Americans was Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV). Byrd, who got into politics as a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan, spoke against the bill for fourteen straight hours. Democrats still call Robert Byrd "the conscience of the Senate."

In his speech, Senator Dirksen called on the Democrats to end their filibuster and accept racial equality.


A day that should live in infamy, yet ex-Kleagle Sen. [Robert] Byrd(D) until recently served.

And Byrd, the ex-KKK leader, remained an honored member of the Democrat Party until his death less than two years ago.

And we should also remember what the Ku Klux Klan really was: the terrorist wing of the Democrat Party.


Cartoon: Red Planet Cartoons.


The genius of Democrat governance: businesses and non-profits alike shutting down thanks to Illinois' deadbeat budget

Well, this certainly comes as a surprise, seeing as how the public sector unions -- and their political wing, commonly known as the Democrat Party -- control the Illinois state budget.

Illinois lawmakers have found a way to whittle $1.3 billion from state government’s massive backlog of unpaid bills, but it comes too late for The Counseling Center of Lake View... The Chicago nonprofit, a mental health services provider, shut down at the end of April, waiting on about $200,000 in state money.

...Across Illinois, the now $8.5 billion backlog has become a fact of life for people doing business with the state. As The Associated Press reported in a series last fall, the state has turned to a deliberate policy of not paying billions of dollars in bills for months at a time, creating a cycle of hardship and sacrifice for residents and businesses helping the state carry out some of its most crucial tasks.

Public schools, as of late May, are waiting on $562 million, social services $329 million and Medicaid $944 million, according to the state Comptroller’s Office...

...The umbrella group Illinois Partners for Human Service periodically surveys its 700 member agencies about the impact of late state payments. In the most recent survey, late last year, just under a third of the 169 agencies that responded had fired staff, 8 percent had skipped paying staff for some period and almost half had to borrow money.

...Those that stay open struggle to pay their own vendors and suppliers such as janitors, food-service companies and the like.

But remember, folks: Democrats are for the little people. You know, the 99 percent.


Image adapted from: KVAL.