Monday, July 09, 2012

It's Official: The Associated Press is a Laughingstock

The following timeline proves -- beyond a shadow of a doubt -- that the Associated Press is working hand-in-hand with the White House and serving as a full-fledged, free marketing arm of the Obama reelection campaign.

Consider the following timeline. On 3 July, Obama Svengali (which is the title he prefers, I hear) David Axelrod tweeted the first of several messages regarding Mitt Romney's (entirely legal) offshore investments.


While one would expect other Democrat mouthpieces -- such as Dee Wasserman Snider -- to parrot Axelrod, less expected is the complete sellout by an ostensibly independent press agency.

Democrats want Romney to explain offshore accounts

Mitt Romney privately raised millions of dollars from New York's elite on Sunday, as Democrats launched coordinated attacks against the likely Republican presidential nominee, intensifying calls for him to explain offshore bank accounts and release several years of tax returns...

... "He's the first and only candidate for the president of the United States with a Swiss bank account, with tax shelters, with tax avoidance schemes that involve so many foreign countries," Sen. [Little] Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said on CBS' "Face the Nation." He's one of several high-profile Democrats who spoke out on the Sunday morning news shows.

Of vastly more import for the American people are the following questions the Republicans have been asking since 2008, around which the Associated Press has been curiously silent:

Why did the Obama 2008 website accept electronic donations from foreign countries? No other campaign -- including Hillary Clinton's and John McCain's -- has ever accepted foreign donations without written evidence that the contributor is a U.S. citizen. It is virtually certain that this practice allowed Obama to launder millions in illegal foreign donations through his website.

Why did the Obama 2008 and 2012 websites both turn off all credit card security? No other campaign in history has ever disabled rudimentary credit card security checks, because such practices would permit illegal foreign contributions, over-the-limit (structured) contributions, and other criminal practices. Yes, it is virtually assured that the Obama campaigns have laundered millions in illegal contributions through these methods.

• And speaking of offshore, why did Barack Obama list his birthplace as Kenya to market his books? Was it simply to appear more exotic for prospective publishers?

• And as for foreign investments, why was the Obama campaign raising money in France last week? Are all of those contributions being vetted for legality?

And is Obama hiding his college transcripts because he used foreign-student status to gain admission to prestigious Ivy League schools even though he confessed to being a drugged-out stoner in high school?

See, Associated Democrat Press, those five offshore questions are of considerably more import than Mitt Romney's investing strategies. Romney made that money through his own hard work (as opposed to the Community Organizer-In-Chief, who has been on the public dole virtually his entire working life).

Say, ADP, I wonder why the 'Mitt Romney's Mysterious Swiss Bank Account' meme isn't getting any traction?

The Associated Press is a laughingstock. And the sooner vintage media outlets boycott it, the better chance they have of surviving the next 12 months.


Larwyn's Linx: Will Obama Destroy Socialism?

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

Nation

Will Obama Destroy Socialism?: Sultan Knish
Government-Run Health Care vs. the Hippocratic Oath: Hsieh
Hilarious: Obama pleads for cash, claims he was outspent in '08: Malkin

David “The Red” Axelrod’s Communist Roots: ConHideout
Proof: Obamacare a Trojan Horse for Single-Payer: Western
Massachusetts Democrat Charged With Assault and Kidnapping: JWF

Did Ginsburg hint at the court’s direction on the HHS mandate?: Hot Air
The Supreme Court Leaks Continue: Flopping Aces
What special interests are the top campaign contributors?: Sooper

Economy

With Little to Say, Obama Eats Grits in Rust Belt: Barone
Wasserman Schultz ‘Happy’ With Latest Dismal Jobs Report: Shark
Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against GM For Channel Stuffing: ZH

ObamaCare – Killing Health Savings Accounts: FloppingAces
Why Obama's Stimulus Failed: Case Study of Silver Spring, MD: Reason
Crony Capitalists of the Federal Reserve: Ritholtz

Meet the mysterious Obama vote switcher: Polipundit
Excellent Anti-Union News From Multiple Places Including SCOTUS: Mish
Obama Transportation Secretary: China’s slave state far more effective when it comes to infrastructure: Malkin

Climate & Energy

Coal: The Ignored Juggernaut: Martenson
Yet Another “This Is What Globull Warming Regulations Looks Like”: Cove
Sorry, libs: East Coast heatwave isn't unusual, nor the number of record temps unprecedented: Watts

Media

Barack Obama’s Former Spiritual Mentor On “White Racist DNA”: Hawkins
Newsbusters Hacked?: Wizbang
Obama's Goose is Cooked: Kudlow

New York Times columnist messes with Texas and loses big: Reason
The Case to Impeach Obama Builds: Why the Right Should Start Preparing: CDN
MSM wont use liberal label ever but not shy with conservative one: USA Today

ABC’s Terry Moran Caught Laughing As Obama Surrogate Trashes Mitt Romney: NB
Red Dawn, Still Crazy After All These Years…: NoisyRm
That Terrible 'Ted' Movie: Bozell

Democrats sync attacks on Romney’s tax returns, bank accounts: Times
Perfect… Democrat Who Introduced Obama at His Big Ohio Rally Is a Big Crook: GWP
Times-Picayune Reporter is Mad as Hell and She's Not Going to Take This Anymore: AtlWire

World

Guess Who's Helping Assad Get Away With Murder?: Gatestone
Are We Still a Member of This Thing?: SDA
It Ain't Priced In: Krasting

$20 Mil For African Green Energy Venture: JW
Obama/DHS poised to grant amnesty for Hezbollah under Executive Order: Flopping Aces
Taliban thugs execute woman for adultery near Kabul: JWF

Sci-Tech

Divine intervention: Google's Nexus 7 is a fantastic $200 tablet: Ars Technica
Why Android is Very Popular Among Mobile App Developers: SocialBarrel
Thousands face internet loss as FBI shuts off servers: BBC

Cornucopia

Ernest Borgnine, Oscar winner, has died at 95: LAT
Women, men and the mediaeval restroom: Guardian
Obama: he has a great future and he always will have: MOTUS

Image: "Hospitals 'letting patients die to save money’" (Telegraph UK)
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "Friends, at what point do we hold our side accountable? $20 trillion in debt? $50 trillion in debt? Contrary to what some of you want to think, it was not the Democrats who got us to $16 trillion in national debt. It was bipartisan. Some of it legitimate, much of it not, and all to the tune of “let’s focus on the Democrats instead. They’re the real bad guys here.”

The leaders of the GOP give lip service to smaller government but just last week shut down legitimate private businesses to feed the leviathan more tax revenue. Republicans in the House of Representatives are now urging candidates not to sign the ATR tax pledge and Republicans in the Senate are cutting deals that will boost revenue because — deficits. And still they add to the debt.

So if not now, when? Not until we’re all speaking Chinese apparently." --Erick Erickson

Sunday, July 08, 2012

Oh, my: by a mere 21 point margin, Americans of all political persuasions believe Obamacare's Individual Mandate is a... tax

Curious: I didn't read this in the local birdcage liner this morning:

I'm sure the omission of this news was just an innocent oversight, however.


Hat tip: AEI.

Keeping your online identity safe now that every tweet in history is going to be saved in the National Archives

Theresa Payton, writing at Infosec Island, has some solid advice for Twitter users.

We have mentioned before that Twitter will send every tweet to the National Archives and the Library of Congress, so watch what you tweet.

...New tools are popping up and they can unleash a treasure trove of data in moments.  For the 140 million and growing user base that tweets over 400 million tweets per day this might be a little more than alarming.

...In the early days, people were tweeting, uploading pictures with geocodes, doing location check ins.  Many felt like they were just sharing all this information with a small group of people.

But these tweets leave behind clues that tell bad guys, potential employers, people you might date, people you might want to forget a lot about you.

What you may not realize is, that all Twitter accounts are searchable.  To test it on yourself and loved ones, try a tool like Topsy  http://topsy.com/

Tips to Stay Safe:

1.  Tweet about a location AFTER you leave

2.  Think about the tweets you do, do they show a pattern of behavior that puts you in the best light for those that don’t know you?  do they provide patterns that you would not want a bad guy to see?

3.  If you post photos make sure geocodes are turned off unless you like someone tracking your digital tracks.

RESOURCES:

Here are a few of the Twitter search tools out there:
  • If you want to look for local tweeps that leave their location information turned on, check out Nearby Tweets: http://nearbytweets.com
  • If you want to see what tweets are the most popular, try searching on Tweetmeme: http://tweetmeme.com
  • Anyone that wants to track tweets by a specific location, including one on a Google Map, try Areaface: http://www.areaface.com

In general, disclose as little about yourself online as you possibly can. And a little misinformation always helps too.

Boom: States that elected GOP governors in 2010 saw 50 percent lift in employment over U.S. average

Well, consider these even more data points that reinforce the policy positions of fiscal conservatism: low tax burdens and decreased regulations boost real employment. I know, it's fifth grade logic, which mean it's certain to be ignored by the dug-in, hard-left, radical Sixties Marxist retreads controlling the modern Democrat Party.

In 2010, influenced by the Tea Party and its focus on fiscal issues, 17 states elected Republican governors. And, according to an Examiner.com analysis, every one of those states saw a drop in their unemployment rates since January of 2011. Furthermore, the average drop in the unemployment rate in these states was 1.35%, compared to the national decline of .9%, which means, according to the analysis, that the job market in these Republican states is improving 50% faster than the national rate...

On the other hand, the unemployment rate in states that elected Democrats in 2010 dropped, on average, as much as the national rate decline and, in some states such as New York, the unemployment rate has risen since January of 2011.

This is yet another example of how the so-called “blue state” model is not working.

But, if you're soon-to-be-ex-Democrat National Committee chairperson Dee Wasserman Snider, the latest abysmal jobs report is just swell. Awesome, in fact.

And they say Mitt Romney is out of touch?


Hat tip: BadBlue.com.

Ohio's Radical Leftist Senator Sherrod Brown Tells Ohio's Voters He Despises Them and Their Petty Concerns With Jobs and Health Care

As recently as last year, facing a difficult reelection, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown was ranked America's fifth most liberal Senator by National Journal.

Of course, Brown was probably attempting to reach out to Ohio's famously centrist voters, because in 2010, he had been rated the most liberal Senator in the country.


So in an attempt to further broaden his appeal among Ohio independents, Brown has embraced a wildly popular and successful politician:


Yes. That's Al. Freaking. Franken.

A walking, talking embarrassment.

Sherrod Brown isn't worthy of representing Ohio's voters. He's a radical Leftist and his voting record demonstrates an utter disregard for Ohioans.

What can you do? If you have a few extra bucks, I'd encourage you to support Josh Mandel for Senate (who is also endorsed by Jim DeMint's invaluable Senate Conservatives Fund).



Larwyn's Linx: John Roberts' Travesty, Point by Point

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

Nation

John Roberts' Travesty, Point by Point: Hilyer
"This Decision Is Monstrous": JW
Flashback: Obama Attacked Bush's Job Creation Record: Ace

California’s lying, thieving Democrats: ProWis
Black Youth Mob Assaults Random Whites in Columbus, OH: GWP
Holder says civil rights ‘under renewed threat’: Hill

I've Tried Real Hard: Ace
IRS Hiring Thousands of Agents to Enforce Obamacare: WZ
Five Ways to Kill Obamacare Without Repeal: Politico

Economy

Worst-Case Scenario: Q&O
The Economics of Planned Global Failure: Sultan Knish
Michelle Obama's 26 Servants Cost Taxpayers $1.75 Million A Year: Riehl

Obamacare: Redistributing Wealth to Big Labor?: Breitbart
A Short History of Congress's Power to Tax: Moreno
Percent Job Losses: Great Recession and Great Depression: CalcRisk

Scandal Central

Fast and Furious plan backfires: Murdock
Congratulations! Second Obama cabinet official faces contempt of Congress charge: Exam

Climate & Energy

What price clean air?: Will
The Collusion of the Climate Crowd: Watts
Global warming: It's GOOD for the environment: Register

Media

AP Story on California High-Speed Rail Legislation’s Passage Dodges State’s Serious Deficit: Bizzy
Stop with the “I inherited a bad economy” excuse, says …: Hot Air
Obama’s Howard Johnson Speech: Asking Americans To Settle Fails Every Time: Mediaite

If Education Transforms Values and Feelings and Beliefs to Control Behaviors, Are We Free?: InvSerf
Allen West: True racism lies among white liberals who despise black conservatives: Scoop
What Hath Justice Roberts Wrought?: GoV

World

Dick Morris: Obama Set To Sign UN Gun Control Treaty, July 27 : Nice Deb
Devastating: Michael Behenna's Conviction Upheld: Diana West
Thousands Protest Alleged Mexico Election Fraud: BizWk

Sci-Tech

NFL players and coaches starting to use the iPad : iMore
Drone hijacked by hackers from Texas college with $1,000 spoofer: Sophos
Use fontBomb to destroy the web: Verge

Cornucopia

Do Not Read Too Much Into One Jobs Report (Again): Cube
If you can’t take the heat, get off the bus: MOTUS
Were Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Really Married?: AT

Image: "DOT Construction Signs Hacked To Read 'Impeach Obama'"
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "As debt gets passed up the system from the micro to the macro like a spark of electricity, the assumption of failure becomes institutionalized. Encouraging individuals, banks and governments to fail becomes a pathway for larger entities to capture smaller entities and for smaller entities to capture individuals. Irresponsible spending is promoted from the top down and captured from the bottom to the top so that larger entities promote irresponsible economic behavior and by accepting the consequences of that behavior take on the political and economic power of that assumption until the global economy is one great totalitarian welfare state built on subsidies and debt.

Financial institutions gain by encouraging consumer irresponsibility. Governments gain by encouraging irresponsible behavior by financial institutions. Global entities gain by encouraging irresponsible behavior by governments. Responsibility is traded for freedom, but individuals, institutions and governments, who give up freedom of action in exchange for being able to pass their responsibilities up the ladder, are participating in a shell game." --Daniel Greenfield

Saturday, July 07, 2012

Awesome: Mexican drug cartels training Texas teens as contract killers

Caution: links contain graphic content

In its craven quest for power, the Democrat Party has cultivated a totally lawless, open-borders philosophy. Its mission is to encourage sufficient numbers of illegals to enter the country and then to ensure they are dependent on entitlement programs (and thus Democrat largess). Their cynical endgame: to encourage vote fraud in support of Democrat candidates, plain and simple.

Suffice it to say that no other country on Earth permits this sort of open immigration. Such a policy would encourage multiple languages, Balkanization, and -- eventually -- a Yugoslav-style war. Even in this country, you can't fly from Topeka to Dayton without the electronic equivalent of a colonoscopy and a background check. Yet Democrats have encouraged tens of millions to enter the country, making a mockery of our immigration laws and the legal immigration process.

The side-effects of the Democrats' policies are as depraved and troubling as you might expect. Phoenix AZ is reported to be the kidnapping capital of the world. The bankrupt state of California spends tens of billions on incarcerating and providing medical care to illegals.

And Mexican drug cartels are laced throughout Texas, training teens as contract-killers.

Gabriel Cardona and Rosalio ‘Bart’ (as in Bart Simpson) Reta are American citizens of the border town of Laredo, Texas. They were raised in poverty and with the many problems inherent to poverty. When developing to the teenage years, they had dropped out of school and had become friends with bad influences. Seduced by the promises of easy money, faster cars and an abundance of girls, the two childhood friends soon joined the despicable cartel of Los Zetas.

This group of mercenaries and narcos trained them to kill, and the two young boys started to work as hit men. They were paid ahead of time; they lived in safe houses in upper class neighborhoods of Laredo Texas, where those hard working successful citizens were clueless that the new family in the neighborhood were teen sicarios. The teens worked a five day work week, on call, ready for the order for them to kill on both sides of the border. They were paid up to $10,000 dollars and 2 kilos of cocaine for each job, and bonuses like a 70 thousand dollar Mercedes for a well executed job.

...In April of 2006, Cardona was arrested in Texas during an operation coordinated by Roberto Garcia, a detective from Laredo. The 19 year old teenager confessed to have participated in seven murders and involved Reta, among others. Reta fled to Mexico... Cardona also confessed to have kidnapped two American teenagers, members of a rival cartel. Erupting in laugher, his mocking description of their pleas was heard by the detective as he monitored the conversation. Despite their plea, he tortured them and stabbed them until killing them with a broken bottle. In the hacked phone conversation between Cardona and Reta, Cardona describes how he collected the blood of the dying bodies in a glass and toast to the Santa Muerte (Holy Death), the female deity of death. He placed the bodies in a barrel with 55 gallons of diesel, to preparing to cook them and set them on fire...

Lest we forget, in the words of our beloved baritone DHS secretary, Janet Napolitano, the border area is "safe as it's ever been".


The So-Called Recovery in One Chart

Greg Mankiw posts the following chart without a single word of explanation.


Because no caption is needed for yet another product of SCOAMF Industries™.


For real: Keith Olbermann's High School Yearbook Page

Accompanied by the perfect quote for the failed faux journalist:


"Journalists say a thing they know isn’t true, in the hope that if they say it long enough it will be true."

That clapping sound you heard in the distance is fellow disgraced hack Dan Rather.

Funniest dis ever: Wayne Brady says Bill Maher's unwittingly bonking a woman who used to be a man, man

Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. If you've been following the BadBlue news service on Twitter, you may have noticed the following headline:


Entertainer Wayne Brady is none-too-pleased with failed comedian and talk show host Bill Maher for his various racial epithets, some of which use Brady as a foil:

In 2010, Bill Maher said he wished President Barack Obama was less like Brady and more like Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight... In response, Brady said that just because Maher likes black prostitutes, doesn’t mean he understands the black experience, adding that he wouldn’t appear on Maher’s show...

"If he once said I want to know how black Wayne Brady is — that chip on my shoulder says that rarely do you threaten a man and you should not fear anyone,” Brady said. “Now, I’m not saying I’m Billy Badass, but if Bill Maher has his perception of what’s black wrapped up, I would gladly slap the s*** out of Bill Maher in the middle of the street, and then I want to see what Bill Maher would do.”

"Now, Bill Maher would call the cops and he would have his lawyer — I’d get sued and lose my house and it’s not worth it for me,” he continued. “But the black man part of me would be so satisfied to slap the s*** out of him in front of Cocoa and Ebony and Fox, the three ladies of the night that he has hired . . . and Fancy, who also happened to be named Tyrique at one point.”

You guessed it: Tyrique, according to Nameapedia, is a boy's name. Which means Brady has stated unequivocally that Maher's unwittingly been bonking a man, man.

Fancy that, Tyrique.

And I think we've got a new nickname for our favorite hateful troll: Bill "Fancy" Maher.



Larwyn's Linx: Obama's Imperial Presidency

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

Nation

Obama's Imperial Presidency: Strassel
Mitt Romney's Electoral Advantage: Groseclose
Ryan: We Win, We Repeal: Breitbart

A Second American Revolution Needed to Crush Obamacare: IBD
The Leitmotif of the Obama Era: ‘Less Than Expected’: Driscoll
Obamacare's Threat to the Second Amendment: PJM

Economy

Disability Ranks Outpace New Jobs In Obama Recovery: IBD
Hispanic Unemployment Stuck at 11.0 Percent: WS
Years of Systematic Lying About Jobs Reports: Publius

Good News: AMT to Hit 27 Million More Taxpayers in 2013!: ATR
Surprise! tax hikes fail in another state -- Connecticut: ATR
There's an app for that: balance the U.S. budget: BudgetControl

10 Ways Obama Is Killing The American Economy: Cove
Levin reveals the lies about "trickle-down economics": Scoop
Obama snuffs out another small industry: LVRJ

Scandal Central

'Fast and Furious' had Mexican victims, too: Murdoch
Institutionalized graft in the Golden State: AT
Watergate, Fast and Furious have a lot in common: Fey

Climate & Energy

As Everyone Freaks Out Over Heat Wave, A Bit Of Globull Warming Reality: Cove
Bummer: Climate Change Stalls Reef Growth: Cove

Media

The Socialist's Constitution: AmPower
Anybody Else Out There Feeling Their Intelligence Insulted By Obama's Condescending Yokel-Speak?: Reaganite
Zombie economy threatens Obama: Politico

Hetero Right-Wingers Versus LGBT Moderates: TAB
PBS Host Questions Obama‘s ’Genuine Love for Black People: Blaze
Great Moments in Forward: Transparency Edition: Lady Liberty

Dee Wasserman Snider Won’t Go On Television With Opposing Guests: Shark Tank
And the Role of the Killer Rabbit Will Be Played By…: Driscoll
Wayne Brady Says He Wants to ‘Slap the S**t’ Out of Bill Maher For His Comments on Race: Blaze

World

JFK terminal evacuated after Muslim TSA employee fails to screen hundreds of passengers: JihadWatch
Israel's Arab Spring Problem: Ignatius
Muslim Congressman: U.S. Schools Should Be Modeled After Madrassas: RCP

Putin's July Fourth Message: Beacon
American Twilight: Steyn
The Five Principles: Political Islam

Sci-Tech

Inside the Twitter-LinkedIn divorce: Fortune
Security firm in Tor Project 'mass surveillance' row responds: Register
How to detect and fix a machine infected with DNSChanger: CNet

Cornucopia

Words, Then and Now: Cube
Obama's Betting on America. With your money!: MOTUS
Leg of Lamb and Roasted Yukon Golds: BaconTime

Image: "I'll be Better! I'm Turning Over a New Leaf!"
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "...back in the real world, East Coast municipalities were canceling Fourth of July celebrations because of lack of electricity. In a novel, this would be rather too obviously symbolic of the hyperpower at twilight, but truth is crasser than art. So we had the spectacle of Martin O’Malley, governor of Maryland, turning up on CBS’s Face the Nation last Sunday as part of his not-so-subtle campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Across Montgomery County, his delirious constituents would have cheered, “President O’Malley? There’s the answer to our nation’s woes!” — except that their TVs weren’t working, so they never saw him. Unless they jumped in their Chevy Volts and drove to . . . oh, no, wait." --Mark Steyn

Friday, July 06, 2012

Oh, my: GM's super-happy fun results achieved through the magic of Obama's typical tactics: cheating

Recall that the president has but two supposed achievements to call his own after countless failed programs. He: (a) he gave the order to cap Bin Laden (a stunningly straightforward decision for any president not named B.J. Clinton); and (b) he "saved" General Motors (never mind that it still owes the American taxpayer $35 billion).

It turns out that the National Legal and Policy Center has a more accurate description of GM's "impressive results".

...government purchases of GM vehicles rose a whopping 79% in June.

The discovery of the pick-up in government fleet purchases at the taxpayers' expense comes just weeks before GM announces its second quarter earnings. Overall fleet sales (which are typically less profitable than retail sales) at Government Motors rose a full 36% for the month, helping to drive decent sales improvements year over year.

GM claimed that sales increases did not rely on incentive spending, which appeared to remain in check, but one analyst during GM's sales conference call questioned whether the company's "stair step" incentive spending was accurately depicted. This incentive spending kicks in after dealerships report final sales figures for the month and may be yet another deceptive way for GM to fudge its numbers. Not mentioned was GM card rewards programs that do not get counted as incentive spending.


The government's increased spending on GM vehicle purchases presents yet another conflict of interest as Treasury refuses to sell taxpayers' stake in GM and Obama campaigns on the auto bailouts. It does not appear that any members of Congress (from either party) are questioning the increased spending...

...The pressure is on Government Motors to appear financially strong as this may be the last earnings report before November elections and sets the stage for how "successful" GM is. One of GM's past tricks to help fudge earnings numbers has been to stuff truck inventory channels. Old habits die hard at GM. According to a Bloomberg report, "GM said inventory of its full-size pickups, which will be refreshed next year, climbed to 238,194 at the end of June, a 135 days supply, up from 116 days at the end of May." 135 days supply is huge, the accepted norm is a 60 day supply. The trick here is that GM records revenue when vehicles go into dealership inventories, not when actually sold to consumers.

...GM's earnings announcement comes on August 2nd... Expect Government Motors to put a positive spin on its financial health as the stakes are now at their highest. The long-term health of GM remains in question and the true financial picture may not surface until well after voters decide who will be running our country...

Anything this administration says needs to be scrutinized for accuracy, and that includes the words 'the', 'and', and 'or'.


The Horrifying Employment Charts You Were Never Supposed to See

We all know that vintage media won't publish charts that reflect the true state of the economy. The media have a theme to promote (that Obama is competent) and are on a mission (to reelect him). And nothing will get in their way, save a few brave souls at Fox News, on talk radio, and in the conservative blogosphere.

As Calculated Risk reports:

...job growth has really slowed over the last three months with only 225,000 payroll jobs added (a 900,000 annual pace), and only 274,000 private sector jobs (a 1.1 million annual pace). This is very sluggish employment growth.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged at 8.2 million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2% in June The household survey showed a another increase in employment (128,000 jobs added), and since the participation rate was unchanged at 63.8%, that was just enough to keep with the increase in the labor force...

This graph shows the job losses from the start of the employment recession, in percentage terms - this time aligned at maximum job losses.

U-6, an alternate [Ed: and superior] measure of labor underutilization that includes part time workers and marginally attached workers, increased slightly to 14.9%...

In short, the real unemployment rate remains at the horrific level of 15 percent.

And the "recovery" (if you believe that's what we're experiencing) is the worst for job growth in modern American history.

Other low-lights of the jobs report (or, as I like to call it, the no-jobs report):

Disability claims outpace new job creation since Obama took office

The unemployment rate for blacks increased to 14.4 percent

Hispanic unemployment is unchanged at 11 percent

And for something like 40 months in a row, the Obama White House has used virtually the same quote on its website ("it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report") over and over and over again. Because they care.


Between the vacations, the golf, the campaigning, the fundraising, and the buck-passing (blaming Bush, ATMs, tsunamis, earthquakes, the EU meltdown, etc.), it's clear that Barack Obama has the worst jobs record of any president in American history.

The most deserving person of a pink-slip in this economy is Barack Hussein Milhaus Obama. Anyway you measure it, he's The Job-Killing President™.



Ezra Klein: victim of congenital thyroid deficiency... or poisonous, left-wing propagandist? You make the call!

A cretin is a person of limited cognitive abilities often "due to a congenital thyroid deficiency." Based upon Ezra Klein's latest embarrassing screed (doing further damage to the reputation of the already-mortally wounded Washington Post), it's apparent that Klein is either a cretin or a demented left-wing ideologue.

The reason I bring this up is because of the following headline o' the day, spotted over at Ricochet via the invaluable BadBlue.com.

Just Imagine The Mess Obama Will Inherit If He's Reelected!

When the June jobs report came out, showing 80,000 net new jobs and the unemployment rate stuck at 8.2%, Washington Post wunderkind Ezra Klein sarcastically responded:

It's times like this when I'm glad we're not employing hundreds of thousands of workers to rebuild the nation's infrastructure.

And super glad that we fired those 600,000 state and local workers. Our economy has more than enough jobs/demand as is!

Completely leaving aside the fact that Democratic legislators passed and President Obama signed a massive $800 billion spending bill meant to create those "shovel-ready jobs" (ha ha!) is the left's argument for bad numbers really  that we need a larger government? How out of touch with reality can one be?

[Another tweet] I have to share. From Frank J. Fleming:Has Obama considering solving unemployment through a not having a job tax?

You read that correctly: Ezra Klein is still yearning for even more deficit spending to fund make-work "infrastructure" jobs as our nation teeters on the edge of a fiscal abyss. Hell, everyone from former Obama adviser Peter Orszag to more sensible economists have warned we have just a couple of years left to save the country from economic disaster.

So what does Klein pine for? Borrowing trillions more from generations yet unborn -- an act of unbridled child abuse, mind you -- to spend on union-only jobs that launder money into Democrat campaign coffers.

Now, even a fifth-grade analysis of the economy would tell you that stealing money from the private -- productive -- sector and laundering it through countless layers of wasteful bureaucracy and known fraud, cronyism and payoffs -- detracts from the real economy. You know, Ezra, stealing from the country's producers, who create wealth, not steal it. Who employ people, who invest in capital equipment, who create new products and services. Who are, in effect, the opposite of government.

Year after year, Obama and his drone-like, nincompoop sycophants offer the same failed programs: spend now, pay later. These tactics will work no better in your private life than they do for government. In fact, when the government's involved, the outcome is considerably worse, because it's not their money. They spend your money like drunken GSA accountants on a taxpayer-subsidized jaunt to Vegas.

In Ezra Klein's world, full employment would be defined as half the population digging potholes in roads and the other half following close behind, filling them in. It's just embarrassing for everyone involved with this nut.

No wonder The Washington Post is headed for the dustbin of newspaper history. When cretins like Klein get a forum at your paper, you know you're toast.


Larwyn's Linx: Unforced Errors Are Sinking Obama Campaign

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

Nation

Unforced Errors Are Sinking Obama Campaign: Blumer
More Dems bail on Obama’s convention; refuse to endorse him: Events
One Reason GOP SCOTUS Picks Go Awry: Cato

Obama Talks About Dressing Up Like a Tea Partier: WS
Levin: Axelrod Tweets the Media's March Orders: Nice Deb
Obama's Problem Obeying the Law: AT

John Roberts and the Cloward-Piven Strategy: PJM
'Republicans want more debt' and other propaganda: DLim
Dear Leader: My Signature Health Care Plan Is Here to Stay: LoneCon

Economy

Sorry, America, you’re rich enough. Stop working: Peth
Health Savings Accounts Under Attack: RS
Rules Committee 'Emergency' Meeting to Repeal Health Care: NatlJrnl

Jobs Report Unexpectedly! Worse Than Lowered Expectations: Ace
Transparency Ends at the White House Door: FPM
June Non-Farm Payrolls +80,000, Missing Expectations: ZH

Climate & Energy

Utah Suing Federal Government: Ace
Global Warming Blame-ologists Play with Fire: Malkin
Druids Found To Have Drowned Mammoths with Gas-Guzzling Infernal Combustion Engines: Conservatory

Media

Obama Visits Ohio Bar, Suggests They Turn Off Fox News: WZ
Valerie Jarrett Blames FOX News For Class Warfare Rhetoric: RCP
Thought-challenged ThinkProgress: Obamacare is a tax cut, you rubes!: Twitchy

Double Standard Watch: What Can't We Know About Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr's Condition?: Riehl
To Fix Health Care System, Put Consumers in Charge: Rasmussen
Medical Nightmare Updates: Zilla

Symptoms of a Sick Culture: Goldberg
Obama, Top Aide Jarrett Reflexively Bash Fox News: NB
Kevin Jackson Educates a Drone: NoisyRm

World

U.N. Wants “Billionaires Tax” To Help World’s Poor, Redistribute $400B In Wealth Annually: WZ
Analyst: Polonium found on Arafat's clothing was planted: JPost
Michael Behenna Loses Final Appeal: BMW

Sci-Tech

DNS Changer - how not to lose your internet connection on July 9: Sophos
Twitter Engineer: Twitter Search "Set To Change Forever": Insider
Amazon smartphone in development, says Bloomberg: Verge

Cornucopia

Top 10 Hottest Conservative Congressmen: Alexa
Barack Obama Born In 1890?: Aces
Art historians claim to find new Caravaggio works: AP

Image: Politico Notes Another Horrific Jobs Report
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "Apart from Team Obama’s formidable community organizing skills aimed at demonizing Mitt Romney as a wealthy, compassionless corporate raider, Obama has nothing but lies and scapegoating to run on, given his abysmal record.

Plouffe said that Republicans “want to return us back to the same policies that caused the recession — huge tax cuts for the wealthy, more war, more debt.”

You have to give these people credit for chutzpah and for relentlessly staying on message, as warped as it is." --David Limbaugh

Thursday, July 05, 2012

Blue-state shock: Chicago River as much as 70 percent raw sewage

We already knew that progressives are messier than real Americans, based upon the aftermaths of the Tea Party rallies and the ill-named "One Nation demonstrations" on the national mall.

And let's not even get into the rat-infested Occupy movement.

But now we have actual, scientific proof:

In a story regarding the hazards of kayaking in city rivers, ("Kayak Tours Pose New Risk for Cities"), the Wall Street Journal includes a single, final sentence of untold hilarity:

According to a 2011 report by American Rivers, a nonprofit environmental group, parts of the Chicago River are 70% undisinfected wastewater.

Shocking. A state and city controlled for decades by Democrats requires a hazmat suit when kayaking.


Hat tip: Amalaur.

Media schmucks raise specter of Romney's offshore assets, curiously miss Obama's offshore fundraisers and money-laundering website

You can see the meme bubbling up, plain as day. It starts with the likes of the ludicrous hack Taegan Goddard at the ill-named Political Wire, a more apt name for which would be DNC Wire. Goddard's article, entitled "Undisclosed Romney Investments Hint at Larger Wealth", suggests that the GOP candidate's investments may not wholly reside... in the U.S. Shocking news, to be sure.

And the propaganda continues with the useful idiots at the Associated Press, offering fealty to the Axelrod campaign with laughable work like "Assets offshore raise Romney wealth questions."

And, like the good little stooges they are, the crackpots at The Washington Post chip in with their contribution, creatively titled "Mystery Bermuda-based company and other undisclosed Romney assets hint at larger wealth."

[Romney's reports are] permitted by state and federal authorities overseeing Romney’s ethics filings, and he has never been cited for failing to disclose information about his money. But Romney’s limited disclosures deprive the public of an accurate depiction of his wealth and a clear understanding of how his assets are handled and taxed, according to experts in private equity, tax and campaign finance law.

Gee, you mean like a president who fails to reveal his Occidental, Columbia, or Harvard college transcripts; his thesis papers; his medical records; his law practice client list; his Illinois state senate schedule; etc. Gee, vintage media hacks, I would think those would be a lot bigger deal than Mitt Romney's legal investing strategies, no?

Other big stories that have -- coincidentally gone unnoticed by the DNC press release re-publishers -- include truly monumental scams, ripoffs and outright criminality on the part of the Axelrod administration:

• Speaking of offshore, anyone care to question why the Obama campaign is fundraising in Europe? I wonder how it's ensuring contributions are all from domestic sources?
• Or how about the curious case of the Obama campaign website, which has disabled all credit-card security checks? In what I'm sure is simply another coincidence, that permits above-the-limit contributions, structured contributions, foreign contributions and other plainly illegal donations.
• Or the huge money-laundering operation that allowed tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to flow to Obama campaign bundlers under the rubric of "green energy" (see: Solyndra, SunPower, Vehicle Production Group, SolarReserve, Fisker, Tesla Motors, Abound Solar, Ener1, Solar Trust, Solar One, Beacon Power, etc.)
• Or the fact that the UAW-controlled General Motors, which sends quite a lot of money into Democrat campaign coffers, is still on the hook for $35 billion to the American taxpayers

See, there is real vetting -- of the sort new media has to do -- and there's legacy media vetting, which insinuates wrongdoing for no reason other than to skew an election to a radical Leftist intent on bankrupting the country.


Related: Obama Department of Energy Loan Application


Larwyn's Linx: A Country of Free Men or Free Things

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

Nation

A Country of Free Men or Free Things: Sultan Knish
The Wisdom of George Washington: Schaub
Did Obama And The Supreme Court Collude?: Western

Obama tells legal immigrants why we should reward illegals: MenRec
Marine Corps band plays Romney song on White House lawn: Hill
Obama’s “Civilian National Security Force”: CFP

Democrats to Blacks: Stay Angry, Vote Democratic: Elder
Bill Nelson facing possible defeat in November: Shark Tank
Ann Romney goes after Obama campaign's "Kill" strategy: Twitchy

Economy

Obamatax: 13,000 new pages of regulations drafted already: GWP
Indiana ends fiscal year with reserves of more than $2 billion: Fox 59
Obamacare: it just gets better and better: Conservatory

Obama’s Super-PAC Advantage : Geraghty
Report Card: In 2010 Obama Promised to Double Exports by 2015: Mish
David Rosenberg Explains The Housing "Recovery": ZH

Scandal Central

Grassley Questions Fast and Furious Timeline: Main Justice
Simulus Funded Nevada Geothermal Close To Going Bust: Cove
Did Obama And The Supreme Court Collude?: Western

Media

Question Asked and Answered: Driscoll
Media Digging For Romney News Already Exceeds Obama Digging In 2008: Riehl
Humiliation Of Ex-Politico WH Correspondent Joe Williams Complete, As Ex-Wife Weighs In: Riehl

Figures. On Independence Day NY Times Bashes Liberty and Individual Rights: GWP
Special Report: George Soros: Godfather of the Left: MRC
47% Consider Obama’s Political Views Extreme, 31% Say Same of Romney: Rasmussen

World

Obama Screws Israel at UN (And Nobody Cares): Lid
Egypt's "first sex-slave marriage" took place mere days after the Muslim Brotherhood takes over: Gatestone
Millions stolen from Medicare wound up in Cuban banking system: Miami Herald

Great news: Ahmadinejad calls to congratulate Morsy: Matzav
Obama Administration Stabs Israel in the Back: Gatestone
First NATO truck crosses Pakistan border: AP

Sci-Tech

Tips For A Finely Crafted Website: Smashing
20 best mobile phones in the world today: TechRadar
Malware Monday may knock thousands off Internet: Riehl

Cornucopia

Tea Party Rewind: Too Late to Apologize: iOTW
San Diego Accidentally Set Off All Its Fourth Of July Fireworks at Once: AtlWire
I want my country back: Copens

Image: The Eternal Meaning of Independence Day
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "The “Free Rider” principle is that the benefits of a policy must be forcibly extended to everyone in order to mandate that they help fund the entitlement. There is no natural limit to such an expansion. If your wages can be said to have risen because unions negotiated a new contract, then you can be compelled to pay the union. If you aren’t buying health insurance, then you must be getting it for free. If you aren’t part of the system, then there will be a mandate that will make you part of it.

“Free Riders” is a polite version of the Soviet Union’s “Parasites”. The concept is the same. In a system where benefits are extended to everyone, everyone is obligated to the system. The new Crown is not a person, it is an idea. The throne at whose foot a formerly free people kneel is the golden seat of the welfare state. While the fireworks light up the sky, a counterrevolution undid the revolution. There is a new king and his face is on every magazine cover in the land. His bounty is a jagged bear trap that turns everyone into a ward of the state at their own expense. " --Daniel Greenfield

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Photos of a bizarre, but quite pleasant, Independence Day

So we were checking in for a short stay at one of beachfront hotels near Charleston, SC and were surprised to hear the following sentence at the reception desk...

"It looks like you've been upgraded to The President's Suite."