Thursday, July 26, 2012

Top Immigration Officials Describe Border Chaos Resulting From Obama Amnesty Policy

IN a clear violation of the Constitution's separation of powers, President Obama issued an executive order last month that implemented the DREAM Act. A law that could not pass Congress, even when Democrats held a super-majority during Obama's first two years in office, has now been legislated by executive fiat.

And, as you could have expected, lawlessness begets lawlessness:

Union heads representing thousands of America's immigration agents slammed the Obama administration Thursday over a policy they claim is forcing officials to ignore the law and allowing illegal immigrants to exploit the system...

In a startling allegation, the president of the union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers claimed illegal immigrants are "taking advantage" of a new directive [which] ends up allowing illegal immigrants to avoid detention without any proof -- particularly so-called "dreamers," or those illegal immigrants who would benefit under the "DREAM Act" proposal, which Congress has not passed but the administration has partially implemented...


"Prosecutorial discretion for dreamers is solely based on the individual's claims. Our orders are if an alien says they went to high school, then let them go," he said at a press conference with GOP senators. "Officers have been told that there is no burden for the alien to prove anything. ... At this point we don't even know why DHS has criteria at all, as there is no requirement or burden to prove anything on the part of the alien...

Crane cited one case in which, he said, an immigrant facing criminal charges was let go under the policy. Further, he complained that officers are "under threat of losing their jobs" if they defy the policy.

Folks, we are seeing the civil society unravel right before our eyes. If we don't stop this madness in November, we may well have lost the Republic.


Hat tip: NoisyRoom.


HOLY CRAP: Jon Corzine's "MF Global", which disappeared $1.6 billion in client funds, represented by Eric Holder's law firm

Just when you think the most lawless attorney general in U.S. history has hit bottom, Eric Holder breaks out a jackhammer and starts digging through the foundation.

Those wondering why the Department of Justice has refused to go after Jon Corzine for the vaporization of $1.6 billion in MF Global client funds need look no further than the documents uncovered by the Government Accountability Institute that reveal that the now-defunct MF Global was a client of Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer’s former law firm, Covington & Burling.

...Records also reveal that MF Global’s trustee for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy retained as its general bankruptcy counsel Morrison & Foerester--the very law firm from which Associate Attorney General Tony West came to DOJ...

...Until now, the conventional wisdom for why Holder wouldn’t throw the book at Corzine was that Corzine is an Obama campaign bundler. Indeed, as Breitbart News reported, four of the top officials at the Department of Justice--Eric Holder, Thomas Perrelli, Karol Mason, and Tony West--were also big money bundlers for Obama...


...At least 65 members of Congress have already signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting that he appoint a special prosecutor to investigate MF Global’s collapse and the loss of $1.6 billion in customer money...

...What’s more, even progressives have begun to wonder whether Holder’s Covington & Burling connection explains why the Department of Justice has not charged, prosecuted, or jailed a single Wall Street executive after the biggest financial collapse in American history...

...More and more Washington insiders are asking a question that was considered off-limits in the nation's capital just a few months ago: Who, exactly, is Attorney General Eric Holder representing? As scandal after scandal erupts on Wall Street, involving everything from global lending manipulation to cocaine and prostitution, more and more people are worrying about Holder's seeming inaction -- or worse -- in the face of mounting evidence.

The only jobs Obama appears to be creating are roles for special prosecutors.

It's always enlightening to look back on the Republicans who supported Holder -- over the warnings voiced by conservatives who had actually researched his egregious track record. Thanks to Michelle Malkin, their names will be etched in history and include:

...Susan Collins, R-Maine, Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ... Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., ... John McCain, R-Ariz., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, ... Olympia Snowe, R-Maine

They deserve the ridicule, the blame and the shame they've brought upon themselves and this country.

Eric Holder is a disgrace. In a just, lawful society, he would have been impeached long ago.



Eat More Chikin

Uncle Ben writes:

The anti-gay views openly espoused by the president of a fast food chain specializing in chicken sandwiches have run afoul of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a local alderman, who are determined to block Chick-fil-A from expanding in Chicago.

“Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values. They’re not respectful of our residents, our neighbors and our family members. And if you’re gonna be part of the Chicago community, you should reflect Chicago values,” Emanuel said Wednesday.

###

Chicago values? What would those be? Corruption, violence, inept government, voter fraud, bad baseball teams? The list practically writes itself.

Illinois blogger Marathon Pundit ruminates along similar lines.



Great News: Clinton aide Huma Abedin tied directly to Muslim Brotherhood and the "Godfather" of Al Qaeda... post-9/11

Rep. Michele Bachmann and four other members of Congress were slammed this week and last by vintage media, Democrats and RINOs (but I repeat myself) for questioning the
influence that longtime aide Huma Abedin wields over Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Abedin now serves as Deputy Chief of Staff to Clinton; Bachmann and others have questioned her family's close ties to known terrorist organizations and how she received a security clearance with such ties.

For daring to ask this perfectly reasonable question, Rep. Bachmann, Rep Gohmert and other patriotic Americans have withstood a firestorm of attacks from the likes of:

The Washington Post's editorial board ("Michele Bachmann’s baseless attack on Huma Abedin")

Slate Magazine ("Michele Bachmann Still Pushing Muslim Brotherhood Conspiracy Despite GOP Disaproval" [sic])

The Los Angeles Times ("Michele Bachmann's dangerous paranoia")

• And idiotic, big-government sellout RINOs like John McCain and so-called "Speaker of the House" John Boehner.

It turns out that national security expert Ryan Mauro has unveiled tangible evidence that Abedin has direct ties herself -- not just through her brother, mother and late father (as if they weren't enough) -- to violent radicals :

Her mother, Dr. Saleha Abedin, is a member of the Muslim Sisterhood, the Brotherhood’s female counterpart... She is also a member of the Muslim World League, which terrorism expert Andrew McCarthy describes as “the Muslim Brotherhood’s principal vehicle for the international propagation of Islamic supremacist ideology.”

...the organization wants to get rid of laws against marital rape, permit marriage below the age of 18 and institute other elements of Sharia Law. She is also a board member of the International Islamic Council for Dawa and Relief (which the group she leads is part of), a group banned in Israel because it belongs to Qaradawi’s Union of Good, a network of “charities” set up to fund Hamas. The U.S. froze the Union of Good’s assets in November 2008...


...Huma Abedin’s late father, Dr. Syed Abedin, was also intimately involved with Islamists. He led the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs based in Saudi Arabia. It is backed by the Muslim World League and is an entity of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, a very extreme Islamist group. The Institute also published Mrs. Abedin’s book. Huma herself was an assisstant editor of the Institute’s journal as far back as 1996 and as recently as 2008, which means she was there when it published her mother’s extremist book. This screenshot from September 2008 shows that Huma, her mother and brother were all simultaneously editors of the journal.

Furthermore, Walid Shoebat has now delivered ironclad proof that McCain and the other apologists for Abedin and the Muslim Brotherhood were dead wrong (PDF).

Saleha Abedin is Vice Dean at Dar El-Hekma College in Saudi Arabia, Saleha was also one of the institution’s founders, along with Yaseen Abdullah Kadi—a designated terrorist by the U.S.—and members of the bin Laden family...

...Courtesy of Internet Archives, we were able to learn that Huma Abedin served as an Assistant Editor with IMMA from at least December 2, 2002—September 24, 2008. Her name fails to appear on the IMMA website some time before February 14, 2009. Presumably, Abedin left IMMA to accept her current position as Deputy Chief of Staff to Hillary Clinton... Huma worked and partnered together with her family at IMMA...

...From at least December 2, 2002—December 3, 2003, none other than Abdullah Omar Naseef served on the Advisory Editorial Board [with Huma]...

On October 12, 2001, the U.S. Treasury Department designated the Rabita Trust, a charity in Pakistan "for its close ties to senior al Qaida leadership and for providing logistical and financial support to Al Qaida." The Rabita Trust was founded in 1988 by Dr. Abdullah Omar Naseef, the former secretary general of the Muslim World League (MWL) in the 1980s.

...Obviously, this means that more than two years prior to Huma Abedin serving on a board with Naseef—and one month after the 9/11 attacks—Naseef was formally connected to Al-Qaeda by the U.S. Government.

...Bachmann’s argument stands; with this evidence presented, the burden of proof is on McCain to show that Huma was vetted and does not present a threat to National Security. Bachmann’s 16-page letter was not only regarding the Abedins, but “Brotherhood infiltration” in general... After examining this we believe that we provide ample proof for Huma’s involvement, ties and relationship with members of the Muslim Brotherhood... It becomes then obvious that Huma Abedin likely knew:

1—That the organization to which her family belonged was founded with the help of Al-Qaeda Godfather Abdullah Omar Naseef.
2—Her family ties existed well after IMMA’s inception, after 9/11, and well into 2006—2008 without any degrees of separation as claimed by CNN. The Abedins could not deny knowing about the widely known SAAR Network charity that Naseef managed.
3—Her mother was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Huma arranged for Hillary Clinton to speak alongside two Muslim Brotherhood members; Huma’s mother, Saleha Abedin and Suheir Qureshi who is listed by Al-Dustur and Al-Jazeera as a member. The complete list, including the 12 Saudi women members and the names of all 63 members are listed here. Evidence of these being involved with the Muslim Brotherhood is overwhelming.
4—That her brother is a fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) with Abdullah Omar Naseef as the Chairman of the Board at OCIS with Muslim Brotherhood Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi serving on the OCIS Board.
5—That leaving her job as editor at IMMA was necessary for her new job at the State Dept.
6—That her mother leads a group that endorses marital rape, under age marriage, and female genital mutilation...

No less an expert than John Bolton has defended Bachmann, Gohmert and other GOP representatives who are demanding an explanation of this seismic policy shift: Why are terrorists being granted access to the White House?

And does this "pivot" have anything to do with Hillary Clinton confidante Huma Abedin, who has proven and documented connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and a "Godfather" of Al Qaeda?

Or the fact that the White House approved $1.5 billion of your tax dollars going to the Nazi-aligned totalitarians known as the Muslim Brotherhood?

And as for the likes of John Boehner, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham: all three of you are embarrassments to the real Republican Party. I would urge all of you to resign, but your egos are too bloated, your sense of self-worth too inflated, and your ignorance far too pervasive to recognize the damage you are doing to this country. Suffice it to say that we will ignore you; and hope to place you on the back-benches in November.


Related: What is Islamofascism?


Larwyn's Linx: The Theater Shooter Was Caught, but the Real Joker Just Keeps On Laughing

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

Nation

Theater Shooter Caught, but the Real Joker Keeps Laughing: Oleg
Congress Blasts Napolitano Over Major Security Breaches: JW
Busted: O Campaign Plants Vets at Portland Diner: GWP

What It Means To Be A Top Conservative On Twitter: CDN
Heh: White House website still says "You didn't build that!": JWF
Obama has no patience for 'you didn't build that' attacks: Politico

Mitt Romney the Bad Ass: Alexa
VFW Gives Romney STANDING O After He Hammers Obama: GWP
Idiot Mayor Walks Back ‘Police Strike’ Call: Bruce

Economy

Small businessmen push back against Obama: Power Line
DHS immigration plan could cost $585M, report says: Fox
Wasserman Snider Confirms “Once in a Lifetime” Luxury Cruise: Shark

Federal Debt Jumps More Than $1T for 5th Straight Year: CNS
"Audit the Fed" Passes the House: Hayward
Obama plays defense with dishonest campaign ad: Pundette

Scandal Central

What It Means to Make Obama’s Enemies List: MB
DOJ IG meets secretly with Gowdy, Chaffetz: 'fast and furious' report to be released 'in weeks not months': Times
Oil Group Files Second Lawsuit Over EPA Biofuel Standards: BizWk

Climate & Energy

Hockey-sticking it to the Mann: Steyn
The Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb Trifecta of Doom, now with skin cancer!: WyBlog
Are Brown Jobs More Egalitarian?: Kaus

Media

Barack Hussein Obama – 2004 tax cheat? Did Obama underreport his income to IRS?: FAM
"White girl bleed a lot": Glazov
Raleigh TV station @WRAL continues to face heat over publishing of CCW database: Toldjah

The Best Quotes From Neal Boortz’s “The Terrible Truth About Liberals.”: RWN
Best “you didn’t build that” political cartoon: LI
Rep. Jason Chaffetz schools Bill O’Reilly on the Second Amendment: FAM

An open letter to Christopher Nolan, Sean Penn and Warner Brothers: Times
Obama no patience for 'you didn't build that' attacks because they're kicking his butt: Riehl
Since his false Tea Party report: Brian Ross issues only two RTs, including one of an anti-Romney story: Marathon

8 Ways Blacks Perpetuate Racism and the Only Way to Thwart It: Hudson
AWESOME: New Romney ad features NAACP members saying “We need Romney”: Scoop
Presidential Debate Schedule Set: PolWire

World

Huma Abedin: Assistant Editor of Islamist Journal: Mauro
Suppose Michele Bachmann is right?: Thomas
Levin: GOP leadership trashing Bachmann while FBI investigates over 100 suspected Islamists in military: Scoop

The Great Muslim Cover Up: Sultan Knish
Terrorist Invited To White House: HillBuzz
Transparency? Obama’s Secretive Soros-Funded Money Machine: Publius

UK’s The Sun uncovers Pakistani passport/visa scam to get terrorists into London Olympics: BNI
Iraqi ironies: Hanson
Turkey Transfers Chemical Weapons Personnel to Syrian Border: Gatestone

Sci-Tech

Hacker finds flaw in hotel locks, can ruin your vacation with $50 DIY gadget: Engadget
Learning F-35 Lessons From F-22 Oxygen Errors: DefTech
The AP's Social Media Guide Explains the Trouble with 'Liking' People: AtlWire

Cornucopia

Thoughts on the Aurora Murders and Armed Citizens: ObjStd
Your Lying Ears: And Don’t Talk About My Ears!: MOTUS
Accused murderous scumbag sent notebook to psychiatrist: report: Reuters

Image: Apple: Google Warned Samsung Against Copying Us
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "As for you, Sean Penn, you paragon of endless moralizing, we would like to thank you, too, for underwriting last week’s ultra-violence and real-life carnage at the movie theater. One of the last scenes that 6-year-old saw in her precious life was a trailer for your movie.

In the final clip of a trailer filled with orgiastic bloodshed, you have some classy “actors” with machine guns unload from behind a movie screen into a crowd seated in a theater, watching a film. Ring a bell, Sean? Sound familiar?

I realize how busy you are, so loudly and obnoxiously jet-setting around to save the world, but do you have time to think about what you have done here? What your life amounts to at this moment? ...No, you did not pull the trigger in this case. You did not don the gas mask. But you were the inspiration, and you are the architects.

Your celebrations of diabolical mayhem and pornographic violence prey on the fantasies of sick, fragile minds. You insulated them from the painful reality of bloodshed. You have inspired mass murder. You are the Osama bin Laden of this travesty." --Charles Hurt

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Embarrassing: Obama Spokes-hacks Spike Football Over Bin Laden Hit, Beclowning Themselves and the Administration

In May of 2011, President Obama stated that he would not release Osama Bin Laden's death photos because he did not want to "spike the football."

Like all of his statements, however, the boycott on touchdown celebrations ended almost immediately. That is, as soon it was politically expedient, the Icky Shuffles started coming fast and furious, as it were. And the latest embarrassment is occurring in the Twittersphere, where Obama spokespeople are high-fiving one another in truly embarrassing fashion.


Of course, as anyone with half a brain knows -- which excludes progressives, liberals and all Democrat members of Congress -- Bin Laden was located thanks to all of the "controversial" tactics put in place by the Bush administration and then promptly shredded by his successor.

1. 2003: Enhanced Interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad Results in the Nom De Guerre of bin Ladin's Courier...

2. 2004: Enhanced Interrogation of al-Qahtani Confirms the Nom De Geure of bin Ladin's Courier...

3. 2006 (?): Enhanced Interrogation of an Al Qaeda Captured in Iraq, Ghul, Produces the Real Name of the Courier...

4. 2006-2009: NSA Begins Furiously Intercepting Any And All Communications Made By Anyone "al-Kuwaiti" Has Ever Known...

5. Late 2010 (?): al-Kuwaiti Places a Very Ill-Advised Phone Call... "[conversing] with someone who was being monitored by U.S. intelligence... the courier [then] unknowingly led authorities to a [bizarre] compound in the northeast Pakistani town of Abbottabad..."

6. 2011: Surveying Abbottabad, We Grow Confident We've Found Bin Ladin's Hideout...

7. April 29-May 1 2011: Obama's Team Tells Him They Have High Confidence Bin Ladin (or at Least His Most Trusted Courier) is In the Compound, and Obama Agrees, and Orders the Raid; On May 1 It's Executed By SEAL Team 6...

8. May 2011: Begin a Disinformation Campaign To Convince the Public That 2003-2008 Never Happened...

Which leads to commenter Dan disclosing the new, MSM/DNC-approved timeline (not that they're trying to politicize this, mind you).

1. 1/21/09 OB gathers his inner circle and tells them that there is this real bad guy that Bush totally forgot about and didn't care that he secretly murdered 3,000 people early in Bush's administration and OB wanted him found ASAP.

2. 2/14.09 OB kicks out Bush incompetent an replaces him with super sleuth Leon Panetta because of his vast experience in espionage and fabulous motivational skills.

3. 2/15/09 OB tells Panetta that I'm 95% confident OBL is in Pakistan, probably somewhere just North of Islamabad in a house with high walls and maybe three stories and two security gates.

4. 2/21/09 OB tells Panetta that he intercepted a call from a guy who is really close to OBL and to drop everything else and totally focus only on him.

You know, a bigger man would have humbly thanked President Bush, Vice President Cheney, SecDef Rumsfeld, and our brave military and intelligence personnel for their efforts to find and cap Bin Laden.

But then a bigger man wouldn't be a Narcissistic, Marxist ideologue with a penchant for parties, endless fundraising and golf.


Cartoon: The incomparable Michael Ramirez.


My advice to GM retirees: take the lump sum and run! Run like the wind!

General Motors, because of its White House-inspired abrogation of bankruptcy law, never really fixed its various contract problems with the unions. Its costs remain too high to be truly competitive and it has bound itself to the federal government -- in classic, crony-capitalistic style -- to produce useless electric paperweights like the Chevy Volt.

The result is as you might expect. GM's stock price continues to slide while its accounting skulduggery escalates to paper over the shortfalls.

Of all curious correlations we could find to demonstrate the collapse in GM stock, which opened for trade back in November 2010 at $35, and just hit an all time post-IPO low at just over half its IPO price, the best one that exemplifies the second great collapse of GM is the amount of dealer inventory, aka channel stuffing, shown on an inverted axis: the lower the price of GM, the more the channel stuffing.


Of course, nobody could have possibly predicted that.

In related news, GM is also trying to deal with its exorbitant pensions which hang over it like a dark cloud. Many of GM's former employees have extremely rich pensions that remain in-force: GM is now offering to buy them out with a lump sum payment or promise them a steady monthly income stream instead.

For weeks, John and Kathy Matthews have agonized over the choice: accept $818,000 in a lump sum from General Motors to buy out Mr. Matthews’s pension or keep collecting a check of $4,854 a month...


...Although G.M. won’t put it quite so directly, by Mr. Matthews’s math, the company predicted that he would live for another 21 years and used that estimate to come up with the $818,000 offer.

Based on the economic realities confronting a company that never really fixed the endemic problems that led to its bankruptcy, I think I'd choose the former.

Because more government bailouts ain't in the cards for GM.



Embarrassingly juxtamaposed headlines o' the day

Spotted on BadBlue.


Geithner: "Economy Is Not Growing Fast Enough. Unemployment Is Very High."


Obama on the economy: ‘We tried our plan — and it worked’


Hey Axelrod: the wheels are coming off right in front of us. Not only is this administration a joke -- you're a joke.


Larwyn's Linx: Obama Hasn't Had a Daily Economic Briefing Since April 2011, But He's Doing It for the Children

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

Nation

Obama Hasn't Had a Daily Economic Briefing Since April 2011: Lid
Top Senate Democrat: White House Source of Security Leaks: Events
Wisconsin State Senate Majority is...: Ace

Republican Supporters of a Democrat Senate: RS
Stubborn Ignorance: Williams
Great News Everyone! Obama’s Plan Worked… According To Obama: Glob

Was the Aurora Shooter Really Wearing Body Armor?: Ace
Idiot mayor: Police should strike until Americans give up their guns: Breitbart
Oh, my: Obama thanks the 'Gay Porn King-Pin': WS

Economy

1 in 10 employers: if you like your health care plan, too bad: Hot Air
GM Stock Slides To Fresh Post-Bankruptcy Lows: ZH
Obama-Care Architect To Oversee Its CBO Analysis: S&L

Endangered Welfare Reform: City Journal
Dodd-Frank’s Protection Racket: City Journal
Florida's stagnant unemployment numbers not looking good for Obama: Riehl

The End of the American Economy: RWN
Hey, Boston: Leave Chick-fil-A Alone: Malkin
Latest SSA data suggests there’s a good chance I’ll go on disability before I finish writing this headli: Malkin

Scandal Central

How Countrywide Bought the Regulators: Conservatory
Senators push Geithner on potentially illegal taxpayer-funded social media campaigns: DC
The Green Graveyard of Taxpayer-Funded Failures: Foundry

Climate & Energy

Oops: Lisa Jackson’s EPA Shows Heat Waves In 1930's Worse: Cove
Good news: Interior Department opening up more federal land… for solar panels: Hot Air
Awesome: Obama administration announces more solar energy projects: WZ

Media

Presidential busts: The worst of all: Barack Obama (2009-?): UT San Diego
New Liberal Lapdog Media Attack: Debt Ceiling Debate Cost $1.3 Billion!!!: Sooper
Comedy Break: Left Wing Gun Grabber Tries to Describe Kind of Guns That Should Be Grabbed: Powers

Wannabe Totalitarian New York Times-Democrat: Nationalize the Banks: S&L
BuzzFeed: Romney Is Kind Of Hypocrite In Going After Obama On Leaks. Reality: No He's Not: Ace
Why Bam's Losing: Post

What A Breathtakingly Stupid Thing To Say, @AmandaMarcotte: RSM
Was Obama’s Communist Mentor His Father?: AIM
Catholic bishops helped to fund Alinsky training for Barack Obama, according to documents: LifeSiteNews

Talk about what you know best: ViewFromThePorch
Newsweek’s Future in Doubt After Harman Family Ends Financial Support: AIM
Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert is a Stupid Pendejo: Empirical Proof: Sooper

World

Chavez Attacks Romney, Calls Obama A ‘Good Guy’: S&L
Feinstein Got a Call? Says Obama White House Behind National Security Leaks, Then Walks It Back: Bruce
Mark Levin calls out Boehner: Do you stand with Michele Bachmann or the Muslim Brotherhood?: Scoop

Obama Bundler Heads Secret, Massive Grroup of Liberal Billionaire Donors: Beacon
Yes, Who Huma Is Matters—A Lot: IBD
Gingrich defends Bachmann and others asking questions about Muslim Brotherhood and Huma Abedin: Scoop

Ian Fleming’s Beautiful Plan to Defeat the Nazis: ObjStd
Did Obama’s Actions Put SEAL Team Six in Danger?: NoisyRm
Opposing Shariah Law Is Bigotry According to Maxine Waters: Sentinel

Sci-Tech

Move over Google, Bottlenose launches search engine for the “now” era: VentureBeat
Iran May Have Been Hit By A Cyberattack That Blasts AC/DC: Insider
The Death Of This Waffle Joint Illustrates Perfectly Groupon's Cashflow Problem: Insider

Cornucopia

Dark Knight gunman 'forced to wear a face guard in prison after spitting at officers' : DailyMail
Defeating Debbie: HillBuzz
Penn State got what it deserved: Berardino

Image: Washington Free Beacon
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Defeat Debbie

QOTD: "...if the HHS document is indeed trying to loosen work requirements, it may actually defy the law. Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, who helped write the 1996 reform bill, argues that it specifically denies waivers for work requirements. Congressional Republicans have also accused HHS of a “blatant violation of the law.” Many lawyers agree. They view the memorandum as an executive end run around Congress, much like the administration’s recent executive order liberalizing deportation policy for young illegals. Douglas Besharov, a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland and a major actor in reform circles, doesn’t mince words: “The intent of the administration is to change the way welfare reform is operated. The domestic policy staff doesn’t believe in ‘work first’; they want education, job training, and support. If they had their way, they would have gotten those provisions in the reauthorization. Now they see they will not control the House and it will be impossible to get through their policies.”

Thus the “executive overreaching,” as Besharov puts it, that, if done by a Republican, would lead to protests in the streets. If he’s right, we can bid farewell to welfare reform, the most successful attempt to reduce poverty in half a century." --Kay S. Hymowitz

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Stop-Action Photos From the Egyptian Punk'd: Arab Stars Attack Hosts After Being Told They're on Israeli TV

So here's the story, best I can figure it.

Egyptian television has a show that's roughly equivalent to MTV's Punk'd. But the running gag is always the same: the Islamist actors are informed, midway through the interview, that they're actually on Israeli television. At which point things get a little rough.


The first actor came close to pulling a gun on the set.

Now, that's what I call an Arab Spring, folks!


Via: The invaluable MEMRI.

Holy Shnikeys: New York Times reports Obamacare will lead to massive increase in number of uninsured

And if The New York Times-Democrat says it, it must be true:

The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that the Supreme Court decision on President Obama’s health care overhaul would probably lead to an increase in the number of uninsured and a modest reduction in the cost to the federal government...


...As a result, the budget office said, it now predicts that six million fewer people will be insured by Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people. But half of them, it said, will probably gain private insurance coverage through health insurance exchanges to be established in all states.

On balance, the budget office said in a new report, “about 3 million more people will be uninsured'’ in 2022.

Let me predict the spin that liberals will use on their latest debacle. I'm going with "unforeseen circumstances". That seems to get bandied about whenever the central planners' schemes go awry.



...And Derisive Laughter Was Heard Throughout the 57 States

Remember the era when hopenchange was shiny and new, like a virgin?

In this election, we cannot afford the same political games and tactics that are being used to pit us against one another, to make us afraid of one another.

The stakes are too high to divide us by class and region and background; by who we are or what we believe.

What's happened since then? Well, to paraphrase a bumper-sticker, s*** happened. S*** like failed "Stimulus" programs, HAMP, HARP, Cash-for-Clunkers, Obamacare, "Financial Reform", permanent 9% unemployment and 20% underemployment, the unlawful takeovers of GM and Chrysler, "Quantitative Easing", a couple of new wars, $5.2 trillion in new Obama debt and a Presidential approval rating of -12.

Perhaps that explains the bold new rhetoric of our beloved Organizer-in-Chief:

October 25, 2010: "If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us...'"

March 12, 2011: "In December, I agreed to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans because it was the only way I could prevent a tax hike on middle-class Americans. But we cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society. And I refuse to renew them again."

April 13, 2011: "[The GOP] vision... says up to 50 million Americans have to lose their health insurance in order for us to reduce the deficit. Who are these 50 million Americans? Many are somebody’s grandparents — may be one of yours — who wouldn’t be able to afford nursing home care without Medicaid. Many are poor children. Some are middle-class families who have children with autism or Down’s syndrome. Some of these kids with disabilities are — the disabilities are so severe that they require 24-hour care. These are the Americans we’d be telling to fend for themselves."

July 1, 2011: "You go talk to your constituents and ask them, ‘Are you willing to compromise your kids' safety so some corporate-jet owner can get a tax break?"

September 19, 2011: "Middle-class families shouldn’t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires. That’s pretty straightforward. It’s hard to argue against that."

October 18, 2011: "I believe America should be... a place where every child, no matter what they look like, where they come from, should have a chance to succeed... none of this matters to Republicans..."

July 14, 2012: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that!"

Pop quiz, worth a cool 50 points: who is the most divisive President in American history?


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Change We Can Really Believe In

From John S. Wright's Twitter feed:




Zero percent snark

Caution: this is not a snarky post. It contains precisely zero-percent snark. I want to connect a few dots for you. Additional caution: you may want to sit down.

 1  Headline: Record number in government anti-poverty programs

n the 1970’s, a difficult economic time under Jimmy Carter with his “misery index,” 1 in 50 Americans was on food stamps. Today that number is 1 in 7. Just since 2008 the number of people in food stamp programs has doubled -- and the Democrats spin this as one of their great accomplishments.

...I would never have thought that any politician could be proud of the fact that now 45 million Americans (and many illegals) are dependent on the government with the monthly SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

What was intended to be a temporary “safety net” for people who fell on hard times has become for many a way of life. Our safety net has become a safety hammock...

...Virtually unreported by the media, Obama gutted welfare reform when he signed an order saying welfare recipients would get paid and no longer have to be actively looking for work...

In February 2009 Robert Rector, quoted in the London Sunday Times, predicted that the Obama Democrats' expansion of welfare, food stamps and unemployment would be disastrous.

One of the few undisputed triumphs of American government of the past 20 years – the sweeping welfare reform programme that sent millions of dole claimants back to work – has been plunged into jeopardy by billions of dollars in state handouts included in the president’s controversial economic stimulus package...

...Robert Rector, a prominent welfare researcher who was one of the architects of Clinton's 1996 reform bill, warned last week that Obama’s stimulus plan was a “welfare spendathon” that would amount to the largest one-year increase in government handouts in American history... Despite dire warnings that reduced benefits for single mothers and deadlines on entitlement would create a social calamity – one liberal senator warned at the time that children would be “sleeping on grates” – the 1996 reforms cut welfare rolls from more than 5m families in 1995 to below 2m a decade later without a discernible increase in hardship.

This is the program Obama gutted in 2009 and continued to gut last week. In other words, the Obama administration continues to intentionally expand the welfare state far beyond anything ever seen on Earth. But wait! There's more!

* * * * * * * * *

 2  Increasing welfare and food stamps leads to more kids born to unwed mothers

The statistical link between the availability of welfare and out-of-wedlock births is conclusive. There have been dozens of studies that link the availability of welfare benefits to out-of-wedlock births.

One study found that a 50 percent increase in the value of AFDC and foodstamp payments led to a 43 percent increase in the number of out-of-wedlock births.

A 1996 paper describes the correlation in ominous terms.

...Out-of-wedlock births are strongly related to welfare dependency. A 1 percent increase in the welfare dependent population in a state increases the number of births to single mothers by about 0.5 percent...

...Welfare dependency reduces employment. A 1 percent increase in the dependent population increases the number who are not employed by about 0.1 percent... An increase in welfare benefits reduces employment by increasing the number of welfare dependents. An increase in AFDC benefits by 1 percent of average income increases the number who are not employed by about 0.5.

In other words, if you ratchet up welfare benefits, you get reduced employment and more single-parent families.

Now, why am I telling you this?

* * * * * * * * *

 3  Single-parent families correlate to higher crime rates

In 1995, Dr. Patrick Fagan wrote a seminal summary of the situation: "Over the past thirty years, the rise in violent crime parallels the rise in families abandoned by fathers... High-crime neighborhoods are characterized by high concentrations of families abandoned by fathers... The rate of violent teenage crime corresponds with the number of families abandoned by fathers...

"Neighborhoods with a high degree of religious practice are not high-crime neighborhoods... Even in high-crime inner-city neighborhoods, well over 90 percent of children from safe, stable homes do not become delinquents. By contrast only 10 percent of children from unsafe, unstable homes in these neighborhoods avoid crime... Criminals capable of sustaining marriage gradually move away from a life of crime after they get married."

Of 23 peer-reviewed U.S. studies since 2000, 20 found that family structure directly affects crime and/or delinquency.

"[R]esearch strongly suggests both that young adults and teens raised in single-parent homes are more likely to commit crimes, and that communities with high rates of family fragmentation (especially unwed childbearing) suffer higher crime rates as a result."

For example, a 23-year study found that nearly 90% of the change in violent crime rates can be attributed to the change in percentages of out-of-wedlock births (divorce rates, on the other hand, had no relationship with crime).

In The Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead noted that the "relationship [between single-parent families and crime] is so strong that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime. This conclusion shows up time and again in the literature. The nation's mayors, as well as police officers, social workers, probation officers, and court officials, consistently point to family break up as the most important source of rising rates of crime."

Let me repeat the most important statement -- "controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime."

An increase in the percentage of children raised in single-parent households leads to increased levels of crime; and there are no significant differences between blacks, whites, or any other race when it comes to this simple fact.

* * * * * * * * *

 4  Recap: An enormous crime wave is coming

Fact: There are a record number of Americans dependent upon government anti-poverty programs thanks to the Obama Democrats

Fact: Expanded access to welfare and food stamps greatly increases the number of children born to unwed mothers

Fact: Single-parent families correlate to higher crime rates

Inescapable Conclusion: with the unprecedented increase in welfare, food stamps and unemployment, we will also see an unparalleled increase in violent crime within the next dozen or so years.

Obama and his Democrat sycophants in Congress will have created millions of single-parent families. These kids, born out-of-wedlock, will find themselves trapped in lives of criminality at far higher rates than kids from two-parent families.

Fast forward a dozen years, give or take a couple, and we will see a true Obama Crime Wave. I predict that we will see an unprecedented increase in crime. In fact, you could call it historic.

And the question is not whether it will happen. The question is just how bad it will be.


Larwyn's Linx: Only Law-Abiding Armed Citizens Can Prevent More Aurora Massacres

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

Nation

Only Law-Abiding Armed Citizens Can Prevent More Auroras: Bruce
Safe and legal: Young woman bleeds out at PP clinic: Pundette
Dianne Feinstein: God forbid someone in the theater had a gun: Malkin

An America Without the Republican Party: CDN
Elizabeth Warren damages two campaigns with one rant: LI
18 CONFIRMED fools in the Dem House Caucus: Moe Lane

The Left’s Habitual and Ironic Rush to Judgment: DLim
The Right To Shoot Back: Another "Gun-Free-Zone" Fail: IBD
The Hill Declares DOOM for Blame Bush: Moe Lane

Economy

Obama: Put More People on Welfare!: FoxBiz
If You Don’t Buy Insurance, Will You Really Pay the Tax?: AEI
How does one guy work 7 gov. jobs? He calls out sick. A lot.: WyBlog

It's another Obama record: 8.7MM Workers on Disability in July: CNS
US Sells Dead People Names, SS Numbers For $10: S&L
Poll: Majority of voters blame Obama for the bad economy: Scoop

Simpson-Bowles Plan: a $5 Trillion Tax Hike in First Decade: ATR
I Blame the Frisbee Ion: Driscoll
I think I’ve discovered our problem: Troglo

Scandal Central

Westly and Rogers, who handled stimulus grants for Solyndra, at Obama’s $35,800 per plate fundraiser in Cali: FAM
The IRS Illegally Expands Obamacare Tax Credits: AmSpec
Harry Reid Ready to Alter Filibuster Rules: Roll Call

Climate & Energy

Paul Krugman expands his field of hackery into climate alarmism: Q&O
Obama to Bush in 2003: $300 billion deficit equals 'recklessness': Breitbart
Michael Mann Hires EvilBigOil/Tobacco© Lawyer: Soylent (NSFW)

Media

Dark Knight Rises: A Bat Man Red Dawn: Blogmocracy
Why ABC Tried to Blame the Tea Party for Aurora: Prager
Media Gun Reports: a Primer: Urban Grounds

Heartache: Pelosi Takes Down Stingy House Members’ Portraits From Lobby of Dem Party’s HQ: Nice Deb
Wall Street Journal: Obama Was Wrong About Who Invented the Internet, Too: Blumer
Rapper Ice-T Defends Gun Rights After Colorado Shooting: ‘The Last Form Of Defense Against Tyranny’: Mediaite

News versus Propaganda: Sowell
Stop Spreading Lies About Colorado Shooter’s Occupy Wall Street Ties: Sooper
Jon Stewart Slams Brian Ross: 'What Story Does a Guy Have to Blow to Get in Trouble at ABC?': NB

World

Anti-Communist Hero Lech Walesa To Meet Mitt Romney in Poland (He Blew Off Obama Last Year): GWP
Moderate Jews Increasingly Conflicted Over Obama and Israel: Shark
Obama To Sign Anti-Gun U.N. Treaty?: IBD

Syria threatens to use WMD which are figment of neocons’ imagination: LI
Rubio Sides Against Bachmann, Rooney Regarding Huma Abedin’s Possible Ties to Terrorism: Shark Tank
Obama to VFW: “Four Years Ago, Our Standing in The World Had Suffered”; Today...: Nice Deb

Mitt Romney: Fondness for UN IAEA? Remember Mohammed ElBaradei?: MagNote
Obama throws Israel a bone - says he'll visit if reelected: Matzav
I’m With Rand Paul: Cut That 700 Billion Out Of Defense: Hawkins

Sci-Tech

Interstellar space travel may be possible using lasers and antimatter: Fox
Report: Google’s Nexus 7 Is Already Posting ‘Impressive Usage Figures': Crunch
Are Indian high schoolers manning your help desk?: Cringely

Cornucopia

Father's Heartbreaking Video To Raise Money For Sick Son: Adrienne
It Takes Won to know One: we take our Wonsies on the Road: MOTUS
Holmes had $26,000 grant for studies: USA Today

Image: Maggie's Notebook
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Fool Me Twice, the stunning best-seller that reveals Obama's plans for the next four years

QOTD: "If you hold an elected office, you didn't build that. Someone helped you get there. Maybe it was a teachers union whose compulsory dues paid for a negative ad for your campaign. Maybe it was a venture capitalist with an interest in a solar-energy company who bundled funds for you. Or maybe it was programmers who figured out how to use the Internet to create critical mass for raising small amounts from many donors. Or, quite possibly, you got help from employees of a private-equity firm whose success you vilify but whose dollars you gladly accept." --Mike Walsh

Monday, July 23, 2012

Romney: Uhm, dude. It's WE who PAY for government.

I don't know who this Romney fellow is, but based on his off-the-cuff quote on the Kudlow show (seemingly stated without teleprompters), I like the cut of his jib.

LARRY KUDLOW: “Why do you think President Obama, what did he mean, if you've got a business, you didn't build it, someone else made that happen?

He claims it's being taken out of context. What do you think it means? Do you think this is Obama anti-business, anti-entrepreneur? Or do you think maybe he has been treated unfairly?”

GOV. ROMNEY: “Well, just read the whole speech. I found the speech even more disconcerting than just that particular line. The context is worse than the quote. The context, he says, you know, you think you've been successful because you're smart, but he says a lot of people are smart. You think you've been successful because you work hard, a lot of people work hard.

This is an ideology which says hey, we're all the same here, we ought to take from all and give to one another and that achievement, individual initiative and risk-taking and success are not to be rewarded as they have in the past. It's a very strange and in some respects foreign to the American experience type of philosophy. We have always been a nation that has celebrated success of various kinds. The kid that gets the honor roll, the individual worker that gets a promotion, the person that gets a better job. And in fact, the person that builds a business. And by the way, if you have a business and you started it, you did build it. And you deserve credit for that. It was not built for you by government. And by the way, we pay for government. Government doesn't come free. The people who begin enterprises, the people who work in enterprises, they're the ones paying for government.

So his whole philosophy is an upside-down philosophy that does not comport with the American experience. And if we want to get people working again--and that's my priority--if we want to get people working again, we have to celebrate success and achievement and not demonize it and denigrate the people who have worked hard, who are smart, who have made the kinds of investments to build a brighter future.”

I like it.



Exclusive photo: President signs huge endorsement deal!

At least, Uncle Ben claims this is an exclusive.


Consider: the federal government only runs 126 separate anti-poverty programs. And I'm sure there's no fraud, waste or duplication of effort whatsoever.



Change: Brooklyn couple snags $108K in welfare payments to accompany their three BMWs and a Lexus

Consider this yet another example of the welfare state run amok. There's no accountability on the part of big government. There's no real concern. Because it's not their money. Its yours.

Brooklyn Couple Pockets $108K In Welfare Coin. They Also Own Three BMWs And A Lexus

Rivka Baror, 51, and her husband Avraham Baror, 64, have been living pretty high on the hog -- aside from owning not one but three BMWs, the couple also owns a Lexus, a comfortable two-bedroom home in Brooklyn, and drops a lot of cash at places like Victoria's Secret and Home Depot. Oh, yeah -- they also collect a welfare check and have bilked taxpayers out of more than $100,000 in government assistance money over the last six years.

Between January 2006, and June 30 of this year, the Voice has learned that the Barors have collected a total of $108,715.57 in Medicaid and food stamp benefits.

In 2006, the Barors filed welfare applications under their given names. They claimed they had minimal income and no assets, which qualified them for a reasonable amount of government assistance. Simultaneously, the couple used the names "Avraham Bachbuth" and "Rivka Yedidia" to obtain bank accounts and buy property, cars, and pricey vacations... In fact, the home the couple claimed they rented at 1349 East 2nd Street in Brooklyn for a scant $1,100 a month is owned by "Avraham Bachbuth."

The couple also allegedly used the aliases to open several bank accounts, into which there were monthly cash deposits of $4,400. Additionally, the couple kept safe deposit boxes at two different banks, one of which contained more than $72,000 in cash... Additionally, according to DMV records obtained during an investigation by the Human Resources Administration, the Barors own three BMWs -- model years 2006, 2007, and 2008 -- and a 2007 Lexus.

Of course, this is precisely what you'd expect from a giant, unaccountable leviathan staffed with faceless, nameless, unelected bureaucrats who can't be fired.

The USDA has admitted it has no idea what people are actually buying with food stamps.

According to Medicare itself, 10 percent of its outlays -- roughly $48 billion -- are fraudulent. And that's only the chunk they admit.

And these are the geniuses who are going to take over the rest of the health care system if this monstrosity isn't repealed.

Does the term "death spiral" ring a bell?


Protest Photo o' the Day: Florida Greets the President

From The Tatler (via Diary of Daedalus):


Jim Powell asks "You didn't build that? Mr. Obama, you can't be serious."

Unfortunately for us, Jim, he is.



The Top 150 Conservative Websites - July 2012 [Updated]

Update: A prior version of this table had some incorrect traffic values and has since been updated.

Here are the latest rankings of conservative news and opinion sites, which are ranked based upon Alexa traffic rankings. Yes, some of these are middle-of-the-road or moderate sites, but they are included because they do publish conservative opinion pieces on a regular basis.
RankTraffic RankWebsite
1188foxnews.com
2218wsj.com
3256telegraph.co.uk
41071nypost.com
51343theblaze.com
61494realclearpolitics.com
71756zerohedge.com
81833breitbart.com
92579washingtontimes.com
102703dailycaller.com
113544hotair.com
124140weeklystandard.com
134209townhall.com
144599nationalreview.com
154640pjmedia.com
164969jpost.com
175227washingtonexaminer.com
185292thehill.com
195329investors.com
205534freerepublic.com
216721newsbusters.org
226858military.com
237043rushlimbaugh.com
248484reason.com
258639debka.com
269914cnsnews.com
2711227americanthinker.com
2811234rasmussenreports.com
2911839dailymail.co.uk
3013547twitchy.com
3113694freebeacon.com
3215446mises.org
3315858ace.mu.nu,jawa,etc.
3416376redstate.com
3516425humanevents.com
3617625michellemalkin.com
3718267thegatewaypundit.com
3818842lucianne.com
3919729wattsupwiththat.com
4020130powerlineblog.com
4121972blog.heritage.org
4226957weaselzippers.us
4327657westernjournalism.com
4428329spectator.org
4530082commentarymagazine.com
4630088stratfor.com
4732647althouse.blogspot.com
4833573globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
4934449whitehousedossier.com
5038704therightscoop.com
5138882legalinsurrection.com
5239731market-ticker.org
5340387canadafreepress.com
5443185freedomworks.org
5544127marklevinshow.com
5644650jihadwatch.org
5747251the-american-interest.com
5848267the-diplomat.com
5949285thenewamerican.com
6050725volokh.com
6153994spectator.co.uk
6254661boortz.com
6355161memeorandum.com
6456968lifenews.com
6557081frontporchpolitics.com
6658591atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com
6759192theothermccain.com
6861707defensetech.org
6967920anncoulter.com
7072589american.com
7172751rightwingnews.com
7277181numbersusa.com
7378387mrc.org
7478975patterico.com
7579063armytimes.com
7680448borderlandbeat.com
7783391hannity.com
7890430outsidethebeltway.com
7995365iowntheworld.com
8096216ricochet.com
8196679firstthings.com
82100086radicalislam.org
83100796climateaudit.org
84108979lonelyconservative.com
85112383wizbangblog.com
86119846cato-at-liberty.org
87122714riehlworldview.com
88124765danielpipes.org
89125746aei.org
90128801navytimes.com
91132410israelhayom.com
92133001allamericanblogger.com
93138441directorblue.blogspot.com
94142108moonbattery.com
95143388polipundit.com
96144235sayanythingblog.com
97146993maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com
98150711justoneminute.typepad.com
99152041theblogmocracy.com
100152634jammiewf.com
101156704marinecorpstimes.com
102160443conservativedailynews.com
103163081dailypundit.com
104164160thepeoplescube.com
105168153linkiest.com
106171781angrywhitedude.com
107176725conservatives4palin.com
108184292gatestoneinstitute.org
109187919aim.org
110190674creepingsharia.wordpress.com
111196357floppingaces.net
112200685smalldeadanimals.com
113201511judicialwatch.org
114201740economicnoise.com
115201882dennisprager.com
116202405iowahawk.typepad.com
117210928freeenterprise.com
118211822steynonline.com
119213532atr.org
120216733breitbart.tv
121223757hillbuzz.org
122226353ihatethemedia.com
123230308rightpundits.com
124234742shark-tank.net
125243830memri.org
126245513zombietime.com
127246971americanpowerblog.blogspot.com
128253874gaypatriot.net
129258189capitalismmagazine.com
130258794politicsandfinance.blogspot.com
131270877cafehayek.com
132275609varight.com
133279314blackfive.net
134298717maggiesnotebook.com
135300718imao.us
136305926americandigest.org
137339227scaredmonkeys.com
138340390soopermexican.com
139345459datechguyblog.com
140346495thepiratescove.us
141346858fireandreamitchell.com
142350159proteinwisdom.com
143359775pointsandfigures.com
144360233newsrealblog.com
145361066bobmccarty.com
146362729sultanknish.blogspot.com
147376175redcounty.com
148382259thisainthell.us
149391297yidwithlid.blogspot.com
150392825astuteblogger.blogspot.com