Thursday, October 11, 2012

Larwyn's Linx: Someone Finally Threw Obama Under The Bus And Her Name Is Hillary Clinton

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Nation

Someone Finally Threw Obama Under The Bus: Wizbang
Damage Control: Obama Meets With Hillary at WH: JWF
Unbelievable: @AmbassadorRice's Actual Twitter Account: Sarah

Jake Tapper Grills Carney On Benghazi Disinformation: Ace
9 things the MSM will suddenly rediscover if Romney wins: ProWis
Giant Manure Pile Dumped Outside Democrat Headquarters In Ohio: AllAm

Obama workers enable double-voting across state lines: WatchDog
Suffolk NC, VA, FL For Romney, Will No Longer Poll States: Bruce
President Obama promises to be incompetently nasty at next debate: RS

Economy

As the left calls Romney a “liar”, Thomas Sowell exposes the real liar: Q&O
Food Stamps, Medicaid, Disability Far Outpace Job Growth: WS
World’s Richest Man Gets Richer Supplying ‘Obamaphones’ to Poor: FotM

Thomas Peterffy – Freedom To Succeed: Spew
I Was Right About That Strange Jobs Report: Jack Welch
CEO to Workers: You'll Likely Be Fired If Obama Is Re-elected : CNBC

Scandal Central

State Dept: We Never Believed What Hillary Clinton Said: WS
Mother of Slain State Dept. Official Tired of Being Lied To and Stonewalled by Obama Administration: WS
IRS says ‘tax avoidance’ at heart of Solyndra bankruptcy plan: Times

Climate & Energy

Obamacare Regulations Have Sucked $28 Billion Out Of Economy, Killed 18,000+ Jobs: Cowboy
U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy: CFP
An Updated Hadcrut4 – And Some Surprises: GWPF

Media

ABC tries to quash news of VP debate moderator Martha Raddatz’s close ties to Obama: Instapundit
Wynn On Obama: "I'll Be Damned If I Want To Have Him Lecture Me": RCP
Andrew Sullivan Has Sad Feels Again ["Deeply Depressed"/"Terrified"]: Zilla

15 Most Underrated People In New Media: RWN
The Left Melts Down as Obama Fantasy Unravels: RCP
Chuck Todd Calls Rasmussen Polls 'Slop,' Scott Rasmussen Responds: Mediaite

Reports of Political Vandalism in Independence, MO – Shots Fired at 3 Homes with GOP Signs: MBTrack
On Site Report: Dear Leader Speaks at Ohio State: Ushanka
Reagan Warned Us About Obama: 9dueul

World

US Forces Deployed To Jordan, To Patrol Syrian Border: Ace
RESET: Russia says it will not renew arms agreement with US: JPost
Why Didn’t Obama Disclose His Muslim Devotee’s Ring?: NoisyRm

US Security Chief in Libya: "State Department Told Us Don't Continue To Ask For Help": MRC
Krauthammer’s Take: Hillary Told Video Lie as ‘Body of the Ambassador Was Lying Next to Her’: NRO
Islamic Terror in the Backyards of America: GoV

Sci-Tech

The MLB’s Passbook ticketing experiment pays off: NextWeb
Symantec: Data-stealing hackers use DDoS to distract from attacks: ZDNet
Dying Star Blows Surprising Spiral Bubble: UniverseToday

Cornucopia

Where will we move if Romney becomes president?: Cube
Conservative Rap Video Going Viral: CDN
'Bad Lip Reading' Turns First Presidential Debate Into Greatest Debate Ever: Mediate

Image: House Oversight Committee Probes Security Arrangements in Libya
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Pink-Slip Sherrod Brown... Support Josh Mandel for Senate

QOTD: "The Independent Payment Advisory Board perfectly illustrates liberalism’s itch to remove choices from individuals, and from their elected representatives, and to repose the power to choose in supposed experts liberated from democratic accountability. Beginning in 2014, IPAB would consist of 15 unelected technocrats whose recommendations for reducing Medicare costs must be enacted by Congress by Aug. 15 of each year. If Congress does not enact them, or other measures achieving the same level of cost containment, IPAB’s proposals automatically are transformed from recommendations into law. Without being approved by Congress. Without being signed by the president.

These facts refute Obama’s Denver assurance that IPAB “can’t make decisions about what treatments are given.” It can and will by controlling payments to doctors and hospitals. Hence the emptiness of Obamacare’s language that IPAB’s proposals “shall not include any recommendation to ration health care.”

By Obamacare’s terms, Congress can repeal IPAB only during a seven-month window in 2017, and then only by three-fifths majorities in both chambers. After that, the law precludes Congress from everaltering IPAB proposals.

Because IPAB effectively makes law, thereby traducing the separation of powers, and entrenches IPAB in a manner that derogates the powers of future Congresses, it has been well described by a Cato Institute study as “the most anti-constitutional measure ever to pass Congress.” But unless and until the Supreme Court — an unreliable guardian — overturns it, IPAB is a harbinger of the “shock and awe statism” (Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’s phrase) that is liberalism’s prescription for curing the problems supposedly caused by insufficient statism." --George Will

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

REPARTEE: Obama promises that, in the next debate, he'll think of clever digs twice as fast and won't be nearly as genteel

Which you can translate to, in the next debate, the president promises to be more petulant, more annoying, and even more flexible with the facts than usual:

...the exact line from the ABC article was “President Obama says he was “just too polite” and that voters should expect “a little more activity” next week in round two.” How is this funny?

...Exactly what is Obama going to say that’s impolite and not already used? So far, the campaign (usually through their surrogates) has personally attacked Mitt Romney’s religion, upbringing, wife, children, business history, political history, affiliations, mannerisms, and habits; they have accused him of committing felonies, belittled his beliefs, and suggested that – I cannot believe that I have to write this – Mitt Romney gave someone cancer. What do they have left?

Yeah, I know: Big Bird.

Which makes me think that the next logical step in the process is for the Obama administration to create a knock-off version of Big Bird (to avoid the trademark infringement). Call him "Charles the Chicken". And Charles does an ad saying:

Mitt Romney hates puppets. He hates my pal Big Bird. He hates television. And he hates children.

We also know he hates women.

What kind of person hates women and children?

And why won't Mitt Romney show us his tax returns from 1991? What is he hiding? Is he a felon?

And how did Mitt Romney get away with killing Joe Soptic's wife?

The American people deserve answers. The American people deserve better than Mitt Romney. The American people deserve a president who loves women and children and presidents who don't have any college transcripts available.

I'm Charles the Chicken and I approve this message.

Suffolk Pulls Out of FL, NC, VA -- Says Romney's Edge Too Large; Nate Silver's Arithmetronic Models Hardest Hit

Don't do the happy dance yet, but this appears to be a promising development.

Suffolk Calls NC, VA, FL For Romney, Will No Longer Poll States

Suffolk University pollster David Paleologos, whose polls are aggregated into mainstream averages to show where the presidential race stands in the swing states, said he’s finished polling in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia because President Obama has no shot of winning those states.

“I think in places like North Carolina, Virginia and Florida, we’ve already painted those red, we’re not polling any of those states again,” Paleologos said Tuesday night on Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor.” “We’re focusing on the remaining states.”


Mitt Romney has spiked in the national polls since his first debate last week against President Obama. Romney took the lead over Obama nationally for the first time all year on Tuesday, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, although statistically the two are tied. Romney’s advantage is less than 1 percentage point.

The race has also tightened in the 12 swing states — Florida, North Carolina and Virginia among them — that President Bush won in 2004 but Obama won in 2008, and which will be critical in determining the outcome of the election.

That said, The New York Times' spinmeister pollster Nate Silver still has President Obama up in Virginia by a margin of six-hundred-teen percent; in North Carolina by eleventy; and in Florida by 7.389062145 (with a margin of error of 3/1000th of a binnacle).

As an aside, I tried to reach Taegan Goddard, Paul Krugman and Sandra Bernard (sic) for comment, but I kept getting voicemail.

Take nothing for granted, my friends. All of us -- myself included -- must redouble our efforts. To repeal Obamacare, we must take the Presidency, we must take the Senate and we must hold the House. Every one of our votes counts, in every state. Let's get crackin'.


FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT YOU ACORN: High-Level Obama Staffers Caught Abetting Vote Fraud

The Democrat Party -- and the Obama administration in particular -- is attempting to overwhelm the system with an epidemic of vote fraud schemes. From the people who brought you voter registration and absentee ballot fraud through ACORN; a Justice Department that attacks voter ID and the integrity of the ballot box; and the New Black Panthers intimidating voters at the polls comes a brand new threat:

Videographer James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas caught an official for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign helping who she thought was an Obama supporter set herself up to vote more than once in November.


Stephanie Caballero is the regional field director for Obama’s Organizing For America in Houston, Texas. Federal Election Commission documents show, according to Project Veritas, that Caballero is a “salaried employee of the DNC [Democratic National Committee].”

Caballero is caught on camera helping the young woman try to vote in Florida and Texas in the upcoming election... Caballero ... offers the videographer an excuse to get out of trouble is she gets caught committing voter fraud: “Come up with like if anyone checks say ‘I don’t know.’”

O'Keefe also punked the media in his report, saying this incident "wasn’t the only exchange we recorded".

“We visited Organizing For America voter registration tables around New York and Organizing For America headquarters around the country,” he said... The video then cuts to a montage of different clips of Obama campaign volunteers and staffers all over the country helping O’Keefe’s Project Veritas activists get set up to vote twice, a sign there’s likely more to come.

The video ends with a challenge for the media: “Put your reputation on the line, journalists. Say this is an ‘isolated incident.’”

Actually, that would have been a nice little trap to set for Axelrod and his henchmen in the media. Let them claim it was an "isolated incident" and then slam the door on their fingers with proof that OFA's crimes are widespread, systemic and -- perhaps -- encouraged by the very highest levels within the White House.



STUNNING: Tax Foundation Reports That Blue States Are the Most Unfriendly to Businesses

The Tax Foundation has published its 2013 edition of the State Business Tax Climate Index.

Can you guess which states are most unfriendly to businesses?


If you guessed "blue states", take a gold star and go to the head of the class. Nine of the 10 states are run by Democrat bureaucracies.


Hat tip: R.F.

THE GREAT OBAMAPHONE SCANDAL: Another Fraudulent Program That "Is Completely Out of Control"

I gleaned some interesting news from this Fox News Baltimore report that appears relevant to our ongoing discussion of the debt, personal responsibility, and Joe Biden's mullet:

• Vans are driving around Baltimore offering free "Obamaphones", which you -- the beleaguered taxpayer -- are funding


• The phone program is, in the words of the report, "completely out of control, not just here in Baltimore, but all over the country"

• Baltimore resident Monique Crawford says that she has "30 phones, and all of them are [turned] on"


• She was able to get each one in "five, ten minutes."

• Private, prepaid cellphone companies are giving away phones to people in Baltimore and dozens of other cities... all paid for by you.


• In Baltimore, the number of Obamaphone subscribers has ballooned from 6,000 in 2008 to 231,000 in 2011

Some residents just stand in line for phones, and then sell them to drug dealers

Buried in each of our monthly cellphone bills is line-item called a "universal access fee", which is helping to fund this insanity.

Isn't a giant, bloated, corrupt and unaccountable federal bureaucracy grand?

This administration needs to go.


Larwyn's Linx: Foreign Money Scandal Threatens Obama

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

Nation

Foreign Money Scandal Threatens Obama: Morris
What did Obama Know About Libya and When Did He Know It?: Hayward
Obama Campaign Gets Covered In Big Bird’s…Well, You Know: HayRide

Paul Krugman, Then and Now: Power Line
Nate Silver Abso-Freaking-Lutely Nails the Election: Ace
Majority of voters believe Obama has changed country for worse: Hill

Obama's Ring: Atlas
Romney: Why is Obama talking about Big Bird?: Scoop
REALLY: Obama thought he had won the debate: Tatler

Economy

Missing in Action: Stimulus Sheriff Joe Biden: Malkin
How’s that Obamacare going to work for you?: Fellowship of the Minds
Restaurant company may limit hours to avoid Obamacare: Malkin

Red Lobster, Olive Garden Testing Obamcare Avoidance Program: RWN
Big Bird Throws Obama Campaign Under the Bus: Lane
Obama Refuses To Waive Stafford Act Post Hurricane Isaac: RWN

Scandal Central

Operation Hot Mic: LI
A lawyer by training, Obama ignores rules of law: Barone
Hmmmm: Obama Campaign Allowing IP Proxies for Donors: Jawa

On eve of House hearings, State Department finally admits: No, there was never any Benghazi protest: Hot Air
How do today’s code rats hide foreign donations?: ProWis
School Lets Dems Register Students to Vote, But Not GOP: Fox Radio

Media

Obama Tries to Discredit Peter Schweizer Over Illegal Online Fundraising Report, Fails Miserably: C4P
Snort: Andrew Sullivan Melts Down: Ace
Chicago gets serious ...: Politico

Hey, how come Jay Carney’s not holding televised press briefings anymore?: Hot Air
New CNN Number So Terrible For Romney...: Ace
Political Analyst Jeff Greenfield reads the tea leaves and warns Obama, this may not end well for you: Riehl

PBS: Classmate Recalls Obama Claiming He Was An "Indonesian Prince": WZ
Does Barack Obama Really Want to Win?: RWN
Romney Hits a Trifecta: Will

World

A storm of massive proportions is brewing in the MidEast: The Commentator
Osama bin Laden Compound Raid Mock-up: Cryptome
Taliban shoot Pakistani schoolgirl campaigning for peace: Reuters

Sci-Tech

The Nobel Prize Awarded for Laying the Foundation for Regenerative Medicine: Elephant
Nobel chemistry prize for the heart of cell signaling: Ars Technica
Show Doing Well On BitTorrent? We’ll Buy It, Says Media Giant: TorrentFreak

Cornucopia

Chris Matthews to Donate Leg to Future Obama Presidential Library: Diogenes
Biden Debate Pic Leaked: Spew
“ROCK” the vote – for ROMNEY!?! WTF?: MOTUS

Image: @KatMcKinley
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: America's Comeback Team

QOTD: "President Barack Obama did not take his debate preparation seriously, ignored the advice of senior aides and walked off the stage in Denver believing he had got the better of Mitt Romney, according to a Democrat close to the Obama campaign.

The Democrat said that Obama’s inner circle was dismayed at the ‘disaster’ that the first presidential debate had turned out to be and believed that the central problem was that the President was so disdainful of Romney that he didn’t believe he needed to engage with him.

‘President Obama made it clear he wanted to be doing anything else – anything – but debate prep,’ the Democrat said. ‘He kept breaking off whenever he got the opportunity and never really focused on the event" --Bryan Preston

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

HMMMMMMMMM: 47 Percent.

Spotted on Teri's Twitter feed (@SoCalGirl):


CBS has the latest Gallup poll data, but suffice it to say that Nate Silver's latest models show a more troubling trend for Romney:

Adding this "spillover" effect into the mix, Obama leads comfortably in Michigan, 165% to Romney's -65%. Similar trends appear in IA.

Silver's models also predicted with a high degree of accuracy that I will be eating at Arby's tomorrow.


FEEDING AT THE TROUGH: Businesses Tied to Claire McCaskill's Husband Received $40 Million in Fed Subsidies

Please: try and contain your shock.

Businesses affiliated with the husband of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill have received almost $40 million in federal subsidies for low-income housing developments during her first five years in office, but McCaskill's campaign said Tuesday that none of that money made it into the family's personal bank accounts.

McCaskill's Republican challenger, Rep. Todd Akin, says the federal payments should be a cause for concern among voters. He's attempting to portray the Democratic senator's family as a prime beneficiary of government largesse.

"There is a conflict of interest and a breach of trust with the citizens of our state," Akin said in an interview with The Associated Press.

...The AP reviewed five years' worth of federal personal financial disclosure statements filed by McCaskill, which list more than 300 "affordable housing" businesses in which her husband, Joseph Shepard, had at least a partial ownership during the time she has been in office. At least one-third of those businesses also appear to be listed as recipients of federal payments in an online government database that tracks spending.

The firms affiliated with Shepard appear to have received about $39 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service or the Department of Housing and Urban Development between 2007 - when McCaskill took office - and the end of 2011. According to McCaskill's financial reports, Shepard earned an income of between about $400,000 and $2.6 million from those businesses in the years in which they received government payments...

So let me get this straight. During McCaskill's time in office, her husband received payments of between $400,000 and $2.6 million from the businesses subsidized in great part by her votes.

But "none of that money made it into the family's personal bank accounts".

That seems plausible, if you're a Democrat in the mold of Dodd, Frank, Rangel, Pelosi, Feinstein, Waters, Mollohan, etc. etc. etc.

At face value, these people appear so crooked you could open up wine bottles with 'em.


Hat tip: Brian and BadBlue News.

THE BIG ISSUES: Obama Campaign Beclowns Itself With Big Bird Video

The GOP had the perfect response to the Obama campaign's use of "Big Bird" as an issue.


We have a $16 trillion dollar deficit. If we can't cut loose a puppet that makes $400 million a year, this country is doomed.


TIME TO LAY OFF THE PEYOTE, MR. PRESIDENT: Obama thought he had won the debate. Seriously.

Judgment. It's what we cherish in our leaders.

After Obama’s reaction to last week’s debacle in Denver, David Axelrod must have asked himself if The Won hadn’t taken a few too many drags on the choom.

President Barack Obama did not take his debate preparation seriously, ignored the advice of senior aides and walked off the stage in Denver believing he had got the better of Mitt Romney, according to a Democrat close to the Obama campaign.
The Democrat said that Obama’s inner circle was dismayed at the ‘disaster’ that the first presidential debate had turned out to be and believed that the central problem was that the President was so disdainful of Romney that he didn’t believe he needed to engage with him.

‘President Obama made it clear he wanted to be doing anything else – anything – but debate prep,’ the Democrat said. ‘He kept breaking off whenever he got the opportunity and never really focused on the event.
Plus, he came armed with lousy ideas backed up by zero facts.

‘He went into the debate armed with a number of one-liners to throw at Romney, including at least two about Romney not caring about 47 per cent of the country. But he decided not to use them.’
The Democrat, who is aligned with the Obama campaign and has been an unofficial adviser on occasions, said that David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, was stunned that the President left the stage feeling that he had won the debate.

Wow.

Wow? How about "Hallucinogens".


Larwyn's Linx: How Much of the Obama Campaign's $181 Million September Haul Was Illegal?

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

Nation

How Much of Obama's $181 Million September Haul Was Illegal?: Breitbart
Obama Campaign Scrambled to Kill Fundraising Scandal: Breitbart
Washington Post Joins Poll Truthers: DTG

Obama’s Illegal Foreign Campaign Money Loophole: Pavlich
China-Based Fundraiser Linked to Illegal Foreign Donations: Beacon
Report: Obama illegally solicited foreign donors via social media: DC

As Predicted: Now That Obama Is Losing, Dems Play Mormon Card: RSM
Gallup on Democratic hopes of retaking the House: Uhm, No.: Lane
Obama’s post-debate negativity shows he has nothing to say: NHJ

S*** Just Got Real: Ace
The Illegal Donor Loophole: Beast
Dumb as a Sack of Hammers, Gov. Hickenlooper [D-CO] Edition : Lane

Economy

Thomas Sowell on “Trickle Down Theory” and “Tax Cuts For The Rich”: RWN
Here's Why They Don't Want the Military Votes to Be Counted: Elephant
Sesame Street got $1 mil stimulus grant; created 1.47 jobs: Exam

Obama's Plan for Ohio: Kurtz
Obama Leads Cheers of “Si Se Puede!” At Cesar Chavez Rally : GWP
Princeton Economist: Obama Campaign Misleading on Romney's Tax Plan: WS

Scandal Central

Donor Disclosure Scandal: Another Day for the Most Transparent President Ever: Tatler
Report: Foreign Nationals Donating to Obama Campaign: Beacon
Democrats Target Anti-Voter Fraud Group True the Vote: Breitbart

Dubious donations: Peter Schweizer speaks: Power Line
I Donated to Barack Obama: RS
Meet the Obama donors at the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Beacon

Climate & Energy

Bankrupt green loan loser Abound Solar now under investigation in Colorado: Malkin
Plant that got $150M in taxpayer money to make Volt batteries furloughs workers: Fox

Media

Mitt Romney’s 10 Best Lines, Quips, And Quotes From The Debate: RWN
Does Obama have a Russian Donor Problem?: Riehl
Surrounded by celebrities, Obama acknowledges poor debate performance: Exam

Juan Williams: Obama Lost Debate Because of Twitter: AIM
Buzz Bissinger: Why I’m Voting for Mitt Romney: Beast
New York Times staffers stage walkout: Salon

Andrew Sullivan on Suicide Watch: JWF
Buzzfeed Runs Deceptive Headline; Obama Team Immediately Declares “GameChanger!”: Sooper
Meet the Real Mitt Romney: CBS

World

Security Team Commander: Amb. Stevens Wanted Team to Stay in Libya Past August: Tapper
Congressmen: America Should Stop Doing Business With China's Two Top Tech Firms: Insider
Egypt's draft constitution violates international law: Human Rights Watch: GlobPost

Ex-WH Staffer Linked to Fast and Furious Led a State Department Program on Iraq that Wasted $206 Million: CNS
Top US security chief in Libya says State Dept. told them to stop asking for more security: Scoop
New civility: Obama supporters threaten to riot if Romney wins: Twitchy

Breaking: Confirmed: Iran sent that drone: Matzav
Obamacare Preview: Patients Dying From Thirst And Starvation In British Government Run Hospitals: LoneCon
The administration set to issue a cybersecurity executive order: HSNW

Sci-Tech

The Curious Imperative: Godin
Jaw-dropping rotating 3D nebula: Discover
The state of Android vs iOS usage among Facebook users: InsideFacebook

Cornucopia

White House Scientists Struggle to Contain Outbreak of Scrutonium: IowaHawk
Visual Lies from DWS: iOTW
LTC Walter Fitzpatrick (RET) – The Growing Obama Police State: MagNote

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Pink-slip Sen. Sherrod Brown, Elect Josh Mandel

QOTD: "Engaged in a relentless battle against time and fatigue, a select group of message scientists assembled by the White House's Center for Narrative Control say they will take "all steps necessary" to contain a recent outbreak of scrutonium, a deadly poll-eating supervirus that attacks the immuno-hope system, leaving victims vulnerable to material facts.

"Failure is simply not an option," said an exhausted Mission Chief David Axelrod. "If left unchecked, this virus may actually force us to move back to Chicago."" --IowaHawk

Monday, October 08, 2012

LARA LOGAN: The Obama Administration Has Been Lying to You for Two Years About the Middle East

More confirming evidence from one of the bravest reporters you'll ever meet, Lara Logan of ABC CBS News.

Eleven years later, “they” still hate us, now more than ever, Logan told the crowd. The Taliban and al-Qaida have not been vanquished, she added. They’re coming back.

I chose this subject because, one, I can’t stand, that there is a major lie being propagated . . .” Logan declared in her native South African accent.

The lie is that America’s military might has tamed the Taliban.

There is this narrative coming out of Washington for the last two years,” Logan said. It is driven in part by “Taliban apologists,” who claim “they are just the poor moderate, gentler, kinder Taliban,” she added sarcastically. “It’s such nonsense!”

Logan stepped way out of the “objective,” journalistic role. The audience was riveted as she told of plowing through reams of documents, and interviewing John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan; Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and a Taliban commander trained by al-Qaida. The Taliban and al-Qaida are teaming up and recruiting new terrorists to do us deadly harm, she reports.

She made a passionate case that our government is downplaying the strength of our enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as a rationale of getting us out of the longest war. We have been lulled into believing that the perils are in the past: “You’re not listening to what the people who are fighting you say about this fight. In your arrogance, you think you write the script.”

Isn't it interesting that among the very few vintage media journalists willing to speak truth to power are strong female role models like Lara Logan and Sharyl Attkisson?

To paraphrase American Glob, if Logan gave Brian Ross one of her balls, they'd both have two.



BLUE STATE DIGITAL: Is it the linchpin of the Obama campaign's foreign donor scandal?

On 30 October 2008, I wrote about a bizarre idiosyncrasy I discovered in the Obama fundraising website, which was designed by a company named Blue State Digital.

Will the innovations never cease? Yesterday I described several, eh, unique capabilities pioneered by the Obama campaign in the area of campaign contributions.

Among them, failure to do even basic credit-card validation; accepting untraceable prepaid credit cards... [etc.]

Anyhow, an anonymous tipster mentioned that checking out the source code of the Obama donation website... would reveal some interesting logic. Specifically that IP addresses of the donors can be easily spoofed through a hidden field in the form. The tipster's guess was (and I concur) that the Obama campaign is recording the spoofable IP address... not the real IP address as delivered by the web server.

It's web security 101, folks. Because IP addresses map back to the original source network (your ISP, your company, etc.), the web server's log-file records the actual source IP address of the request. They certainly don't record anything that the requester provides as the genuine address.

Put simply, there's no reason to include a hidden form field for IP address. It is there for one reason alone: IP forgery -- forging the computer addresses of donations to disguise their true sources.

The net result is that IP addresses recorded in this manner can't truly be resolved to a real location. Genius!

Just chalk it up to yet another startling innovation from the minds of the most creative geniuses on Earth. When it comes to accepting money from all comers, that is.

Ace of Spades reminded me of this outfit today when it noted a strange cleanup performed by the Obama campaign.

...when this story began leaking last week, I went back and checked on this again. The weird part? The campaign donation page had been moved from "donate.barackobama.com" to "contribute.barackobama.com". After poking around a little more, I found that donate.barackobama is being hosted by Blue State Digital. This is a firm founded by former Howard Dean 2004 staffers and they run Obama's digital operation.

Meanwhile, barackobama.com and contribute.barackobama.com are hosted by a company called Akamai Technologies out of Cambridge, Mass. As best I can tell through various caching sites, this change from "donate" to "contribute" was made sometime in the last month. The question becomes why? My suspicion is that, as the Washington Examiner claims, the White House knew this report was coming out (they actually claim the White House was trying to block it) and they were trying to fix some of these issues.

Furthermore, donate.barackobama.com is not universally forwarded to contribute.barackobama.com. You can still see some examples of old pages here:

• https://donate.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gp2j9b
• https://donate.barackobama.com/page/event/search_simple
• https://donate.barackobama.com/page/event/create
• https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/o2012-August1RaleighReception
• https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/o2012-EastEndForObama

My best guess is they are running custom 301 redirect scripts through an htaccess file. They appear to have missed redirecting some of these older pages. You can even donate through this old site. Again, why? This is sloppy and leads me to believe this was a hastily-made change with only two months remaining in the campaign.

I'm still digging into this along with a few others to see what else we can find. If you notice something, shoot me a line on twitter.

Hey, have I mentioned a company named Blue State Digital that appears to be at the nexus of this fundraising skulduggery... both in 2008 and 2012?

Their Democrat fundraising sites appear specifically designed to accept illegal donations including structured contributions to evade limits, foreign donations, anonymized prepaid cards, and so on.

Perhaps Darrell Issa could subpoena Blue State Digital's entire management and engineering teams immediately and start asking questions.

In fact, I'll write the questions for him.


MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: California's Green Government Gas Hits Another Record High!

But what's $5 a gallon if even just one amoeba can be saved?

Gas prices across California have soared to record highs, shooting up 50 cents a gallon in just the last week... But even as prices are expected to rise slightly higher in California before falling, the West Coat price spike is not likely to spread to other parts of the country, experts say.


The average price of a gallon of regular gas in California hit $4.67 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA. It stood at $4.17 on Oct. 1 but has risen every day since then. The worst was a 17-cent spike on Friday, followed the next day by a 13-cent increase.

...On Sunday, California environmental regulators, acting on a request from Gov. Jerry Brown, agreed to allow refineries to start making a cheaper, winter blend of gasoline as soon as possible -- a move that could solve shortages of the more expensive summer blend that sparked the price spike.

Remember when then-Senator (and now Secretary of the Interior) Ken Salazar, the loathsome eco-Statist from Colorado, promised $10 gas for the American people?

Mitch McConnell (R-KY): "What is the definition of an emergency? Maybe it is $7.50 a gallon? Therefore I renew my consent request with the following modification... that the implementation date that triggers the modification would occur when the price of gasoline reaches seven dollars and fifty cents a gallon."

Ken Salazar (D-CO): "I... I... object".

MM: "Mr. President, I renew my request with the modification that the trigger be ten dollars a gallon at the pump."

KS: "I object."



We have enough oil to satisfy American needs for at least the next 100 years, but Democrats won’t let you have it. They’d rather you pay $10 per gallon at the pump and watch food prices increase 250% rather than agree to drilling. If you don’t want $10 per gallon gas, vote Republican.

Should Barack Obama get reelected, I promise you that we'll get to see $10 gas.


Larwyn's Linx: Spooks in the Machine Speak Up

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

Nation

Spooks in the Machine Speak Up: Loudon
Anatomy of a Disastrous Debate Performance: Hanson
Ohio Senate: Brown (D) 46%, Mandel (R) 46%: Rasmussen

Biden Takes 6 Days Off Campaign Trail for Prep Debate: WS
Ohio Voter Turnout Modeling Predicts Big Ohio Trouble for Obama: PJM
An Incriminating Timeline: Obama Administration and Libya: Foundry

WH Withdrew Security Team From Libya Before Attack: Nice Deb
Unhinged Liberals, Yard-Sign Edition: Twitchy
Unhinged Liberals, Bumper-Sticker Edition: Twitchy

Economy

10 Reasons Public School Teachers, Unions Fail Children: NewReal
Global Food Prices Set To Soar--Again: TechReview
Voices Without a Vote: Liberty 2012

Great Graphic: Central Bank Balance Sheets: MarcToMarket
Why Obama Will Lose All Three Debates: Pelerin
Chart of the Day, This Deal Just Keeps Getting Worse edition: Lane

Scandal Central

Is a donor scandal about to rattle the Obama campaign?: Greenroom
Story Coming on Obama’s Donors — How Damaging Will It Be?: Patterico
Rumors Swirl: How Bad Will The Obama Foreign Donor Scandal Be?: Pavlich

Climate & Energy

Agenda 21: A Global Economic Disaster in the Making: RSN
Earth Day, 1970: Instapundit
Agenda 21 Part II: Globalist Totalitarians Invading a Town near You – With Your Permission: RSN

Media

Dems Out Andrea Mitchell as Partisan: Tobin
Exquisitely Bored in the White House: Instapundit
Personal or Business?: Belmont Club

Change: Cold Fury
Ann Coulter Is Cherokee!: Bad Eagle
Kenneth Cole: ‘Why send money to Obama when you can buy our shoes?’ Humorless Libs freak out: Twitchy

Dispatches From the Memory Hole: Driscoll
Rahm Emanuel Terrified of Something in Chicago: HillBuzz
Obama’s debate loss: Another one gets tossed under the blame bus: Malkin

Kid Rock to Introduce Paul Ryan at Campaign Event in Michigan Monday: NB
Awesome: Allen West campaigns for Mitt Romney at Romney campaign rally: Scoop
Twitter Users Threaten to Assassinate Mitt Romney: Blaze

World

The Islamization Of The ACLU: IBD
Welcome To The Fleet, USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112): Ace
White house 'dinner' FOR islamics: Grendel

Exclusive: Libya Cable Detailed Threats: Beast
Obama Succeeds. Salafists Move To Gain Power in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia: RS
IDF strikes Gaza in response to Hamas rocket fire: JPost

Tanks in the streets as Venezuelan electoral council declares Hugo Chavez victory: DC
As Hugo Chavez Wins Presidential Re-election Someone Makes Absolute Killing On InTrade: ZH
California Is Taking Emergency Action To End Its Gas Price Nightmare: Insider

Sci-Tech

Engine in development could cut Mars travel time to three months: Ars Technica
Internet Explorer 9 Commercial (The Honest Version): Worldwide Interwebs
Have we lost 41 percent of our musicians? Depends on how you (the RIAA) count: Ars Technica

Cornucopia

Date Night Devoured & TOTUS Debriefed: MOTUS
"Do the Paul Ryan": Spew
"I wonder why Obama banned this video": Lea11011

Image: At Harvard Law School, Obama endorsed restricting speech to protect minorities
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please Support America's Comeback Team

QOTD: "The cover of the New Yorker -- one of the tentpoles of respectable liberalism and elite opinion -- is a signifier of the scope of Obama's failure this week.

As the dozens of snarky articles, brutal editorial cartoons, late night comedy shows taking new and unaccustomed shots at Obama (I'm not counting Chris Matthews and his epic rant) build up a certain cultural momentum, the sense that Obama's failings are suddenly funny is a deadly virus in the bloodstream of liberal opinion.

Barack Obama is a man of abundantly evident self-regard. The growing sound of mockery and derision must be painful to him, especially coming from the unexpected quarters of his erstwhile allies. Once the mockery starts, it's hard to stop. Ask Bill Clinton.

The clues of an Obama meltdown in high-, low- and even pop-culture tell me that the next debates for Obama aren't just consequential: they're existential." --Rick Wilson

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Old Car Trends I Just Don't Get

This has always confused me.

Could someone explain to me the concept behind wood-paneling on cars? Here's one.

1972 Ford LTD Country Squire Station Wagon

And another, earlier example:

1964 Ford Falcon Squire Wagon

And for that matter, a trend that still persists -- albeit barely -- to this day: the fake convertible tops?


Here's a more modern vinyl top:

2010 Buick LaCrosse CX

I don't get it.


THE BUSH-OBAMA DEBT CHART: "As God is my witness: I never thought that it would get this bad"

One of Instapundit's readers offers the following graph, which Moe Lane promptly designated "Chart o' the Day":


Glenn Reynolds notes this illustrates just "how absurd it is to blame today’s huge national debt on George W. Bush’s spending on Iraq and Afghanistan."


MELTDOWN: Intel Community Blasts Obama for Removing Amb. Stevens' Security, Lying About Al Qaeda and Covering Up Its Epic Failures

I wonder if releasing a movie that depicts the president double-tapping Bin Laden will help?

Revolt of the Spooks

Intelligence officials angered by Obama administration cover up of intelligence on Iranian, al Qaeda surge in Egypt and Libya

Weeks before the presidential election, President Barack Obama’s administration faces mounting opposition from within the ranks of U.S. intelligence agencies over what career officers say is a “cover up” of intelligence information about terrorism in North Africa.

Intelligence held back from senior officials and the public includes numerous classified reports revealing clear Iranian support for jihadists throughout the tumultuous North Africa and Middle East region, as well as notably widespread al Qaeda penetration into Egypt and Libya in the months before the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

...Intelligence officials pointed to the statement issued Sept. 28 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) that raised additional concern about the administration’s apparent mishandling of intelligence... Officials say the ODNI’s false information was either knowingly disseminated or was directed to be put out by senior policy officials for political reasons, since the statement was contradicted by numerous intelligence reports at the time of the attack indicating it was al Qaeda-related terrorism...

Obama, of course, stated during his convention acceptance speech that "al Qaeda is on the path to defeat", which could explain his reluctance to release contradictory information. One intel insider said, "[Obama] is afraid to admit al Qaeda is running rampant throughout the region because it would expose the truth instead of what [he] so pompously spouted during the Democratic Convention."

And some brave souls are willing to go on the record with the administration's disastrous decisions.

Congress to probe security flaws for Libya diplomats

CBS News has learned that congressional investigators have issued a subpoena to a former top security official at the US mission in Libya. The official is Lt. Col. Andy Wood, a Utah National Guard Army Green Beret who headed up a Special Forces "Site Security Team" in Libya...

...Lt. Col. Wood [said] that his 16-member team and a six-member State Department elite force called a Mobile Security Deployment team left Libya in August, just one month before the Benghazi assault... despite the fact that US officials in Libya wanted security increased, not decreased...

...Sources critical of what they view as a security drawdown say three Mobile Security Deployment teams left Libya between February and August in addition to the 16-member Site Security Team on loan from the military. That's 34 highly-trained security personnel moved out over a six month period.

One State Department source told CBS News the security teams weren't "pulled," that their mission was simply over...

Not only did the Obama administration pull Ambassador Stevens' security before the attack, it refused to send help once word of the attack had been received.

Obama Decided Not To Send In The Military To Rescue Benghazi Personnel

According to the Wall Street Journal, as the attack on the U.S. consulate was raging, Obama took a “wait and see” approach.

Ninety minutes after news of the attack reached Washington, Obama, Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, JCS Chair General Martin Dempsey, and a national security adviser convened for an oval office meeting in which they ultimately rejected the course of U.S. military intervention. Instead, they decided to reach out to the Libyan government to ask if they would send reinforcements.

When the U.S. personnel at the consulate left the main building for what was supposed to be a safe house, questions regarding the deployment of forces seemed moot.

But the battle was still raging, and Ambassador Stevens’ life was close to its end.

What is really going on in the Middle East? It's safe to say we have no idea because this administration seems to have misled the American people about everything.



Yes, you can get $1.84 gallon gas in Cincinnati! Just ask!

@TonyKatz tweets, "Yes, you can get $1.84 gallon gas in Cincinnati! Just ask!"


You can get copies at Americans For Prosperity.