Monday, November 12, 2012

BESIDES FEWER HANDOUTS, THAT IS: The real reason Romney lost?

Harold emails:

Fox had this question buried in the exit polls in Ohio.

Who is more to blame for the nation's
current economic problems?

                   Total   Obama   Romney
                           Voters  Voters
Barack Obama         40%      7%     91%
George W. Bush       51%     87%     12%

Sample: 1165 respondents

Same general result in VA, FL, WI, and FL.

In my view, this simple perception is the reason Romney lost in 2012, and not really any other. Soak that in a little while and then tell me if I’m wrong.

I think there may be some merit to this line of reasoning. What say you, gentle readers?


p.s., And for you Destructocrats reading along, try educating yourself for a change, in this case about the genesis of the housing crisis.


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National Review Online is seeking a daytime web producer — a full-time, work-from-home position for the right candidate. If you are a formidable and fast producer of quality web content, possessing a unique blend of editorial, tech, and artistic skills, this could be just the opportunity for you...
You can read the job requirements and the contact information here.


WE KEEP ALL OF THE SCANDALS STRAIGHT SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO: Today's U.S. Foreign Policy Update

Facts:

• The Ambassador to Libya was assassinated on September 11th, along with three other Americans, during a 7-hour running gun-battle

• Iranian fighter jets attempted to shoot down a U.S. aircraft over international waters

• The President's most trusted adviser was sent to Iran to secretly beg the Iranians to come to some kind of an accommodation regarding their nuclear program

• The CIA director provided false testimony under oath to Congress about the nature of the attacks that killed the U.S. Ambassador

• The CIA director was schtupping his biographer and could have been blackmailed by the White House to lie under oath

• For the first time in decades, a Russian nuclear attack submarine skirted the East Coast of the U.S.

• And the White House appears to have been operating a secret rendition prison in Benghazi, in direct violation of the President's own orders

Oh. And one other facet to consider: the background or existence of each of these incidents was carefully and purposefully hidden from the public until after the election.

If the Watergate break-in and the subsequent cover-up by the Nixon administration merited impeachment, these crimes against the American people deserve something far more draconian.

What else is this administration hiding?



Larwyn's Linx: See, I Told You So

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

Nation

See, I Told You So: Erickson
The Edge of the Abyss: Steyn
Obama Wins by Going Negative and Turning Out Base: Barone

Senate GOP should take a page from Dems' 2005 playbook: GayPatriot
How Immigration Ruined The Californian Republican Party: CDN
The GOP Is Nearly Dead In California: OTB

407,000 Votes in Four States Away from the Presidency: Geraghty
How Conservatives Can Win: Lessons from South Africa: Breitbart
DeMint digs in against talk of compromise: USA Today

Economy

Obamacare is still vulnerable: NRO
Dear Conservative Organizations: Erickson
Right-to-work states account for most of nation’s job growth: GayPatriot

Death spiral: Hours cut thanks to Obamacare: Twitchy
"I won't be hiring for a long time": Twitchy
Progressives target companies hit by Obamacare mandates: AmPower

Scandal Central

About Those "Massive Vote Fraud" Allegations: Ace
Colorado Counties Have More Voters Than People: RS
Jesse Jackson to Obama: Blacks deserve a return on their "investment": Marathon

Climate & Energy

Emails reveal Al Gore won’t take ‘no’ for an answer when seeking weather propaganda images: WUWT
LIPA Faces Angry Customers, Lawmakers as Blackouts Linger: BizWk

Media

Bob Woodward Shocker: There Is a Way to Raise Revenue AND Lower Tax Rates: NB
NAACP Chief Predicts Black Voters “Will Simply Go Away” Once Obama Is Off The Ballot: WZ
More Dead Bodies Discovered in Sandy’s Wake – Media Yawns – Obama Golfs: GWP

Values Voters Prevail Again: WS
Meet the Press Panel Pins Romney Loss on Rush, ‘Loons and Wackos' Conservatives: NB
MSNBC’s Ed Schultz May Lose His Show To WaPo’s Ezra Klein, Reports NY Times: Mediaite

Bill O’Reilly’s Open Letter to President Obama: IMAO
Rising number of states seeing one-party rule: Times
Obama's wins in Midwest only confirm its battleground status: Star-Trib

World

Petraeus Mistress Suggests Benghazi Attack Was Aimed At Secret CIA Prison: Breitbart
Petraeus Mistress Reveals Benghazi “Secret”- “CIA Annex Had Taken Libya Militia Members Prisoner”: CDN
Maryland: “Largest Islamic Project in America…could change landscape for years to come”: Creeping

Gaza groups pound Israel with over 100 rockets: JPost
"My mother always said, 'We, the Arabs, we were born to hate Jews'": JihadWatch
Huge Explosion In Indianapolis Still A Mystery 18 Hours Later: CBS Chicago

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Microsoft Surface RT tablet touch cover keyboard fuels complaints: PC World
Ransom malware gangs making huge profits, Symantec discovers: TechWorld
Support Forums Reveal SCADA Infections: Slashdot

Cornucopia

Old Soviet jokes become the new American reality: Cube
today’s KisPSA for tomorrow: Sondrakistan
Tuskegee Airman tells of his WWII experiences: AirForceTimes

Image: "Dead Enough: The Reality of the "Lesser Evil""
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Jackie Wellfonder

QOTD: "The good news is that reality (to use a quaint expression) doesn’t need to swing a couple of thousand soccer moms in northern Virginia. Reality doesn’t need to crack 270 in the Electoral College. Reality can get 1.3 percent of the popular vote and still trump everything else. In the course of his first term, Obama increased the federal debt by just shy of $6 trillion and in return grew the economy by $905 billion. So, as Lance Roberts at Street Talk Live pointed out, in order to generate every dollar of economic growth the United States had to borrow about five dollars and 60 cents. There’s no one out there on the planet — whether it’s “the rich” or the Chinese — who can afford to carry on bankrolling that rate of return. According to one CBO analysis, U.S.-government spending is sustainable as long as the rest of the world is prepared to sink 19 percent of its GDP into U.S. Treasury debt. We already know the answer to that: In order to avoid the public humiliation of a failed bond auction, the U.S. Treasury sells 70 percent of the debt it issues to the Federal Reserve — which is to say the left hand of the U.S. government is borrowing money from the right hand of the U.S. government. It’s government as a Nigerian e-mail scam, with Ben Bernanke playing the role of the dictator’s widow with $4 trillion under her bed that she’s willing to wire to Timmy Geithner as soon as he sends her his bank-account details.

If that’s all a bit too technical, here’s the gist: There’s nothing holding the joint up." --Mark Steyn

Sunday, November 11, 2012

ANOTHER REELECTION CELEBRATION: Hamas Terror Groups Pound Israel With Over 100 Rockets

Given the praise for Obama's reelection by its proxy in the U.S., this may be Hamas's way of celebrating.

Gaza groups pound Israel with over 100 rockets


Over 100 rockets, mortar shells hit South in past 24 hours, Israeli officials weigh "dramatic response."

Israel will not hesitate to launch a major IDF operation against Gaza-based terrorist factions if necessary, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned on Sunday – after some 100 rockets hit southern Israel in 24 hours.

Rockets wounded three people in Sderot during a barrage fired to coincide with the morning commute to work. One man was moderately wounded in his car by shrapnel and flying glass.

Something from the heavens told me not to take my son with me to school today,” Moshik Levy, a physical education teacher, told Army Radio on Sunday after he was treated for his injuries.

“Shattered glass from my car windshield exploded into my face,” Levy said. “I started bleeding. I didn’t understand what was happening. Thankfully I was alone.”

A couple heading to work was lightly wounded by shrapnel. A fourth person sustained injuries while racing for cover at a bomb shelter as the rocket warning siren sounded.

Five people required treatment for shock, Magen David Adom paramedics said.

Later in the day, a Palestinian rocket scored a direct hit on a Sderot factory.

Sderot is too close to the Gaza Strip for the Iron Dome anti-rocket shield to work effectively over it.

And what does the Obama administration have to say about these attacks?

Cue the soundtrack of crickets chirping.


PHOTOS: Jill Kelley, woman reportedly harassed by Paula Broadwell in possible Petraeus blackmail scandal

More details regarding the FBI investigation that led to the resignation of David Petraeus have been revealed over the last several hours.

37-year old Jill Kelley, a friend of the Petraeus family, reportedly alerted the FBI about threatening emails that appeared to blackmail the CIA director.

Kelley of Tampa, Florida is married with three children. She and her sister are close friends of the Petraeus family and sometimes vacation together. Sources indicate that she was not involved in an affair with the former CIA chief.

The FBI was investigating harassing emails sent by Petraeus biographer and girlfriend Paula Broadwell to a second woman. That probe of Broadwell's emails revealed the affair between Broadwell and Petraeus. The FBI contacted Petraeus and other intelligence officials, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper asked Petraeus to resign.

A senior U.S. military official identified the second woman as Jill Kelley, 37, who lives in Tampa, Fla., and serves as an unpaid social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, where the military's Central Command and Special Operations Command are located.

Staffers for Petraeus said Kelley and her husband were regular guests at events he held at Central Command headquarters. A U.S. official said the coalition countries represented at Central Command gave Kelley an appreciation certificate on which she was referred to as an "honorary ambassador" to the coalition, but she has no official status and is not employed by the U.S. government.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the case publicly, said Kelley is known to drop the "honorary" part and refer to herself as an ambassador.

The military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation, said Kelley had received harassing emails from Broadwell, which led the FBI to examine her email account and eventually discover her relationship with Petraeus.

A former associate of Petraeus confirmed the target of the emails was Kelley, but said there was no affair between the two, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the retired general's private life. The associate, who has been in touch with Petraeus since his resignation, says Kelley and her husband were longtime friends of Petraeus and wife, Holly.

The Telegraph confirms the friendship between the Kelley and Petraeus families.

Paula Broadwell, the former CIA director’s biographer and reported lover, allegedly sent a number of threatening messages to Jill Kelley, a 37-year-old civilian who organised parties for the US military, who became frightened and turned to the FBI for help.

...Although the emails, believed to have been sent anonymously by Mrs Broadwell, 40, were said to have contained hints at classified information, the FBI concluded that there was no security threat and that they were instead looking at a case of lover’s jealousy.

According to The New York Post, Mrs Broadwell, a mother of two, told Mrs Kelley: “I know what you did” and warned her to “back off” from the 60-year-old former general.

"We and our family have been friends with Gen Petraeus and his family for over five years. We respect his and his family's privacy and want the same for us and our three children," Mrs Kelley said in a statement.

Photographs showed the Petraeuses and the Kelleys posing together at a pirate-themed festival in 2010 and ABC News reported that the families had spent Christmases together.

It is not clear why Mrs Broadwell would believe that the mother-of-three, posed a threat to her relationship with the general.

Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle want to know whether national security was compromised for political reasons.

Members of Congress said Sunday they want to know more details about the FBI investigation that revealed an extramarital affair between ex-CIA Director David Petraeus and his biographer, questioning when the retired general popped up in the FBI inquiry, whether national security was compromised and why they weren't told sooner.


"We received no advanced notice. It was like a lightning bolt," said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The critical question: how long did the Justice Department freeze the story, thereby endangering U.S. national security?

COMPARE AND CONTRAST D VS. R CAMPAIGN ISSUES: Sad.

Radio host Joe Pags compares the messages of the two campaigns and just shakes his head:

Let’s face facts. Democrats gained in the House of Representatives, the Senate and the chief Democrat in charge was re-elected after one of the worst four year periods in American history, economically and constitutionally. How does that happen? Republicans/Conservatives (which are not necessarily interchangeable terms — but, we’ll lump them together for the sake of this column) gave voters credit for being smart while Democrats assumed they’re not. Let’s break down what Obama, Pelosi, Reid, the Obama SuperPACs, et all were saying for a year and a half:

• Republicans are prosecuting a war on women
• Romney only cares about his rich friends and Wall Street
• Romney is responsible for the death of a woman by somehow giving her cancer
• Romney specialized in closing down businesses, laying people off and outsourcing jobs — especially to China
• Romney is a liar. All he does is lie. And, after he lies, he lies about the lies he told.
• Republicans are trying to outlaw contraception
• Republicans are trying to close down Planned Parenthood to stop women from getting cancer screenings
• Republicans want to put all Latinos on buses and send them back to Mexico
• Republicans think rape is okay — and women should just stop talking about it
• Republicans all own stock in oil companies and are forcing gas prices up
• Republicans want to give rich people a tax break and make the poor and Middle Class to make up the difference
• Romney hates half the country (47%)
• Romney will end Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

Only problem with that list is, not one bit of it is true. Republicans/conservatives assumed everyone hearing this list of Democrat/liberal talking points would know it was completely false. They gave the American people credit for being smart enough to know better. Millions are and do — but, unfortunately, more millions aren't and don't. Here’s a list filled with the absolute truth about the last four years:

• Gas prices doubled
• Obama said no to the Keystone XL Pipeline
• Obama sent billions to Brazil to drill there
• Food prices have soared
• Unemployment is higher than the day he took office
• Obama apologized around the world for the United States of America
• His DOJ refused to prosecute voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party
• Obama promised to cut the debt in half in his first four years — has doubled it
• Obama will now cut military spending
• Obama refuses to answer questions on what happened the night four Americans died in Benghazi
• Obama has used Executive Privilege to continue stonewalling on Fast and Furious
• Obama has bragged about bypassing Congress repeatedly
• Obama has sued states for passing immigration laws
• Obama has sued states for passing Voter ID laws
• Obama and the Dems forced through Obamacare by lying about abortion and raising taxes
• Obama ran on a platform to raise taxes in his second term
• Obama blew billions on failed energy companies
• Obama has grown government to its biggest size in history
• Obama told Russia he can do more after the election
• Obama told NASA to include Muslims more
• Obama flip-flopped on gay marriage
• Obama is forcing religions to offer contraception even if it goes against their beliefs
• Obama is the most vehement supporter of abortion we've ever had in the White House

These are all facts. That's just a short list of what this wannabe dictator has done in four years and Republicans/conservatives know how outrageous this administration has been and made a bad assumption that the American people were smart and would know how horrible these things are and this administration has been. Bad assumptions.

Americans love great actors, entertainers, people who smile and come off as sincere. They also react positively to pandering — as long as it’s well-disguised. Romney should have, at every opportunity, called Obama out on that list. He didn’t. Every time Obama called him a liar, Romney should have hit him back with, "are you out of your mind? You..." and list the failures and dictator-like moves of the last four years.

What Ds/Ls have perfected is the art of the con job. Obama and his minions are confidence men and women. They con the American public with what most want to hear. They win the election, then do the exact opposite in the hopes of expanding the scope, power and dominance of government over all of us. Time for the other side to do the same thing.

Sad, isn't it?


Hat tip: MOTUS.

BEST PETRAEUS AFFAIR HEADLINE: It's the New York Post Hands Down, No Contest

Via Outside the Beltway:


Ouch.



HOLY CRAP: Aerial shot of explosion that obliterated two houses in an Indianapolis suburb

An explosion last night ripped through a south-side Indianapolis neighborhood, killing two and "displacing scores of residents".

Via Matt Dawson:


More than 100 firefighters responded to the two-alarm fire, the cause of which is still unknown.


CONGRATULATIONS, DEMOCRATS: An Open Letter

Dear Democrat Party,

Congratulations on Tuesday's victories.

Congratulations on the new tax hikes that will restrain the economy next year as the Bush tax cuts end and the myriad dictates and fees imposed by Obamacare begin. We are already seeing companies downsize or flee and investors begin to bail out of the stock market. Rest assured that your tactics of class warfare will ultimately succeed just as well as they have throughout the world for the last two centuries.

Congratulations on giving us an excellent preview of what lies ahead with your stewardship in the Golden State, where Global Economic Analysis says -- after the various statewide ballot initiatives and elections -- "Prepare for the Demise of California".

Congratulations on solidifying your plan to borrow 40 cents of every dollar we spend, with no credible plan to address the gap. It reminds me, most recently, of the run-up to Argentina's currency crisis.

Congratulations on successfully appealing to voters with crude, brutish messages of personal gratification, thereby finalizing your blueprint for America's economic downfall.

Congratulations on making Alexis de Tocqueville's predictions of 1835 come to pass, in that the United States appears to have entered the final phase of the transition from a Constitutional Republic to Despotism.

Congratulations on carefully avoiding the biggest fiscal problems we face, from entitlements to a debt-to-GDP ratio that has long since passed the historic danger zone. As an aside, if I were you, I would be preparing your families with near-term (under five years) plans for economic upheaval and possible societal unrest. I say that not because I desire anything of the sort, but because we seem to have reached a tipping point where more citizens want free contraceptives and EBT cards than believe in the American dream.

Congratulations on your historic control of the media. By withholding and obscuring the facts behind the Benghazi scandal, Operation Fast and Furious and the numerous green energy scams that enriched President Obama's campaign bundlers, you have ensured that a clueless electorate can be counted on to vote for giveaways in every election.

And, finally, congratulations on ensuring that no one in Washington -- including the feckless, old guard Republican leadership -- expresses the least bit of concern that we have long since passed the historical Rogoff-Reinhart tipping point of debt-to-GDP that spells inevitable economic doom.

Well done. Enjoy your victories and remember: As ye sow, so shall ye reap.

Sincerely,

Doug Ross

Larwyn's Linx: 2012 -- What Now?

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

Nation

2012: What Now?: pupista!
More on the Timing of Petraeus’s Resignation: Power Line
Anti-Bush: RWN

Reagan in '64: A call for reinforcements and clarity: Marathon
“Why Hispanics Don’t Vote for Republicans”: ProWis
Democrats’ mandate madness: Marcus

To Our Friends at (The) National Review, II: RS
We Are Not Outnumbered: AT
Incumbent True Reformers and 5-for-5ers Win Big on Election Night: NUSA

Economy

White House Hid Record Food Stamp Numbers Until After Election: GWP
Obama Really, Really Wants His Upper Middle Class Tax Increase: Cove
How Many Companies Announced Layoffs Since Obama Won?: Blaze

John Boehner, Weakstick: Ace
Boehner: We Lost and We Can't Afford Another Huge Debt Showdown: Insider
Caterpillar Flees Minnesota: CDN

The Two Stages of Obamacare Layoffs: RS
"Going Galt" Begins: Babalu
Prepare for the Demise of California: Mish

Scandal Central

The Petraeus Scandal Within a Scandal: OTB
Pirro: Timing to Petraeus Resignation Anything But a Coincidence: Nice Deb
Ron Kessler on Petraeus Resignation: There Are Several Cover-ups Going On: GWP

FBI Source: Petraeus Case Squelched Until After Election: Blaze
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner at CAIR Tampa: Gatestone
Townhall Reports Massive Vote Fraud in St. Lucie County: Scoop

Climate & Energy

New Yorkers Still in the Dark as Obama Hits the Links: JWF
Two Weeks Later and No Power: Long Islanders Protest Power Authority: Blaze
Electrics and hybrids drain revenue to Oregon: exploring fees based on miles driven: Mail-Tribune

Media

Media fight on the right over GOP: Politico
Where The Allen West Vote Count Really Stands: Shark Tank
Are conservatives too far right for American presidential elections: CDN

Did Paula Broadwell's Cuckolded Husband Write a Letter to the NYT's Chuck Klosterman?: Gawker
A Expatriate Brit Despairs for America’s Future: Dossier
Hey, remember when ABC, NBC and CBS mysteriously declared Obama the winner before election day?: FAM

World

The Slut Paula Broadwell: RSM
Pentagon releases response timeline for Benghazi attacks: Clarion-Ledger
Harvard 'deeply troubled' by row over Israeli buffet : JPost

FBI Agents "Outraged" That Compromised CIA Head Left In Place For Months To Avoid Political Problems: Ace
Barrage of rocket attacks slam southern Israel: JPost
Unbelievable: Majority of Orthodox Jews vote for Obama: Matzav

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Big Brother alert: Microsoft wants to know how many friends you've got in your living room: Telegraph
Edible Deodorant Claims to Sweeten Your Sweat: ABC
Ducking Google in search engines: WaPo

Cornucopia

Bob Hope Christmas: Big Geek Dad
A Post-Election Reflection: MOTUS
The Voters Who Stayed Home: McCarthy

Image: 6 lingering questions about the exit of Gen. David Petraeus
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: SpellCheck Blog

QOTD: "[T]he White House, with concurrence by the FBI and Justice Department, held off on asking for Petraeus’ resignation until after the election. His resignation occurred three days after the election, avoiding the possibility that Obama’s ill-fated appointment of Petraeus could become an issue in the election.

FBI agents on the case were aware that such a decision had been made to hold off on forcing him out until after the election and were outraged.

“The decision was made to delay the resignation apparently to avoid potential embarrassment to the president before the election,” an FBI source says. “To leave him in such a sensitive position where he was vulnerable to potential blackmail for months compromised our security and is inexcusable.”

Michael Kortan, the FBI’s assistant director for public affairs, said he had no comment." --Ronald Kessler

Saturday, November 10, 2012

GOOD NEWS: Employers in Merry Old England Happily Enforce Sharia Law

Clothing retailer Boo Hoo recently circulated the following memo to its employees.


Along with socialized medicine, the act of banning bacon represents the ultimate capitulation to a soft tyranny.


Hat tip: BH.

DO REPUBLICANS REALLY NEED TO "MODERNIZE THE MESSAGE"? In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville predicted the 2012 elections

Alexis de Tocqueville was a French historian who traveled the United States from 1832 to 1834. He was struck by the character of American life that knew no class structure and rewarded hard work as a means of achieving prosperity.

Without an aristocracy, American society promoted capitalism through individual achievement. The common man, he wrote, had achieved a level of personal dignity in America that was unparalleled in Europe or elsewhere.

His seminal work on politics -- Democracy In America -- also warned that despotism could take root and grow unchecked in a democracy. Such a form of tyranny would be unique in human history and potentially far more pernicious than those of monarchies or oligarchies.

Without further ado, here are a few salient excerpts from Democracy In America, made all the more prescient and troubling by the events of last Tuesday.

CHAPTER VI

I HAD remarked during my stay in the United States that a democratic state of society, similar to that of the Americans, might offer singular facilities for the establishment of despotism; and I perceived, upon my return to Europe, how much use had already been made, by most of our rulers, of the notions, the sentiments, and the wants created by this same social condition, for the purpose of extending the circle of their power. This led me to think that the nations of Christendom would perhaps eventually undergo some oppression like that which hung over several of the nations of the ancient world.

When the Roman emperors were at the height of their power, the different nations of the empire still preserved usages and customs of great diversity; although they were subject to the same monarch, most of the provinces were separately administered; they abounded in powerful and active municipalities; and although the whole government of the empire was centered in the hands of the Emperor alone and he always remained, in case of need, the supreme arbiter in all matters, yet the details of social life and private occupations lay for the most part beyond his control. The emperors possessed, it is true, an immense and unchecked power, which allowed them to gratify all their whimsical tastes and to employ for that purpose the whole strength of the state. They frequently abused that power arbitrarily to deprive their subjects of property or of life; their tyranny was extremely onerous to the few, but it did not reach the many; it was confined to some few main objects and neglected the rest; it was violent, but its range was limited.


It would seem that if despotism were to be established among the democratic nations of our days, it might assume a different character; it would be more extensive and more mild; it would degrade men without tormenting them...

I think, then, that the species of oppression by which democratic nations are menaced is unlike anything that ever before existed in the world; our contemporaries will find no prototype of it in their memories. I seek in vain for an expression that will accurately convey the whole of the idea I have formed of it; the old words despotism and tyranny are inappropriate: the thing itself is new, and since I cannot name, I must attempt to define it...

I seek to trace the novel features under which despotism may appear in the world. The first thing that strikes the observation is an innumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike, incessantly endeavoring to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. Each of them, living apart, is as a stranger to the fate of all the rest; his children and his private friends constitute to him the whole of mankind. As for the rest of his fellow citizens, he is close to them, but he does not see them; he touches them, but he does not feel them; he exists only in himself and for himself alone; and if his kindred still remain to him, he may be said at any rate to have lost his country...

Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood... For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?

Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things; it has predisposed men to endure them and often to look on them as benefits.

After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd...


Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions: they want to be led, and they wish to remain free. As they cannot destroy either the one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once. They devise a sole, tutelary, and all-powerful form of government, but elected by the people. They combine the principle of centralization and that of popular sovereignty; this gives them a respite: they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflection that they have chosen their own guardians. Every man allows himself to be put in leading-strings, because he sees that it is not a person or a class of persons, but the people at large who hold the end of his chain.

By this system the people shake off their state of dependence just long enough to select their master and then relapse into it again. A great many persons at the present day are quite contented with this sort of compromise between administrative despotism and the sovereignty of the people; and they think they have done enough for the protection of individual freedom when they have surrendered it to the power of the nation at large...

Subjection in minor affairs breaks out every day and is felt by the whole community indiscriminately. It does not drive men to resistance, but it crosses them at every turn, till they are led to surrender the exercise of their own will. Thus their spirit is gradually broken and their character enervated; whereas that obedience which is exacted on a few important but rare occasions only exhibits servitude at certain intervals and throws the burden of it upon a small number of men. It is in vain to summon a people who have been rendered so dependent on the central power to choose from time to time the representatives of that power; this rare and brief exercise of their free choice, however important it may be, will not prevent them from gradually losing the faculties of thinking, feeling, and acting for themselves, and thus gradually falling below the level of humanity.

I add that they will soon become incapable of exercising the great and only privilege which remains to them. The democratic nations that have introduced freedom into their political constitution at the very time when they were augmenting the despotism of their administrative constitution have been led into strange paradoxes. To manage those minor affairs in which good sense is all that is wanted, the people are held to be unequal to the task; but when the government of the country is at stake, the people are invested with immense powers; they are alternately made the play things of their ruler, and his masters, more than kings and less than men. After having exhausted all the different modes of election without finding one to suit their purpose, they are still amazed and still bent on seeking further; as if the evil they notice did not originate in the constitution of the country far more than in that of the electoral body.


It is indeed difficult to conceive how men who have entirely given up the habit of self-government should succeed in making a proper choice of those by whom they are to be governed; and no one will ever believe that a liberal, wise, and energetic government can spring from the suffrages of a subservient people.

A constitution republican in its head and ultra-monarchical in all its other parts has always appeared to me to be a short-lived monster. The vices of rulers and the ineptitude of the people would speedily bring about its ruin; and the nation, weary of its representatives and of itself, would create freer institutions or soon return to stretch itself at the feet of a single master.

If Republicans want to "modernize their message", which is the latest brilliant counsel of Beltway pundits, RINO establishment types, and related losers of consecutive presidential elections, they would do well to heed Tocqueville.

The message of liberty and opportunity, well articulated, is one that embraces all races, all religions, all ethnicities, all backgrounds.

And that is the message that will appeal to a majority of Americans as it did in 2010, as it did in the era of Reagan, and as it did during the Founding.


Hat tip: The Mark Levin Show, 9 November 2012.

"WHY I DESPAIR": The Lament of a British Expatriate

White House Dossier points us to an exceptional piece of writing by Charles C. W. Cooke, who emigrated to the United States from England and watched the 2012 election results in horror.

A president of the United States just ran a reelection campaign based on the promise of government largess, exploitation of class division, the demonization of success, the glorification of identity politics, and the presumption that women are a helpless interest group; and he did so while steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the looming — potentially fatal — crisis that the country faces. And it worked.

Cooke points to The Life of Julia, the brutish caricature of a woman's life promoted by the Obama campaign, that put government at the center of each female's life.

...the two central achievements of Obama’s first term [were] the spending of an unprecedented amount of borrowed money on the president’s political allies, and the turning of the health-care system over to the bureaucracy in a “reform” that, inter alia, stipulates that to be alive is to owe something to Washington. The latter move involves a claim on the people that no free government should ever make, and that no American government has ever made before. For these grave missteps, the president suffered an epic loss in Congress in 2010. The revolt looked promising, but then — for whatever reasons — he was reelected. Now, Obama has the chance to remake the Supreme Court and remake America’s Constitution, too. Who doubts he will take it?

The unions and Obama's campaign bundlers in aggregate received tens or hundreds of billions in the taxpayers' funds courtesy of the 44th president. And an incurious media watched and said -- for the most part -- nothing.

Economic gravity will prevail, as it always does, and it will eventually yield another conservative president. Indeed, the nature of the two-party system all but guarantees it. But this won’t do much good in and of itself...

...The growth of the state is a one-way ratchet, and its size and intrusion are almost never retrenched. Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1788 that “the natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.” “A government bureau,” added Ronald Reagan, “is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.”

In good times and bad, government grows. And neither party -- with the possible exception of "the extreme right wing" of the Republican Party -- seems the least bit concerned that our debt-to-GDP ratio long ago hit the danger zone.

Alas, there is nothing written in the stars that says that America will always be America. “Rome,” as Joseph Heller brutally reminded us, “was destroyed, Greece was destroyed, Persia was destroyed, Spain was destroyed. All great countries are destroyed. Why not yours? How much longer do you really think your own country will last? Forever? Keep in mind that the earth itself is destined to be destroyed by the sun in 25 million years or so.” There will be little virtue in America if it becomes a larger version of Britain...

On Tuesday, America took another giant leap away both from its revolutionary mission and from the classical liberalism that it has successfully incubated for so long. This is a rotten thing for America, and also — though it might not realize it — for the world...

One of the few bright spots on Tuesday evening was the reminder that Obamcare, Dodd-Frank, the EPA's incessant overreaches -- to name but a few -- will hit all Americans equally. For that is what big government does: it spreads misery.

We are seeing this effect even now as dozens of companies have announced plant closings and layoffs since Wednesday morning.

Those newly unemployed workers who voted for Obama have only themselves to blame.


SUICIDAL IDIOCY: Boehner, GOP Establishment Ready to Deal on Amnesty, Creating a Democrat Vote Factory

As if we needed more proof that John Boehner has all of the intellectual firepower of an addled goldfish, not only did he begin negotiating against himself this week, but he also floated the idea of an "amnesty" deal.

This is the brainchild of a panicked Republican establishment, suddenly concerned that demographic changes are responsible for Mitt Romney's shocking loss.

Sean Trende, writing in Real Clear Politics, has already done an excellent job of debunking that assertion.

In the 2008 final exit polls (unavailable online), the electorate was 75 percent white, 12.2 percent African-American, 8.4 percent Latino, with 4.5 percent distributed to other ethnicities. We’ll have to wait for this year’s absolute final exit polls to come in to know the exact estimate of the composition this time, but right now it appears to be pegged at about 72 percent white, 13 percent black, 10 percent Latino and 5 percent “other.”


Obviously, this surge in the non-white vote is troubling to Republicans, who are increasingly almost as reliant upon the white vote to win as Democrats are on the non-white vote. With the white vote decreasing as a share of the electorate over time, it becomes harder and harder for Republicans to prevail.

This supposed surge in minority voting has sparked discussions about the GOP’s renewed need to draw in minority voters, especially Latinos, usually by agreeing to comprehensive immigration reform... [But] I think these analyses are off base. First, there are real questions about the degree to which immigration policies -- rather than deeper issues such as income and ideology -- drive the rift between the GOP and Latinos. Remember, passage of Simpson-Mazzoli in 1986 was actually followed two years later by one of the worst GOP showings among Latinos in recent history...

...in terms of the effect on the electorate, [any demographic shift] is dwarfed by the decline in the number of whites. Again, if our assumption about the total number of votes cast is correct, almost 7 million fewer whites voted in 2012 than in 2008. This isn’t readily explainable by demographic shifts either; although whites are declining as a share of the voting-age population, their raw numbers are not.

As The Manhattan Institute's Heather Mac Donalid explains, pandering to Hispanic voters on the issue of immigration reform is a suicidal strategy for the Republican Party.

It is not immigration policy that creates the strong bond between Hispanics and the Democratic party, but the core Democratic principles of a more generous safety net, strong government intervention in the economy, and progressive taxation. Hispanics will prove to be even more decisive in the victory of Governor Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30, which raised upper-income taxes and the sales tax, than in the Obama election.

And California is the wave of the future. A March 2011 poll by Moore Information found that Republican economic policies were a stronger turn-off for Hispanic voters in California than Republican positions on illegal immigration...

...And a strong reason for that support for big government is that so many Hispanics use government programs. U.S.-born Hispanic households in California use welfare programs at twice the rate of native-born non-Hispanic households. And that is because nearly one-quarter of all Hispanics are poor in California, compared to a little over one-tenth of non-Hispanics. Nearly seven in ten poor children in the state are Hispanic, and one in three Hispanic children is poor, compared to less than one in six non-Hispanic children. One can see that disparity in classrooms across the state, which are chock full of social workers and teachers’ aides trying to boost Hispanic educational performance.

The idea of the “social issues” Hispanic voter is also a mirage. A majority of Hispanics now support gay marriage, a Pew Research Center poll from last month found. The Hispanic out-of-wedlock birth rate is 53 percent, about twice that of whites.

Mac Donald concludes that amnesty for primarily low-skilled immigrants -- most of whom are dependent upon government services -- will create what I call a "Democrat Vote Factory".

Furthermore, aside from those simple truths, an idiotic deal by Boehner and the GOP establishment would serve only to enrage the Republican base of Constitutional Conservatives.

Writing at Protein Wisdom, Jeff Goldstein offers the only rational course of action for Republicans:

It’s clear the left wishes to keep an open border in order to bring in future Democratic voters — specifically, those who make most use of government services and whose lack of social capital, from struggles with the language to poor education, from the start prevents them from moving into higher-paying jobs. That is, the left is importing future clients, whose votes can be had for a growing of the welfare state.

That the tone-deaf leadership in the GOP and the “conservative” opinion outlets are even considering the pragmatism of identity politics pandering is already quite depressing. But even more so is that they are in such a rush to copy the left’s playbook that they can’t even be bothered to understand what their own should be telling them. That goes for the editorial board at the WSJ, too, whose open borders stance is less about principle than it is about cheap labor.

The way forward with the Hispanic vote is to seal the borders, preach first principles, reaffirm the necessity of assimilation, show the way out of dependency, and reject things like “comprehensive immigration reform,” which won’t help you with Hispanics and will most certainly cost you what’s left of your base.

And I'll add the following:

John Boehner needs to go. He is an intellectual midget, the antithesis of a statesman, and has proved to be an utter disaster at building on the momentum of the 2010 midterms that shoved him into power.

I will support (and marshal friends) to support anyone who opposes him for House Speaker.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Larwyn's Linx: The Sudden (and Curious) Departure of David Petraeus

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

Nation

The Sudden (and Curious) Departure of David Petraeus: Former Spook
State Dept. Disses Senate on Benghazi Documents: Hot Air
My Spine Has Stiffened: Bossie

The Party of Victory: Glick
Could The GOP Take Back The Senate In 2014?: Hawkins
Arab TV Exposed Lax Security At U.S. Consulate In Benghazi: MEMRI

Inside Orca: How the Romney Campaign Suppressed Its Own Vote: Breitbart
St. Lucie County, Florida Had 141.1% Turnout; Obama Won County: PunPre
Allen West Seeks Recount Amid Growing Vote Count Scandal: Times

Economy

Private companies are too smart to hire: Times
Companies plan massive layoffs as Obamacare becomes reality: Times
Economy Bad for Many, but It's Crushing Millennials: CNBC

Record 70 Million on Medicaid in 2011--1 Out of Every 5 Americans: CNS
Large Number Of Companies Announce Layoffs Post Election: RWN
Operating an ObamaCare ‘Exchange’ Would Violate Ohio’s Constitution: Cato

Scandal Central

Classified Info on Benghazi Attack Was Given to Daily Beast Reporter: GWP
Eric Holder Failed to Disclose Wife’s Abortion Clinic: LifeNews
Report: Mexican Cartel Bought Guns From U.S. Border Patrol: Wired

Climate & Energy

6,125 Proposed Regulations and Notifications Posted in Last 90 Days--Average 68 per Day: CNS
After Obama reelection coal company CEO reads prayer to staff, announces layoffs: RedAlert
Earth To Boil In Future, Says New Study: Cove

Media

A CBS News Obama-Libya scandal? Certainly.: WaPo
Obama becomes first president since Nixon to refuse to take questions at a post-reelection presser: BuzzFeed
Liberal Tolerance On Display – Gracious In Victory, As Always: 54°40’ Or Fight!

‘An Awful Lot of Stupid People’: RSM
Mourdock – Why He Lost: Hoosier Access
Brian Williams Turned to Steve Schmidt on Election Night: Tell Them It's Time to Shut This Limbaugh Down: NB

The Liberal Media Are More Powerful Than Ever: AIM
Republican Campaign Failed to Confront Media Bias: Loudon
Incompetent Americans Prove They Despise the Country: Habledash

Malkin: We Should Be Boiling Over Obama's ‘Systemic Truth Suppression’: FNI
Campaign Sources: The Romney Campaign was a Consultant Con Job: RS
Andrew Sullivan: ‘Fox News has to be demonized and cut off’: DC

World

A time for courage, and action: Glick
US Communist Party Crows Over Obama Victory: S&L
College Students Chant “Karl Marx” And “Socialism” In Front Of White House At Obama Victory Rally: WZ

Report: Petraeus extramarital affair probed due to 'security risk': ynet
Poll: 85% Of U.S. Muslims Voted For Barack Obama, Romney Got Only 4%…: WZ
Muslims attack gay club in Paris, beating patrons and spraying them with tear gas: JihadWatch

Pentagon releases Benghazi timeline: took 19 hours to respond: Hot Air
Lockheed Martin ousts new CEO for relationship: Times
Special Report explains how Petraeus affair was uncovered by the FBI: Scoop

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

An inside look behind Romney's loss: An epic failure of its Orca big-data app: ComputerWorld
Pirate Bay Users Hide IP-Addresses to Counter Copyright Enforcement, Research Finds: TorrentFreak
Vinny: Find out how much cars are really worth: TUAW

Cornucopia

Having Hit the Jackpot, We are Leaving Las Vegas With Your Money: MOTUS
The Declaration of Dependence: iOTW
'Drunk Nate Silver': The best tweets from the funniest post-election meme: TheWeek

Image: Paula Broadwell
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Capitalism Magazine

QOTD: "...all the dependency champions who celebrated on Tuesday night cannot stop the coming storm. The greatest advantage Obama had going into the election was not demography but the fact that the full consequences of his statist economic policies and his pro-jihadist foreign policy have not yet been felt.

Nationalized healthcare will only be fully implemented in 2014. Americans will only begin watching old men and women die because the federal government denied them lifesaving, but expensive, treatments a year from now. They will only lose their doctors due to dwindling Medicare reimbursements in a year.

College students who got out the vote for Obama will only find themselves doomed to low-paying jobs and a life of indebtedness as they fail year in and year out to pay off their college loans, in a year or two. And by the time they realize what it means to be saddled with a national debt of $16 trillion, they will be locked into a government-controlled economy that requires them to keep their silence or lose their livelihoods." --Caroline Glick

Friday, November 09, 2012

FREE DEMOCRAT PLANTATION CARDS FOR EVERYONE: You may know them as "EBT"

Free food stamps -- eh, I mean, EBT Cards -- for everyone!


As economist Milton Friedman observed, "You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state."

At least not without a societal collapse, that is.


"WE GOT S***": Obama Refugee camps in New Jersey lack heat, power, basic sanitation facilities

As USA Today observes, "Camp Freedom" more closely "resembles a prison camp".

As he lights up a Marlboro and takes a slow drag before exhaling, Brian Sotelo is a man who finally has reached his breaking point.

Anger drips from every word as he peers at the tops of white tents rising over the trees in the distance. The depth of despair in his eyes is difficult to fathom.


...He stood and talked in the cool morning air a short distance up the road after security at the front gate threatened to have his car removed outside the entrance to what Sotelo's identification tag calls "Camp Freedom," even though it more closely resembles a prison camp.


The Seaside Heights, N.J., resident was at a Toms River, N.J., arena with his wife and three kids a half hour before the shelter opened as superstorm Sandy approached last week. On Wednesday, Sotelo was part of a contingent shifted to this makeshift tent city in a parking lot across the road from a racetrack about 30 miles north...

"Sitting there last night you could see your breath," Sotelo said. Outside temperatures hovered below freezing, in the upper 20s and low 30s. "At (the arena) the Red Cross made an announcement that they were sending us to permanent structures up here that had just been redone, that had washing machines and hot showers and steady electric, and they sent us to tent city. We got (expletive).


...No media is allowed inside the fenced complex, which houses operations for Jersey Central Power & Light's army of workers from out of the area...


..Sotelo scrolls through the photos he took inside the facility as his wife, Renee, huddles for warmth inside a late-model Toyota Corolla stuffed with possessions, having to drive out through the snow and slush to tell their story. Temperatures Thursday finally made it into the upper 40s. Images on the small screen include lines of outdoor portable toilets, of snow and ice breaching the bottom of the tent and an elderly woman sitting up, huddled in blankets.

All the while, a black car with tinted windows crests the hill and cruises by, as if to check on the proceedings.

Somehow, "Camp Freedom" seems an apt name for this sort of facility. And I can't help but think of this entrance to another camp.


This sign reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" or "Work makes one free".


Hat tip: WyBlog and BadBlue News.

CONGRATULATIONS, DEMOCRATS: Interior Department Blocks Access to 1.6 Million Acres of Oil in the West

Could one of you Democrats please tell me how the middle class benefits from higher gas prices and fewer jobs?

The disconnect between the administration’s “All-of-the-Above” energy rhetoric and actual policy looks like it’ll continue now that President Obama was reelected. The Hill reports that the Interior Department plans to block 1.6 million acres of federal land from oil development...


...This type of development shouldn't be confused with extracting oil and natural gas from shale formations using hydraulic fracturing. This is more akin to mining.

Oil and gas production on federal lands has fallen, and based on this action, I expect that trend to continue.

America is the only nation on Earth that restricts access to its own oil.

And this plainly endangers our economic and national security interests.


BUY FREE OR DIE: A Conservative's Buying Guide to Automobiles

I had planned on producing something like this, but The Morlock Revolt beat me to it

Buy Free or Die: Conservative's Buyer Guide: Automobiles


We can no longer be passive in our buying decisions, brands that we have known and trusted for years have chosen sides and chosen to lead our country in to socialism. This is the first post in a series to highlight which companies and states contribute to the decline of our American project that was started in 1776... we need to show these entities that we will not be sending our money to fund our own destruction.

The Autoworkers' unions in the United States are one of the largest contributors to the Democrat Party. The AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka said that he would like to have the Card Check legislation enacted in Obama's new second term. This would make labor unions almost impossible to stop, they would be present in every section of the country's economy. As such I am focusing this first post in the Conservative's buyers guide to Automobiles made in the United States... ...Any future automobiles that I buy will be from the list I have provided that are labeled non-union. Democrats suck and so do unions. Carry on.

If the unions are going to fight the taxpayers, then we are going to fight the unions.


In the past, I have owned a Chevy, a Mercury, a Chrysler, and a Cadillac.

But from now on my money will go only to companies that promote capitalism.

I look forward to Morlock's next buying guide.