Dude, sitemeter forgot to renew their domain. It expired yesterday. Wonder if they'll be back! Now cheesy spam page loads #FAIL
— rachel clarke (@fiktshun) April 4, 2013

Sure enough:

Dude, sitemeter forgot to renew their domain. It expired yesterday. Wonder if they'll be back! Now cheesy spam page loads #FAIL
— rachel clarke (@fiktshun) April 4, 2013


Obama mocks gun owner concerns as ‘ginned-up fears’: Scoop
"Nuke Up Fast": GatestoneQOTD: "I had the fortune or misfortune to learn how to read fluently starting at the age of three. So I had read maybe 150 books by the time I hit 1st grade. And I already knew that the teachers were lying to me." --Alan Kay

The Chevy Volt has inarguably been the poster child for President Obama's push to electrify America's auto fleet. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent to produce and subsidize the plug-in electric car. For years we have heard about the supposedly amazing technology for the Volt which would lead America to energy independence, be a "game-changer" for General Motors and provide a multitude of new green jobs. Proclamations were made that supply for the wonder-car could not keep up with the demand. Well, March's sales figures are in and give further confirmation that the lofty claims were all lies.
March's sales for the Chevy Volt plunged over 35% from last year to a paltry 1,478 units. To put that in perspective, that's about one Volt sold every two months per dealership. The number is also down from an only slightly less paltry 1,626 sales in February. GM's excuses for the poor performance seem to be drying up as quickly as the demand for the Volt. During GM's sales conference call, management claimed that sales are "stable" and that they are "feeling good about the trend." Such dishonesty brings into question GM's credibility.
In the past, GM claimed that lack of supply was the reason for low Volt sales. In addition, GM indignantly blamed a Republican conspiracy to hurt Volt sales as a contributing factor to the dismal sales figures for the car. Regarding supply, a recent search on cars.com showed that 6,804 new Chevy Volts are available nationwide. That's about a five months supply...
GM and the Obama Administration have done what they can to prop up sales of the Volt and give the false appearance of success. Lease terms were manipulated to manufacture demand, as GM even admitted. Crony Corporation General Electric (supplier of charging stations) agreed to purchase 15,000 of the vehicles. Localities, and even the military, used taxpayer dollars to purchase Volts. And worst of all, wealthy buyers of the Volt receive a federal tax credit of $7,500 each to purchase (or lease) the vehicles.
So, now we have one more indicator that the Chevy Volt hype has all been a farce. Yet there is still no admission nor is there any accountability for the hoax that cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The lie lives on as few will criticize the politically-sensitive green failure. The Congressional Budget Office reported that electric vehicle subsidies will cost taxpayers about $7.5 billion over a few years for little benefit...
U.S. denounces North Korea for “bellicose rhetoric” after "state of war" declaration | bloom.bg/XkQclT
— Bloomberg News (@BloombergNews) March 31, 2013
Chosun TV is reporting that South Korean military have lost contact with two North Korean submarines that left their naval base in Hwanghae Province a few days ago.
There has obviously been a lot of changes between last week and now and South Korean military officials suggested that while maneuvers in February were nothing meaningful, now it is provocation.
The two 'torpedo' subs are small 130-ton, 30-meter, 10-man machines that can stay submerged for three-to-four days.
ING Fights Euro-Zone Woes With Data
April 3, 2013, 7:44 AM ET
Dutch banking giant ING hopes to right its own ship in the middle of this storm by using data to improve not only its understanding of who its customers are, but how they want to be treated. It is using traditional and next-generation data analytics to improve its execution of even the simplest transactions, such as sending out new bank cards, or contacting customers who have forgotten to take their cash out of the ATM using their preferred mode of communication.
“If we need to work on consumer trust, then we need to know what influences trust,” ING’s CIO, Ron van Kemenade, tells CIO Journal...
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Dutch bank ING's online customers find wrong balance in accounts
April 03, 2013 / Reuters
Dutch bank ING was inundated with complaints from retail and business customers in the Netherlands on Wednesday because their online accounts showed incorrect balances.
ING said that it had a problem with processing payments on Tuesday night and that balances online appeared incorrect even though the actual balances in the accounts were not affected. It said the problem was not caused by computer hacking.
Angry customers complained by phone, on social media and in person at bank branches. ING said that it did not know how many customers had been affected.


From top level sources I can confirm to you what you are seeing is an emerging pattern of various beta-tests using Stuxnet like algorithms to affect the banking networks the world over.
Beware the Gun Tax: HaywardQOTD: "President Obama is playing Russian Roulette with the nation's future. And every year that goes by without addressing our debt, he loads another round into the chamber." --Me, just now.
Dr. Ben Carson on Tuesday blasted his critics for heat he’s taken recently over controversial remarks on gay marriage, calling his white liberal detractors “the most racist out there.”
“They want to shut us up completely, and that’s why the attacks against me have been so vicious,” Carson said on the Mark Levin radio show. “I represent an existential threat to them. They need to shut me up, they need to get rid of me, they can’t find anything else to delegitimize me, so they take my words, misinterpret them, and try to make it seem that I’m a bigot.”
..."They’re the most racist people there are because they put you in a little category, a box,” Carson responded. “How could you dare come off the plantation?”
The Obama administration and its controversial Department of Homeland Security are under fire for sending what is being described as a “chilling” message to U.S. Border Patrol agents demanding “obedience"...
...Reliable sources inside the agency confirmed to Ramirez, who also serves as president of the Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council (LEOAC), that the controversial message demanding “obedience” was displayed for agents on TV monitors in the San Diego and Tucson sectors last week. In his explosive video for LNN exposing the scheme, Ramirez also provided a picture of the “propaganda” graphic that he obtained from a source within Customs and Border Protection (CBP) who requested anonymity (see photo above)...
With the cost of insurance at up to $2,000, Democrats put the fine for not having insurance at $10,000.
Compare that to Obamacare where the fines for not having insurance are less than a quarter of the costs for people whose income is at $50,000.
My interpretation is that Democrats are not serious about people getting health insurance, but they are serious [in] stopping people from owning guns.

Why Obamacare Offers Voter Registration: AmSpecQOTD: "These [wilding] attacks would instantly stop if the people of Chicago could carry concealed weapons using only the 2nd Amendment as their "carry permit." The first time a group of a dozen teens tried to roll some "hapless" person and got ventilated for their trouble these attacks would instantly stop.
I never worry about such things around here, nor for that matter do you see such reports in general in cities and towns were must-issue concealed carry, or even better, Constitutional carry, is respected as the law that it is.
But in places like Rahm's utopia where there are no guns (except for all the gang-bangers who [murdered] over 500 people last year) groups of thugs are free to coordinate mass attacks on law-abiding citizens and yet get charged with either nothing or petty misdemeanors, despite demonstrated intent and mass, coordinated action.
If you're a tourist or looking to do business stay away from these liberal "Utopias" if you value your life and possessions.
The fundamental reality is that one gay man .vs. six homophobic rednecks with a pickup truck and rope always loses, unless he possesses a Smith & Wesson. Then he wins and the six homophobes run. I want every gay man to be able to possess that Smith & Wesson, his God-given right to self-defense, unmolested and at all times that he, in his sole judgement, believes he might need it." --Karl Denninger


Our ever so helpful government has decided that your wood burning stove is now a danger to the world. In another attempt to outlaw the off grid lifestyle, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the same agency that was recently caught using drones to spy on Americans, is now going after home owners who use Wood Burning Stoves to heat their homes.
Shortly after the re-election of President Obama, the agency announced new radical environmental regulations that threaten to effect people who live off the grid. The EPA’s new environmental regulations reduce the amount of airborne fine-particle matter from 15 micrograms to 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air.
This means that most wood burning stoves would now fall into a class that would deemed unacceptable under these new draconian measures. The EPA has even launched a nifty new website called "burn wise" to try to sway public opinion.
On their site, while trying to convince people to get rid of their old stoves and buy the new EPA-certified stoves, they state that these older stove must be scraped and cannot be resold...
The local air pollution agency says I can’t sell my old wood stove to help pay for an EPA-certified wood stove. Why is that?
Replacing an older stove with a cleaner-burning stove will not improve air quality if the older stove is reused somewhere else. For this reason, wood stove changeout programs usually require older stoves to be destroyed and recycled as scrap metal, or rendered inoperable.
Let’s hope this doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the newly created Department of Homeland Security Environmental Justice Units? The next thing you know we might all be getting a knock at the door….. Your Neighbor reported that you might be burning some wood, do you mind if we take a look around?
A. President Obama is inaugurated.
B. President Obama signs Obamacare into law. Thousands of pages of law and tens of thousands of pages of regulations (which have yet to be completed) have thrown large regulatory roadblocks at small businesses and either prevented hiring, forced layoffs or compelled the move of workers from full-time to part-time.
C. President Obama signs the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill into law, which prosecutes not a single banker and also fails to address the cause of the mortage meltdown, Fannie Mae. Just this month, the federal government itself admitted that "no one has any idea what compliance with financial regulations, including the Dodd-Frank financial reforms, actually costs."
D. President Obama signs an Executive Order creating a de facto "DREAM Act" amnesty for illegal aliens in the United States, bypassing a Congress that was unwilling to pass legislation to do so.
“I call upon all Americans to observe this month with programs and activities to improve their understanding of financial principles and practices,” [President] Obama said in an official proclamation released Friday... “My Administration is dedicated to helping people make sound decisions in the marketplace,” he said.
...The proclamation on the White House website links to two other government websites: the site for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and MyMoney.gov, which includes materials from 21 federal agencies.
Listed among the “popular topics” on MyMoney.gov is “Managing Debt and Credit,” which includes a link to a page on the Federal Reserve’s website called “Getting the most from your credit card.” Tip 2 on that page is: “Stay Below Your Credit Limit.”
When Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009 [the debt of the United States has increased about 60 percent or] $6,140,111,383,879.54... That means that under Obama the federal debt has increased $53,377 for each one of the 115,031,000 households the Census Bureau says there are now in the United States...
Immigration ‘Compromise,’ A Catastrophic Deal In Any Economy: RSQOTD: "There is no crisis of rifle violence in this state, only a crisis of fear driven by opportunistic legislators." --Ed Pietruszka

Thanks, World Reserve Currency, But No Thanks: Australia And China To Enable Direct Currency Convertibility
Over the weekend, Australia appears to have come to the same conclusion, with the Australian reporting that the land down under is set to say goodbye to the world's "reserve currency" in its trade dealings with the world's biggest marginal economic power, China, and will enable the direct convertibility of the Australian dollar into Chinese yuan, without US Dollar intermediation, in the process "slashing costs for thousands of business" and also confirming speculation that China is fully intent on, little by little, chipping away at the dollar's reserve currency status until one day it no longer is.
That said, this latest development in global currency relations should come as no surprise to those who have followed our series on China's slow but certain internationalization of its currency over the past two years. To wit: "World's Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade", "China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade", "China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System", "India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement", "Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says", "India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees", and "The USD Trap Is Closing: Dollar Exclusion Zone Crosses The Pacific As Brazil Signs China Currency Swap."
China and Brazil agree currency trade deal
China and Brazil have agreed to trade the equivalent of up to $30 billion per year in their own currencies, moving to take almost half of their exchanges out of the dollar zone.
The three-year swap line agreement, signed before the start of a BRICS nations summit in South Africa, marked a step by the two largest economies in the group to change global trade flows long dominated by the US and Europe.