Sunday, April 07, 2013

MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry: children are property of the state

In what passes for intellectualism at the failed MSNBC network, Melissa Harris-Perry articulates one of the more ironic and bizarre messages ever uttered by a woman of color. That is, children are the rightful property of the state.

Narrating a new MSNBC "Lean Forward" spot, the Tulane professor laments that we in America "haven't had a very collective notion that these are our children ... [W]e have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to their communities," Harris-Perry argued.

"Once it's everybody's responsibility and not just the households, then we start making better investments." By "investments," of course, Harris-Perry means things like spending "as much in public education as we should have."


Of course, if as Harris-Perry holds,"[t]he cost to raise a child [is] $10,000 a year up to $20,000 a year," and if children should be viewed as collectively "owned" by "society," then taken to its logical extension, a woman's choices about having a child should be informed by the economic considerations of the "community"...

What's more, the notion of collective responsibility for children was a philosophy that undergirded the Cultural Revolution in Communist China under Chairman Mao. I bring that up because, as you may recall, another Harris-Perry "Lean Forward" spot contains a reference to a "great leap forward," which calls to mind the disastrous agricultural reform plan which starved millions of Chinese to death in the 1950s.

History teaches us -- not a malevolent crackpot like Harris-Perry, but the rest of us -- that once children are "everyone's" responsibility, they are no one's.


We've never spent more on education and received less. That the execrable Harris-Perry receives a forum on MSNBC to spout this dangerous Utopian propaganda reveals just how far-gone that network is.


Hat tip: Zero Hedge.

Anonymous leaks sensitive data from Israeli defense firm Decell

BadBlue Tech, the automated tech news portal, points us to a file of sensitive data leaked a few hours ago by Anonymous (PDF):

1. #Anonymous #OpIsrael
2.
3. Greetings Citizens of the world,
4.
5. This is Anonymous.
6.
7. Decell Inc. is (apparently) a privately held company founded in
2000, fully owned by Israel ministry of defense.
8. Decell Technologies Ltd.,” Decell “ leverages its unique
technology to provide accurate, real-time traffic information to
public services, private traffic management companies and not
surprisingly Israeli intelligence services (MOSSAD & Shin Bet).
9. Using sophisticated analysis of different raw data sources such as
CFCD (Celluar Floating Car Data) and GPS (Global Positioning
System) Decell provides GIS (Geographic Information System)
services to both MOSSAD and Shin Bet.
10. Colonel Abraham (Avi) Peri acts as current CEO of Decell, He
served as CEO for number of high-tech companies, and earlier, as a
Colonel in the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). He was in charge of
all computer centers and software development activities in the
IDF! (He is just too sexy!)
11.
12. Source:
(http://www.decell.com/About_Us/Board_of_Directors/board.html)
13.
14. Now after all of this impressive introduction it is our
pleasure to announce that we have managed to hack Decell servers,
acquiring some highly sensitive information, including exact GPS
coordinates of every City, Highway, Streets and of course every
sensitive buildings located within Israel boarders!
15.
16. We are asking every Zionist around the world to pay careful
attention to the following statement:
17.
18. You have a CHOICE to make, either
19.
20. STOP MURDERING CIVILIANS, WOMEN AND CHILDREN,
21. STOP MASS-KILLING PALESTINIANS,
22. STOP STEALING PALESTINIANS LAND,
23.
24. Or ELSE
25.
26. WE WILL PUBLISH MORE OF WHAT WE HAVE GOT, INCLUDING
COORDINATES OF SPECIAL BUILDINGS!
27. THEN HAMAS MISSILES WOULDN'T LAND IN DESERT OR OCEAN THIS
TIME..........
28.
29. Here are some sample of what we have access to:
30.
31. Decell customers usernames and passwords...

Of course, a quick review of the full, illustrated history of Israel would clear up any misconceptions about the Middle East. Namely, which side advances civilization and which promotes barbarism.


Sharia vs. Freedom: Qantas Edition [Dan from New York]

Dan from New York writes:

Islam means "Submission." Now notice who is obliged to submit in this purely secular relationship.


Telegraph (UK), 4/7/2013

Pigs can't fly - Qantas bans pork on in-flight menu to respect Islam


WHERE ARE THE CALLS FOR ANTI-DEPRESSANT CONTROL? Like Other Mass-Killers, James Holmes Was Taking Violence-Linked Antidepressants

Isn't it amazing that antique media hasn't highlighted the one common thread between the spate of mass shootings here and abroad? Not firearms, mind you, but the use of anti-depressant pharmaceuticals.

About a month before the Aurora movie theater rampage left 12 dead and at least 70 injured in July, James E. Holmes told a psychiatrist he was having homicidal thoughts and she concluded he could pose a danger to the public, according to documents released Thursday.

University of Colorado-Denver psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Fenton told a campus police officer about her concerns June 12, the day after she met with Holmes for their only session. Her fears were revealed Thursday when the new judge presiding over the case unsealed a host of search warrants and arrest documents.

Fenton also told Lynn Whitten, a campus police officer, that after she stopped seeing Holmes he "threatened and harassed her via email/text messages," the documents said.

Whitten deactivated Holmes' ID so he could not get into university classrooms and laboratories, the documents say. That appeared to contradict what university officials have said: that Holmes was not banned from the university because of a threat but because his ID was deactivated as part of the normal student withdrawal process.

Along with chemicals used for explosives, rounds of ammunition, pistol cases and paper targets, police seized movie posters, video games, apartment lease papers, numerous computers, 48 containers of beer and other liquor and stacks of school textbooks. They found prescription medication for sertraline, a generic version of Zoloft used to treat depression, panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder; and Clonazepam, usually prescribed to treat anxiety and panic attacks.

...The documents also shed some light on a notebook that Holmes mailed to Fenton, which was found in a university mail room after the shooting. The notebook was described in search warrants as brown with a placard on the cover that said "James Holmes." Also written on the outside of the notebook were the words, "My Life."

...The notebook, which is still sealed, has been a bitterly contested issue. The prosecution says it should be admitted into evidence, but the defense says it is part of doctor-patient privileged communication...

The ties between young people, anti-depressant drugs and violence are so well-documented that the FDA requires bold warnings for the use of psychotherapeutics, including possible fantasies about suicidal and homicidal behavior.

Among psychotherapeutics’ black box warnings are:

• “Increased risk of suicidal ideation in short-term studies in children and adolescents with ADHD.” (Strattera, SNRI)

• “Antidepressants increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior (suicidality) in short-term studies in children, adolescents and young adults with major depressive disorder and other psychiatric disorders.” (Zoloft, SSRI)


• “Monitor appropriately and observe closely for clinical worsening, suicidality or unusual changes in behavior for all patients who are started on antidepressant therapy.” (Parnate, MAOI)

• “High potential for abuse; avoid prolonged use. Misuse of amphetamine may cause sudden death and serious cardiovascular events.” (Adderal, sympathomimetic amine)

A helpful infographic at VizWorld depicts the real-world challenges associated with Zoloft: "A Blockbuster Drug with a Black-Box Warning: Zoloft."

Of course, this morning the propagandists on the Sunday talk shows were not interested in dealing with the root causes of violence. They were instead fixated on redistributing wealth to illegal aliens and relieving citizens of their Second Amendment rights.


Larwyn's Linx: Six Alinsky Rules That Explain Obama’s Words and Deeds

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

Nation

Six Alinsky Rules That Explain Obama’s Words and Deeds: Kerwick
Not the most terrible of things: Owens
Democrat blames Aurora shooting victims for not defending themselves: Scoop

Illegal immigration surging despite WH claims to the contrary: GWP
‘Bam’nesty boosts 454,000 immigrants: Post
Why Hillary is less ‘inevitable’ than you think: WFB

Army lists Christians, Catholics and Jews as Religious Extremists: GWP
Some examples of the impact of gun bans on murder rates: Lott (2010)
Cops warn Chicago tourists soon will be armed: Bennett

Economy

Here Comes Obama's Raid on Your Retirement: Denninger
Another One! Beretta Flees Maryland Over Gun Control Laws: RWN
Miami code enforcement to nuns: Stop feeding the poor: Miami Herald

Kentucky’s Runaway Pensions: Williamson
Back from fundraisers, President Obama hits the links: Twitchy
Companies still cutting employees’ hours because of Obamacare: Twitchy

Authorities Seize $50 Million In Gold From Private Owner: SHTFplan
Sprott: Why SocGen Is Wrong About Gold's Imminent 'Demise': ZH
Firearms Company Relocating To North Texas: CBS Dallas

Scandal Central

How DC insiders launder insider market information for the rich: Boing Boing
Bloomberg's Anti-Gun Pennsylvania Mayor Drunkenly Seeks Oral Sex — at Gunpoint: RSM
‘Billions and Billions and Billions’: Biden Has No Comment on Fisker Failure: RSM

Climate & Energy

New EPA regs give coal plant just two-week window to begin construction: Exam
Senate GOP blasts EPA for release of private business info to environmental groups: Hill
USA meets Kyoto protocol goal – without ever embracing it: Watts

Media

Long Overdue Brutal Honesty: RSM
Univision Wins Peabody Award for Fast and Furious Documentary: Guns
Rahm is Everywhere!: SCC

Four AP Reporters Make Excuses, All Unacceptable, for Weak March Jobs Report: Blumer
Frum: Shooting off his mouth... and other parts of his anatomy: Daily Pundit
MSNBC’s Hayes: Let Released Gitmo Detainees Live in U.S., with Paid Restitution: NB

World

Ex-CIA Analyst Expects North Korea to Attack South Korea Before Tensions End: Wired
US Secretly Deploys B-1 Strategic Bombers, E-6 "Doomsday" Planes Near North Korea?: ZH
Once-Prosperous Italian Couple Kills Themselves Amid Austerity Measures: Gawker

Israel Hacks Anonymous Back, Posts Israeli National Anthem On Their Site: WZ
Reuters: "Five die in Christian-Muslim clashes in Egypt": Atlas
Images of war: A child wanders amid the rubble and dust of a town he called home: DailyMail

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Top 10 Tech This Week: Mashable
Designer Purses for Concealed Guns: NBC Bay Area
IRS High-Tech Tools Track Your Digital Footprints: Yahoo!

Cornucopia

Who Sedit?: C&S
Mid-fight in the Organic Garden of Good and Evil: MOTUS
And Now A Jawa Report Palate Cleanser: Jawa

Image: Images of war: A child wanders amid the rubble and dust of a town he called home
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Are you ready? Visit BadBlue Prep

QOTD: "The North Korean regime is a crime syndicate that has through cruelty, starvation, and torture duped the masses into believing it is something else.

The problem -- I fear -- is that Kim Jong Un has himself been duped. I could very well be wrong, but my concern is that unlike his father and grandfather, he's come to believe the propaganda. Like Hitler in the bunker ordering that non-existent armies be moved into position, I fear he doesn't realize that his country is, militarily speaking, like a giant bee. It can deliver a horrible sting, but once it does, it will die.

I also think he's more than a few fries shy of a Happy Meal. People used to say he spent time in the West and so he can't be all bad or too crazy. I love this kind of horsehockey. You know who else spent time in the West? Lenin, Marx, the Ayatollah Khomeini, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, Sayyid Qutb, and Michael Jackson just to name a few." --Jonah Goldberg

Saturday, April 06, 2013

So Many Unsolved Murders in Gun-Free Chicago, It's Posting Photos of Unclaimed Bodies on its Website

Hey: anyone know how the nation's most restrictive gun control laws are working out?

For the first time, the Cook County medical examiner's office has posted photos of unclaimed bodies on their website in an effort to help identify them.

The program is generating some controversy because of the graphic images, but for the sake of people missing loved ones, this is a decision where the medical examiner believes the ends justify the means.

The site contains information about when the bodies were found and where, along with as much identifying information as possible—including, in some cases--photos of the victim's face.

Here's an idea. Perhaps Chicago could introduce a mobile app for identifying bodies. Of course, these kinds of innovations are only necessary because:

Only 132 of the 507 murder cases in the city last year were closed last year. That makes for a homicide clearance rate of 26 percent—the lowest in two decades, according to internal police records provided to Chicago. (The true picture is even worse; more on that later.) To put it another way: About three-quarters of the people who killed someone in Chicago in 2012 have gotten away with murder—so far, at least. “Those stats suggest a crisis,” says Arthur Lurigio, a criminologist at Loyola University Chicago...

...Last year’s department-wide consolidation and reorganization, initiated by Superintendent Garry McCarthy, has made a bad situation even worse. As one South Side detective put it: “It’s a perfect storm of s***.”

Strange as it may seem, the Obama administration is partially responsible. While the president endlessly agitates for more restrictions on firearms:

Obama's Chicago Dead Last In Federal Gun Prosecutions


A murdered Chicago teen's mother attends the president's speech on gun control, not knowing federal gun-crime prosecutions have in fact dropped on his watch — with the Windy City bringing up the rear... But President Obama did not tell this group that Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) shows that the Northern Illinois district ranked 90th out of 90 in prosecutions of federal weapons crimes per capita.

...there were 52 federal gun prosecutions in Illinois North (Chicago) in 2012, or 5.52 per million in population... the prosecution rate in Chicago was the lowest in the country.

Considering that there were 522 people murdered in Chicago in 2012, one would think that the documented lack of enforcement of existing gun laws by a president seeking more of them would be a national scandal.

"Why doesn't NBC News start with: 'Shocking news on Chicago. Of all the jurisdictions in the country, Chicago's dead last on enforcement of the federal gun laws?'" the NRA's Wayne LaPierre recently asked NBC host David Gregory, who once famously waved a banned ammunition clip on his show.

Gregory's response, if memory serves, was as follows: "Humina, Humina, Humina".


Hat tip: BadBlue Guns.

HEH: Kim Jong-un Joins Swedish Morning Show

North Korea's pudgy, psychopathic, mass-murdering dictator Kim Jong-un appears to have a hobby:

Steven J. Gibbons points us to this “Unfortunate background graphic on Swedish morning TV.”


Un speaks Swedish? Who knew?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

IT'S ALL IN THE PARENTING: Man Catches Major League Home Run Ball While Holding a Baby

Hopefully his wife didn't see this:


Nats. Reds. Bases empty, Werth at bat. Sam LeCure on the mound. Werth swings at the first pitch he sees. Deep right-center. Man. Baby. Ball. No glove, no hesitation.

This guy deserves some kind of award.


Hat tip: BadBlue Fame: Guilty Pleasure.

EXCLUSIVE VIEW: President Obama's Teleprompter as He Prepares to Explain the Latest Catastrophic Unemployment Numbers

Biff Spackle captured this snapshot from the White House Press Room prior to a press conference on the economy.


Of course this is satire. Obama will never be questioned by the press about his abysmal jobs record, or what he was doing during the assassinations in Benghazi, or what he knew about EPA administrator Lisa Jackson's unlawful use of cutout email addresses, or why he hasn't fired Attorney General Eric Holder over his arming of the Mexican drug cartels in Operation Fast and Furious.


JUST PERFECT: ATF seeks 'massive' database to track U.S. citizens, but not the weapons it sent to Mexico's drug cartels

I swear on Michael Moore's life: if this administration wasn't in power, its high-jinx would be suitable only as fodder for a TV sit-com.

A recent notice from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms reveals that the agency intends to acquire an online database capable of bringing up many of an individual’s personal characteristics and connections with just a few keystrokes.

On March 28[, it] filed a solicitation notice for a “massive online data repository system” for its Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information.

...What a contractor would be tasked with, according to the ATF’s list of intentions, is facilitating an automated system that allows agents to “find connection points between two or more individuals” by linking “structured and unstructured data” about American citizens.

...If they get their way, ATF computer analysts will be able to “obtain exact matches from partial source data searches” using an individual’s age range, address, vehicle serial number, or even a fragment of one’s Social Security number. Once that information is deposited, the database would return with the desired search result and that person’s known connections.

Despite the current political climate and the amount of personal information sought for review, there’s no indication that the ATF would use the database to follow gun sales, as current gun laws prevent a central federal registry logging firearm ownership.

Coincidentally, this news comes just days after the revelation that the Department of Homeland Security could have stopped the ill-fated "Operation Fast and Furious" in its tracks.

That ATF operation, of course, secretly sent thousands of military-style assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels in a murderous effort to reinforce the administration's gun control claims. 300 Mexican nationals and at least two U.S. law enforcement officials paid the ultimate price for this Leftist barbarism.

I would submit to you that anything this administration does is intended to crush our liberties -- and this particular lunacy is no exception.


Hat tip: BB.

Larwyn's Linx: Obama Budget to Cap Retirement Accounts at $3 Million

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

Nation

Obama Budget to Cap Retirement Accounts at $3 Million: Breitbart
Bloody Calculus: Owens
Family Breakdown Is At The Root Of Black America's Ills: Elder

Boehner Wimps Out, Chapter 9,036: GOA
Mass Shootings Share One Common Thing and Its Not Guns: AmmoLand
Psychiatric Meds: Prescription for Murder?: NewAm

GOP Congressman Vows to Kill Any Senate Gun Bill With A “Blue Slip": RWN
Man Arrested for Connection with Colo. Corrections Director Death: LawOfficer
Reid Hints at Using 'Nuclear Option' on Judges: Roll Call

Economy

Economist Cited by WH Blames Obamacare for Jobs Numbers: Flopping Aces
A Tipping Point In The Financial System: GoldSeek
An Astounding Statistic: $32 Billion In Overdraft Fees: Denninger

To the Left, California is Now the Model for America: Greenhut
Understand where we're headed: SHTFplan
Disability Ranks Continue to Surge Under Obama: IBD

New Generation Of Subprime Auto Loans Could Cause Another Catastrophe: TAC
Cancer Clinics Already Turning Away Thousands of Medicare Patients: RWN
The Economy's Bad Because of the Sequester or Something: Ace

Scandal Central

Missouri Government caught sending Private Data on Gun Owners to DHS: OffGrid
Campus Cops Were Warned About Aurora Movie Theater Shooter James Holmes, But No One Followed Up: Ace
Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns Drops Member After Weapons Accusation: AmmoLand

Climate & Energy

Obama's EPA: Cloak and Banner: HuffPo (Stier)

Media

Rush Limbaugh: It’s official, we have a dying country: Scoop
Liberals 'are so outraged right now that they could absolutely lynch this uppity, gay-hating Uncle Tom': Wisdom
Did SiteMeter Commit Suicide?: RSM

Slippery Slope Alert: Columbia Prof Equates His Incest With Daughter to Homosexual Sex: Clash
Forbes ‘Manchurian Candidate’ Article on Obama Disappears Down the Memory Hole: GWP
We Can No Longer Tolerate Two Americas: Pagun

MSNBC, Kindergarten for Bored, Angry Unemployed People: Ace
Why Shouldn’t Columnists Be Required to Carry Insurance?: Pagun
CNN’s Jake Tapper Smacks Obama and Bloomberg For Being Clueless About Guns They Want To Ban: RWN

World

Saber Rattling For Fun And Profit: Preemptive Offenses
Obama and the Democrats learn the value of the military toolbox: AEI
FDR's Antisemitism Doomed Thousands of Jews To Suffer The Holocaust: A Lesson For Today's Jewish Leaders: Lid

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Why Facebook Home bothers me: It destroys any notion of privacy: Malik
Google publishes – then removes – a post stating that Fiber will launch in Austin, Texas next: NextWeb
KFC ‘Invents’ Boneless Chicken, Thinks it Has ‘Game Changer’: OTB

Cornucopia

Do You Get It?: MOTUS
Revealing images of patients who have undergone extreme plastic surgery: DailyMail
Diane DeGette World Problems: Sharp as a Marble

Image: Doug Anderson Won The College Dunk Contest With A 360-Degree, Between-The-Legs Jam
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please Support Trevor Loudon's Book Tour

QOTD: "Today’s jobs report reveals that 90 million Americans are now outside the labor force. We need to be getting Americans back to work, helping people move off of food stamps and welfare, and find good jobs with steady incomes. But the comprehensive immigration bill being drafted right now would provide nearly immediate work authorization to millions of illegal immigrants while substantially increasing the future flow of workers. Our first priority must be to help American citizens, and current legal immigrants, find good employment. What we cannot have, and what is not sustainable, is an economic system where a large and growing share of our population is permanently unemployed while jobs are filled by a constant supply of foreign workers." --Sen. Jeff Sessions

Friday, April 05, 2013

Larry Elder: Family Breakdown Is At The Root Of Black America's Ills

The brilliant Larry Elder offers us the gut-wrenching results of the Democrat Party's "War on Poverty":

...census reports from 1890 to 1940 show that blacks were actually slightly more likely to marry than whites — therefore their children were slightly more likely than whites to be born into a nuclear, intact family.

Enter President Lyndon Johnson's "war on poverty." Johnson established "neighborhood centers," whose workers went door to door, apprising people of their welfare "rights and benefits." Welfare rolls exploded — increasing 110% during one three-year period in the '60s.

...Years ago, the late liberal Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., held hearings on the impact of federal government anti-poverty programs known as "urban renewal."

One resident after another testified about government waste, indifference, corrupt politics, overtaxation and the negative consequences of bulldozing old neighborhoods to make way for what became public housing.

An exasperated Proxmire finally said to one witness, "You would probably have better neighborhoods today if there had been no federal programs at all!"

Elder's book is a must-read.

Once I started I could not put the book down so read it in one evening. Without giving too much away, all I can say is that this is not just a book about a strict father and a son who grew up hating him. This is a story for ANYONE, MALE OR FEMALE who was raised by very strict parents. I identfied with many of the situations such as having my father come after us girls with a belt and me running away from home to escape from him.....But this book is more than just this. This book is incredible in that once we find out why Mr. Elder's father was so angry all the time, we come to understand him, sympathize with him and grow to love him for the enormous pains and sacrifices he made and the conditions he was forced to live with as a child growing up in a very ugly time in America. To me, this is a story about redemption, of understanding, of misconceptions due to lack of knowing one's circumstances they had to endure as a child, etc. It's a fabulous read and made me examine my own life and my relationship with my own father. Luckily, as with Larry Elder, I too, found out how much my father loved me and had many many years of a good relationship with him before he passed away.

If you have the time, it's worth a serious read. And a pass-around.


And don't miss: "How we lost the 'War on Poverty'."

Welcome back, Carter: Labor Force Participation Rate Drops to 1979 Levels; Real Unemployment at 11.6 percent

Oh, Madge, he's so historic!

Things just keep getting worse for the American worker, and by implication [the] U.S. economy, where as we have shown many times before, it pays just as well to sit back and collect disability and various welfare and entitlement checks, than to work. The best manifestation of this: the number of people not in the labor force, which in March soared by a massive 663,000 to a record 90 million Americans who are no longer even looking for work. This was the biggest monthly increase in people dropping out of the labor force since January 2012, when the BLS did its census recast of the labor numbers.

But the "official" unemployment number dropped, don'tcha know?

Today, we got the laughable news that the unemployment rate declined even as those not in the labor force ... declined by 496,000. Which is precisely the issue: fudging the labor force participation rate is how the Obama administration has managed to maintain the myth the economy has grown under his leadership for the past 4+ years. It hasn't, and in fact if one re-normalizes for the recent long-term average participation rate of 65.8%, one gets a very different number. How different? A difference that is now at a record compared to what is reported.
...what the real unemployment rate is assuming normal growth of the labor force, which in March was 11.6%, up from 11.3% in February, and the highest since August 2012 when it was 11.7%.

This month the labor force participation rate plunged from an already horrific 63.5% to 63.3%, which is the lowest since 1979.

The fact that the headline unemployment number "dropped" at the same time is indicative of pure propaganda. Something that Pravda would publish during the days of the old Soviet Union.

It's truly sad what this federal government and its media apparatus has become.


Chart: St. Louis Fed.

Prince Fielder hits a home-run so hard it KNOCKS A FAN OUT

No. Way.

Yes. Way.

Prince Fielder went deep off of Boone Logan in the bottom of the fifth inning today. Bad news for this guy.

Fielder was last spotted eating the fan's nachos.


Hat tip: BadBlue Fame.

Obama Department of Energy grants loans based on careful technology review and campaign contributions, but mostly campaign contributions

Watchdog group Cause of Action offers the following illustration that perfectly depicts the corruption laced throughout the Obama administration:


Cause of Action was able to determine, through publicly available data combined with a FOIA production, that for corporations who have received a loan guarantee of any amount, the likelihood that it made campaign contributions increases significantly. Of the data available, 95% (.95) of DOE loan recipients with less than $1 billion in annual revenue documented political contributions by the organization or senior level staff. Comparatively, only 31% (.319489) of similarly sized organizations that did not receive loans made political contributions in one way or another...

...The program itself, while touting its ability to create jobs, has proven riddled with pitfalls and failures and may in fact be taking away jobs from other areas of industry—ones that may prove more valuable to the citizens who fund DOE LGPs with their tax dollars.

As if to highlight this abuse of the public trust, Obama's failed electric car company Fisker is essentially closing its doors, having burned a fifth of a billion dollars. $200 million of your money.

Once again, the American public lost when the Obama administration attempted to pick “winners and losers” in the free market. Today the electric car company Fisker Automotive, which received nearly $200 million in taxpayer money, is laying off three-fourths of its U.S. workers.

The Anaheim, CA-based start up has failed at pretty much every level – especially when it comes to the company’s ultra expensive luxury electric hybrid, the Karma (what a name!), which is assembled in Finland and received a green-energy loan to transition the assembly to the U.S., something that never happened.

This losing tax-subsidized venture joins other past losers like the Obama-subsidized Volt that gets 40 miles per battery charge, or like the Obama-subsidized Tesla that turns into a “brick” when the battery completely discharges and then costs $40,000 to repair.

This is really just the latest manifestation of the administration’s crony capitalism as their green energy buddies benefit from this atrocious waste of taxpayer money. Americans really need to get outraged by these wasteful ventures. As we’ve seen time and time again, We the People are always stuck subsidizing the left’s “losers.”

So what’s the solution and where do Americans go with our outrage? Stand up against the crony capitalism and elect only those who understand and will let America’s marketplace dictate economic successes, instead of letting politicians (some who have never run any business nor even worked in the private sector) choose free enterprises’ winners and losers. Take a stand, friends. Nothing will change unless you do.

- Sarah Palin

When the complete history of the Obama administration is written, it will make Nixon's years in office look squeaky clean by comparison. I kid you not.


Hat tip: Seth.

PARTY ON, BARTH: Kim Jong-un targets Japan and U.S. with ballistic nukes as Obama parties and fundraises

Say, do you remember Hillary Clinton's anti-Obama commercials that depicted a hypothetical President Barack sleeping through a 3am emergency call?

Here's the President's schedule this week interspersed with some minor, inconsequential events like a foreign power declaring nuclear war on the U.S.


Back to Hillary Clinton's 3am commercials. Hell, she could have depicted the phone ringing at 3pm or any other damn time of day.

This president couldn't care less. His priorities are sleeping, partying, giving speeches, fundraising, and destroying the country -- starting with the Bill of Rights. Pretty much in that order. As the assassination of our ambassador to Libya proved and this week's troubling events confirm.


Hat tip: BadBlue Uncensored News.

Larwyn's Linx: Obama Mocks the Second Amendment

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

Nation

Obama Mocks the Second Amendment: TPNN
Obama Fund-Raises in Cali While North Korea Saber Rumbles: Nice Deb
Ted Cruz vows total repeal, no piecemeal fixes for failed ObamaCare: IBD

School for scandal: Thomas
That Magical Moment: TL in Exile
The only gun infographic you’ll ever need: RS

In Rush To Obamacare CA Dems Want To Redefine Who Is A Doctor: Flash
Illegal Immigrants: Dating the Underaged Girls Americans Won't Date: RSM
NRSC to GOP Consultants: Got Any Better Ideas?: Roll Call

Economy

ObamaCare Bait And Switch: Some Medicare Cuts Kill, Others Are Just Dandy: Ace
Get Ready for Obamacare Premium Defaults: AmSpec
Medicare: Sequester Cuts Small Potatoes Compared to Obamacare Cuts: Foundry

Senate GOP: Gang of Eight Deal Could Cost Trillions in Welfare: Breitbart
Tens of thousands Obamacare 'navigators' to be hired: Exam
Obamacare, so great it takes a $48 an hour "navigator" to help you figure it out: WyBlog

Obama Risks New Housing Crisis By Demanding Banks Make Bad Loans: RWN
Court Overturns NLRB; Protects Company's Confidential Data: Forbes
Is the Bank of Japan Losing Control?: ZH

Scandal Central

Even ACLU expresses concerns with Senate Dems' gun bill: DC
DHS tallies up ammo purchases for Sen. Coburn: GSN
Half-Assed! New Technology Suggests Less Than 50% of Border Crossers Are Caught: Lid

The Gory Details About Terrorist Teacher Kathy Boudin: Breitbart
Illegal Immigrant Gunned Down Mother Who Wouldn’t Let Him Date Her Young Daughter: LoneCon
Disabled veteran asked to leave Florida business for offending Muslims with Arabic tattoo: Scoop

Climate & Energy

As Latest Global Warming Scare Report Crumbles, Where's the New York Times' Follow-Up?: MRC
Obama: “The Politics Of Hotcoldwetdry Are Tough!!!!!”: RWN
Insane Climate Policies Increase Risk of Blackouts: Watts

Media

Denver police disgusted at being used as props by Obama to push his ‘gun-grabbing’ agenda: Scoop
America’s Impending Supersized Hangover: Driscoll
The BuzzFeedification Of The GOP: Glob

Marco Rubio May Walk From Gang of Eight?: Ace
Dem Congresswoman Who Claimed Gun Magazines Aren’t Reusable Tries To Clarify Her Statement: WZ
Gun Owners of America Chief to Chris Matthews: 'We Don't Trust People Like You': NB

World

Blame Hillary For Nightmare Of Nuclear North Korea: IBD
North Korea: Suspected Missiles Present New Threats: Stratfor
Hacking of North Korea’s Twitter and Flickr accounts includes pic of Kim Jong Un with a snout: Twitchy

Threat from Rebel Syria Becomes Clear and What Really Happened in the Benghazi Murders: BRubin
Kyle Bass: "Japan Will Implode Under Weight Of Their Debt": ZH
When Society Disintegrates: A Preview Of What May Be Coming To Your City: SHTFplan

Israel Strikes Back After Palestinian Rocket Attacks: IPT
Army medic's hidden photos inspire Holocaust film: ArmyTimes
Quantitative easing will never be reversed: Telegraph

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

"Don’t Rush For Gold" - What A Real Hard Currency Mine Looks Like: ZH
Study: Nuke Power Has Saved Millions of Lives. Media Yawns.: Discover
Microsoft Could Be Obsolete By 2017: Gartner Report: Yahoo!

Cornucopia

10 tips and tactics for investigating Sovereign Citizens: PoliceOne
Obama Declares War On North Korea: SHN
Exposed Website Reboots, Reveals Celeb Credit Reports: InfoWeek

Image: Hacking of North Korea’s Twitter and Flickr accounts includes pic of Kim Jong Un with a snout
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Family seeks marrow donor to save four-year-old Jayden

QOTD: "Aside from the partisan furor over whether the Obama policies have worked — [in 2016] Democrats will say that things would have been worse without them; Republicans will insist that a natural recovery was turned into long-term doldrums — we will not see them continued.

We are institutionalizing, in European style, huge government, high unemployment, sluggish GDP growth, serial annual deficits, ballooning aggregate national debt, and massive dependency, along with near-zero interest rates. The two parties will disagree over the contours of this chronically weak economy, but not over the fact of its weakness — or, soon, even its causes. Most Americans will not wish to continue down the road to Italy or Spain." --Victor Davis Hanson

Thursday, April 04, 2013

1933: American Cyprus

It's hard to believe that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was able to pull this off without an insurrection.

While people around the world may be appalled at the actions of the Cyprus government to close their banks and confiscate a portion of certain accounts, many in America claim it “will not happen here.” Perhaps they are correct for at least the immediate future, but far worse was done to Americans in 1933 and it could happen again.

On April 5, 1933, approximately one month after first taking office, Franklin D. Roosevelt commanded, via Executive Order No. 6102, “All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal reserve bank … all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates now owned by them or coming into their ownership on or before April 28, 1933[.]”

By his executive order Roosevelt deprived Americans of their property “without due process of law” under the Fifth Amendment. To add injury to insult, he also ordered up to a $10,000 fine or ten years in prison or both for anyone who willfully violated any provision of his executive order.

America was deep into a financial crisis of its own at the time, known as the Great Depression, and his executive order was his chosen method for resolving it...

...In 1933, US paper currency, the Federal Reserve Note (FRN), was backed by gold, which required by law all banks to provide gold on demand to their depositors in exchange for FRNs. Since banks did not hold enough gold to meet the demands of the depositors who had lost confidence in the banks, the banks would have to liquidate their business to pay back the gold they owed.

By making it illegal for American citizens to own gold after May 1, 1933, Roosevelt gave the banks a “legal” recourse to default on their contractual agreements. Roosevelt saved the banks by confiscating the gold from American citizens and having Fort Knox built, at tax payer expense, ... store the gold he stole. His decree, in effect, made the normal, unavoidable uses of money a justification for “the seizure of that money from its rightful owners, in order supposedly to “protect the currency system” of the people based on”[1] the money he was confiscating.

Roosevelt used the term “hoarding” to describe the actions of people who lost confidence in their banks and withdrew the gold they had deposited in them. “What Roosevelt actually had in mind, but did not dare say in so many words, was that as a practical matter “hoarding” meant “withdraw[ing] and withholding” gold from the banks – and that therefore [our] gold could be confiscated in the bank’s interests...

If any of this sounds vaguely familiar, it is because similar actions were taken in the 2008-2009 bank bailouts in the United States. The only difference is that instead of gold confiscated from American citizens, the national government confiscated future earnings via liabilities placed against future tax revenue to bail out the banks.

Why should you care?

Well, earlier today Japan opened up a new front in the currency wars by announcing it will print money at a rate unseen since the days of the Weimar Republic.

The easiest prediction I've ever made? This won't end well.


The Run on Italy's Banks Has Officially Begun

The CEO of UniCredit, Italy's largest bank, says that Cypriot-style "haircuts" on bank deposits are "acceptable". Oh, and that said practice should become a model for salvaging banking executives' seven-figure bonus payments. You know, the same bankers whose investments have literally destroyed the balance sheets of countless financial institutions.

And how have Italians reacted?

Curious why so little has been said about cash flowing out of Italy's banks, especially when even UniCredit's CEO today proudly warned everyone he is all for confiscating uninsured deposits as long as "everyone else is doing it" - and no, he is not kidding, so when it does happen, nobody will be able to say they weren't warned ... Maybe it is because Italian cash is actually not leaving the country at all. Instead, real "wealth" is departing the boot-shaped nation, quietly and under the radar, as fast as it can in another form: gold...

As we can see illustrated in this example of capital flight.

Italian finance police had a lucky find on Easter Sunday during a routine check of a family car crossing into Switzerland: they discovered gold ingots worth about €4.5 million (CHF5.5 million) concealed in false compartments... The car was driven by a 53-year-old Italian resident of the Swiss canton of Ticino, described by the police as the legal representative of a Swiss company.

He was travelling with his wife and three children, apparently going for an Easter trip.

The police decided to examine the car more thoroughly when they saw how nervous the family looked. They found 12 gold bars wrapped up in newspaper hidden under the seats.

The driver “was unable to provide an explanation or to show a legitimate source for this large quantity of precious metal”, the police in Ponte Chiasso said. He and his wife gave “evasive answers”.

The man was immediately charged with money laundering. The ingots and the car were seized. Investigations are continuing into the source and destination of the gold.

There has been an upsurge in the smuggling of gold from Italy to Switzerland in the past few months since the Italian authorities launched a campaign against tax evasion and money laundering.

Truly portable wealth comes in very few forms. Gold has served in that role since the beginning of recorded history. And it has the added benefit of escaping the banksters' clutching fingers, seeing as they're admitting that QE-Infinity has about as much chance of succeeding as Obamacare.

Tyler Durden summarizes with the rhetorical question, "did we mention the confiscated product was gold: not euros, not Cypriot euros, not dollars, not palladium, not bitcoin... gold?"


A Growing Jihadist Threat in Europe [Stratfor]

By Scott Stewart, Stratfor Research Vice President of Analysis, and Sidney Brown

On March 26, the Belgian federal police's counterterrorism force, or Special Units, conducted a felony car stop on Hakim Benladghem, a 39-year-old French citizen of Algerian extraction. When Benladghem reacted aggressively, he was shot and killed by the police attempting to arrest him. The Special Units chose to take Benladghem down in a car stop rather than arrest him at his home because it had intelligence indicating that he was heavily armed. The authorities also knew from their French counterparts that Benladghem had been trained as a paratrooper in the French Foreign Legion.

Additional intelligence showed that Benladghem had traveled extensively and that, through his travels and email and cellphone communications, he appeared to be connected to the international jihadist movement. Rather than risk a confrontation at Benladghem's apartment, where he had access to an arsenal of weapons as well as a ballistic vest and helmet, the police decided to arrest him while he was away from home and more vulnerable. The Belgian authorities did not want to risk a prolonged, bloody siege like the one that occurred in April 2012 in Toulouse, France, when French police attempted to arrest shooter Mohammed Merah.

The intelligence regarding Benladghem's arsenal was confirmed when a search of his apartment revealed several weapons, including an assault rifle, a submachine gun and a tactical shotgun. He also possessed a large collection of tactical equipment, including a ballistic vest, a Kevlar helmet, a ballistic shield and two gas masks. With such equipment and training, Benladghem would have been well-equipped to not only handle an assault on his apartment but also to conduct an armed assault -- intelligence indicating that he was preparing to conduct such an attack March 27 is reportedly what led the police to try to arrest him. Authorities are still closely guarding the identities of Benladghem's targets, but given France's involvement in the case, it is likely they were transnational in nature; there are a number of such targets in Brussels, which houses NATO and EU headquarters.

Belgian authorities are now undoubtedly working with their European and other allies to investigate Benladghem's contacts in order to determine the scope of the network he was a part of and what threat his associates still pose. This potential threat is a reminder of the challenges that radicalized European Muslims present for European authorities.