Tuesday, June 04, 2013

BREAKING: Prancercise gets its first major celebrity endorsement!

From the exquisitely sublime The Looking Spoon:

If you haven't heard of [Prancercise] yet, see the video here. I'm sure calling it "revolution" was the hook...


Not that there's anything wrong with Prancercise, mind you. And with all due respect.

I've found I need to use "with all due respect" as an addendum to each post, otherwise Biff Spackle gets audited.


MR. CLOWARD, MEET MS. PIVEN: Social Security's Unfunded Obligation Rises by $1 Trillion

If you're hoping to expedite the collapse of the progressive welfare state, this should qualify as good news.

Contrary to claims by cheerful news sources, Social Security’s deficit outlook is not “unchanged” or “no worse.” Social Security’s unfunded obligation rose by $1 trillion according to the latest trustees’ report.

U.S. taxpayers now owe $12.3 trillion to pay scheduled benefits—in addition to what Social Security can hope to collect from payroll taxes—over the 75-year horizon. That’s $98,517 for every household in America today.

But who can blame news sources for merely citing Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who summarized the report in this bright light: The projections in this year’s report for Social Security are essentially unchanged from last year.


The reported unfunded obligation for the combined Social Security old age, survivors, and disability insurance (OASDI) program rose from $8.6 trillion in 2011 to $9.6 trillion in 2012. The $1 trillion increase represents a 12 percent deterioration in OASDI’s funding outlook.

“Essentially unchanged,” huh?

[The figures exclude] $2.7 trillion in IOUs owed to the Social Security trust fund, and adding it in brings the total unfunded obligation to $12.3 trillion. The entire debt held by the public is $11.9 trillion—a $1 trillion in increase in the debt limit would be no big deal then either, would it?

Social Security is in its third year of running cash-flow deficits, and the 2012 gap between revenue raised from payroll taxes and benefits paid was $55 billion. But this is merely the beginning as Social Security cash flow deficits are projected to double in less than 10 years, and continue growing from there.

Shhh... no one tell Doug Mataconis and the other leftists at Outside the Beltway! Everything's just poifect and the president is doin' a bang-up job fixin' all the economomomic problems! Hey, what time are the Kardashians on?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Unhinged leftists Matt Bernius, Doug Mataconis and their confused crew of commenters are searching for real Obama scandals

I'm not sure exactly when the Outside the Beltway blog went off the deep end but it wasn't all that long ago that it possessed a modicum of balance and commenters actually interested in debate. Those days are long since over, as evidenced by the site's steadily declining Alexa traffic and its confused crew of Statist commenters.

Exhibit 8 jabillion: the ludicrous Matt Bernius' latest homage to unhinged moonbattery entitled "So Far, Issa’s IRS Transcripts Contain A Whole Lot Of Nothing", which pooh-poohs the IRS whistleblowers' revelations that the president's paid spokesman outright lied to the American public.

While much media attention has been paid Issa’s now infamous accusation that White House spokesman Jay Carney is a “paid liar,” little time has been spent looking to see if there is any substance behind his sensationalism. Unfortunately for Issa, if these excerpts represent the best evidence his committee has of systemic wrong doing, he — and the House Oversight Committee — have very little new information about the situation.

And, as we've come to expect from the Hallelujah chorus of Statist kooks at OTB, the commenters -- including Doug Mataconis -- gleefully cheer the willful blindness to wrongdoing by the Obama administration.

• "...if this is the best they’ve got, it’s really not much at all."

• "...this could apply just as easily to a host of other pseudo-scandals the GOP has been busy auto-erotically asphyxiating themselves over for the last couple years..." (Eight up-votes! No down-votes!)

• "Issa is trying to feed a narrative that Obama is a dictator with his tentacles everywhere while also feeding a contradictory narrative that he’s detached and incompetent..."

No, the blinkered nuts at OTB can't find any evidence of fascism or scandalous behavior on the part of the Obama administration, despite -- and this is all off the top of my head, mind you -- recent revelations that:

• Much of the Executive Branch is operating false or cut-out email accounts to avoid public accountability laws and FOIA requests;

• The same mental midgets that hyperventilated about The Pet Goat can't really be bothered to ask what President Obama was doing for eight hours as his ambassador and three diplomatic security personnel were slaughtered during a running gun-battle;

• The fact that the president and his secretary of state knowingly lied to the American people about the nature of that attack in Benghazi for days or weeks on end;

• The willful targeting of opposition political groups -- and the media -- by instrumentalities of government including not only the IRS, but the EPA, HHS, the DOJ, and the Department of Labor;

• Clear, unvarnished perjury by the Attorney General in multiple matters before Congress -- and, if not to Congress, then to the judge from which Holder finally secured an unprecedented search of James Rosen's records after a judge-shopping spree;

• Violation of the Separation of Powers doctrine by the president in unilaterally declaring the Senate in recess in order to bypass the Senate's advise and consent role in appointing his left-wing labor and CPFB cronies; said violations confirmed by not one, but two, federal district courts;

I could go on, but I'll spare you. Just refer to the timeless classic entitled "President Barack Obama's Complete List of Historic Firsts" for a more comprehensive view of the unprecedented assault on the Constitution by this administration.

But OTB and its readers can't find any scandalous behavior by the Obama White House. Which means, like the rest of the progressive left destroying this country, they have no more respect for the Constitution than they do a used Kleenex. They can't see a federal government that expands, in good times and bad, intruding into every aspect of our livelihoods, from automobiles to shower-heads, from backyard ponds to toilets. And now, in a spasmodic fit of self-preservation as the welfare state implodes, the massive authoritarian, centralized government and its apparatchiks like those at OTB act not in the best interest of the people, no, but instead politically attack those seeking to constrain the cancerous growth.

Which is why I needed to employ carbon-dating to ascertain the last time Outside the Beltway actually contained valuable posts or thoughtful commentary. Consider Bernius, Mataconis and their ilk useful only as comic relief.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: It Doesn’t Matter That The IRS Scandal Originated In DC

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

Nation

It Doesn’t Matter That The IRS Scandal Originated In DC: HayRide
The IRS Story Keeps Getting Worse: Jonathan S. Tobin
IRS Inspector General Compares Scandal to... Nixon's Abuses: Ace

Mark Krikorian Interview: Rubio/McCain/Obama Amnesty Bill: John Hawkins
Obama/Holder Justice Department Threatens First Amendment: Cliff Kincaid
Holder’s Seat Burning Hot Following Press Revolt, Perjury Accusations: JW

Operation Over Reach Around: Erick Erickson
Whoa! Congressman Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) tells the truth: Adrienne
Low-Info Voters Keep Obama Ratings Afloat: IBD

Economy

Evidence the heart of the economy is failing: Pethokoukis
Catfish Inspectors, $500K Hotel Bill, U.S. Drone Centers: Geraghty
IRS spent $50 million on conferences: GOPUSA

Rocket Science for Liberals: Food Stamps Stimulate Nothing: Foundry
Hospital refuses new patients until deadbeat Illinois pays up: Marathon
Why Ted Cruz is right and John McCain is wrong: Chris Chocola

Scandal Central

Where was Obama the night four Americans were killed in Benghazi?: GJWHG
Forgotten Scandal: Gibson Guitars Still Being Persecuted for Doing No Wrong: Foundry
FBI Purged Training Materials Deemed ‘Offensive’ to Muslims by the Professionally Offended: Bryan Preston

Climate & Energy

Stricter EPA Ozone Rules Could Put ‘Entire Country’ Out of Business, Industry Group Warns: Nicholas Ballasy
How the EPA skirts transparency: Politico
Bloomdoggle – ‘Green’ Energy Company Paid Illegals $2.66 an Hour in... Pesos: RWN

Media

NBC's Gregory Invites Schumer to Issue 'Warning' to GOP: Move On From Obama Scandals: NB
Choom Boom! Geraghty destroys Plouffe’s nasty Issa-smearing tweet with one photo: Twitchy
Barack Obama's Record-Setting Presidency: IJ Review

It's #MeltdownMonday in North Carolina!: Lady Liberty
Conor Friedersdorf rages on Middle America: Kuznicki
Let's All Sue the IRS: RWN

Long Past Time for MSNBC to Fire Al Sharpton!: Ron Radosh
Chevy Volt Owner Tells Scary Story of Unintended Acceleration...: Carscoops
GOP Grills New IRS Commish On Lerner’s Paid Leave: ‘Is That Your Definition Of Accountability?: Mediaite

World

American taxpayers are subsidizing Obama’s brother to party with the genocidal butcher of Darfur: Scoop
Chicago: Misunderstanderer of Islam gets 23 years in Wrigley Field bomb plot: Creeping
Belgian students vote secretly for boycott of Israel: Times of Israel

Is This a Religion?: Gates of Vienna
Police State Europe: Guns Magazine
Judge Gives Fort Hood Jihadi Who Slaughtered 13 American soldiers in Texas Office & Legal Staff: Atlas

Sci-Tech

This crafty 4-month-old startup helps you never lose your keys (or kid) again: VentureBeat
Vine for Android Hands-On: Mashable
Society unprepared for 3D printing boom: IT News Au

Cornucopia

You Win or You Die: John Hayward
Game of Thrones Fan Reaction Compilation: Ace
Bubba To BO: “WTF? Did you read your contract?”: MOTUS

Image: The Disgrace That is MSNBC's Al Sharpton
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Sweetness & Light

QOTD: "The FBI is rewriting history in order to help al Qaeda. This shows that the law enforcement agency is in need of serious top-to-bottom reform. As we recently learned from the Boston Marathon terrorist attack, the country is less safe when we allow radical Muslim organizations to tell the FBI how to train its agents and do its job. The FBI’s purge of so called ‘offensive’ material is political correctness run amok, and it puts the nation at risk. The Obama administration needs to stop putting the tender sensibilities of radical Islamists above the safety of the American people." --Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch

Monday, June 03, 2013

For the IRS, just like last night's Game of Thrones episode, s*** status about to go to condition "REAL"

Oh, my.

Joseph Curl, a columnist for the Washington Times and Editor at the Drudge Report, says he has sources that the IRS scandal is about to explode:


Based on the stuff we already know, I think this is likely a solid report.

The transcript of an interview with a low-level IRS employee released by the House Oversight Committee appears to validate these reports:

Bill Clinton: Barack Obama's Best Frenemy

James Taranto, writing at Best of the Web, refers us back to a New York Post article by Edward Klein. It's adapted from the newly released paperback edition of The Amateur, Klein's behind-the-scenes look at the SCOAMF administration.

In 2011 this column put forward the hypothesis that Bill Clinton was Barack Obama's "frenemy"--a slang term for somebody who actively undermines another while feigning friendship. We figured Clinton didn't really want Obama to eclipse him by becoming the second Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt to win two full terms.

Over the ensuing months Clinton seemed to confirm the theory by making plenty of backhanded remarks about Obama, but when it really mattered--at last year's Democratic National Convention--he delivered what author Edward Klein accurately describes as "a full-throated endorsement."

But in a the new paperback edition of "The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House," excerpted in yesterday's New York Post, Klein revives the frenemy theory. "A deal was struck," Klein claims, the quo for the Clinton's speech quid was an Obama endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president in 2016:

But after his re-election, Obama began to have second thoughts. He would prefer to stay neutral in the next election, as is traditional of outgoing presidents.

Bill Clinton went ballistic and threatened retaliation. Obama backed down. He called his favorite journalist, Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes," and offered an unprecedented "farewell interview" with departing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The result was a slobbering televised love-in--and an embarrassment to all concerned.


Assuming Klein is right, recent events in Washington make for an interesting twist on the frenemy theory. With the current scandals and the impending implementation of ObamaCare, it's quite possible an Obama endorsement will be poisonous come 2016. Imagine if Richard Nixon had endorsed and campaigned for Gerald Ford in 1976. Mrs. Clinton may find that the man she seeks to replace is her worst frenemy.

Here are a couple of pages from the introduction to The Amateur.


It's kinda like a horror novel, only real.

Click here if you want to order the new paperback edition from Amazon.


THE PERFECT "MODERATE REPUBLICAN" CANDIDATE: Christie Raising Money From Soros, Emanuel, Other Far Left Backers

The far-left-disguised-as-moderate blog known as Outside the Beltway is usually good only for comic relief. I've found no more entertaining collection of Statist kooks commenting on the site this side of Taegan Goddard's collectivist, lockstep loons. That said, once in a great while -- just like a lunar eclipse or a thigh rash -- a nugget of news will unexpectedly pop up on OTB. Please consider:

Chris Christie Pulling In Money From Top Democratic Donors


Gov. Chris Christie is cashing in donations from top Democratic fundraisers and other traditionally liberal donors across the country, even nabbing the support of a handful of rainmakers aligned with President Obama and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Star-Ledger review of state and federal records shows.

The checks are flying into the Republican governor’s war chest from all sorts of unlikely places — the hedge fund run by liberal billionaire George Soros, for example, and the politically progressive halls of the University of California, Berkeley.

The nascent support from Democratic donors is an early sign of Christie’s fundraising prowess in a potential run for the White House in 2016, experts and Democratic donors said, and dovetails with recent polls showing him gaining popularity nationally among Democrats and independents.

Christie’s partnership with New Jersey Democratic leaders and his warm relationship with Obama after Hurricane Sandy could be enticing donors who don’t often give to GOP candidates, even if they are closer ideologically to Democrat Barbara Buono, Christie’s lesser-known challenger, political scientists and Democratic fundraisers say.

Here’s just a sample of what Christie is pulling in:

• Five executives at Soros Fund Management have chipped in a combined $19,000 to the governor’s re-election campaign, state records show. The donor roll includes Soros’ protégé and chief investment officer, Scott Bessent, who tends to fund liberal Democrats, and Sender Cohen, a partner at the hedge fund who more often favors Republicans.

•John Doerr, a top Democratic fundraiser and venture capitalist in California, sent Christie the maximum $3,800 donation for the Republican primary this year. So did his wife. Federal records show the couple has given more than $1.2 million to national Democrats since 1997.

•Tim Mullen, a Chicago investor who gave more than $100,000 to Emanuel’s campaign for mayor in 2011 and bundled from $200,000 to $500,000 for Obama in 2008, has also sent Christie a maximum donation, as has his wife Alice. Mullen was already a Christie donor in 2009, state records show.

This ought to pose an interesting dilemma for the old, doddering, decrepit Republican establishment. Because choosing to align themselves with a Soros-backed, Obama-hugging, anti-Second Amendment, pro-illegal immigration, pro-Islamist "moderate" like Christie might be a bridge too far, even for these neo-Statist, cowardly, ruling elites.


Hat tip: BadBlue News Service


Larwyn's Linx: The IRS and FBI: Breach of Faith

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

Nation

The IRS and FBI: Breach of Faith: Jeffrey Lord
White House: Will no Democrat ask us to fire this meddlesome AG?: Moe Lane
Holder the horrible: a long history of constitutional abuses: Jeffrey T. Kuhner

Trey Hardin at ABC News Radio: IRS Scandal Tied to Administration: CC
Schumer: 'So-Called Scandals' Won't Slow Down Amnesty: Andrew Stiles
Bill Clinton on Obama: ‘He’s incompetent. He’s an amateur!’: JWF

Gang of Eight Needs to Ride Into the Sunset with Their Amnesty Bill: NR
WANTED: Disruptive Candidates: Erick Erickson
Obama was pushed into endorsement of Hillary 2016: book: Edward Klein

Economy

Obama hits links for 125th time as President: Dossier
Flashback: Obama said health insurance would drop $2,500 per family: Twitchy
Obamacare To Double Cost Of Insurance For Average Californian: ZH

Scandal Central

Lois Lerner to 1996 U.S. Senate Candidate Al Salvi: "We'll get you!"': IlRev
DOJ warns Americans can be prosecuted for angering Muslims: JihadWatch
EEOC: Trucking Company Must Accommodate Muslim Employee: Volokh

Climate & Energy

EPA Climatism: Dictating Our Lives, Living Standards and Life Spans: Paul Driessen
Newly released emails show EPA director’s extensive use of fictional alter ego: Times
The haunting final tweets of Discovery storm chaser Tim Samaras, killed in Okla. tornado: Twitchy

Media

Ice Cracking Beneath Eric Holder’s Florsheims?: Driscoll
Issa dismisses Carney as a 'paid liar': Politico
Slam! Fox News’ Martha MacCallum calls out lapdog media with simple question: Twitchy

Underreporting in Obamaland: Michael Reagan
Soledad O’Brien to Grads: Don’t Take Anyone’s Advice: Warner Todd Huston
‘Crouching Audit, Hidden Wiretap’: Predicting #BarackObamasNextBook sparks comedy gold: Twitchy

NY Times: Holder Won’t Leave Because That Might Embolden Obama’s Critics: Cove
Tweets by former IRS chief’s wife reveal radical leftist political views: Twitchy
Twitter Twit: iOTW

World

Obama’s Dorothy Doctrine : Krauthammer
Blood In the Streets: Turkey Explodes In Violence (**Graphic Content**): SHTFplan
Fake votes mar France’s first electronic election: Independent

The paranoid style of Obama politics: John Hayward
L.A. Times Touts Obama Amnesty Plan With Illiterate Illegal Alien Who Drives Without a License: AmPower
Middle East genocide: Last vestiges of Christians and Jews eradicated from nation after nation: Ralph Peters

Al-Qaeda: Boston shows U.S. fragile security, Muslims in U.S. should carry out more bombings: JihadWatch
Mayhem in Monterrey: 12 die: Borderland Beat
Timbuktu’s slaves liberated as Islamists flee: Sudarsan Raghavan

Sci-Tech

Smoking Alcohol? Doctors Warn Calorie-Conscious Trend Is Extremely Dangerous: MedicalDaily
Motorola shows off tattoo and swallowable password hardware: Register
The Firing Offense: TheDailyWTF

Cornucopia

Obama vs. Medea: Opera Mashup Video: Cube
Coolest SOB In The Conservative Blogosphere Award 2013: I'm 41
Two years later, mystery surrounds disappearance of Indiana University student Lauren Spierer: Fox

The White House’s Genetically Modified Organism?: MOTUS
Handwritten break-up letter goes viral: Starcasm
Spirit of LeMons car-plane and the policeman who built it: Autoblog

Image: Washington post: Timbuktu’s slaves liberated as Islamists flee
Sponsored by: AFDI PROTEST: FREE SPEECH BATTLE IN TENNESSEE, JOIN US, JUNE 4

QOTD: "S.744 does not secure the border or strengthen national security. Instead, the bill rewards law-breaking and encourages more illegal immigration:

1. S.744 allows DHS to grant legal status (registered provision immigrant, or RPI status) in 6 months, before any measure to secure the border has been taken. (Sec. 3, p. 10; Sec. 5, p. 24)

2. S.744 includes the DREAM Act, which puts illegal aliens who entered the U.S. before 16 on a 5-year path to citizenship. However, unlike previous versions of the bill, there is no age limit and DHS may waive the work/study requirement. (Sec. 2103, p. 112)

3. S.744 grants amnesty to illegal farm workers and gives them green cards in five years. (Sec. 2211, p. 155; Sec. 2212, p. 177)

5. S.744 does not require any additional border fencing or completion of current border fence requirements. Instead, it requires DHS to submit to Congress a fencing “strategy,” in which DHS recommends what additional fencing is needed along the U.S.-Mexico border, if any. (Sec. 5, p. 24)
FAIR’s Top 40 Reasons to Oppose the Gang of Eight Amnesty Bill

6. S.744 does not require illegal aliens to pay back taxes before getting legal status (RPI status). It only requires RPI applicants to pay back taxes “assessed” at the time of application. (Sec. 2101, p. 70)

7. S.744 does not require illegal aliens to learn English before receiving amnesty or even a green card. Under Section 2101, an RPI alien who applies for a green card that the alien is satisfactorily pursuing a course of study “to achieve an understanding of English and knowledge and understanding” of civics (Sec. 2101, p. 105)

8. S.744 allows illegal aliens who have been deported (for any reason) and/or who have re-entered illegally to apply for RPI status if they have certain family members in the U.S. (Sec. 2101, p. 73)

9. S.744 does not add any additional Border Patrol agents, who patrol the vast territory between ports of entry. Instead, S.744 adds 3,500 Customs and Border Protection officers, many of whom do only customs work, and are stationed at official ports of entry.

10. S.744 does not require any border security measures be taken on the northern border or along the coasts where more illegal aliens are arriving to avoid border patrol agents and drug cartels. Instead, it only requires that DHS prepare a border security strategy for the U.S.-Mexico border.

12. S.744 does not end abuse of prosecutorial discretion or administrative amnesty by the Obama administration. Instead, it leaves in place policies direct immigration agents to release illegal aliens the Administration deems “low priority.”

13. S.744 allows DHS to waive multiple misdemeanor convictions when granting amnesty, so an alien with three or more misdemeanors still may be eligible for legal status (RPI status). (Sec. 2101, pp. 64-67)

14. S.744 also authorizes DHS to waive a broad array of unlawful behavior for the purpose of determining whether illegal aliens are admissible, including:

Gang-related crimes and gang membership;
Three or more drunk driving offenses;
Domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, and violation of protective orders;
Committing crimes of moral turpitude;
Violating federal or state drug laws;
Trafficking in passports;
Providing fraudulent immigration services;
Trafficking immigration documents, including document fraud;
Prostitution;
Misrepresenting a material fact to procure visas or other immigration benefits (if done for any purpose other than submitting an amnesty application);
Violating student visas;
Falsely claiming citizenship; and
Illegally re-entering the U.S. after deportation (which is a felony); (Sec. 2101, p. 66)
All other grounds not specifically listed in the bill. (Sec. 2101 INA245B(b)(3)(i), p. 65)

17. S.744 voids state and local E-Verify laws. (Sec. 3101, p. 511)" --FAIR’s Top 40 Reasons to Oppose the Gang of Eight Amnesty Bill (PDF)

Sunday, June 02, 2013

The digital camera is nearly 40 years old: here's the very first one

An Eastman Kodak engineer named Steve Sasson invented the first digital camera in 1975:

In a Kodak blog post written in 2007, Sasson explains how it was constructed:

It had a lens that we took from a used parts bin from the Super 8 movie camera production line downstairs from our little lab on the second floor in Bldg 4. On the side of our portable contraption, we shoehorned in a portable digital cassette instrumentation recorder. Add to that 16 nickel cadmium batteries, a highly temperamental new type of CCD imaging area array, an a/d converter implementation stolen from a digital voltmeter application, several dozen digital and analog circuits all wired together on approximately half a dozen circuit boards, and you have our interpretation of what a portable all electronic still camera might look like.

Here are some specs: The 8 pound camera recorded 0.01 megapixel black and white photos to a cassette tape. The first photograph took 23 seconds to create.


To play back images, data was read from the tape and then displayed on a television set:


Today's most affordable state-of-the-art camera, the Canon PowerShot SX150 IS, by comparison has the following specs:

• 12x Wide-Angle Optical Zoom and 28mm lens with Optical Image Stabilizer

• 14.1 Megapixel Image Sensor and DIGIC 4 Image Processor

• 720p HD Video in Stereo Sound

• Large 3.0-Inch Wide LCD Viewing Screen

• Movie Digest Mode Records Video Clps Before Shoting a Photo

• 12x wide-angle optical zoom

At Amazon, all of this technology can be purchased for less than $100.


Here it is: the full, six-count indictment against Attorney General Eric Holder by former prosecutor Pirro

The following is a transcription of a monologue by former prosecutor Jeanine Pirro that lays down a startling list of criminal activities:

Count 1: Perjury, for the May 15th statement before the House Judiciary Committee that you, Eric Holder, know nothing about the potential prosecution of the press -- that it's not something you've ever been involved with -- when, in truth, you not only knew the statement was not true, you personally approved the seeking of a warrant for those records.

Count 2: False Statement, Knowingly making a False Statement within the matter of the jurisdiction of the Legislative Branch, for that same testimony. Although here, an enhanced sentence for Obstruction.

Count 3: Aiding and Abetting, for your role in Fast and Furious, Aiding and Abetting for your letter to the House Judiciary Committee dated February 4, 2011, by your Deputy Ron Wyden stating unequivocally that there was no gun-walking and no weapons sent across the Mexican border. That statement was also a lie, which you had to admit after.

Count 4: Mispirison of Felony, for your knowledge when you had a duty to stop the gun-running to Mexico, and your failure to do so.

Count 5: Perjury, for your lies to Congress that you first heard about Fast and Furious in late April of 2011 when even the president admits he knew about it before that.

Count 6: Conspiracy, allowing for the use of and providing guns to the Mexican Cartels during a drug-trafficking offense in furtherance of a drug-trafficking conspiracy.

* * * * * * * * *
Eric Holder is now a political liability not only for Barack Obama, but the entire Democrat Party. Combined with the pain that Obamacare will inflict, the midterm elections are shaping up to be a disaster. That may explain why, in Walter Russell Mead's view, "the long knives may be coming out for Holder".


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

TOP 20 LIST: If companies had realistic slogans what would they be?

Culled from an amusing Reddit thread:

• Motel 6: We will leave the lights on for you because we are in a dangerous f***ing neighborhood!
• Dasani: Italian for "Coke just sold you water"
• Red Robin: When you don't want to spend much taking the kids out, but you need alcohol.
• Carnival Cruise: OH COME ON. What are the chances something will happen this time?

• Geek Squad: Let us Google that for you.
• Adobe: an update is available.
• McAfee - Please don't uninstall
• Axe: Smell like a sixth grader.

• Barnes & Noble: Your Local Library Now Has A Starbucks
• Lexus: A Toyota that will get you laid.
• AOL: Still here
• Fiji: If you love the taste of water and hate money

• Air Canada: "We're not happy til you're not happy"
• NetFlix - Wait, don’t go! Arrested Development!
• Comcast - We'll be there between 7AM and go f*** yourself
• Applebee's: We figured out a way to f*** up salad.

• Monster [Energy Drinks]: For Extreme Sitting At Your Computer
• SlimJim: If we showed you how we make these you'd stop eating meat forever.
• Internet Explorer: your number 1 browser for downloading other browsers
• Denny's: because its 2 am, you're drunk, and you need pancakes.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News - BadBlue.com/Tech.

Larwyn's Linx: Former Prosecutor Pirro Draws Up a Six-Count Indictment of Eric Holder

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

Nation

Former Prosecutor Draws Up Six-Count Indictment of Eric Holder: Scoop
Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Attended Meetings With IRS Chief: GWP
Gowdy: Holder Nothing But a Political Tool of Progressive Movement: Scoop

Four Mexican Nationals Sentenced in Large Idaho Narco Operation: Breitbart
Washington Bureaucrats Unconstitutionally Making Public Policy: Foundry
Rand Paul outlines agenda, potential 2016 presidential platform: Times

Rep. Peter King: Holder May Be Guilty of Perjury: RWN
National, NYC immigration bills could add thousands to voter rolls: Fox
NJ Doctor With Occupy Ties Indicted on Explosives Related Charge: LI

Economy

Congress has 2016 deadline to save Social Security Disability: Times
Empire of the Entitled: RWN
Supporters Spin Obamacare Disaster into Good News by Book-Cooking: Mead

Sen. Ted Cruz: Time to abolish the IRS and move to the flat tax: Scoop
How to Identify Toxic Cirriculums: Adam Cahnman
The Little Dictators: John David Lewis (2006)

Scandal Central

Top aide to House Dem resigns in ballot-fraud scandal: Hot Air
IRS commits political sabotage: John Eastman
D.C.'s Racist Hiring and Targeting of Conservatives and Pregnant Women: J. Christian Adams

Meet The Gentlemen Who Plan to Prosecute You if You Upset Muslims: NER
Obama EEOC violates American Rights in Favor of Sharia Law: Atlas
Former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald takes the Fifth: IP2P

Climate & Energy

The End of Snow, 13 Years On: Walter Russell Mead
Science: Democrat Rep. Raúl Grijalva borrows lab coat, makes ‘best pro-Keystone XL video ever’: Twitchy
Elon Musk, of Tesla Fame, Is Broke: Dealbook

Media

WaPo's Surreal Report on Holder's Off-the-Record "Press Freedom" Meeting: Guy Benson
The IRS Just Dug Big Government’s Grave: Glob
Weekly Featured Profile – Barack Obama: NoisyRm

Politico contributor Evan Thomas calls Obama a hypocrite and dishonest: Scoop
Journalism Prof Misfires on NRA Speech Claims: Pagun
G-Mac, Steal This Idea: Second City Cop

World

Obama’s SEAL Team 6 Coverup: Black Sphere
Obama administration to blame for jailing of hero Bin Laden doctor, says Pakistani report: Fox
The Great Race Card Getaway: Daniel Greenfield

President Obama Set to Sign UN Arms Treaty While Texas AG Threatens to Sue: TPNN
Hezb'Allah Chief Hassan Nasrallah: "Our Plan...Is To Establish An Islamic State Under The Rule Of Islam": Atlas
Iran Terror 'Sleeper Cells' Are Infiltrating South America, Argentine Prosecutor Says: Fox News Latino

A ringside seat as Istanbul protests: Hugh Pope
Turkish police retreat from central Istanbul square as more protesters pour in: Times of Israel
Islamism's Decade of Spreading Polio: Pipes

Sci-Tech

Here's Why We Stopped Wasting Time on Facebook: Social Media Today
If companies had realistic slogans what would they be?: Reddit
A stroll back in time to NYC, 1939 [video]: Alltop

Cornucopia

Nixon-Obama: Twin Sons of Different Mothers???: MOTUS
The End Of Tim Tebow’s Career?: OTB
Mike Zullo Reveals Media Threatened Over Obama Birth Certificate: Western

Image: Anthony Weiner - Streets Blog
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Protein Wisdom

QOTD: "Recently, law professor Jonathan Turley took to the pages of The Washington Post to warn about the growth of the administrative state. “The growing dominance of the federal government over the states has obscured more fundamental changes within the federal government itself,” Turley wrote. “Our carefully constructed system of checks and balances is being negated by the rise of a fourth branch, an administrative state of sprawling departments and agencies that govern with increasing autonomy and decreasing transparency...”

...As Heritage’s Joe Postell puts it, there are four major constitutional problems today:

• The administrative state combines the powers of government in the hands of the same officials in violation of the separation of powers principle.
• It is based on unconstitutional delegations of legislative power from Congress to bureaucrats and administrators.
• It violates the principle of republican government, which requires that power—especially legislative power—be derived from the consent of the governed, expressed directly or indirectly through elections.
• The administrative process it follows to adjudicate disputes is fundamentally opposed to the protections offered by the rule of law in the traditional judicial process." --Rich Tucker

Saturday, June 01, 2013

THANK GOODNESS: Obama EEOC Now Enforcing Islamic Sharia Law!

The massive fourth branch of government -- the administrative state -- is officially out of control. Please consider the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, under the direction of the Obama administration, which is now doing the work the Taliban won't do.

The EEOC is suing Star Transport for rightfully terminating two Muslims who refused to do their job. If these Muslim truck drivers don't want to deliver alcohol, then they shouldn't have taken a job in which part of their duties would be to deliver alcohol. It's that simple.

PEORIA, Ill. - Star Transport, Inc., a trucking company based in Morton, Ill., violated federal law by failing to accommodate two employees because of their religion, Islam, and discharging them, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.


The lawsuit alleged that Star Transport refused to provide two employees with an accommodation of their religious beliefs when it terminated their employment because they refused to deliver alcohol.

The drivers refused to deliver legal products in America? So where, pray tell, does this end? I suspect the EEOC hasn't quite figured out where they'll draw the line on their enforcement of Sharia law:

Alcohol (line already crossed)
• Ham sandwiches?
• Bibles?
• Televisions?
• Single women on buses?
• Magazines that depict "un-Islamic" images?
• Slot machines and other devices related to gambling?

Perhaps you could contact the Office of the Inspector General of the EEOC and ask them where exactly this line will be drawn.

E-mail Address: inspector.general@eeoc.gov

OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
P.O BOX 77067
WASHINGTON D.C. 20013-7067

OIG Main Number: 202-663-4327
OIG Fax Number: 202-663-7204
OIG Hotline Number: 800-849-4230

As attorney Mark Levin has frequently observed, we now live in a post-Constitutional Republic.


Related: IT'S COME TO THIS: Holder Justice Department Says It Will Help Enforce Islamic Sharia Law

The Crimes of the Koch Brothers

I was over at BadBlue scanning the headlines when I noticed this ad:


Don't tell anyone, but I clicked on the link. I wondered who exactly would target these private citizens I've heard of -- described in hysterical tones by Leftist bloggers -- but otherwise have no familiarity with. A click-through brought me to a site operated by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

The billionaire Koch brothers and their secret donor allies are on a mission – to recruit, train and fund ultra-conservative Tea Party Republicans at the local, state and national level. It’s a blatant attempt to drown out the voices of ordinary Americans by using unlimited, secret contributions to pursue their special-interest agenda.


Enough is enough. Add your name using the form below to demand that these Koch-backed special interest front groups publicly disclose their donors!

Apparently, it is now a crime to "recruit, train and fund" men and women who believe in a different political philosophy than Democrats. In this case, those who support the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. You know, the same documents that politicians take an oath to uphold?

As an aside, this site appears to be operated by some company called Salsa Labs (and you boys should be ashamed of yourselves).

Bruce at Gay Patriot wonders, as did I, who originated the anti-Koch Brothers hysteria? A little research revealed the following timeline behind the fomenting of KBDS ("Koch Brothers Derangement Syndrome"):


11-Feb-2009: CBS News' Scott Pelley interviews Bill Koch on 60 Minutes ("Rich In Cash, Poor In Family Love"), who airs his grievances against the family. Bill had sold his shares in Koch Industries in 1983 and was presumably bitter that he had lost out on the vast gains his brothers had rung up since he'd sold.


20-Feb-2009: The union website Mid-Atlantic Labor pinpoints a major opponent to the ill-fated Obama Stimulus program, Americans For Prosperity:

The compromise version of the $787 billion economic stimulus plan passed the House and Senate Friday and is expected to be signed by President Obama tomorrow in Denver. Despite Democratic leaders’ efforts to reach out for Republican support by dropping various controversial provisions and beefing up tax cuts, the measure passed with no Republican votes in the House and only three Republican votes in the Senate.

Public opposition to the plan was led by a group called Americans for Prosperity, which delivered 400,000 signatures on a petition to the Senate opposing the measure... [and who is AFP?]... the group was founded in 2003 with money from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, which is run by the billionaires behind Kansas-based Koch Industries — the national’s largest privately held oil and gas company...


27-Feb-2009: Mark Ames and Yasha Levine at PlayBoy.com claim the nascent Tea Party movement is the brainchild of the Koch Brothers, not a grass-roots movement.

Last week, CNBC correspondent Rick Santelli rocketed from being a little-known second-string correspondent to a populist hero of the disenfranchised, a 21st-century Samuel Adams, the leader and symbol of the downtrodden American masses suffering under the onslaught of 21st century socialism and big government. Santelli’s “rant” last-week calling for a “Chicago Tea Party” to protest President Obama’s plans to help distressed American homeowners rapidly spread across the blogosphere and shot right up into White House spokesman Robert Gibbs’ craw, whose smackdown during a press conference was later characterized by Santelli as “a threat” from the White House. A nationwide “tea party” grassroots Internet protest movement has sprung up seemingly spontaneously, all inspired by Santelli, with rallies planned today in cities from coast to coast to protest against Obama’s economic policies...

...What we discovered is that Santelli’s “rant” was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign. In PR terms, his February 19th call for a “Chicago Tea Party” was the launch event of a carefully organized and sophisticated PR campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for the some of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has ever produced. Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire [sic] owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks...


For years now, the Koch Brothers have been targeted by the left because they are politically active for conservative causes. In 2010, Americans For Prosperity -- a group with 2 million members -- was attacked directly by President Obama:

Right now all around this country there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates all across the country. And they don't have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are. You don't know if it's a foreign-controlled corporation. You don't know if it's a big oil company, or a big bank.

Obama's attack on AFP was, in so many words, an assault on the free speech rights of two guys named Koch -- and all of us. Read the ad at the top again: "Demand That Koch-Based Front Groups Disclose Their Donors!"

The left wants your name. They want millions of names. They want to politically target -- through the IRS, Obamacare, the EPA, and every other lever of a massive, centralized authoritarian government -- you. You have no free speech rights under this administration. No freedom to assemble. No freedom of religion.

In short, within 16 f***ing days in 2009, a politically active family was targeted by every instrumentality the Democrat Party could bring to bear: antique media in the form of CBS, labor unions, new media and the President of the United States himself. That the Leftist tools and sycophants have since endlessly pantomimed their hatred for free speech is troubling, but not unexpected.

After all, we know what the hard left Democrat Party's end game is. But don't bother clicking here if you can't handle the truth.


"That, dear friend, is about the end of any nation.”

Attributed to Adrian Rogers:


Coincidentally, 72,600,000 Americans, a record number, received Medicaid in 2012. That is more than the population of France and the United Kingdom.

This isn't going to end well for any of us. I only take comfort in the fact that the drones are going down with the ship along with the rest of us.


HMMMMMMMMM... CLAIM: James Rosen Targeted by Eric Holder For Three Reasons: Obama Critic, Fox News and Jewish

Only a handful of top Justice Department officials likely know the real reasons James Rosen of Fox News was targeted by Eric Holder, and at least one may* ( and I repeat, may) have been brave enough to leak it. An email, received from an anonymous, purported insider, states the following (some details redacated upon request):

Brass at RFK [Attorney General's office at Main Justice] set on making an example of Fox aggressive reports going after POTUS. Rosen targeted as "aggressive Jew" behind Fox critics of POTUS. DPRK [North Korea] report was not much to pin Rosen but enough. Fact he was Fox and Jewish put him in Holder (Obama?) crosshairs. Look up rreporting Rosen did. re: Petrobs [Petrobas - link] loan and no-bid Checchi [Checchi and Company Consulting, an Obama campaign contributor - link] deal for reasons.

I added the descriptions and links inside the brackets, but left the typos.

* Full caveat and disclosure: I can't verify the authenticity of this email. It was sent through an anonymous remailer and additional details were removed at the request of the sender.

That said, if the IRS targeting Jewish groups (as well as a litany of conservative and Tea Party organizations) is any indication, the report is believable on its face.


Related: Obama DOJ to federal judge: Let’s keep this James Rosen warrant between us, OK?.


IRONY-METER SHATTERS: Press Banned From Revealing Details of Eric Holder's Press Briefing on His Abuse of Press Freedom

You can't make this s*** up.

Sean Higgins thinks this Washington Post "report" on Eric Holder's widely-boycotted confab with journalists is "beyond parody."  Yeah, pretty much:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. pledged Thursday to take concrete steps to address concerns that the Justice Department has overreached in its leak investigations and said officials would seek procedural and possibly legislative changes to protect journalists’ First Amendment rights. Holder’s commitment came at a private meeting with news executives after criticism that the Justice Department had infringed on the news media in several high-profile leak investigations. Participants said he told them officials would revise guidelines for issuing subpoenas to obtain reporters’ phone records. The 90-minute meeting was attended by a small group of journalists after several news organizations objected to the Justice Department’s insistence that it be held off the record. The participants, however, reached an agreement with the Justice Department under which they could describe what occurred during the meeting in general terms...


Eric Holder pledged to take "concrete steps" to address the actions of Eric Holder -- up to and (possibly) including backing legislative action that would curtail Eric Holder's ability to abuse Eric Holder's power...  


Direct quotes would be priceless here, but those weren't allowed, of course...

Holder and aides “completely endorsed the president’s statement that reporters should not be at legal risk for doing their job,” said Martin Baron, The Washington Post’s executive editor, who was among the participants. “They acknowledged the need for changes in their own guidelines and the need to have a more rigorous internal review.”

Reassuringly, Eric Holder has "completely endorsed" a principle that Eric Holder has already explicitly violated.  How many times has Eric Holder done so?  Eric Holder can't quite say.  Click through to witness the pitiful spectacle of journalists quoting each other and vaguely discussing a meeting they've been barred from describing in any detail.

And if a member of the press actually reveals some of the secret details of Holder's press briefing -- in which the A.G. promised he wouldn't target the press -- will that person now be targeted by Holder?

The hypocrisy of this administration -- and the stupidity of the five-years-late-to-the-party vintage media -- are breathtaking.


Hat tips: BadBlue News and Daryl Cagle, PoliticalCartoons.com.


Larwyn's Linx: Holder Affidavit Indicated Possible Prosecution of Rosen

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

Nation

Holder Affidavit Indicated Possible Prosecution of Rosen: Keith Koffler
Ted Cruz Demands Eric Holder's Resignation: John Hawkins
IRS Ignores Senate Deadline to Answer Questions About Scandal: Joel Pollak

Amnesty Insanity: Doing the Same Thing and Expecting a Better Result: Foundry
Conservatives no longer suffering government intimidation in isolation: LI
Black Louisiana Democrat assails party, joins GOP: Guy Benson

Mark Levin: I dropped my jaw when I saw this story today: Scoop
Obamacare as Democrats' private piggy bank to fund political causes?: John Lott
IRS collects docs from 88 employees in investigation: Dana Bash

Incrementalism, Class Warfare and the End Game of Federal Student Loans: AllAm
IRS targeting of conservatives may go beyond tax-exempt applications: Ed Morrissey
Islamists, Leftists Bully College Republicans Out Of Their Own Event: Strimedia

Economy

Congressional Budget Office Should Forecast Long-Term Cost of Amnesty: Foundry
Shocked Face: Paul Krugman Was Wrong Again: Stephen Kruiser
IRS Wastes Millions on Unneeded, Unused Mobile Devices, Audit Finds: Michael Tennant

Trustees Report Shows Entitlement Reform Urgently Needed: Sean Hackbarth
The IRS Is Coming for Your Health Insurance Records: Foundry
AP's Meme on Job Growth Ignores April Dive in Total Hours Worked: Tom Blumer

Scandal Central

The Top Twenty Obama Administration Scandals: Dossier
DHS Loses Hundreds of Dangerous Foreigners with Expired Visas: JW
Q&A on Scandals and Eric Holder: Foundry

Former Obama Aides Cashing In: WZ
Not News: Obama Authors Emails Sent by (Formerly?) ‘Non-Partisan’ Organizing For Action: BizzyBlog
Former Obama advisers cashing in on White House résumés: Jake Tapper

Climate & Energy

FAIL: Environmentalists Promised Massive Outpouring of Opposition to Keystone Pipeline: Tatler
Europe Facing "A Year Without A Summer," As It Last Did in 1816: Ace
Democrat Congressman: Keystone Pipeline Bad Because… Wait For It... Rocks Sink: Bryan Preston

Could it be that CO2 has NOTHING whatsoever to do with the earth’s temperature?: Bookworm
Hillary SuperPAC Led by Radical Enviro-Kook and Sweatshop Owning Giffords Lawyer: Daniel Greenfield
Unbelievable Storm Chaser Video Takes You as Close to a Tornado as You’ll Ever Want to Be: Blaze

Media

Meet the Islamists Who’ve Infiltrated the Media: Creeping
On or Off the Record, Obama Administration is in Damage Control Mode: Roger Aronoff
#FreeKate Update: Could Someone Please Report this “Libelous Post?”: Hideout

Rep. Danny Davis’ Socialist, Communist Ties: Some of What You’ll Find in “The Enemies Within”: Loudon
Fast & Furiously stupid: JPA
RECALL: Sheriff Joe WON, Loser leftists ZERO: Scoop

Why is the Benghazi military story still classified?: Byron York
Busted: Brit Hume spells out case against Eric Holder in one tweet: Twitchy
What does Paul Krugman think he gains from his rudeness?: Timothy P. Carney

World

University introduces "blasphemy law" for fear of Muslim violence: Commentator
Don't Cry For Me, America: Comparing Argentina And The United States: Forbes
Egypt: Coptic Christian child murdered and dumped in sewer: JihadWatch

Obama’s Defense Policy Speech Was Untrue, Incoherent, Foolish, and Dangerous: Col. Tom Snodgrass (Ret.)
Another American Freed from Unjust Imprisonment in Mexico: Tatler
Pentagon Confirms Purchase of Russian Helicopters for Afghan Military: Loudon

Sci-Tech

As TV Falls Apart, Tumblr And Twitter Aim To Pick Up The Pieces: Crunch
Google must obey FBI's warrantless requests for user data for now, judge rules: Verge
Oculus VR Co-Founder Andrew Scott Reisse Killed At 33, The Victim Of A Hit-And-Run: TechCrunch

Cornucopia

How Barack Obama and Rock Hudson Are Alike: HillBuzz
Perspective: Ace
Tornadoes Suck Mom and Baby Out of Car, Strangers Huddle In Freezers: ABC

Image: ABC Oklahoma City
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Sultan Knish, a blog by Daniel Greenfield

QOTD: '“As of this day, I join Frederick Douglass as a Republican” the 68-year-old [Louisiana State Senator Elbert] Guillory said as he wrapped up a speech blistering the Democratic Party. The move is a return to Republican Party registration for Guillory. “Today the party of disappointment has moved away from the majority of Louisiana. They have moved away from traditional values of most Americans,” Guillory said in prepared remarks. “They have left us behind on crucial issues like abortion, vouchers, 2nd Amendment rights, union control of public jobs, school prayer, family issues.” Guillory said the biggest disappointment for him has been the party’s role in the breakdown of families. “Their support of dependency over self-reliance, of everything but traditional marriage, of abortion on demand, their policies have encouraged the high teen birth rates, high school drop out rates, high incarceration rates and very high unemployment rates,” said Guillory. “Our self-initiative and self-reliance are sacrificed in exchange for votes for the party of disappointment. The list of disappointments is long,” said Guillory, noting “the lies and cover-up at Benghazi, the IRS harassing the tea party and wiretapping and spying on reporters.” He decried federal Democratic initiatives to stop drilling after the BP disaster as well as efforts to “confiscate all guns.”' --Guy Benson, "Black Louisiana Democrat assails party, joins GOP"

Friday, May 31, 2013

Eric Holder's Long History Of Lying To Congress [IBD]

Guest post by Investors Business Daily

Scandal: Before he lied to Congress while under oath about what he knew about targeting reporters, he lied about Fast and Furious. As early as the New Black Panthers case, Eric Holder had a problem with the truth.

That the House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether Attorney General Eric Holder lied under oath during his May 15 testimony on Department of Justice (DOJ) surveillance of reporters comes as no surprise. People have forgotten about the New Black Panther case, perhaps the most clear-cut case of voter suppression and intimidation ever. On Election Day 2008, New Black Panther Party members in military garb were videotaped intimidating voters outside a Philadelphia polling place.


The slam-dunk prosecution of these thugs was dropped by Holder's Justice Department. When asked why, Holder, on March 1, 2011, testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies that the "decisions made in the New Black Panther Party case were made by career attorneys in the department."

Holder lied, for the decisions were made by political appointees. J. Christian Adams, a former career DOJ attorney in the Voting Rights Section, testified before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission that it was Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, an Obama political appointee, who overruled a unanimous recommendation for prosecution by Adams and his associates.

Documents obtained by Judicial Watch and a ruling by Judge Reggie B. Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in response to a suit brought by the group show that "political appointees within DOJ were conferring about the status and resolution of the New Black Panther Party case in the days preceding the DOJ's dismissal of claims in that case."

THE GENIUS OF DEMOCRAT LEADERSHIP: Illinois Credit Rating, Already Lowest Among the 57 States, Will Fall Further--Moody's

I could point out that Illinois is on the road to becoming a giant version of Detroit. But I won't. I'll simply point to this ominous report from Crain's Chicago Business.

Illinois' credit rating with Moody's Investors Service, already the lowest of any state, could fall if there is no legislative fix to address the state's huge public pension problem, an analyst at the credit rating agency said on Friday... "Our view is that failure to enact pension reforms could drive the state's general obligation bond rating lower from A2, which is already the lowest level for a U.S. state," said Moody's analyst Ted Hampton.

...House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton are at odds over how to approach reform. Madigan's bill opts for unilateral cuts in retirement benefits for current and retired state workers, teachers, legislators, and college and university employees to reap the maximum cost savings.
Cullerton is pushing a bill passed by his chamber that would generally allow workers to retain access to state-sponsored healthcare in retirement if they opt for pension concessions.

Cullerton's plan, which has the backing of public labor unions, would shave the state's nearly $100 billion unfunded pension liability by only $9.13 billion. Madigan's bill, which the unions have vowed to challenge in court on constitutional grounds, would cut it by $21 billion, according to actuarial analyses by the state's pension funds.

...A lower credit rating would raise Illinois' cost for borrowing in the U.S. municipal bond market, where investors already demand hefty yields for the state's general obligation bonds... Illinois' so-called credit spread over Municipal Market Data's benchmark triple-A scale for the muni market was 140 basis points in the latest week. That is the second widest spread after Puerto Rico among major muni debt issuers tracked by MMD. The credit spread for California, which has taken steps to deal with its financial problems, is roughly a third the size of Illinois' at 46 basis points.

When the final collapse of the Illinois state government comes -- and it's when, not if -- the war between the public sector unions and their Democrat sponsors will truly be something to behold. The union rank-and-file will never, ever get all of the insanely rich benefits they were promised in exchange for their votes. And the Democrats will try to evade responsibility for the fiscal tsunami that they've unleashed on their voters.

When that happens, you can look for me here. I'll be the one making popcorn.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.