Friday, December 06, 2013

Unemployment Propaganda Buzzkill: Labor-Force Shrunk to Generational Low for November

Well, the new unemployment numbers were released today and the Beltway and Wall Street chattering classes are pretty darn excited. Giddy, even.

Here's Reuters, for instance:


In fact, the numbers are truly awful.

Serious analysts -- like Rick Manning at The Hill -- delved into the facts behind the propaganda.

The headlines read that the unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest point since Obama took office. This is a case where a headline can be 100 percent true and completely wrong in its implications.

If the unemployment rate drop from 7.3 percent down to 7 percent is actually meaningful, the Federal Reserve should immediately end its bond-buying program, called "quantitative easing." One can assume that the economy is rapidly heating up, and we should all be concerned about inflationary risks created by more monetary pumping. When coupled with the net 750,000 new hires reported by the Labor Department over the past three months, the economy must be on fire.

However, the same report that shows the unemployment rate drop is disastrous when comparing data for the past three months.

The Labor Force Participation Rate dropped by 0.2 percentage points in that two-month period, meaning 666,400 fewer people were in the labor force in November than in September, roughly the equivalent of an entire congressional district.


The number of employed people is almost as grim. If you are to believe the unemployment report, only 83,000 more people were employed in November than in September.

The unemployment rate did not drop because of people getting jobs, but instead due to another massive labor drop-out. If this sounds familiar, it is because our nation has seen a staggering drop in the labor participation rate over the past five years.

Since Obama took office, the number of people eligible to work in the labor force has risen by nearly 12 million.

But the actual number of new people working in the labor force since Obama assumed the presidency? A ridiculous one million.

Note the column I've highlighted above. November's labor force participation rate is the lowest in a generation for that particular month.

The employment situation has not been this grim since -- wait for it -- Jimmy Carter was president.

Ah, these Democrats. They're for the little people, don'tcha know?

Hey: I've got an idea! Let's force businesses to pay a higher minimum wage! That ought to help!


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Do you need to bulk up your password?

Security firm SpiderLabs recently delved into the massive "Pony" botnet (a botnet usually represents a large number of PCs that have been compromised and are controlled by a malicious actor). Instances of Pony collected millions of passwords including passwords to websites, email accounts, FTP sites, etc.

With the source code of Pony leaked and in the wild, we continue to see new instances and forks of Pony 1.9. One of the latest instances we've run into is larger than the last with stolen credentials for approximately two million compromised accounts.

With so much data in our hands, we thought it would be interesting to look into some statistics regarding this particular attack...

As one might expect, most of the compromised web log-ins belong to popular websites and services such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc...

...Since we couldn’t think of anything to do with two million credentials for popular websites, social media, and email accounts; we decided to make some use of the quantity to look into users' password selection habits.

Unfortunately, the most commonly used passwords were far from what your CISO would like to see, here's a small taste [at right]...

...But not all hope is lost, it seems that more people are willing to go the extra mile and set a long password (if not a complex one – see image below). Back in 2006 only 17% had a password of 10 characters or longer. In 2013 we see an impressive ascent to 46%!


Via: BadBlue Tech News. Cartoon: xkcd.

AWESOME NEWS: Feds not required to report security breaches of Obamacare exchange website

Guest post by Eric Boehm

Americans who buy health insurance through the federal Obamacare exchange website could have their personal information stolen by hackers and never even know it.

Most of the state-run health exchange websites will be covered by state laws that require notification when government databases are breached by hackers. But there is no law requiring notification when databases run by the federal government are breached, and even though the Department of Health and Human Services was asked to include a notification provision in the rules being drawn up for the new federal exchange, it declined to do so.

Other protections for individuals’ privacy, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, do not apply to the government-run exchange, only to health providers and insurance companies operating within the exchange.

Privacy advocates and cyber-security experts have had concerns about the lack of a federal notification law for years and hope the scrutiny of the Obamacare exchange will finally bringchange.

“The notification requirement is a very important part of overall security,” said Deven McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “People should be told when their information is at-risk.”

The lack of a notification requirement is particularly bad for the health insurance exchange website because of all the questions surrounding the site’s security. Poor security, coupled with the website’s high-profile problems, could make it a target for hackers either seeking to steal identities or embarrass the government.

Larwyn's Linx: Is the President Smoking Weed Again?

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

Nation

Is the President Smoking Weed Again?: Erick Erickson
It’s Time to Take America Back: David Limbaugh
Ted Cruz: Obama’s behavior similar to that of dictators: Melissa Quinn

Obama Offers The GOP Distractions: RS
Obamacare’s Perilous Protection Plan for Debtors: Michelle Malkin
Dem Congresskook Freaks Out on House Floor: Breitbart

The Biggest Liar Ever to Stain the Oval Office: Flopping Aces
House Republicans Put 36 Recruits ‘On the Radar’: Abby Livingston
White House reverses course, says Obama lived with Kenyan uncle: Olivier Knox

Economy

The Cruelty of the Minimum Wage: Loren Heal
Did Mary Landrieu Kill Shell's Massive New GTL Plant in Louisiana?: HayRide
Obama Serves Up a Fresh Heaping of Class Warfare: Keith Koffler

Obama’s Underpants Gnome Economy: R.S. McCain
New Tax Numbers Rebut Obama’s Class Warfare Pivot: Timothy H. Lee
Obama Gets Schooled On The “Root” of Prosperity: MOTUS

Scandal Central

Gun Confiscation Has Begun in New York: Bryan Preston
Mark Levin: Obama plans to destroy role of Congress by ignoring debt ceiling: Kuznicki
Obamacare video winner: ‘Forget about the price tag’: Travis Perry

Climate & Energy

Thank You, Frackers, For Keeping Me from Freezing: Ari Armstrong
“Smoking Gun That NCDC Temperature Adjustments Are A Complete Fraud”: Protein Wisdom
Oopsie. A mistaken wandering off the plantation?: Protein Wisdom

Media

If Hillary’s Nominated, ‘Sexism will be the New Racism’: TruthRevolt
George Will: Medicaid is Next Obamacare Crisis: RWN
The Snit and Wizdumb of Obama: American Digest

Oh, That Uncle Omar: Jon Gabriel, Ricochet
Tingles: ‘He came to us today, He came amongst us!’: Nice Deb
‘Mediocrity Now!’ – The Roseanne-Oprah Income Inequality Game: Jen Kuznicki

Liberal At Washington Post Whines Over Republican Congressmen Talking Impeachment: John Hawkins
Networks Censor FBI and IRS Counsel Stonewall Tea Party Targeting Investigation: MRC
Boxing Day: Hopenchange Cartoons

World

Britain Belatedly Admits It Has an `Islamist Extremism' Problem: R.S. McCain
Of course: Obama tweets picture of himself in memory of Nelson Mandela: Jennifer Burke
Breitbart’s Joel Pollak discusses the life of Nelson Mandela on the Mark Levin Show: Scoop

It's come to this: Kerry thanks Abu Mazen for staying at the table: Matzav
Skeet Shooting With Prizes: C&S
Marine officer to receive Silver Star for heroics in Camp Bastion attack: MarineTimes

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

2 Million Stolen Accounts From Facebook, Twitter, Google, ADP, Found On Crime Server: Dark Reading
Wormholes Might Link Quantum-Entangled Quarks: Richard Adhikari
Capture 360-degree video with DLSRs and GoPros, viewable on an Oculus Rift: Engadget

Cornucopia

Texas School Bans Christmas Trees, Colors Red And Green: SHN
So There's That: Sondrakistan
I Think I'm in Love: Freedom's Torch

Image: Capture 360-degree video with DLSRs and GoPros, viewable on an Oculus Rift
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Tracking progress on a Convention of the States

QOTD:

"Past performance is no guarantee of future results:

“How to Save the GOP”

— Headline at the Atlantic, May 22nd, 2013.

“The Democratic Party: How It Can Save Itself”

— Headline at the Atlantic, today.

What a difference a few months and a stillborn socialized medicine scheme can make." --Ed Driscoll

Thursday, December 05, 2013

Email to all Congressional staff: Sorry, D.C. Obamacare site has crashed

Guest post by David Freddoso

A Hill staffer passes along this email from the Senate Disbursing office, noting wryly, “If they cannot get this right for friggin Congressional staff, the rest of the country is screwed.”

From: PAY&BENEFITS (Disbursing)

Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2013 11:32 AM

Subject: DCHL Website down

This is a mass email sent to all Senate staff.

It is specifically intended for DCHL-eligible Senate employees

At this time DC Health Link is experiencing technical difficulties with their website. They believe the system should be back up and running by noon today. They apologize for the inconvenience.


Read more at ConservativeIntel.com

OBAMA IS RIGHT: We Must Eradicate This Horrific Income Inequality Now!

I had the thought earlier, but GayPatriot beat me to it, his story even making the top headline at BadBlue.

As Barack Obama rails against "income inequality" (read: free market capitalism) and "trickle-down economics" (read: free market capitalism), it's worth remembering this simple fact.

Obama has been president for coming up on six years. Every one of his many promises: hope, change, shovel-ready, Stimulus, cash-for-clunkers, green energy, Solyndra, Dodd-Frank, Obamacare, keeping your health care plan, keeping your doctor... every single one has been a disaster. Every single one of his Utopian fantasies has increased misery, poverty, and malaise.

And who has benefited the most from his policies? The federal bureaucracy and Democrat apparatchiks around the Beltway:

DC – i.e., government employees – got richer compared to the rest of America. What also happened back then was a newly-Democrat Congress adding hundreds of billions to government spending, followed of course by President Obama and his 2009 “Porkulus”.

Via Zero Hedge, who suggests that Obama should maybe keep this in mind when he gives his speeches on inequality.


Insofar as it applies to D.C. first, I agree with Obama. Income inequality must be addressed. Let's start with the ruling class in D.C. by slashing every non-defense discretionary agency by 50 percent. For starters.


Larwyn's Linx: The ‘Uber-Presidency’ of Barack Obama

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

Nation

The ‘Uber-Presidency’ of Barack Obama: Shoebat
Gowdy To Kook Law Prof: Can Obama Ignore Election Laws Too?: John Hawkins
No Virginia, Obamacare Is NOT Getting Better: Ricochet

Obama: Hey America, Suck My D***: Ace
ObamaCare Architect Shut Down By GOP Rep: Breitbart
"Enforcement discretion" equals tyranny: Allen West

This Is Why Conservatives Don't Trust GOP Leadership: Ricochet
The Amnesty Fix Is In: Erick Erickson
Younger Millennial voters shifting hard towards GOP: Moe Lane

Liberals Talk Race And Crime, Hilarity Ensues!: Ann Coulter
The Ideological Transformation of America: Politisite
GOP 3-D gun ban gives early Christmas to Obama, Democrats: CFP

Economy

Dems' new spin: Obamacare is "working" because it redistributes wealth: WyBlog
Administration Finalizes Obamacare Tax Over Holiday Weekend: WFB
Obamacare’s Next Problem: Doc Shock: Debra Saunders. RWN

Elizabeth Warren pays interns $0 per hour: LI
CommonCore: turning History into anti-American propaganda: Toldjah
Illinois OKs pension cuts in landmark reform: Melanie Hicken, CNN

Scandal Central

White Hat Hacker: Healthcare.gov Never Had Security Built Into It: Bryan Preston
New Benghazi Testimony Confirms White House Had Time to Respond: Bridget Johnson
Cost Of Website? 1 Billion…BEFORE Oct. 1, Not Counting Money Thrown Into “Fixes” Since: WZ

Climate & Energy

The Government’s War on Long-Haul Truckers: NRO
Awesome: Congressional Democrat Proposes Taxing Drivers By the Mile, Doubling Gas Tax: JWF
The Desolation of Smog: Foreign Policy

Media

Less Than Zero: Ed Driscoll
Mark Levin goes full LIBERTY-MODE to counter Obama’s full MARXIST-MODE speech today: Scoop
Creepy Hero Worship: Chuckie Schumer Sleeps Next to Life-Size Poster of Obama: JWF

Obamacare Is Sinking, Taking Obama With It: Karl Denninger
Aiming High: Obama Wants to Host ‘SportsCenter’ When He Retires: JWF
World's Dumbest Blogger Matthew Yglesias Dead Wrong About Small Banks: Rob Blackwell, American Banker

Left-Wing Kook Elias Isquith Declares Obamacare Failure “Sabotage”: Erick Erickson
We Can Try To Understand the New York Times’ Effect On Man: Ed Driscoll
David Horowitz on the communist progressive left that has taken over America: Scoop

World

Coming Soon: Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East: Barry Rubin
The Liberal God Dies Again: Daniel Greenfield
Map of Individualism (vs Collectivism): Cube

History casts doubt upon non-aggression pact with Iran: Victor Davis Hanson
Patriots take to the streets to protect Stockholm from Muslim rioters: BNI
Obama's Immigration Hell: Eliana Benador

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Microsoft expands encryption, boosts legal protections to tackle government spying: Kaylene Hong
Need Social Leads? Try Twitter Cards: Brett Relander
FCC boss hints at change to neutrality policy: 'Pay for priority' set to be revisited?: Richard Chirgwin

Cornucopia

13 Rules Of Gunfighting Everyone Should Know: HyScience
NYC vigilante plays Shootout Game with Knockout Game thugs!: AWD
The Story Behind The Iconic Menorah Photograph: Bruce

Image: CommonCore: turning History into anti-American propaganda
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Tracking progress on a Convention of the States

QOTD: "A frequent guest on Megyn Kelly's show, Chris Stirewalt (I believe), has explained all of Obama's moves: Buy time. It's that simple. Everything he does (and, in fact, virtually everything he's ever done as President) is about buying time. Putting off hard decisions. Telling the public lies which will hold for a news cycle and hope that the ultimate price to be paid for determined serial deception will be minimal.

All of these dilatory tactics are common among failures, criminals, and liars. They don't want to pay the price for their actions; and, rationally speaking, who could blame them?

People who put off difficult decisions are hoping, in the end, that some Miracle intervenes between the present moment and the Day of Accounting to spare them that accounting entirely.

I'm not certain what miracle Obama thinks is on the way. I don't think people will grow to like the fact that they are spending an extra $300 on insurance every single month, forever. Progressives like to euphemize this as a "disruption;" it's not a disruption, as a disruption implies a limited-duration event which will soon pass. The ObamaTax will be levied on every single taxpayer from now until the bill is repealed." --Ace

Wednesday, December 04, 2013

NEWS FLASH: Poll proves that Democrats are completely disconnected from reality, but I repeat myself

Maybe it's all the acid they dropped in the sixties.

The public overwhelmingly believes the country is headed in the wrong direction, that current economic policies aren't working, that President Obama is doing a bad job, that government should be smaller and that ObamaCare should be repealed. But not Democrats.

On issue after issue, in fact, Democrats are the outliers by wide margins, according to an analysis of the December IBD/TIPP survey...

They are, by and large, Pollyanna-ish about the economy, they can see no evil when it comes to Obama or ObamaCare, and they are extremists when it comes to the size and role of the federal government... To get a sense of just how out to lunch Democrats are these days, consider:

The economy is barely moving after four years of Obama's "recovery," there are millions who've given up looking for work, household incomes are down and poverty is up.

Not surprisingly, 64% of the public says the country is headed in the wrong direction — 71% of independents say this. But those who identify themselves as Democrats are positively upbeat. Two-thirds, in fact, are perfectly satisfied with the country's direction.

Nor are Democrats willing to entertain any doubts about Obama. Overall, his approval rating is just 40% — just 31% of independents give him a thumbs-up. But a ridiculously high 80% of Democrats like the job Obama's doing.

While some believe that liberalism is a mental disorder, I feel differently.

Modern liberalism is a religious cult, a primitive and fanatical faith in the primacy of the state.

No matter the lessons of thousands of years of human history, of countless experiences with logic, reason, law, economics, and philosophy, the modern liberal doesn't care.

He or she has blind faith.

When reality intrudes on their delusions, as it does daily -- most recently in the case of the Obamacare debacle -- they look for scapegoats and devils. Never will they turn introspective. Never will they examine the scorecard for their myriad, paradasiacal programs. Never will they review the human toll of their social experiments. Never will they examine the endgame of their fanaticism, which always resembles inner-city Chicago, Detroit or Washington, D.C.

For to do so would be to cast away their idols. It would be to reject their false prophets. It would be to dismiss their own radicalism.

And this the radical left cannot do.


Hat tips: TPNN and BadBlue Real-Time News.

$1 Billion Obacalypse website forgot tiny matter of... security

Someone recently joked that they should call it IdentityTheft.gov. Except we now know they weren't kidding.

“When you develop a website, you develop it with security in mind. And it doesn’t appear to have happened this time,” said David Kennedy, a so-called “white hat” hacker who tests online security by breaching websites. He testified on Capitol Hill about the flaws of HealthCare.gov last week.

“It’s really hard to go back and fix the security around it because security wasn’t built into it,” said Kennedy, chief executive of TrustedSec. “We’re talking multiple months to over a year to at least address some of the critical-to-high exposures on the website itself.”

...Another online security expert—who spoke at last week’s House hearing and then on CNBC—said the federal Obamacare website needs to be shut down and rebuilt from scratch.

Better still: despite reports that HackMe.gov "only" cost $400 million, well, that turns out to be yet another lie. The real figure is about a billion.

The to-date cost of the glitchy Obamacare website has topped $1 billion, easily surpassing the $394 million originally estimated by the Government Accountability Office, according to a Bloomberg Government analysis.

Perhaps more shocking than the site’s likely price tag is the fact that roughly one-third of that amount was spent on contracts awarded during the six months leading up to the site’s disastrous Oct. 1 launch — when those at the top were reportedly aware of the site’s many problems.

It’s important to note that the Bloomberg analysis covers up until Sept. 30, just before the 16-day partial government shutdown. So the final amount awarded to contractors since the launch of healthcare.gov may be more than $1 billion.

“The torrent of late spending — almost $352 million of $1 billion in awards to the top 10 contractors — indicates the magnitude of the work still to be done as opening day approached,” Bloomberg’s Peter Gosselin reported, “and helps explain the information technology problems that have dogged the exchange system since its launch.”

The Bloomberg figure may come as a shock to many Americans. Indeed, despite the GAO stating earlier that its data was incomplete, the $394 million estimate has been widely reported as the final cost...


When Americans get all of the gory realities of government-run health care, they'll be begging for insurance companies.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

EX-SECRET SERVICE DROPS BENGHAZI BOMBSHELL: Obama Refused Help Fearing Another "Blackhawk Down" During Debates

Writing at The Tatler, Bridget Johnson confirms that the Obama administration had ample time to organize a response to the attacks in Benghazi.

Members of the House Intelligence Committee learned in a closed-door briefing yesterday that more contractors are corroborating the report that the Obama administration had plenty of time to respond to the attack on the Benghazi diplomatic facility ... Nunes said the timeline begs the question: “What if the attack had went on for another 24 hours?”

“Would they have eventually sent help then? I mean, there is no accountability in this process that I’ve seen so far. And nobody knows what the president knew and when he knew it,” he said.

Interviewed late last month on The Mark Levin Show, ex-Secret Service Agent Dan Bongino laid out a timeline that appears to validate Johnson's reporting.

It's worse [than just a scandal]. Having been overseas, having been a Secret Service agent, I walked out of my house with my crying daughters... and I would tell them everything would be okay. This was going to Afghanistan, etc.

I thought the Cavalry would show up! ... I never thought in a thousand years that if we had an "A-to-Z security plan" that "B" would never show up... and that FEST team, the Foreign Emergency Support Team, over a seven-hour fight where our Ambassador was brutally killed, along with Sean Smith and those two heroic SEALs.

It's tough for me to talk about because it brings back really bad memories. I can't imagine if something had broke bad on my end. I can't imagine screaming in the radio calling for help and not one person answered to help. It's a national tragedy and it's worse than people know...

It was an insider attack, planned for months. The administration didn't want to admit that Libya was a failed mess. It had to be a foreign policy success right before the election, they knew there was a foreign policy debate coming up.

He [Obama] had just gotten destroyed during the first debate with Romney because he had nothing to stand on.

So they had to find a scapegoat when this happened. They tried this ridiculous meme about the video, which is basically laughed at now, but back then was accepted by a collaborative media that just wanted to propagate this Aesop's fable.

But I really believe that they just had them stand down because they had memories of "Blackhawk Down."

And if we got stuck over there, we're going to have to tell a story about how Libya is a failure. But they never -- can you imagine listening to the cries for help?

The horror. And now these tapes are apparently out there, there were drones overhead and there's video too, which were there about 90 minutes after the attack started.

They let these people die and suffer grievous injury because of a simple political calculation. It's sick.

In August of this year, unconfirmed but credible reports asserted that Obama consigliere Valerie Jarrett made the call to stand down.

Confidential sources close to Conservative Report have confirmed that Valerie Jarrett was the key decision-maker for the administration, the night of the Benghazi terrorist attack on 9/11/2012...

...at approximately 5 PM Washington time, reports came in through secure-channels that Special Mission Benghazi was under attack. Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey summoned the President,and briefed him on the crisis, face to face.

...As that meeting drew to a close, Ms. Jarrett, who is also the Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, went from the living quarters to the White House Situation Room, where the attack in Benghazi was being monitored by Dempsey, Panetta and other top-ranking officials.

Whether she was instructed by the President to go there, or if she went of her own volition, is only known by the President and herself.

Perhaps House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa could subpoena Valerie Jarrett to determine what she knows about the night of September 11, 2012.

That is, if it doesn't impact the 42 other investigations he's "working on".


Larwyn's Linx: WaPo, New York Times: Obamacare site failures could result in loss of coverage

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

Nation

Healthcare.gov failures may result in loss of coverage: Bradford Thomas
Lying to the Sick: Betsy McCaughey
While Welfare Skyrockets - Military Families Face Service Cuts: Diogenes

Obamacare: Perfect Example Of The Williamson-Whittle Analysis: HayRide
Obamacare Enrollments May Not Be Real: WFB
The Courts May Yet Destroy Obamacare: Keith Koffler

GOP Hits Senate Dems With Ad Highlighting Obamacare Lies: Lonecon
81% favor repealing or changing Obamacare: Rasmussen
The Left’s ObamaCare Desperation: R.S. McCain

CNN commentator 'can live with' Obama's lies: Thomas Lifson
Obama Announces “White House Youth,” Hitlarity Ensues: RWN
Republican Study Committee Offers Obamacare Alternative: Jeff Reynolds

Economy

Lesson for Union Dinosaurs: Mish
Cloward-Piven: It's On: Productive Class Revolt
American education's race to the bottom: Thomas Lifson

Scandal Central

Cybersecurity expert says no security ever built into Obamacare website: Scoop
The Jarrett File: Andrew Stiles
Issa Accuses FBI of Impeding Investigation into IRS Targeting of Conservatives: Times

Media

NBC's Idea of ObamaCare 'Reality Check': Talk to Its Biggest Supporters: MRC
Obama Worship Syndrome: Ben Shapiro
Over 24 Hours, Bad ObamaCare News Vanishes From NBC Coverage: MRC

Blacks and Obama: Walter Williams
President Obama Declines to Put His Money Where His Mouth Is: Bryan Preston
Networks That Ignored Bashir's Attack on Palin Were Outraged By Limbaugh Fluke Joke: MRC

Report: Obama Seriously Considered $1 Trillion Coin Idea To Allow Him To Ignore Debt Ceiling: WZ
World's Dumbest Blogger Matthew Yglesias Thinks America Has Too Many Banks: Sean Davis
Daily Caller’s ‘Jim Treacher’ punched in face, placed in handcuffs: Twitchy

World

Former FBI Agent on why CIA Director converted to Islam: Shoebat
DHS Adviser on CAIR's Board (Bachmann vindicated again): Shoebat
Last Straw: al Qaeda Threatens to Behead Kittehs! : Jawa Report

A Month of Horror for Christians under Islam: September 2013: Raymond Ibrahim
AIPAC Urges No Criticism of Obama Admin. Iran Deal: Israpundit
Hezbollah says commander killed in Beirut, blames Israel: Reuters

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

New type of audio malware transmits through speakers and microphones: Joel Hruska
Silk Road alternative 'Sheep Marketplace' shut down after $40 Million in Bitcoin Theft: Hacker News
MIT-designed snap-in wheel turns any bicycle into a hybrid: Fox

Cornucopia

Obama: "We're Not Repealing Obamacare as Long as I'm President"...: Adrienne
About One Of My Articles And Allen West: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Change I Can Believe In: IMAO

Image: Healthcare.gov is Turning Japanese: the American Way
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Tracking progress on a Convention of the States

QOTD: "During a congressional committee hearing about the constitutional limits imposed on the presidency and the implications of President Barack Obama’s disregard for implementing the Affordable Care Act as written, one expert testified that the consequences of the president’s behavior were potentially grave. He said that the precedent set by Obama could eventually lead to an armed revolt against the federal government.

On Tuesday, Michael Cannon, Cato Institute’s Director of Health Policy Studies, testified before a congressional committee about the dangers of the president’s legal behavior... “There is one last thing to which the people can resort if the government does not respect the restrains that the constitution places on the government,” Cannon said. “Abraham Lincoln talked about our right to alter our government or our revolutionary right to overthrow it.”

“That is certainly something that no one wants to contemplate,” he continued. “If the people come to believe that the government is no longer constrained by the laws then they will conclude that neither are they.”

“That is a very dangerous sort of thing for the president to do, to wantonly ignore the laws,” Cannon concluded, “to try to impose obligation upon people that the legislature did not approve.”" --Noah Rothman

Tuesday, December 03, 2013

BUCKLE YOUR SEAT BELTS: It's Time for the Anus-Clenching Adventures of Inspector Issa

The Obama administration is, without question, the most openly corrupt and lawless in American history.

And, despite the gun-running, the Americans left to die in Benghazi, the politicization of the IRS, the wiretaps of reporters, and numerous other impeachable offenses, the feckless establishment Republican "leaders" in D.C. -- well -- judge for yourself in this installment of Biff Spackle's classic comic strip Inspector Issa.


Yes, I'm getting the distinct impression that John Boehner and Darrell Issa don't have the slightest inclination to truly investigate these outrageous scandals.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

OH, MY: Obama Approval Hits Thirties for First Time Ever in RCP Poll

Just wait until 90 to 120 million more people lost their insurance plans and doctors next year.

I have an idea about that, but first check out RCP's polling:


Moe Lane explains the reality behind the numbers:

...Barack Obama has dipped below an average 40% job approval rating on RCP.  That more or less means that any policy-making that the Democrats want to do next year will likely not feature the President’s ‘help;’ and, of course, that Barack Obama will have plenty of time to practice his golf swing during the summer and fall of 2014.  Only… the Democrats would prefer that he do that in states that do not have a Democratic Senator up for re-election, OK?

Now, I’m not saying that the Democrats are panicking.  What they are doing right now is quietly checking to make sure that their second and third lines of defense are adequately stocked and supplied.  You know.  Just in case...

George Will predicted that next year "all hell's going to break loose" when employers start dumping their employees into government plans because of Obamacare's restrictions.

So here's my idea.

Every employer in America should plan to celebrate October 1st, 2014 as National "I Lost My Health Insurance" Day:


The president has unlawfully delayed, waived, and otherwise rewritten vast portions of the Obamacare bill. Just think what would have happened if this year's Healthcare.gov rollout had occurred before the 2012 presidential election.

Employers: don't let the Democrats hide their colossal failures until after the midterms.

Urge your employer to celebrate October 1st, 2014 as National "I Lost My Health Insurance" Day. It's time to put Democrat politicians where they belong: back in the private sector, trying to earn an honest living.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

PREEMPTIVE SURRENDER IN THE PACIFIC: Obama Bows to China, Humiliates Japan

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

National Security: As the media praised the president for sending two B-52s through disputed air space claimed by China, the administration instructed U.S. airlines to get approval as demanded from the Chinese government.

After China declared an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea encompassing the Japanese Senkaku Islands, two U.S. B-52s flew through the claimed air space without informing Beijing. It was an appropriate response.

Not so appropriate, however, was the Obama administration's instructions to U.S. carriers that they accede to China's demands for prior notification.

China announced last week that all aircraft entering the zone over the East China Sea, an area two-thirds the size of Britain located between China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, must notify Chinese authorities beforehand, and that it will take unspecified defensive measures against those that don't comply.

The Japanese government, bristling at this infringement of its sovereignty, instructed its carriers not to comply with China's demand. In contrast, the New York Times reports, administration officials said they made the decision to urge civilian planes to adhere to Beijing's new rules in part because they worried about an unintended confrontation.

Unintended confrontation? China's move was carefully planned and its move to control the air space over and around the Senkaku Islands is no accident but part of a plan to project power far beyond its coastal waters.

United, American and Delta have said they have begun notifying Chinese authorities of flight plans when traveling through China's ADIZ in response to the Obama administration's request.

This is a slap in the face to Tokyo. And since Japan has refused Beijing's demand, just how does the administration's capitulation end the risk of confrontation? As China's power grows, so will its assertiveness.

Larwyn's Linx: Medicare Advantage patients look on helplessly as they lose their doctors

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

Nation

Medicare Advantage patients helpless as they lose their doctors: David Freddoso
It takes a Potemkin Village to declare Mission Accomplished on Obamacare: LI
Obamacare site blunders on, delivers long-expected sticker shock: ConIntel

CBS: No, the White House is Lying--Obamacare Site Still Isn't Working: WFB
CBS: User Info Getting Messed Up During ObamaCare Enrollment: Breitbart
GOP "strategist": Reagan is dead; move on: Molly K. Hooper

Gallup: Democrats, Youth Bought Pigs in Pokes Wholesale: Bryan Preston
Supreme Court Could Defund Obamacare: Ashton Ellis
Consumers Fear Ending Up Without Health Coverage On New Year’s Day: KHN

Economy

“Common Core’s odd approach to teaching Gettysburg Address”: Protein Wisdom
UPS: Obamacare caused company to drop benefits of 15,000 spouses: BPR
7 of 10 worst states for Medicaid doctor access expanding Medicaid: ConIntel

Website, Schmebsite, Keep Your Eyes on the Big Ball: David Limbaugh
I’ll tell you what’s wrong with Conservatives: Allen B. West
A Challenge to Our Beliefs: Thomas Sowell

Scandal Central

What does it take to get fired by this administration?: Flopping Aces
Attkisson: Fast and Furious Whistleblower 'Rare Example' Amidst Obama's 'War On Leaks': MRC
Fox reporter confronts State Department on Iran denial: Josh Gerstein, Politico

Media

Yahoo/Daily Ticker: It's Your Fault The Economy Sucks: Ace
A World of Lies: Dennis Prager
NBC's Gregory Cuts Off GOP Congressman to Spew ObamaCare Propaganda: NB

No, the Doe Run smelter closure isn’t going to affect ammo prices and isn’t backdoor gun control: Bob Owens
CBS Blames Obama’s Premature Lame Duck Status on Conservatives: TruthRevolt
Leftist Group Attacks Conservative with Homophobic Slurs, Wonders Why He’s Anonymous: AllAm

World

For our Iran nuke deal negotiator, there’s no business, like failed business: David Gerstman
Iran Announces Second Nuclear Reactor: WFB
WaPo Columnist: Israel's Fault Iran Wants to Go Nuclear: TruthRevolt

Why Should We Study War?: Bruce Thornton
Russia Outlaws The Building of Mosques, Will Get Tougher On Islam: Shoebat
Chinese Yuan Surpasses Euro, Becomes Second Most Used Currency In Trade Finance: ZH

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

How Google Taught Itself Good Design: Farhad Manjoo
Amazon Delivery-by-Drone Seen Grounded Under Expected U.S. Rules: SFGate
Google Cloud Compute goes live: Joab Jackson, IT World

Cornucopia

Healthcare.gov: Everything Will Be “Right” in 2017: MOTUS
You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Me, Blue Shield: HayRide
ObamaCare: Written in Stone (…ish clay): Liberal Logic

Image: The People's Cube
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Tracking progress on a Convention of the States

QOTD: "Leon Trotsky allegedly said, “You may not believe in war, but war believes in you.” Though likely a mistranslation, the sentiment is still valuable. War and its horrors will always be with us, along with its unavoidable suffering and cruelty, “such as have occurred and always will occur as long as the nature of mankind remains the same,” as Thucydides writes. And as long as we cherish our way of life, with its freedom and human rights, its prosperity and its opportunity, we will at times have to make the awful decision to send our citizens to fight, kill, and die to defend those goods from those who want to destroy them. The more we know about war, the better equipped we will be to make that choice and see our efforts succeed." --Bruce Thornton

Monday, December 02, 2013

IT'S OFFICIAL: David Gregory and NBC's Meet the Press finish transformation into complete laughingstocks

Just when you think David Gregory and NBC "News" have hit bottom, they break out a jackhammer and start digging a new sub-level.



Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.

Faced with a Collapse of America's Health Care System, Chuck Schumer Secretly Pushes for... Gun Control

Guest post by Gun Owners of America

Urgent alert: Gun vote could come as soon as Monday in the House.

Washington, DC - With 80,000,000 Americans poised to lose their employer-provided insurance plans, what would you think the Senate’s number three Democrat, Chuck Schumer, is now poised to cram down Republicans’ quivering throats?

ANSWER: More gun control.

Senator Schumer already tried to sneak a gun control bill through the Senate on November 21 — right before Thanksgiving — and according to one congressman, the House could use a parliamentary procedure to pass it as early as today (Monday).

But let’s take a step back to explain.

Earlier this year, Schumer threatened that, if he did not get his way — destroying the “gun manufacturers’ lobby” in the process — your children would be killed. We actually received anonymous faxes and e-mails from Schumer’s allies, telling us that our children should have been killed at Newtown.

Now Schumer is threatening that, if he cannot pass gun control, your plane will be hijacked. Schumer’s new threat is similarly odious and baseless.

At issue is the reauthorization of the 1988 Plastic Gun Ban.

Crammed through in 1988 by a newly Democratic Senate looking for guns to ban, it was passed at a time when there was no actual problem.

Having said that, the poorly drafted law has always been an anti-gun time bomb, waiting to explode in the hands of an anti-gun president — which we now have.

SURELY YOU JEST: President Obama Now Lying About Massive, Fraud-Riddled Food Stamp Program

Guest post by Adam Tobias

MADISON, Wis. — President Barack Obama seems to be stretching the truth — again.

But his latest round of deceit doesn’t involve people being told they can keep their health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act.

This time the commander in chief is stretching the truth about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which faces about $39 billion in cuts under a bill passed last month by House Republicans.

Obama, who is touting the taxpayer-funded program as a fiscal engine that helps boost the economy, claims in a report released this week that SNAP participation and spending will fall significantly as America recovers from tough financial times.

If only that were true.

Since Obama signed into law the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provided close to $45.2 billion in additional SNAP benefits over four years, the national unemployment rate has dropped from 8.3 percent to 7.3 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

From 2009 to 2012, the country’s gross domestic product increased from $13.9 trillion to $15.6 trillion and the national average wage index also jumped from $40,711 to $44,321.

Yet the number of people who take advantage of SNAP and the money allocated for the program continue to skyrocket every year.

BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES: Super Mitch Goes on Offense!

Biff Spackle offers another exclusive peek into the hidden recesses of the Senate:


You know what to do.


Larwyn's Linx: MissionAccomplished.gov

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

Nation

MissionAccomplished.gov: Zombie
Administration Says Healthcare.gov's Working; CNN Finds Otherwise: R.S. McCain
Biggest News in the Healthcare.gov Report: Just How Bad It Was: Atlantic

Progressively sanitizing death panels: Renee Nal
Inside the West Wing: Ann Althouse
Surprise: Healthcare.gov still barely works: Erick Erickson

All We Want From The Establishment GOP: George Rasley
Harry Reid Destabilizes the Senate: Richard Epstein
Assessing The Wake of Legislative Hiroshima: Michael Hammond

Economy

Obamacare Is Hurting My Family and Chronically Ill Kids: Zion's Trumpet
No transparency: Illinois pension “fix” betrays larger problem in state: DTG
Illinois public unions target Democratic lawmakers: Fox

The Dishonest Selling of Obamacare: Star Parker
Oregon Supreme Court Helps SEIU Oppose Right To Work: Jeff Reynolds
Is Puerto Rico the Next Detroit?: Michael Fletcher

Plouffe: Obamacare Will Work . . . by 2017: Patrick Brennan
Underwater: Fed’s PBGC May Not Cover Failed Union Pensions: LUR
Obama’s Labor Department Announces Timing Of New Persuader Regulations: LUR

Scandal Central

How the US gave guns to Mexican cartels: John Dodson
Sure it’s a coincidence: two critics of #Obamacare audited by IRS: Sister Toldjah
Couple Finds Out 18 Month Old Daughter Is Not Covered Under Obamacare Family Plan: WZ

Climate & Energy

Backdoor gun control is here: no lead means no bullets: Allen West

Media

Laughingstocks: You won’t believe who ‘Meet the Press’ chose for Obamacare ‘reality check’: Twitchy
Obama, Tea Baggers, and Impeachment: Kevin Jackson
ABC: At Its Current Rate Obamacare Enrollment Will Fall Well Short Of Goal: WFB

A Ridiculous And Pathetic Attack On My Mexculinity By A Liberal Hispanic Website: Sooper Mexican
Guardian Losing $50 Million a Year?: R.S. McCain
Nickelodeon Star, Anti-Gun Propagandists Attack ‘Manhood’ Of Gun Owners?: Tony Katz

World

Iran’s Nuclear Power “Red Line”: Walter Russell Mead
Rouhani says Iran will intensify nuclear work: Dan Margalit
Trying to understand it will just give you a headache…: Liberal Logic 101

White House Omitting Details About Iran Deal: WZ
Obama has accepted a nuclear Iran: Dan Margalit
Obama Elevates Iran to a Super Power, Wants to Visit Iran: Sara Noble

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

ComScore: Black Friday online sales hit $1.2 billion, with Amazon the top retailer: Jon Russell
Tools of Tradecraft: The CIA’s Historic Spy Kit: Kim Zetter, Wired
Why we're invisible to Google bus riders: Caille Millner, SFGate

Cornucopia

Just One Cockamamie Idea After Another: MOTUS
Civil War Litmus Test: AWD
Preacher claims Obama had mother of his ‘love child’ killed outside White House: Travis Gettys, Raw Story

Image: Anchorman Will Ferrell visits KX
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please Help A Homeless Veteran

QOTD: "No one should give any credence to Harry Reid’s view that the changes [to the filibuster] in question were needed to make sure that the Senate does not become “obsolete.” He did not take that position during the Bush Administration, when he defended the filibuster on the same institutional grounds on which the Republicans defend it today. His justification for the shift has the same tinny quality as the President’s. It takes two parties to make the political climate worse, and the decision of the Republicans to stiffen their spine need not be a sign of political stubbornness. It could also be a principled form of resistance to democratic overreaching...

... the entire nation will bear the institutional costs associated with the change of a rule which, in spite of its many frustrations, has served the nation well. Remember, on questions of government, moving too fast is often more dangerous than moving too slow." --Richard Epstein