Doug Ross @ Journal: September 2011

Friday, September 30, 2011

Van Jones: Dude, Like 80% of Americans Are Marxist Crackpots Ready to Launch an "October Offensive" Against the Man

Runner-up headline:

Rabid Communist Van Jones: 80% of Americans Are Rabid Communists Willing to Fight for the Quintessentially American Cause of Rabid Communism

* * * * * * * * *
I think it's safe to say that President Obama's "green jobs advisor" Van Jones majored in Soviet History and not mathematics.

Consider the recent interview of "Conversion Van" on MSNBC (that's the nickname he prefers, I hear) regarding the massive grassroots movement for oppression and tyranny:

We are going to build a progressive counterbalance to the tea party. Eighty percent of Americans agree with everything that you say on this show, but we have no voice. We know that jobs are more important, and this phony, made-up deficit stuff they talk about. We know that people who have done well in America should do well by America and start paying America back in the form of more fair taxes.

Hey, schmuck: here's the phony and made-up deficit, courtesy of Barack Obama, which just happens to have resulted in the first downgrade of United States debt in history:

Here's more of WebVan's wisdom:

People who benefited from the bailouts and from the tax breaks should start paying America back. They're doing great.

Everybody else is suffering. That is 80 percent of the majority. And we're going to now have a voice.

Say, iVan: last time I checked, self-identified conservatives outnumbered progressives two-to-one. And with centrists included, liberals are outgunned nearly four-to-one.

But let's not clutter this post with facts, let's go back to TranVan:

"And you're going to see an American fall, an American autumn, just like we saw the Arab spring. You can see it right now with these young people on Wall Street. Hold onto your hats. We're going to have an October offensive to take back the American dream and to rescue America's middle class."

Arab Spring? So you're gonna start killing Christians?

Or you're gonna take over Wall Street? Like the 33 losers that got pepper-sprayed, tased, stripped nekkid and covered in powdered sugar*?

Dude: let me lay it down real simple for you.

We outnumber you.

Say goodnight, Van. Because in 2012, we're going to flush all of you Marxist crackpots out of office. And you can go back to being the fringe Leftist kook you were before 2008.

And may I be the first to say: buh-bye.

* Obscure Super Troopers reference

MSM Does Damage Control for Michelle Obama: 'She Has a Fondness for Affordable Clothes'

"...it wasn't until I stepped away from the corporate track and worked in city government and eventually helped to found the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program, a national service program, that I realized how important public service and community service was to my own development... And now that the two of us have moved to Washington, our new home -- (applause) -- we both have continued to stress the value of national and community service..." --Michelle Obama, 17 March 2009

This morning's Today Show devoted an entire segment reconnecting First Lady Michelle Obama with the little people. It featured FLOTUS "stealth"-shopping at Target in breathless terms:

Check this out. Behind those dark glasses, tucked under that Nike cap, one of the world's most famous women. Yes, that is the First Lady of the United States at Target...

...Like any mom, except her aide was juggling not one, but two Blackberries. Secret Service agents were blending in, dressed down in casual clothes. Mrs. Obama spent 40 minutes in the store Thursday afternoon, apparently unnoticed by other shoppers. Sources say she was recognized only by the cashier and a photographer from the Associated Press who worked sources to find out she was there. [Ed: heh!]

[She has a] fondness for affordable clothes.

Oh, my.

Michelle Obama is the very model of selfless public service.

For Michelle Obama, everyday life translates to spending $10 million of the taxpayers' money on vacations in only a single year's time and living like, well, a millionaire or billionaire.

The Mainstream Media Terrorist Translation Guide [Irony Curtain]

Irony Curtain forwards his latest artwork, which is featured at the peerless iOwnTheWorld:

Be sure and forward it to any of the pro journalists on your email lists.

Responding to the President's exhortations to "pass this jobs bill now", Senate Democrats oblige by taking a pass

Chicago's powerhouse WLS-AM radio station has confirmed what Mark Levin surmised last week: when it comes to President Obama's "Jobs Bill", Democrats are running from Obama as fast as they possibly can.

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama tried to keep the pressure on Congress to consider his nearly $450 billion jobs bill, saying it had been two weeks since he sent the bill to Capitol Hill "and now I want it back."

...So why have Democrats delayed action in the U.S. Senate on President Obama’s stimulus bill?

WLS Radio’s Bill Cameron reports his own party has delayed action in the Senate and talked with Senator Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, about the reason why.

RUN AWAY!!!
“The oil-producing state senators don’t like eliminating or reducing the subsidy for oil companies, “ Durbin tells WLS Radio, “There are some senators who are up for election who say I’m never gonna vote for a tax increase while I’m up for election, even on the wealthiest people. So, we’re not gonna have 100% Democratic senators. That’s why it needs to be bi-partisan and I hope we can find some Republicans who will join us to make it happen.”

But so far, Durbin concedes Democrats don’t have the votes in the senate to pass it, “Not at the moment, I don’t think we do but, uh, we can work on it."

Liberalism is most assuredly a mental affliction, but the survival instinct is strong in these drones. So we'll have to pry each and everyone from their white-knuckled grip on power using a crowbar and a taser.

Politically speaking, of course.

Larwyn's Linx: Black and Right

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QOTD: 'This July, [Steven Spinner] co-authored an article for the Center for American Progress titled "Don't Let Clean Energy Funding Die on the Vine..."

"This 'embattled' program has by all business metrics proven an outright success," he wrote. "Even the most controversial loan guarantee recipient -- Solyndra, a solar manufacturer -- is seeing an operational turnaround."

Little more than a month later, Solyndra fired 1,100 workers and filed for bankruptcy." --Matthew Mosk and Ronnie Greene

Thursday, September 29, 2011

A Fast-and-Furious Smoking Gun: Were Obama and Holder Trying to Touch Off a Civil War in Mexico?

Hot Air points us to an article by Michael Walsh in the New York Post.

After months of pretending that “Fast and Furious” was a botched surveillance operation of illegal gun-running spearheaded by the ATF and the US attorney’s office in Phoenix, it turns out that the government itself was selling guns to the bad guys...

...Agent John Dodson was ordered to buy four Draco pistols for cash and even got a letter from his supervisor, David Voth, authorizing a federally licensed gun dealer to sell him the guns without bothering about the necessary paperwork... On orders, Dodson then sold the guns to known criminals, who first stashed them away and then — deliberately unhindered by the ATF or any other agency — whisked them off to Mexico.

...There are two possible explanations. The first is that the anti-gun Obama administration deliberately wanted American guns planted in Mexico in order to demonize American firearms dealers and gun owners...

...A second notion is that the CIA ... feared the los Zetas drug cartel was becoming too powerful and might even mount a coup against the Mexican government. So some 2,000 weapons costing more than $1.25 million were deliberately channeled to the rival Sinaloa cartel, which operates along the American border, to keep the Zetas in check.

I completely reject scenario #2.

Walsh seems to have forgotten that the State Department is alleged to have armed the Zeta Cartel.

Phil Jordan, a former CIA operative and one-time leader of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center, claims that the Obama administration is running guns to the violent Zetas cartel through the direct commercial sale of military grade weapon...

The U.S. Direct Commercial Sales program is run from the U.S. State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. It regulates and licenses private U.S. companies’ overseas sales of weapons and other defense materials, defense services, and military training. This does not include the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, which authorized sales to foreign governments...

An El Paso Times article – as of now ignored by mainstream media — went into much more shocking detail:

“They’ve found anti-aircraft weapons and hand grenades from the Vietnam War era,” Plumlee said. Other weapons found include grenade launchers, assault rifles, handguns and military gear including night-vision goggles and body armor."

Scenario #3:

• The ATF arms the Sinaloa cartel

• The State Department arms the Zetas

• The combination helps fuel a full-blown civil war in Mexico

• Civilians start streaming north to safety

The resulting humanitarian crisis is used as a lever for a mass immigration event with hundreds of thousands of undocumented Democrats entering the U.S. seeking asylum.

It's as good an explanation as any I've heard -- and certainly consistent with the mindset of the Holder and Obama duo: the ends always justify the means.

Walsh closes with words of wisdom: Time for a special prosecutor, who’s both fast and furious.

Photos: Anti-Obama Signs in New Orleans Raise a Ruckus

New Orleans' WWLTV reports:

There are several political signs attracting all kinds of attention in one Uptown neighborhood... On Wednesday, crowds gathered at the corner of Calhoun and Coralie streets, looking at several signs depicting President Barack Obama as either a dunce, a puppet or a crying baby in a diaper.

... "This is nothing put pure racism," said Raymond Rock. "This is a disgrace."

The home is owned by Timothy Reily, who declined to be interviewed about the signs. Former Mayor Ray Nagin showed up at the house and went inside to speak with Reily. He emerged later and would not comment on what they discussed.

... "I think it's fine. It's on his property," said Katherine deMontluzin. "He can say whatever he wants."

The signs have created such a firestorm of controversy, though, that police came to the scene-- called in by City Council Member Susan Guidry. She represents the district where the home is located. Guidry said she was concerned about public safety and was trying to figure out if the sign was even legal. She also said she spoke to Reily, but didn't get far.

...Yet, the signs remain in place, fanning the flames of a free speech debate on both sides of the fence.

I love how liberals crow about free speech rights --- until they interfere with their blinkered worldview.

Shock: ABC News Blows EnergyGate Wide Open

Pick your jaw up off the floor.

As one commenter noted after reading ABC News' reporting on EnergyGate and Solyndra:

There seems to be an inverse relationship between the president's popularity and the mainstream media's willingness to tell stories that need to be told. As Obama continues to slide in the polls, I'm sure we will find out all kinds of stuff that may have helped 2.5 years ago. While its too late now for everyone impacted by this administration's economic choices, there's hope that everyone will vote more responsibly next year... on both sides of the aisle.

Here's the reader's digest version:

• Billionaire George Kaiser raised at least $50,000 for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.
• Kaiser's company, Solyndra, received a $535 million loan guarantee from DOE.
• Kaiser's company received the loan before DOE received final copies of outside reviews of the deal.

• Steven Spinner raised $500,000 for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.
• Spinner then became one of Energy Secretary Steven Chu's key loan advisers.
• Spinner later wrote that he "helped oversee the more than $100 billion" in loans and guarantees.
• Spinner executed 29 stock trades in energy companeis while serving as a DOE adviser
• Spinner held shares in at least four companies that received DOE loans
• Spinner's wife's law firm collected around $2.5 million while representing Solyndra
• Spinner's wife's law firm also represented two other companies that received $34 million from DOE

• Steve Westly raised $500,000 for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.
• Westly then became one of Energy Secretary Steven Chu's key advisers.
• Westly was an investor in five firms that received half a billion dollars in energy grants and loans from DOE.

• John V. Roos raised $500,000 for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.
• Roos' law firm (the same firm Spinner's wife worked for) collected around millions from DOE-funded companies.

Put simply, if the Climatards are willing to waste billions enriching themselves in the name of green energy, then they can't really take the global warming scam seriously.

In other words, the green tech movement no more believes in global warming than you or I.

And, once again, where's the special prosecutor?

Postscript: The Bush administration rejected Solyndra's requests for loans for two years citing incomplete documentation.

Related:
• Solyndra employee: from day one, everyone knew that our solar panels were uncompetitive... including President Obama
• Bruce Krasting Blows Obama's Solyndra Scandal Sky High
• Oh, my: Emails show White House knew Solyndra was a disaster before it issued $535M crony loan

Hat tip: Laughing Conservative.

Larwyn's Linx: Leave Fatty McAwesome! Alone

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Nation

Leave Fatty McAwesome! Alone: Leather Penguin
Our White House Bully Problem: Malkin
Pass the popcorn: MA Democrats revolt against Obama: JWF

“A serious plan to replace Obamacare”: ProWis
When Black Liberals Attack (Each Other): Taki's
Obama Insults Jews on Rosh Hashanah: Dossier

Patrick Fitzgerald: Crime Fighter or Politically-Driven Leaker?: ILP2P
Judge upholds key elements of AL immigration law: Malkin
Mrs. Bachmann and the Baptists: Sun

Economy

Why Obama Can't Help Unemployed Blacks: Pundette
Professor Warren's Ire: Jacoby
Finally some GOOD NEWS for Obama :ProWis

Obama Enlists IRS for New Union Shakedown of Business: Ransom
All in: DOJ appeals ObamaCare ruling to Supreme Court: Hot Air
4 Reasons to Stick With Gold: Breakout

Gunrunner & Solyndra

MSM Sheep: Ignoring the Scandal of the Century: Owens
Solyndra's multimillion-dollar white elephant: SFgate
Solyndra Said to Have Violated Terms of Its U.S. Loan: WSJ

Climate & Energy

A Glut Of EVs Could Make America's Shoddy Power Grid Even Worse: Autoblog
Obama Subsidizing Hugely Profitable Wind Farm Company: JWF
CIA’s Global Warming Center A National Security Secret: JW

Media

A Tea Party Invitation to Morgan Freeman: Tea Party Brew
“Obamacare Has Arrived in the Supreme Court”: ProWis
Obama non Grata: 'As of Right Now, the Commander-in-Chief is Not Welcome at This Airport': JWF

Friedman, Orszag, Perdue, and the Totalitarian Temptation: Driscoll
No, Sarah Palin Did Not Call Herman Cain ‘Herb’ and Did Not Put Him Down: RSM
Does Rick Perry Have a Performance Problem?: Coulter

NYTimes Sunday Review Again Pushes Lie that Billionaires Run Tea Party: RWN
What Guns Were Made For: Homeowner in Philly Attacked By Mob: RWN
Herman Cain: Black Community “Brainwashed” Into Voting For Dems: WZ

Totalitarian Temptations from Carter to Obama: Ledeen
German Media Now Views Obama as SCOAMF: JWF
6th Drunk Driving Charge For Protected Illegal Alien : JW

World

Mexican Cartel Snuffs Social Media Star as Violence Nears ‘Civil War’ Levels: Wired
Misunderstanderer of Islam Arrested in Plot to Blow Up Capitol and Pentagon: Jawa
The Thought Police Win in Oz: Soylent Green

Obama’s ‘Reset’ Legacy: A Return of the USSR: PJM
NC: Muslim in USMC jihad plot guilty on immigration charges: Creeping
Obama: America's 'first Jewish president'?: Al Jazeera

Sci-Tech

First Thoughts on the Kindle Fire: PJLife
Amazon Fire: iPad Finally Gets Android Competition: AdWeek
Should Toyota's rumored Supra revival look like this?: AutoBlog

Cornucopia

Gen-Lost: Pundette
Secret Memo Reveals Which Cellphone Carriers Store Your Data The Longest: Consumerist
American architecture: The oldest surviving house on Nantucket: Maggie's Farm

Image: Solyndra's multimillion-dollar white elephant
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Herman Cain for President

QOTD: "There’s already plenty of groupthink among American blacks. Over 90% of us vote Democrat with religious regularity, and we have been doing so for over fifty years. For a short time, I was one of them. I realized a few years ago that the Democrats’ promises of equality bestowed by government wasn’t working and will never work. I came to believe that redistributionist policies with the goal of social justice was essentially creating a new plantation within the federal government. Scraps might be thrown our way, but dependence on the plantation would be the inevitable result." --Ali Akbar

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Huge rise in health care costs due to Solyndra-powered MRIs and Obamacare, but mostly Obamacare

Seriously, who could have predicted that a 2,200-page "health care" bill -- rammed through Congress unread -- might have devastating consequences for Americans' health care?

The health-insurance premiums employers pay rose sharply this year, with the average annual cost of family coverage passing the $15,000 mark for the first time... The 9% average increase... comes despite a continued trend toward more limited use of medical services in the U.S. Last year, family premiums rose just 3%, the survey found.

Employers' average annual family premium for 2011 was $15,073, up from $13,770 last year. For a single worker, the figure was $5,429, up 8% from $5,049 in 2010. The increase in employees' average premium contribution for a family plan was far less: 3% to $4,129, according to the survey.

...The premium figures aren't in constant dollars but show a significantly steeper rise than general inflation.

Drew Altman, chief executive of the Kaiser Family Foundation, cited a number of possible factors in the employers' premium jump, including projections that employees would use more health-care services than they did, continued increases in health-care prices, insurers' push for profits and, to some extent, the federal health-care overhaul.

Gee, ya think?

Whatever you do, please don't call the 15-member board -- that will decide which treatments you are eligible for -- a "death panel".

I like to call them a "fun panel".

Original Sin

Presented without comment, an email received from Papa B.

Don't shoot the messenger.

Bumper Sticker o' the Day: Biblical Proportions

Papa B relays this suggestion from Dennis Miller:

You can support Herman Cain here.

Say, I wonder if "America's first Jewish president" is aware of this?

Because they so deserve a state.

Clinton: Don't Even Symbolically Recognize Jerusalem as Capital of Israel

New York Sun, 28 September 2011

...Secretary of State Clinton ... is warning that any American action, even symbolically, toward recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel must be avoided for the reason that it would jeopardize the peace process.

Her warnings were issued in a brief she has just filed with the Supreme Court — in which she is arguing that a law she voted for when she was Senator is unconstitutional because it could require the U.S. government to give to an American citizen born at Jerusalem papers showing the birthplace as Israel...

NY Senate candidate Hillary Clinton supports Jerusalem as capital of Israel

CNN, 9 July 1999

...Hillary Rodham Clinton says she considers Jerusalem to be the eternal and indivisible capital of Israel and will be an active advocate if elected to New Yorks Senate seat to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

In a letter that became public Thursday, Mrs. Clinton wrote If I am chosen by New Yorkers to be their senator, or in whatever position I find myself in the years to come, you can be sure that I will be an active, committed advocate for a strong and secure Israel, able to live in peace with its neighbors, with the United States Embassy located in its capital, Jerusalem.

If you hadn't figured it out yet, here's a quick refresher course:

Because most Americans have conservative leanings, Democrats have to lie to get into office.

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit.

Coinkadink: Three-Quarters of a Billion Dollars in Federal Loan Guarantees Going to Solar Energy Firm Headed by Pelosi Relative

I was never great at math, but $735 million for 45 permanent jobs seems like an, eh, less-than-optimal solution:

It’s as if Solyndra never happened. The Obama Administration is giving $737 million to a Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve. PCG is an investment partner with SolarReserve. Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law happens to be the number two man at PCG...

The Energy Department announced Wednesday that is has finalized a $737 million loan guarantee for a Nevada solar project. [This comes] several weeks after a California-based solar manufacturer that received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration in 2009 filed for bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 workers, setting off a firestorm in Washington.

The $737 million loan guarantee will help finance construction of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, a 110-megawatt solar-power-generating facility in Nye County, Nev. The project is sponsored by Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve.

Crescent Dunes is the latest solar project to receive a loan guarantee from the Energy Department in recent weeks. The department announced a $1.2 billion loan guarantee to Abengoa Solar for a solar generation project in California and a $150 million loan guarantee to 1366 Technologies for a Massachusetts solar manufacturing project earlier this month... The Energy Department says the project will result in 600 construction jobs and 45 permanent jobs.

Rep. Allen West asserted that President Obama is intentionally trying to destroy the economy.

I don't want to say 'told ya so', but on March 4, 2009 I posted "Mission Accomplished -- President Obama Nukes the Economy".

It wasn't a great feat, because anyone with a rudimentary understanding of economics, history and logic could have predicted the same damn thing. Which rules out Democrats.