Doug Ross @ Journal

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

JUST PEACHY: Facebook shared personal data of users a mere 26 thousand times in the first six months of 2013

Guest post by Eric Boehm

On Facebook, you can share posts and pictures with friends.

But at Facebook, they can (and do) share your posts and pictures and personal information with government agents all around the world.

Facebook released a report Tuesday detailing their level of involvement with government requests for data. Since users willingly share so much about themselves on Facebook and other social media tools, it seems government agencies are looking to take advantage of the information – and Facebook is more than happy to comply.

“As we have said many times, we believe that while governments have an important responsibility to keep people safe, it is possible to do so while also being transparent,” said Colin Stretch, an attorney for the social networking mega-site. “Government transparency and public safety are not mutually exclusive ideals.”

Stretch assured users that Facebook scrutinizes each request and maintains a “very high legal bar” that governments must clear before users’ private information is passed along.

Even so, the numbers are startling.

In total, Facebook received more than 26,000 separate requests for information about nearly 39,000 different accounts from 72 different national governments during the first six months of 2013.

And guess which country’s government made the most requests for information from Facebook – so many, in fact, that it is more than all other requests from all other national governments in the entire world, combined.

Go ahead, guess.

Here’s the chart of the top 10:

It does raise some questions – like, if government surveillance is meant to stop terrorist attacks, are terrorists really posting “about to build a bomb” on their status updates?

Or, perhaps the government is collecting Facebook information for other reasons – particularly since we already know the Drug Enforcement Agency frequently gets “tips” from the National Security Agency and others (then lies about where those tips come from).

And Facebook’s willingness to share personal data with the governments of the world seems even stranger one week after Joe Sullivan, the company’s chief security officer, said “it is never acceptable to compromise the security or privacy of other people.”

Of course in that instance he was talking about one user compromising another user’s privacy. If Facebook is going to compromise everyone’s privacy at once, that must be better – somehow.

Now we really need that “dislike” button.

Boehm is a reporter for Watchdog.org and can be reached at Eric@PAIndependent.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EricBoehm87. Please visit Watchdog.org for more information.

NOT A REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC: Police Barricade McCain-Flake "Public" Meeting on Amnesty

As Mark Levin has consistently observed, we no longer live in a Constitutional Republic. Our representatives do not represent us. They pass laws they haven't read. And they consistently operate without the consent of the governed.

We have what the brilliantly prescient Alexis de Tocqueville called "democratic despotism", exemplified perfectly by a "public meeting" with U.S. senators at which the public was not welcome.

As senators representing a border state, one would think that Arizona Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake would be strong proponents for demanding legal immigration as well as for securing our borders. Instead, they have been not just vocal advocates of illegal immigration, these two GOP border state senators made up ¼ of the ‘Gang of Eight’ that crafted the bill to push amnesty on the American people.

There has been much controversy surrounding the route which immigration reform should take in America. Some are calling for amnesty for the tens of millions of illegals in this country. Others are adamant that either we are a nation of laws or we are not and do not support amnesty. Still others are torn between what to do with those who crossed the border illegally as children due to the decision of their parents.

Wherever you stand on the spectrum of beliefs on the topic, one would think that your elected officials would welcome the voice of anyone who wants to be heard regarding this issue that would have enormous economic repercussions on America. That is not the case with Arizona Senators McCain and Flake. On the very important issue of immigration reform, they chose to hold a ‘closed door, invitation only event’, which was labeled not as a town hall, but rather as a ‘Conversation on Amnesty’...

...While the story from the Arizona Republic states that this is a public event, the event was clearly marked as a private event and those without a ticket were only allowed to go so far...

...This decision to leave the people out of this ‘conversation’ resulted in a protest organized by Riders USA outside the Mesa Arts Center, where the ‘private event’ took place. The Arizona Republic did cover the event inside as well as provide pictures of the protest outside. If you look closely, based upon my comparison of the pictures on the Arizona Republic’s website, it appears that the McCain/Flake closed door, invitation only event took place in the Virginia G. Piper Repertory theater. That portion of the facility holds 550 people and, if you look at the picture below from the Arizona Republic, there were plenty of seats still available with a near empty upper level...

But we have an antidote, my friends.

We have a gift bequeathed to us by the founders.

It is Article V of the United States Constitution.

It is an escape hatch from an all-powerful central government that has grown out of control, just as de Tocqueville predicted.

We have an antidote and now is the time to begin reestablishing the Constitution.

Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Trying to Stay Sane in an Insane World, Part III

Guest post by Jim Quinn

In Part 1 of this article I documented the insane remedies prescribed by the mad banker scientists presiding over this preposterous fiat experiment since they blew up the lab in 2008. In Part 2 I tried to articulate why the country has allowed itself to be brought to the brink of catastrophe. There is no turning back time. The choices we’ve made and avoided making over the last one hundred years are going to come home to roost over the next fifteen years. We are in the midst of a great Crisis that will not be resolved until the mid-2020s. The propagandists supporting the vested interests continue to assure the voluntarily oblivious populace the economy is improving, jobs are plentiful, inflation is under control, and housing is recovering. Bernanke and his band of merry money manipulators, Obama and his gaggle of government apparatchiks, and their mendacious mainstream media mouthpieces have enacted radical measures in the last five years that reek of desperation in their effort to give the appearance of revival to a failing economic system. Stimulating the net worth of bankers and connected corporate cronies through engineered stock market gains has not trickled down to the peasants. Our owners try to convince us it’s raining, but we know they’re pissing down our backs. Our Crisis mood is congealing.

“But as the Crisis mood congeals, people will come to the jarring realization that they have grown helplessly dependent on a teetering edifice of anonymous transactions and paper guarantees. Many Americans won’t know where their savings are, who their employer is, what their pension is, or how their government works. The era will have left the financial world arbitraged and tentacled: Debtors won’t know who holds their notes, homeowners who owns their mortgages, and shareholders who runs their equities – and vice versa.” - The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe – 1997

The core elements of this Crisis have been discernible for decades. The accumulation of private and public debt; the civic, moral, and intellectual decay of our society; the growing power of the corrupt corporate fascist surveillance state; growing wealth inequality created by crony capitalist skullduggery; the peak in cheap easily accessible oil; and global disorder caused by overpopulation, scarce resources, religious zealotry, and war; combine in a toxic brew of unimaginable pain, anguish and tragedy. The Crisis began in September 2008 and the sole purpose of the deceitful establishment has been to avert a catastrophe that is destined to extinguish the wealth, power and control they’ve treacherously procured over the last few decades.

The appearance of stability is illusory, as the civic fabric of the country continues to tear asunder. Record high stock markets do not trickle down. The debt engineered stock market gains enrich the .1% at the expense of the working class. Bernanke’s “wealth effect” theory is a charade. He has backed the country into a corner with no escape for the prisoners of his QE prison (he’ll escape to collect his Wall Street paycheck in January). He knows that without the combined $300 billion per month being pumped into the veins of zombie U.S., European and Japanese insolvent zombie banks by central bankers, the worldwide financial system will implode. He blathers on about tapering while awaiting the next government manufactured crisis to give him an excuse to continue or increase his money printing exercise. Control P is the only key on Bennie’s laptop. To think dropping trillions of dollars into the laps of Wall Street will somehow stimulate Main Street is beyond laughable. Some ideas are so ridiculous that only intellectuals and academics could possibly believe them.

Read more »

Obama's Bluff

Guest post by George Friedman

Images of multiple dead bodies emerged from Syria last week. It was asserted that poison gas killed the victims, who according to some numbered in the hundreds. Others claimed the photos were faked while others said the rebels were at fault. The dominant view, however, maintains that the al Assad regime carried out the attack.

The United States has so far avoided involvement in Syria's civil war. This is not to say Washington has any love for the al Assad regime. Damascus' close ties to Iran and Russia give the United States reason to be hostile toward Syria, and Washington participated in the campaign to force Syrian troops out of Lebanon. Still, the United States has learned to be concerned not just with unfriendly regimes, but also with what could follow such regimes.

Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have driven home the principle that deposing one regime means living with an imperfect successor. In those cases, changing the regime wound up rapidly entangling the United States in civil wars, the outcomes of which have not been worth the price. In the case of Syria, the insurgents are Sunni Muslims whose best-organized factions have ties to al Qaeda.

Still, as frequently happens, many in the United States and Europe are appalled at the horrors of the civil war, some of whom have called on the United States to do something. The United States has been reluctant to heed these calls. As mentioned, Washington does not have a direct interest in the outcome, since all possible outcomes are bad from its perspective. Moreover, the people who are most emphatic that something be done to stop the killings will be the first to condemn the United States when its starts killing people to stop the killings. People would die in any such intervention, since there are simply no clean ways to end a civil war.

Obama's Red Lines

U.S. President Barack Obama therefore adopted an extremely cautious strategy. He said that the United States would not get directly involved in Syria unless the al Assad regime used chemical weapons, stating with a high degree of confidence that he would not have to intervene. After all, Syrian President Bashar al Assad has now survived two years of civil war, and he is far from defeated. The one thing that could defeat him is foreign intervention, particularly by the United States. It was therefore assumed he wouldn't do the one thing Obama said would trigger U.S. action.

Read more »

Larwyn's Linx: Zombie Doctrine, Tactics, and the Liberty Amendments

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

QOTD: "There are no logical reasons to oppose construction of the pipeline other than an irrational liberal ideology that blindly and unscientifically opposes all forms of energy which they themselves do not deem to be sufficiently ‘green’ or ‘renewable’." --Gov. Bobby Jindal

Monday, August 26, 2013

AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING: IRS Now Targeting Veterans

Guest post by Investors Business Daily

Scandals: One of the nation's largest veterans groups is being required to provide proof of membership eligibility. Posts that can't or won't comply face heavy fines. Your government thanks you for your service.

The IRS scandal, which President Obama says is "phony," along with the body-bag scandals of Benghazi and Fast and Furious, was once the object of faux presidential scorn. When the president announced acting Commissioner Steven Miller had resigned over his agency's "inexcusable" targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups who had applied for tax-exempt status, he feigned concern.

"I reviewed the Treasury Department watchdog's report and the misconduct that it uncovered is inexcusable," Obama said. "Americans have a right to be angry about it, and I'm angry about it."

Full of sound and fury, his remarks signified nothing. Lois Lerner, who invoked her Fifth Amendment right to be silent because she had done nothing wrong and had nothing to hide about her role in orchestrating the targeting, remains on paid vacation while the focus on groups considered even remotely patriotic continues.

If the president wants to get angry about something, how about getting mad about the IRS leaping on the American Legion, requiring individual Legion posts to provide proof of their members' eligibility, virtually accusing the veterans organization of being a cover for and sanctioning tax fraud?

Read more »

Scandalous

Ladies and gentlemen, the very talented Nate Beeler of The Columubus Dispatch:

You can visit the Dispatch's Beeler index here.

Hat tip: BB.

HOLY TOLEDO: Harvard Study Proves That Gun Control Laws Can't Work, Won't Work and Have Never Worked

Democrat Statists and professional propagandists hardest hit: it's Hahvahd, after all.

You’re going to want to read all of this (PDF).
“Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International and Some Domestic Evidence” in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy is the stuff of gun grabber’s nightmares. Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser have compiled a heavily foot-noted academic report that is nonetheless very compelling and relatively easy to digest...
The Harvard study attempts to answer the question of whether or not banning firearms would reduce murders and suicides. Researchers looked at crime data from several European countries and found that countries with HIGHER gun ownership often had LOWER murder rates.
Russia, for example, enforces very strict gun control on its people, but its murder rate remains quite high. In fact, the murder rate in Russia is four times higher tahn in the “gun-ridden” United States, cites the study. ”Homicide results suggest that where guns are scarce other weapons are substituted in killings.” In other words, the elimination of guns does not eliminate murder, and in the case of gun-controlled Russia, murder rates are quite high.
The study revealed several European countries with significant gun ownership, like Norway, Finland, Germany and France – had remarkably low murder rates. Contrast that with Luxembourg, “where handguns are totally banned and ownership of any kind of gun is minimal, had a murder rate nine times higher than Germany in 2002.
The study found no evidence to suggest that the availability of guns contributes to higher murder rates anywhere in the world. ”Of course, it may be speculated that murder rates around the world would be higher if guns were more available. But there is simply no evidence to support this.”
The authors also took a look at the effect of gun control laws in various U.S. states, gun ownership in rural and urban areas, and across racial lines. The long and short of it is that a small number of extremely active criminals with lengthy criminal records are responsible for the overwhelming super-majority of all gun crimes, and these criminals are psychopaths that ignore all laws.
The study also cited a previous report that was unable to find a single gun control law implemented in the United States that is proven to have reduced violent crime.

Perhaps someone could forward the study to Chicago Mayor Rahm "Tiny Dancer" Emanuel, not that facts ever influenced a Democrat's policy position.

Hat tip: BadBlue Gun News - Your Real-time Source for Firearms and Second Amendment News

Another wealth redistribution scheme gamed: Unemployment insurance fraud "rampant"

The true amount of fraud laced throughout our nation's disastrous systems for redistributing wealth are unknown. By the government's own estimates, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security Disability fraud amount to roughly $150 billion a year. The true amount is probably double or triple that.

As for unemployment insurance fraud, Tyler Durden reports that Louisiana is our grand prize winner.

Louisiana tops the nation's list of "improper" payments for unemployment insurance with a 3-year rate of 38.67%. Of course, this is the "improper" payments they know about (as only 29.7% of overpayments have been recovered)...

...A stunning 28% of Louisanans who claimed benefits did so even after returning to work. However, while the Louisiana data points are bad, they are not alone. As the chart below shows... 16 states have "improper" payment rates of over 14%. One wonders why the world doesn't trust the US so much anymore?

The data[,] from the Department of Labor, is from estimates based on results of State Benefit Accuracy Measurement (BAM) survey (random audits) of paid and denied claims...

Debt piled upon debt, fraud piled upon fraud, one leader without virtue after another... Long after the financial cyclone sweeps over our shores, historians will scratch their heads and wonder how Americans threw away the finest system of government ever invented.

Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: Maybe I Do Have Something to Hide

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

Nation

Maybe I Do Have Something to Hide: Daren Jonescu
An Extremist Group of One: Baron Bodissey
Firewall: Building a police state?: Mike Bibb

No one who favors Obamacare wants to be bound by it : Mark Steyn
‘Obama flag’ reappears at MLK march: Doug Powers
Chicago's Honor Student of the Week: iOTW

Economy

Economist on the Real Reason College Costs So Much: Leslie Eastman
‘Recovery’ re-defined: Michelle Malkin
The Secrecy Lobby: CA pensioners conceal their benefits: Steven Greenhut

A Living Wage: Sarah A. Hoyt
Would balancing the budget be a disaster for our economy?: Bob Agard
A Third Of Louisiana Unemployment Payments Are "Improper": ZH

Scandal Central

GOP Rep.: White House Aiding and Abetting Voter Fraud: Oliver Darcy
Tyranny Has Arrived on Our Doorstep: Shane Krauser
Obama’s Puerile Molestation of the Constitution: Kelly O'Connell

Media

DOD: People Who Talk About Individual Freedom, Making World Better Place Are “Extremists”: RWN
Judge Jeanine: We keep being lied to; I’d be hauling butts to jail: BPR
Potius Mori Quam Foedari: R.S. McCain

Mark Levin Booksigning At Tyson's Corner, VA, for his NY Times Bestseller: Marooned In Marin
Is this Martin Luther King’s legacy? National Mall covered in garbage: Elenore Miller
Obama's Intimidation Tactics (2012): Western Journalism

World

Have the Saudis Been Tipped off about a Pending U.S. Attack on Syria?: Shenandoah
A Shiny New War: At Home and Abroad: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Cameron reportedly pushing Obama toward Syria strike: Times of Israel

Who’s Lying Now? Syria’s Chemical Attacks Indicate President Bush Didn’t ‘Lie’ About WMDs: Greg Campbell
Obama boxed-in on Syria: Julian Pecquet and Ian Swanson
Outrage: U.S. Returning Artifacts Looted from Iraqi Jews to Iraq, Instead of Lawful Owners: Harold Rhode

Sci-Tech

U.S. Electrical Grid on the Edge of Failure: Jeff Tollefson, Scientific American
Important Shortcuts For Linux Beginners: EFYTimes
Using Pulsars As GPS - A Space Navigation System Fit For A Starship?->: Slashdot

Cornucopia

Liberals Rename ALL 32 NFL Teams!: Morlock Revolt
Something Wonderful: Oh Sweet Lorraine: American Digest
All-Time Most Expensive Classic Cars at Auction: Bloomberg

The Reaction From Will Smith’s Family Tells You All About Miley Cyrus’s Raunchy Dance: RWN
Self-Defense Tip: Give it Up: Robert Farago
Merrill Lynch Man Achieves Winemaker Dream: Elin McCoy

Image: Groveland breathes easier as Rim Fire moves east
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: 9/11 Million Muslim March In D.C. To Be Met By 2 Million Bikers

QOTD: "Another school year beckons, which means it’s time for President Obama to go on another college retreat. “He loves college tours,” says Ohio University’s Richard Vedder, who directs the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. “Colleges are an escape from reality. Believe me, I’ve lived in one for half a century. It’s like living in Disneyland. They’re these little isolated enclaves of nonreality.”

…College costs have continued to explode despite 50 years of ostensibly benevolent government interventions, according to Mr. Vedder, and the president’s new plan could exacerbate the trend. By Mr. Vedder’s lights, the cost conundrum started with the Higher Education Act of 1965, a Great Society program that created federal scholarships and low-interest loans aimed at making college more accessible.

..This growth in subsidies, Mr. Vedder argues, has fueled rising prices: “It gives every incentive and every opportunity for colleges to raise their fees.”" --(Source)

Sunday, August 25, 2013

The Difference Between Orlando and Chicago: The Right to Preserve Your Most Precious Gift

Try to imagine what would have happened had this precise scenario unfolded in Chicago (or any other Democrat-enforced human hunting preserve).

An armed robbery suspect was shot and killed in West Melbourne, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.

According to Major Todd Goodyear, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of 32-year-old Fredrick Lorenza Kelly Jr., who was shot and killed during an alleged Armed Robbery of a pizza delivery driver.

According to Goodyear, the incident occurred in the parking lot of the Days Inn motel at 4500 West New Haven Ave., West Melbourne, an area that fall in county jurisdiction shortly before midnight on August 23, 2013.

Bryon Park, 54, of Palm Bay had just returned to his vehicle after delivering a pizza to a room in the motel complex, when he was approached by Kelly brandishing a large knife.

According to Goodyear, Kelly demanded money from Park and threatened to kill him if he did not comply. Park obtained the firearm he carries in his vehicle and defended himself, by firing once toward Kelly, who was struck and pronounced dead at the scene. Kelly’s body was transported to the Brevard County Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy.

Fredrick Kelly Jr. has a lengthy violent criminal history that includes Armed Robbery, Aggravated Battery and False Imprisonment.

In fact, almost exactly this same scenario did occur in Chicago just a few short years ago.

A man pleaded guilty Thursday in the 2006 slaying and armed robbery of a widowed mother of four sons that occurred while she was delivering pizzas near West Chicago.

Bradley Justice, 31, of Sandwich was scheduled to go on trial next week in the brutal killing of Karen Hassan, 41, of St. Charles. Hassan was beaten to death with a hammer as she arrived at a unoccupied industrial site to deliver pizzas ordered by Justice, who later used cash he took from the woman to buy cocaine.

Thanks to the radical left Democrat Party, Karen Hassan had no ability to defend herself against a vicious hoodlum and criminal.

Democrats want law-abiding citizens disarmed. They use the blood of children to push their radical gun control agenda. They want the citizenry cowed and fearful.

And that is why cities like Chicago are awash in blood; for it is the citizens that obey the Democrats' unconstitutional laws leaving only gangsters with deadly force.

Hat tip: BB.

Larry Summers and the Secret "End-Game" Memo

Guest post by Greg Palast

When a little birdie dropped the End Game memo through my window, its content was so explosive, so sick and plain evil, I just couldn't believe it.

The Memo confirmed every conspiracy freak's fantasy: that in the late 1990s, the top US Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of banker big-shots to rip apart financial regulation across the planet. When you see 26.3% unemployment in Spain, desperation and hunger in Greece, riots in Indonesia and Detroit in bankruptcy, go back to this End Game memo, the genesis of the blood and tears.

The Treasury official playing the bankers' secret End Game was Larry Summers. Today, Summers is Barack Obama's leading choice for Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, the world's central bank. If the confidential memo is authentic, then Summers shouldn't be serving on the Fed, he should be serving hard time in some dungeon reserved for the criminally insane of the finance world.

The memo is authentic.

To get that confirmation, I would have to fly to Geneva and wangle a meeting with the Secretary General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy. I did. Lamy, the Generalissimo of Globalization, told me,

"The WTO was not created as some dark cabal of multinationals secretly cooking plots against the people…. We don't have cigar-smoking, rich, crazy bankers negotiating."

Then I showed him the memo.

It begins with Summers’ flunky, Timothy Geithner, reminding his boss to call the then most powerful CEOs on the planet and get them to order their lobbyist armies to march:

"As we enter the end-game of the WTO financial services negotiations, I believe it would be a good idea for you to touch base with the CEOs…."

To avoid Summers having to call his office to get the phone numbers (which, under US law, would have to appear on public logs), Geithner listed their private lines. And here they are:

Read more »

A Most Dangerous Lie

Last week President Barack Obama asserted that the United States does not face spending or deficit problems, only an ideological divide caused by Republicans that want to slash government programs for health and children's services.

“We don’t have an urgent deficit crisis,” Obama said Friday at a town hall meeting on the campus of Binghamton University in Binghamton, N.Y. “The only crisis we have is the one that is manufactured in Washington and it’s ideological and the basic notion is that we shouldn’t be helping people get health care and we shouldn’t be helping kids who can’t help themselves and whose parents are under resourced, we shouldn’t be helping them get a leg up.”

Now either this president is lying or he has yet to read his own government's reports.

• The Government Accountability Office said earlier this year that "...absent policy changes...the federal government continues to face an unsustainable fiscal path."

• The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office warns that we have less than a decade to rectify the federal spending addiciton: "[a] growing imbalance between revenues and noninterest spending, combined with the spiraling cost of net interest, would swiftly push debt upward in an unsustainable way... The explosive path of federal debt ... underscores the need for major changes in current policies to put the nation on a sustainable fiscal course..."

• The public trustees of Medicare and Social Security continue to sound the alarm that the massive entitlement programs are headed for collapse: "Under current law, both of these vitally important programs are on unsustainable paths."

• Furthermore, government economists in the several states warn that the federal debt "circumstances are dire enough after four consecutive years of trillion-dollar deficits that politicians on each side of the aisle are beginning to realize serious budget repairs are necessary."

• Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker, one of the most respected investment analysts in America, reports that the United States federal government "is on a parallel course to GM before its bankruptcy... [and if entitlement programs are not reformed, the U.S. balance sheet will go from bad to worse... The turning point: within 15 years, entitlements plus net interest expenses will absorb all -- yes, all -- of [federal] annual revenue."

This is just a random sampling. There are many, many more. There are hundreds of similar analyses from the government itself as well as the private sector.

Are the federal government's own actuaries all wrong and Obama right?

Are the federal government's own accountants all wrong and Obama right?

Are generally accepted accounting principles all wrong and Obama right?

Are centuries of mathematics all wrong and Obama right?

Are facts, logic, history and reason all wrong and Obama right?

Whether his actions are, as some have proposed, intentional or whether they are the product of a radical and blinkered ideology, the endgame will be the same.

We are headed rapidly for an economic whirlpool, a hydraulic that will -- like chaotic events that have occurred before throughout history -- catch most off-guard and send the country rapidly into desperately dangerous, uncharted waters.

And which segments of the population will be hardest hit by such an economic catastrophe? Will it be the super-rich, the Beltway elites, or former Presidents of the U.S.? Or will it be the poor, seniors living on fixed incomes, and young people trying to get their careers started?

Of all his countless fabrications, the lies the President tells the American people about spending and deficits are the most dangerous.

Hat tips: Mark Levin and BadBlue News Service.

Larwyn's Linx: A Nation Without Heroes

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

Nation

A Nation Without Heroes: J. D. Longstreet
You and I are the extremists, not Nidal Hasan: AWD
MLK's Last Speech: “I Have Been To The Mountaintop…”: Ali Akbar

Hillary’s Infamous Benghazi Outburst given new meaning: Shoebat
Conservatives Must Remove Traitor RINOs in Primaries or By Recall: CFP
Selected Scenes from the Great National Discussion on Race: Ace

The speech, the dream and me: Cal Thomas
DA: Race not a factor in murder of Aussie baseball player: RWN
Bradley Manning Is Not a Woman : Kevin D. Williamson

Economy

Americans in shock as work hours, health benefits cut due to Obamacare: DCC
New York City's Prisons: Gilded Cages: Rebecca Harshbarger, Post
The War on Americans: 90 Miles From Tyranny

Ohio: Another Muslim food stamp fraud ring busted, netted $780,000: Creeping
Ford's Risky 2015 Mustang Could Alienate Loyal Fans: My Daily Kona
EBT Users and Increased Fraud: Libertarian Republican

Scandal Central

IRS now targeting the American Legion: Patrick Howley
Team involved in tracking Benghazi suspects pulling out, sources say: Adam Housley
Snowden suspected of bypassing electronic logs: AP

Larry Summers and the Secret "End-Game" Memo: Greg Palast
Obama Warns ICE Agents Not To Arrest Or Deport Illegal Immigrants If They Have Children: WZ
Democrat Hero Filner Resigns: Calls it a 'Coup': Doug Powers

Media

The Foul Stench of Brian Beutler’s Truthlessness Has Become Intolerable: Robert Stacy McCain
How could Oberlin be so cruel as to play along with the racism hoax?: LI
Boy arrested over baseball star's murder tied to robberies with PREGNANT girlfriend: Daily Mail

The Oklahoma Story: No, Piers, it’s not about guns: Ben Stein
The Unprecedented Secrecy of the Obama Administration: Tom Fitton
Sarah Palin takes on DHS over employee with hate site; also talks Ashton Kutcher: Scoop

World

Dangerous Times: Russia Rising in the Middle East: James Lewis
Obama’s New U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power Skips Emergency Security Council Meeting: WZ
You gotta love it when they make our points: Gun Free Zone

Sci-Tech

NSA hacked into encrypted UN communications, leaked documents show: David Meyer
Perceived missteps may have hit a tipping point for Ballmer: Juan Carlos Perez
Tuolumne Fire: Threatens Power to San Francisco: Kirk Raymond

Cornucopia

Peter Dinklage: “I Hate that Word, ‘Lucky’”: Ari Armstrong
A Recap of This Week’s College-Bound and Down Tour: MOTUS
My Thought On Ben Affleck As Batman...: Soylent Siberia (NSFW)

Image: Kevin LaMarque, Reuters
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: 9/11 Million Muslim March In D.C. To Be Met By 2 Million Bikers

QOTD: "Brian Beutler‘s day job selling cheap Mexican heroin at the playground near an elementary school wasn’t producing enough revenue, and his weekend gig pimping kidnapped orphan girls to Saudi oil sheiks still didn’t make the nut. The cost of living is outrageous in DC nowadays and so, finally, Brian Beutler was forced to the desperate resort of doing something genuinely heinous, writing lies for Salon.com.

Yesterday, an AOSHQ co-blogger let his hatred of Maureen Dowd get the better of him and actually linked a Salon takedown of her. As much as I despise Maureen Dowd, however, the fact that she was denounced by Alex Pareene makes me think the old gal must have accidentally written a couple of factually accurate sentences lately, because if there is anything that Salon hates more than facts, it’s accuracy.

Generally speaking, every word published by Salon is the exact opposite of truth, and they only employ writers so fanatically dishonest that even such infamous organs of mendacity as the New York Times and the Washington Post want nothing to do with them." --Robert Stacy McCain

Saturday, August 24, 2013

WHILE OBAMA SLEPT: A Tribute to Benghazi's Heroes

Guest post by Kevin Jackson

Greg Marra, the artist who created the statue for fallen Navy SEAL, Chris Kyle, has begun working on the statue to commemorate the 4 fallen in Benghazi.

This tribute statue will be a reminder to politicians, that while they play their political games with people’s lives, the American people won’t forget and we will hold those responsible accountable.

As with the Chris Kyle statue, we need to help fund this bigger than life statue. People will be able to walk among the figures. The statue will help Americans understand what happened to these men, while DC slept.

The statue depicts the artist’s vision of the incident that took the lives of 4 patriots: one man praying, the other behind of the two fallen Navy SEALS, men who fought for over 20 hours against impossible odds. Once complete, Greg will find a fitting home for it, and talks with Congressmen are underway to do just that.

We will try to get this statue, titled “While Washington DC Slept,” prominently placed in Washington DC. We won’t let the memory of American patriots who died at Benghazi fade!

ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11 BENGHAZI TERROR ATTACK NEARS: It is Time to Demand Answers

Guest post by Watchdog Wire

BENGHAZI: Who are the players? WHITE HOUSE LIST, THE THREE AMIGOS, OTHERS ON THE HILL, MEDIA

On September 11, 2013 it will have been one year since the tragic attack on the US Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi, Libya. The attack claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stephens and three other American citizens – marking the first time an Ambassador has been killed in action since the Carter Administration. It seems unbelievable that, almost 365 days later, American citizens are still waiting for information, answers, and justice. Only four people were ever disciplined for their actions surrounding the attack and not a single person lost their job. And Secretary of State John Kerry recently returned all four officials to work, without subjecting them to hearings regarding their role in the attack. Apparently, answers on Benghazi aren’t at the top of Kerry’s “to-do” list.

Will anyone be held accountable for this giant security failure? Have we learned anything from the ongoing investigation of the attack? The families of the victims deserve answers and American citizens deserve an explanation.

TAKE ACTION

This September, join us in telling the Obama Administration that we haven’t forgotten. Contact the major players in the Benghazi incident and tell them we’re still watching and waiting for the TRUTH. Demand an update in the ongoing investigation!

Read more »

33 Horrifying Facts Illustrating the Collapse of the U.S. Economy Under Barack Obama

Guest post by Michael Snyder

Barack Obama has been running around the country taking credit for an "economic recovery", but the truth is that things have not gotten better under Obama. Compared to when he first took office, a smaller percentage of the working age population is employed, the quality of our jobs has declined substantially and the middle class has been absolutely shredded. If we are really in the middle of an "economic recovery", why is the homeownership rate the lowest that it has been in 18 years? Why has the number of Americans on food stamps increased by nearly 50 percent while Obama has been in the White House? Why has the national debt gotten more than 6 trillion dollars larger during the Obama era? Obama should not be "taking credit" for anything when it comes to the economy. In fact, he should be deeply apologizing to the American people.

And of course Obama is being delusional if he thinks that he is actually "running the economy". The Federal Reserve has far more power over the U.S. economy and the U.S. financial system than he does. But the mainstream media loves to fixate on the presidency, so presidents always get far too much credit or far too much blame for economic conditions.

But if you do want to focus on "the change" that has taken place since Barack Obama entered the White House, there is no way in the world that you can claim that things have actually gotten better during that time frame. The cold, hard reality of the matter is that the U.S. economy has been steadily declining for over a decade, and this decline has continued while Obama has been living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It is getting very tiring listening to Obama supporters try to claim that Obama has improved the economy. That is a false claim that is not even remotely close to reality. The following are 33 shocking facts which show how badly the U.S. economy has tanked since Obama became president...

#1 When Barack Obama entered the White House, 60.6 percent of working age Americans had a job. Today, only 58.7 percent of working age Americans have a job.

#2 Since Obama has been president, seven out of every eight jobs that have been "created" in the U.S. economy have been part-time jobs.

#3 The number of full-time workers in the United States is still nearly 6 million below the old record that was set back in 2007.

Read more »

WHEN A PICTURE IS WORTH A BILLION WORDS: The Unvanished Idiocy of the Anti-Fracking Crowd

Spotted over at Anthony Watts's jaint.

There’s been a lot of hullabaloo in the UK over the Balcombe fracking protests. WUWT reader Eric Worrall writes in with this comparison photo...

...Here is a tagged version of the same picture of all the plastic high tech synthetics used by anti fracking protestors in England, captured in a single photograph...

It really makes you wonder – do anti-fracking protestors think nylon tents, PVC groundsheets, and plastics grow on trees? No doubt the tents also contain high tech synthetic fibre sleeping bags, and gas powered camp cookers.

Do these hypocrites actually think about what sort of world they would have to endure, without the cheap hydrocarbons, and cheap plastic synthetics, the petroleum source of which they oppose?

And these are the same kooks that tell us humans are causing "global warming" (or is it "climate change" now, I forget) even though the Earth is cooling?

These people are such simpletons I'm amazed they remember to breathe on their own.

Hat tip: BadBlue News.