Monday, February 23, 2009

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Santelli's Rant Touched a Nerve

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Economic Insanity: AJ Strata
DeMint calls for protests in the street: Gateway
Is Obama America's worst president ever?: Flopping Aces

Banks over the cliff: Wizbang
Citigroup and BofA: Dead: Financial Ninja
Exactly who is getting bailed out?: AT

Obama calls in the cavalry: PJM (Lasky)
Readers know how: Surber
Santelli erupts on Kudlow Show: Gateway

Will Herb and Marion Sandler pay a price?: AT
Burris and the Silence of the Dems: Prairie
One Big Ass Mistake: S, C & A

Market knows best: Charlie Foxtrot
They were taken out and shot: Dinocrat
Obama's new budget deficit math: AT (Cary)

The Foreclosure Five: Riehl
Are foreclosure rates catastrophic and getting worse? No: TAB
Does AFL-CIO head understand the EFCA?: STACLU

Santelli's mortgage rant really touched a nerve: Trib
CAIR intervenes: Hijab-wearing Oklahoman gets driver’s license: Breitbart
Why the "Tea Party" movement will keep growing: Riehl

Obama's Chicago and the success of 'community organzing': AT (Cary)
The Opacity Program is Gaining Steam: Porcupine Rim
The Grinch Who Stole Hope: Commentary (Rubin)

The conspiracy to cut gasoline prices: TigerHawk
ABC's Terry Moran: For Obama, the Presidency a 'Step Down': NewsBusters (Whitlock)
Blame it on Gitmo: NRO (Miller)

Mobile device will be most popular link to Internet by 2020: Pew
Microsoft wants refunds from workers it laid off: CNet
Best Oscar Acceptance Speech Ever: TMZ

Sunday, February 22, 2009

A proposed flag for the Tea Party Republicans


Michelle Malkin and Glenn Reynolds on Pajamas TV as well as Dan Riehl have the back-story.

Update: Thomas Lifson sent us this one, which I like better.




Don't Breathe: a Commercial


Plants emit oxygen...

Which man needs to breathe...

Man exhales carbon dioxide.

Which plants need to breathe.

So why do Democrats say carbon dioxide...

...is a poison? How can what we exhale be a poison?

It's all about taxes.
Democrats want more tax money.
They'll call it a "carbon tax",
"carbon trading" or "cap-and-trade."

All of it is a scam,
because carbon dioxide isn't a poison.
Call Congress right now...

Tell them carbon dioxide isn't a poison.

OPPOSE CARBON TAX SCHEMES.

Location, location, location


These guys must be raking it in.


Hat tip: Dave W..

Breaking: "Oscar Winners List" released via Twitter


Update 12:06PM: Ed Morrissey says that, based upon his reading of the rules of vote collection, this is most likely a hoax.

A friend alerted me to a Jason Calcanis tweet that points to a supposed list of Oscar winners. Legit? We'll soon see.


Here's a closeup of the "winners". Click on the image to zoom:

If the Oscar police come asking, you didn't get this from me.

Update: Ed Morrissey says that this memo is most likely a well-crafted hoax. Linked by: American Thinker. Thanks!

Citibank fell for massive Nigerian scam


Taxpayers ponied up $45 billion in bailout funds to save Citibank. But word has it that the bank lost at least $27 million to Nigerian scammers:

To carry out the elaborate scheme, prosecutors in New York said on Friday... a Nigerian citizen who lived in Singapore, worked with others to create official-looking documents that instructed Citibank to wire the money in two dozen transactions to accounts that Mr. Amos and the others controlled around the world.

The money came from a Citibank account in New York held by the National Bank of Ethiopia, that country’s central bank. Prosecutors said the conspirators, contacted by Citibank to verify the transactions, posed as Ethiopian bank officials and approved the transfers...

Junior Cub Reporter Biff Spackle -- who survived the recent round of layoffs here at DR -- was able to lay hands on the actual letter used to scam the $27 million. It is presented here for the first time.

NO. 9 STEPHANAPOLOUS AV.
NEW HAVEN ENUGU CITY
ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA
FAX: 234-42-254548

URGENT TARP (TROUBLED ASSET RELIEF PROGRAM) ALLOCATION NOTICE

DEAR SIR,

IN ORDER TO TRANSFER OUT USD 270 MILLION DOLLARS (TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY MILLION DOLLARS) FROM OUR BANK, I WILL NEED ASSISTANCE FROM CITIBANK. YOU HAVE BEEN RECOMMENDED AS A RELIABLE AND HONEST PERSON WHO CAN HELP FACILITATE THIS TRANSACTION IN A TRUSTWORTHY MANNER.

I AM MR. STEVEN ANIAGO, EASTERN DISTRICT BANK MANAGER FOR ENUGU CITY BANK AFRICA PLC. WE RECEIVED IN ERROR USD 270 MILLION FROM THE FEDERAL RESERVE (TREASURY DEPARTMENT) FROM A MISTER TIMOTHY GEITHNER WHO GAVE US THIS MONEY AS PART OF AMERICA'S TROUBLED ASSET RELIEF PROGRAM (TARP).

WE BELIEVE THIS ERROR OCCURRED BECAUSE OUR BANK NAME, ENUGU CITY BANK, WAS CONFUSED WITH YOUR BANK NAME, CITIBANK. WE THEREFORE ARE TRYING TO CORRECT THE ERROR BY FINDING A CITIBANK OFFICIAL AND TRUSTING ACCOUNT TO WHOM WE CAN SEND THE USD $270 MILLION.

WE HAVE TRIED CALLING THE CITIBANK 800 NUMBER MANY TIMES, BUT HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO FIND AN OFFICIAL TO SPEAK WITH AS WE HAVE BEEN CAUGHT IN MANY FRUSTRATING VOICEMAIL MENUS THAT HAVE NO OPTION TO SPEAK TO A HUMAN PERSON.

I WANT TO TRANSFER THIS MONEY INTO A SAFE CITIBANK ACCOUNT ABROAD BUT I DON'T KNOW ANY CITIBANK OFFICIAL. I AM ONLY CONTACTING YOU BECAUSE THIS TRANSFER CAN NOT BE APPROVED WITHOUT YOUR HELP BECAUSE THE MONEY IS IN US DOLLARS AND THE BENEFICIARY ACCOUNT NAME IS CITIBANK.

I ONLY GOT YOUR CONTACT ADDRESS FROM THE COMPUTER BY SEARCHING FACEBOOK FOR CITIBANK OFFICIALS. BY THE WAY, YOUR WIFE IS QUITE HOT. YOU ARE THUS FAR THE ONLY PERSON THAT I HAVE CONTACTED. PLEASE REPLY URGENTLY SO THAT I WILL INFORM YOU THE NEXT STEP. SEND ALSO YOUR PRIVATE TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBER INCLUDING THE DETAILS OF THE ACCOUNT TO BE USED FOR TRANSFER.

I WANT US TO MEET FACE TO FACE OR SIGN A BINDING AGREEMENT TO BIND US TOGETHER SO THAT YOU CAN RECEIVE THIS MONEY INTO YOUR TARP ACCOUNT OR ANY ACCOUNT OF YOUR CHOICE. I WILL USE MY POSITION AND INFLUENCE TO EFFECT LEGAL APPROVALS AND ONWARD TRANSFER OF THIS MONEY TO YOUR ACCOUNT WITH APPROPRIATE CLEARANCE FORMS OF THE MINISTRIES AND FOREIGN EXCHANGE DEPARTMENTS.

AT THE CONCLUSION OF THIS BUSINESS, THE CITIBANK ACCOUNT WILL BE GIVEN 100% OF THE TOTAL AMOUNT AND I WILL NOTIFIY MISTER TIMOTHY GEITHNER THAT FUNDS ARE SAFELY IN YOUR HANDS.

I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR EARLIEST REPLY BY E MAIL AND FAX LINE: 234-42-254548.

YOURS TRULY MR. STEVEN,ANIAGO
EASTERN DISTRICT MANAGER
ENUGU CITY BANK

Heck, that would have fooled me.

Update: Financial Ninja says that Citigroup and Bank of America are dead.

Hat tips: Bob McCarty and Quatloos.

Killing of Apostates No Longer Encouraged at Virginia School


Arab News reports that the controversial Islamic Saudi Academy in northern Virginia started the school year with fewer text books.

US pressure groups accused the school of inciting violence through its curriculum, a development that raises concerns about the future of Islamic education at the institute.

Hundreds of pages were purged from textbooks taught at the academy. While students used to study four texts in their Islamic studies — exegesis of the Qur’an (tafsir), monotheism (tawhid), Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) (Hadith) — they currently only study one, an amalgamation of selected texts from the above four.

“Last year we noticed that pages were being removed. This year, however, we got new books,” said Abduljabbar Totonji, an ISA student in 12th grade who is concerned that the changes would be detrimental to the Islamic education given to students.

ISA was founded in 1984 to provide Muslim students in the United States with education in Islam and Arabic, identical to what is provided in Saudi schools. One of 19 such schools owned by the Saudi government worldwide, ISA in Virginia is the only one that no longer uses the Saudi Ministry of Education’s official textbooks.

...In its report, [US government agency] USCIRF listed examples of what it called “problematic passages,” which violate international human rights and serve to “embolden radical Islamists who seek to perpetuate acts of terrorism” on Americans and others around the world... the report quoted an excerpt from a 12th grade tafsir book that includes a Qur’anic verse prohibiting the killing of people with the authors’ commentary that it is permissible for a Muslim to kill an apostate, an adulterer, or someone who murders a Muslim.

USCIRF insists its criticism is not for the Qur’an. “None of what we have said has anything to do with the Qur’an,” said Bashir, “as a matter of fact, the passages that we cited are all interpretations or text written by the authors, not anything directly from the Qur’an...”

Beating around the bush -- in pursuit of a misguided form of political correctness -- will get a lot more innocent Americans killed someday.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: "The Depression President"

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

FBI finds fugitive Democrat financier: JWF
Obama acts like he is angry at America: Seeing Right
Amnesty International 'Shocked' at Hillary: JWF

CNBC's Santelli fires back at White House: El Campeador
Anti-Stimulus Protests Spontaneously Sprout Up: IBD
Satellite Data: No Warming Before 1997: Icecap

A Potemkin village called 'Transparency': Tapscott
Freedom dies as radical Islam advances: Examiner
Hopeful detainees get no hope or change: Morrissey

All The News That's Fit To Infer: Crittenden
DeMint: ban the Fairness Doctrine: STACLU
What a bummer this guy is: American Digest

Dire Warning: Hatless in Hattiesburg
Some, Underwater but Ineligible, Are Riled Up: WSJ
Paper finds Unions hurt business, when its their business: NewsBusters

Iran's strategic nuclear deception: PJM (Karpel)
"The person you call 'President Obama'" -- Alan Keyes goes off: YouTube
"This is our house now" -- ACORN breaks into houses: ECO

How could 9,000 business reporters blow it?: Mother Jones
What convergence? TV's hesitant march to the Net: Slimes
The 11 most expensive catastrophes in history: Pirillo

73-year old hoopster's dream season turns sour: NBC
Okay, I don't like this at all: Instapundit
Seven broken promises in record time: Sweetness & Light:

7 Broken Promises in Record Time

1. Make government open and transparent.

2. Make it "impossible" for Congressmen to slip in pork barrel projects.

3. Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public. (Even Congressional Republicans were shut out of the process).

4. No more secrecy.

5. Public will have 5 days to look at a bill.

6. You’ll know what’s in it.

7. We will put every pork barrel project online.

Funny, but not one of Mr. Obama’s promises were met with the most expensive spending bill in our nation’s history.

Linked by: Instapundit. Thanks!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Prescription for disaster: Obama promises tax hikes in the teeth of a recession


The Washington Post reports that tax hikes are on the way. The hikes will directly impact the most productive members of the economy -- the despicable "rich" -- by extracting funds from mostly small business owners. Those funds would otherwise go towards hiring, capital investment or R&D. But perhaps government knows best.

And who are the contemptible "rich"? Probably any household earning over $120,000.

Remember when candidate Obama first defined the rich for us? It was his way of introducing the American public to the Alinsky playbook, so he set the bar high. The rich comprised households making over $250,000 a year, according to Obama.

Then Joe Biden, who slipped away from his handlers long enough to blurt out additional details, disclosed that the rich were actually folks making over $175,000.

Finally, Bill Richardson, at the time a potential member of the "Team of Tax Cheats", disclosed that the real number was $120,000.

Never mind that a household making $120,000 in, say, Manhattan is very different from one in Lincoln, Nebraska. In the city, studio apartments can run over $500,000 with rentals of $3,500 a month.

Conversely, rentals in Lincoln run about $650 a month.

Defining wealth through income alone is therefore a fruitless exercise.

Nonetheless, Obama is executing plays right out of the Alinsky punch-list, pitting classes against one another even though there are no static class structures in America.

The Tale of Page and Brin


Eleven years ago, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were students at Stanford. They were then members of Obama's oppressed "poor".

Just nine years later, Page and Brin were worth a combined $36 billion as the founders of Google.

What economic novices like Obama can't or won't understand is that wealth disparity is wonderful. It allowed Page and Brin to create, achieve, construct a company from whole cloth, employ thousands and produce hundreds of other millionaires.

Now, of course, they're among the vile rich.

Take more money from the business owners, you get less venture capital, less investment, less business growth and -- ultimately -- more malaise.

Malaise: the watchword of the Carter era


Remember the tax rates under the Carter administration?

Carter's tax rates "spread the wealth" by confiscating 70% of all earnings over $203K.

At a 70% confiscation rate, many were motivated to demand cash or barter, hide income, cheat or operate in the black-market.

Some business owners closed up shop, deciding they'd had enough. Others stopped growing their businesses because of diminishing returns.

Even if you earned only $47K, Carter wanted half.

As for the results? In 1980 Time magazine put it this way.

...inflation is not only a frightening economic problem but is rapidly becoming Carter's most dangerous political liability as well... In the past few weeks, however, a new side of inflationary psychology has begun to show itself among businessmen and investors: plain, old-fashioned fear. Executives talk of inflation rates going to 20% or more in the next few months, creating an environment in which reasonable planning is impossible. The jitters have unhinged the investment markets. As recently as mid-February, stocks were widely considered a hedge against inflation and thought to be grossly undervalued. The Dow Jones industrial average hit a high of 904 on Feb. 13. But since then it has tumbled 92 points, to 812; nine points of the decline came last week. The average is now lower than it was 16 years ago.

Sound familiar? Maybe there's some validity to the contention that the recent stock market turmoil can be termed an "Obama Panic". That is, investors anticipating a disastrous set of Carter-esque policies that send the economy into a tailspin and respond accordingly.

What were the results of Carter's "wealth-spreading" policies?

Inflation rose dramatically, nearly touching 15% by 1980.

Unemployment rose to 11% shortly thereafter. The economy didn't return to health until President Reagan spearheaded lower tax rates.

The history is clear: oppressive tax rates for the "rich" -- really, just productive business-people small and large -- are disastrous for employment.

You are among the casualties.

In October, Amil Amani at the American Thinker wrote, "Obama's economic plan is a recipe for long-lasting disaster. Keep in mind that wrecking anything, as opposed to building things, requires very little time and effort. Obama's plan is deceptively attractive, while in reality it is a huge wrecking ball that will capsize the already listing ship of our economy..."

And The Wall Street Journal: "Business Finally Fights Back - The business community is back in politics. After years of contented political gridlock, American companies are now officially horrified at what an all-Democratic Washington intends to inflict on the U.S. economy. The Chamber is throwing its extensive resources at denying the left a filibuster-proof Senate. In doing so, it has stuck its finger in the Democratic leadership's beehive, and is facing retribution..."

It is all coming to pass, right out of the Alinsky punch-list.

Of course, this is Barack Obama's first real job, so some growing pains are to be expected.

Batten down the hatches, my friends.

Hat tip: Wizbang. Thanks!

Exclusive look at the President's BlackBerry


Great Stimulus Packages in History


Full employment, baby...


...with nationalized health care, to boot!

Related: True Cost of Stimulus: $3.27 Trillion.

Hat tip: John Stossel. Linked by: Denny. Thanks!

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Obama had a dream

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Voting with their wallets: Power Line
Dodd grabs 850K from TARP banks: Riehl
Flying Imams get slam-dunked by DOT: Eye

AQ suspect arrested in California: Jawa
White House lashes out at CNBC: Politico
Mommmmmmmmmy: Surber

Specter greeted with jeers in PA: Breitbart TV
Cowards or just trying not to get sued?: Corner
PuffHo gets pwnt by video fake: STACLU

Hillary's answering machine: Parkway
Blue Scrotum Monkey FAQ: IMAO
Did ChiSox discover the next Koufax?: Trib

UK students required to 'think like a suicide bomber': LGF
Obama administration heaps praise on Venezuelan "Democracy": Gateway
'Fiscal Responsibility Summit' targets your health care: Kesler

Freeman joins Obama Intel team (blames US-Israel ties for 9/11): Mere Rhetoric
Pharoahs build pyramids, but real jobs create wealth: Stossel
Iran's rocket technology more advanced than previously thought: Soccer Dad

Dennis Miller: I like Obama because he knows Biden's an idiot: Breitbart TV
1998 video: Obama's dream to repeal welfare reform: Breitbart TV
Sharpton's false outrage: all about the Benjamins: Big Hollywood

Rating the top 12 U.S. banks: from Hidden Gems to Zombies: Seeking Alpha
Markets have run out of patience... looking for a bottom: CNBC
Low-tech fixes for high-tech problems (like dropping your phone in a toilet): Slimes

Friday, February 20, 2009

Will NBC be surprised?


MSNBC is conducting a poll:

Check it out.

Hat tip: Dave C.

Life: explained


Papa B sent this one in.

On the first day, G-d created the dog and said:

'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.'

The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?'

So G-d agreed.

On the second day, G-d created the monkey and said:

'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.'

The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?'

And G-d agreed.

On the third day, G-d created the cow and said:

'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixtyyears.'

The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?'

And G-d agreed again.

On the fourth day, G-d created man and said:

'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years.'

But man said: 'Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?'

'Okay,' said G-d, 'You asked for it.'

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information. I'm doing it as a public service.

Shovel-ready


The brilliant Michael Ramirez.

Hat tip: Papa B.

What ever happened to Kelly McGillis?


Remember Kelly from Top Gun?

Here's a current pic:

Holy shnikeys. TMZ has an excellent "whatever happened to...?" gallery goin' on.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Kiss of Death

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Breaking Murtha Scandal: Culture of Corruption: PolWire
Smelling a RAT: Morrissey
Peace Processing 101: NRO (May)

Kiss of death: LGF
Floor traders mock Obama's communism: 6MB
Obama's favorite solar panel maker: Malkin

Pay-per-view: Denny
Schoolhouse Rock: A bill becomes a law: Treacher
Stunning act of delayed retribution: Wheat & Weeds

Open letter to Gary Pruitt: McClatchy Watch
Deep Impact: The Federal Deficity: Chas
Deporting illegals: inherently wrong?: Patterico

Ah... smell the hope and change: Ace
Katrina Who?: Crittenden
Senator to force vote on Fairness Doctrine: B&M

Firms with Murtha ties got earmarks from nearly one-quarter of House: CQ
Drain the swamp? Pelosi hung out with the biggest sewer rat: Surber
An 'Impulsive' America? Too much dialogue and not enough leadership: Hanson

Top 10 reasons the President is nothing like Travis: Treacher
Congress drafts new SCHIMP legislation: McCarty
Military spending: more bang for the stimulus buck: Prairie

Change! Recovery.gov shuns transparency, blocks Google: CNet
What is the best sounding production car?: Autospies
A boat ride with Special Forces: Prairie

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Gee, I don't remember the controversy over this chimp cartoon


I must have missed the outcry when the New York Post published this cartoon.

Eric Holder's Chickens Come Home to Roost


Attorney General Eric Holder received a lot attention for calling the United States "a nation of cowards" when it comes to race relations. He claims that most Americans avoid discussion of lurking racial issues.

In a speech to a group of Justice Department employees that marked Black History Month, Holder said businesses are largely integrated but Americans still divide themselves along racial lines in their private lives.

Stripped bare, it's the traditional liberal pablum, a policy prescription that translates to blind support for phony "profiling" studies and illegal immigration.

Holder therefore feels justified in devoting significant Justice Department resources toward the investigation of traditional progressive busy-work projects:

• Police stop and arrest blacks at disproportionate rates because of racism
• Blacks are disproportionately in prison because of racism
• Blacks are failing in school because of racist inequities in school funding
• The black poverty rate is the highest in the country because of racism
• Blacks were given mortgages that they couldn’t afford because of racism

But facts are stubborn things.

Consider that, of 23 peer-reviewed U.S. studies since 2000, 20 found that family structure directly affects crime and/or delinquency. Most research "strongly suggests both that young adults and teens raised in single-parent homes are more likely to commit crimes, and that communities with high rates of family fragmentation (especially unwed childbearing) suffer higher crime rates as a result."

One study that ran more than two decades found that nearly 90% of the change in violent crime rates can be attributed to the change in percentages of out-of-wedlock births. Conversely, divorce rates had no relationship with crime.

In The Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead noted that the "relationship [between single-parent families and crime] is so strong that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime. This conclusion shows up time and again in the literature. The nation's mayors, as well as police officers, social workers, probation officers, and court officials, consistently point to family break up as the most important source of rising rates of crime."

Got that, Holder? Control for single-parent families and there are no differences between the races when it comes to crime.

In addition, the statistical link between the availability of welfare and out-of-wedlock births is conclusive. There have been dozens of studies that link the availability of welfare benefits to out-of-wedlock birth.

One study found that a 50 percent increase in the value of AFDC and foodstamp payments led to a 43 percent increase in the number of out-of-wedlock births.

Research for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed that a 50 percent increase in the monthly value of combined AFDC and food stamp benefits led to a 117 percent increase in the crime rate among young black men.

In 1995, Dr. Patrick Fagan wrote a seminal summary of the situation: "Over the past thirty years, the rise in violent crime parallels the rise in families abandoned by fathers... High-crime neighborhoods are characterized by high concentrations of families abandoned by fathers... The rate of violent teenage crime corresponds with the number of families abandoned by fathers... Neighborhoods with a high degree of religious practice are not high-crime neighborhoods... Even in high-crime inner-city neighborhoods, well over 90 percent of children from safe, stable homes do not become delinquents. By contrast only 10 percent of children from unsafe, unstable homes in these neighborhoods avoid crime... Criminals capable of sustaining marriage gradually move away from a life of crime after they get married."

But what caused the breakdown of the American family?


There are certainly many factors, but the welfare system; glorification of the single-parent household; and ill-conceived legislation are among the chief culprits.

Welfare: In 1994 the Maryland NAACP published a report that concluded "the ready access to a lifetime of welfare and free social service programs is a major contributory factor to the crime problems we face today."

Author Robert Rector argued that "[f]or thirty years, the welfare system has paid for non­work and non­marriage and has achieved massive increases in both." Rector noted that when New Jersey began denying increases in cash welfare benefits to single mothers who have additional children while on welfare, out-of-wedlock births decreased 10% with no increase in abortions.

Glorification of single-parent households: During a 1994 commencement address at George Washington University First Lady Hillary Clinton stated, "If it ever did, [the American family] no longer does consist of two parents, a dog, a house with a white picket fence, and a station wagon in the driveway."

In 1992 Vice President Dan Quayle ignited a media kerfuffle by criticizing the character of Murphy Brown for raising a child out of wedlock without any discernible father figure. Though mocked for months in the press, Quayle's words now seem prescient: It doesn't help matters when primetime TV has Murphy Brown, a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid professional woman, mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice.

Furthermore, "Feminist" organizations have long opposed measures to reduce single-parent families and revamp welfare accordingly.

But even more important than Hollywood, the media and feminist efforts to glorify single-parent households, legislation played a critical role in the breakdown of the family.

Legislation: Tax law hits married couples directly in their wallets. Studies have determined that the "marriage penalty" disincentivizes both marriage and labor, since "[the] best approach to appear to have a lower family income is to not have an employed spouse in the home."

Research shows that tax and transfer programs have a direct effect on marital stability. Financial stress contributes heavily to family problems, including marital difficulties that can lead to divorce. Therefore, tax policies that penalize married couples by increasing their tax liabilities, contribute directly to the breakdown of families.

Tax policies of the 1940s provided a family-oriented tax structure which preceded the sustained prosperity and social stability of the 1950s and early 1960s. During this time period, the rate of divorce actually declined.

Social researcher Allan Carlson proposed a variety of pro-­family tax policies, saying "a tax code recognizes that tax structure does influence human behavior. It would help children and strengthen families."

Other experts have offered a series of legislative proposals that strengthen the family, including: (a) identifying every child's father, by having states ensure that a document exists at birth to identify the name and social security number of both parents; (b) forcing fathers to take responsibility for their children through programs like Charles Ballard's National Institute for Responsible Fatherhood, in which fathers are strongly encouraged to legitimate their children, attend school, and find gainful employment; (c) rescind no-­fault divorce laws for parents with children; and (d) eradicate the destructive incentives of the welfare system.

So what does the Obama administration do?


They pass a pork-filled Stimulus package that helps dismantle the 1996 Welfare Reform Act and increase the number of single-parent families.

Buried deep inside the massive spending orgy that Democrats jammed through the House this week lie five words that could drastically undo two decades of welfare reforms.

The very heart of the widely applauded Welfare Reform Act of 1996 is a cap on the amount of federal cash that can be sent to states each year for welfare payments.

But, thanks to the simple phrase slipped into the legislation, the new "stimulus" bill abolishes the limits on the amount of federal money for the so-called Emergency Fund, which ships welfare cash to states.

"Out of any money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, there are appropriated such sums as are necessary for payment to the Emergency Fund," Democrats wrote in Section 2101 on Page 354 of the $819 billion bill. In other words, the only limit on welfare payments would be the Treasury itself.

In other words, while Holder and Obama construct racist straw-men and then knock them down with powerful, pointless blows, the Democrat establishment has simultaneously set the stage for more single-parent families and more violent crime.

And then they will cry racism when their chickens come home to roost.



Update: Remove Eric Holder.

Linked by: Ann Coulter. Thanks!