Saturday, May 15, 2010

IMF: Say, Sparky, right about now wouldn't exactly be the best time to increase federal spending -- unless you wanted to trigger an economic collapse

The latest edition of the International Monetary Fund's Fiscal Monitor (PDF) was made public on Friday. Even the terse, spare prose of economists living on various governments' tabs could not conceal the ominous message: this ain't exactly the time for any country -- least of all the United States -- to take on more debt.

In terms of adding both gross debt and overall deficit (as a percentage of total economic output, or GDP), the U.S. is outspending Portugal, Great Britain, Italy and -- wait for it -- Greece. This level of deficit spending, on the heels of massive borrowing in 2009, is simply unsustainable.

Canada is reducing its debt.

Italy's borrowing has increased recently, though at a much slower rate than prior years.

Even Japan, which sells its debt primarily to its citizens, has begun to slow the rate of growth.

The United Kingdom has reined in its debt growth as well, as evidenced by the flattened hump.

Meanwhile, the United States' deficit spending looks like a moonshot.

Despite all of the TARP spending and so-called "fiscal stimulus" programs, the U.S. and other developed countries suffer from dramatic downturns in revenue. For you drones out there, that means the real, private economy is flat on its back. Real businesses like energy, insurance, manufacturing, etc. You know, the ones that you Marxists hate.

This year alone, the U.S. has bonds (debt) representing 21.2% of its entire economic output coming due (maturing). This means that new debt must be issued. Heard of a Treasury Auction? That's a sale of debt and the amounts that must be refinanced are staggering.

The risks are immense. Consider Greece and the panic it caused. The chart directly above depicts interest rates on various countries' debt from November 2008 to May 2010. As investors lost confidence that the Greek government could make its bond payments (service the debt), interest rates skyrocketed. This helped precipitate the 1,000-point drop in the Dow that we experienced little more than a week ago. The risk for the U.S. is stark: should investors conclude that the federal government will be unable to make its bond payments, our interest rates will necessarily skyrocket. The result would be hyperinflation and economic catastrophe, not dissimilar to the pre-Hitlerian days of the Weimar Republic when the German economic system melted down and its currency became worthless.

The cost to insure yourself against a governmental default -- a failure to make its interest payments -- is called a CDS spread and is represented here. You can clearly see what occurred to the price of Italy, France and the U.K. CDS when Greece began to implode.

The IMF also attempted to predict the effect of new deficits, based not only on projected spending but also entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) that will suffer from massive growth as the population ages. Based on this measure, the U.S. fiscal situation is the worst in the world. Its projected budgets are, by far, the most irresponsible on the planet.

And as for the Keynesian School of Economists -- the Paul Krugmans of the world who believe that governments should grow unchecked and spend their way out of recessions -- this graph shows that the Obama-Democrat plan for spending was doomed from the start, as we conservatives predicted. Put simply, the lower the deficit spending, the better your economy will grow.

That's what our founders knew. That's why they tried to restrain what the federal government could do with specifically enumerated powers. You know, that living-and-breathing contract with America called the Constitution.

Even the IMF is trying to tell us to stop the insanity: "If governments fail to signal a credible commitment to reduce debt ratios, the resulting increase in interest rates (and decline in growth rates) could increase the [possibility of a dangerous financial condition]... fiscal adjustment will require a sizable, and sometimes unprecedented, effort."

Democrats in Congress are not reducing or stabilizing debt... they are increasing debt to heights never before seen in world history, including a new entitlement program that threatens to capsize the fiscal ship of state.

Call it an Obonzi Scheme that puts this country on the precipice of disaster.

It's November or never, my friends.


'The IED President'

Dan from New York calls Obama 'The IED President' for reasons that will soon become apparent.

John Hinderaker of Powerline asks, "Is the United States Greece?," and then cites this factoid: The national debt in the US (on a gross basis) will climb to above 100pc of GDP by 2015 - a far steeper increase than almost any other country.

Hinderaker concludes: "The Democrats in Washington are both too stupid and too ideologically committed to read the writing on the wall. They are leading the United States over a financial cliff, and they have no intention of turning back. On the contrary: if they can, they will hobble our economy further by enacting a carbon tax. There is only one way to stop them, and to save our children--from whom greedy, selfish Washington liberals are borrowing trillions of dollars--from a lifetime of debt. The Democrats must be voted out in 2010, and Barack Obama must be denied a second opportunity to deconstruct the country that he doesn't much like."

At home and abroad, Obama's policies are timed to explode intermittently in the future - mostly too far out to damage him politically in the here and now. Americans need the foresight to defuse them before they go off in our faces, not after it's too late.

It's November or never, America.

The fiscal time-bomb is even worse than that. In addition to the "off-the-books" entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) that aren't included on the federal balance sheet, consider Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The hidden tab for the GSEs is estimated at over $6 trillion.

Those "job shops for out-of-work Democrats" were destroyed by the likes of Andrew Cuomo, Janet Reno, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, Jim Johnson and Rahm Emanuel through a series of brain-damaged policy decisions and outright criminal activities.

Big government is literally crushing America -- and Democrats in Congress and the President don't appear to care a bit.


Awesome: Another $23 Billion of Your Money to be Redistributed to the Teachers' Unions

Democrats in Congress and the President are doing their best to undermine the financial system before the November midterms. Unsatisfied with transferring $60 billion (abrogating contract law along the way) with payoffs to the UAW... not content with a $800 billion dollar "Stimulus" package that rewarded the AFL-CIO and the SEIU... and not quenched with jamming a massive new entitlement program down Americans' throats in the midst of unprecedented deficits... they are now trying to take $23 billion more of the next generation's money and Fed-Ex it to the Teachers' Unions.

A post on The White House blog (via ABC News) late Wednesday evening announced that it was time for "bold action" to save teachers' jobs.

Specifically, Arne Duncan, Obama's education secretary wrote the following to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid:

We applaud Chairmen Harkin, Miller and Obey for crafting legislation in direct response to these challenges.  S. 3206, the Keep Our Educators Working Act, H.R. 2847, the Jobs for Main Street Act,  and H.R. 4812, the Local Jobs for America Act, each call for $23 billion in emergency support to preserve education jobs modeled after the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) established in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  This funding would keep teachers in the classroom while helping to sustain meaningful and necessary reforms in public education across the country.

We urge Congress to include this funding in the supplemental appropriations bills soon to be considered.  We also urge Congress to include $2 billion in support to localities for police and firefighters to ensure that our communities remain safe, as well as $1 billion in funds for the Child Care and Development Block Grant to preserve early childhood education jobs and ensure that our youngest children do not lose the supports and services critical to their learning and overall well-being.  


So this is another multi-billion dollar payoff to the NEA and the AFT, the hard-left partisans who control public school teachers, invariably support big government Democrats and continuously wage war against the taxpayer.

Gee, this seems so responsible, what with all of the spare money we've got.

Seriously, it's hard for me to conceive of a more partisan and dangerous government than our current set of leaders at the federal level.


Hat tip: Michelle Malkin and Doug Powers.

Larwyn's Linx: Eric Holder Must Go

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Nation

Eric Holder Must Go: GWP
Our busted deportation system strikes again: Malkin
Muslims Building Super-Mosque At Ground Zero: Ace

Let it Burn: AT
Team Obama Will Delay Terror Hearings: RWN
‘Left-Wing Epistemic Closure’: Driscoll

Economy

Urgent action is required to reduce the debt and deficit: Blankley
The Health Insurers' Faustian Bargain: AT
Support AZ as it feels the heat from boycotts: Hot Air

Crony Capitalism in Chicago: AT
GM in line for another $10B of your money: BlogProf
20-year-old patriot exposes Posen park scandal: SouthTownStar

Climate & Energy

Cap and Scam: Harsanyi
The Heartland Climate Conference Smear Campaign Begins: AT
Canuckistan to Ban Ki-Moonbat: GTFO: CBullitt

Media

Distorting the Truth About Crime and Race - The New York Times is at it again: City Journal
Incompetence with a capital 'H': Shayne
Beltway Elites Hate It When the People Speak: RWN

Sarah Palin's Speech in Chicago: AnotherBlackCon
Donald Berwick: Obama's Medicare/Medicaid nominee on video: Durden
Thought experiment: the most lame administration ever: GM's Place

2005 Kid’s Bush/Hitler Art Gets Award, 2010 Kid’s Obama/Commie Art Gets Censored: RWN
Krugman Lying About Greece and U.S.: Stossel
Palin: 'Mama Grizzlies Will Take Back America': Breitbart

World

Obama's Known of Al-Qaeda Ties with Iran for a Year, but Still No Action: PJM
Return to the Abyss: Roubini
Che and the Workers: AT

The Immigration Issue Is Not About Racism: Chesler
President of UN General Assembly: Gaza Siege Is Worse Than Nazi Death Camps: GWP
Secure Western Civilization: Lt. Col. Allen West

SciTech

The Ammo Shortage Continues: PJM
Apache.org incident report for 04/09/2010: Apache Infrastructure Team
Postal-themed PDF Spam: Sophos

Cornucopia

Elena Kagan to be Played by Rachel Dratch on SNL?: Cube
iOwnTheWorld Weekly Roundup, May 15th, 2010: iOTW
HS B-Ball Boycotter’s Controversial Past: S&L

Image: People's Cube
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: PA-12: Scott Brown for Tim Burns

QOTD: "The Branch Davidians in Waco could have saved themselves a s***load of trouble if they had just claimed to be radical enviromentalists." -- Me. Just now. (backstory)


Friday, May 14, 2010

People's Republic of California Commissar Schwarzenegger Announces "Absolutely Terrible" Budget Cuts

Today, California announced that it's bankrupt. Governor Schwarzenegger stated that he'd been forced to take an "axe" to an out-of-control stage budget. As an aside, aren't Democrat-controlled Utopias cool?

Several things have changed since the last budget:

• The legislators didn't come up with enough savings.

• Expected $6.9 billion from the federal government... received around half.

• Federal judges have blocked changes to health and human services, prevented us from using the "scalpel" and now have to use the "axe"

Eliminating major programs:

CalWORKS, most child-care programs, In-Home Supportive Services, Health Families program...

Includes a 5% pay cut for state workers.

To be fair to Democrats, who could possibly have anticipated that encouraging unchecked illegal immigration -- with amazingly rich welfare benefits -- might cause a fiscal, eh, imbalance?

...Schwarzenegger on Friday called for eliminating California's welfare-to-work program, one of the deep cuts he proposed to close a $19 billion budget deficit in the coming fiscal year... Slashing the welfare program would affect 1.4 million people, two-thirds of them children.

...the state's 12.6 percent unemployment rate ranks among the highest in the nation and tax revenue remains low. In April, personal income tax was $3 billion less than projected... The state's general fund spending will be $83.4 billion for the new fiscal year, the lowest level in six years. The deficit accounts for more than 20 percent of all projected spending...

...Gina Jackson, a single mother who lives in Fremont in the San Francisco Bay area, said she would not be able finish her college degree in political and social science without the state's assistance. She currently receives about $1,000 a month to cover after-school care for two of her four children... "I certainly can't take my kids to school with me every single day," said Jackson, 45, who was laid off from her job as an administrative assistant two years ago.

...On Friday, the governor made good on his threat from earlier this year to eliminate the state's welfare-to-work program unless the federal government gave California an additional $6.9 million [sic -- they meant billion], which Schwarzenegger maintains is its fair share. So far, the state has received nearly $3 billion... ...Democrats want to close tax credits and loopholes, noting that the state allows $50 billion worth of tax deductions.

"We will not pass a budget that eliminates CalWORKS. We will not be party to devastating families," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "What kind of civilized society maintains business tax breaks and eliminates child care? That's not the California I take pride in living in."

Never mind that the public sector unions continue to brutalize the taxpayer. In the formulations of Democrats, government needs to grow and grow and grow, no matter what shape the private sector is in. Call it Miracle-Grow for Government:

To help close the budget gap, the governor is asking lawmakers to change the way the state calculates education funding to save the state more than $2 billion, which would hold year-over-year spending roughly flat for public schools. Overall funding for K-12 schools and community colleges has already dropped by 12 percent over the past three years.

The governor also wants to eliminate state subsidies for child care, which would affect 142,000 children...

Schwarzenegger [also] proposed cutting $15 million from the program and shifting more of the costs to recipients, including raising the co-payment for emergency room visits from $15 to $50...

The governor also proposed to move non-violent felons to county jails. I don't see how anything could go wrong with that, can you?

...Schwarzenegger will revive a plan to house 15,000 nonviolent felons in county jails instead of state prisons, a cost-cutting move that likely would result in some inmates leaving jail early.

...Local law enforcement agencies vigorously opposed a similar idea that Schwarzenegger floated in January, in part because the state would not have reimbursed counties for housing inmates. That proposal would have saved the state $291.6 million...

Now: imagine this sort of fiscal catastrophe at the national level.

Because that's what's happening at this very moment with the Obama-Democrats.

...the administration's release of its 10-year budget - the most irresponsible federal document ever released - ...plans for unsustainable debt and does not even propose a path out.

The Congressional Budget Office reported in the summary of its document, "The Long-Term Budget Outlook": "The federal budget is on an unsustainable path - meaning that federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run. ... Rising costs for health care and the aging of the U.S. population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly. ...

...In the face of financial ruin of the nation, it was unconscionable to pass a new health entitlement that almost all Americans know will add trillions to the debt.

It's November or never. Rally your neighbors, your families and friends. Vote for the most fiscally conservative Republicans you can.

Because the clock on the Democrats' deficit time-bomb for America is ticking. Be a real-life Jack Bauer and help defuse it.


ObamaCare Today: Democrats unveil National Abortion Database (NAD) to track all terminated pregnancies in the United States

One of the lesser known aspects of the Democrats' massive new health care bill is its mandate for a national health care database.

...it requires doctors to record patients' treatments in an electronic medical database and monitors doctors' decisions. Dr. David Blumenthal, the Obama administration's National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, explained in the New England Journal of Medicine last April that "embedded clinical decision support" — his euphemism for computers telling doctors what to do — will manage the quality of doctors' decisions.

ObamaCare dictates that every detail for every patient is recorded and maintained in a super-secure government database, which literally has zero chance of ever being compromised.

Feminists, who shouted "hands off my uterus" during the sixties' pro-abort demonstrations, are beginning to realize what the national health care database means.

Put simply, Democrats have put in place the mechanism for a National Abortion Database (NAD) to track all terminated pregnancies in the country.

But not to worry: the government is quite skilled at protecting personal information and would never, ever use that sort of personal information for political ends.

In fact, I hear rumors that NAD will be stored on a super-secure USB flash drive at the White House itself, where Rahm Emanuel will personally oversee security.


Larwyn's Linx: Johnny-come-lately McCain: Sickly smell of desperation

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Nation

Johnny-come-lately McCain: sickly smell of desperation: Malkin
Chris Christie on Disagreements: Patterico
The Mytho-Poetical Free Lunch: Cold Fury

Kagan's Contempt for the First Amendment: RWN
Will the Senate see Kagan's long paper trail?: York
Kagan taught courses on 'Presidential Lawmaking': VS

Economy

OK economy thrives after immigration crackdown: Blumer
Highland Park, Ill Officials Hide and Lie Over AZ Decision: RWN
The Treasury-Financial Complex: WSJ

Why California (and our country) are almost bankrupt: Babalu
Governor Ganja: AT
First Fed Invoice For Bailing Out Europe: $9.2B: ZH

Climate & Energy

Of Course We Should Keep Drilling Offshore: RWN
EPA Cracking Down on Evil U.S. Manufacturers: GWP
Sylvania takes on 60-watt bulb with LED light: CNet

Media

The Washington Post's Sudden Concern For Bipartisanship: Wizbang
'Six tea party protesters were led away from the Capitol in handcuffs by state police...': BlogProf
Rush Limbaugh Will Take $1 Million Less To Leave New York Forever: Insider

Kagan Is Anti-Military, Anti-Gun, Anti-Free Speech But Media Refuses to Label Her a Hardcore Lib: GWP
Obama Buyer's Remorse: AT
Civility? CIVILITY???: Cold Fury

World

Syria, Iran, and Turkey Openly Defy Obama, as Russia Regains Mideast Influence: PJM
U.N. Human Rights Council Welcomes Some New Members: Corner
UN determined to destroy America's Second Amendment: PJM

Watch Eric Holder Squirm: Malkin
Bert Corona and the Communist Roots of the "Immigrants Right" Movement" : NewZeal
Euro collapse fears spark panic buying of gold: London Daily Mail

SciTech

Boeing's unmanned Phantom Ray makes dramatic video debut, set to take off this December: Engadget
Indian outsourcing firm plans data processing centre in prison: VNUnet
HTC moves to block Apple iPhone, iPad imports: NewsFactor

Cornucopia

Fart Blanket Hopes To Build Better Marriages: WCPO
Regulation of the Day 137: Brownie Recipes: OpenMarket
Culture of Stupid: News from Doswell

Image: Maktoob.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Gates of Vienna

QOTD: "The public disgust and anger is growing fast. The Tea Party movement has gained acceptance and vigor at the grassroots level. Some, like Bill Clinton, attempt to associate the Tea Party participants with terrorists, which is ludicrous. George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and especially the outspoken Benjamin Franklin might be maligned if alive today, or at least harassed with tax audits" -- Jim Williee.


Thursday, May 13, 2010

Elena Kagan's Thesis in 90 Seconds: Radical. Socialist. Marxist. She Must Be Blocked From the Supreme Court At All Costs.

RedState's invaluable Erick Erickson has published the full text of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's thesis. I have transcribed some of the key graphs, below. In fact, you can read her entire, 130-page thesis in 90 seconds here if you wish. I'm not joking about that.

It's now crystal clear that Kagan was nominated for one reason: to rubber-stamp Obama's radical agenda, including an individual mandate for socialized medicine.

She is a radical. She is a socialist. And she must be blocked at all costs.

Acknowledgements ...I would like to thank my brother Marc, whose involvement in radical causes led me to explore the history of American radicalism in the hope of clarifying my own political ideas...

...most historians have looked everywhere but to the American socialist movement itself for explanations of U.S. socialism's failure...

...the American socialists· "failure to build a movement that even resembled Sombart's idealized notion of a class-conscious party--a failure which they shared with most of their European counterparts--did not render their party any less significant. Nor did such a failure render their party any less successful...

[To explain why the] American socialist movement of the Progressive Era suddenly fell apart... we must turn to the internal workings and problems of the socialist movement itself.

...the dissolution of the Socialist Party resulted not from the walkout of the syndicalists in 1912 but from the infinitely more disastrous departure of the communists seven years later...

...[Early on] the [American] socialists divided into two camps: those of "constructive" and "revolutionary" socialism.

...the Russian Revolution set the spark to their long-smoldering rebellion, and the Socialist Party burst into flames. In 1919, the SP split into two, and the New York City communist movement emerged... by the last 1920's, the socialist movement in New York City was dead.

...The SP's first priority was to prepare for revolution than to work for reforms -- to bring ultimate salvation rather than immediate relief.

Conservative craft unions could not develop the unity and class consciousness that alone would lead workers to vote the socialist ticket. They could not compel a resistant capitalist class to accept an SP electoral victory. Nor could they prepare the workers for the administration of industry in the cooperative commonwealth. According to such left-wing leaders as Boudin and Slobodin, then, the socialists needed to do all in their power to set New York's unions on a militant path. If that meant interfering with some other "arm", so be it.

...Most historians have viewed World War I as an unqualified disaster for the American socialist movement...

[During the war] both local and national socialist leaders had taken their stand: they would condemn the war in the strongest terms... having formulated their policies, the socialists turned with rekindled enthusiasm to active propaganda work...

Leon Trotsky, living in New York..., urged the Socialist Party to adopt more daring tactics in its fight against the war. In particular, he suggested that the socialists publicy declare their intention to transform the international conflict into a civil one...

Finally, the Socialists began to hold mass meetings in Madison Square Garden, with audiences that even non-socialist newspapers estimated at some 13,000. Most often, the socialists simply protested the war's continuation, using arguments and rhetoric similar to those employed before the U.S. became a belligerent...

We are told that we are in war to make the world safe for democracy. What a hollow phrase! We cannot ... " force democracy upon hostile countries by force of arms. Democracy must come from within not from without, through the light.of reason and not through the fire of guns.

Prior to April 1917, the socialists had enjoyed relative freedom to oppose the war... however, the situation [then] changed considerably. The government prosecuted socialists; the police harassed them; crowds of hysterical citizens lent federal and municipal officials a helping hand. [Ed: Racist tea-baggers, I'd surmise]

...On June 15, 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act, which prohibited an person from willfully helping the enemy, inciting rebellion in the armed forces or attempting to obstruct the government's recruiting efforts... [Ed: sounds like the modern Democrat Party]

...[In 1919] the intra-party dissension that had built up for almost two decades came to a climax. In the wake of this battle, American communism was born... [which advocated a revolution in America]

[However] ...Revolutionary socialism... had never suited the conditions of American life, conditions which demanded a program with a "realistic basis."

...[The radicals caused the Red Scare, in which massive raids were launched by the authorities on revolutionaries]... The effects of the Red Scare on the communist movement were' nothing short of cataclysmic. Nationally, membershipship in the two communist parties decreased from an estimated 70,000 in 1919 to 16,000 in 1920...

...In 1933, the [Socialist-inspired labor union].ILGWU, along with many other formerly left-wing unions joined the mainstream of American political life by jumping on the New Deal bandwagon. These unions viewed the NRA both as a means of withstanding the depression and as an opportunity to recoup the losses they had suffered as a result of their struggle with the communists. To be sure, the NRA did enable the vast majority of these labor organizations to expand at phenomenal rates...

...There was, however, a price. In the pl:ocess.of ·endorsing Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, the ILGWU ceased to be a radical oppositional force, with deep links to socialist politics and ideology...

Conclusion In our own times, a coherent socialist movement is nowhere to be found in the United States. Americans are more likely to speak of a golden past than of a golden future, of capitalism's glories than of socialism's greatness... Why, in a society by no means perfect, has a radical party never attained the status of a major political force?

...[America's] societal traits... a relatively fluid class structure, an economy which allowed at least some workers to enjoy [prosperity]... prevented the early twentieth century socialists from attracting an immediate mass following. Such conditions did not, however, completely checkmate American socialism...

...Through its own internal feuding, then, the SP exhausted itself forever and further reduced labor radicalism... to the position of marginality and insignificance from which it has never recovered. The story is a sad but also a chastening one for those who, more than half a century after socialism's decline, still wish to change America.

...if the history of Local New York shows anything, it is that American radicals cannot afford to become their own worst enemies. In unity lies their only hope.

Their only hope for change, if you get my drift.

How anyone could perform this level of navel-gazing -- longingly pining for the joys of socialism -- after the utter failures of Marxism, is beyond me. It's not like 1910, Elena -- we know this crap doesn't work and has never worked!

Republicans: are you sick of being punched in the face by leftist Democrats yet? Are you sick of having sand kicked in your face? Then stand up and block Elena Kagan. A lifetime appointment for a self-described radical?

Call your Senators and demand they filibuster Elena Kagan. Call the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee and demand they block Kagan's nomination.

A lifetime appointment for a crypto-Marxist is beyond the pale.


Linked by: Hot Air. Thanks!

President Obama in Buffalo: "You're welcome, America!"

The press release aggregator known as Politico offers its nominee for 2010's most hilarious lede.

Emboldened by positive jobs numbers and an uptick in his own polls, President Barack Obama stood squarely behind his economic record Thursday and accused Republicans of doing nothing to contribute to the growth.

Actually, it's hard to contribute when you're pimp-slapped to the curb, pilloried with a massive propaganda campaign and actually locked out of every substantive policy discussion.

Obama said he was empathetic to public concerns over bailouts but defended his administration’s unpopular spending spree on aid for the auto industry, Wall Street and the economy as a whole. He didn’t like the bailouts either, he told an audience in a hard-hit region of upstate New York. He cast his choices as noble ones in which he defied “the politics of the moment” to do “what the moment required.”

Noble choices, if you're a self-designated Marxist ideologue who visibly bristles at criticism.

...The president touted the gain of 290,000 jobs last month, giving credit to his administration. Despite the increase in unemployment last month to 9.9 percent, he unequivocally predicted economic growth every month going forward.

Gee, Mortie, if I subtract the Census jobs and the "birth-death" mathematical calculation from the official numbers, I come up with about 36,000 real jobs created. At this rate, we could recover the eight million jobs lost in the recession in, oh, a little under two decades.

I can say this beyond a shadow of a doubt: Today, we are heading in the right direction,” Obama said. “Those tough steps we took — they’re working. Despite all the naysayers who were predicting failure a year ago, our economy is growing again. Next month, it will be stronger than last month. And next year will be better than this year.”

The right direction -- if you're an Alinsky-ite bent on bringing the entire system down. In fact, I'm willing to bet a nice, shiny Kruggerand on precisely the opposite. We're headed for a major fiscal catastrophe unless we throw this government out in November. Even then, we're cutting it way too close for comfort.

As a reminder, consider yesterday's cheery headlines, which President Obama somehow forgot to mention in his Chavez-like speech.

• U.S. posts 19th straight monthly budget deficit
• U.S. must avoid Greece-style crunch: Orszag
• US More Bankrupt Than Ever - $83 Billion April Deficit Is Record
• California Now One Of The Top 10 Government Default Risks In The World
• The U.S. Government Is About To Get Hit With 'The Perfect Storm' Of Debt

And in the midst of this orgy of deficit spending that threatens to capsize the ship of state, Democrats in Congress and President Obama plan to ram $200 billion in new deficit spending through before the Memorial Day recess.

I urge you to call your Congressional representatives and thank them for President Obama's fine stewardship of the economy and his deft handling of Iran, North Korea, Syria and all of the Communists on the march in South America.


Racist, tea-bagging federal agents first profile, then arrest illegal aliens, accusing them of complicity in Times Square bombing

Three Pakistani men were arrested in Watertown, Massachusetts (a small suburb located just to the west of Boston) and Brookline as suspects in the recent Times Square bombing attempt. All three persons were taken into custody on immigration violations*.

*Pro-illegal immigration officials in Los Angeles and Highland Park, Illinois could not be reached for comment at press time.

...authorities say [they] supplied funds to Times Square car-bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad were arrested Thursday in a series of raids across the Northeast as the FBI followed the money trail in the failed attack.

One of the men had recently been deported:

The raid in the Bay State kicked off at 6 a.m. in Watertown, where one man - appearing to be Middle Eastern - was seen shackled and arrested outside 39 Waverley Ave., according to multiple eyewitnesses.

The sweep then spread to Brookline, where FBI agents were seen at two gas stations - one on Harvard Street and the other on Cypress Street... The brother of the owner of both stations tells the Herald today the man targeted in the sweep had just been hired...

...Gov. Deval Patrick today said the “safe and successful” sweep is being carried out by the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and state police. He added he had been “fully briefed” ahead of time about the raid.

Expect a breathless CAIR press release expressing faux outrage in 3... 2...


Larwyn's Linx: Conservative. But Also Republican.

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

Conservative. But Also Republican.: RedState
Illegal Immigration Proponents Support Slavery: RWN
Judge Richard Posner vs. Academic Elena Kagan: BigGovt

Obama: Information is Bad: RWN
How Much Does A Federal Judgeship Cost? $432,000: LegalIns
L.A. to boycott AZ; time to turn off the lights?: GWP

Economy

Depression 2010?: Samuelson
Obama’s First Stealth EFCA Styled Rules Implementation: RWN
How to Pay Down the Debt: Pethokoukis

A New and Powerful Lawsuit on ObamaCare: Volokh
Dems reject 5% down payments as too much: IBD
Free markets help the poor more: Williams

Climate & Energy

Cap & Trade is Back: Pundette
Kerry-Lieberman Bill an Economy Killer: PJM
Welcome to the Era of Expensive Energy: AT

Media

Profile of Elena Kagan: DiscoverTheNetworks
Whoa: Even MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Derides Obama for 'Pseudo' Kagan Interview: NewsBusters
Oh good grief: TV cooking queen Ray meets with obese Senator on fighting childhood obesity: BlogProf

Kagan Finally Caught on Tape Saying Something Important…Damn, Barack Obama is Awesome: Verum Serum
Kagan, Obama, and the Harvard Legacy of Literary Fraud: Cashill
'Manchurian' smear misfires: Cashill

World

Pattern of Death: Belmont
Obama fiddles, a rogue schemes: The U.S. strategy toward North Korea leaves us in danger: Bolton
Quebec Says ‘Non’ to the Niqab: PJM

Muslim Student Association Member: We Need Another Holocaust: GWP
Dancing with the Devil: David Cameron's Path to Power: AT
Despite Harsh Words From Obama & Chavez, Americans Broadly Support AZ Immigration Law: GWP

SciTech

Create your own talking avatar: OddCast
SMS case study - Times of Northwest Indiana newspaper: MobileMarketer
Cougars Beware: Guardian

Cornucopia

You Can't Make This Up: Congress Ponders 'Potty Parity' Act : JWF
Drunk Germans + Playground Toy + Motorcycle = Awesome FAIL: Ace
Farrell pitches for Round Rock: 1360 KKTX


Image: Maktoob.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Feed Your ADHD


Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Janet Incompetano strikes again: New York City air traveler arrives in Egypt with guns, bullets and knives in baggage

I feel like I'm wrapped in a warm cocoon of safety knowing that Janet Napolitano is always on watch. Like a falcon. Or a crow. Or something scary.

Egyptian authorities detained a passenger arriving at Cairo airport from New York on Wednesday after finding guns, bullets and knives in his baggage, an airport official told AFP.

Mohamed Ibrahim Marei, a US university professor of Egyptian origin, had flown in on an Egyptair flight from New York's JFK airport.

Customs officials noticed the passenger looked nervous and decided to open his luggage. They found two handguns and 250 bullets hidden in metal boxes, the official said on condition of anonymity.

In a secret compartment in the bag, authorities also found two swords, five daggers and six knives, he added.

We're in the best of hands.


Update: Pamela Geller has more troubling information.

A Panoply of Headlines Sure to Please the Administration...

...as they hasten to destroy capitalism once and for all -- before the November elections get here.

U.S. posts 19th straight monthly budget deficit


The United States posted an $82.69 billion deficit in April, nearly four times the $20.91 billion shortfall registered in April 2009 and the largest on record for that month, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

It was more than twice the $40-billion deficit that Wall Street economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast and was striking since April marks the filing deadline for individual income taxes that are the main source of government revenue... officials said that in prior years, there was a surplus during April in 43 out of the past 56 years.

It's another Obama record!

U.S. must avoid Greece-style crunch: Orszag


U.S. lawmakers must act quickly to tackle a large budget deficit if the United States wants to avoid the kind of debt crisis that hit Greece, the White House's top budget official said on Wednesday.

Say, Wally, if that's the White House adviser, what are the alarmists saying?

US More Bankrupt Than Ever - $83 Billion April Deficit Is Record


Well, if nothing else, we now know officially just how great those tax receipts were. Good thing too - we can end that whole superficial tax receipt debate and focus on important things. April's tax deficit of $83 billion was the highest April deficit on record. America is now more bankrupt than ever. Income was $245.3 billion, 8% below the total recorded last April. Spending was $328.0 billion, up 14% year-over-year. A year ago in April the deficit was $20.9 billion. And here is the data: tax receipts down 7.9% YoY, Individual Income Tax down 21.5% YoY...

Is there a way that President Axelrod can blame Bush?

California Now One Of The Top 10 Government Default Risks In The World


Per the credit default swap market, California cracked the top ten for highest default risks yesterday -- overtaking Iceland and Iraq...

Public-sector unions rule!

The U.S. Government Is About To Get Hit With 'The Perfect Storm' Of Debt


Hearing President Obama’s economic peptalks, you might be under the impression that the U.S. needs to keep spending for just a little while longer to stimulate the economy – but then will swear off big deficits... [But] what happens if the government hits all three landmines – the revenue landmine, the interest expense landmine, and the military spending landmine?

...At $50 trillion, the national debt would be 208% of the CBO’s projected GDP for 2020, and the 2020 deficit would be $4.2 trillion, or 17% of projected GDP. The interest expense on U.S. debt alone would represent 12% of 2020 GDP and 55% of the total federal budget.

In other words: total economic collapse.

In the midst of a self-induced fiscal calamity, Democrats in Congress and President Obama plan to ram $200 billion in new deficit spending through before the Memorial Day recess. I have no adjectives left to describe the level of irresponsibility that our ostensible leaders are exhibiting.

Congress faces a crush of votes on big-ticket items before the Memorial Day recess, setting up a debate on deficits less than six months before the November elections... Democratic leaders are looking in the next three weeks to send President Barack Obama a slew of measures that cost more than $200 billion, including a multiyear extension of unemployment benefits, an extension of expiring tax provisions and Medicare doctor payments totaling $180 billion and a $33 billion Afghanistan war supplemental bill.

Because most of those costs won’t be paid for, Republicans plan to use those bills and the Democrats’ budget blueprint to highlight massive deficits ahead of the congressional midterm election. Republicans have recently been pointing to Greece’s dismal fiscal situation as a warning, claiming that the U.S. will be headed for a similar fate unless the deficits are curtailed.

What happened to the much-celebrated Pay-Go rule, passed recently as "evidence" that Democrats were "fiscally responsible"? Swept aside in an orgy of deficit spending the likes of which the world has never seen.

Aren't Democrat-run economies swell?

It's November or never.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

The Obama era of post-partisanship ends as we move to the post-post-partisanship stage: U.S. Special Envoy to Islam trashes President Bush

Daniel Halper at the Weekly Standard reports on another chorus of apologia by our beloved administration and its diplomatic corpse. [Update: The State Department offers its own transcript of the interview and claims Hussain was misquoted.]

U.S. Special Envoy to Islamic Conference Trashes George W. Bush


May 12, 2010

U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference Rashad Hussain gave a particularly disturbing interview to Arab English daily Asharq Alawsat. The interview should be read in full, but here is one choice exchange:

Q) Do you think it will be easy to overcome the hostility in the Islamic world towards certain US policies, especially in light of the actions taken under the previous US administration?

A) We are concerned about this but we are determined to move forward, without looking to the past and the negative effects of this, in order to erase the hostile feelings caused by the administration of former President George W. Bush.

There is now a suitable opportunity to overcome the past, and open a new page in relations between the US and the people in the Islamic region.

For a representative of the U.S., Hussain's words are reprehensible. Jennifer Rubin writes:

This is not, to say the least, what we expect our envoys to communicate to foreign audiences. And then there is the substance of his remarks. Hostile feelings caused by the Bush administration’s policies, he says? Which were those — the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which Obama has continued? The focus on human rights, which Obama has ignored? And notice the assignment of blame to the country he pretends to represent, not to the bad actors — Syria and Iran, for example — that continue to promote terror and brutalize their people. It appears that Hussain is telling the Muslims that the real source of trouble in the Middle East was George W. Bush.

But it is obsession with the peace process as the key to ending such “hostility” and the conviction that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the source of our woes that are the most jarring — and perhaps revelatory of the administration he represents.

Barry Rubin highlights the fallacies inherent in the administration's worldview.

But let's consider what's going on meanwhile in the real world. Palestinian Media Watch reports that on the PA's own television station this week the program "We Are Returning," shows a map in which all of Israel is erased and covered with a Palestinian flag.

The program explains that Israeli Jews should go to places like the Ukraine and Ethiopia: "Please, I ask of you, return to your original homeland, so that I can return to my original homeland. This is my homeland; go back to your homeland!"

This kind of thing goes on in PA-controlled mosques, classrooms, media, and in speeches by PA or Fatah officials on a daily basis. The U.S. government virtually ignores it. There are no programs, articles, classes, sermons, and speeches in which PA officials and employees urge their people to live peacefully side by side with Israel and accept that country's existence permanently."

The sad truth is that the Palestinians will never settle for just the West Bank and Gaza, even with their own capital in a redivided Jerusalem. They are not fighting to reverse the results of the 67 War, or even the results of the 48 War, but the original partition plan of 1947 and before that the British Mandate for Palestine , both of which contemplated some land reserved for a Jewish majority state. Such a state has always been unacceptable to the Arab world and the Muslim world. It still is.

As Daniel Pipes points out, the only factor that will determine whether peace can be achieved is one the administration never considers: will the Palestinians accept Israel in any form?

And all of us, save the Obama Democrats, know the answer.


Hat tip: Dan from New York.

It's those layers and layers of fact-checking and editorial review

The magnificent website BorderInvasionPics -- which uses hidden cameras to document the unceasing flow of illegal aliens into this country -- was recently ripped off by legacy media.

CBS affiliate KPHO Channel 5 in Phoenix removed our copyright labels and added their own logo to our videos.

 

They didn't even have permission to use them in the first place.

On top of that, the report was sympathetic to illegal aliens.

American Patrol first reported it, and then the Media Research Center created a very professional You Tube production detailing the entire incident...

You can voice your disapproval to Ed Munson, the VP and General Manager of KPHO. His email is ed.munson@kpho.com.

Postscript: In our opinion, Mr. Munson should also review the performance of his production staff. KPHO also waylaid Santa Cruz County Attorney George Silva. Their report showed [a] video of a drug run, and then immediately showed Silva saying the intruders were just coming here to work.

Knowing the way legacy media operates, I fully expect KPHO to win a Pulitzer or two for their courageous, Johnny-on-the-spot reporting.


Larwyn's Linx: Obama sends his love to our troops

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Kagan

Obama sends his love to our troops: RWN
Kagan wrote the Clinton gun ban law: Volokh
On Robert Clark: Kagan and the Military: BenchMemos

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'... Anything about Shariah Law: AT
Obama nominates himself: AmSpec
The professor and the dean: Times

Nation

Michelle Obama: Food profiteer-turned-food cop: Malkin
Dem sleazebag Mollohan falls in primary: Ace
Hillary's not getting any love from the administration: RWN

Economy

Do these teachers ever get fired?: RWN
Organizing for America: IBD
Hmm: Obama to Control Children's Food & Toys: Ace

Shocking: CBO hangs another $115B on ObamaCare: Toldjah
Taxed enough already: even USA Today says it: RWN
Senate calls for audit of three years of Fed deals: Times

Climate & Energy

Leak of the day! Kerry-Lieberman cap-and-trade bill: GreenHell
President Hamlet's Energy Policy: AT
Is a university a "law free" zone?: MoneyRunner

Media

A confluence of leftism caused five students to be punished for wearing Old Glory: Hanson
What Did You Say About Muhammad?!: PJM
The Obama State Senate Transcripts: Jumping In Pools

Who Is Rachel Tabachnick, and Why Is She Attacking Phyllis Chesler?: RSM
The 'Logan's Run'-ning of America: Shayne
Union film spanks Obama pal Penny Pritzker: Marathon

World

OTMs Crossing the Southwest Border: SIGIS
Seriously. Obama Lectures Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero on Reining in Debt.: GWP
UK Chaos: Labour, Lib Dems 'Coalition of Losers' Angers Britain: PJM

Jawa Exclusive: Capture Of Mullah Omar Confirmed: Jawa
USG pays Mosque it considers radical: IPT
Tory Coalition Partner Wants to Recognize Hamas: TAB

SciTech

Google and Verizon to Launch Tablet Computer: Mashable
Twitter to Launch Twitter Business Center: Mashable

Cornucopia

Roots of the Democrat Party: AmDigest
Two pictures that intrigue: C&S
The Ultimate Doomsday Chart: Zero Hedge

Image: Lars Larson.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Grand Rants.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Crony Capitalism -- Statistical Evidence that the Government and the Investment Banks Have Rigged the Stock Market

Earlier this week, financial news junkies heard that investment banking giants Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan achieved improbable proprietary trading performances this past quarter. Each had a record number of profitable, prop-trading days: all of them.

Proprietary trading refers to the trades that are executed on behalf of the investment bank itself. In other words, not for clients.

In fact, for all of 2009, the majority of GS' prop-trading days resulted in profits of over $100 million each.

What are the odds of this sort of thing occurring in a natural market, in which all participants are on a level playing field? According to Karl Denninger, about 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 -- or roughly the odds that Juliette Lewis will be named the next Pope.

I will leave it to you, and those who investigate frauds, to determine whether the application of skill, without any sort of cheating such as front-running client orders, insider information or other forms of rigging the markets, can turn the random chance odds of 8.67 x 10-19 into an event that has, in fact, actually occurred.

To see the Goldman trading platforms in action, one need only examine the 90-degree "ramps" in equity prices that seem to occur when normal investors have dropped out of the market. Like most of us since 2008. And today after the whip-saw insanity last week.

"The market is melting straight up without interruption, and without any volume. Retail is now completely out of the market, and our advice to everyone is to stay out and let the computer blow themselves up again. In the meantime, please don't ask how and why Goldman and JPM can both have a perfect quarter. The chart below says it all."

This is a four-day trading chart. Notice the rightmost quadrant, representing today (Tuesday), in which volume went to nil while the Goldman and Morgan trading computers ratcheted the market up as they have for months on end.

How do they do it? And, more importantly, how do they get away with it?

Earlier today, Themis Trading published a white paper (PDF) that describes these trading operations as pure "theft on Wall Street".

Most institutional and retail investors have no idea that the private trade information they are entrusting to the market centers is being made public by the exchanges. The exchanges are not making this clear to their clients, but instead are actively broadcasting the information to the HFT's in order to court their order flow. The exchanges are likely to counter that when a subscriber signs up to their exchange they then allow the exchange to use this data as they see fit.

However, how many investors would have signed that agreement knowing that their hidden orders were being exposed? This practice has been going on for years but not many investors have read the market data specifications. Every day high frequency traders are using the information that some exchanges are supplying to disadvantage unsuspecting investors.

Every time a trader places an order in certain market centers, whether at the market centers directly, or through a third-party DMA, those market centers are collecting data regarding the trader’s order flow. They are supplying the information to HFT's that allows them to track when an investor changes price and how much stock has been accumulated. This information is helping HFT's predict short term price movements.

Institutional as well as retail footprints are being detected, and 'modus operandi' and trading profiles are being created. Traders believe that their trading strategies are protected, when actually their strategies (personal data) -- including variables such as displayed quantity, time stamp, side, revisions, reserve orders, linked executions, order id numbers, accumulations, number of shares -- are being misappropriated for sale by the market centers.

The exchanges seem to think that they own the data and have the right to sell it. Why are the exchanges allowed to do this? We think this is an outrage and demands immediate action by the SEC. How can the public trust the very organizations that are supposed to be protecting them, when these organizations are turning around and selling their personal data. The only difference between personal data theft, and the data-feed issue we highlight in this paper, is the degree of public awareness.

HFT stands for "High Frequency Trading" and, in general, refers to the proprietary trading arms of Goldman, Morgan and certain hedge funds. They use massively scalable computing platforms and custom software to -- in the words of Themis -- disadvantage normal traders.

This sort of activity is outrageous. It's apparently tolerated by the SEC and Congress, despite insiders' knowledge of precisely what's going on. That goes for Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke and others whose livelihoods depend upon a Dow Jones average that gives normal folks a warm-fuzzy feeling despite the real and ongoing economic debacle.

Investment bankers have been collecting billions in bonuses using sordid tactics that could legitimately be called criminal. And the SEC and Congress are simply looking the other way. Meanwhile, the public is backstopping all of the risk and eating the trading losses.

Now that's change you can believe in.