Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Larwyn's Linx: Al-Qaeda Infiltrator's Cover Blown for Obama Campaign's Election Year Politics

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

Nation

Al-Qaeda Infiltrator's Cover Blown for Election Year Politics: Tatler
Too Big To Manage: Cato
Obama Inserts Himself Into Bios of Past Presidents: Breitbart

The Stupid Party: FPM
The DNC seems to be sitting out the Wisconsin recall: Lane
Panic: Obama campaign already coming off the rails: Breitbart

Soros Hosts Left-Wing Fundraising Summit in Miami: Beacon
Obama Forces First Catholic College to Drop Insurance: LifeNews
Most transparent campaign evah confiscates cell phones: Twitchy

Economy

Social Security's Implosion Is Accelerating Under Obama: Blumer
The fiscal cliff is like a nasty, double-diamond ski slope: Peth
Privatize the Postal Service: ObjStd

The worst doctors and the worst hospitals in the world: Wolf
Obama's Bad Businessmen: Beacon
The Antidote to Pessimism: the Free Market Works: Elephant

Scandal Central

Hold Holder in Contempt: Times
Justice Rejects Lawmakers’ Complaints on Probe of ‘Fast and Furious’: WSJ
Socialist Sanders Goes Ballistic On Reporter While Defending Non-Existent Senate Budget: Breitbart

Climate & Energy

Projected Closing of Coal Plants Under New EPA Regulations: RCE
Wind farm scam a huge cover-up: Australian
Behold The Ecotard Singularity…: Soylent (NSFW)

Media

A Censored Race War: Sowell
Boston Globe buries correction of Elizabeth Warren 1/32 Cherokee claim: LI
Fauxcahontas: Elizabeth Warren heralded as ‘Harvard’s first woman of color’; Hilarity ensues: Twitchy

Obama’s Devastating CBS-New York Times Poll Results: HayRide
Autopsy Reveals Trayvon Martin Had Bloody Knuckles When He Died: GWP
More Narrative Fail: Autopsy Reveals Trayvon Martin Had Bloody Knuckles When He Died: MenRec

Things That Should Be Obvious: Q&O
The Democrats Train to be Race-Baiters: RS
Team Obama Flips Out Over Mildly Adverse NYT Poll: Power Line

World

Cradle to Grave Suicide: RWN
Jew assaulted at British University for filming public anti-Israel event: Atlas
Greece's Simitis Sees 'Catastrophe' If Nation Exits Euro: SFGate

Military Officials: Nearly $2 million in guns, combat gear sold to gangs: Bruce
Spain in Deep, Deep, Deep Trouble: Mish
Facebook’s Saverin May Save $67 Million on U.S. Tax Bill: Bloomberg

Sci-Tech

The Best Application of Gamification I have Seen To Date: InsideTMT
Krauthammer: Just say no to letting the police use drones: Hot Air
Benefits of dragon fruit: WABC-7

Cornucopia

Obama In History: Beacon
We Have Already Established WHAT You Are…: Koch's Tour
The TCOTS Six Days Of Cheesecake: Tuesday: Camp o' the Saints (NSFW)

Image: iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "The U.S. had prepared an air strike to support the Kurds and repel Saddam’s Republican Guard forces in northern Iraq. At this day, at the golf tournament, I started receiving phone calls from Sandy Berger—who was, at the time, the National Security Council Advisor—asking for President Clinton to go ahead and authorize this attack to repel Saddam’s forces, as they were really massacring thousands and thousands of Kurds in the northern part of Iraq. I approached President Clinton on three occasions at this golf tournament to ask him for the go-ahead to launch this attack. We had Air Force fighters in the air, ready to drop bombs and to repel Saddam’s forces, and on three occasions, President Clinton could not be bothered to take the phone call from Sandy Berger. So, on three occasions I approached the President, he brushed me off—he wanted to watch the golf tournament. So I saw, really, for the first time, the dereliction of duty, as it were, by President Clinton not being able—not being willing to take the phone call while thousands and thousands of Kurds were being slaughtered by Saddam Hussein. That was really my first insight.

…we had at least eight times, up to ten times that I recall, that we had a chance to either capture or kill Osama bin Laden. And on every single occasion, President Clinton chose to pass. I believe, quite frankly and honestly, that 9/11 was the responsibility—I put the blame for 9/11 at the feet of President Bill Clinton. I think he had many opportunities to take out bin Laden, to either capture him or kill him, and chose, every single time, not to pull the trigger. The movie—the series—The Path to 9/11 very accurately shows that the phone calls went all the way up to President Clinton, from Sandy Berger, and Clinton chose not to pull the trigger. Again, I think that’s a very accurate representation of what happened, and I think President Bill Clinton was responsible for 9/11." --Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson, Senior Military Aide to President Bill Clinton

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Ruh Roh: Obama up by 7... in Arkansas Democrat PRIMARY

Apparently, Arkansas Democrats couldn't find a convicted felon to run against Obama like they did in West Virginia. But they found the next best thing: a lawyer:

A new poll of Arkansas Democrats shows Barack Obama receiving support from only 45 percent of Democratic primary voters in Arkansas’s Fourth Congressional District, while 38 percent support his underfunded and relatively unknown primary challenger, Tennessee lawyer John Wolfe, Jr. Seventeen percent are undecided in the district poll.

...Wolfe predicted that the voters would move his way in the final days before the May 22 primary, despite his shoestring campaign budget. “There’s not been a single TV ad. There’s not been a single radio ad,” he said.

...Wolfe has criticized Obama for being too close to Wall Street and its interests (for example, Obama’s latest fundraiser with private equity lenders last night in New York City) and seeks to be a more principled Democrat than the 44th president.

Wolfe also said he supports repealing the president's signature legislation, Obamacare, which he says doesn’t lower health care costs even if the White House claims otherwise.

As Mike Flynn reports, one word describes the current state of the Obama campaign: Panic.

We've been treated to a mythical GOP "war on women", a "debate" on birth control, a "road to Damascus" moment on gay marriage, an "expose" of Romney "bullying" in high school, and the burning question of who is a better pet owner. Unfortunately for Obama and his allies in the media, none of it is working...

...All that said, it's what the Obama campaign tried to do proactively yesterday that convinces me they are in full panic... Yesterday, the Obama campaign tried to attack Romney's business experience with an ad focusing on steelworkers who lost their job when their company, GST Steel, went bankrupt. GST Steel was controlled by Romney's former firm, Bain Capital. The story of GST Steel has already been told at least twice; by Ted Kennedy in 1994 and Newt Gingrich in this year's primary. Every time, it has been pointed out that the bankruptcy occurred two years after Romney left Bain Capital. So, as hits go, its pretty weak stuff.

It was the opening salvo in what is expected to be a sustained attack on Romney's experience in private equity. So, what did Obama do after he launched this attack on private equity? He, of course, jetted to New York for a fundraiser with private equity traders... Even the palace guards at Business Insider noticed the bad optics

...Remember that at the end of last week, when the news was supposed to be about gay marriage and Romney "bullying" a possibly gay student in high school, Rasmussen showed Romney handily beating Obama in a general election match-up. Romney had not only withstood the full barrage of the Democrat-Media complex, he improved his standing with likely voters. That's when the panic set in.

...Yesterday's Bain hit was a rushed retread of an already discredited attack. The Obama campaign tried to push it with a hastily arranged media conference call scheduled for 10:45 am EDT, late into the news cycle. If this were a well-planned hit, the call would have been much earlier or one or two media outlets would have been fed information for corroborating stories... Yes, it is only May and polls are just polls. It will be a long campaign through the Fall, with many twist and turns. But, the events of the past 24 hours suggest that Obama is already losing control of the campaign narrative.

Let's not get cocky. We have miles to go.

November is coming. And America is not going down without a fight.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com.

Chinese-made smartphones include lovely bezel design and a backdoor into all your data, but mostly a backdoor into all your data

The People's Republic of China (or PRC) is a land rife with slave labor, pollution, intellectual property theft, and repression of religion. In other words, it's Thomas Friedman's (pronounced: fried-man's) ideal society.

And the cyberwar that the PRC (or, rather, the People's Liberation Army or PLA) is waging worldwide, much of it against American assets, continues apace, unremarked upon by the President, his sycophants or the State Department.

Exhibit 9 million: A lovely backdoor installed on Chinese-made smartphones:

The ZTE Score M is an Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread) phone available in the United States on MetroPCS, made by Chinese telecom ZTE Corporation.

There is a setuid-root application at /system/bin/sync_agent that serves no function besides providing a root shell backdoor on the device. Just give the magic, hard-coded password to get a root shell:

$ sync_agent ztex1609523
# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root)

Nice backdoor, ZTE.


darn, geek.com says it is real.....

If anyone reading this owns a ZTE Score M Android smartphone, your device has been found to include a backdoor allowing root access without user authentication.
The discovery of the backdoor comes via a post on the text storage website Pastebin. It has since been confirmed via Reddit by Justin Case of Cunning Logic and TeamAndIRC. He has confirmed with someone at ZTE that the backdoor does indeed exist and that a fix is in the works.

Oh look, we'll just make a master key!  You locked that door?  :-)
Nice guys, nice.... oh and ZTE makes more than phones -- they're the 5th largest telecommunications manufacturer in the world. 

It's imperative that more Americans become aware of the danger to our information infrastructure posed by the PLA. I, for one, would be hard-pressed to trust any technology made in the PRC.

And that's a lesson that many companies have learned the hard way.


Stunning: Old Media Silent as 60 Minutes Confirms That Bill Clinton Refused to Kill Bin Laden

Unless you were watching 60 Minutes this Sunday, it's likely you missed its interview confirming that Bill Clinton had Osama Bin Laden in his sights and refused to pull the metaphorical trigger. Ultimately, the 9/11 attacks -- only one of a series of devastating and deadly terror strikes tied to Bin Laden -- became the end-result.

Lara Logan, CBS: That mission actually began five years before 9/11. That's when the CIA set up what became Hank Crumpton's special unit tasked with finding Osama bin Laden.

Hank Crumpton, Former Deputy Director of the CIA'S Counter-Terrorism Center: From '98, '99 all the way up to 2001, the warnings were there ... We had extensive human networks in Afghanistan, Afghan sources that had been reporting on al Qaeda, on the presence of bin Laden.

But Crumpton says the Clinton White House didn't trust the CIA's Afghan sources alone and they wanted U.S. eyes on the target.

Hank Crumpton: So we were driven to look at various technical options. And we looked at a range of things. Long-range optics, they were too heavy, too cumbersome to get over the mountains. We looked at balloons. The prevailing winds would take those balloons to China. That would be a bad thing. We scrapped that. And then we stumbled across the UAVs, particularly the Predator. And sure enough, wasn't long before we had the Predator in theater over Afghanistan, the Predator unarmed at the time. And our human sources took us to a village-- far-- not far from Kandahar.

Lara Logan: And what did you see there?

Hank Crumpton: We saw a security detail, a convoy and we saw bin Laden exit the vehicle.

Lara Logan: Clearly?

Hank Crumpton: Clearly. And we had-- the optics were spot on. It was beaming back to us, CIA headquarters. We immediately alerted the White House. And the Clinton administration's response was, "Well, it will take several hours for the TLAMs, the cruise missiles launched from submarines, to reach that objective. So you need to tell us where bin Laden will be five or six hours from now." The frustration was enormous.

Lara Logan: So at that moment you wanted to kill him?

Hank Crumpton: Yes.

Lara Logan: But you couldn't get permission?

Hank Crumpton: Correct.

He couldn't get permission to do anything, including allowing the CIA's Afghan agents on the ground to attack bin Laden's compound. That missed opportunity in the late summer of 1999, led Crumpton and his CIA team to figure out how to arm the Predator drone with hellfire missiles.

Lara Logan: So the Predator drone strikes that take place in the tribal areas of Pakistan today are a direct result of what happened when you had Osama bin Laden in your sights in Afghanistan and no way to kill him yourselves?

Hank Crumpton: It was a response to the lack of response on the part of the administration or DOD. So the handful of CIA officers that we had, in great frustration, we began the discussion of, "Okay. We find him again we will have to engage ourselves. And we'll have to do it right then, right there."

What a freaking outrage. And equally outrageous? Legacy media's silence.

Remember when Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was caught destroying Top Secret documents related to the Bin Laden debacle? You don't? Maybe that's because legacy media barely reported it.

As Richard Miniter wrote in 2007, Berger's intent was to prevent disclosure of the Clinton cowardice that ultimately led to 9/11.

My informed sources suggest that what Berger destroyed were copies of the Millennium After-Action Review, a binder-sized report prepared by Richard Clarke in 2000—a year and half before the 9-11 attacks. The review made a series of recommendations for a tougher stance against bin Laden and terrorism. There are 13 or more copies of this report. But only one contains hand-written notes by President Bill Clinton. Apparently, in the margin beside the recommendations, Bill Clinton wrote NO, NO, NO next to many of the tougher policy proposals.


You can see why Clinton might be happy to see these records vanish down the memory hole... So Berger was stuffing in pants and socks and later shredding the evidence that President Clinton did not want to take a tougher line on bin Laden, following the 1998 attack on two U.S. embassies that killed 224 people (including 12 American diplomats).

Even now that CBS has confirmed the story, a quick Google News search reveals that no one in old media cares.

3,000 innocent Americans dead. Countless thousands of American warriors fallen and wounded in avenging the terrorist attacks and those who enabled them.

A president who knew Bin Laden was complicit in prior attacks and failed to act.

A cowardly president who was too busy golfing to do his job.

In other words, just another disastrous Democrat president.


Why Americans should fear Google's self-driving car

Google is in Washington this week, lobbying lawmakers to legalize its self-driving car:

Google is evidently taking its campaign to make its driverless cars legal on U.S. roads from state capitals to the nation’s capital. A Google robo-Prius was spotted last Tuesday roaming the streets of Washington, D.C., only a day after Nevada became the first state to legalize autonomous vehicles on the Silver State’s roads.


U.S. News & World Report speculated that Google was in town to appeal to federal policymakers, and possibly take them for joyrides in one of the company’s self-driving Prius hybrids. The outlet also noted that Google has racked up a reported $5 million legislative lobbying tab in the first quarter of 2012 alone – more contributed to candidates’ coffers in the same time period than Apple, Facebook and Microsoft combined.

I'll be frank. With this federal government -- and with this current crop of power-hungry politicians -- a self-driving car is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard.

In fact, it's a horrible idea.

• How long until these cars (and therefore all of us) are tracked in real-time by the government?

• How long until government mandates self-driving cars, under the aegis of safety, fuel efficiency, traffic control or heaven knows what?

• And how long until the government determines where you are permitted to go and when you will go there, like an ant-colony form of mass transit?

Knowing the power-hungry band of thieves and worse we currently employ in Washington, the answer to each of these questions is most assuredly: not long.

Self-driving cars are not bad ideas per se. But when government gets involved, you can be sure they will be used as tools to control citizens. For that is precisely what this enormous, bankrupt, doddering leviathan of a federal government always does.

It never scales back. It never "right-sizes". It never strips away laws or shreds outdated regulations.

It grows, like weeds among ivy. And it always uses its growth to further undermine individualism, to erode the family unit, to sap faith, and to fortify the sovereignty of the government.

It's got money for drones to perform surveillance on American citizens, but no funds for sealing the border with Mexico or purchasing the fighter jets we'll most assuredly need now that Iran, China and Russia are on the rise.

All of these characteristics, I might remind you, are precisely what this country's founders attempted to avoid when they crafted the Constitution. And until we have a group of patriots in office -- meaning people who will adhere to the Constitution -- I will oppose any government-approved "self-driving car". For it rides on the road to tyranny.


Larwyn's Linx: Fidelity to Failed Ideas

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

Nation

Fidelity to Failed Ideas: RWN
The Hypocrisy of Obama’s Bain Bundler: NRO
Dems Attack Romney Over Layoffs Made by Obama Bundler: Breitbart

Black Pastor Abandons Obama After Gay Marriage, eh, 'Pivot': WZ
Wisconsin now has a Dem recall face, and doesn’t like it: LI
African-American Church Leaders Condemn Obama: WJZ

Millionaire Socialists and the Morons Who Love Them: CDN
Obama's Thug-Style Campaign Tactics: Boortz
Pelosi, Reid are America's Least Favorite Politicians: Beacon

Economy

Europe Needs Real Liberty, Not Fake “Austerity”: ObjStd
Forward: Obama pushes yet another billion-dollar stimulus plan: Times
European elections a warning to Obama: LAT

Federal Court Strikes Down Ambush Election Rule: FreeEnt
Insurers issuing new round of rebates must credit Obamacare: Malkin
Former Obama Car Czar Trashes Gay Preezy’s Attack Ad: JWF

Out Ever-Growing Government: Brooks
Greece euro exit a time bomb under Obama reelection: Peth
Heh: Marxist University Evicts Marxists From Occupying It’s Property: Sooper

Scandal Central

HHS Sends $5.9 Million to Program Run by Obama Buddy: Dossier
Two Cheers for the House of Representatives: RWN
Public employees second only to financial pros in fraud, study shows: Beacon

Conservative Reps Plan To Push House Leadership Toward Contempt Resolution for Holder: Nice Deb
Boehner Is Stalling Holder Contempt Citation On Fast And Furious: WstrnJrnlsm
Please do not photograph Obama’s wreck at the side of the road: LI

Climate & Energy

In the American West: an Ocean of Oil: Hot Air
GAO To Obama: More Oil Than Rest Of The World: IBD
AGW Awesome: German Banks Forbidden From Financing Off-Shore Batshredders: Soylent (NSFW)

Media

Truth in Labeling: Why Not Just Call The Media Democrats?: AT
Film Company Owned By Obama Supporter Promotes Violence Against Bristol Palin: Breitbart
CNN’s Kurtz Blasts MSNBC’s Tamron Hall for Throwing a Hissy Fit on the Air: AIM

How to Assert Copyright Over Your Work When It’s Been Plagiarized by Legacy Media: AllAm
How Our “Gay President” Learned About Sex: AIM
New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America by Burton Folsom Jr.: ObjStd (subscription)

Author Ed Klein: Clinton and Obama Have “nothing but Mutual Contempt for Each Other”: Nice Deb
Edward Klein Was On Hannity On The Drive Home: RSM
Palin: Ted Cruz for Texas: C4P

World

60 Minutes: Clinton Passed on Opportunity to Kill Bin Laden in 1999: NB
Who Will Suffer As A Result of Euro Policies? The Jews.: Gatestone
Greece Virtually Out Of Cash One Day Before Critical Bond Maturity: ZH

Closing the Tech Gap: China’s Spaceplane: DefTech
No Thanks to Aid, Africa Is Getting Better: Cato
Mexico drug war's latest toll: 49 headless bodies near U.S. border: Fox

Sci-Tech

How Liberalism Literally Makes You Sick: MB
The Chinese Would NEVER Backdoor Phones, Right?: Ticker
Hands On With Pebble Smartwatch, the Most Successful Kickstarter Project Ever: Wired

Cornucopia

One Afternoon In a Garage in Reno, Nevada: IowaHawk
Exclusive: Obama Lived Less Than One Mile From Bill Ayers During the Mysterious New York Years: WstrnJrnlsm
The Newsweek Cover Before the Photoshop Reveals Ghostly Image: iOTW

Image: Crass Obama after a commencement address at Barnard College ‘I’ve got to get my s***’
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "...an analysis by Joseph Vranich, who studies migration of businesses from one state to another, finds that since 2009 the flight of businesses out of California "has increased fivefold due to high taxes and regulatory costs."

This month Chief Executive magazine reports that its annual survey of CEOs ranked California dead last among the 50 states in business climate. Texas was number one. The silver lining for Jerry Brown, if not for the California fisc, is that if you're already ranked 50th you can't get any lower—though he seems willing to try." --The Wall Street Journal

Monday, May 14, 2012

'Obamacare in One Image'

From the invaluable FreedomWorks, a schematic of the bureaucracy that will control every aspect of your family's physical and mental well-being:


And the antidote to Obamacare may very well be the FreedomWorks Connector, a magnificent tool to help you connect with like-minded patriots.


November is coming. It's time to get busy.


Einstein's Definition of Insanity: California

Gee, it's so surprising that stealing more and more money from the private sector -- to fund a bloated, unaccountable, massively top-heavy and unionized public sector -- would fail to close budget shortfalls.

Well, it's surprising if you're a Democrat, because they appear to be immune to facts, logic, reason and arithmetic.

Tax-hike austerity failing in California, just like Europe


I am having problems comprehending this Bloomberg headline: “Brown Tax Increase Gains Urgency as Deficit Rises to $16 Billion.” The story is even more puzzling:

California Governor Jerry Brown bet that a nascent financial recovery would lift the world’s ninth-largest economy enough to whittle down a $9.2 billion deficit. Instead, the gap has widened to $16 billion.

Today the 74-year-old Democrat will unveil his revised budget and explain what additional spending must be cut. Tax collections have run $3.5 billion below what he calculated four months ago. Spending has grown $2 billion above projections... The new deficit estimate increases the urgency of the governor’s plans to increase income taxes on some earners to the highest in the nation, and boost sales levies that are now more than any other state.

The plan would temporarily raise the statewide sales tax, already the highest in the U.S., to 7.5 percent from 7.25 percent. It would also boost rates on income starting at $250,000. Those making $1 million or more, now taxed at 10.3 percent, would pay 13.3 percent, the most of any state.

Wait, taxes are rising and revenues are falling. So obviously the solution is even more taxes? Who’s running the show over there, the IMF? So the state with highest sales tax in America would also have the highest income tax in America?


As it is, California ranks 48th in the Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index. The California Dream has become the Golden State Nightmare.

As I predicted in 2011, Governor Moonbeam will soon be a thrice-failed state executive.

For unless Jerry Brown discovers a flock of gold-nugget-crapping unicorns, his strategy of crushing society's most productive citizens will simply drive them out of the state.

Which is why I published the "California-to-Texas Translation Guide a while back.


Genius: HHS spending billions to create non-profit insurers, which I like to call the Obamacare version of Fannie Mae

Even though they've bankrupted Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac -- and failed miserably with "Great Society" and trillions in welfare -- Democrats now want you to fund new non-profit health insurers.

What could go wrong?

Republicans in the Senate and House questioned whether a Health and Human Services’ (HHS) $3.4 billion loan program to create non-profit health insurers would result in the greater competition and lower costs. In a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the members noted that the Department’s own actuarial estimates suggest at least $1 billion in taxpayer dollars may inevitably be wasted.

...“HHS may be seriously underestimating the financial risk that these new entities pose to the Federal Treasury,” the members wrote. “Recent reports have highlighted the challenges facing CO-OPs, which strongly suggests that the program will fail to provide consumers with promised viable alternatives or reduced costs. The new health care law is unfortunately already exacerbating this problem. As a result, many individuals and small businesses are confronting the reality of fewer choices and higher costs when purchasing health insurance.”

Given prior failures in government lending, including huge loans to now bankrupt Solyndra, the members requested responses to a number of questions, including that the Department correctly assess both the measures it has established to protect taxpayer funds and the process by which HHS has awarded the CO-OP loans. Earlier this year, Senator Coburn highlighted the problems with CO-Ops in a report, Warning: Side Effects, warning that they could be the Solyndra of the President’s health care law and waste millions of taxpayer dollars.

One day, when rational human beings gain control of the branches of government, I'd like to cap-and-trade Congress. By that I mean limit Congress and the bureaucracies to a total of no more than 100 double-spaced pages of laws and regulations. If they want to enact new ones, they've got to get rid of old ones.

I call it cap-and-trade of government emissions. Who's with me?


Perfect: 49 headless bodies found near U.S. border may have been U.S.-bound illegals attracted by lawless Obama administration policies

The inviting open-borders policies of the Obama Democrats may have contributed to the gruesome slaughter of nearly 50 people, whose decapitated bodies were found close to the U.S border.

Police found 49 mutilated bodies scattered in a pool of blood near the border with the U.S., a region where Mexico's two dominant drug cartels are trying to outdo each other in bloodshed while warring over smuggling routes... The bodies of 43 men and six women with their heads, hands and feet chopped off were dumped at the entrance to the town of San Juan, on a highway that connects the industrial city of Monterrey with Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas.

At the spot where authorities discovered the bodies before dawn Sunday, a white stone arch that normally welcomes visitors to the town was spray-painted with "100% Zeta" in black letters — an apparent reference to the fearsome Zetas drug cartel that was founded by deserters from the Mexican army's special forces.

...Domene said the dead would be hard to identify because of the lack of heads, hands and feet...

De la Garza said he did not rule out the possibility that the victims were U.S.-bound migrants.

...In less than a month, the mutilated bodies of 14 men were left in a van in downtown Nuevo Laredo, 23 people were found hanged or decapitated in the same border city and 18 dismembered bodied were left near Mexico's second-largest city, Guadalajara. Nuevo Laredo, like Monterrey, is considered Zeta territory, while Guadalajara has long been controlled by gangs loyal to Sinaloa...

...A drug gang allied with Sinaloa left 35 bodies on a main boulevard in the city of Veracruz in September, and police found 32 other bodies, apparently killed by the same gang, a few days after that. The goal apparently was to take over territory that had been dominated by the Zetas... Twenty-six bodies were found in November in Guadalajara, another territory being disputed by the Zetas and Sinaloa... Drug violence has killed more than 47,500 people since Calderon launched a stepped-up offensive when he took office in December 2006.

Let us recall that the Obama administration has sued state after state after state for enforcing immigration laws while systematically endorsing sanctuary cities.

Let us also recall that the Obama administration halted all construction of the border fence, which is supported by a stunning 81 percent of Americans, according to USA Today.

In other words, nearly 50 human beings -- likely lured to the border by the lawless policies of the Obama administration -- lost their lives as part of a turf war spurred in part by -- yes -- the open borders policies of the Obama administration that tacitly permits drug- and human-smuggling.

I guess we can just add 'em to the total of Operation Fast and Furious (300 dead and counting).


Image: Borderland Beat.

Larwyn's Linx: The Dots Get Connected -- Soros Ally Teaches Democrats Cloward-Piven?

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

Nation

Connecting dots: Soros Ally Teaches Democrats Cloward-Piven?: RSM
Troops as Political Props: BlackFive
War on the Catholic Church: AT

The Fiction and Non-Fiction of Obama: Blaze
Jeremiah Wright: Obama Pal Offered Him $150K to Shut Up in '08: Hot Air
Obama Tried to Bribe Rev. Wright: Riehl

The Fall Of The Roman, I mean American Empire: CDN
Senator Bill Nelson Co-Opted By Obama’s Extreme Agenda: Shark
Warren's Indian Tales Help Turn MA Race Into Town vs. Gown: Cmtry

Economy

Update on the Higher Education Bubble: Power Line
JPM: Immediate Losses From Greek Exit Could Reach 400 Billion: ZH
Ally Financial's mortgage unit nears bankruptcy: sources: Reuters

You Know It's Public Money...: SDA
Report: 230,000 unemployed losing benefits over weekend: Hill
Monster deal heats up, LinkedIn to pass: sources: Reuters

Scandal Central

Issa to Holder: Waiting for "Fast and Furious" docs like waiting for Godot: CBS
Government study: flaws in government study of cost of government studies: Malkin
Communists in Congress? (1) Hansen Clarke (D) Michigan: Loudon

Climate & Energy

The Belief That CO2 Can Regulate Climate Is “Sheer Absurdity”: Power Line
The Idea Man: SDA
Biden in 2007: Coal more likely to kill an American than terrorism: Beacon

Media

Tea Party’s effective use of Twitter aiding its makeover of GOP: LI
Colussus: Primordial Slack
Newsweek: Obama Is The First Gay President: Cube

Why Doesn’t Obama Ban Iranian Press TV?: AIM
The Left is Getting Clobbered on Twitter: Power Line
Why Obama Can Accurately Be Described as a Dictator: WesternJourn

Why Obama Turned Gay for Pay–He Knows He’s Being Fired: Bruce
Krugman Just Figured It Out Now: You need a Nobel Prize to be this slow, apparently: Ticker
Family Guy Does Entire Episode Trashing Tea Party as Racist Anarchists Destined to Destroy America: NB

World

Bowing to Islamic Supremacy: AT
As the Eurozone Implodes, a New Nazi Movement Rises: NoisyRm
Obama’s lies about Islam are deadly: Creeping

The war on Israel, Irish-style: ynet
Geert Wilders: Marked For Death: FPM
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!": SDA

Sci-Tech

Thanks to a Bionic Suit, Paralyzed Mom Finishes Marathon: ObjStd
Court: NSA's Activity with Google Exempted from FOIA: Breitbart
Muscle Cars Are Not Fast: DailyPundit

Cornucopia

The Mathemagics Behind the Unemployment Rate: MOTUS
Operation Hot Mic: American Crossroads
Teen scores NFL star as prom date on Twitter: Fox

A Mother’s Work is Never Done. Apparently: MOTUS
Repeal, But Don't Replace: Shane Wright
The New Communism is Just Like the Old Communism: Western Rifle

Image: Communists in Congress? (1) Hansen Clarke (D) Michigan: NoisyRm
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "Recent observations by law enforcement officials throughout the state have revealed that gang members have increasingly engaged in formal martial arts and firearms training. Whether a gang member is incarcerated or on the streets, he is encouraged, if not required, to acquire an assortment of training to benefit the gang. A well-trained cadre of gang members may embolden the group and create a more dangerous environment for law enforcement officials when encountering gang membership involved in criminal activity." --California State Threat Assessment Center

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Awesome: Two Illegal Aliens Protected by Democrat "Sanctuary City" Policies Murdered Family and High-School Football Star

Strange: I wonder why I never read any of this in my local newspaper?

In unrelated cases that illustrate the high price communities pay for sanctuary policies, two illegal immigrants—both with extensive criminal records—were convicted of first-degree murder this week in different parts of a border state that has longed protected the undocumented.

In San Francisco a jury found Edwin Ramos, a renowned gang banger, guilty of three first-degree murder counts for the 2008 killings of a 48-year-old man and his two sons. Ramos had a lengthy criminal record when he murdered the family, but San Francisco sanctuary laws shielded him from deportation.

Judicial Watch obtained public records that show police knew Ramos was an active member of the notoriously violent MS-13 street gang and that he had numerous run ins with the law, including arrests for weapons and gang-related charges. Furthermore, police knew Ramos was in the U.S. illegally yet released him after every encounter. In short, the records obtained by JW prove that don’t-ask-don’t tell sanctuary policies protect illegal alien gang bangers and put American citizens at risk.

Regardless, the famously liberal northern California city has long protected illegal immigrants and offered them costly public services that should be reserved for legal residents and citizens. In fact, illegal aliens are assured through costly, Spanish-language advertisement campaigns that they will never be reported to federal officials. In 2007 San Francisco became the nation’s first large municipality to offer illegal aliens official government identification cards.

A few hundred miles south in Los Angeles, another illegal immigrant gang banger (Pedro Espinoza) was also convicted of first-degree murder this week for gunning down a standout high school football player in 2008. Jurors deliberated for about four hours before reaching a verdict, according to a local news report, that says Espinoza proudly sports a tattoo with the initials “B.K,” which police says stands for “Blood Killer.”

Espinoza had just completed a jail sentence for a previous felony when he murdered the 17-year-old star running back, Jamiel Shaw, as he walked home. Like San Francisco Los Angeles has strict policies banning law enforcement officers from inquiring about suspects’ immigration status. In this case it allowed a violent gang banger to gun down a talented young athlete who was being recruited by top colleges.

How much more lawlessness by this administration will the American people take?

The Obama-Holder Justice Department has sued state after state after state for enforcing federal immigration law. Curiously, however, the Democrats don't have a problem with "Sanctuary Cities".

My sense is that patience is wearing thin. And November is coming.


Oh my: actual pictures from the Obama campaign websites

Diogenes has the entire collection: un-retouched, 100 percent real and spectacular: "The following photos are taken directly from the official, authorized Obama for America reelection campaign website and Facebook pages. These are some of the pictures that team Obama hand-picked."


You can see the rest -- with entertaining captions -- here.


Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn and Van Jones: Suck on This Picture

"East Germany - Before and After":


Obama's Communist pals -- Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and Van Jones among them -- can suck it.


Hat tip: Small Dead Animals.

Newsweek labels Obama America's 'first gay president' [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

Here’s this week’s Newsweek cover just released by Newsweek via Twitter.

The story itself is written by Andrew Sullivan, a prominent gay blogger who swoons whenever he hears the name Obama, and breaks out in a cold sweat whenever he hears the word Israel.

It’s a testament to the cloistered nature and ideological inbreeding of New York’s media elite. Talking amongst themselves, leftish clones can’t possibly imagine that multitudes – many of them Democrats living beyond Manhattan - will see this as another good reason to oppose the reelection of Barack H. Obama.

For more on Sullivan, and his cover story, click here.

Given Obama's rumored dalliances with the, eh, other team, this may not have represented the brightest idea Andi Sullivan ever had.


Congratulations to President Obama For Another Historic Record: 97 Rounds of Golf In Less Than Three-and-a-Half Years

Let's assume, optimistically, that each round of golf takes a total of only four hours including transportation to and from the course. This means the president has spent more than 48 work days on the links. That's nearly seven weeks of 8-hour days!

Best of all, his latest round was with a lobbyist.

...Well, a lobbyist by trade, anyway.

Hunter Biden, who is golfing today with President Obama and his dad, Vice President Biden, stopped lobbying in 2008 once it became clear this would become a problem for the Democratic ticket, which had a zero-lobbyist policy.

The young Biden, according to Politico, had ”an office near K Street, a blue-ribbon roster of clients, and his firm, Oldaker Biden & Belair, made $1.76 million in lobbying revenue in the first half of 2006.”

And then he “got clean,” as they say of Democrats who stopped lobbying for the sake of The One. I’m sure Hunter will never touch the stuff again.

Also on hand today is White House trip director Marvin Nicholson, a regular Obama golf companion...

The Official Obama Golf Counter helps all Americans keep track of the President's tireless work on the links. Remember: he's doing it for the children.


Larwyn's Linx: Brilliant -- Corporate America Now Paying Democrats to Call Americans Racist

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

Nation

Corporate America Now Paying Democrats to Call Americans Racist: RSM
Wasserman, Obama Use Their Kids to Make Gay Marriage Case: Shark
Dem Idea On Mother’s Day: Donate To Pro-Abortion Groups: RWN

Obama, Biden working hard on golf games: Twitchy
Presidential photo op of the week: Malkin
Bad news for Obama, Michigan in play: LI

Economy

News You Won’t Find At The New York Times: Mead
472 Ann Romney Blouses = 1 Michelle Obama Spanish Vacation: LI
California facing higher $16 billion shortfall: AP

Common Education Standards: Wortwhile or a Power Grab?: SIGIS
Jay Rockefeller on rocky ground with coal: Hot Air
Is This Something? Obama Stump Speech in Reno Draws Dozens: Ace

Scandal Central

Obama's enemies list is working: WS
Florida investigation reveals 180,000 non-citizens may be registered to vote: RS
Romney Donor on Obama’s ‘Enemies List’: They’re Stalking My Kids: GWP

Climate & Energy

Rocky Mountain Formation Has More Oil Than All Proven Reserves Worldwide: SAB
New EPA Creation: 'Cap-and-trade Simulator': HyScience
Seriously?! Obama offers Brazil our technology (and money) for their oil?: Q&O

Media

Obama Gets $2 Million in Donations Within 24 Hours After Expressing Support for Same Sex Marriage: Powers
Obama: Being LGBT is all about me!: Twitchy
Oh my: Audience member yells “traitor” at mention of Romney’s name during Obama rally: Hot Air

Obama Targets, Smears Private Citizen for Donating to Romney: Lady Liberty
Falling Moonbat Messiah: MB
On NPR, David Brooks Says WashPost Romney Story Played Into 'Stupidity' And Is 'Illegitimate': NB

World

The Middle East's Problem From Hell: Instapundit
U.S. Remains Vulnerable to an EMP: Foundry
Intending underpant bomber was British agent: IANS Live

MN: Iraqi Muslim’s food stamp fraud costs taxpayers $3.1M: Creeping
Who’s Right about Agenda 21?: NoisyRm
Hollande faces challenges as int'l concern rises: JPost

Cornucopia

Did You Read That Article I Bookmarked For You: Day By Day
Racist Republican breaks arm of blind black guy, just for fun: AmDig
Ukrainian Living Doll, Valeria Lukyanova, Becomes Barbie: IB Times

Image: Day By Day, By Chris Muir
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund
QOTD: "A few things [about the Wisconsin recall election] Times readers ought to know but likely don’t:

• An unprecedented turnout in the essentially uncontested GOP primary shows Walker with extremely high and energized support; Walker got more votes than the two leading Democratic contenders
• Public weariness with the incessant political wars in Wisconsin is working against Democrats more than the GOP at this point, with many voters blaming the unions for endlessly prolonging the struggle
• Walker’s labor reforms are generally seen as successful.

In the Times cocoon, a grass roots mobilization of feisty, democracy-loving Wisconsinites is rising in rebellion against the hated Walker business and big donor lobby. In the actual Wisconsin, there are two grass roots movements opposing each other. The anti-union populists may end up with more energy, more unity and more votes than the pro-union organizers. The labor mobilization against the Walker reforms has been lovingly and carefully covered by the Times and its brethren since Day One: nothing like that level of analysis has been deployed on Walker’s grass roots support..." --Walter Russell Mead

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Bumper Sticker o' the Day: Transmit THIS To Vladimir



"The Most Ludicrous Graph of the Month"

That's what Steve Maley calls this steaming pile of Axelrodian propaganda:

Obama’s energy policies are a key vulnerability in the November elections, which has his staff scrambling to make it look like he’s actually done something to support domestic energy production. Since neither he nor anyone in his Administration knows the first thing about oil and gas, that can lead to some pretty ridiculous claims.

Like, for example, the [accompanying] graph, found at Obama For America‘s website (The small arrow reads “Obama Takes Office”...)

...At the end of this post you will find a FIFY (“Fixed It For You”) graph which identifies several other events of significance equal to or greater than that of Obama’s inauguration...

...the main suggestion of this graph that I find so offensive is that Obama had anything at all to do with today’s record levels of production. As his own graph clearly shows, OBAMA TOOK OFFICE DURING A GAS BOOM! There had already been four consecutive years of production growth under Bush.

Much of the ramp-up in production is in the shale gas plays: the Barnett of Texas, the Haynesville of Louisiana, the Woodford of Oklahoma, the Fayetteville of Arkansas, the Marcellus of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the Eagleford of Texas. All of them are on private, not Federal lands, and under the jurisdiction of state, not Federal, regulatory bodies.

Consequently, Federal permitting/regulation is not a dominant issue in any of these plays.

After scratching my head and studying the graph for a while, I did conclude that President Obama’s election had one discernible impact on natural gas: it turned the color of the bars on the graph from very light blue to a darker hue. Well done, Mr. President!


Based on the three-and-a-half years of de-industrialization policies enacted by Obama's EPA, it's a wonder things aren't significantly worse than they are.

Of course, it could just be that President Obama is waiting for the election, after which he will have considerably more, uhm, "flexibility".


Exclusive: Barack Obama's High School Drug Dealer Claims Young Barry Stole His Bong, Still Owes Him for a Dime Bag

President Obama's high school years were, by his own admission, a hazy, drug-induced blur.

Obama, by all accounts, was a habitual drug user in high school. He tried cocaine, he admits in Dreams From My Father; he “tried drugs enthusiastically.” The Chicago Tribune reported back in 2007 that Obama thanked the “Choom Gang” in his high school yearbook; “chooming” was Hawaiian slang for smoking pot. The Honolulu Advertiser reported that Obama’s senior portrait “prominently displayed … A package of ‘Zig-Zag’ rolling papers and a matchbook.” One of Obama’s close friends was arrested for drug possession during high school...

In his memoir, Obama talked about routinely getting high. “Junkie. Pothead,” he wrote. “That’s where I’d been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man.” But, according to Obama, he only got high because he was contemplating deep matters: drugs could “push questions of who I was out of my mind.”

Because old media failed to explore Obama's high school drug use, Cub Reporter Biff Spackle was dispatched to Hawaii three weeks ago. His job: to find and interview the president's 11th and 12th grade classmates who weren't in prison, dead or drones.

Fortunately, just hours before his flight out of Honolulu was scheduled to depart, Spackle happened upon Ernie "Spliff" Pipebladder. Pipebladder made several extraordinary claims about young "Barry Obama":

Dude, that m***erf***ing Barry stole so much s*** from me before he left for college it's not funny. I always kept my favorite bong near my bedroom window at Kaliihi Heights [apartment complex], which Barry knew about. Just before he leaves for Occidental, like days before, the damn bong dis-a-frickin-pears.

What are the odds of that happening?

Not only that, but I had some crazy good Maui Wowie that summer. Dude tells me he'll pay for a dime bag, which I give him on good faith, and he disappears to California a m***erf***ing week later.

Never saw him again until the 2004 Democrat Convention. I'm hanging with the buds in 8 Fat Fat [an area bar] and what do I see? The SOB who still owes me a Tokemaster 8000 and a dime bag! I start yellin' at the screen.

A few years later, he gets elected president. So I sends him a real nice letter asking for my bong back.

Next thing I know, like a day later, I got two Secret Service guys at my doorstep telling me it'd be best if I kept my m***erf***ing mouth shut.

I did for a while, but fact is, I want my damn bong back. That was a classic and it's worth big bucks now. They don't even make Tokemaster bongs anymore! So tell Barry he better make good on it, plus that dime bag, or I'm going to The Washington Post!

All of these statements are completely, 100 percent true, as far as you know.