Saturday, June 23, 2012

Remember when they confiscated forks and knives at the White House Correspondents' Dinner?

You don't? That's because they didn't.

In fact, I searched high and low for examples like yesterday's bizarre incident where a group of Latino government officials were required to surrender their forks and knives.

“It’s very important that you use your utensils as soon as possible,” National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials board member Raquel Regalado told about 1000 delegates at the group’s annual conference.

Regalado hurried the diners to finish up their salads and pre-cut chicken breasts, saying that the Secret Service required that there be no knives at the tables and that the forks be rounded up before Obama entered the room.

As a wry commenter observed, maybe the president fears shivs in particular.

For those Hispanics already sickened by the president's incessant pandering, this kind of treatment can't come as much of a surprise.

Because I'd certainly trust any group in this country with forks and knives more than journalists.

Larwyn's Linx: If You Were A Socialist and Wanted to Overthrow the United States Government...

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Nation

If You Were A Socialist and Wanted to Overthrow the Government: CDN
Tarheel trainwreck: The coming DNC disaster: Malkin
Obama Marked Down in Georgia: Powers

Another Sign Dems are Writing Off Obama: Lifson
Why the House Must Impeach President Obama: LoneCon
Ex-Democrat Artur Davis on His Evolution: AmSpec

The People Obama Invites to the White House, Part XXXII: Powers
Flashback: Biden Calls Individual Mandate “Socialistic”: WZ
Heh. MA GOP buys Liz Warren Ancestry.com membership: Sarah

Economy

The Mind of a Marxist: 'It's the Public Sector That Needs Help': RedCty
Impressed Labor, Enslaved Clients Make Millions for Dems: Cons
Supreme Court curbs union abuse: JRubin

That $3 dinner with Obama may cost you hundreds in taxes: LI
If you love your spouse, you are not worthy of Obama: DTG
GM recalls 475,418 Chevy Cruze for engine shield: Reuters

Scandal Central

Why would anyone trust Eric Holder?: Power
Don't Ken And Josephine Terry Have "Absolute Moral Authority"?: Rhymes
More Stealth Amnesty Behind The Scenes: JW

Climate & Energy

Team Obama Kills Another 750 Coal Jobs in Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia: GWP
Senate kills effort to block EPA regulations on coal-powered plants: Events
EPA Fines Refineries for Not Using Substance That Does Not Exist: MB

Media

E-Mails Expose MSNBC Host’s Involvement in #StopRush Boycott: RSM
NYT: NBC Adrift, Losing Ground As Brian "What's Fast and Furious?" Williams New Show A Flop: Riehl
Politico Reporter Suspended for Remarks: Politico

Disgusting: Left calls Fast & Furious just politics : Brian Terry could not be reached for comment: DTG
Obama's White Support Is Too Low to Win: RCP
Gay Activists Flip Off Man who Opposed Anti-Gay Briggs Amendment: GayPatriot

Obama’s lies and the media’s betrayal: Q&O
Juan Williams defends Holder’s Executive Privilege over Brian Terry’s death: ‘Hey, people die’: Scoop
BREAKING: Motion Filed Seeking Federal Injunction on Behalf of Blogger: RSM

AEI’s Pethokoukis Slices, Dices, and Destroys WaPo’s Romney-Outsourcing Story: BizzyBlog
Mary Cheney married her long-time partner today: GOP congratulates, Left spews hate: Twitchy
Dire Warning From a Radio Voice: NC Register

World

Oh My: UN Official Tells ACLU Conference Obama Has Committed War Crimes With Drone Airstrikes: WZ
Long "South Park" Sentence a Win for Free Speech: IPT
And the Rachel Corrie Award For Sand-Pounding Stupidity goes to...: WyBlog

UN takes away toilet paper to get rid of media as the stench of Rio failure fills the air: Depot
Risk of Greek blackouts increases as traders cut or halt power supplies: Telegraph
Israel bombs Hamas security targets in Gaza-officials: Reuters

Sci-Tech

Twitter explains Thursday outage: ComputerWorld
Microsoft's Surface proves software is dead: Register
Nokia Phone Sales Face More Hurdles: WSJ

Cornucopia

Eric Holder vs. George Zimmerman – Ding! Ding!: Sad Hill
Heroes: U.S. Marines Step Up For Bullied Bus Monitor, Karen Klein: Online Fund Now At Half Million Dollars: Riehl
Caption This! Hillary, Our Esteemed, Buffoonish, Secretary of State: Bruce

Pic of the Day: F-35B Shows Off its Gun Pod: DefTech
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Uncover Star Wars Sandtroopers, Free Games, Windows Vista: Consumerist
we rustics .... keeping your bellies full ....: Winter Soldier

Image: The People's Cube
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "Since his attack has a low density of victims the Nigerian scammer has an over-riding need to reduce false positives. By sending an email that repels all but the most gullible the scammer gets the most promising marks to self-select, and tilts the true to false positive ratio in his favor." --Microsoft Research, "Why Nigerian Scammers Still Say They're From Nigeria" (also applicable to Democrats who believe in Utopian fantasies)

Friday, June 22, 2012

President Faceplant imitates the U.S. economy

Because that's the way he rolls, don'tcha know?



Seeing as how the only places President Carter 2.0 Obama can visit without catcalls are community colleges and airplane glue factories, it appears Michelle Malkin is right.

In other words, s*** just got real for the Democrats.


Oh, my: Latinos forced to give up forks and knives at Obama event

Hahahahahahahha hahahahahhah ahahahaha hahahahhaha ***wheeze*** hahahahah ahhahaahhah ahahahahah ahhahahahahahah ***gasp*** hahahahahahha hahahahahahhahaha hahahhahahahah ***choke *** hahhahahahah hahahahahaha ahahhahahhaahahaha ***gak*** hahahaha hhahahahahhaha hahahahahh... ***erp***

Hold. On.

Can't.

Breathe.

Laughing. Too. Hard.

Oh, shoot.

I think.

I think I just wrenched my Nimbus muscle while reading this.

What was Obama's security detail thinking? They took away the Latinos' knives and forks before Obama entered and spoke, but there's no mention of "shivs." You know what those people are capable of, ... right? Man, his popularity really must be down.

“It’s very important that you use your utensils as soon as possible,” National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials board member Raquel Regalado told about 1000 delegates at the group’s annual conference.

Regalado hurried the diners to finish up their salads and pre-cut chicken breasts, saying that the Secret Service required that there be no knives at the tables and that the forks be rounded up before Obama entered the room.

Really? This is especially bizarre coming, as it does, on the heels of the Obama campaign's latest horrifying appeal.



They're so desperate for cash that they're asking engaged couples to forego wedding gifts in lieu of donations to... Obama.

Hope and change indeed.



The economic history of the last 2,000 years in one graph

That's what The Atlantic calls this graph:

That headline is a big promise. But here it is: The economic history of the world going back to Year 1 showing the major powers' share of world GDP, from a research letter written by Michael Cembalest, chairman of market and investment strategy at JP Morgan. 



...Before the Industrial Revolution, there wasn't really any such thing as lasting income growth from productivity. In the thousands of years before the Industrial Revolution, civilization was stuck in the Malthusian Trap. If lots of people died, incomes tended to go up, as fewer workers benefited from a stable supply of crops. If lots of people were born, however, incomes would fall, which often led to more deaths. That explains the "trap," and it also explains why populations so closely approximated GDP around the world...

Which is why the chart is interesting, but misleading. A better illustration would use multiple logarithmic scales to depict the size of aggregate GDP.

The Industrial Revolution and the technological advances in the West during the 19th and 20th centuries transformed global GDP and permitted the United States, especially, to scale productivity at a record-setting clip.

Of course, that was when the U.S. had a true, unfettered free market system and not a federal government that intrudes on every aspect of human activity -- be it the size of your toilet tank, the kind of light bulbs you're allowed to buy, and how much you should pay for your health care.

Funny. I didn't see any of those powers enumerated in the Constitution.


Democrats Vow to Show No Mercy to the Constitution

It would appear that the modern Democrat Party has declared all-out war on the nation's highest law: the Constitution.

The United States was born when rebellious colonists declared their independence from an imperial ruler who had vastly overstepped his bounds. “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States,” they wrote in their Declaration of Independence.

Today’s presidency lacks the regal air of George III. But imperialism is back, in a big way.

Last week, the Obama Administration’s Department of Homeland Security issued a memorandum instructing U.S. immigration officials to use their “prosecutorial discretion” to create a policy scheme contrary to existing law, designed to implement legislation that Congress hasn’t passed.

The President himself has admitted he doesn’t have the authority to do this. “The idea of doing things on my own is very tempting, I promise you, not just on immigration reform. But that’s not how our system works,” he told Hispanic activists last year. “That’s not how our democracy functions.”

We can now see before us a persistent pattern of disregard for the powers of the legislative branch in favor of administrative decision-making without—and often in spite of—congressional action. This violates the spirit—and potentially the letter—of the Constitution’s separation of the legislative and executive powers of Congress and the President...

  • Even though the Democrat-controlled Senate rejected the President’s cap-and-trade plan, his Environmental Protection Agency classified carbon dioxide, the compound that sustains vegetative life, as a pollutant so that it could regulate it under the Clean Air Act.
  • After the Employee Free Choice Act—designed to bolster labor unions’ dwindling membership rolls—was defeated by Congress, the National Labor Relations Board announced a rule that would implement “snap elections” for union representation, limiting employers’ abilities to make their case to workers and virtually guaranteeing a higher rate of unionization at the expense of workplace democracy.
  • After an Internet regulation proposal failed to make it through Congress, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it would regulate the Web anyway, even despite a federal court’s ruling that it had no authority to do so.
  • Although Congress consistently has barred the Department of Education from getting involved in curriculum matters, the Administration has offered waivers for the No Child Left Behind law in exchange for states adopting national education standards, all without congressional authorization.
Likewise, the Administration has often simply refused to enforce laws duly enacted by Congress:

  • Since it objects to existing federal immigration laws, the Administration has decided to apply those laws selectively and actively prevent the state (like Arizona) from enforcing those laws themselves.
  • Rather than push Congress to repeal federal laws against marijuana use, the Department of Justice (DOJ) simply decided it would no longer enforce those laws.
  • DOJ also has announced that it would stop enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act or defending it from legal challenge rather than seeking legislative recourse.
On Tuesday, the President invoked executive privilege to avoid handing over some 1,300 documents in an ongoing Congressional investigation. The Supreme Court has held that executive privilege cannot be invoked to shield wrongdoing.

And, as Mark Levin pointed out last night, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi proposed that Barack Obama abrogate the Constitution yet again:

Nancy Pelosi Calls for Constitutional Abrogation of the Debt Ceiling

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged President Barack Obama to avoid a new debt-ceiling showdown by stating that a statutory borrowing limit is inconsistent with Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, which states that "the validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned."
At every level, this argument is specious and dishonest: "the public debt" described in the 14th Amendment refers to the f***ing debt that's already been issued.

Of course, every serious legal analysis holds that Congress and only Congress can raise the debt ceiling.

Democrats took an oath to uphold the Constitution. It turns out that they lied under oath.

They despise the Constitution and the Declaration. The modern, hard-left, sixties-retread Democrat Party would have excommunicated a war-mongering, tax-cutter like John F. Kennedy. That's right. They would have Joe Liebermaned JFK.

My friends, it's time. It's time to declare political war on the Democrat Party. It's time to obliterate the Democrat Party at the ballot box. In November, you need to marshal everyone you know to vote the straight Republican ticket.

And after we turn the Democrat Party into the modern version of the Whigs, next up on our agenda will be the RINOs.

The Jeb Bush-Colin Powell wing of the Republican Party, nearly as addicted to power and big government as the Democrats, need to be replaced with Constitutional Conservatives.

Because the Constitution is our only hope of resuscitating this country. And November is coming.


Now THIS is speaking truth to power: Rep. Trey Gowdy calls Nancy Pelosi "mind-numbingly stupid"

I don't know this Trey Gowdy fellow, but I like the cut of his jib.

On Thursday, Nancy Pelosi had this to say about the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's move to vote Eric Holder in contempt of Congress:

They’re going after Eric Holder because he is supporting measures to overturn these voter suppression initiatives in the states...

...Suffice it to say, at least one member of the House strongly disagreed, and offered this epic response.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) yesterday called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi “mind-numbingly stupid” and said that there is something medically wrong with her brain because she believes Republicans are unfairly targeting Attorney General Eric Holder... "I don’t know what was wrong with her yesterday or today or whenever she said that, but I would schedule an appointment with my doctor if she thinks that we are doing this to suppress votes this fall. That is mind-numbingly stupid."

No, Trey. She just sounds mind-numbingly stupid. She keeps repeating these falsehoods because that's what evil people do. It's called "The Big Lie." She's both dishonest and evil.


The day before, she'd also claimed that, as Speaker, she had the power to arrest and imprison Karl Rove. This kind of inanity is so outrageous that even her hometown newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, all but called her an unhinged kook "living on the far-left fringe" of American politics.

Gowdy, on the other hand, is a man who truly speaks truth to power.

His questioning of Eric Holder is one for the ages.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com.

Larwyn's Linx: Major Lawsuit Challenges the Constitutionality of Dodd-Frank "Financial Reform"

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

Nation

Major Lawsuit Challenges the Constitutionality of Dodd-Frank: Power
Trey Gowdy is a Fast and Furious Rock Star: Nice Deb
Contemptible: Crockett

Embarrassing: Carney Flubs Pretty Much Everything: Lane
Obama has learned nothing: RSM
Pelosi: Justice For Brian Terry Isn’t As Important As Jobs: AllAm

Hiding Behind Executive Privilege: NRO
Obama's Executive Privilege Has The Stench Of Cover-Up: IBD
Holder has long been contemptible: AmSpec

Economy

The Fantastic Keynesian Endgame: Falkenblog
The Costliest Regulation You’ve Never Heard Of: The American
12 Reasons US Recession Has Arrived (Or Will Shortly): Mish

SEIU smackdown: SCOTUS rules against big labor: Twitchy
But there will be no death panels, promise: Conservatory
Major Victory for Workers’ Rights: Cato

Scandal Central

Worldcom convict gets $7.5MM loan guarantee from Stimulus: Exam
$9 Billion in ‘Stimulus’ for Solar, Wind Projects Made 910 Final Jobs: CNS
Prisons Make Solar Panels For Obama Cronies: S&L

Obama Made Pledge to Stop Guns to Mexico; Holder, Napolitano Worked Issue From First Month: CNS
WH's Carney Forgets Name Of Slain Border Patrol Agent: RCP
Brian Terry's Family Rips Obama Administration: GWP

Climate & Energy

More climate idiocy from California: Watts
Rio+20 is greatest threat to biodiversity: Watts
North Dakota's Oil Boom in Pictures: Foundry

Media

Leader of Anti-Limbaugh Effort Brags About Obama Campaign Ties: RSM
Murdered Border Agent’s Family Says Obama ‘Compounding This Tragedy’ with Executive Privilege: Tapper
George Zimmerman Claims Trayvon Martin threatened His Life: Riehl

With the options available, why did Obama choose to invoke executive privilege?: Q&O
Brian Williams and the Fast and Furious Shame Brigade: Sundries
Karl Rove: Nancy Pelosi is ‘Inspector Clouseau’: Politico

Mark Levin Destroys Jeb Bush In Big Tent Vs. Bold Colors Rant (Video): AllAm
Flashback to 2007: New York Times urged Congress to use all ‘contempt powers at its disposal’: Twitchy
Press lets scandal hide in plain sight: Post

Unlike the 2,000-Death Count in Iraq, ABC, NBC, PBS, MSNBC Skip 2,000 Marker in Afghanistan: NB
Jon Stewart Trashes Obama’s Executive Privilege Assertion On Fast And Furious: Mediaite
Krauthammer Not Sure If Pelosi is Pernicious or Wacky: Nice Deb

World

Taliban storm Afghan hotel, kill 17 people: AP
Baghdad market bombs kill 14, wound more than 100: AP
Why Germany cannot save the euro: Credit Writedowns

Sci-Tech

Twitter Won't Say if Hackers Caused Site Outage: AtlWire
Windows Phone 8 To Turn Brand New Devices Into Obsolete Relics: Consumerist
Galaxy S III explodes, Samsung looking into it: Verge

Cornucopia

Barack Obama’s 20 Most Impossibly Self-Absorbed Moments: Rickards Review
Announcing Little Mo’s new assignment: MOTUS
Maraniss Bio Deepens Obama Birth Mystery: Cashill

Image: Satellite imagery of Colorado’s High Park Fire
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Return to the rule of law: support Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "...this move [Obama's claim of Executive Privilege] has suddenly brought Fast and Furious to page one and the top of the newscast like nothing else could. The majority of the country, which was mostly ignorant of this scandal are now in the loop.

As the cited former White House counsel said, “the documents now to be withheld must be dynamite.” In fact, they must be so explosive that the White House is desperate enough to try to weather this self-inflicted political storm in lieu of exposing them." --Bruce McQuain

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Straight Up Fascism: Obama SuperPAC and Media Matters Collude to Suppress Conservative Speech

Sooper Mexican puts together the puzzle pieces for us, depicting behavior that smacks of nothing less than fascism by all the president's men.

This latest involves a complex web that suggests the Obama re-election campaign is coordinating with liberal activists to deceive the public that attempts to shut down conservative speech are grown from the “grassroots”, instead of being falsely manufactured by tech-savvy secretive operatives...

One such attempt was the targeting of Rush Limbaugh during the Sandra Fluke debacle. It is now known that those organizing the #StopRush campaign were using hundreds of fake identities in order to make it appear that public outrage was greater than it was...

The Daily Caller reported on the close relationship between Media Matters and the Obama administration, and the compliance they receive from ostensibly objective cable news channels... '"We were pretty much writing their prime time," a former Media Matters employee said of the cable channel MSNBC. 'But then virtually all the mainstream media was using our stuff.'"

...Media Matters’ founder David Brock, noted for his erratic and paranoid behavior, also heads SuperPAC American Bridge, which received a million dollar contribution from George Soros, and both organizations orchestrate attacks on religion while decrying conservatives in popular media.

So why are there howls in the media about the influence of contributors on the right, such as the Koch brothers, but not those on the left, when there appears to be collusion to manipulate news media, lie to the public, and subvert honest political debate?

...All the while, Obama’s communications head David Axelrod whines about SuperPACs destroying America... If we had any kind of responsible mainstream press with a twinge of integrity, they would demand answers from the Obama re-election campaign. But there isn’t... So it’s up to you and me.

This is part of a pattern. Let's rewind to 2008, during the height of the presidential campaign.

John Fund:

Team Obama has launched an offensive against WGN, the Chicago Tribune's radio station, for interviewing Stanley Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz is a conservative writer who this week forced the University of Illinois to finally open its records on Sen. Obama's association with William Ayers, the unrepentant 1970s Weather Underground terrorist.

An Obama campaign email to supporters called Mr. Kurtz a "slimy character assassin" whose "divisive, destructive ranting" should be confronted. WGN producer Zack Christenson says the outpouring of negative calls and emails is "unprecedented." He also notes that it is curious -- because "we wanted the Obama campaign's take" on Mr. Kurtz's findings, but the campaign declined to put anyone on air.

The university released more than 1,000 files relating to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC). A cursory review of the files reveals that Obama and Ayers "attended board meetings, retreats and at least one news conference together," which contradicts Obama's statement on April 16, 2008 during a Democratic debate.

This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.

Actually, Obama and Ayers were very close. This is evidenced by not only their leadership of the CAC, but also their collaboration as directors of the Woods Fund and its numerous troubling relationships.

Working together as the heads of the Annenberg Challenge, Ayers and Obama facilitated a handout of more than $160 million in and around the Chicago school system. These funds went to groups that purportedly were going to improve student achievement.

The effort failed miserably by every measure.

Kurtz began his review of the CAC's papers and was invited on Milt Rosenberg's long-running Chicago radio show to discuss his initial findings. Though Obama's campaign declined an invitation to appear on the show, it did broadcast an "Obama Action Wire" requesting that supporters phone the show and interrupt Kurtz' appearance.

The station, WGN, has made a stream of the broadcast available online, here, and it has to be heard to be believed. Obama’s robotic legions dutifully jammed the station’s phone lines and inundated the program with emails, attacking Kurtz personally. Pressed by Rosenberg to specify what inaccuracies Kurtz was guilty of, caller after caller demurred, mulishly railing that “we just want it to stop,” and that criticism of Obama was “just not what we want to hear as Americans.”

Steve Diamond, writing at the left-leaning Global Labor blog, decried the tactics:

Caller after caller to WGN read off talking points provided them by the Obama campaign alleging that Dr. Kurtz, and by implication and sometimes directly, Milt Rosenberg, was "smearing" Barack Obama and finding Obama "guilty by association." They also accused Kurtz of lying.

Yet, when pressed for specifics, these callers had none.

This gang of callers and emailers reminded me of the "turbas" - the street thugs organized by the Nicaraguan Sandinistas who would be deployed on a moment's notice to harass independent trade unionists, human rights activists and government critics during the Sandinistas' rule over Nicaragua in the 1980's. Hugo Chavez in Venezuela - a favorite haunt of Bill Ayers and other "Progressives for Obama" - uses similar bodies in Caracas neighborhoods.

Ostensibly, Obama's campaign embraces post-partisan "change." Yet its use of brown-shirts to disrupt a radio program -- rather than offer a reasoned debate -- smacks of neanderthal tactics.

It is an ominous glimpse into the future...

Part of a pattern, indeed.

In One Chart: Why the Left Wing Eco-Statists Despise North Dakota

The Heritage Foundation is truly one of America's national treasures:

The combination of energy production and job creation is potent force. It’s one reason a bipartisan majority in the U.S. House today approved the Domestic Energy and Jobs Act, legislation that would increase access to America’s resources and spur job creation.

With the national unemployment rate still stuck above 8 percent, congressional Republicans hit the road in May to highlight how energy initiatives could cure America’s economic woes. One of the stops was in North Dakota — a state that Heritage and the Institute for Energy Research recently visited.

...The economic boom taking place in North Dakota is a result of fracking in the Bakken oil fields. As this Heritage chart reveals, North Dakota surpassed Alaska in March and California in December to become the second-biggest producer of crude oil in the United States.

It was made possible by sensible state regulations, advancements in technology and the ability to drill on private lands.

In other words, North Dakota avoided the federal government's insane regulatory bureaucracy as much as possible to unleash the private sector.

Here is the inconvenient truth regarding America's vast treasure trove of energy:

• According to the Institute of Energy Research, the United States has a 120 year supply of natural gas.
• According to the Institute of Energy Research, the United States has a 200 year supply of oil.
• According to the Institute of Energy Research, the United States has a 464 year supply of coal.

And that's what we know about so far. If we can simply get the federal government out of the freaking way, I suspect we'd find a thousand years supply of fossil fuels just waiting for us.


Hat tip: BadBlue.com.

Third-World Status, Dead Ahead: California, Texas Warn Residents to Prepare for Blackouts, Thanks to the Obama EPA

Gee, and it was sooo hard to predict that destroying America's capability of generating electric power would lead to... blackouts. Some headlines for your consideration:

NPR -- "Offline Nuclear Plant Squeezes Energy Access In Calif.":

With summer here — and increased energy use with it — the state is bracing for the possibility of rolling blackouts in San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange County. L.A. Times reporter Abby Sewell talks with Melissa Block about what's being done to stave off an energy calamity.

Your Houston News -- "Summer: a time for blackouts and droughts":

When the Texas power grid demand hit about 65,000 megawatts last summer, [it] issued emergency conservation requests. For comparison, the grid hit about 56,000 megawatts on Monday.

Once the grid hits capacity, rolling blackouts can occur. That is when targeted areas have electricity cut off for a short period. Hospitals and other emergency or essential places are normally exempt from such blackouts.

...We don’t have to live in the dark ages, but we don’t need to run every electrical component we have in the house/office.

I would have a lot more faith in the EPA if their thousands of highly paid bureaucrats lived as they would have us live. That is, they forego all of the wonders offered by fossil fuels -- food, clothing, and travel by air and car, for starters.

They should be the guinea pigs for their own policies. And we'll see how they like living in the third-world country they seek.

An Open Question for Elijah Cummings and NBC's Brian Williams

During the course of the House investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, Attorney General Eric Holder has been forced to retract two significant pieces of evidence he submitted as part of his sworn testimony.

After nearly a year of stonewalling, Holder was forced to retract a statement describing the Justice Department's knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious, which left more than 200 dead including two U.S. law enforcement agents.

And, within the last several days, he was forced to retract a sworn statement that a prior, Bush-era A.G. had been cognizant of "gun walking". That, too, was a blatant lie.

The Holder Justice Department has now retracted multiple statements from the record, admissions that it presented sworn testimony containing materially false and misleading information to Congress.

And those activities are topped off by Holder's refusal to turn over documents that likely describe his attempts to cover up the DOJ's knowledge of the operation and the almost certain involvement of the White House with it.

And so, last night, after President Obama claimed Executive Privilege to shield Holder from prosecution, NBC's Brian Williams began his late-to-the-party coverage of the murderous operation with: "If you’re not following the complexities of Fast & Furious, it looks like just more of our broken politics."

Even more disgracefully, Rep. Elijah Cummings -- the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee -- excused Holder's bloody operation and cover-up as follows: "This is a situation that could have been avoided if the Republicans could have been a little bit reasonable."

In short, Holder has repeatedly presented false and misleading information to Congress under oath regarding his operation that killed 200 or more, including U.S. law enforcement agents Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata.

My question for Cummings and Williams: Can we assume you support the Attorney General of the United States lying to Congress -- repeatedly -- without penalty?


Larwyn's Linx: Fast and Furious: Covering up the Death of a U.S. Agent

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

Nation

Fast and Furious: Covering up the Death of a U.S. Agent: Foundry
CBS' Attkisson exposed Holder's lies to Congress in Oct. 2011: Riehl
Obama's blatant disregard for the Constitution is appalling: Bachmann

Obama in 2007: I’ll Not Abuse Executive Privilege: Sooper
Holder Will Lose Executive Privilege Fight: Breitbart
A quick note on "executive privilege": Sunshine

Executive Privilege and how the House should move forward legally: Levin
Will GOP step up and counter Obama's illegal DREAM Act?: Shark Tank
DOJ Retracts Another of Holder's 'Inadvertent' False Statements to Congress: Breitbart

Economy

Obama Admin damned proud of adding more people to welfare rolls: ProWis
Democrat Senate Votes Down Modest Food Stamp Reforms: Power Line
LPS: Mortgage delinquencies increased in May: CalcRisk

The Big Downgrade: Federal Reserve slashes 2012 economic forecast: Peth
Abandoning Ship - The Eurozone Is Failing At An Accelerating Rate: ZH
Bosses Rein In Banker Who Golfs With Obama: Dealbook

On Taxing Pixie Dust and Unicorn Farts: RS
Austerity? Now Krugman et al Tell Us: Malanga
Fed Releases New Economic Forecast, Sees Deteriorating Economy: ZH

Scandal Central

Fast And Furious: Executive Privilege Is Illegitimate to Shield Wrongdoing: Foundry
Those Fast and Furious Documents Must be Dynamite: Power Line
Introducing: Richard M. Obama: RedCty

Climate & Energy

Energy fact of the week: The rapid decline of coal: Peth
How Obama Bureaucrats Fueled Western Wildfires: Malkin
Obama administration spent $10B to create 355 jobs a year: Beacon

Media

Race Threatens to Become a Weapon in the Campaign: Dossier
Elizabeth Warren loses it, lashes out at “right wing extremist” (me): LI
Pelosi Slams Contempt Hearings: ‘I Could Have Arrested Karl Rove On Any Given Day’: Mediate

Even Left-Wing Hack Site Politifact Calls Wasserman Schlitz a Liar: Beacon
The Naked Face Of Leftism: The Depraved Indifference Of Lawrence O’Donnell, Jr.: Camp o' the Saints
Hawkins’ First Rule Of Modern Political Communications AKA The Jackass Rule — Oh, And Vagina!: RWN

I’m Going to Need a Bigger Bottle of Aspirin…: Teresa
Hollywood Set To Vomit Forth New Blasphemous Movie About Christ: Sooper
Bret Baier slams NBC Nightly news for not covering Fast and Furious: Scoop

Racist Republicans Once Again Disrespect America's First Black President: Ace
But it’s okay: it’s universal health care: Troglopundit
The Most Arrogant Man In The World: Ace

World

U.S., Israel developed Flame computer virus to slow Iranian nuclear efforts, officials say: WaPo
Why are the Chinese investing in Toledo?: Fortune
European Crisis Summit Score 0-18 With Another Coming Up June 28: SafeHaven

Shariah Finance And Its Radical Ties Demand Close Scrutiny: West
Five Members of Congress Call for Investigations Into Muslim Brotherhood Influence in U.S. Government: WrldThrts
Obama's Justice Department secretly drops terrorism charges in Taliban case: JihadWatch

Sci-Tech

LinkedIn accused of cutting corners in protecting user data: VenBeat
Tech press misses Google/Amazon name grab: Scripting
Windows Phone 8 Is A Great Big, Crazy, Beautiful Mess: TechCrunch

Cornucopia

The 20 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media: RWN
Do you like puppies? Barack Obama sure does!: DC
Please give to Alan Grayson's campaign, or Barry will eat this dog!: Shark Tank

Image: @msaudge (NSFW)
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "Obvious, But Worth Saying Again: Executive privilege can be invoked to protect national security secrets and, to a lesser extent, confidential advice given to the president.

It cannot be used to protect strategizing about how to lie to Congress." --Ace

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Another economic chart you won't see in vintage media: When it comes to the U.S. economy, 'Something is wrong'

And that something is you-know-who. James Pethokoukis points us to a Strategas Research report that delivers the not-so-shocking news.

The significant risk of an economic slowdown in the U.S. economy, which is still 71% consumer spending, tends to come when you have the saving rate rising at the same time you have a shock, such as an energy & inflation spike. Looking at 2012, the personal saving rate has declined to 3.4%, and with inflation now trending lower (following the drop in energy prices), it does not appear that we have the typical pre-conditions for a domestic recession this year, despite the uncertainty in Europe. WTI oil at $82 is significant.

However, we must stop short of saying that these 2012 developments make the U.S. economy robust to shocks, including the 2013 “fiscal cliff.” The main reason is that nominal GDP still looks vulnerable, running at just below a 4% pace. A more robust expansion would typically be characterized by nominal growth of at least 6%, ie, something is wrong.



Not many investors we visit with watch nominal GDP closely. Many people got burned in the 1970s – you had 9% growth, but it was with 9% inflation, so there was zero real growth. That’s certainly a fair calculation. But there’s still some information in nominal GDP as well – it is telling us how rapidly the nominal dollar “pie” is expanding. All companies report revenues, costs, and profits in nominal dollars. With sluggish nominal GDP, it’s not clear we have fast enough growth to see both profits expand and labor compensation grow (to support future top-line growth).

That’s the “something” that is wrong. It’s tough to say you are in a self-reinforcing wage-income-sales spiral with the “pie” expanding so sluggishly. This doesn’t mean you have to be in recession, in inflation-adjusted terms, right away. But it does suggest the U.S. economy is vulnerable to shocks, especially if other exogenous sources of demand are waning (Europe is weakening, China is slowing, India is slowing, etc).

And, yes: it's still Bush's fault. And James Buchanan's. And ATMs. And the Japanese Tsunami. Oh, and solar storms. Sorry, forgot those.


Another scam heard from: Obama administration program spent $10B to create 355 jobs

At this rate, we could get full employment by borrowing $500 quadrillion dollars from Red China.

The Obama administration spent $10 billion to create 355 renewable energy jobs per year, according to testimony offered Tuesday before Congress by a Congressional Research Services expert.

Asked by Rep. Cory Gardner (R., Colo.) “how many jobs were created” in 2009 and 2010 under the 1603 renewable energy grant program authorized by the Obama administration, a CRS specialist in public finance admitted that $10 billion was spent to create 3,666 construction jobs over a two-year period–and only 355 jobs per year going forward.

Dr. Molly Sherlock, the CRS specialist [estimated the] "...direct jobs created at 355,” Sherlock said...

“So for direct jobs—just if we look at the first year, this is average jobs per year, it’s 355 jobs per year—in two years, 355 jobs created a year, $10 billion?” Gardner asked.

“That would be jobs per year going forward,” Sherlock responded, “so these would be jobs that would be retained, average jobs per year going forward, yes.”

“For $10 billion?” Gardner clarified.

“Yes,” Sherlock said.

See, econoquack Paul Krugman was right all along. More excellent stewardship of the taxpayers' money -- like this fine example -- is all we need to get the economy growing again.


Hat tip: CF.

Top 10 Takeways from the Obama-Holder Coverup

As Doug Powers helpfully points out, we now know that:

• President Obama lied to the American people about his knowledge of Fast and Furious
• Eric Holder lied (again) to Congress

Let’s see… Issa’s committee is conducting contempt hearings against Eric Holder as we speak because the A.G. refuses to comply with a subpoena. During all that, President Obama, who had never heard of Fast & Furious and knows nothing about it, invoked executive privilege to protect something he’s totally unfamilar with from being made public… whatever it is... Speaking of blaming Bush, the Justice Department just retracted a claim Holder made last week that his Bush administration predecessor had been briefed on F & F. In other words, Holder lied to Congress.

As Lady Liberty reminds us:

• The Obama administration happily announced the revamped Gunrunner Program (and Fast and Furious) in March of 2009

Project Gun Runner (Fast and Furious) was launched under the orders of President Barack Obama with the knowledge of Attorney General Eric Holder. Deputy Attorney General David Ogden announced the Obama Administration’s new and aggressive ‘comprehensive plan’ on March, 24, 2009. The plan was aimed at disrupting gun trafficking between the United States and Mexico.

Sooper Mexican adds:

• The "constitutional crisis" Holder threatened last week means... he and Obama have been caught red-handed

Is this what Eric Holder meant by his threat [last week] of [an impending] Constitutional Crisis? ... If so, then by their own admission, Obama and the Department of Justice is admitting that they are caught in a corner and the only way out is putting the Constitution in peril.

Thanks to the insights of a famed constitutional scholar in 2005, we can assert the following.

• Eric Holder refuses "to put the Constitution of the people before the political agenda of the President"

In 2005, then-Senator Obama had some pretty strong ideas about what the Attorney General’s duties were. Speaking on the Senate floor during the nomination confirmation of President George W. Bush’s Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales, Obama explained why he opposed the nomination.

... “The President is not the Attorney General’s client; the people are,” Obama added. “And so the true test of an Attorney General nominee is whether that person is ready to put the Constitution of the people before the political agenda of the President.”

And Todd Gaziano weighs in with a considered legal opinion:

• Executive Privilege is illegitimate to shield an administration from known crimes

In a desperate attempt to prevent the contempt vote in the last few hours, Holder asked President Obama to invoke executive privilege to shield these 1,300 pages of documents from Congress, and the President apparently agreed to do so. Yet that is not the end of the story. Even if properly involved, the Supreme Court has made clear that executive privilege is not absolute. DOJ must provide an explanation why all those documents fit one of the recognized categories of executive privilege. It is questionable whether they all are legitimately subject to executive privilege, for several reasons.

And author Katie Pavlich recently reported:

• The DOJ Inspector General's "investigation" into Fast and Furious was part of the cover-up

For more than a year now, the Obama Justice Department under leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder has been stonewalling the House Oversight Committee's independent investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, citing an on going investigation within DOJ by the inspector general. DOJ has asked Congressional investigators to wait for the inspector general's report and before pushing for more information about the program... Out of 80,000 documents requested for review by Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa, Holder's DOJ has turned over 6,000, leaving 74,000 with the [I.G.] ...Despite the so-called "ongoing," year long internal investigation by the inspector general, Eric Holder has yet to be interviewed.

As for vintage media?

• Bloggers Vanderboegh and Codrea are the new Woodward and Bernstein

Will the last one to leave vintage media's newsroom please turn off the lights? Aside from Fox News and CBS' Sharyl Attkisson, no vintage media outlet publicized the thousands of murder weapons, the lies coming from Holder's DOJ, and the subsequent coverup.

Bloggers Mike Vanderboeugh and David Codrea did the job -- along with several brave whistle-blowers -- that network news and print media used to do (before they became so wedded to partisan hackery that they abandoned the journalism profession).

• Eric Holder's ostensible "rationale" for withholding documents from Congress represents (yet another) lie

As Charles Krauthammer pointed out this evening, Eric Holder's claim that he can't turn over documents because it would endanger the American people, is ludicrous. Not only are the requested documents non-operational, but his claim comes on the heels of an unprecedented series of leaks that have been pilloried by Democrats and Republicans alike. Coincidentally, each of these leaks appear to have one goal in mind: to make Obama appear as though he has a handle on national security (hint: he doesn't).

Oh, and one additional item, thanks to the smartest person in Congress (since Joe Biden left) -- Sheila Jackson Lee -- we now know that:

• Obama is protecting the Bush administration from prosecution

Today, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, possibly the dumbest person ever to walk the halls of Congress, blamed Bush for the Fast & Furious debacle. If that’s the case, since when does the Obama administration go out of its way to protect Bush?

Okay, maybe Jackson Gump didn't mean to imply that Obama is protecting W. That's just the way it came out.

Long ago, the who-knows-whether-he's-fictional 'White House Insider' asserted that Eric Holder is the key to Obama's secrets. Looks he got another one right.


Related: Make it viral: the Fast and Furious ad you've been waiting for.

Larwyn's Linx: Holder Tells Congress He Is Beyond the Law

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

Nation

Holder Tells Congress Executive Branch Is Beyond the Law: Conservatory
Holder Goes Back On His Word, Delivers No Documents to Issa: Blaze
Surprise, surprise: MSM story about Rubio turns out to be false: Sarah

New Yorkers about to give up last hope of gun ownership: CDN
Dead Dog Gets Voter Registration Form: JWF
Dem hopes of taking House dim: Hill

Issa: Holder not complying, contempt vote still on tomorrow: Malkin
It’s On: Holder tries to play Issa, will be subject of contempt vote Wed.: RS
Florida hit with new lawsuit over voter purge effort: Reuters

Economy

Shock: AP Underplays Coverage of Steep Jobs Drop: BizzyBlog
According to Union, Raising Wages Attacks Workers’ Rights: Foundry
Jim Jordan: Don't Tinker With Obamacare, Repeal the Whole Thing: Foundry

“Sustainable justice” = redistribution of scarcity: Watts
20 Inconvenient Years for the Left’s Media Spin on Obamacare: RS
Obama finally creating jobs! Romney hecklers in MI being paid: FAM

Scandal Central

Vanderboegh reports 'Gunwalker' link to Obama ‘tough guy’ advisor: Codrea
ATF Whistleblower Disappointed with Congressional Investigation of Fast and Furious: MainJustice
Judicial Watch Sues ATF Over Fast and Furious: NewsMax

Climate & Energy

NASA: Study Finds Ancient Warming Greened Antarctica: Watts
National Weather Service Union warns people will die because of budget cuts: Watts
Good Grief! Spare Us From All That Manipulative Green Guilt Nonsense!: Forbes

Media

Two Paths: Howe
Bloomberg: Romney Better Than Obama: S&L
Blaze Exposes Lisa Murkowski’s Earmark in the House Land Use Bill: RS

Women, Ditches and Libs: Innocent Bystanders
Tucker Carlson: “One Thing About Barack Obama Is How Few Friends He Has": GWP
MSNBC Caught Deceptively Editing Video Of Mitt Romney: OTB

SooperMexican Vs. The Mainstream Media: Hawkins
#WAWAGate Day Three: Twitter Bomb MSNBC Campaign: Sooper
Andrea Mitchell: We “Didn’t Have a Chance” to Tell the Truth About Romney: Patterico

Bloomberg News enters MakeUpCrapistan: “I’M MAKING THIS UP”: Malkin
Obama speaks and takes questions after conference with world leaders; bores everybody: Twitchy
Lawrence O'Donnell Mocks Ann Romney for Riding Horses to Combat Multiple Sclerosis: NB

World

Shocking video: Jews barred from Boca Raton synagogue because they oppose Obama: Matzav
Egypt: Obama threatens opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood with withdrawal of foreign aid: Atlas
'The Two Men Barely Looked at Each Other': WS

DOJ Secretly Drops Terrorism Charges In Taliban Case: JW
Surrounded by 20 World Leaders, Obama “Was Chewing Gum the Whole Time: JWF
IDF takes out terrorist involved in attack on Egypt border: Times of Israel

Sci-Tech

The Failure of Anti-Virus Companies to Catch Military Malware: Schneier
Stuxnet, Duqu, Flame Targeted Illegal Windows Systems In Iran: Dark Reading
You are now watching the throne: Samsung Galaxy S III review: Ars Technica

Cornucopia

Let's Make Obama a Regular, Everyday Guy Again: Looking Spoon
Making the world a more dangerous place one lie at a time: MOTUS
Jews Failed to Spot Hitler's Menace: Forward

Image: Holder Does Not Provide Fast and Furious Documents in Meeting with Darrell Issa
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate

QOTD: "If anyone can remember a time since the pre-civil rights era when prominent politicians, especially a sitting governor, effectively boycotted the Democratic National Convention, I’d like to know when it happened.

This should be major news. It’s not unreasonable to believe that the establishment press will try very hard to downplay this development. One clue will be how much the AP extends its currently posted item. You can bet the ranch that if any Republican governor were to decide not to come the party’s convention this fall, it would front-page and leading-the-broadcast news." --Tom Blumer

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Good News: Obama Administration Tells Egyptian Military to Cede Power to Islamists or Face Withdrawal of Funding

I forget, is it still the "Arab Spring"?

Worried US tells Egypt's military to cede power


WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration warned Egypt's military leaders on Monday to speedily hand over power or risk losing billions of dollars in U.S. military and economic aid to the country.

As Egypt's Islamist candidate claimed victory in a presidential run-off, Pentagon and State Department officials expressed concern with a last-minute decree by Egypt's ruling military council giving itself sweeping authority to maintain its grip on power and subordinate the nominal head of state. The move followed last week's dissolution of parliament by an Egyptian court.

"This is a critical moment in Egypt, and the world is watching closely," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters. "We are particularly concerned by decisions that appear to prolong the military's hold on power."

...Nuland said Egypt's military authorities need to "restore popular and international confidence in the democratic transition process" by ensuring an inclusive constitution-writing process, a democratically elected parliament and a swift handover of power to a civilian government.

I'm no historian, but would guess that -- for any given state or region -- an election that leaves Islamists in power is pretty much the last election that will get held.

And, as an aside, it turns out that Pamela Geller was right all along.


It's still Bush's fault: the U.S. economy looks like it's losing jobs again

So says James Pethokoukis, the economic expert that Paul Krugman wishes he could be.

The private sector is not fine, as some extremely worrisome economic news today emphasizes.

The government’s April Job Opening and Labor Turnover report was, in the words of JPMorgan economists, “soft, lending some credence to the view that the April-May slowing seen in the payroll report was real and not a statistical fluke.”

– The number of job openings in April fell 325,000 to 3.416 million. That’s the lowest level since November of last year.

– But here is the real red flag. Private job openings fell 282,000 — the most since early 2009 — to 3.080 million. Early 2009, if you recall, saw the economy just hemorrhaging jobs.



– One bright spot in this report in March was the rising in people quitting their jobs, showing some confidence in the economy. But that “completely reversed itself in April.”

This comes on the heels of last month's report that the Labor Force Participation Rate is the lowest since 1981.

So if this administration isn't doing its best to implement The Cloward-Piven Strategy, it's doing a damn fine imitation.