Thursday, May 02, 2013

RUH ROH: This ain't good for Senator Rubio

When you've lost the RINO establishment...


CNN observes that NRO photoshopped out some inconvenient background characters like Grover Norquist.

As for existing immigration law?

A federal law enforcement official says one of the students from Kazakhstan arrested Wednesday in the Boston Marathon bombings was allowed to return to the United States this year despite not having a valid student visa. Authorities say that after the explosions he helped remove a laptop and backpack from the bombing suspect's dormitory room before the FBI searched it.

But let's pass more laws that no one can be bothered to read!


Larwyn's Linx: Whistleblowers - Obama and Kerry Fully Aware of Benghazi Attack Cover-Up

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

Nation

Whistleblowers: Obama, Kerry Aware of Benghazi Cover-Up: Tatler
Three Suspects Arrested in Connection with Boston Bombing: Sentinel
Timely: FBI Releases Images of Benghazi Suspects : Riehl

Accommodationism On Parade: Torch
We Can Win. But Only if We Fight to Win: Erickson
Fresh Idiocy From The ‘Get A Life’ Files: HayRide

The Camp Bastion Cover-Up: Malkin
“Progressive” Action List – Destroy the Military, Defeat the “Right”: Loudon
Gore: I Averted "A Violent Revolution": RCP

Economy

Fed: We Need To Keep Monetizing Debt Because It Isn’t Working: Kruiser
Employee Benefits Fall As Firms Brace For ObamaCare: IBD
The “Most Overpriced, Oversupplied, Over-owned Market in History”: Yahoo!

Another Obamacare glitch: Landmark study proves Medicaid is useless: Peth
Train Wreck: ObamaCare Blocking Job Creation, Economic Growth: IBD
Fed's QE Exit Will More Than Quadruple Interest Costs For The US: ZH

Scandal Central

Docs Show Napolitano Thanked Missouri Governor For Breaking State Law : RS
FDA Rules 15-Year Olds Can Buy Abortion Pills Over-the-Counter: Foundry
Tsarnaev Was Too Dangerous For Mecca, But Not Boston: IBD

Climate & Energy

Another Electric Car Maker Goes Up In Flames: ZH

Media

PROFILING: 30 of the 31 FBI Most Wanted Terrorists Are Muslims: Nice Deb
AP Edits ‘Muslim’ Out of Obama’s ‘Muslim Socialist’ WHCD Joke: RWN
Niall Ferguson to Paul Krugman: You’re Still Wrong About Government Spending: Yahoo!

Rush Limbaugh and the Need for Spine: Erickson
What Should States Do When the Federal Government Usurps Power? Advice From James Madison: Outpost
Harry Reid Says He “Agrees” Obamacare Could Be A “Train Wreck”: WZ

Think Progress award-winning blogger charged with faking her own Hate Crime: This Ain't Hell
The Dreaded Wyoming GOP Facebook ‘Hatef–-’ Rapist Has Been Apprehended: RSM
Krauthammer: Carney saying Benghazi happened a long time ago is “definition of chutzpah”: Scoop

World

Whistleblower: Obama Administration Refuses to Capture Terrorist Behind Benghazi 9-11: GWP
Iranian Officials: Iran Transferred Fajr-5 Missiles To Gaza, Which Were Fired At Israel: MEMRI
GREAT NEWS: Chicago: Muslim doctor opening surgery center he says will follow sharia law: Creeping

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Hands on: 18 hours with Google Glass: Fox
World's Smallest Movie Is IBM's Science Blockbuster: TNW
Apple sells a record $17 billion in debt: CNet

Cornucopia

Navy SEALs 'make James Bond look like a wimp': NBC
Our precious Bunni has crossed the Rainbow Bridge: Adrienne
Top Obama Tech and Political Staffers Launch Consulting Firm: Mashable

Image: BarkingCrayon
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Dial (202) 224-5922 and thank Ted Cruz for standing up for us

QOTD: "The simple fact of the matter is the [GOP] establishment doesn’t want to fight. What exactly have House Republicans accomplished this year? They kicked off the new Congress with a massive tax hike, they adopted a $60 billion Sandy “emergency” appropriation that was loaded with unrelated spending, they passed a budget balanced on the back of higher Obamacare and fiscal cliff taxes, and they passed a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which violates states’ jurisdiction over criminal law.

But it’s far worse than that. John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy won’t even pretend to fight. Boehner basically plays a game of chicken by stepping aside and saying “you win.” And, he has publicly said he won’t shut the government down. The House “leadership” is running scared from the debt ceiling… and was dead set against Obamacare de-funding. Today, the House “leadership” is telling folks on the Hill it won’t fight the Farm bill. And on immigration – forget it… everyone is running around listening to consultants saying this is the way to win Hispanic votes.

The fact of the matters is that the gun bill would be law if Lee, Cruz and Paul had not made a fight out of the issue. It’s an invaluable lesson in what can happen when even just a few people with backbone stand up and do the right thing. The leadership had no plan and was hoping to win by offering a substitute. We needed time over recess to gain “no” votes. And absent forcing a tough 60 vote threshold vote on the motion to proceed to identify the 31 no votes – and thus, the 10 votes needed to block – we wouldn’t have been able to get there.

Rand, Mike and Ted have been changing the conversation – giving real hope to full repeal of Obamacare, standing up against the hawks and the establishment with the filibuster, and taking the fight to them on guns. We can turn back the tide of destruction in Washington, coming from both President Obama and some Republicans, but we need more of the likes of Cruz, Paul and Lee, not less. We need more Republicans willing to fight to hold the line…and we can’t be deceived by those who’ve moved left and proclaim themselves planted on solid ground." --Erick Erickson

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

BUT MELVIN, HE'S SO HISTORIC: True Unemployment Rate Hits 23 Percent, Highest Since Great Depression

John Williams' ShadowStats charts the real unemployment rate by employing the methods the U.S. government used to use, before they became a political liability.

The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.


The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.

In conjunction with that news, please consider a report from the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC), which warns that when the Fed stops quantitative easing the interest on the federal debt will more than quadruple from $205 billion a year to $855 billion. Can you say, "Financial Meltdown", boys and girls?

Gee, I wonder what Paul "Subprime" Krugman and Henry "P.O.S." Blodget think of this?

That TBAC members are Violent, Tea-Bagging Racists™, no doubt?


Hat tip: BadBlue Money.

BUT HE'S NOT BITTER: By conceding in 2000, Al Gore says he averted a "violent revolution"

Al Gore may have a gift for grift, but he is an exceedingly dimwitted individual when it comes to law and the Constitution.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV from the Milken Global Conference in Beverly Hills, former Vice President Al Gore claims American democracy has been "hacked." Gore also opined on former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor recently commenting that she regretted her decision in Bush v. Gore.

"[America] has been hacked. That is a computer term when the operating system of a computer is taken over and the computer does things the owner does not want it to. That is what has been happening to American democracy. You have 90% of the people in favor of background checks for gun purchases [sic] and the congress is incapable of doing what the American people want.

They have not been able to regulate these phony baloney financial derivatives that caused the financial crisis [sic]. They voted to invade Iraq even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Unfortunately there are a lot of examples. They can't pass a budget. I can't keep the country from facing financial danger and the main reason is simple, the influence of the money is at un-healthy levels..."

While addressing Bush v. Gore, the former Vice President said "there is no intermediate step between a final Supreme Court decision and a violent revolution."

"I did not know she was going to say it. I made the decision in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision 12 years ago, to respect the rule of law. I strongly disagreed with their opinion, said so, but the rule of law is the bedrock of American democracy. There is no intermediate step between a final Supreme Court decision and a violent revolution. what was best for the country, the answer was very simple, to respect the rule of law and avoid undermining it and dragging the court into a partisan squabble where the outcome would not change in any case. So I am going to stand by my decision to respect the judiciary," Gore said.

Violent Revolution? Pot-smoking hippies vs. Bible-thumping, gun-owning bitter clingers? Gee, who would I put my money on?

As Constitutional attorney Mark R. Levin has patiently explained -- repeatedly -- once Governor Jeb Bush certified the names of the electors, there was no way Al Gore could "win" the election. Not the Florida legislature, not the Florida Supreme Court, and not even the U.S. Supreme Court could change the Constitution's process.

Gore could have challenged the election of George W. Bush in court post facto, but only after Bush had won the election.


Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.

THE MORNING MOE: MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Lectures Senator Ted Cruz About "Manners" and "Civility"

When I think 'conservative thought leader', the first name that pops into my head is the Morning Moe. Wait a second, I misspoke. That's the first name I think of when I'm constipated. You know, when I'm "leaning forward".

On Tuesday morning, Scarborough chastised Cruz for, “mocking members of his own party” surrounding the gun control debate in Congress. Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski, who are no strangers to verbally attacking Cruz, described his actions as inappropriate:

The Texas freshman broke tradition on Friday by publicly discussing what went on behind closed doors when fellow Republicans criticized him for giving Democrats ammunition to portray the GOP as obstructionists.


As the segment continued, Scarborough accused Cruz of lying about discussions between Republican Senators during closed door meetings. Cruz claimed that:

We've had probably five or six lunches with a bunch of Republican Senators standing up and looking at rand and Mike and me and yelling at us at the top of their lungs. I mean really upset… They said, listen, before you did this, the politics of it were great. The Dems were the bad guys, the Republicans were the good guys, now we all look like a bunch of squishes. Well, there is an alternative. You could just not be a bunch of squishes.

...No one on the panel seems to understand that Senator Cruz campaigned on being an anti-establishment member of the Senate, someone who asks questions and challenges the mainstream in Washington.

In other words, he's doing precisely what he said he'd do on the campaign trail. Instead of realizing that Cruz is simply voicing concerns that he promised he would focus on prior to getting elected, Scarborough and the rest of the Morning Joe crew would rather demean and mock the senator, trying to shame him into silence and badger him into being a meeker, milder freshman legislator.

Unfortunately, this will likely not be the last time Cruz is verbally abused on an MSNBC set. Over the last few months MSNBC has trashed Cruz on a number of occasions, including MSNBC's chief blowhard Chris Matthews calling him the new Joe McCarthy as well as Scarborough saying Cruz acts, “like a carnival barker” and “ignorant” on gun control legislation.

Could someone drag Chris Matthews out of the bar, wake him up, wipe the spittle off his face, and remind him that Cruz is as accomplished a Constitutional litigator as there is in the U.S.?

As for the Morning Moe: you're a low-rent pipsqueak operating on the lowest-rent cable news network in operation. Your ratings hover somewhere between weather radar and sonograms. And you deign to insult Ted Cruz?

Hey, Moe: why don't you: (a) carefully read the resume of Ted Cruz; and (b) once you've accomplished one percent as much as he has in his career, then get back to us with advice?

Now here, take some government cheese and run into the corner and stop bothering us, you pathetic, inconsequential travesty of a "man".


Take action: Support a true Constitutional Conservative - Ted Cruz.

Larwyn's Linx: Saudis Warned U.S. in Writing of Boston Marathon Bomber's Jihadist Leanings

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

Nation

Saudis Warned U.S. in Writing of Boston Bomber's Danger: Ace
The high cost of low information voters: LI
Buyer's Remorse: Democrats having second thoughts about Obamacare: RWN

Obama "Not Familiar With" Benghazi Whistle-Blower Threats: IBD
Gowdy: Eyewitnesses will testify next week on Benghazi massacre: GWP
Benghazi whistleblower: prevented from capturing 9/11 terrorist: Scoop

Jihadis have been using Boston as a base since 1993: WFB
Ellison To FBI: Nothing To See In Muslim Community: IBD
Incenting another wave of illegal immigration: York

Economy

Levin: Corporatist Mitch McConnell Behind "Immigration Reform": Scoop
Schiff: Real Crash “Will Be Worse Than the Great Depression”: SHTFplan
Economic Freedom Index: Progressives Spread Poverty, Not Wealth: Brenner

Food stamps for illegal aliens: Hayward
Record one in five American households now on food stamps: Breitbart
GAO Investigating DHS Ammor Purchses: RWN

Scandal Central

Obama's Pigford Scandal: Breitbart Was Right: IBD
Case Worker: Illegal Aliens Got Food Stamps by the “Vanload”: JW
Illinois Lottery war puts state official Michael J. Jones under a microscope: Sun-Times

Climate & Energy

Shocker: Obama takes credit for energy success he opposed: Exam
Eco-Madness in England: Daily Mail
Pro-Environment Light Bulb Labeling Turns Off Conservatives, Study Finds: NatGeo

Media

Book: Obama surrounds self with ‘idolizers,’ plots legacy with scholars.: Instapundit
Kermit Gosnell case: Woman whose aborted baby's foot was found in refrigerator describes her ordeal: DailyMail
Gosnell Attorney Closes: No Evidence Babies Alive When Necks Snipped: LifeNews

Obama At Presser: “Maybe I Should Just Pack Up And Go Home. Golly…”: Bruce
National Media silent as "Black Mob Violence Rocks Virginia Beach" with stabbings, shootings: Riehl
News Media Keep Peddling Their Bush Vs. Gore Lie: IBD

Skewed priorities, Tim Tebow vs Jason Collins: PFFAJG
Jason Collins Is No Hero; Mark Bingham Was: Ricochet
Redskins Star RGIII: "In a land of freedom we are being held hostage by the tyranny of political correctness": Ace

World

Obama’s Red Line on Chemical Weapons Morphs Into a ‘Chain of Custody’ Probe: Tatler
Obama to Rely on Syrian Leader Who Claims AQ Aren’t Terrorists to Keep Weapons Out of AQ’s Hands: FPM
Federal agency brings Muslim propaganda to 800 libraries across U.S.: Creeping

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Twitter Is Testing Out Its Official Google Glass App In The Wild: TechCrunch
Facebook's Messenger Protocol Will Power the Internt of Things: Gizmodo
Physicists Attempting To Test 'Time Crystals': Slashdot

Cornucopia

14 of the Obama's Most Decadent Vacations on Your Dime: RWN
And Finally...: Sondrakistan
Gay/Straight: “What difference, at this point, does it make?": MOTUS

Image: Boeing 747 Crashes in Afghanistan 2013
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Big "Frocky Horror Picture Show" contest

QOTD: "A revealing new book from one of the media’s longest serving White House correspondents reports that President Obama surrounds himself only with “idolizers,” and top aides make sure that those whose view might “shake him up too much” are shoved aside.

In “Prisoners of the White House, the Isolation of America’s Presidents and the Crisis of Leadership,” U.S. News correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh also discloses the extent to which Obama relies on polling for his political decisions including a never-before revealed reelection project to investigate the thoughts and feelings of “up for grabs” voters and another dedicated to helping him build a lasting legacy.

Walsh, who has covered the White House for 25 years and written several books on the presidency, credits Obama for trying to get out of the so-called “bubble,” but found that instead the president often relies on a tiny cadre of Chicago aides, thus living in “a bubble within the bubble.”" --Paul Bedard

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CURRENCY DIES: Argentina's farmers hoarding food rather than pesos

Let's pray this isn't a preview of coming attractions here.

Sales of Argentine soybeans are lagging this season due to expectations for higher world prices later and to domestic financial uncertainty that has prompted farmers to save in beans rather than pesos.

With world food demand on the rise, growers in the Pampas grain belt are filling their silos with soy rather than converting their crops into pesos, a currency that hit a new all-time low in informal trade this week.

Considering Argentina’s high inflation, clocked at about 25 percent by private economists, “money in the bank” is not as secure as storing soybeans next to their fields... “We are going to hang onto our soy. One can see higher prices ahead,” said Jose Plazibat, a partner with the firm of Bandurria and Plazibat Brothers, which farms more than 3,000 hectares near the town of Chacabuco in Buenos Aires province.

...Cut off from global bond markets since its 2002 default, Argentina needs farm revenue to help finance public spending increases ahead of October legislative elections.

...Growers say they would plant more corn if the government would stop placing curbs on exports. The farm sector has long feuded with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who won re-election in 2011 on promises of increasing the government’s role in Argentina’s economy.

Confidence has since softened. The peso has slumped in the informal market, opening a breach of 71 percent versus the formal exchange rate and increasing market chatter about a possible devaluation to shore up exports... The government is likely to put off a devaluation of the official peso at least until the October elections have passed.

Say, perhaps the economic geniuses Paul "Enron" Krugman and Henry "POS" Blodget could explain why massive deficits, financial repression, and currency devaluation didn't work for the Argentinian government, which has only tried their Keynesian policy prescriptions for, oh, about the last century or so.


Related: Don't Cry for Me, America.

Militant Quaker arrested for attempting to poison Starbucks customers

A San Jose woman was accused earlier today of attempting to poison Starbucks customers.

Perhaps it was because -- like Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev -- she's a disappointed boxer who had trouble making friends in America.

At a San Jose Starbucks a person tried to leave tainted orange juice for customers to buy.

Thankfully, someone saw something suspicious and reported it before anyone had a chance to drink that juice. Now there's concern this isn't the first time or the last that a woman has tried it.

A customer noticed a woman's odd behavior as she walked in, pulled out two bottles of orange juice and stacked them next to other refrigerated items. After the woman left, the customer told the store manager and the employees noticed a toxic smell coming from the containers so they called in the San Jose hazardous materials team.

One bottle was found to contain a mixture of orange juice and isopropyl alcohol, also known as rubbing alcohol. The other bottle had acetone in it, which is commonly used as nail polish remover.

Surveillance cameras captured the suspect's license plate and police traced it back to the suspect's home in South San Jose where they arrested 50-year-old Ramineh Behbehanian.

No one drank the tainted orange juice and investigators do not believe she did this at any other stores. Regardless, Starbucks says it is checking its bottled beverages at other nearby stores.

Police have not released a motive as to why this woman would want to poison customers, but they plan to hold a press conference on Tuesday morning.

I hear that the surname Behbehanian is Iranian.

But please don't jump to any conclusions and assume that this fragile young dove is an angry Muslim waging Jihad. I'm guessing she's a Tea Partier and a Fox News viewer. Or something.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

CERN celebrates 20th birthday of world's first website

It's safe to say that the web was a tad successful, eh?

The web as we know it was famously invented by Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN, but it wasn't until a few years later -- 1993 to be precise -- that it'd truly be set free. On April 30 of that year, Berners-Lee's then employer would make the technology behind the WWW available license free, bundling a basic browser and some key chunks of code into the deal.


To commemorate the 20th anniversary of this event CERN has recreated the first ever website, complete with its original URL [Ed: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html]. The preservation doesn't stop at copying over some old files, either, with CERN also looking to preserve the first servers used, restoring as much as possible to its original state. Beyond a little geeky nostalgia, the project hopes to safeguard the web's earliest days, before it became the ubiquitous phenomenon it is now, so that future generations can enjoy (and scoff) at the web's origins. Best of all, no drawn-out field trip is required to enjoy the spectacle, you can see it just as nature intended by heading to the source.

Even more amazing: the first website didn't involve cats or porn.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

MIND-BLOWING TRANSCRIPT OF BENGHAZI WHISTLE-BLOWER: US identified terrorist behind 9/11 attack but refuses to capture him

Part II of Fox News Special Report into the Benghazi cover-up premiered tonight and the news keeps getting worse.

BAIER: President Obama promised to get to the bottom of the Benghazi attack. Why are the perpetrators still free? Correspondent Adam Housley has part 2 of our exclusive investigation.

OBAMA: Make no mistake. Justice will be done.

HOUSLEY: Seven months and still no arrest or targeted killings after the brutal attack on two U.S. locations in Benghazi, Libya, killing four Americans -- despite promises that those responsible would be hunted down and held accountable.

However, multiple sources tell Fox News that the U.S. has identified the Benghazi attacker who is still running free.

SO: We basically don't want to upset anybody. And the problem is if Ambassador Stevens' family knew that we were sitting on information about the people who killed their son, their brother, and we could look them as a government in the face, then we are messing up.

We're messing up.

HOUSLEY: Fox News spoke exclusively with this Special Operator who watched the events unfold in real-time and debriefed those who were part of the response.

He remains anonymous for his safety and has decided to talk because he says he and others connected with the September 11th attacks of Benghazi are frustrated with the excuses, lies and lack of a military response since Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

SO: We have all the capability, all the training, all the capacity to kill and capture that only terrorist involved with the specific events of 9/11 and Ambassador Stevens' death with terrorists who are feeding other regions, including Europe that eventually could effect our national security in the short-term.

We're not talking midterm or long term. This is short-term.

HOUSLEY: The community is pretty frustrated?

SO: Absolutely. It's a daily frustration.

HOUSLEY: Another threat, a larger terrorist haven that continues to build in parts of Libya and North Africa. Those working the region in the United States security plainly the ball is being dropped by people at the White House, Pentagon and State Department.

SO: The second highest population of foreign fighters in the war in Iraq came from Benghazi. Second to Saudi Arabia.
So we are talking about historic location and region that has fed foreign fighters to kill Americans and kill other coalition forces the analysts, the intelligence experts that I work with all say the same thing: that if we just ignore the situation, as it presents itself, eventually another invasion will have to take place for us to eventually turn the tide.

HOUSLEY: He says the region also remains a weapons hub. After the overthrow of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 which saw massive stockpiles of weapons in Libya move freely across the Mediterranean many cases in Syria.

There are thousands of shoulder-launched missiles called MANPADS, some Americans working the area say they are not allowed to take or even destroy the missiles because they have not been given the authority from their chain of command.

SO: I have come across SA-7's in the hands of friendly forces, meaning, you know, surrogate, military, or police forces that wanted to be handed over and I was unable it to do that because there was no program in place, no government organizations were interested, no special operations organizations were interested.

HOUSLEY: Is it frustrating knowing that these potential friendly forces or friendly people on the ground there were willing to pass along something that could fall into the hands of an adversary and there was no plan in place to do it?

SO: It was frustrating not only for myself but for the men and the guys that I work with. We always talk amongst each other and discuss that, you know, it's probably going to take a 747, a 757 to get shot down in Tripoli for somebody to pay attention though that, which is unfortunate.

HOUSLEY: Bret, looking for a response to the charge, that the possible mastermind has been identified and walking around in Libya.

We reached out to the State Department, the CIA, the Pentagon and the FBI. And we received no official response or comment.

Close your eyes and imagine a MANPAD taking out an American or a European passenger jet. Because that's precisely what will happen thanks to the fecklessness, cowardice and incompetence of the Obama administration.

Remember this when -- not if -- such a "man-caused disaster" occurs.


Also See Part I: BENGHAZI WHISTLEBLOWERS: Obama, Hillary Lied About Assets That Could Have Saved SEALs, Then Threatened Witnesses

Only one person in Washington hasn't heard of the Benghazi whistleblowers and his last name rhymes with Robama.

Shorter Obama: Benghazi whistle-blowers? What Benghazi whistle-blowers?

President Obama raised eyebrows today with his press conference statement that he was unaware of news stories about Benghazi whistleblowers being blocked and even threatened by the State Department.

I’m not familiar with this notion that anybody has been blocked from testifying,” said Obama to a question from Jessica Yellin of CNN. “So what I’ll do is I will find out what exactly you are referring to.”

The President must be the only person in Washington who has not heard about the Benghazi whistleblowers. Congress has been trying to gain access to the survivors of the terrorist attack for months. Indeed, during his congressional testimony on April 21, Secretary of State John Kerry promised them he would make it happen. Well, it turns out the opposite is the case.

As reported by Fox News yesterday, at least four career employees at the State Department and the CIA are ready to provide information to Congress that can give insights into what happened that fateful night at the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi.

This news is of huge importance. We have to understand the systemic and individual failures that led to the deaths of four brave Americans in order fix the problems... However, considering that the survivors of Benghazi have been incommunicado for all these months, it is perhaps not surprising to learn that the potential whistleblowers are allegedly being threatened with career-ending consequences if they speak.

At every step of the way, the Obama Administration has been obfuscating the facts of the September 11 terrorist attack, misleading the public, dragging its feet, and—according to the report released by five House committees last week—trying to whitewash its own security and intelligence failures. Expect fireworks when the whistleblowers finally do get to tell their stories.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) says that the President's answers are, eh, hokum:

A lawyer for Benghazi whistleblowers has publicly stated that the State Department is blocking her client's ability to talk freely with counsel. Over the past two weeks, I have sent four letters requesting that this Administration make information available about how lawyers, who already have security clearances and are representing Benghazi whistleblowers, can be cleared to fully hear their clients' stories. I have yet to receive any response from the Obama Administration.

Even if the President really doesn't know anything about someone wanting to come forward, his position should be that whistleblowers deserve protection and that anyone who has different information about Benghazi is free to come forward to Congress. The President's unwillingness to commit himself to protecting whistleblowers only aids those in his Administration who are intimidating them.

Perhaps the President would agree to a polygraph examination so we can get to the bottom of this. Although the person administering the test had better wear a welding mask in case the box explodes into billions of pieces of shrapnel.


Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.

Larwyn's Linx: The Good Guys Are Not Coming To Save Us

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

Nation

The Good Guys Are Not Coming To Save Us: Alt-Market
Obamacare’s Pathway to Creeping Control by the State: Dossier
News Flash: Immigration Must Benefit the Host Nation: AT

NJ Ignores Medical Privacy To Assist Feds In Gun Registry: Loesch
Missouri House Passes Bill Nullifying Violations of 2nd Amendment: RWN
Boom: Gosnell Attorney Says Doctor Targeted Because He's Black: Lid

Economy

'Tsarnaev Family Received $100G' in Public Assistance Benefits: NB
Is the U.S. spending enough on education?: Mish
Student Loan Bubble Cracks With Pulled Sallie Mae Bond Deal: ZH

NRCC and GOP Handing Labor Unions a Huge Win in SC?: RS
A $3.2 million ad campaign to sell a pig: Elephant
Congresswoman’s Round-the-World Trip Cost Taxpayers $23K: Roll Call

How Obamacare is like a failed rental car reservation: Tatler
VA Budget Up 40%, Yearlong Pending Claims Up 2,000%: PJM
Ottawa weighing plans for bank failures: CBC

Scandal Central

Obama's Omerta! Benghazi Whistleblowers Threatened By Administration: Lid
Whisteblowers: White House Lied About Benghazi Rescue Attempt, then Threatened Witnesses: Blaze
State Department blocking lawyers from representing Benghazi whistleblowers: ProWis

Climate & Energy

Be It Resolved That Global Warming Is Going to Turn Women Into Whores and Coochmongers: Ace
Congressional Dems Says Climate Change Driving Women Into Prostitution: Lid
Washington’s brilliant new plan to clean up legacy wells: Hot Air

Media

Now This is Interesting: Walls of the City
Exploiting the Gun Show Loophole. Or Not.: TAG
President calls Jason Collins, praises his courage; Slain heroes overlooked: Twitchy

Barry Munchkin Syndrome: Driscoll
Republican Congressman Mike Rogers is SWAT-ted: Twitchy
New Poll Finds CNN Far Less Believable Cable Channel Than Fox News: NB

The Ricin Case: It Was “Elementary”, Mr. Curtis.: Lady Liberty
Media Matters Probably Thinks It Has A Point Here: Kruiser
Two New Polls: Americans Fear Our Government More Than Terrorists: RWN

World

Pamela Geller - Jihad In Boston, Jihad In America, Stop The Jihad: The United West
US-Backed Syrian Rebels Kill 20 Shia Men, Offer To Give Headless Bodies Back To Families For A Ransom: WZ
Dershowitz laughed at while presenting plan to restart peace talks: JPost

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Here's what Facebook sends the cops in response to a subpoena: ZDNet
Detector finds smuggled cellphones even without batteries or SIM cards: NetworkWorld
Socialbakers denies report that ‘millions of users’ have left Facebook, says ‘there is no story’: TNW

Cornucopia

"Marc Jacobs is the most cruel thief of the century!": Style Angelique
Gee, Dad, It's a Porsche: C&S
10 Vintage Public Service Agreements: Mashable

Image: Ace o' Spades
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: FreedomWorks: Tell John Boehner to Defund Obamacare

QOTD: "Barack Obama knows how to do one thing: elect Barack Obama to public office. And that’s not ‘elect Democrats.’ Or ‘elect liberals.’ Or even ‘elect people that Barack Obama likes.’ It’s just him: his team is trying pretty hard right now to figure out how to use their over-specialized skill more generally, but they don’t have much time to figure it out and the system is actually rigged against them in this case.

Barack Obama certainly doesn’t know how to govern effectively; take away a Congress that will rubber-stamp the Democratic agenda and he flails about. He’s so bad at this, in fact, that when confronted with a situation where all he had to do was do nothing to fulfill a campaign promise (the tax cuts) we somehow ended up with a situation where Obama gave in on 98% of those tax cuts and voluntarily signed up to take the blame for the AMT fix.

In short: Obama was woefully unprepared for the Presidency, and he hasn’t really spent the last four years trying to catch up. Instead, he goes from situation to situation either trying to recast the problem in ways that he does have some skill in (permanent campaigning for office), or else… flail about on the scene while hitting people’s buttons quickly and/or at random, in the hopes that eventually the laws of probability will allow him to bull on through anyway." --Moe Lane

Monday, April 29, 2013

TALLAHASSEE GUN SHOW: Ammo Shortages Remain, But the Frenzy Appears Over

WCTV in Tallahasee reports that ammo is still in short supply, but the buying frenzy is easing.


The panic buying has subsided. Vendors say that is may have to do with the Senate rejecting an expansive gun control bill. People are no longer as worried about losing their Second Amendment. The Senate turned down this background check. But that doesn't mean that it's over...

Indeed. The Leftist hack disguised as a moderate Democrat -- you may know him as "Joe Manchin", if that is his real name -- is still trying to get himself fired by West Virginians.

West Virginia gun grabber Joe Manchin is not giving up. After the abject FAIL that was his “expanded background check” bill, the Democrat has decided he’s going to keep fighting – desperately – to pass his expanded background check bill that has no hope of actually stopping criminal activity, will cost the taxpayer millions, and will be just about as enforced as the current laws.

“I’m willing to go anywhere in this country, I’m going to debate anybody on this issue, read the bill and you tell me what you don’t like,” Manchin said on “Fox News Sunday,” reiterating his intention to bring his measure back to the Senate floor.

OK. Here’s my invite, Mr. Manchin. Come here. Debate me. Please. Talk to me.

I’m just one female. You up for it?

Of course not. It would take seven or eight Manchins to give Nicki a fair fight.

Joe Manchin is a hard-core Leftist pretending to be something resembling a real American. Manchin thinks his constituents are stupid, because he's not up for reelection until 2018. I suspect, however, that the citizens of the Mountain State are going to have long and unfavorable memories of Manchin's assault on the Bill of Rights.


Hat tip: BadBlue Gun News.

BRILLIANT: Now That Eric Holder's Mirandized Boston Bomber, a Mystery Female's DNA Found on Device

Question: it can't be called incompetence if Eric Holder's sabotaging the case against the alleged Boston Marathon bomber on purpose, right? I only ask because Holder has a serious conflict of interest: his old law firm is one of the biggest defenders of terrorists at Gitmo, but as A.G. he's supposed to be prosecuting those very same Jihadists.

What could possibly go wrong?

Investigators have found female DNA on at least one of the bombs used in the Boston Marathon attacks, though they haven't determined whose DNA it is or whether its presence means a woman helped the two brothers suspected in the bombings, according to U.S. officials briefed on the probe.

In another development, Russian officials revealed details about contacts between the older brother and suspected Islamist radicals in the Caucasus, including Internet exchanges that led to concerns by investigators that he was trying to join up with jihadist fighters...


...Two Russian government officials said Tamerlan Tsarnaev exchanged notes over the Internet with William Plotnikov, a boxer who moved with his parents from Russia to Canada before joining militants in the North Caucasus. And they said Mr. Tsarnaev met several times in early 2012 with Mansur Makhmud Nidal, an alleged militant from the Russian province of Dagestan and suspected jihadist recruiter. The meetings happened in a mosque in Dagestan's capital of Makhachkala known for its adherence to a puritanical strain of Islam, they said...

...Mr. Nidal died in a firefight in Makhachkala last May after a five-hour standoff that ended with him throwing a grenade at police officials, according to Russian authorities. Mr. Plotnikov died two months later, in mid-July, during a raid in the hinterland of Utamysh, a village southwest of Makhachkala.

Mr. Tsarnaev was in the region at the time of both raids but left Russia for the U.S. three days after the second one. He left before picking up a Russian passport that had been prepared for him at the local migration office in Dagestan's capital.

"He intended to join the fighters, but he lost his contacts," one of the Russian officials said. "In the end he picked an easier enemy in Boston."

Well, it's a good thing Holder Mirandized the (*cough*) "alleged" bomber before his connections could be fully explored. After all, he was talking to investigators until then.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

BENGHAZI WHISTLEBLOWERS: Obama, Hillary Lied About Assets That Could Have Saved SEALs, Then Threatened Witnesses

My, my, my. Antique media now faces an interesting dilemma: let Fox News capture all of the Nielsen ratings as Benghazi-gate explodes or attempt to cover it and spin. Either way, they lose:

U.S. Had Assets That Could Have Saved U.S. SEALs


BAIER: The administration has insisted there was no help for the Americans under assault in Libya, none that could arrive in time to change the outcome in Benghazi. Tonight is the first of three exclusive reports charging that claim is just not true.

Because the Special Operator in this piece is fearful of reprisal, we have agreed to conceal his identity. Correspondent Adam Housley has the story.

HOUSLEY: Many Americans are asking indeed, I asked myself. How could this happen? In the seven months since the Benghazi attacks on 9/11, information from the administration has been incomplete at best.

Details and time lines provided by the State Department, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies had been contradictory and failed to answer many questions.

In December, a State Department review concluded: There simply was not enough time for U.S. military forces to have made a difference: Having said that, it is not reasonable nor feasible to forces at the ready to respond to protect every high risk post in the world.

But members of the military who are monitoring events in Benghazi disagree.

Only a few dozen people in the world know what happened that night and Fox News spoke exclusively with a Special Operator who watched the events unfold and has debriefed those who are part of the response.

SO: I know for a fact that C-110, the UCOM SIF was doing a training exercise not in the region of northern Africa but in Europe. They had the ability to react and respond.

HOUSLEY: The C-110 is a command in extremis force... a 40-man SPECOPS force capable of rapid response and deployment, specifically trained for incidents like the attack in Benghazi. That night, they were training in croatia just three and a half hours away.

SO: We had the ability to load out, get on birds, and fly there at a minimum stage. C-110 had the ability to be there, in my opinion, in four to six hours from their European theater to react.

HOUSLEY: They would have been there before the second attack.

SO: They would have been there before the second attack. They would have been there at a minimum to provide a quick reaction force that could facilitate their exfill out of the problem situation. Nobody knew how it was going to develop.

And you hear a whole bunch of people and a whole bunch of advisors say hey, we wouldn't have sent them there because the security was unknown situation.

HOUSLEY: No one knew that?

SO: If it's an unknown situation, at a minimum you send forces there to facilitate the exfill or medical injuries.

We could have sent a C-130 to Benghazi to provide medical evacuation for the injured.

HOUSLEY: Our source says many connected to Benghazi feel threatened and are afraid to talk. So far confidential sources have fed some information but nobody has come forward publicly on camera until now.

SO: The problem is, you have got guys, in my position you have got guys in Special Pperations community who are -- still active and still involved.

And they would be decapitated if they came forward with information that could effect high level commanders.

HOUSLEY: Despite the concern, our confidential source says the community feels there was a betrayal. All the way to the top. And that people on the ground in Benghazi were left to fend for themselves.

SO: I don't blame them for not coming forward, you know. It's something that is a risky, especially in a profession to say anything about anything in the realm of politics or that deals with policy.

HOUSLEY: Our source provides insight into how the U.S. government and military reacted from the moment the attack began through the immediate hours after ambassador Chris Stevens went missing. What they were told to do and what not to do as Stephens, Diplomatic Officer Sean Smith and former Special Operations members Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed.

SO: There is a lot of responsibility and onus that needs to be taken up and accounted for.

HOUSLEY: The attack began on September 11th, 2012 at a diplomatic compound in Benghazi and culminated roughly seven hours later at a second location, a CIA annex about one mile away.

While the official responses from Washington have been that the assets could not have made it from benghazi in time that killed Woods and Doherty, there were at least two military units that could have made it in time including the one training in Croatia.

SO: Besides those guys who went in on their own, we had two more assets that could have been there. Two more assets that could have been on the ground. It's frustrating, upsetting especially being in the community. The hardest thing to deal with in any kind of, you know, dangerous scenario or gun fight, is, you know, we always look to each other to help each other and that's how we get through situations. It's not about the assets overhead. It's about the guys on the ground.

HOUSLEY: He also says as the attack began there were at least 15 Special Forces and highly skilled State Department security staff available in the capital Tripoli who were not dispatched even though they were trained as a quick response force.

Meantime, a group of American reinforcements also in Tripoli, which included the CIA's global response agent Glen Doherty and seven others took matters into their own hands. This is a little known fact which contradicts the State Department'se report. The team commandeered a small jet and flew to Benghazi while still under fire. Doherty would eventually be killed on the roof along with his friend Tyrone Woods.

SO: These men deserve the highest medal of honor for their action. If it wasn't for that decision we would be looking at different situation. 20-plus hostages... captured by AQ or you would be looking at a lot of dead Americans dead in Benghazi.

HOUSLEY: We have heard some of these same details from a number of our other sources who have not yet come on camera.
Some of our British sources on the ground that night confirmed. Tomorrow, more of our exclusive interview including the hunt for those responsible or the lack of a hunt.

Further, at least four career intelligence officials say they have been directly threatened by the Obama administration to keep this scandal under wraps.

Obama administration officials threatened whistle-blowers on Benghazi-Lawyer


At least four career officials at the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have retained lawyers or are in the process of doing so, as they prepare to provide sensitive information about the Benghazi attacks to Congress, Fox News has learned.

Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official and Republican counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, is now representing one of the State Department employees. She told Fox News her client and some of the others, who consider themselves whistle-blowers, have been threatened by unnamed Obama administration officials.

“I'm not talking generally, I'm talking specifically about Benghazi – that people have been threatened,” Toensing said in an interview Monday. “And not just the State Department. People have been threatened at the CIA.”

Toensing declined to name her client... However, Toensing disclosed that her client has pertinent information on all three time periods investigators considered relevant to the attacks: the months that led up to the attack, when pleas by the ambassador and his staff for enhanced security in Benghazi were mostly rejected by senior officers at the State Department; the eight-hour time frame in which the attacks unfolded, and the eight-day period that followed the attacks, when Obama administration officials incorrectly described them as the result of a spontaneous protest over a video.

It's frightening, and they're doing some very despicable threats to people,” she said... Federal law provides explicit protections for federal government employees who are identified as “whistle-blowers.” The laws aim to ensure these individuals will not face repercussions from their superiors, or from other quarters, in retaliation for their provision of information about corruption or other forms of wrongdoing to Congress, or to an agency’s inspector-general.

Spread this story far and wide. It's time to break vintage media's embargo.

It's time to drag John Boehner out of the bar, wake him up, and name a Special Prosecutor.

This is impeachment material. Impeachment material.


Hat tips: The Right Scoop and BadBlue Real-Time News.

WATCH THE LEFTIST NARRATIVE UNFOLD: Boston Marathon Bombers are the Victims, the Victims are the Perpetrators [Marcus]

Guest Post by Lloyd Marcus

Talk about Yogi Berra's famous line, “It's deja vu all over again”: have you noticed the similarity in the mainstream media's portrayal of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and that of Trayvon Martin? In both cases, the media blasted a much younger angelic photo of each young man, in essence, misrepresenting who they were at the times of their suspected crimes.

Dzhokhar received his Miranda warning and lawyered up with appointed federal public defenders. Liberals are all over the airways and the internet working to soften Dzhokhar's image, calling him a kid and a confused victim of his older brother and an unfriendly America. At the earliest, Dzhokhar's trial will be a year from now.

My concern is that by the time Dzhokhar goes on trial, the mainstream media and the left will have made his trial all about America's Islamophobia, racism and policies which have caused the world to hate us – forgetting about justice for those who lost life and limb because of the bombing.

Remember what happened in the O.J. Simpson trial? O.J.'s attorneys, praised by the left, masterfully changed the subject of his trial from being about a man almost beheading his wife and the mother of his children to being about America's history of racism against blacks. Remarkably, sympathy and justice for Nicole Brown Simpson somehow got lost in the shuffle of left-wing political narrative.

I foresee a strong possibility of a similar outrageous and tragic scenario unfolding for the victims of suspected terrorist Dzhokhar; murdered were eight-year old Martin Richards, Krystle Marie Campbell – 29, Lu Lingzi – 23, and 27 year old Officer Sean Collier who was shot in the head execution-style while sitting in his patrol car. Fourteen people lost all or part of a limb. Two hundred and fifty people were injured.

It would appear that the mainstream media are well on their way instilling the narrative that we must understand and sympathize with the 19-year-old suspected terrorist. We must not allow the victims of the Boston bombing to be relegated to background players, cast as mere collateral damage of the Left's golden opportunity to sell their narrative that America is always the “bad guy” at fault – the greatest source of evil in the world.

Larwyn's Linx: Amnesty -- Solidifying Marxist Control of America for Decades, if Not Permanently

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

Nation

Amnesty: Solidifying Marxist Control of America for Decades: NoisyRm
Hubris in a Leader is an Obnoxious Thing: Ace
The upcoming Gun Control Jihad: GunFreeZone

The Brothers Tsarnaev: the Danger Whose Name we Dare not Speak: AT
What parking tickets and amnesty for illegals have in common: MR
Why Did Dems Pour Everything In Toomey’s Amendment?: Alley

NBC’s Chuck Todd: The Rise of Social Media? Obama Hates It: Driscoll
Cabby Had Tsarnaevs in Cab With Backpack Weighing 20 Pounds: MagNote
Chicago: A shooting every 6 hours in America’s gun control utopia: GSL

Economy

Think Washington's Bad? Try Illinois: AT
Sequester? Department Of Labor Funding Labor Unions Worldwide: WZ
No, Congress Is Not Exempt From Obamacare: FW

Debt Crisis Deniers in the Ascendancy on the Hill: Tatler
In Illinois, public pensions already gobbling up education funding: ConIntel
Shareholder asks GE to give back taxpayer profits: Exam

Obama: twice as much time on vacation and golf as economy: Breitbart
Boston Jihadis on Welfare: Who Paid for His Trip to Russia?: JihadWatch
The evidence for Keynesian economics: Hayek (2011)

Scandal Central

Gosnell Isn’t Alone: Live Action Goes Inside The Late-Term Abortion Industry: Tatler
My Five-Step Plan to Ban Guns in the US Within 10 Years: SurvivalBlog
Courts and Congress give Obama adult supervision: Will

Media

I Know Why the Crazed Libs Whine: Leather Penguin
Liberal Commentator Ellen Ratner: “George W. Bush Saved More Lives Than Any Other American President”: WZ
Weee!!! I made Josh Horwitz cry!: Gun-Free Zone

A Night Filled With Boobs...Oh, and it’s Waning!: MOTUS
If Bush Were In The White House, Sandy Would Be An Ongoing Disaster: Mead
Liberals and Moral Equivalence: Bruce

The New Public Discourse and Who is Speaking: Ushanka
Progressives Launch Anti-Koch Brothers Jihad on Rumors of Tribune Company Sale: AmPower
President's speech to Planned Parenthood: a reminder of the Left's dishonest abortion views: Bookworm Room

10 best jokes from Obama’s 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner speech: RedAlert
HuffPo edits Obama’s joke calling himself ‘strapping young Muslim socialist’: BizPac
Quote of the Day: Bill Maher: Huffman

World

Bombers' Mosque In Boston A Factory For Terrorists: IBD
This is why Obama won't intervene in Syria: Moran
73 words to sum up broken Britain and send a chill down your spine: Commentator

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

As Schmidt speaks of caution, Google Glass gets hacked: CNet
Windows tablets no more than 'niche' player in Q1, research firm says: ComputerWorld
DARPA looks for a guided bullet with DEAD reckoning navigation: Register

Cornucopia

Bam's Blessing: LaughingCon
The Plan – Executive Order 13603: Western
Five Of The Tackiest Watches To Go With Your Car: Jalopnik

Image: Political Assassination Prevented In Rome As Unemployed Man Tries To "Shoot Politicians"
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: FreedomWorks: Tell Boehner to Defund Obamacare

QOTD: "As Thomas Gordon wrote long ago in Discourse X of his 1753 publication, The Works of Tacitus with Political Discourses:

“Wars beget great Armies; Armies beget great Taxes; heavy Taxes waste and impoverish the Country “

Just substitute ‘Welfare’ for ‘Wars’ and the argument remains in full 260 years later And, since you ask, evidence of real ‘austerity’ remains elusive...

...If nothing else, today’s debt stands as a testimony to economic incomprehension and political stupidity on a tremendous scale. But then again, since we are supposed to be drawing all of our lessons from what the Americans did in the 1930s, it is no surprise that we, too, have managed to perpetuate our misery, as did the monetary cranks and bureaucratic meddlers of FDR’s crackpot Brain Trust, way back then." --Sean Corrigan

Sunday, April 28, 2013

NO ONE TELL PAUL KRUGMAN OR HENRY BLODGET: "Spain Is Beyond Doomed"

The Keystone Keynesian Klowns are going to have a delightful time explaining the meltdown of Europe, which has only just begun.

Five years after its housing boom turned to bust, Spanish unemployment hit a record high of 27.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013. It's almost too horrible to comprehend, but 19.5 percent of the total workforce has not had a job in the past six months; 15.3 percent have not in the past year; and 9.2 percent have not in the past two years. You can see this 1930s-style catastrophe in the chart below from the National Statistics Institute.


...the real story of the Spanish depression has been the story of the indignados: the mostly young, long-term unemployed. It's a bit hard to see just how dramatic it's been in the chart above, so I converted it to a line chart below. Almost all of the increase in unemployment since 2010 has been due to the increase in long-term unemployment of two years or more...


In other words, unemployment is a trap people fall into, but can't fall out of... That is what a permanent underclass looks like.

This debt-fueled madness will, of course, end in war and misery -- as it has throughout human history.

And Paul Krugman was, you may recall, an early champion of the Euro experiment. Combined with his stint at Enron, championing the housing bubble, and endorsing Fannie Mae's subprime extravaganza, the midget propaganconomist has a track record only Jamie Gorelick could love.


Hat tip: BadBlue Financial News.

QOTW: UK Cable Company Hits Dead Man With Late Fees, Awesome Viral Complaint Letter Results

In the era of social networking, the power of the complaint letter can be mind-boggling:

This was the week when Virgin Media was forced to grovel publicly after a deceased man's family posted the firm's demand for a £10 "late payment" when his direct debit was denied because of his death.


The new bill clearly states that the direct debit was denied because the payer was deceased, but that didn't stop Virgin from tacking on the late fee. The man's son-in-law, Jim Boyden, posted a picture of the bill on Facebook, which has since gone viral, and had a few choice words for the telco:

I'm really sorry for my father-in-law not paying his bill last month, but what with him being dead and all, it's probably slipped his mind. Some people, eh?

You, however, are to be publicly commended for swooping in with all the sensitivity of a charging rhino and instantly fining him an extra ten pounds for having the unheard of nerve to be dead and therefore being unable to pay you (some people really have no idea of priorities do they? It's your profit first, THEN anything else. The cheek!).

Boyden added that whatever his father-in-law is up to in the afterlife, watching TV on his Virgin subscription probably wasn't on the list:

I might pay it if you can prove to me he's been watching any of your channels in heaven, but given that British Sky Broadcasting is beamed in directly from the clouds I think he's much more likely to be enjoying that. Your infernal cable pipes seem only to come up from the ground (same location as Hell - spooky coincidence) where I imagine you train people in the art of customer service.

I am bitterly disappointed in your attitude, probably automatically generated by machine and unchecked by any caring human heart. The only saving grace is that my father-in-law had an excellent sense of humour and is probably laughing his arse off about this as we type, giving you the Vs, waving ten pound notes around, planning to haunt you and enjoying the content of Sky TV.

Virgin has since apologised and refunded the charge.

Author Pete Blackshaw described this phenomenon in Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000. Virgin may want to buy a few copies for its front office.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech.

STEALTH REPARATIONS: New York Times confirms Obama administration behind billions in fraudulent payments

It's not often that I'll write approvingly of an article in The New York Times, but for Sharon LaFraniere's masterful deconstruction of the Pigford Scandal, I'll make an exception.

Pigford, you may recall, was first exposed by Andrew Breitbart and because of it he was sued, dismissed and lampooned by the Democrat-Media Complex. The term vindication was invented for situations like this.

In the winter of 2010, after a decade of defending the government against bias claims by Hispanic and female farmers, Justice Department lawyers seemed to have victory within their grasp.

Ever since the Clinton administration agreed in 1999 to make $50,000 payments to thousands of black farmers, the Hispanics and women had been clamoring in courtrooms and in Congress for the same deal. They argued, as the African-Americans had, that biased federal loan officers had systematically thwarted their attempts to borrow money to farm.

But a succession of courts — and finally the Supreme Court — had rebuffed their pleas. Instead of an army of potential claimants, the government faced just 91 plaintiffs. Those cases, the government lawyers figured, could be dispatched at limited cost.

They were wrong.

On the heels of the Supreme Court’s ruling, interviews and records show, the Obama administration’s political appointees at the Justice and Agriculture Departments engineered a stunning turnabout: they committed $1.33 billion to compensate not just the 91 plaintiffs but thousands of Hispanic and female farmers who had never claimed bias in court.

The deal, several current and former government officials said, was fashioned in White House meetings despite the vehement objections — until now undisclosed — of career lawyers and agency officials who had argued that there was no credible evidence of widespread discrimination. What is more, some protested, the template for the deal — the $50,000 payouts to black farmers — had proved a magnet for fraud...

The compensation effort sprang from a desire to redress what the government and a federal judge agreed was a painful legacy of bias against African-Americans by the Agriculture Department. But an examination by The New York Times shows that it became a runaway train, driven by racial politics, pressure from influential members of Congress and law firms that stand to gain more than $130 million in fees. In the past five years, it has grown to encompass a second group of African-Americans as well as Hispanic, female and Native American farmers. In all, more than 90,000 people have filed claims. The total cost could top $4.4 billion...

...From the start, the claims process prompted allegations of widespread fraud and criticism that its very design encouraged people to lie: because relatively few records remained to verify accusations, claimants were not required to present documentary evidence that they had been unfairly treated or had even tried to farm. Agriculture Department reviewers found reams of suspicious claims, from nursery-school-age children and pockets of urban dwellers, sometimes in the same handwriting with nearly identical accounts of discrimination...

...But critics, including some of the original black plaintiffs, say that is precisely what the government did when it first agreed to compensate not only those who had proof of bias, but those who had none...

...[For example, in] 16 ZIP codes in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and North Carolina, the number of successful claimants exceeded the total number of farms operated by people of any race in 1997, the year the lawsuit was filed. Those applicants received nearly $100 million...

...Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West, who supervised the civil division and oversaw the handling of the cases, canceled an interview. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. also declined to comment...

Like Operation Fast and Furious and Benghazi, the Pigford Scandal is a hundred times worse than Watergate. It represents institutionalized corruption and theft orchestrated by the President of the United States.

It is, in effect, a form of stealth reparations executed unlawfully on the part of this administration.

Heads should roll and impeachment should be on the table. Knowing the cowardly, feckless House Republican leadership, however, it's likely all of this will be ignored because John Boner and Eric Cantor are more interested in retaining their white-knuckled grip on power than doing the right thing.

Kudos to The New York Times for covering this blatant, open ripoff of the American taxpayer.


Hat tips: Lee Stranahan and Mark Levin.