Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Who's up for giving free cell phones to illegals?

I think you can guess the answer to that question: why, the federal government, of course! After all, it ain't their money:

Are you an undocumented immigrant who needs a cell phone? Here’s good news. We’ve just published The Undocumented Immigrant’s Guide to Free Government Cell Phones.
Much to our surprise, there are no regulations that prohibit undocumented immigrants from getting these phones.

In fact, based on our research we assume many undocumented immigrants are already using the free government cell phone program to help land jobs, to keep in touch with doctors and other medical professionals, to stay in touch with their family, and to reach 911 in emergency situations.

The Undocumented Immigrant’s Guide to Free Government Cell Phones will teach you everything you need to know to get your own free cell phone, thanks to the generous U.S. government. It’s not illegal. You just have to know the rules.

This administration makes Nixon look like an Eagle Scout.


Hat tip: Dan.

Larwyn's Linx: Special Operations group unrolls 60-foot Benghazi petition in front of Capitol

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

Nation

Special Ops group unrolls 60-foot Benghazi petition in front of Capitol: BPR
“The blood of American patriots cries out!”: Scoop
Sen. Ted Cruz: America Stands “at the Edge of a Precipice”: FreeLight

Will Senate Republicans Surrender the Fight?: Erick Erickson
Buckeye mutiny seeks to return Boehner to private life : CFP
Remember when Obama Supported ‘Stand Your Ground’?: Instapundit

Why Are Republicans Bent on Pushing Amnesty Now?: Daniel Horowitz
Nancy Pelosi, Creep Enabler: Michelle Malkin
Pelosi: We might force a House vote on Senate immigration bill: Hot Air

Economy

The Truth About Detroit (And The Rest Of The Public Sector): Karl Denninger
HUD Announces Plans to Ghettoize Entire USA: MB
Why Liberals Won’t Face Facts on Detroit: Jonathan S. Tobin

Even Democrats are giving up on ObamaCare: Dan Spencer, RS
Stalled Motor City: John Stossel
Shutdown looms over ObamaCare: Alexander Bolton

Scandal Central

Totally wired: McAuliffe went to Napolitano to expedite company funding : Watch-dog
SEC Revolving Door Leads To $5 Million Payday For Former Chief Enforcer: ZH
Jeffrey Zients is out of the country: DC

Weiner's Sexting Partner, Sydney Elaine Leathers Was an Obama Operative: Lid
Records of Christine O’Donnell tax snooping disappear: Seth McLaughlin
Rep. Frank Wolf blasts Gen. Ham for speaking about Benghazi at paid dinner but not to Americans: Scoop

Climate & Energy

Remember all the Green Jobs in our New Green Economy?: Steve Maley
Energy Department nominee struggled with financial management at NASA: Phillip Swarts

Media

Anthony Weiner in bed with ….Politico?: DaTechGuy
New York Times calls for Anthony Weiner to quit mayoral race: Stephen Kruiser
CNN Panel: Electing Weiner Would Make NYC 'Punchline': Breitbart

Lying the in the Age of Obama: Victor Davis Hanson
Family saved by Zimmerman are terrified they’ll be attacked by unhinged Trayvon cultists: Bob Owens
Anthony Weiner is probs creepier than you thought, writes his own 50 Shades of Grey : NakedDC

The Real Helen Thomas: Jonah Goldberg
Nets Give Pro-Abortion Wendy Davis 3 Times Coverage of Entire Gosnell Trial : MRC
Profiling: Walter Williams

World

The Graffiti on the Wall: Mark Steyn
Outrage over $300K salary paid to Fort Hood jihad mass murderer spurs legislation: JihadWatch
Russia’s American PR blitz: Rachel Marsden

Sci-Tech

Billionaire Elon Musk Unveiling Mysterious 'Hyperloop' Transport System Next Month: Space
Great Products Focus On A Motif: Smashing
Visualization Helps Attackers Spot Chinks In Software's Armor: Robert Lemos, Dark Reading

Cornucopia

Profiling the Prince: MOTUS
I Dare All Bloggers to Embed the Following: iOTW
Photos merge New York City and Grand Canyon in work by Swiss artist Gus Petro: Michael Walsh

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Obamacare The Game

QOTD: "Four years later, it’s still not clear what all the cash for [Obama's] green jobs [programs] achieved–and a Government Accountability Office report issued last week illustrates the difficulty of trying to foster an emerging industry by pumping money into it." --Washington Post

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION: Americans Say "Hell No" to a Federal Bailout of Detroit

Guest post by Investors Business Daily

Other People's Money: Having dug itself into an $18 billion hole, bankrupt Detroit now has allies in Washington calling for a federal bailout. This isn't going to help the city recover.

Bankruptcy, invented by the Renaissance Dutch to halt a debtor's spiral of debt and the behavior that led to it, is in fact a positive first step to any sort of recovery.

"There's some good things that come out of bankruptcy," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Breitbart News. "One is you get to start over. Bankruptcy lets you be forgiven of your debt. And you do so by getting new management, better management, and by getting rid of unwieldy contracts ... and things come back more to normal."

In the case of Detroit, that's what's needed, because nothing has been fiscally normal about that city since its long decline began in the 1960s.

The city's failure to confront its fiscal reality is precisely what led to its dire straits in the first place.

A bailout may bandage over the derelict city's $18 billion in debts, but it won't change the fact that it's still run by an emergency manager, has nonexistent city services, and contains abandoned houses and fallow land that make parts of the city literally look like a war zone.

Bailouts can't help because these wounds were self-inflicted, not external.

The city's top taxpayer, the auto industry, for starters failed to adapt to the global economy. Out-competed by the Japanese, it opted for protectionism instead of sharpening its competitive game.

As a result, jobs dried up, and the city lost 60% of its population, going from 1.8 million in 1950 to 702,000 in 2010. But instead of attracting new investment as more survival-oriented places do, Detroit maintained the fourth-highest rate of corporate taxation in the country, ensuring that investment stayed out.

In denial, it kept 10,000 city government workers on the payroll, boomtown strength. The Detroit News found the city had more employees per resident — 55 — than any city in the U.S. except San Francisco.

Its failure to downsize left it with unfunded pension debt of somewhere between $3.5 billion and $9 billion.
Layoffs, though hard for workers, would have freed them to find jobs in cities that could keep their promises, and would have helped Detroit. But politicians had absolutely no connection with reality to do it.

They seemed to believe money was in infinite supply. The federal bailout of the Detroit-based auto industry in 2008 went a long way toward making the city think it too would get a bailout if it wanted one.

The problem here is that there have been nearly 40 municipal bankruptcies since President Obama took office, with more to come. If Detroit gets a bailout, they'll all line up for one. Yet bankruptcy's chief virtue is that it forces cities, and the voters, to reconsider bad decisions, to change their behavior and focus on recovery.

This happened in New York in 1975, when President Ford shocked the city out of its complacency by telling it to "drop dead." It got some aid eventually, but the net result was the 1977 election of Ed Koch, who governed as a fiscal conservative. That's the kind of tough love Detroit needs right now — not another bailout.


Source: Investors Business Daily

I would have dropped everything to be there

Papa B:



"Anthony Weiner Is A Sexual Predator Luring His Victims"

That's how Nik Richie describes would-be New York City mayor Anthony Weiner (NSFW):

My source is solid. She really thought Anthony Weiner and her were in love, they spoke on the phone daily multiple times a day for 6 months. Anthony Weiner played with her emotions and mind. Most calls were phone sex. He promised her many things including a condo in Chicago (1235 S. Prairie Ave) where they were planning to meet up to have sex. Anthony Weiner has a shoe fetish, particularly heels.


I know my source wasn’t the only girl he lured online (poked). Ladies if you exchanged sexual pictures with Anthony Weiner aka Carlos Danger please come forward.

Anthony Weiner is one very sick individual. These exchanges are said to have occurred after his first lewd photo scandal had cost him his job in Congress and nearly his marriage.

It's saying something that Democrat Ted Kennedy killed a woman, Democrat Barney Frank had a homosexual brothel operating out of his residence, Democrat Gerry Studds admitted to buggering underage pages, and Democrat Bill Clinton had a series of women accuse of him sexual battery -- and none lost their jobs as a result. So Weiner has that going for him.

Also: Eagle-eyed blogger Peter Ingemi noticed the Politico reference in the messages and started inquiring: is it typical for Democrats to offer gigs at Politico as a reward for favors?

Try and contain your shock.


BREAKING: Melissa Harris-Perry experiments with more new looks

Sophisticated humor. It's not just our slogan. It's also our motto.

MHP models:

"The Alien"

"Frankenstein"

"Bluto"

Hey! At least we're not on national TV wearing tampons on our head, like Melissa Harris-Perry!


How Hard Will China's Crash Be?

Guest post by George Friedman


Major shifts underway in the Chinese economy that Stratfor has forecast and discussed for years have now drawn the attention of the mainstream media. Many have asked when China would find itself in an economic crisis, to which we have answered that China has been there for awhile -- something not widely recognized outside China, and particularly not in the United States. A crisis can exist before it is recognized. The admission that a crisis exists is a critical moment, because this is when most others start to change their behavior in reaction to the crisis. The question we had been asking was when the Chinese economic crisis would finally become an accepted fact, thus changing the global dynamic.

Last week, the crisis was announced with a flourish. First, The New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-recipient Paul Krugman penned a piece titled "Hitting China's Wall." He wrote, "The signs are now unmistakable: China is in big trouble. We're not talking about some minor setback along the way, but something more fundamental. The country's whole way of doing business, the economic system that has driven three decades of incredible growth, has reached its limits. You could say that the Chinese model is about to hit its Great Wall, and the only question now is just how bad the crash will be."

Later in the week, Ben Levisohn authored a column in Barron's called "Smoke Signals from China." He wrote, "In the classic disaster flick 'The Towering Inferno' partygoers ignored a fire in a storage room because they assumed it has been contained. Are investors making the same mistake with China?" He goes on to answer his question, saying, "Unlike three months ago, when investors were placing big bets that China's policymakers would pump cash into the economy to spur growth, the markets seem to have accepted the fact that sluggish growth for the world's second largest economy is its new normal."

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs -- where in November 2001 Jim O'Neil coined the term BRICs and forecast that China might surpass the United States economically by 2028 -- cut its forecast of Chinese growth to 7.4 percent.

The New York Times, Barron's and Goldman Sachs are all both a seismograph of the conventional wisdom and the creators of the conventional wisdom. Therefore, when all three announce within a few weeks that China's economic condition ranges from disappointing to verging on a crash, it transforms the way people think of China. Now the conversation is moving from forecasts of how quickly China will overtake the United States to considerations of what the consequences of a Chinese crash would be.

Larwyn's Linx: IRS chief counsel met with Obama 2 days before targeting criteria changed

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

Nation

IRS chief counsel met with Obama 2 days before targeting criteria changed: DC
A Detailed List of Curious Coincidences in President Obama’s Life: Steve Foley
Busted: Racist At Pro-Zimmerman Rally Is Left-Wing Activist: Nice Deb

Primaries Bring Fresh Air to Foul Odor of GOP Establishment: RS
Coleman Young: the Communist Who Destroyed Detroit: Trevor Loudon
Sebelius Calls Obamacare Opponents Racists: WZ

Obama Gives Senate One Day to Vet NLRB Nominees: Bill McMorris
Illinois U.S. Attorney’s Office caught lying?: IP2P
If You Love Freedom Then You Are a Mentally Ill Terrorist: Jim O'Neill

Economy

Border Patrol Demands House GOP Abandon 'Amnesty Dreams': Breitbart
Detroit and the Bankruptcy of Liberalism: Rich Tucker, Foundry
Race-Baiting Obama Resumes Laser-Like Focus on Economy: JWF

Thanks to EBT cards, U.S. welfare transforms into international stimulus plan: LI
GOP calls for curb of welfare abuse: buy food and then send it abroad : Post
The Frozen City: Howard Husock

Levin on HUD ‘fair housing’ program: Tyranny is here: Scoop
Thousands of employees are quitting public sector unions in Wisconsin: EAG
74% of small businesses will fire workers, cut hours under Obamacare: Paul Bedard

Scandal Central

IRS Scandal Originated at Highest Levels in Washington: Ian Huyett, FW
Congressman Says Hillary Perjured Herself, Calls for Special Prosecutor of Benghazi Cover-Up: TPNN
Homeland Security Acting IG Put Wife on Payroll, Took Private Trips on Public Dime : JWF

Climate & Energy

Who’s up for mapping ‘diversity data’ in every U.S. neighborhood?: Doug Powers

Media

O'Reilly Goes Nuclear: 'African American Leadership Needs to Stop This Nonsense': FNI
Communists + Black Panthers + Trayvon Race Baiting = Hilarity: Blur Brain
Trayvon Martin 'Fight Club' Video Scrubbed From YouTube : FW

Ted Cruz puts liberal-biased interviewer in his place : BizPac
Obama’s li’l punishment: WH celebrates Royal Baby birth with stunning hypocrisy: Twitchy
Dennis Miller blasts tampon-donning Melissa Harris-Perry as only he can: Twitchy

MSNBC’s Dyson onto something in blaming racism for Detroit’s decline: Howard Portnoy, Liberty Unyielding
We're Getting into Some Strange Territory Here: Elephant
Ted Cruz’s father tells his son: “God has destined you for greatness”: Scoop

White businessman SAVAGELY beaten by gang of black teens; MSM ZZZzzzzzzzzzz: Scoop
Metrosexuality: The New Masculinity?: RWN
7 liberal reactions to the birth of the royal baby: Looking Spoon

World

Hundreds of inmates escape Abu Ghraib in violent prison break: Daniel Strauss
Tip for the Gals: Don't Get Raped in an Islamic State: Daily Mail
Germany upset with Nazi-themed Indonesian cafe with Hitler pics, swastikas, and waiters in SS uniforms: Post

Sci-Tech

A Horrible Windows 8 Experience: ChannelNomics
Some SIM cards can be hacked 'in about two minutes' with a pair of text messages : Engadget
Android MasterKey found buried in kiddie cake game on Google Play - report: John Leyden, The Register

Cornucopia

A Detailed List of Curious Coincidences in President Obama’s Life : Minority Report
61 tons of silver pulled from shipwreck: Paul Toscano, CNBC
Shock & Awe: William Logan

Image: Germany upset with Nazi-themed Indonesian cafe with Hitler pics, swastikas, and waiters in SS uniforms
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: America Works – Stand Up; Oppose Amnesty

QOTD: "Sally [Kohn], Detroit is not really an example of the failure of GOP economic policy. It’s been run by the Democrats for 60 years, and you can cite all the studies about how bad austerity is, all you have to do is look at Detroit and you get an idea of how bad the absence of austerity is, it’s a city in ruin...

...I think that the reason that the administration is hesitant to even talk about a bailout is that it understands that Detroit is a precedent. The minute you step into a bailout in Detroit, you’re going to get every city in the country lining up with a tin cup. And that’s why even this administration, even this administration is going to hold back from doing this." --Charles Krauthammer

Monday, July 22, 2013

After 20 years in service, the SIM card has been hacked

Sebastian Anthony explains a brilliant attack:

For the longest time, I thought that SIM cards were merely a piece of laminated memory that stored the data that your phone needs to connect to a cellular network (ICCID, Ki, etc.), along with enough space to store a few phone numbers. In actuality, the SIM card in your phone is actually a small computer, with memory, a processor, and even an operating system. As you can see in the diagram below, there is a chip beneath those gold contacts, and on that chip there is a processor, ROM (firmware that stores the OS and SIM apps), EEPROM (which stores your phone book, settings, patches), and RAM (for use by the SIM’s OS and apps). In the photo below of a disassembled SIM card, you can clearly see that this is quite a complex computer chip.


And, unfortunately, like any computer chip that runs an operating system and apps, a SIM card can be hacked. In this case, modern SIM cards run a very simple OS that loads up Java Card — a version of the Java virtual machine for smart cards (of which SIMs are a variety of). Java Card essentially runs small Java applets, and each applet is encapsulated and firewalled (sandboxed) by the Java VM, preventing sensitive data from leaking to other apps. Your phone interacts with these apps via the SIM Application Toolkit (STK) to display information on your screen, and to interact with the outside world. To load apps onto the SIM or to update them, hidden text messages are sent by the carrier, containing over-the-air (OTA) programming in binary form. These messages are signed with a cryptographic key, so that the SIM knows that these messages have originated from a trusted source.


Now, German security researcher Karsten Nohl has discovered a way of finding out that all-important cryptographic key. By sending his own OTA SMSes that aren’t signed with the correct key, he discovered that some phones pop up an error message that contains a cryptographic signature. Then, using rainbow tables (a list of plaintext keys/passwords and their encrypted equivalent), Nohl found he could discover the SIM card’s cryptographic key in about one minute. Once he had this key, he could send apps and viruses to the SIM card that can send premium text messages (racking up huge bills), re-route or record calls, collect location data — you name it, with access to the SIM, you can do just about anything.

Nohl estimates that more than 12 percent of mobile phones are vulnerable to the attack. The older DES encryption standard has since been replaced by its stronger cousin Triple DES. Verizon and AT&T say that they're not vulnerable, but if you have an older SIM card it would make sense to get it upgraded. Most carriers will do it for free.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

25 Terrifying Factoids Regarding the Democrat Utopia of Detroit

Guest post by Michael Snyder

It is so sad to watch one of America's greatest cities die a horrible death.  Once upon a time, the city of Detroit was a teeming metropolis of 1.8 million people and it had the highest per capita income in the United States.  Now it is a rotting, decaying hellhole of about 700,000 people that the rest of the world makes jokes about.  On Thursday, we learned that the decision had been made for the city of Detroit to formally file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy.  It was going to be the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States by far, but on Friday it was stopped at least temporarily by an Ingham County judge. 

She ruled that Detroit's bankruptcy filing violates the Michigan Constitution because it would result in reduced pension payments for retired workers.  She also stated that Detroit's bankruptcy filing was "also not honoring the (United States) president, who took (Detroit’s auto companies) out of bankruptcy", and she ordered that a copy of her judgment be sent to Barack Obama.  How "honoring the president" has anything to do with the bankruptcy of Detroit is a bit of a mystery, but what that judge has done is ensured that there will be months of legal wrangling ahead over Detroit's money woes. 

It will be very interesting to see how all of this plays out.  But one thing is for sure - the city of Detroit is flat broke.  One of the greatest cities in the history of the world is just a shell of its former self.  The following are 25 facts about the fall of Detroit that will leave you shaking your head...

1) At this point, the city of Detroit owes money to more than 100,000 creditors.

2) Detroit is facing $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities.  That breaks down to more than $25,000 per resident.

3) Back in 1960, the city of Detroit actually had the highest per-capita income in the entire nation.

4) In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit.  Today, there are less than 27,000.

5) Between December 2000 and December 2010, 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of Michigan were lost.

6) There are lots of houses available for sale in Detroit right now for $500 or less.

7) At this point, there are approximately 78,000 abandoned homes in the city.

8) About one-third of Detroit's 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict.

9) An astounding 47 percent of the residents of the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate.

10) Less than half of the residents of Detroit over the age of 16 are working at this point.

11) If you can believe it, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.

12) Detroit was once the fourth-largest city in the United States, but over the past 60 years the population of Detroit has fallen by 63 percent.

13) The city of Detroit is now very heavily dependent on the tax revenue it pulls in from the casinos in the city.  Right now, Detroit is bringing in about 11 million dollars a month in tax revenue from the casinos.

14) There are 70 "Superfund" hazardous waste sites in Detroit.

15) 40 percent of the street lights do not work.

16) Only about a third of the ambulances are running.

17) Some ambulances in the city of Detroit have been used for so long that they have more than 250,000 miles on them.

18) Two-thirds of the parks in the city of Detroit have been permanently closed down since 2008.

19) The size of the police force in Detroit has been cut by about 40 percent over the past decade.

20) When you call the police in Detroit, it takes them an average of 58 minutes to respond.

21) Due to budget cutbacks, most police stations in Detroit are now closed to the public for 16 hours a day.

22) The violent crime rate in Detroit is five times higher than the national average.

23) The murder rate in Detroit is 11 times higher than it is in New York City.

24) Today, police solve less than 10 percent of the crimes that are committed in Detroit.

25) Crime has gotten so bad in Detroit that even the police are telling people to "enter Detroit at your own risk".

It is easy to point fingers and mock Detroit, but the truth is that the rest of America is going down the exact same path that Detroit has gone down.

Detroit just got there first.

All over this country, there are hundreds of state and local governments that are also on the verge of financial ruin...

"Everyone will say, 'Oh well, it's Detroit. I thought it was already in bankruptcy,' " said Michigan State University economist Eric Scorsone. "But Detroit is not unique. It's the same in Chicago and New York and San Diego and San Jose. It's a lot of major cities in this country. They may not be as extreme as Detroit, but a lot of them face the same problems."

A while back, Meredith Whitney was highly criticized for predicting that there would be a huge wave of municipal defaults in this country.  When it didn't happen, the critics let her have it mercilessly.

But Meredith Whitney was not wrong.

She was just early.

Detroit is only just the beginning.  When the next major financial crisis strikes, we are going to see a wave of municipal bankruptcies unlike anything we have ever seen before.

And of course the biggest debt problem of all in this country is the U.S. government.  We are going to pay a great price for piling up nearly 17 trillion dollars of debt and over 200 trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities.

All over the nation, our economic infrastructure is being gutted, debt levels are exploding and poverty is spreading.  We are consuming far more wealth than we are producing, and our share of global GDP has been declining dramatically.

We have been living way above our means for so long that we think it is "normal", but an extremely painful "adjustment" is coming and most Americans are not going to know how to handle it.

So don't laugh at Detroit.  The economic pain that Detroit is experiencing will be coming to your area of the country soon enough.



Sebelius Says If You Oppose Obamacare You're a Racist -- Just Like "Lynchings And Desegregation”

Just when you think the Obama administration has hit bottom, it breaks out the pick-axe and starts digging.

Are President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius purposely seeking to politicize the Trayvon Martin tragedy by injecting racial politics into the growing debate about the future of Obamacare?

Andy McCarthy, the former U.S. prosecutor who prosecuted the 1993 World Trade Center bombers and has since become one of National Review Online's best read columnists, has no doubt that is what is happening. Here's how he puts it in an NRO post that is generating a lot of heat by seeking to shed light on a tough issue:

"The attorney general of the United States is engaged in a shocking extrajudicial publicity campaign. Eric Holder is prosecuting George Zimmerman in the court of public opinion because he knows he wouldn't have a prayer of convicting him in a court of law. Worse, in doing so, Holder is quite deliberately stoking resentment and tension — under the guise of leading a 'national conversation' about race," McCarthy writes.

"At precisely the same time, the United States secretary of health and human services has loathsomely injected race into the debate over Obamacare. Toward the conclusion of this week's NAACP grievance fest, Kathleen Sebelius took the podium to demagogue Obamacare opponents. The fight against them, she inveighed, is reminiscent of "the fight against lynching and the fight for desegregation." She made these inflammatory remarks just as violence was erupting over Zimmerman's acquittal in the Trayvon Martin shooting, no small thanks to Holder's accomplice, Al Sharpton.

"These episodes are not unrelated. They are coordinated."

Apparently, this race-baiting dimwit forgot about the opposition to the Democrats' last attempt at socialized medicine, otherwise known as "HillaryCare".

You can read McCarthy's entire article here.


"It's Raining Tampons"--and Other Best Loved #MelissaHarrisPerrySongs

Fall in love all over again with these classic ballads from MSNBC's shining wit, Melissa-Harris Perry:

10. We are the Tampon
9. I Want to Hold Your Tampon
8. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Tampon
7. All I Want for Christmas Is a Tampon
6. Y. M. C. Tampon.
5. Smells Like Teen Spirit
4. Boulevard of Broken Tampons
3. Great Tampons of Fire
2. I Will Always Love You
1. Can't Get You Out of My <censored>

Act now, before our extremely limited supply of albums (and decorum) is exhausted!


Larwyn's Linx: La Raza the Big Winner in Immigration Reform Bill

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

Nation

La Raza the Big Winner in Immigration Reform Bill: D.C. McCallister
How Soon Will This Madness Stop?: R.S. McCain
Conservatives, Beware the Hatch Effect: Erick Erickson

History that just doesn't go away : Clifford F. Thies
Brothers Killed: Race Hustlers and Media Have Blood on Their Hands?: FAM
An Immigrant's View of Racism in America: Nonie Darwish

IRS Chief Counsel Visited WH At Least 9 Times Since 2010: Nice Deb
Frank Wolf Isn’t Giving Up on Benghazi: Ricochet
Barack Obama's never HAD upper hand in Obamacare debate: Moe Lane

Economy

Jay Carney Says Amnesty Will ‘Increase Wages’, Media Laughs at Him: GWP
GM CEO says Obama’s bailouts sent Detroit into bankruptcy: Rare
Statism is turning America into Detroit: Daniel Hannan

Gang Membership Up 40% Under Obama; Attacks on Whites Up 18%: GWP
William Wilkins: The G. Gordon Liddy Of The IRS Scandal?: Morris
World's Dumbest Idea: Mish

Scandal Central

Games Without Frontiers – the American Battlefield: NoisyRoom
ICE Must Ask Violent Illegal Alien Inmates If They're DREAMERS: If Yes, Inmate Released: MagNote
Marine Col. who was ‘Retired’ (but wasn’t) to Testify on Benghazi: Shoebat

Climate & Energy

Great Achievements in Central Planning: The Renewable Fuel Standard: Steve Maley

Media

ABC's This Week profiles Ted Cruz on 2016 and much more: Scoop
Trayvon Martin Alleged to Have Assaulted His Teacher, Dad Denies It: Shark Tank
Reaction to author Brad Thor’s offer to Zimmerman goes from boycott to book burning: Twitchy

Helen Thomas Attends Eighth Circle Gala: Streiff
PHOTOS: Communists Invoke Trayvon Martin in Anti-Police Protest: R.S. McCain
Dana Perino Bashes Obama: Where’s Your Speech For Baby ‘Shot In The Face By Black Teens?’: Mediaite

World

What the Media Won't Tell You About Palestinian Prisoners: CAMERA
Red Crescent to make ‘halal’ drugs with Muslim-only blood: Creeping
Germany a 'prolific partner' in NSA spy program, magazine reports: Fox

Sci-Tech

Mission Creep: When Everything Is Terrorism: Bruce Schneier
Incredible Online Gallery of High-Res Film Scans from Every Apollo Mission: PetaPixel
This is your future ordering a pizza: SHTFplan

Cornucopia

Time to take a break: summer re-runs: MOTUS
Prince William's wife Kate in labor: Palace: Times of India
1,000 Words: C&S

Image: Statism is turning America into Detroit
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please support the Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "Like Detroit, America has unfunded liabilities, to the tune of $220 trillion, according to the economist Laurence Kotlikoff. Like Detroit, it’s cosseting the government class and expanding the dependency class, to the point where its bipartisan “immigration reform” actively recruits 50–60 million low-skilled chain migrants. Like Detroit, America’s governing institutions are increasingly the corrupt enforcers of a one-party state — the IRS and Eric Holder’s amusingly misnamed Department of Justice being only the most obvious examples. Like Detroit, America is bifurcating into the class of “community organizers” and the unfortunate denizens of the communities so organized." --Mark Steyn

Sunday, July 21, 2013

6 Diving Watches

Every guy I know who grew up watching James Bond movies has a certain hankering for diving watches. Here are six pretty affordable ones that have good reputations.



NIXON 42-20 CHRONO WATCH (app. $400)

TW Steel Grandeur Diver Black PVD Watch, 48mm (app. $485)



40 Economic Factoids Ya Ain't Ever Gonna See in Legacy Media

Guest post by Michael Snyder

#1 According to the World Bank, U.S. GDP accounted for 31.8 percent of all global economic activity in 2001. That number dropped to 21.6 percent in 2011.

#2 The United States was once ranked #1 in the world in GDP per capita. Today we have slipped to #14.

#3 The United States has fallen in the global economic competitiveness rankings compiled by the World Economic Forum for four years in a row.

#4 Since the year 2000, the size of the U.S. national debt has grown by more than 11 trillion dollars.

#5 Back in the year 2000, our trade deficit with China was 83 billion dollars. Last year, it was 315 billion dollars.

#6 In the year 2000, about 17 million Americans were employed in manufacturing. Today, only about 12 million Americans are employed in manufacturing.

#7 The United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001.

#8 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#9 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 38 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio were lost, 42 percent of the manufacturing jobs in North Carolina were lost and 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Michigan were lost.

#10 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Today, China’s high-tech exports are more than twice the size of U.S. high-tech exports.

Presidential Analogies

This.



Hat tip: @Talkmaster.

Bin Laden's Dead and So Is Detroit

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


Bankruptcy: The fundamental transformation of Detroit is complete, as socialism's theme park succumbs to government run amok, a reminder that government isn't the solution to our problems but their cause.

The wisdom of President Reagan's words have been lost under an administration that believes government is the entity from which all blessings flow. So has Margaret Thatcher's observation that the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.

Last Oct. 13, President Obama boasted in a weekly address about the bailed-out auto industry that, "We refused to throw in the towel and do nothing. We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt. I bet on American workers and American ingenuity, and three years later that bet is paying off in a big way."

Less than a year later, the American auto industry is indeed surviving, bolstered largely by a Ford that refused government assistance and foreign transplants located in right-to-work states. Even General Motors has been forced to pay the free market some lip service, lest its customers go elsewhere, even as it accepts Chevy Volt subsidies.

Detroit, however, is dead, and unions and government killed it. Michigan recently became a right-to-work state, but it was too late to save a city that had become beholden to unions. As the United Auto Workers helped destroy the auto industry in and around Detroit, it's no accident that Mercedes-Benz decided to build its flagship SUV in a shiny new facility in Vance, Ala.

Labor overhead was an albatross around Detroit's neck. Until recently, total pay and benefits for a full-time worker at the Big Three averaged $140,000 a year vs. $80,000 for their foreign competitors. Add an estimated $2,000-plus per car for retiree health care and pensions for the Big Three, and you wonder not why Detroit failed, but why it didn't fail sooner.

LEAN FORWARD: Thousands of low-level bureaucrats and contractors will be able to view your medical records

Well, I don't foresee any privacy problems with this:

Would you trust thousands of low-level Federal bureaucrats and contractors with one-touch access to your private financial and medical information? Under Obamacare you won’t have any choice. 
As the Obamacare train-wreck begins to gather steam, there is increasing concern in Congress over something called the Federal Data Services Hub. The Data Hub is a comprehensive database of personal information being established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement the federally facilitated health insurance exchanges. The purpose of the Data Hub, according to a June 2013 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, is to provide “electronic, near real-time access to federal data” and “access to state and third party data sources needed to verify consumer-eligibility information.” In these days of secret domestic surveillance by the intelligence community, rogue IRS officials and state tax agencies using private information for political purposes, and police electronically logging every license plate that passes by, the idea of the centralized Data Hub is making lawmakers and citizens nervous. 
They certainly should be; the potential for abuse is enormous. The massive, centralized database will include comprehensive personal information such as income and financial data, family size, citizenship and immigration status, incarceration status, social security numbers, and private health information. It will compile dossiers based on information obtained from the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, state Medicaid databases, and for some reason the Peace Corps. The Data Hub will provide web-based, one-stop shopping for prying into people’s personal affairs. 
...However, the hacker threat is the least of the Data Hub worries. The hub will be used on a daily basis by so-called Navigators, which according to the GAO are “community and consumer-focused nonprofit groups, to which exchanges award grants to provide fair and impartial public education” and “refer consumers as appropriate for further assistance.” Thousands of such people will have unfettered access to the Data Hub, but there are only sketchy guidelines on how they will be hired, trained and monitored. Given the slap-dash, incoherent way Obamacare is being implemented the prospect for quality control is low. And the Obama administration’s track record of sweetheart deals, no-bid, sole-source contracting and other means of rewarding people with insider access means the Data Hub will be firmly in the hands of trusted White House loyalists...

In other words, the Obama administration -- which has abused ICE, the IRS, the DOJ, the ATF, and a host of other agencies for political ends -- will have the ultimate leverage over you, the individual. It will know everything about your physical and mental condition. And its political arms -- radical community organizations like ACORN and La Raza -- will have unfettered access to your health care data.

The HHS Data Hub can (and, if not halted in its tracks, will) be used as a lever to achieve absolute control over the individual.


Image: Sad Hill News.

Larwyn's Linx: Grasping for Dignity in the Era of the American Police State

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

Nation

Grasping for Dignity in the Era of the American Police State: John Whitehead
Why Obama staged his Impromptu Presser on Trayvon in three images: DTG
Racial Profiling in the Heartland: Colin Flaherty

A message from the Senate Conservatives Fund: Protein Wisdom
Delaying Income Verification Under Obamacare Increases Fraud: PJM
Uh, oh: CA’s biggest insurer for small business leaves exchanges: Hot Air

Obama goes full race-baiter: Jim Treacher
ACLJ Says No to Obama Administration: RWN
A whole bunch of really depressing facts about Detroit: David Freddoso

Economy

Chicago Blues: Tenured Teachers Laid Off: Walter Russell Mead
CA Students Greet Napolitano Warmly...with Heated Protests: Leslie Eastman
PCC student sues, suspended for asking others to speak English: ADI

Scandal Central

Move over NSA, here comes the Obamacare Big Brother database: Rare
Calls for House Select Committee on Benghazi Growing: Shoebat
Dem Female: Party Told Me I Had to Support Filner or Face Blackball: Ace

The IRS scandal made it to the White House yesterday: John Hayward
A Camp Where Adults Dress Little Boys Up Like Little Girls, What Could Go Wrong?: Blur Brain
Nancy Pelosi’s (@nancypelosi) former colleague Bob Filner.: Moe Lane

Climate & Energy

Bummer: Satellite Records Still Not Following UN IPCC Prognostications: STACLU
Senator Barbara Boxer’s Own Experts Contradict Obama On Global Warming: M4GW
New EPA chief has an ambitious to-do list: Juliet Eilperin

Media

Helen Thomas (HATER) 1930-2013: Why I'm Proud I "Took Her Down": The Lid
Charles Barkley Blames Media for Giving “Racists” a “Platform”: Don Irvine
Notorious, Hate-filled Anti-Semite Helen Thomas Dead at 92: Warner Todd Huston

In what alternate universe is the Trayvon Martin case a civil rights landmark?: LI
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson To Piers: Trayvon Was ‘Thug,’ Not ‘Innocent Little Kid': Mediaite
Getting out from under Obama’s bus before it’s too late: Judi McLeod

How Anthony Weiner Dropped 12 Points In the Polls In a Week: Philip Bump
Mark Levin: Obama has been FDR, Lincoln, Reagan and now Trayvon Martin: DC
Trayvon Martin's Mother At Rally: Zimmerman Started And Ended The Fight: Breitbart

WaPo reluctantly reports Terry McAuliffe’s bald-faced debate lie.: Moe Lane
Actor James Woods fires off unpleasant tweets to Obama: BizPacReview
The Zimmerman case is an excellent proof that the Left is deep-down racist: STACLU

World

Why is Al-Jazeera giving Money to Weiner?: Shoebat
Federal Judge Challenges Obama’s Assertion He Can Assassinate U.S. Citizens: WZ
The destruction of Barack Obama: Robert J. Burrowes, Pravda

NATO: Assad, Russia and Iran are prevailing in Syria: World Tribune
Did Kerry give Abbas written guarantee that talks will be based on '67 lines?: Israel Hayom
Obama Stirs Trayvon Pot to Distract from IRS, NSA, DOJ and Benghazi Scandals: Doug Giles

Sci-Tech

The Mind-Boggling Implications of a Bitcoin Economy: Robert Berry
China discovers primitive, 5,000-year-old writing: Didi Tang, Phys.org
Another "Smart Car" Crash, Another Fatality: Commercial-News

Cornucopia

Cartoon: President Trayvon and Uncle Sam: Sooper Mexican
If Obama were a Kardashian, Which Kardashian Would He Be?: MOTUS
Outrageous Rolling Stone Cover with Geraldo Topless Selfie: Sooper Mexican

Image: Lightning strikes a fence near the Fiesta hotel-casino in Henderson, Nevada as a thunderstorm makes its way through the Las Vegas Valley. Photo by Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus - Reuters
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please support the Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "Despite the best efforts of disgraceful Democrats on the House Oversight Committee to turn yesterday’s hearings into a circus, the adults in the room were indeed able to bring the [IRS] scandal right up to the White House door.

I’m not kidding about the national disgrace of buffoons like Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the ranking Democrat. They’re like small children running through the committee room, banging pots together and screaming nonsense to keep anyone from noticing that a Barack Obama political appointee just got linked into the criminal conspiracy at the IRS. And now they’re childishly trying to stir up a racial scandal over exasperated House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa comparing Cummings to a “little boy whose hand has been caught in a cookie jar.”" --John Hayward

Saturday, July 20, 2013

JUSTICE FOR CHRISTOPHER: 75% of House Republicans Want Select Committee on Benghazi, Boehner Refuses

Is there a more pathetic, ludicrous, cowardly and failed Speaker of the House in modern American history than John Boehner? That's a rhetorical question, as evidenced by Rep. Frank Wolf's yeoman's work in trying to get the GOP leadership to name a Select Investigative Committee on Benghazi.

Wolf himself explained the other day on the House floor.

I ask my colleagues if the Congress can answer these questions and, if not, why?

· Was there an intelligence failure in vetting the true loyalty of the Libyan security guards for the U.S. consulate? Which agency was responsible for vetting the militias?

· Who provided the terrorists with details of the consulate property? Was it the security guards or someone in the Libyan government who was notified about the ambassador’s visit?

· Why did the guards in the car outside the consulate not warn the U.S. staff of the gathering terrorists as they drove away a minute before the assault began? Were they complicit in the plot?

When the Congress departs for the August recess in two and a half weeks, will the American people know why, after a year of investigations, who provided the terrorists with insider information about the consulate property and the ambassador’s location?

Again, this is why I believe a House Select Committee is the best way forward to ensure that these and other unanswered questions are resolved. To date, 160 House Republicans – nearly three quarters of the entire Republican Conference – have cosponsored H. Res. 36 to create a Select Committee on Benghazi to ensure the American people learn the truth.

And this Boehner refuses to do.


Please read: The Complete Benghazi Timeline in Spreadsheet Format and then call John Boehner at (202) 224-3121 and demand a Select Committe on Benghazi.