Friday, April 18, 2014

Larwyn's Linx: The IRS Scandal's Smoking Gun?

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

Nation

The IRS Scandal's Smoking Gun?: Peter Roff
The Plains of Bureaustan: Mark Steyn
Mass Stabbing Curiously Missing From Obama Speech: Katie Pavlich

The Cancer, The Militia, And Cliven Bundy: Bob Owens
Harry Reid thinks we are 'Domestic Terrorists'...: III Percent
FM, FY: WRSA

Time Bombs in the Democrat Coalition: Mona Charen
Obama offers new insults, then laments gridlock: DC
Ron Paul, Assclown: Ace

Dispatches from Time-Warner-CNN-HBO-BHO-DNC: Ed Driscoll
Back any candidate you want as long as it's one of these three: Coulter
He May Be the First Person Charged Under Conn. Gun Registration Law: Blaze

Economy

NYC Mayor De Blasio Pays 8.3% Effective Tax Rate: John Nolte
It Wasn’t A Financial Crisis; It Was A Systemic Run: P&F
Cost of The Obamas’ Three-Day 2013 Ireland Trip: $7,921,638: Tammy Bruce

Scandal Central

A New, More Sinister IRS Scandal: J. Christian Adams
True the Vote founder to Fox: Five separate agencies came down on me out of nowhere: BPR
NY Gov. Cuomo Signs Law to Rig Electoral College: NewsMax

Climate & Energy

Don't Start Deleting Those Emails Just Yet, Mikey!: Mark Steyn
Obama delivers on promise to make electricity prices skyrocket: Unyielding
Telling ‘Noble Lies’ About Climate Change Will Backfire: Tom Harris

Media

Obama Gets Cold Reception During Speech In Penn, Faces Blank Stares And Silence: WZ
Figure it out already, ferchrissakes: Cold Fury
Poll: Hillary Clinton’s numbers worst since 2008, as GOP brand surges: WaPo

Paul Krugman Gets Pwn3d Like a Loudmouth in a Woody Allen Movie: Ace
USAToday Stealth-Edits on the Ukraine Leaflets Story: Ace
The Numbers on the Health Care Law Are Still Bad for Democrats: Scott Rasmussen

World

Obama’s diplomatic dance with Putin is a sad sock hop: Jonah Goldberg
Jewish residents being forced to “register” by pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine: Hot Air
Flying Blind: WFB

Barack Hussein Obama, Turkey, Qatar, and the Muslim Brotherhood : BNI
Bombs and death in the streets of Toronto and Montreal: BNI
Philadelphia: Muslim gets five years for aiding jihad murder plot of Muhammad cartoonist: JihadWatch

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Chinese Company Creates 3D-Printed Houses: TNW
Kepler Has Found the First Earth-Sized Exoplanet in a Habitable Zone!: UniverseToday
Satellite Communications Wide Open To Hackers: Dark Reading

Cornucopia

Man Named Cocaine Arrested By Florida Cops On Felony Narcotics Charge: TSG
Lawmakers, Utah sheriffs want to rein in renegade BLM, Forest Service officers: Deseret
Is your home's energy meter spying on you?: Fox

Image: April 15, 2014 Abdolah Hosseinzadeh’s mother, right, slaps Balal, who killed her son, just before she spared him. The dramatic events followed a rare public campaign to save Balal’s life.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Fire Mitch McConnell!

QOTD: "The government is reading and storing all of my emails? No big deal; I’m not a terrorist, so I am OK.

The government is listening to and storing all my phone calls? Whatever, I don’t talk to terrorists.

The government is tracking and storing my location? So what? I don’t go anywhere that is suspect.

The government is targeting political enemies and surveilling journalists? Who cares? I’m not an activist or a partisan, so this does not affect me.

This isn’t a Republican vs. Democrat issue, it isn’t even a conservative vs. liberal issue… this is an American vs. un-American issue. Do you wish to be a free American, or will you accept becoming a slave to a massive and all-powerful police state? You are either an advocate for freedom and limited government, or you are an advocate for tyranny. There is no gray area, no middle ground to be found here. This government has slowly amassed powers over the last hundred years that would horrify the Founders of this nation. As I stated earlier, I can’t believe the shooting hasn’t already started.

For you liberal readers out there, let me offer this: pick your favorite right-wing boogieman, the craziest fascist evil criminal wingnut that there is, and make that person the President…. President Dick Cheney, President Rick Santorum, President Charles Koch, President Alan West, President Michelle Bachmann, President Rush Limbaugh, President Glen Beck, President Joe Arpaio, President John Bolton, President Ted Nugent… whoever really freaks you out.

Now ask yourself this question: Do you want that person to have the power and the surveillance apparatus and the unchecked force of the IRS that Barack Obama and this massive government now wields?" --Taxicab Depressions

Thursday, April 17, 2014

"CIVILIAN NATIONAL SECURITY FORCE": Obama's Goals Become Clear with his Militarized Government

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

Federal Fire Power: Instead of putting a lien on the property of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, the Bureau of Land Management surrounded his ranch with 200 armed agents. It's not the only agency with a private army.

Back in 2008, candidate Barack Obama slipped a little-noticed line in a speech, proposing a national police force reporting straight to him.

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military," he said. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

As our military is slowly decimated by his policies and budget cuts — and with federal agencies armed to the teeth — we may be seeing what he had in mind at the ranch of a 67-year-old Nevadan.

Agents of a federal agency that many Americans were surprised to see so heavily armed even herded American citizens into "First Amendment zones," another surprise to those who thought the Constitution made the entire U.S. such a zone.

"The government's option," said Fox News contributor and former Judge Andrew Napolitano, "is to take the amount of money (Bundy) owes them and docket it — that is, file the lien on his property. The federal government could have done that.

"Instead, they wanted this show of force. They swooped in . . . with assault rifles aimed and ready and stole this guy's property, they stole his cattle. They didn't have the right to do that. That's theft, and they should have been arrested by state officials."

The Environmental Protection Agency also has a private army. In late August 2013, armed EPA agents joined agents of the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force and swarmed gold mines near Chicken in the Last Frontier State.

HILARIOUS: IRS Hack Lois Lerner Plays the Victim Card

Guest post by Logan Albright

The saga of Lois Lerner, the IRS official who oversaw the unjust persecution of conservative and tea party organizations during the 2012 election, continues to be one of the most interesting and infuriating cases of political corruption in recent memory. After twice invoking the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying on what she knew and when she knew it, Ms. Lerner now faces the prospect of jail time, having been officially held in contempt of Congress and recommended for criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice.

Yet one of the most astonishing features of this whole circus has been Lerner’s alleged rationale for refusing to cooperate the investigation and help right the wrongs of her agency. Presented with an opportunity to display honesty and humility in order to root out political corruption, Lerner instead took refuge in cowardice.

Lerner’s attorney claimed that she feared that giving an open testimony before the congressional committee would place her life in danger. “Ms. Lerner has been the subject of numerous threats on her life and safety, and on the life and safety of her family. I left with the staff recent evidence of those threats,” he wrote in a letter to Darrell Issa, the committee chairman.

It is a bit rich for someone who participated in the wholesale abuse of government power to oppress ordinary citizens to now paint herself as a victim. This is a typical, and wholly predictable, tactic of the left. Whenever they are caught doing something unseemly, it is never their fault. Progressives are incapable of seeing themselves as anything other than victims, and their opponents as anything other than oppressors. Any other perspective would shatter their self-image as noble underdogs, fighting the evil and greedy capitalists for the common good.

DUDE: Kepler Space Telescope Discovers First Earth-like Planet

One word other than DUDE comes to mind. Picture Keanu Reeves saying, "Whoa."

It’s truly a “eureka” moment for Kepler scientists: the first rocky Earth-sized world has been found in a star’s habitable “Goldilocks” zone, the narrow belt where liquid water could readily exist on a planet’s surface without freezing solid or boiling away. And while it’s much too soon to tell if this really is a “twin Earth,” we can now be fairly confident that they do in fact exist.

The newly-confirmed extrasolar planet has been dubbed Kepler-186f. It is the fifth and outermost planet discovered orbiting the red dwarf star Kepler-186, located 490 light-years away. Kepler-186f completes one orbit around its star every 130 days, just within the outer edge of the system’s habitable zone.

The findings were made public today, April 17, during a teleconference hosted by NASA.

“This is the first definitive Earth-sized planet found in the habitable zone around another star,” says lead author Elisa Quintana of the SETI Institute at NASA Ames Research Center. “Finding such planets is a primary goal of the Kepler space telescope. The star is a main-sequence M-dwarf, a very common type. More than 70 percent of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy are M-dwarfs.”

Unlike our Sun, which is a G-type yellow dwarf, M-dwarf stars (aka red dwarfs) are much smaller and dimmer. As a result their habitable zones are much more confined. But, being cooler stars, M-dwarfs have long lifespans, offering planets in their habitable zones — like Kepler-186f — potentially plenty of time to develop favorable conditions for life.

In addition, M-dwarfs are the most abundant stars in our galaxy; 7 out of 10 stars in the Milky Way are M-dwarfs, although most can’t be seen by the naked eye. Finding an Earth-sized planet orbiting one relatively nearby has enormous implications in the hunt for extraterrestrial life.


The ramifications of this discovery are truly awe-inspiring.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

This Picture Says It All

Via our Komrades at The People's Cube



THE REAL REASON FOR THE BUNDY RANCH TAKEOVER ATTEMPT: Solyndra on a Massive Scale

Guest post by James Simpson

Speaking to a local TV news program Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada declared: “This isn’t over.” And he is certainly correct. The showdown between BLM and Cliven Bundy – the last rancher in Clark County, Nev. – was but the latest battle in a long-running conflict.

Supposedly at issue was the desert tortoise, a reptile on the endangered species list that purportedly could not coexist on the land with Bundy’s cattle. But why, many asked, would the turtle suddenly be threatened by animals it had cohabited with for the 100-plus years the Bundy ranch has been in operation?

A BLM document unearthed last week discusses mitigation strategies for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone, just southwest of the Bundy ranch. The “mitigation strategy” proposed to use the grazing lands near the Bundy ranch as a kind of sanctuary for the desert tortoise, because the entire region is slated for a large number of solar, wind and geothermal energy generation facilities.

The solar projects will obliterate most of the turtle’s natural habitat.

Bloggers quickly made a connection between the effort to remove Bundy’s cattle and a solar energy project in Southern Nevada financed by the communist Chinese energy firm ENN. It was to be the largest solar farm in the U.S.

Reid had lobbied heavily for the company’s business, even traveling to China. Reid’s son, Rory Reid, formerly a Clark County commissioner, became a lobbyist for ENN, and the Senate majority leader’s former senior adviser, Neil Kornze, now leads the BLM.

But the solar energy complex financed by the communist Chinese was not at the heart of the Bundy Ranch fiasco after all. The project died last year.

However, the BLM’s library of renewable energy projects revealed it was only one of more than 50 solar, wind and geothermal projects planned for Nevada, California, Arizona and other Western states. Reid was focused on at least one, and maybe more, of the projects, much closer to the Bundy ranch.

Larwyn's Linx: Civil War and The Pig Trap

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

Nation

Civil War and The Pig Trap: Taxicab Depressions
14 Factors to Watch in the 2014 Midterms: Patrick Reddy
Louie Gohmert: House Leader Working With Soros: MagNote

Meet the One Percenters Funding Harry Reid’s Super PAC: WFB
Who are the real saboteurs of immigration reform?: Victor Davis Hanson
More Black Conservatives Making Voices Heard: Allen West

The Rule of the Lawless: Kevin D. Williamson
Graphic Photos Show What The BLM Really Did To Bundy’s Cows: Western
Sebelius said to be mulling Kansas Senate run. No, really.: Moe Lane

Economy

86 million Private-Sector Workers Sustain 148 million Benefit Takers: DTW
Why Yellen Should Leave Us Scream’en: David Stockman
Common Core may omit ‘liberty’ from list of U.S. founding principles: EAG

The Long Goodbye to Sebelius: RWN
Midwest, Evolving Hub for Entrepreneurship: P&F
For Genuine Economic Recovery, Ask “What Would Mises Do?”: ObjStd (2012)

Scandal Central

IRS Scandal Spreads to DOJ: Bryan Preston
The Terrifying Implications of the IRS Abuse-DOJ Connection: Bryan Preston
IRS Documents: Lerner in Contact With DOJ about Prosecution of Tax-Exempt Groups: JW

Obama's Pencil-thin Presidency: Cindy Simpson
Feds Destroyed Water Infrastructure, Fences, Two Prized Bulls During Bundy Ranch Standoff: WZ
Watch How Obama Responds To 35,570 Counts Of Voter Fraud in North Carolina: MinorityReport

Climate & Energy

EPA says CO2, cow-pig manure and urine rank 1-2-3 as global warming threat: Paul Bedard
Tom Nelson: Things I Believe On Warming: Cove
Another DOE Flop: Smith Electric Vehicles Closes Kansas Plant: CFP

Media

15 Examples of Liberal Privilege: John Hawkins
An incredible compilation of Romney campaign predictions that turned out to be true…: YC
Woot! Rachel Maddow gets shown her place when she tries to insult Ann Coulter: BPR

Sharpton: The True Meaning of Easter Is Revealed Through the Political Crucifixion of Obama: Breitbart
NYT: NYT Has Been Misleading You About Deportations: VDARE
Veterans slam New York Times piece linking vets to hate groups: NavyTimes

Harry Reid’s Facebook Page Just Got Obliterated…: Western
Keep Your Doctor, Change Your Senator: Glob
CNN: Landrieu Ad With Fake Footage Is 'Blowing Up in Her Face': WFB

World

First Putin, now Al Qaeda is taunting the Obama administration: Scoop
Peters: Obama Is a Fool and a Weakling: WFB
Tax Day: Americans Pay—Illegal Aliens Get Fraudulent Refunds: VDARE

More Jackbootery: WRSA
Al-Qaida meeting openly; meanwhile NYC disbands anti-terrorism unit. Are we nuts?: Allen West
Ukraine's troops humiliated as their armoured vehicles are SEIZED by pro-Russian militants: Daily Mail

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

How coffee can keep workers honest: Fortune
Futuristic RollTop Foldable Notebook with 17-inch OLED Display and Full Fledged Keyboard: Tuvie
The Coolest Spaceships Ever Built, Compared by Size: Wired

Cornucopia

Stand up Boston, let 'em see you. Oh, God love you. What am I talking about?: MOTUS
Three Wishes: Give Me Liberty
Rumors of Senate run for ex-HHS secretary sparks suggestions for #SebeliusCampaignSlogans: Twitchy

Image: The Rule of the Lawless
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Video: Does John Boehner Suffer from "Electile Dysfunction"?

QOTD: "Lois Lerner intended to use her position atop the IRS’ tax exempt approval office to coordinate the prosecution of political speech. The Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder had at least tentatively bought into that. The Federal Elections Commission was being roped in as well. Lerner’s emails prove that beyond doubt.

Democrats in Congress were involved. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) appears to have led the anti-constitutional attack on free speech in the House. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) led it from the Senate.

Two days before Lerner was forced to publicly disclose the scandal, she was moving forward with an insidious plan to stamp out conservatives and Tea Party activists’ ability to organize and raise money, by working with the IRS commissioner’s office and the Department of Justice. At the same time, there was no plan for any government crackdown on groups who agreed with President Obama. The traffic was entirely one-way. It was nakedly political, and everyone involved knew it. They also had reason to believe that they would succeed, or they would not have engaged in it. DOJ would serve two roles: Prosecute conservatives, and protect the bureaucrats who were pushing those prosecutions." --Bryan Preston

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

COMIC RELIEF: SEIU demanding that the Obama administration unionize... Media Matters

Guest post by Labor Union Report

Over the years, the Left-wing Media Matters has taken it upon itself to criticize the “Right” for its opposition to unions’ attempt to effectively eliminate workers’ right to secret-ballot elections on whether or not to unionize.

Due to its apparent penchant to having employers unionized based on “card check,” it would seem that Media Matters’ CEO David Brock would be against forcing his workers to go through the arduous process of actually voting for the Service Employees International Union, rather than merely accepting the SEIU without an election.

Nevertheless, despite Media Matters’ prior defense of the SEIU. it appears that Brock & Co. are not voluntarily recognizing the union based on card check.

On April 10th, the SEIU filed an election with the Baltimore region of the National Labor Relations Board to have an election for 50 employees working for the George Soros-funded media “monitor.”

According to the National Labor Relations Board’s website, Media Matters has hired the high-priced, management-side law firm of Perkins Coie.

Although former Obama White House Counsel Bob Bauer is a partner in the firm, Perkins Coie’s website boasts of helping employers in all aspects of traditional labor law:

STRAIGHT OUT OF THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO: The Obama Tax Code, Destroying Jobs and Opportunity

If I'm late with my taxes, will a claim of being an illegal alien undocumented Democrat get me off the hook? Just wondering.

As Americans navigated the labyrinthine tax code ahead of tax day, many felt the sting of the President’s myriad tax increases.

Despite calls for more taxes on the rich, the Heritage chart shown above reveals that the recent tax increases disproportionately affect the working wealthy. The top 10 percent of all income earners paid 71 percent of federal income taxes in 2010, yet they earned 45 percent of all federal income. Compare that to the bottom 50 percent of earners, who earn 12 percent of income yet pay only 2 percent of federal income taxes.

So when Obama and advocates of higher federal taxes opine that the rich do not pay their “fair share,” they are correct—affluent income-earners pay a whole lot more than they would pay if we had a proportional tax code instead of the highly progressive one we have today.

While taxes have increased for most taxpayers, the wealthy are—relative to the rest of the population—increasingly shouldering the federal tax burden. The Wall Street Journal’s John McKinnon notes that this burden has shifted largely as a result of the tax changes passed at the start of 2013 during the fiscal cliff debates. These changes include a “bump in the top ordinary income rate to 39.6% from 35%, a limit on itemized deductions and an increase in the top rate on investment income.”

But the tax misery is not limited only to the well-to-do. All taxpayers faced an average tax increase of 1.8 percent in 2013. Indeed, Heritage tax expert Curtis Dubay uncovered no less than 13 tax increases that kicked in at the beginning of the year, six of which came on the coattails of Obamacare. Taxpayers also face state and local tax burdens that remain high in much of the country, as well as the prospect of rising payroll taxes in the future.

In addition to stifling economic growth, many of these new taxes—especially those on income—penalize success and discourage work. As Dubay has written, it is imperative to reform the tax code because families would be able to earn more, “but would not pay higher marginal tax rates on their higher earnings. The tax code would not punish families as it does today for being more successful and for earning higher compensation because they are more productive.”


Most Americans are not aware that the "progressive" tax code was lifted right out of the Communist Manifesto by the Democrat Party.

It is meant to punish success, dampen investment, destroy jobs and opportunity, and -- in general -- make people more dependent upon the government.

And with this administration, those results are precisely what we're getting.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

REVEALED: IRS Leadership Conspired with Holder Justice Department to Imprison Political Opponents

Continuing its stellar track record of investigative journalism, JudicialWatch today announced it had unearthed emails between Lois Lerner of the IRS and Eric Holder's DOJ that suggested they had explored methods to prosecute and imprison conservative groups for the temerity of opposing the Obama administration.

Judicial Watch today released a new batch of internal IRS documents revealing that former IRS official Lois Lerner communicated with the Department of Justice (DOJ) about whether it was possible to criminally prosecute certain tax-exempt entities. The documents were obtained as a result of an October 2013 Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after the agency refused to respond to four FOIA requests dating back to May 2013.

The newly released IRS documents contain an email exchange between Lerner and Nikole C. Flax, then-Chief of Staff to then-Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller discussing plans to work with the DOJ to prosecute nonprofit groups that “lied” (Lerner’s quotation marks) about political activities.


Writing at PJ Media, Bryan Preston well summarizes the implications of this horrifying scandal that makes Nixon look like a shoplifter at the Dollar Store.

The implications of today’s email disclosure are stunning and terrifying.

Lois Lerner intended to use her position atop the IRS’ tax exempt approval office to coordinate the prosecution of political speech. The Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder had at least tentatively bought into that. The Federal Elections Commission was being roped in as well. Lerner’s emails prove that beyond doubt.

Democrats in Congress were involved. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) appears to have led the anti-constitutional attack on free speech in the House. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) led it from the Senate.

Two days before Lerner was forced to publicly disclose the scandal, she was moving forward with an insidious plan to stamp out conservatives and Tea Party activists’ ability to organize and raise money, by working with the IRS commissioner’s office and the Department of Justice. At the same time, there was no plan for any government crackdown on groups who agreed with President Obama. The traffic was entirely one-way. It was nakedly political, and everyone involved knew it. They also had reason to believe that they would succeed, or they would not have engaged in it. DOJ would serve two roles: Prosecute conservatives, and protect the bureaucrats who were pushing those prosecutions.


But, "nation of cowards" and "racism", y'all.

Any conservative who sits on the sidelines in 2014 bemoaning candidates that aren't to his or her liking is effectively a co-conspirator with the Democrats in the active destruction of this Republic.

We have a President, an Attorney General, a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, the IRS, the FBI, and heaven knows what other alphabet soup agencies conspiring to jail political opponents. Our country has been reduced to something akin to Venezuela, only with craploads more debt.

That, my friends, is fascism, straight up.

So when you sit out the next election because you couldn't find the perfect Republican candidate, don't act surprised when this corrupt, lawless, totalitarian Democrat Party comes after you and your group.

So you can mobilize to stop this, or you can echo Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his masterful The Gulag Archipelago. It related to the greatest regret of those in the slave labor camps:

Larwyn's Linx: Eric Cantor — The New “Mr. Amnesty”?

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

Nation

Eric Cantor — The New “Mr. Amnesty”?: Mickey Kaus
Eric Cantor is up to no good, again: PJM
Barack Obama cooking the Census books over #Obamacare: Moe Lane

8 Infuriating Facts To Remember On Tax Day: Federalist
The Slow Death of Free Speech: Mark Steyn
H.R. 4380: Game changing gun legislation?: CommDig

Holder's Race Card: Jonah Goldberg
Why Cliven Bundy Is Not Wrong- From A Fellow Rancher: Liberty & Lead
Equality in Discipline: Walter Williams

Flash Points of Tyranny: It Doesn’t End With The Bundy Standoff: Old Thinker
Operation Outreach: Christian Mercenary
Armed guards surround Bundy, supporters fear imminent threat: 8 News Now

Economy

Illegal Aliens Given $Billions of Our Money by IRS: MB
You just paid your taxes, America, and this is what you bought: Watchdog
Raid and shoot: This ain’t your grandpa’s PD: Watchdog

Scandal Central

Helluva Job, Eric: Fast And Furious Guns Flowed Back Into U.S.: Bob Owens
Obama’s HHS Nominee Proved Loyalty to Clinton by Digging Through Dead Man’s Trash: WFB
Lois Lerner sits in her lavish $2.4MM house as she awaits possible contempt charge: DC

Guy Nails Harry Reid on Bundy With Google Cache of Scrubbed BLM Website: iOTW
Good Morning to New York’s 1 Million New Illegal Gun Owners: AmmoLand
It Ain’t Over Till the Little Banty Rooster Stops Crowing: MOTUS

Climate & Energy

UN Cranks Up Hysteria on Faltering Global Warming Hoax, Demands We Change Our Lives: MB
Earth Daze: John Stossel
EPA Admits It Makes Up Rules for No Reason: Outcast

Media

Diversity Is Strength! It’s Also…Racially Polarizing Politics, Despite MSM Efforts To Lull Whites: VDARE
NBC: Police Firefights In Boston Bomber Hunt Show Cops Were Over-Gunned, Undertrained: Bob Owens
Resistance!: Western Rifle Shooters

Harry Reid Wants Civil War: ‘It’s Not Over! – Americans Agree: Susan Duclos
Butt-hurt Obama Wanted Dr. Ben Carson to Apologize… But the Good Doctor Refused: ConTrib
Die Hards - Day By Day: Chris Muir

Shaun Kenney and Bearing Drift Drop Anchor in Eric Cantor’s Treasure Chest: VA Right
‘Damned lunatic’: Brainless Joe Biden tells survivors that Boston bombing ‘was worth it’: Twitchy
Mitt Romney’s Son Mocks Harry Reid With Pic of His Dad Paying His Taxes: WZ

World

UC Irvine Should Rescind Its Invitation to Commencement Speaker (and War Criminal) Obama: WFB
“Oligarchy, not democracy: Americans have ‘near-zero’ input on policy – report”: PW
If a nuclear bomb exploded in downtown Washington, what should you do?: The Week

CAIR: Sharia Law Is Compatible With Democracy: WZ
Book: Arab Winter Arrives in America: VDARE
Well, Of Course They Want More Land…: WRSA

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

MIT Whizzes Invent Magical Furniture That Changes Shape on Demand: Wired
This is Amazon’s smartphone: BGR
Big Data is the new Artificial Intelligence: I, Cringely

Cornucopia

Seasonal gym-goers, here's what not to be: Paul Daugherty
April 15th, Taxes Galore: Do You Like This Solution?: AWD
A 13-year-old eagle huntress in Mongolia: BBC

Image: Chinese Acrobatic Ballet
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Video: Does John Boehner Suffer from "Electile Dysfunction"?

QOTD: "I’m opposed to the notion of official ideology — not just fascism, Communism and Baathism, but the fluffier ones, too, like ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘climate change’ and ‘marriage equality’. Because the more topics you rule out of discussion — immigration, Islam, ‘gender fluidity’ — the more you delegitimise the political system... where we’re headed: a world where real, primal, universal rights — like freedom of expression — come a distant second to the new tribalism of identity-group rights.

Oh, don’t worry. There’ll still be plenty of ‘offending, insulting or humiliating’ in such a world, as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the Mozilla CEO and Zionists and climate deniers and feminist ‘cis-women’ not quite au courant with transphobia can all tell you. And then comes the final, eerie silence. Young Erin Ching at Swarthmore College has grasped the essential idea: it is not merely that, as the Big Climate enforcers say, ‘the science is settled’, but so is everything else, from abortion to gay marriage. So what’s to talk about? Universities are no longer institutions of inquiry but ‘safe spaces’ where delicate flowers of diversity of race, sex, orientation, ‘gender fluidity’ and everything else except diversity of thought have to be protected from exposure to any unsafe ideas.

As it happens, the biggest ‘safe space’ on the planet is the Muslim world. For a millennium, Islamic scholars have insisted, as firmly as a climate scientist or an American sophomore, that there’s nothing to debate. And what happened? As the United Nations Human Development Programme’s famous 2002 report blandly noted, more books are translated in Spain in a single year than have been translated into Arabic in the last 1,000 years. Free speech and a dynamic, innovative society are intimately connected: a culture that can’t bear a dissenting word on race or religion or gender fluidity or carbon offsets is a society that will cease to innovate, and then stagnate, and then decline, very fast." --Mark Steyn

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Eyewitness: BLM “Scared Crapless” By Thousands of Armed Americans Supporting Nevada Rancher Bundy

The following is the personal account of a female Los Angeles attorney who drove Bunkersville, Nevada, to support besieged rancher Cliven Bundy

I rolled into Laughlin really early, like 5:30 am. So many people had shown up, that we decided to leave in groups. A second group to leave at 8 AM as scheduled. Ours was a big group too. About two dozen cars, loaded with passengers.

The highway was almost empty until near Mesquite. Then it was a traffic jam. Motor homes, campers, ATVs running along side the freeway, motorcyles, vehicles, every thing you could possibly imagine. Everyone on their way to Bunkersville.

Then it [the traffic] about stopped, just inching along.

Word traveled down the traffic line that the feds had blocked the road just out of Mesquite and were searching vehicles for weapons and cell phones. Cell phones were confiscated and smashed. The people were given a chit for $30.00 redemption value. I left my phone at home.

Some of us that had four wheel drives decided to just leave the road and head overland. As we got closer to the ridge, we were stopped by armed militia. We could not go any further. We could wait, or turn around and go back to the road. Men, who I suspect were special forces, had climbed the ridge from the back side and captured the snipers. They were at that moment coming down the ridge to take them to Mesquite where they would be let go. They weren’t prisoners, they were just going to be replaced by friendlies.

Because of the roadblock on I-15, people refused to be searched, and refused to turn back. They just pulled off the road and parked. It was like a dam backing up a river. Soon the feds were trapped between the Americans who had already gotten through, and the Americans who had been stopped on the highway. The BLM agents went into full panic mode and called for help. LVPD [Las Vegas Police Department] who had REFUSED to show up to help Americans HAD to show up to rescue BLM that was now trapped and helpless. The blockade was SEVEN MILES LONG! That’s a potload of people.

GOING POSTAL: United States Postal Service Joins Long List of Federal Agencies Stocking Up on Guns and Ammo

Guest post by Mac Slavo

Going postal just took on a whole new meaning.

Earlier this year Kit Daniels reported that the U.S. Postal Service is joining other alphabet federal agencies in stocking up on ammunition and firearms. It’s an alarming trend that has swept the nation over the last several years and one that Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Washington-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, calls “highly unusual.”

Conspiracy theories abound over the stockpiling of some two billion rounds of ammunition to date, leaving many wondering what the US government has in store for the American people.

Just last week, in the wake of the most recent Fort Hood shooting, mainstream media issued a report claiming that shooter Ivan Lopez was stockpiling weapons and ammo, when in fact he had purchased a single firearm and perhaps a few hundred rounds for it over a couple of visits to the gun store.

If his meager purchases are supposed to raise concerns with the American public and instill a sense of fear, then should we not be absolutely terrified of what our government is doing?

DEFIANCE: New York Protesters Shred Gun Registration Forms

If we were counting everyone defying New York's unconstitutional "SAFE Act", we could call this the 'Million Shredder March":

Citizens in Buffalo, refusing to comply with the SAFE Act by registering their so-called ‘assault weapons’, gathered today on the deadline for SAFE Act registrations and SHREDDED their gun registration forms...


They had planned to burn them, but since open burning isn’t legal in Buffalo, they decided to shred them instead, just as our elected officials are shredding the Constitution. Their hope is to send a message to Cuomo that they will not comply with this unconstitutional law.

WIVB has some background on this lawless mess:

Larwyn's Linx: If You Liked the President’s Lies, You Can Keep the Person Who Signed off on Them

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

Nation

If You Liked the President's Lies, You Can Keep Who Approved Them: Ed Driscoll
DCCC chair: 'Significant extent' of Republicans are racist: Joel Gehrke
Sen. Harry Reid on Nevada cattle dispute: 'It's not over': WZ

Reviving The Constitution Part 3: Federal "Property.": Liberty's Torch
Victory! Social Security suspends stale-debt collection program: Overlawyered
Sen. Ted Cruz: ‘Impeach Eric Holder’: TPNN

Statistical Frauds: Thomas Sowell
Up to One Million New Yorkers Refuse to Register Their Guns!: Bob Owens
Scott Brown, Eric Holder and Barack Obama: AmmoLand

Economy

Obamacare Sticker Shock Happening Across the Country: WFB
Maryland grocery careful not to expand beyond 49 full-time employees: ConIntel
Harvard Professor Predicts Up To Half Of US Universities May Fail In 15 Years: ZH

Do liberals really think an 80% top tax rate wouldn’t hurt the US economy?: AEI
'Tax Man' Obama has sought 442 tax increases: Paul Bedard
Liberal Republicans Push Severance Tax With Sophistry: MediaTrackers

Scandal Central

The Border Conspiracy: Tatler
Child Sex Trafficking in Washington DC is a $100 Million Industry: AmJrnl
How Obama's Justice Department Selectively Blocks Mergers By Republican CEOs: Forbes

Climate & Energy

Union Leader to Keystone XL Opponents in Congress: "Enough is Enough!": Sean Hackbarth
“I don’t even want to be here. Do you think my grandfather’s proud of me?": Cold Fury
Global warming news: April freeze threatens Midwestern orchards: Marathon

Media

I Went To The Bundy Ranch Protest This Week-end and Liked What I Saw: RWN
The Atlantic Calls Out Obama for Race-Baiting in Voter ID Debate: TR
Obama Honors Victims of Kansas JCC Attacks at Breakfast With Anti-Semite Al Sharpton: JWF

On the Bundy Ranch confrontation: Overlawyered
So What To Make Of the BLM In Nevada?: Karl Denninger
Exclusive: Sources Inside BLM and Police Say Feds Planning A Raid On Bundy Home: Ben Swann

Bundy vs. Buddy: iOTW
The Real Meaning of Soviet Agitprop in Jay Carney’s Kitchen: Oleg Atbashian
Kathleen Sebelius: Scapegoat: RWN

World

Russian attack warplane taunts US Navy ship in Black Sea : Scoop
Russia Tests Multi-Warhead ICBM : WFB
Ukraine struggles as east slips out of its control: Stripes

The Roots of CAIR’s Intimidation Campaign : Andrew C. McCarthy
Robert Spencer warns of “civil conflict on a massive scale” in America: Scoop
Al Qaeda weapons ship docks in Aden: Long War Journal

What the Left Did Last Week: Dennis Prager
Brandeis Faculty Letter Pressured President to Drop Hirsi Ali: TR
Is India about to elect its Reagan?: DC

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Hunger Gains: A New Idea of Why Eating Less Increases Life Span: Annie Sneed
Whether it's bikes or bytes, teens are teens: LAT
A weird black ring appeared in the sky in England and then disappeared: Gizmodo

Cornucopia

Gone But Not Forgiven: Hopenchange Cartoons
Watch road-raging driver almost eat a lead sandwich: BPR
Remy kills it with new Tax Day spoof of Pharrell’s ‘Happy’: Watch-Dog

Image: I Went To The Bundy Ranch Protest This Week-end and Liked What I Saw
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Video: Does John Boehner Suffer from "Electile Dysfunction"?

QOTD: "The supporters of these [voter ID] laws say, correctly, that they do not discriminate on their face based upon race. That's why the president cannot allow this to become a black-versus-white issue, even though black and Hispanic advocates are rightfully concerned about the impact these laws are having on their communities. The notion that this is a racial issue is only reinforced when he stands with Al Sharpton and tells that audience what it already knows to be true." --The Atlantic

Monday, April 14, 2014

CLIVEN BUNDY: What's really behind the federal government's militaristic takeover of private land?

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

Land Management: A Chinese solar farm that fries birds is OK, as is redrawing tortoise habitat boundaries to benefit political donors. But an American rancher grazing his cattle brings feds with sniper rifles.

It appears Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has, at least temporarily, wonhis "range war" with the paramilitary wing of the Bureau of Land Management. Fearing another Waco, BLM has announced it will no longer enforce a court order and stop stealing Bundy's cows, called "trespass cattle" by the feds, accused of grazing free on part of the 84% of Nevada that is federal property.

If the forces deployed in and around the Nevadan's ranch had been deployed to Benghazi, it's likely Glen Doherty, Ty Woods, Sean Smith and Ambassador Christopher Stevens would be alive today. If illegal aliens were grazing on the disputed property, there would not have been federal snipers perched nearby with American citizens in their sights.

The government that has detonated hundreds of nuclear weapons in the Nevada desert claimed a rancher's meandering cattle threatened a protected species.

BLM, one of the myriad federal agencies armed to the teeth these days, would have us believe the 67-year-old rancher is a trespassing bitter clinger who isn't paying his federal grazing fees as his cattle munch on government-owned vegetation and threaten the endangered desert tortoise.

So BLM SWAT teams descended on the ranch west of Mesquite, Nev., where cattle and the tortoise have lived in harmony for over 100 years. BLM claims Bundy owes them grazing fees dating back to 1993; he says his grazing rights predate the BLM. The desert tortoise in fact is so "endangered" in this area that the government is planning to euthanize some of them.

Nevada Sen. Harry Reid may have another reason for getting pesky cattle ranchers like Cliven Bundy out of the way. As Reuters has reported, "(Reid) and his oldest son, Rory, are both involved in an effort by a Chinese energy giant, ENN Energy Group, to build a $5 billion solar farm and panel manufacturing plant in the southern Nevada desert." To mitigate this commercial land use, other land had to be set aside. That land was Bundy's ranch.

The Tiddlywinks Grandmaster

Spotted at American Digest:


Does it strike anyone else as bizarre that the Obama administration expends more energy catching cows on federal land than preventing drug smugglers from entering the U.S. on the southern border?


Hat tip: Daily Timewaster

STUDY: U.S. policy has moved increasingly left over the last 70 years

Matt Grossman is a political scientist at Michigan State University. Last week he published an interesting op-ed in The Washington Post enttitled "U.S. policy has gone liberals’ way for 70 years."

It shreds the establishment Republicans' claims that moderate, centrist positions are a path to electoral victory. The reason?

Conservatives in Congress are the prime suspects in Washington’s dysfunction. Veteran congressional watchdogs Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann called the previous session the “worst Congress ever,” and they did not hold back in assigning blame: “The Republicans are the problem,” they said. After a fruitless government shutdown last fall, even House Speaker John Boehner lashed out at conservative groups and passed bills over the opposition of his caucus.

In response, conservatives make two simple claims: Most policies under debate are liberal, and Republican leaders sacrifice conservative principles when they compromise. History shows they are right on both counts.


The reason: the progressive left has framed the debate and the playing field for decades leaving the GOP to play non-stop defense.

...Of the 509 most significant domestic policies passed by Congress, only one in five were conservative, in that they contracted the scope of government funding, regulation or responsibility. More than 60 percent were liberal: They clearly expanded government. The others offered a mix of liberal or conservative components or took no clear ideological direction. When significant policy change occurs in the executive branch, it is even less likely to be conservative; only 10 percent of the executive orders and agency rules that policy historians cited were conservative.

Even labeling as conservative policy government expansions in pursuit of conservative goals, such as traditional values or tougher sentencing,
makes little difference in this conclusion; few significant policy changes fall into this category, though we hear about them often in campaigns...


In other words, when Congress acts it is almost invariably expanding government, not constraining it.

There is a good reason why conservatives are often charged with obstruction. When government is more active, it is usually moving policy to the left. When Congress has doubled its normal productivity, many more liberal laws pass but not necessarily more conservative laws. There was only one session of Congress, the two years after the Republican takeover in 1994, that was both active and conservative, but it did not last. Under President Ronald Reagan, the executive branch made more conservative policy changes only during the first two years of his presidency. Productive policymaking means more domestic spending, more business regulation and wider government responsibility.

...The view that normal legislating and bipartisan compromises lead to expanded government is no tea party illusion; it is an accurate reading of the past 70 years.

...the federal government has continually expanded its role in education, civil rights, the environment and health care — and Republican presidents have played large roles in this. Nixon entrenched the Great Society and oversaw the environmental revolution. Reagan was less active domestically but signed more government expansions than contractions. President George H.W. Bush brought us landmarks such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, and his son brought us No Child Left Behind and a new Medicare entitlement.

This history does not bother some Republicans, who see opportunities to fashion new ideas and bargain in pursuit of conservative objectives. But even past policymaking designed to promote markets, safeguard morality and protect the homeland usually expanded government. If contraction is the goal, a positive policy agenda is unlikely to succeed.... The arc of the policy universe is long, but it bends toward liberalism. Conservatives can slow the growth of government but an enduring shift in policy direction would be unprecedented. History shows that a do-nothing Congress is a conservative’s best-case scenario.


All of this tells me that the only way to constrain government is to convene an Article V Convention of the States and to pass amendments similar to those described in The Liberty Amendments.

The federal government seems incapable of controlling itself, so it is incumbent upon the states to do so.


Hat tip: Mark Levin

BUT THEY'RE LOOKING OUT FOR WOMEN, DONTCHA KNOW: Food Stamp Recipients Outnumber Women with Jobs

Any honest accounting of the employment situation in America wouldn't focus on "equal pay".

Instead, it would deal with twin scourges of the Obamaconomy: unemployment and welfare.

People participating in the food stamp program outnumbered the women who worked full-time, year-round in the United States in 2012, according to data from the Department of Agriculture and the Census Bureau.

In the average month of 2012, according to the Department of Agriculture, there were 46,609,000 people participating in the food stamp program (formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). That contrasts with the 44,059,000 women who worked full-time, year-round in 2012, according to the Census Bureau’s report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States.


Since 1969, there have been three years when the number of Americans taking food stamps outnumbered the women who worked full time, year-round. In 1976, there were 18,549,000 food stamps participants, and only 18,372,000 women working full-time. Then, in 2011, there were 44,709,000 food stamp participants and 43,702,000 women who worked full-time. (The Census Bureau has not published data for the number of women who worked full-time, year-round in 1974.)

In other words this phenomenon hasn't occurred since 1976 and yet it has occurred twice in a row with Barack Obama as president. And he's going for the trifecta.

As Mark Levin is fond of saying, the welfare state is both expanding and collapsing at the same time.

The chart above illustrates the conundrum we face unless Democrats are forcibly booted from office in November.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

Larwyn's Linx: There is Nothing New Under the Sun. Know Your History

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

Nation

There is Nothing New Under the Sun. Know Your History.: Ann Barnhardt
Meet KC Shooter Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr.: Ed Driscoll
Illegal Aliens Take the Place of 5,000 Florida College Students: MagNote

Engelbrecht Pens Blazing Letter to Grandstanding Democrats: IJR
After Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy Are Not Options: Erick Erickson
Glitch-filled to the End: Wynton Hall

90% of NY Gun Owners Refusing SAFE Act Registration?: Clash
A Message From Your Wannabe Rulers: WRSA
We are the Freedom Fighters: Christian Mercenary

Obama, Holder stoke racial tensions to cover for failed policies: Times
The Politics of Personal Distraction: RWN
Where is the feminist anger at Brandeis?: Jeff Jacoby

Economy

Chicago Teachers Union to Mayor Rahm: Improving failed schools is racist: DC
Government Can't Say No: RWN
Persistent pay gap could result from greater male risk tolerance: Mark J. Perry

Scandal Central

For Attorney General Eric Holder, Justice is for Democrats only: NY Post
7 Questions You’re Probably Asking Right Now About the Nevada Rancher Situation: Blaze
Chilling Truth: The Siege of the Bundy Ranch Reaches into the White House: Sara Noble

Climate & Energy

Solar Power and Cows…: Battlefield USA
Earth to Lovejoy: 0.9 C° in a century is not ‘huge’: Monckton
UN report urges global cooperation to halt climate change: The Week

Media

Chris Muir On The Red Storm Rising: Camp o' the Saints
Bob Schieffer ignores reports of Rep. Cummings’ role in IRS scandal; Citizens eulogize journalism: Twitchy
Nothing To See Here: ABC, CBS, And NBC's Sunday Shows Ignore Latest In IRS Scandal: MRC

Bloodthirsty Leftists Go Absolutely Psycho Over Cliven Bundy Resistance to Federal Power: AmPower
As Hillary Clinton Rakes In Cash Syracuse Newspaper Gives Her Free Advertising: LoneCon
Gun Control Capital of the World: 36 shot in Chicago in 36 hours: Trib

Beyond Clive Bundy: The Real Range War and Why We’re Losing: MOTUS
The Goldwater Legacy: Blogmocracy
Media: Hillary Shoe-Thrower ‘Frightening’; Bush Shoe-Thrower A ‘Folk Hero’: Kyle Drennen

World

A Secret Fight over Russia in the Obama Administration: Bill Kristol
Marine General Ready for Battle against China: Military
Ukraine crisis: UN meeting told Russia is massing 40,000 troops on the border: Telegraph

Canada: Nine Months in Jail for Blasphemy Against Islam: Gates of Vienna
French Protest Against Austerity and Prime Minister Valls: Mish
Are Millions of Africans about to Swarm into a More Open Europe?: VDARE

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Tufte’s Feynman sculptures come to Fermilab: Symmetry
Tests Confirm Heartbleed Bug Can Expose Server's Private Key: CIO
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Search for Missing Jet Enters New Phase: WSJ

Cornucopia

Ricky, Bo, Mo, Joe, Val and Ahmad. A Good Time Was Had.: MOTUS
Dreamy new Sigur Rós single premieres on 'Game of Thrones': Verge
It's time to build a real Jurassic Park: The Week

Image: A Message From Your Wannabe Rulers
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Conservative J.D. Winteregg for Congress: Fire John Boehner

QOTD: "Fitting as it was to find Eric Holder speaking in front of a “No Justice” sign, his whining about how poorly he’s been treated compared to other attorneys general, and therefore that there must be some racism involved, is pathetic, even by his lowly standards. (Imagine complaining about “divisive” tactics while sitting next to Al Sharpton!)

...back in January 2009, when I was trying to convince people that Holder should not be confirmed because he was unfit to be attorney general and would prove to be a disaster, I asked how he would have fared under the Democrats’ Gonzales standard — the “if he’s not dishonest, he’s incompetent” test — on the basis of which they ran Alberto Gonzales out of town. It’s still a question worth asking. If the Gonzales standard had been applied to Holder, he would not have gotten the job, much less kept it as long as he has." --Andrew C. McCarthy