Friday, November 21, 2014

Larwyn's Linx: Obama’s Amnesty Speech, Deconstructed

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Nation

Obama’s Amnesty Speech, Deconstructed: HayRide
Republicans Will Vote to Fund President Obama’s Amnesty: Erick Erickson
Don’t mess with Texas! Lone Star state to sue Obama over amnesty: Unyielding

You Are Being Played: Erick Erickson
Governor Palin Weighs in on Obama’s Executive Amnesty: C4P
What’s (Happily) Missing from the Obama Plan: CIS

Obama calls immigration action legal, not amnesty: Exam
We Must Stop Emperor Obama: Sen. Jeff Sessions
Hillary Supports Obama's Destruction of Constitution: Greatwire

Race card debt comes due for Democrats: Don Surber
The 22 Times Obama Argued Against Executive Amnesty: S&L
Obama Is Destroying The United States As Full-Blown Amnesty Unfolds: Sara Noble

Economy

Dump Gruber Ally, Doug Elmendorf, as CBO Director: RS
How Medicaid Destroys Public Education: Dick Morris
Did Obama Just Call All Latino Immigrants Fruit Pickers?: DownTrend

Scandal Central

Holder Forced to Disgorge Enormous Trove of Fast and Furious Documents: JW
Obama's Amnesty Threatens To Shut Constitution: IBD
The Truth About Obama’s “Temporary” Ebola Amnesty: Michelle Malkin

Climate & Energy

Only 50% Of Scientists Blame Mankind for Climate Change In New Study: MRC

Media

Shocker: Man Who Unearthed Gruber Videos Was Completely Ignored By Mainstream Media: Surge
Networks Push Illegal Immigrants, Pro-Amnesty Group Ahead of Obama’s Speech: MRC
Father Of Son Killed By Illegal Alien Has Message For Obama: IM41

It’s Long Past Time to Restore Voters’ Privacy: Tom Blumer
Illegal Immigrant Tells CNN She Was Inspired To Cross Border by Obama Amnesty: Grabien
Gruber flap reopens not-so-old wounds: Jonah Goldberg

World

Responding to the Slaughter: Caroline Glick
Trial gets go-ahead in $1 billion lawsuit against PA, PLO: Times of Israel
Turkey's Bark and Bite: Gatestone

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider discover two new supermassive particles: ExtremeTech
Gecko-Inspired Gloves Allows You to Scale Glass Walls Like Spiderman: ScienceWorld
Electron Beam Points to Origins of Teotihuacan Stone Faces: SciAm

Cornucopia

Jay Leno Takes a Wounded Vet with a Joyride and Then Thanks Him with the Gift of a Lifetime: IJR
At the Intersection of Democracy and Tyranny: MOTUS
Obama Just Made Asses Out of John Boehner And Mitch McConnell: IM41

Image: At the Intersection of Democracy and Tyranny
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: SCF: STOP THE AMNESTY

QOTD:

Thursday, November 20, 2014

JUST IN TIME FOR AMNESTY: 21 Facts That Prove Government Dependency is Out of Control

By Michael Snyder

If you could stay home and watch television, play video games and hang out with your friends all day at government expense, would you do it? Of course most Americans that collect money from the government each month are not abusing the system. Many truly are incapable of taking care of themselves, and others are just receiving government benefits (such as Social Security) that they feel that they have earned by a lifetime of hard work. But with each passing year the number of Americans jumping on board “the safety net” continues to grow rapidly, and a lot of these people should be able to take care of themselves. Today, the American people collectively receive more money from the government than they pay in taxes. And remember, the federal government uses our money to build roads, inspect our food and fund the military as well. So what does this say about our economy? Could it survive without all of these debt-fueled transfer payments? And what does this say about our society? At one time, our nation was known for our Protestant work ethic. What would our forefathers say about us today? The following are 21 facts that prove that dependence on the government is out of control in America…

America's Eerily Calm Transition to Dictatorship

By M.D. Kittle

Using the kind of social network tools that helped him get elected, President Obama on Wednesday declared in a Facebook video that he would use his “lawful authority as president” to “start fixing our broken immigration system.”

Obama’s expected plan to grant legal status to as many as 5 million illegal immigrants was hailed as a victory for the powerful amnesty movement and criticized by amnesty opponents as an extra-constitutional power grab by a president who has grown increasingly fond of issuing executive power grab.

“… Obama (is) going against the will of Congress, which considered and rejected the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act on several occasions, including when both houses of Congress were controlled by the president’s party …” wrote Hans von Spakovsky and John Malcolm of the Heritage Foundation in a piece outlining the constitutional pitfalls of Obama’s unilateral action.

William Gheen, president of the Raleigh, N.C.-based Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, used stronger words in challenging the president’s looming declaration, slated to be unveiled Thursday night on national television.

No one told you when to run... you missed the starting gun

By Jim Quinn

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

Pink Floyd – Time

I stumbled across two mind blowing charts yesterday that had me pondering how generations of Americans had frittered their lives away, spending money they didn’t have on things they didn’t need, utilizing easy to acquire debt, and saving virtually nothing for their futures or a rainy day. We are a nation of Peter Pans who never grew up. While I was driving home from work, one of my favorite Pink Floyd tunes came on the radio and the lyrics to Time seemed to fit perfectly with the charts I had just discovered.

We were all young once. Old age and retirement don’t even enter your thought process when you are young. Most people aren’t sure what they want to do for the rest of their lives when they are in their early twenties. Slaving away at your entry level low paying job, chasing the opposite sex, getting drunk, and having fun on the weekends is the standard for most young people. But you eventually have to grow up. Because one day you find ten years have got behind you. No one tells you when to grow up. And based on the charts below, tens of millions missed the starting gun.

I graduated college in 1986 and started my entry level CPA firm job, making $18,000 per year. I did live at home for a year and a half before getting an apartment with a friend. I was able to buy a car, pay off my modest student loan debt, go out on the weekends, and still save some money. I was in my early 20’s and had opened a mutual fund account at Vanguard. Anyone who entered the job market from the mid 1970s through the mid 1980’s, which would be the late Baby Boomers and early Generation Xers, had job opportunities and the benefit of low stock market valuations.

Larwyn's Linx: Republicans Will Not Block Obama (Because They Want the Same Thing)

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Nation

Republicans Will Not Block Obama (Because They Want the Same Thing): Erick Erickson
Tell GOP Leaders: Fight Or Be Complicit: George Rasley
Emperor Obama I: Jon Gabriel

Obama Is About to Commit an Act of Constitutional Infamy: Peter Wehner
Government shutdown? GOP has a better strategy: Byron York
Obama Hosts Democrat-Only Dinner Ahead of Speech: VictoryGirls

Meet the snobocrats: Victor Davis Hanson
This Gruber-gate supercut video is positively enraging: Noah Rothman
IRS fears employees being “seized with spontaneous diarrhea”: LI

Thanks, Chris Christie: NJ number one magnet for illegal aliens: WyBlog
St. Louis Guns: “We’re Selling Everything That’s Not Nailed Down”: Bob Owens
Schlafly: Obama could launch another Civil War: Paul Bremmer

Economy

Amnesty and the minimum wage make strange bedfellows: John Hayward
School paid 26k to Gruber for speech where he called Americans stupid: DC
Obamacare is About to Bankrupt a Whole Bunch of Small Businesses: Leon Wolf

Scandal Central

Top ObamaCare Official Used Threats, ‘Tantrums’ to Push Website Launch Despite Concerns: JWF
D.C. police plan for future seizure proceeds years in advance in city budget documents: WaPo
How Obama Has Falsified Deportation Numbers to Fool America: Sooper

Brooklyn Woman On Ebola Monitoring List Drops Dead Bleeding From "Face, Mouth, Nose: ZH
Man Who Leaked DHS Pictures Branded a Terrorist: “You Will Be Incarcerated”: SHTFplan
With Executive Amnesty Looming, WH Stands by Obama Claim That He’s Not an Emperor: WFB

Climate & Energy

What the mainstream media wont tell you about global warming: Jeff Dunetz
Record Cold as Obama’s “Warming” Decrees Endanger Power Grid: Alex Newman
Snow Emergency: Seven Dead, 100+ Trapped in Monster Winter Storm: NBC

Media

MSNBC Host: I can’t find ‘a single Democrat in Washington’ who says Obama’s amnesty is legal: RedAlert
WATTS: Lie Back And Think of Bloomberg: Bob Owens
Healthcare, Lies and Videotape: Froglegs

Gruber and Iraq WMD: a tale of two deceptions: RS
Liberal media attempts Hail Mary for Obama, by pretending to snub him: Obiter Dictum
Krauthammer: “I’ve Waited Long Enough” Is Something A Banana Republic Leader Would Say: Nice Deb

World

“Palestinian” Terrorists Killed More Americans in 2014 Than ISIS: Daniel Greenfield
Teaching Hate: Cal Thomas
Mahmoud Abbas - Both Sides of his Mouth: Joshua

Obama To American Voters, History and Precedent: F*** You: Glob
Russian Bombers Threaten Guam: WFB
Russia has moved Mig-31 interceptors close to the Ukrainian border: Aviationist

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Microsoft Azure thrown out of gear during a performance update: CIO
Is Texting Ruining Your Back?: ScienceWorld
12 Tips From Homicide Detectives: PoliceMag

Cornucopia

aaaaand meme-ified: Walls of the City
Try it; You’ll Like It! Trust Me.: MOTUS
Sheriff Makes Social Media Plea To Obama Against Amnesty: MRCTV

Image: Detroit police not expecting riots, violence despite FBI warning preceding Ferguson decision
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Tech News

QOTD: "The national record for snowfall in a 24-hour period is 76 inches, up in the mountains of Colorado. Some suburbs of Buffalo approached that amount on Tuesday — “possibly the highest 24hr snow in a populated area,” the National Weather Service Tweeted late Tuesday night." --Tom Yulsman

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

PRESIDENT LAWBREAKER: This graphic needs to go viral

YoungCons points us to a NumbersUSA illustration that needs to go viral:



Hat tip: BadBlue News

The Feds' New Racial Quotas

By Thomas Sowell

If anyone still has any doubt about the utter cynicism of the Obama administration, a recent agreement between the federal government and the Minneapolis Public Schools should open their eyes.

Under the Obama administration, both the Department of Education and the Department of Justice have been leaning on public schools around the country to reduce what they call the “disproportionate” numbers of black male students who are punished for various offenses in schools.

Under an implicit threat of losing their federal subsidies, the Minneapolis Public Schools have agreed to reduce the disparity in punishment of black students by 25 percent by the end of this school year, and then by 50 percent, 75 percent and finally 100 percent in each of the following years. In other words, there are now racial quota limits for punishment in the Minneapolis schools.

If we stop and think — as old-fashioned as that may seem — there is not the slightest reason to expect black males to commit the same number of offenses as Asian females or any other set of students.

When different groups of human beings have behaved differently in all sorts of ways, in countries around the world, for thousands of years of recorded history, why would we accept as dogma that the only reason one set of students gets punished more than others is because the people who are doing the punishing are picking on them?

BLACKOUT: Networks Refuse to Cover Obama's Amnesty Announcement and Resulting Constitutional Chaos

By Mac Slavo

Thursday evening will mark a momentous announcement from President Obama concerning his hugely controversial executive order to “shield” and otherwise legalize millions of ‘undocumented’ illegal immigrants living in the United States.

But is this tide turning presidential address scheduled to be carried live on TV for all the country to witness?

No. It seems that the big four networks – ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox – have all opted out of broadcasting the 15 minute speech, instead airing their November sweeps shows as scheduled in hopes of maximizing viewer ratings:

The administration announced today that POTUS will be speaking live from the White House at 8 PM ET on Thursday. ABC has the fall finale for Grey’s Anatomy on at that time while CBS has ratings powerhouse The Big Bang Theory, NBC has reality show The Biggest Loser and Fox has Bones. As of right now, three of those networks will not see any changes in their November sweep schedules due to the speech.

While Obama’s speech will be seen on their cable news siblings, Fox and NBC are not carrying it live on their broadcast networks tomorrow night.

Out of sight, out of mind?

Moreover, according to Deadline.com, the White House never asked the networks to carry the address:

WHY, OF COURSE HE IS: Eric Holder Shields Accused Cop-Killers From Facing Death Penalty

By Investor's Business Daily

Justice: Eric Holder, who dropped the New Black Panther case and almost had a defender of cop-killer Mumia abu-Jamal as an assistant, takes the death penalty off the table for four alleged Virginia cop-killers.

The National Guard has not been called up, Al Sharpton has not made an appearance, and neither have 40 FBI agents been dispatched to ensure the convictions of the four gang members who allegedly murdered a Virginia police officer.

Nor will there be riots and looting if they are acquitted.

When cops are the victims instead of the accused, a different standard of social justice seems to apply.

Waynesboro, Va., is not Ferguson, Mo., and 45-year-old reserve Virginia police officer Kevin Quick is not Michael Brown, shot and killed by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson.

In February, officer Quick never made it after he texted his girlfriend that he was on his way to see her.

According to police, Quick was set upon by three siblings and a fourth man, and was carjacked, kidnapped and taken from bank to bank to withdraw money using his own debit card at gunpoint before being shot to death.

His body was found in a wooded area in Goochland County six days later.

Siblings Daniel Mathis, Shantai Shelton and Mersadies Shelton have been charged along with a fourth man, Kweli Uhuru, in a federal indictment that lists them as members of a street gang called the "99 Goon Syndicate," an offshoot of the infamous "Bloods" gang, and allegedly committed the murder to climb in the gang ranks.

Larwyn's Linx: Obama’s Amnesty Loots Social Security To Give Your Money To Illegal Aliens

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Nation

Obama’s Amnesty Loots Social Security To Give Your Money To Illegal Aliens: CHQ
“Almost awesome in its evilness” – Jonathan Gruber on Obamacare: LI
Barack Obama Lied About Jonathan Gruber Before The World: Sara Noble

Should GOP Adopt "The Obama Rule" Of Executive Governance?: Ace
A White House Mass Pardon for Identity Thieves: Michelle Malkin
Baltimore Marxists plan Ferguson protests: Quinton

Life Under the Victimocracy: Daniel Greenfield
Gruber Truthers Really Need to Shut The F*** Up Now: Ace
Obama Counted On 'Minions in the Press' to Help Cover Up Gruber Scandal: CNS

Confused Elderly Woman Unsure About Which Party Won Election: Ace
Debates Threaten Hillary Candidacy: Dick Morris
Mark Levin Destroys Ashleigh Banfield: Scoop

Economy

Delusion: The Minimum Wage Ended Slavery: RS
Control Freaks: John Stossel
Jay Nixon To Spend $100k To Study How They Messed Up STL: Dana Loesch

Scandal Central

Exclusive: 3000 Unaccompanied Minors in Houston Schools: Breitbart
Georgetown Law Professor Jonathan Turley: Obama Amnesty Tearing at Fabric of Constitution: NRO
Gruber Visited White House 21 Times, President Obama Claims He Does Not Know The ‘Obamacare Architect’: Inquisitr

Climate & Energy

Is There Nothing That Obama Can't Do!: SDA
Buffalo Suburbs May Have Set a Record for 24-Hour Snowfall in a Populated Area: Discover
Keystone XL Pipeline Stalls in Senate Vote: Roll Call

Media

Fournier: Obama ‘Destroyed the Credibility of His Administration and Government Itself’: WFB
ABC, NBC Ignore Gruber’s Numerous W.H. Visits, CBS Barely Covers: MRC
Ex-Obama Aide Destroys Media Narrative, Admits Gruber Was an 'Important Figure': MRC

First in: Ted Cruz, Mark Levin to speak at CPAC 2015: Exam
Al Sharpton Has Novel Way to Economize on Expenses and Taxes: He Just Doesn't Pay Them: Ace
New York Times: Al Sharpton Owes $4.5 Million In Taxes And Steals From His Charities: DownTrend

Illegals Commit Over 400 Child Sexual Assaults in One Month in This Non-Border State: ConTrib
What did the press know and when did they know it?: Virginian
Jon Stewart Tears Apart Pelosi for ‘Politically Craven’ Move Against Duckworth: Mediaite

World

Oh, Jerusalem: Roger L. Simon
Jerusalem Terror: A Rorschach Test for Buzzfeed: CAMERA
UK: First military, now police warned not to wear uniforms in public for fear of attacks by jihadists: BNI

Paving the way for Islamic State in Israel: Ruthie Blum
Just Don’t Call It Islamic: Mona Charen
NY Times to Cuban doctors: Do your job and forget about freedom!: Silvio Canto

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

US safety board backs FAA on regulation of reckless drone use: CIO
Cadillac’s 2015 ATS-V wants to kill BMW’s M3/M4: Slashgear
12 Graphs That Show Why People Get Fat: Kris Gunnars

Cornucopia

Will Obama Announce Amnesty During The Ferguson Riots He Is Planning?: 90 Miles
Spock Sues Star Fleet!: Hideout
Facebook says No to Gun Safety – Bans Safes and Vaults: BuzzPo

Image: Nancy Pelosi Set to Win Reelection as House Minority Leader
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Sports News

QOTD: "It’s a very sad moment, but it’s becoming a particularly dangerous moment — particularly after this election – to defy the will of Congress yet again [on Amnesty for illegal aliens through Executive Order]...

What the president is suggesting is tearing at the very fabric of the Constitution. We have a separation of powers that gives us balance. And that doesn’t protect the branches — it’s not there to protect the executive branch or legislative branch — it’s to protect liberty. It’s to prevent any branch from assuming so much control that they become a threat to liberty.

...This would be unprecedented and I think it would be an unprecedented threat to the balance of powers within our system." --Georgetown Law Professor Jonathan Turley

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Fun with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 #GalaxyNote4

After nearly three years with my old Android smartphone -- a reliable workhorse with admirable battery life, the Motorola Razr Maxx -- it was time for a refresh. After reading a bunch of reviews, I chose the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. Often described as a "phablet", the extra-large phone is roughly the size of an iPhone 6 Plus, but holds the advantage of not being an Apple product. It also includes a built-in stylus for taking notes and dropping some art on my peeps.

The first two sketches -- each drawn in less than 60 seconds -- are depicted below.


As an aside, for the life of me I can't figure out how Microsoft OneNote is supposed to work. I was easily able to create a notebook and add some pages and sketch out a few drawings. How to export said pages has proven to be extremely frustrating. There isn't an export option. I used the sync feature to try to push the files up to the proverbial cloud; but multiple efforts to access the pages in the notebook using my laptop resulted in a blank page (Chrome) or a never-ending "progress" indicator (IE10).

How'd I get these images uploaded? Kludge central: I took a screen-cap of each on the Galaxy and simply emailed 'em to myself. Final edits occurred using GIMP, the most excellent open-source analog of Photoshop.

In any event, if I can't figure out how to use OneNote, my guess is there are many other users similarly challenged.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS IN A WAR ZONE? One Embedded Reporter vs. the Establishment

By M.D. Kittle

MADISON, Wis. — Wayne Anderson, seeing the carnage unfold before him, did what any veteran embedded reporter in a war zone would do: He reported on it.

“The first response vehicles arrived and I thought, ‘Oh, shit, something is up here,’” Anderson told Wisconsin Reporter in an interview last week. “They started offloading the dead and wounded, and I had the presence of mind to get my video camera out of my pocket and start taping this news event.”

He quickly went about talking to witnesses and military officials on the ground at the U.S. Army’s Camp Mike Spann, the U.S. Army base not far from Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. The camp is named for the first American casualty of America’s longest war.

It was all standard operating stuff for the 59-year-old freelance journalist from Frederic, who was on in his second tour of embedded reporter duty in a war zone.

Anderson’s journalistic instincts cost him his job and his professional reputation, setting off a four-year First Amendment fight with the U.S. Department of Defense that is far from over.

Of Obama and the History of Failed Presidencies

By George Friedman

We do not normally comment on domestic political affairs unless they affect international affairs. However, it is necessary to consider American political affairs because they are likely to have a particular effect on international relations. We have now entered the final phase of Barack Obama's presidency, and like those of several other presidents since World War II, it is ending in what we call a state of failure. This is not a judgment on his presidency so much as on the political configuration within it and surrounding it.

The midterm elections are over, and Congress and the president are in gridlock. This in itself is not significant; presidents as popular as Dwight Eisenhower found themselves in this condition. The problem occurs when there is not only an institutional split but also a shift in underlying public opinion against the president. There are many more sophisticated analyses of public opinion on politics, but I have found it useful to use this predictive model.

Analyzing a President's Strength

I assume that underneath all of the churning, about 40 percent of the electorate is committed to each party. Twenty percent is uncommitted, with half of those being indifferent to the outcome of politics and the other half being genuinely interested and undecided. In most normal conditions, the real battle between the parties -- and by presidents -- is to hold their own bases and take as much of the center as possible.

Larwyn's Linx: Shut. It. Down.

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

Nation

Shut. It. Down.: Erick Erickson
Debate over Amnesty is “between Obama and Obama”: Jazz Shaw
Video Found: Obama Admits He Stole Ideas From Jon Gruber: Sooper

ICE Agents Demoralized by Obama’s Treasonous Policies: MB
MO Gov. Nixon Declares State of Emergency, Activates Natl. Guard: Treehouse
Gruber Got Almost Ten Million Dollars Of "Stupid" Taxpayer's Money: Lid

Gruber, Again: Stupid Racist Floridians And ‘Awesome In Evilness': Sara Noble
A Legacy of LIberalism: Thomas Sowell
Congressman Hal Rogers’ Corrupt (But Legal) Bargain For Amnesty: CHQ

Romney Praises Jonathan Gruber’s ‘Econometric Model’: GotNews
Gov. Walker: I Could Run in 20 Years and Be Granny Clinton’s Age: JWF
Jonathan Gruber: “I Love the Hillary Clinton Plan”: GotNews

Economy

Why Dems Lack Working Class Appeal: It’s Immigration, Stupid: Dick Morris
Chinese Americans: Common Core same as China's Communist Core: Scoop
Poverty Causes Crime?: Dennis Prager

Scandal Central

Gruber: Obama personally asked me to help disguise unhelpful Obamacare facts: Guy Benson
Gruber-gate gets to Obama: ‘No, I did not’ mislead Americans: Noah Rothman
Obama Happily Jumps Into The Lies About Jonathan Gruber: DownTrend

Climate & Energy

Keystone pipeline vote will fail in the Senate: Mary Landrieu is toast: RS
Below freezing temperatures expected in all 50 states: The Week
Climate change was not to blame for the collapse of the Bronze Age: WUWT

Media

Special Report airs devastating report on Gruber’s connection to Democrats and Obama: Scoop
The GOP punditocracy’s fear of winning: RS
American Voters Apparently Too Stupid to Understand that Obamacare is Working: Leon Wolf

5 Years Since ClimateGate: Ten Credibility-Killing Quotes the Media Ignored: MRC
Watch Rand Paul win over Bill Maher: RedAlert
It’s All Right, Ma, I’m Only Bleeding: Chris Floyd

World

Terrorist Attack In Israel – Four Praying Israelis Murdered in Jerusalem Synagogue Attack: Treehouse
In CNN Headline on Jerusalem Terror, Integrity is Another Casualty: CAMERA
Putin Targets the Scandinavians: AmInt

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Benetti Launches the Veloce 140 Yacht: Robb Report
This Clever Design Could Replace Ugly QR Codes With Light: Gizmodo
The Internet in the era of VHS: CNet

Cornucopia

What Miserable Drones And Traitors Have We Nourished And Promoted: Camp o' the Saints
The True Story of How Muhammad Discovered America: MOTUS
Isn't Jon Gruber the guy Bruce Willis threw out of Nakatomi Tower?: AWD

Image: Obama turns to McConnell to secure his legacy
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: This Christmas: Give the Gift That Keeps On Taking

QOTD: "Obama was elected as an anti-war candidate and then picked as his vice president a man who voted for the war and both his secretaries of state voted for the war. Ha ha ha. Oh, you stupid voters.

Then there is global warming, a cockamamie theory that using oil and coal will burn up the planet. None of the computer models to date has predicted the temperatures accurately. In fact, even though we have hit a historic high for atmospheric carbon dioxide, temperatures remain below what they were 1,000 years ago.

But it is science, right. And you are stupid if you disagree. That Nobel Prize in Physics means nothing to them, Ivar Giaever. You're just another stupid denier to them.

You know who else was considered stupid? The people who could not see the Emperor's New Clothes in the Hans Christian Andersen story. Only when a boy shouted the emperor was naked did the crowd finally feel free to laugh at the buffoonery of their elite leader." --Don Surber

Monday, November 17, 2014

PASS THE POPCORN, NAHANNI: Politico reports that Democrat Leaders are Lashing Out at "Stretch" Pelosi

"Stretch" being the nickname bestowed upon the Baroness of Botox by none other than Mark Levin. And it's the sobriquet she prefers, I hear. Say, Nahanni, could you pass the melted butter, too?

The discontent with Nancy Pelosi is breaking out in the open... Democrats in the House have quietly grumbled about Pelosi since suffering devastating losses on Election Day, but there is a growing number of members willing to go public on their party leaders.

And it seems so disconcerting for Democrats to have lost faith in a pathetic old leftist whose signature achievement is warbling "We have to pass the bill to find out what's in it" like Katherine Hepburn.

The 74-year-old Pelosi’s hold on power seems secure, but buy-in from her conference is shaken... “When any party suffers two comprehensive midterm defeats, as we did, you’re going to have soul-searching and you’re going to have finger-pointing and I think that’s natural,” added Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) “I would hope that we will create a mechanism for rational analysis of what went wrong and why and what we can do to take correct measures to be successful in 2016 and beyond.”

Connolly and other lawmakers had suggested that the next DCCC chairman be elected by rank-and-file members, instead of being handpicked by Pelosi...

I like the phrase "a mechanism for rational analysis." Of course, "rational analysis" being a known strength of a political party that rejects logic, reason, and all of human history.

Pelosi even told POLITICO that she might have thought about retiring if Democrats had won the House, but she needs to stay all the more because the party lost seats. That comment caused some eyes to roll in Democratic circles.

“If we had lost 30 or 40 seats, rather than the dozen we lost, then [Pelosi] would have said she’s never leaving,” joked one Democrat, speaking on condition of anonymity. “If we keep losing seats, she’ll be here until she’s 90.”

Well, this calls for another face-lift, eh, Stretch?

...[Outgoing Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve] Israel also has started to try to stem frustrations from Democratic donors, who are upset with the elections. The New York Democrat held a conference call last Thursday to talk about the midterm results. Not everybody’s concerns have been quelled. Several Democratic lobbyists, who cut large contributions to the party committee and to candidates and lawmakers, said Pelosi and the DCCC in the 2016 cycle will have to make the case that they have a credible plan in place before they open their checkbooks again.

Some Democrats privately complained that Israel told rank-and-file lawmakers last week that he couldn’t tell them how bad things were across the country before the election, although Israel vehemently denied that accusation.

Geez, Nahanni! You finished the popcorn? Where'd you hide the Twizzlers?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

FUTURE WAR IN SPACE: China Aggressively Tests New Anti-Satellite Weapons as Obama Unilaterally Disarms America

By Investor's Business Daily

Defense: Members of Congress warn that the State Department is working on arms accords to demilitarize space and ban anti-satellite weapons, leaving Russia and China with a huge lead in military space capabilities.

On Jan. 17, 2012, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement announcing the Obama administration's intention to work with the European Union on an International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. It was supposed to be sort of a "rules of the road" for space-faring nations to deal with issues such as the accumulating space junk jeopardizing satellites and manned space activities such as the International Space Station.

It soon became apparent that the vague, loosely worded and allegedly nonbinding accord that would be negotiated would become a pretext to restrict the so-called militarization of space. In 2007, a successful Chinese test of an anti-satellite weapon against an aging weather satellite spewed tens of thousands of pieces of debris into low-Earth orbit, posing a hazard. Space treaty advocates felt that space was getting crowded enough without militarizing it.

However, a 2012 EU analysis of the draft code provided to the House Armed Services Committee at the time warned that if the U.S. "were to make a good-faith effort at implementing the requirements of the draft code," it would have an impact on U.S. military operations.

GRIM MILESTONE: Public Loathing of Obamacare Hits New High

Paraphrasing Jammie, "What do these stupid Americans know, anyway?"

As New Enrollment Period Starts, ACA Approval at 37%


As the Affordable Care Act's second open enrollment period begins, 37% of Americans say they approve of the law, one percentage point below the previous low in January. Fifty-six percent disapprove, the high in disapproval by one point.

...Approval has been in the low 40% or high 30% range after a noticeable dip that occurred in early November 2013. This was shortly after millions of Americans received notices that their current policies were being canceled, which was at odds with President Barack Obama's pledge that those who liked their plans could keep them. The president later said, by way of clarification, that Americans could keep their plans if those plans didn't change after the ACA was passed.

The current 37% reading comes on the heels of last week's midterm elections, in which Republicans won full control of both houses of Congress. Already, party leaders are discussing efforts to repeal the unpopular law.

Repeal is highly unlikely, given Obama's veto power, but the law's new low in approval -- and new high in disapproval (56%) -- could potentially have an impact on its future.

This is so odd: who could have predicted that a 2,200-page bill, that not a single Democrat read and which attempted to centrally manage one-sixth of the U.S. economy, would have turned out to be a complete and utter clusterbungle?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Chicago's Impending Pension Catastrophe, Visualized

By Ted Ballantine, Pension360.org

Among the country’s largest cities, Chicago’s per-capita pension debt is unmatched — in a bad way. Check out the chart below to see just how much pension debt each person in Chicago is shouldering compared to other large cities.

Here’s how Chicago’s unfunded liabilities broke down by system as of 2012, according to the city’s website:

– Municipal Employees’ Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago (MEABF): $8.2 billion

– Laborers’ & Retirement Board Employees’ Annuity & Benefit Fund (LABF): $0.9 billion

– Policemen’s Annuity & Benefit Fund (PABF): $7.0 billion

– Firemen’s Annuity & Benefit Fund (FABF): $3.1 billion

– Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF): $7.1 billion

– Park Employees Annuity and Benefit Fund (PEABF): $0.4 billion

 
Read more Ted Ballantine at Pension360. A few states consistently pop up as having the most pension debt. Hawaii isn’t always on that list. But it should be. Read… Hawaii: Fiscal “Sinkhole State”

Larwyn's Linx: Obama Just Stepped in a Pile of Gruber

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

Nation

Obama Just Stepped in a Pile of Gruber: Breitbart
Obama now allowing Central American youth to legally come to U.S.: Times
Lying Liar Obama on Gruber Videos: “I just heard about this”: JWF

No, the GOP should NOT choose Obamacare Capitulation: Aaron Gardner
Immigration Reform: Obama’s payoff to far left activists: RS
Dear Black People: Democrats Are About To Break Up With You: Derek Hunter

Obama met with Ferguson protesters to cheer them on: GWP
DHS Head: Terrorists Crossing Border Illegally OK If They’re Kurds: Sara Noble
Staging Near Ferguson: III Percent

The Obamacare "Architect" Lets Us in on the Joke: DiploMad
‘Has Gruber-gate Scuttled Mitt, 2016?’: Ed Driscoll
How Democrats Defeated Themselves: Star Parker

Economy

House continues ban on earmarks: RS
Why are many blue cities unaffordable to the middle class?: DHB
Italy’s Crazy New Economy from Hell: Wolf Street

Scandal Central

Jonathan Gruber cashed in even more than previously thought: Michelle Malkin
Muslims forcibly remove Christian woman at Washington National Cathedral: FAM
Gruber Didn’t Disclose His HHS Contract To The NEJM Back In July: David Dayen (2010)

Climate & Energy

New term: ‘Grubering’ and how it applies to Climate Alarmism: WUWT
Obama Flips the Bird at Canada: IOTWReport

Media

Brit Hume brilliantly ties Gruber to liberal ideology in less than 30 seconds: Scoop
Two Politico headlines four months apart show how media is helping Obama cover up Gruber’s involvement: Scoop
DEA agents raid NFL medical staffs after games: AP

Parrots, Whores, and Clowns: Barack Obama’s Press Corps: Erick Erickson
CBS’s Bob Schieffer Was Shocked, SHOCKED Upon Hearing Jonathan Gruber’s ObamaCare Remarks: Treehouse
Incredible Graphc of the Week: Ace

World

Petulance Down Under – Obama Exemplifies Stompy Feet Diplomacy In Australia: Treehouse
Iran TV airs Muslim cleric’s threats to raze Tel Aviv, target US bases: JihadWatch
Imagine a Nuclear Iran: IOTWReport

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

State Department and White House Networks Hacked at the Same Time: DefenseOne
BTS: Creating a Sports Action Shot Using 3D Printed Figurines: PetaPixel
Radical advice for tech companies: Put the designer in charge: GeekWire

Cornucopia

So Awesome! This School Lets Students Pose With Something Extra on Picture Day: Insider
The irony and the odyssey: Sondrakistan
Gratitude: Ace

Image: US Review of IS Video Confirms American's Death
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Tech News

QOTD: "Nobody I know was fooled by the arguments in favor of Obamacare. Polls consistently showed a supermajority of the American people against Obamacare. The only ones for it were those who thought--maybe correctly--that they would get something for free for which "others" would pay.

The progressives arguing in favor of Obamacare, in fact, were either stupid or dishonest. That is the choice they have. The rest of us know and knew it as a scam. Had the American people been allowed to vote on Obamacare, and not just a cabal of dishonest and stupid politicians under the leadership of Reid and Pelosi, is there any doubt what would have happened to it?

It is imperative that the new Republican Congress keep quoting Gruber and launch a relentless effort to dismantle the Obamacare abomination." --W. Lewis Amselem

Sunday, November 16, 2014

MARK LEVIN: Democrats "should thank God every single day that we are a peaceful, law-abiding people"

By Mark Levin


You heard Donald Berwick, who flat-out stated that the purpose of government-run health care is to redistribute wealth, is to redistribute services. Then you heard Obama lie about every aspect of this law that they were constructing and promoting, every piece of it -- you could keep your doctor, you could keep your policy, your costs will go down $2,500 a year per family, it would reduce the annual deficit and the overall debt -- just absurd.

Now you're going to hear from Gruber, Professor Gruber again with one additional audio, telling you, bragging about how he lied, how Obamacare as told to you was a fiction, and how the statute itself, its complexity, its length, was used to bamboozle you. And I want to add this -- not only was the President of the United States behind this, the entire Democrat party, the entire media, they were all behind it. They were all behind it. Jonathan Gruber -- pro-fessa, MIT.

And by the way, the man who uncovered this is a patriot citizen outside of Philadelphia. If you go to my social sites, marklevinshow/facebook, marklevinshow/twitter, I link to a story by Bloomberg News about this gentleman. He lost his health care and literally, in his basement, maybe it's his mother's basement, he wanted to know who the people were who were the architects behind this and he started to dig and dig and dig and he listened to these long speeches. He's the one that came up with this! Not a single major news service -- because they didn't care. They're cheerleaders -- they are Praetorian Guard media. I told you, the media created Obama, they're not going to destroy him. You've heard some of this but again, I'm making the case, one step at a time.