The Content Of Our Character

Works and Days » What We Do Not Want to Hear Anymore: "Human nature and the laws of physics, not technocratic liberalism, are still the best guides to the madness around us. Money borrowed has to be paid back or the debt eaten by someone, period. Poverty is defined by a want of material necessities, not by lacking the appurtenances that someone else better off enjoys. Gas and oil are miracle fuels and it is very hard to find alternate energies at comparable costs and reliability. And as a rule, the green class of environmental elites usually uses more fossil fuels per capita than do the muscular classes who mine and drill them out of the ground — and who do not jet, drive, or live in the comparable fashion of their critics. The content of our character alone matters; those who are not so confident in their own, usually demand that their tribal affiliations be essential and not incidental to their personas. Most accept that culture, not race matters, but it matters still more not to say that. Most of the political class has no interest in history; dogma is their creed. They assume that everyone (far less noble than themselves) in the past would have agreed with them, or now can be postfacto made to agree with them."

Better late for MLK day than never by VDH... And O Duce the tinpot dictator remains a permanent no show.

Read More......

Al Qaeda Spring

Islamist Egyptian MP calls for Zawahiri's return - The Long War Journal: "A member of the newly elected Egyptian parliament has called for al Qaeda's emir to return to the country "with his head held high and safely."

Aboud al Zomor, who served as the first emir of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and was later imprisoned for his role in President Anwar Sadat's assassination, said that he welcomes Ayman al Zawahiri's return to Egypt and that he would be given safe haven, according to a report published yesterday in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. The report was translated from Arabic by the Foundation For Defense of Democracies."

The perfect title supplied by one of the commenters at the post.

The eternal question: Is O Duce a stupid puppet or is this his plan? Both?

Read More......

Pies In The Faces O The Innumerate

Bill Whittle: The Wealth Redistribution Pump » The Right Scoop -: "Talk about a reality check. Bill Whittle breaks down where our tax money goes and exactly why we’re headed for collapse if we don’t fix it. And the ‘it’ I refer to , he says, is going to be very difficult to fix:"

Read More......

Belching In Lilliput

The State of Our Union Is Broke - National Review Online: "An honest leader would feel he owed it to the citizenry to impress upon them one central truth — that we can’t have any new programs because we’ve spent all the money. It’s gone. The cupboard is bare. What’s Obama’s plan to restock it? “Right now, Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary,” the president told us. “Asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.”

But why stop there? Americans need affordable health care and affordable master’s degrees in Climate Change and Social Justice Studies, so why not take everything that Warren Buffett’s got? After all, if you confiscated the total wealth of the Forbes 400 richest Americans it would come to $1.5 trillion.

Which is just a wee bit less than the federal shortfall in just one year of Obama-sized budgets. 2011 deficit: $1.56 trillion. But maybe for 2012 a whole new Forbes 400 of Saudi princes and Russian oligarchs will emigrate to the Hamptons and Malibu and keep the whole class-warfare thing going for a couple more years.

The so-called “Buffett Rule” is indicative not so much of “common sense” as of the ever widening gap between the Brobdingnagian problem and the Lilliputian solutions proposed by our leaders. Obama can sacrifice the virgin daughters of every American millionaire on the altar of government spending and the debt gods will barely notice so much as to give a perfunctory belch of acknowledgement."

Remember Haavaad?

Read More......

The Debt Generation

Whoa!… Must See – Tennessee College Republicans Release “The Debt Generation” (Video) | The Gateway Pundit: "THE BEST 1 Minute 19 Seconds YOU WILL SPEND TODAY- This video was made by Tennessee College Students."

Read More......

Cattle To The Abbatoire

F.A. Hayek On "The Great Utopia" | ZeroHedge: "There can be no doubt that most of those in the democracies who demand a central direction of all economic activity still believe that socialism and individual freedom can be combined. Yet socialism was early recognized by many thinkers as the gravest threat to freedom.

It is rarely remembered now that socialism in its beginnings was frankly authoritarian. It began quite openly as a reaction against the liberalism of the French Revolution. The French writers who laid its foundation had no doubt that their ideas could be put into practice only by a strong dictatorial government. The first of modern planners, Saint-Simon, predicted that those who did not obey his proposed planning boards would be "treated as cattle."

Nobody saw more clearly than the great political thinker de Tocqueville that democracy stands in an irreconcilable conflict with socialism: "Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom," he said. "Democracy attaches all possible value to each man," he said in 1848, "while socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.""

Moo.

Read More......

Extinguishing Politics

Obama follows the progressive president’s model of martial language - The Washington Post: "War, said James Madison, is “the true nurse of executive aggrandizement.” Randolph Bourne, the radical essayist killed by the influenza unleashed by World War I, warned, “War is the health of the state.” Hence Barack Obama’s State of the Union hymn: Onward civilian soldiers, marching as to war.

Obama, an unfettered executive wielding a swollen state, began and ended his address by celebrating the armed forces. They are not “consumed with personal ambition,” they “work together” and “focus on the mission at hand” and do not “obsess over their differences.” Americans should emulate troops “marching into battle,” who “rise or fall as one unit.”

Well. The armed services’ ethos, although noble, is not a template for civilian society, unless the aspiration is to extinguish politics."

Read More......

More ChicagO Way

Ace of Spades HQ: "Democrats are just a collection of rent-seekers, beak-dippers, and vig-skimmers, who have convinced themselves that it is not only acceptable that they should collect rents, dip their beaks, and collect a vig on everyone else's transactions, but that to deny them such rents, dippings, and vigs constitutes the most hateful, vicious, and fundamentally un-American behavior they can conceive.

If a guy comes over to your business and begins demanding that you do x and pay y tithe to group z, and is all up in your grill about it, you'd probably either call the cops or spare them the trouble by getting out your gun and telling the miscreant to remove himself from your site or be removed from the earth.

But these cats get a degree in Public Policy and worm themselves up the Media-Distributionist Complex, and suddenly that behavior isn't merely legal -- now they've got the coercive force of the government on their side."

Communism begins with a gun ... socialism ends with one.

Read More......

Not Quite Up To Later German Accomplishments?

Will German Politicians Wreck Europe To Save Their Own Skins? | Via Meadia: "German politicians from Chancellor Merkel down love to talk about their dedication to Europe and their desire to see the current crisis resolved through the strengthening of European institutions. If this is sincerely their belief and not a shallow pose, they can begin by taking public responsibility for their own very considerable part in creating the European crisis, explain to German voters that Germans are going to have to pony up to save their banking system from the consequences of bad regulation and stupid loans, and come up with a much more just and reasonable approach to the European crisis than anything they have yet proposed.  That solution will certainly include many of the reforms Germany advocates today, but it will also include measures that share the sacrifices far more equally and fairly than anything the Germans have yet been willing to conceive.

If Germany’s leaders don’t do this, they stand exposed as spineless opportunists who are genuinely ready to wreck Europe to preserve their miserable political careers. This is Kaiser Wilhelm class political irresponsibility and incompetence, if not quite up to later German accomplishments."

I'd chuckle but we all know where this goes if the chuckle is misplaced...

Read More......

Twitter's End

News from The Associated Press: "NEW YORK (AP) -- Twitter, a tool of choice for dissidents and activists around the world, found itself the target of global outrage Friday after unveiling plans to allow country-specific censorship of tweets that might break local laws.

It was a stunning role reversal for a youthful company that prides itself in promoting unfettered expression, 140 characters at a time. Twitter insisted its commitment to free speech remains firm, and sought to explain the nuances of its policy, while critics - in a barrage of tweets - proposed a Twitter boycott and demanded that the censorship initiative be scrapped.

"This is very bad news," tweeted Egyptian activist Mahmoud Salem, who operates under the name Sandmonkey. Later, he wrote, "Is it safe to say that (hash)Twitter is selling us out?""

Yes, that would be safe to say.

Did I forget to mention that O Duce's "Arab Spring" is rapidly becoming the bonfire of the Jews and Christians?

O, who could have seen it coming?

Read More......

A Drowning Allegory

Saving Private Fido: "At this point, I took out my cell phone and called 911. Dog rescue not being its line of work, the dispatcher referred me to Animal Control. Animal Control, I soon learned, only controlled animals from Monday to Friday. This was a Saturday. I explained that, without AC’s intervention, this dog would surely drown. I was told that the pup had better keep swimming until Monday.

If I ever needed reminding that the words “compassion” and “government” should never appear in the same sentence, this was it. Although individual employees may have good instincts, actual compassion is a job requirement in no government office I know of. If an employee’s good heart survives union restraints and bureaucratic imperatives, it is a miracle worth celebrating. There were to be no miracles that Saturday at Animal Control."

Read More......

Fair Play My *ss

BHO’s idea of ‘fair play’: "As Osnos relates, Crown Publishing offered Obama a seven-figure deal for subsequent books. Knowing that his loyal, hardworking agent, Jane Dystel, would get 15 percent of that, Obama promptly dumped her and hired a by-the-hour attorney.

To avoid congressional disclosure and reporting requirements Obama inked the deal after his election but before being sworn in as senator.

To his credit, despite being an un-closeted liberal, Osnos publicly scolded Obama for his “ruthlessness” and “his questionable judgment about using public service as a personal payday.”

Dystel’s 15 percent would have netted her at least another $500,000 in royalties had Obama not forsaken her. Dystel did not return my emails or my subsequent phone call.

I would like to know how she feels about the Obama’s plan for a country, “where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”"

Gawd, what a slime ball O Duce is.

Read More......

NewsBusted: A Tale O Five Wars

NewsBusted 1/10/12 - YouTube: "NewsBusted 1/10/12"

The first one is perfect.

Read More......

Moron Joe's Bankrupt Future O "Enron 1"

Belmont Club » “Enron 1″: "Although Audi of America chief says ‘that anybody who buys the car is an idiot’ because ‘no one will be willing to pay the expected $40,000 base price of the Volt when the cars it’s competing with are $15,000 less’, he is definitely wrong because “General Motors will buy a Chevrolet Volt back from any owner who is afraid the plug-in extended-range electric car will catch fire, the company’s CEO told the Associated Press today.”

Here’s Vice President Joe Biden at another speech mispronouncing Enr1 as Enron 1."

God what a dipstick this man is. You know the world has become an irredeemable cesspool when I would have no choice but to defend O Duce with my life if only to keep this moron from ending up President.

And what more evidence can you possibly need that O Duce has the judgment of a turnip?

Hell. O. Earth.

Read More......

Debt Limit

DEBT LIMIT - A GUIDE TO AMERICAN FEDERAL DEBT MADE EASY. - YouTube: "A satirical short film taking a look at the national debt and how it applies to just one family."

Perfect.

Read More......

Barbarians at the Gates O Envy

The Anticapitalists: Barbarians at the Gate | Larry Sechrest - YouTube: "The Anticapitalists: Barbarians at the Gate | Larry Sechrest"

A wonderful perspective on the some of the key insights of Ludwig von Mises including on socialism, envy and ignorance -- which brought to mind another must read about the envious primitive liberal mind:

Any human emotion can become destructive by degree. Economist Young Back Choi thinks that envy is particularly destructive because it “is man's desire to eliminate others' relative gains even if he would become absolutely worse off in the process.” We see this in the original Ultimatum game. And we see it in the brutal consequences of Stalin and Mao. "Because a certain degree of selfless behavior is essential to the smooth performance of any human group,” writes Natalie Angier in The New York Times, “selflessness run amok can crop up in political contexts. It fosters the exhilarating sensation of righteous indignation, the belief in the purity of your team and your cause and the perfidiousness of all competing teams and causes."

Understood this way, envy, despite its evolutionary rationale, does not seem very sane. Perhaps we should hope that any given person is likely to be a little better off over time, even if some are a lot better off (even if this goes against the emotional grain). Alas, a positive-sum orientation is neither a feature of the egalitarian ethos, nor any politics of envy. And this is just one aspect of the trouble with the Stone Age Trinity as it gets institutionalized. “Envy is appeased only at equality, regardless of the absolute level of consumption,” adds Choi. “’Only those societies that have been able to develop sufficient means to mitigate the destructive forces of envy have been able to build civilizations and prosper. Anthropologists have documented that two of the most distinguishing features of poor societies are the relative free expression of envy and the universal fear of envy on the part of those who come to have above-average gains.”

Envy can creep into both our politics and our personal lives. So also can envy’s sister emotions, guilt and indignation. All three are facets of a brain that was sculpted by millennia in a mostly zero-sum environment. But now we can live in a positive-sum world.

RTWT.

Read More......

Go Jan! (and Eric)

Brewer releases copy of letter she handed to Obama: "She repeatedly skewers the president in the book, painting a different picture of her June 2010 Oval Office meeting with Obama than she did in media interviews after the event, when she told media it "was a successful meeting, and I'm encouraged by that."

In the book, however, the governor criticizes Obama for publicly mocking the state and SB 1070. She said Obama was condescending towards her during their 2010 meeting and lectured her about his efforts for comprehensive immigration reform.

"It wasn't long before I realized I was hearing the president's stump speech," the book said. "Only I was supposed to listen without talking. He was patronizing."

And after Wednesday's encounter, she called Obama disrespectful because he walked away from her in mid-sentence.

"Well, I would never have walked away from anybody having a conversation," she said. "And, of course, that is what it is. It is disrespectful for me.""

You can vote for this crypto-Marxist nutjob all you want. Frankly, if you don't stop being just another emotional wreck of a child you'll deserve to end up freezing in the dark which is exactly where you'll be in O Duce's new Police and Poverty States of America.
I know, I know. This video was fabricated by us fascist, racist libertarians, huh? Did I forget to mention that liberal atheists are actually the worst kind of irrational religious nuts? Why else would they support the "twelvers" rights to nukes after all?

Eric Blair had you nailed 70 years ago and nothing has changed:

The idea that you can somehow remain aloof from and superior to the struggle, while living on food which British sailors have to risk their lives to bring you, is a bourgeois illusion bred of money and security.

Oh let me guess, you're now sneering at me because I'm quoting some unknown moron named Eric Blair.

Next I'll be asking when the last time was that you read "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism". Hah! What a simpleton I am. O Duce's a centrist! What a stupid conspiracy theory moron thing to ask! How superior you in your mirth.

Who's the moron again?

Read More......

On The Other Side

PJ Media » Obama: Iran Has Nuclear Rights; I Did Not Want to Sanction Its Bank: "Ebarhimi also disclosed another important point that the Swiss diplomat delivered: Obama said that “I didn’t want to impose sanctions on your central bank, but I had no options but to approve it since a Congress majority had approved the decision.”

Last month, the Obama administration pressed key Democrats on the defense bill conference committee to get their colleagues to water down the strong sanctions language against Iran, which passed the Senate by a 100-0 vote as part of the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill. The administration, threatening a veto, managed to delay the implementation of sanctions and penalties from 60 to 180 days in the final draft, also allowing the president to waive those penalties for national security reasons or if it would harm the global economy."

Don't get me wrong -- I take second place to no man in my contempt and disgust at the evil Iranian thugocracy and am hardly inclined to believe anything they say except believe them when they say they want to kill me. But if this is actually true, Obama should not just be impeached but in solitary confinement. And that's being generous.

Read More......

Only Misunderstandings

Rubin Reports » Obama’s State of the Union Speech: My Response Discovers Some Curious Insights and Strange Formulations: "There’s something else I find fascinating and generally ignored about this speech. All presidents, of course, want to put the accent on the positive. But with Obama I don’t see any real consideration of threats and problems. Yes, he mentions al-Qaida and the Taliban (no longer a problem, he says) and Iran (under control and they will be pressed into making a deal), and democratic transitions (we don’t know what will happen but…).

Nevertheless, America faces no real threats or enemies. revolutionary Islamism doesn’t exist as an issue; Russia poses no problem; Chavez and Castro and various other dictators are vanished; even underdevelopment or instability aren’t mentioned. There is a Pollyanna aspect to Obama arising from his belief that everything would be okay as long as America behaves properly and he is president.  In his world there are no real conflicts; few true enemies but only misunderstandings.  With Obama the problem is not merely his politics and views but also his total lack of true understanding about international affairs, security issues, and strategy."

What to do?

What to do with me, a green young man

Who fails to consider the

Flim and flam of the world, since

Things have been easy for me"

You're whistling past the graveyard if you think this ends well for the country.

Read More......

More Egyptian Rivers

A State of Denial - By Yuval Levin - The Corner - National Review Online: "These projections, especially compared to our fiscal circumstances in past years, also make a mockery of the now familiar nostalgia with which the president opened his speech—harkening back to the meteoric growth of the immediate postwar era in America. Even if his wistful reminiscences of that bright yesterday were better grounded in reality, the fact is that we simply cannot recreate the economic circumstances of those years, when America’s global competitors had just burned each other’s economies to the ground while ours stood ready gallop ahead. It is true that the unique explosive growth of those years also allowed for major expansions of government spending, and persisted despite fairly heavy tax and regulatory burdens. But that does not mean that it was caused by that spending or those burdens. It obviously wasn’t. And under very different circumstances, in which we must effectively compete and innovate in order to grow, we cannot afford such spending or such burdens. We must find other paths to broadly shared prosperity.

But the president does not seem interested in finding those paths. Instead, he prefers to shadowbox the familiar bogeymen held up by progressives for a century and more. Indeed, his striking appeals to replace our raucous republican politics with the model of military discipline at the beginning and the end of the speech offered conspicuous echoes of the progressive longing to overcome politics."

Come to think of it, my reference to "denial is not a river in Egypt" is quite apt. He's also got his head in the sand that the new Islamist government in Egypt is about to make a mockery of his "Arab Spring". Or was that his purpose? And is he a good Alinskyite in misdirecting the Snooky watchers while he craters the economy?

You dismiss Obama's idol Alinsky's dedication of "Rules for Radicals" to Lucifer at your own risk...

Read More......

Leave It To Us Goaltenders

Thomas statement on White House absence - NHL.com - News: "Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas released the following statement Monday evening regarding his absence from the Bruins' visit to the White House this afternoon:

"I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People.

This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government.

Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.

This is the only public statement I will be making on this topic. TT""

Once upon a time at a very young age I was a goaltender too. And not entirely bad at it either. Today Thomas' makes me glad to be part of an unexpectedly proud fraternity.

Read More......

COTD: They Can't Be Any Worse

EIA estimates California Monterey to have four times the technically recoverable oil of the North Dakota Bakken oil field: "So there are several billions of dollars worth of oil, and the only thing standing in the way is the current government of California?  After the cartels take over Mexico they can move north.  I'm strangely comfortable with it, they can't be any worse than the Democrats."

Which reminds me of this nice little ditty on libs that just popped up in American Thinker. Here's a sample:

That you can grow the entitlement class beyond the taxpayer class and never hit critical mass where there is no money left.

That using the military to oust a murderous thug dictator in 2003 was criminal, and using the military to oust a murderous thug dictator in 2011 was noble.

That the best way to grow the wealth of the private sector is to take all the money out of it.

That the best way to make us energy independent is to block any effort to produce more petrocarbons in this country.

That the best way to create jobs is to increase taxes and regulations on the job creators.

That the best way to stop arms from this country from getting into the hands of the drug cartels in Mexico is to provide arms to the drug cartels in Mexico.

That all the ills of the economy are due to the fat cat banks and other corporations, and the best way to deal with that is to provide billions in bailouts to the fat cat banks and other corporations.

Check it out. I did something similar a few years back that may remind you of some history long since flushed down the memory hole...

Read More......

Speaking O Watermelon Religion

Armed and Dangerous » Blog Archive » The Varieties of Anti-Intellectualism: "There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who “love Nature” while deploring the ‘artificialities’ with which “Man has spoiled ‘Nature’.” The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of ‘Nature’ – but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers’ purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the ‘Naturist’ reveals his hatred for his own race – i.e., his own self-hatred.

In the case of ‘Naturists’ such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and comtempt are the most they rate.

As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. sapiens is the only race I have or can have. Fortunately for me, I like being part of a race made up of men and women – it strikes me as a fine arrangement and perfectly ‘natural.’

Believe it or not, there were ‘Naturists’ who opposed the first flight to old Earth’s Moon as being ‘unnatural’ and a ‘despoiling of Nature.’
—Lazarus Long"

Which I just got over ranting about here. And pointed out how corrupt it is here.

Read More......

Bibles As Weapons

The PJ Tatler » Occupy protesters use Bibles as weapons — literally: "You couldn’t ask for a more quintessentially emblematic moment to sum up the ethos behind the Occupy movement.

Friday night in San Francisco, Occupy protesters broke into an abandoned hotel, took the Bibles still remaining in the vacant rooms, climbed on the roof and attacked the police with the Bibles, along with bricks and other projectiles"

And how else could this one have been ended but thus:

Bibles as weapons.

Really, there’s nothing more that needs to be said about the Occupy movement.

But luckily, Liberal Atheism isn't a religion or anything. They're in fact paragons of rational genius.

That's why they all have jobs in advanced research labs no doubt.

That their "history" and various "social science" degrees make them eminently qualified for.

Read More......

But, But There Are Plenty O History Majors (Or Whatever) Like Our Dear Reader!

Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class - NYTimes.com: "Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale the United States could not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States.

In China, it took 15 days.

Companies like Apple “say the challenge in setting up U.S. plants is finding a technical work force,” said Martin Schmidt, associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In particular, companies say they need engineers with more than high school, but not necessarily a bachelor’s degree. Americans at that skill level are hard to find, executives contend. “They’re good jobs, but the country doesn’t have enough to feed the demand,” Mr. Schmidt said."

And again:

“We shouldn’t be criticized for using Chinese workers,” a current Apple executive said. “The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need.”

RTWT. At least you could argue that a history major who actually knew history was worth something somewhere. But the neo-Marxist bullcr*p that's taught in the U.S. now is worse than useless. It makes you quite literally retarded.

Oh, and it's not cool to be smart in the U.S. If you don't believe me I suggest you follow my teenagers around for a few minutes.

For the latest related perspective from ESR on how we got into this nightmare check this out and then follow the links to "Gramscian Damage" and "Suicidalism". If they don't wake you up you're irredeemable. (Please note that ESR is an atheist. I also recommend reading ESR's comments since they're a paragon of the way things should be compared to the sludge, hatred and ignorance that infect most sites.)

Oh, I know it's more important to be part of the tribe's religion. Yes, Liberal Atheism is a religion no matter how much you doth protest. (The Dominionist's are coming to end the world!)

And the Watermelon religion -- which the Times dare not mention as one of the other huge factors driving Apple overseas.

And the U.S. tax code's effect on corporations somehow went down the memory hole as a factor too. Nary a peep from the NYeT of course.

Sorry to interrupt Dancing with the Stars. I know that's an important distraction that helps you drown out your conscience.

If you still have one.

Read More......

China's Boom

How China's Boom Caused the Financial Crisis - By Heleen Mees | Foreign Policy: "The immediate cause of the housing bubbles in the United States and the eurozone periphery was not regulatory oversight failure, but the precipitous drop in interest rates in the early 2000s. And the country that bears partial responsibility for depressing interest rates is a traditional punching bag in the American political arena, one that has somehow avoided most of the blame in this round: China. The ascendance of the world's most populous country in the global economy not only changed the terms of trade, but it also had a considerable impact on the world's capital markets."

This article has a lot of shortcomings and can often be somewhat self-contradictory on what really happened with mortgages in the U.S., but it's worth a read -- especially for the "mask slip" that the lib's Luddite-watermelon policies have effectively been a tremendous foreign aid program for China...

Read More......

Truly A Danger

Newt Victory Speech – No More Bowing to Saudi King (Video) | The Gateway Pundit: "“An American president who can create a Chinese-Canadian partnership is truly a danger to this country.”"

He's certainly got that right.

Read More......

More Criminal Fraud From Our Bought And Paid For Government

This time from Holder and the bankster's lawyers:

So why haven’t the fraudsters running these chop shops been prosecuted by Attorney General Eric Holder, and the head of the DOJ’s criminal division Lanny Breuer?

Reuters helps explain why today:

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department’s criminal division [watch this to get a sense of Breuer], were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Who’s Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows.

The firm, Covington & Burling, is one of Washington’s biggest white shoe law firms. Law professors and other federal ethics experts said that federal conflict of interest rules required Holder and Breuer to recuse themselves from any Justice Department decisions relating to law firm clients they personally had done work for.

Both the Justice Department and Covington declined to say if either official had personally worked on matters for the big mortgage industry clients. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Holder and Breuer had complied fully with conflict of interest regulations, but she declined to say if they had recused themselves from any matters related to the former clients.

Reuters reported in December that under Holder and Breuer, the Justice Department hasn’t brought any criminal cases against big banks or other companies involved in mortgage servicing, even though copious evidence has surfaced of apparent criminal violations in foreclosure cases.

The evidence, including records from federal and state courts and local clerks’ offices around the country, shows widespread forgery, perjury, obstruction of justice, and illegal foreclosures on the homes of thousands of active-duty military personnel.

***

While Holder and Breuer were partners at Covington, the firm’s clients included the four largest U.S. banks – Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo & Co – as well as at least one other bank that is among the 10 largest mortgage servicers.

If we're lucky we won't descend below the level banana republicdom. But I'm not counting on it...

I can never repeat too often that John Adams had it right:

1 Useless man is a Shame

2 Is a Law Firm

3 Or More Is a Congress

Whether you agreed with what Adams did as President or not he had that much absolutely nailed.

Read More......

O Crimes And Looming Memory hOles

Not Just A Democrat Dirty Trick, But A Crime | Power Line: "Edwards is a former Obama staffer who directed “new media operations” for Obama in five states during the 2008 primaries. Thereafter, he was Obama’s Director of New Media for the State of Iowa. In the Democratic Party’s lexicon, “new media” apparently includes identity theft.

Edwards now works for LINK Strategies, a Democratic consulting firm with extraordinarily close ties to Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin. Its principal, Jeff Link, has served as Harkin’s campaign manager and chief of staff. Link, too, is a former Obama staffer. The LINK Strategies web site says that Jeff Link “served as a media consultant to the Obama for President Campaign, coordinating branding, all paid media and polling in 25 states, including seven battleground states (VA, NC, FL, CO, NM, NV, MT)….”

That Edwards allegedly tried to steal the Secretary of State’s identity in order to frame Schultz for “unethical behavior in office” is no coincidence. Iowa Democrats, as Kevin Hall of the Iowa Republican points out, have mounted a campaign of false accusations against Schultz"

Needless to say, if Nixon was president and Edward's was a Republican, this would be the only thing you would be hearing or reading about from the fifth column. As it is, my bet is you will never hear about it again and anyone who brings it up will get the same treatment that Edward's just happened to be caught at this time. So unfortunately Hinderaker is wrong when he closes the post this way:

Much like Watergate, which began with a seemingly simple (if puzzling) burglary and ultimately unraveled the Nixon administration, it is impossible to say how far the trail of criminality will go if the Edwards case is pursued aggressively. Will that happen? I don’t know; stay tuned.

But I wish we lived in a world where he was right.

You thought my recent post was over the top? Au contraire. And unfortunately this recent one will be buried also.

RTWT.

Read More......

Unhinged

Shit Liberals Say: "Pretty good."

Perfect.

Read More......

The Criminal Controlling The Criminal In The White House

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MORE OF THIS ADMINISTRATION’S LOUSY ENERGY POLICY: North Dakota Stuck Using More-Costly Railroads t…: "MORE OF THIS ADMINISTRATION’S LOUSY ENERGY POLICY: North Dakota Stuck Using More-Costly Railroads to Move Oil. “Right now, about 25% of North Dakota’s oil travels by rail. According to the CBS News report that ‘will increase exponentially with increased oil production and the shortage of pipelines.’”

UPDATE: Reader Jack Lillywhite emails:

And who has a big stake in Burlington Northern? A guy in Omaha named Buffett.

And by having TransCanada tie its Keystone XI to the border crossing approval you can’t get a segmented line from Montana to Port Arthur, TX that the Bakken field could tie into. That is the concept. A collector system named the BakkenLink runs down to Montana from ND and ties into Keystone XI (known as MarketLink). A twofer you might say.

So, in a way it is a Win-Win for Obama – He wins his Green base and his Crony Capitalism base. Pretty clever, eh?

They win, we lose. As usual.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:00 am"

Feeling hosed yet? You're insensate if you aren't.

Read More......

The Jobs Humans Won't Do

Re: The More the Merrier? - By Mark Steyn - The Corner - National Review Online: "You have a point to this extent. Sooner or later, some or other nation will figure a way to buck demography. I would reckon the Japanese will be first, if only because they have no immigrants, don’t want any, and are sufficiently unsqueamish about these things already to be racing ahead with robot waitresses and humanoid nurses for the old folks’ home. It’s not hard to imagine Sony, Yamaha et al cheerfully applying their ingenuity to developing post-humans for “the jobs humans won’t do”.

But the rest of the west? Old and broke seems the way to bet, still frantically kicking the can down the road, even as the leg becomes too wizened, clotted and arthritic to nudge it more than another inch or two."

RTWT, it's short.

Read More......

RED ALERT: Leverage

Karl Denninger, Leverage How Cheap Money Will Destroy the World | Karl Denninger | FINANCIAL SENSE: "Leverage is an essential part of the financial system, and when used properly it allows businesses to borrow funds to invest in growth and expansion, offers opportunities for reasonably priced housing, and much more. But current imbalances in the ways in which leverage is being used by the rich and powerful in the United States and abroad have led to an alarming situation that threatens to shake the global economy to its core."

If the lefties weren't brainwashed emotional mental midgets they'd join us in taking on both Washington and Wall Street. Click on this link to listen for one of the best spent half hours of political economics you will ever invest.

See what I mean?

And then make sure all your friends do too...

Read More......

Prime Time At Last?

DoJ figure taking the 5th in Fast & Furious probe « Hot Air: "While Cunningham has the right to take the Fifth under questioning, Congress also has a duty to oversee operations within the Department of Justice, and the DoJ has a duty to answer to Congress.  A refusal to do so should mean the end of Cunningham’s employment at the DoJ; if he cannot testify before Congress about his official actions, then he should not be employed in that position any longer.

The tactic leaves Issa with another option, too.  He could offer Cunningham immunity from prosecution, which would then force him to testify before Congress about what he knew of OF&F — and perhaps more importantly, what his superiors knew about it, too.  A refusal to testify at that point would amount to contempt of Congress, for which Cunningham could find himself facing significant jail time.  That depends on how critical Issa views Cunningham to the OF&F scandal, and whether Cunningham himself was a big fish in the operation or just one of the middle men.

One point is pretty clear, though.  Officials at the DoJ involved in this operation are fearing criminal prosecution, which means that this scandal just went prime time."

If the so called media wasn't a fifth column O the regime, these nutjobs would be rotting in jail with roommates named "Tiny" top to bottom. And I do mean bottom.

Can you tell how disgusted I am to live in a banana republic?

Read More......

COTD: ChicagO

Belmont Club » A Comment About The Wrath of Iran: "RWE
2012-01-19 19:21:10
“He would get that impression in Chicago, wouldn’t he? And it would go a long way to explaining his obsession with making a deal.”

In Chicago the Mob, disguised as businessmen, very nearly took over, but were defeated. Then the New Mob took over, disguised as politicans, and remain in power to this day. Obama has learned that a Mob is always gonna take over eventually, so you either join them or beat them and become them. Or cut a deal and give them a piece of the action. That viewpoint would explain quite a lot."

Read More......

0.0081 Percent

The President’s Big Boost to Corporate Welfare - By Veronique de Rugy - The Corner - National Review Online: "Contrary to what the New York Times was reporting on Friday, President Obama’s plan to consolidate six agencies into one isn’t “an aggressive campaign to shrink the size of the federal government.” After all, we are talking about $300 million over ten years, which is 0.0081 percent of the government’s 2012 budget of $3,700,000,000,000.

In fact, I did wonder on Friday how the president could get so much news coverage considering how ridiculously small the announced savings were. Identically, I am not sure how much credit one should get for proposing to get rid of duplicative programs. It seems like the least a president should do. On the other hand, the fact that it never ends up happening is a pretty sad statement of what Washington is all about."

Is he innumerate or gobsmackingly cynical. It's not impossible he's both, is it? RTWT for more on the cynical angle...

Read More......

Intermission: iPad Rumor Mill

Report: iPad 3 in March - Technology Review: "And did Bloomberg's three sources spill the beans on any specs? They did, in fact, though they were at times vague. We can expect to see a "high-definition" screen, one with more pixels than many HD TVs, and one in which "the pixels are small enough to make the images look like printed material." A quad-core chip will enable fast toggling among applications, and extra graphics processing should mean that videos play "almost instantly."

The most intriguing detail? The iPad 3 will be compatible with LTE. Interestingly, LTE will be coming to Apple's tablet before its phone; reportedly this is because the tablet, with its larger battery, is able to run LTE without draining its juice embarrassingly quickly."

Read More......

DemocRATS At Work

VA AG Fears DC Law May Relocate Rat 'Families' to Virginia | CNSnews.com: "Cuccinelli said D.C.'s new rat law--the Wildlife Protection Act of 2010 (Wildlife Protection Act of 2010.pdf) --is “crazier than fiction” because it requires that rats and other vermin not be killed but captured, preferably in families; no glue or snap traps can be utilized; the rodents must be relocated from where they are captured; and some of these animals may need to be transferred to a “wildlife rehabilitator” as part of their relocation process.

The law does not allow pest control professionals “to kill the dang rats,” Cuccinelli told CNSNews.com. “They have to capture them--then capture them in families. [Not sure] how you’re going to figure that out with rats. And then you have to relocate them. That brings us to Virginia. Now, if you don’t relocate them about 25 miles away, according to experts, rodents will find their way back. Well, an easy way to solve that problem is to cross a river, and what’s on the other side of the river? Virginia.”"

DemocRAT reality is indeed crazier than fiction. Repubican reality is just plain stupid. (No, that's not a misspelling.)

OK, let me clarify. DemocRATS are reliably wrong on both economics and national defense. Repubicans spend much of their time trying to be like DemocRATS, only maybe a little less so.

And most inexcusable of all, Libertarians spend their time having economic freedom -- and freedom in general -- pretty much nailed but as complete babes in the woods assuming that if we're nice everyone will like us ... apparently even if they're fruit loops insane. But I despair.

I know, I know. It's really me that's the crazy one. After all, there is no such verse as the "shores of Tripoli" in the Marine hymn, huh? We were world conquering tyrants back then also, eh? (By the way, at some point around 1800 approximately 17% of our young nation's budget went into paying protection money to Islamic nut jobs ... What? That got deleted by Antonio Gramsci from your "history" textbook?)

Good Lord.

Read More......

Kick The Can (Part 89,493)

Belmont Club » Bugs vs Man or Man vs Man?: "Dr. David Shlaes, MD who blogs on the subject, recently wrote an open letter to Secretary of HHS Kathleen Sibelius. In it he concluded:

I am at a loss to explain the FDA’s lurch into Neverland as far as antibiotics are concerned. I can only assume that it is partly a response to political pressure to further distance themselves from industry and to increase their standards for both efficacy and safety. But I consider that a lack of new antibiotics is also a serious safety issue – a fact that the FDA and their congressional critics appear to be ignoring.

What Dr. Shlaes neglected to note is that a major infectious crisis caused by the lack of antibiotics has not yet broken out in the First World. So far the only people who have been condemned by a lack of treatment are poor people in the Third World. Given a choice between preparing for a future crisis and succumbing to present-day political pressure, politicians will kick the can down the road every time."

RTWT. Dead Indians? And soon to be dead Americans? Who cares when there's a re-election to be tended to? Maybe they'll mostly turn out to be stupid Republicans after all...

Read More......

Privileged

A word from William Shawcross | Power Line: "I agree with Obama that Nuremberg was a success and should not be dismissed as “victors’ justice.” But what he failed to acknowledge was that the defendants at Nuremberg had far fewer rights than those at Guantanamo under the Military Commissions created by President Bush. Indeed, were a Nazi transported by time machine from Nuremberg to Guantanamo he would be astonished by the privileges and safeguards which were suddenly available to him.

The most fundamental is this: at Nuremberg there was no right of appeal against the judgement of the Military Tribunal. By contrast anyone convicted at Guantanamo can appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. In other words he will have all the safeguards of anyone convicted in an Article III court. That is worth remembering in the months ahead as reformed military tribunals come under sustained attack from the left and from powerful human rights organisations."

Read More......

Our Tinpot Dictator

Barone: Obama's 1-man rule thumbs nose at Founders | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner: "Of course President Obama is not concentrating on campaigning, White House press spokesmen assured us -- as the president headed off to Chicago for three fundraisers and a drop-in at his campaign headquarters, two days after a high-roller fundraising choked off traffic five blocks from the White House, with the assistance of a score of D.C. police cars.

No one, or at least no one who is paying attention, is fooled. It's standard presidential procedure to say you're not absorbed in campaigning even as you go out to raise money every other day. Bill Clinton, in my view, spent an undue amount of time fundraising, George W. Bush spent more, and Barack Obama makes them both look like pikers.

So Obama's scorn for the truth in this regard is only a minor matter. His scorn for the Constitution is something else.

That scorn has been expressed most recently in his "recess" appointments of members of the National Labor Relations Board and the chairmanship of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The quotation marks are appropriate because when he made the appointments the Senate was not in recess as the Constitution requires.

Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution says that presidential appointments must be confirmed by the Senate unless Congress provides otherwise. But anticipating that the government may need officials when the Senate is available, the section further provides that "The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of the next session."

What constitutes a recess? Article I, Section 5 provides "Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days."

The House did not consent to the adjournment of the Senate this year, so there is no recess, and hence no constitutional authority to make recess appointments."

RTWT. You voted for an imperious jack*ss, didn't you? No? How else did he get elected if not by a herd of sheep?

Read More......

Velociraptors

Instapundit » Blog Archive » WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Detroit just looking worse and worse. “Rampant incompetence, administrative c…: "WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Detroit just looking worse and worse. “Rampant incompetence, administrative chaos and clueless mismanagement have so disrupted the ruined city’s faltering attempts to maintain some kind of early childhood education program that the Obama administration is threatening to close down all federal funding for early education in the once-bustling metropolis. The city is too incompetent to spend money. . . . It is hard to see how a city recovers when things have fallen this far. Detroit’s voters do not seem interested in good governance, either unwilling or unable to penalize incompetence at the polls; the political class spouts blue liberal slogans but appears to have the compassion and generosity of a pack of velociraptors; the city’s core institutions have been so corroded and degraded after decades of decline that there is little hope for improvement anytime soon. The status quo cannot stand.”

UPDATE: Reader Lloyd Daub writes: “Detroit is North Korea … with the Unions holding the same pride of place as the North Korean Army—keep them happy and they keep the kleptocracy in power. No matter who else starves.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 9:22 pm"

The velociraptor pols in Detroit need some roommates ... named "Tiny" ... in the new cells they should be forcibly removed from their cushy offices to live in...

Read More......

Belmont Club » Eleven Bullets Left in the Solyndra

Belmont Club » Eleven Bullets Left in the Solyndra: "Steven Mufson, writing in the Washington Post, noted that long before the Solyndra debacle, Washington had been in the habit of playing venture capitalist in the energy industry. It had failed in nearly every case. He cites the Clinch River Breeder reactor, synthetic fuel corporations,  the hydrogen-powered car and clean coal — projects spanning both Republican and Democratic administrations.  “Not a single one of these much-ballyhooed initiatives is producing or saving a drop or a watt or a whiff of energy, but they have managed to burn through far more more taxpayer money than the ill-fated Solyndra.”"

The physicists have nothing on leviathan in the black hole department, eh? And just so you don/t miss the grand finale:

Perhaps even the President sees it coming, hopes the crash won’t affect him politically. It was reported that administration knew in advance that Solyndra was doomed but exerted pressure on the company to keep going until the 2010 elections had passed, the better not to shake the faith of the true believers. In the end it was all about ‘optics’ and not at all about sunlight.

But you need to read everything in between. And after that, your interest will be piqued to read Folsom's "The Myth Of The Robber Barons". There was a transcontinental railroad that was successful ... James J. Hill's privately built Great Northern line!

Read More......

Bill Maher Stopped Clock Watch

Instapundit » Blog Archive » ME NEITHER: Bill Maher ‘not that upset’ if people urinate on Taliban fighters, ‘dead or alive…: "ME NEITHER: Bill Maher ‘not that upset’ if people urinate on Taliban fighters, ‘dead or alive.’ “If they were people who burn down girls’ schools you know, and do honor rapes, threw acid in people’s faces, I’m not that upset about pissing on them, dead or alive.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 2:00 pm"

Read More......

Hell On The Hudson

Bloomberg’s Law - By Mark Steyn - The Corner - National Review Online: "One of the most disturbing features of the US justice system is its ever more grotesque loss of proportion, at the federal level and in far too many states and municipalities. On his radio show this week, Derb discusses the case of Meredith Graves, the Tennessee nurse who, upon visiting the 9/11 memorial in New York and seeing the signs forbidding firearms, asked the staff if she could check her pistol (lawful and licensed in her home state). She was handcuffed, arrested, and now faces three and a half years in jail for firearms possession – for the crime of being unaware that the Second Amendment does not apply in New York City."

RTWT, it's short. And afterwards you'll understand why you'll never be voting for Bloomberg for president should he ever run.

Read More......

The Wide, Wide World ... O Envy (And Sports?)

Belmont Club » Heat Death: "One approach is fix the problem by making things “fair” — to reduce everything to a common economic temperature so that we all get more or less the same thing — from our net wages if we work or from the government if we don’t. From private jobs, which everybody knows are created by government incentives, or government jobs, which everybody knows are funded by taxing the private jobs.

The other approach is to allow a differential so that market forces are driven by forces that are trying to equalize, but never quite succeed. The first approach promises a kind of social tranquility at the cost of heat death. The second opens the path to creative destruction; to a world of striving, envy and ambition. Each approach has its own problems. The problem in the first case will be how to put the food on the table. The problem in the second case will widespread discontent because many people have nowhere near as nice a wide screen TV as their neighbors.

Which view you adopt partly answers the question of why have more than a million workers stopped looking for jobs. It describes the signals being sent out to the workforce and who from. What do you say to those people out in the dark? Is there a future for you? Or is there nothing for it but to look back in wonder?"

I'm wondering too...

Read More......

Non-entities

Instapundit » Blog Archive » SONS? President Obama: “I want my daughters treated the same way as my sons.”…: "SONS? President Obama: “I want my daughters treated the same way as my sons.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 11:38 pm"

Apparently that would be like non-entities? Maybe there is something to this Muslim rumor after all. Heh.

And he never makes any gaffes. He's perfect and you're a liar if you say otherwise...

Read More......

Wandering In The Green Desert

Instapundit » Blog Archive » #GREENFAIL: Green Tech Plus Red Tape Yields No Hope. “According to the article, the solar panels i…: "#GREENFAIL: Green Tech Plus Red Tape Yields No Hope. “According to the article, the solar panels in Death Valley have been unplugged for at least two-and-a-half years due to the various agencies tripping over one another . . . . And in the meantime, one has to wonder: if the wrangling, process crazed bureaucrats wrestling with the conflicting, nonsensical regulations and requirements issued by various state, local and federal bureaucracies can’t work out reasonable solutions to the relatively simple question involved in a no-brain solar installation in the desert, what chance is there that these same bureaucracies will redesign the American energy grid and take us to the low carbon utopia that always seems just out of reach?”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:48 am"

Not much.

Read More......

Prager On Fire

I had somehow managed to miss this:

small dead animals: Dennis Prager vs. Unhinged Leftists: "Finally, for those who have never seen it, here's the most inspiring Dennis Prager video of all:"

Just Wow.

Read More......

Suing Corzine (Not Quite Completely Guess That Party Edition) ... But Let Them Eat Cake Of Course

Farmers Sue Jon Corzine Over Missing Millions - ABC News: "Montana farmers have filed a class action suit against former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, charging that the failed financial firm run by Corzine stole millions from their accounts to pay off its spiraling debts, and that Corzine's "single-minded obsession" with making MF Global a big player on Wall Street led to the firm's collapse.

MF Global's clients included 38,000 wheat farmers, cattle ranchers and others who "hedged" their crop prices by placing millions in MF Global accounts. Those accounts were supposed to be "segregated and secure," according to the federal suit, meaning MF Global could not draw on those funds.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of all 38,000 customers, alleges that when MF Global made a series of bad investments -- notably in European debt -- it began "siphoning funds withdrawn from segregated client accounts" to cover its debts.

"This is a suit by the real victims of MF Global," said plaintiff's attorney Mark Baker of the law firm Anderson, Baker & Swanson. "The missing funds were not investments in MF Global, or loans to MF Global, but rather the customer's own money as collateral to guaranty their contracts. They were not to be used by others – let alone their own broker – to speculate on risky and exotic securities."

Shockingly, this is being reported by none other than one of the palace guard (ABC News) and shockingly the "Name That Party" game in the following paragraph is actually rectified by the word "Democrat" appearing at the end of the article!

The Montana complaint takes square aim at Corzine, alleging that the former governor longed to make MF Global a Wall Street powerhouse through a series of risky investments. The lawsuit says Corzine, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs, had a "single-minded obsession" when he took over in early 2010.

But Corzine was reckless in his zeal, according to plaintiffs' attorneys, instead trading in the risky debt of European countries. MF Global grew not through sound business, alleges the complaint, but "through Corzine's political lobbying and the commingling and looting of customers' segregated accounts."

"Once over $1.2 billion in customer accounts was unaccounted for, the Defendants were quick to bury their heads deep in the sand," the lawsuit claims.

According to the February issue of Vanity Fair, Corzine, who reportedly made over $16 million between 2010 and 2011, was shopping for a chateau in France with his wife two weeks before MF Global filed for bankruptcy.

Let them eat cake of course.

Somehow this seems appropriate, mais oui?:

Good God. Throw them all in jail. O Duce included of course.

OK. You can go back to Jersey Shore now...

Read More......

Filled In

Daley and any pretense of moderation are out at the White House - Right Turn - The Washington Post: "In the wake of the president’s extra-constitutional power grab on recess appointments and his demonization of the Republican Party, it would seem the president’s leftist instincts and advisors are fully in command. There is no pretense of trying to reach deals with the Republicans on entitlement or tax reform. The Defense Department’s budget, if the president has his way, will be cut. The base extols in the showing of no-holds-barred leftism. But now that everything is subsumed to the goal of re-election, how exactly does the undisguised lurch to the left help Obama?

Obama’s blank slate, on which moderate voters projected their aspirations, is now filled in. The resulting portrait is of a president unwilling to talk turkey to his own base, unwilling to address our debt and convinced that vilification and name calling is the key to success. Comity, the constitution or governance? Forget it. In both Obama and Newt Gingrich you now see the crystallization of lowest-common denominator politics. The politics of personal destruction? They are a matched pair, perfect practitioners of that game. Alas, the country is not better off. But boy do they feel good showing who is a force to be reckoned with."

Of course, some of us had the slate filled in correctly from the start.

Read More......

The Legend

The Claremont Institute - The Legend of the Social Liberal-Fiscal Conservative: "As a proxy measure of social conservatism, one could use the National Right to Life Committee index that rates members of Congress from 0 to 100, with 100 being a perfect pro-life score. As a proxy measure of fiscal conservatism, one could employ the National Tax Payers Union system, which grades office holders on fiscal policy, granting school-style grades that range from A to F. Senators who receive As and Bs are taxpayers' friends while those receiving Cs, Ds, and Fs are big spenders.

If the myth of the social liberal/fiscal conservative were true, we would expect to find plenty of senators who receive low marks from Right to Life, but high marks from the taxpayers group. Analysis of these scores, however, reveals that social liberals tend to be fiscal liberals and social conservatives tend to be fiscal conservatives. Of those who received a score of 60 or less from Right to Life, there is not a single senator with a taxpayer-friendly grade better than a C+. "

RTWT. Ahnuld didn't refute this, did he?

Read More......

Good God

Obama Has Learned Nothing From The Mortgage Meltdown Mess | Fox News: "Just days before Christmas, the Obama administration gave Bank of America a big lump of coal, levying a hefty $335 million dollar fine on the company for discriminating against minorities in its lending practices. 

Supposedly Countrywide, a mortgage company bought by Bank of America in 2008, had not given out enough low interest rate loans to minorities from 2004 to 2008.

What the large fine reveals is that President Obama hasn’t learned anything from the recent financial crisis.

What the president sees as discrimination in awarding a mortgage, lenders saw as wise business decisions.

If a borrower can’t afford a down payment, Obama appears to view charging a higher interest rate as discrimination. Lenders also think that they shouldn’t treat borrowers whose sole source of income is welfare or unemployment insurance, the same as those applicants who have a job. But Obama, again, appears to view this as discrimination.

There is obviously a problem with no down payments: if the price of the house falls so that it is worth less than the loan, people will default and walk away. Similarly, when unemployment insurance or welfare runs out, borrowers might find they can’t keep paying their mortgage.

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act the Obama administration used to impose this fine was exactly what helped cause the mortgage crisis by forcing lenders to make risky loans that they didn’t want to make.

Yet, just last month, Obama put the blame for these risky loans going bad on banks for their “breathtaking greed” that “plunged our economy and the world into a crisis.”

It’s hard to believe that Countrywide, a leading lender of subprime mortgages, wasn’t already doing too much to make these risky loans. Indeed, it was the poster child for doing what the government wanted."

Mental midget? Or devil incarnate? I have to pick the latter because even I don't believe he's that stupid.

Although his "poetry" does give me second thoughts... Did I forget to say good God?

Read More......

hOpe a dOped

Instapundit » Blog Archive » WELL, THE RESERVATIONS COULDN’T HAVE BEEN THAT BAD: With Reservations, Obama Signs Act to Allow Det…: "WELL, THE RESERVATIONS COULDN’T HAVE BEEN THAT BAD: With Reservations, Obama Signs Act to Allow Detention of Citizens.

I saw this commentary from Occupy Canada on Facebook:

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:48 am"

Glenn has this nailed so just making sure you don't miss it...

Read More......