Thursday, November 29, 2012

Uniformity

Quote by Friedrich August von Hayek: Everything which might cause doubt about the wi...: "“Everything which might cause doubt about the wisdom of the government or create discontent will be kept from the people. The basis of unfavorable comparisons with elsewhere, the knowledge of possible alternatives to the course actually taken, information which might suggest failure on the part of the government to live up to its promises or to take advantage of opportunities to improve conditions--all will be suppressed. There is consequently no field where the systematic control of information will not be practiced and uniformity of views not enforced.”

― Friedrich A. von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom"
Smile for the drones. Both in front of and above you.

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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Feeling Protected Yet?

Benghazi Blowback - By Michael Walsh - The Corner - National Review Online: "But unless this country has completely gone to the dogs, it’s inconceivable to me that a majority can stomach the notion that four Americans were murdered on sovereign American territory while the president of the United States took note, then rolled over and went to bed before flying to Las Vegas on a campaign swing, secure in the knowledge that the truth would never come out because it didn’t fit his media protectors’ beloved “narrative” that GM was alive and Osama bin Laden was dead.

But it’s not supposed to be the IC’s function to protect the executive’s reputation — it’s supposed to protect the country."
Binders, Big Bird, birth control and blame Bush. Those are the most important things...

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Surrender Your Dignity

Moonbattery » Open Thread: "Via The People’s Cube, on a tip from TED."

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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

The Welfare Cliff

It Doesn’t Pay to Work | Power Line: "[I]t is now more lucrative – in the form of actual disposable income – to sit, do nothing, and collect various welfare entitlements, than to work. This is graphically, and very painfully confirmed, in the below chart from Gary Alexander, Secretary of Public Welfare, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (a state best known for its broke capital Harrisburg). As quantitied, and explained by Alexander, “the single mom is better off earning gross income of $29,000 with $57,327 in net income & benefits than to earn gross income of $69,000 with net income and benefits of $57,045.“
This chart, created by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, explains the calculation:"
We are constantly told that it is difficult to find any state or federal spending that can possibly be cut. This suggestion is, I think, ludicrous. Let’s start by cutting welfare, and cutting it deeply. Not only because it is wasteful, but because by devaluing work it threatens to cripple not merely our economy, but our culture. An America where you are better off cashing welfare checks than working is an America that cannot long survive.
And we won't.

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Monday, November 26, 2012

You're Being Gamed

Column: Are we living in the Hunger Games?: "Washington is rich not because it makes valuable things, but because it is powerful. With virtually everything subject to regulation, it pays to spend money influencing the regulators. As P.J. O'Rourke famously observed: "When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators." But it's not just bags-of-cash style corruption. Most of the D.C. boom is from lobbyists and PR people, and others who are retained to influence what the government does. It's a cold calculation: You're likely to get a much better return from an investment of $1 million on lobbying than on a similar investment in, say, a new factory or better worker training.

So Washington gets fat, and it does so on money taken from the rest of the country: Either directly, in the form of taxes, or indirectly in the form of money that otherwise would have gone to that factory or training program.

I'm not the only one to notice this, or even to make the Hunger Games analogy. As Ross Douthat wrote, "There aren't tributes from Michigan and New Mexico fighting to the death in Dupont Circle just yet. But it doesn't seem like a sign of national health that America's political capital is suddenly richer than our capitals of manufacturing and technology and finance, or that our leaders are more insulated than ever from the trends buffeting the people they're supposed to serve.""
Du'O. RTWT.

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Sunday, November 25, 2012

Those Stupid Wingnuts ... Not

Does this mean it’s now okay to say that Obama is a redistributionist? | Power Line: "With the reelection of President Obama secured, Washington Post economics reporter Zachary Goldfarb finally identifies “the bedrock belief that has driven the president for decade” (or Obama’s “driving force,” per the web edition). That bedrock belief is that the power of the federal government must be used reduce income inequality in America. According to Goldfarb, Obama formed this belief as a child and young adult living abroad, where he observed, in Obama’s words, “the vast disparity in wealth between those who are part of the power structure and those who are outside of it.” (Apparently, Obama has been unable to distinguish the situation in the U.S. from that of Indonesia in the 1970s)."
RTWT. The liar behind the curtain revealed.

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Saturday, November 24, 2012

From My Inbox: Ode To The Welfare State

Click to enlarge and read:

Plus ca change...

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

That Stupid Gipper

Ace of Spades HQ: "Missile defense systems 1, liberal scientist critics 0. Advantage: Reality."

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Kyle Bass On The End Of The Debt Super-Cycle

Kyle Bass On The End Of The Debt Super-Cycle | ZeroHedge: "From his belief in the possibility of ongoing rate compression in developed nations and negative nominal yields in more than just Germany and Switzerland, Bass expounds on the structure of his fund (funding via low-duration 'high'-yield vehicles along with a long-short equity book and the core 'convex' Japan credit book) and how his template is playing out... must watch"
Super. And super ugly.

Oh. And if you work at it for the next 100 years you could never have the financial mastery he has in his little finger.

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With "Friends" Like This...

Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants | Politics and Law - CNET News: "Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission -- to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.

It's an abrupt departure from Leahy's earlier approach, which required police to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications. The Vermont Democrat boasted last year that his bill "provides enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by... requiring that the government obtain a search warrant.""

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Monday, November 19, 2012

Best Buds

AP’s Lee Eviscerates State Department - By Nathaniel Botwinick - The Corner - National Review Online: "Associated Press reporter Matthew Lee had a spirited argument with the State Department’s Victoria Nuland today over the administration’s refusal to condemn Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s labeling of Israel a “terrorist state.”"
And who would be one of Obama's few best buds among world leaders? Why, yes, that would be Recip of course.

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Relegated To Time's Investment Section Of Course...

Investment Advice as the U.S. Approaches a Fiscal Cliff | TIME.com: "If a country runs a deficit (as a percentage of GDP) that is equal to its growth rate, the debt level will remain constant. This year U.S. GDP will be a little less than $16 trillion, and its historical growth rate is 3.25%. That works out to what we might call a “safe” deficit of $520 billion, or even $600 billion if you allow for a little inflation. Last year, however, the U.S. deficit was $1.1 trillion — or roughly $500 billion too much.

That gap could be closed by ending all tax cuts, tax breaks and stimulus payments for everyone, according to the Tax Policy Center. But two-thirds of the burden would fall on the middle class — something both political parties want to avoid. All the proposed tax increases on the wealthy, however, even combined with the end of the payroll-tax cut, would raise only $295 billion. So unless there were spending cuts twice as big as the ones currently scheduled, the deficit would still be too large."
... so it will remain unread by libs! Did I forget to mention Haavaad Maath?

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Sunday, November 18, 2012

Graham: The Parrot Is Dead

One and One-Half Cheers For Lindsey Graham (with comment by Paul) | Power Line: "SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC; Armed Services Committee): Well, I think one of the reasons that Susan Rice told the story she did, if the truth came out a few weeks before the election that our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, had been overrun by an al Qaeda sponsored or affiliated militia, that destroys the narrative we’ve been hearing for months that al Qaeda has been dismantled, bin Laden is dead, we’re safer. And Susan Rice just did not say it was a result of a mob spawned by a video like Cairo. She actually said on Face The Nation, “I want to remind the American people this president promised to go after bin Laden, refocus on al Qaeda. He got bin Laden. Al Qaeda has been dismantled.” And the truth of the matter is nothing could’ve been further from the truth, and the story she told reinforced a political narrative helpful to the president, but disconnected from reality."
Dead, dead, dead. Dead.

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Forgive Us For Not Arresting Those Truly Responsible For This Crisis: Bankers & Politicians

Protesting Spanish Cops: "Forgive Us For Not Arresting Those Truly Responsible For This Crisis: Bankers & Politicians" | ZeroHedge: "Yesterday, in what is an appetizer to the great 2013 convergence trade (that, between the now thoroughly dead Greek and the Spanish economy, which is rapidly getting there, of course), several thousand Spanish policemen took the streets of Madrid protesting the latest round of austerity, which included frozen pensions and the elimination of the Christmas bonus (they will have many more opportunities to protest not only the loss of any future upside, but the eventual cut of existing wages and entitlements). As RT reports, protesters blew whistles, shouted slogans, and carried anti-austerity banners as they marched through the city centre to the interior ministry. But perhaps the most telling message read on one of the slogans, was the following: "Citizens! Forgive us for not arresting those truly responsible for this crisis: bankers and politicians."

And there you have the entire current clusterfuck summarized in one simple sentence: because as long as those responsible for the ongoing economic collapse, which will inevitably end in war as many have observed, Kyle Bass most recently, are not only not arrested but preserve their positions of power, any and all change will merely be cosmetic and any real change will only affect the bank accounts of the global middle class which are slowly but surely drained to zero."
Yeppers. They don't call him Zero for nothing.  As in the middle class will end up with zero by the time that he's done.  And will still be voting for him gladly from their mud huts.  Because, well, he so coooool!

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Saturday, November 17, 2012

It Begins

Rockets over Tel Aviv - YouTube: "Watch the sky as the Iron Dome shoots down a rocket over Tel Aviv."

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ZerO

Newsalert: In 37 Chicago Precincts, Romney Received No Votes: "In critical swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois there are a lot of precincts in Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Chicago which reported 100% of their votes cast for Obama. These add up to many 10's of thousands of votes for Obama and 0 for Romney. I repeat, 0 for Romney. I have read a number of articles about this and people knowlegable in Political Science and Statistics are starting to take notice of this.Statistically, even if among 10's of thousands of voters all wanted to vote for Obama, it would not be possible to receive 100% of the vote because at least a few would make a mistake and vote incorrectly for Romney. Not to mention the fact that a least a few of those 10's of thousands might actually disagree with Obama. These types of election returns are only seen in countries run by dictators."
Nada. Zip. Zilch. ZerO. Move along folks, nothing to see here...

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Goats Have The Last Laffer

RealClearMarkets - Goat Economics: Why the Laffer Curve Is No Joke: "Since raising goats is a rather simple economic activity, it is easy to model the impact of taxation on goat farming. Assuming the government comes and takes various numbers of the new goats (income) each year in goat taxes, one can easily calculate the impact of the size of the herd, and ultimately how much total revenue the government would receive over 10 years at various tax rates. It turns out that the optimum tax rate is in the 20-30% range to maximize total 10 year revenue. The reason the tax revenue drops above a 30% rate is simple. If the government takes more new goats in taxes, the goat farmer has fewer goats to breed the following year."
It's rocket science I tell ya...

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COTD: Shrugging

Belmont Club » Osama bin Laden is Dead and So Are Ho Hos: "9. Doug Fed Ex Driver calls Miller show to tell his story of following Dennis’s advice to “Shrug:”

After delivering an Obamaphone to a home sporting a High-End BMW for their mode of transport, he signed up for foodstamps to buy all the high-end items he was heretofore unable to afford.

…A gift to and from our children. (esp those who yearn to live in Greece.)"
Why not when you can get $60K a year -- minus the bureaucratic graft O course...

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Breaking The NYeT News Blockade

A picture you will never see.. | Power Line: "A PICTURE YOU WILL NEVER SEE.. …on BBC or CNN. Found on Twitter’s #Gaza hashtag, the photo below of “Israeli soldiers helping Palestinian kids escape the rockets from Gaza.”"
And normal humans know what would happen to Israeli children unlucky enough to be in Gaza. It makes me shiver.

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Friday, November 16, 2012

Wall Street Dumb

Human Beings Are Getting Dumber, Says Study | TIME.com: "The urbanization that followed the development of agriculture simplified survival by removing some of its challenges, which likely weakened natural selection’s ability to eliminate mutations associated with deficiencies in intelligence. Crabtree estimates that over the last 3,000 years (about 120 generations), humans have sustained at least two mutations that have eroded our intellectual and emotional intelligence. “A hunter-gatherer who did not correctly conceive a solution to providing food or shelter probably died, along with his or her progeny, whereas a modern Wall Street executive that made a similar conceptual mistake would receive a substantial bonus and be a more attractive mate,” Crabtree wrote in the paper. He also noted that the average Athenian from 1000 B.C. would rank among the smartest and most emotionally stable in today’s society."
Ain't that the truth.

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Thursday, November 15, 2012

Let It Burn...

Ace of Spades HQ: "I'd sure like to see this "balanced approach" Obama talks about so much, on paper. An equal amount of tax hikes and spending cuts would in fact be a far more right wing proposal than he's actually put forward. His actual plan is about as balanced as, say, France's Socialists are implementing.
The French economy has been stuck at zero percent growth for months, while unemployment has climbed to above 10 percent — and all signs point to an oncoming recession. Sounds like a plan. Let's do that.
I'm finding the gravitational pull of the Let It Burn caucus growing increasingly strong and increasingly irresistible."
... with a "liberal" and unavoidable helping of "going Galt".

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Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Eternal Return O Haavaad Maath (Part Googolplex)

The Obama lemmings [Reader Post] | Flopping Aces: "The deficit this year is projected to be $1.25 trillion. Repealing the Bush tax rates for the “wealthy” would net approximately $70 billion per year. That’s it. Allowing all the Bush tax rates to expire would net approximately $380 billion per year. That begins to take a bite out of the deficit. What is obvious is that the big money comes from the 98%, not the 2% or the 1%. And still Obama supporters think that $70 billion will erase a $1.25 trillion deficit. Because Obama said so. Lemmings."
But what do I know -- it's all a new development to me. Not. Googolplex? Much?

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nO Change

Obama’s Three Strikes - By Elliott Abrams - The Corner - National Review Online: "Add up these comments and it seems the president’s second-term foreign policy will not change at all. Never admit error, obfuscate, change the subject, talk and talk and talk, “engage,” and claim all is well. Mr. Obama noted that in Syria the situation has “deteriorated” since he demanded that Assad go — in the summer of 2011. That’s the truest thing he said: There are now 40,000 dead, 400,000 refugees, many more displaced persons, and a really dangerous jihadi presence. As Mr. Obama might say, that’s not optimal — and he remains unable to draw the connection between his own policies and those disastrous developments. "
Du'O.

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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Innumerate In Chief

America's CEO: Obama Can't Do 7th Grade Math: "On Wednesday October 24, President Obama appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.   During a particularly hard hitting section in which viewers sent in questions for the President, Mr. Obama was blindsided by a grueling line of inquiry from Samantha in Colorado who backed him into a corner with the following: “When you help your daughters with their homework, is there a subject you struggle with?”

The President answered: “Well, the math stuff I was fine with up until 7th grade. But Malia is now a freshman in High School and I’m pretty lost. It’s tough.""

That seemingly clears up a lot of confusion as to why the President cannot balance the budget.

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bingO (Part 7,830,493)

Ace of Spades HQ: "The article doesn't say this, but reading between the lines, the Obama campaign assumed that reliable voters would show up, and that high-information voters would make up their minds based on the large amount of non-TV-ad inputs they already had, and instead played largely for those who knew so little their minds could be changed by a few TV ads."
That and playing the emotions of middle aged women. Because, you know, they're not sexist or anything...

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Sunday, November 11, 2012

Nixon Was Re-Elected Too

Instapundit » Blog Archive » BENGHAZI UPDATE: Were there Libyan “militia prisoners” at the Benghazi CIA annex? UPDATE: Reade…: "BENGHAZI UPDATE: Were there Libyan “militia prisoners” at the Benghazi CIA annex?

UPDATE: Reader Tom McCobb writes: “The higher the pile of Benghazi cr*p gets, the more I think, ‘Yeah, Obama got re-elected; so did Nixon.’”

And say, does this revelation mean that the Obama Administration was operating one of those dreadful secret foreign CIA prisons?

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 8:37 pm"

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Saturday, November 10, 2012

Obama's Moneyball: Treating Voters Like Hunks O Meat

Big Data Meets Big Government; It's a Moneyball World Now | Cris Sheridan | FINANCIAL SENSE: "If you haven’t read Michael Lewis’ Moneyball or seen the film on which it is based, I highly recommend picking up a copy or Netflixing the movie tonight. Why? Because this week’s behind-the-scenes glimpse of how the Obama campaign used big data to influence voters, raise vast sums of money, and achieve winning results proves one thing: It’s a Moneyball world now.

Consider Inside the Secret World of the Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win
On Nov. 4, a group of senior campaign advisers agreed to describe their cutting-edge efforts with TIME on the condition that they not be named and that the information not be published until after the winner was declared. What they revealed as they pulled back the curtain was a massive data effort that helped Obama raise $1 billion, remade the process of targeting TV ads and created detailed models of swing-state voters that could be used to increase the effectiveness of everything from phone calls and door knocks to direct mailings and social media."
Eye candy, as he said.

UPDATE: From the comments on the Time article (be sure to click through and RTWT):
KathleenSmithDoyle
2 days ago
Am I the only person commenting who actually worked with this data on Votebuilder and Dashboard? Seems to me you are "opinionated boys or girls who havn't done the reading". I logged 5-10 hours a week since last January working only with this data. It is here to stay, it is driven by metrics, social media and email marketing but it's also flawed. It makes no allowances for actual knowledge of the people in the communities it purports to serve. It is driven by the top, field officers get fired for not making the required number of calls or canvases no matter if the calls or canvases are effective. There really needs to be a review of this or you can count on getting 5 calls a day and 6 canvasses in the next election cycle. Now compound that if the Republicans ever wake up and learn arithmetic instead of blowing hot air on Faux News. It works, it's micro targeted but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Still, this is the future of elections people say what you will. Nate Silver and the geeks running this for Obama know what they are doing and do it well. It's about Getting Out the Vote, as long as people under 30, Latinos, the LGBT community, African Americans and Women vote in huge numbers white men and evangelicals will never win another election. It's numbers, that's all it is. The face of America has changed now and forever. Face it.

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Under President Obama, The Third World Comes To You!

Instapundit » Blog Archive » KATRINA ON THE HUDSON (CONT’D): A major disaster occurs on the outskirts of one of the most advance…: " Doctors Without Borders Tend To NY Storm Victims. Just like it was some third-world country. President Bush sent Americans to the third world. Under President Obama, the third world comes to you!

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:22 pm"
But what do I know?

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Financial Confidence And Food Stamps

Instapundit » Blog Archive » YESTERDAY A READER EMAILED asking me to send a link to what I regard as the best law review article …: "Oh, okay, one more irresistible passage: “But having opted for ‘mankind is the good,’ you just couldn’t stand it. It is not hard to see why. For if human nature were to be the good, then there was nothing for you or anyone else to do to change it in any way. Indeed, even as a matter of scientific curiosity, there wouldn’t be much call to find out what human nature was, for whatever it turned out to be would be what it ought to be. Now that is a loathsome idea. Under its reign, a man like you, rightly appalled at the world, would, have no role at all. That was too dreadful a possibility.”

If you like this, you might also read Leff’s Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Law.

And give Unger credit for growing in office, or something. Though he’s one of Obama’s old professors, he recently said: “His policy is financial confidence and food stamps.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 2:00 pm"
Heh.

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Delay, Dissemble, Deny

Instapundit » Blog Archive » ON PETRAEUS, QUESTIONING THE TIMING: FBI agents on the case were aware that such a decision had b…: "FBI agents on the case were aware that such a decision had been made to hold off on forcing him out until after the election and were outraged.

“The decision was made to delay the resignation apparently to avoid potential embarrassment to the president before the election,” an FBI source says. “To leave him in such a sensitive position where he was vulnerable to potential blackmail for months compromised our security and is inexcusable.”
Indeed.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 1:48 pm"

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Friday, November 9, 2012

How Long Before Obama Shoots 38 Under?

Americans: Fly your flag | Watts Up With That?: "There’s a great list on Listverse about the psychotic leader of North Korea: Top 10 Crazy Facts About Kim Jong Il

This one was a hoot:
The “Fact”: He is the best natural golfer in history

In 1994, it was reported by Pyongyang media outlets that Kim Jong Il shot 38 under par on a regulation 18-hole golf course – including 5 holes in one! That score is 25 shots better than the best round in history, and is made even more amazing by the fact that it was his first time playing the sport. It’s said Kim Jong Il would routinely sink 3 or 4 holes in one per round of golf, and – lucky for the PGA – he has since given it up."
Even luckier that he has given up the world. Though his slaves remain in shackles just as it always was...

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Oof

Instapundit » Blog Archive » JIM TREACHER: Petraeus resigns, and it definitely has nothing to do with Benghazi. Plus, blog co…: "Plus, blog comment of the day: Okay. Just so we’ve all got our history right:
1990′s: Use an ill-timed military exercise to divert attention from the botched handling of an extramarital affair.

2010′s: Use an ill-timed extramarital affair to divert attention from the botched handling of a military exercise.
I would say “heh,” but it’s not exactly funny.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 11:20 pm"

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Four More Years!

Petraeus resigns, and it definitely has nothing to do with Benghazi | The Daily Caller: "Guess Petraeus didn’t have any sealed divorce records for Obama to wave around. But this’ll do in a pinch. The important thing is to remove the obstacle.

Not only doesn’t it matter that everybody can see what Obama is doing, it’s actually better for him that way. What good is abusing your power if you can’t laugh at your enemy’s futility?

Four more years!"

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Touch The Tip Of Your Nose Again

Gen. Petraeus’ affair was with his biographer | Power Line: "If so, then it seems that the affair started before Petraeus became the director of the CIA. The background check on Petraeus when he was being considered for the CIA job must have been incredibly thorough. And, since an affair with an embedded reporter would probably have been difficult to keep fully secret, even an ordinary investigation might well have uncovered word of it.

Thus, it may be that the White House knew of the General’s affair before he became the DCIA."
Doublethis.

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Perfect Timing: The War On Petraeus

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MICHAEL WALSH ON PETRAEUS: David and Bathsheba. “He needs to be called before the Intelligence Com…: "MICHAEL WALSH ON PETRAEUS: David and Bathsheba. “He needs to be called before the Intelligence Committee and to testify about the truth of what happened in Benghazi, including the real reason that ambassador Stevens was there — which, if the rumors of a gun-running operation to Syria are true (shades of both Fast and Furious and Iran-Contra) could be highly deleterious to the administration, and which might have had an effect on the election had they been publicly known. Petraeus should welcome the opportunity, and in fact insist on it. It would be his final act of patriotism — and should he be prevented by the administration and its Democratic allies in Congress from testifying, then his forced silence will speak almost as loudly and even more eloquently.”

UPDATE: Ralph Peters: “Timing is just too perfect.” “Just as the administration claimed it was purely coincidence that our Benghazi consulate was attacked on the anniversary of September 11th. Now it’s purely coincidence that this affair — extra-marital affair — surfaces right after the election, not before, but right after, but before the intelligence chiefs go to Capitol Hill to get grilled. As an old intelligence analyst, Neil, the way I read this — I could be totally wrong, this is my interpretation — is that the administration was unhappy with Petraeus not playing ball 100% on their party-line story. I think it’s getting cold feet about testifying under oath on their party-line story. And I suspect that these tough Chicago guys knew about this affair for a while, held it in their back pocket until they needed to play the card.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 9:54 pm"
Touch your nose.  This.

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Katrina On The Hudson: Samidat The Complainers

Instapundit » Blog Archive » KATRINA ON THE HUDSON: After 11 days without power, Sandy victims want answers. Related: Disast…: "KATRINA ON THE HUDSON: After 11 days without power, Sandy victims want answers.

Related: Disaster Shelter Doesn’t Protect From Bitter Cold. And a coverup: “As Sotelo tells it, when it became clear the residents were less than enamored with their new accommodations Wednesday night and were letting the outside world know about it, officials tried to stop them from taking pictures, turned off the Wi-Fi and said they couldn’t charge their cellphones because the complex didn’t have enough power.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 12:14 pm"
Obama doesn't need your votes anymore...

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Is He A Democrat?

Instapundit » Blog Archive » GENERAL PETRAEUS RESIGNS OVER AN AFFAIR, BUT . . . “Is the resignation really about the affair… or…: "ANOTHER UPDATE: “If only Petraeus was president instead of head of the CIA then sleeping around wouldn’t be an issue.” That depends. Is he a Democrat?"
This of course was the whole problem with the Clinton mess. The idea that a CIA director could be blackmailed and should resign because of an affair but that the same circumstance for a President is fine is frankly an opinion only worthy of the mentally ill. There, I've said it.

And now we have another Clinton mess -- just of another sort...

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Thursday, November 8, 2012

Or More

Instapundit » Blog Archive » ‘VOTE WAS ASTRONOMICAL FOR OBAMA IN SOME PHILADELPHIA WARDS.’ You don’t say: “In 13 Philadel…: "‘VOTE WAS ASTRONOMICAL FOR OBAMA IN SOME PHILADELPHIA WARDS.’ You don’t say: “In 13 Philadelphia wards, Obama received 99 percent of the vote or more.”

The “or more,” is a nice touch. Fortunately, the Philadelphia Inquirer assures us that there is absolutely no – and I mean no, n.o. – reason to worry about voter fraud. I know I feel relieved.

RELATED: Fraud in PA: Obama Got Over 99% of Vote at Polls Where GOP Inspectors were Removed; Turnout Somehow “30%” Above Gov’t Numbers.

Posted by Ed Driscoll at 5:38 pm"
I'm sure Eric baby will be right out after that one. Maybe after he's right out. LOL.

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Monday, November 5, 2012

Why You Need To Vote Romney

About 2016: Obama’s America and the Filmmakers: "2016 Obama's America takes audiences on a gripping visual journey into the heart of the world’s most powerful office to reveal the struggle of whether one man's past will redefine America over the next four years. The film examines the question, "If Obama wins a second term, where will we be in 2016?""

Because even Nanny Bloomberg would be light years better than Obama and his path over every cliff in sight.

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The Real Voting Dysfunction

Instapundit » Blog Archive » JONAH GOLDBERG: The fact that the presidential vote matters so much is a sign not of national healt…: "JONAH GOLDBERG: The fact that the presidential vote matters so much is a sign not of national health but of dysfunction.

This echoes Jerry Pournelle, who wrote: “We have always known that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. It’s worse now, because capture of government is so much more important than it once was. There was a time when there was enough freedom that it hardly mattered which brand of crooks ran government. That has not been true for a long time — not during most of your lifetimes, and for much of mine — and it will probably never be true again.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:37 pm"
Of course it's a RTWT. So much so in fact, I can't resist trying to make sure you read the whole grand finale:
President George W. Bush adopted a number of policies liberals once decried as dangerous expansions of the imperial presidency. With a few exceptions, few complain about those powers now that Obama is the president. The rule seems to be runaway executive power is good, so long as my guy is in power.

That's a dangerous principle. "Those who tried to warn us back at the beginning of the New Deal of the dangers of one-man rule that lay ahead on the path we were taking toward strong, centralized government may not have been so wrong," then-California Sen. Alan Cranston conceded at the height of the Watergate hearings in 1973.

In his brilliant new book, I Am the Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism, Charles Kesler argues that it was Woodrow Wilson who introduced the idea that American presidents must have a "vision" for where they should take the country.

In other words, everyone's life and lifestyle somehow needed to conform to the priorities of a politician in Washington. The 19th century notion that presidents should be "statesmen" who guarded the Constitution gave way to the 20th century fetish for "leaders" who mold the public to their vision.

Unfortunately, since Wilson, this has become something of a bipartisan idea. Republicans are just as likely to talk about the "vision thing" as Democrats. As a conservative, I certainly prefer the Republican vision to the Democratic. Republicans, for instance, rarely vow to "fundamentally transform America."

But the libertarian in me aches for a time when the president's vision was irrelevant and national elections just didn't matter that much.

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Lies While He Looks Straight At You

Ace of Spades HQ: "Obama did an interview with CBS' Steve Kroft on the night of September 12th and the first question is about why he didn't call it terrorism in his Rose Garden statement that day."
Thanks Candy. He sets the tone for the entire corrupt system perfectly doesn't he?

My bet is that he will do a "Wag the Dog" before tomorrow's election. But don't call me cynical or anything.

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Reagan: The More The Plans Fail, The More The Planners Plan

Explosive video indictment of Obama rocks YouTube: "In what could be the most stunning video indictment of President Obama and his administration’s policies this election year, a YouTube video reveals the fallout of the “hope” and “change” Obama promised in 2008."
Nice. Watch it to both remember Obama's stream of lies and let Reagan remind you what's at stake.

I would trade Obama on one thing though. It sure would be the "life of Riley" (as my Dad used to say) to be able to golf that much. Too bad I have to actually work for a living.

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Hurting

Video: Sandy Victims Beg For Help | The Weekly Standard: ""We are hurting down here," one woman says. "And we need help. Immediately." The video then details Obama returning to the campaign trail. "Don't boo, vote," the president is heard saying toward the end of the video. "Vote. Voting's the best revenge.""

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Saturday, November 3, 2012

My Kind Of Miners

Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » A few miles downstream from Pittsburgh: "Here is a coal barge on the Ohio River, today. I note that they are flying the Gadsden flag."
Perfect.

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Morris On O's Disaster

Dickmorris.com: "Now Obama is making the same mistake. By campaigning, particularly by using the same harsh partisan rhetoric which has characterized his campaign, Obama is dragging down his ratings and with it his chances of victory. Particularly when we see the juxtaposition of the mounting disaster in New York and New Jersey and the President out on the campaign trail attacking his opponents, we realize that Obama is a candidate before he is president, more worried about his second term than the welfare of his constituents. In yesterday’s polling numbers, I saw a rise in Obama’s ratings and warned that the race was far from over. Now, we see him throwing it all away and resuming his crash into a single term presidency."
We can only hope.

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You Can Take Back Jefferson's Prediction This Tuesday

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. by Thomas Jefferson: ""I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."   --  Thomas Jefferson "
Well, start a century long process of taking it back anyway...

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Friday, November 2, 2012

Stand Down

Instapundit » Blog Archive » OUCH: …: "OUCH:"
Or is that gone down? And how many times?

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Oceans of Red Ink

Oceans of Red Ink | Power Line: "I feel a sort of kinship with Michael Ramirez: if I were a genius and could draw really, really, well, I would be just like him. His latest will appear in newspapers tomorrow; it blends old themes (Obama’s pretensions and the federal debt) with new ones :"

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Romney Rollin' Ovah Revenge

Ace of Spades HQ: "Enormous crowd."

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Thursday, November 1, 2012

Holy Crap All Over O!

Instapundit » Blog Archive » LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL EXCORIATES OBAMA AS “UNWORTHY”:  WOW.  I’ve never seen anything quite lik…: "LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL EXCORIATES OBAMA AS “UNWORTHY”:  WOW.  I’ve never seen anything quite like this.  An editorial in today’s Las Vegas Review-Journal–the largest daily circulation paper in Nevada–absolutely slams Obama as an incompetent leader, starting with the Benghazi non-response:
The Obama administration sat by doing nothing for seven hours that night, ignoring calls to dispatch help from our bases in Italy, less than two hours away. It has spent the past seven weeks stretching the story out, engaging in misdirection and deception involving supposed indigenous outrage over an obscure anti-Muslim video, confident that with the aid of a docile press corps this infamous climax to four years of misguided foreign policy can be swept under the rug, at least until after Tuesday’s election."
This may be the largest gap in the Praetorian Guard firewall yet. Go read more, you won't be disappointed. Everything from bankrupting coal plants to even creatively working Dr. Strangelove into the mix. Did I mention "Holy Crap!" yet?

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Bubble Boy

HughHewitt.com Blog : Hugh Hewitt : Donald Rumsfeld, Mark Steyn and Jake Tapper on Benghazi: "HH: So Mark Steyn, we leave nobody behind. Whenever an American is in need, we help them. There’s a 15 minute rule. Of course, this is an odd set of comments as we study the details of the Benghazi massacre.

MS: Yeah, because it wasn’t 15 minutes. Those guys in Benghazi, Glenn Dougherty and Tyrone Woods, called and called and called again, and hours went by. And the 15 minute man made no response to them. We leave nobody behind. That is a term with precise military echoes. The government of the United States chose to leave behind the staff of its consulate in Benghazi. And the only reason that there are four dead as opposed to somewhere between seven and twenty, we don’t know the exact number of people in that compound, is because Glenn Dougherty and Tyrone Woods disobeyed their orders to stand down and went back and fought off them all. Otherwise, the President would have left maybe up to two dozen people behind to die while the 15 minute man watched them on live footage, apparently, for hours on end. And what’s interesting about that is the bubble the President lives in. No one who has been following Benghazi, or who was thinking about Benghazi, could have uttered those words. The fact that he was able to utter them shows that in fact he’s living in his bubble, and he thinks this is not an issue. And as far as he’s concerned, those four Americans, he’s already sloughed them off. They’re dead and buried, and move on."
No kidding.

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Wheels. Finally. Coming. Off.

Ace of Spades HQ: "As @johnekdahl puts it: It was decided from the first moments that this wasn't terrorism, because it would be politically harmful if it were terrorism.

So the joint force in charge of counter-terrorism was not convened. That would have created a paper trail.

And so four men died.
CBS News has learned that during the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, the Obama Administration did not convene its top interagency counterterrorism resource: the Counterterrorism Security Group, (CSG)."
And next we're going to see the phenomenon of the Lamestream Media (TM) all of a sudden not reporting about NY/NJ Sandy aftermath even though they're all based there.

I would say LOL if they didn't have so much blood on their hands.

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Left Behind After All...

Sandy-Starved New Yorkers Dumpster Dive | NBC New York: "Homes and businesses in the Lower East Side and East Village are still without power and under water. Residents began dumpster diving outside a Key Food supermarket Thursday, looking for whatever food they can take."
Good God. Well, Obama said he had pre-positioned 2000 FEMA officials, so all is good right? What, you mean they weren't incompetent in Katrina just because Bush was racist? Wha?

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