Saturday, March 31, 2012

Broccoli World

ObamaCare's Defenders Still Aren't Taking Challenges to the Mandate Seriously - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine: "It is hard, then, to see what limits, if any, would exist on congressional power under the Commerce Clause should the mandate be upheld. This is not an entirely unusual conclusion. Harvard law professor Charles Fried, who believes the mandate is constitutional, told Congress last year that the same constitutional provisions that permit the mandate would also permit Congress to compel the purchase of broccoli or any other vegetable.  “Force you to pay for something? I don’t see why not. It may not be a good idea, but I don’t see why it’s unconstitutional,” he said. To accept this interpretation is to accept that there are no limits on the power granted to Congress on the Commerce Clause. That presents a problem for the mandate’s defenders because the Constitution is a limiting document."
Actually, I like broccoli. But I'm guessing you ... not so much...

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Reserved To The States Or To The People

Obamacare’s rewriting of contract law - The Washington Post: "The IJ argues: The 10th Amendment forbids Congress from exercising its commerce power to compel states to enter into contractual relations by effectively forcing states to “buy” radioactive waste. Hence “the power to regulate commerce does not include the power to compel a party to take title to goods or services against its will.” And if it is beyond Congress’s power to commandeer the states by compelling them to enter into contracts, it must likewise be beyond Congress’s power to commandeer individuals by requiring them to purchase insurance. Again, the 10th Amendment declares that any powers not given to the federal government are reserved to the states or to the people.

Furthermore, although the Constitution permits Congress to make laws “necessary and proper” for executing its enumerated powers, such as the power to regulate interstate commerce, it cannot, IJ argues, be proper to exercise that regulatory power in ways that eviscerate “the very essence of legally binding contracts.” Under Obamacare, Congress asserted the improper power to compel commercial contracts."
And nowhere in this do I see any wording that it only applies to people with enhanced melanin:
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.[2]
Or are there some emanating penumbras in there that I'm missing?

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Whoa!

Althouse: Walter Dellinger — listing 5 Obamacare "myths" — begins with "The 'individual mandate' forces everyone to buy health insurance.": "So Obamacare doesn't work to get the uninsured insured, it just gives the federal government a new source of revenue. Meanwhile, these uninsured folks can buy insurance at whatever point they want, right? Whenever they acquire a condition that makes them want to have insurance, they can take advantage of private insurance companies that never got the benefit of the "penalty" these people were paying to the federal government all these years. So this scheme will destroy private insurance companies and is really a way to leverage in, by steps, a completely government-controlled health-care system.  Or have I arrived at another "myth" that Dellinger can rescue me from?

Nope. The closest thing on his list is #4: "The law is socialist." But here, Dellinger says it's not "the New Deal approach of having a monolithic government agency be the single provider of a good or service." (Whoa! Did he just accidentally call the New Deal "socialist"?)"
The mask seems to be slipping a lot lately, no?

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Yes, Faster...

Instapundit » Blog Archive » ER, FASTER PLEASE? Vaccine to stop heart attacks could be here in 5 years. “Scientists have discov…: "ER, FASTER PLEASE? Vaccine to stop heart attacks could be here in 5 years. “Scientists have discovered that the drug stimulates the body’s immune system to produce antibodies which prevent heart disease by stopping fat building up in the arteries.” Well, stay tuned.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 1:00 pm"

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The Return O Haavaad Maath

The Corner - National Review Online: "On President Obama’s call yesterday to end tax subsidies for oil and natural gas producers:
This is truly staggering cynicism.

Number one, when he was in the Senate, Obama supported the subsidies he is denouncing today. When our own Ed Henry asked Jay Carney about that, Carney had no answer. He was looking for a hole to hide in.

Second, the Congressional Research Service showed in March of 2011 [that] if [ending the tax preferences] will have any effect on the gas prices, it will be to increase the price. The president is pretending he is trying to lower the gas prices.

Lastly, it is a trivial effect. If you collected this subsidy… for the next 100 years, it wouldn’t cover four months of deficit spending under the administration."
You know, like this. And this.

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Friday, March 30, 2012

Schmucks

Don’t Die for Me, Argentina - By Mark Steyn - The Corner - National Review Online: "Boy, I’ll bet at their Monday night poker game in Hell, Hitler and Stalin are kicking themselves for not thinking of that one: “That schmuck Goebbels, burning books for ‘decadence’. Why didn’t we just burn them on Health & Safety grounds?” “Exactly, comrade. And next time we’ll jam the western radio broadcasts because they increase your risk of cancer. It’s for the children.”

This is not unrelated to the present ObamaCare debate. If the government regulates your health care arrangements on the grounds of controlling costs, it can surely regulate dangerous activities you undertake that could potentially increase those costs – like reading an imported book opposed to government health care."

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Must Read: Have You Ever Read The Federal Reserve Act?

Must Read: Jim Grant Crucifies The Fed; Explains Why A Gold Standard Is The Best Option | ZeroHedge: "The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has invited some of its public critics to visit the bank to unburden themselves of their criticisms. On March 12, it was Jim Grant's turn. The text of his remarks follows. (highlights ours)

Piece Of My Mind

My friends and neighbors, I thank you for this opportunity. You know, we are friends and neighbors. Grant’s makes its offices on Wall Street, overlooking Broadway, a 10-minute stroll from your imposing headquarters. For a spectacular vantage point on the next ticker-tape parade up Broadway, please drop by. We’ll have the windows washed.

You say you would like to hear my complaints, and, on the one hand, I do have a few, while on the other, I can’t help but feel slightly hypocritical in dressing you down. What passes for sound doctrine in 21st-century central banking—so-called financial repression, interest-rate manipulation, stock-price levitation and money printing under the frosted-glass term “quantitative easing”—presents us at Grant’s with a nearly endless supply of good copy. Our symbiotic relationship with the Fed resembles that of Fox News with the Obama administration, or—in an earlier era—that of the Chicago Tribune with the Purple Gang. Grant’s needs the Fed even if the Fed doesn’t need Grant’s.

In the not quite 100 years since the founding of your institution, America has exchanged central banking for a kind of central planning and the gold standard for what I will call the Ph.D. standard. I regret the changes and will propose reforms, or, I suppose, re-reforms, as my program is very much in accord with that of the founders of this institution. Have you ever read the Federal Reserve Act?"
This is almost beyond a must read. While not overly long, it is one of the most comprehensive debunkings of our current economic brainwashing and tyranny for those untethered from history.

Which would be pretty much everyone nowadays...

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The $17 Trillion O Hole

Massive $17 Trillion Hole Found In Obamacare | ZeroHedge: "Two years ago, when introducing then promptly enacting Obamacare, the president stated that healthcare law reform would not cost a penny over $1 trillion ($900 billion to be precise), and that it would not add ‘one dime’ to the debt. It appears that this estimate may have been slightly optimistic… by a factor of 1700%. Because coincident with the recent Supreme Court debacle, in which a constitutional law president may be about to find that his magnum opus law is, in fact, unconstitutional, someone actually read the whole thing cover to cover, instead of merely relying on the CBO’s, pardon Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs’, funding estimates. That someone is Republican Jeff Sessions who after actually running the numbers has uncovered that the true long-term funding gap is a mind-boggling $17 trillion, just a tad more than the original sub $1 trillion forecast. This latest revelation means that total underfunded US welfare liabilities: Medicare, Medicaid and social security now amount to $99 trillion!"
Awwww. And what's $100 trillion between friends anyway?

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Devastation

Instapundit » Blog Archive » AL GORE’S CURRENT TV TERMINATES RELATIONSHIP WITH KEITH OLBERMANN: round up of links from Ed Driscol…: "ANOTHER UPDATE: “Keith Olbermann has been fired from Current TV, because he no longer reflects the company’s values, it was announced today. He will be replaced by a man who cheated on his wife with a prostitute.”

Plus this: “His viewer must be devastated.”"

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Me Too

Instapundit » Blog Archive » SEEN IN THE MARKET SQUARE PARKING GARAGE ON TUESDAY, a bumper sticker for a political ticket I could…: "SEEN IN THE MARKET SQUARE PARKING GARAGE ON TUESDAY, a bumper sticker for a political ticket I could really get behind!"

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More Bogus Science Reporting

Instapundit » Blog Archive » CONFIDENCE IN SCIENCE BY CONSERVATIVES HAS DECLINED SINCE 1974: “That represents a dramatic shift f…: "I tracked back to the original paper (http://www.asanet.org/images/journals/docs/pdf/asr/Apr12ASRFeature.pdf) to see what the exact survey question was.

“The GSS asked respondents the following question: “I am going to name some institutions in this country. As far as the people running these institutions are concerned, would you say you have a great deal of confidence, only some confidence, or hardly any confidence at all in them [the Scientific Community]?”(page 172)

The confidence in “people running these institutions” was being measured, not “Science” itself. Huge difference. HUGE!

Maybe we should be skeptical of science reporting, too.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 8:15 am"

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Thursday, March 29, 2012

What Conspiracy?

Mike Krieger On When Central Banking Dies: China and Oil | ZeroHedge: "No quotes today.  Just this image.  This applies to everyone in every country on this planet.  You are being herded.  The gate is closing. "
And I'm guessing you didn't know about the secret codicil to the Molatov-Ribbentrop Pact did you? It's only one of the most famous conspiracies in history -- but you were unaware of it and still consider yourself an expert on conspiracies? Having a little problem with the 10,000 hour rule are we?

And now that the scales are dropping from your eyes you may want to look at another conspiracy whose older regions are now a matter of public record...

Hmmm...

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What Happened To The 8th Amendment?

Scalia Likens Reading Obamacare to Cruel and Unusual Punishment | Washington Free Beacon: "Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia humorously invoked the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids cruel and unusual punishments, when discussing the Obamacare legislation during oral argument today at the Supreme Court.

JUSTICE SCALIA: Mr. Kneedler, what happened to the Eighth Amendment? You really want us to go through these 2,700 pages?

(Laughter.)"
Of course, what happened to it is that it's been flushed down the memory hole along with the rest of the Constitution...

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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Leaping (Wheeled) Lizard

Ace of Spades HQ: "In the hands of a capable operator, it is reportedly accurate enough to jump through a second-story window."

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Heh

Instapundit » Blog Archive » PROF. DAVID BERNSTEIN CHIDES THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR QUOTING THE PREAMBLE IN SUPPORT OF OBAMACARE:…: "Exclusive InstaPundit video of Verrilli’s practice arguments at the Department of Justice:"

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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Not Pretending Any More

Obama Doesn't Care About Debt - Reason Magazine: "Don't get me wrong; the Ryan budget isn't perfect. After all, it's brimming with superb non-starters, such as the repeals of Dodd-Frank and Obamacare and the complete privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And it must also be pointed out that for many Republicans, fretting about debt is a newfound passion. Even today, Ryan's budget doesn't take on Social Security. The GOP won't go for real cuts in defense spending. On Medicare they're wobbly, and on farm subsidies some of them sound like members of the Fabian Society. So there is plenty of blame to go around.

But these days, we can see how utterly unserious Democrats are about the deficit and debt. They've offered no real plan. They're not even pretending anymore."

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The Seven Rules of Bureaucracy

The Seven Rules of Bureaucracy - Loyd S. Pettegrew - Mises Daily: "Rule #1: Maintain the problem at all costs! The problem is the basis of power, perks, privileges, and security.

Teasley correctly points out that problems, not solutions, are the basis of bureaucratic power, perks, privilege, and political security. In politics, the tougher the problem appears, the more resources must be devoted to it. Political careers have been made by bureaucrats promising to fix problems. Bureaucrats feign trying to fix problems while usually making them worse. This is because maintaining the problem creates constituent dependency and allows the bureaucrat to show tangible evidence that he or she is working hard for constituents and their cause. It also allows bureaucrats to spend lavishly and, seemingly endlessly, on new government programs and employees. Examining the three "wars against" created by politicians in the last 50 years provides ample illustration of rule #1."
If you can't figure out the game after reading this, you'll end up starving in the dark wondering what happened...

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If I Were The Devil

Moonbattery: "Our moonbat rulers must have been listening when Paul Harvey broadcast this commentary back in the 1960s. They’ve adopted it as their game plan to fundamentally transform America:"

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The Choice

Paul Ryan Leads the Way | Power Line: "The Choice: Cronyism and Corporate Welfare vs. A Level Playing Field

In each major sector of the economy, the President and his party’s leaders have offered a vision at odds with the core principles of economic freedom. It is an obsolete vision that favors big, well-­established or politically well‐connected corporations and unions at the expense of workers and small competitors. It is a vision that creates political inequality by favoring companies with the best connections over those with the best ideas. And it is a vision that inhibits growth by increasing the cost of complying with government regulations instead of leaving enterprises with more money and more freedom to hire workers and create jobs."

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Obama v Obama

American Crossroads: "Individual Mandate: Obama v. Obama" - YouTube: "Obama was right on the individual mandate...before he was wrong."
Well actually, since he has always wanted fully socialized single payer health destruction, he has always been wrong. He's just lying to you now that he likes the mandate since he knows it unsustainable and he believes its ultimate collapse will result in the stupid sheep clamoring for him to fully socialize healthcare. And he would be right. This is a country of stupid sheep.

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Monday, March 26, 2012

His Last Election?

What Are Obama’s Plans if He Wins a Second Term? - By Peter Kirsanow - The Corner - National Review Online: "President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him (apparently referring to Vladimir Putin) to give me space.

President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…

President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.

President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.
What, precisely, are “all these issues” (besides missile defense) that President Obama plans to solve in his second term? Why has he shared them with the Russian president but not the American people?

Why the reference to his “last election?” Would he not be able to do what he wants if he had to stand for reelection? "
No, he couldn't.

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Sunday, March 25, 2012

The Taboo

No justice, no agitation | Power Line: "Murder is largely an intraracial crime. Almost all murders of blacks are committed by other blacks.

Blacks as a group commit murder at a rate astronomically higher than other groups. The rate of murder committed by blacks exceeds that committed by whites by approximately seven times. See, e.g., Heather Mac Donald’s essay “Is the criminal-justice system racist?”

If race hustlers like Al Sharpton really had the interests of the black community at heart, they would devote themselves to doing everything in their power to have violent black criminals separated from the community of law-abiding black citizens. The criminals are serial tormentors of law-abiding members of the black community."

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Saturday, March 24, 2012

The "Why" (O Why O Why)

Articles: Bill Ayers' Semi-Fictional Black Surrogates: "Say what one will about the sanity of Ayers' educational philosophy, there is no denying his sincerity.  He has been plugging away at educational reform his entire adult life.  Dreams, I will argue, gave him the opportunity to address the one great obstacle to the reform of Chicago schools -- namely, an obstructionist black educational bureaucracy.  To make his case in the book, Ayers employs three semi-fictional African American surrogates, the third of whom easily being the least fictional and most useful.

To be sure, there is much other evidence to believe that Ayers crafted Dreams: the comprehensive postmodern patois that Obama and Ayers share, the matching 50 or so nautical metaphors, the shared use of the Conrad-like triple-parallels, the nearly fetishistic eye and eyebrow metaphors, the three stunning parallel stories, the four matching errors, the same weary '60s worldview, the borrowed Ayers girlfriend in Dreams, the inarguably similar Homeric openings, the dramatically inferior writings of Obama before and after Dreams, and more.  It is Ayers' strategic use of black surrogates, however, that will tell us why he involved himself in Dreams."
And just wow. Drop everything and RTWT. I'll wait.

And what's most amazing is how vacuous this whole leftist internecine drivel of Ayers' is. Not criticizing the black educational establishment personally because he'll be a victim of his own insane political correctness turned against himself?

And then there's the pitiful -- and pitiless -- result: O Duce. Insofar is there might be a kernel to Ayer's obsession with destroying the (black and white?) educational establishment, O Duce's "stimulus" was nothing if not a giant subsidy for it.

Whatever is going on in Billy's risible twisted little mind I can't know. But above all else he is laughing at you for being his gullible sock puppet.

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The Consequences O Carbon-Based Pollutants

The Consequences of No Consequences - By Michael Walsh - The Corner - National Review Online: "On the one hand — as NRO’s resident demography bore has been tirelessly pointing out — the Western world is facing an unparalleled demographic crisis brought on by a feminist-inspired modern twist on Lysistrata (showering sex but withholding children), while at the same time, the West’s vaunted “safety net” is collapsing because the system has been turned upside-down and a bevy of great-grandparents now coos over a single child.

Surely, this is the ultimate expression of the suicide cult that is the modern Left, a subset of libertine takers that so loathes itself that it will dragoon the makers into underwriting the chalices of tasty hemlock it’s so eager for everybody to quaff in order to put itself out of its misery. If, as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody, it feels good, do it! Alas, it does hurt somebody — it hurts society, by robbing it of its future and burdening those lucky kids who make it through the contraceptive/abortifacient gauntlet with an unpayable debt to the very people who tried to get rid of them.

And for what? So that somebody might not be “punished” by a baby as a consequence of his or her personal behavior?

Self-centered Baby Boomer liberalism emerged from the “sexual revolution” of the sixties, and for the past half century Boomers have been trying to escape the consequences of no consequences, which now threaten the underpinnings of the Left’s beloved, bankrupting welfare state. And yet, at the same time, women of child-bearing age demand that somebody — insurance companies, Washington, the pope in Rome — pay for universal contraceptive and abortion services in the name of “women’s health.”

If this is not the definition of a suicide cult — one driven by the leftist insistence that sexual license be, well, licensed by the state, non-judgmentally and consequence-free — it’s hard to know what is. The Shakers had nothing on these people; at least they made furniture. But it’s what comes from treating pregnancy as a preventable disease, and viewing people as carbon-based pollutants instead of beings created in the image and likeness of God."
Surely you've figured out by now that this is a RTWT. And it's short. But not merciful.

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Sent From My iPad 3...

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HEH: Conservatives hijack #ILikeObamacare hashtag on Twitter. “Conservatives on Twitter today quic…: "HEH: Conservatives hijack #ILikeObamacare hashtag on Twitter. “Conservatives on Twitter today quickly hijacked the #ILikeObamacare hashtag, which had been launched by President Barack Obama’s campaign to highlight supporters of the Democrats’ signature health care reform law. The Twitter hashtag was the most popular in the world Friday afternoon, but not for reasons the Obama campaign wanted.”

Two of my favorites: “#ILikeObamacare because I hate the government listening to my phone calls, but I want them to decide if I get a pacemaker.”

And: “#ILikeObamacare Because I’m too poor to pay for insurance – Sent from my iPad 3.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 8:58 am"
Perfect.

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Good Thing That Dumb Cowboy Bush Is Gone...

Instapundit » Blog Archive » OBAMATEURISM: “We have subsidized oil companies for a century. We want to encourage production of …: "OBAMATEURISM: “We have subsidized oil companies for a century. We want to encourage production of oil and gas, and make sure that wherever we’ve got American resources, we are tapping into them. But they don’t need an additional incentive when gas is $3.75 a gallon, when oil is $1.20 a barrel, $1.25 a barrel. They don’t need additional incentives. They are doing fine.”

Ed Morrissey responds: “First, oil is not $1.20 or $1.25 a barrel. Today it was trading at $107 per barrel, or around 86 times what the President quoted here. Besides, this is about as big a non-sequitur as one can possibly create on the cost of gasoline. To the extent that this is coherent at all, it sounds as if Obama is claiming that the difference between the price of a gallon of gasoline and the price of a barrel of oil equals profit. That’s about as ignorant a claim on energy costs as I’ve ever heard.” Good thing that dumb cowboy Bush isn’t President, or the media would be making a big deal about this."
Good God what a moron this man-child is. Go RTWT to understand that if you want to cut him slack, it's not the first math Mulligan reasoning that comes to your mind that explains it.

As anyone who has looked at the national budget knows, he's not that good with numbers, never mind actual math.

UPDATE: And from the HotAir comments to drive it home how untethered he is:
Let’s see. Exxon had $52 billion in pre-tax income in 2010, and paid $21.6 billion in taxes (45% rate); Conoco-Phillips had $19.8 billion pre-tax, paid $8.3 billion in taxes (42%); Chevron $32 billion pre-tax, $12.9 billion in taxes ((40%). General Electric had $14.2 billion pre-tax, paid $1.05 billion in taxes (7.4%).

So yeah, let’s keep on demonizing oil companies.

Trafalgar on March 22, 2012 at 8:45 AM

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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The Poor Poorer

Belmont Club » “Oh the humanity!”: "Perhaps history will ultimately judge that it was always the Left which after all waged the longest and most enduring war on women and on poor people; and that as a practical matter it kept women obedient servants to an ideology and the poor it kept poor.  But nobody ever notices it because they keep saying “we’re on your side”."

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The Decorum O The Airbrush Artists

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MORE ON THAT MALIA-IN-MEXICO AIRBRUSHING EVENT: Presidential administrations have long been prote…: "UPDATE: Reader Matt Crandall writes: “What really bugs me is that the MSM never showed such decorum and willingness to airbrush when it came to things that might actually save lives. Like keeping mum on national security secrets during war-time, for example.” Indeed. But class loyalty trumps all for these people, and they see Obama as one of their own.

And reader Jeff Johnson snarks: “If Obama is so worried about Malia’s safety while she’s in Mexico maybe he shouldn’t have sold all of those weapons to the Mexican Drug Lords.” Good point!

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 8:18 am"

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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Postman Cometh

Postman: Ayers family put ‘foreigner’ Obama through school: "CHICAGO – Did the parents of former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers help finance Barack Obama’s Harvard education?

Did Ayers’ mother believe Obama was a foreign student?

And was the young Obama convinced at the time – long before he even entered politics – that he was going to become president of the United States?

A retired U.S. Postal Service carrier who delivered mail to Tom and Mary Ayers in a Chicago suburb in the late 1980s and early 1990s and claims to have met Obama in front of the Ayers home emphatically says yes to all three questions."
My guess is Mr. Hulton will also soon be found not breathing of "natural causes". Just a coincidence you know.

Or at least be determined to eat baby's brains for breakfast.

Be Breitbart indeed.

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The Progression

Surprise: Obama to fast-track approval for Keystone pipeline’s, er, southern half « Hot Air: "Follow the progression here. The polling on gas prices generally and Keystone in particular is horrific. No less than Bill Clinton gives a speech three weeks ago urging Democrats to “embrace” the pipeline. McConnell forces a Senate vote on approving the pipeline and gets 11 Democrats to switch sides; so close is the final margin that The One himself is forced to lobby skittish Dems to stick with him. And then that CBS poll drops last week showing his job approval suddenly in a tailspin, with gas prices the only obvious explanation. He had to do something so this is what he did — a cosmetic gesture to help speed the construction by a few months of a pipeline that was always going to be built anyway. I bet it’ll help him in the polls, too. Coming soon: Obama signs executive order instructing IRS to send refunds to people who overpay their taxes."
Good God. He'll get away with this garbage too.

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Monday, March 19, 2012

Why Even Pretend?

Republican Budget Would Slash Taxes, Establish Two-Bracket Tax System And Scrap AMT | ZeroHedge: "So while the political theatrics continue, the US still has to decide what expenditures it will cut as part of last summer's debt ceiling deal. That this will not happen is also a given.

Which makes us wonder: why even pretend with taxation? As we have shown, the US is progressively more reliant on debt issuance as a funding source for all deficit. At last check debt issuance served to fund 54% of all government expenditures, as tax revenues net of refunds now account for less than half. In fact as of today, in Fiscal 2012 the US has issued $115 billion more in debt ($776 billion) than it has collected in net tax revenues ($661 billion)."
It is pretty comical that most folks are so brainwashed by the praetorian guard that they don't even realize that taxes are rapidly becoming irrelevant. Other than being a huge drag on the economy and about to get worse ... and probably without even getting back to a role of contributing more than 50% of Leviathan's spending!

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Oligarchical Collectivism (Part O Duce) (Bumped)

Moonbattery » Separated at Birth?: "I’m sure Barack Hussein and his base could get behind this Hopey Change:
“We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions.”
Adolf Hitler, May Day, 1927
The main differences are that Nazis were more terrifying than nauseating, that national pride has been discarded, and that Obama’s power grab is moving slightly more slowly because of our tradition of liberty and the fact that so many of us are armed. Give him a four-year extension and the similarities will become more obvious.

When all is said and done, oligarchical collectivism is oligarchical collectivism. Its various paths all lead to the same place."
Update: Some videos from George Reisman and Hans Hoppe provide a wealth of insight to demolish the ridiculous bumper sticker platitudes of those who claim Hitler used "National Socialist" as a deception:


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Sunday, March 18, 2012

Tools

Instapundit » Blog Archive » THAT SEEMS RATHER UNJUDICIOUS: 29 Wisconsin Judges Sign Walker Recall Petition. That’s 12 percent,…: "THAT SEEMS RATHER UNJUDICIOUS: 29 Wisconsin Judges Sign Walker Recall Petition. That’s 12 percent, and it’s not just abstract advocacy. “Dane County Judge David Flanagan has been under fire for not disclosing his support of the recall before he issued a temporary restraining order against a Walker-backed voter ID law.” It’s like these people don’t believe in civil society or something.

The left has often invoked the authority of law and the learned professions, but Wisconsin — from things like this to the phony doctors’ excuses for protesters — is suggesting that they’re just a bunch of partisan tools.

UPDATE: Ann Althouse: “Why would a judge sign a recall petition? You’re just one name. It can’t make that much difference. And then there you are, your reputation shot to hell. You’re politicized. Biased. All those things you strive to deny when you assume the role of judge.”

They’re selected for loyalty, not intelligence.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 9:24 pm"

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Unforgivable

Moonbattery » A Word of Warning From Our Future: "Others have been where we are going, and have told us what it’s like there. That’s what makes what we’re allowing to happen to the world’s Last Best Hope so unforgivable."
Drop everything NOW and WTWT.

And you thought I was being harsh.

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The Dunning-Kruger Effect

Ace of Spades HQ: "Recall the Dunning-Kruger effect. In short, a person’s incompetence inhibits their ability to recognize his or her incompetence. The people who think they are the smartest are the dumbest, essentially, because they are blind to their stupidity. The people who think they know better know the least. And isn't it interesting that they are almost always the first to hurl the insult "you're stupid"?

Anyway, I was reading about the police busting OWS people and closing Zuccotti Park today, and it occurred to me that there is a variation on the Dunning-Kruger effect that has to do with other forms of self-awareness. Several examples:
Doesn't it follow that the people who think they're the most egalitarian become the most sexist, biased, and/or prejudiced? Because of the fact they admire that quality in themselves, egalitarianism, they are blind to the reality that they are not. These are the people who say "flyover states" and "rednecks." These are the people who come down on Limbaugh for a single use of "slut" while thinking someone else's use of much worse language is okay."
RTWT. No surprise that if you read to the end, you'll find yourself staring once more at the Stone Age Trinity.  I find it stunning that the self appointed liberal guardians of evolution in fact have no idea of its implications and have turned it into nothing more than a cargo cult.  Dunning-Kruger indeed.

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nO Clothes

Ace of Spades HQ: "Someone is noticing that Cap'n Wunnerful is a giant phony d-bag. Or that his writers are not really working all that hard."
Good God. What tribe of morons of morons elected this one?

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Jonah Nails It

Op-Ed: Proof of life - WWW.THEDAILY.COM: "Right now, millions of adult Americans cannot legally fly on an airplane or rent a car. They’re not allowed to drive one, either. And if they really need to get somewhere fast, they can’t use Amtrak. When they (somehow) get there, they can’t stay at a hotel. If they don’t have a social security card, they cannot get one without considerable time and effort. In most cases they cannot rent an apartment, take the SAT or enroll in college. They can’t buy cigarettes or alcohol, even though they are of legal age. They might be able to get credit cards, but in many instances they will not be able to use them. And they almost certainly won’t be able to get a bank account or a business license or even cash a check.

Virtually 100 percent of these outcasts from mainstream society fit into one or more of the following categories: very old, very young, very poor, minorities or the disabled.

And yet the Democratic Party wants to do next to do nothing to fix that.

I’m talking, of course, about people without proper identification."
The selective outrage of O Duce's minions. Of course, if these people got an education, they might smarten up and realize they're chained inside a Potemkin village.

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Potemkin-O-rama

What if the Left is just one Potemkin Village after another? | Washington Examiner: ""Yet, by maintaining the fiction of independence from one and other, they appear to much of the press to be a pack of scrappy underdogs sinking their teeth into the ankles of the big-money men."

The campaign inadvertently became public when video of a presentation by Pew vice president Sean Treglia to a group of journalists at the Annenberg Center let the cat out of the bag:

"The target was 535 Members of Congress and the idea was to create the impression that a mass movement was afoot, that everywhere they looked people were talking about campaign finance reform," Treglia explained on the video.

Not one of the journalists listening to Treglia challenged him on the fact he was, in effect, admitting a massive, systematic pack of lies."
And O Duce is not just "proud of them generally", he's all-in proud. Of course, he'll lie to your face and tell you he's not. That's just what Marxists do. They consider it ethical.

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Saturday, March 17, 2012

The Gateway

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

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Idiots

Moonbattery » What if ObamaCare Really Were Like Auto Insurance: "The argument that ObamaCare is like car insurance proves yet again that there are two kinds of liberals: 1) idiots, and 2) condescending authoritarians who think everyone else is an idiot."

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Still Having Fun

Instapundit » Blog Archive » RUTHERFORD B. HAYES TAKES OFF. Hey, now it’s hip to be Hayes! And why not? “The period of America…: "RUTHERFORD B. HAYES TAKES OFF. Hey, now it’s hip to be Hayes! And why not? “The period of American history that followed the Civil War was one of the greatest and most successful ever experienced by any nation.” Reader Michael Wallace writes: “Who knew that one of Obama’s greatest accomplishments would be reviving interest in Rutherford B Hayes?” Yes, that is one of Obama’s greatest accomplishments.

And people are still having fun:"

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Thursday, March 15, 2012

The Long Way O Round

More Energy Lies From Obama | Power Line: "Many have already pointed out that Obama’s Rutherford Hayes anecdote is false; my guess is that every one of his purported historical parallels is apocryphal. It worth adding, however, that Obama’s suggestion that those who were skeptical of Columbus’s voyages believed the world was flat is another example of his historical illiteracy. In fact, it was well known by educated people in the 15th century that the world was round. Not only that, they knew that the circumference of the Earth was around 25,000 miles; this had been calculated by the ancient Greeks, using triangulation. So when Columbus tried to raise money for a voyage in which he proposed to reach the East by sailing West, he had trouble because everyone knew that going West was not only an unknown route, but was the long way around the globe. But we are long past expecting Barack Obama to possess even the most elementary knowledge of history."
What a moron. But note that the chief moron couldn't get applause without all the other serf morons his "intellectual" godfathers have so successfully created.

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Madness

Bracketology | Power Line: "Hey, he may not know a damn thing about the economy, or business, or foreign policy, or science, or history–but he can copy the experts’ basketball predictions!

Michael Ramirez adds more ridicule of our pathetic “chief executive:”"

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Damn The Speculators, Full Speed Ahead!

A Tank Full of Economic Misunderstanding: "Asked by your “pump patrol” reporter about rising gasoline prices, a motorist at a gasoline station noted that “My tank is actually way more than half full now.  I’m topping it off because I’m sure the price will be even higher this weekend.”  When your reporter then asked her “What do you think explains these rising prices?” she replied “Speculators.”  Your reporter followed up with “Do you think they should be stopped?”  The motorist responded immediately: “Of course!  They’re criminal.”

Speculating that the price of gasoline will rise, this motorist took action today – buying gasoline that she otherwise wouldn’t have bought today – that puts upward pressure on the price of gasoline today."

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This Time Will Be Different

Brace for China's impending crash | The Japan Times Online: ""This time will be different" is the traditional formula used to reassure nervous investors in the last years before a great economic bubble collapses. It was a constant refrain in the run-up to the Western financial crash of 2008-09, and now it is being heard daily about the Chinese property boom.

People in the West want to believe that China's economy will go on growing fast because the fragile recovery in Western economies depends on it. Twenty years of 10 percent-plus annual growth have made China the engine of the world economy, even though most Chinese remain poor. But the engine is fuelled by cheap credit, and most of that cheap money, as usual, has gone into real estate."
You can find the book on this here. It also explains 2008 of course.

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QOTM: Ain't That The Truth

Guest Post: Humanity Is Rising | ZeroHedge: "“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” -- Charles Bukowski"
Yes, that means quote of the millenium. And the reason is that the "smart ones" -- meaning those with the expensive educations -- are actually the ones stupid enough to believe they are the smart ones. God in other words. And it's been that way throughout human history.

Which brings me back to Eric Blair for the quote of the human epoch: “There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.” ― George Orwell

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The Real War Against Women

Collateral Damage from 'Reproductive Rights' - Reason Magazine: "Those advocates have been distracted from a different and far less figurative war on women—which, as it happens, is helped rather than hindered by one of the "reproductive rights" they champion. Legal abortion may empower women, but it has also become a powerful method for the mass elimination of females.

Modern technology allows prospective parents to learn the sex of a fetus, and many of them use that knowledge to exercise a preference for sons. Absent such intervention, about 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. But as Mara Hvistendahl reports in her 2011 book "Unnatural Selection," the number for boys per 100 girls has risen to 112 in India and 121 in China.

It was once assumed that the general preference for male offspring would subside as countries became richer and women became more educated. But in country after country, that has proved false."
Mao is smiling on these brainwashed dimwits. Eric put it best with his comment that they are "pathetic memebots running the program of a dead tyrant".

H/T Glenn.

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Wallpaper Ahoy

Watch Bernanke’s ‘Little’ Inflation Capsize U.S.: Amity Shlaes - Bloomberg: "All appeared calm in 1972, too, before inflation jumped to 11 percent by 1974, and stayed high for the rest of the decade, diminishing the quality of life for whole cohorts. They paid the higher interest rates needed to reduce the inflation, and got a house with one less bedroom. Or no pool.

The thing about inflation is that it accelerates. The acceleration hit storybook levels in the most sudden case of all, that of Germany in 1922. Many financial analysts thought the Weimar authorities weren’t producing enough money.

“Tight Money in German Market: Causes of the Abnormally Rapid Currency Deflation at Year-End,” read a New York Times headline. The Germans didn’t know it, but they had already turned their money into wallpaper; the next year would see hyperinflation, when inflation races ahead at more than 50 percent a month. It moved so fast that prices changed in a single hour. Yet even as it did so, the country’s financial authorities failed to see inflation. They thought they were witnessing increased demand for money."
RTWT.

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Not Just Another Guy In The Neighborhood

Ace of Spades HQ: "Okay sure Obama may have spoken at a rally for Prof. Derrick Bell while a law student at Harvard but that was a long time ago and doesn't mean that he subscribed to his racial views or anything, right?

Well here's what Prof. Barack Obama was teaching at the University of Chicago Law School. This is his Spring Term 1994 Syllabus for his "Current Issues in Racism and the Law" seminar. And guess whose works appear in the required reading."
Whoops.

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Exodus: The Seal Of Bankruptcy

Exodus: California Tax Revenue Plunges by 22%: "When it comes to bankrupt California politics, the Great Seal provides some good laughs. It was designed by U.S. Army Major Robert S. Garnett, who became the first general to die in the Civil War. The grizzly bear appears on the Seal to represent strength, but the last grizzly was shot 90 years ago. The miner using his sluice box dredge represents golden opportunity, but such mining became a crime as of August of 2009. Sadly, the five ships that once represented the state’s economic power now represent the relocation companies taking that power away."
But CA won't be allowed to go bankrupt of course. O Duce's bailout in 3... 2...

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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Of Course, If Criminals Are Running The Country...

Soldiers asked to disarm during Leon Panetta speech - Telegraph: "Less than a week after a US staff sergeant allegedly massacred 16 civilians in Kandahar, American soldiers were banned from bringing guns into a talk by Mr Panetta at a base in Helmand province.

Around 200 troops who had gathered in a tent at Camp Leatherneck were told "something had come to light" and asked abruptly to file outside and lay down their automatic rifles and 9mm pistols."
... they're not going to want armed Marines near them. After all, O Duce's just "proud of them generally".

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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Kyle Bass: If We Were Really Capitalists, We'd Have Bankruptcy

Kyle Bass Explains Texas Taking Physical Delivery of Gold | Video | TheBlaze.com: "In the conference room of Hayman Capital Partners’ offices in Dallas hangs a painting of a zero dollar bill, featuring Lenin’s face and the legend “United Socialist States of America”, notes The Economist. Bass isn’t afraid to flaunt his political views (his car sticker reads “God bless our troops, especially our snipers”), but the painting highlights his investment philosophy too. By propping up the banks, he argues, Big Government has merely succeeded in prolonging the crisis. “If we really had a capitalist model, we’d have bankruptcy.”"
Yup.

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It IS On

Wind Power | Power Line: "I suppose if wind were actually an effective power source, Barack Obama could power a battleship. Unfortunately, wind is unreliable, so not even Obama would rely on it for a really critical application:"

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What O Disaster

Rising crime has some Egyptians yearning for the old police state - The Washington Post: "Now, she never opens the doors to strangers, she locks the front door with three deadbolts and two key-turned locks. She doesn’t leave the house after 5 p.m. and never feels safe outside or home alone.

“Theft has become normal, rape has become normal, there is no safety at all and the police, with all due respect, are afraid,” Hashem said. "I want the police to take control of the country again.’’

“Honestly, Mubarak robbed us and plundered our country and our people,’’ she added, “but we never saw crime like this.”"
O Duce is intent on bringing it here. I'm now starting to wonder if we won't be seeing a mass prisoner clemency to help his vision of mayhem along.

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Schmonstitution

Let's just face it. We're irrelevant serfs to Congress. And Congress are irrelevant serfs to O Duce:

Leon Panetta’s Steven Chu–Like Moment of Candor - By Victor Davis Hanson - The Corner - National Review Online: "Just as the energy secretary on two occasions has either admitted he wanted high gas prices or was not too bothered by them, so the secretary of defense in candor suggested that the U.S. would first seek an international “legal basis” for U.S. armed intervention and then (and only if then?) consult the Congress. He seems to think that to use military force, permission from either the U.N. or NATO trumps the consent of the U.S. Congress — something nowhere in the U.S. Constitution.

This was not theorizing, but exactly what played out in Libya where we bombed on the authorization of the U.N. (or sorta, since we quickly exceeded no-fly zones and humanitarian aid) and the Arab League, but never went to the Congress."

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Gas Prices?

Psst! Obama lost the birth control mandate debate | The Daily Caller: "That’s among women. Unbeknownst to those who read only the Times‘ main story, the poll asked the same question to men. They were not split. Men favored opting out by a 20 point margin (57 vs. 37), except when a “religiously affiliated employer” was involved, in which case the margin increased to 25 points. Combining men and women, a substantial majority (51-40) favors allowing an opt-out–increasing to 57-36 where religiously-affiliated institutions are involved.

These are not close results. It’s hard to read this poll and not conclude that, contrary to some accounts, Obama wasn’t such a genius to pick a fight over mandated contraception coverage–because he appears to be losing the public debate on the question. That’s a conclusion the Times story effectively hides from readers.

It’s also one possible explanation for Obama’s otherwise somewhat mystifying overall drop in approval during the period–March 7-11–when the poll was in the field. But not an approved explanation.

Gas prices are the official MSM explanation. Got it? Gas prices."
Yep, Joe Nocera is not long for the Slimes...

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Du'O, Jail Is For The Little People

Is MF Global Getting a Free Pass? - NYTimes.com: "Well, fine. But is it really plausible that you can take $1.6 billion — nearly 25 percent of the customer assets under management — and not know you’ve used customer money? It is not. One theory, which is implicitly suggested in the trustee’s report, is that the executives “borrowed” the money thinking they would be able to replace the funds quickly, which they then couldn’t because the counterparties wouldn’t give back the collateral. That’s still a crime."
And of course:
A failure to prosecute anyone at MF Global would be, if anything, even worse. It would mean that executives at a broker-dealer can indeed steal customer money and get away with it — so long as it was “unintentional.” And it would only deepen the cynicism so many people feel about government. I’ve heard it suggested, for instance, that the Justice Department won’t prosecute Corzine because it would hurt President Obama. (Corzine, the former governor of New Jersey, had been a big fund-raiser for the president.) I don’t happen to subscribe to that theory, but I certainly understand why others might.
Hard to believe this appeared in the NY Slimes, eh? I have a feeling Nocera will soon be asked to "move along now" by his betters.

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Monday, March 12, 2012

The Light At The End O The Tunnel Is A Train (Wreck)

Surprise! Obama has a secret plan to deal with a catastrophic U.S. debt crisis. Here’s what might be in it « The Enterprise Blog: "So I think it’s reasonable to assume that the secret Obama-Orszag memo contains some options on massively raising taxes to send markets a signal that the United States is getting its fiscal house in order, ASAP.

Orszag, when he worked for Obama, was also the guy behind the creation of Obamacare’s Independent Medicare Payment Advisory Board. Starting in 2015, IPAB will have the power to making binding recommendations to cut Medicare provider payments if Medicare costs rise too quickly. As Orszag has put it: “This could well turn out to be as consequential for health policy as Federal Reserve policy was for monetary policy. The commission will put its proposals forward and if Congress does not act on them, or if it votes them down and the president then vetoes that bill, they will automatically take effect. Huge change.”"
This is way, way beyond a RTWT. This is your future-O-rama.

An early, poverty-stricken death.

Lights out.

O Duce thinks you deserve it after making him wait so long to be your King.

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O Watermelons And OPEC

America’s Energy Disaster - Robert Zubrin - National Review Online: "In figure 1, below, I show U.S. oil production, OPEC oil production, and non-U.S./non-OPEC oil production from 1960 to the present. It can be seen the U.S. oil production grew at an average rate of 3.2 percent per year during the 1960s, peaking at 9.6 mpd in 1970. In that year, however, the Environmental Protection Agency was created, and U.S. production has been in decline ever since. As shown, the growth of OPEC production, which had been extremely rapid during the 1960s, came to a screeching halt in 1973, when the OPEC powers replaced the previously dominant Seven Sisters’ policy of expanding production to fuel the world economy with an alternative policy of constricting production to loot the world economy."
RTWT, it's short. And painful.

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Sunday, March 11, 2012

30%

How Obama Is Choking Off U.S. Oil Production - By Mario Loyola - The Corner - National Review Online: "Obama will soon be personally responsible for preventing some 2 million barrels per day of possible North American crude oil production from reaching the American economy. The U.S. currently produces only about 6 million barrels of domestic crude oil, so that would be more than a 30 percent increase in domestic production.

The president likes to say that America is producing more oil than ever before, but that’s due entirely to shale oil (e.g., fracking) and oil sands. The boom in production from private sources is currently shielding the administration from the political consequences of taking such a huge amount of oil off the market.  "
But don't worry, O Duce has our best interests at heart.

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Turdi's Charge

Jack Cashill writes: "Obama’s Sexually Confused Caretakers": "Apparently, Turdi took care of Obama when young Barry was eight-to-ten years of age, and Turdi was in his mid-twenties. He would bring Obama to and from school and play with him afterwards.

Turdi watched over Obama as a male. It is pure Newspeak to call him a “nanny.” Nevertheless, Turdi was not overly careful to conceal his inner yearnings at the time.

According to the AP, neighbors saw Turdi leave the Obama house in drag on occasion, but Turdi doubts Obama knew this. Still, as Turdi concedes, “He did see me trying on his mother's lipstick, sometimes. That used to really crack him up." I can imagine.

If you wonder what kind of mother would leave her impressionable, fatherless son with an obvious cross dresser and likely homosexual, it is same kind of mother who would leave him with a communist pornographer and likely bi-sexual a few years later."
I don't have to tell you by now that this is another Cashill classic. RTWT.

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Dissecting Fascism

U.S. Corporate Taxes: Freedom or Fascism? You Decide. - YouTube: "You Decide"

Open your eyes. That big pain you feel in your bottom isn't because you've been sitting in your chair too long.

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Murderously Unconstrained

The Battle of Big Ideas, Part 1: CONSTRAINED vs. UNCONSTRAINED - YouTube: "Before you can build a political house, you have to know what materials you have on hand. In Part 1 of The Battle of Big Ideas, Bill looks at the two visions of Mankind that Thomas Sowell has labeled "Constrained" and "Unconstrained," and the examples of their twin Revolutions: the Constrained American Revolution and the Unconstrained French Revolution."

Bill at his best.  Of course, with Sowell he has some great thinking to work with...

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The Blunder

New Report: Economic Analysis Reveals Wind Power ‘Worse Than a Mistake’ | Watts Up With That?: "“The key problems with current policies for wind power are simple. They require a huge commitment of investment resources to a technology that is not very green, in the sense of saving a lot of CO2, but which is certainly very expensive and inflexible. Unless the current Government scales back its commitment to wind power very substantially, its policy will be worse than a mistake, it will be a blunder,” Professor Hughes said."

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A Grateful Nation (Not)

Arab Springtime For Hitler? | Power Line: "A year ago they begged for Britain’s help when Colonel Gaddafi’s tanks encircled their city, threatening annihilation. Now former Libyan rebels in Benghazi – liberated with the aid of the RAF last March – have systematically desecrated the graves of more than 150 British servicemen killed in North Africa 70 years ago.
Headstones at the Benghazi War Cemetery have been torn down and crucifixes smashed with hammers by a mob of extremists, some carrying guns and dressed in combat fatigues. …"
What a nightmare.

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Into The GAAP

Why China Is Dumping The Dollar - And Why You Should Read Up on the Weimar Republic | ZeroHedge: "As ZH posted today, China is systematically dumping the dollar (and beginning to set up other agreements). CNBC assures everyone, however, that things are fine. Don't read those anonymous financial blogs."
And:
Today ZH also pointed out that Greece has 107 Billion Euro in hidden liabilities that oops, they forgot to disclose to anyone. Which made me think, hey, how about the unfunded & if not hidden, largely swept under the rug liabilities the United States has.

Alas, the Treasury doesn't use GAAP accounting when they put out their debt figures, they use cash accounting. This means that all of the social programs we have in place (medicare, pensions, social security, etc) are left out of the debt calculation. China is not stupid, they realize that not only are we going to be 100% of GDP soon on our reported debt, we're going to be well over 100% of GDP on total debt if we are being honest & including our unfunded liabilities. Over $80 Trillion in debt, or over 500% of GDP, accordng to Shadow Stats John Williams.

Here is a chart showing our Gross Debt to GDP, along with Total Debt to GDP if we were being honest (via John Williams, Shadow Stats)
Funny on how that never pops on to the T.V., eh?

Turn. Off. The. T. V.

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Not A Fluke

The Fluke Charade - Mark Steyn - National Review Online: "Insane as this scenario is, the Democrat-media complex insists that everyone take it seriously. When it emerged the other day that Amanda Clayton, a 24-year-old Michigan million-dollar-lottery winner, still receives $200 of food stamps every month, even the press and the bureaucrats were obliged to acknowledge the ridiculousness. Yet the same people are determined that Sandra Fluke be treated with respect as a pioneering spokesperson for the rights of the horizontally challenged.

Sorry, I pass. “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom,” wrote Benjamin Franklin in 1784. In the absence of religious virtue, sexual virtue, and fiscal virtue, one might trust to the people’s sense of sheer preposterousness to reject the official narrative of the Fluke charade. Yet even that is not to be permitted."
And it's not a fluke because it's in fact being run out of (or at least for) the White House.

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Nanny Knows Best

Why So Many Prescriptions? - By Andrew Stuttaford - The Corner - National Review Online: "Earlier this year a seven-year-old girl in Virginia went into shock when she ate a peanut during a school break. Although the school held EpiPens for other children, it was not allowed to administer one to her, since she was not “named” on any of the prescriptions. Tragically, the child died. And this is not an isolated case: around 1,500 people are thought to die in America each year from similar allergic reactions which could have been reversed with an EpiPen."

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COTD: Your Worst Suspicions

Belmont Club » Scorpio: "This is one reason why I value BC so much. Not that your prodigious volume of amazingly insightful analysis isn’t enough. You are the real deal; not some fat, sweaty white guy in a doomsday shelter who’s never experienced real troubles (and I say this as a fat white guy who isn’t in a bomb shelter). One relationship that I valued greatly was a previous co-worker who was a member of the South Vietnamese army who was captured after the war, sent to prison camp, escaped, and made his way to the US. If anyone in my personal life knew Communists, knew the true face, this chap did. And unfortunately, he pretty much confirmed my worst suspicions about the Institutional Left in this country. Not from their strategy, but from the very similar natures of their tactical actions, which we compared and contrasted in long conversations. Before that, I thought there was a good chance I was just getting too conspiratorial in my thinking. But if this gentleman taught me anything, it’s that I wasn’t even really beginning to see the mask slip yet."
I took my boys to see "Act Of Valor" last night. They really, really don't want you to see that. So I highly recommend it.

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Saturday, March 10, 2012

The Great Dishoarding

Robert Mish: Front-Line Evidence That We are Nowhere Near a Gold Bubble - Chris Martenson - buying, gold, Robert Mish, selling, silver: "Chris Martenson: So describe the typical seller today, is this somebody with the smallish collection, just has some gold, some silver, somehow?
Robert Mish: Well the typical seller today is really the opposite of who they were 30, 40, 50 years ago. People used to save either through a bank account to keeping some coins around, putting away silver dollars when they came back from Reno or Lake Tahoe. They would be buying some interesting furniture or jewelry and then they had income in excess of their expenses. Today so many households are stressed having expenses greater than their income or servicing a lot of debt that they are starting to sell the things, the heirlooms that they so prized before. So we are seeing people sell their Rolex they do not want anymore or cannot afford to keep, their old jewelry, their parent’s jewelry and belongings that they inherited. The coins they collected when they were a kid, it is sad in a way because what we are seeing is the dishoarding of a culture."

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For The Little People

The one chart liberals hate « Don Surber: "It’s the chart that makes liberals cry.

They say it is unfair.

They say it proves nothing.

They say it is racist, sexist and taken out of context.

But mostly, they cry because they made the chart up and the chart is being used against them. Conservatives are making them eat the chart of “Unemployment Rate With and Without the Recovery Plan,” which Barack Obama used to sell the $787 billion stimulus — the largest gamble ever made in the history of the world.

This was their chart.

They could say that unemployment could rise 10%, 11%, or even 12% if we do nothing and that by doing something we would keep it below that.

Liberals chose that if we do nothing it would hit 9% and if we do something it will never to 8%."
Accountability is for the little people.

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Thursday, March 8, 2012

The Real Racists

Obama and the Bell Curve | Power Line: "Who would believe such a ridiculous story?  Ask yourself this clarifying question: who is it that believes that human beings are a liability, that overpopulation is a crisis, and that physical “natural resources” are the larger asset than human beings who come with two hands and a brain?  It is liberals who believe this most fervently, not the advocates of free markets and individual liberty.  Liberals have long hooted at Julian Simon and others who argue that people are the “ultimate resource,” and not physical matter, especially not gold.  Only a liberal would find “Space Traders” to be a plausible scenario.  No pro-life president would ever make Bell’s deal; it would require a liberal president like . . . Barack Obama!

Derrick Bell unwittingly reveals who the real racists are these days, and along the way reveals why it is that liberal guilt exists.  Bell curve indeed."
Turn. Off. The. T. V. And. Use. Your. Brain.

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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

O Those Joooooos!

OBAMA: 'Open up your hearts and your minds' to racialist prof: "“Open up your hearts and your minds to the words of Professor Derrick Bell.”
If we did, here’s what we’d be opening our hearts and minds to. This is a close associate of Jeremiah Wright, a man who was quoted by Jeremiah Wright regularly. This is a man who posited that the civil rights movement was too moderate because it accepted the status quo, and believed that the entire legal and constitutional system had to be transformed in radical fashion. This is a man so extreme that, as we’ve reported, he wrote a story in 1993 in which he posited that white Americans would sell black Americans into slavery to aliens to relieve the national debt, and that Jews would go along with it."
You voted for a nut job for President. And you're the one who's going to be sold into slavery.


And if not you then most certainly your children.

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I Can't See You

TSA nude body scanners: Jonathan Corbett video exposes loophole | Mail Online: "Controversial nude body scanners used at U.S. airports have come under fire again - after a blogger claimed he could easily smuggle explosives through them onto a plane.

Engineer Jonathan Corbett has published a video where he shows how he took a small metal case through two of the TSA's $1billion fleet in a special side pocket stitched into his shirt.

This is because, he suggests, the scanners blend metallic areas into the dark background - so if an object is not directly placed on the body, it will not show up on the scan."
Whoops.

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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Staged

Final Thoughts On Rush and the 30 Year Old Professional Activist | Power Line: "2. Casual observers didn’t notice, but the episode was staged, from beginning to end, by the Democrats. Ms. Fluke was no “coed,” as she was widely described, but rather a 30-year-old professional left-wing activist. Her “testimony” was ginned up before an audience of Democrats after the Dems tried to switch her, at the last moment, for a scheduled committee witness and the Republicans balked. Beginning with what seemed to be an unpromising hand, the Democrats played the GOP (Rush most of all) like a violin."
Didn't know that, did you?

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The Alinsky Tapes

Obama Ally Won't Release Alinsky Tape: "Mainstream journalists have attempted to dismiss yesterday's column by Andrew Breitbart about the play by claiming that Obama had merely attended the production--a defense hinted at by Chicago Reader columnist Michael Miner's initial column. 

However--as even Miner noted--Obama did not merely attend the play; he was featured on the poster and in the panel discussion that followed.

So, if the play’s so harmless, why are Obama’s allies hiding it? 

Why not release the video tape?"
The first commenter has it nailed:
SAMMYBULL
What does it matter? The MSM could catch Obama eating embryos while having sex with a corpse and they'll spin it as an unfair attack by the GOP.

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Why, Because O Duce Agrees With Bill Maher Of Course...

Sarah Palin To Obama: If Rush Was Offensive, Why Are You Taking Money From Bill Maher: "Sarah Palin To Obama: If Rush Was Offensive, Why Are You Taking Money From Bill Maher
Sarah Palin calls on Obama to ask his Super PAC to return $1 million donation from Bill Maher. Maher used the C-word for Palin."
Du'O.

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Sunday, March 4, 2012

Time To Cut Back

Why Britain's fallen out of love with the welfare state | Mail Online: "Seven decades on, however, the British people seem to be falling out of love with Beveridge’s brainchild.

According to a YouGov poll for Prospect magazine, a staggering 74 per cent of us think that the Government should slash benefits. Young and old, Labour and Tory, rich and poor: every single social group believes it is time to cut back.

As the pollster Peter Kellner points out, such public unanimity is almost unprecedented. And what’s more, 69 per cent believe our welfare system has ‘created a culture of dependency’, and that ‘people should take more responsibility for their lives and families’."
Du'O.

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Nobody Will Ask

Low Rates for Savers Are Reason for Complaint - Fair Game - NYTimes.com: "“We are rapidly approaching a situation,” Mr. Todd said, “where Congress and the administration are unwilling to confront bankers on the need of thoroughgoing reform of everything involving household finance and credit reporting/credit scoring because it would cost the bankers money to do so.” The big banks, meanwhile, complain bitterly about regulation, but don’t mention how regulation might have helped mute the crisis.

“Our policy makers do need to think about what we are transferring to the banks,” Mr. Todd said. “Why is the public obligated to provide them with all those subsidies? Nobody will ask these questions.”

And that’s a crying shame."

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Let Them Eat Algae

Algae, European Gas Prices, and Born in the U.S.A - By Victor Davis Hanson - The Corner - National Review Online: "As gas nears $5-a-gallon out west, the president, who has cancelled a key pipeline and frozen federal leases from Alaska to the East Coast, teaches us about American algae potential, in the way he used to emphasize the importance of tire pressure and “tune-ups.” He castigates the opposition for making political hay out of bad news, in the way he routinely did as a senator in compiling the most partisan voting record in the Senate. Energy Secretary Chu cannot and will not say a word about soaring gas prices, since he is on record not so long ago hoping that they might double — that is, get to $8- to 10-a-gallon as they are in Europe. The Energy Department can do almost everything Americans don’t want, but not the single thing they do want. "

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#irony


Twitter / @queensnicky: Oh the #irony @keder @osP ...: "Oh the #irony @keder @osPatriot @ROCKWITHBECK @TruthTeamUSA @dukeford7 @RightCandidates @DefyTyrannyWear #TeaParty pic.twitter.com/41sc52sh"
Wow. (H/T Ace)

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Feynman Is Smiling

Why CAGW theory is not “settled science” | Watts Up With That?: "Physicists therefore usually know better than to believe the very stuff that they peddle. When I teach students introductory physics, I tell them up front — “Everything I’m going to teach you over the next two semesters is basically wrong — but it works, and works amazingly well, right up to where it doesn’t work and we have to find a better, broader explanation.” I also tell them not to believe anything I tell them because I’m telling them, and I’m the professor and therefore I know and its up to them to parrot me and believe it or else. I tell them quite the opposite. Believe me because what I teach you makes sense (is consistent), corresponds at least roughly with your own everyday experience, and because when you check it in the labs and by doing computations that can be compared to e.g. planetary observations, they seem to work. And believe me only with a grain of salt then — because further experiments and observations will eventually prove it all wrong."
And:
I’m not certain relativity is correct, but they are certain that catastrophic anthropogenic global warming is a true hypothesis with precise predictions and conclusions. I have learned to doubt numerical simulations that I myself have written that are doing simple, easily understandable things that directly capture certain parts of physics. They are doing far, far more complex numerical simulations — the correct theoretical answer, recall, is a solution to a set of coupled non-Markovian Navier-Stokes equation with a variable external driver and still unknown feedbacks in a chaotic regime with known important variability on multiple decadal or longer timescales — and yet they are certain that their results are correct, given the thirty plus years of accurate global thermal data (plus all of the longer timescale reconstructions or estimates they can produce from the common pool of old data, with all of its uncertainties).

Look, here’s how you can tell — to get back to your question. You compare the predictions of their “catastrophic” theory five, ten, twenty years back to the actual data. If there is good agreement, it is at least possible that they are correct. The greater the deviation between observed reality and their predictions, the more likely it is that their result is at least incorrect if not actual bullshit. That’s all. Accurately predicting the future isn’t proof that they are right, but failing to predict it is pretty strong evidence that they are wrong.

Such a comparison fails.
Ooof.

This is almost beyond a RTWT. It's a thing of beauty that would make Feynman smile:

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." - Richard Feynman

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Stockman Speaks

David Stockman economy Q&A: Economic disaster in the works – USATODAY.com: "Q: But the unemployment rate is falling and companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 are making more money than ever.

A: That's very short-term. Look at the data that really counts. The 131.7 million (jobs in November) was first achieved in February 2000. That number has gone nowhere for 12 years.

Another measure is the rate of investment in new plant and equipment. There is no sustained net investment in our economy. The rate of growth since 2000 (in what the Commerce Department calls non-residential fixed investment) has been 0.8% — hardly measurable.

(Non-residential fixed investment is the money put into office buildings, factories, software and other equipment.)

We're stalled, stuck."
And wait for it...:
Q: What will 10-year Treasurys yield in a year or five years?

A: I have no guess, but I do know where it is now (a yield of about 2%) is totally artificial. It's the result of massive purchases by not only the Fed but all of the other central banks of the world.

Q: What's wrong with that?

A: It doesn't come out of savings. It's made up money. It's printing press money. When the Fed buys $5 billion worth of bonds this morning, which it's doing periodically, it simply deposits $5 billion in the bank accounts of the eight dealers they buy the bonds from.

Q: And what are the consequences of that?

A: The consequences are horrendous. If you could make the world rich by having all the central banks print unlimited money, then we have been making a mistake for the last several thousand years of human history.
According to the Keynesians (or is that Kenyans?, I always get confused), all of human history is a mistake and we should -- to quote the chairsatan -- just rain green paper from helicopters and everything will be great!

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Feeling Pretty!

Teachers unions: More good work if you can get it « Hot Air: "Welcome to scenic and historic Buffalo, New York! It’s a great place, famous for chicken wings and an NFL team which holds a record which may never be broken. But for all its glory, like so many other cities and towns across the Empire State, Buffalo is facing big budget problems. Belts are being tightened and times are tough. Unless, that is, you happen to belong to the teachers union. If you do, you’re probably feeling pretty!"
As thousands of teachers face layoffs across the country, teachers in Buffalo, New York are getting lipo? Yep. And nose jobs and whatever else they want. All on the taxpayers’ dime. How is this happening?…

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Saturday, March 3, 2012

I Don't Think So

Was Meredith Whitney Right About Municipal Bonds? (CMF, MUB, NYF): "In December 2010, less than two years after our emergence from the worst recession in 70 years, banking analyst Meredith Whitney opined on CBS's 60 Minutes that we were on the precipice of a municipal bond apocalypse. Her prediction entailed that we would see "50 to 100 sizable defaults ... [that would] amount to hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of defaults."

For the most part, this prediction hasn't exactly panned out. There have been notable city bankruptcies, including Vallejo, Calif., and recently Pennsylvania's capital, Harrisburg, but nowhere near the 50 to 100 defaults that Whitney had called for.

So, does this mean Meredith Whitney's predictions were all wet? I don't think so.

I think Whitney's timing didn't work out as well as many of her other calls, but there are some very sizable defaults around the corner if something isn't done soon."
Take a look at his table. And of course we promoted the same leftist cabal that has been running ChicagO into the ground to run the country. Brilliant.

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