OSwindling Futurity (Bumped) (Bumped Again)

clipped from www.qando.net “The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” - Thomas Jefferson UPDATE: "The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation" - V.I. Lenin UPDATED AGAIN: "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

And Then We Borrow Money From China

clipped from www.moonbattery.com If the Founding Fathers were around today, would they be siding with tea-partiers, or the political elites?

We're Scr*wed

clipped from www.moonbattery.com

For David.

My Pet Jack*ss

clipped from www.moonbattery.com Yesterday the Moonbat Messiah turned stomachs with his inappropriate demeanor when he gave a jaunty "shout-out" to "Congressional Medal of Honor winner" Joe Medicine Crow before belatedly getting around to delivering his obligatory words of regret over Religion of Peacenik Nidal Malik Hasan's horrific killing spree. However, NewsBusters informs us that Joe Medicine Crow, said to be the last living Plains Indian war chief, didn't even win the Congressional Medal of Honor, but the Medal of Freedom. Chairman Zero awarded it to him himself just last August. But medals and stuff are all kind of the same to a community organizer.

Gold For Man, Gruel For You

clipped from www.businessweek.com When Goldman Sachs (GS) sold complex bonds backed by the Arizona Grand Resort and other commercial properties in 2006, it suggested the returns would be strong. The 164-acre luxury Arizona Grand, set against the Sonoran Desert in Phoenix, boasted an award-winning golf course, deluxe spa, and several swank restaurants. The on-site water park was named one of the best in the country by the Travel Channel. With the resort's new owners planning to refurbish hotel rooms and common areas, Goldman told investors that the renovations would help boost cash flow. As was so often the case during the real estate boom, the lofty projections didn't pan out. When the economy softened and business travel slumped, Arizona Grand's bookings slipped to 67%, from 80%. The resort defaulted on the $190 million underlying loan in 2009—a hit that alone could largely wipe out investors who bought the riskier pieces of the Goldman mortgage-backed securities deal.

Ogabe

clipped from www.atimes.com The unhappy situation in America, of which we have long warned, should be contrasted with the healthy growth experiences of other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, China and India. The Australian central bank is now so confident in its growth potential that it has raised interest rates two months in a row. Though they have a center-left government, the Aussies have managed to control stimulus spending and overall debt. New Zealand is seeing an increase in real wages amid a strong Kiwi dollar. Much more than GDP, this is a signal that economic growth is truly returning to this island nation. China, a place where 9% annual GDP growth is considered a recession, is still developing its market economy while Obama cripples that of the United States. A currency's value reflects investors' faith in a particular nation. Though commentators are seizing on this figure or that to make the bull case, the dollar index belies their claims.

Just Paper

clipped from www.smartmoney.com Now here's a paradox, or at least a seeming paradox. The longer the Fed keeps interest rates at zero, the more worthless paper money becomes. That creates the impression that gold is more valuable -- in fact, this week it hit all-time highs at almost $1,100 per ounce as the Fed announced the indefinite continuation of its zero-rate policy. But that's not gold becoming more valuable. That's the paper money in which the price of gold is denominated becoming less valuable. In other words, gold is the constant. Its value doesn't change. Its dollar price changes, but not its value. So when investors come to me and ask me how they can hedge against the falling value of the dollar, I always tell them to buy gold. You can't escape the falling dollar by buying other currencies like the euro or the yen. They're just paper, too. Lately they've looked strong versus the dollar. But in the end, they're just paper.

I Am Ready To Puke

clipped from hotair.com

The Swindle

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com It's gone past the point where we could officially declare the "stimulus" bill a failure. At this juncture, I don't see how to avoid the conclusion that the administration's economic policies, taken as a whole, have been misguided.

Eat It

clipped from blogs.investors.com On the eve of Friday’s jobs report that could see the unemployment rate reach 10%, these are words that the president’s speechwriters probably wish they could rephrase. “Economists from across the political spectrum agree that if we don’t act swiftly and boldly, we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double-digit unemployment and the American Dream slipping further and further out of reach.” President-elect Barack Obama, Weekly Address, Jan. 3, 2009.

Du'O (Part 86,925)

clipped from m.apnews.com Soldiers who witnessed the rampage reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" - an Arabic phrase for "God is great!" - before opening fire, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the base commander. He said officials had not yet confirmed that Hasan made the comment before the shooting spree.

Or Worse

clipped from pajamasmedia.com RETURN OF THE INFLATION TAX: “All of those twentysomethings who voted for Barack Obama last year are about to experience the change they haven’t been waiting for: the return of income tax bracket creep. Buried in Nancy Pelosi’s health-care bill is a provision that will partially repeal tax indexing for inflation, meaning that as their earnings rise over a lifetime these youngsters can look forward to paying higher rates even if their income gains aren’t real.” Good grief, these people really are trying to bring back the Carter era. Or worse.

Take That Last Video Seriously Folks

clipped from www.youtube.com

This video is somewhat of a mess but there is no mistaking that Percy Sutton was a player. About to meet with Clinton and Rangel. And attorney to Malcolm X among others.

Very, very interesting.

The Mansourian Candidate: A Reminder

clipped from www.youtube.com Careful, unfortunately some well-intentioned people messed up the story & weren't paying attention to this interview...note that while Sutton does speak in past tense as to Al Mansour's solicitation of the letter of recommendation, Sutton speaks in *present* tense about "he's raising money for him." The red flag should not be about cash to Harvard (doubtful), but about foreign cash for Obama's campaign at time of interview (2008), something seemingly supported by Qaddafi(associate of Al Mansour)

COTD: Societal Sprirochetes

clipped from www.americanthinker.com These societal spirochetes constantly revise their autobiographies to conceal the truth and beat the system, so it is any surprise that they claim our Constitution to be 'a living document' in need of revision? Uncanny 'coincidences' always swirl about them. When they meet resistance, the resister becomes conveniently deceased. And what about that strange death, ruled a homicide, of the inconvenient choir director in chicago? Mere 'coincidences' sez the marxstream media to its audience of New Age Serfs who happily believe it as they sit, strapped safely to their couches, drooling self-contentedly, munching down Gut-Bomb Brand (r) Pie-Hole Stuffer Pasty-Snakkz, while watching Who Wants to Be A Billionaire Imbecile? But those who understand communism, such as the Cuban Exiles, summarize matters by means of a timeless adage: "A coincidence is a coincidence. Two? A pattern. Three? Conspiracy."

Even The Commies Are Aghast

clipped from www.moonbattery.com Sometimes it seems liberal Euroweenies are deliberately testing to see just how much totalitarian moonbattery they can ram down people's throats before encountering significant resistance. In the latest outrage against liberty and national sovereignty, bureaucrats of the European Court of Human Rights have ruled that Italians cannot have crucifixes on the walls of their classrooms. The ruling by the court in Strasbourg, which Italy said it would appeal, said crucifixes on school walls — a common sight that is part of every Italian's life — could disturb children who were not Christians. That is, Muslim colonists might not like that Italy has been a Christian country since Constantine converted to Christianity in the 4th century. Even some commies are aghast: Paola Binetti, a Catholic in the opposition Democratic Party, the successor of what was once the West's largest communist party, said: "In Italy, the crucifix is a specific sign of our tradition."

Well this pretty much sums up what's happening in Omerica also, doesn't it?

Solidarity

clipped from homylafayette.blogspot.com Caller to BBC Persian: I noticed great solidarity among the people. As soon as someone was struck by the security forces, people would rush over to help, give some sweets or comfort. I did not see any fatigue among the protesters. I was in Karim Khan Zand from 10 AM. They would beat us, then we'd go to the next street. They'd beat us again and we'd go elsewhere again. Footage of a massive number of protesters at what appears to be Tehran's Enghelab Square, chanting one of the special slogans prepared for November 4: 'Neither eastern, nor western, a green national government.' This slogan raises the hackles of regime supporters because it is a direct challenge to the old revolutionary phrase 'Neither eastern, nor western, an Islamic Republic.'

But Wait!

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com But wait! Is this the same Bob McDonnell who, until Tuesday night, was a far-right candidate determined to chain women to their stoves? In September, Dionne wrote that McDonnell was a "onetime protege of Pat Robertson" who once wrote a paper, "unearthed by the Washington Post," that argued: ...that working mothers were detrimental to the family and that he opposed a Supreme Court decision legalizing contraception for married couples. He had some less than kind words about homosexuals. Dionne was willing to turn this supposed Neanderthal into a moderate--almost "a Barack Obama centrist!"--in order to avoid admitting the unacceptable, that Tuesday's elections were a big win for conservatives.

We All Know The Answer To That Question

clipped from gatewaypundit.firstthings.com The protesters called out to the Americans: “Obama, Obama, Are you with the regime or with us?” Sadly, we all know the answer to that question. The Obama Administration stands firmly with the regime.

Dreams O My Abuser

clipped from gatewaypundit.firstthings.com Mr Ndesandjo, who lives in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, is the son of Barack Obama senior and his third wife, Ruth Nidesand, an American. In a rare appearance to promote his semi-autobiographical novel, Nairobi to Shenzhen, Mr Ndesandjo said: “My father beat me. He beat my mother. You just do not do that.

pothOle

clipped from www.lucianne.com This is where the rubber really hits the road.

Narcissist In Chief

clipped from www.moonbattery.com Chairman Zero wasn't watching election returns last night. There was something much more important on his mind, watching the fawning, HBO Documentary about himself that would have made Leni Riefenstahl say, "Don't you think this might be a bit much?" At first he was concerned that the documentary seemed to portray him as hiding a nefarious agenda behind promises of global peace and universal health care ... then, someone pointed out that he was watching the premier of V and helped him change the channel. Also, Breitbart has uncovered 11 new videos of schoolchildren being forced to sing songs of praise to Chairman Zero. Sure, nothing creepy or North Koreaish about that. No, sir... "I can't decide on Afghanistan right now, I'm too busy looking at a picture of a beautiful man."

Amazing How That Works...

clipped from www.qando.net If you have a friend who is a supporter of the present monstrosity called “health care reform” because they think Europeans are better served by their system than we are by ours and the Democrat’s solution will make us more like them, ask them to watch this 4 1/2 minute video.

Occomplice To Evil II

clipped from pajamasmedia.com This is Jimmy Carter all over again, and just as Carter’s appeasement of the Islamic Republic led to the death of countless innocents, in Iran and around the world, so Obama’s appeasement will do the same.  He, and his administration, are accomplices to evil.  From Iran, via Twitter, comes the bottom line: Gee the people of Iran seek to really CHANGE things and Obama says, let’s negotiate w/ the Nazis Just so.

Occomplice To Evil

clipped from pajamasmedia.com I agree with an “elderly woman” to Radio Farda: I was in the demonstrations this morning. You can’t imagine the number of security troops that had been deployed. It looked like there was one regime agent for every protester. And all this to confront people with nothing to defend themselves with. I finally understood today how scared they are. This regime is over. The regime has failed to intimidate the people;  the effect of the violence, the brutal savagery, the mass rapes, executions, and torture is to intensify their contempt (they trampled pictures of Supreme Leader Khamenei). Alas, their contempt is not limited to their own tyrants.  It extends to President Obama, who today issued a masterpiece of appeasement and all but groveled in begging the leaders of the Islamic Republic to make a deal: I have made it clear that the United States of America wants to move beyond this past, and seeks a relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran based upon mutual interests and mutual respect.

Collapse-O-rama

clipped from www.ft.com Gold prices on Tuesday surged to an all-time high after India’s central bank bought 200 tonnes of the precious metal, swapping dollars for bullion as the country’s finance minister warned the economies of the US and Europe had “collapsed”. India’s decision to exchange $6.7bn for gold equivalent to 8 per cent of world annual mine production sent the strongest signal yet that Asian countries were moving away from the US currency. Pranab Mukherjee, India’s finance minister, said the acquisition reflected the power of an economy that laid claim to the fifth-largest global foreign reserves: “We have money to buy gold. We have enough foreign exchange reserves.” He contrasted India’s strength with weakness elsewhere: “Europe collapsed and North America collapsed.”

Real Truth To His Executioner

clipped from homylafayette.blogspot.com The student then turned to the topic of critiquing the Supreme Leader. 'I have been reading newspapers and magazines in a serious manner for four or five years. In all this time, I cannot remember reading one article which has criticized the Leadership. Critiques of the Leader can be voiced generally or expressed in particular in the Assembly of Experts,' the student said, according to Khamenei's office. 'I feel that if this does not happen, it will lead to discord and spite. For example, a simple critical observation, because it does not find the proper place to express itself, can become malicious and unfair.' Vahidnia began speaking about the way security forces had confronted demonstrators after the election. 'If we had more convincing methods and did not employ violence except when necessary, would our regime not endure better?

Not Ready (Part 8,397,973)

clipped from www.nypost.com The truth is, Obama wasn’t ready to be president when he ran in 2008. When he started, he probably thought he had no real chance — he himself admitted upon entering the Senate that he wasn’t qualified to be president — and that his first run would simply be a PR effort that would lift him to the top ranks of Senate Democrats. When, to everyone’s surprise, resentment of the Clinton machine crystallized around him, he wound up beating Hillary for the nomination, and found himself riding an out-of-control express train. He rode it to victory, with some help from erratic McCain actions. But he was right the first time about not being ready for the Oval Office. As president, he seems confused and a bit distant on the issues, leaving the details to congressional Democrats and an ever-growing number of "czars" while he golfs and launches attacks at Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

COTD: More Printing

clipped from www.realclearpolitics.com A lot of treasuries are now held by US households both directly and indirectly. With a savings rate around 4% the cash is going somewhere. And it winds up in treasuries. Look at the article in this mornings WSJ noting that the 500 largest non financial companies hold more cash than they have in 40 years -nearly a trillion $'s. And it isn't going anywhere but into treasuries either directly or cash in banks which in turn are buying treasuries. This mountain of cash is creating a treasury bubble which is helping hold down interest rates at the moment. The conundrum is that the goal is to get these companies reinvesting the cash to create jobs. But they won't while they are uncertain of the future. But when they eventually do, they will be selling those treasuries or, if they are short term, will be cashing them in and where will the funds come to replace that? More printing? More taxes? Interest rates will have to rise to compensate.

Censor Fail

clipped from gatewaypundit.firstthings.com Top Iranian student Mahmoud Vahidnia confronted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei at a public meeting with students. The Supreme Leader was so distraught by the confrontation that he skipped prayers and left the meeting early. The event was being broadcast by Iranian state-run TV. That made the authorities stop airing the programme. Rooz Online reported: Mahmoud Vahidnia, a distinguished mathematics whiz from the Sharif Technical University, frankly criticized the supreme leader during his meeting with students, as state-run media outlets were unable to censor the remarks. This international mathematics Olympiad winner blasted Khamenei in person in an unexpected move, focusing on “supreme leader’s performance” and the “lack of criticism against supreme leader.”

Go green!

Percentages

clipped from taxprof.typepad.com The Tax Foundation computes the income tax rates necessary to close the deficit:

Sound Familiar?

clipped from www.americanthinker.com In truth, even if the griot had known a Kunta Kinte, there was no way Haley could have written anything approaching a "history" about the first seventeen years of his life. The notion that an oral historian could recall the life of an ordinary young boy two hundred years prior surpasses the preposterous. "There was no Kunta Kinte," says Nobile bluntly. Nobile and an African-American coauthor put a book proposal together on the subject, but as Nobile ruefully admits, "Nobody wanted to touch it." A Lexis search shows shockingly little follow-up by the media, major or minor. Not surprisingly, the Pulitzer people did not ask for their award back, and the book and video have remained a staple in history classes across America. Nobile blames Roots's seeming immunity on his progressive colleagues. "They were all too scared, or dishonest," he writes, "to admit to the public that the most famous black writer had lied about his ancestry." Sound familiar?

Du'O jOnes

clipped from www.colorofchange.org A new left-wing organization created specifically to attack Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, and Paul Brown has ties to ex-Obama green jobs czar Van Jones. As NewsBusters reported Thursday, StopTheWitchHunt.org was formed to "call out" what it considers "mischaracterizations and hate speech" by the aforementioned quintet. With the assistance of tipster Bret A. Gehring, NewsBusters has discovered an organizational link to Jones. But this gets better, for CMJ's Facebook post sent readers to its "Actions" page. There, readers can find a September 11 headline, "Tell Fox News to Stop the Witch Hunts!" The embedded link sent readers to -- wait for it!!! -- Color of Change's Beck petition. This was posted at CMJ's website just five days after Jones was forced to resign as Obama's green jobs czar. Now, roughly seven weeks later, a new coalition has been created using the same phrase "Stop the Witch Hunt" for its name

COTD #N: But Not India Or China

clipped from wattsupwiththat.com In words quoted on the cover of my new book, Prof Lindzen wrote: “Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly exaggerated computer predictions combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a rollback of the industrial age.” Such is the truly extraordinary position in which we find ourselves. Thanks to misreading the significance of a brief period of rising temperatures at the end of the 20th century, the Western world (but not India or China) is now contemplating measures that add up to the most expensive economic suicide note ever written. How long will it be before sanity and sound science break in on what begins to look like one of the most bizarre collective delusions ever to grip the human race?

COTD #N: 1922 All Over Again

clipped from wattsupwiththat.com 1922 US Weather Bureau report “The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot,” according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from US Consul Ifft, at Bergen, Norway. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers, he declared, all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. “Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met with as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well-known glaciers have entirely disappeared. Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts, which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.”

QOTD: Trouble

clipped from www.brainyquote.com The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. Bertrand Russell

The Verdict Is In

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Texas, increasingly, is the economic and intellectual leader of the U.S. During the last 18 months before the current recession took hold, while the country as a whole was still creating jobs, more than half of those jobs were created in a single state: Texas. Texas has usurped the leadership position that, decades ago, belonged to California. Today California is in decline, likely irreversibly so. William Voegeli draws the sad but instructive comparison in the Los Angeles Times: In America's federal system, some states, such as California, offer residents a "package deal" that bundles numerous and ambitious public benefits with the high taxes needed to pay for them. Other states, such as Texas, offer packages combining modest benefits and low taxes. These alternatives, of course, define the basic argument between liberals and conservatives over what it means to get the size and scope of government right. ...

Tip Top Tyrant

clipped from pajamasmedia.com LINE OF THE WEEK, in response to the White House’s criticism of Edmunds.com on Cash For Clunkers: “If Obama’s skin was any thinner, he’d have a reservoir tip on the top of his head.” Or, a bit less pithily, here: “Yeah, it’s one thing for the administration to take office with very little administrative experience. It’s something else that the administration apparently hasn’t aquired any yet, one year later, and are still throwing prissy little snits over events and reporting that are about five levels below anything the administration should be concerning itself with right now.”

The Full Monckton

clipped from www.youtube.com

WTWT.

Miscalibration

clipped from neoneocon.com The Dunning–Kruger effect is an example of cognitive bias in which “people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it”. The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average, much higher than actuality; by contrast the highly skilled underrate their abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. This leads to a perverse result where less competent people will rate their own ability higher than relatively more competent people. It also explains why actual competence may weaken self-confidence because competent individuals falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. “Thus, the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others.

COTD #N: Arendt On The Origins Of Totalitarianism

clipped from pajamasmedia.com Lately I’ve been re-reading Hannah Ahrendt, and she made the same point just after WWII in the introduction to “Origins of Totalitarianism” ~ “The most striking difference between ancient and modern sophists is that the ancients were satisfied with a passing victory of the argument at the expense of truth, whereas the moderns want a more lasting victory at the expense of reality. In other words, one destroyed the dignity of human thought whereas the others destroy the dignity of human action. The old manipulators of logic were the concern of the philosopher whereas the modern manipulators of facts stand in the way of the historian. For history itself is destroyed, and its comprehensibility – based on the fact that it is enacted by men and therefore can be understood by men – is in danger whenever facts are no longer held to be part and parcel of the past and present world, and are misused to prove this or that opinion.” ~

COTD: Night Of The Living Constitution

clipped from pajamasmedia.com “The Constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they may please (The “Living” Constitution).” Thomas Jefferson “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution (into a “Living” Constitution).” Abraham Lincoln The “Living” Constitution is a dead Constitution; it plays into the hands of our Marxists who must have an arbitrary law (of a minority) to usher in their self-serving schemes of class struggle (social engineering projects of economic equalization through un-Declarational property confiscation and un-Constitutional property redistribution.) The only living Constitution is the one our Founders actually wrote – the one which draws its breath of life from the amendment process.

Tweeners

clipped from wattsupwiththat.com Thank your lucky stars to be alive on Earth at this time. Our planet is usually in a deep freeze. The last million years have cycled through Ice Ages that last about 100,000 years each, with warmer slivers of about 10,000 years in between. We are in-betweeners, and just barely — we live in (gasp!) year 10,000 or so after the end of the last ice age. But for our good fortune, we might have been born in the next Ice Age. Our luck is even better than that. Those 10,000-year warm spells aren’t all cosy-warm. They include brutal Little Ice Ages such as the 500-year-long Little Ice Age that started about 600 years ago. Fortunately, we weren’t around during its fiercest periods when Finland lost one-third of its population, Iceland half, and most of Canada became uninhabitable — even the Inuit fled. We should enjoy the warmth while we can, and hope that it persists so that the world our children and grandchildren inherit will be no less warm and welcoming.

Our World

clipped from pajamasmedia.com This is our world.  Iranian soldiers  cross the Iraqi border and snatch three American tourists.  Meanwhile, important Iranians find a way to escape the regime’s clutches, and join the West.  The Iranians propose a swap that amounts to this:  citizens of a free country can only regain their freedom if former citizens of an evil tyranny are sent back to the tyrannical country to face a terrible fate. That’s the sort of deal you get from the Islamic Republic.  If you don’t like it, convince the feckless leaders of the West to join with the Iranian people and bring it down.  The next potential watershed is next Wednesday, November 4th, the anniversary of the assault on the American Embassy in Tehran and the seizure of American hostages. It’s the perfect date for the fall of the regime, don’t you think?

cOllapse

clipped from pajamasmedia.com Hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough over Iran’s nuclear programme were dwindling tonight after Tehran demanded changes to a uranium exchange deal that European diplomats described as “unacceptable”. If the deal collapses, as seemed likely, the apparent progress made over Tehran’s nuclear programme in recent weeks would evaporate, the diplomats said. It would deliver another critical blow to the Obama administration’s policy of engagement, and put international sanctions and Israeli military action back on the table. … “They want to keep all the gains, and give nothing away themselves,” another diplomat said. Gee, you would have thought they would have guessed. Meanwhile, in other news, Daniel Ortega is re-establishing himself as the dictator of Nicaragua.  The wolves are howling everywhere, even in the backyard.  Investors.com reports: Daniel Ortega muscled Nicaragua’s courts to permit his permanent re-election, effectively making him dictator.

A Real Hockey Stick

clipped from wattsupwiththat.com Fannie Mae reported today that the rate of serious delinquencies – at least 90 days behind – for conventional loans in its single-family guarantee business increased to 4.45% in August, up from 4.17% in July – and up from 1.57% in August 2008. “Includes seriously delinquent conventional single-family loans as a percent of the total number of conventional single-family loans. These rates are based on conventional single-family mortgage loans and exclude reverse mortgages and non-Fannie Mae mortgage securities held in our portfolio.” Just more evidence of the growing delinquency problem, although these stats do include Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) loans in trial modifications. Now that’s a hockey stick to be worried about. It hardly is a surprise then that when we see that sort of graph of actual data in the American economy, we start to see graphs like this one depicting confidence in climate change as an important issue:

The Fool

clipped from www.davidwarrenonline.com The extreme delay in getting decisions out of Washington that were urgent many months ago, on how to proceed in Afghanistan, was made sickly comic on Monday when President Barack Obama told a military audience that he would not "rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way." The Bush administration was, for all its misjudgments in other areas, good at making clear, clean, practical decisions with troops in harm's way. Bush himself commanded overwhelming support in the military vote for his re-election in 2004. John McCain, who could also be taken as having some idea about military issues, largely kept that vote. If Obama thinks he can now win the trust of soldiers, by blathering to them about the solemnity of his own august personal angst, he is as much of a fool as he looks to them already. It is surely evident by now, this is a president who cannot make decisions. It grieves me that the soldiers must pay for that.

hOpeless sh*t

clipped from pajamasmedia.com Exactly. And the reason things are so hopeless is that a 20% or more or of the electorate, maybe 60 million people, must of them putatively educated, are almost blindly convinced in this nonsense. And the only way they’re going to learn different is when they run their faces headlong into a granite wall. I knew a guy once, and I think I told the story before, who told me about his cellmate in Marcos-era political prison. His cellmate started laughing manically one night in the small hours of the morning. When he settled down, he asked him what was so funny. “Mao … Mao Tse Tung” “What about him?” “When we were taken on a tour of China (in 1969), they brought us to his boyhood home.” “And?” “And I rushed straight for the pond where Mao had bathed as a boy and plunged my face into the scummy water, to the amazement of all our Chinese escorts because I said, hey, this is where He bathed. This is where He dipped His feet.” “Why were you laughing?” “How could I have believed that shit?”

hallOween

clipped from www.moonbattery.com

Excuse Me While I Hurl

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk A British nuclear expert who fell from the 17th floor of a United Nations building did not commit suicide and may have been hurled to his death, says a doctor who carried out a second post-mortem examination. Timothy Hampton, 47, a scientist involved in monitoring nuclear activity, was found dead last week at the bottom of a stairwell in Vienna. But she said one possible theory was that Mr Hampton was carried to the 17th floor from his workplace on the sixth floor and thrown to his death. Professor Yen used new forensic techniques to detect internal bruising caused by strangulation which would not be visible to the eye. She said: ‘In my opinion, it does not look like suicide. My example is that somebody took him up to the top floor and took him down. Under a year ago, an American died at the IAEA in strikingly similar circumstances, his body being found at the bottom of a stairwell.

Smart Power!

clipped from www.popsci.com Clean tech has seen a boost as the U.S. pours government funding into renewable energy, and China looks set to reap much of the benefits. Latest example: a Chinese wind-turbine company has just become the exclusive supplier for one of the largest wind-farm developments in the U.S. The Shenyang Power Group has signed on to supply 240 of its massive 2.5-megawatt wind turbines to a 36,000-acre development in West Texas. The Wall Street Journal reports that the wind farm is also slated to receive $1.5 billion in financing from the Export-Import Bank of China. This comes as the U.S. has increasingly out-sourced much of its wind turbine development. Less than a quarter of wind turbine components installed in the U.S. came from domestic production, and Europe currently holds the lion's share of turbine manufacturing. A Norwegian firm launched the world's first full-scale floating wind turbine this September.

We Tax Everything That Moves And Doesn't Move

clipped from www.dailytimes.com.pk LAHORE: The leadership of Al Qaeda is in Pakistan, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday. “I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to,” she added. “Maybe that’s the case; maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know... As far as we know, they are in Pakistan,” Clinton told senior Pakistani newspaper editors in Lahore, AFP reported. “The percentage of taxes on GDP (in Pakistan) is among the lowest in the world... We (the United States) tax everything that moves and doesn’t move, and that’s not what we see in Pakistan,” she said.

Among "friends" the truth comes out.

Believers

clipped from www.realclearpolitics.com Many years ago, at a certain academic institution, there was an experimental program that the faculty had to vote on as to whether or not it should be made permanent. I rose at the faculty meeting to say that I knew practically nothing about whether the program was good or bad, and that the information that had been supplied to us was too vague for us to have any basis for voting, one way or the other. The director of that program rose immediately and responded indignantly and sarcastically to what I had just said-- and the faculty gave him a standing ovation. After the faculty meeting was over, I told a colleague that I was stunned and baffled by the faculty's fierce response to my simply saying that we needed more information before voting. "Tom, you don't understand," he said. "Those people need to believe in that man. They have invested so much hope and trust in him that they cannot let you stir up any doubts."

Saved

clipped from www.americanthinker.com He descended from the railcar and ordered that the track behind the train be pulled up and laid in front of the train. He pounded his shoe on Lenin’s platform for emphasis. Later the train began to roll again. This time it went further than before. But then it stopped again. Brezhnev said he’s fix things. He scrambled down the ladder, gathered the new foremen around him, and said, “Comrades, divide your workers into two groups. Line one half along one side of the train, and the other along the opposite. Rock the train from side-to-side so that it feels like we’re moving.” And they did. Inside the railcar Lenin, Stalin and Kruschev marveled at how Brezhnev had been able to get so much track laid in so little time, and at all the distance they were moving across the wilderness. Outside, Joe Bidenchev, a new foreman, encouraged the workers saying, “Look, Comrades, at how many foremens’ jobs we’ve saved.” Okay, the last part wasn’t part of the original telling.

RTWT.

Reminds me of the general summarization joke of life in the USSR: We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.

We are barreling down the track to re-enact it here unfortunately.

The lOner?

clipped from www.foxnews.com Frustrated by Iran's continued defiance of demands to come clean on its nuclear program, the Obama administration is leaning toward imposing new sanctions, even if it must act alone. Administration officials acknowledged growing concern that there may not be international consensus to expand the existing U.N. sanctions, despite Tehran's apparent rejection of a confidence-building measure proposed by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog in hopes of making progress on the nuclear issue. To that end, the administration is quietly supporting legislation in Congress that would give President Barack Obama a broad new array of authority to target Iran's energy sector by penalizing foreign firms that sell and ship refined petroleum products to Iran. The regime is heavily dependent on gasoline, kerosene and propane imports.

If he actually does this -- and in an effective manner rather than finding a way to blame Bush for any aspect he messes up -- then he'll get full credit from me and even a bump or two.

RTWT. There's even talk of trying to stop the Mullahs from acquiring spy technology they are using against the Green movement.

I think hell will freeze over before this happens but I'm trying to keep an open mind...

Not Detroit

clipped from ace.mu.nu

On Why Gandhi Masks Are Appropriate For Halloween

clipped from www.zimbio.com In his 1949 “Reflections on Gandhi,” George Orwell, regarding the late war, wrote that “one question every pacifist had a clear obligation to answer was: ‘What about the Jews? Are you prepared to see them exterminated? If not, how do you propose to save them without resorting to war?’” Orwell recorded Gandhi’s answer, which was: German Jews should commit collective suicide.

The Tinfoil Curtains Opocalypse

clipped from www.qando.net There were so many ways to get this right, and one clear to way to completely blow it. The Obama administration chose to blow it, and to blow it big, by embracing an imbalanced dictator-wannabe whose efforts are supported by the worst offenders of representative democracy and individual freedom in the region: The interim leader of Honduras says he is ready to sign a pact to end its crisis which could include the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Roberto Micheletti said the agreement would create a power-sharing government and require both sides to recognise the result of November’s presidential poll. Mr Zelaya said the deal, which requires the approval of the Supreme Court and Congress, would be signed on Friday. … The opponents had earlier been told by US Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon that they had to reach an accord in order to ensure international support for the election on 29 November.

O, What A System!

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com "It would not only give patients enforceable health care entitlements but it would also prevent managers and clinicians from controlling waiting times as a way of limiting demand and saving money," she said. "In the past requirements to make financial savings often resulted in hospitals stopping routine surgery for a couple of months before the end of the financial year." What a system! It beggars belief that Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress want to reproduce the fiasco of socialized medicine here in the U.S.

How Low Can The Blue Line Below Go?

clipped from www.businessinsider.com If anyone mentions the just-released 3.5% U.S. third quarter GDP growth, just throw this chart in their face. Cash for Clunkers clearly distorted the U.S. economic figures in an unsustainable fashion. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), motor vehicle output spiked a seasonally-adjusted 157.6% quarter on quarter. This is completely unprecedented. Vehicle output is clearly going off a cliff next quarter. The question will be how low can the blue line below go. Now imagine if next quarter the blue line below goes down into negative territory as it did just two quarters ago. Next quarter, not only are we unlikely to get Q3's boost, but motor vehicle output data could subtract from GDP as well. So watch out for the cliff...

hOpenchange (Part 83,903)

clipped from pajamasmedia.com CHANGE: Top Obama fundraisers get posts. “More than 40% of President Obama’s top-level fundraisers have secured posts in his administration, from key executive branch jobs to diplomatic postings in countries such as France, Spain and the Bahamas, a USA TODAY analysis finds.”

sOrOs

clipped from www.moonbattery.com

Their Lips Are Moving

clipped from fortcollinsteaparty.com

Kudos to Ray for finding this one.

I Don't Care. Honest.

clipped from www.youtube.com

Clunked @ $24K

clipped from features.csmonitor.com American taxpayers paid a lot of cash for those clunkers: $24,000 for each new car sold, according to a study released Wednesday. That’s a lot of money, especially when the so-called “cash for clunker” stimulus program offered only a maximum $4,500 in cash for each person who traded in an old gas-guzzler and bought a new car. The government could have done almost as well by just giving away cars for free, instead of creating an elaborate incentive program, according to an analysis by the automotive information firm Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, Calif.

Bye Bye Bill Nye

clipped from fortcollinsteaparty.com Here you can watch Richard Lindzen make mince meat of Dr. Bill Nye the science guy:

My friend Ray found this one. I'm sure Larry will be slapped down well and good by his masters for allowing this on the air.

Droid

clipped from www.qando.net A company named Boston Dynamics has developed a robot that mimics the way a human being walks – well, at least the way a slightly tipsy human being walks:

Delusions

clipped from pajamasmedia.com DELUSIONS OF POWERLESSNESS: Even more risible, though, is the claim that the administration “is going to speak truth to power.” Hello, Valerie? Your boss is the president of the United States! No one is more powerful. As we suggested Friday, it really seems as if Obama and his men do not understand what it means to be president. Because their power is constrained–thank you, Founding Fathers!–they labor under the delusion that they are powerless. Yet while this is all hilarious, it is also scary when you think it through. Great power entails great responsibility. There is little to suggest that Obama and his aides appreciate their responsibility, and much, including their incessant complaining that the previous president did a lousy job, to suggest an attitude of total irresponsibility. The job of those in power is not to “speak truth to power,” though it would be nice if they spoke the truth once in a while. Ouch.

An Endorsement

clipped from iowahawk.typepad.com Unless the candidate is me, I have made it a practice to abstain from issuing formal endorsements for political races. In the case of Douglas Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate for the US Congress in New York's 23rd district, I will make a happy exception. Canuck reader Maryann Crabtree forwards this photo of the candidate posing proudly in front of his Two Lane Blacktop - worthy 1955 Chevy 210 2-door sedan. Note missing rear bumper. Note radiused rear wheel well. thus, while his Congressional cohort was tripping on brown acid in the mud at Max Yasgur's farm, Mr. Hoffman was gearslamming down the quarter mile at Fulton Speedway. Yessirree bob, this photo tells me everything I need to know about Mr. Hoffman, and I enthusiastically give him my full support. This, I have learned, is now the basis of attack ads from his Democrat and Republican foes in the race. Which tells me everything I need to know about them.

He's Back

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com At a public event recently, California assemblyman Tom Ammiano heckled Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, yelling that Arnold should "kiss my gay ass." The Assembly has just passed an Ammiano-sponsored bill relating to financing of the Port of San Francisco. Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill with this message; click to enlarge: The Governor's office says it's just a "weird coincidence" that the letters that begin each line, read downward from the top, spell...well, you can figure it out. My own judgment, based on the letter's rather strained locution, is that the message was intentional, although likely not by Arnold himself.

Your CorruptOcratic Jack*ss In Chief At "Work"

clipped from www.riehlworldview.com A wonderful image of the first pimp-in-chief entertaining guests and peddling WH access for cash, wouldn't you say? Now that I think about it, pimp isn't the correct word. How about drug dealer for that special feeling you get, feeling important because you copped a bag from the Oval Office on your last trip downtown? Yes, I think that works much better. I so much want to be fair. During his first nine months in office, President Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings. High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents obtained by The Washington Times.

Navigating to bingO

clipped from www.americanthinker.com In 1994, while Barack Obama's memoir Dreams From My Father was being polished off, Bill Ayers co-authored an essay whose title befits a former merchant seaman: "Navigating a restless sea: The continuing struggle to achieve a decent education for African American youngsters in Chicago." In "Navigating," Ayers and his nominal co-author, former New Communist Movement leader Michael Klonsky, offer a detailed analysis of the Chicago school system and a discussion of potential reforms. Curiously, so too does Obama in Dreams. Unlike Obama, Bill Ayers has a genuine, career-long interest in education. In the mid-1990s he was sufficiently serious about reform to invest considerable time and energy in his protégé. As shall be seen, the likely reason Ayers did so was because Obama had the ability to address problems that he and Klonsky could not.

RTWT. Cashill tacks toward the terrible truth.

The Hope Of Nothing

clipped from www.moonbattery.com There may be hope for liberal Boston. The current results of a Howie Carr poll at WRKO: Carr's still got some work to do, with a whopping 6% willing to give up anything at all in the name of a farce.

Progressive Weeds

clipped from www.moonbattery.com

Where To Even Begin?

clipped from www.breitbart.com Japanese naval forces successfully shot down a medium-range missile off Hawaii in a test of Tokyo's missile defense weaponry, the US military said on Wednesday. A Japanese destroyer detected, tracked and knocked out the missile in mid-flight with an SM-3 interceptor rocket, the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said in a statement. The missile was launched on Tuesday at 6:00 pm Hawaii time (0400 GMT) at a missile range site off Kauai in Hawaii and at 6:04, an SM-3 interceptor was fired in response, the MDA said. "Approximately three minutes later, the SM-3 successfully intercepted the target approximately 100 miles (160 kilometers) above the Pacific Ocean," it said. Japan has sought to bolster its missile defenses in the face of the threat posed by North Korea's missile and nuclear programs. US President Barack Obama's administration has announced plans to build a missile defense shield in Europe using the SM-3 interceptors and the Aegis radar system.

So O Duce is now trying to take credit for being brilliant by replacing the missile defense system that Bush had promised Poland ... with another defense system that wouldn't even exist if O Duce had his way that was developed by ... Bush.

The average IQ of Americans that swallow this swill is too low to measure.

Not One

clipped from hotair.com There is no question that the momentum of history has swung to the left, ever since the days of Wilson and Roosevelt. The New Deal promise of modest taxation, to pay crucial benefits to the most desperate among the poor, became first a lie, then a joke. No one on the Left even bothers pretending their agenda consists of selfless dedication to the poor any longer. It’s all about desperate grabs for gigantic amounts of power over an increasingly impoverished and dominated middle class. The madness of launching new trillion-dollar programs on top of a madly inflating deficit has become accepted as reasonable discourse. A truly transformational moment is upon us. The old game is over. The mad spending spree of 2009 has left America mortgaged to the hilt. The money is all gone. Every available dollar has been taxed and spent, and not one single problem the Left demanded the sacrifice of our wealth and freedom to address has been resolved. Not one of their programs has worked

But the dirty little secret is that none of their programs were meant to make things better for you. Just for them.

My Main Mop Man

clipped from www.lucianne.com

Nuclear Incoherence

clipped from www.adnkronos.com Islamabad, 27 October (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - A political crisis in Pakistan is looming as Taliban-led militants continue to step up their campaign of violence. Two suspected Taliban gunmen on a motorbike on Tuesday tried to kill an army brigadier in the capital, Islamabad when they opened fire on his vehicle before fleeing the scene. The attack came a day after a meeting between Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday in Islamabad which failed to resolve the rift between their two parties. The meeting between Zardari, who is co-chairman of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, and Sharif, who heads the largest opposition party, Pakistani-Muslim-League-N party, took place in Islamabad. Scrapping the NRO is one of the main issues between Zardari and Sharif. It would also mean abolishing the 17 Amendment of the constitution, which makes the parliament subordinate to the parliament.

Getting Sickle Acorn Yet?

clipped from www.moonbattery.com In the aftermath of the corruption and depravity that were revealed by the O'Keefe/Giles videos, ACORN clearly needed to repackage itself to continue receiving massive quantities of our money from the government. I knew any changes would be cosmetic, but I thought Chairman Obamao's old comrades would at least find a new name. As it turns out, they only modified their logo:

When Will Barack Apologize To Joe?

clipped from ace.mu.nu By the way, a Blue Dog Democrat is basically accusing Barack Obama of lying in his big stupid primetime speech on health care. Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) told CNSNews.com that President Barack Obama told him in a telephone conversation that when he said in his Sept. 9 speech to a joint session of Congress that “under our plan no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions” he was not talking about the actual bill drafted in the House but about the president’s own health care plan—which has never been written. “I don’t know if it is a game of semantics or what,” Stupak said of Obama’s nationally televised declaration to Congress that the health-care plan will not allow federal funding of abortion. Both the House and Senate versions of the health-care bill permit federal funds to pay for insurance plans that cover abortions.

nO Corruption Here, Move Along Now...

clipped from ace.mu.nu How about 100 cents on the dollar? That seems fair, eh? It's just taxpayer money. Taxpayers are just lousy with taxpayer money. Geithner’s team circulated a draft term sheet outlining how the New York Fed wanted to deal with the swaps -- insurance-like contracts that backed soured collateralized-debt obligations. CDOs are bundles of debt including subprime mortgages and corporate loans sold to investors by banks. Part of a sentence in the document was crossed out. It contained a blank space that was intended to show the amount of the haircut the banks would take, according to people who saw the term sheet. After less than a week of private negotiations with the banks, the New York Fed instructed AIG to pay them par, or 100 cents on the dollar. The content of its deliberations has never been made public. No wonder Wall Street had such a schoolgirl crush on him. If he gave you $13 billion, you'd be pretty sweet on him too.

Destruction And Devaluation

clipped from www.fool.com Yet Gross remains skeptical. "Now that our financial system has been stabilized, one wonders whether California's 'Governator' and indeed the Obama Administration has the capital, the vision, and indeed the discipline of its citizenry to turn things around," he ponders. If California is to be seen as a microcosm of the United States proper, then there's solid ground for that skepticism. Our established system of paper-shuffling must do an about-face in order to compete in a global economy based on actual production. As Gross sees it, it will take resilience on the part of our elected officials and ourselves in order to ensure that the transition goes smoothly. Gross does make one thing clear: This environment is not one in which investors should be taking on a lot of risk. Gross sees "slower growth, muted profit gains, and potential capital destruction via default, abrogation of property rights, and dollar devaluation" contributing to make things difficult for investors in the future.

Really? Jackson Died?

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Can some of CNN's decline, at least, be attributed to the network's liberalism in general and its attacks on and sniggering denigrations of, normal Americans? It's hard to tell. But sniggerer-in-chief Anderson Cooper's ratings are sliding into the toilet. (The midsummer blip was Michael Jackson's death.): CNN apparently has tried to market its on-air personalities by having them participate in the television show Jeopardy, thereby showing off their superior intelligence. That hasn't worked out too well either. If the network really gets desperate, it could consider covering the news straight. But that isn't likely: look how many newspapers have preferred to go bankrupt rather than abandon their liberal bias.

The Syllogism

clipped from mises.org "The U.S. medical system, in large part, has become a socialist enterprise," Friedman ended. Friedman also once suggested a syllogism to explain the bizarre spectacle on display today of responding to problems caused by healthcare socialism with even more healthcare socialism. The syllogism goes as follows: Socialism has been a failure everywhere it has been tried; Everyone knows this; and Therefore, we need more socialism. Layers of regulation plague every aspect of medical care and health insurance in America. In the health-insurance industry, for instance, each state imposes dozens of regulatory mandates on health insurers, requiring them to include coverage of everything from massage therapy to hair implants. The reason for mandates is that the message-therapy and hair-implant industries (and many others) hire lobbyists to bribe state legislators to require insurers to cover their particular practice if they want to sell insurance within a state.

Did I Forget To Mention The Argentines And You?

clipped from www.americanthinker.com It has been generally accepted that a country's economy is a good credit risk as long as its debt remains in the 50% range of that nation's annual Gross Domestic Product.  Per the GAO the prospects for the United States are as follows: Debt Held by the Public as a Per Cent of GDP There are three options a country has to avoid complete economic collapse:  1) raise taxes, 2) cut spending and 3) inflate the value of the currency. Per the GAO: revenue would have to be increased by 47% and noninterest spending cut by 33% or a combination of the two over the next 75 years to keep debt at the same level as the end of 2008 (40.8% of GDP).  Waiting another ten years to address this issue would require a revenue increase of 58% and noninterest spending cuts of 39% or a combination of the two. Yet the Congress is discussing a Health Care Reform bill that could add over 5 Trillion dollars in new spending over the next 30 years and a Carbon Cap and Tax bill which will hamstring the economy

The Argentines And You II

clipped from online.wsj.com The story of how Argentina got here is important to recall. The economy was flat on its back after the 2001-2002 collapse of "convertibility," the monetary arrangement that pegged the peso to the dollar. A demoralized nation was looking for a savior It thought it found one in Néstor Kirchner. He became president in 2003 and set about to restore the state-run economic model of Juan Peron; the market, he maintained, had failed. Mr. Kirchner took control of the central bank. He demonized the private-sector and investors. Using price controls, subsidies and regulation he made himself a Robin Hood to the masses. The legislature granted him extraordinary powers. The economy bounced back as one would expect after a harsh contraction, and in 2007 his wife was elected president with 45% of the vote. Now the illusionists are losing their touch. Not only is the economy going sour, but according to polls, the nation is growing intolerant of what many consider to be the first couple's abuse of power

Scary

clipped from drsanity.blogspot.com

Crazy Talk

clipped from www.moonbattery.com In an Award-Winning Photo Essay, photographer Lu Guang documents the toll of pollution on Communist China, (the country much-admired by Neo-Marxists like the New York Times Thomas Friedman and Professional Teleprompter Reader B. Hussein Obama.) The photos below are just a few from a large collection. A sane person would ask, why is the Global Green movement not meeting in Copenhagen to discuss this? Why is the Global Green movement obsessed with eliminating the harmless, nay, life-sustaining, gas C02 while giving China a complete pass? How does Thomas Friedman get away with praising China for its embrace of "Green Technology" when the amount of pollution China produces is this massive? One would almost suspect that the goal of the Global Green Movement isn't to help clean the Earth's environment, but rather to cripple what remains of Western Liberal Democracy and Free Enterprise to the benefit of collectivized, autocratic systems of government. I know, crazy talk.

Under Two Minutes

clipped from www.moonbattery.com

Time To Wake Up And Smell The Obama

clipped from www.moonbattery.com

Witterings

clipped from www.slate.com Wilson isn't one of those evasive Christians who mumble apologetically about how some of the Bible stories are really just "metaphors." He is willing to maintain very staunchly that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and that his sacrifice redeems our state of sin, which in turn is the outcome of our rebellion against God. He doesn't waffle when asked why God allows so much evil and suffering—of course he "allows" it since it is the inescapable state of rebellious sinners. I much prefer this sincerity to the vague and Python-esque witterings of the interfaith and ecumenical groups who barely respect their own traditions and who look upon faith as just another word for community organizing. (Incidentally, just when is President Barack Obama going to decide which church he attends?)

Earplugs

clipped from www.qando.net In summary, the government is responsible for 25 – 40% (add in about 15% of that admin number), malpractice avoidance – something they could fix or at least lower with tort reform – accounts for 37.5% of the total and preventable conditions the final 6% described here. That leaves 14% or in undocumented waste, probably broken down in numerous categories that are going unaddressed just like tort reform. What this all means is government could clean up its own mess and cut waste to 600 billion, pass tort reform and cut it to 300 billion, make Medicare easier for doctors to administer and cut it to about 150 billion. Instead we’re stuck with a complete overhaul with the government trying to sell us on the idea that the problem lays in the private sector and giving them more power over health care is the cure. The cognitive dissonance is so loud you have to wear earplugs.

In Reverse

clipped from pajamasmedia.com TALENT GOES WHERE IT’S REWARDED: Beware The Reverse Brain Drain To India And China. “We surveyed 1,224 foreign students from dozens of nations who are currently studying at U.S. universities or who graduated in 2008. The majority told us that they didn’t think that the U.S. was the best place for their professional careers and they planned to return home. Only 6 percent of Indian, 10 percent of Chinese, and 15 percent of European students planned to settle in the U.S.”

Doom And Fakery

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com The promise of the public plan is a mirage. Its political brilliance is to use free-market rhetoric (more "choice" and "competition") to expand government power. But why would a plan tied to Medicare control health spending, when Medicare hasn't? From 1970 to 2007, Medicare spending per beneficiary rose 9.2 percent annually compared to the 10.4 percent of private insurers -- and the small difference partly reflects cost shifting. Congress periodically improves Medicare benefits, and there's a limit to how much squeezing reimbursement rates can check costs. Doctors and hospitals already complain that low payments limit services or discourage physicians from taking Medicare patients. By contrast, a favored public plan would probably doom today's private insurance. Although some congressional proposals limit enrollment eligibility in the public plan, pressures to liberalize would be overwhelming.

The Argentines And You

clipped from online.wsj.com One way a president can boost poll numbers in a bad economy is to wrest control of the central bank and start printing lots of pesos. There's nothing like cheap financing to restore the market's enthusiasm for buying all sorts of stuff—from stocks to houses—already on sale at fire sale prices. The great reflation will make people feel rich again. Complainers can be denounced for their greed. Of course this perpetual motion machine will eventually conk out and when it does, a government that expects to survive will find it necessary to silence its critics. Just ask Argentines, who are living all of this in real time. After more than five years of heavy state intervention in the economy, Argentina is again sliding into recession. Double-digit inflation is spiraling north and the government is running out of money. In response, President Cristina Kirchner is cracking down on the free press. Argentines are wondering if their democracy will survive.

Nuts (Part 69,495)

clipped from www.americanthinker.com totalitarianism American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy Domination by a government of all political, social, and economic activities in a nation. Totalitarianism is a phenomenon of the twentieth century: earlier forms of despotism and autocracy lacked the technical capacity to control every aspect of life. The term is applied both to fascist governments (see fascism) and to many forms of communism. The reason I've trotted out the 125 words of these definitions is to show that even the slightest bit of familiarity with fascism and communism should be enough to tell you that the idea that they're opposites is nuts.

COTD #N: Ice Cream

clipped from www.americanthinker.com Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place. He ended by promising to do his very best. Everyone applauded and he sat down. Now is was Olivia's turn to speak. Her speech was concise. She said, "If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream." She sat down. The class went wild. "Yes! Yes! We want ice cream." She surely would say more. She did not have to. A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn't sure. Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it. She didn't know. The class really didn't care. All they were thinking about was ice cream. Jamie was forgotten. Olivia won by a landslide. Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered ice cream and 52 percent of the people reacted like nine year olds. They want ice cream. The other 48 percent know they're going to have to feed the cow and clean up the mess." This is the ice cream Obama promised us!

COTD #N: Non-Stop

clipped from www.americanthinker.com Interesting that Obama and Company watched the Watergate news every night before going to bed while travelling around all those miles on a Greyhound bus.I can tell you from experience, Greyhound buses do not stop anywhere for the night.

COTD #N: hallucOnation

clipped from www.americanthinker.com Am I missing something, or is it not a heinous lie that Hussein O'Butthole says he listened to the Watergate hearings while visiting the mainland in 1972? Regarding this very well-recorded event, the hearings started 17-May-1973, a full year after this mental midget claims to have been listening to them. **That is not a small oversight**. I remember the summer very, very distinctly, as I was 16 years old. Apparently he doesn't. Like he doesn't remember much of anything. Convenient memory is one of the most bedrock traits of a liberal. What's shocking is that no editor bothered to read this and catch it after William Ayers wrote it for Osama. What's more shocking is that this fledgling political genius didn't even bother to read the fiction that Ayers wrote for him. This written and published error in Osama's history reveals that he is nothing more than a liberal hallucination.

Omerica

clipped from www.americanthinker.com This president was never a member of the Cub Scouts, never went to the county fair, never went to church on Sunday, never went deer hunting, never rode in the back of a pickup truck, never owned a .22 rifle, never had a puppy, and never marched in the 4th of July Parade with down Main St. Instead, he was the biracial product of a shotgun marriage between two atheists, abandoned by his father, dragged to Indonesia by his mother and stepfather where he was the only black and the only American, and sent back to Hawaii at age 10 to be raised by his white grandparents while his mother's second marriage to a foreigner broke up so that she could write a 1,000 page dissertation for a PhD on "Peasant Blacksmithing in Indonesia" -- in the Space Age. While an adolescent in Hawaii he associated with Communists, perverts, and drug users. Ayers and Wright are his America. That's why he feels the need to radically "transform" and "re-make" an America he never really even lived in.