MMSD the Model for ObozoPlot

This ought to sound familiar to anyone living in the Greater Milwaukee area.

....the centerpiece of Obama’s agenda — the redistribution of money from the suburbs to the cities — is still mostly in the plotting stages. Thus, a more accurate title for Kurtz’s book might have been “How Obama Plans To Rob The Suburbs To Pay For The Cities In A Second Term.” 

How can Obama “rob the suburbs”? In brief, and to oversimplify, he hopes to accomplish this by conditioning federal grant money on the creation and/or use of “regional” bodies, as opposed to standard governmental units like cities, towns, and counties. The regional bodies would be controlled by a coalition of cities and poorer “inner ring” suburbs and aided by regulations and additional conditions imposed by Washington to the disadvantage of the suburbs.

The model for that happens to be MMSD.  As you recall, MMSD is "regional"; it robbed Milwaukee suburbs for the sole benefit of the City of Milwaukee; it was instituted by a far-Left Mayor and Governor (albeit Maier and Reynolds would blanch at today's Leftist ideals such as gay "marriage') and was abetted by State funding.

It is NOT a co-incidence that MMSD is a body which taxes without representation, and (significantly) its governance is still dominated by the City of Milwaukee, even though its population-majority has shifted to the bled-white suburbs within the District.

Whose Spending Problem??

It took a while to find a short and sweet item which lays out the spending-problem.  So here it is.

...During Bush’s tenure from 2001 through 2009, liberals cite the doubling of the national debt as proof of his profligacy. The debt did indeed double, but not all of it can be attributed to Bush policies. For example, Bush’s first year in office was plagued by an inherited recession and 9/11, which, coupled with other technical and economic revisions, Heritage Foundation’s Brian Riedl calculated cost $3.8 trillion through 2011. Surely he can’t be held responsible for those unforeseen events.

Yet Bush can and should be held accountable for his policies. According to Riedl, the prescription drug bill passed in 2006 is projected to add nearly $400 billion in its first decade. The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts cost $1.7 trillion during the past 10 years. Add on the cost of the war on terror, which sums to about $1.3 trillion since its inception, the 2008 stimulus and the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and there is plenty of fiscal responsibility for the former president.

Yup.  And we were clear on that when it was happening.  GWB is a Tommy Thompson follower.

What about 2009 and the beginning of ObozoNomics?

...Factcheck.org [...] concluded that Bush deserves most of the culpability for the staggering deficit: “The truth is that the nearly 18 percent spike in spending in fiscal 2009 — for which the president [Obama] is sometimes blamed entirely — was mostly due to appropriations and policies that were already in place when Obama took office.” Yet Factcheck.org maintains that about 14.5 percent of the 2009 deficit is attributable to Obama, which is no small contribution

...Factcheck.org also notes that “spending under Obama remains at a level that is quite high by historical standards. Measured as a percentage of the nation’s economic production, it reached the highest level since World War II in fiscal 2009 and has declined only slightly since.”

Bush may have been a drunken sailor, but Obozo is a sot 24x7.

...Revenue is projected to return to its historical average of 18 percent of the gross domestic product by 2016; meanwhile, spending is projected to stay well above the 20 percent of GDP historical average, swallowing nearly 25 percent as far as projections show...

Let's not forget the complicit criminals in Congress, either.

Hercules v. God-lessZilla

This will be interesting as it works toward SCOTUS.

...Federal district Judge John J. Kane of Colorado on Friday issued a temporary injunction blocking the mandate from being applied to Hercules Industries, a family-owned manufacturer of air-conditioning products.

That the order comes from a non-conservative judge – Kane is a former public defender and Peace Corps deputy director sponsored by liberal former Sen. Gary Hart and appointed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter – is an especially huge development, striking more deeply at the mandate than conventional wisdom anticipated.

Obozo's house-bigot, Holder, was slammed hard by the judge.

...Making clear that such an injunction can only be issued before full consideration of the case if the plaintiff has “a likelihood of success on the merits” and risks a “threat of irreparable harm,” Kane still imposed what he termed this “extraordinary remedy” to block implementation of the mandate against Hercules Industries.

...Citing precedent, Kane wrote that the weakness of the mandate’s legal position looks “serious, substantial, difficult and doubtful” based on statutory grounds alone, without even considering the significant constitutional challenges raised by Hercules. As Kane summed it up, the government’s stance amounted to an assertion that “a for-profit, secular employer… cannot engage in an exercise of religion.” This is poppycock – and dangerous poppycock at that. It amounts to a claim that an individual employer, or a closely-held family corporation, does not enjoy the right to religious exercise unless those rights are channeled through a church in a formal worship setting.

In effect, it says only churches, not individuals or family businesses, have protections for what Madison and Jefferson called “the rights of conscience.”

...In the text or footnotes of his decision, Kane used strong language against various arguments put forth by the Obama administration. As in: “I reject it out of hand.” And: “a distinction without substance.” Another argument is “irrelevant in this context.” And “the balance of the equities tip strongly [my emphasis added] in favor of injunctive relief.”

That would be a pretty strong condemnation of the ObozoBoyzzzz.

The (Obama) Plan Is Working!!!

Well, it MUST be his plan.  He's Teh Won, don'cha know?  It's his "stimulus" and his ungodly deficit spending.

The slowdown announced Friday — on top of another slowdown in the first quarter — is further proof that the president’s class-warfare economic rhetoric and policies are pushing the country perilously close to a double-dip recession.

The numbers are pretty stark: Growth of 2 percent for the first quarter was already scary, down from around 4 percent at the end of last year.

As we all know, "last year" was all BOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHH's work.

The rest of Obozo's Plan?

Obama’s Office of Management and Budget slashed its GDP forecast for 2012, to 2.3% from 2.7%, and for 2013, to 2.7% from 3.0%.  --AOSHQ quoting AEI

Also noted by AEI and Ace:

[T]he IMF recently put out its extended forecast for the U.S economy, and its sees markedly slower growth than the White House: 2.0% in 2012, 2.3% in 2013, 2.8% in 2014, 3.3% in 2015...

IOW, Obozo's spinning.

Great Plan, B. Hussein!!!  How's that gonna work out for  you on Election Day, you socialist/Statist pig?

"Hi. We're From DEA. We Killed Your Truck and Driver, Sorta"

See Stupid.  See Stupid Run.  See Stupid's name:  D.E.A.

...Commandeered by one of his drivers, who was secretly working with federal agents, the truck had been hauling marijuana from the border as part of an undercover operation. And without Patty's knowledge, the Drug Enforcement Administration was paying his driver, Lawrence Chapa, to use the truck to bust traffickers.

At least 17 hours before that early morning phone call, Chapa was shot dead in front of more than a dozen law enforcement officers - all of them taken by surprise by hijackers trying to steal the red Kenworth T600 truck and its load of pot.

You think that's something?  Read on!!

In the confusion of the attack in northwest Harris County, compounded by officers in the operation not all knowing each other, a Houston policeman shot and wounded a Harris County sheriff's deputy.

That truck was half of Patty's fleet; the DEA has refused to compensate Patty for the truck, or its repairs, or its down-time, or any damn other thing, either.

"We Don't Neeeeeed No Stinkin' Constitution!!" --The ObozoBoyzzz

The State has decreed, illegal or not.  You dogs will obey!!!

...In short, if states refuse to expand Medicaid, and there is no funding for the insurance exchanges, Obamacare will effectively be defunded.

To deal with this flaw, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on May 24 simply issued a regulation effectively rewriting the law that would allow the federal government to fund the exchanges. Per Cannon, “With the stroke of [a] pen, the IRS (1) stripped states of the power Congress gave them to shield employers from that $2,000 per-worker tax, (2) imposed that illegal tax on employers whom Congress exempted, and (3) issued up to $800 billion of tax credits and direct subsidies to private health insurance companies — without any congressional authorization whatsoever.”...

Buy.  More.  Ammo.

Back to "The End of the Earth!!"

Ahh, yes.  The GreenWeenies will now return to Story One:  End of Earth....

Welcome to the New Green Doom: an overabundance of oil and gas is going to release so much greenhouse gas that the world is going to fry.

Expect DOOOOOM at any time.

Read the rest of that essay, by the way.  It's fun.

A Problem in Appleton

Squish alert:

Rep. Dean Kaufert’s dalliance with liberal ideas doesn’t stop with his vote against collective bargaining reform, the signature accomplishment of his fellow legislative Republicans and Governor Scott Walker. It runs the gamut from attacking social conservatives after the 2010 election, to supporting ObamaCare and calling for a state-run dental health insurance program...

Little Lord Fauntelroy also has problems with "social legislation."

...Roughly a month before Republicans took control of the legislative and executive branches of state government, Kaufert expressed his opposition to any socially conservative legislation that might be proposed. Telling an AP reporter in December of 2010, “I’m a little nervous” about any bills dealing with abortion or other social issues,...

And he's a dirtball-thrower:

...Rep. Dean Kaufert (R) is alleged to have started a whisper campaign about his primary opponent. At the heart of the controversy is a police report from 2007 that documents a verbal altercation between Kaufert’s opponent Jay Schroeder, and Schroeder’s wife, Rebekah. The couple is still together, but mysteriously the report has been anonymously mailed to a number of Schroeder’s political supporters....

Maybe it's time for a cleanup in the Assembly, eh?

Tea Party Reason #s 2,569-2,571

The Bleating from Statists runs along the line of 'why are the Tea Party people so angry'?

How about three examples in three months or so, all with a common thread?

First one:

....our unhinged government, with an obsession like that of Melville’s Ahab, has crippled Nancy Black’s scientific career, cost her more than $100,000 in legal fees — so far — and might sentence her to 20 years in prison.

Second one:

...a rural Oregon man was sentenced to 30 days in jail and over $1,500 in fines because he had three reservoirs on his property to collect and use rainwater. Circuit Court on nine misdemeanor charges under a 1925 law for having what state water managers called “three illegal reservoirs” on his property – and for filling the reservoirs with rainwater and snow runoff

Right-o.  Gummint owns the rain.  Sure.

And finally:

The Supreme Court has come forcefully down on the side of an Idaho couple in its fight against the Environmental Protection Agency, unanimously ruling Wednesday that the couple can challenge an EPA order to stop construction of their home on property designated a wetland..

(I can tell you that EPA and its little sister Damn Near Russia (of Wisconsin) consider almost ANYplace with standing water to be a "wetland" or a "negotiable waterway", including roads subject to annual spring floods. )

A couple of hundred coal-fired electric generating plants will be shut down in the next 2 years because The Statists decreed new (ridiculous) 'clean air' standards.  The City of Brookfield, with 35,000 residents, will be paying $50 million to reduce phosphates by 90% to a laughably low number....decreed by The Statists.

And the Left bleats inane questions.

Nicely Stated

Douthat:

...If you want to fine Catholic hospitals for following Catholic teaching, or prevent Jewish parents from circumcising their sons, or ban Chick-fil-A in Boston, then don’t tell religious people that you respect our freedoms. Say what you really think: that the exercise of our religion threatens all that’s good and decent, and that you’re going to use the levers of power to bend us to your will.

"Good and decent" is used ironically, of course.  

And it won't be very easy to 'bend us to your will.'

Or, as it was said in the movie:  "Go ahead.  Make my day."

HT:  FrZ

Body Armor for the Election

In a way, this is not surprising.

The Department of Homeland Security has ordered masses of riot gear equipment to prepare for potential significant domestic riots at the Republican National Convention, Democratic National Convention and next year’s presidential inauguration.

The DHS submitted a rushed solicitation to the Federal Business Opportunities site on Wednesday, which is a portal for Federal government procurement requisitions over $25,000. The request gave the potential suppliers only one day to submit their proposals and a 15-day delivery requirement to Alexandria, Virginia.

The term "masses" is stupid.  DHS specified 147 body-armor kits.  That's not "masses."

But THIS is:

Another recent DHS move to gear up was back in March of this year, when it gave the defense contractor ATK a deal to provide the DHS with 450 million .40 caliber hollow-point ammunition over a five year period

That's 90 million rounds/year.  THAT is "masses."

Hmmmm.

Zhivago and Obozo

Belvedere found an apropos line.

‘Feelings, insights, affections… it’s suddenly trivial now. You don’t agree [Zhivago]; you’re wrong.
    The personal life is dead in Russia. History has killed it. [...] The private life is dead – for a man with any manhood.’  --Strelnikov [the leftist] in Zhivago

Then Belvedere quotes Insurrection:

We’re not worried about Obama’s dialect, we’re worried about his dialectic

Pretty good stuff.

Let's add some Russell Kirk:

Burke wrote:.....'To them, the will, the wish, the want, the liberty, the toil, the blood of individuals is nothing.  Individuality is left out of their scheme of Government.  The State is all in all.  Everything is referred to the production of force; afterwards, everything is trusted to the use of it.  .......The State has dominion and conquest for its sole objects; dominion over minds by proselytism, over bodies by arms."  These were the Jacobins; the description applies as well to the Communists and the Nazi rule....

Finally, Belvedere goes to graphics:

Classic post!!

OK, Let's Compromise on "Gun Control"

As a peace-offering to Tim, I'll crib Bob Owens' post:

I offer Senator Schumer the following hypothetical compromises to consider with his gun-grabbing brethren:

1. In exchange for adding flamethrowers to the items regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA 34), suppressors are to be removed entirely from the NFA. They are noise reduction devices with little actual use in crime, and are proven beneficial to social health, which is why they are encouraged even in firearms-averse European countries.
2. In exchange for giving the Department of Justice the option to set up mobile National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) at at commercial gun shows for the voluntary use of sellers that do not have a FFL of their own, the often arbitrary local law-enforcement sign-off of NFA weapons will be discarded.
3. In exchange for the creating of felony trafficking laws that make it easier for the federal government to prosecute arms smugglers for felonies and add additional years and fines to straw purchasing convictions, the so-called “Hughes Amendment” to the 1986 Firearms Owners Protection Act (FOPA) will be struck from the record, allowing those citizens willing to go through the established processes to own NFA-regulated firearms manufactured after 1986.

See??  Compromise!!

Caddell Smells the National Security Stench

Pat Caddell:

...let’s restate the key questions that need to be asked of David Axelrod. He has been outside of the White House for 18 months, and so he can no longer claim the executive privilege that would still protect, for example, Jay Carney. Let’s ask three questions: 

First, why has your basic answer to the leak question changed from June 10  July 25? 

Second, have you spoken with the President, or anyone on the White House/National Security Council staff about these leaks? This question should pertain to all the people in the Situation Room, and yes, to another veteran political operative, Tom Donilon–now, incredibly and improbably, the national security adviser.  

Third, have you been contacted by any investigators from either the Justice Department or the Congress?

When those people regard everything--including national security matters---as 'political goods',--- then, Houston, we have a problem.

Or maybe The Plan is working?

Barofsky: Dealer Closings Were "Arbitrary"

Barofsky was the I.G. of the auto bailout--until he crossed the Regime and was (questionably) fired.

The former auditor who monitored the $700 billion Wall Street and auto bailout fund says the Obama administration squeezed General Motors and Chrysler to shutter more than 2,000 auto dealerships, without considering the jobs that would be forfeited.

Ummmnnnhhh, yah....that was something which many people (myself included) questioned at the time.

...Barofsky — a federal drug and financial fraud prosecutor who was given the TARP assignment under President George W. Bush and stepped down in March 2011 — said the Obama administration didn't take kindly to those who criticized the auto bailout, including his report.

"Either you supported every aspect of every decision made by the Treasury in the auto bailouts or you were a sworn enemy advocating that the government should have let them collapse. Nothing could have been further from the truth," he wrote.

Petty tinpot dictators are the same all over the world, Neil.

On the "dealer cuts" matter:

...Barofsky said the Obama administration "ignored one of the few non-Wall Street sources that it consulted," and officials at the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research, who "warned that deep cuts could actually do the companies far greater harm than good."

David Cole, chairman emeritus of the center, said Obama's auto task force told GM and Chrysler said they "have to have dealer bodies that look like Toyota and Honda."

...Cole said GM and Chrysler had more dealers in smaller and medium markets, especially in rural areas.
"GM and Chrysler had to close dealers to meet the quota that really didn't make any sense," Cole said Thursday. "The people in Washington did not have knowledge of the auto industry."

There were suspicions that the closures were based on the political leanings of the dealers, too.

And of course, there were the job losses.  While Obozo kvetches about federal, state, and local governments shedding employees, neither the MSM nor Obozo shed a tear over the tens of thousands of people whose jobs disappeared in order to Honda-ize the GM dealer network.

"Just three months before the midterm elections, with unemployment near 9.5 percent, we were essentially going to say [in the IG report] that [Obozo's] team had unnecessarily directed the shutting down of thousands of small businesses across the country, putting up to 100,000 jobs at risk, all based on not a particularly well-researched theory and without giving even the slightest consideration to those who could lose their jobs as a result," Barofsky wrote.

They built the businesses, and Obozo tore 'em down. 

His Plan worked!!

ObozoCare Loses Again

Another Court enjoins the blatantly anti-religion mandate.

"...The balance of the equities tip strongly in favor of injunctive relief in this case. Because this case presents “questions going to the merits . . . so serious, substantial, difficult, and doubtful as to make the issue ripe for litigation and deserving of more deliberate investigation,” I find it appropriate to enjoin the implementation of the preventive care coverage mandate as applied to Plaintiffs.

Accordingly, Defendants, their agents, officers, and employees, and their requirements that Plaintiffs provide FDA-approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for women with reproductive capacity, are ENJOINED from any application or enforcement thereof against Plaintiffs, including the substantive requirement imposed in 42 U.S.C. § 300gg-13(a)(4), the application of the penalties found in 26 U.S.C. §§ 4980D & 4980H and 29 U.S.C. § 1132, and any determination that the requirements are applicable to Plaintiffs…."  quoted at Insurrection

That's the Colorado case.

Down Is Up. Black Is White. Obozo Tells Truth

You get the idea.  Here's the chart:

"....pay down the debt...."

"Our Plan Is Working"  --B Hussein Obama

"Arms" Treaty Gone, For the Time Being

The good news:

The weeks-long conference at the United Nations to produce an Arms Trade Treaty is ending without the creation of a treaty. None of the draft treaties which have circulated in the past several days came remotely close to finding consensus support.

The bad news is that it will be back.  Of course, it's possible that the US will have left the UN by that time--but not on Romney's watch.

HT:  Arms/Law

Tommy's Polling: Not So Hot

When Tommy has to go this way, you can bet his internal polls are bad.

Former Gov. Tommy Thompson blasted fellow Republican Eric Hovde on Friday, saying Hovde would have a much harder time than he would winning the general election for U.S. Senate.

Blahblahblahblabfartstutterscreeeeech.....

Tommy the Spend-And-Bond-It Man.

Pigs, Droughts, and Corn-a-Holing You

Droughts happen.  And they're not good for anyone.

But keep the potential hardship to producers and consumers in perspective. “U.S. farmers face this drought in their strongest financial position in history, buoyed by less debt, record-high grain and land prices, plus greater production and exports,” reported Christine Stebbins of Reuters, after a thorough canvassing of industry and government experts. Farm losses should be far smaller than those suffered in the last big drought 24 years ago.

In fact, the Agriculture Department estimates that government-subsidized crop insurance covers more than 80 percent of farmland planted with major field crops — at least two of which, wheat and cotton, appear pretty much unaffected by the dry weather anyway. Dairy farms are the least likely to be in drought-ravaged areas, the USDA reports. And many of them enjoy federally subsidized insurance against rising feed costs.  --RedState quoting the WaPo

Notwithstanding the facts above, we see a bi-partisan Pig Coalition hard at work.

Seeing their political stock rapidly diminish, the bipartisan coalition of government-run agriculture took a page out of Rahm Emanuel’s playbook and decided not to let the crisis of the summer drought go to waste.  They are using evocative imagery of dead crops and the fear of higher food prices to shove this $957 billion behemoth through Congress. 

Hmmmm...what could POSSIBLY be the problem?

...the single most damaging factor in distorting the crop market, particularly the corn crop, is the government’s ethanol policy.

Over the past decade, ethanol has been the poster child for the worst aspects of big-government crony capitalism.  The ethanol industry has used the fist of government to mandate that fuel blenders use their product, to subsidize their production with refundable tax credits, and to impose tariffs on more efficient sugar-based ethanol from Brazil.  These policies have distorted the market for corn to such a degree that 44% of all corn grown in the country is diverted towards motor fuel blends.

Not only does Corn-A-Holing reduce your fuel economy, thus costing you money.  Now the Pig Coalition wants you to pay AGAIN to make up for farm losses (which, by the way, are largely based on un-audited "statements" submitted by.......farmers.)

You'll see the stark raving Fear of Truth oozing from the pores of Republicans in the farm belt over the next few weeks. 

Give them another Fear--primary the bastards who vote for this Pig Bill.

"Our Plan....Worked!!"

President Dumbass' plan was to fund-raise and golf more than any other President in history.

It worked.

As for the 16% who are under-employed, un-employed, or forced part-time? 

Who cares?

President? Really?

To state that this guy is a jerkwad is to be too kind by several orders of magnitude.

The acronym SCOAMF is much, much, much more fitting--and even that is mild.

President Obama Held His Last Jobs Council Meeting 191 Days Ago.

President Obama Has Attended 117 Campaign Fundraisers Since His Last Jobs Council Meeting

Not much more to say.

HT: AOSHQ

Catholic Relief Services Gets All Twitchy

We noticed that some shill/spinner for CRS appeared here yesterday to blow smoke in our combox.

It didn't work, but we weren't alone.  Seems that CRS "management" is extremely sensitive to .......ahhh......light.

...To date, CRS has produced three press releases and a high volume of tweets and emails defending the grant despite the oddity of the Bishops simultaneously fighting the Obama contraceptive mandate.

Seems like CRS misrepresented its 'blessing':

...Dr. Haas’ assessment of the grant was very negative.  He told CRS about their donating to CARE: “In my opinion because CARE is so well known and so high profile and because the advocacy of abortion has been so strong and public and in such opposition to the position of the bishops, scandal would be unavoidable.”

And they're far more generous to this pack of abortionistas than previously thought:

Beyond this LifeSiteNews has found that the CRS donation to CARE during 2008 and 2009 totaled an additional $3+ million. (2008: $1,802,709 and 2009: $1,399,534)

See, it's "Christian" to send large money to chemical-abortion providers--but NOT "Christian" to talk about that activity in public.

It's also Christian to call a lying jackass a lying jackass.  Truth is what it is, ya' know.

Same Gun-Grabber, Different Day

The asinine formulations never change.  President Dumbass speaks, with multiple errors:

To reduce the toll of gun violence, Obama said that criminals and fugitives should be banned from gun purchases, and that a “mentally unbalanced” person should not be able “to get his hands” on a gun. 

...Obama said he supports the Second Amendment right to own arms and that hunting and shooting are part of “a cherished national heritage.” 

Still, he said many gun owners “would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals.”

1)  To my mind, 'mentally unbalanced' includes Socialists like Obozo. The Leninists thought so, too.  Except their solution was the death penalty.

2)  'Hunting and shooting'?  He forgot 'armed revolution against tinpot dictators.'  And he probably forgot that for a real good reason.

3)  AK's are Communist-Russia rifles now used by every other Commie country and several million jihadists.  President Dumbass doesn't know that?  President Dumbass doesn't know that the AR is a sporting rifle, used to take small game and as a target rifle, and in its military version is A/K/A the M-16 and M-4?

How Could Xerox Have Blown It?

Cited at Lakeshore from the WSJ:

...But full credit goes to the com­pany where Mr. Tay­lor worked after leav­ing ARPA: Xerox. It was at the Xerox PARC labs in Sil­i­con Val­ley in the 1970s that the Eth­er­net was devel­oped to link dif­fer­ent com­puter net­works. Researchers there also devel­oped the first per­sonal com­puter (the Xerox Alto) and the graph­i­cal user inter­face that still dri­ves com­puter usage today.

And Xerox was twice near-dead after they INVENTED this stuff.

More at Wiki. 

Oh, Gun Control Works, Eh?

The inimitable LawDog:

...while our Max pods have the same stringent gun control as Attica Correctional or Angola, we're not quite the Gun Control Paradise those places are. Only a hands-full or so of our inmates have needed medical care after inmate-on-inmate violence. This year. So, I have to ask: if gun control is the panacea these folks think it is, why aren't they clocking in to the safety, peace and quiet of a boring shift at Sing-Sing or ADX Florence? 

Complete and total gun control means those should be amongst the safest places in the world, right?

Right!!  

Raping Our Grandchildren: the ObozoCrony Way

Want to watch your grandchild get raped?  Read on!!

...we learn from Wynton Hall at Big Peace that the United States Air Force spent $639,000 on 11,000 gallons of alcohol-to-jet fuel from Gevo Inc., a Colorado biofuels company, at $59 a gallon. The cost of petroleum is presently $3.60 a gallon, and one imagines that the government can use its purchasing power to get a considerably lower price than that. 

So why pay $59 per gallon? It turns out that one of the venture capital funders behind Gevo Inc. is Vinod Khosla. Since 1996, opensecrets.org reports that Mr. Khosla has made $474,534 in campaign donations, 86 percent of which went to Democrats. As of this March, when Gevo filed with the SEC, Khosla’s firm owned a 27 percent stake in the company. 

Similarly, the U.S. Navy has purchased millions in biofuels to demonstrate that a carrier strike group could be run on biofuels. The company that sold this fuel to the government reportedly is owned by the husband of Sen. Diane Feinstein.

The Democrats do not have a monopoly on Crony-Rape-Licensing, of course.

That's why the TEA Party works to exterminate Pubbie Rapists, too.

Bloomberg the Nutbag Advises Cops (!!???!!!)

Any street cop who pays attention to this bozo shouldn't 'go on strike'; they should resign, instead.

“I don’t understand why the police officers across this country don’t stand up, collectively, and say: ‘We’re gonna go on strike. We’re not gonna protect you unless you, the public, through your legislature, do what’s required to keep us safe.’ After all, police officers want to go home to their families, and we’re doing everything we can to make their job more difficult – and more importantly, more dangerous – by leaving guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them, and letting people who have those guns, and letting people who have those guns buy things like armor-piercing bullets,” Bloomberg complained.  --Malkin quoting Human Events.

Uhhmmmnnnn.....first off, joining a police department ipso facto means one has chosen to live a more dangerous life than joining a CPA firm, right?

Secondly, polling of street cops (as opposed to polling of the political animals known as "chiefs of police") is very clear:  street cops LIKE concealed-carry laws.  It means that their natural allies, law-abiding citizens, are equipped to help the cops do their jobs---safely.

As to Bloomberg?  He's clearly moving from 'eccentric' to 'totally deranged.'  Fits NYC very well, indeed.

The Logic Error of Tom Still

Tom Still is probably a nice guy.  But he's a shill, nonetheless.  Here he demonstrates a Logic 101 error.

Ankit Agarwal is a two-time finalist in the Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest and a biochemical engineer whose work promises to help doctors treat patients with slow-to-heal skin wounds. He's even started a Madison-based company, Imbed Biosciences, to commercialize his discoveries.

Too bad Wisconsin – and the United States – nearly lost him over a protracted and largely senseless immigration problem.

You can read the rest of Agarwal's story at the link.

Tom's working a basic logic error:  going from the particular to the general (also known as "hard cases make bad law") and here he goes:

...Similar roadblocks are thrown up tens of thousands of times each year in the United States, which annually graduates nearly 40,000 foreign-born students with master's or doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and math...

Uhhhhhmmnnnnnnhhh.......WRONG!

Still wants you to believe that all 40,000 of them are geniuses, like Agarwal.

In reality, they're not.  The Bell Curve remains operative, no matter what the shills say.  And, as Prof. Norm Matloff demonstrates to a fare-thee-well, the effect of importing cheap labor is........

REDUCING the number of native-US S.T.E.M. graduates.

Nice try, Tom.

Stiff-Arming US Workers: Bi-Partisan!!

Mercantilism, invented by the British, copied by the ChiComs.

...China exports to the United States four times more than it buys here, because it maintains an undervalued currency and blocks imports of competitive U.S. products. For example, it maintains a 25 percent tariff on automobiles—the U.S. tariff is less than 3 percent—and requires U.S. companies to establish joint ventures with Chinese companies to gain access to its markets...

...The practice most destructive to U.S. interests is China’s 40 percent undervalued currency, which artificially underprices Chinese goods on American store shelves. Licensing and regulating the price of dollar-yuan conversions accomplish this, and official intervention in currency markets.

Beijing mops up excess demand for yuan, which would force its value higher, by printing and selling yuan to importers for dollars and euro, and then uses the proceeds to invest in U.S. Treasurys, and oil and other mineral deposits around the world. The latter enhances Beijing’s diplomatic clout, and its ability to justify its authoritarian brand of state-managed capitalism.

The Obozo hasn't bothered to raise hell about this.  Not only does Obozo lack stones in foreign affairs; he shares the beliefs and philosophies of the Communists who run PRC.

But it gets worse.

...Early in the primary campaign, Gov. Romney promised to pursue similar tactics, but since locking up the nomination, has emphasized traditional GOP themes—deregulation, free trade and lower taxes...

Wonderful.

The Endlessly-Spineless Boehner

You've been Boehned, again!!

...CNSNews.com asked House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), “In whatever legislation funds the government after Sept. 30, will House Republicans permit funding for the Affordable Care Act?”

Boehner replied:

“I expect we’ll have an agreement with the Senate on a CR [Continuing Resolution].  As you all know, CR’s do contain some changes but usually not many changes.  And considering that we’ve been fighting—the House has voted now 33 times to defund, to repeal and change Obamacare.  Actually, about seven or eight of those votes have become laws, so there have been changes.

“But, our goal would be to make sure the government is funded and any political talk of a government shutdown is put to rest.”

IOW, ObozoCare will continue to squeeze the life out of Americans because to John Boehner, it's more important to screw the public than to 'shut down' the Gummint.

After all, Boehner needs a job, right?

Egads! Cullen Bails!!

This is not a shock, but it is a bit surprising.

State Sen. Tim Cullen, a moderate Democrat from Janesville, broke with his party's caucus Tuesday, saying he may become an independent over what he felt were political "insults" by the Senate majority leader.

Cullen said he made his decision, announced to the rest of the caucus by email, after Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, slighted him with committee assignments. Every senator in the caucus was given at least two committee leadership positions. Cullen has none.

Miller is a twit, of course.   He demonstrated the zenith of his abilities by ......running away when the chips were down.  Cullen insulted himself by following this turd-on-toast.

Now the game is on!

Best Pay Attention, Scott!

The article is from a fiscal-conservative website.

Hmmmm.

...WEDC boasts that it has one focus: job creation. Taxpayers may ask, at what cost?

Critics say the board spends fast and loose, handing out multi-million-dollar spiffs to powerful corporations with only limited taxpayer oversight.

“There’s just not enough detail and meat to really make sure that taxpayer money is going to be protected, used efficiently and effectively, and that the jobs that Gov. Walker and the Legislature want to create are going to be created,” Sen. Julie Lassa, D-Stevens Point, said at the time of WEDC was first proposed.

Well, after all, she's a very ambitious Democrat.  Or did she see something worth watching?

WEDC says it retained or created 37,000 jobs in fiscal year 2012.

Tracking those jobs WEDC helped to create seems to be a full-time job in itself, and some serious questions have dogged the young agency. From the beginning, lawmakers were concerned that the quasi-public WEDC lacks accountability

[Referring to a similar California agency]:  “It’s government trying to micromanage the economy,” said Chris Edwards, an economist at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C. Libertarian think tank. “Both Republicans and Democrats do it; they can’t seem to help themselves with offering businesses incentives.”

“To me, what they’re doing is distorting the economy. If you give credits to one type of jobs industry, you’re steering the economy to where the government wants it to go. It’s unfair to the businesses that don’t get the breaks that have to pay the high regular rate to fund the breaks to other company,” he said.

There is a defense, voiced by the WEDC spokescritter:

“On the bigger scale of tax credits — should state government be doing it? It’d be a great world if states weren’t doing it,” Thieding said. “You have to stay in the game, otherwise you could be losing businesses to other states. It would be a different world if all states weren’t doing tax incentives to retain or recruit a company from other states.”

It wouldn't be a problem at all if the State simply zeroed out "corporate" income taxes, would it?   After all, no "corporation" PAYS income tax--only its shareholders (and customers) do.

How It REALLY Works (The Big-Biz Tango, That Is...)

Tim Carney's a bit younger, so he starts with a slight error:

The hip new bipartisan way for government to try to steer the economy and subsidize favored industries or companies is through tax deductions and credits. As with most government meddling in the economy, the benefit accrues disproportionately to large, politically connected businesses...

Tim, it's not "new."  Mortgage-interest deductions (e.g.) have been around for 50 years or more....

The rest of the article is spot-on.  Paul Ryan got it a long time ago; his watchword is that 'Gummint should encourage FREE MARKETS, not "business."'

Big difference....

Smart Thinking, Smart Moves: Self-Defense 101

Really useful stuff from an ex-SEAL.

...When at sporting events, concerts, and the movies, choose seats that give you a tactical advantage always.  What do I mean? Choose seats that allow good and [f]ast vantage points and a hasty exit point.  Always stack the odds in your favor. It’s the reason I still combat park (back in to a space) and sit with my back to the wall when I’m eating.

Take cover and not concealment.  Concealment hides, cover hides AND protects.  It’s the difference between hiding behind a movie seat or a concrete wall.

Don’t lie there with your eyes closed and get shot. Think and move.  A good decision executed quickly is better than a great one never executed. Violence of action, as we call it in the Spec Ops community, will often change the odds in your favor.

...For close quarter combat drills we’d draw a gun with someone over 20 feet away running at us.  In most cases you can be on someone before they can draw and take a shot...

Flashlight anyone? I have one for daily carry and take it everywhere with me.  It’s become another extension of me and has diffused at least two potentially violent confrontations in a non-lethal way. I recommend the Surefire P2X Fury Dual Output LED....I would have pulled my high lumens pocket flashlight and blinded this guy.

Specs: At least 200+ lumens, waterproof, LED, and a 3volt lithium battery.  Use and carry your light with you at all times. It’s the best non-lethal and practical option available, in my opinion.

IOW, Buy More Flashlight!!

Inexpensive, common-sense stuff which doesn't really require a bunch of shooting.

Seventh Circuit Inanities

Well.  The poor atheists shouldn't have been tortured, ya' know.

The Elmbrook School District violated the Constitutional guarantee of separation of church and state by holding past graduation ceremonies at Elmbrook Church, a federal appeals court ruled today

....The court's opinion states that its decision was determined by Elmbrook's particular situation, pointing to the facts that minors were involved, the event was a significant one in their lives and that "conditions of extensive
proselytization" were present - most notably a large cross hung in front of the audience and religious reading materials were present as well ...

They prolly had nightmares for months.  And the Blackrobe Priests just affirmed them.

FORCING those poor folks to look at a cross--momentarily--as they plumped their butts into chairs.

The inhumanity of it all....

Pay Attention to Foreign and Domestic Enemies....Especially the Hypocrite Muslims

Middling-length essay here reminding us that the Muslim Brotherhood folks are not really "nice guys."

Oh, they may be very nice people, indeed.  But the Muslim concept of "jihad" encompasses all forms of warfare, not just scimitars-and-bombs.  Willful ignorance of agenda is fo' suckas.

It's worth remembering, even though Our Betters in The Beltway sneer at that declasse analysis.

And--in a display of chutzpah worthy of the title 'world-class hypocrisy'---the Muslims exercise their very own perverted 'religious freedom' crapola:

A former Iranian CIA operative, now an expert lecturer with the Defense Department, is being targeted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim Brotherhood front group, because he “renounced Islam and began the quest to find the real God.” CAIR, based in Washington, D.C., is calling on the Defense Department to fire Reza Kahlili, a frequent contributing writer to WND, in part, a press release from the group states, because he became a Christian...

That "Muslim Brotherhood" bunch is just a bunch of nice folks, right? 

Right./sarcasm

Bernardin's Legacy: Obozo

No surprises here.

If anything, this stuff underlines the warnings of Windswept House, a "faction" book written by Malachi Martin.

"Rising" a Classic Film

An interesting review.  Looks like "Rising" follows the classical pattern--the REAL one, not the H'wood crap.

...But [Nolan's] real genius is in how he expresses his vision and theme. While all of Hollywood embraces nihilism wrapped in irony, Nolan moves us with an inexpressibly touching faith in humanity. While all of Hollywood embraces CGI, the shaky-cam, and hyper-editing, Nolan sets his story in the real world and allows us to see what's going on. And as all of Hollywood embraces hollow, artless, left-wing tripe, Nolan delivers crowd-pleasing, thematically-driven classical art that ennobles the human spirit -- and while doing so, breaks box office records.

OK, then.  I'll re-visit "Dark Knight" before seeing "Rising."

"Re-Training" and Sundry Other Marxist Ideas

1)  Interesting passage from Eric Voegelin quoted by Russell Kirk.  We all remember "re-training"--which was supposed to remedy all the ills of offshoring jobs, right?

Marx was there first.

Man was supposed to emerge from the revolution as an integrally productive being that at his will would work one day at a machine, the next in an office, and the third day as a litterateur. A primitive but unmistakable formulation of the idea occurs on the occasion of his complaint that division of labor produces such occupational fixations as hunter, fisher, etc. This evil will be overcome in “Communist society, where nobody has an exclusive range of activity, but everybody can train himself in every branch; where society regulates general production and thereby makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another thing tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, to fish in the afternoon, to be a husbandman in the evening, and to indulge in critical work after supper, as it pleases me, without any necessity for me ever to become a hunter, fisherman, husbandman, or critic.” (Here Voegelin has been quoting directly from Marx.)..

The eternally re-trainable man, eh?

*************************

2)  Envy is the principal tool of Marxism--not to mention the Democrat Party.  Regardless, envy remains a vice.

[...] communism promises equality of condition[.]  Tocqueville pointed out a century and a half ago how dangerous the doctrine of equality is, and how difficult to resist -even though it leads toward universal boredom and decadence. In democratic times, many people are ashamed of being different from others; and many more people are envious of those who truly are different. Especially there prevails envy of men and women of wealth, or fancied wealth - an emotion deliberately worked upon by the communists.

To set up Holy Equality as a moral principle supplies the envious with a self-righteous apology for their consuming vice.

Few people care to admit to themselves, “Being envious, I covet my neighbor’s goods.” But put the matter after this fashion: “I learn from Karl Marx that inequality is caused by capitalism, private property, churches, and other evil institutions. I want justice for the people! We need a revolution.” Thus personal envy is veiled by an ideological pretext - which may be used to justify murder on a large scale. Ideology of this sort salves one’s conscience

***************************

3)  What's "equality"?  It ain't the money, honey.

Nevertheless, the very word “equality” has a sweet sound in the ears of many persons who would not themselves dream of bloodletting. Does not Christianity speak of equality? Have we not established equality before the law as a fundamental principle of jurisprudence? Does not the Declaration of Independence say that all men are created equal? What then can be wrong with equality?

Much, if by that we mean “equality of condition.” The Christian doctrine of equality teaches that all human beings are of equal worth in the sight of God: that God is no respecter of rank and wealth; God judges human beings impartially; all are sinners in some degree...

******************************

4)  This Marxist stuff could have consequences which are .....ahhh.......unpleasant.

...Although some people have tried to make a religion out of democracy, they have not succeeded; and those few who have tried to make a religion out of “democratic capitalism” have failed ludicrously.

It is for moral causes, and out of religious faith, that men and women will resist the Children of Darkness. Perhaps such a renewal of religious belief will occur before the end of this century; one can imagine it. Perhaps a great many people will come to perceive, with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, that communism and other fanatic ideologies are the enemies of true moral order. If they do not so perceive, quite possibly the Republic may end with both a whimper and a bang...

***************************

5)  The real failure of "conservative" propagandists (who are actually faux-conservatives):

We find fairly widespread in these United States a “capitalistic” version of Karl Marx’s dialectical materialism - more’s the pity. It is not a theoretical “democratic capitalism” that can preserve, unaided, order and justice and freedom. Materialism was an American vice when Alexis de Tocqueville travelled in the United States. That vice has not diminished in power. People who maintain that production and consumption are the ends of human existence presently will find themselves impoverished materially, as well as spiritually...

Thus ends today's homily.

What We Know

HT:  MoonBattery

Biblica Obozica

Quoting therefrom....

³ And Govt said, “Let there be spending,” and there was spending. ⁴ Govt saw that the spending was good, and that it separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ Govt called the spending Investments, and this he did in the first day.

⁶ Then Govt said, “Let there be roads and bridges across the waters, and let dams divide the waters from the waters.” ⁷ Thus Govt made the infrastructure and the patronage jobs for eternity under the firmament from the Potomac which was above the firmament; and it was so. ⁸ And Govt called the firmament Washington. This Govt did on the second day.

^...17 And on the fifth day Govt made an official Govt holiday, and headed off for a 3-day golf weekend at Camp David. But first Govt said to the economy, "you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, except the tree of Knowledge. There is a serpent in that thing, and thy health care does not cover it."

^...19 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the balanced, publicly-funded birds the Lord Govt had made to sing news to the economy. The serpent was on the AM band. He said to the retail sector, “Did Govt really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’? ”

²⁰ "Only yours, serpent," said the retail sector.

There's more, well worth it as usual, from Iowahawk.

Why Do They Think "He's Crazy"?

AOS raises a very good point.

The Colorado shooter ain't necessarily crazy.  He could be just-plain-evil.

Certainly not the first one.  There's Tamerlane, Augustus, Herod, FDR's pal Uncle Joe, Adolf, PolPot......

......and Margaret Sanger, too.

Banks, Politicians, Car Dealers

(The headline is in ascending order, folks, in truth-o-meter scale).

Here are some recent improprieties by the big banks:

• Laundering money for drug cartels. See this, this, this and this (indeed, drug dealers kept the banking system afloat during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis)

• Laundering money for terrorists

• Engaging in mafia-style big-rigging fraud against local governments. See this, this and this

• Shaving money off of virtually every pension transaction they handled over the course of decades, stealing collectively billions of dollars from pensions worldwide. Details here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here

• Charging “storage fees” to store gold bullion … without even buying or storing any gold . And raiding allocated gold accounts

• Committing massive and pervasive fraud both when they initiated mortgage loans and when they foreclosed on them (and see this)

• Pledging the same mortgage multiple times to different buyers.  See this, this, this, this and this.  This would be like selling your car, and collecting money from 10 different buyers for the same car

• Cheating homeowners by gaming laws meant to protect people from unfair foreclosure

• Committing massive fraud in an $800 trillion dollar market which effects everything from mortgages, student loans, small business loans and city financing

• Engaging in insider trading of the most important financial information

• Pushing investments which they knew were terrible, and then betting against the same investments to make money for themselves. See this, this, this, this and this

• Engaging in unlawful “frontrunning” to manipulate markets. See this, this, this, this, this and this

• Engaging in unlawful “Wash Trades” to manipulate asset prices. See this, this and this

• Otherwise manipulating markets. And see this

• Participating in various Ponzi schemes. See this, this and this

• Charging veterans unlawful mortgage fees

• Cooking their books (and see this)

• Bribing and bullying ratings agencies to inflate ratings on their risky investments

The executives of the big banks invariably pretend that the hanky-panky was only committed by a couple of low-level rogue employees.  But studies show that most of the fraud is committed by management.

Indeed, one of the world’s top fraud experts – professor of law and economics, and former senior S&L regulator Bill Black – says that most financial fraud is “control fraud”, where the people who own the banks are the ones who implement systemic fraud.

Oh, there's more where that came from.

HT:  Ticker

Mr. Schimel's Protection Racket

Wiggy notes that Brad Schimel--the Waukesha County DA--is very, very, very soft indeed when it comes to Gummint mis- and/or mal-feasance.

He's running for Ruling Class Protector-in-Chief, I guess.

Now that's an aspiration not contemplated by Wisconsin pols, but it is a big-time gig in Chicago.

The Cost of Gummint, Again

We've mentioned the Cost of Gummint a few times.

...In 2011, Obama’s regulatory agencies imposed 3,807 new rules on various sectors of the economy that Oversight staff expect to cost over $105 billion this year alone. As of the fall of 2011, federal regulators were considering 133 new “economically significant rules” — that is, regulations that would each cost over $100 million annually.

Lemmeeesee, heah, Gomer:  Jobs?  or Regulations?

Hmmmm.

Classic "Shovel Ready" Jobs--With a Twist

Watch the video first.  You can read the text later--to fill in the holes, so to speak.

And if you think AFSCME is any different from the Laborers'--you're living in another galaxy.....

Here a Tax, There a Tax, Internet-a-Tax-Tax!!!

During the summer, cockroaches think you're not watching them.

So they come up with this:

Congressional Republicans led by Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming have begun negotiating behind closed doors with liberals like Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois to raise Americans’ taxes. They introduced their internet tax as an amendment to a Senate small business bill, but that bill stalled. Now they are confident they can sneak the internet tax into a lame duck session of Congress, just in time for Christmas shopping.

It will be the shoehorn for a national sales tax (although this is only the first step.)

...The nation has thus far successfully shielded the internet from Washington taxation and regulation for decades, and the Marketplace Fairness Act would break the floodgates open. Even more troubling, the Marketplace Fairness Act establishes a pretty solid precedent that the federal government can step in to regulate state tax policy. After all, this legislation attempts to exert federal regulatory power over state internet tax policy with state complicity.

...But here’s the other troubling thing. The Marketplace Fairness Act, for the first time, establishes a national sales tax. It does so by hiding behind the states. They told us the individual mandate wasn’t a federal tax either.

Is it really "fair"?  Hell, no!!

...Some [states or municipalities], for example, don’t tax baked goods, but do tax candies, even if made in a bakery. So your cake is not taxed, but if you buy fudge at the bakery it is. And it’s not just states, there are over 7,500 different local tax systems, many with special tax holidays or exemptions for different products. Trying to move these varied tax systems to the internet would drive up the burdens of businesses online by forcing compliance with the various taxing schemes of 50 states.

That actually puts a heavier burden on online vendors than brick & mortar local vendors, who only have to comply with the taxes of the state they reside in. Then there are the compliance costs. How does a candy company in Georgia that sells fudge to someone living in Iowa handle a tax dispute with Iowa tax authorities?

And of course, it's really about MORE MONEY for the States who can't control their spending.

Hey! Obozo!!!

You didn't build that.

TAXPAYERS built that.

Shall We Talk About (D) Bank Pals?

Malkin has the (short) list of rotting-corpse banks indebted to Obozo.

And there's a mention of the offshore-trust holdings of Ms. Pritzker.  Just like the Romney holdings.

Tinfoil Cars: the Alcoa Dream

Regulatory costs, folks.

Alcoa is seeing rising demand from automakers, who are increasingly compelled by regulation to make lighter vehicles….

The average amount of the metal in each vehicle will rise 3 percent, he said in a June 26 note. Heavy-truck producers will buy 19 percent more aluminum and plane makers an extra 20 percent, he said.  -Carney quoting Bloomberg

Note well:  steel is MUCH less expensive than aluminum.

Carney's question:

Does it surprise you that Alcoa supported the fuel-economy regulations?

What a shock.

Why Yes, Wisconsin IS a Key Electoral-Vote Player

Some befuddled yotzeh-twit-in-robes has his marching orders from the High Commander, Axelrod...

A second judge has declared Wisconsin's voter ID law unconstitutional, further guaranteeing that the ID requirement will not be in place for elections this fall.

Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan wrote Tuesday that the state's requirement that all voters show photo ID at the polls creates a "substantial impairment of the right to vote" guaranteed by the state constitution.

In March, Flanagan issued an injunction temporarily blocking the law because the plaintiffs - the Milwaukee branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera - were likely to succeed in their arguments. Flanagan made that injunction permanent in the 20-page decision he issued Tuesday...

The usual BS about 'disenfranchised'....

Deport Pro-Lifers, Not Illegals: Obozo & Co.

The re-definition of "terrorists and undesirables" continues apace.

The federal government appears to be making a concerted effort to to gain intelligence on the pro-life movement, according to some of the movement’s most prominent leaders. 

Jill Stanek has revealed that on July 13, FBI agents Conrad Rodriguez and William Sivley paid a visit to her son-in-law, Andy Moore, reportedly pressuring him to expose the inner workings of the right-to-life movement and making veiled threats to separate him from his wife and family through imprisonment or deportation.

Moore is a citizen of New Zealand, not the US.

...Stanek wrote that the agents – who said their department also investigates hate crimes such as those committed by white supremacists – asked “inappropriate questions clearly aimed at intimidating Andy, while also launching into a  fishing expedition about me.”  Agents reportedly asked her son-in-law whether Stanek had inspired his activism, whether she trained him, and if he got his ideas from her. 

They also asked, “What affiliations do you have including church groups?”

The grilling was occasioned because Moore used a bullhorn (possibly a local noise-ordinance violation) at a protest.  Not exactly sedition.

Silly Moore.  Crossed the border legally.

The Cost of Government vs. Prosperity

Interesting numbers here.

...According to NBER, there have been 33 business cycles in the United States since 1854. On average over that period, recessions have lasted 17.5 months and expansions have lasted 38.7 months. Since World War II, the recessions have tended to be shorter — lasting an average of 11.1 months — and the expansions longer — lasting an average of 58.4 months.

The last three expansions have been particularly long — running 92 months (from November 1982 to July 1990), 120 months (from March 1991 to March 2001) and 73 months (from November 2001 to December 2007).

OK.

But the post-World War II era has also seen some short-lived expansions. The recession that ended in November 1970, for example, led quickly into another that began in November 1973 — leaving only 36 months of economic expansion in between. The recession that ended in July 1980, when Jimmy Carter was still president, gave way to an expansion of only 12 months, with a new recession beginning in July 1981.

That recession ended in November 1982 with President Ronald Reagan's income tax cuts starting to take effect — which led to nearly eight years of economic expansion.

If Obama's expansion were to last as long as the post-World War II average of 58.4 months, the next recession would hit in about 21 months — or in the spring of 2014

(If you call this an "expansion," of course.  YMMV on that matter. Technically, it is an expansion.  Not much comfort if you're in foreclosure, or have been semi-employed for the last few years, or are eating cat food, etc.)

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Fed is not optimisic about the next few years.

...Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday he thought it grew even slower in the second quarter.

The Fed, he told the committee, expects GDP to grow 1.9 percent to 2.4 percent this year and 2.2 percent to 2.8 percent next year.

"These forecasts are lower than those we made in January, reflecting the generally disappointing tone of the recent incoming data," Bernanke said in written testimony.

Bernanke predicted the unemployment rate would still be "7 percent or higher" by the end of 2014 — or, in other words, past the time when the average post-World War II expansion would have given way to a new recession.

Let's not blame everything on Obozo for the sake of the larger question:  what has been the effect of the constantly-growing Cost of Gummint since WWII?  (C.O.G. includes regulatory cost, not just taxes.)  Has that cost drained marginal free-cashflow from both businesses and consumers which drainage has now finally resulted in <2.0% growth cycles?  After all, LBJ, Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obozo have not been shy about adding regulatory burdens and new Federal departments; and Fed regs have forced States and locals to increase their taxes and/or regs & regulators, too.  (We could add that reg-costs have reduced the number of small business-competitors to larger, better-connected firms who effectively write regulations for their OWN benefit--thus reducing price competition.)

Arguing over which straw broke the camel's back is no longer productive.  Demanding that several bales of lead-weight hay be removed--by whatever means--is urgent and necessary.

Food Inflation? Really??

Gee.  Maybe QE1 plus the increase in fuel-costs actually HAD an effect.

• Beef: +10.2%
• Pork: +8.5%
• Fish: +7.1%
• Eggs: +9.2%
• Dairy: +6.8%
• Oils and Fats: +9.3%

And that was just in 2011.  Can't wait for QE2 effects for this year!!

The Police Chiefs' Silly Suggestions

You can count on political animals to come up with silly.

Police chiefs from across the state met with U.S. Senate candidates in Madison Tuesday to call for tougher background checks for gun buyers.

The chiefs are pushing for federal laws that would require background checks for private gun sales.

Not the States.  Nope.  The FEDS!!!  Only the FEDS can help!!

This has nothing--nothing--to do with 'stopping crime.'  Criminals don't give a rip about obtaining a permit to carry concealed, and they don't give a rip about filling out Gummint forms to buy or sell a gun on the street.

And if Chief Bozo of East Podunk thinks I'm going to fill out a Gummint form to sell a handgun to my next-door neighbor or to my child, he's .......hopeless.

Which is the reality about most of these "chiefs" of police.

The Blindlings: USCC's Catholic Relief Services

Egads.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), “the official overseas relief and development agency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops” has recently given millions to an organization that doles out contraceptives, including abortifacient ‘emergency contraception.’

The most recent CRS annual returns (2010) indicate that the largest CRS grant — $5.3 million — went to CARE, an international “relief and development organization,” that actively promotes and provides contraceptives for women in developing countries, and supports pro-abortion groups and legislation.

You'll love this:

[CRS spokescritter] Rivera told LifeSiteNews that CRS doesn’t so much give the money to the organization as act as a “pass-through” for federal funding to such groups, and that the money is given only to projects in line with Catholic teaching.

However, when asked if CRS would similarly issue ‘pass-through’ funding to Planned Parenthood for a morally neutral project, Rivera replied in the negative.  “We would never partner with Planned Parenthood,” he said.

He explained the difference saying, it’s about “the preponderance of work they do.”  Rivera noted that CRS acts on criteria developed by the U.S. bishops. “We’ve given this a lot of consideration, and there’s a threshold in terms of what the focus of an agency is, and the preponderance of their work.”

Oh.  Yah.  Sure.

“Well this is like saying that we will fund an organization that does 50 or fewer assassinations a year, but not one that will commit 50 or more assassinations a year. --Prof. Wm. Marschner...

Isn't it about time to simply sell the USCC building and dismiss the staff??