A convert to the cause of freedom

She is fed up with lies. I guess it took her a long time to realize that politicans are liars and that our MSM is, for some reasons I cannot fully understand (I do have my theories) totally in the tank for anything Leftist and runs interference for them constantly. Still, for her, better late than never. Naive as heck, but a nice gal. h/t Moonbattery:

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Change!… Obama’s Approval Rating Now Lower Than Bush’s 2008 Rating in Arab World

Change!… Obama’s Approval Rating Now Lower Than Bush’s 2008 Rating in Arab World
Respondents said killing Osama Bin Laden made the US more unpopular.

Respondents rated Obama’s policies as less popular than other leaders, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Contentions reported:

James Zogby, the anti-Israel pollster who released these findings today, blames the drop in support for Obama in the Arab world on Obama’s failure to put the amount of pressure on Israel the Arab world wanted and expected. But according to the poll, the Arab world doesn’t seem to be happy with any of America’s foreign policy positions. Respondents rated Obama’s policies as the least popular, when compared with other leaders, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Killing Osama bin Laden also contributed to the Arab world’s negative views of Obama. In all six countries surveyed – Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia – the majority of respondents said killing bin Laden made them “less favorable toward the U.S.” Notably, in Egypt, only 2 percent said the al Qaeda leader’s death made them view America more positively.

Most surprisingly, Obama’s approval ratings are even lower than President Bush’s before he left office in 2008. They dropped from 26 percent to 12 percent in Morocco, 9 percent to 5 percent in Egypt, 16 percent to 10 percent in Jordan and 22 percent to 12 percent in the UAE (though they did improve in Saudi Arabia, and tick up slightly in Lebanon).

Election 2012: The Morning Meeting At MSM Headquarters

"Good morning, everyone. And how are you all today?"


"Fine, chief".


"Mornin', sir."


"Wow, that Sarah Palin sure is hot!"


"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"


"Okay, everyone, let's get down to work. Jim, you're fired. Now, before we begin, let's all keep our main goal in mind. Just as we did in 2008, we want to make sure the winner of the Republican primary is the person least likely to win the general election. Mary, you and your people did a superb job last time. Taking some loser who got his ass shot down by the enemy and turning him into a 'war hero'? Absolutely brilliant."


"Thanks, boss. We admit they made it easy. What those idiots know about winning elections wouldn't fill a thimble."


"And lucky for us. Okay, today we're going to be focusing on the Witch. She's starting to pull ahead in the polls, so let's knock her down a peg or two. Anyone got anything? Steve?"


"Got just the thing, boss."


Pawlenty Blasts Bachmann's 'Nonexistent' Record


"Outstanding! Nothing like a little dissension among the ranks, eh? But we'll need someone to back him up."


"No sweat."


GOP Veteran Ridge Says Bachmann Not Ready


"Perfect! We'll have to print her response, of course, but let's make it sound really weak and insipid. Ideas? Yes, Jane?"


"Feast your eyes on this, boss."


Bachmann: Who needs executive experience if it means more big government?


"Outstanding! 'Who needs executive experience?' That probably cost her a percentile point right there. Good work! Yes, Jim?"


"I'm thinking we should also stamp the Intolerant label on her. It would dovetail nicely with her being so unqualified."


"Good idea. Shirley, that's your department. Got anything for us?"


"You bet."


Report: Bachmann's Clinic Tries to Cure Gay Patients


"Wow, nice piece of misdirection! But the few people who actually read the thing will see it's her husband's clinic. Can we get any more dirt on him?"


"Boss, you're talkin' to pros!"


Bachmann Husband's Clinic: More Harm Than Good?


"And that's a video, boss, just full of heartbreaking stories from people who had barely broken free of this mad cult before the damage had been done. We made hubby come across as the reincarnation of Edgar Allen Poe; pit, pendulum, dungeons and all."


"Shirley, you and your team never fail to impress. Have we got anything on the Witch, herself? Yes, Mack?"


"I've been saving this gem for months, chief. Check it out."


Michele Bachmann in 2004: Homosexuality is "Personal Enslavement"


"Christ, Mack, that almost makes me want to weep with joy. You got any more gems like that tucked away?"


"I ain't sayin', boss, but...yes!"


"I'll tell you, people, it's an honor working with such professionals. Now, back to wielding the Intolerant label effectively, have we snagged anyone else yet? Shirley, you've got that usual smug look about you."


"Well, guys, I was kinda saving this for next week when we focused on the Moonbeam Mormon, but here goes."


Romney Refuses to Sign Anti-Gay Marriage Pledge


"In other words, he's secretly gay, himself? Excellent work! Now, as a lead-in to next week's focus on the Moonbeam, have we got anything else on him? Maybe some no-name beating him in one of those fake polls? Mary, your folks usually handle that. Got anything for us?"


"Boss...happy birthday!"


Cain Beats Romney in TWT/Conservative Leadership Conference Straw Poll


"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"


"Mary, whoever came up with that one gets a free dinner at Chad's, compliments of the house. And tell him or her to bring a friend."


"That would be Doc Murky, boss. Man, the dirt he can dig up on the Repubs is just mind-boggling. He says the only one he's worried about is Perry."


"Oh, yeah, speaking of him, anybody got the latest? Shirley, you've got that devilish gleam in your eye again."


"Boss, happy birthday...and Merry Christmas!"


Poll: In Presidential Matchup, Obama Would Beat Perry in Texas


"Jesus! And in Texas? Tell Doc he needn't worry and to enjoy his dinner. This guy is toast."


"Got it, boss."


"All right, folks, you know what to do. Let's get to work!"

Getting Money Out of Politics

Getting Money Out of Politics

by Will Wilkinson on June 14, 2011

What are your favorite ideas for reducing the influence of campaign cash on legislators other than limiting legislative power and discretion, placing more restrictions on direct or indirect donations to campaigns, or socializing campaign finance altogether. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
Much longer terms with no chance for re-election.
Very generous pensions for ex-legislators
Prohibition on ex-legislators accepting compensated employment or even unpaid advisory positions within 10, 15, 20, or whatever years after retirement from congress
Prohibition on current or ex-legislators owning stocks, bonds, etc.
Extremely high-prestige automatic membership in posh post-legislative body, e.g., The American Academy of Exalted Deliberation in the Public Interest, the proceedings and findings of which are treated with the utmost interest and respect.
Nobel-like large cash prize and title awarded to one especially exceptional legislator upon retirement (conferred by the AAEDPI, say).

See what I’m after? Dazzle me, public choice folks!

Guess Who’s Not Paying Their Fair Share

President Obama and the other liberal Democrats in Washington are right: If we’re ever going to get control of this debt crisis mess there’s going to have to be “shared sacrifice.” And Americans who have been getting off easy when it comes to paying income tax are going to have to start kicking in their “fair share,” another phrase liberal Democrats use a lot.

In case you think I’m referring to the top one percent of wage earners, or the top five percent or ten percent, in case you think I’m talking about those “millionaires and billionaires” who fly around in private jets, think again.

The top 50 percent of all wage earners – very few of whom live in multi-million dollar mansions and fly off to vacation villas in G-5s — pay about 97 percent of all federal income taxes, which means that roughly half the folks pay for just about everything. The other half pays for just about nothing. Yes, they pay payroll tax and sales tax and if they own a home, property tax. But they pay no federal income tax, and because of that they’re not kicking in much to get us out of the debt crisis we find ourselves in.

And yes, we know that the reason they don’t pay federal income tax is because they don’t make a lot of money, and when you couple that with all the deductions they get, they’re left with a tax bill totaling zip.

But, there’s something inherently unfair when only half the American people are called upon to pull the load. The half that pays no income tax gets the same benefits as everybody else. They get to use the same interstate highways, they get the protection of the same military, they can go to the same national parks. When the president says we need to raise taxes on the “rich,” a lot of them say, good idea, Mr. President. Why not? As George Bernard Shaw so eloquently put it: Any government that robs Peter to pay Paul, can always count on the support of Paul.

Maybe the flat tax is an idea whose time has finally come. A low tax rate, something around 17 percent sounds good. No deductions. The more you make, the more tax you pay. That way everyone has skin in the game. Everyone is contributing.

It’ll never happen, of course, not as long as liberal Democrats are allowed to hold office. They demand a progressive tax, where the rich not only pay more taxes, but pay them at a higher rate than everyone else. Success is a four letter word to a lot of libs. Soaking the well-off is in their DNA.

But maybe, to get this debt crisis behind us, just maybe everyone will agree to a lower tax rate for business and individuals along with the elimination of loopholes, which probably would bring in more tax revenue. It wouldn’t be a flat tax, but it would be a flatter tax. And that would be a step in the right direction.

Finally, a piece of advice for liberal Democrats: stop vilifying the so-called wealthy. Without them, we would be in an even bigger financial mess. The top one percent of wage earners pay about 38 percent of all federal income tax. They’ve been forking over more than their fair share for quite a while now. Painting them as greedy bastards who don’t care about anybody but themselves, is nothing more than cheesy class warfare politics, an art form liberal Democrats, unfortunately, have fine tuned over the years.

Brave Muslim Betrayed by Obama Takes Rap for Bin Laden Kill

By Debbie Schlussel

Shakil Afridi is the rare pro-American Muslim who risked his life for America and might lose his life for it. Today, this medical doctor who helped the U.S. confirm that Osama Bin Laden was the guy living in that crappy Paki mansion . . . well, he sits in a Pakistani prison awaiting his fate, after he was arrest by the pro-Bin Laden ISI. He committed the ultimate crime of helping the evil great Satan America assassinate Islam’s greatest hero, Bin Laden. And, per usual, we betray the Muslims who truly risk everything to do the right thing. . . and we befriend those Muslims (the majority) who would slit our throats in an instant, given the opportunity.

Barack Obama & CIA’s Pannetta (Now SecDef) Betrayed Dr. Shakil Afridi

Since Dr. Afridi’s role in the Bin Laden kill was so important–and since he holds a senior government health post in Pakistan–it’s obvious that this man’s life would be in danger thereafter. So why didn’t Barack Obama, the CIA, and others involved make plans to evacuate the doctor with them or otherwise secrete him out of the country? Perhaps he didn’t want to go. But that’s unlikely, since he’d have to know that once he was found out it, the whole country would want to kill him. I do know, from my own experience representing the few moderate Muslims who actually exist and risk their lives to help the U.S. that we generally betray them (read about what America did to my Muslim clients, here and here), preferring to hug the HAMASniks at CAIR Action Network and “former” terrorists like Imad Hamad of ADC, who urged Detroit Muslims to go to a memorial service for the late leader of Hezbollah, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.

And one thing is certain: if we don’t get Dr. Afridi out of Pakistan, he will die, either at the hands of the government or at the hands of his countrymen, most of whom love Bin Laden and are enraged that we killed him on their soil and did it so skillfully and stealthily. The full names of nurses who helped him in getting Bin Laden’s DNA from the crappy Paki “mansion” are now being leaked all over anti-Semitic, extremist Paki websites. These people will be murdered for helping us.

More:

Pakistani authorities have jailed a doctor who worked for the CIA before the raid that killed Osama bin Laden to create an elaborate plot to get DNA samples from those living at the al-Qaida leader’s compound, as part of U.S. efforts to verify that bin Laden was there.

The doctor, Shakil Afridi, who holds a senior government health post in Pakistan, used nurses, who were able to gain entry to the residence on the pretext of giving vaccinations to children living there, according to Pakistani and U.S. officials and local residents. . . .

The doctor’s detention has added to the tension, and American authorities are thought to have intervened on his behalf. . . .

The doctor apparently is the only person still under arrest. His story provides previously unknown details about the lengths the CIA went to as it tried to confirm suspicions that bin Laden was hiding in the compound.

The doctor’s role was to help American officials know with certainty that bin Laden was in the compound, according to security officials and residents in Abbottabad, all of whom spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution. . . .

The doctor was tasked with collecting DNA samples from those living in the house. A sample from any of the bin Laden children or grandchildren could be compared with DNA extracted from bin Laden’s sister, who died last year in a hospital in Boston.

Let’s say you were one of the infinitesmally small number of Muslims who would really risk their lives to help the West. Let’s say you read about Dr. Afridi rotting in a Paki jail hellhole and likely to face death, especially if he is released to freedom to the ire of his jihadist countrymen. After learning about his fate, would you still risk your life to help America?

This isn’t how we get Muslim spies and friends to help us, that’s for sure. It’s how we get them to turn away.

Feel Safe? 25,000 Airport Security Breaches Since 9/11

By Debbie Schlussel

One guy had seven years and the other had three since 9/11 to fix this hole-ridden, phony airport security system. And both Presidents–Republican and Democrat–f–ked it up, all in the name of pandering to Muslims–you know, the only people who actually committed 9/11. With an average of seven security breaches per day at U.S. airports and 14,000 unauthorized people entering airports without having to go through security, how many of those are Muslim? How many will be successful in carrying out their jihadist missions in the future? We’re screwed, America.

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More than 25,000 security breaches — an average of about seven per day — have occurred at U.S. airports since November 2001, according to newly released Department of Homeland Security documents.

More than 14,000 were people entering “limited-access” areas by going through airport doors or passageways without permission, or unauthorized people going from airport buildings to planes, according to the documents.

Hey, looks like stripping 90-year-old grannies wearing diapers in wheel chairs and six-year-old blonde kids–all while Mohammed and Fatmeh are laughin’ their way to the runway untouched–is workin’ out real good, right?

The documents, obtained in advance by USA TODAY, were submitted to a House subcommittee on homeland security Wednesday. The documents don’t provide details about the security breaches or whether any could have led to potential attacks on planes or passengers.

The total number of infractions is small when compared with the large volume of traffic at the USA’s 450 major airports, which have served more than 5.5 billion fliers since 2001. But critics say there is still reason to worry.

“It’s clear the airports are not secure,” says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations. “For all the money, time and persistence we have thrown at airport security, it’s a real mess.”

Transportation Security Administration spokesman Nicholas Kimball said the breaches represent a tiny fraction of 1% of the air travelers who used U.S. airports in the past decade. The term “breach” is broadly defined and can mean accidental violations that pose no real danger to the public, he said. . . .

Testifying before a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee, the director of aviation at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, T.J. Orr, said the TSA is compromised by a “rigid attitude of arrogance and bureaucracy.” Orr was critical of the lengthy amount of time it takes to get the TSA to engage on something like a security assessment of the airport. . . .

The House subcommittee says it does not have a breakdown by year when the security breaches occurred, but former Federal Aviation Administration security director Billie Vincent says 25,000 security breaches indicates a problem.

“We’re open to penetration if someone decides to penetrate,” he says.

Vincent says, however, that more details are needed, such as what specifically occurred. Until such information is provided, fliers should only “be mildly concerned” about their safety, he says.

In 2006, tests by the TSA showed that security screeners at Los Angeles International Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY.

In 2003, five undercover Department of Homeland Security agents posing as passengers carried weapons undetected through several security checkpoints at Boston’s Logan International Airport.

Documents being introduced at Wednesday’s subcommittee hearing also show:

•6,000 security breaches in which Transportation Security Administration screeners failed to screen, or improperly screened, a passenger or a passenger’s carry-on items.

•2,616 security breaches involving an individual gaining unauthorized access to the “sterile area” at screening checkpoints or an exit lane without submitting to all screening procedures and inspections.

•1,026 incidents when someone gained unauthorized access to a sterile area but was “contained” or “constantly monitored” by airport or security personnel until apprehended.

•1,318 incidents in which someone gained unauthorized access from airport perimeters to aircraft operations or security identification display areas and was under constant surveillance until apprehended. . . .

“It’s absolutely stunning that the vulnerabilities are so wide,” Chaffetz says. “There’s not much to suggest that airports are more secure than years ago. We’ve just been lucky.”

Besides the security-breach data provided to the subcommittee, a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday reveals other concerns about airport security and TSA oversight.

For example, the GAO says TSA plans to upgrade its explosive-detection devices for screening checked bags but “has not established an upgrade plan or conducted an analysis to determine what type of approach … is likely to be most feasible, efficient or effective.”

The GAO says that because TSA has not yet upgraded the screening devices, many of them “are only capable of detecting certain explosives.”

As I always say, TSA = Tough Shit America. Fly at your own risk. Flying while non-Muslim is the scariest experience of them all. For everyone else, it might just be the fastest way to 72 revirginized sharmutahs, with TSA in the piloting the trip.

Fear-Monger-in-Chief

Scaring grandmothers wasn't the hope or change we were looking for.

Desperate President Barack Obama is now trying to terrify seniors in order to "win" what he views as some sort of a game about the deficit.
President Obama on Tuesday said he cannot guarantee that retirees will receive their Social Security checks August 3 if Democrats and Republicans in Washington do not reach an agreement on reducing the deficit in the coming weeks.

"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it," Mr. Obama said in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, according to excerpts released by CBS News.

The fact of the matter is that A) Social Security payments have been running at a deficit for years, and; B) the technological infrastructure of the system is so massive, redundant and complex that short of overt hostile military action to literally destroy it, or knocking down the power grid, it is not physically possible for the President and his cronies to stop payments.

It says something about the character of this man—or more precisely, his lack of character—that he seeks to terrify seniors into become a panicked lynch mob to serve his political will.

Mike adds:

Well, it's official: The President Of The United States is a cheap thug. As Bob noted, Social Security is so automated that it is unlikely that it could be stopped, but in the pursuit of partisan political advantage, I have little doubt that if anyone could do it, Barack Obama could. Socialists care only for the abstraction that is "the people." They care nothing at all for individuals who won't willingly support their schemes, preferably with cash. Such people are known as "useful idiots."

Presidential leadership is about making difficult choices and assigning rational priorities. Because Mr. Obama is virtually incapable of making difficult choices, he is content to "lead from behind," as he does with the budget. The debt ceiling--which is in place to keep irresponsible politicians whose only skill is wasting other people's money from literally spending America into oblivion--need not be raised. The alternative is to get spending immediately under control, but this is not a possibility for Mr. Obama. If the kitty is a bit short, his only solution is to rob pensioners? What brilliant, inspired leadership. No doubt our Treasure Secretary, Mr. Geithner, came up with that one. May I suggest a few additional alternatives?

Mr. Obama could--and should--have said:

(1) I can't guarantee that the EPA will be able to continue regulating American business out of existence while destroying jobs.

(2) I can't guarantee that the Department of Education will be able to continue wasting huge amounts of money while over-regulating school districts everywhere.

(3) I can't guarantee that the ATF will be able to continue allowing weapons to flow into the hands of domestic and foreign criminals.

(4) I can't guarantee that all of my unelected, unaccountable czars will be able to continue to subvert American democracy.

(5) I can't guarantee that the huge number of aides I employ in the White House will be able to continue to receive their six figure salaries.

(6) I can't guarantee that my dog, Bo, will be able to continue to fly on separate jets when I vacation.

(7) I can't guarantee that the government will continue to be able to afford the travel and security expenses for my golf outings and vacations.

(8) I can't guarantee that the Department of Energy will be able to continue to suppress energy development while continually suppressing job creation.

(9) I can't guarantee that the National Labor Relations Board will be able to continue to shill for unions while destroying jobs, forcing more jobs overseas, and helping the foreign commercial aircraft industry at the expense of our commercial aircraft industry.

(10) I can't guarantee that the Department of Justice will be able to continue to hire more and more communist lawyers so that criminals of the proper politics and race may be excused from their crimes.

(11) I can't guarantee that the implementation of Obamacare will continue, so I can't guarantee that its provisions will bankrupt America even more rapidly than anyone believed possible.

(12) I can't guarantee that America will continue to finance the UN so that its members can spit in our collective eye.

(13) I can't guarantee that the TSA will be able to continue to strip 95 year-old, terminally ill, wheelchair-bound cancer victims of their Depends, steal the property of airline passengers, or feel up six year old girls.

(14) I can't guarantee that I'm going to raise and spend a billion dollars so that I can be reelected to further crash the economy.

(15) I can't guarantee that America will be able to continue to afford smart diplomacy. [Whoa! That one's OK! That one's OK!]

I'm just a teacher and blogger so I don' know nothin' 'bout birthin' no gov'mint, but it would seem that in terms of priorities, there are thousands of government employees, boards, commissions, agencies and fiefdoms which could vanish from the face of the planet tomorrow without 99.9% of Americans experiencing the slightest inconvenience or harm. I suspect that if Mr. Obama actually wanted to deal with the deficit, actually cutting governmental waste, abuse and duplication, and doing away with anyone and any agency that is actually harming rather than helping the economy might be an excellent place to start. I rather suspect that people receiving social security have nothing to do with it.

If the Republicans don't run with this issue from now until the election and paint Mr. Obama as the class warfare loving, America-hating Socialist he is, they deserve to lose.

Meet Ken Blanco: The Fall Guy

I made mention in my latest Pajamas Media article that the Obama Justice Department is attempting to find a patsy to take the blame for "Fast and Furious."

A well-placed source provided me the name of the individual that has been designated by higher-ups to take the fall, and I reached out to him, hoping that he might decide to reach out as a whistle-blower in his own right, if only out of enlightened self-interest.

Well, he declined to speak (to me at least).

That said, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco has been identified as the Administration's probable fall guy, for several reasons.

The primary reason, as it always is with anything involving Holder and Obama, is politics. Blanco is not the politico that his superiors are, which is strike one. they look out after theri own, and while Blanco is career, he isn't apparently an Obamite. He is apparently a decent human being and competent DAAG, according to the source. That's two strikes against him in an organization as corrupt and politicized as the highest levels of Justice.

Blanco's third strike happens to be the fact that he was the signing authority that authorized the wiretaps for Fast and Furious. There is a looooong way between signing off on wiretaps and authorizing felony gun smuggling to narco-terrorists, however, so it will be interesting to see if DOJ has the gall to actually try to make this stick in the face of rapidly emerging evidence of a wider scandal.

As always, any DOJ, ATF, DHS, FBI or other tipsters that would like to come forward about what officials knew, and when they knew it, are invited to drop me a secure line at gunwalkertips@hushmail.com.

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"Don't Call My Bluff"

A real genius, this one.
When Cantor said the two sides were too far apart to get a deal that could pass the House by the Treasury Department’s Aug. 2 deadline — and that he would consider moving a short-term debt-limit increase alongside smaller spending cuts — Obama began to lecture him.

"Eric, don't call my bluff," the president said, warning Cantor that he would take his case "to the American people." He told Cantor that no other president — not Ronald Reagan, the president said — would sit through such negotiations.


First Rule of Bluffing: Don't let the other guy know you are bluffing.

As for taking his case to the people, the people have heard his long-winded, blame-shifting, class-warfare speeches, and like honey badger, we don't care. We know spending must be cut, and that a recession is a horrible time to raise taxes.

It's too bad he can't figure that out.

Generic/Doe '12

Obama’s down 8 to a generic Republican …among registered voters. He’s down 10 among indepenents, so he’s probably down ~12 among likelies. Wow.

That’s a lot of ground to make up while the economy slips into recession under the weight of his Keynesian/statist policy failures. I’m not sure he even understands the effect of PPACA, stricter enviromental regs, etc. on GDP and unemployment.

McConnell thinks it wise to give a would-be dictator dictatorial power over spending

Short term default means long term upside for US Treasuries and the Dollar
by Scott Ryan


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Zetas lose large scale indoor marijuana grow

A large scale state of the art, climate controlled marijuana grow operation located in the center of Saltillo, Coahuila was raided by Federal authorities this past Sunday, July 10.

The bust was the result of an ongoing investigation by Mexico's organized crime task force, SIEDO, which is coombing the state for similar installations. The location raided in Saltillo was reportedly the property of Los Zetas.

Two men inside the building at the time of the raid, Arturo Diaz Mejia and Ruben "el Billy" Martinez, were arrested and transferred to SIEDO headquarters in Mexico City.

Unconfirmed reports state that the grenade attack on a PRI party facility in Saltillo that occurred late Monday night was linked to the Federal raid. Sources say that the attack was a warning from Los Zetas to PRI Governor-elect Ruben Moreira, reminding him to "play ball" and spoil any further actions against the criminal organization.

Sources:
http://www.pgr.gob.mx/Prensa/2007/bol11/Jul/b84011.shtm

Mexican soldiers have found the largest marijuana plantation ever detected in Mexico, a huge field covering almost 300 acres (120 hectares), the Defense Department said Thursday.

The plantation is four times larger than the previous record discovery by authorities at a ranch in northern Chihuahua state in 1984.

The pot plants sheltered under black screen-cloth in a huge square on the floor of the Baja California desert, more than 150 miles (250 kilometers) south of Tijuana, across the border from San Diego.

Army Gen. Alfonso Duarte said the screening, which is often used by regular farmers to protect crops from too much sun or heat, made it difficult to detect from the air what was growing underneath.

It was only when soldiers on the ground reached the isolated area Tuesday that they found thousands of pot plants as high as 2.5 yards (meters) tall. The average height of the plants was about 1.5 yards (meters). Duarte said they were not yet ready for harvest.

"We estimate that in this area, approximately 60 people were working. When they saw the military personnel, they fled," Duarte told reporters. A few were later reportedly detained at a nearby roadblock, but Duarte said no arrests were made at the scene.

He said traffickers could have harvested about 120 tons of marijuana from the plantation, worth about 1.8 billion pesos (about $160 million).

Video of the plantation showed a sophisticated system of piped-in irrigation to support the plants, which Duarte said was fed by two wells. The plantation also included some wooden outbuildings, presumably for use by people caring for the plants.

Troops will destroy the fields by burning them, Duarte said.

The site is the near the coastal town of San Quintin. Journalists were en route there Thursday under army escort.

While it's unknown how much of Mexican drug cartels' income comes from marijuana, recent discoveries suggest it remains a large-scale trade.

Last October, Mexican authorities made their largest-ever seizure of marijuana packaged for sale, a record 148 tons (134 metric tons) found in a number of tractor trailers and houses in Tijuana. They appeared to make up a major distribution center traced directly to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted fugitive, who has expanded the reach of his Sinaloa cartel along the U.S.-Mexico border since escaping from prison in 2001.

In November, U.S. and Mexican investigators found two long, sophisticated tunnels under the border between Baja California and California, along with more than 40 tons of marijuana in and around the tunnels.

The tunnels ran about 2,000 feet from Mexico to San Diego and were equipped with lighting, ventilation and a rail system for drugs to be carried on a small cart.

U.S. officials say they believe the tunnels also were the work of the Sinaloa cartel.

While the Arellano Felix or Tijuana cartel long dominated the drug trade in Baja California, the cartel has been greatly weakened by government hits on its leadership, and authorities say there are signs that the Sinaloa cartel now also operates in the area.

Duarte said he did not know which group operated the plantation found Tuesday.

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Depression rhetoric

With all the ongoing debate on this blog between a consensus view (97% of all readers) and a tiny minority of skeptics regarding whether the economy and unemployment are really bad (or not) and how well the Keynesian economic stimuli have worked (or not) and whether or not it is all GW Bush’s fault or Karl Rove’s (or Tinkerbell’s) fault (or not), it probably worthwhile to ponder this chart for perspective:

http://cr4re.com/charts/chart-images/EmployRecessAlignedJune2011.jpg

Wards of the State

Obama once again showed the true face of a Chicago ward boss when he dangled the threat of interrupted social security and veteran benefits checks over the heads of the American people. This is thug politics. Hopefully, however, the American people will see and understand what is being done. Personally, I believe that, in true Obama style, he made a ham-handed mistake: I do not believe the American people (yet) to be the same cowed, ignorant subjects that inhabit Chicago’s inner city wards.

So, what has Obama done?

1) First, he has wielded an empty threat based on a lie. For a good back-and-forth review of whether or not the U.S. a) has the funds to pay its social security obligations or b) risks a credit default, I recommend the body of the article and links provided here:

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/12/obama-no-i-cant-promise-that-social-security-checks-will-go-out-in-august-if-we-dont-reach-a-deal/

2) Obama has demonstrated that the government’s social security obligations fall pretty low on his priority list. As SADIE pointed out in a recent comment, Obama had no trouble committing the U.S. to a $100b (wasted) spending obligation for the U.N. The U.N, it seems, rates higher on Obama’s hierarchy of needs than do the needs of America’s seniors.

3. Obama has confirmed for everyone that people are getting more out of social security than they ever put in and that there is no more money for social security. There never was a lock box. Like Illinois pension funds, the money seniors contributed over their lifetimes has been expropriated and squandered by their government – it is gone! But then, we conservatives always knew that, didn’t we.

4. And the most important point that Obama illustrated so clearly for us is, “what the government giveth, the government can taketh away if you don’t eat your peas”.

And that, folks, is the biggest and most dangerous problem with government dependency that we have, be it health care, food stamps, housing allowances, farm subsidies, social security or any government benefit plan. This is how Chicago wards operate – if you don’t submit to your local ward boss or mayor and get out the vote or make your political contribution when called to do so, well…your trash won’t get picked up, your police protection may disappear, building inspectors may mysteriously appear and find multiple violations in your domicile or your car may get towed for having been legally parked. Heaven forbid if you should ever decide to run for election against your ward boss.

Of course, people learn and adapt. The smart, independent-minded folks opt to sell and move out. The lesser types move in and submit to the game. The talent leaves and the ward becomes like Chicago’s inner city – angry, impoverished, easily manipulated hell-holes…like Detroit or East St. Louis, for that matter. It’s no statistical anomaly that the U.S under Obama is already experiencing net capital flight.

Reliance on government entitlements and subsidies is a true road to serfdom.

Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call for all of America. I would like to believe that what works in Chicago will not work nationwide. What say you?

Media Palinize Michelle Bachmann

Well, here we go. You could hear it coming, as the media has increased their mockery of Michelle Bachmann. From NRO Corner:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) is unhappy with how MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews covers her. “It almost doesn’t seem like real journalism,” she tells NRO. “It is less than professional.”
On Thursday, Matthews reported on Bachmann’s ascension to the House Intelligence Committee. “This is great irony here, on the Intelligence committee,” he said. “I wonder what the rules are for getting on that committee? I guess they’re pretty lenient.”
Bachmann says this kind of statement seems oddly “personal for him and I don’t understand why.”
Matthews, Bachmann adds, appears to be “picking on girls” in his coverage.

Matthews has been particularly nasty regarding Bachmann, accusing her of being a zombie.

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This is becoming a pattern for Matthews. From Mediaite:

Fans of Congresswoman Michele Bachmannshould cover their ears because last night onHardball, host Chris Matthews and liberal guestsRon Reagan and former San Francisco mayorWillie Brown threw every insult in the book at her and laughed hysterically while doing it. Depending on your politics, you’ll likely view this as a sophomoric and arguably chauvinistic conversation that would be more appropriate for a bar, or possibly as an enjoyable discussion filled with well-deserved jabs.
Could it be that the reason Matthews is "picking on girls" is because Bachmann is considering a run for the presidency?
So, naturally, the most open minded people in the world go after her as stupid. As an oxymoron that she serve on the "intelligence" committee. Haha.
Once again, the most open minded people in the world go after gays and call them names (when they're conservative).
They go after blacks and call them names (when they're conservative).
They go after hispanics and call them names (when they're conservative).
They go after women and call them names (when they're conservative).
See a pattern here?
FYI, Bachmann is a lawyer with a degree in tax law from William and Mary, a Christian and an accomplished person. She and her husband have raised 5 children and TWENTY THREE foster children. She is the first Republican woman to represent Minnesota as a representative to the US House of Representatives.
Yet Nasty Nancy can say some of the stupid things she says (We are the party of fiscal discipline. We're working on creating jobs. It's Bush's fault.) and no one challenges her on it.
Most apparent in the disparate media treatment is the tender tone John Roberts takes with Nasty Nancy as they discuss Pelosi's fall from power to a smaller office, loss of jets and loss of stature in the new House. You can watch the video here at Real Clear Politics.
Stahl's interview with Boehner is much more hard hitting, available here.
In addition, Boehner has been repeatedly grilled on his smoking, his emotionalism, his party's demands regarding health care and his leadership ability.
One might ask The One those same questions, if one were so inclined.
So expect more of this from the media regarding Bachmann. She's a woman, a conservative, a Christian, attractive and hard hitting, she's a threat to the establishment and she's got a following.
And while the press and the left's palinizing of Bachmann has been happening for quite a while, it'll accelerate now.
Just watch.

Felony Charges Against Obama...

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The Formal Federal Charges Against Obama

The Greater Depression Is Upon Us

The phrase “Greater Depression” was coined by Doug Casey a decade or so back as a way of describing the economic crisis he foresaw as inevitable, and which is now materializing.

Because I think it is important for every organization to constantly challenge its own assumptions, I’ve long acted as something of a devil’s advocate here at Casey Research. By constantly pushing our analysts to revisit their assumptions and calculations, it is my firm intention for us to spot the fork in the road that indicates it is time to shift strategies away from investments designed to do well in the face of a currency debasement and to something else.

Being attentive to that fork in the road is hugely important, because even though we urge our subscribers not to overdo their exposure to inflation hedges, we recognize that many do. Many a good person had their clocks cleaned in the early 1980s solely because they had become overly enamored of their precious metals – so much so that they stopped thinking of them as an asset class and began thinking of them more in the terms one might associate with an amorous dinner date. Thus these investors were utterly unprepared when said date stood up and broke a dinner plate over their heads.

With that brief setup, I want to make our views clear: While we correctly anticipated the recent correction in precious metals, this correction is but a blip in a secular bull market that is very much intact.

Doug Casey has often said that the unfolding crisis is going to be even worse than he expects (which is saying something), and the longer the rest of us at Casey Research study the tea leaves, it is hard to disagree that the Greater Depression is still ahead.

Consider:
The eurozone is growing increasingly desperate. Watching the heads of Europe dither and debate over further bailouts to the unhappy Greeks and other troubled PIIGS – before ultimately reaching back into the pockets of the equally unhappy citizens in Germany and the decreasing number of still-functioning economies in the eurozone – reminds me of a down-on-his-luck blackjack player. He’s mortgaged his home to play the game but is now down to his last chips. He doesn’t want to risk his remaining resources but has no choice, because to walk away now will mean taking up residence in a cardboard box. And so, reluctantly, he shoves across another pile. The problem is that the game is rigged – and not in his favor. As the PIIGS start to default and either leave the eurozone entirely or are shunted off into some sort of sidecar organization, there will be great volatility in the euro and in the European markets.
The U.S. debt situation is far worse than anyone in Washington is willing to admit. We keep hearing calls for more, not less debt creation. But if people would stop kidding themselves and tally up all the many demands the U.S. government has against it, the actual debt-to-GDP ratio rises to something on the order of 400% – and even that is likely understating things. The fundamental flaws in the U.S. monetary system – flaws that have given license to the bureaucrats to smash the limousine of state straight into a wall – have required a remaking every 20 to 30 years or so. The problem is that there is pretty much nothing else that can be done to save the status quo at this point, and so the monetary system is likely to collapse. That means big changes ahead, including – or perhaps starting with – a poisonous ratcheting up of interest rates.
China’s miracle mirage. While having aspects of a free market, the hard truth is that China is run as a command economy by a cadre of communist holdovers. This is apparent in the cities that have been built for no purpose other than creating jobs and boosting GDP. It is also apparent in the growing inflation in China – the inevitable knock-on of the government’s decision to yank on the levers of money creation harder than any other nation at the onset of the Greater Depression. Meanwhile, signs of social unrest crop up here and there. Though so far they have been swiftly put down, there is no question that the ruling elite has to walk a very fine line. If the Chinese economy stumbles seriously, all bets are off. That we are talking about the world’s second-largest economy means this is not of small consequence.
Japan is essentially offline. Reports from friends in Japan – including one who was initially skeptical about the scale of the problems at Fukushima – have now changed in tone by 180 degrees. You can almost feel the growing sense of desperation as the already massively indebted nation begins to slide toward an abyss. There is little standing in the way of the world’s third-largest economy’s slide.
The Middle East is in flames. This, too, is far from settled. As usual, the U.S. government has been hopping here and there in an attempt to maintain its influence, but at this point pretty much everything is up for grabs. The odds of the U.S. retaining the same level of influence in the region that it has enjoyed over the last century are slim to none, especially now that even the Saudis are shipping more of their oil to China than to the U.S. Again, big changes are ahead.

I’m convinced that nearly everything about today’s world is going to change over the coming decade… much of it for the worse.

But that doesn’t mean that people – you – can’t come through this in more or less good shape, just as our parents and grandparents made it intact through the last Great Depression. Pay attention and take action, and you’ll do far, far better than most.

Some investment ideas…

First and foremost, protect yourself against the collapse of the U.S. monetary system. It is not as simple as ducking into the nearest coin store and loading up, though that should certainly be one part of your strategy. Between now and the endgame that leads into what we can only hope will be a new money based on something tangible, there will periodically be opportunities to make big moves with your portfolio.

I could give you a big pitch for our precious-metals-oriented services here, but won’t. I will say, however, that if you are new to the sector, do yourself a favor and sign up for our three-month no-risk trial to BIG GOLD – and do it today, so you can begin bottom fishing.

As Doug also likes to say, you should do whatever you want in this world, as long as you are willing to accept the consequences. If you are willing to risk going down with the ship, then do nothing.

Some other investible ideas…

* Everyday essentials. Energy is the classic essential. Sure, energy use and prices will ebb and flow with the economy, but ultimately everyone uses energy every day, and the people in emerging markets want to use a lot more of it. Carefully thought-out investments in energy, ideally bought on the dips, belong in everyone’s long-term portfolio.

* Breakthroughs to a brighter future. Throughout modern history, companies that make significant technological advances transcend bad economic times. Do you think that the company that finds a cure for a common variety of cancer will be weighed down, even by a stock market crash? Hardly. In cautious amounts, these sorts of potential breakthrough stocks belong in your portfolio.

* Investing in the inevitable. A ton of charts and data point to just how unusual and unsustainable today’s low, low U.S. interest rates are. When these sorts of baseline trends eventually change direction, they tend to move in the new direction for years, and even decades. No one can pick the bottom, but anyone who is paying even a little attention can and should be getting positioned to profit from a sea change in U.S. interest rates while they still can.

* One foot over the border. History has shown that having even one foot over the border can make the difference between losing everything and coming out just fine. Internationalizing your assets is not always easy or convenient, but that doesn’t make it any less urgent that you do so.

As for crisis investments, no one has been focused on that longer or better than Doug Casey and the team here.

The bottom line is that while the scale of the crisis is beginning to become more widely apparent, and reading and thinking about it can become fatiguing for those of us who have been on this story from the beginning, the base case for a Greater Depression is fully intact. We need to gird our loins and continue to take active measures to prepare – with the caveat that even in this base case, there are prudent measures you can take to ensure that not all your eggs are in one basket.

It's Called CONgress For A Reason

Spreading the wealth around - Congress Gone Wild!

Yep, spreading it around... to themselves. As I mentioned before in Congress profits handsomely from inside information, Congresscritters are exempt from insider trading laws. That's right, laws are for the little people.

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Obama admits there is no Social Security "trust fund"

Video ">HERE

"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it," Obama told "CBS Evening News" anchor Scott Pelley

If there's a trust fund, why wouldn't there be any "money in the coffers"?

It's hiliarious–politicians of all stripes talk about a Social Security "trust fund" that's "fully funded" when it suits them, and they say there's no money whenever it furthers the narrative.

Here's Harry Reid lying to reassuring us that the Social Security system is "fully funded for 40 years" and that "the arithmetic works"

(For video evidence of this particular lie from Dingy Harry, CLICK HERE)

High-stakes comedy!

The money's there, the system works, it's fully funded! Except it's not. If you won't let us take on additional debt, we might not be able to send out Social Security checks.

President Obama said, in effect, that if we don't raise the debt limit, there may not be any money to send out Social Security checks. Note to Democrats: Pick one story and stick to it, ok?

There is no money. There never was. It was always a pay-as-you-go, generational transfer Ponzi scheme. The FedGov taxes workers (or borrows money) to pay your Social Security benefits.

Now that the boomers are hitting retirement age, it all goes downhill from here.

This is what entitlement mentality has wrought

Bruce Krasting over at ZeroHedge describes a minor dust-up at an Independence Day picnic. Over various entitlements. Seems everyone there had a dog in the hunt, and it got ugly. Truly ironic: Americans, celebrating Independence Day, fighting over their favorite entitlements. Must read.

The Krasting piece was mentioned in Charles Hugh Smith's The Promises That Cannot Be Kept:

Krasting brilliantly depicts the net result, which I call internecine conflict between protected fiefdoms in Survival+: the constituency of each fiefdom--Social Security, Medicare, Defense, etc.-- will undermine the other fiefdoms to maintain their slice of the dwindling Federal pie. This leads to a profound political disunity which cannot be overcome with compromises, as that would require deep cuts in all government programs.

Another must-read, Smith explains why we're just going to have to deal with the end of entitlement insanity.

This is what our "friends" in government have given us: a tantrum-throwing and deeply-divided population, each segment wanting to preserve its slice of the entitlement pie, everyone else be damned.

If you think this can be fixed, you're mistaken.

If you think we can postpone economic judgement day, you're mistaken. Economic forces must balance, and when that happens there will be collateral damage.

Get ready for the FSA shitstorm. It's coming.

The Permanent Muslim Civil War

What the misreading of the Arab Spring as a revolutionary wave of democracy, rather than an explosion of existing tensions and longstanding civil wars, points to most is how thoroughly the 21st century Middle East expert has unlearned everything that his 19th century predecessor knew about the Muslim world.


The 19th century expert understood the Muslim world as essentially unchanging, seething with revolts and dynastic struggles, but still shackled to the chains of its cultural and moral limitations. But the 21st century expert insists on a progressive version of history, in which humanity is always moving upward. Where each event, good or bad, is a phase in historical development.

A 150 years ago, a Western observer reporting on a Muslim ruler being driven out of power by an alliance of oligarchies and an angry mob would have said that it was the same sort of thing that had been going on in the region forever. His conclusion might have been cynical, even bigoted, but it would have also been realistic.

The 21st century expert is too busy looking to the future to notice the past. The only history in the Muslim world that he is concerned with is colonial history, the tale of wrongs inflicted by Europeans on the noble inhabitants, and of the tremendous culture and great achievements of the locals. This mishmash of history informs him that the advancement of the Muslim world was aborted by Western imperialism. And when Western imperialism is finally and utterly destroyed, then the Muslim world will resume its high standards of civic culture.

The Arab Spring, with its violent overthrow of Western backed rulers, seems promising to him. Finally progressive organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood will have their chance to restore an advanced civilizations to the noble principles of the Koran.

There is nothing wrong with this formulation that he can see. "Everyone" knows that Islam is better, kinder, nobler and more technically advanced than Christianity or Judaism. It may have its fundamentalists lurking in dark caves, but what of abortion clinic bombers and settlers. When the Islamists are in charge-- surely a new era of freedom and enlightenment will follow.

Even the secularists are no better. Democracy is their idol, and the ballot box their altar. But what does democracy mean to nations divided by ethnicity, tribe and religion. And how does one negotiate a consensus through such irresolvable identities?

Lebanon is a demonstration of what multiculturalism mixed with Islam looks like in even a modern area with heavy European influence. A permanent civil war that can never be peacefully resolved. The Muslim world is no more peaceful, only more pacified by tyrants and tanks. Take away the tyrant and his tanks, and the civil war resumes, until it is pacified by another tyrant. The cycle repeats itself endlessly.

The Soviet Union was once referred to as a "Prison of Nations". But then so are all empires. The Muslim world is a broken empire, a vast collection of scattered pieces, subjugated peoples, wrecked cultures, sullen tribes and rival families crowded together into one Muslim identity. With nothing in common but their hatred of the infidel.

The Muslim world can never be at peace, because Muslims are not at peace with themselves. And their governments are built on some form of negotiated alliance, just as can be seen in its crude form in Afghanistan where warlords pledge allegiance in exchange for bribes, between tribes, communities and powerful families. When the alliance shifts or a ruler shows weakness, the infrastructure of government comes tumbling down.


The Arab Spring is an unglamorous as all that. Not any different at its base than an Afghan warlord changing his loyalties. For all that it's dressed up in Twitter activism, posed photos and banners-- it's the same game with a better logo. Mobs didn't begin overthrowing Arab rulers when Twitter was invented. They won't stop when everyone has forgotten what Twitter was.

Without progress, the future can only be an imperfect continuation of the past. And progress comes from self-doubt leading to reform. Reform is not a matter of denouncing politicians, but of denouncing yourself. The Muslim world is full of denunciations, but they are strictly partisan and external. The family blames the tribe. The tribe blames the party. The party blames the government. The government blames the Turks, the English, the Zionists or the Americans. Thus the problem is exorcised and immortalized.

Blame is assigned to a foreign scapegoat. And the 21st century expert pursues the scapegoat whether it's American foreign policy or Israeli settlements or the price of wheat or the World Trade Organization. And this is what makes him, with his Kindle displaying the latest issue of The Economist, his watch set to three time zones, and his Flickr page full of photos of him posing with native boys, so much dimmer than his 19th century predecessor. It's not so much what he knows, as what he doesn't know, and has no idea that he doesn't know. And wouldn't listen to if he were told.

Eventually the scapegoat is corralled, kicked and beaten. A revolution ensues. The crowds cheer. Photos are taken of protesters heroically tossing Molotov cocktails through the air at the police. A decade later the protesters are wearing police uniforms and torturing protesters in hidden cellars. Whatever freedom there was under the previous regime has dissipated. Everyone lives in fear and blames the 21st century experts and their foreign policy for it.

This Groundhog Day is so difficult to dismiss because it is embedded in the very fractures that caused all this to come about. The Islamic conquests did not bring forth a golden age, but an age of slaves. Millions of peoples had their culture partly or wholly destroyed. Then after the caliphates fell, the Western democracies came in, colored in their borders and expected everything to go alright so long as there were regular elections.

The Muslim world only has Islam as its common consensus, and the only means of governance that it offers is rule by conquest, and authority through Quranic scripture. Neither of those represent any sort of enduring consensus. The kings who trace their lineage back to Mohammed and the Imams who shout for democracy, so long as it puts them in power, are the pathetic end of this fractured philosophy.

There are high minded ideals aplenty, but no way to implement them. Muslims soothe each other with stories of their own nobility and greatness, useless substitutes for the real thing. But a government that isn't composed of a handful of powerful families, an army colonel or an oligarchy of clerics is a rare thing. And none of these can last.

The Hashemites went from ruling three countries, to ruling a small kingdom under Israeli and American protection. The Saudis who replaced them may fall just as quickly when the wheel turns. Egypt may be headed toward clerical rule, just as Iran is headed away from it. And if not that, then military rule. One old mistake will do as well as another.


Tellingly what doesn't work is democracy. Democracy didn't keep the Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq from killing each other. Or the Kurds from carving out their own separate state. And it didn't keep the Christians from being hounded out. These divisions are adequate testimony to the cultural inadequacy of trying to build a national consensus on so thin a soil.

The Muslim world prides itself on its wisdom, but its wisdom is futility. It can see conspiracies in a grain of sand, but not redeem its own flaws or treat its own wounds. Mohammed and his successors did not unite the peoples who fell under their rule, they retarded them. They made it impossible for them to develop and then wrapped that retardation in the banner of Islam. And out of that has come the permanent Muslim civil war.

What boils in the streets of great cities is the same pattern of violence and betrayal, aspiration and disintegration, that played out long ago on the hot desert sands. The conflicts of cultures unable to move past their own tribalism. Unwilling to leave behind the chains of their past and become true peoples and nations, rather than the slaves of Islam.

A government of sociopaths, for sociopaths

I've heard it said: people get the governments they deserve.

Do we deserve a government of sociopaths?

Via: WRSA

A Forgotten Founder on the Tyranny of Legislative Authority

James Wilson (1742-1798) of Pennsylvania was one of six persons who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He's also the only Justice of the Supreme Court to be jailed for indebtedness. It happened shortly before his death after he failed badly as a land speculator. His son eventually paid off his debts totaling $197,000.

Despite his ignoble ending, Wilson was one of the biggest brains among the Founders. In "Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British parliament, 1774," originally written in 1768, he addressed the British public concerning the proper authority of Great Britain's Parliament over the Colonies. In that context he wrote this:

"Long parliaments have always been prejudicial to the prince, who summoned them, or to the people, who elected them. In that called by King Charles I, in the year 1640, the commons proceeded at first, with vigour {sic} and a true patriotic {sic} spirit, to rescue the kingdom from the oppression under which it then groaned-to retrieve the liberties of the people, and establish them on the surest foundations-and to remove or prevent the pernicious consequences, which had arisen, or which, they dreaded, might arise from the tyrannical exercise of prerogative. They abolished the courts of the star chamber and high commission: they reduced the forests to their ancient bounds: they repealed the oppressive statutes concerning knighthood: they declared the tax of ship money to be illegal: they presented the petition of rights, and obtained a ratification of it from the crown.

But when the king unadvisedly passed an act to continue them till such time as they should please to dissolve themselves, how soon-how fatally did their conduct change! In what misery did they involve their country! Those very men, who, while they had only a constitutional power, seemed to have no other aim but to secure and improve the liberty and felicity of their constituents, and to render their sovereign the glorious ruler of a free and happy people-those very men, after they became independent of the king and of their electors, sacrificed both to that inordinate power which had been given them. A regard for the publick {sic} was now no longer the spring of their actions: their only view was to aggrandize themselves, and to establish their grandeur on the ruins of their country. Their views unhappily were accomplished. They overturned the constitution from its very foundation; and converted into rods of oppression those instruments of power, which had been put into their hands for the welfare of the state; but which those, who had formerly given them, could not now reassume. What an instructive example is this! How alarming to those, who have no influence over their legislators-who have no security but that the power, which was originally derived from the people, and was delegated for their preservation, may be abused for their destruction! Kings are not the only tyrants: the conduct of the long parliament will justify me in adding, that kings are not the severest tyrants."

Today's debt crisis confirms the wisdom of James Wilson. Our focus today is, justifiably, on the fiscal irresponsibility of the Democratic Party and the Obama administration. But any candid appraisal of our collective fiscal situation must admit that the spending addiction among both major political parties has taken us to the edge of national bankruptcy. And that is a form of tyranny.

Shovel-Ready in the Middle East?

Shovel-Ready in the Middle East?
By Ken Blackwell

Osama bin Laden famously said that people in his region always follow the strong horse. President Obama sent bin Laden to sleep with the sturgeons earlier this year in a move widely hailed. No one but the michaelmoores complained that bin Laden hadn't been given a Miranda warning or carped that our faithful friends, the Pakistanis, hadn't been tipped off first.

As it turned out, however, the Osama raid proved to be the outlier. President Obama turned from that undeniable success and ratcheted up the pressure on Israel. (Why is it every time we finish off some Arab mass killer of Muslims we seem to find it necessary to tighten the screws on the Israelis? It's as if some State Department expert wants to prove we are "even-handed.")

Apart from the success of the Osama raid, this president has been stumbling, and stumbling badly, in the Mideast throughout his time in office. First, the newly inaugurated Barack Obama bowed to Saudi Arabia's king during a 2009 London summit. No American leader had ever done this before. No American had ever so humbled this country before one of the world's worst despots. Even if you wanted to show a kinder and gentler face to Muslims, doesn't he know that the king of Saudi Arabia is widely resented -- among Muslims? Saudi police treat Muslim pilgrims to Mecca like cattle.

President Obama soon followed up that shocking act with a rhetorical salaam before assembled scholars at Al Azhar Mosque in Egypt. He chose this site for his highly publicized speech reaching out to "the Muslim world." Doesn't Mr. Obama know that Al Azhar is notorious for being the center of Muslim Brotherhood influence throughout the Arab world? The Brothers are the ones who assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981 in broad daylight. Sadat won the Nobel Peace Prize for ending thirty years of war with Israel. That's why the Muslim Brotherhood killed him.

So what did President Obama say there? He spoke of the Koran as "holy." No American president has ever done that before. He said Islam had been "revealed" in the Mideast. As in revealed by God? As a candidate, he had told Nick Kristof of the New York Times that he recalled the muezzin's call to prayer from his boyhood days in Indonesia. Then, he recited it in what the journalist called a perfect Arabic accent. (Does Kristof speak Arabic? How does he know what a perfect Arabic accent sounds like?)

So, what have been the results of all this bowing and salaaming? The prestigious National Journal this week reports that Arabs' views of Obama and the United States are at historic lows.

Across the Mideast, the article reports, the latest polls show sharply increased hostility to America. James Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute. He expresses his frustration with Obama policies. "By the time of his speech in Cairo, the favorable ratings for the U.S. were at their highest ever." But, reports the National Journal's Anna van Hollen, those to whom Obama abased himself are frustrated with his lack of follow-through. Zogby says, "You get credit for trying after 100 days, but after two years...you get credit for producing, and the production isn't there."

Hmmm. Doesn't that sound familiar? Sounds like the same story in diplomacy with Arab regimes as we have seen with jobs at home. All show and no go.

How bad is it? Zogby International did the polling. Most Arab countries today view the United States less favorably than in the last year of the Bush administration. Only 9 percent of Egyptians were warm to us then. Today, that figure has been cut in half: Only 5 percent of Egyptians have a good opinion of America. Maybe they need some stimulus money.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not have dreamed of bowing to any Saudi king -- even if he had been able. Instead, he insisted on conducting Sunday Christian worship on board his ship, the USS Quincy. When he learned of Roosevelt's piety, King Abdulazziz said he respected the president for that.

President Harry Truman was willing to override the man he respected most in the world -- his Secretary of State, George C. Marshall. General Marshall had opposed Truman on recognizing the newborn State of Israel. The former five-star military leader warned Truman that the Arabs would be fiercely opposed to us on Israel. And Marshall was right about that.

Nonetheless, Roosevelt and Truman did the right thing in the Mideast and were willing to let the Arabs hate us so long as they respected us.

President Obama turned a strong horse into a hobbled horse with all his appeasement -- and billions of our tax dollars going to people who hate us. James Zogby is more sympathetic. "He didn't get a magic wand when he took office. Instead, he got a shovel to get out of a deep hole. Every one of the issues he's inherited has been more difficult than he or anyone else expected."

So that's the shovel-ready project we've heard so much about. Maybe the president can use that shovel to bury his failed Mideast policies.

WHY IS RUSSIA TODAY TELEVISION SUPPORTING RON PAUL?

America's Survival, Inc. files complaint over Russia Today Television network (RTTV) with the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC). The complaint states that RTTV provided air time for one of its employees, Adam Kokesh, to promote and raise funds for a 2012 American presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, in apparent violation of the ban on political contributions and expenditures by foreign nationals. The apparent purpose of this electioneering by a foreign corporation based in Russia is to divide and weaken the Republican Party as it enters the 2012 presidential election season, thus making it more likely that President Barack Obama and his political party will succeed. READ THE COMPLAINT HERE.

Sen. Toomey calls for the doors to be open during debt ceiling negotiations

With lawmakers meeting for yet another round of debt-ceiling negotiations at the White House on Thursday, tea-party-backed Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said the process should take place with the doors open.

Toomey, speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, questioned what President Obama has actually put on the table in terms of entitlement reform, or any other part of the negotiations. “We hear about reforms, but what are the reforms?" Toomey said. "Here are the problems. We have five guys in a room behind closed doors. Who knows what they are talking about. This should be done out in the open. We ought to have a budget. We ought to have votes on the Senate floor. We ought to have a debate.”

While Toomey said he’s not sure if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s backup debt-ceiling plan will go through, he's worried that "Washington will do what Washington usually does, which is avoid the tough decisions and go ahead and raise the debt limits.

"Maybe there's a fig leaf of cover for people but there’ll be no change in our fiscal direction, and I won't be a part of that," he continued. "I'm worried we are heading in that direction.”

"Call His Freaking Bluff..."

So the President, aka Captain Thin-skin, got agitated at the debt ceiling negotiations and yelled at Eric Cantor. He reportedly said:

This may bring down my presidency, but I will not yield on this.

Predictably, the spin is not that Obama is cranky and walked out on the meeting, but that Leader Cantor is rude, or got a lecture, or something. All that matters to most of the media is that Obama is always the good guy.

This is why negotiations like this never, ever work out for conservatives. In the end, it really does matter that almost the entire media is on the President’s side. It matters that the judgment call about whether the President is said to be cracking or standing on principle will always turn out favorably for him. It matters that the Greek chorus of the left is already damning Cantor for failing to play the President’s game. In these close situations, the press is never averse to putting a thumb on the scales.

That’s exactly what happened back when Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich were negotiating over a government shutdown. It was Clinton that effectively shut down the government the moment he realized he could spin it into a political gain. Sure enough, the Republicans got the blame from the media and the Comeback Kid was born. Now here we go again…

I can assure you there are editorial writers across the country just itching to apply the same mytho-poetic narrative of death and resurrection to this President, the President most of them voted for and hope to see reelected. They want this almost as bad as he does.

So let’s just start from that premise, i.e. there is no way to win the media war. No Mitch McConnell style gimmick will be allowed to land a blow on Democrats. The press will go into overdrive to explain it away. You may outwit the President but you will never beat the liberal media this close to an election. Fuggetaboutit.

So if the media is determined to make sure you lose, and they are, you may as well lose in such a way that Obama loses too. Don’t lose and also hand Obama the 2012 election. That’s a double loss for you and the country. Instead, call his freaking bluff.

Yes you’ll be blamed for everything, but that’s going to happen anyway. At least if you stay firm he wont be able to walk into 2012 claiming to be a bipartisan President (and a tough negotiator!) who dealt with the spending crisis.

Anything is better than abetting the horrible lie that a small cut in the planned increase amounting to a few trillion dollars over ten years is a solution to $1.5 trillion annual deficits and a $14 trillion dollar debt. Better to face a downgrade of our debt now than push it off a couple years simply so Obama can swagger to reelection before having to do this all over again. (And again, the press will make sure you’re the bad guy.)

It’s time to face the music. You’ve lost. You were always going to lose. But that doesn’t mean Obama has to win.

Dingy Harry Reid's “tax the rich” sham bill fails in the Senate 51-49★ ➤

The so called “tax the rich” Marxist Democrat scheme can’t even pass the Democrat controlled Senate. Dingy Harry Reid’s bill failed 51-49 in the Senate, with two Democrats voting against. Of course, these Democrats are those phony “blue dog” Democrats up for re-election next year (Ben Nelson and Mark Pryor.) The Hill begins their story with “Senate Republicans” voting against Dingy Reid’s bill. At the very bottom of the story, they mention the two Democrats. Another phony, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch who is suddenly a conservative (since he’s up for re-election in 2012) destroyed Democratic leadership over the resolution last Wednesday, claiming it was a cheap stunt.


“The leadership in the Senate offered a nonbinding resolution designed solely to score some cheap political points that will jazz up the activist left to demagogic class warfare against individuals with high incomes,” Hatch warned. “I guarantee you, if we raise taxes, my friends on the other side will spend every dime of it.”

Obama: Unneeded Income Belongs to the Government

President Obama’s press conference yesterday—in which he only took questions from left-leaning reporters apparently–contained an amazing statement. It should be noted the first two instances of the first person singular pronoun in the sentence refer to Barack Obama, President of the United States. The second two refer to Barack Obama, taxpaying citizen:

And I do not want, and I will not accept, a deal in which I am asked to do nothing, in fact, I’m able to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income that I don’t need, while a parent out there who is struggling to figure out how to send their kid to college suddenly finds that they’ve got a couple thousand dollars less in grants or student loans.

There is, of course, nothing whatever stopping Barack Obama, taxpaying citizen, from donating his excess income to the United States Treasury. But his statement demonstrates an astonishing economic illiteracy. To be sure, someone earning a great deal of money has an income greater than what he spends. You can only spend so much on luxurious living however hard you try, a reality so rich with comic possibilities that a 1902 novel called Brewster’s Millions has been made into a movie no fewer than nine times.


But, unlike Scrooge McDuck, the rich do not put the excess in a vast money bin and frolic about in it. They invest it. What a concept! Where does Obama think new capital comes from, the tooth fairy? It’s nothing more than the excess of income over outgo. Take away the income the rich “don’t need” and spend it on social programs, and capital formation in this country drops to zero.

So determined is Obama to deprive “the rich” of excess income–as defined by him, of course–he is even willing to adversely impact government income in order to do so. Read this colloquy between Obama and ABC’s Charlie Gibson in a 2008 debate with Hillary Clinton:

MR. GIBSON: And in each instance, when the [capital gains tax] rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased. The government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down. So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?

SENATOR OBAMA: Well, Charlie, what I’’ve said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.

MR. GIBSON: But history shows that when you drop the capital gains tax, the revenues go up.

SENATOR OBAMA: Well, that might happen or it might not. It depends on what’’s happening on Wall Street and how business is going.

Actually, it doesn’t. Every time capital gains tax rates have gone up, revenues have gone down and vice versa. High capital gains tax rates, because the tax liability is only incurred when an asset is sold, have the effect of locking in capital, which is economically pernicious, preventing capital from flowing to its most productive, i.e wealth creating, use.

Shortly after Obama’s election in 2008, I wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal (irritatingly no longer available on their website, which archives back only two years) saying Obama might not turn out to be the vanguard of the future but rather the last liberal president. I am more confident in that prediction every day.

HOW UNCLEAN WAS MY VALLEY

Steyn on Culture
Wednesday, 13 July 2011

Take a look at this photograph. It appeared in The Toronto Star’s education section on Saturday:



It’s the scene every Friday at the cafeteria of Valley Park Middle School in Toronto. That’s not a private academy, it’s a public school funded by taxpayers. And yet, oddly enough, what’s going on is a prayer service – oh, relax, it’s not Anglican or anything improper like that; it’s Muslim Friday prayers, and the Toronto District School Board says don’t worry, it’s just for convenience: They put the cafeteria at the local imams’ disposal because otherwise the kids would have to troop off to the local mosque and then they’d be late for Lesbian History class or whatever subject is scheduled for Friday afternoon.

The picture is taken from the back of the cafeteria. In the distance are the boys. They’re male, so they get to sit up front at prayers. Behind them are the girls. They’re female, so they have to sit behind the boys because they’re second-class citizens – not in the whole of Canada, not formally, not yet, but in the cafeteria of a middle school run by the Toronto District School Board they most certainly are.

And the third row? The ones with their backs to us in the foreground of the picture? Well, let the Star’s caption writer explain:

At Valley Park Middle School, Muslim students participate in the Friday prayer service. Menstruating girls, at the very back, do not take part.

Oh. As Kathy Shaidle says:

Yep, that’s part of the caption of the Toronto Star photo.

Yes, the country is Canada and the year is 2011.

Just so. Not some exotic photojournalism essay from an upcountry village in Krappistan. But a typical Friday at a middle school in the largest city in Canada. I forget which brand of tampon used to advertise itself with the pitch "Now with new [whatever] you can go horse-riding, water-ski-ing, ballet dancing, whatever you want to do", but perhaps they can just add the tag: "But not participate in Friday prayers at an Ontario public school."

Some Canadians will look at this picture and react as Miss Shaidle did, or Tasha Kheiriddin in The National Post:

Is this the Middle Ages? Have I stumbled into a time warp, where “unclean” women must be prevented from “defiling” other persons? It’s bad enough that the girls at Valley Park have to enter the cafeteria from the back, while the boys enter from the front, but does the entire school have the right to know they are menstruating?

But a lot of Canadians will glance at the picture and think, “Aw, diversity, ain’t it a beautiful thing?” – no different from the Sikh Mountie in Prince William’s escort. And even if they read the caption and get to the bit about a Toronto public school separating menstruating girls from the rest of the student body and feel their multiculti pieties wobbling just a bit, they can no longer quite articulate on what basis they’re supposed to object to it. Indeed, thanks to the likes of Ontario “Human Rights” Commission chief commissar Barbara Hall, the very words in which they might object to it have been all but criminalized.

Islam understands the reality of Commissar Hall’s “social justice”: You give ’em an inch, and they’ll take the rest. Following a 1988 cease-and-desist court judgment against the Lord’s Prayer in public school, the Ontario Education Act forbids “any person to conduct religious exercises or to provide instruction that includes religious indoctrination in a particular religion or religious belief in a school.” That seems clear enough. If somebody at Valley Park stood up in the cafeteria and started in with “Our Father, which art in Heaven”, the full weight of the School Board would come crashing down on them. Fortunately, Valley Park is 80-90 per cent Muslim, so there are no takers for the Lord’s Prayer. And, when it comes to the prayers they do want to say, the local Islamic enforcers go ahead secure in the knowledge that the diversity pansies aren’t going to do a thing about it.

Nobody would know a thing about the “mosqueteria” story were it not for the blogger Blazing Cat Fur, whom I was honoured to say a word for in Ottawa a few months back. He broke this story and then saw it get picked up without credit by the Toronto media. He does that a lot. Currently, he’s featuring the thoughts of Jawed Anwar, the editor of The Muslim, a publication for Greater Toronto Area Muslims, and of Dr Bilal Philips, a “Canadian religious scholar” who was born in Jamaica but grew up in Toronto and has many prestigious degrees not only from Saudi Arabia but also from the University of Wales, where he completed a PhD in “Islamic Theology”. Dr Philips is in favour of death for homosexuals and, as one Canadian to another, Mr Anwar was anxious to explain to his readers that that’s nothing to get alarmed about:

Although, there is no clear-cut verse in Qur’an that categorically suggests killing of homosexuals, sayings of Prophet Muhammad suggests three types of sentences, and among that one is death. Bilal Philips is suggesting, based on his opinion on the Qur’anic/Prophetic principles of society. He is not advising the Islamic judiciary to kill any gay person they found, but what he is “suggesting” is judicial punishment of death sentence for those who confess or are seen “performing homosexual acts” by “four reliable witnesses without any doubt.”

The essence of Islamic laws is to protect the life of human beings. And it happens that sometimes killing of a person can save thousands and sometimes millions of lives. The Islamic judiciary can punish a person with death sentence to save others’ lives.

Okay, great, thanks. Glad you cleared that up. Two eminent “Canadian” Muslims are openly discussing the conditions under which homosexuals should be executed – and doing so in the cheerful knowledge that Commissar Hall, so determined to slap down my “Islamophobia”, isn’t going to do a thing about their “homophobia”. She’s more likely to accept a complaint from another “Canadian”, Mohammad Baghery, who accuses Michael Coren of the crime of “making fun of Muslims”. (Barbara Hall's incoherent thoughts can be heard here: appropriately enough, she sounds like the robot voice that instructs you to buckle your seatbelt.)

Imagine if you're a soi-disant moderate Muslim, genuinely so. You came to Canada because Yemen's a dump, and you don't want to waste your life there. And your daughter loves it, and wants to be Canadian, and be just like the other girls in her street. And then she goes to Valley Park Middle School: What if she doesn't feel it's a religious obligation to attend Friday prayers (as some Muslims argue)? Think there's much chance of being able to opt out easily at Valley Park? What if she wants to dress as she wishes to rather than as the Wahhabi/Salafist imam orders? What if she doesn't want to tell the creepy perve imam whether she's menstruating or not? What, in other words, is her chance of being able to attend Valley Park as a regular Canadian schoolgirl?

I've had cause to mention before Phyllis Chesler's photographs of Cairo University's evolving dress code over the last half-century. Here's how the female students looked in 1978:



In 1978, the female students in Cairo looked little different from the female students at the University of Toronto, or Kingston. Now the schoolgirls of Toronto look no different from Cairo. Ms Chesler's pictures are a story of transformation, but that transformation is not confined to the Middle East. For snapshots of Canada's own particular transformation, one might take Berton père et fils. Until his death in 2004, Pierre Berton was the great popularizer of Canadian history, a man whose best-known soundbite was that "a Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe". It wasn't true even then, but it spoke to an agreed national myth. His son, Paul Berton, became the somnolent editor of The London Free Press, who used what little energy he had to protect the tender sensibilities of his city's fast-growing and belligerently assertive Muslim community. His successor is even more protective. From Pierre Berton to Paul Berton is also a story of transformation: A Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe in a niqab?

If you didn’t know it before that Valley Park photograph, you should now: “Diversity” is where nations go to die. If local Mennonites or Amish were segregating the sexes and making them enter by different doors for religious services in a Toronto grade-school cafeteria, Canadian feminists would howl them down in outrage. But when Muslims do it they fall as silent as their body-bagged sisters in Kandahar. If you’re wondering how Valley Park’s catchment district got to be 80-90 per cent Muslim is nothing flat, well, Islam is currently the biggest supplier of new Canadians, as it is of new Britons and new Europeans. Not many western statistics agencies keep tabs on religion, but the Vienna Institute of Demography, for example, calculates that by 2050 a majority of Austrians under 15 will be Muslim. 2050 isn’t that far away. It’s as far from today as 2011 is from 1972: The future shows up faster than you think.

A world that becomes more Muslim becomes less everything else: First it’s Jews, already fleeing Malmo in Sweden. Then it’s homosexuals, already under siege from gay-bashing in Amsterdam, “the most tolerant city in Europe”. Then it’s uncovered women, already targeted for rape in Oslo and other Continental cities. And, if you don’t any longer have any Jews or (officially) any gays or (increasingly) uncovered women, there are always just Christians in general, from Egypt to Pakistan.

More space for Islam means less space for everything else, and in the end less space for you.

Mohammad Baghery is not Canadian. Jawed Anwar is not Canadian. Dr Bilal Philips is not Canadian. The men who separate boys from girls and menstruating girls from non-menstruating girls every Friday at Valley Park Middle School are not Canadian. Perhaps, were we a different kind of society, they would over time become Canadian. But, because they don’t have to, they won’t. Because they look at the witless “Pride” parade and the diversity blather and Barbara Hall and Bernie Farber and Co handing each other Mutual Backslap Awards all year long, and Mohammad and Jawed and Bilal understand that they’re what comes after Canada. This year it’s maybe just one mosqueteria. Next year, two or three more. Half a decade on, who knows? South of the border? The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, for reasons that are unclear, already has a taxpayer-funded “Muslim Community Affairs Unit”. But don’t worry, your small town in Minnesota will be getting one soon enough. As this Salafist lady told the woman from The New York Times, demonstrating how she gradually adopted full-face covering:

It just takes time… You get used to it.

Look at that picture from Valley Park: Toronto’s already used to it.