Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn New York Times. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn New York Times. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng

Thứ Ba, 10 tháng 9, 2013

Hey, Old Media Clowns: If We're Really In a "Recovery", Why Is One-Sixth of the U.S. on Food Stamps?

You can't browse a vintage media newspaper or website without seeing the assertion that the U.S. is in "a recovery".

Really? How so?

The Labor Force Participation Rate just hit a 34-year low.

And food stamp usage continues to explode, the product of rampant fraud, Obamacare's destruction of full-time employment, and the fact that welfare pays better than work.

Food-stamp use grew 2.3% in June from a year earlier, with nearly one-sixth of the U.S. population receiving benefits.

Illinois showed the largest enrollment increase from last year with a 14.7% gain, according to Agriculture Department data released Friday. Wyoming was in second place, with rolls up 11.1% since the same time last year. Utah experienced the largest annual decline in food-stamp use, dropping 11.2%, among a dozen states to post a decrease. (Enrollment also decreased in Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington.)

One of the largest social safety net programs in the United States, food stamps – formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP – expanded substantially during and after the recession, with enrollment rising about 70% from 2007 to 2011. At the same time, the government also temporarily increased benefits and allowed users in the hardest-hit areas to receive aid for longer-than-usual periods of time. The average monthly benefit was $133 last year.

Critics clamor against what they see as a disturbing rise in government dependency. But new economic research suggests the program’s expansion isn’t alarming and can, in fact, be explained by business cycles.


Yo, antique media clowns: it's called The Cloward-Piven Strategy. Look it up. That is, if you want to stop retyping press releases from the White House and doing actual reporting for a change.

I know, I'm a dreamer.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Chủ Nhật, 8 tháng 9, 2013

PATIENTLY AWAITING THE APOLOGY FROM THE MEDIA: Syria's WMDs Came From Saddam Hussein's Iraq

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


War On Terror: As the regime of Bashar Assad disintegrates, the security of his chemical arsenal is in jeopardy. The No. 2 general in Saddam Hussein's air force says they were the WMDs we didn't find in Iraq.

King Abdullah of neighboring Jordan warned that a disintegrating Syria on the verge of civil war puts Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons at risk of falling into the hands of al-Qaida.

"One of the worst-case scenarios as we are obviously trying to look for a political solution would be if some of those chemical stockpiles were to fall into unfriendly hands," he said.

The irony here is that the chemical weapons stockpile of Syrian thug Assad may in large part be the legacy of weapons moved from Hussein's Iraq into Syria before Operation Iraqi Freedom.

If so, this may be the reason not much was found in the way of WMD by victorious U.S. forces in 2003.

In 2006, former Iraqi general Georges Sada, second in command of the Iraqi Air Force who served under Saddam Hussein before he defected, wrote a comprehensive book, "Saddam's Secrets."

It details how the Iraqi Revolutionary Guard moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria in advance of the U.S.-led action to eliminate Hussein's WMD threat.

As Sada told the New York Sun, two Iraqi Airways Boeings were converted to cargo planes by removing the seats, and special Republican Guard units loaded the planes with chemical weapons materials.

There were 56 flights disguised as a relief effort after a 2002 Syrian dam collapse.

There were also truck convoys into Syria. Sada's comments came more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."

Both Israeli and U.S. intelligence observed large truck convoys leaving Iraq and entering Syria in the weeks and months before Operation Iraqi Freedom, John Shaw, former deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, told a private conference of former weapons inspectors and intelligence experts held in Arlington, Va., in 2006.

According to Shaw, ex-Russian intelligence chief Yevgeni Primakov, a KGB general with long-standing ties to Saddam, went to Iraq in December 2002 and stayed until just before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Anticipating the invasion, his job was to supervise the removal of such weapons and erase as much evidence of Russian involvement as possible.

The Russian-assisted "cleanup" operation was entrusted to a combination of GRU and Spetsnaz troops and Russian military and civilian personnel in Iraq "under the command of two experienced ex-Soviet generals, Colonel-General Vladislav Achalov and Colonel-General Igor Maltsev, both retired and posing as civilian commercial consultants."

Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz reported on Oct. 30, 2004, that Achalov and Maltsev had been photographed receiving medals from Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad in a Baghdad building bombed by U.S. cruise missiles during the first U.S. air raids in early March 2003. Apparently they did their job well.

An article in the fall 2005 Middle East Quarterly reports that in an appearance on Israel's Channel 2 on Dec. 23, 2002, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, stated: "Chemical and biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been moved from Iraq to Syria." According to the article, about three weeks later, Israel's foreign minister repeated the accusation.

Syria has long had its own chemical weapons program, but the extent it may have been aided by weapons and materials transferred by Iraq before the war has only been the source of conjecture.

We may soon find out what happened to much of Saddam's WMD.


Visit Investors Business Daily

Thứ Tư, 28 tháng 8, 2013

The Shameless Hypocrisy of the Left on Syria, in Tweets

This:



Thứ Ba, 6 tháng 8, 2013

Detroit-like Collapse Closing in on Chicago due to Math and a Shortage of Pink Ponies, But Mostly Math

"Math always trumps politics."

I can't remember who said it, but we see evidence of the ironclad truth of that statement as we review the history of humankind on Earth. Unsustainable borrowing is, of course, a doomed proposition. And whether we examine current examples like Detroit, the last century's models, or even hundreds of years of experience (PDF), we find no example -- not one -- that monstrous levels of sovereign debt can lead to anything but economic collapse.

But enough about Paul Krugman. Let's review The New York Times' latest stunned prose regarding a Democrat-controlled government's imminent collapse ("unexpectedly", of course).

Chicago Sees Pension Crisis Drawing Near

...a crushing problem lurks beneath the signs of economic recovery in Chicago: one of the most poorly funded pension systems among the nation’s major cities. Its plight threatens to upend the finances of President Obama’s hometown, now run by his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel...

...The pension fund for retired Chicago teachers stands at risk of collapse. The city’s four funds for other retired city workers are short by $19.5 billion. At least one of the funds is in peril of running out of money in less than a decade. And starting in 2015, the city will be required by the state to make far larger contributions to the funds, which could leave it hundreds of millions of dollars in the red — as much as it would cost to pay 4,300 police officers to patrol the streets for a year...

...And last month, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Chicago’s rating by an unexpected three notches as part of a broad reassessment of how pensions are affecting the financial strength of cities. That “super downgrade,” in the parlance of the bond market, left Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, with a lower rating than 90 percent of Moody’s public finance ratings...

...Illinois, which has the most underfunded state pension system in the nation, controls Chicago’s benefit and funding levels [and in] Springfield, which, like Chicago, is controlled by Democrats, leaders have clashed over how best to cut costs of the plans — a notion that pits the lawmakers against labor unions, which have traditionally been allies...

...The city’s general budget fund faces a potential shortfall of $339 million in 2014, but city officials say that gap is lower than initially expected and manageable ... Circumstances grow far more complicated a year later, when state law will require Chicago to pay significantly more — $1 billion a year — into the city’s pension funds, to make up for years of underpayments. Even sooner, the Chicago Public Schools, which draws from the same tax base, is required to find an extra $338 million for its pension fund, and more every year after that.

In other words, fasten your seat belt, we're in for a bumpy ride.

Ironically, the twisted troll known as Paul "Enron" Krugman has a featured article linked nearby headed "Republicans Against Reality". In it, he blames GOP budget hawks for their unwillingness to compromise with the greatest creators of government debt in world history -- the Democrats and, specifically, the 110th Congress. Remember, because of Democrats' failure to pass a budget since Obama took office, the original $840 billion one-time, emergency "Stimulus" has been built into the baseline budget every year since.

And as we watch Krugman's collectivist Utopias of Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy fall; as we watch the poisonous alliance of Democrats and public sector unions literally destroy cities like Detroit and Chicago; and as we wait for entire blue states like California and Illinois to follow; meanwhile, the real enemies of reality like Paul Krugman will be blaming Bush, Reagan, or James Monroe for the inevitable, miserable results of their deranged philosophy.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Chủ Nhật, 14 tháng 7, 2013

Trayvon Martin, Burglary Tools, and PCP-style Drug Cocktails

National media ignored some of the most significant aspects of the tragic Martin-Zimmerman case, among them Martin's suspected involvement with burglary, PCP-like drug cocktails, and/or drug dealing.

Burglary Tools:
Trayvon Martin’s phone was full of text messages, pictures and videos suggestive of drugs, violence and criminal behavior. [According to the Miami Herald,] Trayvon Martin was on his third suspension from school [and t]here is evidence Trayvon Martin had burglarized homes and/or school lockers:

In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area “hiding and being suspicious.” Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with “W.T.F” — an acronym for “what the f—.” The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker. Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a “burglary tool” ...

Word of the incident came as the family’s lawyer acknowledged that the boy was suspended in February for getting caught with an empty bag with traces of marijuana [and his] backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds. Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend. “Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,” he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend. Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation...

...That suspension was followed four months later by another one in February, in which Trayvon was caught with an empty plastic bag with traces of marijuana in it. A schools police report obtained by The Miami Herald specifies two items: a bag with marijuana residue and a “marijuana pipe.”

Drug Use:

There are a series of compelling articles on the web that describe Martin's alleged abuse of a powerful, home-made PCP-like drug called "Lean" (also known as "Skittles"). Its reported side-effects can include breaks with reality, extreme paranoia and fits of violence.

One of the most painstakingly documented summaries is excerpted below:

Several weeks ago, as further information and discovery came to the surface the whole framing of the original media narrative began to crumble, I stumbled over a reference to “DXM” in Trayvon’s Facebook history... As I use these Facebook discussions from Trayvon I’m going to correct the [grammar] unless it seems necessary to reference directly to the source...

unow a connect for codine” or

“do you know of a connection for codeine”?



Our first question then becomes “What exactly is “lean”"? According to Urban Dictionary, “Lean” is described as follows:

“… 6. Lean is a mixed drink originating in the Southern Rap culture. It is a mixture of Promethazine and Codeine cough syrup and a soft drink such as Sprite (usually). While other soft drinks may be used, Sprite was the original. [And now also Arizona Watermelon for Watermelon Drank/Lean]

There are some variations of Lean. For example, Promethazine and Codeine syrup is usually Purple in color. But there are other colors of syrup that work the same way. There is a golden-colored syrup (hydrocodone based) and other colors as well.

Lean slows you down. It makes you feel good. It’s meant to be sipped on, and it taste damn good. One of the best feelings you will ever experience. Euphoria with a hint of sedation. …”

Lean is also the drug mixture that killed Pimp C...

OK, so now we know Trayvon is seeking a source for a powerful cough syrup, commonly used in the ”drug culture or circle” to make an intoxicating drink called “Lean” – also known as the infamous “purple drank/Purple Lean/Lean/Sizzurp.”

Purple Lean, or Lean, is an intoxicating beverage also known by the names lean, sizzurp, and liquid codeine. It is commonly abused by southern rappers and wannabe suburban teenagers. It is a mixture of Promethazine/Codeine cough syrup and sprite, or other beverage [such as Arizona Watermelon] with a few jolly ranchers and/or skittles thrown in.


There are your “DXM” ”Watermelon Lean” Ingredients



Arizona Watermelon Juice purchased from 7-11 included in the Crime Scene Photographs and incorrectly listed/discussed as “Tea” by Benjamin Crump, the media, and even police reporting authorities.

Promethazine with codeine, consumed in such large amounts as is popular with such southern rappers as lil wayne, slim thug, and Big Moe, produces an opiate-like high that is potentiated by the Promethazine.

Promethazine by itself will not produce a high. The beverage must be sipped slowly, and not guzzled, in order to avoid unconsciousness and/or life threatening overdose.

But what does this have to do with Robitussin or “DXM”? Trayvon clarifies in his next message:

“codine is a higher dose of dxm”

…...and further believes he can obtain the same high [as smoking pot] by drinking “Lean” . But that’s not nearly as important as the fact that he’s clearly under the impression that prescription Codine is a stronger form of the drug DXM found in various versions of cough suppressant or cough medications.

So, what then exactly is “DXM“?

DXM” is an abbreviation for the cough suppressant Dextromethorphan Hydrobromide — which is the active ingredient in the cough-syrup brand Robitussin.

According to numerous websites found with a search, DXM is increasingly being abused as a recreational drug. One of the more scholarly and scientific sites found with in-depth analysis of DXM and its various uses is “Erowid.org“... According to Erowid’s ”DXM Home Page“:

DXM is a widely available over-the-counter cough suppressant. When taken far above its standard medical dosage, it is a strong dissociative used primarily by teens.

...Erowid begins to hint at DXM’s seriousness in their “DXM Basics” discussion:

“…High doses … are sometimes compared to the effects of other dissociatives such as PCP or ketamine…”

This stuff is compared to PCP ? This is no exaggeration! DXM in higher doses is actually a very volatile and dangerous drug, and they are quite right when they compare DXM to PCP and Ketamine!

In fact, the drug has come to be known in some circles as “Poor-Man’s PCP!

Perhaps more importantly, unlike marijuana and many other drugs of abuse, DXM does not cause sedation, and in fact can produce profound agitation hence the comparison to PCP. In the “DXM Basics – Problems” section, Erowid notes:

“…DXM causes physical and psychological effects that may be frightening or unpleasant… Psychological effects can include profound disorientation, depression, a feeling of personal disintegration, or a feeling of “unreality” and disconnection that may persist for days. Chronic use may cause depression, psychological dependency, and possibly brain damage. Large doses may be associated with psychotic breaks…”

...We know from his own words to his friends that Trayvon has used DXM as far back as June 2011... We [also] know from Trayvon’s own words that he’s experienced “lean” – and since he knows what DXM is – but thinks the promethazine/codeine cocktail is “a higher dose” then he’s also experienced DXM, at least at a “lower plateau.”

In answer to the question “What’s the DXM Trip Like” the author says:

“Well, that depends on how much you take. There are four different kinds of experiences, based on the dosage; these are called plateaus.

The first plateau is a mild stimulant effect with a little bit of a buzz, and has been compared to MDA [a more psychedelic cousin of MDMA -aka-"Ecstasy"].

The second plateau is more intoxicating and has been compared to being drunk and stoned at the same time.

The third plateau is dissociative, like a lower dose of ketamine.

The fourth plateau is fully dissociative like a higher dose of ketamine.

You should not [emphasis original!] attempt higher plateau doses unless you have someone with you who can take care of you in case you get sick or freak out. It happens on DXM.

Many things can happen unexpectedly on upper plateaus, such as spontaneous memory recall, complex delusions, hallucinations, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, and perceived contact with spiritual or alien entities. You need to be pretty stable and grounded before you can handle these things“.

...In the FAQ’s section on “Psychotic Breaks” the author notes:

“…Be very careful in trying to restrain the tripper, since she or he may perceive this as a threat, and will probably be mostly immune to pain...the tripper, like a cornered animal, could beat the living sh** out of you without thinking twice. (!!) …”

So, where does all of this lead? At this point, after reviewing all the information, it appears quite [possible] that a ... drug cocktail use specifically led to the mindset, or psychological environment, between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin on the night of February 26th.

The tone or hostility of the encounter, and Trayvon’s response to being confronted, would more easily be understood against the backdrop of the discovery for his prior drug use; and more specifically the types of drugs being used.

...Trayvon was admittedly, according to his Facebook conversations, a user of DXM and Purple Drank/Lean since at least June 2011. He was also an admitted smoker of Marijuana which was found in both his urine and blood tests. His liver indicates the beginning stages of an unusual degrading known as “mild fatty metamorphasis”, and his brain tissue appeared compromised, both conditions symptomatic of DXM use.

In addition he was suspended from school three times in the past seven months prior to the shooting for behavioral issues. He was detached from adult supervision at the time in question, in a relatively unfamiliar place, and according to his father Tracy Martin, grounded. His girlfriend describes their phone call as Trayvon being “paranoid”.

Trayvon makes a trip to the store and buys two of the specific three ingredients needed to blend a drug cocktail he was well versed in making (Lean). And appeared slightly exagerrated, tenuous, and wobbly (swaying) when you objectively review his physical movements on the video of the store during the purchase.

He was a little more than a half a mile from home (Brandy’s house), yet he left the store at 6:24 and was first noted at the clubhouse at 7:09pm. If he intended to go straight home from the store, and under normal cognitive capacity, he should have made the 1/2 mile trip in well under 30 minutes, well under.


Maybe some "journalists" like the clownish Matt Gutman of ABC News could investigate these well-documented reports, that is, if they get bored rewriting DNC press releases as "news".


Thứ Tư, 3 tháng 7, 2013

DRUDGESTORM!

To my knowledge, there's only one conservative website on the planet that can drive traffic at a sustained 14,000 page-views an hour.


The links in red ("PHOTOS...") direct readers to an earlier Biff Spackle post entitled "15 Photos From the Tahrir Square Protests You'll Never See In Legacy Media. #Egypt #Morsi #Obama."

And this is what the real-time Google Analytics mobile app revealed during the height of the Drudgestorm:


Is there any more influential newsman than Matt Drudge?

For you drones and other miscreants out there: that's a rhetorical question. Put it this way: the entire editorial board of The New York Times wishes they had a tenth of the influence of Matt Drudge.


Thứ Bảy, 1 tháng 6, 2013

IRONY-METER SHATTERS: Press Banned From Revealing Details of Eric Holder's Press Briefing on His Abuse of Press Freedom

You can't make this s*** up.

Sean Higgins thinks this Washington Post "report" on Eric Holder's widely-boycotted confab with journalists is "beyond parody."  Yeah, pretty much:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. pledged Thursday to take concrete steps to address concerns that the Justice Department has overreached in its leak investigations and said officials would seek procedural and possibly legislative changes to protect journalists’ First Amendment rights. Holder’s commitment came at a private meeting with news executives after criticism that the Justice Department had infringed on the news media in several high-profile leak investigations. Participants said he told them officials would revise guidelines for issuing subpoenas to obtain reporters’ phone records. The 90-minute meeting was attended by a small group of journalists after several news organizations objected to the Justice Department’s insistence that it be held off the record. The participants, however, reached an agreement with the Justice Department under which they could describe what occurred during the meeting in general terms...


Eric Holder pledged to take "concrete steps" to address the actions of Eric Holder -- up to and (possibly) including backing legislative action that would curtail Eric Holder's ability to abuse Eric Holder's power...  


Direct quotes would be priceless here, but those weren't allowed, of course...

Holder and aides “completely endorsed the president’s statement that reporters should not be at legal risk for doing their job,” said Martin Baron, The Washington Post’s executive editor, who was among the participants. “They acknowledged the need for changes in their own guidelines and the need to have a more rigorous internal review.”

Reassuringly, Eric Holder has "completely endorsed" a principle that Eric Holder has already explicitly violated.  How many times has Eric Holder done so?  Eric Holder can't quite say.  Click through to witness the pitiful spectacle of journalists quoting each other and vaguely discussing a meeting they've been barred from describing in any detail.

And if a member of the press actually reveals some of the secret details of Holder's press briefing -- in which the A.G. promised he wouldn't target the press -- will that person now be targeted by Holder?

The hypocrisy of this administration -- and the stupidity of the five-years-late-to-the-party vintage media -- are breathtaking.


Hat tips: BadBlue News and Daryl Cagle, PoliticalCartoons.com.


Thứ Sáu, 31 tháng 5, 2013

SHOCK, CONSTERNATION AS KRUGMAN PROVEN WRONG AGAIN: California health insurance premiums to spike 64 to 146 percent

And the former Enron adviser had such a stellar track record of predictions until now, what with advocating a housing bubble and praising the Euro in the last decade alone.

Rate Shock: In California, Obamacare To Increase Individual Health Insurance Premiums By 64-146%



Last week, the state of California claimed that its version of Obamacare’s health insurance exchange would actually reduce premiums... But the data [it just] released tells a different story: Obamacare, in fact, will increase individual-market premiums in California by as much as 146 percent.

...Last week, Covered California—the name for the state’s Obamacare-compatible insurance exchange—released the rates that Californians will have to pay to enroll in the exchange...

...That Obamacare more than doubles insurance premiums for many Californians is especially ironic, given the political posturing of the President and his administration in 2010. In February of that year, Anthem Blue Cross announced that some groups (but not the majority) would face premium increases of as much as 39 percent. The White House and its allies in the blogosphere, cynically, claimed that these increases were due to greedy profiteering by the insurers, instead of changes in the underlying costs of the insured population...

...So, to summarize: Supporters of Obamacare justified passage of the law because one insurer in California raised rates on some people by as much as 39 percent. But Obamacare itself more than doubles the cost of insurance on the individual market. I can understand why Democrats in California would want to mislead the public on this point...

I'm actually looking forward to the full implementation of Obamacare in January. Everything we warned the drones about -- and more -- will unfold in very short order. As Max Baucus described it: a train wreck.

And Nancy Pelosi will need a couple more facelifts from the stress, I suspect. But maybe those are covered under her plan.


Chủ Nhật, 26 tháng 5, 2013

THE NEW MATH: "That which makes no sense is nonsense"

The indefatigable Tyler Durden relays a must-watch presentation by Grant Williams, best known for his Things That Make You Go Hmmm newsletter. Some of the highlights?

Williams' Problem 1: If the global economy is stalling, Europe is in recession, China is slowing and growth is seemingly impossible to generate, what are equity markets doing at all-time highs?


Williams' Problem 2: If Chinese manufacturing has stalled, demand for raw materials is slumping, imports and exports are declining, and Chinese power consumption is falling, how is China's GDP growing at 7.7%


Williams Problem 3: France!?


Williams' Problem 4: If honesty is the best policy, then is dishonest the second best policy?

Williams' Problem 5: If there were no sponges living in the oceans, would the oceans be deeper?

Williams' Problem 6: Paul Krugman? Really?

Williams' Problem 7: The Gold Price and The Price of Gold are mutually exclusive


As Alan Roth observes regarding the equity markets, "investors rediscovering borrowing on margin and hitting an all-time high is clearly a red flag warning that there may be a rip-tide".


Chủ Nhật, 12 tháng 5, 2013

PHOTO: The Incestuous Love-Child of the Democrat-Media Complex

So this is why they play from the same sheet music.

"There's so much inbreeding between the White Hut and the Media, that every time we watch network news, we hear banjo music!" --Old Sarge.


Thứ Năm, 9 tháng 5, 2013

SCANDAL VS. SCANDAL: A Media Retrospective #Benghazi

Compare and contrast:

The Pet Goat vs. Going to Sleep During an Attack

Remember The Pet Goat? That was the book that President George W. Bush read for seven (7) minutes to an elementary school class after he received word of the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Bush was pilloried mercilessly for his "inaction", even though the Secret Service is reported to have requested the delay to enhance the president's security for the trip to the airport.

How does that compare to Benghazi? Eight months after the slaughter of Americans, we still don't know what the president did after a 5pm ET meeting with SECDEF Panetta. No one knows, but many have surmised he watched sports and then went to sleep to prepare for a fundraiser the next day.

Cindy Sheehan vs. Pat Smith
The mother of a fallen soldier during the Iraq War, Cindy Sheehan became a poster child for the Democrat-media complex. No less a vintage media star than Maureen Dowd stated unequivocally that "the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute".

As for the mother of murdered diplomatic official Sean Smith, Dowd is less vocal. Silent, even. Pat Smith has struggled to make her voice heard because, though apolitical, her message is one of pain, grief and anger. "They want to shut me up," she's stated, referring to the Obama administration that has treated her with utter disdain.

Valerie Plame vs. Benghazi
Remember what all of the hullabaloo about Valerie Plame was about?

Neither do I.

The former intelligence officer didn't get shipped to one of the most dangerous locations on earth, she didn't have all of her security stripped from her over her vociferous pleas, she wasn't the victim of an all-out terrorist attack on her office, she wasn't killed during a firefight, her body wasn't dragged through the streets of Benghazi, and her death wasn't the subject of administration lies and a massive cover-up.

No, that was Ambassador Chris Stevens along with the heroes who tried to save his life.

* * * * * * * * *

And a cadre of propagandists in the mold of Julius Streicher claim that Benghazi isn't a scandal. Michael Hersh is one such pathetic hack. Writing in the left wing National Journal, Hersh claims that there was no cover-up at all.

Hersh intentionally omitted referencing yesterday's most damning testimony. After the attack, Clinton consigliere Cheryl Mills demanded that Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission/chargé d’affairs in Libya, avoid answering any questions from the visiting Congressional delegation.

Hicks was asked whether he’d ever been told before not to meet with a congressional delegation; his response: “Never.”

And just who is Cheryl Mills?

Cheryl Mills is no run-of-the-mill State Department apparatchik, even among the top tier. She’s been one of the Clintons’ right-hand men for decades. She worked in Bill’s White House legal office, then as counsel to Hillary’s presidential campaign, then became chief of staff at State when Hillary was appointed secretary. If she’s the right-hand man, what other conclusion is there than that Hillary’s the one who wanted Hicks to keep his mouth shut when meeting with Chaffetz?

And precisely what did President Obama do after he received word of the attacks? No one knows and an incurious media has never bothered to ask that question.

When a local reporter unexpectedly broached the subject with the president, Obama stumbled through an ill-conceived and incoherent answer.

We know, in fact, that the president did nothing. Except watch sports on TV and then go to sleep.

And we also know, despite his sputtering exhortations to the contrary, that "there was never any intention to rescue our people in Libya."

Consider what met the threshold for a scandal then versus now: can there be any doubt that the media, as this country once knew it, is dead?


Thứ Tư, 8 tháng 5, 2013

What are "Progracists"?

Guest post by Zombie

What are “progracists”?

Progracists are people who continually classify individuals by “race” and yet can’t see how that is racist.

Progracists hate Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of an America in which people “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” because progressive policies are based on race consciousness, ethnic division, and identity politics.

Progracists keep minorities addicted to government benefits and entitlements specifically to make sure they remain poor and economically enslaved, and therefore a reliable voting bloc.

Progracists always seek to restrict everyone‘s freedoms because they think that’s the only way to stop minorities from misbehaving — at least the only way to control minorities without looking like you’re targeting them specifically.

Progracists call Americans “cowards” for not discussing race enough; but when we do discuss it, they call us racists.

Progracists still promote “affirmative action” policies even half a century after racial discrimination was outlawed in schools because progressives racistly think minorities will never be smart enough to get into college on their own merits.

Progracists routinely spew blatant racist slurs at any blacks who have conservative opinions, openly calling them “house n*****s,” “Uncle Toms,” and so on, and yet somehow continue to imagine that they themselves would never be perceived as racist for doing so.

Progracists think black mothers are too ignorant to know how to feed their own children, so progracists pass nanny-state laws dictating what is allowable to eat.

Progracists want to ban standardized tests because progracists think black people are too stupid to pass them.

Progracists don’t want you to remember that the Progressive Movement originally promoted eugenics as a way to weed out “undesirables” from society, including and especially minorities and the mentally handicapped.

Progracists never condemn blatant racism exhibited by fellow progracists.

Progracists intentionally gutted the American education system because they believed that only by dumbing down school could they eliminate the racial “achievement gap.”

Progracists implement blatantly unfair “set-aside” policies which guarantee lucrative government contracts to otherwise under-qualified minority-owned businesses — only to then award those contracts to sham companies with token minority figureheads, further enriching the white progressives who actually own the companies.

Progracists governing white-dominated universities and corporations often foreground minorities in their promotional materials, allegedly to encourage “diversity” and tempt more minorities to apply, but in reality to disguise just how all-white their organizations really are.

Progracists gasp in horror at Rudyard Kipling’s notion of “The White Man’s Burden,” completely oblivious to the fact that every modern liberal do-gooder cause is a direct descendant of Kipling’s call to action.

Progracists deem “Islamophobic” anyone who tries to rescue Muslim women from an oppressive culture, because progracists simply don’t care about Muslim women.

Progracists facilitate and justify inner-city violence and unrest, hoping to use minority criminals as unwitting shock troops to destabilize society and thereby pave the way for a progressive totalitarian state — but in the process make life miserable for all the law-abiding minorities in ravaged neighborhoods.

Progracists don’t want you to know that the progressive hero Margaret Sanger sought to legalize abortion specifically to reduce the population of minorities in America, as part of a eugenics program to protect the racial purity of whites.

The “soft racism” of progressives’ lowered expectations for minorities ends up being more pernicious and corrosive than their formerly upfront racism because back then they were at least honest about it.

Progressive hero and Democratic president Lyndon Baines Johnson once explained his rationale for addicting African-Americans to welfare and government handouts by saying “I’ll have those n*****s voting Democratic for the next 200 years.”

Democrat Woodrow Wilson was the first progressive president — and he also introduced racial segregation and Jim Crow laws to Washington DC, claiming segregation was beneficial to blacks because otherwise they would be out-competed by superior whites; he even used the White House to promote the film Birth of a Nation and especially its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan; despite all this (or perhaps because of it), Wilson remains an iconic hero to modern progracists.

After progressive Delaware Senator Joe Biden described Barack Obama as the “first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean,” Obama actually invited Biden to be his Vice President.

Shortly before he made the seamless transition from Klan leader to progressive politician, Democratic Senator Robert Byrd said, “Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”

Progracist journalist Mike Wallace once said on camera that blacks and Hispanics were too busy eating “watermelons and tacos” to read the fine print on their insurance policies.

In an attempt to decrease the number of minority babies being born, progracists go to extreme lengths to make contraception available to girls at younger and younger ages, since black and Hispanic girls are getting pregnant at a much higher rate than girls of other races, threatening the progracists’ white majority.

Progracists promote open borders and mass immigration not for any humanitarian concerns about poor people in foreign countries but only because they see new immigrants as a huge voting bloc to keep progressives in power.

Progressives never criticize black entertainers for constantly using the “n-word” because progracists hold blacks to a lower social standard than everyone else.

Progracists want you to forget that some historians have defined the Ku Klux Klan as “the terrorist wing of the Democratic Party.”

Progracists think minorities in urban areas are too irresponsible to stop littering, so progressive-dominated local governments want to ban plastic bags for everyone even though most people don’t litter.

A growing number of African-Americans believe that progracists want to make abortion freely available to poor minorities specifically to commit slow-motion genocide of the black community.

Progracists always accuse everyone else of racism to deflect attention from their own racist policies and beliefs.



Related: When did the NAACP join the Klan?

15 Stunning Tweets From Today's #Benghazi Whistleblower Testimony

I am speechless not only at the depravity of this administration but also its enablers in both the Democrat Party and the Julius Streicher media. I never thought I'd live to see the day. Have you no shame, sir? Have you no shame?
















Tragic, shocking and utterly emblematic of the sickness of the left.


Related: DAMNING: The Complete Benghazi Timeline in Spreadsheet Format

Chủ Nhật, 28 tháng 4, 2013

NO ONE TELL PAUL KRUGMAN OR HENRY BLODGET: "Spain Is Beyond Doomed"

The Keystone Keynesian Klowns are going to have a delightful time explaining the meltdown of Europe, which has only just begun.

Five years after its housing boom turned to bust, Spanish unemployment hit a record high of 27.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013. It's almost too horrible to comprehend, but 19.5 percent of the total workforce has not had a job in the past six months; 15.3 percent have not in the past year; and 9.2 percent have not in the past two years. You can see this 1930s-style catastrophe in the chart below from the National Statistics Institute.


...the real story of the Spanish depression has been the story of the indignados: the mostly young, long-term unemployed. It's a bit hard to see just how dramatic it's been in the chart above, so I converted it to a line chart below. Almost all of the increase in unemployment since 2010 has been due to the increase in long-term unemployment of two years or more...


In other words, unemployment is a trap people fall into, but can't fall out of... That is what a permanent underclass looks like.

This debt-fueled madness will, of course, end in war and misery -- as it has throughout human history.

And Paul Krugman was, you may recall, an early champion of the Euro experiment. Combined with his stint at Enron, championing the housing bubble, and endorsing Fannie Mae's subprime extravaganza, the midget propaganconomist has a track record only Jamie Gorelick could love.


Hat tip: BadBlue Financial News.

STEALTH REPARATIONS: New York Times confirms Obama administration behind billions in fraudulent payments

It's not often that I'll write approvingly of an article in The New York Times, but for Sharon LaFraniere's masterful deconstruction of the Pigford Scandal, I'll make an exception.

Pigford, you may recall, was first exposed by Andrew Breitbart and because of it he was sued, dismissed and lampooned by the Democrat-Media Complex. The term vindication was invented for situations like this.

In the winter of 2010, after a decade of defending the government against bias claims by Hispanic and female farmers, Justice Department lawyers seemed to have victory within their grasp.

Ever since the Clinton administration agreed in 1999 to make $50,000 payments to thousands of black farmers, the Hispanics and women had been clamoring in courtrooms and in Congress for the same deal. They argued, as the African-Americans had, that biased federal loan officers had systematically thwarted their attempts to borrow money to farm.

But a succession of courts — and finally the Supreme Court — had rebuffed their pleas. Instead of an army of potential claimants, the government faced just 91 plaintiffs. Those cases, the government lawyers figured, could be dispatched at limited cost.

They were wrong.

On the heels of the Supreme Court’s ruling, interviews and records show, the Obama administration’s political appointees at the Justice and Agriculture Departments engineered a stunning turnabout: they committed $1.33 billion to compensate not just the 91 plaintiffs but thousands of Hispanic and female farmers who had never claimed bias in court.

The deal, several current and former government officials said, was fashioned in White House meetings despite the vehement objections — until now undisclosed — of career lawyers and agency officials who had argued that there was no credible evidence of widespread discrimination. What is more, some protested, the template for the deal — the $50,000 payouts to black farmers — had proved a magnet for fraud...

The compensation effort sprang from a desire to redress what the government and a federal judge agreed was a painful legacy of bias against African-Americans by the Agriculture Department. But an examination by The New York Times shows that it became a runaway train, driven by racial politics, pressure from influential members of Congress and law firms that stand to gain more than $130 million in fees. In the past five years, it has grown to encompass a second group of African-Americans as well as Hispanic, female and Native American farmers. In all, more than 90,000 people have filed claims. The total cost could top $4.4 billion...

...From the start, the claims process prompted allegations of widespread fraud and criticism that its very design encouraged people to lie: because relatively few records remained to verify accusations, claimants were not required to present documentary evidence that they had been unfairly treated or had even tried to farm. Agriculture Department reviewers found reams of suspicious claims, from nursery-school-age children and pockets of urban dwellers, sometimes in the same handwriting with nearly identical accounts of discrimination...

...But critics, including some of the original black plaintiffs, say that is precisely what the government did when it first agreed to compensate not only those who had proof of bias, but those who had none...

...[For example, in] 16 ZIP codes in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and North Carolina, the number of successful claimants exceeded the total number of farms operated by people of any race in 1997, the year the lawsuit was filed. Those applicants received nearly $100 million...

...Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West, who supervised the civil division and oversaw the handling of the cases, canceled an interview. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. also declined to comment...

Like Operation Fast and Furious and Benghazi, the Pigford Scandal is a hundred times worse than Watergate. It represents institutionalized corruption and theft orchestrated by the President of the United States.

It is, in effect, a form of stealth reparations executed unlawfully on the part of this administration.

Heads should roll and impeachment should be on the table. Knowing the cowardly, feckless House Republican leadership, however, it's likely all of this will be ignored because John Boner and Eric Cantor are more interested in retaining their white-knuckled grip on power than doing the right thing.

Kudos to The New York Times for covering this blatant, open ripoff of the American taxpayer.


Hat tips: Lee Stranahan and Mark Levin.

Remember hearing that 90% of Americans want gun control? Well, those claims were pig excrement.

Economist John Lott eviscerates the propagantician known as "Lies, Damn Lies and" Nate Silver (which is the nickname he prefers, I hear):

Despite assurances by the likes of Nate Silver that these are solid polls showing "Overwhelming majorities of 80 to 90 percent of the public say they favor background checks," 

I have previously noted my skepticism of claims.  To me, it wasn't too surprising that the Senate voted down the gun control bill about 10 days ago.  My concern is that people were really just being asked about whether they wanted to keep criminals from getting guns, not about the particular legislation being voted on by the Senate.  Well, now there is another poll by the PEW Research Center that I think is much more accurate.  It asks people whether they are happy that the Senate gun control bill was stopped.  Apparently, both Republicans and Independents are generally happy that it was stopped.  My guess is that Republicans should pay a lot more attention to what Independents and Republicans wanted than Democrats who wouldn't never have voted for the Republicans anyway.  It looks to me that Republicans voted the way that there constituents wanted.  So Republicans shouldn't really care that among all voters the poll showed support of 47 to 39 percent.  They should look at the results by political affiliation.

Many, such as the New York Times, paint a picture of Senators [like Max Baucus] who both simultaneously opposed the will of 90 percent of their voters and at the same time quake in fear of the NRA... Note in Baucus' case, he is retiring and yet he still voted against the so-called "universal background check" bill.  Might [the Times'] Mr. Nocera re-examine his piece?

By the way, the Nate Silver analysis of how Senators would vote on the Manchin-Toomey bill has sone major problem, he uses a very unreliable measure of gun ownership from Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.  If you use a bad survey, you get a lot of noise and it makes it more likely that you won't get a statistically significant result.  I also like the way he runs a regression after the fact rather than predicting how people were going to vote before the Senate vote.  Letting him play around with different factors (we have no idea how many regressions that he ran before he decided to report the one that he did) makes the predictive power of that regression pretty useless.

It's back to the propaganda drawing board for you, Mr. Silver!


Hat tip: BadBlue Gun News.

Thứ Năm, 25 tháng 4, 2013

A single graph that depicts a society spiraling into the dustbin of history

Why work when you can just collect disability? After all, last month a record 8.9 million took advantage of impossible-to-verify "ailments" like back pain and mood disorders.

...Today, 6.5 workers are on disability for every 100 who have a job. That's double the ratio from two decades ago. The number of people on disability has climbed almost sixfold since 1970.

That influx has caused SSDI costs to climb faster than its dedicated payroll tax revenues. The program has been running a deficit since 2009, and will be insolvent by 2016, according to the program's administrators...


...Last year, the federal government paid $135 billion in disability benefits, which is more money than it devoted to food stamps and welfare combined.

And because those on disability are eligible for Medicare benefits after two years, the sharp rise in SSDI enrollment has put a huge strain on Medicare's budget, costing the program $80 billion in 2012, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

In other words, one-sixth of Medicare's budget now goes to pay benefits for working-age disabled.

Record numbers on disability, a large percentage of which are fraudulent. Record numbers on food stamps, many of those fraudulent. Record welfare payments, many of those also fraudulent. Record income tax credit fraud. In fact, government officials have documented hundreds of billions of fraudulent payments each year laced throughout the federal government's massive, unsustainable wealth redistribution programs.

One might call this the Obama-Krugman-Blodget recipe for national suicide.

But I'll be charitable and simply ask: what is this, the fourth annual "Summer of Recovery"?


Thứ Hai, 22 tháng 4, 2013

Media Quiz: Possible Motives for Boston Marathon Bombing

In spite of a plethora of evidence, the kooks in media and the Obama administration -- but I repeat myself -- appear thoroughly stumped in ascertaining the motives of the Boston bombers.

For that reason, I offer the following helpful quiz for the administration and its public relations officials in antique media.

Question: What was the motive for the terror attack at the Boston Marathon?

Please select only one answer from the following choices:

Nicki Minaj not returning tweets, which indicts all of American society

Tsarnaev brothers are Yankees fans; took the term "Bronx Bombers" a little too seriously

Sick of TBS, which keeps showing the same "Master of my domain" Seinfeld rerun

Revenge for food poisoning incident at Boylston Street's Mr. Sushi

Bitterly clinging to holy book and pressure cookers

Hope to inspire Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to make the movie of the Tsarnaev Brothers' lives

Six-month trip to Russia centered around study of Rasputin's love-making techniques

That idiot Elvis impersonator stole my Ricin idea

Even Cialis ain't working

Kill infidels in the name of Jihad


Thứ Tư, 17 tháng 4, 2013

Nostradumbass: Paul Krugman on the Euro

But first, a little context-setting: Walter Russell Mead describes the current reality in Europe as the dream of a single currency unravels at an ever-increasing pace:

...For the eurozone to survive as it now stands, house prices, wages, the cost of meals in restaurants, groceries, and so on would all have to fall by as much as 50 percent in the periphery. That can’t happen without massive losses to banks, which have lent money based on current price levels. These loans cannot be repaid if prices fall that far. And this kind of price adjustment also means massive unemployment, probably dragging on for many years...

...this situation means that Europe’s single currency has in effect already failed. €300,000 in Germany is not the same as €300,000 in Italy or Spain, and there is no way to equalize values without years of wretched and ruinous pain.

There are lots of consequences, but the one that may cause the most trouble fastest has to do with banking. If a Spanish euro is really worth much less than a German euro, sooner or later bank deposits in Spain are going to be worth less than bank deposits in Germany. Intelligent people will realize this and start moving their bank deposits out of Spanish banks and into German or even non-eurozone banks; those who fail to do this stand to lose a lot of money when the system finally snaps...

And now is the time when we juxtapose! Mr. Peabody, set the Wayback Machine to January 7, 2002 and turn the channel to The Nightly Business Report, where The New York Times' Paul F. Krugman offered the following commentary:

So now Europe has a single currency. Should Americans care? At first, the euro won't make much of a difference to you and me. Vacations in Europe will be a bit easier to arrange, but they will also be a bit more expensive because the arrival of euro notes will give the currency a boost.

It will take years, maybe decades, before the impact of the euro really hits home. But then it will rock your world. The euro, you see, isn't mainly about economics...

For Europe's economy is as big as America's; Europe's technological sophistication is a match for our own; Europe's population is by and large better-educated. What that means is that soon, for the first time since World War II, we will face a political and economic equal - not an enemy, but another power that offers an alternative model of how a modern society can and should be run.

Europe shares many of our values, including a deep commitment to democracy. But it also disagrees with us about some things, including the appropriate level of taxes and social benefits. Until now, we haven't had to take those differences seriously; we were a superpower and they weren't. Now that may change, and I think that's all to the good. I love big, multicultural democracies; I love them so much I want to see two of them, so we can learn from each other. Viva la difference! I'm Paul Krugman.

But not to worry, gentle readers. Despite his train-wreck of a record -- including Enron and the "Housing Bubble", to name but a few -- Krugman can predict with absolute certainty the inconsequential ramifications of massive sovereign deficits as well as the dire environmental catastrophe that awaits us because of... Carbon Dioxide.

At least that's what passes for the intelligentsia on the Left would have you believe.