6.30.2011

Man who rapes world's poor as head of IMF might actually be innocent of raping maid

Whatever.

Maybe he was set up by rivals for the French presidency, or by international bankster interests. Hard to say. But it's hard to feel sympathy for the head of the dirty IMF bankster syndicate.

Greenspan: Bernanke sucks!

CNBC's Maria Bartiromo landed an exclusive interview with this century's most prolific serial killer, Alan Greenspan. You wouldn't believe the balls on this guy. He single-handedly destroys the U.S. economy, and then has the nerve to dump on the poor incompetent doofus brought in to clean up his mess.
The Federal Reserve's massive stimulus program had little impact on the U.S. economy besides weakening the dollar and helping U.S. exports, Federal Reserve Governor Alan Greenspan told CNBC Thursday.

In a blunt critique of his successor, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Greenspan said the $2 trillion in quantative easing over the past two years had done little to loosen credit and boost the economy.

"There is no evidence that huge inflow of money into the system basically worked," Greenspan said in a live interview.

No shit, Sherlock. And dumping water on Fukushima doesn't work either.

TSA FAIL

While 95-year-old American grannies are having their diapers searched and American toddlers are being groped, a guy from Nigeria, a nation known for spawning Muslim terrorists, is flying all over the country on fake IDs and expired boarding passes.

6.28.2011

Neal Obermeyer is a bad liar

One of the basic rules of political cartoons is that they're supposed to have a grain of truth in them to be funny and/or politically relevant. This lesson is totally lost on cartoonist Neal Obermeyer. Obermeyer, who lives in Omaha but somehow thinks himself qualified to comment on the California budget, is either completely clueless or a blatant partisan liar.

Obermeyer's recent cartoon in the San Diego Reader (yeah, they're hurting for cash and probably couldn't afford anyone else):


Governor Brown wants to steal your tax dollars from millionaires and billionaires and spend them on schools!

Granted, even if that were true, it wouldn't be very funny or witty. But it is so far from the truth one wonders if they even get California news in Omaha. Do they have the Internet there yet?

Brown did not propose any such thing. The three taxes Brown proposed raising and/or extending were the income tax, the sales tax, and the car tax. None of these taxes is targeted at "millionaires and billionaires." In fact, the 9.55% income tax kicked in at $47,000 for singles and $94,000 for families, hardly "millionaires and billionaires," and by far the highest income tax rate in the country for people at that income level. And anyone with even the slightest understanding of economics knows that sales taxes and car taxes are regressive, meaning they hit the poor the hardest. You think billionaires care about a few hundred bucks more on their car tax?

Fortunately, this is all a moot point as Brown and the Democrats just agreed to a budget with no tax increases or extensions, thus putting the lie to their previous claims about the end of the world if they didn't get their taxes passed.

6.26.2011

Debt limit predictions

Let me go out on a limb here and predict how this debt limit showdown will play out.

Boehner and the Republicans will talk tough all the way to the brink, then fold like a cheap suit and accept a deal that has something like $2 trillion in alleged spending cuts over ten years, all of which will be back-end loaded meaning no significant cuts before Election 2012, and which will not put the country on a fiscally sustainable path.

Not that I have a crystal ball. I've just seen this movie before.

Police state update

TSA makes 95-year-old woman dying of leukemia remove her diaper.

If you're not actively resisting and opposing the TSA, you're part of the problem.

6.24.2011

Courage, New Hampshire

A new TV pilot for a drama series set in colonial New Hampshire, made by Tea Party supporters and marketed with the help of SCTRC's Sarah Bond, got great coverage in the Hollywood Reporter.

Drudge also linked, and Temple of Mut has the details.

I'm looking forward to seeing the pilot on Netflix, and I hope the series gets picked up.

Let the people vote!

Government unions are pressing Jerry Brown to back off his promise to let the people vote -- because they realize people will probably vote FOR pension reform and AGAINST tax increases.

Cops - Lady Arrested for Filming

...apparently on her own property. Judge Napolitano is going to have a fit over this one.



HT: DailyBail.com

UPDATE: Multiple police cars show up to issue parking tickets at citizens' meeting about the arrest.

6.23.2011

"It's like the 1930′s met the 1970′s and had a LOVE CHILD!"

... that's Temple of Mut's headline describing the current economic debacle.

And along with a diagnosis of our Hoover-meets-Carter economy, she's got a five point plan to get us out of it.
1. Cut marginal individual tax rates.

2. Cut corporate tax rates to a flat 20%.

3. No unions.

4. Pass the Reins Act [Congressional oversight of Regulators Gone Wild!!!].

5. Do away with all federal “jobs programs”.

All excellent points. I'd add a full repeal of ObamaCare, as the costly mandates therein are a great reason for companies NOT to hire any more U.S. workers when it's much cheaper to outsource, automate, or offshore.

The Tribe has Spoken



From CNBC.

Time to Get a Gun

The lovely Miranda Lambert:



My neighbor’s car got stole last night right out of his driveway
We heard the dog ‘a barking, we never paid them any mind
And Mary says she’s gonna lock the door from now on when we go away
I’ve been walking around this farm wondering if it’s time

Time to get a gun, that’s what I been thinkin’
I could afford one if I did just a little less drinkin’
Time to put something between me and the sun
When the talking is over it’s time to get a gun

Last week a government man was there when I walked out of my back door
He said “I’m sorry to bother you ma’am” it don’t matter anymore
‘Cause even while we’re talking right here where we stand
They’re making plans for a four-lane highway and a big ole overpass

Time to get a gun, that’s what I been thinkin’
I could afford one if I did just a little less drinkin’
Time to put something between me and the sun
When the talking is over it’s time to get a gun

Mary says she’s worried about herself and her kids
She’s never known anybody had a gun and her daddy never did
Well I think it should be up to me ‘cause when it’s all said and done
Somebodys gotta walk into the crowd and I wanna be that one

Time to get a gun, that’s what I been thinkin’
I could afford one if I did just a little less drinkin’
Time to put something between me and the sun
When the talking is over it’s time to get a gun

When the party is over it’s time to get a gun

Greenspan's Body Count: Wayne Boswell

Greenspan is really picking up the pace these days, isn't he?

Today's episode of Greenspan's Body Count comes from Seattle, where 61-year-old real estate magnate Wayne Boswell saw his Stratford Group empire crumble before him.
[...] on April 1, a secretary arriving for work discovered a disturbing note on her desk. In it, Boswell explained that bad investments had left him bankrupt. According to police the note contained instructions on where to find his body.

Police found him in his car, with two bullet wounds to the chest, in the parking garage of the $1.5 million condo he shared with his wife overlooking the Seattle waterfront.

According to the police report, Boswell wrote that “his bad investments and trying to protect the clients he had sold bad investments to had bankrupted him.” He went on to say that he had “taken the dishonorable path out of this world.”
More than $1 million of client money was missing from Stratford Group trust accounts at the time of Boswell's suicide.

Greenspan's Body Count stands at 177.

6.22.2011

Government Confusion - Cigs

SFGate:
Federal officials are taking off the gloves: They're pitting a mouthful of rotting teeth against a camel, and they're banking on the teeth.

For decades, tobacco companies have relied on flashy packaging and iconic images like Joe Camel to sell their cigarettes. Now, for the first time in 25 years, the U.S. government is forcing them to overhaul the packages and blanket the labels with graphic images, like a mouth ravaged by smoking, to warn of the hazards of cigarettes.
Instead of making the killer product illegal, the government is going to put scary pictures on the boxes to let you know how bad they are. WTF?!? Hey let's not be hypocritical govwhores, either you make bad things illegal or you legalize the bad things, and put scary pictures on them. I say let's do the later.

Let's legalize cocaine and put a picture of Robert Downey Jr. going down on James Spader on the package; let's legalize meth and show a toothless freak show selling his mother's cancer medicine just to pay for his next hit on the package; let's legalize heroin and show a picture of Lane Staley's emaciated, lifeless body with a needle stuck in his arm on the package; let's legalize pot and show pictures of happy people on the package.

LET'S AT LEAST BE CONSISTENT!

Good Party Members Get Rewards

...bad party members, that is renters and those that live within their means, are lucky they aren't locked up in Wyoming.

Good party members that think they deserve to stay in a house they can't afford, for whatever reason, can go here for help: Communism is sharing in other people's wealth. What do good party members get:
Beginning today, homeowners in 27 states can file preliminary applications for the Emergency Homeowner's Loan Program (EHLP). Eligible homeowners can obtain interest-free loans of up to $50,000 to help cover mortgage expenses for up to two years.
I'd like to get a new car but I don't want to pay interest on the loan. I wonder if there is also a government program for me, renter loser? Or I could just fill out the HUD documents incorrectly to get the loan....nahhh, no one would ever do that, and besides, I'm sure the government would crack down any corruption so that is probably unreasonable.

War Machine Candidates

GW got us into 2 endless wars. Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama is getting us into a third, and now these 2 losers want to support some baby killing action as well:
In an effort aimed at countering a House Republican plan to defund American military operations in Libya, Senators John Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a Democrat, and John McCain, a Republican, announced the introduction of a joint resolution on Tuesday authorizing the limited use of United States Armed Forces in Libya.
Obama and McCain both work for the same masters just as Kerry would have continued GW's mission had he had an abbreviated stay. There are no choices, just the perception of choices so you filthy workers think you have some say. Wrong copper top.

Mish:
The sad state of affairs is that when it comes to the bailouts, budgets, and warmongering trifecta, things would not be much different under president McCain than we see right now under president Obama.

There are many reasons for this, but at the top of the list are campaign contributions from bankers, warmongers, homebuilders, etc, to candidates of both parties.

Does any candidate really want reform? The answer is "Yes, until they are elected and start receiving campaign contributions."

6.21.2011

Greenspan's Body Count: Attorney Thomas J. Fuchs, sons Sean and Kyle Fuchs

Alan Greenspan has been on a rampage in San Diego recently.

Today's killing happened in the suburb of Bonita near Chula Vista.
Police believe that a man shot and killed his two teenage sons and then set their Chula Vista home on fire Tuesday morning before turning a gun on himself.

Suicide notes at the home indicated that the father planned the deaths, the region’s fourth murder suicide since January and the third invovling children since last month, Chula Vista police Lt. Lon Turner said.

[...]

Neighbor Pat Valdivia described the man and his sons who lived at the home as the “perfect dad and sons.” He said the boys were always outside playing basketball and football and that they frequently had friends over.

Other neighbors had similar comments about the family. What could drive a loving and devoted family man to such horrors? Regular readers of Greenspan's Body Count already know the answer: debt and Greenspan's economic collapse.

The house at 3641 Bonita Verde Drive is listed as the residence and business address of Thomas J. Fuchs, a lawyer-turned-business-coach. The house, which Fuchs bought in 1994 for $275,000, and which had risen to nearly $1 million in Greenspan's bubble, is now worth about $450,000. There are indications that Fuchs was behind on payments, and he likely sucked out enough equity to hang himself. But even if he hadn't gotten in trouble with the Home ATM, it looks like Fuchs got suckered in by the higher education bubble. He claims a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from little-known Alliant University, which requires 150 units at $1010 per unit! $150,000 of student loans for a no-name degree so you can become a business coach?

May the boys rest in peace, and may Alan Greenspan ponder every day the economic and personal devastation he caused America.

Greenspan's Body Count stands at 176.

10 Days Until the Schwarzenegger Tax Hikes Expire!

On this first day of summer and longest day of the year, we have something else to celebrate: the end of the vile Schwarzenegger tax hikes. Schwarzenegger raised car taxes, income taxes, and sales taxes in a craven move to make friends among legislative Democrats and state employee unions.

The income tax expired Jan. 1, and you'll notice that difference when you file your taxes next year. The car tax and sales tax increases expire July 1.

And thank goodness for Governor Jerry Brown, who has vowed not to increase taxes without a vote of the people! If asked, of course, the people would vote down another tax increase by a 2-to-1 margin like they did two years ago when asked the exact same thing on Prop 1A.

6.20.2011

Reader's letter smackdown of Economist on gold

The fine art of British insults:
SIR – The argument that the gold price is far too high for a metal with few industrial uses is a common, and weak, one (“The wacky world of gold”, June 4th). You wrote that, “If investors ever wake up and notice that the yellow metal is little more useful than tulips, the gold bugs will be burned.” But industrial usefulness does not define value, and here’s a simple example: take one £20 note and consider the paper’s industrial applications. Now burn it. See what I mean?

Investors in gold understand that its geological rarity and industrial uselessness combine to produce an incredibly stable stock quantity, the exact utility that savers demand from sound money and something they’ll not be getting any time soon from a major currency. Or tulips.

The Economist would do better to wake up, and try to understand why it has been consistently wrong about gold, instead of being condescending to investors who have been right for decades.

Paul Tustain
Chief executive
BullionVault
London

6.19.2011

Greenspan's Body Count: Christopher Moyer, Irina Moyer, Dillon Moyer

Alan Greenspan struck this weekend in Warrington, Pennsylvania:
After killing his family, Christopher Moyer, 44, a computer consultant who worked from home, drove his Toyota Camry to Hatboro, put his head on the SEPTA track at the Meadow Avenue crossing, and waited to die.

[...]

There was no history of domestic violence between Moyer and his wife, but they had had financial difficulties. According to court records, the state filed a $2,228.20 lien against the couple's house in September 2010. They had avoided foreclosure in 2006 and paid off a federal lien filed that year as well.

The Moyers got carried away in Greenspan's bubble and paid $451,470 in 2003 for a 4-bedroom tract home they couldn't afford.

Greenspan's Body Count stands at 173.

Nobel Peace Prize winner kills toddlers

Nine civilians, including two toddlers, killed in Obama's unauthorized war on Libya.

I'd say it's about time for a war crimes trial.

Greenspan's Body Count? Renata Klein

LA Times:
The body of a Santa Clarita woman who disappeared last week has been found in the Angeles National Forest.

Investigators confirmed Friday that the body was that of 59-year-old Renata Klein. Her husband, Dusan Klein, also 59, was still missing, along with their 10-year-old black-and-white cocker spaniel, Cindy.

The Kleins lived at 28119 Wildwind Road, Canyon Country. Their modest suburban condo, now worth $300,000, was "worth" more than $500,000 in Greenspan's bubble. What do you want to bet Dusan and Renata fell for the seductive lure of the Home ATM and got in over their heads in debt?

UPDATE: Can I call it or what? Laren said investigators have since learned the couple’s home in the 28100 block of Wildwind Road was in foreclosure. Of course, Dusan is "not a suspect" in the legal sense that police usually say the person is "not a suspect" until they have him in custody.

6.18.2011

Genentech employee day at Pac Bell Park

There's a Journey cover band called Daughtry playing.

Update: Woo-hoo!!! Sheryl Crow!



A boy band called Maroon 5 is rumored to be next.

6.17.2011

Travel Tips for the new Police State



The next time you're flying out of San Diego, choose Southwest Airlines. Their gates do not have Rapescan nudie scanners, so you don't have to choose between being radiated and being groped. United Airlines gates have the Rapescan machines.

6.16.2011

Notes from WSOP

Our friend Charlie lays out Everything You Need to Know About Tournament Poker.

The Empire Strikes Back

The worst thing that happened to our political machine was the collapse of the Soviet Union. Fortunately for Halliburton and the military industrial complex, Osama came along to take up the reigns as the new Darth Vader. Then he died in 2003 and then again in 2011 and we're left with a void and a reason to enrich the corporate machine at the cost of our freedom and our children's future.

Have no fear, Al-Zawahiri is here.


Again when I read news articles like this the Neville Brothers - Sons and Daughters goes through my head:
We think we’re safe at home with our bumper stickers saying just say no
We give up a few freedoms here and there in the name of a squeaky clean America
Now they’ve got us hypnotized and hysterical, now they’ve got us hypnotized and hysterical
Screaming for blood and justice
now they’ve got us hypnotized and hysterical
Screaming for blood and justice
They show us the faces of hatred over and over, a new one every week
Could be Manuel Noriega, could be the Ayatollah, any old scapegoat will do

It’s freedom of speech as long as you don’t say too much.

You can’t stop running water
You can’t kill the fire that burns inside
Don’t deny our flesh and blood
And forsake our sons and daughters…

6.15.2011

It's not the breed, it's the owner

You hear that all the time. Well here's another example of a bad owner.
SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. – Police say a Virginia man found dead in his home was killed by his pit bull.

The Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Department says in a news release that an autopsy found indications of paw marks on the victim's body and defensive wounds on the fingers and hands.

Police say the body of 38-year-old David Quyon Haigler was found Saturday in his home by his 18-year-old son.

Say, where all the bad labrador owners?

War is Peace

... at least when the Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning Peacemonger-in-Chief says so.

A bipartisan group of Congressional Representatives is trying to hold on to the last shred of Constitutional authority over waging war. The conventional wisdom is that Obama will ignore any Constitutional checks and balances he finds inconvenient.

Crashflation?

The word stagflation has been bandied about regarding our current economic situation in comparison to the 70s. I wonder if that word is too mild? There are obviously differences from that period, not the least being the amount of crushing debt that exists in the world. When we left the 70s the US Government had something like $900 billion in debt. We've increased that by an incredible amount in 30 years while at the same time our nations productivity has steadily been outsourced offshore. We've increased entitlement spending, started 2 wars(that are still raging) and are about to get into a 3rd, and all the while the Fed has been printing trillions out of thin air to maintain stable(ly increasing) prices and to keep unemployment low even though using real metrics the unemployment rate is around 22% right now.

So are we in stagflation territory? Time will tell but we may also be primed for Crashflation. Bill Bonner offer this analogy for our current situation:
The economy is caught between an unstoppable force on one side and an immovable object on the other. Between a Great Correction…and awful money-printing. Deflation and inflation.
But what if they both win?

6.14.2011

Sucks to be you

... if you're in a car in North County San Diego during Del Mar Fair season. Left Coast Rebel feels the pain.

On the other hand, it was awesome to cruise by the miles of bumper-to-bumper parking lot on my trusty bicycle.







Problem solving, America style

What do you do for security when you have a remote Alaskan town that launches one airline flight a day during the summer?

Well duh, you fly four TSA screeners out there every day to grope people.
Because the tiny landlocked city of Gustavus, Alaska has a seasonal airport that is open only during the summer months and services only one Alaska Airlines flight per day, TSA has awarded a $40,000 contract to a small Juneau-based airline to fly four TSA security screeners from Juneau to Gustavus and back again, each day for 77 consecutive days.

Treasury whines about cost of Ron Paul's proposed Fort Knox audit



CNBC:
The Treasury document says it would cost about $15 million to conduct an audit. The process would take about 30 minutes to verify the gold content of each bar, or 350,000 man hours; to do that would would take 400 people working for six months, according to the document.

$15 million??? Are you kidding me??? The Fed is printing $2.5 billion a day. That's less than nine minutes of Fed printing. The Federal government spends $3.5 trillion a year. $15 million is less than a minute and a half of government spending. Obama's Porkulus was $800 billion. $15 million is less than 0.002% of Porkulus.

And 400 people working for six months sounds like shovel-ready jobs to me. Wasn't the Obama Administration for stimulus before they were against it?

6.13.2011

Cliff Asness on the economy: Uncertainty isn't the problem; Obama is the problem

Asness has a way of being right about almost everything. Today's WSJ editorial is no exception. On how the current lack of business investment and hiring has nothing to do with "uncertainty" and everything to do with known bad policies:
I will tell you the stimulus was wasteful and politicized, and the American people, not being idiots, know they will have to pay for it eventually. People adjust their plans to account for the additional debt heaped on them, meaning lower investment and consumption.

I will also tell you Dodd-Frank, with its enshrining of too big to fail and its large regulatory costs, is an albatross. I will add that ObamaCare's gigantic new entitlement has hurt. I will throw in that massive additional regulatory costs being foisted upon business is an extra drain on the economy. I would definitely say that the disregard for law during the auto-company "bankruptcies" has long-lasting negative effects. I'd even throw in that the president's demonization of business has been harmful. Finally, I'd say the expected tax increases, even if only on the "super rich"—defined as anyone still gainfully employed—weigh upon us.

Then he goes all John Lennon on us:
Now let's go the opposite way and consider good policies surrounded by uncertainty. Imagine we will move from here toward free-market health-care reforms appropriate for a free people. We will reduce government spending and our debt, letting people spend their own money as they see fit. We will lower taxes across the board for individuals and businesses, and we'll reduce and simplify deductions.

Imagine even more that we'll make grown-up decisions and reform entitlements to levels we might possibly afford. Now imagine that while we know the direction of each of these policy changes, alas, we are very uncertain about how far these wonderful ideas will go. Imagine this uncertainty is even higher than it is around today's bad policies. Would these changes, uncertainty and all, make things better or worse?

ObamaCare alone is enough to make companies not want to hire any new employees. It's a huge and expensive new mandate that companies can easily avoid by outsourcing and offshoring. Why would you take on expensive, and increasingly so, health care liabilities that only apply to U.S. workers when you can outsource or build a plant in Asia, Mexico, or Canada? This goes back to my General Theory of Liberalism, that liberals don't understand incentives. If you make it more expensive to hire here, you'll get less hiring here!

The Supreme Court overturning ObamaCare in its entirety would be not only the Constitutionally correct thing to do. It would also be a good first step toward restoring an environment where businesses can invest and hire.

6.09.2011

Did I miss the appropriation bill?

Pentagon sees Libya military costs soar:

US military operations in Libya are on course to cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than the Pentagon estimated, according to figures obtained by the Financial Times.

Robert Gates, the outgoing secretary of defence, said last month that the Pentagon expected to spend “somewhere in the ball park of $750m” in the 2011 fiscal year as part of efforts to protect the Libyan people.

But according to a Pentagon memo which includes a detailed update on the progress and pace of operations, by mid-May US operations in Libya had cost $664m, a figure confirmed by the Department of Defence.

By "protect" the Libyan people they mean "bomb" them, of course.

World Collapse Explained in 3 Minutes




Check out Chris Martenson's piece called "Death by Debt".

6.08.2011

Obama lied, your current health care coverage died

Remember how Obama promised that if you liked your current employer-based health care coverage, you could keep it?

Yeah, well, he was lying.

WSJ:
A report by McKinsey & Co. has found that 30% of employers are likely to stop offering workers health insurance after the bulk of the Obama administration's health overhaul takes effect in 2014.

The findings come as a growing number of employers are seeking waivers from an early provision in the overhaul that requires them to enrich their benefits this year. At the end of April, the administration had granted 1,372 employers, unions and insurance companies one-year exemptions from the law's requirement that they not cap annual benefit payouts below $750,000 per person a year.

But the law doesn't allow for such waivers starting in 2014, leaving all those entities—and other employers whose plans don't meet a slate of new requirements—to change their offerings or drop coverage.

I hope you enjoy the DMV-style service from your new government health care.

Anthony Weiner Facebook chat logs

As much as you've enjoyed Weinergate, it gets better.

It starts a little slow. Scroll down to March 3 if you're in a rush.

6.07.2011

Zimbabwe Ben Confidence FAIL

The markets were on track for their first up day in a week until Bernanke opened his BS-hole with just 15 minutes to go before the close.



The full text of his speech is here, but you already know the highlights:

- There isn't any inflation.
- The inflation is not my fault.
- The easy money flogging will continue until morale improves.

6.05.2011

Greenspan's Body Count: Judy "Renee" Petersen

Today's episode of Greenspan's Body Count comes from Greene, Iowa, where the names have changed but the story will be familiar.
According to the Sheriff’s office, 36 year-old Judy Renee Petersen was found murdered around 9:00 p.m. in her home in Greene.

Judy’s husband, 39 year-old Thomas Petersen is the suspected killer and drove off with the couple’s two-year-old child Jacob issuing an Amber Alert.

That's one talented toddler! I've got my high school diploma and I wouldn't have a clue how to go about issuing an Amber Alert.

What was the source of problems in Thomas and Judy's lives? Loyal GBC readers already know.
No motive has been found for the murder, but online court records show Judy and Thomas had previously been in court over their mortgage payment.

Greenspan's Body Count stands at 170.

Syria continues massacring protesters, Obama keeps bombing Libya

NYT:
Syrian tanks took up positions outside the city of Hama on Saturday, where tens of thousands of people took to the streets to mourn the deaths of at least 65 protesters gunned down by security forces there the day before.

The government’s violent crackdown against a three-month-old popular uprising continued, with helicopter gunships killing 10 people in a neighboring province and residents of Hama bracing for a military assault that would be the first on the city since the government bombed it in 1982, killing at least 10,000 people.


Meanwhile, it's been a month and a half since Obama condemned Syria for killing demonstrators.

Obama has yet to explain why attacking Libya without Congressional authorization is OK, but attacking Syria is not.

Does Obama play eenie-meenie-minie-moe to decide what countries to attack?

6.04.2011

The Cove

I just watched The Cove about the annual slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. Please watch it. It's the story of a group of rogue environmentalists waging a guerrilla campaign in enemy territory to expose Japan's dirty little secret.

I used to think this South Park episode (full episode at link, relevant clip below) was a joke, or at least overstated. It's not.



Taiji was hit to a small extent by the tsunami, but none of the dolphin killers' boats was destroyed and the slaughter is expected to resume this fall.

You can donate to Save Japan Dolphins here.

6.03.2011

GD II update

Truly horrible economic data this morning, extending and worsening the string of bad data we've had the last few weeks.
* May Nonfarm Payrolls 54K vs 169K consensus; prior revised to 232K from 244K

* May Nonfarm Private Payroll 83K vs 180K consensus

* March Nonfarm payrolls revised to 194K from 235K

* May Average Workweek 33.6 vs 34.3 consensus

Fascism's not working, folks. We're only digging ourselves deeper into debt making the future pain worse, and even that's not making anything any better today.

6.02.2011

Moody's slams Obama request for no-strings debt ceiling increase, threatens downgrade

Wow. The normally reserved Moody's is letting it rip:
Moody's had previously indicated that its stable outlook on the Aaa rating was based on the assumption that meaningful progress would be made within the next eighteen months in adopting measures to reverse the country's upward debt trajectory. The debt limit negotiations represent a real near-term opportunity for agreement on a plan for fiscal consolidation. If this current opportunity passes, Moody's believes that the likelihood of anything significant being accomplished before the next presidential election is reduced, in part because the two parties each hopes to capture both a congressional majority and the presidency in the 2012 election, after which the winning party could achieve its own agenda. Therefore, failure to reach an agreement as part of the current negotiations would increase the likelihood of a negative outlook in the near term, because the upward debt trajectory would still be in place. At present, this appears the most likely outcome, in Moody's opinion.

Quite contrary to Timmy the Tax Cheat's threats that unless he gets a blank check the markets will freak out, Moody's is saying the markets will freak out if you give him a blank check.

6.01.2011

Right, left unite against Obama's illegal war on Libya

And Boehner blocks a vote:
A group of both liberals and conservatives — defying the leaders of both parties — threw their support behind a bill to pull the U.S. military out of the Libya operation. That prospect led GOP leaders to shelve the bill before it came to a vote.

That episode signaled how abruptly the politics of U.S. warmaking have changed, as the intervention in Libya follows a bloody, weary decade in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Now, a Democratic president has asked the country to support a new military action and missed a legal deadline that required him to get Congress’s authorization.

In response, an antiwar movement has appeared in an unlikely place: a House dominated by the Republican right.

“We are in control in the House, and we want something on the floor,” said Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.), one of a number of conservatives who called Wednesday for a showdown with Obama. “Put a resolution up, and let us express . . . to the president that ‘you no longer have the authority of this Congress to conduct military operations in that country.’ ”

Since the beginning of the Libyan operation, congressional leaders have been quietly supportive of Obama — but mostly just quiet. In the Senate, a resolution in support of the president is still waiting for a vote.

In the House, GOP leaders had said little on the subject, even after Obama missed a deadline set in the 1973 War Powers Resolution. That law required him to obtain congressional permission within 60 days, a deadline that passed last month.

“His intention is not to undermine the commander in chief, at a time when we have troops in harm’s way,” Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), said Wednesday.

Ruling Class: Euro edition

The Europeans, you see, are not so different from us.

While imposing austerity to the point of riots on the little people, here is how Europe's Ruling Class lives.

From tomorrow's Telegraph (and no, I won't tell you the race results or the stock prices):
THE European Commission has spent more than £8 million on private jet travel, holiday resorts and cocktail parties, an investigation has found.

Commissioners travelled in limousines, stayed in five-star hotels and bought gifts including Tiffany jewellery as their governments faced savage budget cuts and rising EU taxes.

An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism into spending by the EU executive has shown that more than €7.5 million (£6.6 million) was used on private jet travel for commissioners between 2006 and last year.

Commissioners stayed at resorts in locations as far-flung as Papua New Guinea, Ghana and Vietnam and spent €300,000 on cocktail parties, including an event in Amsterdam costing €75,000 which was described as "a night filled with wonder like no other".

The Commission spent thousands hiring orchestras to play at parties, while guest speakers at its events were presented with expensive gifts, including cufflinks, fountain pens and jewellery.

A further £118,000 was paid for limousines to chauffeur commissioners between official engagements.

Conservative ministers and MEPs said the commission was acting "like a medieval monarchy", days after it demanded a budget increase of 4.9 per cent which would cost Britons £3 billion a year.


HT: JF

Happy Super Tuesday!