Police in Austin, Texas, Deploy WASP to Reconnoiter Suspect's House

Story here in The Washington Post:

So the Texas agents did what no state or local law enforcement agency had done before in a high-risk operation: They launched a drone. A bird-size device called a Wasp floated hundreds of feet into the sky and instantly beamed live video to agents on the ground. The SWAT team stormed the house and arrested the suspect. ... Among state and local agencies, the Texas Department of Public Safety has been the most active user of drones for high-risk operations. Since the search outside Austin [in 2009] ... the agency has run six operations with drones, all near the southern border, where officers conducted surveillance of drug and human traffickers. ... In a 1986 Supreme Court case, justices were asked whether a police department violated constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure after it flew a small plane above the back yard of a man suspected of growing marijuana. The court ruled that "the Fourth Amendment simply does not require the police traveling in the public airways at this altitude to obtain a warrant in order to observe what is visible to the naked eye."

WASPs are made by AeroVironment, Inc.

You will have nowhere to hide from the tyranny, unless you stop it now.

Obama: When Life Begins Was "Above My Pay Grade"

But not now:

Today marks the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protects women's health and reproductive freedom 

[at the expense of someone else's life],

and affirms a fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters

[like buying health insurance, giving food and water to the chronically hospitalized, eating hamburgers and french fries for lunch, smoking cigarettes around your kids, spanking them, purchasing and using trigger locks . . . and once upon a time selling your slaves' children to the highest bidder].

I am committed to protecting this constitutional right


[except for the aborted child]

[which by the way was never intended by the framers of the 14th Amendment, but I digress].

I also remain committed to policies, initiatives, and programs that help prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant women and mothers, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption

[all of which are an intrusion on private family matters].

And on this anniversary, I hope that we will recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights, the same freedoms, and the same opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams

[except for fatherhood and the right also to kill their unborn children].

-- Barack Insane Obama, January 22, 2011, here

In August of 2008, here, deciding when a baby is entitled to human rights was above his pay grade.

Obviously it isn't now. A baby isn't entitled to protections. A father isn't either. Only a woman is. That's what Obama is all about, not equality of rights, but special rights for protected classes of human beings. And that makes him no different than the slave holders of the past. 

Obama: "Punished With a Baby"

"When it comes specifically to HIV/AIDS, the most important prevention is education, which should include -- which should include abstinence education and teaching the children -- teaching children, you know, that sex is not something casual."

"But it should also include -- it should also include other, you know, information about contraception because, look, I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old."

"I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."


-- Barack Obama, March, 2008, quoted here

They applauded for that in Pennsylvania (here).

Philadelphia: Abortion Hellhole

Where eugenics is wrapped in feminist clothing.

The details here are unspeakable, like Birkenau.

We kid ourselves that our indifference is different than Philadelphia's. Our silence is complicity.

List of Elected Democrats Reported to be Packing Pistols

Rep. Steve Cohen, D (TN-9), here

Sen. Jim Webb, D (VA), here

List of Elected Republicans Reported to be Packing Pistols

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R (UT-3), here

Rep. Allen West, R (FL-22), here

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R (TN-7), here

Rep. Steve Womack, R (AR-3), here

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R (TX-19), here

Pistol Packing US Representatives in North Carolina

Is your representative armed and dangerous?

Representative Renee Ellmers (R, NC-2) and Representative Heath Shuler (D, NC-11) both pack heat, according to this story from an NBC affiliate.

Now that's what I call self-government!

Competition is Always an Act of Aggression

Pat McIlheran of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel likes the new governor's welcome signs at the borders and crafts this little gem at the end, aimed, like the signs, at the higher tax regimes in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan:

"Competition is always an act of aggression toward systems that can survive only by coercion."

Full story here.

While Obama spent at least $9 million on signs bragging about stimulus projects, the new Wisconsin governor spent about $1,500 on 20 signs which advertize Wisconsin is open for business. And the best part may be that the new signs cover up the spot where the former governor's name appears.

Democrats' Map Targeting Republicans (with targets) in 2009 Still in Evidence on Facebook

Here's the link, and here's a good history of the story at Verum Serum.

closeup

Long Term Gold Chart 1975-2010

$200 gold in 1975 should be closer to $800 in 2010 when adjusted for inflation using CPI.

WTI Crude 1975-2010

$11 oil in 1975 adjusted for inflation using CPI would be about $44 in 2010.

New Hawaii Governor Can't Produce Obama's Hospital-Generated Birth Certificate

So says the UK Daily Mail here:

Pressure was mounting on Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie today amid increasing confusion over whether President Obama was born there.

Abercrombie said on Tuesday that an investigation had unearthed papers proving Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.

He told Honolulu's Star-Advertiser: 'It actually exists in the archives, written down,' he said.

But it became apparent that what had been discovered was an unspecified listing or notation of Obama's birth that someone had made in the state archives and not a birth certificate.

And in the same interview Abercrombie suggested that a long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate for Barack Obama may not exist within the vital records maintained by the Hawaii Department of Health.

Neil Abercrombie may rue the day he ever brought this up.

Repudiation of Obamacare by US House After Only 10 Months is Historically Singular

So says The Wall Street Journal here, adding that its repeal was by more House members than was its passage:

More House Members—245 in total—voted to rescind the new entitlement than the 219 Democrats who voted to create it last March. That partisan majority narrowly prevailed over all 178 Republicans and some 38 Democrats. The three Democrats who favored repeal yesterday confirmed the bipartisan opposition to the kind of vast new social program that historically has been built on a national bipartisan consensus.

US House Repeals Obamacare 245-189: Democrats Become the Party of No

Well now. That didn't take long. And the Republicans didn't ruin our Christmas or Easter in repealing it, like the Democrats did in passing it. BRAVO!

Politico.com has the story here, noting that only 3 Democrats joined the Republicans in voting Yes:

Boren, OK-2

McIntyre, NC-7

Ross, AR-4.

The Roll Call is here.

Giffords, AZ-8, did not vote.

Latest Democrat's Nazi Remark Reminds Us It's a Family Tradition Made Famous By Nancy Pelosi

Dating to August 6, 2009, when health care reform was being protested at townhall meetings across the country, and Pelosi implied that the protestors were Nazis.

She and Steny Hoyer also called the protestors "un-American" in a famous op-ed in USA Today here.

For the swastikas video go here, and for the transcription go here:

Interviewer: Do you think there’s legitimate grassroot opposition going on here?

Pelosi: I think they’re Astroturf… You be the judge. They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.

Tennessee Democrat Didn't Get the Civil Discourse Memo

ABC News has the story here:

“They say it's a government takeover of health care, a big lie just like Goebbels. You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, and eventually, people believe it.  Like blood libel.  That's the same kind of thing.

“The Germans said enough about the Jews and people believed it--believed it and you have the Holocaust.  We heard on this floor, government takeover of health care.  Politifact said the biggest lie of 2010 was a government takeover of health care because there is no government takeover."

-- Representative Steve Cohen, D-TN

TSA Warns Photography Can Cross The Line Into Surveillance!

An official from the Transportation Security Administration told Local 10 [Miami] that if photography is stepping over the line into surveillance, TSA agents should alert police, which is what happened in Aboyade's case.

Oh, really!

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

Story here.

At least they caught an illegal.

Arizona Democrats Stirred the Libertarian Pot Loughner Drank From

Was Jared Loughner moved to kill because he thought fellow Jew Gabrielle Giffords' political tactics were manipulative?

He certainly thought the US government was manipulating people through language, through math, through fiat money, even through religion, the message of which is represented on coin and currency. That's why Loughner said he wouldn't use money not backed by gold and silver to pay debts, and why he wouldn't trust in God. The entire structure of reality was manipulated as far as Loughner was concerned, including 911, a conspiracy of lies orchestrated by the government.

So did Loughner discover that Giffords, too, had manipulated the election in their own district? Is that why he waited to buy his gun until almost a month after Giffords won?

Consider that Giffords' fellow Democrats barraged her district late in October 2010 with a mailing promoting the third party Libertarian candidate, who ended up bleeding off over 10,000 votes in the race, which Giffords won by less than 3,700 votes over Republican challenger Jesse Kelly.

The Arizona Daily Star broke the story here, reporting on it just days before the November 2010 election. In it, it quoted Jennifer Johnson, spokeswoman for Arizona's Democratic Party, as saying:

“It’s about letting voters know their choices, and when it comes to tea party ideals and knowing the Constitution, Jesse Kelly doesn’t hold a candle to Steve Stoltz. So we are simply letting voters know about their choices in this race.”

The strategy obviously worked . . . a little too well, for Giffords and her fellow victims.

WBZ-TV Claims Blogger Who Wrote "1 Down, 534 to Go" is a Libertarian

First we have Bush-hater and truther-inspired son of a Jewess Jared Loughner spouting atheism and hard money, ideas commonly conjoined only in Libertarian circles, and now we get a self-described Libertarian applauding the shooting of Jewish Congresswoman Giffords in a blog post entitled "1 Down, 534 to Go."

And still no one is calling attention to the Libertarian connection, because the left wants to paint the whole right with that broad brush, and because the right knows that the Tea Party is half Libertarian but needs its support.

Libertarianism is soulless, and neither left nor right should make a pact with that devil.

Read the WBZ-TV story and watch the video here.

Federal Reserve Arrogates Power in Third Mandate

The financial blogs are all abuzz over Ben Bernanke's comments last week in which he matter of factly points to a rising stock market as proof that purchase of treasuries by the Fed is helping the economy.

James Saft for Reuters is the latest to comment on the remark by Bernanke:

“Our policies have contributed to a stronger stock market, just as they did in March of 2009, when we did the last iteration (of quantitative easing). The S and P 500 is up about 20 percent plus and the Russell 2000 is up 30 pct plus.” ...

While we have known for months that the Fed was targeting asset prices with QE, it really is shocking to hear it enunciated so clearly. ...

The Federal Reserve is deeply compromised by doing this; it is two thirds of the way down a slippery slope and the mud is starting to fall from above.

This describes what is just the flip side of the growing American fascist police state under Obama's Department of Homeland Security. Call it Corporatism if you wish. State Capitalism if you must. The plain fact is we have good old fashioned National Socialism, and its scapegoats are the so-called right wing extremists, the new Jews. The black is calling the kettle pot.

The difference this time is we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. 

Denise in Houston Tells Laura Ingraham Democrats Patronize Blacks All of the Time

In the call of the day this morning to Laura's show, posted here, a black woman named Denise unloads on Democrats and Obama:

I don't need Republicans to like me ...

Democrats patronize blacks all of the time ...

They only show up at election time. They're just hypocrites. I'd like to give all of them the big ten toe salute from Denise . . . kick all of them . . . right in their behinds, 'cause they're nothing but phonies. ...

They say the church is loaded with hypocrites, but whenever you show up there's one extra there. So [Obama] can just stay at home and save himself some trouble.

Call of the decade more like it. The audio at the link above has to be listened to, to be properly appreciated.

Mm. Mm. Mm.

Obama Laughed Out Loud When Wanda Sykes Hoped Rush Limbaugh's Kidneys Failed

Remember this from the White House Correspondents' Dinner, May 9, 2009?

Transcript:

WANDA SYKES: Rush Limbaugh, one of your big critics. Uh, boy, Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails.

You know, so you're saying, 'I hope America fails.' You're like, 'I don't care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.' He just wants the country to fail.

To me, that's treason. He's not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying.

You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight.

Too much? But you're laughing inside. I know you're laughing.

Obama wasn't "laughing inside." He was laughing openly at Sykes' ugly remarks.

SYKES: Rush Limbaugh -- 'I hope the country the fails.' I hope his kidneys fail. How 'bout that?

He needs a little waterboarding. That's what he needs.

Wow.

I'm not surprised that Sykes would say that stuff; but I am surprised that Obama would allow himself to be seen laughing at such horrible remarks.

The above from Freedom Eden here.

See it here and here.

Additional commentary in The UK Telegraph here by Toby Harnden:

Hard to take from the man who promised a new era of civility and elevated debate in Washington.

Thanks to Democrats Obamacare Stands for Inequality

How do you receive an exemption to the job-killing health care law? It's simple: all you have to do is become politically connected. ...

Some of the administration's closest allies — including 43 unions — were quickly told that they didn't have to comply with the law. The latest count is that 222 unions and corporations have been granted waivers to portions of the health care law by President Obama's health secretary. The list includes names like the Service Employees International Union and McDonald's. ...

Families in Michigan are still asking "how does the health care law impact me?" Well, the unfortunate truth is that by 2014, every American will be required by law to carry government-designed health insurance plans that will cost at least $2,100 more than current plans. Choice and competition in health insurance will be severely limited. Doctors and hospitals will be handcuffed by new federal mandates. And without a waiver from every new mandate included in the law, most Americans will find that government-run health care is not "reform."

-- US Representative Mike Rogers, Republican, Brighton, representing Michigan’s 8th District.

Read his full opinion in The Detroit News here.

President of the United States? "Punish Our Enemies"?

No, by his own admission, he views some of us as his personal enemies, and intends us harm:

"We’re going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us."

He views his supporters similarly, not as fellow Americans, but as his personal friends whom he'll reward with benefits extracted by force of taxation from the rest of us. How many tax cheats were there again in the White House? 41? 42?!

The president was quoted here, in case you were wondering, last October.

So . . . to us that makes him what? Surely not a president like any we've ever known. And traffic cop with a radar gun doesn't quite capture it, either, does it?

The word "tyrant"does come to mind, but I repeat myself.

In India after the November 2 debacle for his party, he remained unchastened and needed all 750 rooms at the Taj Mahal, at your expense.

A transformed country, after all, requires a transformed executive. A little election wasn't going to change that.

What New Tone? Obama Introduced Biden in 2008 by Tearing Down Cheney

Obama has been a hypocrite and a liar about "ugly partisanship" from the very beginning:

After decades -- after decades of steady work across the aisle, I know [Joe Biden] he'll be able to help me turn the page on the ugly partisanship in Washington so we can bring Democrats and Republicans together to pass an agenda that works for the American people.

And instead of secret energy task forces attacking -- stacked with big oil and a vice president that twists the facts and shuts the American people out, I know that Joe Biden will give us some real straight talk. ...

We know what we're going to get from the other side -- four more years of the same out of touch policies that created an economic disaster at home, a disastrous foreign policy abroad, four more years of the same divisive politics that's all about tearing people down instead of lifting the country up.

We cannot afford more of the same. I am running for president, because that's a future I don't accept for my daughters, and I don't accept it for your children...

... and I don't accept it for the United States of America. It is time for the change that the American people need.

Now with Joe Biden at my side, I am confident we can take this country in a new direction, that we are ready to overcome the adversity of the last eight years, that we won't just win this election in November.

We will restore that fair shot at your dreams that is at the core of who Joe Biden is, and I am, and what America is as a nation.

-- Barack Obama, Springfield, IL, August 23, 2008, here

NY Times Paints Loughner and Hard Money Libertarianism as Right Wing Extreme

The leftist ridicule offensive continues, designed to preoccupy the opposition and get the right fighting amongst themselves over who belongs and who doesn't, while the left presses on for new gun control measures and suppression of free speech.

Notice the elision going on in the first passage here:

He became an echo chamber for stray ideas, amplifying, for example, certain grandiose tenets of a number of extremist right-wing groups — including the need for a new money system and the government’s mind-manipulation of the masses through language.

Libertarians generally hold to hard money ideas, but that hardly makes them right wing, witness the long war of traditionalists like Russell Kirk against what he called "the chirping sectaries." The hard money idea is subtly paired with mind-manipulation conspiracy theory by the Times, whatever that means, without support and simply by assertion. Having been a fairly well-informed conservative since the late 70s, one is hard-pressed to know what the Times is even talking about. There you go again, one of our own might say now. We've had our Truthers and our Birthers. Now we've got our Minders, I guess.

One suspects the Times knows full well its only plausible case is in the Libertarian hard money ideology, as here:

A few days later, during a meeting with a school administrator, Mr. Loughner said that he had paid for his courses illegally because, “I did not pay with gold and silver” — a standard position among right-wing extremist groups. With Mr. Loughner’s consent, that same administrator then arranged to meet with the student and his mother to discuss the creation of a “behavioral contract” for him, after which the official noted: “Throughout the meeting, Jared held himself very rigidly and smiled overtly at inappropriate times.”

Notice the effort to paint gold and silver backed money as "a standard position" on the right. It isn't, and it hasn't been as long as conservatism has been resurgent since the 60s and Milton Friedman style monetarism and devotion to a strong dollar captured people's imaginations.

Clear-headed thinkers on the right, like George Will, have well noted the Federal Reserve's failure to maintain a sound currency partly because its mandate was divided in 1978 to include maintaining full employment. Instead, hard money ideology has been an enthusiasm prevalent on the fringe, among Libertarians, in the post-war era in view of the fact that the monetarist consensus has been breaking down due to its failures, and because the gold standard used to be, well, the law of the land, all the way up until . . . FDR.

The dishonesty of the presentation coheres with the view of the Times that, for most of its history, America has been a veritable right-wing nuthouse. They ought to know.

Federal Government Offices are Closed Today in Honor of ...

1. Michael Luther King, Jr.

2. A plagiarist.

3. An associate of communists.

4. A womanizer.

Snopes.

When Will We Say NO! To Revolutionary Jurisprudence?

From the dissenting opinion of William H. Rehnquist (1924-2005) in Roe v. Wade, January 22, 1973:

"To reach its result, the Court necessarily has had to find within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment a right that was apparently completely unknown to the drafters of the Amendment.

As early as 1821, the first state law dealing directly with abortion was enacted by the Connecticut Legislature.

By the time of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, there were at least 36 laws enacted by state or territorial legislatures limiting abortion.

While many States have amended or updated their laws, 21 of the laws on the books in 1868 remain in effect today.

There apparently was no question concerning the validity of this provision or of any of the other state statutes when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted.

[T]he drafters did not intend to have the Fourteenth Amendment withdraw from the States the power to legislate with respect to this matter."


May he rest in peace.

I Do Not Like This Uncle Sam, I Do Not Like His Health Care Scam ...

I do not like this Uncle Sam,

I do not like his health care scam.

I do not like these dirty crooks,

or how they lie and cook the books.

I do not like when Congress steals,

I do not like their secret deals.

I do not like this speaker, Nan,

I do not like this 'YES WE CAN.'

I do not like this spending spree,

I'm smart, I know that nothing's free.

I do not like your smug replies,

when I complain about your lies.

I do not like this kind of hope.

I do not like it, nope, nope, nope!

h/t Sean G.

Remembering When Obamacare Wasn't Some Bolshevik Plot

When Obamacare looked impossible at the end of January 2010 because its two versions looked irreconcilable and a 41st vote against it suddenly appeared in the Senate, within days Obama quickly resorted to Alinsky's rule #5, marginalizing dissent by ridiculing it.

With the help of those at the top of the hierarchy in the House, especially Speaker Pelosi, and the propaganda arms of the government, union, academic and media establishments, he succeeded and shoved the Senate's version down the throats of the rest of the House and the American people.

Almost a year ago Obama said to the House Republican Retreat:

"Now, you may not agree with Bob Dole and Howard Baker, and, certainly you don't agree with Tom Daschle on much, but that's not a radical bunch. But if you were to listen to the debate and, frankly, how some of you went after this bill, you'd think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot. No, I mean, that's how you guys -- (applause) -- that's how you guys presented it."

-- President Obama at the House Republican Retreat, January 29, 2010, here.

As with so many such denials, he was telegraphing not just the ends, but also the means, as students of Bolshevism know well.

The good news is that the House has more clappers now, but the country is still in great danger. The ridicule offensive must be joined and counterrevolution pressed in order to have the hope of success.

Republican fellow travelers sitting among the opponents for the State of the Union is not the way to begin. Party leadership should immediately enforce discipline, and require the caucus to sit apart.

They might even withhold all applause, to teach Obama what a real memorial service looks like. Real Americans, after all, are still in mourning for their country.

Tucson Shooting Survivor Detained for Yelling "You're Dead!" at Tea Party Spokesman

Story here.

Obama's Idea of Civil Discourse with Sean Hannity in 2008: "Tear Him Up!"

Video here: "I'll put Mr. Burgess up against Sean Hannity, he'll tear him up!"

Democrat Jesse Jackson's Civil Discourse About Obama: "Cut His Nuts Off"

From 2008. Reported here. Video here.

Obama's Idea of Civil Discourse about Republicans: "Hand-to-Hand Combat"

Remember this from October 2010?:

"They are fired up. They are mobilized. They see an opportunity to take back the House, maybe take back the Senate," he said. "If they're successful in doing that, they've already said they're going to go back to the same policies that were in place during the Bush administration. That means that we are going to have just hand-to-hand combat up here on Capitol Hill."

Source.

He asked for it. I say give it to him.

On Courtesy

"Manners fit for a royal court cannot exist without an aristocracy."

-- Imam John

Here Comes the Repression: Your Representative or Senator May Accuse You to the FBI

Newly elected Republican Billy Long, MO-7, is going after a political opponent in his home district, a conservative blogger no less, named Clay Bowler, aka Bungalow Bill.

Looks like one hell of an abuse of federal power to me, trying to squelch a constituent's freedom of speech, intimidate him, and reduce him to servility while they go about their business of picking our pockets clean and shoveling the shit down our throats.

Hey, thanks Billy, you giant statist toadie. 

You can also thank the Capitol security police for facilitating this newest and ominous expression of police state power, reported here:

The local sheriff told KSRP that Capitol police are actively soliciting the names of possible threats from members of Congress in the wake of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s assassination attempt. And he admitted there are more names his office is looking into — names that came from Long.


Obviously there are no Oathkeepers among the Capitol police.

Time to lawyer up.

Howard Dean's Idea of Civil Discourse: "I Hate the Republicans"

As quoted here in January 2005:

"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for, but I admire their discipline and their organization," the failed presidential hopeful told the crowd at the Roosevelt Hotel, where he and six other candidates spoke at the final DNC forum before the Feb. 12 vote for chairman.

America Needs a Rebellion Every 20 Years

So said Thomas Jefferson, here: "God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion."

Go ahead. Put him in prison.

The Second Amendment isn't about Self Defense, or Hunting

"You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And in fact Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years.

I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."

-- Sharron Angle, quoted here

Harry survived the 2010 elections, but there are plenty of anti-gun Democrats to defeat in the upcoming contests in 2012. Plan to be there!

Thomas Jefferson Advocated Frequent Recourse to Second Amendment Solutions

As he said, about every 20 years at the outside, and using weapons:

[W]hat country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.

The source is at this link, and dates to 1787.

To think the country gladly took him for president after that, from 1801 to 1809. Today the Democrats would try to put him in jail, or worse.

Number of Homes Repossessed by Banks Grows to 1.05 Million in 2010

2010: 1.05 million

2009:  .92 million

2008:  .86 million

2007:  .40 million

2006:  .27 million

2005:  .10 million

Messiah's Miracle Continues After Visit

As reported here:

Giffords' neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael Lemole, said after five days of pushing for caution, "We're wise to acknowledge miracles." ...

"We had been telling her that she was inspiring the country with her courage and that we couldn't wait to take her out to pizza and a weekend away,” Gillibrand said. “Then after she heard our voices and the encouragement of Mark and her parents, she struggled briefly and opened her eyes for the very first time. It was a miracle to witness." ...

Speaking on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" on MSNBC cable, Pelosi said: "We witnessed almost a miracle. We saw the power of prayer, the power of the effect of the excellence of her medical care and we saw a little girl power too because we were trying to amuse 

Gabby, trying to get through to her about how much she was loved and missed in the Congress and what was waiting for her when she came back."

"And being there with her parents and her husband and when she opened her eyes was quite remarkable. ... It was a glorious, glorious experience. We thought we brought a little fun to the room and she reacted," she said.

Percent of Population on Food Stamps 1970-2010

h/t Mish

Messiah Visits Wounded Gabrielle Giffords, Spontaneously Opens Eye

"And I want to tell you … right after we went to visit, a few minutes after we left her room and some of her colleagues in Congress were in the room, Gabby opened her eyes for the first time," Obama told the crowd, which reacted with emotional cheers. "Gabby opened her eyes for the first time."

As reported here.

All You Need to Know about the So-Called Memorial Service

Acceptable Ways to be the Opposite of Civil

1. Religious (as long as you're Muslim).

2. Military (as long as you're queer).

3. International (as long as you're a job-exporting, multicultural globalist).

4. Discourteous (as long as it's toward Republicans, Tea Partyers, Patriots, Straights and Christians).

Michael Savage Puts Me To Sleep Almost Every Night

His voice is mellifluous, not furious and angry as that metro Chris Matthews has suggested here.

On the contrary, it is deep and resonant, perfect for the radio, especially at bed time. He puts me to sleep in minutes, like a book used to do, and I wake up in the morning and almost curse that I missed what he had to say! Especially about pasta! 

Would Our Democrats Outlaw Even This Kind Of Speech?

Wonderful is the effect of impudent and persevering lying.

The British ministry [think: the Democrat Party]  have so long hired their gazetteers [think: The New York Times] to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves have come to believe them, and what is more wonderful, we have believed them ourselves.

Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusetts [think: The Tea Party of 2011]? And can history produce an instance of rebellion so honourably conducted? I say nothing of its motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness.

God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.

We have had 13 states independent 11 years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? and what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.

The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.


Our [Constitutional] Convention has been too much impressed by the insurrection of Massachusetts: and in the spur of the moment they are setting up a kite to keep the hen-yard in order. I hope in God this article will be rectified before the new constitution is accepted.

-- Thomas Jefferson, November 13, 1787, here, writing from France about Shays' Rebellion

The Worst Offender Inciting the People to Anger is The New York Times

So concludes James Taranto for The Wall Street Journal here, naming names, but especially Paul Krugman:

The campaign of vilification against the right, led by the New York Times, is really about competition in the media industry--not commercial competition but competition for authority. ...

Its authority dwindling, the New York Times is resorting to authoritarian tactics--slandering its competitors in the hope of tearing them down.

Decline in Housing Values Slightly Worse Than Great Depression

According to CNBC.com and Zillow, here:

Home values have fallen 26 percent since their peak in June 2006, worse than the 25.9-percent decline seen during the Depression years between 1928 and 1933, Zillow reported.

November marked the 53rd consecutive month (4 ½ years) that home values have fallen.


Sounds like an historic opportunity to me.

Chris Matthews Wanted to Watch Someone Kill Rush Limbaugh

The date was October 13, 2009, here:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: You guys see Live and Let Die, the great Bond film with Yaphet Kotto as the bad guy, Mr. Big?  In the end they jam a big CO2 pellet in his face and he blew up.  I have to tell you, Rush Limbaugh is looking more and more like Mr. Big, and at some point somebody’s going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he’s going to explode like a giant blimp.  That day may come. Not yet. But we’ll be there to watch. I think he’s Mr. Big, I think Yaphet Kotto.  Are you watching, Rush?

... [Matthews is] openly wistful for the day it happens, telling Politico’s Jonathan Martin and Washington Post reporter Anne Kornblut that “we’ll be there to watch” when someone offs Rush.

Classy.  Really, really classy.  Does NBC want to stand behind this standard for its broadcasts?

Happy Binary Palindromic Tuesday!

1-11-11

Pennsylvania Democrat Paul Kanjorski Wanted Florida Republican Shot

According to this October 23, 2010 report in The Scranton Times Tribune:

"That Scott down there that's running for governor of Florida," Mr. Kanjorski said. "Instead of running for governor of Florida, they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him. He stole billions of dollars from the United States government and he's running for governor of Florida. He's a millionaire and a billionaire. He's no hero. He's a damn crook. It's just we don't prosecute big crooks."

Kanjorski was defeated for his Pennsylvania District 11 US House seat in November by Lou Barletta 45 percent to 55 percent.

Tucson Politicians Criticize Sheriff Dupnik

According to The Arizona Daily Sun here, a Republican state representative from Surprise and a Republican state senator from Tucson both think Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has demonstrated some serious shortcomings.

Full coverage at the link.

The Arizona Republic Thinks Dupnik Has Become Partisan

Here:

Dupnik needs to recall that he is elected to be a lawman. With each additional comment, the Democratic sheriff of Pima County is revealing his agenda as partisan, and, as such, every bit as recklessly antagonistic as the talk-show hosts and politicians he chooses to decry.

"Rage is Encoded in Conservative DNA"

So says commie pinko Michael Tomasky here in the pinko commie rag for which he writes, The UK Guardian.

And he's right.

But not completely.

It's in his DNA, too.

And the only real difference between us is that he and his ilk will never admit it, which is why you should fear people like him. Their delusional sense of superiority over their fellows has led some of them to murder far more people than one nut with Glock in Arizona ever dreamed of, but to do that they first have to destroy the institutions we've erected to keep human evil in check. 

"A man's got to know his limitations," Harry Callahan once reminded us. And Michael Tomasky doesn't.

Ugliest Political Rhetoric Coming From Those Trying To Exploit A Crime

James Taranto for The Wall Street Journal (at this link) covers all the bases for the last 48 hours on the politicization of the Tucson shooting massacre, with excerpts and links to all the stories, and comes down hardest on those trying to exploit the crime for political gain:

There is no denying that "relentlessly hostile rhetoric" can be found on the right, and also on the left. (On the center, too, for that matter.) Opinions will vary as to where the problem is worst, and it is human nature to find fault with the other side more readily than with one's own.

That said, it seems to us there is a very strong case to be made that the ugliest political rhetoric of the past 48 hours has been that coming from the side whose leading voices are attempting to make sense of a senseless crime by blaming their opponents for it.

Or perhaps we should say from the side that is attempting to exploit the crime in this manner.

Dick Morris, are you listening?

Democrat Joe Manchin Fires Rifle at Cap and Trade Bill in Ad Last Fall

Oh dear, oh my, the horrors! Those needlessly inflammatory Democrats! Those NRA-endorsed troglodytes! Why, somebody might pick up a gun and shoot a politician or something! How dare they?!

Palin Effigy Lynched in West Hollywood in 2008

Sec. of State Hillary Clinton Likens Half of America to Tucson Shooter and to Islamic Extremists

Speaking in the United Arab Emirates, as reported here by Reuters:

"The extremists and their voices, the crazy voices that sometimes get on the TV, that's not who we are, that's not who you are, and what we have to do is get through that and make it clear that that doesn't represent either American or Arab ideas or opinions," she said.

Did Jared Lee Loughner yell "Allahu Akbar!" before he opened fire?

Did the DLC Targeting Strategy Inflame the Public in December 2004?

Daily Kos Put Bull's Eye on Gifford and Other Blue Dogs in 2008

Daily Kos: Rep. Giffords Now Dead To Me Two Days Before Shooting

Obama Brings a Gun to the Fight, 2008

Labor Participation Rate For Men The Lowest Since 1948

So says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, here:

The “labour participation rate” for working-age men over 20 dropped to 73.6pc, the lowest the since the data series began in 1948. My guess is that this figure exceeds the average for the Great Depression (minus the cruellest year of 1932). ...

Multinationals are exploiting “labour arbitrage” by moving plant to low-wage countries, playing off workers in China and the West against each other. The profit share of corporations is at record highs across ... America and Europe.

Men with nothing to do eventually find it, but it is called "trouble."

Democrat Harry Mitchell Put J.D.Hayworth in the Crosshairs in 2006

The video is here:

Gabrielle Giffords' Democrats Promoted Libertarian as True Conservative to Divide Vote on her Right

The following excerpts come from the website of the Libertarian Party candidate, Steve Stoltz, whom the Democrat Party (yes you read that right) promoted in its literature as the true conservative running against the Democrat incumbent Gabrielle Giffords, shot in Tucson on Saturday, to bleed off votes on the right from the Republican challenger Jesse Kelly:

As a Libertarian, I am socially liberal, compassionate and humanitarian, but I am also fiscally conservative and principled.

The United States should have sound money that is backed by gold not the “monopoly money” of a fiat currency that is essentially counterfeited by the printing presses of the Federal Reserve which causes massive inflation.

As a Libertarian I believe that everyone owns their own body and can do ANYTHING they want with it, so long as they do not infringe upon someone else’s life/health, liberty or property (the 4rth amendment of the constitution says that people have a right to be secure in their person).

Government has no authority over the nature of a person’s consensual sexual relationships - even if they desire to engage in promiscuity and immorality.

The government has no right to tell a person what food they can eat, has no right to restrict their access to vitamin and mineral supplements, has no right to prevent a person from taking experimental drugs or getting medical treatments they feel will cure them of disease.

It is ironic that laws limit access to drugs, while the FDA has permitted poisonous/toxic substance like aspartame to be introduced into beverages.

Drugs like marijuana should be legalized, with increasing amounts of regulation and taxation applied to the more addictive drugs.

Society should lift prohibitions, but should regulate drugs the way alcohol currently is.

Lifting some drug prohibition could have a positive impact on national security.

Marriage is a legal contract protecting the rights of two individuals who decide that they want to live together and share property.

The state’s sole role is to enforce the property rights of the union, without placing stipulations on the nature of the union, whether it is between heterosexuals or homosexuals.    

The equal protection clause of the 14th amendment says that every US citizen shall enjoy the equal protection of the law.

Since no group should be given special treatment relative to over another, the military’s current policy of “Don’t ask don’t tell” is un-Constitutional, and should simply be reduced to “Don’t ask”.

The military should not expel a member who has already proven they can do the job merely because that person has identified himself/herself as homosexual.

I believe the government must respect the 2nd amendment, and place absolutely no restrictions on gun rights.

Although I am totally opposed to violence, I find it amazing that those who would place restrictions over a private citizen’s access to guns also seem to place blind faith in the integrity of the police, merely because they are agents of government.

Social security ... The system should be restructured so that younger persons invest in a privately held account, the way the government originally sold it.

I do not believe that it is moral for a wealthy person to hoard their wealth without trying to use it to help people.

[I]t doesn’t make sense for the government to document illegal aliens.

I do not believe that illegal aliens who give birth in the United States should instantly be granted citizenship (i.e. “anchor babies”).

I don’t believe illegal aliens should enjoy special access to entitlements relative to US citizens.

[W]hile it might be unfair for the children of illegal aliens who don’t pay property tax to receive a free education in US school systems, they nonetheless fall under the same category as the children of US citizens who receive a free education because their parents rent and don’t pay property tax.

The illegal alien problem is a multi-faceted social problem that can’t be solved merely by erecting a fence.     

Female reproductive rights/abortion – I am pro-choice.    

The focus of the military should be primarily to defend the nation’s borders against invasion.

As a Libertarian, I believe that in order for anything to be regarded as a crime, there must be a victim.  Civil fines for traffic violations that do not result in an accident or property damage or personal injury, and merely raise money for the state represent victimless crimes.

Two Thirds of Decline in Unemployment Due to Falling Participation Rate

So says CalculatedRiskBlog here:

If the participation rate had held steady at 64.5%, then the unemployment rate would have only declined to 9.64%. [Instead, unemployment fell to 9.4 percent.] 

So almost 2/3rds of the decline in the unemployment rate was related to the decline in the participation rate. Some of the decline might be from workers going back to school, but some is probably due to people just giving up.

A large portion of the decline in the participation rate was for people in the 16 to 24 age group. ...

Another group that saw a decline in the participation rate was men in the key 25 to 54 age group. I wonder if these people are just giving up? ... 

The participation rate has fallen sharply from 66% at the start of the recession to 64.3% in December. That is almost 4 million workers who are no longer in the labor force and not counted as unemployed in U-3, although most are included as "discouraged workers" or "Marginally Attached to Labor Force" in U-6. 

A decline in the unemployment rate mostly due to a decline in the participation rate is not good employment news.

Here is Mish's annotated version of the chart from Calculated Risk:

Incompetent WSVN.com Shows the Wrong Spy Drone in Miami-Dade Police Story

Here's the drone shown in the video by WSVN.com, which their own story says weighs 20 pounds and is called a Honeywell T Hawk:

Link to the story with video here (dc20500 caught the error and posted so in the comment section).

You'd think the numbskulls could at least check Wikipedia (here) and showcase the correct object so people in Florida know what to look for.

And when it's weaponized it will perfectly resemble the probe droid sent to the planet Hoth in Star Wars.

A Hypothetical US Bank Run Exercise: How Much Would You Get?

According to The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, here, only about one third of US currency in circulation is thought to be held within the United States:

In April 2008, M1 was approximately $1.4 trillion, more than half of which consisted of currency. While as much as two-thirds of U.S. currency in circulation may be held outside the United States, all currency held by the public is included in the money supply because it can be spent on goods and services in the U.S. economy.

Current observations by The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, here, show that currency in circulation as of the end of December 2010 came to about $983.7 billion.

So let's ask hypothetically, just for the mental exercise, that if we had a bank run in America and we decided we would ration the available cash in equal shares to the adult population of, say, 228 million people, assuming of course each such person had some digits on a bank statement warranting cash claims, how much maximum could each claimant expect to get under such circumstances?

$1,438 each.

2009 Circulating Currency Production Totaled $219,468,800,000

A total of 6.24 billion notes were printed for 2009 circulation, according to the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing here:

$2.6368 billion in ones

$1.92 billion in 384 million fives

$3.456 billion in 345.6 million tens

$14.336 billion in 716.8 million twenties

$18.560 billion in 371.2 million fifties

$178.56 billion in 1.7856 billion hundreds.

2009 Circulating Coin Production Totaled $601,492,000

A total of 3.548 billion coins were minted for 2009 circulation, according to US Mint figures here:

$23.54 million in 2.354 billion pennies

$4.332 million in 86.64 million nickels

$14.6 million in 146 million dimes

$133.48 million in 533.92 million quarters

$1.9 million in 3.8 million halves

$423.64 million in an equal number of dollar coins.

Sweet! The Witch is Dead.

Irish Banks' Deposit Base Declines 15 Percent in Last Year

So says a story here for Fortune, which also asserts that foreign depositors have pulled out 100 billion Euros since 2008.

What BankRun2010 failed to accomplish on the Continent with premeditation might actually have been happening all along in Ireland. There are worries that a cascade of withdrawals might trigger runs in the rest of the PIIGS.

Retirement Assets Declined 22 Percent in 2008

Whenever government sees something big, it either wants to tax it or confiscate it.

Here's the data about retirement assets for 2008, according to the Investment Company Institute, totaling just over $14 trillion:

IRA assets = $3.613 trillion

Defined contribution plans (401Ks, 403(b)s, 457s, etc.) = $3.517 trillion

Defined benefit plans (private sector pensions, government pensions, life insurance company annuities, etc.) = $6.9 trillion.

In 2007 such assets totaled nearly $18 trillion.

WAPO's Richard Cohen Still Hates America

In a twisted, weird rant about today's All Volunteer Army vs. his army of the Vietnam War era, Richard Cohen of The Washington Post displays the self-loathing which is still at the heart of liberalism, saying that today's army, mostly white and Southern, is only wonderful to today's general public because most of us are strangers to it, while his army of the bygone days was an army of the people, familiar and contemptible:

Yet one was an army of the people, draftees and such, and the other is an army of volunteers, strangers to most of us. What's happening here? The answer, I fear, is a cliche: Familiarity breeds contempt.

In other words, if you only knew the truth about people you'd say America sucks, too, and you wouldn't idolize the military so.

Don't worry, Richard. Today's army is only going to get more wonderful as all those white Southerners who fight your wars for you bail out with the influx of the queers. Somehow I think you will like this just fine.