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.