Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Live Feed From Abbottabad Assault Was Cut Off For 25 Minutes

The White House was blind during that whole time:

Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, revealed there was a 25 minute blackout during which the live feed from cameras mounted on the helmets of the US special forces was cut off.

Full story here.

US Senate Unanimously Applauds Tyrant's Murder of Murderer

Run for your lives. Morality in America is officially dead.

You could be next.

Story here.

Illiteracy: Nearly Half of Detroit, Cleveland and DC Can't Read or Write, Either

A little Tommy Smothers humor there.

But hey! Nice going NEA!

Story here.

Jay Carney, Stalinist Stooge




















Video here.

Hey Obama! This is How It's Done!


We Are Ruled By Chicken Shits

The President Lied to the World on Sunday Night

“After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”

There was no firefight. There were no weapons in the compound. The only fire came from US Navy Seals, ordered (unlawfully) to execute "Osama."

Waterboarding, no.

Execution of an unarmed combatant, yes.

Impeachable offenses, yes. 

Phony Pelosi

The Petty Tyrant Stiffs The Free Republic of Texas, Twice

No space shuttle, no fire disaster aid.

Story here.


"A tyrant also should show no favour to a man of worth or a freeman; for he should think, that no one deserved to be thought these but himself; for he who supports his dignity, and is a friend to freedom, encroaches upon the superiority and the despotism of the tyrant: such men, therefore, they naturally hate, as destructive to their government."


-- Aristotle, Politics

The UK Daily Mail Totally Falls For Obama's Lies

Story here:




















My favorite whopper is point 5: Commandos dodge bullets as Osama fires AK47 from bedroom window.

That's rich.

This Administration Excels at Nothing But Lying

Some people, like The Atlantic, are starting to tip-toe to that conclusion:


White House Admits "bin Laden" was Unarmed

This was a lawless, assassination, mission, pure and simple, committed by a tyrant and the agents of a tyrant:

MR. CARNEY:  And I want to make clear that is, again, information that is fresh, and we will continue to gather and provide to you details as we get them and we’re able to release them.

      The resistance was throughout.  As I said, when the assaulter entered the room where Osama bin Laden was, he was rushed by one individual in the room, and the resistance was consistent from the moment they landed until the end of the operation.

      Yes.

      Q    Jay, just to follow up, how did Obama -- excuse me, Osama bin Laden resist if he didn’t -- if he didn’t have his hand on a gun, how was he resisting?

      MR. CARNEY:  Yes, the information I have to you -- first of all, I think resistance does not require a firearm.  But the information I gave you is what I can tell you about it.  I’m sure more details will be provided as they come available and we are able to release them.

      Q    Did he have any weapon?

      MR. CARNEY:  He was not armed, is what I understand to be true.




Bin Laden and Company Had No Weapons

So says Al Arabiyah News here:

Similarly, according to information Pakistani officials collected from detained persons, Osama was neither armed nor did inmates at the compound fire at the US choppers or commandos. 

“Not a single bullet was fired from the compound at the US forces and their choppers. Their chopper developed some technical fault and crashed and the wreckage was left on the spot,” a well-informed official explained.
 



Koran Burning Endangers Soldiers, But Assassinating bin Laden Won't?

Let's see, how many US officials pressured Rev. Jones about the meaningless, symbolic insult?

Jones had been under pressure from the U.S. government to cancel the protest. President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Gen. David Petraeus and others had warned that the protest could bring attacks against U.S. troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Earlier Thursday, Obama implored Jones to call off his Quran-burning "stunt," telling ABC's "Good Morning America" in an interview aired Thursday that he hopes Jones listens to "those better angels."

"And as a very practical matter, I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform," Obama said.

Oh, but that was then. This is now.

"Waterboarding is Evil, But Shooting an Unarmed Man in the Head is OK"

Heard on "Don Wade and Roma" this morning.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

"Bin Laden": Arabic For "With Lead"

Inspired by Rush's "can't fill your tank with bin Laden":


Looks Like He Could Have Used a Cigarette


Monday, May 2, 2011

The Purpose of War in a Tyranny

"A tyrant also should endeavour to engage his subjects in a war, that they may have employment and continually depend upon their general."

-- Aristotle, Politics


Famous Last Words: I Don't Believe That Story About . . .

Osama bin Laden.



FLETCHER: I don't believe that story about Josey Wales.

TEN SPOT: You don't?

FLETCHER: No sir, I don't. I don't believe no five pistoleros could do in Josey Wales.

ROSE: Maybe it was six. Could have even been ten.

FLETCHER: I think he's still alive.

TEN SPOT: Alive? No sir.

FLETCHER: I think I'll go down to Mexico to try to find him.

JOSEY: And then?

FLETCHER: He's got the first move. I owe him that. I think I'll try to tell him the war is over.

FLETCHER: What do you say, Mr. Wilson?

JOSEY: I reckon so. I guess we all died a little in that damn war.
 
 
 

 

Peter Beinart Another Peter Bergen

"The war on terror is over."

-- Peter Beinart, here 

Obama is a leech . . .

. . . and the IRS can go audit itself.

Oh the delights we enjoy from PJ O'Rourke, here, who proposes a 35 percent tax on the federal budget, which will eliminate its current deficit. Problem solved!

Have another beer!

Income Taxes are for Chumps, Capital Gains Taxes are for the Rich

[Bruce] Bartlett, a former member of the Reagan White House, isn’t against the wealthy paying higher taxes. He’s that rare conservative who thinks higher taxes need to be part of the deficit debate. His beef? It’s a hollow gesture to say the federal government should raise the tax rate on the country’s top wage earners when the likes of Zuckerberg have most of their wealth tied up in stock. Many of the super-rich see virtually all their income as capital gains, and capital gains are taxed at a much lower rate—15 percent—than ordinary income.

More here!

That Didn't Take Long


"The most significant achievement to date in effort to defeat al Qaeda"

From the president's remarks about Osama:

I can report

I directed

I was briefed

I met repeatedly with my national security team

I determined

Today, at my direction

I've made clear

I've repeatedly made clear

Tonight I called

my team has also spoken

These efforts weigh on me every time I as commander in chief

Let me say.

Habeas Corpus

The Triumph of Achilles by Franz Matsch
This is the way a victor wins.












(source)

How Convenient

Kill "Osama" on May Day, and bury him quickly out of respect for Islamic law, at sea because no one would take the body. Like Pakistan hadn't already had it for years, albeit alive. 

Next will be the announcement that since we've achieved our objectives, we're pulling out of Afghanistan. 

Re-election can't be far behind.

Oh the money he'll now be able to spend.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Government Revenues in 2008 were $2.5 Trillion

Government revenues in 2008 came from the following taxes:

Individual income taxes -- $1.14 trillion; (IRS data is slightly different at $1.03 trillion)

Social insurance taxes -- $0.9 trillion; (earnings beyond $107,000 or so are not fully taxed for this)

Corporate income taxes -- $0.3 trillion; (think GE!)

Other -- $0.1 trillion; (think?)

Sales and excise taxes -- $0.06 trillion; (think gasoline)

Total -- $2.5 trillion. Not enough by a long shot, under Obama, Pelosi and Reid.

So whattayawannado? Raise taxes to pay for the new spending under these bums, or get rid of the bums?


Doh! We Tax the Rich Because That's Where The Money Is, Knucklehead.

Per Census.gov here, these are the income limits by each quintile of 23,507.6 households in 2009:

Lowest: up to $20,453
Second: up to $38,550
Third:    up to $61,801
Fourth:up to $100,000
Fifth:            $100,000+.

That means 80 percent of the country, about 94,030 households, makes $100,000 per year or less.

We know from IRS data that earners reporting adjusted gross incomes of approximately $67,000 or less in 2008, totaling $2.8 trillion in AGI, represented 105 million tax returns out of 140 million total. They are the bottom 75 percent of tax returns in the country, a rough proxy for the first 4 of the 5 income quintiles.

Using back of the envelope estimates, perhaps another 7 million more tax returns represent the rest of the territory up to $100,000, and AGI of another $0.6 trillion, meaning that the first 4/5 of the country contributes AGI of about $3.4 trillion.

Roughly 28 million tax returns would then round out the top quintile, with AGI of approximately $5 trillion. It is certain that 14.4 million of these returns account for $3.9 trillion of AGI, the top 10 percent of earners.

Thus one can estimate that tax returns from the top quintile have something like 6 times the AGI per return compared with the returns of all the quintiles below them taken together.

About 80 percent of the earners have 40 percent of the income, while the top 20 percent of the earners have 60 percent of the income.

That's where the money is.


The Tyrant is Only the Slave Turned Inside Out

Seen here.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

A History of the US Debt Ceiling

They've kept raising it.

Politico Reports Boston Globe Reporter Had Obama INS Files Since 2009

So The Boston Globe spiked the story?

Politico doesn't say. So inquisitive are they.

So inquisitive, in fact, that they don't notice that the details in the release contradict Obama's often repeated story about his earliest childhood.

Others have noticed.

Politico's story is simply participating in the administrations's diversion strategy, focusing on the fact that Obama Sr. was prodded out of the country by Harvard.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Gas at Sam's Club Grand Rapids, MI, Now Tops 4 Bucks a Gallon

And I just filled both cars there two days ago at $3.999/gallon:


Patriots Switched to Coffee, Loyalists Stayed with Tea

"The Boston Tea Party is usually mentioned as nothing more than a humorous anecdote but its significance was profound and affected American cultural mores as deeply as the impetus it gave to revolutionary fervor in New England and later throughout the thirteen colonies. Anti-tea literature and boycotts swept the colonies and provided an emotional catharsis which every would-be patriot could share in by switching from tea to coffee."

-- Norman Berdichevsky here

Why Obama Revealed His Certificate of Live Birth This Week

Because he wanted to divert attention from a different, unavoidable, embarrassing revelation.

What revelation is that?

The revelation disclosed here as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request.

Namely, that the narrative Obama has been telling about the first two years of his life is a lie. His mother and father never lived together with Barack Jr. as a family. She went to Washington State. Obama Sr. stayed in Hawaii and left for Harvard before the future president turned one, not when he was two. The marriage itself might be in question.

Everyone is consumed by the release of the Certificate of Live Birth, but not with the truth behind it.

Obama is skillfully playing this out, no doubt on the advice of counsel, to divert, dissemble and distract.

See the discussion here.  

Over a Million Apply for 50 Thousand Burger Flipping Jobs

Some recovery.

Stories here and here.

I'm sure the president is going to think long and hard about the hapless 950,000 or so, between sips at the Wednesday night parties, and between shots on the fairway on the next weekend golf outing.

It's hard work being president. Just ask George Bush

Iitate Japan Radiation Down to 3.29 MicroSieverts Per Hour

As reported here.

Today's Map of Fukushima Prefecture Radiation Monitoring Posts


Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Radiation Conditions

As of 0900 on April 29, Japan time:

438 microSv/h at the south side of the office building;

49 microSv/h at the Main gate;

19 microSv/h at the West gate.

More here.

Concrete Pump with 58 Meter Boom Replenishes Water at Fukushima Unit 4 Pool

Presumably one like this:












Another news report here said a 70 meter version was being dispatched.

The Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 used fuel pool has needed nearly 1300 cubic meters of water over 13 days from April 13-25, according to this update. That number is consistent with, but about 200 cubic meters lower than, the predicted boil-off rate for the period in question:

Unit 4 pond contains a total 1331 used assemblies (783 plus full fuel load of 548), giving it a heat load of about 3 MW thermal, according to France's IRSN, which in that case could lead to 115 cubic metres of water boiling off per day, or about one tenth of its volume. ...

The pond at unit 4 is the main focus of concern now. It needs continual top-up with water, but at the same time there is concern about the structural strength of the building, which has been weakened either by the earthquake or the hydrogen explosion. Some 195 m3 was added to the pond on 13 April, about 20% of its capacity, and another 140 m3 on 15 and also on 17 April, by concrete pump. Another 100 m3 went in on 20 April, then 200 m3 on 22nd, 140 m3 on 23rd, 165 m3 on 24th and 210 m3 on 25th. Temperature has been up to 90°C and water level 5 metres down. It is not clear whether the main water loss is from leakage or boiling. However, Tepco reports that analysis of radionuclides in water from the used fuel pool of unit 4 suggests that some of the fuel assemblies there may have been damaged, but the majority are intact.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

I'm Flooring It and I'm Only Going 1.8

Thanks for the inspiration:

1.8 percent GDP growth in the face of massive stimulus is the equivalent of your car sputtering down the highway at 45 miles per hour while you have the gas pedal floored.

Read more from Henry Blodget here.


After Two Years, Bear David Rosenberg Finally Throws in the Towel


“This is not about throwing in the towel; it is an acknowledgement of what the market internals are flashing at the current time from a purely tactical and technical standpoint.”

“The (US dollar) is on a one-way ticket south and so far has been orderly—will that be sustained is anyone’s guess."

“For now it is being viewed as fodder for the global liquidity and risk-on trades.”

"[The tech rally] is a clear sign that the big boys are putting money to work."

“Market internals are too strong to ignore right now—NYSE advancers beat decliners by a 3-to-1 ratio (Tuesday); the Dow transports soared 1.9 percent; and the small caps beat their major benchmarks."

“My overall macro concerns have not gone away, but these market facts on the ground are tough to ignore.”

-- David Rosenberg, quoted here

Q1 2011 Advance Estimate of GDP Slows to 1.8 Percent

From 3.1 percent in Q4 2010. Yikes.

So reports the BEA here.

In 2009 we were down 2.6 percent, in 2010 up 2.9 percent on the federal intravenous drip.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Rush Limbaugh Can't Think Before 1913

"Look, in a classic sense, Trump's not a conservative, folks.  You don't promise to raise tariffs on the ChiComs 25%.  That's not conservative.  (interruption) People understand this, Snerdley.  You remember when George W. Bush threatened to raise tariffs on imported steel, there was an outcry.  No, you don't raise taxes, period.  That's not the way to deal with it.  That's protectionism.  Smoot-Hawley.  It's a death wish.  This is why I'm always worried about populism.  Populism is not conservatism."

-- Rush Limbaugh, 27 April 2011 (here)

"Tariffs were the largest source of federal revenue from the 1790s to the eve of World War I, until it was surpassed by income taxes."

-- "Tariffs in United States History" (here)


"The magnitude of the tariff shock in the Smoot-Hawley legislation . . . was simply not large enough to trigger the kind of economic contraction experienced after 1930."

-- Douglas A. Irwin (quoted here)

The baneful influence of doctrinaire libertarianism on conservatism continues . . . in the voice of Rush Limbaugh.

America's Biggest Pair of Boobs

the left one is bigger
the right one just thinks it is

             



               Notice the wide
               cleavage→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→


Wednesday, April 27, 2011

May We See The Certificate Of Live Birth Number Now On The Certification?





















Ask Snopes.

A Certificate of Live Birth has been released by The White House. Shouldn't the Certification above reference this by its number? Did it match? Let's see it. Let's authenticate it.

61-10641? 

The White House Joins The Proofers

Government Aid Swells to 18.3 Percent of Income in 2010


Dennis Cauchon reports for USA Today, here:

A record 18.3% of the nation's total personal income was a payment from the government for Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, unemployment benefits and other programs in 2010.

Wages accounted for the lowest share of income — 51.0% — since the government began keeping track in 1929. ...

From 1980 to 2000, government aid was roughly constant at 12.5%.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

33 Percent of Voters Have Ties to Tea Party

As of early April, per Rasmussen, here, which also says that percentage hasn't moved since December.

Barack The Builder Thief: Yes We Can





















h/t Blog Dude

Still Waitin' For That Job