It's time to revisit the techniques liberals use to tell lies

Even though we're all quite familiar with them, particularly as they're used in the local blahgosphere, it's worthwhile to publicly repeat them every few months.

John Hawkins does us this needed service in this column.

Key points:

"There are two reasons why liberals lie much more than conservatives. First off, this is a center-right country and liberal beliefs are much more unpopular than conservative ones. If liberals told the truth about what they believe and want to do, the Democratic Party would practically be wiped out in much of the country.

Additionally, conservatives tend to think liberals are merely stupid or emotional, while liberals tend to view conservatives as evil -- and liberals use that belief to justify lying about conservatives. After all, if you lie about someone who's evil to keep them from doing bad things, couldn't that be considered virtuous? You may disagree with that, but liberal politicians, bloggers, and journalists live by that rule. Any lie told about a conservative, even one that liberals know isn't true, will be uncritically repeat ad nauseum by the Left until the point it becomes politically disadvantageous to do so."

...and:

"When liberals want to avoid a losing argument, they sometimes just refuse to have the argument at all and assure everyone that the matter has already been decided. Why, there's no need for Al Gore to even debate global warming with people who could easily blow holes the size of the Grand Canyon in his arguments because he insists that there's a non-existent 'scientific consensus.'

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth? As long as the Kerry campaign ignored them, most of the mainstream media did, too, but then the line of attack was immediately that the Swifties had already been 'discredited.' Who discredited them? How did it happen? What made them less credible than Kerry, particularly since they made him change his story more than once? Whenever you hear liberals in some form or fashion insisting that the argument with conservatives on a particular issue is already over, it's a good indication that they believe they'll really get their clocks cleaned in a straight up debate."

Gosh....do we know anyone locally who uses those techniques?

Hmmmmm....

Let me think.

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'Government gone wild'

Brian Wesbury and Bob Stein:

"Government spending does not cause a net increase in jobs over the long run; it costs jobs. Every dollar the government spends is
either taxed or borrowed from the private sector, which
means it “crowds out” private sector job creation. And
because government spending is less efficient than private
sector spending the economy actually grows more slowly in
the long run as the government gets bigger.

What’s interesting is how all these numbers are being
bandied about with very little pushback from the press. In
recent years, the press has complained loudly about “$200
billion deficits as far as the eye can see.” And almost all the
press argued that budget deficits lifted interest rates and hurt
the economy. But in recent weeks, the press seems to have
forgotten its old argument.

This is especially frightening when the US now faces $1
trillion deficits. President Obama says that this is all OK,
and that he is cutting the deficit in half (to $533 billion using
administration math, or $672 billion according to the CBO)
in just four years. What he doesn’t say, and what no one
seems willing to say, is that without his new budget the
deficit would have been cut by 75% in four years to about
$250 billion. The budget deficit and the size of the
government are exploding and no one seems to care.
But it doesn’t end there. Americans are the most
generous people on the face of the earth (when measured in
dollars donated to charities). At the same time, private
charity does a great deal of good and often does it more
effectively than government. But now the government wants
to limit deductions for charitable contributions.

Some conservatives have argued that this might be a
good trade off if marginal tax rates were lowered. They
argue that the benefits of higher GDP (resulting from lower
tax rates) would outweigh the losses from slimmer donations
(as a share of income). That is an economic argument that
reasonable people can disagree about.

But this time around, the government wants to limit the
charitable deduction and raise tax rates to make way for
more spending. What government is really saying is that it
doesn’t like the competition from private charities. It wants
more people to depend on government."

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Here's an important message for our under 30 set

"Today, we interrupt the constant discussion of politics to vent our spleens at the under-30 generation, and at other random portions of the popular culture who have little appreciation for experience, history, manners and common courtesy, or respectful discourse backed by sustained and developed logic.

For those under 30 who do not merit the criticisms herein -- and there are plenty of them -- please accept apologies in advance: You are not implicated, and you know who you are."

My favorite:

"7) An assertion is not a reasoned argument. Nor is a series of assertions. Your opinion isn't valuable because it's yours; it's valuable if you back it up with reason, with an explanation of cause and effect. And not all opinions are equally valid. And emotion, especially anger, does not an opinion make. And invective isn't a proof of authenticity"

On the other hand, this advice can also be directed at a lot of people OVER 30.

You know who you are.

Obama will 'cut the deficit in half by the end of his term'?

It's just more smoke and mirrors by Team Obamanation.

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Mickey Kaus opens up the Secret Libthinker e-Mail List

It's the kind of list Ed Cone really REALLY wishes he was on.

Kaus:

"Kausfiles has obtained a copy of one JournoList discussion, focusing on New Republic editor-in-chief Martin Peretz (for whom I once worked.) This is not a parody! It's the real thing. I don't know whether or not it is representative. I've edited it only to remove potentially defamatory passages--those cuts are marked--and left out various boilerplate links and commands embedded in the thread, such as "Print" and "Report this message." ... I won't add my own commentary, at least for now. Find your own lede! ... Reminder to JournoList organizer E. Klein, who likes to take it private: All communications are on the record. ..."

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So much for that middle class tax cut you were promised

It's just another "change you can believe in", I guess. And it fits Yogi's description of "deja vu all over again", doesn't it?

Excerpt:

"... Budget Director Peter Orszag indicated that, while 98 percent of the budget mark-ups in the House and Senate are on par with the administration's budget blueprint, some campaign trail promises, like middle-class tax cuts, may get left on the cutting room floor."

Imagine that!

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How eco-colonialism affects sub-Saharan Africa

Here's a cause and effect that the True Believers everywhere don't want you to think about: Eco-colonialism in sub-Saharan Africa is one of the greatest tragedies resulting from the "scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming" nonsense.

Noteworthy:

"Sub-Saharan Africa remains one of Earth’s most impoverished regions. Over
90% of its people still lack electricity, running water, proper sanitation and
decent housing. Malaria, malnutrition, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and
intestinal diseases kill millions every year. Life expectancy is appalling, and
falling.

And yet UN officials, European politicians,
environmentalist groups and even African authorities
insist that global warming is the gravest threat facing the
continent. They claim there is no longer any debate over
human-caused global warming – but ignore thousands of
scientists who say human CO2 emissions are not the
primary cause of climate changes, there is no evidence
that future warming will be catastrophic, and computer
models do not provide valid projections or “scenarios” for
the future.

Warming alarmists use the “specter of climate change” to
justify inhumane policies and shift the blame for problems that could be solved
with the very technologies they oppose.

Past colonialism sought to develop mining, forestry and agriculture, and bring
better government and healthcare practices to Africa. Eco-colonialism keeps
Africans “traditional” and “indigenous,” by insisting that modern technologies
are harmful and not “sustainable” in Africa.

Abundant, reliable, affordable electricity could power homes, offices, factories,
schools and hospitals, create jobs, bring clean running water, and generate health
and prosperity. But Rainforest Action Network and other pressure groups oppose
coal and natural gas electricity generation on the grounds of climate change, and
hydroelectric and nuclear power for other ideological reasons. They promote
wind turbines and solar panels that provide electricity unreliably and in amounts
too small to meet any but the most rudimentary needs.

Biotechnology could produce bumper crops that overcome droughts, floods,
insects, viruses, and even global warming and cooling. But Greenpeace and Sierra
Club oppose this precision hybrid-making technology, and instead promote land
and labor-intensive subsistence farming.

DDT and insecticides could slash malaria rates that Al Gore and other climate
alarmists falsely claim are rising because of global warming. But Pesticide Action
Network and other activists stridently oppose their use, and the European
Parliament recently imposed new pesticide restrictions that will further restrict
African access to life-saving chemicals."

...and:

"So this is where radical climate change alarmism has taken us.When the health
of Planet Earth is at stake, human life means little – even if the 'disasters' are
nothing more than worst-case scenarios conjured up by computer models,
headline writers, Hollywood, and professional doomsayers like Gore, Hansen and
NOAA alarmist-in-chief Susan Solomon.

'Every time someone dies as a result of floods in Bangladesh, an airline executive
should be dragged out of his office and drowned,' British arch-environmentalist
George Monbiot lectured readers of The Guardian, in a typically hysteria-laced
column.

One has to wonder if he would apply the same standard to eco-colonialist executives who continue to perpetuate poverty, disease, malnutrition and death in the name of preventing 'global warming disasters' that fewer and fewer respectable scientists still believe are caused by human greenhouse gas
emissions.

It’s time to address Africa’s real problems and replace lethal eco-colonialism with fact-based science and humane public policies."

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When reality sets in.....

Such is life in the Obamanation.

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The real AIG bonus story

Everything you know about the AIG bonus story is contrived to distract you.

Noteworthy:

"Class envy has been a defining staple of the left for centuries, from the frenzied mobs leaping around the French guillotines to the Soviets to, well, the new masses circling AIG executives today. The difference is merely the degree of response -- a question of socially acceptable force or violence."


More, from Victor Davis Hanson:

"In other words, we — through our government — are spending money that we don’t have. We’re told the rich will pick up the tab, even though there are not enough rich with enough money to squeeze out the necessary amounts. Our new demagogues, though, are arguing that this is the only fair course of action. Meanwhile, these leaders — who have taken so much Wall Street money in the past — are driving us into fury to punish the guilty on Wall Street. This is truly the age of mindless mob rule.

Of course, we probably won’t hear any candidate in four years assure the voters, “I won’t take any more money from Wall Street and will give back any that I already got. And if elected, I promise four consecutive years of budget cuts to achieve each year $1.5 trillion in annual budget surpluses. Only that way can we get the national debt back down to the past ‘manageable’ 2008 sum of $11 trillion.”

We need such a Socrates in Washington right now, who would dare tell the American mob the truth of how we are descending into financial serfdom. But in this present mood, the aroused mob would first make him drink the hemlock."

It's not about greedy corporate America. It's not about wasting taxpayers' money. It's not about the stimulus or the bailout. It's not about reviving the economy and making this better for all Americans.

It's all about Rich versus Middle Class (leading to Poor versus Middle Class too), Divide and Conquer politics. Victimization. Shameless grandstanding and pandering.

It's all about greedy hack politicians, mostly of the Dem/Lib/"Progressive" variety, such as Dodd. Frank. Pelosi. Schumer. Reid. And most of all, the Zero himself, our 44th President of the United States of America.

It's all about Mob Rule. Intimidation. Indoctrination. Revisionism. Control.

And ultimately, it's about the politics of Hate, and it's all for The Agenda.

They do it so well, don't they?

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ObamaSpeak: The phrase 'global war on terror' is now inoperative

"This Administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' [GWOT].

Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.'"

--email from Dave Riedel of the Office of Security Review(via Patriot Post US)

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Happy Birthday to THE One and Only Queen of Soul

From PowerLine:

What are the chances of ANY of these facts surviving Obamacare?

Read the ten facts that Scott Atlas has found regarding health care in the United States.

Noteworthy:

"Medical care in the United States is derided as miserable compared to health care systems in the rest of the developed world. Economists, government officials, insurers and academics alike are beating the drum for a far larger government rôle in health care. Much of the public assumes their arguments are sound because the calls for change are so ubiquitous and the topic so complex. However, before turning to government as the solution, some unheralded facts about America's health care system should be considered."

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Let's not forget about the formation of an Obamabot civilian national security force

Michelle Malkin:

"Maybe it’s just me, but I find federal legislation titled “\'The GIVE Act' and 'The SERVE Act' downright creepy. Even more troubling: The $6 billion price tag on these bipartisan bills to expand government-funded national service efforts. Volunteerism is a wonderful thing, which is why millions of Americans do it every day without a cent of taxpayer money. But the volunteerism packages on the Hill are less about promoting effective charity than about creating make-work, permanent bureaucracies, and left-wing slush funds....

.....'Social Innovation Fund?' If that sounds familiar, it should. I reported last fall on the Democratic Party platform’s push to fund a Social Investment Fund Network that would reward “social entrepreneurs and leading nonprofit organizations” and 'support results-oriented innovators.' It is essentially a special taxpayer-funded pipeline for radical liberal groups backed by billionaire George Soros that masquerade as public-interest do-gooders.

Especially troublesome to parents’ groups concerned about compulsory volunteerism requirements is a provision in the House version, directing Congress to explore 'whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.'

Those who have watched AmeriCorps from its inception are all-too-familiar with how government voluntarism programs have been used for propaganda and political purposes. AmeriCorps 'volunteers' have been put to work lobbying against the voter-approved three-strikes anti-crime initiative in California and protesting Republican political events while working for the already heavily-tax-subsidized liberal advocacy group ACORN.....

....One vigilant House member, GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx, successfully attached an amendment to the GIVE Act to bar National Service recipients from engaging in political lobbying, endorsing or opposing legislation, organizing petitions, protests, boycotts, or strikes; providing or promoting abortions or referrals; or influencing union organizing.

Supporters of GIVE/SERVE are now fighting those restrictions tooth and nail, screaming censorship and demanding that the provisions be dropped. Which tells you everything you need to know about the true nature of this boondoggle: Taxpayers GIVE their money to SERVE a big government agenda under the guise of helping their fellow man. It’s charity at the point of a gun."

Team Obamanation's lust for power and control continues

The latest power grab involves getting their agenda-driven greed extended to non-bank organizations.

Excerpt:

"Treasury said the draft bill would enable the federal government to seize troubled bank- and thrift-holding companies as well as firms that control broker-dealers and futures commission merchants.

An Obama administration official confirmed that the legislative proposal would also give the government authority to shut down troubled hedge funds, which currently face minimal oversight. The government could potentially use the new 'resolution authority' on any nonbank financial firm that is deemed to pose systemic risk, the official added."

No, there's no reason for concern in something like that, is there?

...and this:

"The Treasury department pitched its proposal for broader powers over nonbank firms as a way to reduce the need for taxpayer funds."

Yeah, right.....as if we actually are stupid enough to believe that. As if these people will EVER implement ANY measure that would "reduce the need for taxpayer funds."

It gets worse:

"'Those options do not provide the government with the necessary tools to manage the resolution of the firm efficiently and effectively in a manner that limits the systemic risk with the least cost to the taxpayer,' Treasury said.

The legislation would grant the government resolution authority to allow the government to put nonbanks in conservatorship or receivership and wind down the firm in an orderly fashion.

Under the bill, the Treasury secretary would have to make 'triggering determination' before invoking resolution authority. The secretary would have to find that the firm is in danger of becoming insolvent, that its insolvency would have serious adverse effects on the economy and financial stability, and that taking emergency action would avoid those adverse effects."

And then there's this:

Watch for oppressive wage and price controls to follow, all in the name of "protecting the economy".

And STILL the Usual Suspects have no clue why the rest of us are so concerned!

Obamanation For America: 'Getting Paid to Cause Trouble'

We talked about the Obamanation's Organization for America here last Saturday.

Now more information about their mission is coming to light. Witness their Chicago workshop next month entitled "Getting Paid to Cause Trouble: Careers in Organizing for Social Change (Community Service)".

Noteworthy:

"The normal types will leave OFA to the hardcore activists: the sub-culture of those whose life is ‘all leftist politics, all the time'. The same person might work as an academic or staff a not for profit or a union, and then spend his or her free time with a housing advocacy group, an environmental group, an abortion rights group, a liberal church group, and Obama's eternal campaign. There's overlap from one group to another, forming a large, culturally left social network. That is the network that brought us Obama, and those are the people who will stick with OFA."

...and:

"The Stimulus bill contained $5.2 billion for ‘community development' and ‘neighborhood stabilization', and that money will pay salaries of new ‘community organizers' and ‘labor organizers'. The professional organizers will call on the grass-roots volunteers as needed: 'Hey, we're taking a busload of folks to protest at a banker's house. Care to join us?' "

Here's more on the goon-ish/thug-ish nature of this thing.

"They have taken a pledge of loyalty to Obama, and they say they are coming tomorrow for yours. Organizing for America, the Obama-for-President campaign morphed into Obama-for-Maximum-Leader army, will hit the streets for their 'Pledge Project Canvass,' knocking on doors and accosting folks in parking lots and sidewalks to ask them to sign a pledge to support Obama's policies for health care, energy and education reform."

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I guess this means we'll all have to stop breathing, won't we?

After all, the "experts" want to tell us that CO2 is a "health hazard", and a "pollutant".

Noteworthy:

"The EPA has prepared a finding for review that global warming is a public health threat, the first step toward regulating the American economy down to your lawn mower."

Common sense and facts are not permitted to be used in consideration of this issue.

We will have to accept this nonsense by virtue of Obamanation Divine Right to implement "The Agenda", whether we like it, or not.

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Truth-based carbon policy: 'Calling the Cap and Trade Bluff'

Again, from the recent Heartland Conference.

Key point:

n"There’s no more need for acrimony, ad hominem, rigging reports, media hit stories, journal malfeasance, gatekeeping, blog wars, etc.

n

nIf you really believe your science, put your money in the market and shut up.

nIf you’re not willing to invest your own money based on your science, then don’t demand the government invest everyone else’s!

n

nIf you’re right, you’ll cash in, and get the policy path you wanted.

n

nIf you’re wrong, society will still get the right outcome."

It probably wouldn't work.

The liars and the hypocrites within the Church of Anthropogenic Global Warming would never agree to it. They've obviously got too much to lose when they are exposed for their academic and intellectual shortcomings, as well as their outright frauds and swindles.

'Global Warming is over'

From the recent Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change, here's Don Easterbrook's compelling powerpoint presentation.

Is it too much to expect the True Believers to stop their babble, dribble drool and spew about the "scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming climate change?

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'A Picture Is Worth A Trillion Dollars'

As posted at Classical Values:

"What ever happens we are sure going to learn a lot. One thing we do know for sure about politicians. They prefer to never let a crisis go to waste. Real or imagined. Makes no difference. If they could get people to fear ghosts they would raise a tax on exorcisms"

Pakistan is the main problem

And as we know, it's pretty certain Obama and his administration are not the solution.

Analysis from David Kilcullen:

"Pakistan is 173 million people, 100 nuclear weapons, an army bigger than the U.S. Army, and al-Qaeda headquarters sitting right there in the two-thirds of the country that the government doesn't control. The Pakistani military and police and intelligence service don't follow the civilian government; they are essentially a rogue state within a state.

We're now reaching the point where within one to six months we could see the collapse of the Pakistani state, also because of the global financial crisis, which just exacerbates all these problems. . . . The collapse of Pakistan, al-Qaeda acquiring nuclear weapons, an extremist takeover -- that would dwarf everything we've seen in the war on terror today."

Even the Lefty media mulletheads are starting to figure it out

Yesterday was NOT a good day for Team Zero, as evidenced by the contribution from their usually fawning fools at the New York Times. The gang includes Rich, Dowd, Friedman, the editorial gang. Even Krugman sounds a sour note about the once-and-nevermore hero!

Noteworthy:

"....there is no question that Obama’s first eight weeks in office have been rocky, and sometimes in politics a series of missteps metastasize into a durable impression. President Obama and his Administration are edging dangerously close to that point at neck-breaking speed.

It’s never a good sign when your core supporters in the commentariet are beginning to turn on you: it influences the rest of the coverage, including television coverage, and alters the public’s perception over time.

The most important thing to remember is that events are what matter — and here, too, Obama can take little comfort so far. His priorities seem out of touch with the moment. He and his Treasury Secretary/economic team appear over-matched by events. At times they have even appeared clueless.

Obama has deferred to Congressional Democrats to an astonishing degree, and we are seeing early signs of skittishness and concern from them about the President’s agenda. In a terribly damaging blow, the Congressional Budget Office’s report on Friday is projecting that Obama’s budget will produce annual deficits that would force the nation to borrow nearly $9.3 trillion over the next decade — $2.3 trillion more than what the President predicted when he unveiled his budget a few weeks ago.

Regimes like Iran are mocking Obama’s efforts at outreach. Obama jettisoned almost immediately any serious effort to make good on his promises to transcend ideology and usher in an era of bipartisanship, ethics reform, the end of earmarks, and a 'new politics' characterized by seriousness rather than pettiness, and candor rather than spin."

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No, there's no dishonesty in the way our Tank Media reports numbers, is there?

HT: Carpe Diem

Regarding Zero's 'infantile leftism and adolecent grandiosity'

Dr. Sanity talks about both of those current presidential disabilities, with links to Richard Fernandez and to Scott Johnson.

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Coming soon: Team Hope 'n Change's Agenda Enforcement Goon Squad

"Oh no!", I can hear you say. "You're overreacting Bubba!"

Am I?

Read this:

President Obama's appearance on "The Tonight Show" - the first ever for a sitting chief executive - was only a small part of the president's so-called permanent campaign. A bigger move comes Saturday, when Obama will ask 13 million people on his campaign e-mail list to go door-to-door to raise support for his agenda.

The Pledge Project Canvass is an unprecedented effort by a president to reach beyond Congress and tap grassroots supporters for help. Volunteers recruited online by Obama's Organizing for America, a post-election group, will ask citizens to sign a pledge in support of the president's policies on energy, health care and education.

Those who pledge will be asked for their e-mail addresses so the Obama-ites can keep in touch.

'This is just the beginning for us,' said Jeremy Bird, deputy national director of Organizing for America, in an online video to Obama supporters this week. 'The establishment in Washington won't welcome this new direction easily. We can't let this plan be debated solely behind closed doors in Washington, D.C.'"

from Redstate:

And where are our friends in the left blogosphere on this? Surely, they did not approve of President Bush’s endorsement entry requirement from 2004. Do they now align themselves with the idea of a sitting administration asking citizens to pledge their loyalty to one man’s policies? Do they approve of jack-booted, clipboard-wielding, presidentially-authorized canvassers fanning out across the country collecting signatures and taking names? Markos? Josh? Arianna? Anybody?

The linked article tries to compare President Obama’s efforts to those of other presidents to drum up support for their initiatives. Those efforts have all involved the president himself embarking on a publicity tour. Obama has done that, too. But no president has ever launched a signature pledge drive utilizing an army of volunteers tied to his official campaign organization outside of a reelection campaign.

However shrewd and revolutionary it may be from an organizing standpoint, the government is not, and ought not be a community organizing group. It’s creepy. Campaigning is what Obama does best, however. We are likely to see many more pledge drives like this one, and equally likely to hear absolutely nothing about it from the media and the left.

"Creepy" doesn't describe this insidious notion accurately enough.

"Alarming" is the word that works better.

I'll be ready for these people when they come to my door. I suggest you be ready, too.

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More-on AIG 'Outrage'

Mark Steyn:

Are you outraged by these AIG bonuses?No, no. For Pete’s sake, you’re an A-list congressional bigshot. Try to get a bit of feeling into “outraged.” The president’s teleprompter puts it in italics, bold, capitalized, and underlined: OUTRAGED!

That’s better. Don’t forget to furrow your brow and fume. No, not like a camp waiter when you send back the arugula salad drizzled in an aubergine coulis. We’re looking for primal, righteous anger: You’re outraged, OUTRAGED that bonuses are being handed out at companies the American taxpayer is bailing out.

Yes, to be sure, the bonuses were specifically provided for in the legislation, but, like all busy senators and congressmen, you don’t have time to read every footling trillion-dollar bill before you vote in favor of it. And yes, true, the specific passage addressing these particular bonuses was, in fact, added to the bill in your name, but that was nothing to do with you — you just did that because the White House asked you to, and just because their people called your people and some intern in your office drafted some boilerplate with your name on it is no reason for you to be denied ten minutes of grandstanding on MSNBC. It’s an outrage to suggest you’re anything other than outrageously outraged!

Regarding Zero the Putative Hero:

The first two months of the Age of the Hopeychange have been an eye-opener. I expected it to be ideologically distasteful to me, but I didn’t expect it to be so inept. Not because I had any expectations of President Obama’s executive skills. But I assumed he’d have folks around him who could take care of details like governing, while he pranced around as the smiley-face hopeychange frontman. But the bench is still empty save for a handful of mediocrities. And the disconnect between the smoothly scripted mush and what’s actually happening makes the telepromptered cool look even more ridiculous.

Read it all

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'Do no harm'

The first Law of Medicine needs to be applied to the economy, says Nobel economist Gary Becker.

Noteworthy:

"He returns to the perniciousness of Treasury's inconsistency.

I do believe that in a risky environment which is what we are in now, with the market pricing risk very high, to add additional risk is a big problem, and I think this is what we are doing when we don't have consistent policies. We add to the risk.

On the subject of recovery, Mr. Becker repeats his call for lower taxes, applauds the Fed's action to 'raise reserves,' (meaning money creation, though he said this before the Fed's action a few days ago), and he says 'I do believe one has to try to do something more directly to help with the toxic assets of the banks.'

How about getting rid of the mark-to-market pricing of bank assets [that is, pricing assets at the current market price] that some say has destroyed bank capital? Mr. Becker says he 'prefers mark-to-market over pricing by cost because costs are often completely out of whack with what the real prices are.' Then he adds this qualifier:

But when you have a very thin market, you have to be very careful about what it means to mark-to-market. . . . It's a big problem if you literally take mark-to-market in terms of prices continuously based on transactions when there are very few transactions in that market. I am a mark-to-market person but I think you have to do it in a sensible way.'

...and:

Mr. Becker is underwhelmed by the stimulus package:

Much of it doesn't have any short-term stimulus. If you raise research and development, I don't see how it's going to short-run stimulate the economy. You don't have excess unemployed labor in the scientific community, in the research community, or in the wind power creation community, or in the health sector. So I don't see that this will stimulate the economy, but it will raise the debt and lead to inefficient spending and a lot of problems.

There is also the more fundamental question of whether one dollar of government spending can produce one and a half dollars of economic output, as the administration claims. Mr. Becker is more than skeptical.

Keynesianism was out of fashion for so long that we stopped investigating variables the Keynesians would look at such as the multiplier, and there is almost no evidence on what the multiplier would be.

He thinks that the paper by Christina Romer, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, 'saying that the multiplier is about one and a half [is] based on very weak, even nonexistent evidence.' His guess?

I think it is a lot less than one. It gets higher in recessions and depressions so it's above zero now but significantly below one. I don't have a number, I haven't estimated it, but I think it would be well below one, let me put it that way.'"

Not that Team Zero actually has the smarts or the integrity to figure these things out, and apply these thoughts to fixing the nation's problems.

They're more intent upon ramming their political, social, and economic agenda items through to increase their power and control instead of acting in our country's best interests.

For them, it's just business as usual.

That's no big surprise for those of us who have been paying attention.

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Can you say 'b-b-b-b-bye bye', Al?

You see Al, when you use hype, fear, nonsense, propaganda, lies, and other fraudulent means, and try to pass it off as "scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming", and try to tell us that "the debate is over", you will get your ass kicked every time. And your pals in the Tank Media, and in La La Libland will never be able to keep you covered, no matter how much and how loud they babble, dribble, drool and spew on this subject.

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Will Bill Ayers get an 'FBI! We Have a Warrant! Open Up!' door knock in the near future?

He will, if justice is served and Team Zero's Justice Department does its job in this case.

That of course is not assured, given the presence of the execrable Attorney General, Eric Holder.

Quoting the San Francisco Police Officers Association:

"There are irrefutable and compelling reasons to believe that Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn, members of the terrorist group 'Weather Underground', are largely responsible for the bombing of Park Police Station and other police stations throughout the United States during their 'tour of terror' in the late 1960s and early 1970s."

More:

"This case has been reopened and evidence is being gathered. Meetings have been held among local and state authorities, including current and former law enforcement officials, to obtain justice. That is why the "Campaign for Justice for Victims of Terrorism" held this press conference. They want to bring pressure on Obama's Justice Department, now headed by former Clinton Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, to release all of the evidence in their possession.

It's true that some evidence in the past that could have been used against the Weather Underground was ruled inadmissible -- because of the way it was collected, not because of its veracity. But there is much more that can and should be used. The belief is that it lies in the Justice Department or the FBI.

This is where a problem emerges. In addition to the outrageous pardons of fugitive criminal Marc Rich and 16 FALN terrorists, Holder provided key assistance to two Weather Underground members implicated in the Brinks Robbery murders, pardoning them quietly along with Rich -- who of course got all the headlines.

Given the Attorney General's apparent sympathy for terrorists, and Bill Ayers' perceived status as President Obama's friend and mentor, the Justice Department may be reluctant to provide all of the evidence in the Park Station bombing case unless they are forced to do so.

Under the Bush Administration, such a press conference would not have been necessary. After all, the federal authorities under Bush provided evidence and assistance that resulted in the 2007 arrests and indictments of members of the Black Liberation Army for the murder of another San Francisco policeman, John Young, in 1971. That case is now underway.

A process of evidence-gathering has been underway in the McDonnell case as well. But now that Obama and Holder are in power, that process could come to a screeching halt. That was the reason for the March 12 America's Survival, Inc. news conference -- to make sure that federal assistance doesn't stop and that it accelerates. One hope is that FBI Director Robert Mueller, who is technically independent of Obama and Holder since his contract runs through 2011, can act on his own to obtain and make available all the evidence that is needed in this case."

Update to the phony Obama/Democrat "outrage" over AIG bonuses

These clowns knew about the bonuses for months before they expressed their recent "outrage".

Excerpt:

"This week the White House has expressed shock and anger over the $165 million in bonuses due to AIG employees. The Washington Post reports, however, that President Obama was informed about the bonuses the day before they were paid out last week. Wilson's report is based on a timeline released by the White House late Tuesday.

The AP moves the timeline back even further. According to Julie Hirschfield Davis and six other AP reporters who assisted her,

'For months, the Obama administration and members of Congress have known that insurance giant AIG was getting ready to pay huge bonuses while living off government bailouts.'"

Official agenda addendum: Children cause 'Global Warming'

More evidence that having kids is socially irresponsible.

It's just one more reason to support Mandatory Abortion after you reach your 1.85 child per family limit, isn't it?

More on the phony outrage over AIG bonuses

It was the Dem demagogues who are responsible for enabling these bonuses in the first place.

David Freddoso has the details.

Excerpts:

"But why is Obama so outraged and surprised? Today we learn that he signed the very bill that quite clearly made those bonuses legal — the $787 billion stimulus package he had traveled around the nation promoting. The bill includes restrictions on executive compensation, but creates an exception for bonuses contractually obligated before February 11 of this year.

The provision, and the exception, were inserted into the bill by the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Chris Dodd (D, Conn.), who has received more than $100,000 from AIG employees in the last 20 years, had written and inserted the relevant provision, with the relevant loophole. How can he, the president, or anyone else who voted for the stimulus, suddenly act surprised? Don't tell us they didn't read the bill."

...and:

"Frankly, it's hard to imagine how the government could prevent such contracts from being honored. But the presence of this loophole, in black and white, certainly gives the lie to all of this phony outrage — by the senator who created the loophole, by the president who signed it into law, and by everyone else who voted for the stimulus package."

This Dem/Lefty/"Progressive" federal government is rapidly descending into Theater of the Absurd.

Are Mulally and Jackson inhaling their products' exhaust fumes?

These two automobile industry executives think gasoline needs to be more expensive.

Noteworthy:

"While last year's energy spike briefly encouraged small-car sales, Mr. Jackson complained that those sales have plummeted with gas prices. 'I have fuel-efficient vehicles parked at my dealerships as far as the eye can see. I can't give them away.'

He figures a tax that guarantees a gas-price floor of $4 a gallon is a 'good start.' Mr. Mulally, for his part, talked about how good Ford's sales of small cars were in Europe, and that 'one of the reasons is that gasoline and diesel is somewhere between seven and nine dollars a gallon.'


So: The U.S. government mandates fuel-economy standards that force Detroit to make cars Americans don't want to drive.

When Detroit loses money on those cars, Washington throws taxpayer dollars at its mistake, and the car makers demand a tax increase that would prod Americans to buy the unpopular cars that Washington mandates.

As for what the American consumer or taxpayer wants -- or can afford in today's economy -- who cares?

Welcome to government-run energy policy."

It's a Libthinker's dream opportunity, isn't it?

No, workers and business have nothing to fear from 'Card Check', right?

Obama's first federal judicial nominee: Let the Leftist judicial activism begin!

The appointment of David Hamilton is exactly what we would expect from a far left president like Zero.

Key point:

"Recently, he invalidated a law requiring the registration of sex offenders. He also prevented enforcement of an Indiana law that required information and a waiting period before an abortion. The Seventh Circuit (the court to which Hamilton now has been nominated) found that the law in question was materially identical to a law upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Casey decision. It noted that no judge in the land, other than Hamilton, has found such a law invalid since Casey was decided. Apparently, Hamilton did not consider himself bound by decisions of the Supreme Court with which he strongly disagreed."

'St. Patrick for adults'

Today is St. Patrick's Day.

It's a day I think of as Amateur Night #1 (New Year's Eve is #2), based on my experience as a dissolute single guy during most of the 80s and early 90s, and my observations over the years of the usual silly fools people make of themselves on this night.

The reality and the legacy of who St. Patrick was and what St. Patrick represented is quite different from what is celebrated at watering holes around the world each year.

Noteworthy:

"We today have the same opportunity as Patrick and his spiritual sons and daughters, that of saving civilization -- this time from the pagans elected throughout the West. We who are Christian inhabit lands that have become strange to us, and foreign to God. Our lands are filled with people described by St. Paul as the 'enemies of Christ' (Phil. 3:18).

Let us bring change to our lands, true freedom to our lands. In the words of President Kennedy's Inaugural, 'Let us go forth to lead the land we love, knowing that, here on earth, God's work must truly be our own.'"

Why all the uproar over AIG bonuses?

It's simple.

The over-the-top "outrage" deflects criticism away from where it REALLY belongs: the political class that enabled this mess in the first place.

Noteworthy:

"Given that the government has never defined 'systemic risk,' we're also starting to wonder exactly which system American taxpayers are paying to protect. It's not capitalism, in which risk-takers suffer the consequences of bad decisions. And in some cases it's not even American. The U.S. government is now in the business of distributing foreign aid to offshore financiers, laundered through a once-great American company.

The politicians also prefer to talk about AIG's latest bonus payments because they deflect attention from Washington's failure to supervise AIG. The Beltway crowd has been selling the story that AIG failed because it operated in a shadowy unregulated world and cleverly exploited gaps among Washington overseers. Said President Obama yesterday, 'This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed.' That's true, but Washington doesn't want you to know that various arms of government approved, enabled and encouraged AIG's disastrous bet on the U.S. housing market.

Scott Polakoff, acting director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, told the Senate Banking Committee this month that, contrary to media myth, AIG's infamous Financial Products unit did not slip through the regulatory cracks. Mr. Polakoff said that the whole of AIG, including this unit, was regulated by his agency and by a 'college' of global bureaucrats."

....and:

"The Washington crowd wants to focus on bonuses because it aims public anger on private actors, not the political class. But our politicians and regulators should direct some of their anger back on themselves -- for kicking off AIG's demise by ousting Mr. Greenberg, for failing to supervise its bets, and then for blowing a mountain of taxpayer cash on their AIG nationalization.

Whether or not these funds ever come back to the Treasury, regulators should now focus on getting AIG back into private hands as soon as possible. And if Treasury and the Fed want to continue bailing out foreign banks, let them make that case, honestly and directly, to American taxpayers."

Rich Lowry has more.

I'm no fan of AIG. I know what their kind of corporate-think produces. But in this case, let's direct our attention to where it belongs, and not on the contracted bonus obligations that has caused all the noise in the media and blahgosphere.

Obama's grotesque and hypocritical agenda for stem cell research

Zero was the hero last week for his pompous embryonic stem cell research fiat. All the Usual Suspects were atwitter, and Bush Derangement Syndrome was the order of the day.

But the signing of the Executive Order wasn't the great social move forward that was presented in the Tank Team Media/Obama Perpetual Campaign PR team's "reporting".

Guy Benson puts the facts in their proper prospective.

Noteworthy:

"Obama’s 'uniter' persona also assured Americans that he’d continue to support 'promising research of all kinds, including groundbreaking research to convert ordinary human cells into ones that resemble embryonic stem cells.'

This research has proven extraordinarily promising, especially after a dramatic breakthrough in 2007: Scientists in Japan and the US discovered they could engineer human skin cells to mimic embryonic stem cell. This could allow the scientific community to probe the benefits of these cells without actually destroying human embryos. To some, this development rendered the controversy moot, and vindicated President Bush’s moral and ethical caution. At the very least, it was an enormous scientific step forward that all observers could unabashedly celebrate.

For this reason, the previous administration—you know, the divisive ideologues who hated science—issued executive order 13435 in 2007 that directed federal funding toward alternative, non-controversial human pluripotent stem cell research. Although some critics argued this action didn’t go far enough, and that further embryonic stem cell research should also be funded, no one could legitimately oppose the funding of this universally welcomed breakthrough.

That brings us to the nasty, gratuitous, and nearly entirely unpublicized action President Obama took amidst the hoopla of overturning Bush’s policies. Right after he told the country he supported for alternative, non-destructive stem cell research, Obama signed the actual order. Buried at the very bottom of the document was this line: “Executive Order 13435…is revoked.” That’s right, he abolished President Bush’s funding for the type of stem cell research upon which everyone could agree. Just like that.

In my August 2008 column, I speculated as to why then-State Senator Obama had repeatedly opposed no-brainer, pro-life legislation that passed the US Congress without a single dissenting vote. I wrote,

'[One] possibility is that Obama’s a hyper-partisan ideologue. The driving forces behind the Born Alive Infant Protection Act were pro-life groups that generally support Republicans. Perhaps Obama’s fierce partisanship and leftist ideology were simply too strong for him to stomach handing any conservative group a political victory. If this is the case, his vote was petty and appallingly callous. It also would entirely undermine the overarching message of his famous 2004 DNC speech in which he decried blue vs. red state polarization and embraced America in with a big, royal purple hug of bipartisanship and inclusion.'

In the face of yet another grotesque Obama policy decision on the issue of life, famed bioethicist Wesley J. Smith pondered a similar question. On his blog, he wondered why on earth Obama would take the totally unnecessary action he did in undoing excutive order 13435. Smith’s conclusion:

'I can think of only two reasons for this action…First, vindictiveness against all things "Bush" or policies considered by the Left to be "pro life" and second, a desire to get the public to see unborn human life as a mere corn crop ripe for the harvest. So much for taking the politics out of science.'

This decision by the president is hypocritical in the extreme, and demonstrates that Obama’s language about respect, inclusion, and unity are, in fact, just words. Regardless of one’s feelings on the separate issue of embryonic stem cell research, this narrow element of his executive order is an outrage, and 'thoughtful and decent' people of all ideological backgrounds should urge the White House to follow the president’s own rhetoric by rejecting the imposition of leftist ideology at the expense good science."

More, from P.J. O'Rourke:

"As your reasons for this research--which we are to perform with heavy hearts--you name a few misty hopes: 'to regenerate a severed spinal cord,' 'lift someone from a wheelchair,' 'spare a child from a lifetime of needles.'Then you undercut yourself by introducing a whole new fear. 'And we will ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction. It is dangerous, profoundly wrong, and has no place in our society.' Because cloning cells to make a human life is so much worse than cloning cells from a human life that's already been destroyed. Why, it's as dangerous, as profoundly wrong, and has as little place in our society as being pro-life.

Mr. President, any high school debate team could do better. Even debate teams from those terrible inner-city public high schools that your ideology demands that you champion no matter how little knowledge they provide. And I particularly enjoyed the part of your speech where you said that 'we make decisions based on facts, not ideology.'"

The more we know about the disaster that is all things Zero, the more important it is to get him out of office.

Team Obama sanctions racial discrimination

....in this Mississippi vote fraud/discrimination case.

Conclusion:

"If the races had been reversed, does anyone doubt this would have been front-page news? Or that Eric Holder would have been prominently quoted in a Justice Department press release calling attention to this outrageous discrimination? The Department of Justice should be proud of this victory. If Attorney General Holder is serious about talking about race, perhaps he could start with this case."

Holder is the real coward when it comes to race. He's also a hypocrite. It's a good possibility that his Enabler-in-Chief mirrors both those traits.

The facts are clear: The "anthropogenic global warming" scam is on its way out

The message sent from last week's conference marks the beginning of the end of the long run of the "anthropogenic global warming" nonsense that's been imposed on us for these many years by bad scientists, opportunistic politicians, media hacks, greedy researchers, obsessive alarmists, and easily duped do-gooders.

Noteworthy:

"Last Sunday, Klaus sparked a nervous laugh when he fretted continued alarmist mainstream acceptance with the words 'last year’s speech didn’t help much.' But immediately following Klaus to the podium, Lindzen reminded the Czech and the audience at large that 'we should never stop trying,' which was, of course, warmly received. And the next morning, Larry Solomon gave an inspiring example of why: Recent polls in Canada showed that those who believe in 'consensus' fear global warming; those who have heard from skeptics even once do not. In fact, the dominant Canadian party that made carbon pricing a major issue just suffered a major defeat.

During Tuesday’s standing-O-rousing conference-closing speech, in which he marvelously referred to alarmists as 'bed-wetting moaning Minnies of the Apocalyptic Traffic-Light Tendency -- those Greens too yellow to admit they’re really Reds,' Lord Monckton added:

'Every opinion poll--even those conducted by the bed-wetters themselves – shows that global public opinion is cooling as fast as the global climate. In one recent survey, ‘global warming’ came at the very bottom of a list of political and environmental concerns, immediately behind the need to clean up dog-poop on the streets. Why? Because dog-poop is a real environmental problem and ‘Global warming’ is not. The correct policy response to the non-problem of climate change is to have the courage to do nothing.'

And then emphasized unequivocally: 'there is no climate crisis. There was no climate crisis. There will be no climate crisis.'

Before gaveling the momentous proceedings, Heartland’s own James Taylor offered further encouragement to those despondent over the uphill battle it’s been to promote climate realism in an environment of mass-media-driven hyper-alarmism. Public opinion is, avers Taylor, changing in our direction, and he cited specific polls and current events to support his optimism. And he credited talk radio, cable television, the internet, and blogs with providing information to the American public “whether the mass media wants them to have it or not.”

Yet I couldn’t help recalling something I heard the ever-wise John Sununu state during one of the Q&A sessions that morning, and I paraphrase: Everything we talk about here needs to be translated into something you can put on the 6 o’clock news or explain to your neighbor. He’s right, of course. Go ask a hype-victim what causes climate variations and he’ll reflexively snap 'Carbon,' and that’s quite the simple concept to propagate. Now ask a climate realist, if you have the time and patience to sit through the response.

But leaving Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, I wondered whether it really mattered. After all, most believers don’t truly understand the workings of GHG theory, otherwise they’d surely question the influence of a trace gas. And our message may not be easily dumbed-down to a few words, but it is clear, nonetheless.

The very next day Gallup announced the results of a new poll finding that a record-high 41% of Americans now believe the seriousness of global warming is being exaggerated by 'mainstream reporting.'

That’s up 11% in just three years -- despite our sometimes involute and ever media-mocked message.

Which lends undeniable assurance to Professor Lindzen’s keynote prediction that 'we will eventually win against anthropogenic global warming alarm simply because we are right and they are wrong.'

MORE:

"The minds of world leaders are firmly shut to anything but the fantasies of the scaremongers"

Key point:

"Yet the terrifying thing, as President Klaus observed in his magisterial opening address, is that there is no dialogue on these issues. When recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he found the minds of his fellow world leaders firmly shut to anything but the fantasies of the scaremongers. As I said in my own modest contribution to the conference, there seems little doubt that global warming is leading the world towards an unprecedented catastrophe. But it is not the Technicolor apocalypse promised by the likes of Al Gore. The real disaster hanging over us lies in all those astronomically costly measures proposed by politicians, to meet a crisis which in reality never existed."

Hat tip: Fred Gregory