Newt Gingrich Now Polling Ahead Of...Barack Obama?

If this holds true, then it can be construed as evidence the American people are willing to elect virtually anyone or anything that is not Barack Obama:

The latest Rasmussen national poll has Newt Gingrich up over Barack Obama in a hypothetical general election match-up, 45 percent to 43 percent. That difference in within the 3-point margin of error, in a survey of 1,000 likely voters, but it shows a significant swing in support for Gingrich among voters. According to a Rasmussen poll released last week, Gingrich had been trailing Obama by six points.

The primaries start in a little over a month. And like hockey, it's not always the best team that storms through the playoffs, it's the team that's the hottest when the tournament begins.

And with Florida's primary slated for January 31st - a mere two months out - well, holy sh*t:

Newt Gingrich is the current favorite in Florida’s Jan. 31 Republican presidential primary, picking up supporters who fled Herman Cain to claim 41 percent in a poll conducted Tuesday night for the Florida Times-Union.

Gingrich has as much support as the next four candidates combined in the telephone survey of 513 registered voters who say they’re likely to cast ballots in the primary. The poll, conducted by InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research, has a margin of error of 4 percent....

Let it be stated that I am not a fan of Newt Gingrich (can I even back away from a blog post entitled  Newt Gingrich: A Poll-Chasing, Flip-Flopping Philanderer?).  And while polls seem to show he may actually be able to beat Obama, the media has yet to take a real hard swing at him.  Expect that to begin...in about 15 minutes, once the aforementioned poll numbers sink in at the newsrooms.

Just got an early proof of the front page of tomorrow's New York Times...

Speaking strictly for myself - I think that Newt's know-it-all, abrasive, and occasionally dismissive personality will grate on the American people, and even should he win the presidency (long-shot), would be hard-pressed to win a second term. And at this point, the nations desperately need a Reagan - a leader for eight years who can cement a conservative policy legacy - and not just a brief respite from the liberal carnage.

Why the Newt surge?  Maybe - like Chris Christie, another popular politician - he's a guy who is not afraid to tell it like it is:  The president is a socialist, the media are his PR service,  and the government is the source of - not the solution to - many of America's problems.

Maybe Mitt Romney can learn something from Newt Gingrich.  A little abrasiveness - turned on the right targets - can be a very, very good thing...

"Black Friday Boom": The Smoke Clears, The Truth Appears...

Yesterday we worked on popping the media-driven economic optimism based on 'increased" Black Friday spending"

When the broader picture is examined, and trend lines are studies, things look a lot worse close up than they actually appear:

The biggest retail sector is cars and car parts, which account for about 18 percent of the total; they're up 10.1 percent so far this year. Food and beverage stores — i.e. groceries—constitute about 13.2 percent of sales, and they're up 5.6 percent through the first ten months. Gasoline stations alone account for 11.7 percent of total sales, and their sales are up 19 percent so far in 2011, thanks to higher gas prices.

If you factor out clothing - a necessity for most of us - and factor in inflation, retail is getting killed this year. None of which is mentioned in any of the "Black Friday" success stories being put out by the media. Furthermore, is the 6.6% increase in Black Friday sales an indicator of future increases for the holiday shopping season? Or are huge sales backed by saturation ad campaigns just moving demand up, resulting in much smaller increases (if any) from now till Yule...

Here's Tyler Durden, today, backing up our hypothesis:

The rumors were all true: record sales... on negative margins. Because it is not difficult to dump product when you are, well, dumping.

And he hones in on something that is nearest and dearest to the American consumer...TV sets:

Feeling Blue about Black Friday TV Sales — Investors seemingly cheered aggressive LCD TV promotions and anecdotal reports of healthy sell-through. We agree that price promotions were certainly aggressive, but we are left feeling "blue" about Black Friday – What does it say for the state of LCD TV demand if the only way to stimulate unit growth is with massive price cuts? If the supply chain was unprofitable before recent aggressive retail pricing, how much worse will it be going forward as consumers' expectations are now likely anchored at the lower price points?



How many stores will shutter right after the new year?  And how long can the media continue on with their economic "Remain calm, all is well" message?

Barack Obama, 2012 Version: A Real-Life "Joker"?

This seems like the kind of hint The Joker might drop before committing one of his more heinous felonies:

As Mr. Obama recently told a group of supporters in the deflated liberal bastion of San Francisco, ‘The Hope poster is kind of faded and a little dog-eared.’”

Just a wink and a nod towards what Obama intends to bring to the 2012 presidential campaign. The New York Times, rather politely, informs us that the theme of “hopeful, transcendent politics” has been jettisoned in favor of a combination of excuses and attacks.

You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.
-The Joker

Obama is not going to bring a knife to a gunfight. He's going to go nuclear, and if that means separating Americans by class and race, employing brown-shirts (whether of the union stripe or the #OWS variety) to sow fear and intimidation, and just plain lying his ass off, he's going to do it - in order to maintain power.

"This town deserves a better class of criminal...and I'm gonna give it to them."
~The Joker in The Dark Knight

Peter Wehner assures us, though, that Barack Obama is not a sociopath.  Same link as on top:

...the president is a man of unusually cold-blooded insincerity. To be clear: Obama is not habitually dishonest and divisive. It is not as if he can’t control his poisonous rhetoric. He simply uses those things when they’re useful to him. In that sense, Obama is not sociopathic; he’s merely ruthlessly unprincipled. Or to put it another way, he’s thoroughly post-modern, willing to construct his own truth and his own reality in the quest for power. If Obama thinks being conciliatory and civil are the roads to victory, he’ll be conciliatory and civil. If he believes incendiary rhetoric and ludicrous stereotypes are the pathway to success, he’s just as happy to employ them. Six of one, a half-dozen of the other. Whatever works. One way to express this is with references to faded, dog-eared “Hope posters.” Another, less delicate but perhaps more accurate way to express the Obama approach to politics is deeply cynical.

I don't know. Here's a psycho-analysis of the Joker.

Someone who is 'psychotic' is experiencing symptoms of psychosis, a mental disorder, which can include auditory hallucinations, such as hearing voices; visual hallucinations, where they see objects that are not truly there; or have delusional thoughts, despite evidence to show that such beliefs are incorrect -- such as believing that one's movements are being tracked by deep space satellites -- or disorganized behavior.

Think - an almost cultish belief in "global warming", a myriad of unsubstantiated claims, a persecution complex...really, what differentiates Barack Obama from the Joker?

Well, unlike the Joker on his best day, Barack Obama is going to have close to three-quarters of a billion dollars, and an army of loyal henchmen, come the 2012 elections.  Imagine the damage he could do...

"Black Friday Boom": The Media Pops Smoke...

...and lays down cover for the Democratic regime in Washington.  Claims that "retailers can breathe a sigh of relief", due to a 6.6% increase in sales from Black Friday 2010, are nothing more than yet another attempt to lull us into a false sense of economic well-being, while we  await the expression of surprise three months down the road when the actual sales figures for the holiday season turned out to be much more tepid than usual.

When the broader picture is examined, and trend lines are studies, things look a lot worse close up than they actually appear:

The headline number looks good. Retail sales in October were a record $397.7 billion, up from September, and up 7.2 percent from October 2010. But some of the biggest and most rapidly growing components of retailing include segments that we don't really think of as shopping. The biggest retail sector is cars and car parts, which account for about 18 percent of the total; they're up 10.1 percent so far this year. Food and beverage stores — i.e. groceries—constitute about 13.2 percent of sales, and they're up 5.6 percent through the first ten months. Gasoline stations alone account for 11.7 percent of total sales, and their sales are up 19 percent so far in 2011, thanks to higher gas prices.

For those looking for a safe place to park their money, how about investing in publicly-held car parts companies? With new car prices continuing to rise due to new environmental regulations, and a used car shortage (thanks, "cash for clunkers"!), folks have no choice to keep what they have running. Like in Cuba.

But if you add cars to food and gasoline, you'll see that America's spending is up - on the necessities of life. Not on new iPods, Kindles, and other expensive holiday paraphernalia.  Which is, alas, no surprise to retailers:

But when you back those large segments out, you're left with the traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers, the crowd for whom the five-week period at the end of the year means everything.... these guys aren't having a great year. Their sales growth lags that of the entire retail sector. Clothing and sporting goods are doing okay, with sales gains of 5.9 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively, through the first ten months of the year. But so far in 2011, sales for the furniture and home furnishing sector are up just 1.2 percent, electronics and appliances stores are up .2 percent, and general merchandise is up just 3.5 percent. Within general merchandise stores, the department store category is actually down .8 percent. Keep in mind that all these numbers don't account for inflation.


If you factor out clothing - a necessity for most of us - and factor in inflation, retail is getting killed this year. None of which is mentioned in any of the "Black Friday" success stories being put out by the media. Furthermore, is the 6.6% increase in Black Friday sales an indicator of future increases for the holiday shopping season? Or are huge sales backed by saturation ad campaigns just moving demand up, resulting in much smaller increases (if any) from now till Yule?

A miserable 2011 Christmas for the economy is coming.  You heard it here first.  But don't worry, the media won't hear it at all, and neither will the resident, as he will most likely be enjoying yet another Christmas in Hawaii this year, while his subjects huddle for warmth...

Barney Frank To Join Jon Corzine: Lawyered Up In The Bunker?

One former Democratic politician just crashed one of the world's largest brokerage firms:

Jon S. Corzine has hired Andrew J. Levander, a leading white-collar criminal defense lawyer, according to three people briefed on the matter, as the former New Jersey governor deals with fallout from the collapse of MF Global...

While another, Mr. Barney Frank, suddenly announces his retirement today, giving no real reason. But since he is widely blamed for creating the sub-prime mortgage disaster, and his party - which has long protected him - is rapidly falling out of favor, maybe Barney thought "The Corzine Maneuver" was best. After all, when the Republican front runner (that's Newt!) is quoted as saying:

....The fix was put in by the federal government. If you want to put people in jail, I want to second what Michele said, you ought to start with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. And let's look at the politicians who created the environment, the politicians who profited from the environment and the politicians who put this country in trouble."

... in Chris Dodd's case, go back to look at the Countryside deals. In Barney Frank's case, go back and look at the lobbyist who was close to Freddie Mac.

...maybe Barney knows that the party is over. Wait for the page B-23 announcement that Frank has hired a criminal lawyer, and you'll know why he quit, and why he's about to grab the canned goods and the boy-toy and head underground...

I plead not guilty, your honor, to bribery, misappropriation of federal funds, racketeering, insider trading...and as a side note, I had nothing to do with that gay prostitution ring operating out of my townhouse...

Although, other theories abound...

The source also speculated that Frank's longtime boyfriend Jim Ready was tired of being a political spouse.

Or just the old rats-fleeing-the-sinking-ship scenario

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is the 17th House Democrat to announce a retirement this cycle compared to seven Republicans.

And all of those Republicans are trying to win higher office.

Of the Democratic retirements, eight are running for another position while nine are flat-out retiring.

And while this might be giddy news for those of us who believe in karma, if not justice, just remember that the wheel keeps spinning, as Jonah Goldberg reminds us:

By the way, with Frank retiring Maxine Waters is slated to be the ranking Dem on the banking committee.

...as a shiver goes down the nation's collective spine..


UPDATE:  RS McCain has a great little round-up, while Professor Jacobson says it is the beginning of an inglourious end

...this represents a bigger deal than Barney. As more and more senior Democrats retire, the realization is sinking in that there is no next generation of Democrats...

...Who are the Democratic Party equivalents of Marco Rubio, Mitch Daniels, John Thune, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan or Eric Cantor?

Well, I hear Alan Grayson is going to try to run again in Florida...which reminds me of this bit of Simpsons dialogue, as Homer cohosts the Ace Awards:

Homer: And now the winner for the most promising new series on
cable: "Old Starsky and Hutches" [funky music starts]

Announcer: Accepting the award is the son of the guy who played Huggy Bear....

BBC: Climate Change Skeptics Are "Loonies"

Which is still better than selling out the moral premise of your profession in order to curry favor with cocktail-circuit lefties....

The BBC's Alex Kirby writes to climate-change cover-up criminal Phil Jones of the Angola Institute, and apologizes for running a piece by "skeptics":

date: Wed Dec 8 08:25:30 2004

from: Phil Jones subject: RE: something on new online.
to: “Alex Kirby”

At 17:27 07/12/2004, you wrote:

 Yes, glad you stopped this — I was sent it too, and decided to
spike it without more ado as pure stream-of-consciousness rubbish. I can
well understand your unhappiness at our running the other piece. But we
are constantly being savaged by the loonies for not giving them any
coverage at all, especially as you say with the COP in the offing, and
being the objective impartial (ho ho) BBC that we are, there is an
expectation in some quarters that we will every now and then let them
say something. I hope though that the weight of our coverage makes it
clear that we think they are talking through their hats.
—–Original Message—–

Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit

Biased BBC has a little more about Kirby's intellectual heft, or lack of same, as he confesses to lazy, lazy research himself:

I have a very short memory span, and every time I have to write something about climate change I have to look up the latest statements from the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) or the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) or whoever it is.

 Well, that's what the BBC wants.  Or else why would they have made Kirby, who works a side job on the board of the Climate Change Media Partnership (a propoganda outfit), their point man on the global warming issue? 

 Funny thing, this BBC.  The average Brit pays taxes on an annual basis, per TV set in their home, to support the BBC. A colour television licence is £116 a year (around $192 US) and a black and white TV licence costs £38.50 a year (around $64 US).  Nonpayment is punishable by jail time - and the courts use that sentencing power freely, to make an example to any other freeloaders...

 So I suppose one would certainly not expect the BBC to take a conservative "cut taxes and spending" approach to anything.  But imagine if pretty much the only channel you could get on your television was NPR, with all of its liberal biases jacked to the nth degree, and you had to pay a few hundred bucks a year just for the privilege of being inundated by government propaganda.

 Riots.  Anarchy. Congressman running naked through the streets, covered in tar and feathers... 

Uncivilized?  Maybe.  But so are the likes of scientists like Phil Jones, and government propagandists like Alex Kirby...

Environmentally-Correct Sex Toys?

...or just a continuation of the Left's war on women?

Women get a buzz from eco-vibrator

 Green fans are getting a buzz out of a new hand-cranked vibrator that makers say could help save the planet.

The eco-sex toy - dubbed the “Earth Angel” - uses a small wind-up handle to power up rechargeable batteries inside the casing.

Sure, make women do all the work, while at the same time, encouraging them to "jill off" for the sake of the planet. With as many guys watching as possible, of course...

But it gets stupider:

It had originally been planned as a sex aid for the Third World where batteries and electricity supplies are unreliable.

Leave it to the conceit of a liberal to think that what the poor really need are hand-cranked masturbation tools. Can you imagine the blank look on the starving mother's face when she is told, by an earnest, upper-middle class, purebred blonde, "no, we don't have any food for you, but we have something that's even better! Have you ever worried about the fate of the planet when you 'buff the beaver'? We can help you with that..."

Sigh.

... Irish manufacturers Camden Enterprises have been swamped with interest from Green followers after displaying the vibrator at the Ars Electronica fair in Linz, Upper Austria, this week.

"It has been in its development stage for the past two years and we are excited that our vision has become reality," said a spokesman.

Would love to meet that design & development team....

And can someone explain to me, incidentally, why battery-operated cars are good, but battery-operated vibrators are bad?  Or is that only the type of question only a dumb 'ol Republican would ask?

Anyway...if you guys need a liberal celebrity endorser for your eco-friendly "couch hockey" stick, here's a suggestion...

UPDATE:  RS McCain links,  warns this product is not yet available on Amazon...!

A Liberal's Enlightenment....

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose , and was baptized
~Acts 9:18

Well, there will be no baptism into conservatism for Harlem City Councilwoman Inez Diaz, but when somebody finally sees the light, there is always hope they will follow it until they are immersed within it.

From an editorial she penned in the NY Daily News:

Why I changed my mind, decided to vote against New York City's living wage bill

Councilmember Inez Dickens says law would hurt small businesses and those who work for them

Last year, I joined more than two dozen of my colleagues on the City Council in sponsoring the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act, commonly known as the Living Wage Bill.

I signed on with concerns. Those concerns have not been addressed and so I have had to withdraw from the bill at this time. Here’s why.

While I have always supported organized labor — because the unions were on the forefront when there were no rights for the working family — I am concerned this legislation will have an adverse impact on small, minority- and women-owned businesses in my district and across the city as a whole.

This legislation would essentially increase the $7.25-an-hour minimum wage to $10 an hour with benefits — or $11.50 an hour without benefits — for employees of projects receiving at least $1 million in city subsidies.
In economically challenged areas of New York City, where jobs are most needed, government subsidies are necessary to spur growth and development. Investors who bring about these developments, and job-creating tenants who take space in them, would be the ones targeted by this bill.

Over time, it has become clear to me that the bill would hurt the businesses that most need government help, the most fragile of businesses in this most fragile economy. It would impose higher costs on the businesses that can least afford it, hurt job creation and create a level of bureaucracy never before seen in New York City.

In my district, small businesses are the only ones hiring. If we are going to pull ourselves out of this recession, we must nurture the creation of new small businesses and encourage them to hire people here as well. If they are forced to pay this higher wage, they most certainly will choose not to come. The unmanageable compliance obligations that the bill would create are enough to keep even the exempted businesses from moving here.

We cannot let this happen....

All in all, when examining the details of the legislation, it seems as though it would do more harm than good.

In short, this legislation will kill jobs, rather than create them. It will hurt businesses, rather than help them and it will curtail the development of new local firms at a time they are needed most.

 Her critique could have been written by Grover freakin' Norquist, by the way. But what differentiates her from ivory tower intellectuals of all ideological stripes is that she's in the trenches of the economic battle, in hand to hand combat with the recession. And she is rejecting, for sound, logical, empirical reasons, the remedies of the far left, as she searches for other answers.

Follow the light, Ms. Diaz. You're on the right path to a better way for your constituents...

New York Times Throws A Pity Party For The "Poor" New York Environmentalists...

As soon as I realized the NYT had put up an article discussing hydrofracking in New York, I pulled it up, expecting not an ounce of fairness, reality, or rationality to make its way into the article.

And I was not disappointed.

Leftist ideology seep into your news reporting much lately, ladies?

This could have been written by a high school journalist - or drama student:

Energy companies have been pouring millions of dollars into television advertising, lobbying and campaign contributions as the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo enters the final phase of deciding when and where to allow a controversial form of natural gas extraction that is opposed by environmental groups.

Companies that drill for natural gas have spent more than $3.2 million lobbying state government since the beginning of last year...national energy companies are advertising heavily in an effort to convince the public that the extraction method, commonly known as hydrofracking, is safe and economically beneficial.

Environmental groups, with far less money at their disposal, are mounting a more homespun campaign as they warn that hydrofracking — a process in which water mixed with sand and chemicals is injected deep into the ground to break up rock formations and release natural gas — could taint the water supply and cause untold environmental ruin.
 
One environmental group held a Halloween contest in which participants were asked to design costumes for drill rigs. And, claiming Mr. Cuomo is rushing the approval process for drilling by collecting public comments for only 90 days, environmentalists delivered 180 water-powered clocks to the governor’s Capitol office, representing the number of days they are asking him to allow for people to weigh in.


So we get a "controversial" form of energy extraction, we get the prototypical bad guys - Big Energy and their Dirty Dollars, and we get the standard good guys - "homespun" environmentalists.

Of course, maybe the reason that the Greenies have no cash behind their jihad is because it is only the nutjobs who find hydro-fracking to be "controversial".  Despite blatant, front page lies told by the New York Times about the process, not a single drop of water anywhere has ever been tainted by hydrofracking.

In Pennsylvania, where the environmentalist are trying to put a halt to the hydrofracking boom, polling has been...interesting, to say the least:

“Pennsylvania voters say 63 – 30 percent that the economic benefits of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale outweigh the environmental impacts. Support is strong among men, women, all parties and in all regions, ranging from 55 – 38 percent among voters in the northeast corner of the state to 69 – 25 percent among voters in the northwest corner.

To be exact, the poll shows that: 52% of Democrats, 67% of Union Households, and 58% of women favor drilling opposed to the caution of the environmental impact.

Because maybe 44,000 Pennsylvania hydrofracking jobs is more "homespun" than water-powered clocks?

Funny how the New York Times inverts reality here.  It is Big Energy that is actually the good guy here - speaking up for us by lobbying to create thousands of jobs and provide cheaper energy in New York, while is the environmentalist who are actually the bad guys in this  drama - looking to stop economic growth and energy independence in the name of service to their perverted green god.

And the Times, of course, stands with evil.  Not for the first time, nor the last...

Investment "Expert" Cleaned Out By...Jon Corzine and MF Global

Proving, perhaps, that there are no such things as economic experts, if those who claim to be keep their monies in a firm where the perfidious Jon Corzine is at the helm.  Via Lou Minatti:

In an interview with Russia Today (RT) on November 14th, economist and trends forecaster Gerald Celente became the newest victim of the MF Global bankruptcy when his gold futures account was taken by trustees, and he was hit with a margin call within days of the corporate shutdown.

“I really got burned, I got a call last Monday, I have an account with Lind-Waldock, and I have been trading gold since 1978, and I have a very simple strategy. As you well know, I’ve been very bullish on gold for many years…”

Gerald Celente- “So I was building up my account to take delivery on a contract, and I got a call on Monday, and they said I needed to have a margin call. And I said, what are you talking about, I’ve got a ton of money in my account. They responded, oh no you don’t, that money’s with a trustee now.”

Celente is a victim here, to be sure.  He advocated the physical ownership of gold, and not paper claiming you owned such-and-such an amount, perhaps knowing that such ownership can be revoked, especially in regimes as criminal as the Obama Administration.  But nevertheless, he used MF Global as a conduit for his trading. Perhaps a savvier investor would have seen Corzine's name, known about his open desire to make a quick buck and then dash to the Treasury, and pulled their money out.  Or perhaps our expert, Mr. Celente, believed deep in his heart that anything with Jon Corzine's name on it would be protect by the government, due to his rather unique relationship with the president.

Celente lost that bet, if he had made it.  The lessons are to take all of these so-called experts with a grain of salt -  Celente may be no better a forecaster than some guy at a casino who is sure which number will come up next on the roulette wheel - and to watch who manages your funds very, very closely.  True even if your investing is limited to a 401(k).

Finally:

MF Global's demise and theft of customer assets caught a big fish in the crossfire when trustees [Jon Corzine] took money and holdings from Gerald Celente futures account...

I've said before that MF Global could in fact bring down Barack Obama, and the involvement of high-profile investors may make this case even more troublesome for our larcenous president. For what if people become aware that their money - on deposit in a S&L, perhaps - is no longer safe, as bank officers can use it to place bad bets, and go under cover and be protected by the government if it all goes to hell?

Slowly, people would start withdrawing their money from these institutions. And banks would no longer even have the money to lend. Some would go under, with ensuing "panic" and runs on banks. Within days, our whole system could collapse...

{Don't laugh, it's already happening across the pond}

...and it could be 1939 all over again. All thanks to Jon Corzine, and the president that refused to let him be prosecuted...

Happy Thanksgiving !

My favorite holiday - all the joy of the season, with none of the gifts. Just pure thankfulness from the heart. And football.  Lots and lots of football.

"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many--not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
~Charles Dickens


"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues."
~Cicero


"O Lord, who lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness."
~Shakespeare


"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice."
~Meister Eckhart

"The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving."
~H. U. Westermayer

Media's "Obama Surge" Much, Much Less Than Advertised...

...OK, so I picked off this article from Yahoo! (whose story selection I have taken issue with many times before, most recently here), so it's not very different from White House spin.  But since that is all the media will give us anyway, let's see the dreck they are putting out:

It’s the stock market, stupid? Why Obama is no longer the underdog

Obama's poll results and approval ratings are ticking up now, too. While it's tempting to credit scandals (exhibit C and G) or infighting among Obama's potential Republican rivals, or Republican stubbornness in the ongoing deficit reduction debate, the simplest explanation harkens back to the signature phrase of Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign, "It's the economy, stupid."

Brighter economic news and the prospect of a decent holiday season have handicappers wagering that economic conditions, or at least momentum, will be sufficient next fall that many voters will consider themselves better off in 2012 than 2008, and pull the lever for Obama.

 The "scandals" he refers to are Herman Cain's women problems, hardly a national issue and mostly forgotten. The "infighting" will also become ancient history one a nominee is declared (it always is). But to suggest somehow that the economic news is brightening? That's actually a deception, as the piece the author links to support that statement starts as follows:

A new Marist poll finds that the share of respondents who say that the worst is yet to come for the economy is at 53 percent. That's a lot, but it's less than the 68 percent who said so in September. Forty-one percent said the worst is behind us -- up from 35 percent last time.

 If people are going to vote based on their stock market, or their economic gut, Obama gets beaten like he took down McCain. Now maybe that is a surge for Obama - to only lose 53%-47% - but that is not what Yahoo! wants you to believe...

But don't listen to me - or Yahoo! - believe the evidence of your own eyes. Here's the massive crowd of Obama supporters that showed up to greet the president on a recent trip to New Hampshire:

And what about the "Occupy" movement that the Left would unite behind, as well as all good-hearted Americans, that would push Obama to victory on a platform promising "income equality" or some similar nebulous nonsense? Well, it's about as strong as Obama's support in New Hampshire. Via JWF, we see what's become of their "March on Washington", in which - to fawning media coverage - they announced their intention to walk from New York to DC to "spread the movement". So have their numbers swelled?

Or just their smelly feet?

We are entering into the first headwinds of the propaganda hurricane that will accompany the Obama campaign. This is just a spring shower compared to the downpours of crap that will rain upon our heads. Truth will matter less and less, as panic sets in and the fierce urgency of now takes hold.

Won't be able to keep them honest, but I'm gonna sure as hell try. At the very least, let's lift the curtain on the great, secret, and dangerous game the media is playing. Diminish their credibility, diminish their influence. That's why Oz hid behind a curtain, and Darth Vader under a dark helmet.

Because once people saw how petty, weak, and small they were, their powers were considerably diminished...

Conspiracy Theory: Did Jon Corzine Sink MF Global on Obama's Orders?

I've written a lot about Jon Crozine's culpability, both moral and legal, in the fall of MF Global.  And while I am convinced that this poster boy for Wall Street malfeasance will not see a moment of jail time due to his butt-buddy friendship with the president, it never struck me that this might have been a set-up.

Not sure if I'm buying it, but Tyler Durden is selling it.

Imagine you are Ben Bernanke, or on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. The time frame is July and August of 2011 and the price of gold is on a tear. Commodities inflation has been persistent and is breaking out everywhere. Your prediction that inflation “is contained” and is a “temporary phenomena” are beginning to look absurd. What do you do?

Simple. Hint that QE3, the primary drive of inflation, is coming and then fail to deliver at the September FOMC meeting. That takes care of the price of gold and the gold stocks. Ah, but those pesky commodities speculators keep making money and trading against what you want the markets to do. So what is to be done there? Hey Jon Corzine, how about you tank the largest broker for the small commodities punters in the world, and we let them twist in the wind? That will serve them right. Teach them to bet against the government approved scenario.

 Think it did not happen? Well think again. All of the pieces fit. It sure is convenient that all those commodities speculators are now out of the box. Also, who will want to speculate on commodities in the future given customer funds are no longer protected. Furthermore, commodities speculators are not a very “All American” group. From the authorities point of view they can say: screw them, who will feel sympathy? Hell, James Bullard, Fed Governor, in an interview on CNBC yesterday said the MF Global collapse proves that the system works. Yes it does Jim, for you. Personally, I have $90,000 at MF Global and I would like to have my honestly earned money returned. Unfortunately, the odds of that happening any time soon seem slim. In part because when MF Global entered bankruptcy the judge appointed a Trustee whose law firm has done substantial work for JP Morgan, a deeply interested party. We will probably never find out what happened here. But for those of us whose eyes are open the results speak for themselves.

This whole mess stinks to high heaven. I am with Gerald Celente, if the largest commodity broker in America can go bankrupt and nothing is done, then where can you put your money and expect it to be safe? I, for one, do not accept that Jon Corzine is stupid enough to lever up MF Global 40:1 and use the proceeds and customer money to bet on European sovereign debt. This was a hit, pure and simple. That is why there is no resolution to the problem, and it is just another example of the deeply corrupt US political/financial axis. It may take money away from a bunch of commodities speculators, and it may cool down the perceived inflation, but it is just another hole in the dike which is The US Financial System. A dike whose life can probably now be measured in months, not years.



Hey - I'm the guy who is convinced that Anthony Weiner's wife is a Saudi agent, that Barack Obama caused/exacerbated the Gulf Oil Spill Disaster of 2010 in order to justify his ashixiating energy policy, and that global warmists - backed by the president - sabotaged multiple US climate satellite launches, fearful that the truth would destroy their narrative.

But I'm not 100% sure on this one.  Why?

I, for one, do not accept that Jon Corzine is stupid enough to lever up MF Global 40:1 and use the proceeds and customer money to bet on European sovereign debt.

It wasn't stupidity, it was just a liberal's way of doing business:

Jon Corzine went all-in with their company's(and their customers?) money on a bad bet - that sovereign debt would always be bailed out. A bet made with a 2008 mentality. A bet made by a man who thought the private sector was indistinguishable from the public, who treated customer accounts as if they were no more than taxpayer money, funds he could squander with no accountability.

And playing with the books was also a Corzine staple:

Just 48 hours into his new role, Gov. Chris Christie said New Jersey faces a $1.3 billion shortfall in the current budget and blamed former Gov. Jon Corzine for setting him up to fail by hiding the depth of the problems.

"He was trying to make it as hard as he possibly could," Christie said. "Avoidance of the facts and avoidance of the truth was a staple of the Corzine administration."

But I won't discount Tyler Durden's conspiracy theory entirely.  Corzine and Obama were in bed together, and Jon really, really wanted that Treasury position.  Do you think either one of them cares how many innocent lives they destroyed, if the end result would be increased power for both as well as the further implementation of their socialist agenda?

That is believable.  Hence the "Corzine as Obama hit man" theory has enough legs to get published.  Here, at least...

Ryan Braun: "The Hebrew Hammer" Brings Hanukkah Joy Early To The Jews

OK, so the book of "Great Jewish Athletes" is a rather thin one, although perhaps thicker than the book of Jewish conservatives (which, actually, is more of a pamphlet).  But we can add a page today, with the selection of Ryan Braun as the National League's 2011 MVP:

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun has bested Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp for the National League MVP Award. Braun hit .332 with 32 homeruns and 111 RBI for the NL Central Division champions. Known as The Hebrew Hammer, Braun also led the NL in slugging percentage (SLG) and on base plus slugging percentage (OPS) with .597 and .994, respectively. Braun becomes the first Jewish player to win the NL MVP since Sandy Koufax did it with the 1963 World Series champion Dodgers.

Almost half a century since the nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn took the honors.  The list of Jewish MLB MVPs is a short one, but let's honor them all:


1935 & 1940: Hank Greenberg - The first Jewish MVP was the greatest Jewish power hitter of all-time and endured the type of abuse most people only associate with African-American ballplayers.

"Hammerin' Hank" was taunted by Anti-Semitic rants from fans, opposing players and even some teammates. He wasn't afraid to fight back and was a model to other athletes of all races and religions.

The 6'4" slugger mostly took his anger out on the ball, helping the 1935 Tigers to the World Series with a league-leading 36 homers and 170 RBI.

1948: Lou Boudreau - known to Indians fans as the great player-manager of the last Cleveland team to win the World Series in 1948. The Hall-of-Fame shortstop hit .355 with 106 RBI that season and blasted four hits to help topple the Red Sox in a one-game playoff for the AL pennant.  (Note: Boudrou was born to a Jewish mother but raised Catholic, technically in the eyes of the faith this makes him Jewish but it's not as if he grew up eating matzoh on Passover...)

1953: Al Rosen - Rosen's MVP year included an AL-best 43 homers and 145 RBI, and his .336 average was second to only Mickey Vernon of the Senators (.337), as Rosen just missed the Triple Crown. It was the best season of Al's career, and like Braun, he wore the nickname "Hebrew Hammer" proudly.


1963: Sandy Koufax - Koufax's five-year stretch of dominance from 1962-66 included three Cy Young Awards (when it was only given to one player in all of baseball) and the '63 National League MVP Award, when he went 25-5 with a 1.88 ERA and 306 strikeouts. He capped off the year with two World Series victories in LA's sweep of the Yankees.

In 1972, the author of five no-hitters was the youngest player ever elected to the Hall of Fame six years after arm woes forced his retirement at age 31.




1977: Rod Carew (with an asterisk*)

Carew hit .388 in 1977, the hugest batting average since Ted Williams .406 in 1941, and justly won the MVP .   BUT:  Carew's wife was Jewish, and he raised his kids in the faith, but there are conflicting reports on whether or not he ever converted. But as we mentioned, our book is a tad thin, so we'll add a page for one of the best pure hitters of his generation - one that did eat matzoh every Passover...


Congratulations, Ryan, on making the book. A little bit of Jewish pride for us all today. Now, did you ever think about making a real career move, and bringing your talents to New York? Every deli would line up for your endorsement, and every synagogue would vie for your attendance. And that baseball team that plays in Queens really could use a little bit of that Jewish charity right about now....


(note: some of the stats above taken from this slideshow)


UPDATE:  Thanks to the esteemed Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection for the link!

Is Los Angeles About To Surrender To "The Occupation"?

Well, Europe had "Vichy France" during the Nazi Occupation (a collaboration government that fought against the Allies and hunted down Jews to curry favor with their new, brutal masters), and in our days of "Occupy Wall Street", we have....Los Angeles:

[Attorney] Jim Lafferty said city officials have offered protesters a $1-a-year lease on a 10,000-square-foot office space near City Hall. He said officials also promised land elsewhere for protesters who wish to farm, as well as additional housing for the contingent of homeless people who joined the camp.

A spokesman for the mayor would not comment on the proposal, saying only: "We are in negotiations with organizers of Occupy L.A."

Los Angeles has been one of the most accommodating cities in the nation for its Occupy encampment...

Wonder how this cash-strapped city in this cash-starved state feel about the government giving away valuable resources to people who contribute absolutely nothing to society whatsoever? Furthermore, whose land and office space was this to begin with? And finally, why is Los Angeles rewarding the horrific behavior of the "Occupation" with land, homes, and a beach head at City Hall?

Ask French Field Marshall Philippe Pétain - you know, their onetime war hero who created the collaborationist Vichy government. He might explain why he did it - and we might understand why he was convicted, postwar, of treason, and died in a lonely cell....

And as an addendum, without further comment:

President Obama was heckled on Tuesday during an appearance at a New Hampshire high school.
Just as the president started his speech, protesters, apparently from the Occupy Wall Street protest movement, used the “human mic” technique to amplify their voices.

“I appreciate you guys making your point; let me go ahead and make mine,” Obama said before continuing his speech. “I'll listen to you, you listen to me, OK?”

A few minutes later, Obama acknowledged the Occupy protest movement again, saying: “You are the reason I ran for office.”


Appears as if we have a Philippe Pétain to call our own...

Desperate Obamas Try To Woo The South With A Country Bear Jamboree...

Dimly realizing it will take more than New York, California, and Oregon to retain the White House, and with panic setting in as the Obama clan realizes they might get tossed off their government gravy train, the White House seems to be making at outreach to Americans outside of their inner ideological circle.

So far, the results have been mixed.  At best.  Michelle Obama and Jill Biden were sent off to the Homestead-Miami race track, for which they expected the rubes to wildly applaud them for giving the order the "start your engines".  Instead, it was the signal for a cascade of boos.  Kinda of like bringing flowers to a wronged paramour, and having them tossed back in your face, thorns-first.  And not undeserved.

But the White House moves on, and yesterday took a break from their usual musical diet of R&B and rap to host a hosts country music jamboree. Bizarrely, they invited kids from a Washington DC school, a group least likely to appreciate country music stylings. Were they hoping for a revenge booing?

Again, it seems as if the disrespect was limited to Moochelle:

A group of girls were turned around asking photographers in hushed whispers whether they should stand and clap when the first lady entered. Some students were slouching down in their chairs while classmates playfully shushed and slapped at each other...

It all seems so weak, and obvious.  "We love those rubes!  Look - we went to a NASCAR event!  And let Darius Rucker play at the White House!  It's the Republicans that listen to chamber music, and light their cigars with $100 bills dipped in the blood of the unemployed..."

But the one thing the Obama's won't do is talk to the South - or the West - about economic policy.  They know it's loser.  So they go for optics, figuring the media will play into it.  And they will.  But the boos of the South cannot be turned into huzzahs based on the say-so of the New York Times.  And all the dog and pony shows won't convince anyone outside of the blue states to go all-in for an Obama redux.

Despite what Michelle and Barack believe, they're not that stupid.  The special breed of ignorance that it takes to pull a lever for these two socialists is limited to liberals...

Finally - Some Bang For Your NPR Buck! Weak Rookie Reporter Heaves Chunks...

We're forced to pay for it, even though we hate it, and it hates us.  No, I'm not talking about Obamacare, I'm speaking of NPR.  But if you want to finally get some return on your investment - and granted, it's a paltry one - you can watch this video of NPR reporter Marshall Terry puking in a garbage can.

You see, Marshall trucked out to the badlands of North Carolina to eat what one hillbilly claimed to be the world's hottest pepper.  Marshall gamely takes a bite, and does a high-schooler-on-mescaline freakout, complete with floor-rolling, incoherent babbling, and the requisite giggling over his his hands.

And if it all seems vaguely familiar, well..it's because it is right out of a Simpsons episode.  Except Homer handles his hot pepper (a merciless pepper of Queziltacatanango, grown deep in the jungle primeval, by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum - or so Chief Wiggum's legend tells) better than young Marshall does.

Compare and contrast yourself:






Guess young Mr. Terry would have done better to go to a party college, instead of Stuck-Up-White-Bread U.  Love the part where Marshall, while lolling about on the floor, gets startled by the occupant's Dachshund, then begins to giggle and ask silly dog questions.  Jeez, what a pathetic, sorry display of stoner idiocy...

A description which, of course, fits any portion of NPR's programming lineup...



Credit where credit's due: Hat tip to Dead Homers Society for the story, videos courtesy of Grouchy Muffin..

Because Academics Running The Government Worked So Well Here...

...that they're going to give it a go in Italy. Forced out by unelected EU commissars when he refused to dance to their economic tune, Silvio Berlusconi's replacements are indistinguishable from the crew that took power with Barack Obama, the "best and the brightest", the object of the media's massive affection, the ones who would finally fix things and put the country on the right path, for sure.

Look around.  See how well that worked out?  Now pray for Italy:

The new government sworn in on November 16th has the chairman of NATO’s military committee, Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, as defence minister; the boss of Italy’s biggest retail bank, Corrado Passera, as minister for economic development and infrastructure; and no fewer than seven professors, including the prime minister, out of a cabinet of 17. Mr Monti himself takes the finance portfolio.

Only one of three women in the Berlusconi government had a heavyweight job. All three of those in Mr Monti’s will have onerous responsibilities. Anna Maria Cancellieri, a former prefect, becomes interior minister. Paola Severino, a law teacher and courtroom advocate, is the justice minister. Elsa Fornero, a pension expert, takes employment and welfare. The new government’s only defect may be that it contains no young people.

It is rare for the intellectual firepower of so many technocrats to be trained on a country’s problems. But it is also rare for the problems to be as grave as those left by Mr Berlusconi’s tragicomic administration...

Introducing "blaming Berlusconi", the European version of "blaming Bush". Again, that rocked until about fifteen minutes after the inauguration. But you can rest assured you will hear it over and over again, as Italy's team of technocrats - most of whom seem to have no "real-world" life experience whatsoever - desperately attempt to deflect responsibility when their ivory-tower schemes go awry.

It's going to be hard to watch. You want to scream at the screen, "Don't go in there!!", but you know those clueless kids are going to walk through that door anyway, and be subject to the cruel, horrific fate that awaits them...

Mara Carfagna, 33, former model, Miss Italy contestant and calendar girl, and one-time Equal Opportunities Minister in Berlusconi's cabinet.  Trust me, the Italians will miss her once they realize what "equal opportunity" means to college professors:  the castration of men, the casting out of women with "different" ideas, and the elevation of anyone with darker-than-olive skin to the front of the line - for everything...

Islam Battles Tampons, Nude Blogging Chicks...And Appears To Be Losing

Man, when it comes to chicks,these Islamic regimes really sweat the small stuff:

Texters in Pakistan better start watching their language.

Pakistan's telecommunications authority sent a letter ordering cellphone companies to block text messages containing what it perceives to be obscenities, Anjum Nida Rahman, a spokeswoman for Telenor Pakistan, said Friday.

It also sent a list of more than 1,500 English and Urdu words that were to be blocked.

It also included relatively mild terms like fart and idiot.

The reasons for blocking some words, including Jesus Christ, headlights and tampon, were less clear, raising questions about religious freedom and practicality. Any word could conceivably be part of a spam message.

The letter...stated that free speech can be restricted "in the interest of the glory of Islam."

Funny how the Left - which claims to be a women's movement - calls for the destruction of the liberal state of Israel, while supporting regimes who impose a rule of law that won't allow for women to discuss basic female hygiene (or shine their, ahem, "headlights") via text message.  Well, no one said liberals were smart.  Just angry.

But some subjects of Islamic misogyny are done waiting for their enlightened Western sisters to help them, and have begun to fight back for themselves.  Like 20 year-old Egyptian blogger Aliaa Maghda Elmahdy, an atheist and self-described “secular liberal feminist vegetarian individualist Egyptian,” who posted nude pictures as “screams against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy,”

Hey, #OWS losers, listen up:  This is what "A Rebel's Diary" looks like:

“The yellow rectangles on my eyes, mouth and sex organ resemble the censoring of our knowledge, expression and sexuality,”

Good luck fighting against that, imams...

If you want to see real women's movement - look to Islam.  They are the most oppressed under the system, and they are refused the right to even address their identity, their sexuality, or even their basic hygienic needs.  The men benefit from this slavery, so they ain't gonna fight for change.  It is the Islamic women who will lead the way to freedom for those under the sway of the caliphate - see Sila Sahin "body of work", or the bravery of Pakistani actress Veena Malik, as she challenges an imam here, and embraces her femininity here.

Got get 'em, girls - and while those foolish bearded phonies pretend to claw their eyes out, kick them in the crotch and take back your nations:

Balls Banned In Toronto?

Well, God forbid someone should get smacked between the eyes with one. A bit of typical educational/liberal over-reaction in this Toronto school district, and the kids are revolting, Wall-style:

When the lunch bell rang, students spilled out of Earl Beatty Public School, kicking up dirt as they skipped and trudged merrily across the schoolyard.

In track pants and sneakers, with ponytails swinging and juice boxes in hand, they didn’t exactly look like a revolt waiting to happen. Until they stormed the playground fence.

“We want our balls back! We want our balls back!” the students chanted, pumping their fists as supervisors in fluorescent vests blew whistles and tried to shoo them away from the fence and reporters gathered on the other side.

The group, about 100 strong, kept it up all through the Wednesday lunch break, some taking refuge from their shushing caretakers at the top of the jungle gym.

“You can take our balls,” one boy shouted, “but you can’t take our freedom!”
A tad dramatic, perhaps, but for students at the Danforth-area junior and senior school, this is serious stuff.

The trouble began Monday when students were sent home with a letter advising parents that hard balls would no longer be allowed in the schoolyard. That means no soccer balls, footballs, volleyballs or tennis balls.

The letter cited “a few serious incidents” in which students, staff and parents have been struck or nearly hit by flying balls. One parent suffered a concussion after she was hit in the back of the head with a soccer ball — an accident, students say.

New rules allow for only Nerf or sponge balls in the schoolyard...

Liberals - again, especially those on the educational teet - seem to have no capacity for nuance whatsoever. How about a safety seminar in gym class instead of a draconian ban on a child's toy used for thousands of years? What, did the union not approve?

Support the kids of Canada. Allow them to play with their balls. Otherwise, we'll be that much closer to allowing the Left to realize one part of their social re-arrangement:  Dividing men into two - and only two - categories:  Either fops, or dandies...

More Calls For Corzine To Be Jailed As The Good Go Galt

Ann Barnhardt is a successful and trusted a hedge broker specializing in cattle and grain. She's decide to close the brokerage portion of her business, and she posted an open letter on her blog to explain why. It is stunning in its moral clarity.

It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.

The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy.

Everything changed just a few short weeks ago. A firm, led by a crony of the Obama regime, stole all of the non-margined cash held by customers of his firm. Let’s not sugar-coat this or make this crime seem “complex” and “abstract” by drowning ourselves in six-dollar words and uber-technical jargon. Jon Corzine STOLE the customer cash at MF Global. Knowing Jon Corzine, and knowing the abject lawlessness and contempt for humanity of the Marxist Obama regime and its cronies, this is not really a surprise. What was a surprise was the reaction of the exchanges and regulators. Their reaction has been to take a bad situation and make it orders of magnitude worse. Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate. This is unfathomable. The risk exposure precedent that has been set is completely intolerable and has destroyed the entire industry paradigm. No informed person can continue to engage these markets, and no moral person can continue to broker or facilitate customer engagement in what is now a massive game of Russian Roulette.

I have learned over the last week that MF Global is almost certainly the mere tip of the iceberg....


Finally, I will not, under any circumstance, consider reforming and re-opening Barnhardt Capital Management, or any other iteration of a brokerage business, until Barack Obama has been removed from office AND the government of the United States has been sufficiently reformed and repopulated so as to engender my total and complete confidence in the government, its adherence to and enforcement of the rule of law, and in its competent and just regulatory oversight of any commodities markets that may reform. So long as the government remains criminal, it would serve no purpose whatsoever to attempt to rebuild the futures industry or my firm, because in a lawless environment, the same thievery and fraud would simply happen again, and the criminals would go unpunished, sheltered by the criminal oligarchy.

So it turns out that Barack Obama simply wasn't samrt enough - or man enough - to destroy America. It was one of those "smart people" that we were told he would surround himself with that did it, albeit unwittingly, for him. That's another danger of a weak and feckless leader, of course - others move in to manipulate him to their best advantage.

And that is something Corzine did a masterful job of. He was the Obama Administration's personal financial adviser (as Joe Biden brags about here), and was the president's hand-picked Wall Street re-election campaign bundler, for which he was to be rewarded with the post of Treasury Secretary once Geithner departed.

One might say we dodged a bullet (as I have said New Jersey has), but even if Corzine never got our hands on our tax dollars in Treasury, he appears to have done fatal damage to a once-trusted segment of the financial sector with the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars of customer money. He might have just opened the barn door and let the the Horsemen of the Apocalypse come storming out upon us.

He should be jailed, immediately, but we already discussed why Obama won't allow that to happen. A simple man, our president is, and the millions Corzine raised for him are more tangible than the idea that turning a blind eye to Dirty Jon's blatant theft puts lie to all of his "Wall Street versus Main Street" rhetoric.

The #OWS crowd will be disappointed, as shortly there will be little left to occupy. Obama will be confused , as soon there will be little wealth left to re-distribute. But I feel better knowing that Ann Barnhardt is still out there, waiting for the regime to fall, and ready to come back to help fix things when it does...