Woman Burned by KKK is Hoax-- All Indications are that She Set Herself on Fire

A black woman was seriously burned on Sunday in Winsboro, Louisiana. "KKK" and a racial slur were scrawled across the hood of her car in toothpaste.

When I first heard about the attack, I was immediately alarmed at the incident. A group of presumably (although the woman never said what the race of her attackers were) white men attack and severely maim a young black woman. But, I did find the incident unusual, as I am passably familiar with that area of the country (I have relatives living there-- black relatives actually-- with whom I visit yearly), and never felt that there was an overly large nor dramatically violent white supremacist movement in the area. It certainly is not a place seething with racial hatred.

Well, turns out the woman apparently set herself on fire.

From The Franklin Sun article by Matt Reynolds and Katie Norwood:

"Two days after multiple law enforcement agencies began an investigation into the attack and burning of a Winnsboro woman at Civitan Park, authorities now believe the wounds were self-inflicted.

"According to Winnsboro Police Chief Lester Thomas, evidenced gathered at the scene of the incident shows 20-year-old Sharmeka Moffitt's initial claims that she was attacked and set on fire turned out to be false claims made up by Moffitt.

"'This is a case in which the investigators had to pursue the facts that were presented,' Thomas said. 'It's been a very disturbing case for everyone involved.'

"On Sunday, officers responded to a 911 call around 8 p.m. near the walking trail at Civitan Park to find Moffitt with burns covering her body. It was less than a minute from the time the call from Moffitt came into the 911 center that officers from the Winnsboro Police Department and the Franklin Parish Sheriff's Office were on the scene at the park located on Hwy. 15.

"Moffitt could not identify the race of her attackers, but said three men wearing 'T-shirt hoodies' doused her in a flammable liquid and set her on fire at the park. The responding officers found no suspects or vehicles at the park where the attack allegedly occurred.

"Moffitt was taken to Franklin Medical Center in Winnsboro and then transported to LSU Medical Center in Shreveport, where it was determined she had burns on over 60 percent of her body.

"State Police arrived by helicopter with its crime lab team to gather evidence shortly after Moffitt was taken for medical assistance. Law enforcement officials gathered evidence from the scene all night, finishing its scaling of the crime scene by Monday morning.

"After analyzing the evidence at the State Police Crime Lab, it was discovered Moffitt's fingerprints were on the cigarette lighter and the lighter fluid recovered near the wooded area around the crime scene.

"'There is more physical evidence along those lines that back this up,' Thomas said.

"At a news conference held at LSU Medical Center on Monday evening, Moffitt's mother, Edna Moffitt said her daughter was in critical condition with third-degree burns on her arms and other areas and would undergo surgery Tuesday.

"False rumors regarding the incident were spread on various social media outlets Sunday night just hours after the incident took place. On many of the Twitter and Facebook posts, users speculated the attack was a hate crime and Moffitt was attacked for wearing a President Obama t-shirt when she was 'raped and burned alive'.

"Moffitt's mother and Thomas confirmed Monday that the Obama T-shirt rumor was false and there was no evidence of sexual assault.

"A racial slur and the letters, KKK, that were written in toothpaste on Moffitt's vehicle were linked to female DNA, authorities said.

"'All of the evidence is pointing back to the victim inflicting this upon herself,' Thomas said. 'No evidence has shown any other person was involved.'

"Thomas said that no matter the outcome of these types of tragic events, it's always a heavy burden on law enforcement and the victim's family.

"'My heart truly goes out to the Moffitt family, who are more than just members of our community, they are my friends,' Thomas said. 'I hope we can come together as a community and pray for their wellbeing and a quick recovery of Sharmeka.'"

File this one under "What the Hell?!" right next to that woman in Vancouver Wa who threw acid in her face and claimed a black woman did it.

Absolutely bizarre behavior.

Of course the usual suspects jumped all over the story as proof of the seething South. This example is one of my personal favorites:

"The South appears to be on the rise again. Didn’t some of you think the Ku Klux Klan had decided to call it quits? Well nothing could be further from the truth. It appears that Hate never sleeps, nor dies.

"Sharmeka Moffitt, 20, was in Civitan Park in Winnsboro, Louisiana, when three men approached her in white hoodies and doused her with a flammable liquid then set her on fire, according to CBS.  They also took some creamy like substance and wrote 'KKK' on her vehicle.

"Moffitt suffered third degree burns on more than half of her body Sunday night when she was attacked. Civitan Park does not have video surveillance, so the leads on the crime are slim. At the time of the report, no one has been caught and/or arrested for the vicious crime.

"Franklin Sheriff Kevin Cobb said:

“This is a horrific event that will not be taken lightly. Winnsboro Police, Franklin Parish Sheriff, Louisiana State Police, The state fire Marshall’s office and the FBI are investigating.”

"This is the type of crime that the South is quite familiar with and this area especially. According to the local NAACP branch President, Otis Chisley, the president of the local branch of the NAACP, Moffitt’s family is 'distraught', but they are awaiting more facts before drawing any conclusion. Chisley was quoted saying

“everyone wants to move with caution.”

"He also said, 'racism and KKK activity remain a fact of life in the state [emphasis mine].'"

Apparently the author believes that the South rising again is completely dependent on racial violence.

I just love that "This is the type of crime that South is quite familiar with" et al.

How about offering up a few examples of how this happens all the time there, sir? I guess that it's such a common occurence that when it does happen as a hoax it's national news.

Of course the Left was quick to blame Romney, the Tea Party, and the Right in general. I don't expect any apologies will be forthcoming.

MSNBC Crowd Boos 9 Year Old Girl for Supporting Romney

Classy... Way to boo a little girl, people.

VIDEO HERE. (via Drudge)

Well, at least they didn't beat her.

Or threaten to kill her on Twitter. As they did to Stacy Dash.

It's the new age of tolerance in this post-racial world.

Another Solar Energy Company Goes Bankrupt-- After $3 Million DOE Grant

Green stimulus in action...

Satcon Technology Corporation filed for Chapter 11-- after pocketing $3 million from taxpayers.

From The Foundry article by Lachlan Markay:

"A solar company that got a multi-million-dollar grant from the Department of Energy earlier this year announced Wednesday that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it the second taxpayer-backed green energy company to file for bankruptcy this week.

"Satcon Technology Corp. announced the decision in a Wednesday news release. 'This has been a difficult time for Satcon,' president and CEO Steve Rhoades said. 'After careful consideration of available alternatives, the Company’s Board of Directors determined that the Chapter 11 filings were a necessary and prudent step, allowing the Company to continue to operate while giving us the opportunity to reorganize with a stronger balance sheet and capital structure.'

"Satcon received a $3 million DOE grant in January to develop 'a compact, lightweight power conversion device that is capable of taking utility-scale solar power and outputting it directly into the electric utility grid at distribution voltage levels—eliminating the need for large transformers.'

"'If successful,” noted DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) at the time, 'Satcon would simplify the solar power conversion process and significantly reduce the cost of operating, installing, and siting a PV power system—helping to facilitate their widespread use.'

"ARPA-E also stated that the grant 'could create jobs for system installers, technicians, and salespeople.'

"Satcon has also received smaller federal payments for various solar initiatives at DOE. The company manufactures power conversion devices for solar energy, though it does not manufacture the solar panels themselves."

Not exactly the performance of a company ready to provide good jobs for lots and lots of people.

And here's a nice list of faltering and bankrupt green energy companies provided by Ashe Schow:

The complete list of faltering or bankrupt green-energy companies:

1. Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
4. Beacon Power ($69 million)*
5. AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
6. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
7. SunPower ($1.5 billion)
8. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
9. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
10. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
11. Amonix ($5.9 million)
12. National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
13. Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
14. Abound Solar ($374 million)*
15. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
16. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
17. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
18. Schneider Electric ($86 million)
19. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
20. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
21. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
22. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
23. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
24. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
25. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
26. Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
27. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
28. LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
29. UniSolar ($100 million)*
30. Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
31. GreenVolts ($500,000)
32. Vestas ($50 million)
33. LG Chem’s subsidiary Chemical Power ($150 million)
34. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
35. Navistar ($10 million)
36. Satcon ($3 million)*

*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

What a colossal waste...

Another Obama Backed Electric Car Battery Maker Bites the Dust...

After receiving nearly $250 million in federal money, A123 Systems is filing for bankruptcy. Is this unexpected news by any chance?

You know, can we finally say that Obama's green stimulus is a failure? Can we do that? Or do we suddenly have the 5,000,000 jobs? Maybe in October's jobs numbers...

From the Bloomberg article by Dawn McCarty and Craig Trudell:

"A123 Systems Inc. (AONE), the electric car battery maker that received a $249.1 million federal grant, filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to make a debt payment that was due yesterday.

"The filing may fuel further political debate over government financing of alternative-energy and transportation businesses. Federal grants and loans to companies including A123, Fisker Automotive Inc. and Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) have drawn scrutiny from congressional Republicans following the September 2011 bankruptcy filing of solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC two years after it received a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Energy Department.

[...]

"A123 fell as much as 18 cents, or 76 percent, to 6 cents a share in over-the-counter trading as of 12 p.m.

"A123, which received a $249.1 million federal grant in 2009 to build U.S. factory capacity, needed a financial lifeline after struggling with costs from a recall of batteries supplied to Fisker, the plug-in hybrid luxury carmaker. A123 announced in August that it was working on a deal with Wanxiang Group Corp., China’s largest auto-parts maker, for financing in exchange for a majority ownership stake.

[...]

"President Barack Obama called A123’s CEO Vieau and then- Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm during a September 2010 event celebrating the opening of the plant in Livonia that the company received the U.S. grant to help build.

"'This is about the birth of an entire new industry in America -- an industry that’s going to be central to the next generation of cars,' Obama said in the phone call, according to a transcript provided by the White House. 'When folks lift up their hoods on the cars of the future, I want them to see engines and batteries that are stamped: Made in America.'

"Electric-vehicle sales since 2011 totaled fewer than 50,000 through September, just 5 percent of Obama’s target to have 1 million such vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015.

[...]

"A123 has posted at least 14 straight quarterly losses. Its shares had fallen 85 percent this year to 24 cents as of yesterday’s close in New York. [emphasis mine]"

Huh. I guess bitter clingers are just too dumb to understand how these kinds of performances are ultimately good for our economy.

Hope & Change...

Stimulus Fraud and Misuse Cases Piling Up

So how's that stimulus money working out? I mean sure it seemed to have increased unemployment beyond the level that the Obama Administration said doing would-- but what about the nearly $1 trillion? Well, let's take a look...

From The Washington Guardian article by John Solomon:

"The government’s chief spending watchdogs have already secured nearly 600 convictions and judgments against people and companies accused of misusing stimulus funds and have a whopping 1,900 investigations currently open into possible wrongdoing, officials say.

"The wave of scrutiny more than three years after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed by Congress early in the Obama administration means the question of how money was managed early in the program is certain to extend well into the next year as many of the current investigations come to conclusion.

[...]

"For instance, the Energy Department inspector general reported last week it discovered the California energy commission collected two duplicate payments under a stimulus program that costs taxpayers $678,000 and and it recommended the money be repaid.

"The Health and Human Services inspector general reported recently that a Louisiana group that received stimulus funds for Head Start programs for children had inappropriately spent nearly $1.2 million in federal funds to construct a new building that wasn’t approved by federal officials. The group is contesting the finding.

"The Energy Department inspector general also warns in its most recent semiannual report that the Western Area Power Administration, which received $3.25 billion in borrowing authority to help build transmission lines under the stimulus law, is at risk of losing significant money on a transmission project for wind power in Montana that it funded.

"'WAPA has significant financial exposure on the project ... encountering significant delays and cost overruns,' the IG warned.

"And a former superintendent of a Montana construction company was charged last month with making false statements regarding the quality of work his firm performed on federal bridge project in Idaho that was funded with $21.6 million in stimulus money. The company used 'nonconforming anchor bolts' for parts of the construction, and tried to conceal it. The bolts had to be fixed, delaying the project.

"The Recovery Board’s blog last month hinted at the scope of some of the alleged fraud currently being investigated by inspectors general at various agencies. "The 29 IGs with Recovery oversight responsibility have more than 1,900 investigations under way; convictions and judgments total 598," it noted.

"Many of the problems were uncovered by a special group of analysts charged specifically to look for irregularities in the massive stimulus program.

"For instance, the analysts discovered that veterans seeking stimulus related benefits had claimed more than 16,000 dependents with Social Security numbers matching those of dead people, the blog noted

"Separately, the same analysts found ore than 150 potential shell companies may have improperly received Recovery funds set aside for the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business program.

"And the analysts had identified more than 400 Recovery Act recipients of funds from 15 federal agencies had previously been terminated for default, most getting the money after falsely certifying they had not been terminated for default."

Misuse of an obscene amount of federal pork money? Who would've thunk it? Certainly not the Obama Administration...

Taser Bracelets for the TSA?

Oh, come on... This is like that scene in the Schwarzenegger movie The Running Man (not his finest piece of cinema) where the prisoners wore explosive collars that would blow up if you ran past a sensor or something. Geez.

From Infowars.com article by Paul Joseph Watcon (via Drudge):

"The TSA’s security policies are getting more and more bizarre, from testing people’s drinks for explosives to ordering all travelers to freeze on command, but could a frightening policy that was seriously explored by the DHS be resurrected – forcing people to wear taser bracelets that would deliver an electric shock if they got out of line?

"The story sounds like it belongs in a South Park episode or on an urban myths website – but it was actually true.

 

"In 2008, the Washington Times reported on how DHS official Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, wrote to Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. indicating that the Department of Homeland Security was ready to purchase devices from the company that would be used to deliver incapacitating shocks to airline passengers, all of whom would be mandated to wear the taser bracelet once they checked in for their flight.

 

"The so-called 'safety bracelet,' also known as the Electronic ID Bracelet, was designed to replace a boarding pass and be capable of tracking the passenger through the airport by means of GPS technology. The device would also contain details about the passenger and their flight plans.

 

"The primary function of the device was to allow airport officials and flight crews to deliver an incapacitating electric shock to travelers by means of Electro-Muscular Disruption (EMD), completely immobilizing the individual for minutes. The bracelet would be worn by all travelers until they disembarked at their location. The patent for the device admits that all passengers could be incapacitated if the devices are activated."

What could go wrong with that this idea?

I wonder if the choice was between these bracelets and those electrocuting dog collars? You know, the ones that torture your dog when it barks too loud?



 

Obama's Quiet War Against the Suburbs

I'm late on this, but perhaps it's good to remember that academic Leftists, like Obama, hate the suburbs with a passion. You thought the filmmakers behind American Beauty weren't fans? Well, that's just a shadow of the academic Left's loathing.

It must be understood that the suburbs are chock-full of bitter-clingers who aren't contributing enough to the plight of cities. You see, if there's a financial problem in government, one of the easiest strategies is to spread out the problem and thus alleviate it slightly for those most affected. It's much easier to do that than it is to actually address the problem. And most significantly, acting this way leaves certain Leftist theories unchallenged and its adherents insulated from the political effects of their policies. Ina way, it's not unlike socialism in general. A socialist country must have access to outside money (such as possessing a patron or being a tourist spot), or it must expand itself and takeover outside resources and money, or it collapses. That's really the choices that exist.

Anyway, from Stanley Kurtz's article "Burn Down the Suburbs?" at National Review Online:

"President Obama is not a fan of America’s suburbs. Indeed, he intends to abolish them. With suburban voters set to be the swing constituency of the 2012 election, the administration’s plans for this segment of the electorate deserve scrutiny. Obama is a longtime supporter of 'regionalism,' the idea that the suburbs should be folded into the cities, merging schools, housing, transportation, and above all taxation. To this end, the president has already put programs in place designed to push the country toward a sweeping social transformation in a possible second term. The goal: income equalization via a massive redistribution of suburban tax money to the cities.

"Obama’s plans to undercut the political and economic independence of America’s suburbs reach back decades. The community organizers who trained him in the mid-1980s blamed the plight of cities on taxpayer “flight” to suburbia. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Obama’s mentors at the Gamaliel Foundation (a community-organizing network Obama helped found) formally dedicated their efforts to the budding fight against suburban 'sprawl.' From his positions on the boards of a couple of left-leaning Chicago foundations, Obama channeled substantial financial support to these efforts. On entering politics, he served as a dedicated ally of his mentors’ anti-suburban activism.

[...]

"One approach is to force suburban residents into densely packed cities by blocking development on the outskirts of metropolitan areas, and by discouraging driving with a blizzard of taxes, fees, and regulations. Step two is to move the poor out of cities by imposing low-income-housing quotas on development in middle-class suburbs. Step three is to export the controversial 'regional tax-base sharing' scheme currently in place in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area to the rest of the country. Under this program, a portion of suburban tax money flows into a common regional pot, which is then effectively redistributed to urban, and a few less well-off 'inner-ring' suburban, municipalities.

"The Obama administration, stocked with 'regionalist' appointees, has been advancing this ambitious plan quietly for the past four years. Efforts to discourage driving and to press development into densely packed cities are justified by reference to fears of global warming. Leaders of the crusade against 'sprawl' very consciously use environmental concerns as a cover for their redistributive schemes.

"The centerpiece of the Obama administration’s anti-suburban plans is a little-known and seemingly modest program called the Sustainable Communities Initiative. The 'regional planning grants' funded under this initiative — many of them in battleground states like Florida, Virginia, and Ohio — are set to recommend redistributive policies, as well as transportation and development plans, designed to undercut America’s suburbs. Few have noticed this because the program’s goals are muffled in the impenetrable jargon of 'sustainability,' while its recommendations are to be unveiled only in a possible second Obama term.

"Obama’s former community-organizing mentors and colleagues want the administration to condition future federal aid on state adherence to the recommendations served up by these anti-suburban planning commissions. That would quickly turn an apparently modest set of regional-planning grants into a lever for sweeping social change.

[...]

"Obama’s little-known plans to undermine the political and economic autonomy of America’s suburbs constitute a policy initiative similar in ambition to health-care reform, the stimulus, or 'cap-and-trade.' Obama’s anti-suburban plans also supply the missing link that explains his administration’s overall policy architecture.

"Since the failure of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and the collapse of federal urban policy, leftist theorists of community organizing have advocated a series of moves designed to quietly redistribute tax money to the cities. Health-care reform and federal infrastructure spending (as in the stimulus) are backed by organizers as the best ways to reconstitute an urban policy without directly calling it that. A campaign against suburban 'sprawl' under the guise of environmentalism is the next move. Open calls for suburban tax-base 'sharing' are the final and most controversial link in the chain of a reconstituted and redistributive urban policy. President Obama is following this plan.

"Middle-class suburban supporters of the president take note. It isn’t just the pocketbooks of the '1 percent' he’s after; it’s yours."

Obama is not a mysterious figure. He's a direct product of Leftist academia. What makes him mysterious is his administration's obfuscations, the vague "boots-on-the-ground" strategies that accompany the grand plans of academic Left (they think more often then they do-- and when they do they commonly end up behaving pretty much like Obama: petulant, incompetent, and spouting excuses while assigning blame to others), and their blunders that make the Obama administration's motives so difficult to tease out. And of course the old media's frequent refusal to actually do their job.

When Obama declared that he wanted to "fundamentally transform America," he meant it.

And when he spoke about bitter clingers... he meant that too.

Plant Furloughs Workers-- Even After $150 Million Dept. of Energy Grant

Compact Power manufacturing facility is furloughing its workers. This comes after a $150 million Department of Energy grant. Oh, and it gets better. They haven't produced a single battery.

So how's that green stimulus working out for all of us?

From the Fox News article by Perry Chiaramonte (h/t Doug Powers @ michellemalkin.com) :

"President Obama touted it in 2010 as evidence 'manufacturing jobs are coming back to the United States,' but two years later, a Michigan hybrid battery plant built with $150 million in taxpayer funds is putting workers on furlough before a single battery has been produced.
"The facility, which was opened in July 2010 with a groundbreaking attended by Obama, has yet to produce a single battery for the Chevrolet Volt, the troubled electric car from General Motors. The plant's batteries also were intended to be used in Ford's electric Focus.

"Production of the taxpayer-subsidized Volt has been plagued by work stoppages, and the effect has trickled down to companies and plants that build parts for it -- including the batteries.

"'Considering the lack of demand for electric vehicles, despite billions of dollars from the Obama administration that were supposed to stimulate it, it’s not surprising what has happened with LG Chem. Just because a ton of money is poured into a product does not mean that people will buy it,' Paul Chesser, an associate fellow with the National Legal and Policy Center, told FoxNews.com.

"The 650,000-square-foot, $300 million facility was slated to produce 15,000 batteries per year, while creating hundreds of new jobs. But to date, only 200 workers are employed at the plant by by the South Korean company. Batteries for the Chevy Volts that have been produced have been made by an LG plant in South Korea.

"The factory was partly funded by a $150 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. LG also received sizeable tax breaks from the local government, saving nearly $50 million in property taxes over 15 years and another $2.5 million annually in business taxes. Landing the factory was hailed as a coup when shovels first hit the ground.

"'You are leading the way in showing how manufacturing jobs are coming right back here to the United States of America,' Obama told workers at the ground-breaking ceremony. 'Our goal has never been to create a government program, but rather to unleash private-sector growth. And we're seeing results.'

[...]

"The Volt has been plagued by low sales since it first rolled off the line three years ago. Orders have picked up for 2012 but are still well below projections.

"Chesser said no amount of government subsidies can counter the practical problems posed by plug-in cars.

"'Electric car batteries do not perform much better than they did 100 years ago,' he said. 'Research has not conquered the battery storage issue, and therefore the electric transportation "stimulus" did not boost the "technology of the future," but instead a century-old technology as far as performance and capability goes.'

"He added that the LG Chem plant's problems show that the unpopularity of electric cars despite heavy taxpayer subsidies has had more widespread negative effects than most realize.

"'Billions of dollars were put into Volt research, and Ford received $5.9 billion in stimulus loans to retrofit plants to produce [electric vehicles],'  Chesser said. 'The battery companies like LG Chem that were supposed to service them have no customers to speak of. Their existence was solely based on access to taxpayer money.

"'Had it been private investors rather than government bureaucrats making the decision, there either would have been a reality check about the industry, or only those who made individual decisions to invest would have lost their money, not taxpayers.'"

No, no, no. The free market is full of avarice and evil. We must throw billions of dollars at green energy programs so that we can stimulate the economy with more empty, non-producing factories. Doesn't Chesser and FoxNews understand economics?

And besides once the government mandates that all Americans must purchase electric vehicles, then there will be plenty of work. Whoa. Better not give them any ideas. Just kidding. I think that idea has already crossed their collective minds once or twice.

Kind of weird that the Chevy Volt isn't selling. It's marked way below cost and is losing around $30,000 per car. I guess markdowns on crappy products, still equals a crappy product. Maybe if they gave it way for free? They could rename it "Americar" or maybe "The People's Car." And hey, we'd all need batteries then.

A Very Bad Sign in Egypt: Morsi Sees Yom Kippur War as an Egyptian Victory

Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi is celebrating Egypt's great "victory" against Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War in a rally attended by tens of thousands.

From the ynet news article by Elior Levy and Yonatan Gonen (h/t Instapundit):

"Addressing tens of thousands of Egyptians Saturday evening during a ceremony commemorating the 39th anniversary of Egypt's 'victory' over Israel during the October 1973 war, President Mohamed Morsi said, 'It was a monumental event. We will never forget the heroes and shahids (martyrs).'

"Morsi was elected president of Egypt after Hosni Mubarak, a hero of the Yom Kippur War, was ousted. Earlier this week, on Thursday, he laid a wreath on slain president Anwar Sadat's grave in a rare homage from an Islamist leader.

[...]

"During the memorial ceremony, which was held at Cairo's soccer stadium, Morsi said 'today is a day of victory. This has been a happy day for the past 39 years. The commanders and soldiers crossed the Suez Canal, demolished the Bar-Lev line and entered Sinai. It was a decisive campaign, and thanks to Allah Egypt retrieved not only its land, but also its dignity and pride.'

"Morsi linked Egypt's achievements during the war to the January 25 revolution, which led to Mubarak's downfall. 'The 1973 war was a historic victory that restored the dignity of all Egyptians. The second victory came during the January 25 revolution, when the people and the army united. The January 25 Revolution was peaceful before the hand of betrayal turned it violent.'"

Egypt was soundly defeated by Israel in the Yom Kippur War.

From Wikipedia:

"The war began with a massive and successful Egyptian crossing of the Suez Canal during the first three days, after which they dug in, settling into a stalemate. The Syrians coordinated their attack on the Golan Heights to coincide with the Egyptian offensive and initially made threatening gains against the greatly outnumbered Israelis. Within a week, Israel recovered and launched a four-day counter-offensive, driving deep into Syria. As Sadat believed that capturing two strategic passes located deeper in the Sinai would make his position stronger during the negotiations, he ordered the Egyptians to go back on the offensive, but they were decisively defeated; the Israelis then counterattacked at the seam between the two Egyptian armies, crossed the Suez Canal, and advanced southward and westward in over a week of heavy fighting while suffering severe casualties especially during the battle of the Chinese Farm.

"On October 22 a United Nations-brokered ceasefire quickly unraveled, with each side blaming the other for the breach. By October 24, the Israelis had improved their positions considerably and completed their encirclement of Egypt's Third Army and the city of Suez. This development led to tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. As a result, a second ceasefire was imposed cooperatively on October 25 to end the war. At the conclusion of hostilities, Israeli forces were 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Damascus and 101 kilometres (63 mi) from Cairo."

Quite the Egyptian victory, huh? No it wasn't quite the Six Day War's thrashing, but to interpret Egypt's outcome as victorious is delusional.

When a country begins celebrating historical defeats as victories, then there is nothing ahead but troubles.

Morsi is whipping up anti-Israel sentiment in his own country, while simultaneously attempting to create a myth about Egypt's performance in their last war. Coupling this drumbeating with Morsi's strengthening of Egypt's ties with Iran, dramatically increases the chances of a renewed open conflict with Israel. We'll have to see if Morsi continues this line in the near future.

PROOF that Romney WILL BE the NEXT PRESIDENT!!

Yeah sure, the entire Obama presidency has been a huge bust-- the economy is in the tank, median household income is dropping, gas prices skyrocketing, the cost of food increasing, etc. ObamaCare ObamaTax is set to kick in soon and it hasn't magically become more popular. Plus, Romney did put the hurt on Obama in the debate viewed by 63 million people. But the real clincher is that the chia people are releasing a CHIA HEAD ROMNEY! Was there a chia head McCain? I don't think so. There wasn't even a chia head Sarah Palin for MSNBC and Journolist to spit on. So if there's a chia head Romney this time... well need I go on?

Yeah, yeah... there's still the chia head Obama, but they're all just leftovers from 2008. And yeah, yeah... there's a chia head Ron Paul (I bought one as a gift for my brother's shrine to Ron Paul in his house; and yes, I admit I bought a chia head Obama for my in-laws' backyard shrine to our current president), but even the chia people know that Paul's just a quick seller for his devotees.

Nope. Chia Romney is the dead give away.

Chi chi chi chia... and God bless America!

Former Obama Adviser Advocates Death Panels in NYT

Death panels?! What death panels? Oh, right... those being advocated by Obama's advisers. Welcome to the world of denying something and then a few years later calling for its implementation. It's all kind of Orwellian, isn't it?

From The New York Times' opinion piece by Steven Rattner, former counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration:

"WE need death panels.

"Well, maybe not death panels, exactly, but unless we start allocating health care resources more prudently — rationing, by its proper name — the exploding cost of Medicare will swamp the federal budget.

"But in the pantheon of toxic issues — the famous 'third rails' of American politics — none stands taller than overtly acknowledging that elderly Americans are not entitled to every conceivable medical procedure or pharmaceutical.

 

"Most notably, President Obama’s estimable Affordable Care Act regrettably includes severe restrictions on any reduction in Medicare services or increase in fees to beneficiaries. In 2009, Sarah Palin’s rant about death panels even forced elimination from the bill of a provision to offer end-of-life consultations.

 

[...]

 

"Medicare needs to take a cue from Willie Sutton, who reportedly said he robbed banks because that’s where the money was. The big money in Medicare is not to be found in Mr. Ryan’s competition or Mr. Obama’s innovation, but in reducing the cost of treating people in the last year of life, which consumes more than a quarter of the program’s budget.

 

"No one wants to lose an aging parent. And with price out of the equation, it’s natural for patients and their families to try every treatment, regardless of expense or efficacy. But that imposes an enormous societal cost that few other nations have been willing to bear. Many countries whose health care systems are regularly extolled — including Canada, Australia and New Zealand — have systems for rationing care.

 

"Take Britain, which provides universal coverage with spending at proportionately almost half of American levels. Its National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence uses a complex quality-adjusted life year system to put an explicit value (up to about $48,000 per year) on a treatment’s ability to extend life.

 

"At the least, the Independent Payment Advisory Board should be allowed to offer changes in services and costs. We may shrink from such stomach-wrenching choices, but they are inescapable."

 

Huh. Does anyone remember when Grayson was bellowing about how Republicans wanted you to die quickly? Seems like the Democrats are advocating it in opinion pieces. Hey, it costs too much to keep you alive, so why don't we just cut their treatments. It's for the greater good and all...

 

I guess Sarah Palin's "lie of the year" might have been a little more truthful than not... Oh well, die quickly little people. The important people in the government and politically connected businesses have important things to do.

 

 

Obama's "Other" Race Speech

The Daily Caller has portions of Obama's immediately infamous "other" race speech. Obama gave the speech to a predominately black audience while in the middle of the 2007 presidential primary. I'll just address some of the issues that The Daily Caller illuminates.

From the Caller's article:

'"The people down in New Orleans they don’t care about as much!” Obama shouts in the video, which was shot in June of 2007 at Hampton University in Virginia. By contrast, survivors of Sept. 11 and Hurricane Andrew received generous amounts of aid, Obama explains. The reason? Unlike residents of majority-black New Orleans, the federal government considers those victims “part of the American family.'

"The racially charged and at times angry speech undermines Obama’s carefully-crafted image as a leader eager to build bridges between ethnic groups. For nearly 40 minutes, using an accent he almost never adopts in public, Obama describes a racist, zero-sum society, in which the white majority profits by exploiting black America. The mostly black audience shouts in agreement. The effect is closer to an Al Sharpton rally than a conventional campaign event."

[...]

"And with that, Obama pivots to his central point: The Los Angeles riots and Hurricane Katrina have racism in common. 'The federal response after Katrina was similar to the response we saw after the riots in LA,' he thunders from the podium. 'People in Washington, they wake up, they’re surprised: "There’s poverty in our midst! Folks are frustrated! Black people angry!" Then there’s gonna be some panels, and hearings, and there are commissions and there are reports, and then there’s some aid money, although we don’t always know where it’s going — it can’t seem to get to the people who need it — and nothin’ really changes, except the news coverage quiets down and Anderson Cooper is on to something else.'

"It’s at about this point that Obama pauses, apparently agitated, and tells the crowd that he wants to give 'one example because this really steams me up,' an example that he notes does not appear in his prepared remarks:

"'Down in New Orleans, where they still have not rebuilt twenty months later,' he begins, 'there’s a law, federal law — when you get reconstruction money from the federal government — called the Stafford Act. And basically it says, when you get federal money, you gotta give a ten percent match. The local government’s gotta come up with ten percent. Every ten dollars the federal government comes up with, local government’s gotta give a dollar.'

"'Now here’s the thing,' Obama continues, 'when 9-11 happened in New York City, they waived the Stafford Act — said, "This is too serious a problem. We can’t expect New York City to rebuild on its own. Forget that dollar you gotta put in. Well, here’s ten dollars." And that was the right thing to do. When Hurricane Andrew struck in Florida, people said, "Look at this devastation. We don’t expect you to come up with y’own money, here. Here’s the money to rebuild. We’re not gonna wait for you to scratch it together — because you’re part of the American family."'

"That’s not, Obama says, what is happening in majority-black New Orleans.'What’s happening down in New Orleans? Where’s your dollar? Where’s your Stafford Act money?' Obama shouts, angry now. 'Makes no sense! Tells me that somehow, the people down in New Orleans they don’t care about as much!'

"It’s a remarkable moment, and not just for its resemblance to Kayne West’s famous claim that 'George Bush doesn’t care about black people,' but also because of its basic dishonesty. By January of 2007, six months before Obama’s Hampton speech, the federal government had sent at least $110 billion to areas damaged by Katrina. Compare this to the mere $20 billion that the Bush administration pledged to New York City after Sept. 11.

"Moreover, the federal government did at times waive the Stafford Act during its reconstruction efforts. On May 25, 2007, just weeks before the speech, the Bush administration sent an additional $6.9 billion to Katrina-affected areas with no strings attached.

"As a sitting United States Senator, Obama must have been aware of this. And yet he spent 36 minutes at the pulpit telling a mostly black audience that the U.S. government doesn’t like them because they’re black.

"As the speech continues, Obama makes repeated and all-but-explicit appeals to racial solidarity, referring to 'our' people and 'our neighborhoods,' as distinct from the white majority. At one point, he suggests that black people were excluded from rebuilding contracts after the storm: 'We should have had our young people trained to rebuild the homes down in the Gulf. We don’t need Halliburton doing it. We can have the people who were displaced doing that work. Our God is big enough to do that.'

"This theme — that black Americans suffer while others profit — is a national problem, Obama continues: 'We need additional federal public transportation dollars flowing to the highest need communities. We don’t need to build more highways out in the suburbs,' where, the implication is, the rich white people live. Instead, Obama says, federal money should flow to 'our neighborhoods': 'We should be investing in minority-owned businesses, in our neighborhoods, so people don’t have to travel from miles away.'"

Ah yes, more racial separatism, anger and misinformation. These are the staples of identity politics, and thus staples of the contemporary Democratic Party.

Aside from the shameful rhetoric of racial separation, what strikes me is that this speech absolutely oozes with Obama's love of big government. The suburbs' prosperity is largely due to government money (highways and such) and the solution, for racial equality I suppose, is to redirect the money to "our neighborhoods." The implication is that with government money we can all buy off racism. It smacks of the reparations argument.

Is this a game changer for Obama? I don't know. The DNC is in damage control mode, of course. MSNBC is attacking people who released the tape saying that they're trying to scare Americans-- as if Obama's speech is just a shopping list or something.

The economy "unexpectedly" stinks and doesn't seem to be in the middle of a recovery, unemployment is at epic levels, the federal government is spending money at numeric levels that only astronomers use, the median household income is dropping, and nobody's all that happy about the feds micromanaging their health care and insurance. I think the majority of people, rightfully, hold Obama accountable for these issues anyway.

I certainly don't think this speech helps Obama at all, but I don't think most Americans were going to vote for him before it was released anyway. It'll probably just drop him another point or two, which will likely be reflected in the media's polls by a one point bounce.

Jobs Under Obama's "Recovery" Chart

Obama inherited a weak economy. He endlessly reminds us of this. Yet, Obama's response was to push through a near trillion dollar stimulus political payoff, push through the unpopular ObamaCare mandate tax, and play a lot of golf. Amazingly, none of this seemed to help the economy much.

After four years of Obama, we have median household incomes dropping 8%, rising health insurance premiums, rising unemployment, and skyrocketing gas prices. Of course, this is just for starters. We can go on to talk about Solyndra, the GM UAW bailout, and many other crony capitalist policies. And this also doesn't cover Obama's foreign policies whose main strategy seems to consist of betraying our allies, especially Israel, and emboldening our enemies.

And Obama wants us to take four more years of this?

Household Incomes Fall Again in August, Down 8.2% Under Obama

American households incomes are down and prices for goods and health insurance are rising. This is not a promising course.

From the Investors Business Daily article by John Merline:

"In another sign that the economic recovery under President Obama is not producing gains for average Americans, median household incomes fell 1.1% in August to $50,678, according to a report released Tuesday by Sentier Research.

"Since the economic recovery started in June 2009, household incomes are down 5.7%, the Sentier data show, and they are down more than 8% since Obama took office.

"'Even though we are technically in an economic recovery, real median annual household income is having a difficult time maintaining its present level, much less recovering,' said Sentier co-founder and former Census Bureau official Gordon Green.

"Earlier this month, the Census Bureau released its annual report showing that the number of people in poverty was nearly 3 million higher in 2011 than in 2009, an increase of 6%.

"That report also found that average incomes for middle- and lower-income households fell in 2011 after adjusting for inflation. They rose only for the wealthiest 20% of households [emphasis mine]."

Average incomes rising for the wealthiest 20%? Number of people in poverty increases? Middle class incomes dropping? But... but... but... wasn't Obama going to make us all rich or something? Is this the new idea of "fairness" and all that? How unexpected.

Merline continues:

"The average inflation-adjusted income for households in the middle 20% is now lower than it's been since 1995, the census report found.

"Meanwhile, another report released Tuesday finds that per-capita health costs jumped 4.6% last year, marking a turnaround from previous years, which had seen annual cost increases moderating. The Health Care Cost Institute report found that rising prices are a 'major driver' of the cost increases.

"And a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released this month found that the number of uninsured climbed 1 million in the first three months of 2012 compared with last year."

I really can't understand how anybody expected an academic Leftist-- with zero experience in managing or running anything-- to handle this position. Obama's gone the typical academic route, which is to quibble about reality, and, when that can no longer be maintained, you then lay down unfounded accusations and lay the blame on others' shoulders. This is not surprising behavior from Obama. It's very typical. And in the meantime, we pay the price.

Obama Promised to Cut Health Premiums by $2500-- Premiums have Risen by $3000 Instead

Another broken promise... whether due to incompetence or just a lie to begin with is debatable, I suppose. It doesn't really make any difference to us though.

From the Investors.com article by John Merline (chart from the same article):

"During his first run for president, Barack Obama made one very specific promise to voters: He would cut health insurance premiums for families by $2,500, and do so in his first term.

"But it turns out that family premiums have increased by more than $3,000 since Obama's vow, according to the latest annual Kaiser Family Foundation employee health benefits survey.

"Premiums for employer-provided family coverage rose $3,065 — 24% — from 2008 to 2012, the Kaiser survey found. Even if you start counting in 2009, premiums have climbed $2,370.

"What's more, premiums climbed faster in Obama's four years than they did in the previous four under President Bush, the survey data show.

"There's no question about what Obama was promising the country, since he repeated it constantly during his 2008 campaign.

"In a debate with Sen. John McCain, for example, Obama said 'the only thing we're going to try to do is lower costs so that those cost savings are passed onto you. And we estimate we can cut the average family's premium by about $2,500 per year.'

"At a campaign stop in Columbus, Ohio, in February 2008, Obama promised that 'We are going to work with you to lower your premiums by $2,500. We will not wait 20 years from now to do it, or 10 years from now to do it. We will do it by the end of my first term as president.'"

Taking Obama at his word? Heh.

Merline continues:

"And ObamaCare will continue to fuel health premium inflation.

"First, the law piles on new coverage mandates. It requires insurance companies to provide 100% coverage for various types of preventive care, bans lifetime coverage limits, extends parents' coverage to offspring up to 26 years old, and requires plans to meet certain 'medical loss ratios.' Coming up are rules on 'essential standard benefits,' limits on deductibles, bans on annual spending caps, and much more.

"The experience with state mandates show that they only tend to grow over time, and get more expensive. The Council for Affordable Health Insurance found more than 2,200 state benefit mandates, which add from 10% to 50% to the cost of coverage."

What's this? You mean federal rules on essential standard benefits won't keep the price of insurance down? That's a real shocker.

But as the cost of living increases and the median household income decreases, I'm sure people will be just fine with the increases of health insurance and the drop in the quality of health care. Sacrifices have to be made. And we're all just bumps in the road anyway...

Chinese Official Orders Man Crushed by Steamroller

So, do you think Joe Biden, The New York Times and Thomas Friedman are still smitten with China. I mean, they sure get things done over there. Right?

From the Inforwars.com article by Paul Joseph Watson (warning extremely graphic pictures at the link):

"A villager in northern China attempting to resist a forced government relocation by remaining on his land was brutally crushed to death by a road flattening truck on the orders of a Chinese government official.

"The story, which was censored in China’s state controlled media, has caused outrage amongst users of Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, given it’s horrifying similarity to what happened to student protesters who were crushed to death by tanks during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

 

"The victim, He Zhi Hua, refused to accept a paltry payment from the government which has forcefully evicted Changsha Village locals in order to re-appropriate their land for commercial use.

 

"When Hua began a protest by lying down on the spot through which construction vehicles had to pass, the local Vice Mayor ordered workers for the state-owned company to murder Hua by driving over his body with a huge road-flattening truck.

 

"Shocking images show Hua’s pulverized brains and his mangled body in the aftermath of the state-sponsored execution.

 

"Fearing unrest if the story got out to a wider audience, the government sent in 200 men to keep angry locals at bay and hide the remains of the body. The man’s family was offered a sum of money in order to keep quiet about the incident."

 

A man protests the government's usurpation of his land (a terribly common occurrence in China) and is then callously murdered. That'll teach him, and others, to stand in the way of progress.

 

Does anyone remember when Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was waxing praise on China's ability to build infrastructure?

 

From the Foreign Policy article by Josh Rogin:

"Echoing the laments of pundits like Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood argued Saturday that China outpaces the United States in building major transportation infrastructure like high-speed rail because of its authoritarian system and because the Chinese don't have the Republican Party holding up progress.

"'The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do, 3 million,' LaHood said in a short interview with The Cable on the sidelines of the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival on June 30. 'In a country where only three people make the decision, they can decide where to put their rail line, get the money, and do it. We don't do it that way in America.'

"LaHood said that despite this, democracy is still preferable. 'We have the best system of government anywhere on the planet. It is the best. Because the people have their say,' he said."

Of course, LaHood then went on to blame people having their say for spoiling high speed rail.

LaHood's --and the rest of the Left's-- naivete on how China "gets things done" and the results of their heavy-handed brutality borders on the stupid. The Chinese government is a totalitarian regime that routinely robs its citizens of their property, their basic freedoms, their rights to have children, and their citizens' dignity-- as well as indulging in many more unacceptable practices.

And we're to admire or envy them? Hmm. Weren't certain naive Americans admiring Hitler back in the '30s?

GM Losing Up to $30,000+ per Car on Chevy Volt

The Chevy Volt appeared to be a loser from the beginning. After bailing out GM, though mostly the UAW, the Obama Administration and the feds put some pressure on to promote the "enviro-friendly" car-- possibly as part of their windmills and unicorns green initiative. Of course the fact that the car isn't economically viable is of little consequence to people who spent more than $5 trillion dollars over the course of four years.

From the AP via Breitbart:

"General Motors rolled out the Chevrolet Volt two years ago with lofty sales goals and the promise of a new technology that someday would help end America's dependence on oil.

"So it seemed like a good thing in August when sales of the $40,000 car set a monthly record of 2,800. But a closer look shows that things aren't what they seem for the cutting-edge car.
"
Sales rose mostly because of discounts of almost $10,000, or 25 percent of the Volt's sticker price, according to figures from TrueCar.com, an auto pricing website. Other pricing services gave similar numbers, and dealers confirmed that steeply discounted Volts are selling better than a few months ago.

"GM's discounts on the Volt are more than four times the industry's per-vehicle average, according to TrueCar estimates. Edmunds.com and J.D. Power and Associates say they're about three times the average. Discounts include low-interest financing, cash discounts to buyers, sales bonuses to dealers, and subsidized leases.

"Americans have been slow to embrace electric cars. But the Volt's August sales show they're willing to buy if prices are low enough. Even so, electrics have a long way to go before they enter the mainstream and make money for car companies. Electrics and gas-electric hybrids account for just 3.5 percent of U.S. auto sales this year. GM is losing thousands of dollars on every Volt, raising the question of how long it can keep eating the steep losses.

"For the foreseeable future, carmakers will have to cut prices to move electric vehicles off dealer lots. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the cost of electric cars must drop to be competitive with gasoline-powered ones."
Does it really require the CBO to point out that people won't pay more for a substandard car? The CBO is probably wrong though. I would suggest that the cost of an electric must become less than the gasoline equivalent before people begin to buy them. Fair or not, the electric car has a reputation for safety issues that must be overcome. Americans are generally willing to pay a little more for a greater sense of safety. Let's see some crash tests of the Prius compared to a comparable gas-powered car, please.

The article continues:

"GM executives have conceded from the start that they were losing money on the Volt, and that was before the big discounts.

"Now the losses could be even higher. It costs $60,000 to $75,000 to build a Volt, including development, manufacturing and raw materials, estimates Sandy Munro, president of Munro & Associates, a Troy, Mich., a company that analyzes vehicle production expenses for automakers. Much of the cost comes from an expensive combination of two power systems _ electric and gasoline. With a sticker price of $40,000, minus the $10,000 the company pays in incentives, GM gets roughly $30,000 for every Volt. So it could be losing at least $30,000 per car.

"'It certainly wasn't a rousing success,' Carter Driscoll, senior analyst for CapStone Investments who follows electric cars, says of the Volt.

"GM confirmed there are incentives on the Volt and that the company loses money on the car. But the automaker declined to give figures for the discounts or the losses. The figures exclude a federal tax credit that goes to buyers.

"The automaker says Munro's estimate is high because it doesn't spread the Volt's costs far enough into the future, when more Volts will be sold. Automakers typically spend $1 billion or more to develop a car, and sometimes don't recoup the investment and start making money until late in its life. Also, Volt technology will be used in future cars and trucks, eventually leading to profits, the company says.

"GM spokesman Jim Cain says most of the Volt discounts come in the form of lease deals, which account for about two-thirds of sales. In some markets, Volts can be leased for $249 per month with $2,400 down."

Oh, come on... You're going to lose $30,000 (om the low end) for every car that you sell, and then you try to make up your "$1 billion or more to develop a car" in volume and technology development? How many more models of hybrids are you going to lose tens of thousands of dollars on per unit? Get real.

But hey, don't worry. Maybe the American taxpayer can subsidize it. Oh, wait....

"The pricey car hit showrooms when many buyers were reeling from the bad economy and turned off by the government's $50 billion bailout of GM.

"'Let's face it, over $40,000 is asking a lot for a compact car,' says Bob Lutz, a retired GM vice chairman who led the development of the Volt.

"Even a $7,500 federal tax credit, which dropped the Volt's sticker price to $33,500, did little to promote sales. The car cost $7,000 more than the Leaf, and $13,000 above a well-equipped compact with a gas engine.

"As it reached more dealers in 2011, the Volt had to overcome more than a high price and recession-weary Americans. The government found that the battery could catch fire after crash tests."

So GM is alive, is it? When is the next bailout scheduled? Oh right, after the election on a Friday evening. Or on Christmas Eve.

From the Washington Examiner:

"Despite having billions in crushing debts wiped off its books, and being given billions more in special future tax breaks, New GM has lost about one-third of its value in under two years. It continues to lose market share in auto sales, down two points to 18.1 percent of the U.S. market year-to-date, as Toyota and Honda gain. The Obama administration's failure to extract serious concessions from the United Auto Workers union, and its new regulations that slant the playing field toward a "greener" market that foreign automakers dominate, are precipitating another Detroit catastrophe. Even worse, the U.S. Treasury still owns more than a quarter of GM stock. Unless the share price doubles, taxpayers cannot unload their shares without enormous losses.

"Based on Reuters' calculations, GM has lost over $600 million on the Volt alone. It could lose more than $1 billion on its European Opel division in 2012. Forbes has speculated that GM will need another bailout in the next few years."

Don't worry. GM will make it up in volume.

Obama Lies About Fast and Furious Program

Obama indulged in his two favorite activities during his Univision forum-- lying to cover himself and lying/blaming Bush for making the problem in the first place.

Does Obama take responsibility for anything? Is anything not Bush's fault?

From Jack Tapper at ABC News:

"Asked about the Fast and Furious program at the Univision forum on Thursday, President Obama falsely claimed that the program began under President George W. Bush.

"'I think it’s important for us to understand that the Fast and Furious program was a field-initiated program begun under the previous administration,” the president said. “When Eric Holder found out about it, he discontinued it. We assigned a inspector general to do a thorough report that was just issued, confirming that in fact Eric Holder did not know about this, that he took prompt action and the people who did initiate this were held accountable.'"

Good Lord, that's brazen.

"In actuality, the Fast and Furious program was started in October 2009, nine months into the Obama presidency.

"Previous programs involving ATF agents allowing guns to 'walk' across the border so as to trace them were run during the Bush presidency, but not this particular 'field-initiated program.'

"Asked for comment, White House Spokesman Eric Schultz said, 'The President was referring to the flawed tactic of gun-walking, which despite Republicans efforts to politicize this issue, began under the previous Administration and it was our Attorney General who ended it. In fact, this week’s IG report affirms this and if Republicans still have any legitimate questions about Fast and Furious, the 450-page report answers them. In light of this thorough report and Congress’s 16 month-long investigation, Republicans have no excuse to keep wasting time and taxpayer resources on politically-motivated, election-year attacks.'"

But that's not what Obama said Mr. Schutlz. Obama said that the Fast and the Furious program was started by Bush, which is an utter lie. The gun walking programs under Bush were conducted with the the full knowledge and cooperation of Mexican law enforcement and resulted in no loss of GPS marked weapons nor deaths.

I find Schultz's comments particularly cloying since the Obama Administration declined interviews with the Inspector General and refused to provide any internal White House communications. But nothing to see here... Holder ended the program begun under his watch... after it resulted in the death of an American (and hundreds of Mexicans) and it's all politically motivated any way. And probably racist. Move on. Move on.

The Obama Economy's Bleak Employment Numbers

Mort Zuckerman paints a rather bleak picture of the US economy as does this cartoon from the article.

From Zuckerman's piece in US News:

"How do you recover from a recovery? Just how bust the nation's 'recovery' has been is painfully documented in the latest news, just two months before the election. The Census Bureau validated what middle-class Americans know all too well from their week to week, month to month struggle to make ends meet. The typical family is back to where it was in 1995. The analysis of annual data collected by the bureau indicates that median income in 2011 had fallen to $50,054, the fourth straight year of decline in well-being, and that's adjusted for inflation.

[...]

"Nobody is entitled to blow a trumpet because the unemployment rate for August can be headlined at 8.1 percent, down two digits from July's 8.3 percent. That's a drop brought about not by more jobs but because 360,000 people left the workforce. It muffles the fact that 5 million people have now been out of work for 27 weeks or more. That's roughly 40 percent of the unemployed. Another 2.6 million people were marginally attached to the labor force, and over eight million people have given up looking for a job, so they are not counted because they had not searched for work in the prior month.

[...]

"Fewer Americans are at work today than in April 2000, even though the population has grown by 30 million people since then. Think about that.

"A reality check is offered by the unemployment numbers the government calls U-6. It measures people who have applied for a job in the last six months and also includes people who are involuntary part-time workers—government-speak for people whose jobs have been cut back to two or three days a week or who are working part-time because they have been unable to find a full-time job. That number is almost 15 percent. Include the eight million people who have simply given up looking for a job and the real unemployment rate is closer to 18 or 19 percent. [emphasis mine]."

Not a rosy picture. Democrat Zuckerman sums it up with this:

"The economy is slowing to a growth rate that will be close to zero in the second half of this year, according to a recent AEI report, which also notes that 2012 is the third year of stalled recoveries. No incumbent president has ever won re-election with unemployment rates as high as they are likely to be in November. A job is the most important family program, the most important social program, and the most important economic program in America. The unemployment and income statistics are intolerable for a compassionate and wealthy nation."

But mostly these statistics are intolerable to the voters of this nation. Obama's policies have been complete failures. Real unemployment at 19%?! Gasoline above $4 a gallon? But Obama's biggest failure (which was the GOP's fault anyway) was not being able to pass comprehensive immigration reform? Really?

Can the US actually take four more years of this?

And the Polls Still have a Dead Heat? Really?

After all this in the mid-east and Gallup is still showing Obama and Romney in dead 47-47 split? I know that some other polls are being cooked, with as much as a Dem +13, yet still Obama's in a dead heat with Romney? Really?

By the way, the Obama print flag/poster is called "Our Stripes." Rather fitting, I suppose.

(h/t to Gateway Pundit for the pic concept)