Saturday, November 30, 2013

RADICAL: MIT Scientists Invent Brand New Form of 3-D Printing

Two words: Mind. Blown.

3-D printing has become the rallying cause for a rising generation of designers, engineers, and architects. There seems to be few limits to what the technology can do or what range of products it can spawn, from lampshades to lunar bases. Amid all the hype, however, it’s easy to neglect one key factor: Printing capabilities are directly wedded to the size of one’s printer...

...MIT-based researchers and instructors Marcelo Coelho and Skylar Tibbits teamed up to tackle this very problem... The solution is breathtakingly simple. By merely folding the object you want to print, you can jig it to fit into a small-scale printer... [they use] a dense cluster of thin but sturdy polymer links packaged in a three-dimensional puzzle that can be intuitively assembled.


...The chains are programmed with multidirectional notches, so that they can be latched together at right angles. Assembly is quick because each chain can only bend in the way it's designed to, thus removing a large obstacle that plagues most 3-D-printing ventures. The final product, then, will look exactly as it does on your computer screen but will be structurally sound enough to stand on its own in physical space. In the process, Tibbits suggests, scale becomes virtually, if not entirely, irrelevant...

Please don't tell any Democrats about this innovative new technology, because if they find out about it, I'm betting they'll invent 12 new ways to tax it.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

THE DUPLICITOUS CHRIS CHRISTIE: Man Who Refused to Oppose Obamacare Now Says It Was ‘A Train Wreck Anybody Could’ve Seen Coming’

Anybody could have seen it was a train wreck except him, apparently.

New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie slammed Obamacare as a “train wreck” in comments made at a Jersey radio station on November 25.

...Christie was asked why he didn’t join in on the state side and create a state exchange for Obamacare in New Jersey.
“This is just an awful law that made no sense and that’s why I didn’t get into a state exchange. And no, I have absolutely no regrets. In fact, I’m really glad that the train wreck’s not mine, it’s his,” the Governor said of Obama’s signature healthcare law.

Christie went on to slam the President as an example of someone who has never run anything in his life.
“This is a disaster. And it’s a train wreck that anybody who’s managed anything, ever in their lives could have seen coming.”
Governor Christie also said that the whole Obamacare program is a “failure.”

Christie's comments are, at best, disingenuous.

This is a man who wouldn't lift a finger to fight Obamacare, as Mark Levin observed at the time.

It costs nothing for the taxpayers of NJ to join the other states challenging Obamacare. All he needs to do is add his name on behalf of NJ to the other states. He didn't take the lead and now he won't bring up the rear. And just because Corzine ducked doesn't mean he has to. For all the loud bravado, on this hugely important issue he's a wimp. While others are doing all they can to kill Obamacare, spending the time and effort in federal court trying to protect the citizens of their states, Christie does nothing...

...Keep in mind that Obamacare creates massive new expenses for states via Medicaid. It's fiscally irresponsible for Christie to sit on his butt and do nothin. Is this what they mean by frank talk? Maybe his supporters inside the beltway can help us better understand while they're touting him for president.

I can't wait for the 2016 election season to heat up.

Then we can hear the nation's biggest electoral loser of 2012 -- Karl "2% Victory Rate" Rove -- whine that Christie is "the only one who can win".

Which will be as accurate as his predictions about Mitt Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: Surrender in Geneva; The Problem of Selfishness

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Nation

Surrender in Geneva: Mark Steyn
The Problem of Selfishness: Kevin D. Williamson
The Crisis of the Obama Cult: R.S. McCain

Hard Sell: Going door-to-door for Obamacare: Matt Labash
Another Glitch: Seven-Year-Old With Cancer Loses Coverage: MB
Gun-Control Supporters Say Momentum Quietly Building: Bill Straub

Obama and the EU push Genocide: James Lewis
The Real Weak Link In ObamaCare? You And Your Stupid Brain: Ace
Historic: Obama Hits Record Low of 34% Approval in Ohio, 61% Disapproval: JWF

Honest Polls: Americans Reject Immigration Reform, Amnesty: Joe Guzzardi
Origination Clause: ObamaCare's a Good Amendment to Die Hard: Daniel Smyth
Interest at state level in amending U.S. Constitution: Idaho Reporter

Economy

Homeless for the Holidays or Improving the Odds: MOTUS
Unions, “Walmart Strikers” Using Local DMV To Organize?: WZ
Health insurance company advertises by goofing on Obamacare: Hot Air

Scandal Central

Cancer Patient Tells Truth About Losing Insurance, Then Gets Audited: Victory Girls
Barack Obama’s (and the Democrats’) war on the scourge of piano teacher nonprofits: Moe Lane
Obamacare Is Killing A Mother With Multiple Sclerosis: Mark Horne

Climate & Energy

It’s Never To Early To Link “Climate Change” And Christmas: RWN

Media

Perhaps It’s Time to Ask Again, ‘What Does a Social Disaster Sound Like?’: R.S. McCain
Seven Phony Hate Crimes Trumpeted By The Media: John Hawkins
Media Ignores Murder Conviction of Duke Rape Accuser: Elisha Krauss

Allen West weighs in on Obamacare going dark tonight: Scoop
If I Wanted a King, I’d Move to Jordan Where They Have a Good King: Sara Noble
Black Friday gun deals abound: This Ain't Hell

World

Marine murders in Afghanistan underscore abhorrent ROE: Allen West
Obama: “The Taliban are Not Our Enemies and We Don’t Want to Fight Them.”: Daniel Greenfield
Krauthammer: Obama snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq: BPR

‘US freed top Iranian scientist as part of secret talks ahead of Geneva deal’: Mitch Ginsburg
Netanyahu defies Obama’s request to ‘take a breather’ from Iran deal criticism: Janeen Capizola
Is the Game Lost?: David Solway

Maryland: Mega mosque project raising money with terror-linked cleric: Creeping
Sharia law coming to a swimming pool near you: Michele Hickford
Canada: totalitarianism masks itself as concern for our health: MB

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Apple’s iPad comes out a big winner on Black Friday: Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat
Pebble arrives on Amazon for $148.99: Verge
This Is Why 4D Printing Is Cool: Jamie Condliffe, Gizmodo

Cornucopia

The Twelve Days of ObamaCare: Cube
Thanksgiving Leftovers: Hopenchange
Size Comparison - Science Fiction spaceships: Dirk Loechel

Image: TheBlackSphere
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Matt Bevin for Senator in Kentucky

QOTD: "In Geneva, the participants came to the talks with different goals: The Americans and Europeans wanted an agreement; the Iranians wanted nukes. Each party got what it came for. Before the deal, the mullahs’ existing facilities were said to be within four to seven weeks of nuclear “breakout”; under the new constraints, they’ll be eight to nine weeks from breakout. In return, they get formal international recognition of their enrichment program, and the gutting of sanctions — and everything they already have is, as they say over at Obamacare, grandfathered in.

Many pundits reached for the obvious appeasement analogies, but Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal argued that Geneva is actually worse than Munich. In 1938, facing a German seizure of the Sudetenland, the French and British prime ministers were negotiating with Berlin from a position of profound military weakness: It’s easy to despise Chamberlain with the benefit of hindsight, less easy to give an honest answer as to what one would have done differently playing a weak hand across the table from Hitler 75 years ago. This time round, a superpower and its allies accounting for over 50 percent of the planet’s military spending was facing a militarily insignificant country with a ruined economy and no more than two to three months’ worth of hard currency — and they gave it everything it wanted. " --Mark Steyn

Friday, November 29, 2013

DON'T LET THEM CHANGE THE SUBJECT: Seven Lies and Seven Liars of Obamacare

Guest post by Herman Cain

Seven lies from seven Democrats about ObamaCare, just so you don't forget the matter at hand.

When you're as desperate as Barack Obama is right now - with your approval ratings plunging and people no longer even finding you to be an honest person - you're willing to try almost anything to make people focus their minds on something else. Well, I should qualify: That's what you do if your priority is your own political viability. If you're a real leader, you man up and solve the problem. But we don't have a real leader. We have Barack Obama.

So he is desperately trying to change the subject from ObamaCare to just about anything else. As Dan wrote this morning, he sent John Kerry off to get a deal with Iran at any cost so the two of them could wave the piece of paper and pretend they had accomplished something. At the same time, they are once again pushing an amnesty bill that they hope will lock in illegals as loyal Democrat voters fix the immigration system.

But none of these are serious policy initiatives. Their purpose is simply to change the subject from ObamaCare, which is quickly turning into a political crisis of historical proportions for the Democratic Party. And we're not going to let them do it. We're not going to let them make you forget that Democrats lied through their teeth about letting you keep your policy, about your premiums going down, about letting you keep your doctor and your hospital, about what the whole thing would cost . . . I could go on, but you get the idea. So in the spirit of refreshing your memory, I herewith present seven lies from seven Democrats, at least one of whom thinks she should be the next president.

I think you know what to do with these:

1. Max Baucus
"If you like what you have you can keep it."

2. Harry Reid
"Those fortunate enough to have health insurance will be able to keep theirs."

3. Mark Begich
"If you have an insurance program or a health care policy you want of (inaudible), you keep it"

4. Mary Landrieu
“While those individuals who like the coverage they already have will be able to keep their current plan.  This is a very accurate description of this bill before us - The Patient Protection and Affordability Act.  It's very accurate."

5. Hillary Clinton
"You keep the insurance you have if you like it."

6. Nancy Pelosi
"If you like what you have and you want to keep it, you have the choice to do that."

7. Barack Obama
“If you like your health care plan you will be able to keep your health care plan.  Period."

Liars. Every single one of them. The only conceivable defense against this charge would be for them to say that they trusted Obama, and if that's what the did, they're fools. But I don't buy it. They're all liars, and that should never be forgotten, especially not at a time when the president is so desprately trying to change the subject to anything else.


Follow Herman Cain at CainTV.com

CHARTS - ALL 50 STATES ARE MORE CONSERVATIVE THAN EVER: Race-, Gender-, Ethnicity-panderers hardest hit

Last month Cornell political scientist Peter Enns published an interesting op-ed in The Washington Post.

Recently on this blog, Larry Bartels drew attention to an astonishing fact: the public is as conservative as it has been in 50 years. To highlight this point, Professor Bartels presented the public’s policy mood — James Stimson’s measure of public support for government programs—from 1950 to 2012. In a recent article, Julianna Koch and I generated measures of policy mood for each state from the 1950s to 2010 (our measures our here). What we found is that the conservative opinion shift Professor Bartels highlighted repeats itself in every state.

The figure below presents one illustration of this pattern. Here we compare the policy mood in each state in the early 1960s (hollow dots) and in the early 2000s (solid dots). Higher values indicate a more conservative policy mood. In each instance, the solid dot is to the right of the hollow dot, suggesting that the public’s policy mood has moved in a conservative direction in every state...

...Surprised by this uniform shift across states, we examined two questions about government that the American National Election Study asked in the early 1960s and 2000s. Because we were dealing with much smaller sample sizes, we analyzed regions instead of states. Again, the data suggest that all regions of the country have shifted in a conservative direction.

The first question, reported in the left panel of the figure below, asked whether the government in Washington should see to it that every person has a job and a good standard of living or whether the government should let each person get ahead on their own. The fact that the solid dots (2002) are to the right of the hollow dots (1964) supports the view that all regions of the country became more conservative. Interestingly, in 1964, the South appears to have been the most supportive of the liberal response (the government should ensure a job and a good standard of living). The second question, reported in the right panel, asked whether or not the government in Washington was getting too powerful. Across all regions, we again see opinion has shifted to the right.

Importantly, the public has not moved in a conservative direction in all issue areas. For example, support for same-sex marriage has been increasing across all states. It is also worth noting that our findings on the 1960s and 2000s hides important shifts in policy mood between these periods, such as increased policy liberalism during the 1980s. However, when it comes to support of government programs, the net conservative shift is clear...


This the kind of data that drives me nuts. The Republican establishment keeps insisting that we nominate "centrists" who are "the only one[s] who can win". Karl Rove got his guy in 2008 in John McCain. Karl Rove got his guy in 2012 in Mitt Romney.

Now these same geniuses -- John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Rove among them -- insist that only by pandering to different ethnic groups can the GOP succeed. Their latest push is a hugely unpopular Amnesty bill.

They are either ignorant or lying.

According to Pew Research (PDF), the percentage of Hispanics voting Republican in presidential elections has always traded in a very narrow range.


Instead of pandering to different segments of the American population, why don't we nominate a confident, articulate candidate with truly conservative values?

Wouldn't people of all races, religions and ethnicities find the principles of liberty, private property, and economic opportunity incredibly attractive? Yes, of course they would: blacks, Hispanics, whites, Asians, you name the segment, every open-minded American would gravitate to an eloquent candidate with conservative, free-market principles in his or her blood.

Instead of nominating conservatives, Rove and his claque of losers keep pushing "moderates". Unfortunately, GOP "centrists" aren't differentiated enough from the progressive Democrats to energize conservatives and the Reagan Democrats.

Now Rove is pushing a new set of moderates like Chris Christie and Jeb Bush, both of whom appear to support Amnesty.

In 2012, Rove's American Crossroads fundraising operation won less than two (2) percent of the races it invested in.

Why would we listen to losers like these? I, for one, reject their pablum unconditionally.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

The Hoover Myth

Excerpted from Jonah Goldberg's invaluable The Goldberg File

My friend and AEI colleague Nick Schulz has done something I don't have the intestinal fortitude to do: Read John Judis's New Republic cover story on the economy. Apparently Judis believes he's cornered Mitt Romney on the Achilles heel of Romney's -- and the GOP's -- economic agenda. Judis confronted Romney and asked
him:

I want to ask you something about history. You know, when Herbert Hoover had to face a financial crisis and then unemployment, his strategy was to balance the budget and cut spending, and that made things worse. When Roosevelt came in, unemployment was twenty-five and went to fourteen percent by 1937. With deficits. Aren't you repeating the Hoover mistake?

Ah, the "Hoover Mistake," capitalized for your eternal reifying pleasure.

If you ever doubt that liberal historians have imbibed the partisan talking points of the New Deal, you need look no further than the maligned figure of Herbert Hoover. Judis's characterization is simply what "everyone knows" to be true about Hoover's response to the Depression of 1929. I say "the Depression" and not "the Great Depression" because it took FDR, the Tony the Tiger of liberalism, to make it Grrrrrrrrrrreaaat!

The problem is that almost everything "everybody knows" about Hoover is wrong. This creates a real challenge for conservatives and libertarians because while Hoover the man was very impressive, Hoover the Progressive Republican was, well, a Progressive Republican. As anyone who's read Liberal Fascism should remember, Hoover was all-in on Wilson's war socialism, serving as national food administrator; he considered "supper . . . one of the worst pieces of extravagance that we have in this country." He promulgated the Little American's Promise, a pledge card every child was expected to sign:

At table I'll not leave a scrap 
Of food upon my plate. 
And I'll not eat between meals but
For supper time I'll wait.
I make that promise that I'll do
My honest, earnest part
In helping my America
With all my loyal heart.
For kids who couldn't read yet, he offered them a nursery rhyme:
Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn!
The cook's using wheat where she ought to use corn
And terrible famine our country will sweep,
If the cooks and the housewives remain fast asleep!
Go wake them! Go wake them! It's now up to you!
Be a loyal American, Little Boy Blue!

Hoover was such a card-carrying Progressive, guess who considered running on his ticket as vice president in 1920? Wilson's toady at the Navy Department, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

But none of that matters. Hoover was a crazy, heartless libertarian, don't you know anything?! I mean, just look at what a spendthrift he was during the Great Depression! Hoover mistake, Hoover mistake, Hoover mistake! I'm not listening to you!

Well, if you tell a certain breed of libertarian that Hoover was a budget-balancing fiscal tightwad, you'll get punched in the face, at least figuratively. Here's Tim Taylor:

Hoover's budget strategy over his term of office was not to balance the budget. The budget ran a small deficit of -.6% of GDP in 1931, followed by a much larger deficits of 4.0% of GDP in 1932 and 4.5% of GDP in fiscal year 1933 (which, as Judis points out at a different point in his discussion, started in June 1932 and was thus mostly completed before Roosevelt took office in 1933).

Let me say it clearly: Hoover didn't cut spending. In nominal terms, federal government spending went from $3.3 billion in 1930 to $4.6 billion in 1933. As Taylor notes, given the price deflation that came with the crash, the real federal outlays nearly tripled from 3.4 percent of GDP in 1930 to 8.0 percent of GDP in FY 1933.

In the spring of 1930, the New York Times said of Hoover's efforts, "No one in his place could have done more" and "very few of his predecessors could have done as much."

But, hey, maybe Hoover's reputation as a spendthrift of Jack Fowlerian proportions (Jack, as you should know, is the head suit here at NR; he'd object but he's busy searching for a 10 percent off at Arby's coupon I told him was in the corner of a round room) is derived from his effort to cast himself as a responsible steward of the public fisc. Er, no. Here's Hoover defending his record in his acceptance speech at the 1932 convention as he prepared to run for another
term:

Two courses were open to us. We might have done nothing. That would have been utter ruin. Instead, we met the situation with proposals to private business and to the Congress of the most gigantic program of economic defense and counterattack ever evolved in the history of the Republic. We put that program in action. Our measures have repelled these attacks of fear and panic . . . We have used the credit of the Government to aid and protect our institutions, both public and private. We have provided methods and assurances that none suffer from hunger or cold amongst our people. We have instituted measures to assist our farmers and our homeowners. We have created vast agencies for employment.

Perhaps because I am so cynical, I'm no longer shocked that liberal historians and Democratic politicians still cling to the Hoover myth, but what is amazing to me is how liberal economists who swear they are empiricists and fact-finders propagate it as well. Paul Krugman is constantly invoking the Hoover myth. So is Brad DeLong, who has driven many decent students of economic history to the point of sputtering rage with his insistence that Hoover was a "liquidationist."

The Hoover myth endures for a simple reason -- it has to. Because otherwise the FDR myth will tip over.


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Will the West withstand the Obama presidency?

Guest post by Martin Sherman

The really chilling aspect of the Obama-incumbency is that it is difficult to diagnose whether the abysmal results it produced—including the recent Geneva debacle—reflect crushing failure or calculated success


I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings. – Barack Hussein Obama, Cairo, 2009

For anyone who understands that the US Constitution is not a Sharia-compliant document –neither in letter nor in spirit – it should be alarmingly apparent that the Obama-incumbency is a dramatic and disturbing point of inflection in the history of America and its “Western” allies. By “Western” I mean countries whose political practices and societal norms are rooted in Judeo- Christian foundations in a cultural rather than in any religious sense.

The devil is not in the details

One does not have to be an expert in Islamic history or culture, or be familiar with the details of Koranic verse or Hadithic texts to realize that Obama’s characterization of the alleged affinity between America and Islam is entirely detached from any reality on the ground–particularly with regard to the matters he enumerates in the preceding excerpt from his 2009 Cairo speech.

All one has to do is follow the daily news that routinely convey reports of the Hobbesian horrors that flared across Syria, Libya, Egypt and other Arab countries once the Leviathan “cap” of tyranny, holding these bestial impulses in check, was “uncorked.”

Worse, in some parts of the Muslim world, blood curdling atrocities have become so commonplace they hardly make the news at all.

For when it comes to issues such as justice, progress, tolerance and respect for societal and/or religious diversity, a yawning chasm divides America from Islam. Indeed, American society, as a product of the values embodied in the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian values it draws on; and Islamic society as a product of Sharia and the Muslim values it draws on, are irreconcilably exclusive and antithetically opposed to one another.

No amount of convoluted scholarly debate on the intricacies of Islamic scriptures or benign interpretations of their “real” significance, can change the gruesome facts that prevail throughout Muslim-majority societies – from West Africa to East Asia.

Larwyn's Linx: Ten Thanksgivings Ago

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Nation

Ten Thanksgivings Ago: Black Five
The Obama who Stole Thanksgiving: Daniel Greenfield
"Well-regulated": David Hardy

Obama finds a way to ruin Thanksgiving: Cal Thomas
Thanks for the Heritage: Protein Wisdom
Spread the Word: Western Rifles

Communist Party USA: protect Obamacare by crying “Racism!”: John Hawkins
Krauthammer mocks ‘creepy,’ Soviet-like Obamacare Thanksgiving ad: BPR
Hillary Backers Begin to Realize She the Truth: Daniel Greenfield

Economy

America’s Coastal Royalty: Victor Davis Hanson
Broken Families Dragging Down Growth: Michael Barone
Nuclear Response to Harry Reid’s Nuclear Option: CFP

Scandal Central

The Vindictive Totalitarian Hand of the Obama Regime: iOTW
Issa accuses Obama IRS appointee of ‘deliberate’ distortion: BPR
An outbreak of lawlessness: Krauthammer

The IRS Continues to Punish Obama’s Enemies: Nice Deb
Cancer Patient Who Spoke Out Against ObamaCare Now Being Audited: Daniel Greenfield
NYC alarms with notice: ‘Immediately surrender your rifle’: Times

Climate & Energy

Environmentalism Is the New Racism: Daniel Greenfield
As temperatures drop, talk of ‘global cooling’ heats up: Twitchy

Media

Why Reporters in the U.S. Now Need Protection: Paul Steiger, ProPublica
MSNBC Just Proved They Take Direct Orders from Barack Obama: TruthRevolt
The Nadir of Hackery: R.S. McCain

WW2 Navajo Code Talkers Appear in Redskins Jackets; Liberal Heads Explode: Daniel Greenfield
Thank You, Senator Cruz: William A. Jacobson
RUSH: Communism Today, In Large Part, Is The Democrat Party.: Daily Rushbo

Is It Too Soon To Say “I Told You So”?: Ann Coulter
Larry Elder: Media Ignoring Knockout Game Due to Racial Implications: Albert Merrick
These Wild Claims By The President Suggest He May Not Be Sane: Allison Martinez

World

WHAT? Obama Tells Netanyahu To Shut Up About the Iran “Deal”: Minority Report
Dem: Obama 'fear-mongering' on Iran: Blake Neff, The Hill
Irish Citizens Rise Up Against Islamic Invasion: Rick Wells

Don’t forget to give thanks to our troops on Thanksgiving [photos]: Twitchy
A Vastly Changed Middle East: Caroline Glick
Hatin’ on the drones: This Ain't Hell

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

The Mystery Is Resolved: GIFs, Crazy People and All That Malarkey: Vitaly Friedman, Smashing
Is your TV spying on YOU?: Guy Adams, Daily Mail
Ever want to be invisible? It could happen soon in America, unless Canada beats us to it.: Ben Terris

Cornucopia

The Best Quotes of Cardinal Arinze: The Young Apostle
Happy Thanksgiving email For Friends and Family: MOTUS
Shoppers gone wild: Black Friday fights at Walmart, Best Buy, and malls: Twitchy

Image: Inflation, Shortages, and Social Democracy in Venezuela
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: JOIN ME IN FIRING MITCH McCONNELL!

QOTD:

Thursday, November 28, 2013

After Undermining Efforts to De-fund Obamacare, GOP Establishment Ready to Jam Amnesty Down Our Throats

Courtesy of Mark Levin, we find that the Republican establishment is urgently trying to find ways to pass an amnesty bill.

Is immigration reform dead?

"No, immigration reform is going to happen," Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the House Republican whip, told CBS's Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation."


"But it's going to happen in a step-by-step method. And I will tell you, the president came out and supported that the other day." ...

...The current immigration system is "broken" and "needs to be fixed," McCarthy said on Sunday. "Forty-two percent of everyone that's here illegally came here legally," he said, a reference to people who overstayed their visas. "We need to fix this system."

President Obama has said "there's no reason why we can't get this done before the end of the year."

What's driving Amnesty? Here's a hint: it starts with the letter M and ends with the letter Y. And has cash in the middle.

After decades of political quietism during which Silicon Valley entrepreneurs expressed libertarian sentiments but mostly voted Democratic and funded Democratic candidates who shared their elite-class social and political views, Silicon Valley has finally mobilized—for immigration expansion. In April Mark Zuckerberg, with help from Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, and venture capitalist John Doerr, launched FWD.us, a $25 million-and-counting lobbying group aimed at lawmakers in both political parties. FWD.us, unlike other pro-immigration groups, isn’t much interested in amnesty for illegal immigrants or easier border-crossing for lettuce-pickers. Its chief interest is in expanding the H-1B work visa program for “highly skilled” workers that’s mostly used by tech employers to hire temporary guest-workers from foreign countries, usually from East and South Asia….

...The anti-H-1B faction has a response to that: statistics. One of them, from an April 24 briefing paper produced by the liberal Economic Policy Institute, is that only one out of every two U.S. college graduates with a degree in engineering or computer and information science is hired into those fields, despite a doubling of the number of homegrown computer-science graduates between 1998 and 2004. Others argue that employers mostly don’t use H-1B workers to fill “best and brightest” jobs, but, rather, relatively low-paying routine programming positions, and that the most avid users of the visas are India-based outsourcing companies that use the visas to provide a few months of U.S. training for their employees, who then return to India.

Most damning of all is that, despite persistent claims of tech-worker shortages, programmer salaries overall have inched only slightly higher from what they were 20 years ago: from $60,000 a year to about $75,000 a year in 2012 dollars, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Engineers fare somewhat better: The average annual starting salary at top valley employers such as Google is about $100,000, with the median for experienced engineers at about $150,000...

Put simply, the oligarchs in Silicon Valley are spending millions lobbying Congress to import cheaper technology talent. They don't want to pay American wages, they want to pay Indian (or Chinese, or wherever) wages here in the states.

As for McCarthy, Cantor, Boehner, Karl Rove and the rest of the GOP Old Guard? They want some o' that Silicon Valley Cash!

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is, as usual, on top of the imminent debacle:

Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions wants wealthy CEOs to butt out of immigration policy.

“America is not an oligarchy… A Republic must answer to the people,” Sessions said today, in a direct response to President Barack Obama’s latest effort to get wealthy California CEOs to increase their support for his unpopular push for increased immigration... “Congressional leaders must forcefully reject the notion, evidently accepted by the president, that a small cadre of CEOs can tailor the nation’s entire immigration policy to suit their narrow interests..."

...Obama has been working with top CEOs since summer to push the Senate’s immigration expansion that would welcome 30 million immigrants, plus millions of temporary guest workers, over the next decade...

The push is being supported by numerous billionaires, including New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Fox News’ Rupert Murdoch and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg... Since 2007, progressive and business groups have spent more than $1.5 billion on advocacy and lobbying to pass an immigration bill, despite massive unemployment, stalled salaries and negative polls. Other business groups have been pressured by the federal government and progressives to provide rhetorical support for the push.

So once again I ask Karl Rove:


I give thanks for many things in this great country, but the Republican crony capitalists ain't among them.

Larwyn's Linx: I'm sure a few tweets from Sandra Fluke on contraceptives will right this boat

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

I'm sure a few tweets from Sandra Fluke on contraceptives will right this boat: Ace
NYT frontpage illustrates how bad Obamacare: David Freddoso
Gibbs: Uhm, Yeah, I Guess Obamacare Gots Death Panels: TruthRevolt

Dangerously Effective: Dems Panic Over GOP Obamacare Attacks: JWF
The Hotline's Senate Race Rankings: Democrats on Defense : National Journal
Colorado anti-gun state Sen. Evie Hudak (D) abruptly resigns her seat: Moe Lane

SF Protesters to Obama: Please Be a Dictator!: Zombie
Jimmy Tarlau: Communist Nutjob Runs in Maryland: NoisyRm
Astroturfed Marxists Call for an Obama Dictatorship: NoisyRm

The Future That Never Comes: Daniel Greenfield
Sorry for Being Right All the Time About Your Stupid Law: Stephen Green
Obama Calls Conservatives “Tea Baggers” In Letter To Texas Teacher: WZ

Economy

Obama Voters: He “Gives Me Stuff” And I Don’t Have To Work: John Hawkins
Obamacare axes cheap health insurance for another 90,000 in NJ: WyBlog
What Doomed Detroit: Ed Driscoll

Scandal Central

The greatest politician in world history: Cold Fury
COUP D'ETAT AMERICAN STYLE: Stormbringer
The Bad-Faith Presidency: Rich Lowry

Americans Demand Holder’s Impeachment: Tom Hinchey
Dem to Obama: Don't fix Iran's airplanes: Julian Pecquet, The Hill
Knockout Game Victim: 'Whole Group of Kids Laughed': Breitbart

Climate & Energy

EPA preparing to unleash deluge of new regulations: DC
The Consensus is DEAD: 48% of Meteorologists Don't Believe in Man-made Global Warming: Lid
Green Energy Dishonor Roll: MB

Media

CNN and MSNBC Lose Almost Half Their Viewers in One Year: NB
The Protocols of The Elders of Huffington Post : TruthRevolt
Joan Walsh Knows More About African-American History Than the Average White Person: Ace

Is the Obama White House photo policy reminiscent of Soviet propaganda?: Hot Air
NYTimes Bids Farewell to Traditional Family: MRC
This year, invite a “turkey” TO dinner instead of FOR dinner: MOTUS

Health Expert: ‘Halperin Was Right The First Time’ – Politifact ‘Completely Wrong’ on IPAB: Nice Deb
Obama Approval Hits All-Time Low in Ohio: Tom Bevan, RCP
How To Talk To Your Socialist Aunt About ObamaCare On Thanksgiving: Glob

World

The White House and Iran Can't Agree on What It Is They Agreed On: Ace
Iran president: We won, enrichment will never stop: DC
Iran Announces Development of Ballistic Missile Technology: Adam Kredo, WFB

Illegal Alien Mob of 100 People Attacks Border Control. Mexican Authorities Let Them Go.: RWN
Snowden: Government Tracks Individuals’ Online Activities to Embarrass Them: Patterico
Oh, Shiny Pony!: SDA

Rules of engagement: The Virginian
New rules of engagement a death trap for US troops in Afghanistan: BPR
How Green Was My Afghanistan: SDA

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

The Esoteric Symbols Behind User Interfaces, Explained: Fastcodesign
A snapshot of one minute on the internet, today and in 2012: Leo Mirani, Quartz
Second Solar System Like Ours Discovered: UniverseTodady

Cornucopia

Ezra Klein, Perplexed Again: Ace
The Day I Laughed Until I Cried: Life in the Backwoods
The machine gun everyone wants for Christmas: BPR

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: WANT TO FIRE MITCH McCONNELL? HERE'S HOW YOU CAN HELP

QOTD: "It truly is insidious, I think, this devotion to cause such that one would seriously -- earnestly! -- urge others to fight with family in order to advance a political goal. It's not just about the casual denigration of the family in favor of the Real Family, which is of course like-minded socialists in the Progressive Cult. It is that, but it's not just that. It's also this idea that a person's highest aspiration is to be... A telemarketer. Or, as there's nothing "tele-" about picking fights with your family in face-to-face meetings, an epimarketer, then. There is a terribly strange notion affecting the country, chiefly on the left but sometimes on the right, that man's highest calling is to be a Public Relations Account Manager." --Ace

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

LEVIN: Uhm, History Tells Us That a President Does NOT Need to Have Been a Governor

Mark Levin drops some science on those who insist that the next president must have served as a governor:

Lincoln is considered our greatest, if not our second greatest president by most. He was never a governor. He was never a senator. He was an extraordinary man, and he was a public man, and people knew much about him. The Lincoln-Douglas debates -- and those weren't the only debates! He gave some magnificent speeches too. But again, all that aside. My point is to categorize and say we have to have a person who's served as governor because they make executive decisions. Okay great.

And that'll be the strength of that candidate, should that candidate run. But thats not the test. The test is to get the right person. And the right person will make mostly the right decisions. Take a measure of the person. So if you have somebody who has been a governor, or just a garden variety Republican. Whether they're a big-government Republican or a RINO. I don't care if they've been a governor or not. I'm not interested. They have to come to the office or seek the office with a certain set of a principles and value that we share. Someone who is intelligent, confident, and articulate and knowledgeable, and has a capacity for the office. They've been governor, great. If they haven't, fine.

Also: After Obama, Democrats will never, ever, ever, ever be able to say that a GOP candidate doesn't have enough "experience" to serve as president. What a bunch of laughingstocks these people are.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

IT BEGINS: New York Gun Confiscation Letters Arrive

The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution reads as follows:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Robert Farago, writing at The Truth About Guns:

[New York] requires people to register, sell or transfer (out of state) “assault rifles” and “high capacity” magazines. Many Empire State gun and standard capacity ammunition magazine owners have complied. Many have not. So, at some point, the State’s gonna go get ‘em. People on both sides of the law enforcement divide will die and the s will hit the fan. Meanwhile, there it is: the reason why expanded background checks, indeed all background checks and any type of registration, set the stage for confiscation. And tyranny.

The Constitution is written in what we normal folks call "Plain English".

It was designed to be read by all citizens at the time of the founding, so that they could read, understand, and ratify it. The Constitution -- no matter what temporary politicians, activist judges and other leftists may tell you -- is the highest law in the land.

The Constitution protects your rights, no matter what the Statists, the Marxists and the Progressives tell you.

Molon Labe.


Hat tip: BadBlue Guns

"GRAVITY 3-D" REVIEW: Escape From Soyuz -- and Reality

SPOILER ALERT: There are basically three actors in the entire, two-hour movie: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, and a whole buncha scary space.

On a mission into Earth orbit on a space shuttle, a veteran astro-jockey (Clooney) is paired with an attractive scientist (Bullock). Bullock's job is to repair a malfunctioning Hubble-style telescope while Clooney tests a new jet-pack, but their mission is suddenly aborted when a nearby satellite explodes, sending deadly shrapnel hurtling through space.

The resulting storm of debris smashes the shuttle and everything nearby, detaching Bullock from her lifeline and hurtling her into the dark abyss of space.


Bullock's panic attack is becalmed by the soothing voice of Clooney, who appears no more fazed by the catastrophe than he would be by a strong breeze on Earth. Clooney is able, through some unexplained process, to locate Bullock and then retrieve her.

But they return to a shuttle that has been utterly devastated; its other passengers have been shredded in their spacesuits or frozen to death thanks to gaping puncture wounds in the fuselage.

Thankfully, the International Space Station (ISS) is within jet-pack distance and he hauls Bullock that-a-way while playing country music and amusing her with a cornball repartee. As they near ISS, the orbiting debris returns and once again nearly rips the pair apart.

Anchored to ISS only by a single strap and having grasped Clooney's tether, Bullock tries to haul him in. Sensing that she's losing her purchase to ISS, Clooney sacrifices himself to the dark void, severing the tether while reciting gangsta rap from the nineties. Maybe I made that last bit up, playa.

Before he disappears from sight, Clooney is able to direct her to the ISS airlock. With almost no oxygen left, Bullock hauls herself to safety inside the massive space station. ISS has already been abandoned because of the debris, leaving only a single Soyuz docked to it.

The sanctuary is short-lived, however, as a fire has begun to break out. With only seconds to spare, Bullock secures herself in the Soyuz only to find that it, too, is damaged.

Good news: a Chinese orbiter is nearby. Bullock endures a harrowing ride to that vessel and, after a number of near catastrophes, is able to descend to Earth in one of the Chinese capsules.

Exhausted yet? The visual effects are stunning, but if you stop to consider all of the coincidences necessary to pull off the plot-line, you'll probably come to the same conclusion I did. With her luck, Bullock should spend more time at the craps table than in space.

Rating: 14 1/2 stars out of 22 1/3.

100 MILLION "ANECDOTES": Cancer-Stricken Patients Lose Their Insurance Plans and Doctors Thanks to Obamacare

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

CancelCare: Dismissed as anecdotal exceptions, as many as 80 million people with employer health plans, like a Virginia cancer patient, now find their coverage being canceled because it doesn't comply with ObamaCare.

Debra Fishericks, who has been working for the past 10 years at Atkinson Realty in Virginia Beach, has been frantically scouring Healthcare.gov for a plan that fits her.

But she's finding, like so many others, that premiums and plans like the one she had are out of her price range.

Fishericks is battling kidney cancer, and while one of the benefits of ObamaCare was supposed to be that people with pre-existing conditions could not be denied insurance, those who already had it are losing it.

As with Fishericks, the policies they liked and helped to keep them alive have been decreed "substandard" and must be replaced with compliant and more expensive policies the Obama administration considers "better."

White House Uses Taxpayer Funds to Promote Goldman Sachs While Massively Expanding the Welfare State

FOOD STAMP EXPLOSION: The White House is now using taxpayer funds to promote economic illiteracy like this, which it shares with Common Core. The term SNAP refers to food stamps:


Now let's think this through.

1. The government takes $10 from you, which prevents you from spending it on something you want...

2. The government launders that $10 through the federal bureaucracy, which leaves roughly $5 for benefits...

3. The government takes the remaining $5 it hasn't wasted and sends it to those who may or may not need it...

Hold up. My first point is wrong. The government doesn't take $10 from you... it takes $6 from you and borrows the rest by issuing debt.


And that borrowing program is executed by a certain number of "Primary Dealers" -- enormous, powerful banks like Goldman Sachs -- that make billions managing the sale of U.S. debt.

Furthermore, the fraud endemic in the food stamp program is legendary. Billions upon billions of your money is stolen each year, much of it in plain view on sites like Craig's List.

Therefore, in order to believe the collectivist propagandists in the Obama White House, you'd have to ignore all of the fraud, ignore Goldman Sachs, ignore the borrowing, ignore all of the money laundered through the federal bureaucracy, ignore the money confiscated from you... and pretend all of that is more efficient than you spending your money freely on things that you need or want.

You'd have to be completely mad or completely ignorant to believe that -- and it would seem the White House thinks you're either one or the other.


Hat tip: G-Man.

Larwyn's Linx: America’s Enemies Actively Preparing For Nuclear War

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

America’s Enemies Are Actively Preparing For Nuclear War: NoisyRoom
80 million more ObamaCare insurance cancellations on way: John Hayward
The Magnitude of the Lie: Keith Koffler

Ted Cruz: Geneva deal on Iranian nuclear program is a disaster: Hot Air
NC Senate: Kay Hagan’s approval rating tanks: Jason Pye, UnitedLiberty
Retired generals: “peaceful civil uprising not out of the question”: Allen West

Masking Totalitarianism: Walter Williams
White House Calls Panicky Liberal Obamacare Supporters “Bed-Wetters”: WZ
Hobby Lobby Obamacare exemption to be heard by SCOTUS: Moe Lane

Dem Gun Control Vote to Push 'Broader Filibuster Reform': Craig Millward
"Tea party unscathed in early GOP civil war.": SSI
Attkisson: WH Always Knew Millions Would Lose Insurance: Breitbart

Economy

Obama To Use IRS to Crack Down On His Political Enemies: John Hawkins
CBS: Employers Dropping Coverage Due to Obamacare Costs: Keith Koffler
Woman From Obamacare Ad Cancels Employees' Insurance Plan: WZ

Jobs vs. Employment Analysis Suggests Huge Obamacare Impact: Mish
The Hill: This is Obama’s fifth pivot to the economy in 2013: Hot Air
Big Labor is co-opting worker centers to avoid federal law: Peter Schaumber, The Hill

Scandal Central

Why Obama can’t wave away this scandal: John Podhoretz
Obama in Electoral Freak-Out Mode: Issues Regs to Crush Conservative 501c Groups: AmPower
What We Should Not Be Thankful for This Thanksgiving: John W. Whitehead

Media

Hilarious: Democrats Tweet Link To Obamacare Success Stories, But “Google Can’t Find”: WZ
Fox News anchor loses doctor because of Obamacare: Scoop
New Ad Thanks Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for Trying to Stop ObamaCare – Video: FreeLight

Stephens: Obama’s Geneva deal with Iran is not Munich, it’s worse.: Keith Koffler
Report: Karl Rove has been funding Grover Norquist: Thomas Lifson
WTF!? moment: Obama says he can identify immigrants just by looking at their faces: Twitchy

OMG: Look at What Those Evil Racists Did to Oprah!: LiberalLogic101
Story on elderly St. Louis woman killing knockout game suspect is hoax: Fox-2
Knockout Game: 90 Miles

World

Iran Accuses the Obama Administration of, Get This, Lying About What Their Agreement Says: Ace
Saudi Arabia: Obama “Lied To Us” About Nuke Negotiations With Iran: WZ
Saudis Fed Up With Obama – It’s As If They Were Forced Into Obamacare: iOTW

Now the Twelfth Imam Can Come: Robert Spencer
Chinese Military Expert Says China's ADIZ Doesn't Target Japan: China Confidential
B-52s Ignore China No-Fly Zone: DefTech

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Bank of America Employee Petitions Against Video ATM’s: Jonathan Camhi, BankTech
Nokia loses all its social media points with ‘F*** you’ tweet: NextWeb
Snapchat's Evan Spiegel: Saying no to $3B, and feeling lucky: Jennifer Van Grove, CNet

Cornucopia

Bombshell Obama Vetting: 1979 Newspaper Article By Valerie Jarrett Father-In-Law: Pat Dollard
Thanksgiving 2013: Hopenchange Cartoons
Obamacare Rap: Keith Koffler

Image: Saudis Fed Up With Obama – It’s As If They Were Forced Into Obamacare
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: WANT TO FIRE MITCH McCONNELL? HERE'S HOW YOU CAN HELP

QOTD: "There’s a term of art that the Obama White House uses to describe its neurotic supporters who instantly race to the worst-case scenario: They are known as “bed-wetters.” Two months into the dysfunctional life of healthcare.gov, however, that seems a perfectly appropriate physiological reaction.

Liberalism has spent the better part of the past century attempting to prove that it could competently and responsibly extend the state into new reaches of American life. With the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, the administration has badly injured that cause, confirming the worst slurs against the federal government. It has stifled bad news and fudged promises; it has failed to translate complex mechanisms of policy into plain English; it can’t even launch a damn website. What’s more, nobody responsible for the debacle has lost a job or suffered a demotion. Over time, the Affordable Care Act’s technical difficulties can be repaired. Reversing the initial impressions of government ineptitude won’t be so easy." --Franklin Foer, The New Republic

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

SURPRISE! Common Core Third Grade Text Book Portrays Obama as God-Like Figure

Gee, who could have predicted this?

On the heels of a controversial children’s book about Barack Obama – which stated “white voters would never vote for a black president” and that “Barack’s former pastor” said “God would damn the United States for mistreating its black citizens” – comes a new lesson that casts America’s 44th president in a messianic light. Literally.

And – surprise – it’s Common Core-aligned.

The lesson plan and accompanying visual presentation were authored by Sherece Bennett, and is for sale on TeachersPayTeachers.com. It’s all based on a book titled, “Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope,” by Nikki Grimes.


...In one passage, a young Obama sees beggars and wonders, “Will I ever be able to help people like these?”

“Hope hung deep inside of him,” the book adds.

Another excerpt from the book reads: “Before dawn each morning, Barry rose – his mother’s voice driving him from dream land. ‘Time for learning English grammar and the Golden Rule. Be honest, be kind, be fair,’ she taught him.”

The story continues: “One morning, he slipped on the name he’d been born with. The name of his father, Barack. For the first time in his life, he wore it proudly – like a coat of many colors...”

Grimes’ book and Bennett’s lesson plan are more fitting for an authoritarian regime in which children are taught to deify and praise their dear leader. One can almost envision teachers in Cuba, Venezuela and Iran using similar books and lessons.

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.


The Democrat Party is lost. And it's high time to flush them out of government, at every level of government, next November.


Hat tip: Gateway Pundit

Rep. Charlie Rangel demands Americans embrace totalitarianism and dictatorship: “Drop the charade of democracy”

Guest post by Allen West

It appears one Democrat member of Congress has decided to drop the mask and reveal who he really is. Unbelievably, Charlie Rangel told NY1 that “President Obama should drop the charade of democracy and rule directly through executive orders.” I mean, why not? After all, Rep. Rangel’s own relationship with following laws is fuzzy at best, given his problems with tax evasion.

According to Politicker, Rangel said “I’m gonna see why we can’t use executive orders for everything.” Why not Charlie? Because of our pesky Constitution, which states executive orders are only to be used in case of national emergency, not as a means by which the executive branch circumvents the legislative branch, or our established process of checks and balances.

Of course, the House of Representatives, which holds the government purse strings, can simply not fund these imperial edicts as handed down from on high.

Have other American presidents utilized the executive order? Absolutely, but none as prominently as President Obama, and perhaps Rangel clues us in as to why.

It was President Obama who stated to a cheering crowd he would bypass Congress to further his agenda, and I guess that’s one thing he didn’t lie about.

Rangel says a precedent has been established – and it’s a very dangerous one when a president believes himself (or herself) above the rule of law and makes decrees to be obeyed outside the legislative branch. This would indeed represent the end of our beloved Republic and the rise of someone similar to a Caesar – which did not end up so well for ol’ Julius.

Rangel’s comments are a window into the mindset of these liberal progressives. They simply do not believe the rule of law should constrain their intentions to fundamentally transform the United States of America. It’s as if they’re sitting back and daring the American people to defy their will. Sadly, I don’t believe the Republican Party has the intestinal fortitude to fight this ideological war. The mission, as it should, falls squarely upon the shoulders of us, We the People. Are you up for this fight? I sure as heck am.


Read more at AllenBWest.com