Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Stop Action Photos: How the XM-25 Works

Coolness.

A complete family of ammo is planned, including armor-piercing, anti-personnel, airburst and point-impact non-lethal rounds.

The HEAB round is a 25mm cartridge with fore and aft explosive warheads, and a mid-body airburst fuse... An operational firing scenario would involve the following: by viewing through the fire control display, the combat user puts the red-dot aim-point on the target, pushes the "Lase" button, realigns the aim-point on the target, and fires...

The range is automatically communicated upon firing to the chambered 25mm round -- and stored in the fuse logic.

Upon muzzle exit, the intelligent fuse, using a turns-counting approach, determines the distance traveled and bursts precisely over the engaged target at the programmed range.

...It leaves the enemy no place to hide.

The entire video is at StrategyPage. And Fox News has a slideshow.


HHS Head Sebelius: We'll Protect Americans' Sensitive Health Information With the Same Level of Security The State Department Uses

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius visited the campus of Kansas State University yesterday to deliver a staunch defense of ObamaCare.

"Health is really about freedom, [Ed: which is why we intend to make all decisions for you] when we live longer, healthier lives, we've got time to do our jobs, time to volunteer in our neighborhoods [Ed: there they are with the community organizing again] and play with our children, to watch our grandchildren grow up [Ed: each of them owing hundreds of thousands of dollars thanks to the vast unconstitutional bureaucracies we created]," Sebelius said. "When the health of the nation improves we see the benefits each and every day of our lives."

...As well as the defense of the insurance portion of the Affordable Care Act, Sebelius also emphasized six lesser-known health issues that HHS is seeking to improve. They ranged from making medical records electronic and preventing infections in hospitals, to funding efforts to fight obesity and cancer...

... Chris Connell, senior in animal science business, said his favorite point was when Sebelius talked about how hospitals should adopt electronic medical records... Sebelius emphasized how electronic records could help prevent accidents where people with medical problems are given the wrong medication or treatment because doctors would have easy access to the patient's medical history...

...To wrap up..., Sebelius briefly discussed food safety in the United States [Ed: which is why the FDA has to regulate every aspect of food production and distribution]. She said changes needed to be made to the system, but instead of mentioning specific initiatives, she talked about the economic impact that food related disease outbreaks had on farmers.

I don't need to tell you, dear reader, that with geniuses like Kathleen Sebelius and Barack Obama in charge, there's little chance anything can go wrong.


"We have to pass the kidney stone to see what's in it"

Doesn't this headline say it all?

Perhaps you have to be familiar with New York politics to understand how truly bizarre this story is: 1199 is dropping its health care coverage for children.  1199 is the extraordinarily powerful local health care workers' union which has pushed New York State's Medicaid reimbursements into the stratosphere.  The state not only has much higher than average Medicaid enrollment, but also spends more per-enrollee than any state but Alaska.  Every time a governor tries to cut into, say, the funds for home health care workers, the union runs tear jerking ads which imply that the governor is trying to end health care for everyone in the state.

Nturally, 1199--and its national parent--were a powerful force advocating for a national health care program.  An article on their website from June speaks approvingly of PPACA as a "first step", though also complains that it didn't go far enough in creating a public option.

That article also says that "1199ers in the major health funds such as the 1199SEIU National Benefit Fund (NBF) should see little or no change in their coverage."  Just a few months later, the Journal is reporting that the SEIU is dropping its coverage for children, citing, among other things, the impact of the new healthcare law...

Ironical, no?

O/T: If it weren't for Megan McArdle, I'm not sure most Americans would even know The Atlantic was still in business.


I don't know this Joe Barton fellow, but I like the cut of his jib

The Washington Post headline reads, "In slideshow, Rep. Joe Barton declares war on the Obama administration."

If the Obama administration was hoping to see hints of bipartisanship from the Hill, it might want to skip over the House Energy and Commerce Committee... The committee's ranking Republican, Rep. Joe L. Barton (Tex.), has a slide presentation that he's e-mailing to colleagues:










Patton? What's not to like?


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

What do you get when you put a former ACORN community agitator, who never held a job, in charge of the world's largest economy?

Pretend it's a hypothetical question, so you won't grow even more depressed.

Nothing too fancy or hard to understand here... from the Just-released Case-Shiller index, it's clear that the housing double dip is here.

The chart (below) depicts the annual returns of the U.S. National, the 10-City Composite and the 20-City Composite Home Price Indices. The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, which covers all nine U.S. census divisions, recorded a 1.5% decline in the third quarter of 2010 over the third quarter of 2009...

One question remains: how will Pelosi, Reid and Obama blame Bush for the continued destruction of the private sector?

Or, in the case of the whack-job lefty bloggers, how will they blame Dick Cheney?


Hat tip: Dennis.

Larwyn's Linx: Wikileaks and the sabotage of U.S. diplomacy

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Wikileaks and the sabotage of U.S. diplomacy: Malkin
When did we stop treating treason as treason?: ProWis
CableGate: Obama's Katrina Times Ten: AT

Heritage Report Warns U.S. Not Ready for EMP Attack: RWN
Dems Should Seek Eric Holder’s Resignation: Adams
Red Democrats #1: Lynn Woolsey's Communist Party Event: Noisy

Three Million People Have Access To Data Manning Leaked?: Ace
Wikileaks Confirms: John Kerry is a Moron: GWP
Something Wiki This Way Comes: RightNet

Economy

Another Sign Unions Losing Influence: PubForum
Obama Announces Federal Pay Freeze--After Generous Raises: AT
The Irish Emigrated Here And So Will Their Financial Woes: Insider

Critical Middle-Class Tax Cut Vote Coming Right Up: Mish
Congress: Investigate Pigford Claims Before Funding 'Em!: BigGovt
Consumer Spending Fallacy Behind Keynesian Econ: BigGovt

Climate & Energy

Climate Conference Echo Chamber: RedState
EPA Fraud: Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf Actually Get Only 23, 25 MPG: PJM
Cancun Climate Summit Scientists Call for **Rationing in the Developed World: Malkin

Washington Set to Control Your Light Switch: BigGovt
UN Bans Climate Change 'Denier' From Cancun Meetings: GWP
Survey: 60 Percent of Americans Oppose Raising Taxes on Nation’s Oil and Natural Gas Industry: BMW

Media

'Two Papers in One': Driscoll
Liberal Hypocrisy: Valerie Plame 'Outed', Wikileaks 'Heroes': PunditPress
The Thomas Friedman Bubble: RWN

Howard Dean: Bring Back the Fairness Doctrine Because Fox 'Makes Stuff Up': NewsBusters
Classic: HuffPo Commenters on the Oregon Bomber: RWN
Profiles in Treason -- Your Media At Work: TAB

Back to Zero: What Justifies Bloated Media Matters Budget?: Equalizer
Sarah Palin Slams Obama Administration Over Inept Handling of Wikileaks Disaster: GWP
Sharia Law Is Already Here: AT

World

Is China About To Throw N. Korea Under The Bus?: RWN
Goodbye Irish Sovereignty: EU Commissioner Issues His First Directive As Overlord Of The Emerald Isle: ZH
Icky Leaks: Julian Assange Is Wanted On Rape Charges: AmGlob

Rumor Confirmed: Obama Traded Missile Shield for Russian Help With Iran That Never Appeared: Ace
Authorities React to Oregon Bomb Plot by Fretting About Islamophobia: RWN
Axis of Evil: One Down Two to Go: AmPower

Iranian Nuclear Scientists Getting Stux in the Net: Patterico
Death in Teheran: Stuxnet Continued: Simon
Nuclear scientist killed in Tehran was Iran's top Stuxnet expert : DEBKAfile

SciTech

The 15 Most Brilliant New Ideas We've Seen This Fall: Insider
Original Game Boy becomes a web app: CNet
Apple, Android to take out PC sales - Gartner: FT

Cornucopia

You can tell it's Mattel... it's swell!: ProWis
New Robo-Shirt Designs: MNR
Maybe She Should Have Auditioned For The Uruk Hai: CBullitt

Images: XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System, Fox News.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Conservative 100: Most Popular Conservative Websites, November 2010

Monday, November 29, 2010

Say, About That Old 'Bush Lied' Trope, Looks Like Wikileaks Proved Obama Repeatedly Lied About Middle East Policy

Runner-up headline: Obama lied, diplomacy died


Anyone remember that exactly one year ago President Obama's original deadline for Iran expired?

Back in the halcyon days of hopeychange, newly minted President Barack Obama articulated his master plan for dealing with Iran. Mr. Peabody, set the Wayback Machine for May of 2009:

President Barack Obama gave Iran a half-year...

Obama said Monday that he would know "whether or not these discussions [with Iran] are starting to yield significant benefits" by the end of the year. In a White House press conference held by Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, capping a 90-minute meeting today, Obama told reporters that he was against an artificial timeline but effectively created one. Obama offered a period from June, after Iran's domestic elections, to year's end "to see serious movement on the part of Iranians."

"We're not going to have talks forever," Obama said...

Just half of forever.

The president needs to show Arab states and Iran that he is demanding concessions from the Israelis...

Obama requires time to see whether his olive branch towards Iran bears, well, olives. Yet Obama's recognition that diplomatic progress must occur this year was tantamount to affirmation of Israel's concern, that the threat of a nuclear Iran requires immediate resolution.

Yes. Immediate.

Meanwhile, as Obama implies, Netanyahu could take significant steps toward the Palestinians--on settlements in particular. That would considerably aid Obama's outreach to Iran and the Arab world.

But -- as the Wikileaks disclosures make clear -- Israeli concessions have (and had) nothing at all to do with stopping Iran. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries wanted Iran crushed -- as King Abdullah put it, "cut off the head of the snake" -- period.

Let me repeat: Obama knew all along that Israeli concessions had nothing to do with stopping Iran's march to nuclear weapons. Yet he persisted in linking the two, even though it raised the risk of an atomic conflagration that could engulf the world.

I'd like to know: does it get any more irresponsible than that?


Update: Rumor Confirmed: Obama Traded Missile Shield for Russian Help With Iran That Never Appeared


Linked by: Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, Memeorandum and TAB. Thanks!

Where's Scooter Libby When You Need Him?

Runner-up headline: Shock, Outrage as Analyst Valerie Plame Outed by WikiLeaks


Does anyone else find it hysterically ironic that the "progressive" left vilified Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and finally Scooter Libby for years even after it was discovered they didn't actually out super-spy Valerie Plame?

And yet when it comes to the most massive disclosure of truly sensitive, classified information in history -- which endangers America in an infinite variety of ways (such as: which allies will be so foolish as to trust the Clinton State Department again?) -- the Statists can't seem to find much to criticize the despicable crackpot leaker and Julian Asshatter for (my spelling could be off).

The instrument has not been invented that is sensitive enough to measure the Left's intellectual honesty.

By the way, did they ever make that Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame movie? I was so looking forward to seeing it.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Cali: Judges Rule 40,000 Convicts Must Be Released Due to Illegal Profiling and Open Borders Policy, But Mostly Open Borders Policy

Runner-up headline: How's that 'Sanctuary City' thingamabob working out?


The California residents who elected Jerry Brown should be overjoyed at tomorrow's news story in the Wall Street Journal: 40,000 state convicts were ordered released so that they can roam the streets.

A three-judge panel in a California federal district court ruled in January that overcrowding in the state's prison system, the nation's largest, is the main cause of substandard medical and mental health care that violates prisoners' Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment...

The state houses 164,000 inmates in a system designed to hold about 80,000, and the prisons have been beyond capacity for two decades. The judges ordered the state to cap the inmate population at 137.5% of their capacity within two years, which would be about 110,000 inmates this year.

Of course, the father of this debacle is none other than Governor-Elect Jerry Brown, who has been in bed with the prison guards' union since his career began. The union -- which the right-wing rag called The Huffington Post calls "one of the state's richest and most reviled special-interest groups" -- has fought sensible sentencing measures for decades. Just two years ago, the union and Brown teamed up to keep the prison population artificially high.

The California prison guards' union... is funding a multi-million-dollar attack on Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act. The prison guards' newest ally is Jerry Brown, attorney general and former governor of California.

Prop. 5 is a modest and sensible reform of California's corrections system that promises to reduce the state's bloated prison population and, in the process, cut state spending by billions of dollars. The measure is supported by a wide-range of treatment professionals, good-government types and former high-ranking corrections and law enforcement officials.

The prison guards, however, oppose Prop. 5. They don't like the math. Fewer prisoners will mean fewer jobs and less overtime pay for prison guards...

That's how it's been for years. Brown fought relentlessly to maintain California's 'Three Strikes Law', which hasn't helped deter crime at all, but has certainly kept the union fat and happy at taxpayer expense.

And, best of all for California's voters, Brown was endorsed again this year by the union.

Second Runner-up Headline: Committing the Crimes Americans Won't Commit


Worse still, Brown is an outspoken proponent of illegal immigration. And you can just imagine the impact of illegals on California's prison population. Oh -- wait, you don't need to imagine:

As of Dec. 31, 2009, California prisons had 22,173 inmates with an immigration hold or potential immigration hold, according to a Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation analysis. That represented 13 percent of the state's 168,830 inmates.

Inmates self-identify their country of birth, so the citizenship breakdown may not be entirely accurate, according to CDCR spokesman Gordon Hinkle...

Because the inmates self-identify citizenship, the estimate of 22,000 illegal immigrants in the prison population is most certainly low. The real number may never be known, but as recently as 2003 the Department of Justice (the real DOJ, pre-Holder) reported that 108,000 illegals living in California served time during the year.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Over the last few decades, Jerry Brown helped destroy the state with twin, suicidal policies of open borders and support for unchecked growth of public sector unions.

So, as a reward for that failure, Californians reelected him to the highest state office.

Am I the first to suggest building a fence around California?


O-conomy: Sounding the Inflation Alarm

It's the debt, stupid.

...QE2 looks like "Fed speak" for monetizing the nation's growing debt — printing new money to finance deficit spending... [But] Chairman Bernanke... downplays evidence that 12 months of a 1% Federal funds rate in 2003-2004 contributed to the housing bubble and subsequent collapse. Now, after maintaining a 0% Federal funds rate for nearly two years, he shows no inclination to raise short-term interest rates...

...Mr. Bernanke speaks of the threat of deflation, but gives little heed to signals from commodity and currency prices, which are reliable indicators of inflation... It is not just oil prices approaching $90 a barrel and new highs in precious metals that are clear warning signs of a new inflating bubble... It is also a broad basket of commodities that includes copper, rubber, wheat, oats, pork, coffee, sugar and cotton — all of which are up over 50% in the past 12 months — that is sounding the inflation alarm...

But the more serious consequences from the Fed's pursuit of debt monetization and currency printing, the essence of QE2, is moving the country ever closer to an insolvency crisis — one that could destroy the dollar and bring global financial chaos.

...When investors conclude that inflation and devaluation make holding U.S. Treasury debt unattractive, they will demand higher offsetting coupon rates... At the present time, the blended cost of the publicly held U.S. debt (some $9.14 trillion) is less than 2.5% annually, the lowest in over 50 years.

...[But] a crisis in confidence — triggered by either a failed U.S. Treasury auction or the weight of the Fed balance sheet having grown too large for orderly liquidation except at fire sale prices — would cause an immediate spike up in bond yields and interest rates.

The cost of servicing the U.S. Government's debt service would increase many fold, setting in motion a downward spiraling liquidity crisis ending with the U.S Government unable to finance its obligations.

And when it all unfolds, the likes of Obama, Pelosi and Reid -- the architects of "progressive" change -- will be long gone, leaving our children to pick up the pieces.


Original Images: Library of Congress Flickr Feed: 1930s Color Photographs.

Larwyn's Linx: Of Fake "Bogeymen" And Artificial "Security"

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Of Fake "Bogeymen" And Artificial "Security": ZH
Federal Farming Power Grab Scheduled for Senate Vote Today: AT
Portland saved from Islamist terror plot in spite of itself: Patterico

White House to Introduce Illegal Alien’s Bill of Rights: RWN
Paradoxes of the Present Age, Profound and Trivial: Hanson
The P in SPLC has nothing to do with "poverty": Petrelis Files

Wikileaks Doc Drop Running Updates: Hot Air
State Dept. pleads with Wikileaks not to release documents: WZ
Play this vid when you hear a lib support the DREAM Act: iOTW

Economy

The Greediest Generation--But Medicare isn’t Free: MagNote
The Boston 'Me' Party: Malkin (Powers)
Predictable: Union Drops Health Coverage for Workers’ Children: WSJ

The Compromised University: PJM
What if interest rates return to 'historic normals?': AT
Why Pay When You Can Get 16 Months of Free Rent?: Mish

Climate & Energy

AGW Rule #1: High Temps are Climate; Cold Temps are Weather: TAB
Cancun Climate Capers: AT
Converting engine exhaust into electricity: PopSci

Media

My Rebuttal to a Progressive who Admonished Me to Play Nice: Stop Shouting
The Obsession With Liberals' Obsession With Sarah Palin: LegalIns
They told me if I voted Republican we'd have a Bible-reading 'Christianist' in the White House: Instapundit

Glenn Greenwald: Portland Terror Plot Was Entrapment, Plus We Deserved Destruction It Would Have Caused: Patterico
NYT Manages to Praise Obama Administration in Report on Historic Leak of Sensitive Information: GWP
Who will fix Rahm's residency problem, and how?: Freddoso

Our Puritanical Progressives: Driscoll
My Personal “Pat-Down” Experience: RWN
Out Of Control TSA Agents Steal Pizza, Assault Store Clerk: BlogProf

World

Breaking: Two Iranian nuclear scientists killed in separate bomb blasts : Matzav
What will you do when they come for you?: Green Mountains
Canada: Muslims remove hateful passages from Koran: Tundra Tabloids

JCS Mullen: 'We Can Stop Islamic Extremism by Teaching People to Read The Qu'ran…': JoshuaPundit
UK Hits Bottom, Keeps Digging: Taliban Spiritual Leader to Address House of Lords: WZ
Following Hungary And Ireland, France Is Next To Seize Pension Funds: ZH

Wikileaker Bradley Manning Smuggled Info Out on CD-RW Labeled ‘Lady Gaga’: GWP
Bill Gates: Let's give Africa money to fund corrupt governments (plus--let's kill one billion people): BlogProf
Wikileaks cables: key issues: BBC

SciTech

COICA Hall of Shame: iOTW
Biochemist Raises Questions about Nude-o-Scopes: Ace
Oracle ruling slams SAP's reputation: Reuters

Cornucopia

Prog Texting: Acronyms for Progressives: Cube
Iowa I Opener: John Wayne's birthplace: Marathon
Obama to TSA: Don't Touch My Junk: RX2008

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Ameristroika

QOTD: "Government spending does not contribute to the creation of wealth in an economy, it inhibits it in direct proportion to the amount of that spending. That is true even when there is no borrowing involved, with the government running a genuinely balanced budget. Government creates no wealth, it simply confiscates it from those who do. The situation deteriorates rapidly when government spending exceeds government “revenue”. The dead weight of government then falls not only on present production but on future production. The higher the debt grows, the further into the future the burden stretches.

Government spending has no place in any measure of REAL economic growth. Government borrowing is the greatest economic threat to REAL economic growth. Once government borrowing is established as a prime component of the statistic (GDP) that purports to “measure” economic growth, then gradual economic impoverishment is assured. Once government borrowing is deemed to be the most important component in re-establishing economic growth, financial collapse is assured." -- William Buckler

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Wikileaks Upends U.S. Arabists (and Obama Too)

Dan from New York:

The Arabist argument goes something like this: Israel's "occupation" of the West Bank inflames the Muslim world and drives it away from America. Iran's nuclear program and its intention is surrounded in uncertainty and can't be known for sure. Attacking it now is not what Middle East countries want anyway. In fact, it would only make them angrier at us and even more livid about Israel. Ergo, keep the heat where it belongs - on the Jews.

Now see if you can square the Arabist party line with this: Saudi Arabia urges US attack on Iran to stop nuclear programme

It's reported the State Dept. called a number of countries to prepare them for the embarrassing revelations contained in the latest Wikileaks. I hope they had the decency to give a heads up to Walt, Mearsheimer, Chas Freeman, and their ilk too.

And Mere Rhetoric has some strong words for the Middle East 'experts' advising the White House.

It didn’t get nearly as much play as it should have, but Obama’s June 2009 meeting with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah ended with the monarch flying into a tirade and more or less telling the President to get a grip. This was the Riyadh meeting that Obama took on his way to his insulting and failed Cairo Speech, the better to prepare himself by visiting “the place where Islam began.” The sit-down was such a disaster that Dennis Ross was hurriedly brought into the White House and given a broader role, yielding the impression that the President wanted a Middle East adviser who kind of understood something about the Middle East – and didn’t think he had one.

King Hamad pointed to Iran as the source of much of the trouble in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He argued forcefully for taking action to terminate their nuclear program, by whatever means necessary. “That program must be stopped,” he said. “The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it.”

Perhaps someone could loan Mearsheimer and Walt a few bucks so they can buy a clue.


Super: Star-Ledger Columnist Now Holding Contests Asking Readers to Predict the Date of Chris Christie's Next Policy Shift

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spoke at the Republican Governors Conference [RGC] ten days ago and reportedly brought down the house. He told the audience that sometimes leaders simply have to ignore their advisers and face the tough issues head on.

The New Jersey Star Ledger's Paul Mulshine has followed the career of Chris Christie for nearly two years. And he doesn't quite recognize the current version.

[The RGC] Chris Christie sounds like a heck of guy — not at all like the Chris Christie I have been following closely for almost two years... [For example, after] a number of legislators held a press conference in the Statehouse to announce they were... protesting the new screening policies of the [TSA, Christie] declined an offer to back the resolution because, his spokesman said, it was a federal issue...

...Just for fun, I put up a post on my blog asking readers to predict how long it would take before Christie came out against the TSA. If you bet on last Monday, you would have won. In response to a question from a kid at one of those town-hall meetings he holds, Christie announced the screenings were "too invasive."

That’s just one instance in a pattern obvious to those of us who’ve been covering Christie since he entered state politics. Name an issue — from judicial activism to the Highlands Act — and you will see Christie tiptoeing up to it and finally committing when the consensus is clear.

On issues such as guns and abortion, Christie’s views have moved rightward over the years, in remarkable harmony with the rightward drift of the GOP primary electorate... His position in favor of New Jersey’s participation in the cap-and-trade program, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, for example, would be a non-starter with Republican primary voters. Sure enough, he recently made an incremental move away from that when he told a participant in another town hall that he is becoming skeptical about man-made global warming.

Some took that as a sign that he’s serious about running for president. If so, he’ll have to start inching away from other positions associated with RINOs, or "Republicans In Name Only," such as his mushy stands on gun rights and immigration amnesty.

Christie's oft-changing positions are the antithesis of the Tea Party's immutable principles.

Global warming.

Gun control.

• Amnesty for illegal aliens.

Mike Castle.

And those are but a few of Christie's amorphous policy positions.

Some great YouTube sound-bites have immortalized Christie's fight against the public sector unions. And there is much to appreciate in his stand.

But it is clear that the Governor has substantial work ahead of him. After all, Constitutional conservatives rightfully fear the nomination of another "Maverick", the positions of whom are rooted only in political expediency.


Krugman's Chickens Come Home to Roost: Imminent Euro Meltdown Begs the Question--When Will Debt Contagion Infect the U.S.?

The laboratory experiment known as Keynesian economics is set to complete in the Eurozone over the next few months. The European Central Bank's infinite borrow-and-spend policies, backstopped by heaven knows what, appears to be the same game-plan advocated by the likes of Paul Krugman here in the states.

And it is all set to topple like a house of cards during an earthquake.

This weekend offered no respite for the European central bankers, who have moved from country to country trying to reassure investors that banks are healthy even though they own billions in badly wounded bonds. The EU and the IMF shored up Greece in the spring with €10 billion and have arranged a set of bailouts for Ireland that will total around €85 billion more. But dominoes Portugal and Spain are now tilting over concerns that they, too, will be unable to service the massive debts they've incurred over the last two decades.

The three-year tab for all of the Eurozone rescues was earlier set at €440 billion; there are now plans to double it before the European banks that own the toxic debt are themselves crushed.

Even Germany Threatened: 'You cannot find a bank safe deposit box'

Even the most financially secure EU state -- Germany -- is trembling. The ongoing crisis "on the eurozone periphery is starting to contaminate the creditworthiness of Germany and the core states of monetary union."

Credit default swaps (CDS) measuring risk on German, French and Dutch bonds have surged over recent days, rising significantly above the levels of non-EMU states in Scandinavia.

"Germany cannot keep paying for bail-outs without going bankrupt itself," said Professor Wilhelm Hankel, of Frankfurt University. "This is frightening people. You cannot find a bank safe deposit box in Germany because every single one has already been taken and stuffed with gold and silver. It is like an underground Switzerland within our borders. People have terrible memories of 1948 and 1923 when they lost their savings."

The critical question remains unanswered. At what point does Germany refuse to bail out the more irresponsible members of the EU. That question is going to the German Constitutional Court early next year as many citizens have objected to the legality of the Greek bailout and other backstopping efforts.

No Certain Thing: 'time the Irish became more militant'

While Eurozone officials would like to portray Ireland's bailout as a fait accompli, the 100,000 protesters in the streets of Dublin yesterday tell another story. The turnout was gargantuan given the snow and freezing temperatures the marchers had to endure. Most protesters are unionists and socialists objecting to the four-year austerity plan announced by the government.

Among the marchers there is deep anger that most of the more than €80bn (£67bn) from the EU and the International Monetary Fund will be given to shore up Ireland's ailing banks.

Marching in the rally was Irish builder Mick Wallace who has had to lay off 100 workers due to the crash in the construction industry. Wallace said it was time the Irish became more militant.

If there's a pattern of civil unrest to be detected throughout Europe, it hinges on the malevolent collaboration between public sector unions and socialists. Their mission, it would appear, is to overthrow any vestige of capitalism in Europe.

'Day of Reckoning' Nears With Talk of Restructuring

The borrowing costs for the most exposed European states are at record highs. The average yield for 10-year bonds issued by Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain hit a Euro-era record of 7.57 percent on Friday.

The spread of PIIGS debt compared to German issues also hit a new high of 492 basis points (or nearly 5%). And the cost to insure the five countries' bonds also hit a record of 517 basis points.

“It’s no longer taboo to speak about a restructuring,” said Johannes Jooste, a portfolio strategist at Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management in London, which oversees about $1.4 trillion for clients. “The fact that bond yields continue to rise and put pressure on countries that have to fund from the market makes investors less and less confident, and it’s bringing forward the day of reckoning.”

Bondholders of European banks are being urged to accept "huge haircuts" because the nature and amount of the debt owned by those institutions is simply so huge it can never be repaid.

Downgrades

Irish banks were hit with another downgrade by rating agencies on Friday and many bank bondholders have already taken horrible losses of 80 to 90 percent.

[Prime Minister] Cowen is unveiling an emergency budget Dec. 7 that seeks to cut euro6 billion ($8 billion) from Ireland's 2011 deficit. He and European officials say that budget must be passed to clear the way for the EU-IMF bailout loan for Ireland.

Ireland's 2010 deficit is running at 32 percent of GDP, the highest in Europe since World War II. The country's severe financial problems are rooted in its enormous bailout of Irish banks who gorged themselves on overpriced real estate.

Meanwhile Portugal, reportedly next weakest of the peripheral Eurozone countries, has denied that it needs a bailout. Economists, however, point to increased risk premiums for Portuguese debt and a survey of experts found most agreeing that a bailout is imminent due to "spiraling debt costs".

Spain, which appears to be next on the endangered list, has a two-fold plan to build a "firewall" against further contagion. It has announced massive budget cuts and is simultaneously trying to find local buyers for its debt.

“The big elephant in the room is Spain, which is too big to fail and too big to be bailed out,” Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor who predicted the global financial crisis, said in an interview Nov. 23. “In some sense though, Spain is in a better place.”

Asked whether its size would deter an EU bailout, Bank of Spain chief economist Jose Luis Malo de Molina said late yesterday that “the systemic importance” of a country like Spain “reinforces the incentives and stimuli for the rest of the countries to be ready to help in the case that it were necessary.” He said market tensions can become a “self- fulfilling prophecy.”

In other words, remain calm. Don't panic.

'Urgent Action' Needed in the U.S.

With debt contagion washing over Europe, there is little doubt what the impact will be for the U.S.

The US needs to take urgent action to cut its debt in order to prevent the next financial crisis, which may start in Washington, Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposits Insurance Corp. (FDIC) wrote in an editorial in the Washington Post...

The federal debt has doubled over the past seven years, to almost $14 trillion, and the growth is a result of both the financial crisis and the government's "unwillingness over many years to make the hard choices necessary to rein in our long-term structural deficit," Bair wrote...

The tidal wave of baby boomers headed into retirement represents a double whammy for the federal deficit. Bair noted that this year's spending on the big three entitlements (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) represents 45 percent of federal spending -- but that it was 27 percent in 1975.

"Eventually, this relentless federal borrowing will directly threaten our financial stability by undermining the confidence that investors have in U.S. government obligations," Bair said.

"With more than 70 percent of US Treasury obligations held by private investors scheduled to mature in the next five years, an erosion of investor confidence would lead to sharp increases in government and private borrowing costs," she added.

The policy prescription of Krugman and the Eurozone is simple:

"Borrow more money to pay off borrowed money."

The problem is, someday the ability to borrow money runs out.

And that's the day that the Ponzi scheme collapses, like Bernie Madoff -- times a million.


Hat tip: Drudge. Linked by: Instapundit and Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: OMG! Like, EVERYONE Will See Barack's Burn Book!

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

OMG! Like, EVERYBODY'S Going to See Barack's Burn Book!: Ace
Look Who's Calling Obama Racist: LegalIns
President Obama: It's Business, Not Personal: AT

Just another bomb-plotting jihadist yelling “Allahu akbar!”: Malkin
Mohammed Coefficient: 200%: GoV
Portland: One Arrested for Attempting Man-Caused Disaster: Powers

Arkansas man arrested for possession of explosives: Atlas
Tea Partiers: You've Just Been Threatened With Murder: iOTW
Michelle Grants Pie Amnesty, Gives Alms to the Poor: RWN

Economy

For tottering states, bankruptcy could be the answer: Barone
Restraining Leviathan: allow the states to repeal federal law?: Toldjah
Union Outed Whitman’s Maid Story in CA Gubernatorial Election: RWN

Will AARP, AMA Be Held To Account for Obamacare?: LegalIns
Job-Killer Sets Aside 187,000 Miles For...Polar Bears: GWP
Shock: UAW Cleans up in GM IPO; Taxpayers--Not so Much: WZ

Climate & Energy

'Very rare and exciting event' covers the UK in global warming: DlyBay
UN IPCC official on Climate Change: It's a Scam: RWN
The liberals' snake oil cure for whatever ails ya': Wolf

Media

Feds Foil Terror Plot; Firedoglake Genius Calls It “State Sponsored Terror”: Patterico
Drawing Contest Day: Mad About Mahmoud
Imaginary Communists? Sadly No!: AmPower

CNN’s Roland Martin: 'Sarah Palin poses an immediate threat to the future of this country': RWN
Lessons in Reactionary Mockery: Con4Palin
Sheepish Decline: Pundette

Richard Cohen and the Invisible Power: AT
WaPo Promotes 'DREAM Act' for Sympathetic 'Undocumented Youths': NewsBusters
President Obama Blames The Internet For Why People Think He Is Muslim: Mediaite

World

America's Grim Options on North Korea: PJM
Korean Joint Exercises in Futility: AmPower
Jimmy Carter: North Korean Dictators Deserve Our Respect: Verum Serum

"The death throes of free speech in Europe begin tomorrow morning": GoV
The Unholy U.S./Muslim Alliance: AT
Outrage, Incompetence, Overreach & Dhimmitude Roundup: Zilla

Report: ‘Issues of Culture, Ethnicity and Identity’ Raised in U.K. Rape-Gang Case: RSM
Did You Know Israel Created Radical Islam?: AT
Another Cargo Plane crashes after takeoff?: BNI

SciTech

Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions: Fox
BendDesk: the curved multitouch workspace of the future: Engadget
'Nightmare' kernel bug lets attackers evade Windows UAC security: ComputerWorld

Cornucopia

What am I thankful for? Quite a bit... : Life in the Infantry
California's Incredible Portabello Estate Just Sold At 55% Markdown: Insider
Mythbuster Adam Savage Passes TSA Screening with 12 Inch Steel Blades: Lethalc0mb0

Mystery marine identified in photo taken in WWII: WashExam
Decatur Central's Single Ladies Video: Theo Spark
Snapshot: No Oil for Pacifists

Image: iOwnTheWorld.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Lonely Conservative

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Photos: The Mass Executions You Never Saw In Legacy Media

If you rely upon legacy media for the news, you'd think that Gaza was some kind of killing ground upon which innocent Palestinians are regularly targeted by Israelis. But in Gaza, as in most places around the Middle East, the most prolific murderers of Muslims are other Muslims.

The following graphic screen-captures depict a mass execution of civilians in Gaza by members of the murderous gang of thugs known as Hamas.

Mass executions? Genocide? Apartheid?

Yes -- all of those things.

And legacy media is utterly silent.

Lining civilians up against a wall and executing them like the Nazis at Babi Yar.

And the typical separatist front groups, CAIR and the like, are silent on these events.

Should you do a search for "Hamas mass murder Gaza", you'll find plenty of references to Zionists killing innocents.

Or "apartheid".

Or terrorist-laden "Freedom Flotillas".

But let terrorists kill thousands of innocents in New York, or Mumbai, or Beslan, Madrid, London, Uzbekistan, Bali, Baghdad, Kashmir and dozens of other venues, and the media can't seem to determine what the attackers' motivation may be.

After all, it's not real news unless Israelis are involved.


FireDogLake Nutcase Accuses FBI of "State-Sponsored Terrorism" in Investigating and Thwarting Genuine Terrorism

There's a leftist crackpot writing at the execrable FireDogLake named Teddy Partridge. Partridge's latest Pulitzer Prize-winning submission comes in reaction to a thwarted Jihadist attack in Portland, Oregon.

Partridge's secretion accuses the FBI of "state-sponsored terror" because it's -- wait for it -- enticing innocent Jihadists into violent attacks against innocent civilians.

Tonight in Portland, we had a small dose of the FBI’s almost-operational terror sprees, as agents spent more than a year goading a young jihadi wannabe into almost killing thousands of Portlandians in our city’s living room as we gathered for the lighting of the holiday tree...

...Wow, what kind of complex network would it take for a Somalia-born US citizen to envision, develop, and then carry out such a huge and complex attack in a large public place with so many innocents gathered? Why, of course, one enabled by the FBI...

Thank goodness for the heroic FBI that allowed one silly young man trying to impress older, more senior “terrorists” with an operational plan. And thank goodness they saved us from this attack, moments before it didn’t occur.

How long are we going to let the cowboys shoot up our country with their false terror plots and operations that would go nowhere without their instigation, planning, and coercion? How long will we allow our own federal constabulary to justify its own recklessly inflated budget by permitting actions like this to develop, fester, and grow operational in our midst?

This is terror, pure and simple. State-sponsored terror. Big-splash terror designed to make people compliant and fearful...

I wonder what the children, parents, brothers and sisters of those slaughtered last year by Nidal Malik Hasan would say to Partridge?

• Or those injured, some severely, by the driver of an SUV at the University of North Carolina who intentionally slammed into a crowd of pedestrians in "retribution for the treatment of Muslims around the world"?

• Or the loved ones of those murdered and wounded inside the Seattle Jewish Federation by self-proclaimed "Soldier of Islam" Naveed Haq?

• Or the families of those killed and wounded by Asan Akbar?

• Or those attacked by San Francisco jihadist Omeed Aziz Popal, who killed one, left seven in critical condition and injured at least seven others by driving his car into innocent passers-by in a series of attacks a firefighter called "like Death Race 2000"?

If you happen to spot the corpulent Partridge on the street one day, I'd discourage you from coming up behind him and screaming Allahu Akbar at the top of your lungs.

And under no circumstances should you walk into a Starbucks -- when Partridge is reading Perez Hilton on his iPad and sipping a Mochachino -- while wearing a long trench-coat, then stop just inside the entrance and reach inside your coat and shriek Death to America! as loud as you can.

Because while Partridge might stain his undergarments, he'll also think you're an FBI agent.


Update: Patterico shreds Partridge into tiny little pieces using every kitchen implement except for a cheese straightener.

Hat tip: Memeorandum.