This posting is for any Libertarian/Conservative reader.
Liberals, please ignore it, Obama is there to protect and save YOU!

A huge rush, these always come with a surge. Out of the cafes and idling spots, come the idiots, the believers in OPM as a style of living and the sustenance of LIFE.This time it’s too late, rioting, looting and burning can’t bring back what no longer exists.
The indolent style of the status quo has no status; it’s KAPUT!
(Posting this is so enjoyable BECAUSE it’s from the NY Times)

THERE IS NO MORE OPM!

Europeans Fear Crisis Threatens Liberal Benefits

PARIS — Across Western Europe, the “lifestyle superpower,” the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II.

Europeans have boasted about their social model, with its generous vacations and early retirements, its national health care systems and extensive welfare benefits, contrasting it with the comparative harshness of American capitalism.

Europeans have benefited from low military spending, protected by NATO and the American nuclear umbrella. They have also translated higher taxes into a cradle-to-grave safety net. “The Europe that protects” is a slogan of the European Union.

But all over Europe governments with big budgets, falling tax revenues and aging populations are experiencing rising deficits, with more bad news ahead.

With low growth, low birthrates and longer life expectancies, Europe can no longer afford its comfortable lifestyle, at least not without a period of austerity and significant changes. The countries are trying to reassure investors by cutting salaries, raising legal retirement ages, increasing work hours and reducing health benefits and pensions.[snip]

 We have coddled them with military protection, which pumped money into their economy, allowed for egregious lawsuits over damaged lawns and cars and insufferable protests by the very bungholes sitting on their asses, retired at 28- swilling beer and coffee all day.

UP YOURS, COMMIE UNIONISTS. Now you’ll have to burn down everything while rioting; with luck, it’ll be your house. But the OPM won’t be coming back. The promises of the Collectivist Brotherhood of Unionists turned out empty. The Radiant Future of the Great Social Reform, put out by stale spilled beer. How f**king condign! The Muzzies will make them work!

Think you’re going GREEN?

Leaked Doc Proves Spain’s ‘Green’ Policies — the Basis for Obama’s — an Economic Disaster

Pajamas Media has received a leaked internal assessment produced by Spain’s Zapatero administration. The assessment confirms the key charges previously made by non-governmental Spanish experts in a damning report exposing the catastrophic economic failure of Spain’s “green economy” initiatives.  (emphasis added) [snip]

But today’s leaked document reveals that even the socialist Spanish government now acknowledges the ruinous effects of green economic policy. [snip]

The government report does not expressly confirm the highest-profile finding of the non-governmental report: that Spain’s “green economy” program cost the country 2.2 jobs for every job “created” by the state. However, the figures published in the government document indicate they arrived at a job-loss number even worse than the 2.2 figure from the independent study.

This document is not a public report. Spanish media has referred to its existence in recent weeks though, while Bloomberg and the Washington Examiner have noted the impact: Spain is now forced to jettison its plans — Obama’s model — for a “green economy.”

Remarkably, these items have received virtually no media attention.

An item which has been covered widely, however, is that President Obama is now pressuring Spain to turn off its spigot of public debt in the name of averting a situation similar to that of Greece. (emphasis added)

Also covered widely is Obama’s promotion of the American Power Act — the legislation which would replicate Spain’s current situation in the United States.

Put simply, Obama is currently promoting a policy in the U.S. which is based on a policy that he wishes to see Spain abandon. Welcome to Obamaland, the particulars of which are explained in a fashion grandly more illuminating than this Obama-Zapatero dance in Power Grab: How Obama’s Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America.

If any have watch the wild gyrations of the sovereign debt markets and the currency exchanges in the past couple of weeks, you know what has happened with the Euro and the Yen, the Yuan, the Ozzie and the Dollar.
Silver, which normally trades around $6/oz is at $19/oz USD. Gold up, copper down, stocks dropping and bank stocks really taking a hit.

Europeans are trading out of the Euro into Gold; they don’t buy it like we do. They use it as currency, they learned a long time ago paper money is just that, paper.

None of this is possible when Nations are on the Gold Standard. But that severely limits Socialists from spending, so we have Fiat Money and this current mess.

The world will go back on the Gold Standard.

Clinton alludes to 1995 bombing, says words matter

Thanks for the reach around, Bill
More to the point though,  just how damn dense can you get?
People in LARGE crowds at the Capitol, in Congressman’s offices, via phone calls and faxes gave voice to the word NO to Obama’s* policies! Harry Reid and Pelosi told the Country to stuff it!
(*Anyone know who is Nehemiah Scudder)

Former President Bill Clinton warned of a slippery slope from angry anti-government rhetoric to violence like the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, saying “the words we use really do matter.” [snip]

They do, Words like “VAST RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY” and politics of personal destruction are YOUR words Bill. Like now as then, complicit still is TASS, aka, the MSM. Remember, how you had your Presidential johnson stepped on in the mid-terms. The people were not anywhere near as pissed then as they are now.

On April 19, 1995, an anti-government conspiracy led by Army veteran Timothy McVeigh exploded a truck bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people.

“What we learned from Oklahoma City is not that we should gag each other or that we should reduce our passion for the positions we hold - but that the words we use really do matter, because there’s this vast echo chamber, and they go across space and they fall on the serious and the delirious alike. They fall on the connected and the unhinged alike,” he said. [snip]

He also alluded to the anti-government tea party movement, which held protests in several states Thursday. At the Washington rally, Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota railed against “gangster government.”
Clinton argued that the Boston Tea Party was in response to taxation without representation. [snip]

I strongly suggest the same taxation without representation pant load is on going in DC today with one party rule. Cap&Tax, Amnesty for illegals, government handouts to big banks, bailouts of homeowners who bought houses they could never afford, systemic destruction of small businesses by onerous laws, roll back of welfare reforms, failure to deal with the bankruptcy of Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid and the idea of businesses being “Too Big to Fail.”

Clinton thinks this is about words?
DUMB PUTZ!

The Russian protesters are upset over their mistreatment. Gee, how should I feel about this?
It’s certainly not a Cialis moment.

What occurred in California to the Prop 8 signatories? Hmmm, threats, trashed businesses and protests against individuals because of contributions or belonging to organizations that contributed to Prop 8. Who did all this? The very ones now crying they can’t protest, can’t do and say what they want. Awwwh!

And these homos are racist too! They only went after the white churches, nothing about the blacks or the Hispanics that voted for Prop 8.

MOSCOW (AP) – Riot police violently broke up several gay rights demonstrations in Moscow on Saturday, hauling away scores of protesters hours before the Russian capital hosted a major international pop music competition.

City officials had warned they would not tolerate marches or rallies supporting the rights of gays and lesbians. Activists had targeted Moscow, which was holding the finals of the Eurovision song contest on Saturday, to press their claims that Russia officially sanctions homophobia. [snip]

“All we wanted was a legal protest,” he said as he was led away. “But we were blocked. What else could we do?” [snip]

Don’t ask. I just can’t
induce a lachrymose moment.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering 
There is a crack in every thing
That’s how the light gets in

Leonard Cohen (Anthem)

                      So you want to have a protest….

The Tea Parties are protests, and protest is political action outside of legislatures and voting booths.  Protest isn’t about self-expression or assembly; it’s about transmitting information and influencing public policy.  It’s a demonstration of strength and resistance to the status quo. 

Protest is ineffective unless it provokes concern in the political class.  Failing that, you escalate to instill anxiety, and if necessary, outright fear.  It’s not immoderate to mention fear as a motivator, either.  Protest puts a ruling class on notice that the governing process is unsatisfactory, that one of the first portals to revolution is open, and you allow them to calculate their vulnerabilities.

In our case, this is a problem.  How do you calculate the vulnerabilities of a decomposing idiotocracy of encumbents?  They’re in the last stages of decomposition; the stink of shamelessness is everywhere, and they no longer care what we think.

The GOP isn’t embarrassed by its mute cowardice, preening “bipartisans” betray both parties, and the tax cheaters and thieves take the TV villain defense of “You can’t prove anything”.  We don’t even need to address the organized lying that fortifies the insane plunder called “saving the economy”. 

No. Game over.  You don’t bother to think about what they might personally want in exchange for peace of mind.  Simplify it.  The driving pursuits of their genus are comfort, the cover of darkness,  and to be left alone.  So you make political life so awful for them that they do what you want.  This worked for the left over many years, and it explains places like California and Massachusetts and New York.   Until you find representatives who can’t be owned, own the ones who can.

I’ve thought about this for many years.  There are two types of protest.  The first is the protest of things and incidents that effect you or people like you (labor picketing, draft “riots”, civil liberties, tax rallies).  The second is the protest of things and incidents effecting others, or in a broader sense, everybody (protests against war, racism, imperialism, injustice, etc.).  There is always overlap and collusion of interests in both, but generally the first type is connected with grievance, events and restitution, and the second is about principles, abstractions and education.

The first kind is risky.  The facts are easily disputed on the scene, and sides are easily drawn.  There’s the painful limitation of reality itself (are the protesters honest?) and the hurdle of overcoming a lingering aversion to grievance among Americans.  There’s also physical risk and when the issue is settled, it’s over. 

Escalation is the only remedy to failure, and this is the central problem with the Tea Parties.   The Tea Parties are self-limiting, and our interests are not.   There is no limit to liberty because it isn’t conferred by  grandiose gasbags like Barack Obama and hectoring crones like Nancy Pelosi.

If the Tea Parties have no effect on policy, what do you do?  You don’t ask for fewer taxes and only a little smaller government, you avoid this dilemma entirely. Practice the second type of protest, demand your liberties, accuse the ruling class of tyranny and sexual intimacy with bait fish, if that’s what it takes.  The odds are in your favor on the bait fish.

I’ve believed for a long time that the left avoids the first type of protest, and prefers the second kind because the stated evil or assumption of the protest is already assumed to be true or valid.  It isn’t verifiable or falsifiable because it isn’t discussed.  It just is; that’s why you’re there.  Example:  ”America is a warlike, racist country” establishes itself as a “fact” and serves to educate people who have no opinion in the matter.  They used to call it radicalization. 

Until we radicalize, and until the conservative/libertarian right and liberty-loving liberals can agree on a manifesto and battle plan that fights the usurpations of the super-state,  we’re nothing but a laugh-track for our opponents.  Excuse me.  Enemies.   Next time we have to isolate our principles.

I‘m exceedingly tired of the whiny sniveling protests that seem to be a constant hazard to a sidewalk passage. They create a visual pollution and auditory discomfort; with some, a distinct olfactory distress overwhelms the immediate area.
However in this instance, I can get behind these protesters, after sustaining myself with a medium size bucket of thighs (heh) for the long afternoon.

Anyone want to join the ‘chuck in the protest, bring salt, napkins and plates.

Code Pink casts spells. That’s “spells”, not “smells”.

Code Pink is now resorting to witchcraft to beef up (sic?) the number of its supporters protesting a controversial Marine Corps Recruiting Center in Berkeley, California.

The women’s anti-war group has told ralliers to come equipped with spells and pointy hats Friday for “witches, crones and sirens” day, the last of the group’s weeklong homage to Mothers Day.

Sirens? You mean like “temptingly beautiful woman”, “insidiously seductive woman”, “a woman who sings with bewitching sweetness”? Driven by hormonal curiosity, I went back to THIS, and found nary a siren in the bunch. No eyes of newt, toe of badger, or fuming cauldrons either, but lots of unused potential.

‘Great Distaste’ in Belgrade

Our Embassy Is Burned Over Kosovo

[snip]
Yesterday, as the American Embassy in Belgrade burned, the Associated Press reported that vigilantes set afire a U.N. vehicle in the Serb minority province of Mitrovica on the border between Kosovo and Serbia. Meanwhile, a United Nations-run court building in the province came under attack again from protesters throwing rocks, in what could be an effort from the Serb minority to impose a de facto secession from the newly independent Albanian majority country. [snip]

The street protests are a bitter irony for Mr. Clinton’s foreign policy team especially, considering that the last time protests of that size were seen in Belgrade was in 2000, when Prime Minister Kostunica led marches on the parliament that ultimately forced Milosevic to give up power.

In 2000, Mr. Kostunica was praised as a liberal visionary in Washington. Today he is leading crowds of Serbs in Belgrade insisting that Kosovo remain part of Serbia. [snip]

Maybe we should send in the Archduke to settle this mess.

Keep deporting and close the border!

In virtually every debate about illegal immigration, the other country primarily involved in this American problem – Mexico – is never held to account, despite its role in actually encouraging its citizens to break into the United States. What is equally less known about this problem is that Mexico does this despite its potential to care for its own citizens.

Ranks of anti-illegal immigrant groups swelling

LOS ANGELES - Retired utility worker Charles Warren worries his quality of life is slipping and says that illegal immigrants are to blame.

The 55-year-old retiree complains about day laborers waiting for work outside the nearby Home Depot, saying they give his neighborhood “a Third World look.” [snip]

One group, the Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a civilian volunteer group patrolling the border, says it has collected $600,000 for a proposed border fence.

The American Border Patrol, another civilian group that turns immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexican border over to authorities and is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, says donations are up 25 percent.

And in San Diego, a newly formed Minuteman group went from just two members late last year to 200 today.

“People are joining us so fast because they are frustrated with our government,” said Jeff Schwilk, the group’s founder. “They see all the wrangling, all the political posturing, and I think people are fed up with the inaction of their government.” [snip]

“We know the anti-immigration movement is exploding, that there are certainly more and more organizations and chapters of organizations of chapters being developed all the time,” said Heidi Beirich, deputy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, which tracks hate and anti-immigrant groups.

The danger comes when they focus attention on one ethnic group such as Mexicans, who make up about half of all illegal immigrants in the United States, she said.

“What a lot of these organizations do is … defaming a group of people, like they bring disease, they are terrorist, they are criminals, they are trashing the environment. [snip] (emphasis mine)

Why not examine these statements.

1. An illegal caught crossing the border, tested and proved positive for TB. How many are ill and not caught for testing?
2. OTM’s crossing the border can be terrorists; we have no idea who or from where they arrive.
3. All are criminals by definition for violating immigration law. Many others are far worse, guilty of murder, rape, drug running, felonious pandering and members of gangs.
4. Litter strewn along trails used by the coyotes authenticates they trash the environment. Surrounding lands are not immune as new routes created to avoid the Border Patrol become landfills.

In the low-budget CAPS commercial that motivated union member and Sacramento Democrat Warren to join, swarms of pro-immigrant protesters wave the Mexican flag. A voice-over comes on: “The last thing California needs is more traffic, crowded schools, bankrupt hospitals. The last thing California needs is more immigration. The other side has had its say. Isn’t it time you had yours?”

The commercial targeted the thousands of residents whom Hull believes were incensed by the immigrant protests, which she says is further evidence of plans for a “reconquista” or reconquering of California by Latinos seeking land lost during the Mexican-American war. [snip]

What part of this does not fit the label of Invasion? Demanding the foreign language be spoken by fiat, special rules and regulations, covers much of that label. I’ll accept marching under a foreign flag as solid proof of loyalty to a different government.

Another piece of the problem are cities that declare themselves as “sanctuaries.” Giuliani on sanctuary cities How this hurts our citizenry, health care, insurance rates and the horrible drain on social services is ignored.

Allowing illegals to evade punishment and deportation compounds citizens’ troubles in many ways, one is zoning violations where large numbers of unrelated persons reside in a single-family residence, a real disruption to real estate values.

How about the courts in Orange County CA. promoting this:

The court has contracted since March 2006 with Cal Coast Data Entry, Inc., a Cerritos company that has a facility in Nogales. Information from tickets – including drivers’ license numbers, car license numbers, birth dates and addresses – are scanned at the Cerritos facility and sent electronically to the Mexican facility.

Has the court ever heard of pencil and paper for copying data? The information is very salable to those making false IDs.

“The company and the staff they employ are dedicated to keeping the public’s data secure and safe,” the statement said. “The court wants to ensure the public that private data is safe.”

One thing that brings fear to knowledgeable individuals is government assurances about anything. (Ron Paul is whack, but here he is right) We’ve seen how they protect the country from invasion, then coddle the invader to our detriment.

It’s bad enough that the students’s made idiots of themselves protesting Andy Card’s honorary UMass degree, but the faculty on stage should be ashamed of themselves for acting like children:

The protests were mainly contained to an area in the back of the campus arena and many of the faculty on stage who joined the three- to four- minute outburst.

One faculty member on stage held a sign: “Card — no honor, no degree.” Another sign said “War criminals go home.”

With no football losses to riot over, I guess the student body needed something else to occupy their energies.

This picture with 1 American flag amongst several other national flags of illegal immigrants demanding a path to citizenship says 1000 words:

Is economic benefit the only reason they want citizenship? I hope that’s not what being an American citizen has boiled down to these days. There’s a lot more to being an American than your rights; it comes with a lot of responsibility too. If you don’t believe that, just ask the soldiers who gave their lives defending your citizenship.

Another word of advice: Pick the Fourth of July instead of socialist inspired May Day the next time too.

You’d think the United States signing a biofuel pact with Brazil would make the moonbat crowd giddy. Remember, global warming is a “planetary emergency” according to moonbat spokesman Al Gore, but you’d be wrong:

Demonstrators upset with Bush’s visit here worry that the president and his biofuels buddy, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, really have visions of an OPEC-like cartel on ethanol.

First, do you think CNN should be referring to the president of Brazil as Bush’s “biofuels buddy”? I’m guessing the reporter was just a wee bit sympathetic to the protestors cause. Second, you can’t please these people. Even when you’re doing what they say they want, they’ll invent new reasons and fears about why it isn’t good enough.

And what is the left’s favorite Venezuelan dictator doing about global warming?

While Bush’s nemesis in Latin America, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is using his vast oil wealth to court allies in the region…

He’s pumping CO2 into the air, so he can buy influence in the region. What a contrast. President Bush gets protests for “thinking globally, acting locally” with a biofuels agreement while everyone loves strongman Hugo Chavez.  Trying to please this crowd is a fool’s errand.

The media continues its campaign to derail the war:

In 30-degree weather, nearly 200 protesters packed the corner of Tremont and Park streets in downtown Boston yesterday evening in an “emergency rally” to stop President Bush from sending more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq.

Do you think 200 war supporters would get similar coverage? Maybe our readers see this seething antiwar hatred the media likes to describe, but I don’t. It’s just not a topic that comes up often, and when it does neither side is particularly impassioned. I attend graduate school here in Boston, but I don’t see any evidence of mass protests or antiwar banners on campus. The media is trying to create a radical, Vietnam like antiwar movement that just doesn’t exist.

A couple of days ago my wife and I went shopping early in the morning. We left before eating breakfast so we grabbed a quick sandwich at Dunkin Donuts. As we ordered, I noticed a metal tree full of bananas next to the cash register. Care to guess how many slots were missing bananas? Yes, it’s not shocking that bananas aren’t real popular at Dunkin Donuts whose customers really want coffee, donuts, and other treats full of “evil” trans fats.

So has Dunkin Donuts taken leave of its senses by including foods its customers largely ignore? Our friend the banana is an attempt to stave off the food police who are making their latest protests for greater control over our diets. Liberals of all stripes believe that any cause shown to be a marginal good is reason enough to intrude upon your freedom. But the most interesting thing about the trans fat crusade is what it says about liberal priorities. The same people who aren’t inclined to protect us from hardened criminals have no problem using the power of government to control what you eat. Criminals have rights; law abiding taxpayers need the government to criminalize and police what they eat. It’s an interesting dichotomy to say the least.

A wave of the chuck’s tail to Overlawyered

In Valparaiso, Indiana, Martha Seroczynski stages weekly protests at the county courthouse against the war in Iraq. The Porter County Board of Commissioners has asked her to show proof of homeowner’s insurance and name the county as an additional insured. It’s a county policy of some years’ standing; “Valparaiso Elks Club member Jeanie Stevens said her organization was required to show proof of insurance for its Flag Day ceremony on June 14 at the square.” Ms. Seroczynski’s insurer, however, has raised objections, and that’s aside from the question of why having insurance should be a prerequisite for the right to protest in the first place. County attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger has attempted to resolve the problem by asking Ms. S to sign a waiver promising not to sue the county if injured, but she refuses. “Her right to protest does not relieve us of our responsibility to protect the liability of the other 140,000 citizens of this county,” County Commissioner John Evans has said. (”War protester asked for insurance proof to continue protests”, AP/Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel, Aug. 27; Robyn Monaghan, “Protester furor fuels free speech debate”, Northwest Indiana Times, Sept. 6).

This has the potential to affect parades, sponsored gatherings by clubs or service organizations on public property and concerts in the park as well as protests by individuals. While a political entity may not abridge her speech, just how far must any political entity go to protect someone from themselves and the taxpayers from them.

Remember, most political entities self-insure and may be sued only with their permission.

A wave of the chuck’s tail to The Daily Reporter-Herald

Global warming is happening, but humans are not the cause, one of the nation’s top experts on hurricanes said (last) Monday morning.

Bill Gray, who has studied tropical meteorology for more than 40 years, spoke at the Larimer County Republican Club Breakfast about global warming and whether humans are to blame. About 50 people were at the talk.

Gray, who is a professor at Colorado State University, said human-induced global warming is a fear perpetuated by the media and scientists who are trying to get federal grants.
[snip]

It’s always follow the money.

At the breakfast, Gray said Earth was warmer in some medieval periods than it is today. Current weather models are good at predicting weather as far as 10 days in advance, but predicting up to 100 years into the future is “a great act of faith, and I don’t believe any of it,” he said.

But even if humans cause global warming, there’s not much people can do, Gray said. China and India will continue to pump out greenhouse gases, and alternative energy sources are expensive.
[snip]

Alternative is an apt name for the following sources of energy. Relegation of these power sources to has-been status advanced civilization. If they worked better than what we’re currently using, we’d be using them instead.

Wind Power, once moved sailing ships and pumped water, now is mainly used to sell postcards in Holland. In California, wind farms killed so many birds, the barkheads demanded they shut down ending that power generation trial.

Hydroelectric power sounds like a 5 Year plan replete with Hero of the Union medals. Enough dams and transmission lines and we could be as advanced as the Soviet Union of the 30’s. However, among the Enviro-nuts, anything larger than a clogged toilet line will cause violent protests, so no dams.

Have you seen any Stanley Steamers recently? Beside the attendant pollution, positive feedback systems get a bit involved to operate. Not to worry about avatar vehicles, the unhinged start making guttural noises as soon as the word chop is associated with tree.

The real difficulty with using technology to solve the energy problem is the rejection of technology by the Global Warming freaks. Try mentioning nuclear power and every available erg on earth immediately goes into producing tinfoil berets.

Some of the true believers have mentioned the atom in a positive way. We’ll hear more from them after the visit to the re-education camps.

What the Enviro-nuts really want is for man to disappear. Lets start with them.