Friday October 16th

Wall Street’s Naked Swindle

On Tuesday, March 11th, 2008, somebody — nobody knows who — made one of the craziest bets Wall Street has ever seen. The mystery figure spent $1.7 million on a series of options, gambling that shares in the venerable investment bank Bear Stearns would lose more than half their value in nine days or less. It was madness — “like buying 1.7 million lottery tickets,” according to one financial analyst. But what’s even crazier is that the bet paid. [Take the time to read this. Scary shit for sure…ed]

The Search for the Wikipedia Libelist (important update)

Thanks to an intrepid blogger with the tag Trapdoc posting a letter to Mark Steyn, the search for the Wikipedia Libelist responsible for damaging posts to the Rush Limbaugh account has been narrowed to the IP address of a New York City law firm:

“The quotes were added by a user with the IP address of 69.64.213.146. This address has been used mostly to make changes to the article about Rush, but also Karl Rove, Sean Hannity,.. James Dobson and Sara Palin from 2005 until earlier this year.

“While others have noted this in various forums, no one seems to have made the connection that this IP address is used as a gateway by the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP (see here, for example) that all users from that IP address come from the pbwt.com domain.)” [You HAVE to read this article to see how the phony racist quotes attributed to Rush Limbaugh were planted by someone possibly having connections to a left wing law firm in New York. VERY Interesting stuff…ed]

It’s not quite a smoking gun . . .

But it is a gun, and it has a pack of cigarettes laying next to it. Edit: Welcome Toby Harnden’s Telegraph readers! I should point out that this isn’t really “protein wisdom,” it’s like the Wiki-pw. But why not stop by the mothership and see what our hosts have cooked up lately. Via a Facebook update from Michael in MI comes a post from Smash Mouth Politics, attempting to scour the net looking for a supposed Rush Limbaugh quote declaring that James Earl Ray deserved a Medal of Honor, presumably for assassinating Martin Luther King. Smash Mouth’s google-fu turned up an internet bulletin-board devoted to, of all things, comic books, where a similar argument was raging in 2005. One poster there, “Loren,” did yeoman’s work trying to hunt down the source of this quote and found that most places that republished it attributed it to Wikiquote, a sister website to Wikipedia that shares the trait of being totally user-created. This means it’s ripe for abuse, since anyone can post anything and attribute a false quote — BUT the saving grace is that all edits, no matter how minor, are preserved. [More on the emerging “evidence” pointing to a specific law firm from which someone appears to have performed some alterations to wikipedia/wikiquote sites in order to slander Rush Limbaugh and scuttle his efforts to become a minority owner of the St. Louis Rams…ed]

Democrats skip out on Countrywide vote

Faced with a promised vote to subpoena documents on Countrywide Financial’s “Friends of Angelo” program, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee fled a scheduled 2 p.m. markup today. Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the Ranking Republican on the Oversight Committee, had promised to call for a vote at today’s markup on whether to subpoena documents involved in the program that gave sweetheart mortgages to at least four Democratic government officials, including two senators. According to the Wall Street Journal, the program might have also benefitted the chairman of House Oversight, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y. [Chickenshit Democrats flee the committee room rather than vote to investigate fellow Democrats concerning slimy mortgage deals from Countrywide Financial…ed]

O’Reilly Guest To Juan Williams: ‘Go Back To the Porch’

The debate over Rush Limbaugh’s NFL bid is roiling the racial landscape. This evening, after Juan Williams explained that Rush’s “Barack the Magic Negro” parody was based on a column by an African-American author, a black radio talk show host told Williams to “go back to the porch.” [LOL, a black guy insults another black guy when he tells the truth and refuses to get sucked into phony racial bashing against Rush Limbaugh…ed]

It’s never been about global warming

Anyone who believes that the Kyoto Accord and all the subsequent meetings spearheaded by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is actually about global warming or climate change, would be well advised to submit a wish list to Santa Claus in care of the North Pole. (SNIP) What hasn’t occurred to most who have bought into the global warming hysteria is that it’s never been about global warming or climate change, for that matter. The whole global warming craze is a massive Ponzi scheme designed to separate wealthy nations from their wealth and pass it over to developing nations without them having to actually go through the process of creating and earning that wealth. It’s a gigantic global welfare scheme that if it comes to fruition, will equalize the wealth of all nations, making poor nations wealthier. It will also make wealthy nations poorer. [This article spells out the climate change scam better than anything else I have seen come down the pike…ed]

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Crescent City man accused of threatening Obama

A Del Norte County man has been indicted by a federal grand jury in San Francisco on charges that he threatened in an e-mail to kill President Obama and members of his family. John Gimbel, 59, of Crescent City e-mailed a message Sept. 28 bearing a subject line that read, in part, “Kill the ‘president’ … then write ‘fed s-‘ on his chest with a felt tip,” said the indictment issued Tuesday, two days before Obama’s scheduled visit to San Francisco today for fundraisers at the St. Francis Hotel. [Man these left wingers are really starting to wig out over the fact that their messiah isn’t moving fast enough to make this country just like Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela…ed]

Drill

Given that we’re spending billions of stimulus dollars to rebuild our highways, it makes sense to think about what we’ll be driving on them. For years to come, most of what we drive will be powered, at least in part, by diesel fuel or gasoline. To fuel that driving, we need access to oil. The less use we make of our own reserves, the more we will have to import, which leads to a number of harmful consequences. That means we need to drill here and drill now. [Sarah Palin makes it so simple and easy to understand that even a Democrat can get it…ed]

Shocking Video: Train Hits Baby Stroller

A six-month-old boy has miraculously survived a train slamming into his stroller after it rolled off an Australian railway platform. The collision happened as a city-bound service pulled up to Ashburton station, in a Melbourne suburb. [This will be something for the family to talk about for generations to come…ed]

Over the Spell?

Another revealing poll is out suggesting that Obama hasn’t yet turned the corner on health care or revived his own political popularity. The Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll shows Obama’s approval at 49 percent, down a point from last month. Independents disapprove by a 46 to 41 percent margin. By a 50 to 42 percent margin, voters disapprove of his handling of health care. Independents disapprove on this issue by a 53 to 36 percent margin. (SNIP) Most shocking, perhaps, is that if the 2012 election were held today, 43 percent would vote for Obama, and 48 percent for someone else. [By all means let’s hold that 2012 election TODAY and get rid of this bum before his arrogant ass causes any more damage to our country…ed]

Health Care’s Coattails. Democrats are losing because of national issues.

Republicans won a pair of special elections on Tuesday in Tennessee and Oklahoma, picking up seats held by Democrats for decades. Combined with this month’s capture of the Albuquerque mayor’s office by a Republican for the first time in 28 years, Democrats have reason to be nervous about the approaching November 3 off-year elections. Given their lackluster performance in these races, they could face serious turnout problems that will boost GOP performance. [Virginia and New Jersey are next for Republicans then bring on 2010…ed]

Lefty anger splits Dems — and may sink them

“Harry Reid abdicates his leadership role,” reads the headline at the lefty Daily Kos Web site. “Why Joe Biden should resign,” reads the headline at the Huffington Post. “Whiner in Chief,” reads the headline at The Nation, referring to President Obama. Self-styled progressives across the country are angry, not just at Obama, but at the rest of the Democratic power structure, as well. That anger is causing an ugly split inside the Washington Democratic world. [Watching these clowns shred each other is way too much fun indeed…ed]

Liberal Editor Suggests Making the Recession ‘Worse’

Emily Douglas, Web editor for The Nation magazine, said Wednesday that making the “recession worse” and making goods “more expensive” for Americans are means to reduce consumerism and preserve the environment. Douglas was one of three journalists participating in a panel discussion, “Covering Climate: What’s Population Got to Do With It,” which was held at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. The other two panelists were Dennis Dimick, executive editor of National Geographic, and Andrew Revkin, environmental reporter for The New York Times (who participated via Web camera). [No real secret here what these asshat leftists want for this country after all everything the Obama administration has done for nine months is intended to do just what this skank says she would like to see. I enjoyed the first comment after the article: “She could start by raising the price of her rag to 500 bucks a copy and drive herself out of business-while she is at it a one time high carbon foot print in her garage while she sleeps in her car would be an inspiration to us all.”…ed]

The Biggest Disappointment of the Obama Presidency

President Obama’s brief display of drive-by compassion Thursday in New Orleans was, for me, by far the worst outing of his presidency thus far — and the biggest disappointment. I covered Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath — the flood in New Orleans that drowned a great city, the storm surge in Mississippi that erased whole communities, the devastation, the agony. For weeks afterwards, I had trouble sleeping. I couldn’t forget the scenes I’d witnessed or the stories I’d heard. More than a year later, I covered a Senate subcommittee hearing in New Orleans on the lagging reconstruction effort. I watched as a young senator who was thought to be considering a presidential run — that would be Barack Obama — used his Harvard Law skills to eviscerate Bush-era officials for not doing enough to rebuild and revive the Gulf Coast region. [Poor Eugene, this is his second article this week in which he kicks Obama in the nuts. Here’s the deal numbnut, both Iowa and Galveston TX were hammered by vicious storms in recent years but instead of sitting around waiting for the federal government to rescue them the people got off their asses and took care of business. Katrina happened over four years ago and the only reason things are still f’d up in New Orleans is because of the left wing Democrats who have run the city (into the ground) for generations and the lazy bums who’s entire lives have been spent sitting around with their hands out…ed]

Judge Halts Flu Vaccine Mandate For Health Workers

Health care workers in New York will no longer be forced to get the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, CBS 2 has learned. A state Supreme Court judge issued a restraining order Friday against the state from enforcing the controversial mandatory vaccination. The order came as the Public Employees Federation sued to reverse a policy requiring vaccination against the seasonal and swine flu viruses, arguing that state Health Commissioner Richard Daines overstepped his authority. [Makes you wonder about this vaccine when health care workers sue to keep from being forced to take the damn thing…ed]

Sex Ed Should Not Promote Only Marriage or Heterosexual Relationships, Advocates Say

A coalition of liberal sex education advocates says the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress will end support for abstinence-only programs that emphasize marriage and heterosexual relationships. “The appropriations bills this year represent the most profound change in national sex education policy that we have ever had in the history of this country,” said William Smith, vice president for education and training with the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), at an event held Thursday on Capitol Hill. [How’s all that hope and change garbage working for you parents out there?…ed]

Why Did 1 In 7 Girls Get Pregnant At Robeson High?

It is a Chicago public school full of energy and spirit. It has about 800 girls, and 115 of them have something in common – something you might find disturbing. All those young ladies are moms or moms-to-be at Paul Robeson High School. It’s not a school for young mothers, it’s a neighborhood school. And all of the pregnancies have happened, despite prevention talk. (SNIP) LaDonna Denson and two other Robeson students say parents not talking to teens and, in some cases, the pursuit of public assistance also factor into the pregnancies. [The pursuit of welfare is one of the motivators for these teen girls to get knocked up. Gee I wonder where they learned that? Nice job Democrat party, you’ve done a bang up job representing this particular constituency for the last 40 years…ed]

Obama risks egg-throwing in trip to Texas A&M

Texas is not Obama country. In fact Barack Obama lost the Lone Star State to Republican John McCain by a not-even-close 55-43 margin. But today the president makes his first trip to Texas since winning the White House, accepting the invitation of former President George H.W. Bush — otherwise known as Bush 41 — to join him at Texas A&M University to celebrate volunteerism. And conservatives on the Aggie campus are planning to protest, a wide-ranging complaint about everything from Obama’s healthcare plan to his recently announced Nobel Peace Prize. As one put it on meetup, “The opportunity to make sure Obama gets a very clear TEXAS-SIZED MESSAGE to stop the liberal assault on our country cannot be passed up.” [Oh this is rich, the LATimes is worried some conservatives might get a little froggy when the left wing radical makes an appearance in their state huh? Did this rag ever show the same concern for Bush? Oh HELL no, they never did…ed]

Quote of the day.

It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.

-Ayn Rand