Remember the menacing story blasted across the mainstream media just days ago of the USNS Rappahannock firing on a small boat in the Persian Gulf? Big headlines, breathless coverage. Immediately the US media began to blame Iran — surely it was Iran, it must be!!! No, it was a 30 foot boat with some Indian fishermen in it, trying to earn a living, who swore that the US Navy’s tale of plenty of warnings before the shooting was totally bogus.
But readers of earlier this week would not know that because after the initial scare story grabbed the headlines, the “rest of the story,” as they say, was buried at the bottom of mainstream press outlets. (Compare the link in the above NY Times “rest of the story” with the enormous headlines when it seemed to be breaking in a way that may have discredited the Iranians or any other “bad guys”). (Read more)
The president of Estonia chewed out Paul Krugman on Wednesday, using Twitter to call the Nobel Prize-winning economist “smug, overbearing & patronizing,” in response to a short post on Estonia’s economic recovery.
Krugman’s 67-word entry, entitled “Estonian Rhapsody,” questioned the merits of using Estonia as a “poster child for austerity defenders.” He included a chart that, in his words, showed “significant but still incomplete recovery” after a deep economic slump.
President Toomas Hendrik Ilves responded to Krugman in a series of outraged tweets, taking offense to Krugman’s tone and writing that Krugman didn’t know what he was talking about. (Read more)
Mitt Romney campaign gets busted handing out fraudulent voting slates at the State Republican convention in Reno, Nevada.
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Privately, sources close to the Ron Paul campaign say they believe Republicans will continue to ramp up his efforts to block Paul delegates at state conventions, particularly after Romney’s embarrassing delegate losses in Massachusetts. But state organizers tell Business Insider that Paul supporters are significantly more organized than Romney’s delegate team, and are ready to put up a tough fight in states like Idaho and Washington.
At this point, it is difficult to gage the actual delegate count, but even his closest campaign advisors admit it would be virtually impossible for Paul to deny Romney the nomination in Tampa.
So why are Establishment Republicans so concerned?
Even if the nomination is not in play, an army of Paul delegates could cause significant problems for the presumptive nominee, who needs a smooth convention to assuage concerns about his ability to unite and energize the Republican base.
While some of Paul’s delegates will be bound to vote for Romney on the first ballot, they will not answer to Romney’s campaign. That means that the presumptive nominee will have little control over how those delegates vote on the other issues at the convention, including the party platform, the convention chair, and even the vice-presidential nominee. If Paul winds up with the majority of delegates in six states — and it looks like he might — they will have the power to stop the convention proceedings, and make a motion on anything from electing a new convention chair, to changing the rules, to introducing new platform positions. (Read more)
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In Oklahoma, GOP defies vote to adjourn & appeals, walls off part of convention hall.
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60 Minutes censors Paypal co-founder’s endorsement of Ron Paul.
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Fox (as usual) attacks Ron Paul on foreign policy and Israel. Ron Paul (as usual) knocks it out of the park.
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In Maine, GOP invalidates Ron Paul ballots:
Romney Camp Circulates Fake List of Paul Delegate Nominees at Maine GOP
Paul Krugman gave up being an honest economist a long time ago – shortly after he learned that the cool crowd gave him more attention when he conjured up economic-like arguments to support the left’s irrational view of the world.
His most recent piece of propaganda claims that increased national debt causes economic growth. He supports his claim by looking at 5 countries and showing that the countries with higher debt levels grew faster over the last 3 months. Thousands of Krugman zombies must have been elated to finally see hard evidence that the 1% aren’t any smarter or harder working: All you have to do is take on a lot of credit card debt.
But an economic Jedi — an undergraduate from the University of Illinois — uncovered the subtle flaw in Krugman’s logic: The earth has more than 5 countries, and the world wasn’t created 3 months ago. The student used a graph posted on his Facebook page to show that if you look at the 21 largest countries over the past year, you see a strong, clear relationship: Economies with higher debt grow less. (Read more)
I wasn’t going to address this, but since it is an editorial published in The Wall Street Journal — and not on some dude’s WordPress blog — I will do so.
On April 29, the newspaper published an opinion piece mocking those who are opposed to the NDAA’s imprisonment without trial of American citizens provisions. The editorial is so loony that it would actually be funny, if it were not in fact real. It’d be hilarious if it were penned by someone like Stephen Colbert, in jest.
First paragraph: “The tea party movement has generally been constructive, but every so often it runs off the road. A case in point is its emerging condominium with the anti-antiterror left to block terrorist detentions.”
Yes, The Wall Street Journal just used the phrase “anti-antiterror left.” That’s inspired Orwellian creativity. It really is.
Moving downward: “This modest law has sprouted a burst of political delusion in several states and Congress. A tea party outfit called the Tenth Amendment Center calls the law ‘an unconstitutional and dangerous federal power grab’—though the statute merely codifies existing practice under Presidents Bush and Obama.”
Modest law? Modest?!
Here’s how the ACLU has characterized the NDAA: “On December 31, 2011, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), codifying indefinite military detention without charge or trial into law for the first time in American history. The NDAA’s dangerous detention provisions would authorize the president — and all future presidents — to order the military to pick up and indefinitely imprison people captured anywhere in the world, far from any battlefield.”
“THERE is an ongoing debate in this country about the rich: who they are, what their social role may be, whether they are good or bad.
. . . .
MOST important, neither entrepreneurs nor the rich have a monopoly on brains, sweat or risk. There are scientists — and artists and scholars — who are just as smart as any entrepreneur, only they are interested in different rewards. A single mother holding down a job and putting herself through community college works just as hard as any hedge fund manager. A person who takes out a mortgage — or a student loan, or who conceives a child — on the strength of a job she knows she could lose at any moment (thanks, perhaps, to one of those job creators) assumes as much risk as someone who starts a business.” (More of this crap)
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In other words, you don’t want consumers choosing what they like. Consumers are too stupid to appreciate the contribution of many people, especially Humanities scholars.
Therefore, we need guns and batons and prisons to take money away from the people consumers choose and give it to people chosen by a benevolent panel of appointed experts.
There’s plenty wealth to criticize. It’s the wealth gathers with help from government violence. But this socialist reproach against all wealth is not only wrong, it is downright dangerous.
God help us if this Marxist crap becomes the norm.
Remember the menacing story blasted across the mainstream media just days ago of the USNS Rappahannock firing on a small boat in the Persian Gulf? Big headlines, breathless coverage. Immediately the US media began to blame Iran — surely it was Iran, it must be!!! No, it was a 30 foot boat with some Indian fishermen in it, trying to earn a living, who swore that the US Navy’s tale of plenty of warnings before the shooting was totally bogus.
(Read more)