TARANTO

Well! What Sonia Sotomayor said in answers to Senator Kyl during her confirmation hearing could not be better from a conservative and constitutional point of view. She rejected "empathy" as a factor in verdicts and said that judges just apply the written law before them rather than making it all up as they go along. Refreshing! Taranto has the relevant excerpts. So she can talk the talk but will she walk the walk?

I note that elsewhere in his postings, Taranto pisses all over the idea that Obama is not qualified to be President by virtue of his having been born in Kenya -- with his birth only registered in Hawaii, as Hawaiian law allowed. Taranto is not alone in his views. Many other conservatives say likewise. I think that the reason for avoiding the question is that discovery of Obama's ineligibility would be enormously disruptive. It would invalidate his election and everything he has done since. The outcome could well be not dissimilar to what has just happened in Honduras and America needs peace at home more than it needs Joe Biden as President.

If we were judging Obama's behaviour in the way court cases are judged, however, his constant battles to prevent production of his full birth certificate would be circumstantial evidence that he is guilty as charged. Reliapundit has some pertinent comments on the matter too.

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Small-business lender CIT denied bailout

Obama is in bed with BIG business -- but most jobs are created by small business

A top source of loans for small businesses faces the likelihood of bankruptcy after the Treasury and Federal Reserve on Wednesday rejected calls for a bailout. CIT Group, which provides nearly 1 million small businesses the credit they need to get by from day to day, announced that several days of discussions with regulators failed to produce agreement on further assistance after a $2.3 billion cash infusion for the company last winter.

Trading in CIT shares was halted on the New York Stock Exchange in advance of the announcement, which increases the likelihood that the lender will fall into bankruptcy after suffering for months from the bankruptcy of Eddie Bauer and other clients.

The company has been unable to raise money in financial markets all year and had pleaded with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to approve its application for a guarantee on its debt offerings like the government provided to most banks during the credit crisis. But the FDIC, worried about the company's junk credit ratings and exposing taxpayers to the risk of an impending bankruptcy, refused to budge.

The FDIC, seeking to draw a line in the sand to discourage further bailouts, maintained that while CIT is crucial for some small businesses with shaky credit ratings, it does not play a massive or indispensable role in the financial system and should be allowed to fail. Banks and other lenders could step in to fill the void.

But the company's important role helping keep small companies afloat got a more sympathetic hearing from members of Congress and some officials at the Treasury and Fed. The two agencies have set up several programs to spur lending to small businesses but they have not had much success.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat, helped spur rumors early Wednesday that a rescue of CIT was imminent, telling reporters that he spoke with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner "and I understand they're working hard to try to come up with something responsible to try to prevent the failure" of the company. "I think there would be a great deal of harm to the overall economy" if CIT is allowed to fail, he said.

Rumors multiplied that the Treasury and the Fed would try to cobble together a package of short-term loans to help keep CIT afloat while it restructured to avoid bankruptcy. The Fed last winter approved CIT's bid to become a bank holding company so it could have access to Fed lending facilities, and CIT sought to build on that relationship.

Many observers thought that the White House would be sensitive to the political criticism that would result if it abandoned a small-business lender after rescuing big companies like Citigroup, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC from bankruptcy. But the Treasury and Fed in the end sided with the FDIC in determining that the outlook for CIT was too shaky to merit another rescue.

SOURCE

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CHANGE Only an Imbecile Could Love

By Dick McDonald

Barack Obama , may his tribe decrease, awoke one night from his Kenyan peace and lo and behold he saw this land of milk and honey populated with inexperienced and uninformed citizens. So he mounted his Comrades and rode to their rescue to bring change, change and more change. So after 5 months in office and 3 years of promises this is the change he has brought to Washington.

1. He promised to save 3 or 4 million jobs – we have lost 3.5 million jobs since January.
2. He promised to hold unemployment to 8% - it is at 9.5% and skyrocketing
3. The Government’s tax receipts from corporations are down 55%
4. The Government’s tax receipts from individuals are down 27%
5. Obama passed a stimulus bill that has no chance of stimulating the economy.
6. Announced plan to tax job creators and kill old people to pay for a universal health plan no one wants
7. The deficit hit a record $1 trillion on July 14, 2009 on its way to a record $2 trillion by year end
8. The number of under-employed is at 20% and rising
9. Business is reeling from being told they will bear more of the tax burden and have reduced staff
10. Cap and Trade will add billions to the cost of all products sold in America – it will hurt the poor
11. New emission standards will add billions to transportation cost for everything
12. He has incurred more debt in 5 months than all the presidents before him (combined)
13. He has favored wealth re-distribution over job creation and economic growth
14. He bowed to a Saudi King and runs down America wherever he goes
15. He has taken sides favoring Islamic Palestinians over the Israelis
16. He funds a Gestapo-like mob of ACORN brown shirts intimidating everyone
17. He voted against strict constructionists for SCOTUS
18. He is anti-gun and for post-birth abortions
19. He attended a black separatist church for twenty years and never heard the sermon
20. He has taken over General Motors and bankrupted little old ladies that invested in their bonds
21. He gave an equity interest in General Motors to an unsecured UAW debtor as a political payoff
22. He doesn’t hold his hand over his heart for the pledge of allegiance
23. He probably is a Kenyan-born citizen of Indonesia
24. His only solutions are to tax the rich directly or the poor indirectly
25. Gives Miranda Rights to the enemy on the battlefield
26. Wants to stop the CIA from killing enemy leaders during a war
27. Hires 30 Czars to run the country without vetting by Congress
28. He is an anti-capitalist that favors a socialist big government
29. He is against increasing domestic oil drilling in ANWR and offshore
30. He is against building nuclear plants
31. Believes in the fantasy of global warming
32. His stimulus funds have all gone to save constituent’s jobs not create new ones
33. Everything is on the table to solve an insolvent Social Security except the privatization that solves it
34. His ethanol addiction has caused corn shortages that precipitated starvation in the Third World
35. Uses Democrat-controlled media and academe to silence critics

Received direct from the author. For the products of a modern education, the opening comments are a mocking allusion to Abou ben Adhem

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ELSEWHERE

2010: “Next year’s elections are going to produce a political earthquake. That is because we currently suffer the most left-wing government in our nation’s history. After just 6 months in office, the flower children that rule Washington in overwhelming numbers are already smashing through all records regarding federal taxes, spending, deficits, and debt. Obama and his ultra-left Democrats adopted a so-called stimulus bill raising spending a trillion dollars that never had a prayer of actually creating jobs and promoting long-term economic growth, because it was based entirely on old-fashioned, brain dead, proven to fail, Keynesian economics. Though we would have to double federal taxes to finance the entitlement promises we have already made, the ruling Washington Democrats completely ignore that and focus instead on adopting yet another entitlement — national health insurance — that would be the biggest of all.”

US foreclosures hit record 1.5 million in first half of 2009: “U.S. foreclosure filings hit a record in the first half, a sign that job losses and falling property prices deepened the housing recession, according to RealtyTrac Inc. More than 1.5 million properties received a default or auction notice or were seized by banks in the six months through June, the Irvine, California-based seller of default data said today in a statement. That’s a 15 percent increase from the year earlier. One in 84 U.S. households received a filing.”

Real ID Act faces repeal after outcry from Napolitano, states: “Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is asking Congress to repeal a post-Sept. 11, 2001, law that was meant to enhance the security of driver’s licenses but has elicited the wrath of governors nationwide who say it is too costly. The Real ID Act, which was passed in 2005 but doesn’t begin to go into effect until the end of the year, was the brainchild of Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Menomonee Falls who then served as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Appearing Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Napolitano warned that millions of travelers could face increased security screening at airports next year unless Congress acts soon because few states are on track to comply with the law. She wants lawmakers to pass a new measure known as Pass ID that would increase driver’s license security but give states more leeway on how to implement the changes.”

Honduras: Government reinstates curfew, citing threats : “Honduras’ interim government has reinstated a curfew, citing threats by groups looking to provoke disturbances. The announcement of the midnight to 5:00 a.m. curfew comes on the same day that interim President Roberto Micheletti accused unspecified groups of planning an armed rebellion and handing out guns.”

Iran: Mousavi plans new political front: “Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi plans to unveil a new political grouping which will keep up a protest campaign against last month’s disputed presidential election, an aide said on Wednesday. ‘The establishment of this front is on Mir Hossein Mousavi’s agenda and we will soon announce its establishment,’ Alireza Beheshti was quoted as saying in the reformist newspaper Sarmayeh. Mousavi, a former prime minister who lost the June 12 presidential election to hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has defied the regime by continuing to protest against what he charges was a rigged poll.”

Iraqis to US military: Stay on your base: “Two weeks after U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraq’s major cities, amid sporadic outbreaks of violence countrywide, Iraqi authorities aren’t asking American forces for help. Although U.S. troops are ‘just a radio call away,’ in Baghdad and five other major urban areas, it appears the Iraqis haven’t asked even once. In Baghdad, the Iraqis also won’t allow U.S. forces on the street, except for supply convoys. The failure to trigger the ‘Onstar option’ suggests that the government of Iraq and its military think they can deal with the car bombings, homemade bombs and attacks with silencer-equipped handguns that have plagued parts of the country in recent days.”

Some Twitter staff accounts reportedly hacked : “A hacker believed to have struck celebrity Twitter accounts previously has reportedly broken into accounts of the microblogging service’s workers including co-founder Evan Williams. Data swiped from Twitter employees was shown on a French website on Tuesday and TechCrunch technology news website quoted Williams confirming the hacks in an email. Information lifted from hacked accounts was said to include resumes, salary figures, credit card numbers, message exchanges with celebrities, and a roster of employees as well as their food preferences. Also uncovered were floor plans for the firm’s new offices in San Francisco as well as mention of a possible reality television show based on Twitter. The hacker, identified by the name ‘Hacker Croll,’ claimed to be able to get into Amazon, PayPal, and other accounts belonging to Williams and other Twitter employees.”

Has Ahmadinejad lost his global following? : “For 30 years, Iran has cast itself as a leader of resistance to Israeli and Western policies, and few of its leaders have done as much for that image as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Under Mr. Ahmadinejad, Iran’s ‘resistance’ brand has gone global, challenging Western hegemony in the name of defending the globally downtrodden and winning allies from Lebanon to Venezuela while drawing harsh criticism from the United States. But analysts say Iran’s resistance image has been challenged by Ahmadinejad’s controversial June 12 reelection, after which hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the street to protest what they say is a fradulent vote.”

Granny get your gun: "Crime is generally a young person’s game, but that hasn’t stopped an ever-growing number of older Americans from breaking the law. Following a decline through most of the ’90s, over the past 10 years arrest rates for those over 50 have shot up 85 percent, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Experts predict that these numbers will continue to climb well into the next decade, as 35 million baby boomers expand America’s graying population from 16 to nearly 25 percent. Is America on the precipice of a geriatric crime wave?”

Can the economy recover?: “There is no economy left to recover. The US manufacturing economy was lost to offshoring and free trade ideology. It was replaced by a mythical ‘New Economy.’ The ‘New Economy’ was based on services. Its artificial life was fed by the Federal Reserve’s artificially low interest rates, which produced a real estate bubble, and by ‘free market’ financial deregulation, which unleashed financial gangsters to new heights of debt leverage and fraudulent financial products. The real economy was traded away for a make-believe economy. When the make-believe economy collapsed, Americans’ wealth in their real estate, pensions, and savings collapsed dramatically while their jobs disappeared.” [An excessively negative view but there is something in what he says]

My Twitter.com identity: jonjayray. My Facebook page is also accessible as jonjayray (http://www.facebook.com/jonjayray in full). For more blog postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

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The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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