Holder insults Puerto Rican Congressman

February 3rd, 2012

Holder to Puerto Rican Rep: ‘Wherever you’re from’

If you need confirmation that Republicans on the House Oversight committee got under Attorney General Eric Holder’s skin today at the hearing on Fast and Furious, just look at this response he gave to Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, who grilled Holder about his own previous statements.

Specifically, note Holder’s comment that “maybe this is the way you do things in Idaho, or wherever you’re from.”

Because Rep. Labrador doesn’t feed from the Dem plantation.

Next thing you know, Holder will be telling Labrador he “doesn’t even look Puerto Rican.”

The incredible shrinking workforce

February 3rd, 2012

Record 1.2 Million People Fall Out Of Labor Force In One Month, Labor Force Participation Rate Tumbles To Fresh 30 Year Low

This is the largest absolute jump in ‘Persons Not In Labor Force’ on record…and biggest percentage jump in 30 years.

This means that the 243,000 jobs created last month were only 957,000 short of providing jobs to those people who are no longer counted as part of the labor force.

This year’s VW Superbowl ad

February 2nd, 2012

And last year’s,

Nanny state: Regulate sugar as a toxin

February 2nd, 2012

Before I post the link, let me state that, due to blood sugar issues, I do not, repeat, I do not consume foods with added sugar, honey or syrups, and, additionally, keep to a low-carb diet because carbohydrates are metabolized as sugar.

I have been doing this for over a decade and a half.

Additionally, sugar is a nutrient that is found in foods.

Therefore, the following report chafes:
Sugar Should Be Regulated As Toxin, Researchers Say, because “researchers” know better than you and I since we’re a bunch of morons with no willpower

A spoonful of sugar might make the medicine go down. But it also makes blood pressure and cholesterol go up, along with your risk for liver failure, obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

Sugar and other sweeteners are, in fact, so toxic to the human body that they should be regulated as strictly as alcohol by governments worldwide, according to a commentary in the current issue of the journal Nature by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Of course,

Lustig advocates a consumer tax on any product with added sugar.

Taxes on liquor have cured alcoholism, haven’t they?

And we haven’t had food inflation, either?

Moonbattery sees the light,

Why would researchers prop up phony panics like global warming and obesity, and constantly find that government power must be expanded to the point of absurdity and beyond? Because government is where their funding comes from.

According to the authors, 75% of US healthcare spending is on diet-related diseases. Therefore, with the government taking over the medical sector via ObamaCare, all diet must be determined by bureaucrats, lest tax dollars be spent unnecessarily.

Indeed.

Weirdest theft of the year: Chilean ice

February 2nd, 2012

Yes, the year is young, but try to top this one:
Chile: Man arrested over glacier ice theft

Police in the south of Chile have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing ice from the Jorge Montt Glacier.

Officials in the town of Cochrane found five tonnes of ice in the back of his truck.

Scientists say the glacier, in the Patagonia region, is retreating faster than any other in Chile.

Police suspect the ice was destined for the capital, Santiago, to make gourmet ice cubes for use in upmarket bars and restaurants.

The BBC’s Gideon Long, in Santiago, says tourists in southern Chile are often served whisky chilled with glacial ice – which has an extra kudos because it comes directly from the glaciers.

Apparently there were five other men involved.

The ice fields are part of a National Heritage Site, so the guys may end up serving hard time in the cooler.

However, anyone adding ice to a very fine, single-malt Scotch ought to be sent to the gallows, too.


Venezuela: Who armed the kids?

February 2nd, 2012

Venezuelan media is abuzz with the photos of kids holding machine guns, claiming to support Hugo Chávez,

The children were photographed with high-powered rifles in front of a mural of the radical group “La Piedrita,” which shows the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus, who is holding a rifle, and another of Jesus, who is firing an AK-47. The group resides in the January 23rd barrio, west of the city.

Interior and Justice Minister Tareck el Aissami held a press conference where he stated his department is investigating “not who took the photos, we’re investigating who armed the children.”

El Aissami rejected the photographs and described them as “reprehensible and morally unacceptable.” He said the images violated the humanitarian principles of the Bolivarian Constitution of Venezuela and also undermine the development of children and adolescents.

He said the government is geared towards building a country of peace and not violence. “All the government’s will and especially Chávez’s is oriented towards building a country wedded to peace, solidarity and love. Our commitment is to the life and peace of the people,​​” he said.

Video in Spanish,

Of course, one has to wonder if any of the weapons came from the stash of 100,000 Russian Kalashnikovs Hugo purchased with $2billion grant from Russia.

Law-abiding Mexicans arm themselves

February 1st, 2012

with illegal guns since (emphasis added),

A citizen who wants a permit for a weapon must apply to the Mexican military — a process that can cost upward of $10,000. Then they pay to have the permit renewed annually. The military further regulates the caliber of weapon, how many guns a person can own, how much ammunition they can buy each month, and where in the country they can take the weapon.

The government abolished the last private gun store in 1995. Today, the only legal gun store in the country is in Mexico City, guarded and operated by the armed forces.

Essentially, the citizenry is between a rock and a hard place: they are sitting ducks for the cartels and their thugs, and the hard place of trying to pay off the military.

At Instapundit’s, SayUncle comments: “Maybe ATF could walk some guns to the good guys?”


Jon Corzine’s bundling skills…

February 1st, 2012

must have been better than his MF Global chairmanship,

According to Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign website, Jon Corzine of Hoboken, New Jersey raised at least $500,000 for the president’s reelection effort.

At least we know where that $500,000+ went. Investigators are still looking for that $1.2 billion that went missing from MF Global during Corzine’s tenure.

Fast & Furious: No one’s responsible

January 31st, 2012

In new ‘Fast and Furious’ report, Democrats clear Justice appointees of wrongdoing

Democrats investigating the failed gun-running probe known as “Operation Fast and Furious” are laying the blame at the feet of officials in Arizona, saying in a new report that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have “obtained no evidence” implicating high-level political appointees in Washington.
At the same time, the report reveals that two top Justice Department officials, in previously undisclosed interviews, insisted they would have taken action if they had the relevant details, and said it is “absurd” and unfair to suggest they knew early-on about the tactics of Fast and Furious.

It certainly matches Holder’s fantastical claim about ‘Fast and Furious’

namely that he didn’t know about Fast and Furious until witch-hunting House Republicans made it a highly charged partisan issue a few months ago.

But the pesky question remains, did Holder perjure himself?

(h/t MOTUS & Instapundit)

Venezuela: Jews fleeing persecution

January 31st, 2012

Hugo Chávez scapegoats the Jewish community; the Wall Street Journal has a video report,

In other Venezuela news, Venezuela could nationalize banks that refuse to fund gov’t-promoted farm projects

Chavez singled out the president of Banesco, Juan Carlos Escotet, ordering him to lend more to Venezuela’s cash-strapped farmers.

“If you cannot do it, give me your bank,” Chavez said, prompting applause from a crowd of government officials and supporters.

A bill approved last year by Chavez’s allies in the National Assembly describes banking as a “public service” and gives the government the authority to declare banks to be of “public utility,” which paves the way for state nationalizations.

The government already seized control of about a dozen banks in recent years, accusing them of causing financial problems and violating banking rules.

Yesterday Venezuela

received the last shipment of gold bars in an operation that repatriated 160 tons of the South American country’s reserves of the metal held abroad, said Nelson Merentes, president of the country’s central bank.

Where is all the gold stored?

Just one more day in the newest Communist dictatorship of our hemisphere.