Monday, April 30, 2012

Occupiers trash San Francisco restaurant

Early reports are that the "Black Bloc" subgroup of San Francisco Occupy protesters trashed the Farina Restaurant tonight:
(Photo: MikeQTips)

This reportedly happened during an Occupy march in the Dolores Park section of San Francisco. The target of the rampage is the Farina Restaurant at 3560 18th Street in San Francisco. In better times, the highly rated restaurant looked like this:


RELATED: KCBS reports that Occupiers also "vandalized vehicles, businesses and a police station" nearby in San Francisco's Mission District tonight.

UPDATE 1: Occupy SF issued a statement claiming no affiliation with those who damaged property in the Mission District.

UPDATE 2: By the next morning, Farina was being repaired. You can see one man replacing glass while another tries to power-wash away the yellow and green paint stains left by the occupiers:

Just down the street, this bus stop was marked with the Anarchy symbol:

The Mission police station has several broken windows. You can see two of them in this photo:
Here is a close-up of one of the occupier-smashed windows:

Note how soon after the riot that the restaurant, which is privately owned, was being repaired.

WELCOME to readers of GatewayPundit, OWSexposed, and Politifreak.

Just don't question his patriotism!

In his 2012 address to the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan declared that America is his "enemy":
“If America goes to war with Iran, all the young people, you do not fight in America’s wars against another Muslim country. We are all conscientious objectors. Don’t even tell us to use our medical skill in your army. We won’t have to fight; we ain’t going nowhere near that. Now you young mothers up in here, that got these young warriors that tell you they aint’ got no job, they wanna join the Army. You tell them, ‘Hey baby, we’ll create a job before you go fight for the enemy. The Enemy!’”
Watch the video:


In 2007, Barack Obama's church honored Farrakhan for his greatness, as reported by Richard Cohen in the Washington Post:
Barack Obama is a member of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama's spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said "truly epitomized greatness." That man is Louis Farrakhan.
Trinity Church preaches Black Liberation Theology.  If you haven't read about it, you should.

PREVIOUSLY on Louis Farrakhan:
Farrkhan: eight minutes of hate
Obama employed several Farrakhan acolytes campaigns and office staff
Louis Farrakhan discusses Pres. Bush

Liberal minds think alike?

Deadline.com reports (hat tip: Instapundit):
Another Miami-area TV journalist has been fired as a result of a local NBC affiliate’s broadcast of a misleading edited version of George Zimmerman’s 911 call the night Trayvon Martin was killed. Local TV station WTVJ veteran Jeff Burnside was fired Friday following an investigation of the station’s separate airing of the conversation that was edited in much the same way as the Today show’s broadcast that resulted in the firing of an unidentified NBC News producer based in Miami. Several other employees were disciplined in that incident. The NBC affiliate acknowledged the station independently made the same questionable edits to Zimmerman’s call to police that were widely denounced when the network’s Today show aired its version of the clip last month.
I see two possibilities: (1) there is a replacement for JournoList that tells reporters what to do; or (2) due to both their personal biases and the pressure to produce "newsworthy" stories, dishonesty is second nature to journalists. I don't rule out the former but I lean toward the latter.

UPDATE: A third NBC employee has been fired from the network after yet another misleadingly edited George Zimmerman 911 tape surfaced from the Trayvon Martin shooting.

PREVIOUSLY on news bias:
How reporters see the tea party vs. the occupiers
How reporters see the tea party
ABC news: 14 years of liberalism reviewed
CNN's anti-semite
At Cox Newspapers, they took this story seriously
How reporters avoid reality
News reporters and the liberal echo chamber in action
Salon has a sexual fantasy about Palin as a dominatrix
If only hate could change false to true
Ignorance at McClatchy Newspapers
Faking the news
University study finds Fox more fair and balanced than ABC/CBS/NBC
News media credibility at lowest level since polling began
Living in a Fantasy World, II
17% of US voters claim news media unbiased
Unbiased MSM gets its "truth" from Media Matters for America

When will the EU pay reparations to the displaced native European peoples?

The LA Times reports:
Agriculture probably initially expanded because farmers pressed north through the continent, not because hunter-gatherers adopted the practice on their own, Scandinavian scientists say.

Analyzing DNA from four ancient skeletons and comparing it with thousands of genetic samples from living humans, a group of Scandinavian scientists reported that agriculture initially spread through Europe because farmers expanded their territory northward, not because the more primitive foragers already living there adopted it on their own.

In other words, Europe was populated by native hunter-gatherers. These hunter-gatherers were then pushed off their lands by ethnically-distinct invading farmers.

Is it time for the Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the rest of descendants of invading farmers to admit that they are illegally occupying land that their ancestors stole from the native populations?

PREVIOUSLY on the murky concept of displaced native peoples:
Smithsonian: Indians arriving from Asia may have stolen America from previously settled Europeans

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Grim Milestone

David Bellow reports (hat tip: GatewayPundit):
There have been 1954 U.S. soldiers killed so far in the Afghanistan war according to icasualties

1324 of those Deaths have occurred in less than 3 1/2 years under Obama while only 630 of those deaths occurred in 8 years under George W. Bush

Over twice as many U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan under Obama in 3 1/2 years than did under Bush in 8 years!

Where is the outrage over the president sending so many young men to die in a war that he has no apparent intention of winning?

PREVIOUSLY on Obama and Afghanistan:
The commander-in-chief is clueless
Afghanistan: Obama provides surrender date in advance
Obama continues vacillating on Afghanistan
Our Commander-in-chief is missing in action
Obama considers returning Taliban to power in Afghanistan
Obama's sense of priorities

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Non-profit in name only

My left-wing friends think that 'profit' is evil and that 'non-profit' organizations are good.  Contemplate how much of a difference there is between the two as you read the TaxProf's description of how the president of a Massachusetts "non-profit" school is compensated.  
It is a tiny school, with an enrollment the size of a modest elementary school. There is no campus, just a  small office building. Its 400 part-time students are invisible here,  attending classes at off-site facilities across the country. Yet the National Graduate School of Quality Management awarded its president, Robert J. Gee, $732,891 in compensation two years ago. ...

Gee has champagne tastes. In 2009, he persuaded the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency to authorize $2.64 million in low-interest bonds. That made possible his school’s purchase of a $3.25 million waterfront compound on Oyster Pond with spectacular views of Martha’s Vineyard, especially from the six-bedroom house earmarked to be Gee’s presidential residence.  Five months later, the school, which focuses on a particular field of business management, purchased new automobiles to fit the estate setting: a silver Mercedes-Benz S550 sedan for Gee and a silver Mercedes-Benz station wagon for his wife, Aileen Waters Gee. The cost: $130,638, or about 2% of the school’s  revenues that year. .

For years, the school’s revenues have financed a lavish lifestyle for Gee and for his wife, who has been paid at least $100,000 a year since 2003. And they have vacationed together at school expense: The school owns a deluxe winter getaway in the US Virgin Islands for their use, part of a 17-year employment contract  that expires in 2023, when Gee will be 79.
Liberals want to believe that life is perfectible and that 'non-profits' and government agencies will somehow be free from foible.  Conservatives, by contrast, accept that human nature is as it is.

Hat tip: Instapundit.

IRS and the abuse of power

Our progressively more powerful government requires that all sorts of confidential details be disclosed to the IRS in tax returns. And then, when it suits someone's political agenda, that confidential information can be leaked to the co-chairman of President Obama's reelection committee for him to use as he pleases. Breitbart.com has the details.

RELATED: Pres. Obama jokes about having the IRS audit his enemies.

FLASHBACK: The IRS illegally leaked Richard Nixon's tax returns. John O. Requard Jr. denies that he was leaker. Requard, who had been a volunteer for George McGovern's presidential campaign in 1972, was working for the IRS in 1973. He does admit that IRS employees had printed out and passed around Nixon's tax returns. He just says it was someone else who sent it the media.

PREVIOUSLY on Democrats, taxes, and the IRS:
IRS gives "refunds" based on forged W-2s submitted by illegals
Obama selects tax cheats to run the government
Rep. Charlie Rangel's tax problems
Poll: Democrats more likely to approve of cheating on taxes
Taxes and left-wing Senators Al Franken and Paul Wellstone

Is it 'cool' to set up a fall guy?

Have you noticed how many MSM stories are portraying Obama as "cool"?  Investors Business Daily reports that this was orchestrated by his campaign:
In early February, Politico reported that the Obama campaign, hoping to rekindle enthusiasm among young voters, was "looking to revive the cool appeal." Then, suddenly, news stories started popping up about Obama's alleged coolness, in contrast to that drip Romney.
(As November gets closer, the MSM will close ranks and follow Obama campaign talking points ever more closely.  The only thing that will stop this would be polling showing Obama going down to defeat.  In that case, the MSM will run stories about how Obama would be winning if only he were a better liberal.)

All the "Obama is cool" stories are in strong contrast to the reality of the Obama presidency.  Take, for example, the memo written by then-CIA head Leon Panetta summarizing the decision to kill bin Laden.  Panetta wrote:

The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration.
In other words, Obama didn't approve the mission; he merely approved a "risk profile."  Anything goes wrong and it is McRaven's fault.  Can you imagine any great war leader, say Churchill or Eisenhower, avoiding responsibility this way?  Obama is the opposite of 'cool.'

Ben Shapiro has much more on the Panetta memo.

Friday, April 27, 2012

The government and the housing bubble

It is generally agreed that the current economic downturn was triggered by the collapse of the housing bubble. But, what caused the housing bubble? In a report released today, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) traces it back to a couple of Clinton era decisions, one of which was to nearly eliminate downpayments:
In 1995, expanding the idea in the Best Practices Initiative, HUD issued a policy statement titled “The National Homeownership Strategy: Partners in the American Dream.” . . . . The paper then made clear that reducing down payments would increase homeownership: “Lending institutions, secondary market investors, mortgage insurers, and other members of the partnership should work collaboratively to reduce homebuyer downpayment requirements. Mortgage financing with high loan-to-value ratios should generally be associated with enhanced homebuyer counseling and, where available, supplemental sources of downpayment assistance.”

HUD’s policy was successful. In 1989, only 1 in 230 homebuyers bought a home with a down payment of 3 percent or less, but by 2003, 1 in 7 buyers was providing a down payment at that level and by 2007, the number was less than 1 in 3. The program’s contribution to the reduction in home equity and the subsequent increase in leverage is obvious. [Emph. added]

But that wasn't enough.  Another Clinton-era policy required banks to provide still more risky loans to “underserved communities”:

Another government policy that weakened the housing market before the financial crisis was the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which  required banks to make mortgage credit available in “underserved  communities” in the bank’s area of operations. Originally enacted in  1977, the act initially required banks only to reach out to these  communities. The results did not satisfy the act’s supporters, and in  1995 new regulations went into effect that required banks to make loans  in underserved communities even if the loans did not meet their normal  lending standards. These were not quotas in a formal sense, but  examiners were supposed to assess whether individual banks were making  the required effort, as shown by actual loans on their books.

The CRA is enforced through regulators’ refusals to grant bank  applications of various kinds. A bank that receives an unfavorable CRA  rating, for example, could be denied regulatory approvals for merger and other expansions.[Emph. added]

Not only did these policies create an unstable financial system, they did not even achieve the claimed goal of a high ownership rate:
Despite all the government’s “help,” the United States has higher  mortgage rates in relation to the risk-free rate than other developed  countries and a homeownership rate that falls in the middle among these  same countries.
AEI finds that the US is "the only developed country with a major government role in housing policy" and warns that "the policies that caused the financial crisis are still in force." 

PREVIOUSLY on the housing bubble/mortgage crisis:
Occupy movement demands banks provide free money
Rep. Speier rewrites history on mortgage regulations
Financial crisis in review
Barney Frank and the collapse of housing prices
How we got in this economic mess
Those who do not learn from history

Monday, April 23, 2012

The "stimulus" bill was never about helping the economy

At Breitbart.com, Wynton Hall reports:
In their explosive new book Debacle: Obama's War on Jobs and Growth and What We Can Do Now to Regain Our Future, Grover Norquist and John Lott, Jr. uncover a startling fact: heavily Democratic states with lower poverty rates, lower unemployment rates, lower bankruptcy rates, and lower foreclosure rates received most of President Barack Obama's $825 billion Stimulus.
In other words, the purpose, big surprise, was to reward political allies.  Hall continues:
The folly of the federal government's misappropriation of funds can best
be summed up with a quote from an Obama Administration official whom
Norquist and Lott interviewed for their penetrating book.  As she explained, where government spends taxpayers' money doesn't matter because "giving out money is good for everyone."
With the White House's economic thoughts being just that shallow, it is not wonder that the crafting of the stimulus bill was dominated by politics not economics.

PREVIOUSLY on the stimulus (porkulus) bill:
2009 Stimulus bill: the prosecutions begin
Stimulus bill and a 'green' disaster
Laws of Economics 1; Obama 0
Why business isn't hiring
Study: Liberals are economically illiterate

Sunday, April 22, 2012

"If I wanted America to Fail"

Apropos of Earth Day:

Hat tip: Ed Driscoll.

PREVIOUSLY on environmentalism:
Whistleblower exposes Obama junk science
Politicized Science, the delta smelt, and California farmers
EPA uses phony peer review
Environmentalism inspires more murders
Global warming to kill 4.5 billion people by the year 2012!
National Academy of Sciences warns EPA on junk science
The failed science of environmentalism
Federal Judge rejects Federal enviromental "science" as "arbititrary and capricious"
2 more examples of politicized science: Gulf oiil spill and California's air regulations
Bee colony collapse disorder: the cause is whatever your politics say it is
Ozone hole and politics
If nature is ideal, how come it pollutes itself?

Obama Double Speak

Check out the excellent collection of facts and videos at this website.

Left-wing racism: Marion Barry doubles down on "dirty" Asians

Earlier this month, District of Columbia city Councilman Marion Barry said that Asian businesses have to go:
We got to do something about these Asians coming in, opening up businesses or dirty shops. They ought to go. I'll just say that right now. We need African-American business people to be able to take their place.
Reason TV followed up with an interview in which former Mayor Barry explained:
There is a cultural difference between a number of ethnic groups, whether it is Hispanics, whether it is Asians, whether it's White people. There is a cultural difference because of our socialization, because of segregation, discrimination, all this adds to it, and it affects every aspect of our life.
He went on to explain that he brought the subject up because Asians own "95 percent" of the carry-out food shops are "owned or managed by Asians."

Watch the video:

Hat tip: Instapundit.

PREVIOUSLY on racism:
Dem. Rep. says Rep. Allen West resembles a hyena
Is it racist to require a photo ID to buy drain cleaner?
NY Times: Midwesterners have low-sloping foreheads
Don't understand what was said? Then it must be racist!
California offers student tutoring but only for students belonging to the right races
For liberals, "affirmative action" means "keep the Asians out"
Occupy Portland protesters hurl racist taunts an African American
Democrat: "Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men"
The subtleties of White Privilege
Racist cupcakes
Is witch doctor image racist?
Obama ally: "I hate white people...."
“You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”
"The city wasn't ready to hire a white police chief."
A prominent black politician says the white incumbent cannot properly represent black voters.
San Franciscans discriminate against blacks.
"He's not black and he can't represent me, that's just the bottom line."

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Who is Mitt Romney?

Peggy Noonan writes:
A major if largely unspoken Republican criticism of Mr. Romney is exactly like a major if largely unspoken Democratic criticism of President Obama: He'll meet with you, he's polite and appropriate, but he gives no sign afterward that he heard you, that he absorbed or pondered what you said.
That certainly sums up my impression of him from the primary campaign.  Romney is a steady competent manager.  He won the nomination because, unlike the other candidates, he avoided major gaffes and mistakes.  But, after two presidential primary campaigns, if he has an intellect, he still hasn't let it show.

Regardless, of course, he will still be vastly better as President than Obama.

PREVIOUSLY in the "who is" series:
Who is Rick Santorum?
Who is Cicero?
Who is Meg Whitman?
Who is it who counts the ballots?

Monday, April 16, 2012

Fake Tea Party Scandal in Boston (Updated with video)

Liberals everywhere are outraged by what happened at a Boston Tea Party. ThinkProgress and DailyKos have stories on it. The Huffington Post has two stories (here and here) on it. They all report that the speaker at a Tea Party event shouted: "We will not be silenced by faggots."

There are two things you should know about this scandal:
  1. The first is that it wasn't at a real tea party. Well before the event, the Greater Boston Tea Party issued a statement (hat tip: Boston Globe) recommending that its members avoid the rally organized by an "unfamiliar" group and reaffirming that real tea parties are focused on fiscal not social issues:
    In keeping with the Greater Boston Tea Party’s tradition of welcoming all that want to preserve our Constitutional freedoms, we will be neither endorsing nor attending the rally on the Boston Common scheduled for Sunday, April 15, 2012. In fact, we encourage tea party activists to avoid the event. Sponsored by an unfamiliar “Mass Tea Party Coalition”, the lack of communication and collaboration with established tea party organizations concerns us that this is an organization bent on damaging the good name of the tea party movement.

    For nearly three years, Greater Boston Tea Party has been strongly focused on the serious fiscal issues facing the Commonwealth and this country. Our organization does not take positions on social issues, such as gay marriage or abortion. While these issues are important to many people, including some of our members, they do not apply to our mission of advocating for personal responsibility and individual Liberty.

    The statement about the rogue group being "bent on damaging the good name of the tea party movement" was quite prescient.

  2. The second is that each of the stories alleging this use of the word "faggot" is sourced from DailyKos and DailyKos seemingly has a single source: an anonymous twitter user with the handle tulasana whose motto is "keep calm and smash patriarchy." DailyKos also admits that they don't even which speaker is supposed to have said it. Despite the claimed crowds at the event, no one claims to have a video of the alleged statement.
So there you have it: the left-blogosphere fuss is about a statement that one twitter user alleges to have been said but doesn't even claim to know who said it at a rally organized by such an odious rogue group that the event had been condemned by the Greater Boston Tea Party well before it happened.

When you see a poorly-constructed left-wing hit piece like this, you have to ask: how long before it is printed in the New York Times?

UPDATE: DailyKos' source lied. Scott Lively actually said "we will not be silenced by fascists." You can hear him say it quite clearly in the video below at about the 11 minute mark:

Thanks to anonymous for the video link.

Also, at the 13:13 mark, there is a speaker who, while supporting Lively, admits that Boston area tea parties objected to their misuse of the tea party name. (The speaker goes on, of course, to try to attack and belittle those tea parties.)

Saturday, April 14, 2012

San Francisco Tax Day Tea Party

In an event supported by a biker gang and opposed by Occupier infiltrators, San Franciscans gathered this afternoon for a tax day Tea Party (click on most photos to enlarge):
The bridge in the background above and below is the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Breitbart was here:

A motorcycle gang, the Sons of Liberty, arrived and joined the rally:

This man voted for Obama in 2008:

A chorus line entered the stage with each dancer representing a digit in the national debt. It takes a lot of digits:

Several candidates for office spoke. Also, several individuals, such as this man, took to the stage to tell their story:

This woman had a simple direct message for Democrats: "Grow up. Take care of yourself"

It seems that red is the new black. How come I didn't get the memo?:
The red 'Nobama" fingers in many of these photos are in support of Gov. Brewer and in defiance of a local reporter who thought that no one in San Francisco would wag a finger at Obama.

Obama's debt will be paid off by our children and grandchildren. This family took notice:
And these kids also:

"Throw all of them out!" says this sign which shows a donkey and a rhino:

Four Occupiers arrived. This camera-shy Occupier, possibly a veteran of the Police-Occupy battles (see here or here), had a message: "F*** the police - directly oppressive force. Law does not apply here: sovereign citizen solidarity." His sweatshirt, not fully visible here, also sported a "F*** the police" message:
The other side of his sign noted that California's homeless population was "135,928" while there are "1,102,583" vacant homes in the state. He concludes "WTF!" There seemed no point in discussing issues of economics, private property, or the nature of the homeless population with him:
Another Occupier, by contrast, seemed genuinely interested in discussing the issues. He, for example, saw a sign "the politics of envy leads to socialism" and he thought it made no sense. I explained it and he understood. Not all Occupiers are angry and violent. I have met several now who I expect will mature into responsible citizens.

The two protesters below thought that the constitution grants states the right to decide marijuana legalization. Claiming to be advocates of constitutional liberties, they thought they should have Tea Party support and were upset that the tea party organizers would not let them speak at this event:
The building in the background above, by the way, is the Clock Tower on the SF Ferry Building.

Remember how the Occupier above thought that the police were a "directly oppressive force"? Somehow, Tea Partiers don't have the same problem with police, as you can see by the relaxed stance of these SFPD officers assigned to the rally:
Their ease reflects the fact that Tea Partiers understand private property and responsible behavior. The city permit for the protest required, for example, that, in deference to other users of the park, the sound system be turned off at 3:30pm. It was.

This rally was organized by the San Francisco Tea Party and was supported by MyLiberty (San Mateo County), the North Bay Patriots (Marin County) and seven other Bay Area Tea Party affiliated groups.

WELCOME to readers of Bookworm Room, Zombie, Melanie Morgan, KSFO, and The Clue Meter.

Liberals and their tenuous hold on reality

Simon Schama is a University Professor of History and Art History and Columbia University.  In (Newsweek) The Daily Beast, he writes about the Titanic disaster:
Chillingly, the shortage of lifeboats was due to shipboard aesthetics, the concern not to clutter the promenade deck of first class.
Where did Dr. Schama get that little historical tidbit?  The eminent liberal (he admired Obama and despised Bush) historian appears to have difficulty distinguishing reality and fiction: his source for that claim appears to have been James Cameron's 1997 (fictional) film "Titanic."  Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Chris Berg investigated the issue:
Recall in James Cameron's 1997 film, "Titanic," the fictionalized Thomas Andrews character claims to have wanted to install extra lifeboats but  "it was thought by some that the deck would look too cluttered." . . . .
In the Board of Trade's post-accident inquiry, [the shipyard's managing director Alexander] Carlisle was very clear as to why White Star declined to install extra lifeboats: The firm wanted to see whether regulators required it. As Carlisle told the  inquiry, "I was authorized then to go ahead and get out full plans and  designs, so that if the Board of Trade did call upon us to fit anything  more we would have no extra trouble or extra expense."
So the issue was not cost, per se, or aesthetics, but whether the  regulator felt it necessary to increase the lifeboat requirements for  White Star's new, larger, class of ship.
This undercuts the convenient morality tale about safety being  sacrificed for commercial success that sneaks into most accounts of the  Titanic disaster.
The responsibility for lifeboats came "entirely practically under the Board of Trade," as Carlisle described the industry's thinking at the  time. Nobody seriously thought to second-guess the board's judgment.
RTWT.

Apparently, the belief was that, with the advent two-way radio, rescue ships would likely arrive soon and that the purpose of lifeboats would be merely to ferry passengers from the distressed ship to the rescue ship.  That was the judgment of the Britain's governmental regulatory board.

Government regulations can be quite complex and, in my observations, after figuring out how to comply with them, a business often has little energy left for second-guessing them.  For that matter, I have seen confused regulators punish a business that exceeded government safety regulations.  Such is the corrosive effect of turning over what should be private decisions to a government bureaucracy.

Of course, the movie script better matches liberal preconceptions.

Hat tip: Greg.

PREVIOUSLY on liberals and their fantasy worlds:
Obama's rich fantasy life
Liberal talk show hosts and their paranoid fantasies
Rep. Pete Stark fantasizes about Pres. Bush's motives
Hate crime fantasies
Real or fantasy: Obama's core value is "unity"?
Salon Magazine and its sexual fantasies involving Sarah Palin
Michelle Obama fantasizes that she is the first White House resident to care about military families
Feminist imagines that all men are pro-rape and pro-domestic violence
Rep. Barney Frank's fantasies: the mortgage crisis was caused by "conservatives"
How reporters avoid addressing reality
If only hate could change false to true

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

San Francisco: inmates run asylum

San Francisco is now being governed by the Occupy movement. Last year, Occupy San Francisco was merely a flea-ridden encampment near the Federal Reserve building. This year, Occupy SF is writing resolutions for the SF Board of Supervisors which the supervisors pass unanimously. KCBS News reports:

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling on banks to halt foreclosure activities.

Supervisor John Avalos introduced the resolution last month calling for a moratorium on home foreclosures and related evictions and auctions.

“The foreclosure crisis has already devastated so many lives,” Avalos said in a statement issued after the resolution’s victory. “This resolution is an important step to support solutions to prevent millions of Americans from losing their homes.”

But who wrote the resolution that Avalos introduced? On its website, Occupy Bernal (Bernal is a neighborhood in San Francisco) takes the credit:
Supervisor John Avalos proposed the resolution with co-sponsors Supervisors David Campos, Malia Cohen, Jane Kim, Eric Mar, and Christina Olague. Amy Beinart and Stardust of Occupy Bernal wrote the original draft of the resolution. [Emph. added]
Occupy Bernal provides a copy of the resolution's full text (PDF). It talks about "nefarious" banking practices and calls for, among other things, "principal reduction" on loans. Who might benefit from that? Supervisor John Avalos for one. According to KCBS News:
Avalos said that he, like many homeowners in his community, is approximately $100,000 underwater on his mortgage.
What is the point of going into politics if you don't get to do some profitable self-dealing every once in while?

While many TEA party groups are still fighting IRS harassment, Occupy San Francisco is now on its way toward governing.

Hat tip: Larry from SF. Visit his blog for some excellent San Francisco photojournalism.

WELCOME to readers of WND.

PREVIOUSLY on the Occupy movement in the San Francisco Bay area:
Occupy movement demands banks provide free money
OccupyFail: Corporations as people
Occupy Oakland: the devolution

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Obama's upside down world

At a fundraiser in Maine, Pres. Obama explained:

"We won't win the race for new jobs and new businesses and middle-class security if we cling to this same old, worn-out, tired `you're on your own' economics that the other side is peddling," Obama said.

"It was tried in the decades before the Great Depression. It didn't work then. It was tried in the last decade. It didn't work," he said. "You know, the idea you would keep on doing the same thing over and over again, even though it's been proven not to work. That's a sign of madness."

Is it really necessary to explain that the left-wing interventionist policies of the FDR were a disaster that made an economic downturn last a whole decade? Obama's similar interventionist micromanagement of the economy has made economic bad times last the whole time he has been in office.

Obama's point, if he has one, might be that the 1920s ended with a recession just as Obama's turn in office began in a recession. Recessions happen every several years and, as the Austrian school of economics teaches, human nature seems to make them unavoidable. Thus, economic success is when recessions are short or mild. By this test, Obama and FDR both fail.

Olbermann's unhappy life

Mediaite reports that their sources at Current TV claim that fired Countdown host Keith Olbermann "went through 8 different car services (he doesn’t drive), and complained
to the network that some of the drivers 'smelled,' and 'talked to him.'"  The horror.

PREVIOUSLY on the unhappy lives of liberals:
Politics of happiness: Democrats and psychological depression
Obama's dark outlook
Study: "Bitter clingers" are happier than liberals
Democrats and misery loves company
Liberalism explained as a guilt complex
Depressed and liberal: Valerie Plame
Childhood pain and liberalism

PREVIOUSLY on the contrapositive proposition:
Study: "Ironically," conservatives and their children are happier
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