For the first time in my adult life, I'm proud of my country.

It looks like Obama gave the go-signal to clear out the scum as he boarded a flight to be "conveniently" unreachable in the Pacific Rim.

It's this kind of mix of authoritarian skull-busting combined with cunning plausible deniability that I find so wonderful in this man.

Other presidents might have let the disorder grow, but not President Truncheon. He bravely and wisely waded into the hippie throngs and began braining them with nightsticks and baton-rounds.

So this is for you, President Obama. By using overwhelming force to stamp out the scourge of idealistic rebellion -- by smashing the faces of those who seek real change -- you've earned this Ace of Spades long-distance dedication. more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:12 AM | Comments (143)
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Remember, the suspect shot at the White House.

To most people, this would make him an attempted assassin.

Not so much to Occupy DC.

TPM makes the mistake of accurately quoting a person they'd like to support and white-wash.

Protestor Ralph Wittenberg told TPM on Tuesday evening that authorities came through “searching for a so-called terrorist who shot at the White House, with no warrant, they went into everybody’s tents.”

I doubt very much anyone called him a terrorist. I think that's just his kneejerk cant taking over. Anyone accused by the government is a "so-called terrorist" to him.

But the point is, even when talking about a guy who fired shots at the White House, he feels the reflexive need to support that action, by claiming some kind of Patsy Conspiracy or something.

You know who incited this shooting? Did the Justice Department actually coordinate with the Democratic mayors to crack down on OWS? A writer named Rick Ellis says they did.

Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict "Occupy" protesters from city parks and other public spaces. As was the case in last night's move in New York City, each of the police actions shares a number of characteristics. And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.

The official, who spoke on background to me late Monday evening, said that while local police agencies had received tactical and planning advice from national agencies, the ultimate decision on how each jurisdiction handles the Occupy protests ultimately rests with local law enforcement.

The two men who inspired this shooting with their vicious, immoderate rhetoric, Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann, imply that Obama was involved in the evictions. Keith Olbermann notes Obama was "conveniently" unreachable for comment during the evictions, as he was en route to Australia as it happened.

So-Called Terrorist Arrested In Indiana County, Pennsylvania: Now blending in with suspected criminal detainees.

Posted by: Ace at 09:49 AM | Comments (126)
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Jared Loughner never once attended a Tea Party, nor did he read Tea Party literature, or subscribe to Tea Party ideas.

Nevertheless, within 24 hours the media elected him to be Chairman Emeritus of the Tea Party movement.

A guy shoots at the White House, and guess what? He's with the Occupy movement.

But he only posed as part of that movement. He wasn't really Occupy.

Not like, say, Jared Loughner was really Tea Party.

Police believe the suspect, 21-year-old Oscar Ramiro Ortega of Idaho, is mentally ill. Ortega has an extensive record, ranging from domestic violence to drug charges. Sources say a police investigation has uncovered evidence suggesting Ortega has a fixation on the White House.

...

Police linked the car to Ortega and have been hunting him ever since.
ItÂ’s unclear whether Ortega is capable of launching a sophisticated attack, but police are still fearful of what he might do next.

Authorities suspect Ortega has been in the area for weeks, coming back and forth to the Washington Mall. Before the shooting, he was detained by local police at an abandoned house. U.S. Park police say Ortega may have spent time blending in with Occupy D.C. protesters.

I remember when Lee Harvey Oswald spent some time "blending" in the Soviet Union.

Also blending in with the Occupy movement? Ringworm and scabies.

Thanks to BenK for both tips.

More: John Nolte just posted on this same subject.

Posted by: Ace at 09:01 AM | Comments (155)
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A few months ago I suggested that a pollster begin polling America's support for the "progressive wing of the Democratic Party."

The reason I wanted this polled is that the media kept reporting the Tea Party was somewhat underwater in terms of support, and they would compare their support to the Democratic Party and Obama, for example.

But that's apples and oranges. The Tea Party is the right wing of the right wing, and furthermore, it actually wants to do something, and doing something is almost always controversial. America generally prefers the status quo, combined with a slow fall into soft socialism. Any deviation from this default is by nature going to be less popular. And comparing the Tea Party to Obama was silly -- Obama lies in order to get independent votes, while the Tea Party, being about actual political ideas, tells the independents harsh truths.

So the Tea Party's numbers were meaningless. In order to say if the right wing of the right wing was faring better or worse than it could, we needed context -- like, how would the left wing of the left wing poll?

Well, I'm finally getting that poll.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is not wearing well with voters across the country. Only 33% now say that they are supportive of its goals, compared to 45% who say they oppose them. That represents an 11 point shift in the wrong direction for the movement's support compared to a month ago when 35% of voters said they supported it and 36% were opposed. Most notably independents have gone from supporting Occupy Wall Street's goals 39/34, to opposing them 34/42.

Voters don't care for the Tea Party either, with 42% saying they support its goals to 45% opposed. But asked whether they have a higher opinion of the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street movement the Tea Party wins out 43-37, representing a flip from last month when Occupy Wall Street won out 40-37 on that question. Again the movement with independents is notable- from preferring Occupy Wall Street 43-34, to siding with the Tea Party 44-40.

I had thought the Tea Party was polling worse than that. It could be that Occupy has actually pushed support back to the Tea Party, after showing America what the Tea Party's opposition consists of, the path we'll go down if we don't select a more Tea Party politics.

PPP is biased to say "America doesn't care for the Tea Party, either." Given that the Tea Party is pushing the strongest fiscal medicine this country has ever been urged to take -- they are pushing ideas that were far outside the Overton Window just two years ago -- to have polling split in a tie 42-45 is... good. And PPP knows it. If a leftwing group were pushing full-blown socialism (as the Tea Party is pushing something close to full-blown 1920's laissez-faire economic libertarianism), do you think PPP would think a 42-45 split for such a controversial, full-on ideological shift was bad for socialists?

No, they'd say it's pretty amazing, marking a profound shift in American thought, and they'd be right.

They'd also be doing backflips of joy, but that's a separate issue.

Posted by: Ace at 08:25 AM | Comments (173)
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The President is facing double-digit deficits in approval (polling as badly as -20 amongst independents) in a state he won 54-45.

Gallup has declared it a Republican state in voter identification as far back as 2010. The candidates who haven't lived there (the anti-Romneys) are seeing their numbers now close in on the President.

First OBAMA08 state to flip, and flip hard, is the one we never should have lost these last 20 years.

Four electoral votes down. Eighty-six more to go. As the states drop, more election pron for you morons to come.

Posted by: CAC at 07:43 AM | Comments (208)
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The so-called "Super Comittee" will fail, and markets will crash....? Maybe. Congress has a long and sordid history of waiting until the last minute to pretend that they did something while actually just deferring the problem to a future Congress. At some point this game must end, of course. We shall see.

Every province in China is Greece.

Larry Lang, chair professor of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in a lecture that he didn’t think was being recorded that the Chinese regime is in a serious economic crisis—on the brink of bankruptcy. In his memorable formulation: every province in China is Greece.

Europe already in recession...

...and itÂ’s likely to get worse before it gets better.

Detroit: the headsmanÂ’s axe falls in April.

Mayor Dave Bing and the City Council have said the solution lies in getting major concessions from reluctant labor unions and reducing the city's skyrocketing costs for retirees.

I predict that the unions will fight any cuts bitterly. Ultimately, and as always, itÂ’ll be the taxpayer who gets screwed -- in one way or another. And while this story is about Detroit, it could just as easily be about a thousand other towns and cities in this country.
more...

Posted by: Monty at 04:44 AM | Comments (324)
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Happy Wednesday. Wednesday? Is it Wednesday? Am I happy? Whatev.

To get you started:

Huntsman has been concentrating on New Hampshire, but hasn't had the money to launch TV ads in the state. No problem, NYTimes reports, Huntsman's father has come to the rescue.

Speaking of rich daddies, the woman claiming that mini-Canadian Justin Bieber fathered her child has dropped her lawsuit after the Biebs vowed to take a paternity test and countersue.

Computer World has a FAQ on Stuxnet successor Duqu.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:53 AM | Comments (159)
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An analgesic against the outrages of the day.

Note: I had this up last night, but ONT came up six minutes afterward. Which is about par for the course when it comes to me and blog-timing. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:13 PM | Comments (42)
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The True Value of Money

If you think money isn't worth what it used to be, well you're right. In fact the intrinsic metallic worth of US coins has been steadily going down over the last century as the Mint switched over to cheaper metals.

And no your eyes aren't fooling you - the nickel is really worth 6.3 cents for its nickel content [typo in the Metal Value column aside]. But lest you get any coin-arbitrage ideas, it's illegal to melt down US coins for their metal. And no you can't ship your warehouse of nickels to Chinese 'collectors' either.

Under the new rules, it is illegal to melt pennies and nickels. It is also illegal to export the coins for melting. Travelers may legally carry up to $5 in 1- and 5-cent coins out of the USA or ship $100 of the coins abroad "for legitimate coinage and numismatic purposes

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:19 PM | Comments (702)
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Given that her "golden touch" seems to involve equal parts moxie and graft, they changed that headline this morning.

The media is circling the wagons a bit on their Precious Democrats, and I think it's not entirely due partisan bias.

I think it's partly due to simple embarrassment due to failing to do their jobs.

An amateur broke this story. Not a capital-J "journalist."

What was the media doing in DC the past ten years?

They're not just corrupt. Like the politicians they love, they're also incompetent.

Posted by: Ace at 03:06 PM | Comments (292)
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