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Saleh undergoes surgery as Yemen rejoices
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--Tech & Moderator Notes
Weiner Admits It
I hope Steve won't take offense, but while the "Weinergate" story could definitely have been very boring and tedious as it dragged out day by day, Weiner suddenly admitting it AND actually apologizing to the amazing Andrew Breitbart does strike me as very news-worthy, and deserving of it's own thread for the inevitable comments to come.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 06/06/2011 17:19 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  everyone basically knew he was lying. Of course, he won't resign, he's a Democrat. He has no shame or honor, and given his wife's "closeness" to Hillary, he knows she'll get over it - just "put some ice on it".
Posted by: Frank G || 06/06/2011 17:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Is this something the rest of the world needs to know about or does this go under "nation longing to care for BS again"?
Posted by: European Conservative || 06/06/2011 17:51 Comments || Top||

#3  While the sordid details are irrelevant to the WOT, I think it's important to stand with Reynolds and mock these people who presume to be our betters, but who are routinely exposed to be dramatically lacking as respectable human beings.

Besides, it's fun and they deserve it.

And the same holds for the so-called paragons of the Jihad: finding fault with others as they try to hide their own glaring deficiencies and crimes.
Posted by: KBK || 06/06/2011 18:13 Comments || Top||

#4  he was frontrunner to be Mayor of New York City. It also exposes the double-standards among the two American parties in that he won't/is not demanded to resign
Posted by: Frank G || 06/06/2011 18:14 Comments || Top||

#5  also, what KBK said - Word!
Posted by: Frank G || 06/06/2011 18:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Ya gotta love a good weiner roast.
Posted by: anymouse || 06/06/2011 18:25 Comments || Top||

#7  "mock these people who presume to be our betters"

That's why we don't have those "scandals" in Europe. Those people don't presume to be our betters, for good reason.
Posted by: European Conservative || 06/06/2011 18:27 Comments || Top||

#8  For example, (h/t Drudge) Weiner's official website post:

Protecting Children On the Internet

What these people say has no connection, whatever, to how they live. Quite the contrary. And they know the voters are too stupid to catch on.
Posted by: KBK || 06/06/2011 18:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Sorry, should be

Protecting Children On the Internet
Posted by: KBK || 06/06/2011 18:58 Comments || Top||

#10  And to point out how these people work, I'd wager that 85% of the people in NYC live less than five blocks from a school, just like "the average sex offender".
Posted by: KBK || 06/06/2011 19:01 Comments || Top||

#11  Will not resign? What a cocky bastard!
Posted by: airandee || 06/06/2011 20:02 Comments || Top||

#12  KBK
That's different indeed. Makes it newsworthy.
Posted by: European Conservative || 06/06/2011 20:11 Comments || Top||

#13  That's why we don't have those "scandals" in Europe. Those people don't presume to be our betters, for good reason.

D. S. K.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 06/06/2011 20:55 Comments || Top||

#14  Unfortunately if it weren't for the bravery of an African maid and NYPD this wouldn't be a scandal in Europe.
Posted by: European Conservative || 06/06/2011 21:04 Comments || Top||

#15  Still... rape is in a different league than sending a picture of your covered privates to a consenting adult.
Posted by: European Conservative || 06/06/2011 21:07 Comments || Top||

#16  "Unfortunately if it weren't for the bravery of an African maid and NYPD this wouldn't be a scandal in Europe."

I got the impression that the only scandel in Europe (or at least France) is that they arrested and charged him. Wouldn't have happened on the "sophisticated" side of the Pond.

But that's just me, hick that I am.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/06/2011 21:08 Comments || Top||

#17  If you are part of the French nomenklatura.
At least in Germany rape is taken seriously.

But what Weiner did would have interested nobody here as long as it is not illegal.
Posted by: European Conservative || 06/06/2011 21:12 Comments || Top||

#18  EC, whether he did anything illegal appears to remain an open question, but it doesn't interest many Americans either. He's a slimy politician with bad judgment. Dog bites man.
Posted by: RandomJD || 06/06/2011 21:37 Comments || Top||

#19  He's a slimy politician with bad judgment.

Not exactly a protected species then
Posted by: European Conservative || 06/06/2011 22:42 Comments || Top||

#20  "Not exactly a protected species then"

I look forward to the day that slimy politicians, with bad judgment or otherwise, are so few as to become an endangered species. It can't come soon enough.

You'll notice I'm not holding my breath. :-(

Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/06/2011 23:16 Comments || Top||

#21  You'll notice I'm not holding my breath. :-(

I wouldn't advise that either...

I know one but he's 92
Posted by: European Conservative || 06/06/2011 23:18 Comments || Top||

#22  than sending a picture of your covered privates to a consenting adult.

European Conservative, I believe the woman Representative Weiner sent that photo to is a sixteen year old schoolgirl. Over here that's untouchable for those over eighteen. The term is "jailbait".
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/06/2011 23:48 Comments || Top||


Moderator note: #Weinergate
If you're looking for the latest on the odious Congresscritter Anthony Weinter, go to Big Government or Big Journalism. Patterico also covers it well.

Addendum at 1530: how could I forget Ace?

We won't be covering it here*, not even in Lurid Crime Tales for a man who is a decidedly seedy politician -- Mr. Weiner, as anyone can tell, is a loud-mouthed fool and has nothing, nothing, nothing whatsoever to add to the fight in the War on Terror.

AoS.

* Unless Fred posts on it, in which case it's okay.
Posted by: || 06/06/2011 11:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It warrants the classic graphic of America Longs to Care About Stupid Sh*t Again.
And it DOES relate to WOT in one way - it illustrates we are again becoming as compacent about the threat as we were on 9/10/2001, when the issue of interest was Gary Condit's unprofessional Congressional behavior.
Posted by: Glenmore || 06/06/2011 11:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, to mangle a quote I don't know the original of in the first place...

"China has central planning by scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, and the US has central planning by lawyers, and furthermore the sort of lawyer who thinks it's a good idea to send pics of his nether regions to coeds, but can't do it without broadcasting to the rest of the world in the process. Guess who's going to suck less."
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/06/2011 12:46 Comments || Top||

#3  I dunno, man, how much did that Liu Zhijun chunk and his cronies manage to spirit out of the country during his little high-speed rail scam? I think it was like billions. That's theft on a scale that nobody's been able to pull off in the States, not since the Harding administration at least.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 06/06/2011 13:27 Comments || Top||

#4  >That's theft on a scale that nobody's been able to pull off in the States, not since the Harding administration at least.

You obviously having been paying attention to economic news lately...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/06/2011 14:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Go Fred! Surely there's a nexus between Weiner, stupid animal stories, and mindless Mohammedan terrorism of something or other.
Posted by: KBK || 06/06/2011 15:12 Comments || Top||

#6  KBK, that nexus would be "mindless!!!"
Posted by: Glenmore || 06/06/2011 15:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Well, I'd like to sneak in some of the more colorful jibes:

Weiner, the Peter Tweeter
Weiner's New York Post
Weiner's shveiner
Weiner's fourth branch of government
Darth Weiner's Emperor Palpitate
Weiner's neener
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/06/2011 15:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Well,
Weinergate is an insipid, tawdry scandal generated by a liar that diverts attention from the WOT. Glad to see Weinergate come to a head end. Let it be investigated by the House or let the voters of New York handle it.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/06/2011 17:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Voters of New York are probably proud of him...you talk about not having any shame, this is the state that sent Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton to the Senate. I know, I know. California does even worse. But at least I know enough to be ashamed of it.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 06/06/2011 18:24 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
New Woman Comes Forward Claiming Cache of Intimate Photos and Online Communications with Weiner
Hat Tip InstaPundit
Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 || 06/06/2011 08:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
CBO hires Obumblecare advocate to provide ‘objective’ health care budget numbers
The Daily Caller has learned the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has hired Melinda Beeuwkes Buntin, an Obama administration official who’s has been key in implementing parts of Obamacare thus far and a large donor to Democrats and liberal groups, to work in its Health and Human Resources (HHR) Office. As CBO’s deputy assistant director of HHR, Buntin is expected to assist with the Office’s prime directive, providing “objective, nonpartisan, and timely analyses to aid in economic and budgetary decisions on the wide array of programs covered by the federal budget.”

Posted by: Beavis || 06/06/2011 12:44 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Obama monetary policy fueling pain at the pump, report says
Posted by: Sneque Sherens1501 || 06/06/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Duh?
Posted by: newc || 06/06/2011 1:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Printing money leads to inflation?

Waitaminute... I think somebody mentioned that before ... in high school, come to think of it!
Posted by: Bobby || 06/06/2011 6:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Printing money does cause inflation, but oil is a poor example.

The main reason for more expensive gas is a depreciating dollar and OPEC manipulating the oil price to maintain the price (in undepreciated dollars).
Posted by: phil_b || 06/06/2011 6:36 Comments || Top||

#4  It's like inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon or something...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/06/2011 6:47 Comments || Top||

#5  The report says about 50 cents per gallon is the monetary increment. That's plausible, however, the monetary easing is also responsible for some increment of economic growth, perhaps 0.25% to 0.5% (say, 30,000 to 70,000 jobs), so blasting the inflationary effects is only looking at one end of the teeter totter.
Posted by: Lord Garth || 06/06/2011 7:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Inflation causes economic growth?

What colour is the sky on your world?

Deliberate monetary Inflation always causes unemployment. Always has, always will.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/06/2011 7:09 Comments || Top||

#7  bright,

It wasn't the inflation that caused the growth. The inflation (call it "A") is an effect of the increased money supply (call that "B") and the growth (call it "C") is also an effect of the increased money supply.

So B causes A, and
B causes C

The growth was because, at the margin, a few companies could get financing or refinancing at lower rates and increased their spending accordingly; some of the spending went into capital, some into services, some into hiring.

No mystery here. The low interest rates subsequent to 9-11 were also designed to increase growth and they did marginally. The high interest rates subsequent to the Carter stagflation years were designed to reduce the inflation rate; they did but also sent the economy into recession.
Posted by: Lord Garth || 06/06/2011 9:39 Comments || Top||

#8  inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, because more money chases the same goods. That is not the case with oil. Except to the extent a declining USD allows other currencies to buy more oil and hence demand increases.

IE, its a deflationary effect.
Posted by: phil_b || 06/06/2011 10:36 Comments || Top||

#9  Whats the matter with Kansas?
Kansas is the Wheat state. 50% of the wheat has been plowed or bailed. 50% of the 50% left is poor quality. Not much wheat in the wheat state. No grass in western kansas which produces beef. Cattlemen are selling off their herds because they can't feed them economicaly. Not much beef in kansas.

But Kansas is not alone: Eastern and southern Colorado, Western and the panhandle of Oklahoma, west Texas and the panhandle. This area is in an intense drought with corresponding lack of the production of food stuffs.
Posted by: bman || 06/06/2011 11:11 Comments || Top||

#10  Lord Garth the money supply didn't increase, the volume of credit/debt pairs did.

This "growth" is temporary if used for non-investment in real wealth creation (i.e. not land right inflation).

I always discount the growth in debt from nominal GDP to work out the real state of the economy... It says it's been shrinking for a long while.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/06/2011 11:49 Comments || Top||

#11  My way of estimating the government-based component of inflation is to divide the deficit by the GDP - somewhat above 10% for the past 2-3 years.
Posted by: Glenmore || 06/06/2011 11:57 Comments || Top||

#12  bright, glen, etc.

I think a number of you have either your own idiosyncratic definition of money supply or you are referring to some definition that is less used than the usual ones.

Here is a chart of M1, M2 and M3 (there is a discontinuity in the M3 graph because the definition was modified). This actually shows the year to year change. Note the sharp decline in M3 (the 'new' M3) in 2010. The M3 includes CDs and money market funds and the decline of the aggregate was enough to contribute to the fed's QE2 (I'm sure it wasn't the only factor).

btw, for many years the 'normative' view was that 2% inflation was about the optimum; the normative view is, IMO, trending down and now the optimum is estimated to be closer to 1%
Posted by: Lord Garth || 06/06/2011 12:15 Comments || Top||

#13 
It also says the price of a gallon of gas has increased by 146 percent from an average of $1.61 per gallon when George W. Bush left office to a national average of $3.93 per gallon today.


Posted by: DepotGuy || 06/06/2011 12:50 Comments || Top||

#14  Lord Garth: I'd like to see the chart that's the integral of the one you link to, it would actually show the money supply, rather than the rate of change of the money supply.

And I'm distrustful of the changing definition of M3.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/06/2011 12:58 Comments || Top||

#15  The main reason for more expensive gas is a depreciating dollar

Which is caused by inflation of the money supply.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 06/06/2011 12:59 Comments || Top||

#16  With all the shadow banking etc still going on M3 is about as meaningful as the inflation figures...

However of course M3/4 will fall in advance of Basel 3s return to actual bank reserves and thus a cap on the volume of credit.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/06/2011 14:30 Comments || Top||

#17  $1.61 per gallon when George W. Bush left office

Must have been Halliburton etc. keeping their profits low to help out their buddy Dubya.
Posted by: KBK || 06/06/2011 15:05 Comments || Top||

#18  Let me rephrase my above post. If you ain't got bread, and you ain't got meat you ain't got nothing. You can't eat money, inflated or otherwise.
Posted by: bman || 06/06/2011 15:07 Comments || Top||

#19  thing from snowy mountain

here are many of the charts that give the 'actual' numbers

the problem with the 'actual' charts is that the money supply has numerous jumps; a lot of these are do to massive buys and sells by the fed or, in some cases, foreign holders and some because some large companies, mutual funds, etc., tend to move funds around to refinance, say at the start of their fiscal year.
Posted by: Lord Garth || 06/06/2011 16:18 Comments || Top||

#20  He has monetary policies other than destruction of the economy?

His monetary policies are fueling pain at the pump as well as unemployment and massive debt that we may never be able to dig ourselves out of. The pain at the pump sends waves of inflation through the economy. Everything goes up.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/06/2011 17:18 Comments || Top||

#21  Which is caused by inflation of the money supply.

Moot

The federal deficit is a bigger factor.

Australia has had a similar growth in the money supply and the AUD has been appreciating for years.
Posted by: Elmaviper Hupolutle1138 || 06/06/2011 21:33 Comments || Top||

#22  "Obama monetary policyies fueling pain at the pump in the a**"

Fixed.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 06/06/2011 23:19 Comments || Top||

#23  Oddly, the price of gas is going down, here in Alabama it's $3.37 (Cheapest) and while that's MUCH higher, it's going down,Finaly.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 06/06/2011 23:53 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Former Sen Spitzer: Obama should run on the stimulus and health care
Writing in Slate, former Senator, aka, client 39, Spitzer says that Obama should strongly defend the stimulus program, explain that Keynes was right,
proclaim that Congress is smart enough to target investment, explain that tax cuts are bad, state that health insurance mandates are good, etc.

If Spitzer were a competent writer, this would be good enough for The Onion.
Client number 9 is a former governor. He's a committed Keynesian, a committed Democrat, and desperate to get back into power.
Posted by: Lord Garth || 06/06/2011 21:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
A Dick For a Weiner
Posted by: charger || 06/06/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
41[untagged]
2Govt of Pakistan
2Taliban
1Commies
1Govt of Iran
1Govt of Sudan
1Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
1Jemaah Islamiyah
1Palestinian Authority
1TTP
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2011-06-06
  Saleh undergoes surgery as Yemen rejoices
Sun 2011-06-05
  Colombian army kills FARC security chief
Sat 2011-06-04
  Reports: Ilyas Kashmiri killed by a drone in Pakistan
Fri 2011-06-03
  Yemen's Saleh hurt in palace attack: diplomat
Thu 2011-06-02
  Kuwait Withdraws Diplomats from Yemen
Wed 2011-06-01
  Yemen truce collapses
Tue 2011-05-31
  50 Protesters Killed in Taiz by Security Forces
Mon 2011-05-30
  Bombs kill 10 after Nigerian president's inauguration
Sun 2011-05-29
  Taliban suicide bomber strikes at high-level meeting in Afghan north
Sat 2011-05-28
  Russia agrees to mediate Gaddafi exit
Fri 2011-05-27
  Heavy fighting breaks out in Misrata suburb
Thu 2011-05-26
  4 blasts shake Tripoli after NATO sorties
Wed 2011-05-25
  Suicide bomb kills four at Peshawar police station
Tue 2011-05-24
  Gunbattle in Yemen as transition deal collapses
Mon 2011-05-23
  Taliban sez Blinky not dead


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