Submitted That Mark Sanford Is In Fact An Incredible Asshole

Two stories from today.

First, South Carolina now has an unemployment rate of 10.4%. It's second worst in the country, only Michigan has a higher rate, and it's the worst unemployment rate in 26 years in the Palmetto State.

Second, naturally this means with people in his state hurting badly, SC Gov. Mark Sanford wants to take $700 million of the state's $2.8 million in stimulus to pay down the state's debt instead of using it on unemployment benefits or job creation as he plays politics with the lives and livelihoods of thousands for his own Presidential bid in 2012.

The prosecution rests.

A New Face On An Old Bogeyman

Despite stabbing Barack Obama in the back repeatedly, Democrats left Joe F'ckin Lieberman in charge of the Senate Homeland Security committee. Surprising absolutely nobody, Lieberman today used his chairmanship to try to scare the bejeezus out of America and remind us that THERE ARE MUSLIMS IN AMERICA.

There is an increasing threat of homegrown terror stemming from segments of a deeply isolated and alienated Somali-American community, a U.S. Senate committee hearing concluded Wednesday.

The hearing, conducted by the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee, focused on the attempted recruitment of young Somali-American men by al-Shabaab, "a violent and brutal extremist (Somali) group" with significant ties to al Qaeda, according to the U.S. State Department.

"Over the last two years, individuals from the Somali community in the United States, including American citizens, have left for Somalia to support and in some cases fight on behalf of al-Shabaab," noted the committee's chairman, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Connecticut.

Al-Shabaab -- also known as the Mujahedeen Youth Movement -- was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in March 2008.

The hearing highlighted the case of Shirwa Ahmed, a 27-year-old Somali-American who had been radicalized by al-Shabaab in his adopted home state of Minnesota before traveling to Somalia and blowing up himself and 29 others in October.

The idea that Ahmed was radicalized in the United States raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community. The incident -- the first suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen -- was the "most significant case of homegrown American terrorism recruiting based on violent Islamist ideology," Lieberman said.

I don't know about you, but I'm much more worried about homegrown American terrorism actually happening on American soil based on violent Christian ideology than I am Somali-Americans going over to Somalia and getting involved with the wars there.

I would think with the number of people actually killed on US soil by radical idealogue domestic terrorists, you'd want to instead be investigating those who publicly make threats of sedition and secession against the US, rather than demonizing Muslims.

Not saying there aren't people that want to hurt America. 9/11 was an act of massive tragedy. But it's far past time to admit there are Americans who want to hurt America, people who aren't foreign, aren't Muslim, and aren't dark-skinned. Not every terrorist in America is from out of town, folks.

I would think those folks are a far greater actual threat. They are the ones actually killing Americans on American soil. Just because they're not using planes to do it doesn't make the people killed any less dead.

State Of Panic

State unemployment figures are in, and they are pretty lousy. Four states now have double digit unemployment (MI, SC, RI, and CA) and half a dozen other states are at 9% or more (OH, NC, OR, NV, IN, and DC).

Needless to say, these numbers are only going to get worse before they get better. The axe has yet to fully drop on other populous states like Texas, Florida and New York, and if layoffs there start gaining steam, we could find the entire country may be into double digit unemployment sooner rather than later.

Very soon now we're looking at a critical mass juncture. Once that tipping point is reached, it's going to start getting very bad, very quickly.

And finally keep in mind that the real unemployment numbers are a good 7-8% higher if you count the full U-6 number, meaning that states like Michigan (at 11.6% U-3) are now approaching the 20% U-6 level. Roughly one in five Michiganders are out of work, underemployed, or have given up on finding a job.

That will spread and grow quickly. Another 2-4% to the U-3 will most likely put most of the country into the 20% U-6 range, with the worst states approaching that 25% mark. I'm not swearing off a U-3 number of 12%, either.

Yes, it could be that bad. We've seen states gain almost 5% unemployment in just 12 months. A similar year ahead to March 2010 would put a lot of states closer to 15% U-3 than 10%.

How's that for cheery?

Give In To A Bully Once...

...And they will keep taking and taking and taking from you. Case in point: less than 24 hours after the Israel lobby killed the appointment of Chas Freeman and they have seen how easy it is to roll Obama, they have moved on to their next issue -- getting the Rosen/Weismann AIPAC spy case thrown out. The Washington Post editorial board is more or less demanding AG Eric Holder drop the case immediately, and given the usual M.O. of the Israel lobby, there's a very good chance that the case will indeed be thrown out now.

As Justin Raimondo at Antiwar.com points out,

The president's left-wing supporters want action on the Israeli-Palestinian front, and expectations are high: a new understanding of the "special relationship" is a prerequisite for success. Yet the administration is extraordinarily sensitive to criticism from the Israel lobby, which has gone on a jihad against Freeman, throwing everything in the book at him, and then some. The chosen theme of their hate campaign, in this case, is to portray Freeman as an agent of foreign powers – Saudi Arabia and China, so far. This charge, coming from the Israel lobby, is a hoot and a half – especially when one considers that the first voice to be raised against Freeman belonged to none other than Steve Rosen, the former AIPAC top lobbyist awaiting trial on charges of espionage on behalf of Israel (see this timeline).

And now we see the other shoe drop: drop Freeman, then drop the Rosen case.

Once again, one has to ask who is running America's foreign policy, and the answer isn't America. I'm hoping that Holder will resist the WaPo's ludicrous call to do it, but I would bet money that the case will be dismissed pretty soon.

After all, Israel's new government has a United States of America to run.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Alan Greenspan is now trying to pin the blame for the economy on Ben Bernanke, China, and too much regulation. Publicly. In the Wall Street Journal.

In any just universe where God existed and cared enough to administer justice, this would be followed by Greenspan being crushed under a file cabinet full of subprime mortgage paperwork.

Apocalypse Wingnut: Heart Of Dorkness

Over at the Frog Pond, Steven D dives into the brackish, dark waters of the true wingnut blogger fringe and dredges up my evil goatee wearing clone.

Came across this brand new blog yesterday while researching the "Restore the Republic" video I wrote about as an update to my post about Glenn Beck and Chuck Norris and their "We Surround Them" coming TV even on Fox News.

Follow me below the fold for a glimpse into the hatred, paranoia and desires for the overthrow of our government that this blogger who hopes to sponsor a "Patriot March" on Washington, DC this July to protest the tyranny of the Federal Government under President Obama.

This is one wingnut's vision of future events which he believes the Obama administration and control of Congress by the Democratic Party will bring about. Read it not because it is an "entertaining" piece of of unintended farce. Read it because of what it reveals about the mindset of far too many people who do not accept Obama's victory, and believe he should be taken down "by any means necessary." In that respect, it is deeply disturbing. This "prophecy" is from someone who listens to Fox News, is a member of the ditto head nation of Rush Limbaugh, and who likely attended one of those hate fests last October otherwise known as Sarah Palin rallies. I think his screed is representative of a new wave of right wing hatred and violence laced fantasies (and some far to real plans for home grown terrorist violence) which have re-emerged over the last year. So read it, please, if only to better know the insanity that is lurking in the shadows waiting for its moment in the sun.

Do read Steve's post, this guy's most certainly a cross between a Harry Turtledove novel and the fevered rantings of College Republicans on LSD.

Our buddy from Patriot March spins a tale of a mirror's dark aspect, looking into a world where California goes bankrupt, the South secedes, Mexican immigrants take on the National Guard in pitched border battles, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh are taken off the air by government fascists, the illegal Obama administration is overthrown by military junta, and the US is broken up into "autonomous regions".

It's hysterical stuff. You have to laugh at it, because it helps cushion the shock that comes after when you realize that millions of your fellow Americans believe this is going to happen. A whole hell of a lot of people in this country believe that this country under Obama is headed down this firey path to Hell and some will be willing to do whatever it takes to stop Obama and the government. Remember Tim Mcveigh? Eric Rudolph? Crackpots along those lines, domestic terrorists like those hateful fools, they're still out there.

And only one of them has to get lucky.

Midterm Grades From The Village Idiots

Since the first 100 days of an administration is passe' and for losers, the Village Idiots and Wingnuts have declared Obama THE WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF PRESIDENTING THINGS after just fifty days in office, the very model of pundit efficiency (all the hate, half the wait.)

The Wingers are keeping a tally of his indelible sins, Salon's Camille Paglia is screaming at Hussein Ofailure for picking on poor, defenseless Rush Limbaugh, Politico warns us that the administration has resorted to left-wing conspiracy conference calls to get out its doomed message, Newsweek's Howard Fineman declares the Village is turning on the President for not being a swaggering cowboy, and Jake Tapper complains that the President is just trying to do too much too soon, the cad.

You'd think that after 50 days of a President that actually did things and has a 60%+ approval rating for it, and helping to boost the approval ratings of Congress 20 points to a four year high, (all this qualifying as an unqualified failure apparently) these same folks would in comparison really absolutely savage a President that spent eight years jerking around and nearly a thousand days screwing around his ranch or hanging at Camp David and a final approval rating in the low 20s by handing the worst economy in generations off to the current guy.

But inexplicably, you'd be wrong. It's all Obama's fault, you see.

Your Liberal Media at work once again. Remember the steady warnings I've been giving you about underestimating the amount of sheer hatred that the Village has for him?

It's become painfully clear that it's just getting started.

StupidiNews!

• An Alabama man went on a shooting rampage and killed 10 before taking his own life.
• Bernie Madoff will plead guilty to all charges and could get 150 years in prison.
• As the economic recession rolls on, auto loans are the next segment to go bad.
• Congress has passed the $410 billion omnibus spending bill funding government through September.
• In-flight internet takes off across American domestic flights this year.