It has started. The panic is full blown in Greece and the contagion will spread to Italy, Spain and Portugal. This is turning ugly and will infect the United States. Initially, for the United States, things will appear swell. Why? We will be the safehaven for those pulling their money out of Greece. Out dollar will surge in value. Which sounds like a good thing until you realize that our exports will become more expensive for other countries and, as a result, those sales will drop.

Here’s the latest news out of Greece:

The European Central Bank has stopped providing liquidity to some Greek banks as they have not been successfully recapitalized, the ECB said on Wednesday, confirming news earlier reported exclusively by Reuters.

The news sent the euro lower against the dollar, fanning concerns among investors and in Greece that the country may have to leave the euro zone.

The development highlights the weak state of the banking sector in Greece, where Greeks are pulling euros out of the banks in fear that their country may exit the European single currency despite the declared determination of EU powers Germany and France to keep Athens in the monetary union.

The Greek run on the banks is capturing attention here in Europe: Read the rest

[Formerly "Update: F--k Congress," appended to "You Think Congress Can't Get Anything Done?"]

Even that wispy-waspy left loon, Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, talks as if the use of drones for domestic surveillance could be alright with regulations imposed by Congress — oh those’ll keep the snoops in check. But NOT Charles Krauthammer (who unlike Eugene Robinson, feels properly introduced without reference to his Pulitzer Prize OR his M.D. degree OR his active license in the apt field of Psychiatry).

On May 14, 2012 — it’s now a historic day — Charles Krauthammer told Bret Baier, “I’m going to go hard left on you. I’m going to go ACLU.” Then, just before the end of this clip, he passes the ACLU. He goes ALL the way:

Chuck’s face eased into a grin, so crooked for such an upright guy, and he said:

Ahhhhhhhhhh. That nip was mighty tasty. B.B., that poker face of yours. It doesn’t work on me. I needn’t tell you why. And, nope. It didn’t have a thing to do with that nip we shared. Well, except that try as you might to conceal it, B.B., I can tell you loved it as much as I did saying “Bottoms up!” And then you said … Read the rest

[NQers: The updates are now in their own post, above.]

Imagine that you’re running for president, labeled a moderate, probably because you oppose “the expansion of slavery,” not the stamping out of slavery everywhere. Somehow you win the presidency but, before you’ve been inaugurated, seven states secede from the Union and form the Confederacy.

To quell hot heads, you (Lincoln) direct your first inaugural address to the South, proclaiming once again that you have no intention, or inclination, to abolish slavery in the Southern states. …

MITT, THIS IS FOR YOU: Although it doesn’t destroy you, your perceived moderation — “blasted from all sides” — will maim you throughout your presidency, just as it did Lincoln. How is it then that in 1862, in the midst of a vicious civil war, Lincoln and Congress bonded to pass the following — and might you, Mitt, find a way to bond with sufficient members of Congress to pass at least two such items by the end of 2013/early 2014?

• Intercontinental Railroad System financing
• Homestead Act expansion system
• the Morrill Act land-grant university system
• U.S. Dept of Agriculture

Read the rest

From the top: “Some bad polls stack up, back to back … Welcome to America Live, everybody. I am Megyn Kelly. A live look at the White House where a media briefing is just underway … The FIRST BRIEFING in a week, and the White House is sure to get questions about two big political stories breaking now on the political front.

Megyn: “First. A bombshell in the CBS News/New York Times. The president’s vaunted LEAD AMONG WOMEN VOTERS VANISHING. Look at the numbers. Look at that. [Insistently.]

Election 2012 – Support Among Women
MITT ROMNEY (R)	46%
BARACK OBAMA (D)	44%
CBS/NYT * 310 women: May 11-13 * Margin of Error +/- 6

UPDATE: Megyn discusses the above shocking poll of women who were, not long ago, “favoring the president by 16 points.” And “look at the sampling used,” Megyn points out, in this brand-new, supposedly neutral CBS/NYT poll, “over-sampling the Democrats: 36% Democrats, 30% Republican.” The riveting anchor continued, “Still, the 16 point lead with women voters has completely evaporated and in fact now it’s a Mitt Romney lead. …” She asked, “What does the White House say about this?” Ed Henry responds, suggesting we follow future polls to see if the “switch” continues. If so, says Ed, it’s conclusive proof that the economy is #1 for women (independents as well, Ed adds).

Megyn: “Second. And this is just breaking now. A brand-new Rasmussen Reports poll shows Governor Mitt Romney with a commanding double-digit lead when it comes to who voters trust to handle the economy. Fifty-one percent believe [Mitt Romney] can best handle the economy. Thirty-nine percent say it is Barack Obama. … Read the rest

Team Obama attacks Mitt Romney by illustrating how Bain private equity capitalism took over and closed a Kansas City steel mill between 1994 and 2001.

Team Romney counter attacks with an ad that illustrates the Romney (Bain) creation of a steel mill in Indiana. Dueling steel mills.

This suggests that the Romney camp is well informed of the Obama camp class warfare tools, and is prepared to answer blow for blow.

What is the subject of this debate? Read the rest

Today I experienced a capitalist venture’s delicate dance between offering top-rate customer service and making a profit. I also experienced government systems’ non-apologetic mistreatment of its customers and its prioritization of bureaucracy’s blind rules over common sense coupled with true customer service. But I was saved by strangers, every-day Americans, who went above and beyond to cover for the failings of the government systems.

Today a breathtakingly handsome, shirtless young man scooped me up in his arms, and carried me to safety.

His chivalrous act was supposed to be told at the end of the post, but I can’t wait to share it that long. I don’t know his name. That’s right. He was a complete stranger. But I was in a dangerous predicament trying to walk uphill, very likely to fall, out of breath because I couldn’t carry my oxygen as well as my purse, my heart was pounding too fast, my 90-degree bent forward posture and inability to lift my head made it impossible so see where I was going, and I don’t have a cell phone nor was there any building within blocks. So I stuck out my thumb.

Many people avoided looking at me, and went by, even though the road exists solely to take people to/fro the large complex in which I live. The two people in the Jeep passed me by, and I sighed. But they apparently circled back because I could make out the Jeep again. I explained that I lived there too and briefly described my physical issues (rather evident anyway).

Then, I had to hand my purse to his girlfriend, another complete stranger, so that I could wrap my arms around the handsome stranger’s neck and shoulders as he lifted me off the ground and up, up, up into his Jeep. Yes, I had tried mightily myself, but I can’t lift my legs that high. I’d already told them to go on their way, insistently (!), and thanked them for trying. But … Read the rest

Important, watershed events are unfolding in Europe and the United States media is obsessing about whether or not Mitt Romney was an asshole in high school fifty years ago. The combination of economic and political events that are shaking Europe include the rejection of austerity politicians in France, Germany and Greece, the emergence of political extremists as viable candidates, and new questions about the ability of the European Community to remain intact. This is no longer a question of economic fundamentals. Rather we are now facing a full blown crisis of confidence.

The critical event was the vote that took place yesterday (Sunday) in Germany:

[where the party of Angela Merkel] suffered a crushing defeat on Sunday in an election in Germany’s most populous state, a result which could embolden the left opposition to step up its criticism of her European austerity policies.

The election in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), a western German state with a bigger population than the Netherlands and an economy the size of Turkey, was held 18 months before a national election in which Merkel is expected to fight for a third term. (Reuters)

So why should you care? Read the rest

Watching the United States and the political theater from afar is quite instructive. For starters, you quickly realize how much bullshit and fluff dominate the U.S. airwaves. Consider, for example, the bullshit, bogus story that Mitt Romney is a gay bully. The foreign coverage of this is correctly puzzled by the fact that a story without substance and corroboration is even being reported. There is not one shred of evidence that Mitt Romney has bullied anyone in his adult life. Yet, despite the lack of contemporaneous eyewitness, the Washington Post is trying to pretend that Romney acted like Lee Harvey Oswald and was guilty of killing a beloved leader. What utter bullshit!

What we really ought to focus on is why Obama is ready to sell out the United States to Russia.

Obama has no moral or ethical core. Read the rest

A wag calls this the low point of the campaign (so far); however there may be utility to Romney’s campaign’s eagerness to have the candidate apologize for bad behavior when the candidate was a teenager in Michigan.

The positive is that the enterprising political reporters have completely run out of material on Mitt Romney.

This is the bottom of the pile. There is no there within fifty years. There is also evidence that Mitt Romney had a childhood. High school confidential is not the happy memory for any adult. Romney gets to apologize for being immature and a pack brat. Gee.

Meanwhile the Obama re-elect floats a rumor that it is ready to abandon NC (after the anti-same sex marriage vote) and give up the Charlotte convention site. Read the rest

* UPDATED & Bumped Up May 12 (for Open Thread) * New Posts Will Follow Shortly *

Beth Topinka and Karen Blutcher look just like the women who delivered poached salmon and organic salads to those brave OWS protestors. Who would have thought that a “random” sweepstakes would come up with such perfect winners, purely by chance!?

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Original, May 10, 2012, after the party: I went to Huffington Post, sure I’d find the Clooney Hollywood house party the top story. But no! Here’s what bumped Clooney out of first view: “Breaking News: $2 BILLION GOES POOF (sic)– London Trader Known As ‘Voldemort’ Causes Biggest U.S. Bank Huge Loss“ [J.P. Morgan].

Ditto the Los Angeles Times home page: Read the rest

* BUMPED UP * from May 9, 16:29. Bronwyn here: Odd, isn’t it, that this story faded after Obama confessed his “for me personally” views on gay marriage. Larry’s post tells us why the intel mole story is critically important, incalculably more than ineffectual musings on gay marriage. Media rationales: (concluded at end)

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News media are literally and figuratively all a TWITTER with the news report that a Saudi intelligence source who pretended to be a jihadist suicide bomber in order to deliver to the CIA an unexploded underwear bomb. The Saudis are reportedly livid that the United States so cavalierly divulged this news and, in the process, exposed the Saudi effort to recruit the mole.

Don’t doubt for a minute that this leak has the fingerprints of the Obama White House all over it. Most likely culprit? Our old buddy, John Brennan. White House could not wait to slip this info to the hungry press who, during a slow news week, could not wait to tell the public about this “dramatic” news.

Despicable. Here’s the story from the Washington Post: Read the rest

The job of a country’s media is to inform the citizens of things that they cannot know, or discover, for themselves. If the people in the “news” business don’t do that, honestly, completely and without bias, they are not only not doing their job, they are subverting their occupation and their country.

The people  cannot “know” what they don’t know. If they don’t “know” the truth, honestly, completely and without bias, they cannot make rational decisions.

Ergo members of the media that don’t do their job aren’t worthy of their First Amendment rights. I am not saying we should suspend those rights. Heaven forbid. I am saying they are unworthy. They will have become propagandists, not journalists.  And they will gladly protect other propagandists who share their ideology. They were intended to be the buffer between the citizenry and the government. Instead they’ve taken sides. No matter what side they take, it ain’t ours!

We have teachers who would brainwash our children in the name of their ideologies. Does our First Amendment-protected media voice any caution about such infamy? Not if the teachers are brainwashing in a liberal direction. And citizens, that’s just wrong! Read the rest

How in the hell is Barack Obama supposed to remember there is a recession on and that millions of Americans are without jobs? He’s got a lot on his mind.

Playing golf:

Sending the family on pricey vacations: Read the rest

Michelle Bachmann has made a such a spectacle during the past year as a wanna be presidential candidate that one would have thought she’d now quietly retire to Minnesota. Nope, no chance. She spectacularly claimed another 15 minutes of infamy this week with multiple declarations of becoming, has been, and now wants to be former citizen of Switzerland.

Picture: Ken Avidor, City Pages

Read the rest

Two Obamas for the price of one. Oh no you don’t. This is in no way a comparison to Bill and Hillary. This is Barack, Personally and Barack, Personally … if you insist, you can say that the time differs. But that is wrong. No, don’t do that, even if Charles Krauthammer finds the timing compelling. The times are artificial, needless components. It is like that hypnotic AirFrance television ad in which there are four dancers, portrayed by two dancers, duplicitiously duplicated by _____ (?) Do you know? For sure? The answer is at the end of the post.

You do know that Charles Krauthammer is a psychiatrist. Right?

First there is Charles Krauthammer on Bret Baier’s Special Report, May 9, 2012, a moment or so after 6:40 p.m. ET:

“Charles Krauthammer: The Signaling Is Clear That
After Election Day President Obama Will Come Out in Favor of Gay Marriage”
The Fox News Insider, posted at 6:59 p.m., May 9, 2012 (text below)

Second there is Charles Krauthammer on The O’Reilly Factor, May 9, 2012, televised @ 9-10 p.m. ET: Read the rest