Monday, November 7, 2011

The Good News

What’s new today

Our # 1 questions not if Barack Obama is a citizen, but who his real father was.  #2 shows that the Occupy movement is becoming less and less popular.  #3 talks about how a movement like Occupy becomes more and more radical.  #4 talks of the drugs in Occupy Boston and #5 declares Occupy New York as ceased to be a protest movement and is rapidly becoming a crime wave.  #6 is the story of a politician who decided to post a nude photo of himself online.  Not very smart.  #7 is a question for President Obama regarding Libya.  #8 talks about a housing bubble in China. 





1.   Who Was Barack Obama’s father? 

It is widely held that Barack Obama, Sr., goat herder from Kenya, is the father of President Obama. WE NOW KNOW THAT THIS CONTENTION IS PROBABLY FALSE.

In Obama's autobiography, Dreams from My Father, he identifies Barack Obama, Sr. as his father. This book has been the primary source of information for all who have written about him. Yet two strong supporters of the president -- David Remnick, author of The Bridge, a biography of Obama, and Janny Scott, author of A Singular Woman, a biography of Ann Dunham -- have expressed doubts about the factual basis of Dreams:

Remnick: "OBAMA'S MEMOIR IS A MIXTURE OF VERIFIABLE FACT, RECOLLECTION, RECREATION, INVENTION AND ARTFUL SHAPING."

Scott: "He gives his account of his parents' fleeting coming together and breaking apart in language and cadences reminiscent of those of folk tales or myths."…




I’ve read other articles about this.  In this one the author thinks Obama’s mother was pregnant by an unnamed person and Barack Sr. married her to extend his student visa and for money.







2.   Thumbs down for Occupy in new nationwide poll


THE OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT MAY BE STARTING TO LOSE ITS LUSTER with the American public, with four in ten now saying they have an unfavorable view of the protests, a new nationwide UMass Lowell/Boston Herald poll shows.

The online poll of 1,005 American adults reveals that 35 PERCENT STILL HAVE A POSITIVE IMPRESSION OF THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT, BUT 40 PERCENT NOW SAY THEY HAVE AN UNFAVORABLE OPINION. About one quarter of the poll respondents had no opinion or were unsure.

The UMass Lowell/Herald poll, conducted Oct. 28 through Nov. 1, is the first to show negative sentiment tilting against the Occupy movement, which has now spread to hundreds of cities, including Boston. Several other comparable national polls conducted earlier in October showed slightly more positive than negative views of the protests.






The longer this goes on, the more negative the views are going to be. 





3.   Inside the Orwellian machinations in Occupy Wall Street


Last month,  I WROTE THAT THE OCCUPY WALL STREET ORGANIZATION LOOKED LIKE A CHILD FROM A MARRIAGE BETWEEN ANIMAL FARM AND ANIMAL HOUSE. In an insider account  written by an Occupier alarmed at the hijacking of the movement — and its funding — from the OWS “General Assembly,” it’s clear that the analogy didn’t go quite far enough. It’s Animal Farm meets Animal House, all right, but with Niedermeyer running the Deltas….

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/11/06/inside-the-orwellian-machinations-in-occupy-wall-street/

This is a very interesting posting.  If it is true, it is a great example of how a movement gets taken over and develops its own 1%.  Ever wonder how the Nazis and the Communists became ruthless?  Read this and find out. 





4.  Occupy Boston:  Things are going Downhill



Three people arrested Thursday night inside the Occupy Boston camp have been CHARGED WITH DEALING CRACK COCAINE.



WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Carl Stevens, who spent the night at the camp a few weeks ago, talked to a man who spends most nights at Occupy Boston. He said things have gone downhill.



“THINGS HAVE CHANGED DRASTICALLY. IT SEEMS TO BE DETERIORATING,” THE MAN TOLD CARL. “A LOT OF DRUG USE, ALCOHOL USE, PEOPLE GETTING INTO FIGHTS… IT’S DETERIORATING PRETTY QUICK.”






Nothing surprising here other than the MSM failure to report this.



5.   Meanwhile in NYC: It’s no longer a protest movement



“Every single night it’s the same thing. I mean, some guy was a victim of rape!” an officer snarls. “There comes a time when it’s over. THIS IS A DISASTER. IT’S ALL WE’RE DOING, EVERY TWO SECONDS, IS LOCKING SOMEBODY UP EVERY TIME. It’s done.

“It’s done,” he repeats. “OCCUPY WALL STREET IS NO LONGER A PROTEST.”

Scenes like this -- and far worse -- have been playing out since the Zuccotti Park “occupation” began on Sept. 17.

The parcel is now a sliver of madness, rife with sex attacks, robberies and vigilante justice.

It’s a leaderless bazaar that’s been divided into state-like camps -- with tents packed together so densely that the only way to add more would be to stack them.

And despite an NYPD watchtower overhead and the entire north side of Zuccotti lined with police vehicles, IT IS QUICKLY BECOMING ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACES IN NEW YORK CITY….




The Lord of the Flies in real life. 











6.   Another Democrat without a clue



Monroe County Legislator STEPHEN ECKEL ABRUPTLY REMOVED TWO NUDE PHOTOS OF HIMSELF FROM A PERSONAL WEBSITE ON FRIDAY after being questioned about them by a television reporter.

ECKEL, 46, A DEMOCRAT FROM ROCHESTER IN THE MIDST OF A RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN, said in a phone interview that he took the photos of himself in 2000 as a student at the Visual Studies Workshop while working on a master of fine arts degree at The College at Brockport. He received the degree a year later.

The sepia-toned photos, taken with a wide lens at an elevated angle, WERE FULL FRONTAL NUDE SHOTS OF ECKEL, BUT WERE NOT SEXUAL IN NATURE. HE DESCRIBED THEM AS ART




Some people don’t have a lick of sense. 











7.   Questions for the President



The U.N. envoy to Libya reports that WEAPONS DEPOTS IN THAT COUNTRY REMAIN UNGUARDED AND LARGE AMOUNTS OF WEAPONRY HAVE GONE MISSING, including thousands of shoulder-fired missiles. At least two sites contain chemical weapons and nuclear material, including approximately 7,000 drums of uranium. Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Shapiro says TERRORIST GROUPS HAVE EXPRESSED INTEREST IN OBTAINING THE MISSILES, WHICH “COULD POSE A THREAT TO CIVIL AVIATION.”

The Daily Telegraph reports that LIBYAN REBEL LEADER ABDEL-HAKIM AL-HASIDI HAS ADMITTED THAT A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF THE LIBYAN REBELS CONSISTED OF AL-QAEDA FIGHTERS, many of whom fought U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Numerous news outlets report that in the last two weeks, scores of al-Qaeda flags have been raised over Benghazi and throughout Libya, including over the headquarters of the Libyan rebels.

Given the evident allegiances and sympathies of many of the Libyan rebels, what is the probability that al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups will acquire, or already have acquired, at least some of the missing Libyan weapons?

Do we have any basis for determining how many of the chemical weapons and drums of uranium are missing?

IS LIBYA A LESSER THREAT TO U.S. SECURITY NOW THAN IT WAS A YEAR AGO, OR IS IT A GREATER ONE?

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/282430/todays-questions-president-peter-kirsanow

We don’t have an answer today, but perhaps we should hold off on that “Mission Accomplished” banner. 







8.Property Prices Collapse in China. Is This a Crash?



RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY PRICES ARE IN FREEFALL IN CHINA as developers race to meet revenue targets for the year in a quickly deteriorating market. The country’s largest builders began discounting homes in Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen in recent weeks, and the trend has now spread to second- and third-tier cities such as Hangzhou, Hefei, and Chongqing. In Chongqing, for instance, Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa cut asking prices 32% at its Cape Coral project. “The price war has begun,” said Alan Chiang Sheung-lai of property consultant DTZ to the South China Morning Post.

WHAT STARTED SLOWLY IN SEPTEMBER TURNED INTO A ROUT BY THE MIDDLE OF LAST MONTH—NORMALLY A GOOD PERIOD FOR SALES—WHEN SHANGHAI DEVELOPERS STARTED TO SLASH ASKING PRICES. Analysts then expected falling property values to move Premier Wen Jiabao to relax tightening measures, such as increases in mortgage rates and prohibitions on second-home purchases, intended to cool the market.

They were wrong. After a State Council meeting on October 29, Mr. Wen affirmed his policy, stating that local authorities should continue to “strictly implement the central government’s real estate policies in the coming months to let citizens see the results of the curbs.” Then, the selling began in earnest as “desperate” developers competed among themselves to unload inventory. One builder—Excellence Group—even said it would sell flats in Huizhou at its development cost.

CITI’S OSCAR CHOI BELIEVES PRICES WILL DECLINE ANOTHER 10% NEXT YEAR, but that’s a conservative estimate. Even state-funded experts are more pessimistic. For example, CAO JIANHAI OF THE PRESTIGIOUS CHINESE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES SEES PRICE CUTS OF 50% ON HOMES IF THE GOVERNMENT CONTINUES ITS COOLING MEASURES.

When Beijing’s pet analysts are saying prices could halve in a few months, we can be sure they are thinking the eventual sell-off will be worse. In any event, the markets are bracing for trouble. INVESTORS ARE DUMPING BOTH THE BONDS AND THE SHARES OF CHINESE DEVELOPERS, and legendary bear Jim Chanos, citing the property market, late last month said he is still not covering his short positions on China.

One does not have to agree that China will be “Dubai times 1,000—or worse”—Chanos’s memorable phrase—TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE UNWINDING OF “THE BIGGEST HOUSING BUBBLE EVER CREATED” WILL BE ESPECIALLY PAINFUL. Analysts have great confidence in Beijing’s technocrats because they managed to continue to manufacture growth through the global downturn, but most of us seem to forget that the Chinese, through massive stimulus, created even bigger challenges for themselves. At the moment, Beijing has yet to resolve two intractable problems: persistent inflation and artificially high property prices.






China has a lot of problems which we aren’t familiar with.  This is just one of them.




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