Blog Heap of Links for the day 12 August 2011

Gone is the soaring rhetoric and promising tone. Absent is that special credibility he once held with voters who saw him as an adult promising to bring some common sense to Washington. That winning audacity has been replaced by stiff irritability. Hopeful visions have given way to scolding lectures. Watching him speak now is like watching Meat Loaf crash around onstage, all fat and sweaty, crooning his old love songs and trying to catch a spark — only to faint onstage, be revived by medics and insist on finishing his show. It is desperation defined.

Over the past 35 plus months, there has been a quantum leap in the number of really dumb lies that our government has foisted on what they assume to be an unsuspecting public. 30 of the most pathetically stupid

Mark Levin took a few moments to remind our 'Blamer-in-Chief' of what he really inherited when he became president... "The greatest nation on the face of the earth!"

Santelli slams the Obama administration for playing the blame game over the downgrade to our credit rating... also points out that without Tea Party, we would've had a clean debt ceiling increase and our credit rating would have likely been dropped even lower to BBB.... [video]

the possibility of an orchestrated ambush looks much more likely — as an Afghan official tells the press that's exactly what happened: "The Taliban lured US forces into an elaborate trap to shoot down their helicopter, killing 30 American troops in the deadliest such incident of the war, an Afghan official said Monday...." When morons like Biden run their mouths, they put good men at risk. When the Obama administration decided to release all the information about who killed bin Laden, they put good men at risk.

Joe Farah and private investigator Susan Daniels discuss Obama's Connecticut Social Security Number [audio]

The U.S. stock exchanges are plunging and the S&P has just downgraded the credit rating of United States federal government debt. So, how does the President respond to recent developments of the Obama Depression? He plays golf. [h/t Polination

The left-wing activist group MoveOn.org picked up the new liberal slogan bashing conservatives for Standard & Poor's U.S. credit rating downgrade: "Tea Party downgrade." President Obama's chief campaign strategist David Axelrod and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry both used the phrase on Sunday talk shows. [Heaping helping of Alinsky tactic anyone?]

Barack Obama uses a Social Security number belonging to man born in 1890? Snopes says no. Not even the same number, among other refutation. Snopes says.

Fox News has exclusively obtained a Democratic National Committee memo which paints the Republican field of presidential contenders as Tea Party flaks pushing tired, divisive policies which elevate the rich and predicts much of the same at tonight's Fox News co-hosted debate in Ames, Iowa. ... The memo is described as a state of play for media and "Democratic friends" which spells out the DNC's predictions for tonight's debate.

"Who has ever called a man 'The King of Rage?,' NOW president Terry O'Neil told TheDC. "The 'Queen of Rage' is something you apply to wrestlers or somebody who is crazy. They didn't even do this to Howard Dean when he had his famous scream."

The administration's knee-jerk responses are somewhat inconsistent: if S&P was wrong to downgrade the debt, and the downgrade was based on a mathematical error, then it is hard to see how the downgrade can also be the Tea Party's fault. (In the legal world, this is known as pleading in the alternative: when sued for borrowing a neighbor's pot and breaking it, the defendant answers that he never borrowed the pot; the pot was never broken; and the pot was already broken when he borrowed it.) Of the administration's alternative theories, the most ludicrous is the claim that the Tea Party, the one group dedicated to doing something about the nation's spending and debt crisis, is somehow to blame for it. Yet this is the theory that President Obama's political adviser, David Axelrod, tried to sell on Face the Nation this morning

Gawker may have put it best: "As you'll see, his hips most definitely don't lie." During an appearance on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show last night, Dem. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) joined to talk about the economy. During that discussion, the almost unmistakeable sound of Frank passing gas... [video]

When the FBI deactivated a ticking device on a gas line found around 11 Wednesday morning they got the gas line turned off and evacuated about 25 residents living a half mile from the danger zone. ... a crude explosive with batteries attached. The timer was set at 2. ... may have been waterlogged from the overnight storms....

The FBI says more information will be released about a possible explosive found on a gas line in eastern Oklahoma. ... found Wednesday on a gas line in Okfuskee County by a county deputy sheriff who thought it might be a bomb because of a timer attached to it. ...

It is hardly surprising that vigilantism is on the rise given a) the disastrous failure of the police to protect the homes and businesses of ordinary people over the weekend, b) the authorities' strange complacency about the destruction of property, and c) their strange obsession with not using baton rounds, tear gas or water cannon no matter how much damage and injury those non-lethal tools might save.

The image of Monika Konczyk (pictured) jumping from her first-floor flat as flames tore through the building became an iconic image of the riots.

A beautiful Brazilian soap star... 28-year-old Adriana Ferreyr yesterday filed a blockbuster $50 million suit charging, among other things, that the frisky octogenarian slapped her around while they were in bed discussing his real-estate betrayal.

A little nature lesson for ya, bubala; these people were camping amid wild animals.Wild animals have three tasks in life — eat, defecate, procreate. Been doing it a long time. The bear was underweight because midsummer is not peak feeding season.... —Pistol Pete at PoliNation

Jackie Onassis believed that Lyndon B Johnson and a cabal of Texas tycoons were involved in the assassination of her husband John F Kennedy, 'explosive' recordings are set to reveal. ... The then Mrs Kennedy, who went on to marry Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, had ordered that they should not be released until 50 years after her death, with some reports suggesting she feared that her revelations might make her family targets for revenge. She died 17 years ago from cancer aged 64 and now her daughter, Caroline Kennedy, has agreed to release the recordings early....

London's Metropolitan Police have created a Flickr page, entitled "London Disorder — Operation Withern," which includes the "first of many" CCTV images of rioters suspected of looting, committing violence and other criminal acts. Police hope the public can help identify the alleged criminals and bring them into custody. ... Police also launched the Twitter hashtag #tweetalooter, which they urge citizens to use if they have information about rioters or criminal acts. ... Police aren't the only ones setting up websites to help catch looters. ...

Pato Banton initially burst onto the international reggae scene in the same wave of British artists that included his friends and colleagues Ranking Roger and UB40. Over the years, Banton's music and lyrics have retained the lighter pop appeal of those performers, while incrementally adding depth and profundity. At this point in his career, Banton has become one of reggae music's most individual and powerful artists. ... Banton's motivation for making records clearly is not based on marketing strategies, however, as he has frequently worked on projects with a spiritual, rather than commercial, impetus. Banton has appeared on a series of religious albums titled "Words of Christ." Banton does not use his own lyrics on these works, but rather serves as a narrator, reading texts from the Urantia Book, also known as the Fifth Epochal Revelation, the central work of an esoteric Christian splinter group. "I've been very blessed to find the Urantia Book. After 21 years of studying it, I'm convinced that it is a revelation for the human race," Banton says. "It's a gift from the angels." Tenets of Rastafarianism also figure in Banton's lyrics, but he cherishes his role as a Urantian prophet. "It's become a tool not only that I give to people but also that I can use for my own edification," he says. Banton, who says he has the gift of revelation, explains that it becomes manifest in many ways. "In my travels, there have been times when I've seen miracles before my own eyes. I have to give thanks for those times," he says. "I don't talk much about them, because I don't want to freak people out or make people think that I'm anything special, but there have been times when God has used me to do certain things, and I just stand there in awe."

Some armed with swords, some carrying hockey sticks, defiant Sikhs stood guard outside their temples last night. More then 700 men, some in their 80s, took to the streets to protect the homes, businesses and places of worship in Southall, West London. The residents rallied together in a show of unity against looters echoed in other parts of the country as ordinary Britons attempted to reclaim the streets. ... It was only on Monday night that police tactics changed and armoured vehicles called Jankels were used to disperse the crowds. Large groups gathered in Enfield, north London, and Eltham, south east London, last night and joined police in patrolling the streets. ... Amarjit Singh Klair from nearby Hounslow, who helped rally the men, said: 'We are working along side the police, they're doing what they can but they are stretched. 'Why shouldn't we defend our homes, businesses and places of worship? This is our area. There's lots of talk about it kicking off here. But we're ready for them.' Hooded youths could be seen scouting the area but appear to be have frightened off. Only a handful of police could be seen patrolling the area.