iOwnTheWorld Photochops and More
Updated Daily – Click image to Biggify
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
» Latest Headlines
Reader Generated News Links – Updated Throughout the Day
CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT OR READ STORIES
SEE WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON BY FOLLOWING the iOTW READER COMMUNITY
ALL THE NEWS YOU’LL EVER NEED TO KNOW
See yesterday’s links HERE
The Scariest Jobs Chart Ever
by Sam Ro from Business Insider
It’s jobs day in America.
This morning we learned that the U.S. economy added 155k jobs in December and the unemployment rate ticked up in 7.8 percent.
Although the numbers were in line with economists’ expectations, they still reflect a job market that remains incredibly weak almost four years into the economic recovery.
[snip]
More here.
CAIR chief: “Muslims discovered America first” (And other nonsense)
Muslims discovered the Americas long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, the head of a D.C.-based jihad-linked Islamic lobbying group told a Saudi TV station Dec. 27.
“There are historical accounts according to which the Muslims preceded Columbus, who is said to have discovered the U.S.,” claimed Nihad Awad, the co-founder of the Council on American Islamic Relations.
“Some documents and accounts indicate that Muslim seafarers were the first to reach the U.S., [so] the bottom line is that Islam played a part in the establishment and development of the U.S.,” Awad told the Saudi interviewer, in an interview in a New York studio.
CAIR did not respond to The Daily Caller’s request for an explanation of Awad’s comments, which were recorded by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
Awad’s group bills itself as a “civil rights” group, but five of its former employees have been jailed or deported for terror offenses, and FBI officials refuse to meet Awad because of his ties to jihadi groups, such as Hamas.
PUK AWARD CAGE MATCH # 10
We couldn’t whittle the finalists to just twenty. We have 28 finalists. So what we’re going to do is have 14 cage matches – head to head competition that you guys will vote on. Thumb up the graphic you prefer, the one on top, or the one on the bottom. Each cage match will begin at 8pm et every night for the next 2 weeks. Each cage match will last 24 hours. Good luck to the final 14!
White House During Benghazi 7 Hour Seige
Help Request – White House 9-11-12 Photo During Benghazi 7 Hour Seige…. ?
by sundance from The Conservative Treehouse
The White House has refused repeated attempts by journalists to produce pictures of President Obama and his team in the White House Situation Room during the 9-11 Benghazi terrorist attacks [3:30pm to 11:00pm Eastern Time].
Personally, after researching the offical reports minute by minute, and comparing them to the media released statements, I believe the Situation Room was empty.
Today the White House released this picture taken on 9-11-12. It was included in a White House FLICKR Album “The Year In Pictures“. You Decide:
(Sept. 11, 2012) – ”Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor, left, updates the President and Vice President on the situation in the Middle East and North Africa. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and Chief of Staff Jack Lew are at right.” (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
A couple of notes: It’s twilight outside, so this is close to sunset on September 11th. The vehicles are noted through the window and you can tell it is twilight. Sunset Was 7:22pm, with end of civil twilight at 7:49pm on Sept 11th 2012. The metadata embedd shows the picture was taken at 7:26pm.
So this picture was taken four hours after the fire-fight started, and they are NOT in the “situation room”. We know the video & audio feed from the Benghazi faux-State Dept. Consulate was live; So, simultaneous to this photograph it was 1:26am Benghazi Time. That is the exact time (01:30am) the rescue team of Navy SEAL’s Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty arrived back in the CIA annex with the body of Sean Smith.
[snip]
What is written on the paper in the hands of VP Biden?
[snip]
Read it (and view larger image) here.
Reelected Speaker Boehner Gets Emotional
‘It’s Time We Get A Little Awe-Struck Again’
John Boehner was reelected Speaker of the House without much resistance. Although a faction of conservatives in the House wanted to see him unseated, no one stood up to the plate to take his place.
In a vote that opened the 113th Congress, Boehner received 220 votes, compared to 192 for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the minority leader. Fourteen members voted for other candidates or present. Boehner needed 218 votes to win reelection.
Defectors from Boehner included Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), who voted for Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho). Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) and two freshmen, Reps. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) and Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), all voted for Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), but Cantor himself voted for Boehner.
I’m one of the few people I know of who doesn’t disparage John Boehner, aka “the Weeper of the House” because of his tendency to get emotional during times of great national import. How do you not appreciate the fact that this man takes none of this for granted - that the burdens of his office clearly weigh heavily upon his shoulders?
“To our new members and their families”, Boehner said, “let me just say, welcome. I know you’re feeling a bit awestruck at this moment. History runs through this building, and now you’re among a select few who share in this privilege, and those of you are returning, who have walked these aisles before, maybe it’s time we get a little awestruck, again.”
Boehner went on to talk about upcoming challenges, the most important of which is reducing the debt. He got choked up again as he noted the House’s constitutional duty to represent the people, not self interest or party agendas.
Read more
Big Paul
I was ashamed to be the world’s fattest man…
but now I’ll be the world’s best slimmer
Gigantic Paul Mason sheds an incredible 46 STONE
Paul Mason lost two-thirds of his 70st bulk following a gastric bypass op on the NHS that reduced his stomach to the size of an egg.
The ex-postman, of Ipswich, Suffolk, now weighs 24st — but says his target is 14 to 15st.
Last night determined Paul admitted “I still have a way to go” as he vowed to go from the world’s fattest man to the world’s greatest slimmer.
Medical bills are so far thought to have cost taxpayers £ 1 million.
Town near Sandy Hook launches $25 violent video game buy-back
A Connecticut town thirty miles from Sandy Hook will give people $25 to incinerate their violent video games.
Southington, Connecticut is encouraging owners of violent video games to deposit them in a local dumpster near a drive-in movie theater, so that the games can be collected and destroyed. In return, the local Chamber of Commerce will give participants $25 gift cards to be used toward purchases of non-violent entertainment.
The Violent Video Game Return Program has the backing of a diverse coalition of groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, YMCA, fire department, board of education, as well as town officials and clergy members.
The program was born out of a desire to respond proactively to the recent shooting at Sandy Hook elementary that left over 20 children dead, which some say was caused in part by violent video games.
Southington schools superintendent Joe Erardi hopes the program will prompt parents to talk to their kids about violent video games.
“There are youngsters who appear to be consumed with violent video games,” he said in a statement. “We’re asking parents to better understand what their child is doing. Have a conversation about next steps.”
More Garbage From the Mouth of Pelosi
Pelosi: ‘Many Members of the Republican Caucus Don’t Believe in Government’
By Penny Starr from CNS News
In an interview on Thursday with National Public Radio, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that many Republicans do not “believe in government.”
“There are many members in the Republican caucus who do not believe in government,” Pelosi said in an interview with NPR’s Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep. “And bless their hearts, they act upon their beliefs.
“So day to day, we vote here on issues that eliminate government initiatives for clean air, clean water, food safety, public safety, public education, public transportation, public housing, public health, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security.
“They don’t believe in a public role,” Pelosi said. “And if you don’t believe in a public role, then why do you even have to have taxes to pay for it? … They’re anti-government ideologues, and that’s what the speaker has to deal with.”
[snip]
More here.
_______
“And if you don’t believe in a public role, then why do you even have to have taxes to pay for it?”
You’re right, Nan. Let’s NOT have taxes!
.
2012 GM Auto Sales Worse Than Any Bush Year
I know, I know. The bailout worked and all headlines today present GM as having its best year since this and that. But here is raw data that you won’t see in many places:
● GM sold 2,595, 717 units in the Unites States during 2012; this is an 11% drop of the almost 3,000,000 units GM in 2008.
● GM U.S. sales in 2012 is lower and worse than any of the eight years Bush was in office.
● In December 2008, when the world was collapsing, when we were at the boiling point of the crisis, when we needed to save GM no questions asked, GM sold 221,983 units. How bad was it? Well, in 2012 in the midst of the great recovery, when “the bailout worked” as per Obama ads, GM sold only 245,733 units. Yes, that’s correct: the difference between the worse times for GM vs “its best months in five years,” is a mere 23,750 sales!
● If you replicate this 23,750 difference for a whole year, it still does not give GM enough sales to catch up to their 2008 level.
Spain Plunders 90% Of Social Security Fund To Buy Its Own Debt
With Spanish 10Y yields hovering at a ‘relatively’ healthy 5%, having been driven inexorably lower on the promise of ECB assistance at some time in the future, the market has become increasingly unsure of just who it is that keeps bidding for this stuff. Well, wonder no longer. As the WSJ notes, Spain has been quietly tapping the country’s richest piggy bank, the Social Security Reserve Fund, as a buyer of last resort for Spanish government bonds – with at least 90% of the €65 billion ($85.7 billion) fund has been invested in increasingly risky Spanish debt. Of course, this is nothing new, the US (and the Irish) have been using quasi-government entities to fund themselves in a mutually-destructive circle-jerk for years – the only difference being there are other buyers in the Treasury market, whereas in Spain the marginal buyer is critical to support the sinking ship. The Spanish defend the use of pension funds to buy bonds as sustainable as long as it can issue bonds – and yet the only way it can actually get the bonds off in the public markets is through using the pension fund assets. The pensioners sum it up perfectly “We are very worried about this, we just don’t know who’s going to pay for the pensions of those who are younger now,” or those who are older we would add.
