MARK STEYN: GIVE AND TAKE

http://www.steynonline.com/5006/give-and-take

Some years ago in this space, I cited a famous Gerald Ford line he liked to use when trying to ingratiate himself with conservative audiences: “A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.” And I posited an alternative thesis: A government big enough to give you everything you want isn’t big enough to get you to give any of it back.

That’s what the political class of Europe’s cradle-to-grave welfare states have spent the last three years doing: trying to persuade their electorates to give some of it back. Not a lot, just a bit. In France, President Sarkozy raised the retirement age from 60 to 62. French life expectancy is 80.7, so you still get to enjoy a quarter of your entire human existence as one long holiday weekend. In Greece, where those in officially designated “hazardous” professions such as hairdressing and TV-announcing get to retire at 50, the government raised the possibility of ending the agreeable arrangement by which public-sector employees receive 14 monthly paychecks per annum. They didn’t actually do it but the mere suggestion that Greeks should, like lesser mortals, be bound by temporal reality was enough for the voters to rebel. M. Sarkozy lost to a socialist pledged to restore retirement at 60, and in Greece the government got swept aside not by its traditional opposition but by various unlovely alternatives. The Communist party got 26 seats. Syriza, a “Coalition of the Radical Left” comprising the Trotskyite “Anticapitalist Political Group,” the Maoist “Communist Organization of Greece,” the Goreist “Renewing Communist Ecological Left,” plus various splinter groups too loopy to mention wound up with 52 seats and the second-largest caucus. A month ago, a mere 4 percent of European Union citizens lived under left-wing politicians. But, after a three-year flirtation with “austerity,” the citizenry has decided that a government big enough to give you everything you want suits them just fine, and they’re not gonna give any of it back. Just keep those 14 monthly checks per annum coming (it counts for your government pension, too) until they’re dead. If it bankrupts those left behind, who cares? Not my problem.

ALAN CARUBA: BE VERY AFRAID….INTIMIDATION BY THE EPA…ARMED AGENTS VISIT ASHEVILLE MAN

Armed EPA Agents Visit Asheville Man http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/armed-epa-agents-visit-asheville-man?f=puball Sometimes a small incident says volumes about a large government agency. In this case, it’s the Environmental Protection Agency. Around 1:45 PM on May 23, Ashville, North Carolina resident Larry Keller was in the midst of an international call which he had to cut short in order to […]

HERBERT LONDON: THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD CHARM CAMPAIGN

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-muslim-brotherhood-charm-campaign?f=must_reads The Muslim Brotherhood charm campaign in the U.S. has officially been launched. Now that the Brotherhood is no longer an opposition group, but a political juggernaut controlling a majority of the seats in Egypt’s parliament, a series of meetings with experts in the U.S. have been organized to convince the wary that they are […]

SEE THE VIDEOS AT FSM

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/blog/

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Wisconsin Governor Walker addresses crowd after bitter recall election
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Bill Clinton: We’re in a recession and should extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich
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Satire: NewsBusted 6/5/12A new low for the United Nations (Pat Condell)

Read more: Family Security Mattershttp://www.familysecuritymatters.org/#ixzz1x0n7GIYd
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

RYAN MAURO : RADICAL ISLAMIC ORGANIZATION TO HOLD CONFERENCE IN ILLINOIS ON JUNE 17

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/radical-islamic-organization-to-hold-conference-in-illinois-on-june-17 An Islamic extremist group called Hizb ut-Tahrir that opposes democracy and supports violent jihad, including the killing of U.S. soldiers, is coming to Rolling Meadows, Illinois on June 17. The conference, titled “Revolution: Liberation by Revelation–Muslims Marching Toward Victory” is about how Muslims must help resurrect the Caliphate and institute Sharia-based governance. The event […]

PATRICK POOLE: MEET JOHN BRENNAN…OBAMA’S ASSASSINATION CZAR

http://pjmedia.com/blog/meet-john-brennan-obamas-assassination-czar/ A relatively unnoticed article [1] by Associated Press reporter Kimberly Dozier two weeks ago outlined new Obama administration policy changes which consolidated power for authorizing drone attacks and assassinations under political appointees within the White House. The article identifies White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan as the official assuming the role of Obama’s de […]

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ RESPONDS TO THE WALKER WIN…SEE NOTE PLEASE

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2012/06/06/reactions-to-the-walker-victory/?print=1

OOOOPS…..THIS IS WHAT SHE SAID BEFORE:

On May 29, the DNC chairman said, and I quote: The Wisconsin recall is a “dry run” for the November elections.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/06/05/oops-debbie-wasserman-shultz-probably-wishes-she-hadnt-said-this/

Washington, D.C. – DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz [1] released the following statement tonight on the results of the recall election in Wisconsin:

Despite the disappointing outcome of tonight’s election, there is no question that over the past year this recall effort sent a message to Scott Walker that his brand of divisive politics is offensive and wrong. Thousands of Wisconsinites mounted this effort in the face of a flood of out of state, secret and corporate special interest money– amounting to a massive $31 million war chest for Governor Walker to just $4 million on our side.

Readers will recall that Wasserman Schultz was accused of abandoning the Democrat activists to their fate as it became clear there was little hope that Walker could be defeated. The Daily Kos [2] wrote when the recall effort was clearly flagging:

If Walker wins in Wisconsin she apparently believes

“there aren’t going to be any repercussions,”

Because:

“But I think it’ll be, at the end of the day, a Wisconsin-based election, and like I said, across the rest of the country and including in Wisconsin, President Obama is ahead.”

The activists at the Daily Kos could be forgiven for thinking that what Wasserman Schultz really said was “we know Barrett is toast in Wisconsin. If Obama comes anywhere near that debacle he will be tarred with the taint of defeat. Therefore we are going to throw Barrett to the dogs and however many others as we need to so that President Obama can win in November.”

Schultz’s statement continued on a note of confident, almost boastful defiance.

And as we turn our attention to the fall, we will not cede an inch in Wisconsin to Mitt Romney who has been behind in virtually every single recent poll and who wants to go back to the same failed policies of the past from which Wisconsin is recovering. And while we’re not taking anything for granted, if Mitt Romney thinks he’s going to be the first Republican to win Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan he’s got another thing coming.

One wonders who Wasserman Schultz’s speechwriter is. The tone of her statement seems straight out of Radio Tokyo in the closing days of World War 2 when they boasted of having sunk “17 American aircraft carriers, 28 battleships, 73 cruisers and 200 destroyers” without bothering to mention that the supposed fleet action was taking place right off the shores of Japan with completely the opposite results.

It is to be hoped that she actually believes her own press release. But if she doesn’t, so what? It’s all about controlling the narrative isnt it? Well maybe not. Once past a certain point, a system in collapse finds that all of its narratives unintentionally become comedy skits.

“SHAMNESTY INTERNATIONAL” THE CREDIBILITY PROBLEM OVER ISRAEL: GIDON SHAVIV

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1279/amnesty_international_s_credibility_problem_over_israel Amnesty bases its “research” on blatantly biased sources, making a mockery of its reliability as an independent organisation What do you get when you combine a radical activist who volunteers as a human shield for terrorists with a former Palestinian Authority spokesman? The Israel research department for Amnesty International. “Impartiality” is a core value […]

ANDREW McCARTHY’S FAST AND FURIOUS RESPONSE

http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/301910 Corner dwellers will not be the least bit surprised by Robert’s report that wiretap applications submitted to federal court by the Justice Department demonstrate that DOJ officials knew about the reckless investigative tactics used in the Fast & Furious investigation. Last November, Attorney General Holder and one of his top underlings, Criminal Division Chief […]

ANDREW McCARTHY: CAIR’S MICHIGAN LEADER “JEWS INCURRED THE WRATH OF ALLAH”

URL to article: http://pjmedia.com/andrewmccarthy/2012/06/05/cair-michigan-leader-jews-incurred-the-wrath-of-allah/ CAIR-Michigan Leader: Jews Incurred the Wrath of Allah It is a continuing outrage that CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations), an Islamic supremacist organization with deep ties to the Muslim Brotherhood (and particularly to Hamas, the Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch), is treated as if it were a “civil rights organization” — its […]