House of cards
Entitlements: Social Security’s chief actuary reports that the social safety net will run a deficit for 2010, nine years earlier than predicted. Put down that big gavel, Madam Speaker, we’re about to hit the iceberg. [...]
America’s New Nomenklatura
IBD Editorials:
Government: With the passage of health care reform and the ongoing boom in federal hiring, it’s becoming increasingly clear that America is now run by a new, privileged class of bureaucrats.
For those who remember the old Soviet Union, it was a grim place — at least for average citizens. But not so for those in government. Contrary to the official ideals of equality and a classless society that the ruling communist regime espoused, the USSR created a privileged class of party members inside government — the nomenklatura.
This semipermanent bureaucracy earned higher incomes, got better health care, ate better food and had greater job security than average Russians, the much-despised proletarians. Today, our bloated federal government seems, in significant ways, to be creating this same dynamic.
Take the just-passed health care bill that carefully excluded the White House, congressional leaders and their staffs from having to live under the reforms’ restrictions.
[...]
Pointing out hate speech is now hate speech, while hate speech itself, is not
By Eeyore, Vlad Tepes:
Mark Steyn has said it many times and many ways, most notably perhaps in his excellent book, America Alone. Now, pointing out hate speech is the real crime while the actual hate speech being pointed at goes unchallenged, especially if it is from a protected group or dare I say it, if it is against Jewish people, when sufficiently disguised under the totem of criticism of the state of Israel.
Youtube has now suspended access to me to my account because of two videos, both of which merely point out the hate speech of others, and while one one of them is still actually playing on youtube in the original language, and intent.
To be more clear, one of the videos which caused the suspension of access, was a Dutch language Rap video about killing Jews and so on. That video remains on youtube with no issues. However when I subtitled it in English so people could be aware of this, it caused a strike on my account.
[...]
Lawyer representing comedian walks out of B.C. human rights hearing
Vancouver Sun:
However, before any evidence was presented, the lawyer representing Earle walked out of the hearing claiming the process was illegal.
Jim Miller, an experienced Vancouver lawyer, left after failing to convince tribunal member Murray Geiger-Adams that the issue of whether the tribunal had jurisdiction to accept the complaint should be dealt with before — not after — the evidence had been presented.
Geiger-Adams had ruled the hearing — expected to take four days — should continue with the issue of jurisdiction being dealt with at the end.
Miller had argued that such a course of action was “illegal” based on rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada and the B.C. Supreme Court.
“I find this difficult because of my obligation as a lawyer to the courts. In 30 years of practice, I’ve never been in a situation like this.” said Miller packing up his law bags.
“This is high-handed; I can’t consent to it, I’d be consenting to an illegal process, so I have to leave,” he said.
Miller’s argument is that his client, who did not attend the hearing, was entitled to freedom of artistic expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and these rights “trumped” Section 8 of the B.C. Human Rights Code.
He said the human rights tribunal was not a “charter free zone” and could not proceed with a hearing if it didn’t have jurisdiction.
Miller said he would await Geiger-Adams’ written reasons before deciding whether to apply for a judicial review of his decision by the B.C. Supreme Court.
[...]
Robert Fowler gets it wrong
Terry Glavin, NP:
I regret to say Robert Fowler is a bigger goofball than I thought. By an order of magnitude.
Canadian foreign policy should not be the exclusive purview of diplomats and policy wonks, Mr. Fowler. It should reflect precisely the interests and activism of Canadians. There’s nothing “parochial” about that, and there is no virtue in peacekeeping just because it’s something the autocrats in Beijing and Moscow and Tehran would prefer Canadian soldiers do.
Fowler appears to lament that Canadians are not prepared to invest the blood and treasure (TM) required to “effectively colonize Afghanistan. . .and replace their culture with ours, for that seems to be what we seek, and the Taliban seems to share that view.” What the hell is he saying, exactly? The right to know how to read is something peculiar to “our” culture? If we help Afghan teachers with their work, we’re replacing Afghan culture with “our” culture? Or does he want us to “colonize” Afghanistan? If that’s what he wants, then he’s quite right, we’d be doomed. But colonization “seems to be” what we’re doing because that’s what the Taliban claims? We let the Taliban do our thinking for us? What about the vast majority of Afghans who want nothing to do with the Taliban? They don’t see Canada as some kind of colonizer. Don’t their views count?
[...]
Obama’s anti-Israeli hysteria dangerous and destructive
Greg Sheridan, The Australian:
BARACK Obama’s anti-Israel jihad is one of the most irresponsible policy lurches by any modern American president. It rightly earns Obama the epithet of the US president least sympathetic to Israel in Israel’s history. Jimmy Carter became a great hater of Israel, but only after he left office.
[...]
Chavez Arrests Last Opposition TV Station Owner; Latest Ex. of What FCC Diversity Czar Lloyd Called Taking the Media Seriously?
By Seton Motley, NewsBusters:
Is this what Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd meant when he said (on camera) Venezuelan thug dictator Hugo Chavez (take that, Sean Penn) had begun “to take very seriously the media in his country”- while praising Chavez’s “incredible…democratic revolution?”
[...]
Obamacare’s Consequence
BY Matthew Continetti:
The liberal line is that President Obama has secured his place in history by signing into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. And secured it he has. Henceforth Obama will be remembered as the man who accelerated America’s mad dash toward bankruptcy. He will be remembered as the leader who promoted a culture of dependency. He will be remembered as the figure who sacrificed a dream of national unity upon the altar of big government liberalism. It’s true: Obama is now a president of consequence. And almost all of those consequences are bad.
[...]
Obama’s Treatment of Israel is Shocking
By Ed Koch:
In portraying Israel as the cause of the lack of progress in the peace process, President Obama ignores the numerous offers and concessions that Israel has made over the years for the sake of peace, and the Palestinians’ repeated rejections of those offers. Not only have Israel’s peace proposals, which include ceding virtually the entire West Bank and parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians, been rejected, but each Israeli concession has been met with even greater demands, no reciprocity, and frequently horrific violence directed at Israeli civilians. Thus, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s agreement to suspend construction on the West Bank – a move heralded by Secretary of State Clinton as unprecedented by an Israeli government – has now led to a demand that Israel also halt all construction in East Jerusalem, which is part of Israel’s capital. Meanwhile, Palestinians are upping the ante, with violent protests in Jerusalem and elsewhere. And the Obama administration’s request that our Arab allies make some conciliatory gesture towards Israel has fallen on deaf ears.
[...]
Daily Gut: The Burden of Poop
by Greg Gutfeld, BJ:
So in a recent AP column, Michael Blood says it’s up to Andrew Breitbart to prove that Tea Partiers didn’t yell the N-word in Washington last Sunday.
He writes:
“Conservative columnist Andrew Breitbart disputed accounts that tea party activists in Washington shouted racial epithets at black members of Congress amid the health care debate, although he didn’t provide any evidence.”
[...]
Duke University cancels motherhood event when pro-life group participates
by Ed Morrissey:
The defender of free campus speech FIRE has a new report that has to be read to be believed. Duke University Students for Life booked a space at the campus Women’s Center for a presentation on the challenging roles of motherhood as part of their “Week for Life” campaign. The event at the center involved a student and her mother speaking about their relationship and the difficulties each had. Unfortunately, Duke apparently fears that students might come into contact with pro-life arguments while discussing motherhood — and acted to protect students from the trauma:
[...]
I BLAME THE DEMOCRATS’ INFLAMMATORY EXTREMIST RHETORIC
INSTAPUNDIT:
Man Arrested For Eric Cantor Death Threat. With an anti-semitic angle: “Leboon’s video also makes reference to Cantor’s Judaism – Cantor last week said he has received anti-Semitic threats in the past.”
UPDATE: Reader Kevin Menard writes:
[...]
Questions surround Midwest raids against “militia” groups
By Doug Hagmann, CFP:
An army of federal, state and local law enforcement agents conducted coordinated raids in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio over the weekend, arresting at least three men on gun charges. Initial reports and details leading to the raids remain sketchy, but it has been verified that the raids focused on domestic “militia” groups, including one fundamentalist Christian organization that openly prepared and trained for a biblical “end-times” scenario.
[...]
The raids against the militias, including the Christian survivalist organization, were conducted in the wake of our March 25th report that disclosed a shift of focus by federal authorities onto domestic groups that allegedly pose a threat to domestic security. We will have more detailed information on the raids as it becomes available. We are also monitoring the response of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) as unconfirmed reports indicate that the leaders from the Michigan chapter and their Washington, DC headquarters are reportedly being briefed by high-level federal officials in advance of public disclosures relating to the raids.
Chief Israel ‘war crimes’ investigator at Soros-financed human rights group also avid Nazi memorabilia collector
By: Mark Hemingway, Washington Examiner:
This story has actually been around for a few months, but glad to see it’s finally gaining some traction. Last fall, one of the founders of Human Rights Watch came out and accused the organization of being irrationally anti-Israel. To make matters worse, members of the organization thought nothing of fund raising in Saudi Arabia, where the organization’s criticism of Israel was no doubt a selling point.
And if this weren’t bad enough, the Times of London has an in-depth piece about the ensuing scandal when it was revealed that one of the organization’s lead investigators and vocal Israel critic is an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia:
[...]
The next move of the Alinsky left
Andrew Thomas, AT
The war between the left and right has been ratcheted up this past weekend. Although a philosophical war of words, to the committed Alinsky left it is nonetheless a deadly serious war.
The progressive movement has long been known for its intolerance of opposing philosophies and its propensity for violence to attain its goals. As Noel Sheppard notes, at the 2008 Republican Convention leftist demonstrators hospitalized conventioneers with bricks thrown through bus windows and sandbags dropped from overpasses onto passing cars. The progressive media looked the other way.
Following the passage of ObamaCare, much media frenzy has surrounded incidents where a coffin was put on congressman Carnahan’s front lawn (didn’t happen) and a brick was thrown through congresswoman Slaughter’s Niagara Falls office window. Of course, the last time someone smashed Democratic Party office windows, a Democrat was found responsible.
Now, new incidents of Democrat windows being broken have been reported, some credible, some not. These are being used by the progressive media as a weapon against the Tea Party conservatives. Since this type of childish vandalism is a signature act of progressivism, I would search for suspects on the left side of the aisle.
[...]
The Meaning of Exodus
Moshe Dann, AT:
As if Jews needed a reminder about what a modern rendition of “Pharaoh’s heart hardened,” President Obama provides an example, emphasizing an important lesson: the Egyptian dictator/king was part of the process of liberation and, ultimately, of God’s will and the destiny of the Jewish People.
Despite Obama’s nasty treatment of Israel’s Prime Minister and unreasonable demands, Sec of State Hillary Clinton’s hysterical condemnations’ despite suggestions that Israel is guilty of war crimes, human rights violations, apartheid, and hindering America’s war efforts in Pakistan and Afghanistan; despite Israel’s demonization at the UN and Arab/Muslim boycott and isolation, the Israeli government and the Jewish People are stronger and more united. Go figure.
[...]
Obama rewards the SEIU
Phil Boehmke, AT:
Once again Mr. Obama has thumbed his nose at the American people. Emboldened by his big win in passing ObamaCare, the future former president placed both of his thumbs squarely on the American worker’s windpipe and squeezed. With the U.S. Senate in recess Mr. Obama moved quickly to wield his executive sword to fill a number of federal positions including the appointment of Craig Becker to the NLRB.
This past week all 41 U.S. Senate Republicans sent a letter to Mr. Obama requesting that he not use the recess to force Becker’s appointment to the NLRB and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent a separate letter to the president on behalf of numerous business groups that oppose this disastrous appointment.
Mr. Becker’s appointment has been on hold since his nomination last year, even though at the time the Democrats had a filibuster proof majority. According to The Foundry.
[...]
The Tragedy of the Peace Process
Mario Loyola, NRO:
When the right-wing Benyamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister of Israel the first time round in 1996, Clinton-administration officials barely disguised their bitter disappointment. For the next three years, relations between the U.S. and Israel would be dominated by tempests-in-teapots such as what an Israeli bulldozer might have been doing in a particular neighborhood of East Jerusalem.[...]
After Labor came back to power at the end of Clinton’s term, Yasser Arafat was able to secure almost every concession that Palestinians could ask for at Camp David in 2000 — and promptly rejected the deal. Weeks later, Arafat unleashed the “second intifada” — not a popular uprising like the first, but an organized campaign of suicide bombings that would kill a thousand Israeli civilians in just a few years. The concessions Israel had made for peace, including withdrawal from 90 percent of the West Bank, had proven suicidal.
Many of these same Clinton hands are back at the helm of the “peace process” now, but they hardly seem to have learned from its failures. The Israeli decision to build hundreds of new housing units in a heavily Jewish area of East Jerusalem was “condemned” by the Obama administration. The reaction revealed the personal animus that Obama’s advisers feel toward Netanyahu, a hostility that is a relic of the Clinton administration and an extension-by-proxy of U.S. partisan politics. The reaction also demonstrated that U.S. officials still don’t understand what they themselves have done wrong.
[...]
Obama And Israel: The Trust Is Gone
Ed Koch, Jewish Press:
I consider the Obama administration’s recent actions against the Israeli government to be outrageous and a breach of trust.
The timing of the Israeli government’s announcement, while Vice President Joe Biden was in Jerusalem, that 1,600 apartments in East Jerusalem would be built for Jews, was unfortunate and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for it, but it did not mark any change in the Israeli government’s policy. That policy is and has long been to allow construction of homes for Jews in East Jerusalem.
Now a little history. In 1947, the United Nations passed a resolution authorizing the creation of a Jewish state within the British Mandate of Palestine. After it declared independence in 1948, Israel was immediately attacked by the combined armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Although Israel repelled the attack, Jordan conquered East Jerusalem, separating it from its Western half.
[...]
Report: US may abstain from UN resolution on east Jerusalem
YNET:
The US is considering abstaining from a possible UN Security Council resolution against Israeli construction in east Jerusalem, the BBC reported on Sunday.
According to the report, the possibility was raised during talks in Paris last week between a senior US official and Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasim Al Thani.
[...]
Israel fears Obama heading for imposed Mideast settlement
Haaretz:
U.S. President Barack Obama’s demands during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Tuesday point to an intention to impose a permanent settlement on Israel and the Palestinians in less than two years, political sources in Jerusalem say.
Israeli officials view the demands that Obama made at the White House as the tip of the iceberg under which lies a dramatic change in U.S. policy toward Israel.
[...]
A grim sign for ObamaCare
NY POST:
How ironic that, even as the Senate last week debated the reconciliation “fixes” to ObamaCare, word came that Social Security has reached the so-called tipping point — years ahead of schedule.
For the first time, Social Security will pay out more in benefits than it receives in tax revenue, to the tune of $29 billion.
The reason: Continued high unemployment means there are fewer paychecks from which to deduct Social Security taxes. Meanwhile, many who can’t find work are applying for benefits much earlier than they’d planned.
The so-called tipping point wasn’t supposed to arrive until 2017, according to current congressional projections.
And it also means that the ultimate day of reckoning — when Social Security runs out of money unless something is done to stabilize the system — has been pushed ahead by four years, to 2037.
So is this really the time for the US to be setting out on a trillion-dollar entitlement adventure filled with so many unknowns and untested elements?
[...]
Canada Defunds a Terror-Supporting U.N. “Agency”
by Jamie Glazov, FrontPage:
Frontpge Interview’s guest today is Asaf Romirowsky, a Senior Fellow at the Endowment for Middle East Truth and an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum.
FP: Asaf Romirowsky, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Canada has become the first country to defund from UNRWA. It is the first Western government to do so. Tell us about UNRWA and this Canadian move.
Romirowsky: Thank you for having me
To an outsider, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) seems to be a UN humanitarian group aiding Palestinian refugees. In reality however, it helps destroy the chances of Arab-Israeli peace, promotes terrorism, and holds back Palestinian society from ever achieving statehood.
There has been much evidence to show how UNRWA schools have become hotbeds of anti-Western, anti-American, and anti-Semitic indoctrination, as well as recruiting offices for Islamist terror groups. UNRWA is the largest employer of Palestinians as such the local offices are dominated by radicals who staff and subsidize Islamist groups while potentially intimidating anyone from voicing a different line. UNRWA facilities and vehicles are used to store and transport weapons, and have actually served as military bases.
[...]
Giving The Finger To Congress, Obama Recess-Appoints Forced Unionism ACORN Radical
by Matthew Vadum, NEWSREAL:
Acting like a Latin American caudillo President Obama continues to thumb his nose at Congress, daring Republican members of the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against him.
Obama’s latest outrage comes in the form of a recess appointment of extremist Craig Becker, who used to represent ACORN and SEIU (Service Employees International Union), to the National Labor Relations Board. Becker was rejected by the Senate when his nomination came up for a vote last month.
[...]
Nazi scandal engulfs Human Rights Watch
Jonathan Foreman, Sunday Times [UK]:
At the headquarters of Human Rights Watch, more than 30 storeys above the noise and bustle of Manhattan, there is so much high-mindedness hanging in the air you can almost taste it. This is the epicentre of a certain type of socially smart, progressive activism — the kind that persuades Hollywood grandees, power lawyers and liberal financiers to dig deeply into their pockets.
When the story broke that one of the organisation’s most prominent and vocal members of staff might be a collector of Nazi-era military memorabilia it felt like some sort of sexual scandal had erupted in the Victorian church. For a lobbying group accustomed to adulatory coverage in the media, it was a public-relations catastrophe.
Human Rights Watch is one of two global superpowers among the world’s myriad humanitarian pressure groups. It is relatively young — established in its current form in 1988 — but it has grown so quickly in size, wealth and influence that it has all but eclipsed its older, London-based rival, Amnesty International.
Unlike Amnesty, HRW, as it is known, gets its money from charitable foundations and wealthy individuals — such as the financier George Soros — rather than a mass membership.
[...]
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