WND: America’s Marxist Picnic
Oh sure, you may be jaded and tired of hearing about the Communist plot to pollute our precious bodily fluids, but are you ready for the MIND-BENDING HORROR of America's Marxist Picnic?
And on Father's Day, no less? The evil. The sheer evil.
I could go on and on. These oft-cited facts merely scratch the surface of Obama’s long-term radicalism. But the point in juxtaposing my father’s story and Obama’s is as inescapable as it is troubling:
My dad, a true American who was immeasurably grateful and loyal to his adopted country, could have lost everything because his mother went to a church picnic and picked up a Marxist rag.
That was then. But now, sitting in the White House is a man who has spent most of his entire life immersed in Marxist ideology, influences, mentors and benefactors. He has proven, as president, that he is still fully committed to dragging America – kicking and screaming if necessary (recall the outrageous and illegal way Obamacare was passed) – into a new era of unprecedented, government-coerced redistribution of wealth and power. To be precise: Marxism.
It would be folly, of course, to imagine that Obama just magically appeared out of thin air to lead a nation of liberty-loving, responsible, moral, right-thinking grownups leftward. America has been moving in this sad direction for decades. No, not under the “Marxist” label, or any of those other nasty words of yesteryear, like “socialism” or “communism” or “collectivism.” They’ve all been carefully replaced by warm-and-cuddly terms like “fairness,” “economic justice,” “redistribution,” “progressivism” and – as an off-script Obama famously told Joe the Plumber – “spread[ing] the wealth around.”
The spirit of socialism has taken root and flowered spectacularly in America, especially in all of our elite, idea-generating institutions like education, the news and entertainment media, and, of course, government. The original American spirit – stout, risk-taking, God-fearing, responsible, adult – has progressively been displaced by the spirit of dependency and helplessness, of perpetual grievance and victimization, and most of all, of envy and resentment. All of which cries out for ever bigger government.
So the question is: Will we Americans re-embrace the values that made ours the greatest nation in history, or will we continue on our current path toward the godless mirage of “redistributive change” – and the poverty and loss of liberty that always follow?
In any event, for the present I can at least derive some solace from remembering that I was raised by parents and grandparents who appreciated their adopted country and all the blessings the Creator freely bestowed upon it – and weren’t angrily obsessed with “transforming” it into a socialist paradise. For that I am truly grateful.
May those blessings continue. May this nation repent of its sins. And may we come to our senses before it’s too late.
Happy 100th birthday, Dad. God bless you.
(h/t: freetoken.)
Contra Yeats; The Greek Center Held
Official results released by the interior ministry, with 97 percent of ballots counted, showed New Democracy taking 29.7 percent of the vote, with SYRIZA on 26.9. The PASOK Socialists were set to take 12.3 percent of the vote. Because of a 50-seat bonus given to the party which comes first, that would give New Democracy and PASOK 162 seats in the 300-seat parliament, in an alliance broadly committed to the 130 billion euros ($164 billion) bailout.
(HT: Rueters)
I congratulate Antonis Samaris for cobbling together a narrow victory in today’s Greek Election. He represented common sense and ratiocination in what appeared to be a world gone mad. As a Romneyesque Moderate Rightist, Samaris wanted to embark on the painful path of digging Greece out of the economic ditch and maintaining its ties to the Eurozone. He seems to be a cautious, risk-averse leader who will try to rebuild Greece’s image as a reliable and viable member of the modern world. He describes his interpretation of his narrow mandate to govern below.
“The Greek people voted today to stay on the European course and remain in the euro zone,” New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, 61, told jubilant supporters. “There will be no more adventures, Greece’s place in Europe will not be put in doubt.”
Samaris sent the perfect message. The adults are back in charge. If Samaris can assuage doubts that the rest of the world has about Greece being a trustworthy entity, he can do a lot to help the worldwide financial markets stop panicking. Compared to his opposition on the Far Right and The Neo-Marxian Left, Samaris is Pericles-reborn.
The principle opposition will be led by Alex Tsipras and The Marxian Syriza Party. Tsipras has been dubbed “The Scariest Man in Europe.” He is an avowed Communist who says that if Greece refuses to implement austerity than Europe will lack the testicular fortitude to refuse them all the bailout cash they need. He has refered to Greece’s debts as odious and thereby uncollectable.
Samaris is further strengthened by the fact that he has opposition to his right that has similar levels of mental retardation to Alex Tsipras. The Far Right Golden Dawn Party seems to have as many issues as it champions. However, Nikolaos Michaloliakos has become perhaps the most successful Nazi in politics since Francisco Franco did the world one final favor by assuming room temperature. His party took 6% of the vote and will enter The Greek Parliament.
He will thereby enjoy the opportunity to get in fistfights with women on more Greek political shows. Perhaps his party’s new slogan can be “I done told you to get me a beer and a sammitch.” With opponents like Tsipras and Michaloliakos to contend with, Samaris needs only to show up with a nice tie and proper manners to gain in stature from regular comparison.
In conclusion, the civilized world dodged a bullet with the moderately right-wing New Democracy Party pulling out a narrow win against the terminally insane Alex Tsipras. They will cobble together an unspectacular, bureaucratic and corrupt ruling majority. They will work with Germany and France to reach a deal that keeps Greece attached to Europe and the world’s financial markets out of the toilet. Contra the Great John Yeats, it appears that the center has held in Athens, Greece.
Greece, France, and Egypt Vote. Good News Left Wanting
The most important election in
modern Greek history has predictably left the politicians of Greece
the unenviable task of forming a coalition. At the time of writing
New Democracy has the most seats, 108 of the Greek Parliament’s 300
seats. Syriza, New Democracy’s most prominent opposition, gained 19
seats and now holds 71 seats in total. The five remaining parties
have all lost seats. Despite the increase in seats enjoyed by New
Democracy and Syriza neither has enough seats to form a government,
though New Democracy is in a better position. Leader of Syriza,
Alexis Tsipras, has called to congragulate the leader of New
Democracy, Antonis Samaras.
Pasok (the Panhellenic Socialist Movement) came third, and looks
likely to be the most feasible partner in a New Democracy-led
government. With New Democracy’s 108 seats and Pasok’s 34 seats a
government could be formed. However, while the mathematics of the
election results is comparatively simple, the politics is not.
The
BBC reported that a senior Pasok MP said that the party would
be willing to form a new government with New Democracy, but only if
Syriza is represented. It is too early to establish how widespread
this attitude is amongst Pasok politicians and supporters. Even if
widespread, such attitudes would probably be repressed in order to
form a government as soon as possible.
A New Democracy-led government would be a relief to the
Eurocrats in Brussels who would prefer a government to be formed
soon. A drawn out negotiation process will not reassure the markets
or advocates of the European project.
Greece wasn’t the only country on the Mediterranean to hold
elections today. Both France and Egypt also held elections.
Egyptians voted in low
numbers in the second and last round of voting for their
country’s first president since Mubarak left office. The two
candidates are Mohamed Morsi from the Freedom and Justice Party and
Mubarak’s former Prime Minister, Ahmed Shafiq. When one considers
that the choice being given to the Egyptians is between someone
from the regime the Arab Spring deposed and someone with strong
links to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood it is not hard to see why
the turnout has been low.
In France Hollande’s socialists have won a majority in
parliament and will not need the support of the communists or the
greens to pass legislation. The socialists were not the only ones
with good news, the xenophobic National Front won its first seats
since the 1980s.
It will be a few days and perhaps even weeks before the full
implications of these elections are clarified. Greece looks to be
on track to establish a government sooner than many thought, though
how the German government will work with the socialist French
government and a pro-bailout and pro-euro Greek government in order
to save the euro is not clear. Egypt’s election looks only to be
the latest disappointment the Arab Spring has delivered.
#TwitterGulag: The Hypocrisy of the Persecuted Wingnut
Gulag via ShutterstockThe right wing persecution fantasy known as #TwitterGulag is still raging today, as the conspiracy theories and suspected masterminds keep multiplying and getting more ridiculous. They've now started adding a slash to any suspected mastermind's Twitter username, to avoid what they think is the DREADED REPLY TRAP that keeps getting their accounts suspended.
For example:
@TWlTTERGULAG @bcmissildine HERO #TwitterGulag #RO12 @DLoesch @/silviobreckman @/Lizardoid @/DBarberHotnuke @/ChicoDelainky @/woodhouseB #p2
— Karl Marx Spa (@TWlTTERGULAG) June 16, 2012
But today, we also find Breitbart.com's Mandy Nagy and Lee Stranahan urging conservatives to do exactly what they've been whining and crying about for months: use Twitter's "block and report as spam" feature to silence people who disagree with them.
There's currently an organized intimidation attack on #RO12 tag, involving rapid research on responding targets. Block/report any abuse - RT
— Mandy Nagy (@Liberty_Chick) June 16, 2012
Flagging serial harassers for contacting you with unwanted, bizaree tweets is what the Twitter TOS was made for. Not al all 'Twitter Gulag'
— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) June 17, 2012
These are the same people who've been trying to cast me as the super-villain in a plot to oppress conservatives, because I advised -- and will continue to advise -- my friends and followers to block and report the psycho stalkers from the website exposed in this post. Smell that? It's the ripe stench of hypocrisy.
But Lee Stranahan perfectly described what these obsessive nuts have been doing on Twitter for months, harassing me, my followers, and everyone with whom I communicate, with "unwanted, bizarre tweets," and I'd like to thank him for supporting my effort to fight against this kind of stalking behavior with the tools Twitter created for that purpose.
This wingnut double standard has been noted by others as well:
@Stranahan Weren't you critical of @Lizardoid for saying literally the exact same thing?
— Robert Silverman (@BobSaietta) June 17, 2012
Movie Mocks Lawmakers Who Don’t Read Legislation Before Voting
House Speaker John Boehner famously dropped a copy of President Obama’s stimulus bill on the House floor during the debate over its passage, calling it a 1,100-page bill “that not one member of this body has read.” But the stimulus is only one example highlighted in Jerrol LeBaron’s documentary “Fools on the Hill,” which chronicles a series of stories about state and federal lawmakers rushing to pass legislation they haven’t read. At Heritage’s Bloggers Briefing on Tuesday, LeBaron presented a...
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Plouffe: Immigration ruling fully within Obama’s authority; decision not made for political reasons
**Written by Doug Powers
Senior White House adviser David Plouffe is making the rounds on the Sunday shows to spin the administration’s recent decree on ending deportations of younger people who are in the country illegally.
From The Hill (whenever you feel the time is right, click play on the accompanying laugh track):
“This is not a political move. This builds on a lot of steps that we have already taken,” Plouffe said on the CNN program “State of the Union.”
Mitt Romney, in an interview to air on CBS later Sunday, accused the White House of making the decision based on politics. Romney already faces a deficit among Latinos whose votes could be pivotal in battleground states.
But Plouffe said repeatedly that the move wasn’t politically motivated. “Who knows how the politics will turn out. But this decision was the right decision,” Plouffe said.
He also said the policy change was “fully within” Obama’s powers, responding to critics who say the president is making selective decisions about which laws to enforce and making an end-run around Congress.
Where in the world might anybody have gotten the idea that the move is not within Obama’s constitutional authority? Well, Obama for starters.
Wasn’t J-Nap not too long ago out touting a record number of deportations as proof the administration had no plans to pursue a backdoor amnesty? Probably not, because if she had been that would lead people to believe that this sudden reversal is driven by politics — which it isn’t, because Plouffe said so.
*****
Completely unrelated side note: Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there. I’ve spent some time with my kids this morning, and now I’m going to go spend some time with my dad. If you’re able I hope you can do the same.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
True Democracy: Principles over Process
Many around the world have been quick to tout the Arab Spring, with its deposition of tyrants and the occurrence of elections, as democracy in action for parts of the Middle East. But in places like Egypt, civilian rule and fair elections appear more and more likely not to happen any time soon. On Thursday, Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court that includes Mubarak appointees ruled to dissolve the Islamist-led parliament. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (the current governing regime)...
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Anthony Randazzo on the Real Estate Non-Recovery
After years of housing pain,
many Americans are hoping we have reached the bottom of the housing
market, with historically low mortgage interest rates and
high housing “affordability” metrics providing some cause for
optimism. But Anthony Randazzo looks at the four best signs of a
recovery and finds them all lacking. A recent surge in housing
doesn't appear to be sustainable, and by the most important
measures—foreclosures being worked out, negative equity cleared
away, and prices stabilizing—we still do not have a housing
recovery.
Rodney King Dead
Rodney King, famous for his
beating at the hands of Los Angeles police in 1991 and the riots
that resulted when several officers involved were acquitted, is
dead at 47.
Police in Rialto, California, received a 911 call from King's
fiancee, Cynthia Kelly, about 5:25 a.m., said Capt. Randy DeAnda.
Responding officers found King at the bottom of the pool, removed
him and attempted to revive him. He was pronounced dead at a local
hospital, DeAnda said.There were no preliminary signs of foul play, he said, and no
obvious injuries on King's body. Police are conducting a drowning
investigation, DeAnda said, and King's body would be autopsied.
King's beating, captured on video, launched a trend of
bystanders filming police behavior (and misbehavior), followed by
the police's authoritarian and sometimes violent responses. The
battle to record police officers, particularly when they are
abusing their power, continues today. Just
last week, a man in Rancho Palos Verdes (south of Los Angeles)
was acquitted of charges of battery against Los Angeles County
deputies after security video contradicted deputies' claims that he
spat at them.
Tim Cavanaugh wrote about the 20th anniversary of the
L.A. riots in April.
Romney: Being Vague About My Plans Helps Me Get Elected
In an interview with the Weekly Standard, Mitt Romney admits he's being deliberately vague about his plans for sweeping cuts to federal programs, because if he gets specific he would lose the election.
One of the things I found in a short campaign against Ted Kennedy was that when I said, for instance, that I wanted to eliminate the Department of Education, that was used to suggest I don’t care about education,” Romney recalled. “So I think it’s important for me to point out that I anticipate that there will be departments and agencies that will either be eliminated or combined with other agencies. So for instance, I anticipate that housing vouchers will be turned over to the states rather than be administered at the federal level, and so at this point I think of the programs to be eliminated or to be returned to the states, and we’ll see what consolidation opportunities exist as a result of those program eliminations. So will there be some that get eliminated or combined? The answer is yes, but I’m not going to give you a list right now.
Well, that certainly clarifies something -- not Romney's plans, but his motivation for hiding them.
Romney is also being deliberately vague about his immigration policies: Romney Dodges Immigration Questions.
Mitt Romney refuses to say whether he’d repeal the Obama administration’s decision to stop deporting certain undocumented immigrants.
In an interview with Bob Schieffer aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee five different times declined to answer whether he would conduct the same policy President Barack Obama on Friday announced his Department of Homeland Security will now pursue.
Instead of answering the question posed, Romney called for a permanent solution.
Beau Biden Opens His Mouth, helps seal DOOM for North Carolina.
[Son of VP Biden and former DE AG Beau] Biden mentioned that Romney didn’t seek a second term as Massachusetts governor, suggesting his failed economic policies hurt him. “I’ve never met a successful politician who didn’t run again,” said Biden, the Delaware attorney general.
The crowd collectively groaned.
And it wasn’t a happy groan, either. Here are three reasons why this was a [Insert Male Name] Biden Opens His Mouth:
- Historically speaking… well, while I would agree that Woodrow Wilson was an unmitigated disaster for the Republic (served all of two years as Governor when elected President in 1912), I’m surprised that Beau Biden thinks so, too. I assume that he thinks the same of Teddy Roosevelt (same situation as Wilson when he was elected Vice President in 1900); admittedly, Beau Biden never ‘met’ either, but you’d think that the man would be more careful of the memory of two Progressive icons.
- While we’re on the subject: the last time Barack Obama ran for re-election was in 2002, as a state senator. He has become rather infamous since then for playing the “find a better job in lieu of doing his current one” political game since then. Again, not quite what Biden said, but then a true [Insert Male Name] Biden Opens His Mouth moment is in the Dear God, did you stop to think about the implications of that before you said it? reaction it triggers in onlookers.
- Third, and most immediately importantly: Beau Biden made these comments at a North Carolina Democratic fund-raising dinner. North Carolina’s current (Democratic) governor is Bev Perdue – who is, of course, not running for re-election, and not by her own choice*. Which is why the crowd, as newsobserver.com put it, “collectively groaned.”
It’s so nice to see one of the younger generation honor the traditions of his father. Particularly when the father is on the opposite political side than me, and the tradition in question is “Blurt out stupid things without thinking about them first.”
Moe Lane (crosspost)
(Via Drudge)
*She was also not at the dinner, due to political leprosy strep throat.
Five Devastating Effects Obamacare Will Have on Young Adults
In anticipation of the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision, it is important to remember that the constitutionality of the law’s individual mandate isn’t the only concern. For example, Obamacare will negatively impact many younger Americans. Here’s a list of five ways young adults will be hurt by the law: Premium increases. Obamacare imposes age-rating rules that increase premiums for young adults. The law allows premium costs to vary by a ratio of 3 to 1 based on age. But as Heritage research...
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Ronald Bailey’s First Dispatch from the Rio +20 Earth Summit
More than two thousand corporate and bureaucratic
functionaries gather at a luxury beach hotel at the Corporate
Sustainability Forum in Rio de Janeiro in advance of the official
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20).
Their goal: To somehow make money out of sustainable development.
It turns out that the energy sector craves mandates, poor farmers
want voluntary eco-labels, and natural capitalists don't believe in
private property. Reason Science Correspondent Ronald
Bailey finds the sustainabilty samba somewhat less than
credible.
The Case Against Obamacare, on Abortion
As the nation awaits the Supreme Court’s ruling on Obamacare, much attention has been paid to the constitutional questions surrounding the individual mandate—and rightly so. Considerable attention has also focused on the ways Obamacare has already and will further harm our nation’s health care and how it has trampled religious liberty. But we shouldn’t forget something even more fundamental to justice: Obamacare is hostile to life, and it set a new precedent by federally subsidizing abortion....
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Baylen Linnekin on the Case for Legalizing Sunday Liquor Sales in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. is considering lifting its
longstanding ban on Sunday liquor sales. The ban is unpopular and
is currently costing the city more than $700,000 a year in sales
tax receipts. So what’s the rub? As Baylen Linnekin explains,
D.C.’s liquor store owners are the ones balking at the idea. They
argue that they don’t want to work on Sundays, that Sunday sales
will simply increase their costs while cutting into sales on other
days, and that competition from big box stores like Walmart will
erode their market share. Linnekin takes on these arguments and
makes the case for turning D.C. into a seven-day-spirit city.
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