Lesson to the US: Social Welfare Costs Rapidly Sinking Europe

At the British Conservative Party conference, Chancellor George Osborne unveiled an initiative to jump start the nation’s economy. He also targeted welfare and the problem it is creating for the western world.

Calling handouts bloated, unfair and sometimes corrupt, Osborne suggested they are simply unaffordable. He believes they are crushing Europe’s advanced economies.

The UK Telegraph reported that his speech to the Conservative Party was likely well received by the British who show “a high degree of public support for further cuts in welfare spending. Where once the Tories were regarded as cruel and heartless for wanting to slash benefits, it now seems that they can’t be tough enough. Politically, Osborne is therefore pushing at an open door when he says this is not just about saving money – it’s about fairness and enterprise.”

Osbornes’ attack on welfare took a populist tone:

How can we justify the incomes of those out of work rising faster than the incomes of those in work, he asks, or giving flats to young people who have never worked when working people twice their age still have to live with their parents because they cannot afford a separate home?

More emotively still, he asked how it was possible to justify a system where people in work have to consider the costs of having another child, while those who are out of work don’t. By raising these questions, Osborne gives voice to a strongly populist message, but he also speaks to an underlying, economic imperative – advanced economies are long past the stage of being able to afford such largesse.

But welfare is only part of Britain’s problem. It is also facing – along with the rest of Europe – a potential meltdown from pensions and healthcare costs. The Telegraph points out that “these forecasts point to destruction of the very foundations of the European social market economy.”

The European socialistic model has failed miserably. The United States should run far, far away from this dead-end model of government, embraced by Obama.

Video: Chris Matthews Taken Away in Straight Jacket

On a recent Jay Leno episode, Chris Matthews was taken away in a straight jacket after continuing to rage about Obama’s performance.

If you haven’t seen this clip yet, it’s worth the 30 seconds:

Chris Matthew’s real life meltdown can still be seen HERE.

Allen West ascribed an even earlier Chris Matthew’s meltdown to him getting “off his meds.”

Video: Gen. Boykin – Israel Should Strike Iran Before Election if Obama Likely to Win

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, a patriot who has been a regular target of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and who was recently an eyewitness to the Chick-fil-A shooting at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., recently suggested that Israel may need to act quickly to address the Iran problem.

Specifically, Gen. Boykin is convinced that Israel should strike Iran before the election if it appears likely that Obama will be reelected:

Gen. Boykin has previously sounded the alarm about the infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood into the highest levels of the U.S. government.

Editor’s Note: the source for the above video is from the People for the American Way, a consistently leftist group that does not share the values of Restoring Liberty.

Video: Allen West – Obama is “Actively Manipulating” Jobs Data, Engaged in Cover-Up

Allen West says he’s not suggesting that impeachment is in order but, like the scam orchestrated to cover up the real causes of the Benghazi attack, he accuses Obama of “manipulating” and “covering up” the data to make the jobless rate appear different than it really is.

The hostile interview with CNBC started with a question as to whether Congressman West agreed with former General Electric CEO Jack Welch who had previously accused the Obama Administration of cooking the unemployment rate.

According to the Daily Caller, Mr. Welch stated in the critical tweet that “Chicago guys will do anything.”

Here’s the CNBC interview with Congressman West:

Unemployment Rate: Happy Days Are Not Here Again

By The Wall Street Journal. The jobless rate fell in September to 7.8% from 8.1%, though the economy created only 114,000 new jobs, and some of our conservative friends smell a bureaucratic rat so close to Election Day. We doubt the Labor gnomes are manipulating the numbers, and in any case chasing conspiracies detracts from the real news, which is that the job market still stinks.

Democrats are celebrating the decline in the jobless rate, which only shows how their standards have changed since President Obama entered the White House. In 2004, they were lambasting George W. Bush for a September jobless rate that was 5.4%. Only last month they were begging the Federal Reserve to print more money indefinitely because the job market was so weak. Now they say happy days are almost here again.

The reality is that more than three years into this weakest of economic recoveries, 12.1 million Americans are still out of work—nearly 23 million by the broader definition that includes those who have stopped looking or can’t find full time work—and the labor participation rate is still down to 1981 levels at 63.6%. Hooray!

Of the 114,000 new jobs, 104,000 were in the private economy, and all of the 86,000 in upward revisions for July and August came in government jobs. Job growth for 2012 has averaged 146,000 a month, which is down from 153,000 in 2011.

Manufacturing employment fell again (down 38,000 in the last two months) further dampening one of the few bright spots in this recovery. A still abysmal 40.1% of the unemployed in America have been jobless for six months or more. Such a job market is anemic by any historic measure for this stage in an expansion and reflects continuing slow GDP growth in the 1%-2% range. Read more from this story HERE.

Recommended Story: Although Allen West likely does not disagree with the overall jobs assessment above, he specifically alleged this past weekend that Obama is manipulating and covering up the jobs data.

Video: Huckabee, Perkins Respond to Dan Savage’s Outrageous Claim That “Every Dead Gay Kid is a Victory for FRC”

Dan Savage, the homosexual activist who gave a profanity-laced speech attacking the bible to a public high school assembly last April, has continued his tirade against Christians.

This past week, he declared that “every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council.”

Understandably, this touched a nerve with Family Research Council head Tony Perkins. He appeared on Governor Mike Huckabee’s radio show to correct the record.

The following video includes a brief synopsis of Dan Savage’s comments and then includes highlights from Huckabee’s recent interview with Perkins:

Alaskan Files Suit Against Presidential Candidates, Cites Miller & Obama Senate Cases

Photo credit: Mihai Bojin Citing case law in both California and Alaska, Anchorage Resident Thomas A. Lamb has filed suit in the Superior Court of Alaska for access to private records for both President Barack Obama and Republican Nominee Willard “Mitt” Romney.

Lamb believes that precedent created by a 2004 California case instigated by Obama insiders requiring Illinois US Senate candidate Jack Ryan’s divorce records to be made public, and a 2010 Alaska case requiring personnel files for Alaska US Senate Candidate Joe Miller to be released, constitute grounds for further public disclosure of private documents for both major party’s presidential candidates.

Alaska Dispatch columnist Craig Medred appears to share Lamb’s sentiment, stating in correspondence earlier this year that the ruling in the Miller case “set a meaningful legal precedent that hopefully will be uniformly applied to everyone from here on.” It is unclear why the Alaska Dispatch and other media outlets who relentlessly pursued confidential information in the Miller case lack a similar level of intellectual curiosity when it pertains to the President of the United States.

Judge Winston Burbank’s edict in the Fairbanks North Star Borough case that the there is a compelling public interest in the voters “right to know” will be used to test the limits of Alaska’s explicit Constitutional “right to privacy.” Lamb hopes to compel the disclosure of school records, personnel files, medical information, and tax returns.

The suit stems from a request submitted to both candidates for the information in question. To date, there is evidence that both campaigns received the records requests, but neither has been forthcoming with information.

The impetus behind the inquiry? Among other things, Lamb cites suggestions from Democrat US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that Romney “manipulated” his tax returns, and the allegation that Barack Obama may have committed fraud by accessing financial assistance, purportedly as a foreign student. Sources for the claim against Obama include US and Indonesian law, the president’s own writings, and sworn affidavits.

If Lamb’s material claims are substantiated, it appears the president may have fraudulently received student aid from the federal government by making false claims about his legal status.

It is unlikely the case will get traction. But if it does, it is sure to draw national attention.

Video: Ex-Democratic Pollster Says Media Has Become “Enemy of the American People”

In this video from last week, former Democratic Pollster Pat Caddell lambasts the mainstream media for not only telling the American people who to vote for but, more problematically, not telling the American people about things that they have the right to know about.

Caddell discusses several stories. The first involves Obama Senior Adviser David Plouffe who received $100,000 from an Iranian front group to give two speeches in Nigeria. Caddell notes that “no one” gives that kind of money away without expectation of something in return. Nevertheless, the MSM has said virtually nothing about the $100,000 Iranian payment to Obama’s adviser.

Next, Caddell, talks about what has happened in Libya and the complete breakdown of true journalism. He calls the media’s failure to report on what really happened as well as its coddling of the Obama administration, a “threat to the very future of the country.”

Here’s a video of the highlights of his speech:

A New Low for CNN: Accepts Foreign Funding In Exchange for Positive Stories

In a story that few in this country have heard about, the UK Guardian reported that CNN refused to broadcast an award-winning 2011 documentary, “iRevolution.” The documentary featured CNN’s on-air correspondent Amber Lyon and was highly critical of the regime in Bahrain for brutally suppressing peaceful protests by its own citizens.

Why didn’t CNN broadcast its own correspondent’s production? The reason might shock you.

According to the Guardian, “CNNi’s pursuit of and reliance on revenue from Middle East regimes increased significantly after the 2008 financial crisis, which caused the network to suffer significant losses in corporate sponsorships. It thus pursued all-new, journalistically dubious ways to earn revenue from governments around the world. Bahrain has been one of the most aggressive government exploiters of the opportunities presented by CNNi.”

The Guardian story continues, “These arrangements extend far beyond standard sponsorship agreements for advertising of the type most major media outlets feature. CNNi produces those programs in an arrangement it describes as ‘in association with’ the government of a country, and offers regimes the ability to pay for specific programs about their country. These programs are then featured as part of CNNi’s so-called ‘Eye on’ series (‘Eye on Georgia’, ‘Eye on the Philippines’, ‘Eye on Poland’), or ‘Marketplace Middle East’, all of which is designed to tout the positive economic, social and political features of that country.”

To the average viewer unaware of these government sponsorships, CNN’s stories all falsely appear to be the result of standard, unbiased reporting.

Back to the award-winning documentary that CNNi never aired. As noted above, “iRevolution” was critical of the Bahrain government for using violence against its own people. During the time the documentary was considered, Bahrain was highly invested in CNN’s “sponsorship” opportunities. The Bahrain-CNN relationship was so strong, “official agencies of the regime often boasted of how their extensive involvement with CNN was improving the nation’s image around the world.”

Bahrain’s image was apparently improving because Bahrain got what it paid for: “multiple examples of CNN International producing plainly propagandistic coverage of the regime, often without any minimal disclosure of the vested interests of its sources.” And Bahrain wasn’t the only country with the CNN “sponsorship” arrangement.

Essentially, CNN’s approach to government sponsorship of CNN content represents a merger of advertising and news. Frankly, CNN should drop any pretext that such stories are “news” and, instead, clearly label the pieces what they are: government-sponsored advertisements.

This recent revelation appears to be another nail in the coffin of CNN’s loss of public trust.

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More stories on CNN bias, dishonesty:

Video of Extreme Bias: CNN Asks Romney How He’d Represent Blacks if He Were to “Somehow” Beat Obama

State Department attacks ‘disgusting’ CNN for using journal of dead ambassador against family’s wishes

Video: Newt drills CNN Host-”You’re An Extension of the Obama Campaign”

Video: Sununu to CNN’s Soledad-`Put An Obama Bumper Sticker On Your Forehead’

CNN Apologizes over Palin “Stupid Girls” Intro but omits story from website

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria’s show suspended after being exposed for plagiarism

Anderson Cooper’s vicious attack on Michele Bachmann

Video: A View from Overseas – Here’s What the Taiwanese Thought of the Debate

American politics are followed closely overseas, especially in countries with close relationships to the U.S.

Taiwan is no exception. In this animated clip, the Taiwanese show Obama taking a real beating. Unlike most US commentators, the creators of the video point out that Obama received more time than Romney and, contrary to a recent Democratic political ad, suggest that Obama was more of a bully to the moderator than his opponent.

Like other animations from Taiwan, this video is not designed for kids. There’s a pretty graphic portrayal of a Romney attack on Sesame Street’s Big Bird – due to his proposed cuts to PBS. Additionally, both candidates engage in animated combat, similar to the portrayal of Romney and his GOP competitors in the Moral Kombat video posted several days ago.

In short, the Taiwanese who created this video considered Romney the overwhelming victor in the first 2012 Presidential Debate: