Friday Digest
THE FOUNDATION
"There is a rank due to the
United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely
lost, by the reputation of weakness." --George Washington
NATIONAL SECURITY
The Syria Question
"[W]e have concluded that the
Syrian government in fact carried these [chemical weapons attacks] out,"
says tough-talking Barack Obama. Yet there is some doubt that Bashar
al-Assad himself actually ordered the chemical attacks. U.S.
intelligence officials call the evidence "not a slam dunk," while
British intelligence concludes that there is "a limited but growing body
of intelligence which supports the judgement that the regime was
responsible for the attacks." The alternate theory is that a possible
rogue commander ordered the attacks. However, the practical effect of
whether it was such a rogue official or Assad himself is of little
import.
Either way, action against
Assad's regime is not a sure thing at the moment, despite Obama's naive
and ill-advised "red line" threat, and his current insistence that he
can go it alone if need be. In the UK, an ally Obama hoped to "lead from
behind," Parliament rejected Prime Minister David Cameron's appeal to
follow Obama to war, leaving France as the president's only possible
ally.
Obama, meanwhile, isn't worrying about Congress -- whatever he does
will be on his own there too. Unfortunately, the administration has telegraphed its punches, and an unnamed U.S. official noted that Obama wants a strike against Syria "just muscular enough not to get mocked." Now there's a bold foreign policy. U.S. military action in service of Obama's ego is not in our national interest.
The former community organizer
and Nobel Peace Prize laureate is trying desperately to look
presidential with his proposed "shot across the bow," but the reality is
that the deterioration in the Middle East is in large measure thanks to
his failed foreign policy, which has given rise to the "Arab Fall." Wasn't this the man who bragged in 2009 that he'd "restored America's standing in the world"?
Post Your OpinionGOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
More Gun-Grabbing Executive Orders
Shamelessly exploiting the nation's grief-stricken state last December after the murder of 20 children and seven adults in Newtown, Connecticut, Barack Obama announced that he would bypass Congress and sign 23 executive orders to "do something" about "gun violence." At Thursday's ceremonial swearing-in of new ATF director Todd Jones, the White House announced two new orders.
One order closes the "loophole"
that allowed the registration of a firearm to a National Firearms Act
(NFA) trust or corporation, which the White House claims provided a way
for "felons, domestic abusers, and others prohibited from having guns
[to] easily evade the required background check and gain access to
machine guns or other particularly dangerous weapons." By "machine
guns," of course, they mean semiautomatic rifles. But when was the last
time an inner city thug went to the trouble of securing a firearm
through an NFA trust before perpetrating a drive-by shooting?
The second order prevents anyone save museums from buying firearms
previously exported from the U.S. to allied military forces. "This new
policy will help keep military-grade firearms off our streets," the
White House said. The Left continually complains about guns "on our
streets" in order to scare people, though the White House "fact sheet"
didn't point to a single crime committed with these guns. What it does
mean is that ex-military M1 Garands -- not exactly the gang banger's
weapon of choice -- will be even harder to come by. No word on how this
order will affect illicit government sales to Mexican drug cartels.Post Your Opinion
ECONOMY
Hope 'n' Change: Euphemisms and Delays
Another week means yet another major delay for ObamaCare. This week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it was postponing signing agreements with insurance plans to be sold on the federal exchanges starting Oct. 1. HHS claims the delay will only be a couple of weeks and that it won't affect the open enrollment period that begins in October. The reason for the holdup may have to do with technical difficulties in coordinating the display of insurance information on the federal online system. The delay reaches all 34 states that opted to let the federal government maintain exchanges for them.
Meanwhile, the IRS issued final
rules this week regarding the individual mandate. The rules define what
constitutes minimum essential coverage, the level of responsibility
individuals hold for family members, and how the mandate applies to
employees on union-sponsored plans and in other unique employment
situations. Interestingly, the agency, which will be responsible for
making sure people comply with the new insurance rules, was careful to
avoid the word "tax" when describing the penalty people face for not
maintaining minimum coverage. The new euphemism of choice is "shared
responsibility payment." Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts ruled
in 2012 that the individual mandate was constitutional only if it was in
fact a tax. But that's a politically inconvenient word and it disproves
Barack Obama's claim that he isn't raising taxes on the middle class.
So, "shared responsibility payment" it is.
Finally, according to the president, we have nothing to worry about.
He told reporters this week, "For a lot of people, [ObamaCare] will be
cheaper than your cell phone bill." And probably just as effective at
helping you obtain health insurance, too.Post Your Opinion
CULTURE
A Half-Century Later, Still a Dream
Fifty years ago on the National Mall, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told a diverse audience that he had a dream of a nation where people "will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." On the Aug. 28 anniversary of that iconic address, an audience marked by its lack of ideological diversity heard a succession of speakers bemoan the lack of economic process attained by blacks -- this despite all the "advantages" that feel-good liberal government could dole out.In 1963, King thundered about the injustice that "the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity." Today, that island of poverty is the Democrats' poverty plantation. Government handouts and a cynically played party loyalty system have yielded nothing more than slavery for many. They just don't see it.
In the age of Obama, all things are political. While Republicans such as House leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor reportedly declined invitations
to the ceremony, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the nation's sole black
senator, was snubbed. King was not a politician, but his legacy has
become a political football. "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for
freedom," he once reminded his listeners, "by drinking from the cup of
bitterness and hatred." Yet bitterness and hatred seem to be all the
leaders of today's civil rights industry have to offer. Sadly, theirs is
nothing more than a bald-faced betrayal of Dr. King's dream.
Post Your OpinionBRIEF OPINION
For the Record
Columnist Arnold Ahlert:
"Just recently, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit in New
Orleans federal court to prevent Louisiana from implementing a voucher
program at public schools that remains under federal desegregation
orders. ... The great irony here is that 90 percent of the [570]
children who used the vouchers to get themselves a better education are
black Americans. ... There is no other alliance in the nation that could
produce a half-century of consistent failure and remain as viable.
Perhaps one day, black Americans will realize that an inferior education
leading to government dependency is one of the primary ways Democrats,
who promote such dependency, maintain their power base. Until then,
black American families will continue to have their children trapped in
the hellholes many public schools have become."
Political Futures
Columnist Michelle Malkin:
"A military jury sentenced unrepentant Fort Hood jihadist Nidal Hasan
to death on Wednesday. But if another murderous Muslim soldier's case is
any indication, Hasan may be sitting in the catbird seat for years to
come. And our men and women in uniform will remain endangered by Islamic
vigilantes in their own ranks. ... The common thread tying these
infiltrators together? Nidal Hasan spelled it out for his deaf, dumb and
willfully blind military superiors: 'We love death more then [sic] you
love life!' He recommended that the military allow Muslim soldiers 'the
option of being released' to 'increase troop morale and decrease adverse
events.' Hasan's report was ignored by his superiors, excluded from his
trial and goes unheeded at the Pentagon today. Political correctness is
an American soldier of Allah's best friend."
Faith and Family
Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh:
"This Miley Cyrus incident from Sunday night ... continues to be
discussed. ... I want to be very judicious here. Let me ask this: Why,
all of a sudden is it okay to be judgmental on this kind of stuff? ... I
thought we didn't have the right to judge somebody else's morality, and
I thought we didn't have a right to comment. I thought this was art,
that it was performance art. I thought we were supposed to see the
beauty and the innovation and the creativity.... Why does this upset
these 'progressive' women? These are the women who send as many other
women to Planned Parenthood as they can lasso and round up. These are
the same women who have no problem with ... with 1.7 million deaths --
uh, sorry -- abortions a year, but this has their backs up? What,
because their daughters used to watch Hannah Montana, and that's why
they're upset?"
For more, visit The Right Opinion.CHRONICLE QUOTES
Upright
Economist Thomas Sowell: "Like
other truly talented phonies, Barack Obama concentrates his skills on
the effect of his words on other people -- most of whom do not have the
time to become knowledgeable about the things he is talking about.
Whether what he says bears any relationship to the facts is politically
irrelevant. A talented con man, or a slick politician, does not waste
his time trying to convince knowledgeable skeptics. His job is to keep
the true believers believing. He is not going to convince the others
anyway."
Demo-gogues
Barack Obama: "[T]he broader set
of issues that have to do with the economy and economic opportunity and
the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, and the continuing barriers that
African-Americans and Hispanics and increasingly, you know,
working-class whites have in terms of living out the American dream --
being able to get a job that pays a decent wage, and having health care,
and making sure that their kids can get the education they need to
compete -- and on those issues it would be very helpful if Congress
moved, but once again, we're not going to wait for Congress."
This Week's 'Braying Jackass' Award
Barack Obama: "[I]f, in fact,
people start thinking the government's the problem instead of the
solution, then what that leaves you is whatever the marketplace does on
its own. And what we've seen is a marketplace that increasingly produces
very unequal results. So it disempowers our capacity for common action
to do something about poverty, to do something to help middle-class
families."
Dezinformatsia
MNSBC's Ed Schultz: "Thanks to
Republican policies -- and I don't care if [Detroit's] been under
Democratic rule or not, it's Republican policies that have come down
from the state and the country that have put this city in a bad
position."
Even after five decades of continuous Democrat control, it's still Republicans' fault.
From the 'Non Compos Mentis' File
Radio show co-host Mike
Papantonio: "[N]o one knows how troops returning from Afghanistan and
Iraq are going to find work when they get home. That's a big problem.
... They can't get a job in the United States, put 'em in Syria.
Immediate employment through troop deployment."
Village Idiots
Bill Clinton "[A] great democracy does not make it harder to vote than to buy an assault weapon."
Short Cuts
Comedian Jay Leno: "The secretary
of the treasury told Congress that we will be out of money by October.
And of course a lot of Americans are shocked by this. Didn't you think
we were already out of money? ... Here's my question. What happened to
all that money we gave them last April 15? ... Before we give the
government any more money, show us some receipts."
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
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