Monday Digest
THE FOUNDATION
"It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune." --James MadisonGOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Countdown to Shutdown
Reid, of course, has no
intention of going along with anything the House proposes regarding
ObamaCare when the Senate resumes its session at 2:00 p.m. this
afternoon. Congress has until midnight tonight, and as long as Reid
continues to insist "the American people will not be extorted by Tea
Party anarchists," there's little room for debate.
The clock has run down on the ability of House conservatives to return a CR in time for Senate debate and action. It is possible, however, that there could be a bridge agreement on a one week CR extension, ostensibly to allow time for debate and action prior to shuttering the government. If there is a CR extension, we hope Republicans will amend it to remove any insurance subsidies for the Legislative Branch, and require that all senior employees of the Executive Branch subscribe to ObamaCare. Then, a week later, they should tie the "delay" measure to legislation on the debt ceiling.
The problem is that Democrats
refuse to allow Republicans any influence over ObamaCare. But the
president himself has already unilaterally delayed and continues to
delay key parts of the law. He delayed the employer mandate until 2015,
though the individual mandate stands. He delayed income verification for
those seeking insurance subsidies. And just last week, the
administration delayed online enrollment in federally run small-business
exchanges. There are cracks in the Democrats' line, however, as Sen.
Joe Manchin (D-WV) broke ranks in order to support a year delay of the
law, so it will be interesting to see if Reid can keep other Red State
Democrats like Mary Landrieu and Mark Pryor in line.
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Cruz's Box Canyon
Mark Alexander examines the strategies of House Republicans and Ted Cruz.Read more and comment here.
NATIONAL SECURITY
UN Approves Syrian Chemical Weapons Deal
Looking good, John Kerry |
The United Nations Security
Council (UNSC) approved a resolution on Syria's stockpiles of chemical
weapons, but only after Russia proposed the deal on its own terms and
virtually stripped the deal of any real consequences. The UNSC will have
to vote later on punitive measures should Syria fail to comply. It was
Secretary of State John Kerry who made off-the-cuff remarks about Syria
turning over its weapons to prevent a U.S. attack that provided the
opportunity for Russia to seize the lead role in the ordeal, but he
quickly took as much credit as he could and is quite pleased with
himself and the UN now. "The United Nations Security Council has
demonstrated that diplomacy can be so powerful it can peacefully diffuse
the worst weapons of war," Kerry cooed.
Kerry also assured that, while U.S. military action is not part of
the agreement, it's also not "off the table." We're sure that Kerry's
tough talk over recent months -- recall his "threat" (if you can call it
that) of an "unbelievably small" military strike -- has Bashar al-Assad laughing all the way to the inspections.Indeed, Assad is more or less claiming victory. Removing "the chemical weapons is not the goal of the United States and their allies," he asserted. "They wanted to change the balance of power and to protect Israel. We turned the tables and sent the ball into their court," Assad said. "This move embarrassed them in front of the American public, in Europe, and even in front of the U.S. government." It's hard to argue with that.
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ECONOMY
Around the Nation: Golden State Wages
No one is arguing that
Californians don't need to earn more than residents of other states;
however, as Republicans point out, mandating $10 an hour will further
hinder the economy, hurting small businesses and, in the long run,
making it more difficult to find -- and keep -- minimum wage jobs. In
other words, the people who the Democrats are claiming to help will once
again be the hardest hit.
Even Democrat Governor Jerry Brown was originally opposed to the bill,
agreeing that it posted a risk to the state's economic recovery. As
Brown has historically been a champion of "progressive" measures, his
concern is quite telling. But his rather anemic stance quickly
disintegrated in the face of pressure from Nancy Pelosi and company, as
well as the looming midterm elections in 2014. Yet somehow, we don't
have any doubt that, in spite of the damage they're doing, Democrats
will retain their strangle hold on the Golden State.
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CULTURE
NJ Judge Demands Same-Sex Marriage
New Jersey became the latest
state to have its definition of marriage effectively rewritten by a
judicial despot. Citing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) -- the
federal law that defined marriage as between one man and one woman and
part of which was recently struck down by the Supreme Court -- Mercer
County Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson ruled, "Same-sex couples must be allowed to marry in order to obtain equal protection of the law under the New Jersey constitution."
Her decision means the Garden
State must perform and recognize same-sex marriages beginning Oct. 21.
Keep in mind, Jersey already allows civil unions. But unions don't go
far enough for same-sex activists intent on ramming through their
agenda. As Jazz Shaw of HotAir notes,
"[W]hile it's not illegal for a judge at that level to issue such a
ruling, it was obvious from the moment it happened that this was going
to get bounced up the chain."
Indeed, the strategy here is
based on the assumption that if DOMA can be struck down as a federal
law, there's nothing that can prevent a similar law at the state level
from getting the boot. DOMA's demise has generated a chain reaction
throughout the country, giving more leverage to same-sex advocates.
Republican Gov. Chris Christie
is prepared to appeal the ruling, but his decision to defend it based
solely on the "the will of the voters on the issue of marriage
equality," as his spokesman Michael Drewniak put it, is disheartening.
What ever happened to defending "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's
God"?
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BRIEF OPINION
Essential Liberty
Columnist Star Parker: "The founders of the United States drew up a Constitution to serve as an operating manual, in its checks and balances, for peaceful, deliberative government. They understood human nature and set up a system in which competing interests would have to give in. Compromise, they understood, is a necessary lubricant for the wheels of government 'of the people, by the people, and for the people' to turn and allow us to move forward. But compromise is meant for those competing interests -- not for the core principles of the country that the Constitution exists to protect and secure. When the principles of our free nation under God are under siege, it is a time for confrontation, not compromise."Comment | Share
Re: The Left
Columnist Arnold Ahlert:
"Nothing amuses me more than the typical leftist garbage -- aided and
abetted by these same establishment Republicans -- that it is the
American right who has become radicalized, even as the Democrat
party has welcomed every socialist/Marxist, redistributionist,
race-baiting, Alinsky-ite hack into its midst. Those who don't believe
that assessment should ask themselves how far a politician who believes
in a strong military, a largely self-reliant populace and large tax cuts
would go in today's Democrat party. If you answered virtually nowhere,
you'd be right on the money. If you recognized those policies were
heartily endorsed by a Democrat icon, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, you'd begin to get a clue about which political party has really
undergone a radical transformation. And yet establishment Republicans
remain more than willing to split the difference with Democrats, under
the banner of 'compromise' in the House and 'collegiality' in the
Senate. What's the split-the-difference position between freedom and
slavery? Solvency and national bankruptcy? The rule of law and executive
fiat? All Constitution all the time, or only when it suits the ruling
class's political purposes?"
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The Gipper
Ronald Reagan: "Governments that set out to regiment their people with the stated objective of providing security and liberty have ended up losing both. Those which put freedom as the first priority find they have also provided security and economic progress."Comment | Share
For more, visit The Right Opinion.
CHRONICLE QUOTES
Upright
Columnist Mark Steyn: "Since the
collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, we have been less rich, and our
stupidity ought in theory to be less affordable. Instead, it's been
supersized. To take only the most obvious example, President Obama has
added six-and-a-half trillion bucks to the national debt, and has
nothing to show for it. As Churchill would say, had his bust not been
bounced from the Oval Office, never in the field of human spending has
so much been owed by so many for so little."
The BIG Lie
Barack Obama: "They said
[ObamaCare] would be a disaster in terms of jobs. There's no widespread
evidence that the Affordable Care Act is hurting jobs."
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Village Idiots
White House Press Secretary Jay
Carney: "[T[he myth and the farce about the approach that's being
adopted up there on Capitol Hill by Republicans, is the idea that it's a
concession to raise the debt ceiling. It's not a concession. It is your
constitutional responsibility. You were not elected to tank the
economy. You were not elected to punish the middle class in order to
achieve a political objective that you lost through the legislative
process and you lost through the elective process, and you lost through
the judicial process."
From the 'Non Compos Mentis' File
White House adviser Dan
Pfeiffer: "We are for cutting spending. We're for reforming our tax
code. We're for reforming our entitlements. What we're not for is
negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest."
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Demo-gogues
Sen. Barbara Mikulski: "The reason Ted Cruz showed up and asked for a delay is so that he could vote during today when his -- the teabaggers in his Tea Party were going to watch. This is why I repeatedly said the greatest deliberative body in the world has become the greatest delaying body in the world."Comment | Share
Dezinformatsia
CNN's Piers Morgan: "There is no
better person to explain what's going on in Washington and the world
for that matter, than Bill Clinton. The former commander in chief is
honest, blunt and fascinating. … I talk a lot about the Second
Amendment, as you know, on my show and gun control and so on. But the
22nd Amendment to me is even more flawed because that's the one that
stops presidents serving more than two terms. Bill Clinton would still
be president now."
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Braying Jackass
CNN's Don Lemon: "[L]let's just
be honest. Part of the reasons Republicans don't like the president is
because he's a Democrat. Part of the reason, some Republicans, not all,
don't like the president is yes, because he's black. You know that. I
know that. They know that. And the president knows that. So that's why,
as I said before on CNN and elsewhere, he cannot get heated. He can't
get heated. He cannot be the angry black man no matter how much some
might want him [to]."
Short Cuts
Comedian Jay Leno: "President
Obama is now making his case for raising the debt limit. He said raising
the debt limit does not increase debt -- you know, like raising the
speed limit does not increase speed."
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
Join us in daily prayer for our
Patriots in uniform -- Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast
Guardsmen -- standing in harm's way in defense of Liberty, and for their
families.
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