Friday Digest

November 1, 2013

THE FOUNDATION

"Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths…" George Washington

NATIONAL SECURITY

Another Victory for Liberty

Earlier this week, we reported on the third instance in which military training curriculums identified Christians and Tea Party organizations as "hate groups." Once is an isolated incident and twice might be coincidence, but three times is a pattern.

However, we note that these briefings were not DoD-authorized briefs, but prepared by local personnel who obviously are Obamaphiles.

One of those briefings took place at Fort Hood, where, as you'll recall, Islamist Nidal Malik Hasan murdered 13 people and an unborn child while yelling "Allahu Akbar." As Hasan aptly demonstrated, there is a need for legitimate "terrorist profiling."

The Ft. Hood briefer targeted such "radical" Christian groups as the American Family Association -- a pro-family group that only the most jaded Obamaphile would describe as "radical," or someone too ignorant to distinguish the fact that the AFA is not a "domestic hate group." The information on AFA was from the ultra-Leftist Southern Poverty Law Center, which lists most pro-family Christian groups under its "hate" umbrella.

Fortunately, it did not take long for some briefing attendees, who were smart enough to recognize that AFA is not a terrorist group, to expose this nonsense.
Responding to objections to this and other briefings targeting conservative and Christian groups as a threat, the Department of Defense quickly issued a halt to the use of SPLC information, issuing a directive to restrain its security briefers and "Emphasize that neither DoD nor the Army maintain or publish any centralized list of specific organizations considered to be extremist in nature or in opposition to the Army's core values."
No sooner had that fire been contained than word arrived on a 600 page Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute training manual that "healthy, white, heterosexual, Christian" men -- members of what the text calls the "White Male Club" -- hold an unfair advantage over other service members. "Simply put, a healthy, white, heterosexual, Christian male receives many unearned advantages of social privilege, whereas a black, homosexual, atheist female in poor health receives many unearned disadvantages of social privilege."
Meanwhile, The Patriot is still aggressively pursuing answers about the removal of "So help me God" from Cadet and Officer oaths at the Air Force academy, an apparent subterfuge by the Obama administration to provide a proxy, Michael Weinstein, with a layup, a legal "gimme," which he can ultimately parlay into the removal of "So help me God" from every military oath.

We Depend on You

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GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

Lies on Lies on Lies

Obama was in Boston this week, attempting to deflect attention from his key O'Care sales pitch promise that Americans could keep their insurance and doctors, "period" -- a remark even the Washington Post classified as a "WHOPPER." Obama doubled down on the lie: "If you had one of these substandard plans before the Affordable Care Act became law and you really liked that plan, you're able to keep it. That's what I said when I was running for office. That was part of the promise we made."

Analysts now believe that more than 90 million plans are at risk of alteration or cancelation, both individual and corporate policies, and that this information was known to the administration in 2010. The lie just keeps getting bigger.

Back in Washington, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Obama bureaucrat directly responsible for the failed launch of ObamaCare, was planting prevarications before Congress.
Sebelius admitted that the Healthcare.gov rollout was "miserably frustrating" and said, "I'm responsible." She then proceeded to deny responsibility, and even repeated her boss's lie about consumers being able to keep their health plan if they like it. Period. She argued, "[I]f a plan was in place in March of 2010 and, again, did not impose additional burdens on the consumer, they still have it. It's grandfathered in." She complained that, before ObamaCare, the insurance market was "unregulated." That's patently false, and, of course, those pesky "additional burdens" -- like mandatory maternity coverage even for single men -- were placed on insurance companies by HHS and ObamaCare regulations. So much for accountability.
Sebelius also told Congress, "The website [Healthcare.gov] never crashed. It is functional, but at a very slow speed and very low reliability." But when she was asked to disclose the enrollment numbers, she replied, "The system isn't functioning, so we are not getting that reliable data." Her flip-flop is hardly surprising, but concerning her original comment, the system's constant failure is one of the primary reasons she was on Capitol Hill, not to mention the reason that the majority of consumers have been unable to enroll. Additionally, her statement was made all the more ironic considering the site crashed moments before Sebelius began her remarks. Half an hour into her testimony, the exchange was still dead in the water. (For the record, CBS reveals that only 6 individuals successfully enrolled within the first 24 hours of the exchange's launch.)
Yet another laughable moment came when Sebelius insisted that it would be "illegal" for her to obtain insurance coverage through the exchanges. There are, however, just three requirements listed on Healthcare.gov for purchasing a plan on an exchange: Buyers "must live in the United States"; "must be a U.S. citizen or national (or be lawfully present)"; and "can't be currently incarcerated."

The secretary didn't even know whether Healthcare.gov is a secure website. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a former FBI agent specializing in electronic security issues, chastised Sebelius and by extension, Obama, for the lack of security at Healthcare.gov: "You allowed this system to go forward with no encryption on backup systems. They have no encryption on certain boundary crossings. You accepted a risk on behalf of every user [and] put their personal financial information at risk because you did not have even the most basic end to end test on security of this system." As The Patriot noted months ago, one of the liabilities that will plague Democrats who supported ObamaCare is the fact that it will be an easy mark for ID theft.

ObamaCare is also proving to be the biggest voter registration fraud scheme in our country's history. The Medicaid sign-up portal is not only signing folks up for subsidized health care, but to vote! Under current federal law ("Motor Voter"), when someone goes to the DMV for a driver's license, he or she is asked whether or not they want to register to vote. Under the ObamaCare application process, if you apply for Medicaid, you are automatically registered to vote unless you opt out (by completing a form designed to unduly complicate the process).

Finally, as we've said before, while Sebelius is indeed responsible for much of the current debacle, to suggest she should resign implies that a better HHS secretary might have made it work. Fact is, the failure of the rollout is but a metaphor for the reality that a government bureaucracy can't even effectively manage a basic commerce website for insurance comparisons -- much less an enterprise that encompasses 18% of the U.S. economy.

ECONOMY, REGS & TAXES

Paying Through the Nose, and by the Mile

It's a vexing question for those in government: How do you pay to expand and maintain our highway system? For decades most states and the federal government relied on a tax levied per gallon of gasoline. But as cars become more fuel efficient by federal edict, the gasoline tax fails to produce the necessary funds. Moreover, the federal tax rate, which was enacted two decades ago -- when cars averaged far fewer miles per gallon than their present-day successors -- hasn't budged because a tax increase would not exactly be popular. Yet the cost of building and maintaining roads has raced ahead.

Some see the mileage tax as a user fee fair to everyone, but critics contend it would penalize rural drivers and those who work in travel-intensive industries. Meanwhile, new concerns arise from privacy advocates who despise the "black box" technology tracking motorists' movements or speed. A similar device is already used by a major auto insurer, which teases discounted premiums if drivers agree to install it.

Leading the way in adopting a mileage-based tax is the state of Oregon, where 5,000 volunteer drivers will soon pay a mileage tax in lieu of a gas tax as part of a test run for possible statewide adoption. While Oregon is, for now, presenting a choice of how intrusive their device would be, New York City's idea is to enhance the device by allowing automatic payment of parking fees and per-mile insurance.

Nevada, another state piloting such a project, warned, "It would be fairly easy to turn these devices into full-fledged tracking devices." With the current regime in power, the probability of our nanny state snooping on your driving habits may soon rival that of death and taxes.

CULTURE, SCIENCE & FAITH

Are Americans Dumb?

A recent international assessment of the cognitive and technological skills of 5,000 adults between the ages of 15 and 65 in each of 24 countries bodes ill for America's future competitiveness in the international economy. Administered in 2011 and 2012, the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies collected data in multiple languages, in countries with diverse populations, cultures and education. The test measures educational background, workplace experience, use of information technology, and cognitive skills in literacy, numeracy and problem solving.

The US landed near the bottom in numeracy and slightly under the middle in literacy -- but only because older people raised the average score. Americans did, however, rise above average in one category: the percentage of low-skilled people.

One of the most discouraging findings indicates that the gap between the children of well and poorly educated parents is wide and might be intractable. As adults, children of the latter will lack the skills and knowledge necessary to move out of the cycle of one low-paying job following another. And unlike countries such as Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands, where many such people take advantage of continuing education, few low-skilled Americans display the interest to do so.

Economists say a highly skilled workforce is key to economic prosperity. But this study shows many American workers will earn less money and be twice as likely to be unemployed for years to come.

BRIEF OPINION

Essential Liberty

Columnist John Stossel: "The Fed, created to shore up capitalism, has become an instrument of government economic management not so different from a socialist planning board: a tiny handful of powerful people attempt to fine-tune the entire economy. Its main mission has become continually goosing economic activity through infusions of new cash to maintain the illusion that good times will never falter. The result isn't stability, but one economic bubble after another. The Fed's manipulations fit well with President Obama's 'stimulus spending' efforts. But neither seems to do the trick. This post-recession 'recovery' is among the weakest ever. ... [T]hose banks and the Federal Reserve that dominates them are too big and too powerful, so much so that they risk dragging us all down with them if they fail. No dozen people should be granted so much power."

Re: The Left

Columnist Jonah Goldberg: "Just in the last month, hundreds of thousands have been notified by their insurers that their policies will be canceled. ... At least Darth Vader was honest about his bait-and-switch: 'I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.' Obama won't even admit he lied. At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Obama talked at great length about the middle class and not once about the poor. His critics on the right said he was lying, that he was really more interested in income distribution. Such charges were dismissed as paranoid and even racist. But the critics were right. Obama was either lying to himself or to the rest of us -- because he was playing the game to win."

For the Record

FRC's Tony Perkins: "Only under the Obama administration would the law protect the criminal and punish the innocent. Unfortunately, that's been the effect of one of the most explosive IRS abuse cases in years. For months, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has tried to find the IRS agent responsible for leaking their confidential donor list to their biggest political opponent, the pro-homosexual Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Turns out, the agency knows who did it -- but because of a loophole in the law, they don't have to reveal it. That's right -- the same part of the IRS code that outlaws the crime this person committed also protects his identity. ... Of course, the IRS' refusal to cooperate is no surprise, especially since the same office that committed the crime was under the corrupt direction of Lois Lerner, author of the anti-conservative crackdown that denied so many organizations' tax-exempt status. It will take the Justice Department's involvement to hold the guilty accountable. And based on the Obama DOJ's pattern of lawlessness, I don't think many people are holding their breath."

CHRONICLE QUOTES

The BIG Lie

Barack Obama: "[I]f you're getting one of these letters [canceling your insurance policy], just shop around in the new marketplace. That's what it's for... For the fewer than 5% of Americans who buy insurance on your own, you will be getting a better deal."

Village Idiots

Jay Carney: "[W]hat we're talking about here is the 5 percent in the country who currently purchase insurance on the individual market. And that market has been like the Wild West. It has been under regulated."

In other words, if your policy is unregulated (which is also a lie), then you're an outlaw and your policy should be canceled?

Demo-gogues

Joe Biden: "We were under the impression that [Healthcare.gov] was ready to go. We had the president, to his credit, almost seven weeks out was saying, 'is it going to be ready?' and to be told by the pros that, 'yeah, this is all ready to go, all in line.' Neither he or I are technology geeks and we assumed that it was up and ready to run, but the good news is that although it's not, and we apologize for that, we're confident that by the end of November it will be and there will still be plenty of time for people to register to get online."

Non Compos Mentis

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV): "If you compare [the O'Care exchange] to all kinds of other programs of large magnitude, it's actually ahead of schedule, including Social Security, Medicare and a whole lot of other things."

Braying Jackass

Former Clintonista Robert Reich: "Had Democrats stuck to the original Democratic vision and built comprehensive health insurance on Social Security and Medicare, it would have been cheaper, simpler, and more widely accepted by the public. And Republicans would be hollering anyway."

Dezinformatia

CNN's Piers Morgan: "I don't want to 'grab' anyone's guns, or tell Americans how to lead their lives. I do, however, want to try and stop the endless, senseless slaughter of Americans through gun violence."

Alpha Jackass

Actor Sean Pean: "[T]here's a mental health problem in Congress. This would be solved by committing [the Tea Party] by executive order, I think. Because these are our American brothers and sisters, we shouldn't be criticizing them, attacking them. … This is a cry for help."

Short Cuts

Fred Thompson: "Since its launch, HealthCare.gov has spawned over 700 fake scam sites that ask for your personal information. They're easy to spot, though. They're the sites that actually work."

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
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.

Friday, November 1, 2013

THE PATRIOT POST 11/01/2013