Monday Digest
January 6, 2014
THE FOUNDATION
"It is the manners and
spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in
these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and
constitution." --Thomas Jefferson (1781)
RIGHT HOOKSecond Amendment Defeat in NY
Buffalo Federal District
Court Judge William Skretny upheld New York's anti-gun "SAFE" Act -- the
post-Sandy Hook bill that banned standard-capacity magazines as well as
semi-automatic rifles that look scary. Skretny said the law is just
fine because it serves to "further the state's important interest in
public safety." Unbelievably, he also wrote that gun control "is not a
judicial question; it is a political one." Wrong. It's a question of
Rule of Law -- either the Constitution means what it says or politicians
can do whatever they please. The case is no doubt headed to the Second
Circuit, where we hope constitutional sanity prevails.
Magpul Makes Good on Promise
Gun parts manufacturer
Magpul Industries is keeping their promise to leave Colorado because of
gun control legislation passed last year by state Democrats. Most
outrageously, the law enacted an unconstitutional ban on
standard-capacity magazines holding more than 15 rounds. Subsequently,
several senators were recalled with The Vote Heard 'Round the Country.
The company's operations will head north to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and be
headquartered in Texas (location still being finalized.) Leftist
lawmakers (and the citizens of Colorado) are reaping the consequences of
a knee-jerk reaction that would have been avoided had politicians kept
their oath to defend and protect the Constitution.
Keep Calm and Carry
Last Thursday, Detroit
Police Chief James Craig said something that we've long advocated: A
great way to reduce crime is for law-abiding citizens to carry guns.
Obviously. But Craig didn't always think this way. When he served for 28
years in the Los Angeles police department, he thought disarmament was
the solution. It wasn't until Craig became chief in Portland, Maine, and
"had a stack of CCW permits I was denying" that he had an epiphany.
"Maine is one of the safest places in America," he said. "Clearly,
suspects knew that good Americans were armed." Now he believes that
Detroit, one of the most dangerous places in America, could use a little Second Amendment Security. He's absolutely right.
Medicaid Emergency
A new study of 10,000
low-income Oregon residents showed that, after they had obtained
Medicaid coverage, they visited hospital emergency rooms 40% more often
than did those with no insurance. The Oregon study should put to rest
the Obama administration's argument that putting uninsured Americans on
Medicaid would reduce ER visits. Add this to the report last year that Medicaid users are not healthier and often less
healthy than others, and you have a vast program that doesn't really
help people while costing far more than it should. In other words, a
government program. Nearly four million Americans have applied for
Medicaid since ObamaCare expanded it in October, and more than 72
million Americans (20% of the population) were covered by it for at
least one month in 2012. Republican governors who rejected ObamaCare's
expansion are looking smarter all the time.
An Illegal Legal
California is at it again, providing the template for how not
to handle illegal immigration -- a court in the Golden State recently
authorized a law license for an illegal alien. Sergio Garcia was brought
by his parents to the U.S. from Mexico 20 years ago, and he's been
waiting for a green card ever since. "I can finally fulfill my dream,"
Garcia said, "and also leave behind a legacy so that an undocumented
student 20 or 30 years from now will take it for granted that they can
be an attorney." Notice that his goal is to permanently erase the
distinction between legal resident and illegal alien. The irony is that
even though this illegal can "legally" practice law, he is ineligible to
sit on the jury to whom he would make his arguments.
For more, visit Right Hook.
RIGHT ANALYSISClass Warfare Takes Center Stage
In his Saturday radio
address, which was recorded before the president left for his opulent
Hawaiian vacation, Obama blasted Congress (read: Republicans) for going
"home for the holidays" while allowing unemployment benefits to expire
for 1.3 million Americans. "Denying families that security is just plain
cruel," the Demo-gogue in chief lectured. He demanded that another
extension be the "first order of business" when Congress returns so that
another 1.9 million people don't lose benefits in the first six months
of 2014.
It's worth remembering that if the Obama "recovery" wasn't such a dismal failure, three million Americans wouldn't need unemployment benefits.
As for the minimum wage, Democrats plan a push for raising it to $10.10 per hour from the current rate of $7.25 -- a nearly 40% increase.
Look for them to ramp up their class warfare rhetoric as Obama did last
month by calling "income inequality" the "defining challenge of our
time." The New York Times dutifully followed his lead with a weekend exposé
on just how "successful" Democrats' multi-trillion-dollar "War on
Poverty" has been over the last 50 years. The Times argued that it was
the only way to offset the economic gains made only by "those at the top
of the income ladder."
Such a claim is hogwash.
According to the Treasury Department, Americans have great income
mobility, with half of those in the bottom 20% moving to a higher income
quintile over a decade. On the other hand, real income for many
Americans has fallen during Obama's presidency. Even the Times
acknowledged, "[T]he greatest hope for poorer Americans would be a
stronger economic recovery that brought the unemployment rate down from
its current level of 7 percent and drew more people into the work force.
The poverty rate for full-time workers is just 3 percent. For those not
working, it is 33 percent." But one thing's for sure -- Obama won't let
the facts get in the way of a good campaign narrative.
The Other Government Motors Is Now Italian
While saving Chrysler to
the tune of the government losing $1.3 billion wasn't as expensive to
taxpayers as propping up General Motors, the end result is that one of
Detroit's Big Three is now lock, stock and fender a subsidiary of
Italian automaker Fiat. Stymied in the American market 30 years ago with
a car line so known for unreliability that humorists called the Fiat
name the acronym for "fix it again, Tony," suddenly it got a second
chance with a company already in possession of a line of dealerships and
the established brands of Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Ram. All that for
the contribution of what was termed "intellectual property" that didn't
cost Fiat one euro for its first 20% stake in Chrysler, although
eventually Fiat bought another 38% for $2.2 billion. It was as if Fiat
won the lottery.
The final Fiat payment of
$4.4 billion to assume complete control of Chrysler won't go to
taxpayers, either. That payment goes to a United Auto Workers trust
fund, which was given a portion of the company during an unusual
bankruptcy process that shut out several more deserving creditors.
Fiat's first move in its
return to the American market was the introduction of the 500 model
subcompact, which has sold reasonably well. But John Berlau of the
Competitive Enterprise Institute writes,
"Chrysler being tied to Fiat's European woes makes it less and less
likely that much of the profit will be reinvested in the U.S. It's
likely that the bulk of that profit will instead be plowed into Fiat's
operations in Italy."
Foreign ownership and federal bailouts are nothing new to the
smallest member of the Big Three. After a Carter-era series of federal
loan guarantees saved Chrysler and made Lee Iacocca a household name,
the company merged with German automaker Daimler AG in 1998 to begin a
decade as DaimlerChrysler. That "merger of equals" wasn't enough to
prevent its eventual bankruptcy, and the fear is Fiat will drive
Chrysler to the same fate yet again.For more, visit Right Analysis.
RIGHT OPINION
Columnist John C. Goodman:
"In a study for the National Center for Policy Analysis, David Henderson
found that there is a big difference between families in the top 20
percent and bottom 20 percent of the income distribution: Families at
the top tend to be married and both partners work. Families at the
bottom often have only one adult in the household and that person either
works part-time or not at all: In 2006, a whopping 81.4 percent of
families in the top income quintile had two or more people working, and
only 2.2 percent had no one working. By contrast, only 12.6 percent of
families in the bottom quintile had two or more people working; 39.2
percent had no one working. ... Having children without a husband tends
to make you poor. Not working makes you even poorer. And there is
nothing new about that. These are age old truths. They were true 50
years ago, a hundred years ago and even 1,000 year ago. Lifestyle
choices have always mattered."
Economist Thomas Sowell:
"It is always hard to repeal an elaborate program after it has gone into
effect. But Prohibition was repealed, even though it was a
Constitutional Amendment that required super-majorities in both houses
of Congress and super-majorities of state legislatures to repeal. In our
two-party system, everything depends on whether the Republicans step up
to the plate and act like responsible adults who understand that
ObamaCare represents a historic crossroads that will determine what kind
of people we are going to be, for this generation and generations yet
unborn -- citizens or subjects. This means that Republicans have to
decide whether their top priority is internal strife among the different
wings of the party -- another circular firing squad -- or whether
either wing puts the country first. A prediction on how that will turn
out in the new year would be far too hazardous to attempt."
Top 5 Right Opinion Columns at The Patriot Post
For more, visit Right Opinion.
QUOTE ADDENDUM
Hypatia of Alexandria
(355-415 AD): "Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is
better than not to think at all."
The Gipper: "You and I are
told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no
such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's
age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order
-- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their
sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom
for security have embarked on this downward path."
Humorist Frank J. Fleming:
"Instead of these constant claims of doomsday that have become white
noise, climate scientists need a put up or shut up date. They need to
declare a specific date that they say everyone will be dead by, and if
we aren't all dead then, we get to make fun of them and call them idiots
who have no idea what they're talking about. So no more vague,
unproveable claims of some future calamity at some unspecified time; we
need a hard date that everyone should be dead by if they actually have
any idea of what they're talking about."
Comedian Argus Hamilton:
"New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's time in office ended after twelve
years. He changed the city. Last night New York cops let a guy go for
having less than twenty-five grams of marijuana on him but arrested him
for having more than sixteen ounces of Pepsi."
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.
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