Daily Digest
January 10, 2014
THE FOUNDATION
"He therefore is the truest
friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its
virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not
suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a
wise and virtuous man... The sum of all is, if we would most truly
enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people." --Samuel
Adams
TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKSDismal December Jobs Report
Economists predicted that
December would see nearly 200,000 new jobs, but reality was ...
unexpected. Just 74,000 jobs were created last month. The headline
unemployment rate dropped from 7.0% to 6.7%, but -- and it's a big
but -- this was almost entirely attributable to the 525,000 people who
left the workforce. Just 62.8% of Americans were part of the labor
force, tied for the lowest rate since 1978, and nearly 92 million people
aren't in the labor force. For the year, unemployment dropped 1.2
percentage points, but real unemployment is at least 13.1% and,
again, we'd point to the 2.9 million Americans who left the labor force
in 2013 as the reason. By the way, we're entering year six of the Obama
"recovery."
Broken 'Promise Zones'
The latest front in the
Left's redistributionist war on "inequality" is Barack Obama's five
"promise zones" -- areas that will receive special federal aid due to
their poverty. "We've got to make sure this recovery, which is real,
leaves nobody behind," he explained. Unlike the biblical promised land,
Obama has determined that Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Antonio,
southeastern Kentucky and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma are not exactly
flowing with milk and honey and therefore need his help. (Interesting
that Detroit's not on the list.) He will choose 15 other needy areas in
the future. Such targeted aid zones aren't new, dating back to the New
Deal. But -- surprise -- the results are usually both underwhelming and
difficult to assess. Fortunately for leftists, it's only intentions that
matter.
Regulatory Explosion in 2013
The ever-growing regulatory
state continues to strangle the U.S. economy. American Action Forum
calculates that, in 2013, the cost of complying with new federal
regulations stripped $112 billion from the economy, and $494 billion
dating back to 2009. Most of last year's hefty cost comes courtesy of
two environmental standards. In total, the new rules equate to nearly
158 million hours of additional paperwork. AAF estimates this year's
financial burden to approach $143 billion. To see the effect of these
regulations, see December's jobs report.
A Partial IRS InvestigationThe Obama Justice Department selected Barbara Kay Bosserman, a trial lawyer in the department, to head up its investigation into the IRS political-targeting scandal. The catch is that Bosserman donated more than $6,000 to Obama in 2008 and 2012, as well as hundreds of dollars to the DNC, which creates quite the conflict of interest. The Justice Department says it won't consider political activity when assigning cases, but this case should be an exception. Then again, the administration insists that using the might of the IRS to target political opponents is a "phony scandal," so why wouldn't they appoint a phony investigator?Obama's Racist Civil Rights Nominee
Barack Obama has nominated
attorney Debo Adegbile as chief of the Department of Justice Civil
Rights Division. But the Fraternal Order of Police isn't happy. The FOP
sent a letter to Obama explaining that Adegbile led efforts by the
NAACP's Legal Defense Fund to represent, pro bono, notorious cop-killer
and far-Left darling Mumia Abu-Jamal. With Adegbile's help, Abu-Jamal's
death sentence was overturned on bogus claims of racism. "This
nomination can be interpreted in only one way," wrote FOP National
President Chuck Canterbury. "[I]t is a thumb in the eye of our nation's
law enforcement."
For more, visit Right Hooks.
RIGHT ANALYSISGates Slams Obama's Political War Fighting
Former Defense Secretary
Robert Gates's new book, "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War," lays
bare the shambles that is Barack Obama's foreign policy. Not that we
needed another book to tell us that. In it, Gates recalls a number of
examples of how Obama prosecuted the war in Afghanistan purely for
political gain with no regard for the consequences of his decisions,
save re-election. The White House increasingly sought to control the war
from the inside, repeatedly undermining the counsel and judgment of
military commanders on the ground and in the Pentagon. Gates writes that
he came to realize by 2010 that the president didn't even believe in
his own strategy and refused to take ownership for the conflict. "For
him," Gates wrote, "it's all about getting out." Yet, three out of every
four Americans killed in Afghanistan died on Obama's watch -- in a war
he was manipulating for political gain. It's an absolutely disgusting
breach of faith with our men and women in uniform.
Predictably, the White House objected to Gates's portrayal, again
asserting that Obama has a "clear plan for winding down the war, which
will end this year." But this statement only proves Gates's point. The
war in Afghanistan will not end simply because American troops are
leaving the battlefield. We left Iraq thanks to another politically
charged decision by Obama, and al-Qaida is busy regaining territory it lost during the 2007 surge.
A surge, by the way, that both Hillary Clinton and Obama openly
admitted in front of Gates they opposed for purely political reasons.
Gates's account comes as no
surprise, but it's no less troubling because of the extent to which the
White House has allowed politics to dictate policy. Decisions on Libya
and Syria followed the same model, with political aides in the White
House making decisions and shutting the Pentagon out of the process.
It's no wonder that America's allies are walking away and enemies are
emboldened. The only real question is, where was this book in 2012, when
the American people re-elected this sorry excuse for a commander in
chief?
Christie's Bridge Toll
New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie, whom some consider a frontrunner for the 2016 GOP presidential
nomination despite his decidedly un-conservative agenda, may find his
aspirations derailed in the aftermath of a traffic scandal. The
Leftmedia is certainly doing its part, so far covering Christie 17 times more often
in 24 hours than the IRS scandal over the last six months. The
background: Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, declined to
endorse Christie for re-election last year, and some of Christie's aides
apparently decided to enact retribution through September lane closures
on the George Washington Bridge into New York. At the time, they
explained it as a "traffic study."
However, incriminating
emails and text messages came to light revealing that these traffic jams
were intended to punish the mayor for his snub. "Time for some traffic
problems in Fort Lee," wrote deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly in
an Aug. 13 email to Port Authority executive David Wildstein. Of
course, the victims were the voters of Fort Lee, who went for Christie
by a fair margin.
Christie apologized profusely Thursday, saying he was "embarrassed
and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team." He
fired Kelly for lying to him when he sought answers last month about the
emerging scandal, and he also told campaign manager Bill Stepien to
withdraw from consideration for New Jersey GOP chief. Wildstein resigned
in December.
Despite his apology,
Christie distanced himself from his staff's "abject stupidity," saying
he had "no knowledge or involvement in this issue." Furthermore, he
said, "I never saw this as political retribution because I didn't think
[Sokolich] did anything to us." Christie already struggles to shake the
image of a bully due to his aggressive style, though he has also been
regarded as a straight talker. But now, whether or not he "ordered the
code red," the "what did he know and when did he know it" question could
nag him into 2016. After all, can you imagine a president using the
power of his office to punish his political opponents? Neither can we.
For more, visit Right Analysis.
TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
For more, visit Right Opinion.
 OPINION IN BRIEF
Columnist Burt Prelutsky:
"[T]he State Department said they were hoping for a democratic and
stable society in Egypt. In case nobody at State noticed, Egypt
experimented with democracy two years ago and wound up with the Muslim
Brotherhood in control. In the Middle East, with the exception of
Israel, you can have either democracy or stability, but you can't have
both. In the meantime, Obama and Kerry refuse to negotiate with the
Taliban for the release of Warren Weinstein, a 72-year-old American who
has been held captive since 2011 in Pakistan. That's because it's our
policy not to negotiate with terrorists. So, apparently, it's only a
nasty rumor that we are actively engaged in negotiations these days with
Hamid Karzai, Vladimir Putin, Hassan Rouhani and Bashar al-Assad."
Columnist Linda Chavez:
"With much ballyhoo, the Obama administration announced this week that
it will keep a close eye on school districts that discipline minority
students at higher rates than whites. ... Of course, Holder and Duncan
claim their intention is to ensure nondiscrimination in school
disciplinary procedures -- but the guidelines they've offered will
result in exactly the opposite. ... In essence, what the Obama
administration wants school districts to do is guarantee that minority
students don't experience higher rates of suspension or other serious
punishments for disciplinary infractions. ... Forcing school districts
to weaken disciplinary policies or set racial quotas in implementing
them serves no one. And those who would suffer the most would likely be
underachieving minority students stuck in undisciplined classrooms."
U.S. Court of Appeals Judge
Robert Bork (1927-2012): "[A] society deadened by a smothering network
of laws while finding release in moral chaos is not likely to be either
happy or stable."
Columnist Mark Tapscott:
"How long is a temporary emergency in the nation's capital? World War II
lasted just under 45 months, from Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese
attacked Pearl Harbor, to the Japanese surrender on Sept. 2, 1945. The
Emergency Unemployment Compensation program that President Obama and
congressional Democrats want to extend started in June 2008 and is now
in its 66th month. What's wrong with this picture? Perhaps it's time to
stop calling it either temporary or for an emergency and start calling
it a permanent entitlement."
Comedian Jay Leno: "There was a nuclear meltdown in North Korea today. But enough about Dennis Rodman."
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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Friday, January 10, 2014
THE PATRIOT POST 01/10/2013
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