Daily Digest for Monday
February 3, 2014
THE FOUNDATION"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence." --John Adams, Defence of the Constitutions of the Government of the United States, 1787TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS'Not Even a Smidgen of Corruption'Everything is about Barack Obama -- even the Super Bowl pregame. Fox's Bill O'Reilly interviewed the president before the game and the BIG Lie detector was going into overdrive. For example, regarding the IRS, Obama insisted, "There were some boneheaded decisions," but it wasn't a scandal. "Not even mass corruption," he said, "Not even a smidgen of corruption." That must be why he has a donor "investigating" the matter for him. Obama also told O'Reilly that the only reason the long list of his administration's scandals "keep resurfacing" is "because you and your TV station will promote them." He really is spoiled by the Leftmedia carrying water for him.'Imperial Presidency' Accusations
Barack Obama was asked by
CNN's Jake Tapper to respond to critics who call this "the imperial
presidency." Obama replied, "Well, I don't think that's very serious."
Which pretty much sums up his response to the Constitution. He explained
that imperial actions are his only option in the face of Republican
opposition. "Uh, the House Republicans, in particular, have had
difficulty rallying around any agenda, much less mine. And in that kind
of environment, what I don't want is the American people to think that
the only way for us to make big change is through, uh, legislation. ... I
mean, the truth of the matter is, is that every president engages in
executive actions. In fact, we've been very disciplined and sparing in
terms of the executive actions that we have taken." He can't seriously
expect us to believe that "disciplined and sparing" describe his
administration in any way.
The Worst Super Bowl Ad?
Super Bowl commercials tend
to get as much hype as the game itself. Last night's "game" featured
one for Coca-Cola that was stunningly PC. Allen West described it this
way: "[I]t started rather patriotically with the words of 'America the
Beautiful.' Then the words went from English to languages I didn't
recognize. Now, I know the politically correct thing is to foster
multiculturalism ... but Coca Cola missed the mark in my opinion. If we
cannot be proud enough as a country to sing 'America the Beautiful' in
English in a commercial during the Super Bowl, by a company as American
as they come -- doggone we are on the road to perdition. This was a
truly disturbing commercial for me, what say you?"
Hillary's Resumé
Lanny Davis, former counsel
for Bill Clinton, was asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt to name some of
Hillary Clinton's accomplishments during her stint as secretary of
state. Clinton, after all, appears positioned to cruise to the Democrat
nomination in 2016. The problem is that Davis couldn't name any
accomplishments. "Well, the biggest thing of all is goodwill around the
world, which is what secretaries of state do." Would that include
goodwill from nations like Iran and Syria thumbing their noses at us, or
from al-Qaida attacking our consulate in Benghazi? To be fair to Davis,
though, we can't name any of her accomplishments either.
ABC's Deceiving Gun Report
The propagandists over at
ABC are out with a new investigative report on the dangers of firearms
inside the home: "7,391 children [are] rushed to the hospital every year
with ... gun injuries," mused anchor Diane Sawyer, citing a new study
from the journal Pediatrics, and "453 of those children die at the
hospital." As usual, however, the report leaves out some important
disclaimers: The study's definition of "children" includes anyone under
the age of 20. Apparently when it comes to exploiting the dangers of gun
ownership, you're considered a child halfway through college. (Yet
those in puberty are considered "adult" enough to make coherent
decisions regarding sex, birth control and sexual orientation?)
Secondly, Sawyer failed to mention that 2,149 of the incidents were from
accidental or negligent discharges, 270 were attempted suicides, and
the remaining 4,559 were criminal assaults (gangs, anyone?). Talk about a
gross distortion of the facts.
For more, visit Right Hooks.
RIGHT ANALYSISThe TSA: An Inside Scoop
Former TSA agent Jason Edward Harrington has gone public
describing the uglier aspects of his five year gig acting in airport
security theater. "I hated it from the beginning," Harrington said. "It
was a job that had me patting down the crotches of children, the elderly
and even infants as part of the post-9/11 airport security show. I
confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they
could pose threats to national security. I was even required to
confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots -- the implied logic being
that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they
were flying."
Of course, none of that is really news to anyone who has flown since
9/11, but this is confirmation straight from a former agent. Harrington
went even further explaining the preposterous protocol: "Once, in 2008, I
had to confiscate a bottle of alcohol from a group of Marines coming
home from Afghanistan. It was celebration champagne intended for one of
the men in the group -- a young, decorated soldier. He was in a
wheelchair, both legs lost to an I.E.D., and it fell to me to tell this
kid who would never walk again that his homecoming champagne had to be
taken away in the name of national security." It's heartbreaking and
outrageous that a man who lost his limbs in service to his country was
subsequently treated just like the Islamofascist terrorists who made his
mission necessary.As for those infamous $150,000-apiece full-body scanners, Harrington said, "We knew [they] didn't work before they were even installed." He recalled that an instructor admitted that distinguishing between body fat and plastic explosives was nearly impossible. But on the other hand, yes, the "security" agents could see you naked and, yes, they were laughing at you. Harrington concluded, "Most TSA officers I talked to told me they felt the agency's day-to-day operations represented an abuse of public trust and funds." We can't argue with that. Finally, we'd be remiss if we didn't note that the TSA was brought to you by a Republican Congress and a Republican president. Indeed, it should be incumbent on the party to explain why, if given the reins of power again, things would be different next time. Democrats Hope for an Election Fluke
Democrats appear to be
conceding any serious attempt to regain control of the House in 2014,
instead focusing their efforts on retaining their Senate majority. No
one has publicly admitted that they can't win the 17 seats necessary to
control the lower chamber, but Democratic National Committee Chairwoman
Debbie Wasserman Schultz is certainly noncommittal about the party's
chances: "I'm not going to confidently predict that Democrats will take
the House back," she said after the State of the Union. A number of the
party's big donors are also turning their attention toward key Senate
races. Naturally, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office continues
to insist that the House is still in play, and House Democrats currently
enjoy a fundraising advantage over their Republican counterparts.
However, the retirements of Henry Waxman, George Miller, and five other
House Democrats indicate that the feeling on the ground is quite
different.
The damage done by
ObamaCare is a significant factor in Democrats' poor prospects in 2014.
Waxman and Miller, along with retiring Senators Max Baucus and Tom
Harkin, all played significant roles in passing the horrendous
legislation, and they have all decided to get out while the getting's
good. The law is becoming increasingly unpopular, and recent news
indicating a growing gap between sign-ups and actual enrollments won't
improve the situation. Republicans should continue hammering the issue as they make a play to take the Senate in the fall.
Senate Democrats will have to defend five seats in states where
Barack Obama is unpopular, and a number of them are distancing
themselves from him. Sens. Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mary Landrieu
of Louisiana have passed up opportunities to appear with the president
in their states, and Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Natalie Tennant, who is
looking to claim the open seat left by West Virginia's retiring Jay
Rockefeller, have both criticized Obama's energy policy in a coal state
particularly abused by Obama's EPA.
The potential candidacy of
Sandra Fluke to replace Waxman in Congress indicates just how dire
things have become. Fluke, you recall, became a leftist poster child in
2012 for insisting to Congress that she -- and every other young woman
in America -- desperately needs "free" birth control. She has since
moved to California to become a "social-justice advocate," and is
considering a run for Waxman's seat. The ObamaCare contraception mandate
Fluke supported has been the spearhead of an attack on religious
liberties in this country and the focus of many lawsuits. So if Fluke is
one of the Democrats' shining stars in 2014, then they are in sorry
shape indeed.
For more, visit Right Analysis.
TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
 OPINION IN BRIEF
Columnist Peggy Noonan:
"The State of the Union was a spectacle of delusion and
self-congratulation in which a Congress nobody likes rose to cheer a
president nobody really likes. It marked the continued degeneration of a
great and useful tradition. Viewership was down, to the lowest level
since 2000. This year's innovation was the Parade of Hacks. It used to
be the networks only showed the president walking down the aisle after
his presence was dramatically announced. Now every cabinet-level
officeholder marches in, shaking hands and high-fiving with breathless
congressmen. And why not? No matter how bland and banal they may look,
they do have the power to destroy your life -- to declare the house you
just built as in violation of EPA wetland regulations, to pull your
kid's school placement, to define your medical coverage out of
existence. So by all means attention must be paid and faces seen."
Columnist John C. Goodman:
"Upper-middle class professional types may pretend that they are
cultural relativists, accepting of whatever lifestyle their fellow human
beings happen to choose. In reality, they live by old fashioned puritan
values, however. They get married and stay married. They work hard and
work long hours. Not so for the blue collar,
never-got-beyond-high-school class, however. A shocking number aren't
even working at all. Many are not getting married in the first place. Of
those that get married, the divorce and separation rates are soaring.
... I have never seen a [Paul] Krugman column discussing how the
solution to inequality is for those at the bottom of the income ladder
to change their behavior. Instead, we find the ever-present hint that
those at the top are somehow to blame."
Ronald Reagan: "[W]hen the
war on poverty began, which poverty won -- from 1965 to 1980 ... the
federal budget increased to five times what it had been in '65. And the
deficit increased to 38 times what it had been just 15 years before.
It's built-in, it's structural. And you and I need to get
representatives not only in the Executive Branch, but out there in the
legislature, so that we can change that structure that is so built-in,
and that threatens us with so much harm."
Burt Prelutsky: "What is it
with the Olympic Committee? It's one thing for the U.N. to throw its
doors open to the most corrupt nations on earth, but why allow Vladimir
Putin to host a major event on the world stage? I think we'd all agree
that 78 years is a long time. Surely, it's more than enough time for the
Olympians to have learned that handing the torch over to Adolf Hitler
in 1936 was a lousy idea."
Comedian Argus Hamilton:
"Barack Obama's State of the Union had the lowest ratings in fifteen
years Tuesday. It's his fault. At the start of his speech, viewers heard
the president vow to focus on more jobs, better education and health
care reform and they turned the channel thinking it was a re-run."
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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