THE FOUNDATION
"Is the power who is
jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us? Whoever says No,
to this question, is an Independant for independency means no more than
this, whether we shall make our own laws, or, whether the King, the
greatest enemy this continent hath, or can have, shall tell us there
shall be no laws but such as I like." --Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
GOP Pulls Back on Immigration
The House GOP rank-and-file have seemingly succeeded in delaying the leadership's immigration "reform"
-- at least for the time being. House Speaker John Boehner explained
why reform could be shelved: "There's widespread doubt about whether
this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws, and it's going
to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes.
... [We] do not believe that the reform that we're talking about will be
implemented as it was intended to be. The president seems to change the
health care law on a whim, whenever he likes. Now he's running around
the country telling everyone that he's going to keep acting on his own."
We're hesitant to ascribe savvy strategic thinking to the GOP, but it's
possible that they rolled out a reform proposal only to
withdraw it while highlighting Obama's untrustworthiness. Then again,
rumor has it Boehner's job was on the line, and maybe that's what gave
him strategic perspective.
January Jobs
The U.S. economy added just
113,000 jobs in January, failing for the second straight month to keep
up with population growth. The headline unemployment rate fell again to
6.6%, but the better news is that the bigger-picture number, known as
the U-6 rate, also fell to 12.7%, the lowest since December 2008.
Workforce participation rose slightly but is still at a historic low.
Still, the Associated Press called it a "surprisingly weak" jobs report,
indicating that the economy is slowing again. In fact, it's not
surprising at all. CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf warned this week that
"a slower rate of growth of the labor force" -- caused at least in part
by ObamaCare -- "is the central factor in slowing economic growth."
Slower growth is leftism's central tenet.
'Religion Is Under Threat'
As the saying goes, if it
weren't for double standards, the Left wouldn't have any. Barack Obama
demonstrated this point to perfection at the annual National Prayer
Breakfast where he warned that "freedom of religion is under threat ...
around the world." He neglected to mention, however, that organizations
like Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby are suing his
administration because they object to contraceptives mandated under
ObamaCare in violation of their religious views. Even more astoundingly,
Obama claimed, "We ... believe in the inherent dignity of every human
being," and "the killing of the innocent is never fulfilling God's will;
in fact, it's the ultimate betrayal of God's will." Remember, this is a
man who supports abortion under any and all circumstances, even in its
most appalling partial-birth form, and who once told Planned Parenthood
"God bless you." The seemingly total lack of self-awareness is beyond
shocking.
One Insurer's Bailout
Remember that ObamaCare insurance bailout? Well, the first stats are in for one insurer and it's not pretty. The American Enterprise Institute's Scott Gottlieb writes,
"Humana announced that it expects to tap the three risk adjustment
mechanisms in ObamaCare for between $250 and $450 million in 2014. This
amounts to about 25 percent of the insurer's expected exchange revenue."
That's also just one insurer! More will undoubtedly follow.
Not only that, but Humana enrolled 202,000 people via the ObamaCare
exchanges as of Jan. 31, and some 82% of them were eligible for
subsidies. The price of Hope 'n' Change™ just keeps going up.
Debt Limit Reached
The federal government
reaches its borrowing limit today, leaving Treasury Secretary Jack Lew
to resort to "extraordinary measures" to avoid default. He can hold off
until the end of February, he says. Republicans are still trying to
figure out what item to demand in exchange for raising the debt ceiling,
which doesn't exactly put them in a strong bargaining position. We
expect them to just concede to a "clean" hike in order to make a better
election issue out of it. Meanwhile, federal spending goes in the same
direction it always does: up.
For more, visit Right Hooks.
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
RNC Launches Black History Push
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| Liberty is colorblind |
The Republican National
Committee has launched a Black History Month ad campaign that also
honors recipients of this year's Black Republican Trailblazers Awards.
The RNC has made minority outreach a priority after the 2012 election,
recognizing that Republicans have ceded far too much ground to Democrats
when it comes to engaging minority voters. Democrats have won and held
the loyalty of black voters over the last several decades by claiming to
offer them opportunities while holding them in an endless cycle of
government dependency -- the poverty plantation, if you will.
The fact that Democrats
hold such an overwhelming majority of black votes year in and year out
represents a sad historical irony. The Republican Party was founded in
1856 with an anti-slavery platform, and it was Republican votes that
added the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. Jim Crow
was a Southern Democratic invention, and for decades it was Democrats
who stymied the advancement of civil rights legislation. Yet, leftist
propaganda would have us believe that the GOP has a long history of
racism. Just the opposite is true. Democrat President Lyndon Johnson may
have been behind the push to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but he was
also responsible for creating welfare programs that have not done
anything to improve the lives of minorities -- and arguably the opposite
-- for over 60 years.
Yet the GOP has a lot of
work to do to reverse this long-entrenched lie that is perpetuated by
the Leftmedia. They can start by communicating the real history of the
Republican Party, and explain that the GOP platform is actually in the
best interest of everyone, including minorities. Blacks embrace
Democrats because they have been led to believe there is no alternative
but state dependence. It's up to the GOP to spread the word that
opportunity comes from personal responsibility and Liberty, not
government subsidies.
Democrats have very successfully politicized race, making it an issue
of conflict in electoral politics. But all people deserve freedom of
opportunity, and Republicans need to push that message. After all, as
Mark Alexander wrote Wednesday, Liberty is colorblind.Why the Abortion Rate Decline?
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Despite the present make-up
of our federal government, new research shows that Americans are
becoming more conservative in at least one respect: abortion. According
to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the abortion rate in 2011 was the
lowest since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. Guttmacher, the think tank
of Planned Parenthood, undoubtedly slants to the left; however, those
on both sides of the abortion debate generally consider its research
respectable.
While the numbers
indicating a decline are not being debated, the reasons for it are. As
usual, there are many theories, and few solid answers. Pro-abortion
organizations credit the broader and more diligent use of birth control
-- including IUD and Plan B -- but it's not that simple. Many
conservatives believe that the decline is due in part to what Wall
Street Journal columnist James Taranto dubs the "Roe Effect":
essentially, a political sea change arising from the demographic shifts
created by the 56 million abortions performed since Roe.
It seems that technology has a lot to do with the decline as well.
Thanks to 3-D sonograms and other advancements, we can prove so much
more about the stages of pregnancies, particularly the early stages,
before the baby is considered legally "viable." Modern technology's
remarkably detailed in utero view of the unborn child has gone a long way toward dissuading women from terminating their pregnancies.
Another factor is pro-life
legislation enacted in several states. Pro-abortion organizations,
including Guttmacher, claim these laws are ineffective, though the
Institute did acknowledge the effectiveness of one piece of legislation.
The Hyde Amendment, which banned federal funding for most abortions, is
credited with preventing 18% to 35% of such procedures.
Whatever the reasons for
the declining rate, we have much work to do, as abortion still snuffs
out more than one million innocent lives each year.
For more, visit Right Analysis.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Jonah Goldberg: Free the Job-Locked Poets!
- Michelle Malkin: The Left's Valentine to Defiant Jihad-Enabler Lynne Stewart
- Mona Charen: The New Workers' Party
- Charles Krauthammer: The Health Care Myths We Live By
- Burt Prelutsky: People Aren't All That Good
OPINION IN BRIEF
Columnist Burt Prelutsky:
"Down in Texas, a female legislator is basing her run for the governor's
mansion on the fact that she delivered a filibuster in opposition to a
bill banning abortions after the 20th week. Frankly, I consider all
these arbitrary deadlines to be signs of a depraved society. What if the
period of human gestation was only a week instead of nine months? Would
the knuckleheads be arguing that an abortion could take place up until 8
a.m. on Wednesday, but not a minute later? And isn't it rather like
saying murder is legal until the end of April, but a capital crime after
the 1st of May? The abortion advocates use very odd yardsticks."
Columnist Charles
Krauthammer: "After 'first, do no harm,' medicine's second great motto
should be 'above all, humility.' Even the tried-and-true may not be
true. Take the average adult temperature. Everyone knows it's 98.6 F.
Except that when some enterprising researchers actually did the
measurements -- rather than rely on the original 19th-century German
study -- they found that it's actually 98.2. But if that's how dicey
biological 'facts' can be, imagine how much more problematic are the
handed-down verities about the workings of our staggeringly complex
health care system. ... It's not surprising that myths about
the workings of the fabulously complex U.S. health care system continue
to tantalize -- and confound -- policymakers. After all, Americans so
believe in their vitamins/supplements that they swallow $28 billion
worth every year."
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988): "You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once."
National Review's Michael
Auslin: "Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel is increasingly a textbook example
of how far the Democratic party has moved to the left since Bill
Clinton's day. Emanuel, who cut his teeth in Clinton's administration,
just presided over a $1.9 billion increase in Chicago's debt, only
months after Moody's downgraded the city's bond ratings three notches
based on its growing and unsustainable spending and debt obligations.
... All told ... the Windy City has $29 billion in long-term debt. ...
Old-line Democratic cities, it seems, have learned nothing from
Detroit's collapse."
Comedian Jay Leno: "The
Olympics start Friday and Russia's implementing the most intensive
security in Olympics history. The government will monitor every email.
They will monitor every social media message and they will listen in on
every phone call. In fact, people are now comparing Russia to the United
States. That's how bad it is."
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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